Policing practices have got to be one of the more complex issues of our times. Prior to the current regime in Washington a kind of truce between citizens and the authorities existed. But now the emphasis is on authoritarianism, which goes by the code name Law and Order in certain Tweets. It's a different approach to managing the masses and I'm not informed enough to say what is best. I do know there was less confrontation between police and citizens four years ago.
Chicago had a marvelous police force. You could get your head bashed by a cop, but usually only if you deserved it. It turned out to be a mix of fear and respect which made it all work. By far the majority of Chicago police were professional and did their jobs well. There were some bad apples, which could be expected on a force of 12,000+ officers. And black people took up more jail space than others, but at least half the population of the city were people of color. It's well over that figure today. So, as you would expect, the bad apples and the high number of minorities arrested got all the headlines. After the Chicago riots of the 60's the department hired a lot more minority officers and the chief was a black man for the first time in Chicago history. All that helped calm things down, but today Chicago is no better off than any other big city regarding police practices. In other words not much changed over the last 50 years.
You brought up this thing about the bad apple policemen migrating south in the past. I used to think it was funny, but I'm believing more and more that it's a real thing. My guess is that there is a shortage of highly qualified police officers where you live which could explain what you are describing. Coming from Chicago I was slightly taken back by the positive attitude people here in Missouri have about their law enforcement officers. The big cities here might be like Chicago but I live in a borderline rural community. So, I would have to say the respect level here is high. But I am certain that did not happen quickly. Trust and respect can only be developed over time. To answer your question about how to feel about habitual law breakers who happen to have a badge too, I'd not feel good. But the system down there is working in spite of itself. People have adapted to the corruption. Well, maybe not all the people. The answer is to make changes in the system; reformation. Maybe eliminating a few police districts would work. Whether it is a badge wearing cop or a community monitor without a badge, the way that laws are enforced needs to be equitable and fair. Nobody is above the law, especially not the cops. No, I can't see putting my trust into a cop with a criminal background. But what are the realistic alternatives?
Personal Safety From Google
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Re: Personal Safety From Google
I can really only talk about what I know regarding the issue of police, and from a few observations.
Let me preface this with, we knew most of the police in our town, and their families.
Now I will jump back in history.
Counties were under the jurisdiction of the County Sheriff.
As was normal, there were never enough Deputies to cover everywhere in the county.
Especially with the farms, ranches, and homes scattered so far apart.
They usually patrolled what would be considered the trouble spots, like where the rural bars and banks were located.
Cattle Rustling was on the rise, and as I said, the Deputies could not be everywhere.
In my home town of Des Peres, to help put an end to the rustling the farmers and business owners formed what was called The Mutual Protection Association. A few of the members who patrolled areas following leads were Deputized by the Sheriff to make their enforcement work legal. They were allowed to detain a criminal for the Sheriff to come pick them up. The Mutual Protection Association also offered rewards, and also acted like an insurance company of sorts, they covered cattle and all sorts of things, but not chickens and money. Because nobody knows how many chickens they have, and money can never be proven to be stolen.
A few new state laws were passed that brought the legality of The Mutual Protection Association under question, were they law enforcement or an unlicensed insurance company, since insurance companies now had to be licensed.
The Law Enforcement side of The Mutual Protection Association became The Des Peres Law and Order Society, and once they were well established, and farmers and businesses began obtaining insurance from state licensed insurance agencies, the Association shut down its operations.
The Des Peres Law and Order society naturally began with citizens the Sheriff had Deputized after some minor training.
But as more went through a full-training course, they became full-time law enforcement officers.
The City of Des Peres had grown, and some neighboring cities to the east added their own Police Departments.
Des Peres had a head start having the Law and Order society fairly well manned with trained officers.
So at first, the City built a Joint Fire and Police Department. The Police had to do double duty and fill both positions.
This worked out great for many years. But as larger buildings were built, and the city continued to grow, they separated the Fire Department from the Police Department, and all of those officers who had not earned their degree in law enforcement manned the fire department.
As a florist, we hired off-duty policemen to work in our greenhouses and usually as delivery drivers, and night watchmen.
Once again some laws changed and a policeman was not allowed to moonlight in the same town where they were an officer of the law. This came about due to favoritism to employers and their families regarding things like traffic infractions and the like. So, we then hired policemen from all the adjoining towns. Heck, even the police chief for Town and Country was one of our drivers for many years. Now Town n Country didn't have a law about having to live in the town, so Bob and his family lived in Des Peres, and his kids played with our kids, etc.
There was a period of time when a few of the police got uppity and decided they did not have to follow all the laws. This is what brought about the Three Strikes Rule used by our department and most of the cities around us. At that time when a cop got fired, they converged on some nearby cities who did not go by the Three Strikes Rule.
One of those cities was named Marlboro. The police corruption in Marlboro got so bad, the STATE finally stepped in and abolished their police department. So the city of Marlboro now had to contract with neighboring police departments for law enforcement, or rely on the County Sheriff's Department which was grossly understaffed.
As late as the late 1980's the city of Marlboro still did not have its own police department. I don't know about now though.
But even as our city, and the cities around us grew, you could always rely on the cops being our friends and neighbors. They did their job and kept crime down to a minimum.
It was not until the various cities grew to the point of becoming 4th class cities or larger, did this allow outside poly-TICK-ians to take over city governance, and along with it, more and more bad cops began turning up. The Three Strikes Rule sorta got set aside for political gain, but was still in affect, just not enforced within their own ranks anymore. No cop would report another cop for any wrong doing, unless they considered it really serious and a detriment to the department. Citizens can complain, but it did not do much good anymore either.
The people forcing the police departments to add IAD (Internal Affairs Division's) to look after their complaints and report on the actions taken. This helped the situation for many years!
Cops were still fired, and most could not get a job anywhere in the state anymore.
I assume they all moved south, hi hi.
Let me preface this with, we knew most of the police in our town, and their families.
Now I will jump back in history.
Counties were under the jurisdiction of the County Sheriff.
As was normal, there were never enough Deputies to cover everywhere in the county.
Especially with the farms, ranches, and homes scattered so far apart.
They usually patrolled what would be considered the trouble spots, like where the rural bars and banks were located.
Cattle Rustling was on the rise, and as I said, the Deputies could not be everywhere.
In my home town of Des Peres, to help put an end to the rustling the farmers and business owners formed what was called The Mutual Protection Association. A few of the members who patrolled areas following leads were Deputized by the Sheriff to make their enforcement work legal. They were allowed to detain a criminal for the Sheriff to come pick them up. The Mutual Protection Association also offered rewards, and also acted like an insurance company of sorts, they covered cattle and all sorts of things, but not chickens and money. Because nobody knows how many chickens they have, and money can never be proven to be stolen.
A few new state laws were passed that brought the legality of The Mutual Protection Association under question, were they law enforcement or an unlicensed insurance company, since insurance companies now had to be licensed.
The Law Enforcement side of The Mutual Protection Association became The Des Peres Law and Order Society, and once they were well established, and farmers and businesses began obtaining insurance from state licensed insurance agencies, the Association shut down its operations.
The Des Peres Law and Order society naturally began with citizens the Sheriff had Deputized after some minor training.
