[rachel1027]

Originally Posted by Cube Dweller

I gave in and joined Facebook for the high school reunion planning. Facebook kills kids you know.

you can find me and grrl there too. I sent her and IV of Jager the other day She sent me a liver replacement

[thorvald]

Originally Posted by rachel1027

you can find me and grrl there too. I sent her and IV of Jager the other day She sent me a liver replacement

if you go outside of here, you know people will confuse you with Woody

[semlin]

Originally Posted by yooper

Have you looked at the cheaper Devilbiss models? They are well regarded.

example: Eastwood Co. - Devilbiss Finishline HVLP FLG-647 w/2 tips

yes. i am not convinced they are better enough than the $50 generics. i am also thinking I will buy a detail gun considering what i am painting. they are cheaper than the regular guns so i can get a pretty good one.

[monniepoo]

Originally Posted by rachel1027

you can find me and grrl there too. I sent her and IV of Jager the other day She sent me a liver replacement

and me too

[monniepoo]

I just got a great deal on a snowboard and boots for my daughter tonight

[Rezkid]

Originally Posted by gladly

fuck! that's some scary shit!

tell me about it

[Bogo]

Originally Posted by sisukid1975

That's a very new market. (Meats in health food stores) For years, those types pf places didn't even carry meat, and when one of them started, they stuck it way in back in a refrigerator hidden away where all the tofu eaters wouldn't see it and get offended.

THen, a strange thing started to happen: it sold! And people asked for more! And now, co-ops and places like Whole Foods are trying to get organic meat as fast as they can, but the supply is very limited right now.

That's when I learned how ****ing militant Vegans can be. I heard them complain they wouldn't shop anywhere that even carried meat in the store. The stores' response was: "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out." Meats, especially that organic stuff, are an extremely high margin profit. The amount of money they can make on it more than outweighs the loss of the militant vegans' business.

It is a known fact many consumers will drive a good distance out of their way to get to a good trusted meat counter to get their meat. Hellmart doesn't cater to the people who can afford to hence they don't care about the quality of the source animals for their meat counter.

There is a reason organic beef is in limited supply. Organic feed stuff is very hard to get in any volume or with any consistency. You basically need to grow it yourself or have it contract grown for you. Have a bad production year and all of a sudden your cows and steers are no longer organic... It costs about 3X as much to make a bushel of organic field corn as it does to make a bushel of regular field corn. Part of that is the extra costs of the tillage phases as well as not having as high of yields. There is some new technologies coming on line that may make tillage more practical, but only if it is transferred over to tillage equipment which I haven't seen happen yet. If your going to go to doing all the work you might as well grow a more profitable organic crop like organic sweet corn. Mostly the same equipment, tillage, and labor needs, but a much much higher profit.

[gladly]

Originally Posted by semlin

i do not want. i was posting to point out the insane pricing.

perfectly apparent. I was perhaps posting to point out that by posting that post, it became plain that you were perusing the 'paper'

[gladly]

Originally Posted by semlin

i do not want. i was posting to point out the insane pricing.

now otoh the 64 mb 300SE in the paper that has been stored for 37 years and is $6000. do want.

preposterous!

[sisukid1975]

Originally Posted by Bogo

... If your going to go to doing all the work you might as well grow a more profitable organic crop like organic sweet corn. Mostly the same equipment, tillage, and labor needs, but a much much higher profit.

At the commodity or wholesale level, yeah. But at the retail level, the markup on meat is very high, the markup on organic meat is astronomical. And people will pay it.

But hell, it's a been shown that people will pay more for poultry that has "Hormone and Antibiotic free" printed on the package. It's kinda stupid, because the FDA bans hormones and antibiotics for ALL poultry in the US.

[dieseldog]

Originally Posted by thorvald

what's H.E.B?

I know, frickin Newb


Black Angus has good flavor, IMO.

Lot of the flavor might have to do with age though too, the best tasting steaks are the ones that are a couple days from being bad

It all started in Kerrville back in 1905 when Charles C. and Florence Butt opened the C.C. Butt Grocery Store. One of their three sons, Howard E., became intrigued with the grocery business and took over the family business after returning from WWI. His motto for the store was "He profits most who serves best." I'm sure by now you've guessed that "H-E-B" stands for the initials of Howard E. Butt and though he's long gone, the stores live on--all over Texas. It wasn't untill 2001 that H-E-B came to Houston.

[sisukid1975]

Originally Posted by sisukid1975

At the commodity or wholesale level, yeah. But at the retail level, the markup on meat is very high, the markup on organic meat is astronomical. And people will pay it.

