Cookster

It is not often I write about a website but this one deserves the attention and maybe more than it gets.

Cookster, is a site that has great and loft goals of making itself the place to go for both recipes and cookbooks on the net. Once you set up an account, your page on the site is easy to customize and ad recipes, make favorites and even access books in ways that maybe you never had before.

Cookster also has a real team of foodies, both nutritional experts, dietitians and Chefs that analyze the recipes for maximum content and information being displayed to you. This is not just a recipe site. It is a true meal planning guide. And if you are  Mac or Apple gadget user, the books available from Cookster are in the Ibook store for easy access. 

I have arguably not spent enough time on this site, and need to delve even depper than what I have done thus far. Cookster is worth the visit.

My ongoing and growing dislike for brick and mortar stores

This is one in an ongoing series on this subject that dates back many years for me to date,,

Like many people (most) brick and mortar stores represent a component of life we all enter at sometime or another. Wether daily, or weekly. For some folks it's a bad and unbreakable habit! The need to shop in them, being excited by the bells and whistles of something new, and of course the "so called" sales, of which are nothing more than a mind game meant to move product, not because the term really means it.

We are like zombies in these places, feeding our a.d.d. jumping from place to place and hoops to get the things we want, driving, burning gas, to get to them, then spending sometimes hours waiting in lines, or dealing with the stores inept staff for "assistance" or check out related issues. These things that in this day and age of overnight delivery, on your doorstep the next morning, are things that amaze me. Most people believe that it makes more sense to spend  $10 on an item, because buying it online, will cost them possibly $5 more in shipping, and this may be exactly right! 

We are so quick to write off the value of our own time, and not even think about burning an entire afternoon 4-6 hours going from store to store to get a handful of things we could have had delivered to us. Also, these are usually things we do not need that moment, and a few days wait in ship time would be really no big deal, but we need it now, and burning a few gallons of gas at 2-3 a gallon, and a few hours of our time is worth nothing.  I'd bet if anyone is reading this, chances are you make alot more than 7-$10 an hour. But when your off from work, your time all of the sudden becomes something that a brick and mortar shop can abuse at will. On top of that they can aggravate you with their incompetence, oh yeah, and can often times get away with poor behavior too.

To this extent, you take this aggravation home with you and think about it more, and vent to others about it. All for that 10-20 or whatever it cost item, that thru an online purchase could possibly have cost a few dollars more, however also maybe not, if you do some research you can really find great deals online. More times than not, have your order placed inside of a few minutes, hit send, and get a polite confirmation email, and then get up from your couch, close your laptop and go about your day. Folks, most things in life can be purchased this way, and frankly should be.

The money, time, and aggravation we waste and readily give to brick and mortar stores is arguably as foolish a thing as any I can think of, and I am as guilty as anyone of frequenting these places. Poorly trained employees, out of stock items, poor labeling, poor management, ridiculous store lines!!! Really!! The Walmart in our area forever has 25 check out lines and rarely has more than 5 open!! Safeways store in Bowie, is the same scenario!! Meanwhile people are 10 deep back in the isles burning their own time on top of money and fuel spent, just to buy the product. We live in the 2000's and this process is truly no or little faster than it was in the 70's!!  

Really!!? On the other side of this, I can think of plenty of times where I was ready to make a big$$ purchase and simply walked out of the store because there was no one around to assist with unlocking a cage to get the unit out, so they lost potentially a several hundred dollar sale, and I have to believe this happens on the hour at these places. You wait 10-15 or more minutes, and look around the aisles to find someone, and then you wake up and say to yourself,,,, they don't need my money?? With an online purchase, you are done with it in virtual seconds in some cases, no fuss no muss. Now I am not advocating that online purchases is a perfect world. Of course it's not, there is always room for improvement, but I gotta say, I dread going into most all physical stores anymore, it pains me to think of the "process" that dates back to the 50's still when you think of it.  Little has changed in how we get out of a store when we buy something. Technology has not benefitted the customer experience at all, in my little opinion.

What is your "personal time" , money for gas, and aggravation spent afterwards worth to you?? And if you have any value for all of those things, did you really save a dime, or did you just get hosed??

The Fed ex Man

That's simply what I call him. A guy whom for years now has delivered to my home time and again and has bent over backward to be sure to get my packages to me and my wife whatever it takes and as quickly as possible.

He is likely one of the nicest gentlemen I know, and I really don't know much of him, even though he has given me his  card (likely more than once) , and we have had numerous talks on my front porch, about any number of things in life. I am glad that I know him, but ashamed of myself for not remembering his name. The irony is that this is one of the very important things I have to do in my day to day job, and do not do that very well as it is. What's worse is this guy always speaks my first name and is always respectful and nothing but kind.

I ran into an issue this week where some deliveries arrived when I could not be home. i tried wrangling the Fed ex system online to see about getting the packages dropped off without signature, but had no luck. I had my guys number in my phone book, in my phone. i had never called him before and it had been a long time since we had spoken, and I took a chance. He ansered in his usual friendly voice and remembered me in seconds, and of course I still cannot recall his name.

As it turns out, he has been re routed and works a different zip code these days. We spoke for a few moments and spoke of the holidays and then I got to the point. he exclaimed that he was sorry that I could not be there for signature, but that he would work it out with my new driver, to be sure to get them to me the way I wanted even if he had to make the trip himself, out of his zone.

I mean, damn!! There are so few people that take such pleasure in serving others these days and or just doing the job they have right, that when you see something so extraordinary as this, it simply makes you sit back and scratch your head in amazement. This is way over the call of his duty, and I have to make effort to see that someone finds out how great a job he does. The long and short of this short story is I am embarrassed, because I have called this man on his personal phone, which he'd said I could if I ever needed him, but never have done so for anything other than this. It only emphasizes the fact that I need to do something extra nice for someone this month.

Especially, the Fed Ex man.. Yeah, like learn his name!! I'm such a jerk! 

Online Businesses and it's Customers

Well, I managed to avoid the internet for a good part of last week, however did not meet the goal (no suprise) , with that, i experienced another component of Online business and customer services that absolutely is criminal in it's design..

Online businesses in this day and age, need to figure out a way to make their sites more interactive and easier for their customers to get help, file complaints and speak to people to help them with their problems. Or do they know how to do this easily and just don't because frankly it would take up resources, and valuable time and space other sites? The latter is what I believe to be true.

MOst of these companies really do not want to respond to your issues. They want you to get frustrated and go away. Oh there are ways to get in touch alright. All companies have them. They are simply not simple to access. There is a reason for that.

If people realized that they could file issues easily and be responded to quickly, don't you think you might come back to that vendor and try them again? i know I would. I had an incident today with Skype. THis company claims to have contacted me several times, and they in fact did, to tell me that my credits were going to expire if i DID NOT AT LEAST log into my account and use the service. I tried this more than once. Today i received notice that my credits have been removed and I guess I have to give them more money wether I use the service or not.

Ok so you take my money for nothing in return. I get it. However, getting in touch to tell them this, is truly a series of hoops designed to make me go away. There is no emailing them back (how convenient for THEM)