But as more went through a full-training course, they became full-time law enforcement officers.
The City of Des Peres had grown, and some neighboring cities to the east added their own Police Departments.
Des Peres had a head start having the Law and Order society fairly well manned with trained officers.
So at first, the City built a Joint Fire and Police Department. The Police had to do double duty and fill both positions.
This worked out great for many years. But as larger buildings were built, and the city continued to grow, they separated the Fire Department from the Police Department, and all of those officers who had not earned their degree in law enforcement manned the fire department.
As a florist, we hired off-duty policemen to work in our greenhouses and usually as delivery drivers, and night watchmen.
Once again some laws changed and a policeman was not allowed to moonlight in the same town where they were an officer of the law. This came about due to favoritism to employers and their families regarding things like traffic infractions and the like. So, we then hired policemen from all the adjoining towns. Heck, even the police chief for Town and Country was one of our drivers for many years. Now Town n Country didn't have a law about having to live in the town, so Bob and his family lived in Des Peres, and his kids played with our kids, etc.
There was a period of time when a few of the police got uppity and decided they did not have to follow all the laws. This is what brought about the Three Strikes Rule used by our department and most of the cities around us. At that time when a cop got fired, they converged on some nearby cities who did not go by the Three Strikes Rule.
One of those cities was named Marlboro. The police corruption in Marlboro got so bad, the STATE finally stepped in and abolished their police department. So the city of Marlboro now had to contract with neighboring police departments for law enforcement, or rely on the County Sheriff's Department which was grossly understaffed.
As late as the late 1980's the city of Marlboro still did not have its own police department. I don't know about now though.
But even as our city, and the cities around us grew, you could always rely on the cops being our friends and neighbors. They did their job and kept crime down to a minimum.
It was not until the various cities grew to the point of becoming 4th class cities or larger, did this allow outside poly-TICK-ians to take over city governance, and along with it, more and more bad cops began turning up. The Three Strikes Rule sorta got set aside for political gain, but was still in affect, just not enforced within their own ranks anymore. No cop would report another cop for any wrong doing, unless they considered it really serious and a detriment to the department. Citizens can complain, but it did not do much good anymore either.
The people forcing the police departments to add IAD (Internal Affairs Division's) to look after their complaints and report on the actions taken. This helped the situation for many years!
Cops were still fired, and most could not get a job anywhere in the state anymore.
I assume they all moved south, hi hi.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
I assumed all police departments had an IAD, but maybe not. Chicago did and they got into the news every once in a while. A good way to look at that group would be to say that they have an oversight mission. Once their investigations are complete appropriate remedies are put into place. So why do police officers not only go bad, but also increase in numbers? Apparently it's due to the fact that IAD has no authority outside of it's investigative obligations. I am also guessing that the members of IAD are appointed and therein rests the problem. If certain irregular behavior is not investigated, or if the investigators are part of the plot, then why bother with oversight?
Well that's one guess-timate of how police become corrupt. It goes deeper in my opinion. Why would an officer go beyond the departments'' mandate in the first place? The answer is that not all people are nice. Some people actually hate others for whatever reason, and some of those are police officers. The trick is to eliminate the hate or prevent it from forming in the first place. I believe that is were we are today. I also believe it's an impossible task, but a laudable goal.
When I think about it there is no reason to doubt the migration of bad apple police being a reality. Anybody in a position of authority needs to surround themselves with like minded people. That is the only way the authority can be asserted effectively. So, if one sheriff in Tennessee turned rotten, I'd expect him to hire like minded officers. It makes sense. Why all the rotten ones end up there is still a good question. LOL
Well that's one guess-timate of how police become corrupt. It goes deeper in my opinion. Why would an officer go beyond the departments'' mandate in the first place? The answer is that not all people are nice. Some people actually hate others for whatever reason, and some of those are police officers. The trick is to eliminate the hate or prevent it from forming in the first place. I believe that is were we are today. I also believe it's an impossible task, but a laudable goal.
When I think about it there is no reason to doubt the migration of bad apple police being a reality. Anybody in a position of authority needs to surround themselves with like minded people. That is the only way the authority can be asserted effectively. So, if one sheriff in Tennessee turned rotten, I'd expect him to hire like minded officers. It makes sense. Why all the rotten ones end up there is still a good question. LOL
Re: Personal Safety From Google
I think it starts at the top with a Corrupt Governor, followed by a Corrupt Mayor, who's Buddy is the Police Chief and on the take.
Back before our Mayor became Governor, I used to go to the Town Hall meetings where I was given 5 minutes at the podium to voice my concerns over what he was doing. Basically stealing money by the millions, but this was at first only based on the prospectus pages I was able to obtain. At the end of the first year, I now had solid factual evidence that he took the money for himself and his friends. A couple of months later he had a big fancy slide show to show where all the money went, but it was so vague you could drive a Mack Truck through it.
It wasn't until two months later when I had a chance at the Podium again, and this time I had the perfect rebuttal to his previous show. The facts were simple and documented by the Mayor as accurate. Ten Million Dollars was expended to help only 48 homeless get an apartment and a job. Do the Math! With the additional moneys in the coffers, it comes out to $18,000.00 PER MONTH, per homeless person. Yet the homeless person only got 300 bucks a month plus their salary for working at a job, plus a projects apartment to live in, which the city says costs them 450 a month to maintain.
WHERE DID ALL THE REST OF THE MONEY GO? Less than 1 grand per month was used for each of the 48 homeless persons helped during the year. All the money went to his family and friends to do studies on the problem!
The actual concept was a sound one. A homeless person would be given an apartment and an allowance, plus they had to find a job. Once they did get a job, 10% of their take home pay from their check had to be returned to the city to help someone else. In addition, after one year the allowance would decrease by 100 dollars, and would be phased out in three years. They also had to move out or begin paying rent after 5 years. However, if they decided to move into an apartment or house of their own, meaning out of the projects apartment, they would then get a 500 dollar bonus, to help with an apartment deposit, and they would then start the 300 per month allowance cycle over again. Sounded good on paper. But in real life, most just stayed in the apartment for the five years, and took meaningless jobs that didn't pay much. They were careful not to earn enough to stop them from getting welfare and other government subsidies. Several dropped out of the program and moved to the other side of the projects complex, because even that 300 bucks a month was messing them up from getting all the rest of the free stuff they wanted.
I knew it was a CON the first time I read what the Mayor wanted to do. And the sad part is, he got mayors in other cities to pull the same stunt to get government grants they only shared with their friends and family by giving them meaningless jobs on government pay.
Back before our Mayor became Governor, I used to go to the Town Hall meetings where I was given 5 minutes at the podium to voice my concerns over what he was doing. Basically stealing money by the millions, but this was at first only based on the prospectus pages I was able to obtain. At the end of the first year, I now had solid factual evidence that he took the money for himself and his friends. A couple of months later he had a big fancy slide show to show where all the money went, but it was so vague you could drive a Mack Truck through it.
It wasn't until two months later when I had a chance at the Podium again, and this time I had the perfect rebuttal to his previous show. The facts were simple and documented by the Mayor as accurate. Ten Million Dollars was expended to help only 48 homeless get an apartment and a job. Do the Math! With the additional moneys in the coffers, it comes out to $18,000.00 PER MONTH, per homeless person. Yet the homeless person only got 300 bucks a month plus their salary for working at a job, plus a projects apartment to live in, which the city says costs them 450 a month to maintain.