But hell, it's a been shown that people will pay more for poultry that has "Hormone and Antibiotic free" printed on the package. It's kinda stupid, because the FDA bans hormones and antibiotics for ALL poultry in the US.

Meat is also the most common food item shoplifted in grocery stores.

[Bogo]

Originally Posted by rrdogma

They are always so helpful and really know their stuff. Allegedly there is a real butcher shop in a little town about 45 miles away that is fantastic. He does his thing on Wednesdays and you can get whole knuckle bones for the dogs.

Find your local slaughter houses. A friend gets all the bones her mutts can handle that way.

[thorvald]

Originally Posted by sisukid1975

Meat is also the most common item shoplifted in grocery stores.

we've got armadillos in our trousers

[dieseldog]

Originally Posted by rrdogma

Howard E. Butts. He ( his sons actually) have the corner on the grocery stores here in San Antonio. The other choices are superwalmart or target. Everything else has been run out of town. Except for one whole foods. Their meat department consists of one small cooler for all meats including poultry.

Butt, no "s". We've got more choices in Houston than you do in San Antone. That's one of the reasons H-E-B waited so long before entering the grocery wars here--it's fricking cutthroat and chains die badly here. It's good for the consumer but bad for the companies.

[gladly]

Originally Posted by semlin

yes. i am not convinced they are better enough than the $50 generics. i am also thinking I will buy a detail gun considering what i am painting. they are cheaper than the regular guns so i can get a pretty good one.

they are better enough to justify the expense
cheap HVLP guns often bring teh suck
if I was buying a cheap gun it would be a non HVLP
makes a bit more mess, but it's easy to lay on a nice coat of paint with them

devilbiss are nice stuff

[sisukid1975]

Originally Posted by dieseldog

Butt, no "s". We've got more choices in Houston than you do in San Antone. That's one of the reasons H-E-B waited so long before entering the grocery wars here--it's fricking cutthroat and chains die badly here. It's good for the consumer but bad for the companies.

That's true all over. Grocery is a tough, tough business. Profits are often measured by fractions of a penny per item (except on meat, health items, general merchandise and sundries). Volume is the key to survival, unless you are filling a niche market like serving your local hippie population, or Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, etc...

[dieseldog]

Originally Posted by Bogo

If you'd have seen my exercise partner you'd have understood. Massages weren't the only thing done on that table. Mmmm,,,

She was a black-haired beauty with big dark eyes
And points all her own sitting way up high
Way up firm and high...

always comes to mind where I remember her.

I'm with you now. From your writing, it seemed you had intimated that your workout partner was a guy and that brought the "not so interesting" aspect to the story for me.

[Bogo]

Originally Posted by sisukid1975

And you don't even want to know how hard it was to find a real butcher to work there. Most of the store meats are cut in assembly line fashion. One person, one stroke of the knife. To find a real butcher who can take a side of beef (Or pr0k, lamb, whatever) and cut the part off that you want to the thickness you want, is a pretty rare skill these days.

ISU Meat Labs trains them... They have a comprehensive slaughter and butchering training program as well a meat research program. Before we took over the farm it was nearly our sole source of meat. If you eat meat at the ISU Memorial Union then most likely it was cut by students at the ISU Meat Labs. Also you will find new meat cuts tried out on unsuspecting students in the various cafeterias around campus.

[dieseldog]

Originally Posted by sisukid1975

That's true all over. Grocery is a tough, tough business. Profits are often measured by fractions of a penny per item (except on meat, health items and sundries). Volume is the key to survival, unless you are filling a niche market like serving your local hippie population, or Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, etc...

whatever you think is tough, multiply it by a factor of two in this (the Houston) market. Do your research and you'll find that there just aren't many grocery markets tougher than this one. and I KNOW you have ways of researching this. Let me know when you agree with me.

[sisukid1975]

Originally Posted by dieseldog

whatever you think is tough, multiply it by a factor of two in this (the Houston) market. Do your research and you'll find that there just aren't many grocery markets tougher than this one. and I KNOW you have ways of researching this. Let me know when you agree with me.

I never said I disagreed with you -- just sayin' it's never an easy business to be successful in anywhere.

A lot of it is that the industry is resistant to change. I was astounded at how old skool grocery is compared to hard goods and soft goods retailers. Soft and hard goods have had ERP software (everything needed to run your store in one database/interface, from point-of-sale, to accounts payable and receivable, inventory management, metrics, marketing, business intelligence and even accounting) for years now. You can buy it off the shelf for a few thousand bucks for a mom and pop store, or if you're JC Penney or Target, you can spend millions on customized solutions from Oracle, Wincor-Nixdorf, NCR, etc...

