Tag Archives: social media

Costco Under Attack – But Why?

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Media stories, lead by the toxic wasteland of social media, have hammered Costco for the last month or so – for no valid reason.

Costco is, and always has been, a membership-required store. Anyone without a membership can go with someone who has one and shop. But no membership – no shopping. Seems pretty simple. However, when Costco implemented some self checkout machines, the non-members shopping there rose drastically. After all, there isn’t a cashier checking the picture on the membership. So Costco has implemented some random check at the self-serve lanes and that’s what set off social media. When that happened, TV, radio and others weren’t far behind – for no reason other than to amplify the stupidity of social media.

So, at the risk of stating the obvious, I’ll explain it again…to people who aren’t actually going to read this – or care about logic: I paid for a Costco membership – as did millions of others. THAT is what lets me shop there. No, you can’t take someone else’s and shop there. You can’t take someone’s pink card and think it’ll cover the insurance on your car. You can’t use someone’s membership and show up at a private golf course, or a friend’s drivers license and somehow think you’re good to drive with that. You may not believe this, but people pay for things in order to have, access or use them.

Go get a membership if you really want to shop at Costco. It’s not expensive or hard to obtain. Until then, let me see if you’re going to complain about any of the other examples (and hundreds more) I’ve listed or shut up about the stupidity of your social media campaign.

If Time Is Money…

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Do you remember the old saying: Time is money? In lots of ways, it was and certainly is true. But does it apply to watching TV or being on social media?

In 2022, the average person spent just short of two and a half hours a day on social media. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or wherever, that’s a staggering amount of time. And that’s an average – so there are just as many people who spend five hours as there are those who aren’t using any of them. If time is money, that’s a huge part of the day that isn’t productive. That’s why I find it funny when I keep hearing on commercials, interviews or wherever the constant theme of: In our busy lives… Sure everybody’s busy. But busy doing what?

That doesn’t even include the time we spent watching TV. And yesterday I heard some pretty surprising stats for those of us who watch sports on television. These are the average times of ACTUAL play by play. Not the commercial, jibber jabber, replays, panning the crowd or the sidelines. Just the total broadcast time of the actual play:

Soccer game: 58 minutes

NHL hockey game: 53 minutes

NBA game: 49 minutes

Major league baseball game: 22.5 minutes

And the biggest time-waster of all sports on television? Pro football at 18 minutes of actual playing time!

Guaranteed Lowest Price & Your Facebook Friends Set Your Credit Rating?

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Do you want a way to guarantee you’ll get the lowest price on whatever you buy?

There are now a number of apps called showrooming…but for the U.S. only right now, and that comparison won’t help you, but only frustrate you.

The perception or reality is that Walmart isn’t considered the lowest price retailer anymore, and that’s something they want to correct! In nine cities they’re now testing something called Savings Catcher. You just need to enter your receipt number online. Just the receipt tracks everything you’ve purchased anyway. If Walmart finds another retailer with a lower price, they’ll immediately refund the difference to your credit card. Unless you live in San Diego, Dallas, or one of the other seven test cities, you’ll have to wait quite a while to sign up for it, though.

Should your credit rating be partially determined by who is your friend on Facebook or on LinkedIn? Another lending site called cabbage has now started using social media to determine your credit score. Yes, who you have as friends on Facebook can impact whether you get a loan or not. In the old days, your banker used to know you – character was a part of the decision making processing. These online lending sites have found that the chance of someone going past due is reduced 20% with a good social media score. It sounds wrong and stupid, but they think it matters and works. So somewhere down the road – be careful who you friend on Facebook.