WHERE DID ALL THE REST OF THE MONEY GO? Less than 1 grand per month was used for each of the 48 homeless persons helped during the year. All the money went to his family and friends to do studies on the problem!
The actual concept was a sound one. A homeless person would be given an apartment and an allowance, plus they had to find a job. Once they did get a job, 10% of their take home pay from their check had to be returned to the city to help someone else. In addition, after one year the allowance would decrease by 100 dollars, and would be phased out in three years. They also had to move out or begin paying rent after 5 years. However, if they decided to move into an apartment or house of their own, meaning out of the projects apartment, they would then get a 500 dollar bonus, to help with an apartment deposit, and they would then start the 300 per month allowance cycle over again. Sounded good on paper. But in real life, most just stayed in the apartment for the five years, and took meaningless jobs that didn't pay much. They were careful not to earn enough to stop them from getting welfare and other government subsidies. Several dropped out of the program and moved to the other side of the projects complex, because even that 300 bucks a month was messing them up from getting all the rest of the free stuff they wanted.
I knew it was a CON the first time I read what the Mayor wanted to do. And the sad part is, he got mayors in other cities to pull the same stunt to get government grants they only shared with their friends and family by giving them meaningless jobs on government pay.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
I have a feeling you never ran for an elected office. Why would you want to? 
People in politics literally live in a world unique onto their profession. They operate inside the same laws and regulations that we do, but they don't do it the same way. It would be difficult to imagine any single political figure who would be able to do his/her job alone and without the aid of others. Getting that help isn't as simple as running an ad in the paper looking for an administrative assistant. In fact you can't hire just any walk-in off the street and expect them to support your goals and agenda. A political office holder creates a network of contacts from which he/she can draw from in order to obtain, well, favors. It's pretty much like running a business where you pick and choose your suppliers because they fit in well with your business plan. Those who don't are SOL. Perhaps the greatest difference in the political world vs the civil workforce has to do with contributions to the campaign. If I send you a million dollars so that you can run an ad campaign to get some votes, would it be reasonable for me to expect you to ignore me after that? And, if I had a favor to ask, would you turn me aside and effectively lose that million dollars next time around?
None of the above is illegal under the current system. Some folks are very good at taking advantage of the established system, but believe it or not, that is how good things in politics are done as well as the not so good things. There are morals an ethics to be considered and that is where oversight is supposed to protect the system from abuse. But, if your crooked sheriff is the one who appoints the IAD investigators, then you can say good-bye to ethics. There is some good faith required for the system to work. Unfortunately there seems to be a shortage of good people at times.
People in politics literally live in a world unique onto their profession. They operate inside the same laws and regulations that we do, but they don't do it the same way. It would be difficult to imagine any single political figure who would be able to do his/her job alone and without the aid of others. Getting that help isn't as simple as running an ad in the paper looking for an administrative assistant. In fact you can't hire just any walk-in off the street and expect them to support your goals and agenda. A political office holder creates a network of contacts from which he/she can draw from in order to obtain, well, favors. It's pretty much like running a business where you pick and choose your suppliers because they fit in well with your business plan. Those who don't are SOL. Perhaps the greatest difference in the political world vs the civil workforce has to do with contributions to the campaign. If I send you a million dollars so that you can run an ad campaign to get some votes, would it be reasonable for me to expect you to ignore me after that? And, if I had a favor to ask, would you turn me aside and effectively lose that million dollars next time around?
None of the above is illegal under the current system. Some folks are very good at taking advantage of the established system, but believe it or not, that is how good things in politics are done as well as the not so good things. There are morals an ethics to be considered and that is where oversight is supposed to protect the system from abuse. But, if your crooked sheriff is the one who appoints the IAD investigators, then you can say good-bye to ethics. There is some good faith required for the system to work. Unfortunately there seems to be a shortage of good people at times.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
We ran a pretty large florist, with over 250 full-time employees.
However, like most big companies we had individual departments who handled all the purchasing and sales.
The Cut Flower department where my dad was the boss, he was also the accounting department (his job), account receivable (from orders) was handled by either my mom and two others, or by a relatives we could trust. Accounts payable was also handled by my dad and rarely by his brother who handled the wholesale department.
All inventory for the Cut Flower shop was handled by me.
And yes I made some pretty good deals with suppliers, and I guess like the Poly-TICK-ians, I too accepted bribes to switch competitors. However, in the industry, one glassware competitor never had the same items. So we still had to buy from the others anyhow, we just shifted which particular product we used the most of for some arrangements.
Normally we used Anchor Hocking for rose vases, but for more expensive ones, PressCut or Riekes Crysta.
PressCut is also an Anchor Hocking Company, but a different division. We also used a lot of Randall Glass vases, and many other companies. And when you get into ceramics for planters, now that is where I really shined on getting deals. Even had several designs made exclusive to our florist and no one else. But than as the owners company grew larger we let him sell designs he made for us in different states, but not the ones we designed ourselves.
Simply because we helped a new ceramics company get started by giving him large orders he had to work overtime to fill, he gave us deals that nobody could beat. And even after he grew to become quite large, we still got most of our ceramics from him at just above his cost. And by the way, the bigger he got, the lower his costs became, which is why we were getting such good deals.
Jumping back to glassware again for a moment.
As large as we were, and as many single stem Prescut bud vases we bought from Anchor Hocking, the lowest price we ever got from them was 22 cents each.
I got wind of Western Auto Stores selling the same bud vase for 14 cents at Retail price.
At first I figured they must be seconds, or a one shot overstock buy.
So I went in and bought a whole case from them to bring back and study.
I could not find a single flaw in any of them, they were identical to the ones we buy.
So the next time the AH salesman stopped by, I gave him the what for about it.
He had to save face so he showed me the price break chart for that item.
We usually bought these 10 cases at a time to get them for 22 cents instead of 26 cents.
The next price break was at like 50 cases, which would make them 18 cents.
Western Auto placed an order for 1000 cases, which got them a price of 8 cents each, would have been 7 cents plus delivery, but they had all 1000 cases delivered to their main warehouse, not in bulk, but each time they had a trailer load. So they also got free delivery on top of it all.
NEEDLESS to say. We no longer ordered these bud vases from Anchor Hocking, but went to Western Auto and bought a few cases at a time from them. Basically, whatever our local store had in stock, cases that were not yet opened.
Ended up buying a lot of other things through Western Auto, including my living room furniture set. But most things were for the florist. My uncle who ran the greenhouses also bought flower pots from Western Auto after I told him about a few deals I saw there. We normally got our clay flower pots from a company named Ceramo. But they were not the company selling to Western Auto, never did figure out who it was, but figure it was a Mexican company.
However, like most big companies we had individual departments who handled all the purchasing and sales.
The Cut Flower department where my dad was the boss, he was also the accounting department (his job), account receivable (from orders) was handled by either my mom and two others, or by a relatives we could trust. Accounts payable was also handled by my dad and rarely by his brother who handled the wholesale department.
