3/9: The Mail Must Go Through Creative Solutions
8:30 a.m.
• So this article got my interest today in the Shittsburgh Post-Gazette (I picked up the publication’s “early edition” yesterday while filling up the car on the way home from an extra day at work – yes, I’m doing the “work on Saturday” thing again. And I didn’t get this liberal rag because this article was the top-of-fold cover story. I got it because it had $98 worth of coupons.)
Here’s the headline: Rising costs, frugal customers pinch restaurants at both ends
Basically, it’s talking about how it’s HARDER THAN EVER for restaurants to attract customers due to the TERRIBLE ECONOMY. Here were my favorite parts.
The nation's chain restaurants have been swallowing hard in recent months as they wrestle with the soaring costs of ingredients, new fuel surcharges from vendors and rising labor costs at the same moment that their customers have decided to eat out less often.
OK, I love how vendors are now adding “fuel surcharges.” Just increase your total bill. Will there be a “wheat surcharge” or “dairy surcharge” at pizza shops when vendors increase their prices due to rising costs for these products? No. Then why fuel? Because we can blame BIG OIL and their OBSCENE PROFITS. I’m not saying increased fuel prices don’t hurt a business. One of my biggest fears about increasing gas prices isn’t the extra few dollars I have to pay to put fuel in my car – it’s how increases the price of everything. However, taking this one extra cost of doing business, singling it out and itemizing it is lame.
Here was another golden nugget.
Kings officials weren't too happy either when Pennsylvania-mandated minimum wage increases began taking effect in January 2007. A second round came in July of that year. The raises, which sent the pay for more experienced workers up as well, raised costs about $250,000. The 35-store chain responded by trimming the number of minors in its workforce by a third.
But… but… I thought raising the minimum wage wouldn’t affect anybody or anything. I thought all those “you raise the minimum wage and the people who need these entry-level jobs the most won’t get them” chicken littles were practicing right-wing fear-mongering tactics. Maybe Kings restaurant donated to Bush in the ’04 election. Yeah, that’s it.
And despite all of these obstacles and doom-and-gloom, restaurants still experienced sales growth, albeit at a reduced rate.
"It's been a tough year," said Ron Paul, president of Chicago-based food consulting group Technomic Inc., which found sales growth rates at chains like Eat 'n Park slowed last year to 5.1 percent from 6.1 percent the previous year.
4 p.m.
• Yeah, "creative solutions." Read: Rate hike.
The souring economy and changing lifestyles are dramatically affecting one of the most dependable institutions in American life: the U.S. Postal Service. Troubled banks are mailing fewer credit card offers. Declining new-home sales mean vacant houses sitting with empty mailboxes. And as consumers switch to paying bills online, first-class mailings are drying up.
Now, a new trend in consumer activism -- do-not-mail lists pending in 18 states, including Maryland -- threatens to reduce deliveries of catalogues and other "junk mail" that make up the largest volume of postal deliveries.
Because of these factors, postal officials are expecting an operating deficit of $1 billion this year, the largest since 1995, and are looking for creative solutions.
"We cannot afford, literally or figuratively, to begin [the year] . . . more than $1 billion in the red," Postmaster General John E. Potter testified before a Senate subcommittee yesterday. "We would never be able to dig out of that hole."
Potter said he wants to explore the possibility of renting space in the 37,000 post offices across the country to banks and other commercial interests. He said, however, that legal restrictions governing federal property could get in the way of, say, installing a Starbucks in the local post office.
"Other countries have the same challenges, but they look at their assets and use those assets to generate revenue. They use their retail outlets as banks," Potter said. "That type of flexibility is something I think we need to explore."
• Well, at least the Post Office has this windfall to rely on.
At a cost of nearly $42 million, the IRS wants you to know: Your check is almost in the mail.
The Internal Revenue Service is spending the money on letters to alert taxpayers to expect rebate checks as part of the economic stimulus plan.
The notices are going out this month to an estimated 130 million households who filed returns for the 2006 tax year, at a cost $41.8 million, IRS spokesman John Lipold confirmed.
That works out to about 32 cents to print, process and mail each letter. It doesn't include the tab for another round of mailings planned for those who didn't file tax returns last year but may still qualify for a rebate.
Democrats accused the Bush administration of wasting time and postage.
"There are countless better uses for $42 million than a self-congratulatory mailer that gives the president a pat on the back for an idea that wasn't even his," Sen. Charles Schumer said Friday, arguing the IRS could more effectively spend the money to catch tax cheats.
Keith Hennessey, director of the president's National Economic Council, said the letters are being sent to explain how the tax rebates will work.
"Any time you do something as a government tens of millions of times, there is ample room for people to get confused. And so if you're going to have tens of millions of taxpayers getting checks, you want to get the information out so that you have as few people as possible confused about what's happening, they understand what's coming, and it reduces the number of incoming requests that IRS and Treasury have to figure out how to deal with it," said Hennessey.
"Dear Taxpayer," the letters will begin, going on to say the IRS is pleased to inform the recipient that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law a plan that will provide payments of up to $600 for individuals who qualify or $1,200 for married couples filing jointly. The rebates are the centerpiece of a $168 billion economic stimulus package.
The actual rebate checks are scheduled to go out starting in May, after the IRS has finished separately mailing out routine refunds for the 2007 tax year.
The letters will be a reminder that people need to file a 2007 tax return so they will receive the rebate if they are eligible for it.
I got my letter yesterday. What's really funny is that people who get this letter and don't read it will then bitch about something or other related to this program in May. And Schmuck Jewmer, what would you like to have on the letter: every name of every Democrat in Congress? For the record, this sort of bitching went on back in '01 when W. got those rebate checks mailed. Personally, I don't think these letters should be mailed. There should be some civic-related requirement, meaning if you don't pay attention to the news and don't know about this give-away then you deserve what you get -- or don't get.
1 Comment
Recommended Comments