[Author's note 2016-01-11: It is best to remember these posts are written in the spirit of the times. It was not yet evident that Theresa was not being up front about her actual experience in this venture. Nor was it evident she never intended to utilize what little experience she might ever have had. You'd have to read a month of posts here to get the picture, but basically she said she had run a flyer business and just needed someone to produce the copy.]
Here is the rental truck across the street from the forest. It is snug up against the chain link fence of the casino, to the immediate right. See the car racing past with lots of room to spare. Yet, one of the Frenchies up the lane does not agree. He says he cannot drive his truck through the space you see here. Mind you, he is a known jerk, especially since the situation is blatantly temporary and he should keep his mouth shut. Such poop-heads always get themselves in a jam, so I’ll leave him be.
Let’s talk real estate. The other Frenchie to the south has lowered his price again, this time to $33,000 (from $55,000). He will never get half that. One cannot help but conclude these Canadians thrive on a certain quota of quarrelsome, confrontational fat-headedness. I witnessed one guy drive past his porch, stop and ask the price, flip him the finger and keep on going. Comparable property around here is going for maybe $12,000 if you can get it.It turns out that not everything was as prearranged as Theresa thought. I advised her to take matters into her own hands and get the truck unloaded. Better to worry about a $150 a month storage bay than a $75 a day truck. I suspect it will be just me unloading as her friend who has been around shows no inclination toward lifting heavy objects. Plus I pick up that he just assumes things are now somehow my responsibility. He’s a real estate agent.
The media is tooting that the real estate bust is over. What they mean is prices are falling at a slower rate. Only fools are not waiting this one out. The majority of today’s unemployed are not a skilled labor force in the sense that the jobs and factories they worked at are gone forever. They cannot be re-hired. Wait another year until the lack of any $18/hr jobs really starts to bite. People temping at MacD’s aren’t going to buy a $200,000 house no matter how cheap they are compared to a year ago.
The placemat flyer is again in the forefront. I have finalized a design that should have broad appeal to the slightly more literate around here. In other words, the trivia is of a current nature which necessitates a decent grasp on innovation. There will be some historical based articles that draw on forgotten links to the past. Get this, I’ve tried mentioning the flyer to people I know in hopes of a few easy sales, with little headway. Why? Because the type of people I know immediately want to work for me, not be customers.
I should ponder that situation even though anything Theresa and I are planning will be what the two of us can accomplish. Taking a hint from the corporations who are eliminating formal job descriptions, any salesman we hire would also have to be responsible for distributing the flyers he sold. Ha, then we could give Eddie some place like Deerfield Beach. That will keep him out of Broward County.
A quick survey of downtown shows an increase in coffee and donut shops over two years back. There are also empanada and bakery outlets, although I can’t see the downtown workforce that can afford to patronize these places. People earning $7 per hour can’t spend that much on lunch. I'm still of the opinion that advertising is a hard sell but Theresa assures me she has tons of experience at it. But as usual, I'm contributing little but my time until I see some kick-ass from the other party. So far, she appears to have done nothing.
Florida businesses are strung out along the main roadways exactly like an old Texas cow town. I estimate there are around 35 non-franchised coffee shops or similar near the city core. I’ve read of two methods of distributing the flyer. One is to tell the restaurant to use ours for fee, thus eliminating an expense. The other is to charge them a fee that is temptingly less than their present cost of placemats.
I have no idea which way it will go.