All inventory for the Cut Flower shop was handled by me.
And yes I made some pretty good deals with suppliers, and I guess like the Poly-TICK-ians, I too accepted bribes to switch competitors. However, in the industry, one glassware competitor never had the same items. So we still had to buy from the others anyhow, we just shifted which particular product we used the most of for some arrangements.
Normally we used Anchor Hocking for rose vases, but for more expensive ones, PressCut or Riekes Crysta.
PressCut is also an Anchor Hocking Company, but a different division. We also used a lot of Randall Glass vases, and many other companies. And when you get into ceramics for planters, now that is where I really shined on getting deals. Even had several designs made exclusive to our florist and no one else. But than as the owners company grew larger we let him sell designs he made for us in different states, but not the ones we designed ourselves.
Simply because we helped a new ceramics company get started by giving him large orders he had to work overtime to fill, he gave us deals that nobody could beat. And even after he grew to become quite large, we still got most of our ceramics from him at just above his cost. And by the way, the bigger he got, the lower his costs became, which is why we were getting such good deals.
Jumping back to glassware again for a moment.
As large as we were, and as many single stem Prescut bud vases we bought from Anchor Hocking, the lowest price we ever got from them was 22 cents each.
I got wind of Western Auto Stores selling the same bud vase for 14 cents at Retail price.
At first I figured they must be seconds, or a one shot overstock buy.
So I went in and bought a whole case from them to bring back and study.
I could not find a single flaw in any of them, they were identical to the ones we buy.
So the next time the AH salesman stopped by, I gave him the what for about it.
He had to save face so he showed me the price break chart for that item.
We usually bought these 10 cases at a time to get them for 22 cents instead of 26 cents.
The next price break was at like 50 cases, which would make them 18 cents.
Western Auto placed an order for 1000 cases, which got them a price of 8 cents each, would have been 7 cents plus delivery, but they had all 1000 cases delivered to their main warehouse, not in bulk, but each time they had a trailer load. So they also got free delivery on top of it all.
NEEDLESS to say. We no longer ordered these bud vases from Anchor Hocking, but went to Western Auto and bought a few cases at a time from them. Basically, whatever our local store had in stock, cases that were not yet opened.
Ended up buying a lot of other things through Western Auto, including my living room furniture set. But most things were for the florist. My uncle who ran the greenhouses also bought flower pots from Western Auto after I told him about a few deals I saw there. We normally got our clay flower pots from a company named Ceramo. But they were not the company selling to Western Auto, never did figure out who it was, but figure it was a Mexican company.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
My knowledge of business operations is limited but I must agree that the purchasing agent for a company needs to be a lot like a politician or a used car dealer when it comes to making deals. LOL The bottom line is to maximize profits and doing that right at the receiving door is a great place to start the process. The story you tell about vases reaffirms two important aspects of running a business. One is that size matters. The bigger you are the lower the unit costs become. The other principle is implied in your comment that you thought Western Auto might have had a Mexican supplier in order to be able to sell vases at the price they did. That makes sense because the cost of labor in most Central American countries is way less than what Americans get paid. Global markets have their place in the business world for sure.
Last Mother's Day my wife got a bouquet of flowers delivered to the house. They were certainly beautiful and certainly must have been overpriced given the nature of the holiday. But, I was most impressed with the vase. It was ornate ceramic and very beautiful. I figured half the price of the bouquet was due to the vase. It also made me wonder why they would use such an expensive item for flowers that have a life expectancy of about a week. They could use a plastic tube to hold the flowers and it would still have the same meaning to the recipient. But, if that vase cost less than a dollar for the florist to purchase, then going fancy like that is good PR. It just seemed like overkill to me.
Last Mother's Day my wife got a bouquet of flowers delivered to the house. They were certainly beautiful and certainly must have been overpriced given the nature of the holiday. But, I was most impressed with the vase. It was ornate ceramic and very beautiful. I figured half the price of the bouquet was due to the vase. It also made me wonder why they would use such an expensive item for flowers that have a life expectancy of about a week. They could use a plastic tube to hold the flowers and it would still have the same meaning to the recipient. But, if that vase cost less than a dollar for the florist to purchase, then going fancy like that is good PR. It just seemed like overkill to me.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
Because we raised 90% of the flowers we sold, and bought certain ones from a high quality local suppler in large quantities, most of the flower arrangements we sold were larger and lasted longer than any of our competitors, especially those who had to buy from the wholesale markets downtown.
We had hundreds of customers who came to us not to buy flowers, but to buy glassware and ceramics.
We had one very simple way of marking up our products, including all inventory items used in the industry.
We took the cost we paid, doubled it, and added inbound freight, that's it, even if the end price was well under the suggested retail price for the items. Many items we bought in large quantities to get much lower prices, and these savings were passed on to our customers.
One of our top selling items was Fenton Ware. When Fenton decided to stop making Carnival Glass items, they called us and made us a deal to clear out their inventory. We took all they had and stored it in our main warehouse.
About 1/3 of the shipment was stuck in a back corner and got hidden by other shipments from other suppliers placed in front it, which is not normally how our warehouse was organized. It took around four or five years before we got back to the Fenton Carnival Glass again. And all the pieces had the marking collectors were looking for.
Dad wanted to sell them at our normal markup, but I convinced him that we stored them and the cost per sq. ft. of that storage space should be added to the selling price. He finally agreed to that, but not once cent more. All it took was for a couple of our regular collectors to see we were putting the Carnival Glass on our shelves again, and they scrutinized every single piece to make sure they were not knock offs. One finally asked me how we got them. I told him about us buying up what Fenton had when they discontinued the line, and they were forgotten in the back of our warehouse. I even took the guy back there to see all the cases we still had. He agreed to buy all we had if we promised not to tell anyone else about them, because it would cause the price for collectors to drop. He knew he could sell them for at least four times what we were charging for the pieces. He wanted them bad enough he offered me a bribe of almost half of what I would sell them for to me without dad knowing about it. He would get a receipt for dad's price is all. He didn't care. He and his wife came in a big step van and loaded it as full as he could get it, then came back in a box truck and filled it almost completely full. I was glad he did because dad bought out the entire warehouse of Hydrofoam when they decided to go out of business. We loved Hydrofoam, hated Oasis foam. It took a machine to put water into Hydrofoam the first time it was used for an arrangement. It was great stuff, denser than Oasis, and had much stronger holding capability too.
I'm Rambling Again aren't I...
We had hundreds of customers who came to us not to buy flowers, but to buy glassware and ceramics.
We had one very simple way of marking up our products, including all inventory items used in the industry.
We took the cost we paid, doubled it, and added inbound freight, that's it, even if the end price was well under the suggested retail price for the items. Many items we bought in large quantities to get much lower prices, and these savings were passed on to our customers.
One of our top selling items was Fenton Ware. When Fenton decided to stop making Carnival Glass items, they called us and made us a deal to clear out their inventory. We took all they had and stored it in our main warehouse.
About 1/3 of the shipment was stuck in a back corner and got hidden by other shipments from other suppliers placed in front it, which is not normally how our warehouse was organized. It took around four or five years before we got back to the Fenton Carnival Glass again. And all the pieces had the marking collectors were looking for.
