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Updated: 08/12/04



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What's on the nightstand

"To Lie with Lions" (sort of)
by Dorothy Dunett
"War and Peace"
by Leo Tolstoy

roomba

book store


Thursday, 12 August, 2004

Abebooks.com, the used book consolidator through whom I purchased "To Lie with Lions" simplified the whole issue of the missing book. They sent me a link to a page on their site to fill out and promptly refunded my money. Whatever is going on with the other bookseller (Old Orchard) and the mysterious shipping address is between the two of them now.

[Kudos to Abebooks for excellent customer service.]

I haven't gotten all political on you in a while. Mainly because I am SO SICK of all of it. Already. And there's two and a half more months to go . . .

That's not to say I haven't been keeping up to date on things, but there are so many others out there discussing the nitty gritty that I really don't feel the necessity to add to the white-noise. But I am amused by the latest "Christmas in Cambodia" brou-ha-ha in the blogosphere - and the distinct lack of reporting of it by many of the major new organizations. Will Collier on Vodkapundit.com has the best headline:

If A Candidate Lies About Cambodia, But Nobody Reports It, Did It Actually Happen?

[Heh. "I went to Cambodia before I didn't go to Cambodia . . ."]

Here's a headline that made me chuckle:

Toys aren't them? Toys R Us may sell toy unit

Pounded by competition from discount retailers and increasingly shunned by kids moving on to fancy cell phones and iPods at younger ages, Toys R Us (TOY) says it might shed its toy business in a major restructuring.

I'd say that's a big yes. Getting rid of the business unit that inspired your name is definitely in the "major restructuring" catagory. They are looking at ways to maximize their fast growing "Babies R Us" stores, and a sale of the out-moded brick and mortar toy stores is being considered. The article goes on to talk about some of the ways that they have been trying to increase visits to their toy stores:

Toys R Us has been experimenting with ways to increase shopper visits from an average of twice a year. "Some of the things they have started this past year or have in the process are children's haircuts, portrait studios - and Santa will be in (Toys R Us) stores for the first time this holiday season," says Jim Silver, publisher of trade publication The Toy Book.

Ahem. They never put Santa Claus into Toys R Us stores before? Let's see . . . kids + parents + mandatory photo = opportunity. And how about this: instead of having the folks wait in line for Junior's turn on Big Red's lap, why don't you arrange for a big kiddie play area in the store and give Mom/Dad a numbered ticket and time slot for their photo, leaving them adequate time to shop for the goodies. Seems like that would have been a slam dunk.

[Guess they could have used some revised marketing strategies a long time ago.]


Quote du jour:

"They shift the moving toyshop of their heart. "

-- Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744)
"The Rape of the Lock"

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