In grocery, it's almost unheard of. Some big national chains have proprietary software, but most do not. Most, you're dealing with a mixture of data silos and paper.

That's why the hippie co-op hired me. Of course, I never got to do anything about it, cause they got so distracted by trying to expand. One of their biggest mistakes was trying to expand when they had a business model and software that was not optimized for multi-store.

Those grocery managers would have their minds blown abso-fucking-lutely out of the water if they saw soft goods and hard goods technology. Half of them didn't believe me when I told them about what those types of retailers are doing with their software.

[thorvald]

speaking of grocery stores, the most memorable one I've ever been to, was one in Ohio. It was a bit of a drive from Oxford, but we made the trip a few times just for the adventure and the selection was pretty great.

Jungle Jim's International Market - Six Acres of Food Under One Roof - 5440 Dixie Hwy., Fairfield, OH 45014

[Bogo]

Originally Posted by semlin

i has been studying hvlp painting and how to do it in your basement. and vent properly. my head hurts nearly as much as if i was actually trying to paint, but i have concluded i am somewhat screwed. i need a really good paint gun to minimize the overspray and a really big fan.

Originally Posted by gladly

bad idea

paint is for the garage

The real problem with painting in the house is the time it takes to off gas after painting has finished. You need to keep ventilating that whole time. That off gassing may take a few days or weeks. Do it in the garage or shed out back. If you need to heat, get a garage safe heater and use it for the duration. Consider it part of the painting costs.

[sisukid1975]

Originally Posted by thorvald

speaking of grocery stores, the most memorable one I've ever been to, was one in Ohio. It was a bit of a drive from Oxford, but we made the trip a few times just for the adventure and the selection was pretty great.

Jungle Jim's International Market - Six Acres of Food Under One Roof - 5440 Dixie Hwy., Fairfield, OH 45014

That looks like Valli Produce that we have here in the 'burbs of Chicago. (Fuck, I can't believe some people are considering this place the 'burbs of chicago, but I'm only a few minutes from one of the Valli stores, so I guess it's true)

More produce than you can shake a stick at, and almost all specialty/gourmet/import stuff in the packaged section.

[thorvald]

Originally Posted by sisukid1975

That looks like Valli Produce that we have here in the 'burbs of Chicago. (Fuck, I can't believe some people are considering this place the 'burbs of chicago, but I'm only a few minutes from one of the Valli stores, so I guess it's true)

More produce than you can shake a stick at, and almost all specialty/gourmet/import stuff in the packaged section.

sounds similar. Outside they had some large animal statues to go with the jungle theme too
It seemed to be always busy, it appears to still be going strongly based on the website. It was somewhere between Cincinnati and Oxford, lots of people around there.

[semlin]

Originally Posted by gladly

they are better enough to justify the expense
cheap HVLP guns often bring teh suck
if I was buying a cheap gun it would be a non HVLP
makes a bit more mess, but it's easy to lay on a nice coat of paint with them

devilbiss are nice stuff

my main objective is to minimize overspray so i am not going to go cheap. right now I am thinking about something like this, which is basically a top of the line gun but with only a 2.5" maximum spread. This model is prolly too spendy, but something similar.

Manual HVLP Specialty Gravity Fed Spray Guns: LPH50

[thorvald]

Originally Posted by thorvald

sounds similar. Outside they had some large animal statues to go with the jungle theme too
It seemed to be always busy, it appears to still be going strongly based on the website. It was somewhere between Cincinnati and Oxford, lots of people around there.

they'd go broke out here in a hurry

[thorvald]

Originally Posted by thorvald

they'd go broke out here in a hurry

I used to be able to find Lingonberry preserves/jelly out here, in a couple stores but they quit carrying them, must either not have sold enough or not enough profit


the Albertson's was one of the places, I don't know if it coincided but they got bought out by a Minnesota grocery firm ( I forget who it was, Cub's or Byerlys or someone) it seemed like some of the stuff they carried was removed after the buyout.

[sisukid1975]

Originally Posted by thorvald

I used to be able to find Lingonberry preserves/jelly out here, in a couple stores but they quit carrying them, must either not have sold enough or not enough profit


the Albertson's was one of the places, I don't know if it coincided but they got bought out by a Minnesota grocery firm ( I forget who it was, Cub's or Byerlys or someone) it seemed like some of the stuff they carried was removed after the buyout.

That Valli place has all sorts of shit I haven't seen outside of Europe. Not only would they have lingonberry preserves, they probably have 15 brands of them from Sweden, Norway, Finland and the US....

[sisukid1975]

Well, I'm off to bed I think.

G'night, TUT.