Dad wanted to sell them at our normal markup, but I convinced him that we stored them and the cost per sq. ft. of that storage space should be added to the selling price. He finally agreed to that, but not once cent more. All it took was for a couple of our regular collectors to see we were putting the Carnival Glass on our shelves again, and they scrutinized every single piece to make sure they were not knock offs. One finally asked me how we got them. I told him about us buying up what Fenton had when they discontinued the line, and they were forgotten in the back of our warehouse. I even took the guy back there to see all the cases we still had. He agreed to buy all we had if we promised not to tell anyone else about them, because it would cause the price for collectors to drop. He knew he could sell them for at least four times what we were charging for the pieces. He wanted them bad enough he offered me a bribe of almost half of what I would sell them for to me without dad knowing about it. He would get a receipt for dad's price is all. He didn't care. He and his wife came in a big step van and loaded it as full as he could get it, then came back in a box truck and filled it almost completely full. I was glad he did because dad bought out the entire warehouse of Hydrofoam when they decided to go out of business. We loved Hydrofoam, hated Oasis foam. It took a machine to put water into Hydrofoam the first time it was used for an arrangement. It was great stuff, denser than Oasis, and had much stronger holding capability too.
I'm Rambling Again aren't I...
Re: Personal Safety From Google
Well ... ummmm ... you might be rambling a bit, but I read every word of it. Obviously those recollections are of times that might have been better than today's. More interesting to me is the detail of what it takes to run a business. I must say that I never thought about what it takes to sell cut flowers, and I never thought it could be so complex. I guess in your case the business wasn't just a local flower shop. You cornered the market for a while and got a lot of exposure. It's hard to believe your company didn't become a world power. Then again, your family has scruples. I'd also not be concerned about rambling because the material you post here is golden for the time when somebody decides to author a biography of your life. LOL Well, maybe that won't happen but perhaps a family member will stumble across your treasures some day in the distant future. This site might become inactive some day, but I fully intend to maintain an archive until I can't pay my ISP to host it anymore. Now that I think about it, it could happen sooner than I plan.
Last edited by yogi on 19 Jul 2020, 16:03, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
Almost any business where you deal with perishable items is like a nightmare. You can go broke real fast if you either over-order and have waste, or under-order and have disgruntled customers because of it.
Besides funeral flowers, wedding bouquets were a mainstay of our business, and their are things you probably never thought about concerning same.
For one, the color schemes of weddings change every year, namely the bridesmaids dress colors.
And some designer comes up with a few odd colors every year on top of it.
It takes time to hybridize a flower to produce a specific color.
For this reason, flower growers need to know three years in advance what colors will be dominant in the wedding industry. And then we have to come up with the colors that blend in without clashing.
It is always a gamble as to which designers color choices will become the most dominant, so we are often stuck with making hybrids to suit the four or five major designers when they are not together on their color schemes.
We normally did at least 20 major weddings, and around 40 minor weddings per year.
Yeah, all that work for matching only about 20 weddings needs.
But all is not lost, we also sold to other florists and to wholesale row.
So what colors we may not need, another florist might for their wedding flowers.
What didn't sell to them we may use in gift arrangements.
My only point is, we have to keep that color going all year, while gearing up for next year and the year after that. This all takes growing space in the greenhouses too.
As an aside, we were also and old fogies type florist. We rarely had the fancy designer flowers some of the exquisite florists may have had. We had a few of course, but not many. Most folks don't like surprises when they order flowers, and they knew if they ordered from us, they would know the names of the flowers we used, and our arrangements would be larger than any of our competitors, plus they would usually last longer. One of our slogans was "From Greenhouse To You" so there normally was no middle man, and the flowers couldn't be any fresher.
Besides funeral flowers, wedding bouquets were a mainstay of our business, and their are things you probably never thought about concerning same.
For one, the color schemes of weddings change every year, namely the bridesmaids dress colors.
And some designer comes up with a few odd colors every year on top of it.
It takes time to hybridize a flower to produce a specific color.
For this reason, flower growers need to know three years in advance what colors will be dominant in the wedding industry. And then we have to come up with the colors that blend in without clashing.
It is always a gamble as to which designers color choices will become the most dominant, so we are often stuck with making hybrids to suit the four or five major designers when they are not together on their color schemes.
We normally did at least 20 major weddings, and around 40 minor weddings per year.
Yeah, all that work for matching only about 20 weddings needs.
But all is not lost, we also sold to other florists and to wholesale row.
So what colors we may not need, another florist might for their wedding flowers.
What didn't sell to them we may use in gift arrangements.
My only point is, we have to keep that color going all year, while gearing up for next year and the year after that. This all takes growing space in the greenhouses too.
As an aside, we were also and old fogies type florist. We rarely had the fancy designer flowers some of the exquisite florists may have had. We had a few of course, but not many. Most folks don't like surprises when they order flowers, and they knew if they ordered from us, they would know the names of the flowers we used, and our arrangements would be larger than any of our competitors, plus they would usually last longer. One of our slogans was "From Greenhouse To You" so there normally was no middle man, and the flowers couldn't be any fresher.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
There you go. I never figured that color was a reaction to a trend. In fact it made more sense for the reverse to be true. But, I guess it's the clothes designers, wedding wear in this case, who set the trends. Flowers are an afterthought. It's truly amazing that you could keep up with the current trends. I know growing flowers takes a lot of time, but designs in clothing change from season to season, or four times a year. If I were a clothing designer working with your greenhouse I'd never be able to tell you what I'll be doing three years out. That's like trying to guess what computers will be like three years from now. LOL
Re: Personal Safety From Google
Honestly Yogi, in the electronics industry, they already know what type of items they've already developed, and in what year they will release them.
Actually, I thought I had mentioned this a few years back, when my brother was still privy on what was coming up soon.
He made regular trips to China to have things made for his business, and one of his friends who he stayed with while there worked for a large electronics manufacturing company. And he would show my brother what was in the works, already invented, but would not be sold until they made their profit on the current release or the the one before that.
There are a lot of meetings and cooperation between companies to get some things standardized so they can all have hardware ready to go when the time comes.
CDs and DVDs were invented about the same time, but they were not about to sell DVDs or Reader/Writers until after they made a bundle on CDs and the Readers/Writers for them. They held off as long as possible, until CD Reader/Writer sales began to drop because everyone had one. Only then did they issue the DVDs and Readers/Writers for them.
They did basically the same thing with SD Cards, selling small ones for a year, then a size larger for a year, etc.
The technology is the same for any size, but they were limited by what the current computers could read.
Like the 2 terabyte limit, which is now passed.
Just like it takes a long time to get a flower color perfected, the same is true in the clothing industry. The materials company needs to work with the Dye companies, to make the color materials the designs wish to use down the road.
Even the shoe companies have to make sure their white satin shoes that are died to match the dresses will accept the new color of the dresses without streaks or blotches.
Basically, there are a lot more individual industries involved in every little change, which most folks don't ever think about.
Think about all the different industries involved in something as simple looking as a credit card.
