You know there's an economic downturn...

... when logo designers create mock logos instead of new ones. I didn't design these, but I admire whoever did. The car faux logos are particularly clever.


Thanks to my stepsister, Liz Holm, for sending these (and some others) along.

Safeway sucks

Yesterday I railed about Bloom's nearly complete lack of customer service and exceptionally high prices. However, after a quick shopping trip yesterday, I'm taking potshots at Bloom's rival, Safeway.

I stopped in last evening to pick up a prescription and ended up buying a few things I'd mysteriously forgotten I needed. (Why does this always happen to me at the grocery store?!) While standing in line, I decided I'd buy a pack of sugar-free Orbit Gum. I've been buying this particular confection for years, usually for about $1.09 a pack. Sometimes it even goes on sale for 99 cents.

Not at Safeway, not anymore. Orbit Gum is now a whopping $1.49 a pack. That's a 25 percent increase in price! Is there some cartel I don't know about that's protecting and ratcheting up the cost of gum? According to Reuters, Wrigley increased prices by 10 percent in 2007:

Wrigley said the increase was due in part to rising costs, but did not specify which costs. Food companies have been hit by higher costs for natural sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup as demand for use of crops in ethanol has sent prices soaring.

Okay, so what about the additional 15 percent increase? That's Safeway gouging its customers. According to Forbes.com, Safeway focused this year on costly real estate investments. "Chairman and Chief Executive Steve Burd said Safeway chose to work less on lowering prices in 2008 to keep its earnings guidance intact in the current economic environment. Now it is planning to cut more prices heading into 2009." It's going to have to as shoppers to reduce their spending during the recession/depression and look for more frugally priced grocery stores.

Hopefully we consumers can encourage Safeway and its ilk to drop prices by taking our dollars to discounters such as Wal-Mart, Bottom Dollar, Target, and the like. Here's one cost-savings tip: buy your Orbit Gum at Walgreens. It's only $1.19 a pack.

America screams "DUH!"

Word comes today from MSNBC that the United States is now officially in a recession and has been since December 2007. America (or me anyway) wants to scream back DUH!

As I've been saying all year (read My Great Depression about Delusions of Grandeur and Another Great Depression), America has been greatly depressed - not even recessed! - all year. Finally the numbers prove what we've all known for a while: our economy just sucks.

However, despite all the dreariness, there is a bit of good news:

• This weekend, I spent only $24 to fill up my Beetle. This is a damn sight better than the almost $50 I was spending weekly a few months ago.
  
  
• People went shopping this weekend and spent $25 more this year than last, although I'm sure profits are significantly less. Retailers simply slashed prices. On Black Friday, I spent my morning at Office Depot so I could buy a fabulous HP printer for only $25. Five years ago, I bought a fancy HP color printer and spent nearly $500. Now an even-better printer cost me just 5 percent of the original purchase price. Woo hoo! (But what is ridiculous is that HP charges $35 for just one of the four print cartridges needed to run my printer. We know where HP is making its money - and it ain't in hardware.)
  
  
• My business is busy. I've closed several new clients in the past couple of months - something I feared wouldn't happen in the downturn. But smart business owners recognize that they must spend marketing dollars when times get bad rather than doing what the less informed do: slash marketing budgets. I am grateful for the new business and pray that it lasts.

The stock market is down today by over 650 points, but I'm immune to its fluctuations. We're living in an amusement park (that's not very amusing) with a huge roller coaster. It goes up, it comes down. Whatever. Go find throw a softball at the milk bottles or have the barker guess your weight or buy some cotton candy. Watching that damn roller coaster will make you nauseous.

I'm sure the market tanked today with the official word that we're in recession, but let me say it again: DUH. This isn't remotely news. It's just the angst we live with every day.

If it's Tuesday, I must be worrying about money

Jesus God, the economy sucks. My highly successful and incredibly self-involved father says that it must just be my market because he's making money hand over fist. I'm sure not. This is the worst it's been since September 11. I'm a marketing-based graphic and web designer who owns Julie & Company, LLC. Here's the standard marketing blurb:

Founded in 1997, Julie & Company provides a comprehensive line of creative services. We specialize in developing effective logos and corporate branding, and have also developed over 250 websites for clients in a wide range of industries. Our services include brochure design, advertising, direct mail, project sheets, pocket folders, giveaways, product packaging, trade show booths, and more. If you need to promote your organization, Julie & Company can help.

Anyway, you can tell times are bad because:

• Lots of people now think they can be web designers and make a killing. I dated a shmoe last year who had never designed a thing in his life. He decided that he, too, could become rich if he only bought a web design franchise and a book about sales. God help the person who actually hires him because he doesn't know a thing.
  


• I get emails and phone calls multiple times a day asking if I hire freelance designers. Sorry, kids, I don't.
  


• I've been ripped off by two people who have failed to pay me after I did a small amount of work. We're not talking about a lot of money, but when you put the two of them together, it's almost $1000. I could use that $1000 about now.
  
  
• My brother was laid off a couple of weeks ago after working for 25 years at the same company. He thought he'd retire there but now he's on the street.
  

Scary times. I guess the bottom line is that I should take George Harrison's advice and recognize that all things must pass - including these bad economic times. I just know that if one more financial pundit questions whether we're in a recession, I'm going to go postal. This includes my financially astute father who insists that since he is making so much money, there must be something wrong with me.

Now it's time for an affirmation: I am rich, debt-free, and have more money than I'll ever need. Amen.