Certain products should only be sold at specialty stores and I believe that coffins are one of them. But why was I only a little surprised when I read that Walmart now sells discounted coffins and funeral accessories right on the stores website? According to an article on AdAge.com by Jack Neff entitled “Why Walmart's Entry Wont Kill Casket Business,” the superstore now offers items that would be too difficult to fit into a monstrous Supercenter.
The article states that both Walmart and competitors are downplaying the effect this will have on the coffin industry, but Walmart is happy with the response so far. Representatives from the National Funeral Directors Association and the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association believe that with buying coffins online comes the risk of receiving a damaged product that may not be able to be repaired in time for the funeral. The article goes to show that by shopping at the superstore wont even save you that much money! In some cases, it’s a bit more expensive.
Even if the prices are cheaper, I’m wondering how stingy people are willing to be when purchasing a loved ones final resting place. Most cemetery and funeral businesses do charge an obscene amount of money to, lets say, dig a hole in the ground and I think that’s disgusting. Especially in this economy, I don’t know how people can afford the thousands of dollars it costs after a person passes away. A lot of people don’t realize if the deceased didn’t set aside money for the funeral arrangements, it’s on the family to pay for everything. However, even if I was flat broke with no means to pay for a loved ones funeral, the last place I would shop for an urn or coffin is Walmart.
Pretty soon, Walmart is going to sell everything and all the small businesses owners in America are going to go out of business. Although there is a fad going around to “buy local” during this recession, some people can’t afford to shop at a privately owned business so instead they take the trip to Walmart. I hate Walmart, but I’m a poor college student and go there to get my groceries. It sucks. The biggest Walmart in the State of New York just opened two streets over from my house in Hamburg and I noticed they now sell wine in their extensive beer aisle. I would put money on that “Brierwood Wine and Spirits,” the small liquor store located on that same set of property as Walmart, is out of business in one year.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
"Tweetarded" Athletes
“How dumb can you be?” is the question I always ask myself when I see a celebrity on the news getting in trouble for saying something inappropriate. I’m not talking about little slip-ups that the media catches just because the person is under a microscope. I’m talking about those idiots who say offensive racial or ethnic slurs when they know it’s going to be documented and reported about on a huge scale.
That’s why I was shocked when reading the article by Rich Thomaselli “When Tweeting Athletes Turn Into Legal Liabilities” which shows that there are that many idiot athletes. The article mentions a handful of athletes who tweeted offensive remarks and got fined, suspended or both because of it. For example, Thomaselli mentions Kansas City Chiefs football star Larry Johnson, who used homophobic slurs on his personal Twitter account, tweeting himself into a two-week suspension from the team. Really? Are you that dumb.
Then, to make matters even worse for Mr. Johnson, when reporters asked to comment about the tweet he told them to get their faggot asses out of the locker room. This guy is unbelievable.
Unfortunately, Mr. Johnson isn’t the only athlete who is unaware that when you say something offensive on Twitter, people do notice. It seems to me that these professionals should a publicist or a manager monitoring their social media profiles just in case they say something stupid. Why these athletes wouldn’t have the same etiquette with social media that they know they need when they are on camera, I don’t know? Perhaps nobody clearly spelled it out for them, although I believe it goes without being said that whatever you put on the Internet is there for all to see.
There are a few examples in this article when I can see how some athletes may just believe that they are venting and not actually doing any harm. San Diego Chargers football player Antonio Cromartie was fined $2,500 back in the preseason for tweeting about the awful food served at training camp. I hope that when Mr. Cromartie tweeted this, who was merely just venting and not acutally trying to taint this food companies brand. There was another instance when Texas Tech University football player Brandon Carter tweeted earlier this season that "this is not how I saw our season" and was suspended by head coach Mike Leach, who also banned players from using Twitter.
I don’t think it’s going to be long before we start seeing more bans on using social networking sites with employers, institutions and sport teams. Social networking sites are not just fun, but they can also be very beneficial. However, there’s always going to be a few who abuse it’s purpose and ruin for the rest of us.
That’s why I was shocked when reading the article by Rich Thomaselli “When Tweeting Athletes Turn Into Legal Liabilities” which shows that there are that many idiot athletes. The article mentions a handful of athletes who tweeted offensive remarks and got fined, suspended or both because of it. For example, Thomaselli mentions Kansas City Chiefs football star Larry Johnson, who used homophobic slurs on his personal Twitter account, tweeting himself into a two-week suspension from the team. Really? Are you that dumb.
Then, to make matters even worse for Mr. Johnson, when reporters asked to comment about the tweet he told them to get their faggot asses out of the locker room. This guy is unbelievable.
Unfortunately, Mr. Johnson isn’t the only athlete who is unaware that when you say something offensive on Twitter, people do notice. It seems to me that these professionals should a publicist or a manager monitoring their social media profiles just in case they say something stupid. Why these athletes wouldn’t have the same etiquette with social media that they know they need when they are on camera, I don’t know? Perhaps nobody clearly spelled it out for them, although I believe it goes without being said that whatever you put on the Internet is there for all to see.
There are a few examples in this article when I can see how some athletes may just believe that they are venting and not actually doing any harm. San Diego Chargers football player Antonio Cromartie was fined $2,500 back in the preseason for tweeting about the awful food served at training camp. I hope that when Mr. Cromartie tweeted this, who was merely just venting and not acutally trying to taint this food companies brand. There was another instance when Texas Tech University football player Brandon Carter tweeted earlier this season that "this is not how I saw our season" and was suspended by head coach Mike Leach, who also banned players from using Twitter.
I don’t think it’s going to be long before we start seeing more bans on using social networking sites with employers, institutions and sport teams. Social networking sites are not just fun, but they can also be very beneficial. However, there’s always going to be a few who abuse it’s purpose and ruin for the rest of us.
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