Besides the plastics industry, you have the laminating industry, the UPC industry, the magnetic tape industry, the electronic chip industry, the printing industry, the die cutting industry, and of course the designers for each industry, and the equipment manufacturers for each industry. And then you have the equipment industry to make the machines to read the cards in different ways, which are also different companies. And of course the financial groups and institutions that handle the credit card transactions, and finally the banks who make all the money from their usage, hi hi.
In other words, like I already said, there is more that goes on behind making the item than most folks think about.
Actually, I thought I had mentioned this a few years back, when my brother was still privy on what was coming up soon.
He made regular trips to China to have things made for his business, and one of his friends who he stayed with while there worked for a large electronics manufacturing company. And he would show my brother what was in the works, already invented, but would not be sold until they made their profit on the current release or the the one before that.
There are a lot of meetings and cooperation between companies to get some things standardized so they can all have hardware ready to go when the time comes.
CDs and DVDs were invented about the same time, but they were not about to sell DVDs or Reader/Writers until after they made a bundle on CDs and the Readers/Writers for them. They held off as long as possible, until CD Reader/Writer sales began to drop because everyone had one. Only then did they issue the DVDs and Readers/Writers for them.
They did basically the same thing with SD Cards, selling small ones for a year, then a size larger for a year, etc.
The technology is the same for any size, but they were limited by what the current computers could read.
Like the 2 terabyte limit, which is now passed.
Just like it takes a long time to get a flower color perfected, the same is true in the clothing industry. The materials company needs to work with the Dye companies, to make the color materials the designs wish to use down the road.
Even the shoe companies have to make sure their white satin shoes that are died to match the dresses will accept the new color of the dresses without streaks or blotches.
Basically, there are a lot more individual industries involved in every little change, which most folks don't ever think about.
Think about all the different industries involved in something as simple looking as a credit card.
Besides the plastics industry, you have the laminating industry, the UPC industry, the magnetic tape industry, the electronic chip industry, the printing industry, the die cutting industry, and of course the designers for each industry, and the equipment manufacturers for each industry. And then you have the equipment industry to make the machines to read the cards in different ways, which are also different companies. And of course the financial groups and institutions that handle the credit card transactions, and finally the banks who make all the money from their usage, hi hi.
In other words, like I already said, there is more that goes on behind making the item than most folks think about.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
LOL, well, yes. Nothing is simple. And why should I think about the myriad of industries it takes to produces my clever phone? It's all irrelevant. All I want to do is check my mail and view the weather map. How that became possible doesn't affect what clothes I put on to go shopping. On the other hand, when you explain what it takes to do what you do, I find that infinitely interesting. It's because I know you, more or less, and I can learn a thing or two about what you had to do to get to where you are. I can relate to that.
I can relate to marketing too because I've seen cell phones that never were released to manufacturing. Some of them were pretty advanced, but the thinking was that not all of them would have maximum appeal. They only released the designs they figured would make the most sales. I think your CD/DVD story is similar. Computer technology wasn't ready for DVD's even if they were invented at the same time as CD's. I realize that all the R&D costs have to be recouped too, but marketing has a lot to do with perception as well as technology. That's why they call it "developing a market" instead of selling what people want.
I can relate to marketing too because I've seen cell phones that never were released to manufacturing. Some of them were pretty advanced, but the thinking was that not all of them would have maximum appeal. They only released the designs they figured would make the most sales. I think your CD/DVD story is similar. Computer technology wasn't ready for DVD's even if they were invented at the same time as CD's. I realize that all the R&D costs have to be recouped too, but marketing has a lot to do with perception as well as technology. That's why they call it "developing a market" instead of selling what people want.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
Yeppers, sounds like you understand it well enough.
Back when Dierbergs Markets was thinking about adding a floral department to their stores, they contacted me to ramrod the entire operation. I already had enough experience working under thumbs of big guns that I turned them down.
However, we had one employee in the flower shop that although great, he was like a thorn in our side. He wanted to be the boss, but knew that would never happen in a family owned business.
I had a talk with him about how he would set up a chain of floral shops if given the opportunity.
There was a lot he didn't know that I could help him with, and I called Dierbergs and got him the job, with me on the side as a mentor when he needed one. Knowing I would be involved they hired him. I couldn't believe the salary they offered him, dang I should have taken it, hi hi. I ended up doing most of the set-up work for him, already having some experience with franchise operations. Although this wasn't a franchise, it worked the same way with one main department, and a clone in each of their stores.
I think Dierbergs figured out I was mastermind behind the set-up and began sending some of their company officials to talk to me before I would spring something on the floral manager to put into action. The key to getting it done the way the company officials wanted it done was making the floral manager think it was his idea, then he would hop to it.
Dierbergs ended up cutting me a nice check a few times during those early formation days. But this was mainly for taking the time to train a few shop managers by having them work for our florist for a short time.
Only one of them had the better of me, because he had some big degrees in business and newer accounting methods that would make inventory control much easier on a large scale. I actually learned a few things from him I could implement in our family business.
Back when Dierbergs Markets was thinking about adding a floral department to their stores, they contacted me to ramrod the entire operation. I already had enough experience working under thumbs of big guns that I turned them down.
However, we had one employee in the flower shop that although great, he was like a thorn in our side. He wanted to be the boss, but knew that would never happen in a family owned business.
I had a talk with him about how he would set up a chain of floral shops if given the opportunity.
There was a lot he didn't know that I could help him with, and I called Dierbergs and got him the job, with me on the side as a mentor when he needed one. Knowing I would be involved they hired him. I couldn't believe the salary they offered him, dang I should have taken it, hi hi. I ended up doing most of the set-up work for him, already having some experience with franchise operations. Although this wasn't a franchise, it worked the same way with one main department, and a clone in each of their stores.
I think Dierbergs figured out I was mastermind behind the set-up and began sending some of their company officials to talk to me before I would spring something on the floral manager to put into action. The key to getting it done the way the company officials wanted it done was making the floral manager think it was his idea, then he would hop to it.
Dierbergs ended up cutting me a nice check a few times during those early formation days. But this was mainly for taking the time to train a few shop managers by having them work for our florist for a short time.
Only one of them had the better of me, because he had some big degrees in business and newer accounting methods that would make inventory control much easier on a large scale. I actually learned a few things from him I could implement in our family business.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
Dierbergs and Schnucks are the two main grocery chains we shop at. They both have floral departments, but Dierbergs' is far superior to that which we see at Schnucks. There is nothing special about it at Schnucks and it blends in well with the produce department right next to it. It's open and airy with a cooler cabinet to harden things off, I guess. It's the first thing you see along the main aisle as you walk into the store - next to the cart dispensary. We bought a few things from them, and they were fine. Dierbergs on the other hand has an actual flower shop sectioned off in a out of the way corner of the store. They have other things besides flowers for whatever season it happens to be. The coolest part (pun intended) is the walk-in cooler. It's always too cold in there but the flowers are of exceptional quality. When I personally buy from Dierbergs it's usually roses for my wife of many years. They always last a week in a vase or more. So, if' your influence is still visible over at Dierbergs, you are to be congratulated. You did an exceptionally great job there.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
At the time the floral shop in Dierbergs was established. In order to be a member of FTD you MUST have a walk-in flower cooler. Later on they changed it to so many square feet of cooler space because many florists were wanting to install a wall of front opening coolers, sorta like you see in grocery stores for frozen items.
We were always in the Top 500 Club of FTD florists. Made it to the Top 100 Club a couple of times when we were FTD only.
They had a coop, like Pepsi and Coke sorta. If you belonged to FTD you could not belong to their competitors. It was always one or the other.
However, there were a few loopholes some of the bigger florists like Nettie's and others managed to get around.
Same thing happened with a few car dealers as well.
When the old owners died off and their kids took over, they often created additional names for the florist or car dealers, but worked out of the same building.
Nettie's Flower Garden was FTD.
Nettie's Florist was Teleflora.
And Nettie's House of Flowers was Interflora.
Once we learned this trick.
Our original company Geo. F. Deutschmann, Inc. was still FTD.
But we added Deutschmann's Florist and got Teleflora.
And The Wayside Florist (our subtitle) to get Interflora.
I don't remember the first car dealer who became a dealer for all cars, I think it was Lou Fusz, but don't remember for sure. Each kid started a dealership in order to get a license to carry a specific brand of car, but then they all worked together so any son could sell any car, hi hi.
I usually bought my cars from the closes Chevy dealer, and the florist trucks from the closest Ford dealer, but sometimes did buy the larger trucks like step-vans from another Ford dealer. Bought a few Chevy trucks for the florist too.
My grandpa would buy anything but only one from every dealer, this is how we wound up with Moon, Woody, GMC, Dodge, DeSoto, AMC, and nearly every popular brand like Ford, Chevy, etc., he even bought an electric car for grandma, hi hi.
Ironically, her car sported an Illinois license plate that said Electric Vehicle on it. It was housed in Missouri, so I don't know how he pulled that off. Although at the time, Missouri did not have a license plate for electric vehicles. So he must have discovered some loophole in the law that overrode the where the vehicle is housed law.
Two of our largest box vans also had Illinois beyond local plates on them. But I think I know why in their case. Most of the mileage they put on and all of the fuel for them was purchased in Illinois. This would have been pre and post WWII era. Maybe the laws were much different back then?
It did look funny having Illinois plates with Kirkwood City Stickers and our business was in Des Peres, hi hi.
They were retired and put in the back barn before Des Peres had city stickers.
We were always in the Top 500 Club of FTD florists. Made it to the Top 100 Club a couple of times when we were FTD only.
They had a coop, like Pepsi and Coke sorta. If you belonged to FTD you could not belong to their competitors. It was always one or the other.
However, there were a few loopholes some of the bigger florists like Nettie's and others managed to get around.
Same thing happened with a few car dealers as well.
When the old owners died off and their kids took over, they often created additional names for the florist or car dealers, but worked out of the same building.
Nettie's Flower Garden was FTD.
Nettie's Florist was Teleflora.
And Nettie's House of Flowers was Interflora.
Once we learned this trick.
Our original company Geo. F. Deutschmann, Inc. was still FTD.
But we added Deutschmann's Florist and got Teleflora.
And The Wayside Florist (our subtitle) to get Interflora.
I don't remember the first car dealer who became a dealer for all cars, I think it was Lou Fusz, but don't remember for sure. Each kid started a dealership in order to get a license to carry a specific brand of car, but then they all worked together so any son could sell any car, hi hi.
I usually bought my cars from the closes Chevy dealer, and the florist trucks from the closest Ford dealer, but sometimes did buy the larger trucks like step-vans from another Ford dealer. Bought a few Chevy trucks for the florist too.
My grandpa would buy anything but only one from every dealer, this is how we wound up with Moon, Woody, GMC, Dodge, DeSoto, AMC, and nearly every popular brand like Ford, Chevy, etc., he even bought an electric car for grandma, hi hi.
Ironically, her car sported an Illinois license plate that said Electric Vehicle on it. It was housed in Missouri, so I don't know how he pulled that off. Although at the time, Missouri did not have a license plate for electric vehicles. So he must have discovered some loophole in the law that overrode the where the vehicle is housed law.
Two of our largest box vans also had Illinois beyond local plates on them. But I think I know why in their case. Most of the mileage they put on and all of the fuel for them was purchased in Illinois. This would have been pre and post WWII era. Maybe the laws were much different back then?
It did look funny having Illinois plates with Kirkwood City Stickers and our business was in Des Peres, hi hi.
They were retired and put in the back barn before Des Peres had city stickers.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
I'm familiar with FTD because, well, who isn't? LOL I've heard of Teleflora but never of Interflora. Not much thought went into any of them; I just accepted the fact that FTD would deliver flowers in other states if the florist had that service. I never realized that it was an exclusive organization, but can sorta understand why they did it that way.
Car dealers have always been a mystery to me. LOL New cars can only be purchased from an authorized dealer, but they may also sell used cars of any flavor. I'm not sure what the logic to that is and it smells like a UAW plot, but what do I know? There was a time when I only purchased new and kept them until they only had scrap value. The argument against doing that is the repair costs of the old car. I found, however, it was cheaper to repair a five year old car than to buy it new and pay a premium. About 25% of the car's value drops when you take it out of the showroom and that was a lot of money even back in the 80's and 90's. We always bought new Chrysler products. The only new Ford I bought was their first front wheel drive subcompact that they imported from England and renamed it Fiesta. I know how you feel about FWD, but that Fiesta was awesome in spite of it being a death trap. Anyway, at some point before I retired from Motorola the strategy shifted. No more new cars and the immediate depreciation write off. We now buy from places like CarMax. Up by Chicago they had all models for sale and the price was on the window sticker. No wheeling and dealing. What you saw was THE price. Also, they would buy my old car even if I did not purchase a car from them. It wasn't like even getting Blue Book for it, but it was quick and ease. I liked that a lot. The last car we bought was a 2007 Saturn. It had 43,000 on in back in 2010, and we later learned it was in an accident. It was well repaired in that I didn't recognize any defects when I went over it with a fine toothed comb. That Saturn now has 86,000 miles on it and is 11 years old. No, I don't use it a lot, but it is fully loaded and still a comfort to drive. I'm expecting it to hold true to the GM formula and fall apart when it turns over 100K miles. I don't see any CarMax dealer around here anywhere. I might have to go back to Illinois to buy something. When I brought the Saturn into Missouri they only took $100 or so for taxes. I can deal with that.
Car dealers have always been a mystery to me. LOL New cars can only be purchased from an authorized dealer, but they may also sell used cars of any flavor. I'm not sure what the logic to that is and it smells like a UAW plot, but what do I know? There was a time when I only purchased new and kept them until they only had scrap value. The argument against doing that is the repair costs of the old car. I found, however, it was cheaper to repair a five year old car than to buy it new and pay a premium. About 25% of the car's value drops when you take it out of the showroom and that was a lot of money even back in the 80's and 90's. We always bought new Chrysler products. The only new Ford I bought was their first front wheel drive subcompact that they imported from England and renamed it Fiesta. I know how you feel about FWD, but that Fiesta was awesome in spite of it being a death trap. Anyway, at some point before I retired from Motorola the strategy shifted. No more new cars and the immediate depreciation write off. We now buy from places like CarMax. Up by Chicago they had all models for sale and the price was on the window sticker. No wheeling and dealing. What you saw was THE price. Also, they would buy my old car even if I did not purchase a car from them. It wasn't like even getting Blue Book for it, but it was quick and ease. I liked that a lot. The last car we bought was a 2007 Saturn. It had 43,000 on in back in 2010, and we later learned it was in an accident. It was well repaired in that I didn't recognize any defects when I went over it with a fine toothed comb. That Saturn now has 86,000 miles on it and is 11 years old. No, I don't use it a lot, but it is fully loaded and still a comfort to drive. I'm expecting it to hold true to the GM formula and fall apart when it turns over 100K miles. I don't see any CarMax dealer around here anywhere. I might have to go back to Illinois to buy something. When I brought the Saturn into Missouri they only took $100 or so for taxes. I can deal with that.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
I'm surprised places like FTD are still in existence since the Internet has grown so much.
When I need to send flowers to someone, usually for a funeral or something else.
I just call a florist local to the delivery point and order on-line or by phone.
I used to buy a new car from a dealer about once every six to eight months when I was younger.
It actually only cost me about 600 bucks to upgrade each time too.
But then marriage, kids, car prices going up, I kept my cars as long as possible.
However, I did have a windfall year in 1975 and bought a 1976 50th Anniversary Special Edition Trans-Am. Black with Gold Trim with a 455 Hardin Marine Engine in it. Muncie/Hurst. At that time, the blue and white TA I was looking at was only like 5,200 bucks, and this one was over 16k bucks. But heck, as I said, I had money to burn that year.
The sad thing is, shortly thereafter the frau left and took the car, but left me the payment book, hi hi.
Since then, I never had a new car, always bought 3 to 5 year old used cars and trucks.
My now late wife Ruth, after she was sick and wheelchair bound, decided we needed a new vehicle that would hold her wheelchair and was easy for her to get in and out of.
She loved a 1997 Chevrolet Blazer LT. Dang thing cost more than we paid for our house.
She had been saving up and we paid about half down and financed the rest.
I did have a hard time making the payments after she passed away, but managed to do so.
I still had that car a few years ago and it was in perfect running shape.
But then I had an accident that totaled it. It didn't look too damaged, but the impact was to the drivers side headlight area, which pushed battery back into the computer system and AC box. We were not even jarred in the accident so I was surprised it was totaled.
I started looking for another car and after a year of hunting never found one I would part with my money for.
Then out of the clear blue sky some guy called and said he had a 1997 Blazer LT that was running good. It was identical to mine except the interior was black instead of gray, and the radio was replaced with a satellite radio. I never used the radio anyhow so didn't care about that.
I paid only 1,600 dollars for it, drove it home, had it checked out by my mechanic, and have been driving it ever since.
I just love that year Blazer!
I did start looking for another Blazer in 1999 but by then they had changed so much I didn't want one.
I was so used to being a two car family, I always worried only having one car.
When I need to send flowers to someone, usually for a funeral or something else.
I just call a florist local to the delivery point and order on-line or by phone.
I used to buy a new car from a dealer about once every six to eight months when I was younger.
It actually only cost me about 600 bucks to upgrade each time too.
But then marriage, kids, car prices going up, I kept my cars as long as possible.
However, I did have a windfall year in 1975 and bought a 1976 50th Anniversary Special Edition Trans-Am. Black with Gold Trim with a 455 Hardin Marine Engine in it. Muncie/Hurst. At that time, the blue and white TA I was looking at was only like 5,200 bucks, and this one was over 16k bucks. But heck, as I said, I had money to burn that year.
The sad thing is, shortly thereafter the frau left and took the car, but left me the payment book, hi hi.
Since then, I never had a new car, always bought 3 to 5 year old used cars and trucks.
My now late wife Ruth, after she was sick and wheelchair bound, decided we needed a new vehicle that would hold her wheelchair and was easy for her to get in and out of.
She loved a 1997 Chevrolet Blazer LT. Dang thing cost more than we paid for our house.
She had been saving up and we paid about half down and financed the rest.
I did have a hard time making the payments after she passed away, but managed to do so.
I still had that car a few years ago and it was in perfect running shape.
But then I had an accident that totaled it. It didn't look too damaged, but the impact was to the drivers side headlight area, which pushed battery back into the computer system and AC box. We were not even jarred in the accident so I was surprised it was totaled.
I started looking for another car and after a year of hunting never found one I would part with my money for.
Then out of the clear blue sky some guy called and said he had a 1997 Blazer LT that was running good. It was identical to mine except the interior was black instead of gray, and the radio was replaced with a satellite radio. I never used the radio anyhow so didn't care about that.
I paid only 1,600 dollars for it, drove it home, had it checked out by my mechanic, and have been driving it ever since.
I just love that year Blazer!
I did start looking for another Blazer in 1999 but by then they had changed so much I didn't want one.
I was so used to being a two car family, I always worried only having one car.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
That Anniversary Trans Am was totally awesome. I can't believe it was street legal. LOL Something like that today would be at least three times what you paid back then. I'm certain that car is gone, but you must have some fantastic memories of it.
Apparently a "totaled" car is one that meets certain financial criteria and has nothing to do with whether it can be repaired or not. If it would cost more to repair than the car's book value, it's considered totaled by the insurance company. If you want to keep the car and fix it up, I don't understand why they won't just give you a check for the book value and send you off.
Apparently a "totaled" car is one that meets certain financial criteria and has nothing to do with whether it can be repaired or not. If it would cost more to repair than the car's book value, it's considered totaled by the insurance company. If you want to keep the car and fix it up, I don't understand why they won't just give you a check for the book value and send you off.
Re: Personal Safety From Google
I took the car to several shops and it would have cost over 7 grand to fix, and that is only if they could get the plastic parts. One problem is it had a custom computer in it, so the computers used in most of them was different.
One service shop said the 600 dollar computer would work, but I wouldn't have all the report info available in the overhead monitor. The regular computer only handles temperature, time, gas used, and stuff like that. Where the computer I had gave me engine sensor conditions like a service place gets from their plug in computer.
I left the car at one repair shop since it had a new motor in it. Thinking he could part it out like he did other vehicles he had there. I guess he didn't need any parts from it, since I never saw any missing when I drove by. And after about 8 months he had it towed to the crusher.
Took me a year to find another car, but I found one that was identical, almost everything was the same. The only visual difference was the interior was black instead of gray. It had a Satellite Radio Pandora. And it did not have the special computer that showed what the sensors were saying. Other than that, everything else was identical, right down to the wheels and slap-stick automatic.
One service shop said the 600 dollar computer would work, but I wouldn't have all the report info available in the overhead monitor. The regular computer only handles temperature, time, gas used, and stuff like that. Where the computer I had gave me engine sensor conditions like a service place gets from their plug in computer.
I left the car at one repair shop since it had a new motor in it. Thinking he could part it out like he did other vehicles he had there. I guess he didn't need any parts from it, since I never saw any missing when I drove by. And after about 8 months he had it towed to the crusher.
Took me a year to find another car, but I found one that was identical, almost everything was the same. The only visual difference was the interior was black instead of gray. It had a Satellite Radio Pandora. And it did not have the special computer that showed what the sensors were saying. Other than that, everything else was identical, right down to the wheels and slap-stick automatic.