shopping

Are bookstores back?

Bookstores are back according to the news. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) has seen a growth in membership, with more than 2,500 member stores in 2,561 locations.

Large bricks and mortar bookstores and our favorite, independent bookstores are back.

I usually stop by the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Union Square in NYC, but I noticed the other day that they sort of have more security guys than customers. These guys look very official, like FBI guys with long black jackets and walkie-talkies and they are quite menacing. You can’t steal books there if you want. Which of course is a good thing, but it is a bit off putting.

I guess I look like a thief, because I left the store after being followed around for a bit which was very insulting and annoying.

There seems to be a nostalgia for bookstores. In the past, I would go in and take a picture of the book I liked and then just ordered it online for my Kindle. But of course that doesn’t work well with graphic novels.

Lately, I’ve been ordering comics and comic strip related books, so those I like having in my hands rather than trying to navigate them on a gadget.

For many years I was on a list for book reviewing and all of the major publishers would send me a few books a month – mostly graphic novels. I don’t know how I got on the lists, but it got overwhelming for a bit, but it was nice. During the pandemic, I donated most of them to a charity shop in the neighborhood.

What’s nice about bookstores is the warmth and smell when you enter. And of course, you can be going in for one thing and wander around for a long time finding other things.

In today’s 10 With Tom column, the subject is: “10 Reasons Bookstores Are Making A Comeback.” Read it here free.

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Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face

I recently published a list of ways to help hurricane victims in North Carolina and other areas in my 10 With Tom column and just yesterday, I published a list of 10 top imports that would be affected if the port strike wasn’t settled.

Interestingly enough, toilet paper and water are not on the list. As you know, people ran out to Costco and places like that and started hoarding toilet paper and bottled water.

It’s a stupid and selfish thing to do and mainly stupid because toilet paper doesn’t come in through the ports, it’s manufactured in the U.S. and gets places via railroad. And the water is basically all locally bottled unless you want in import like Fiji or Perrier, and I don’t even know if those are really imported.

But I’m reminded of what a mayor of ours once said after a hurricane when people waited in line for hours at a truck for bottles of water. “People, just go home and turn on your taps.” That always made me laugh.

My 10 With Tom column has changed.

I’m having a hard time getting people to respond to my interview requests for my 10 With Tom column, which is strange because for so many years it was such an easy thing to do.

I would contact a person, they would say, sure, they would love to do it, I would email them the 10 questions and they would respond right away. Now it’s not like that. So to that end, I changed my 10 With Tom column to 10 random things – a list of 10 random things. But I’ll add the interviews of the 10 questions periodically if and when they come in.

I would just abandon the thing, but I have too many subscribers to give it up. So I’m doing the list thing now and people seem to like it. Like Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face.”

I have upcoming lists like:
The Top 10 Halloween Costumes
The Top Fall Fairs at Farmers Markets
Why Kathy Bates’ New “Matlock” is a must see tv show
The Top 10 Brain Foods
The Top 10 Ski Resorts in the U.S. this winter

And things like that.

They’re fun and informative and eclectic. My 10 With Tom is here if you want to check it out and hopefully subscribe.

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The rooster and the trench coat

A couple of cartoons this week came from real life things – although, I guess, most ideas do.

This one with the rooster of course came from our neighborhood rooster. I wrote about him a couple of times before. Well, the other day I was walking and and I heard him crowing non-stop – it was about 8 am. I kept looking for him, but couldn’t see him. I saw the female chicken and babies but no rooster.

Then I looked up and there he was – up on a fence outside a neighbor’s house. I wanted to video him crowing, but he shut up as soon as he spotted me as I took this photo, but no video of him crowing.

***The rooster up on the neighbor’s fence.***

I have a friend who says Miami is the home of Peacocks and Palm Trees, we have to add roosters to this list. The other day when I was driving out of Publix, I had to stop for a family of chickens crossing the parking lot. Literally. They stopped right in front of my car and there was no way to get around them. I got out of the car and shooed them away. When I looked up, I saw a police officer watching and laughing at me. Just another day in the life.

This Temu idea came from the fact that I bought this beautiful trench coat on Temu – for $37.00! That’s it, no shipping charges and no sales tax. The thing is, I was looking for a coat like this for the winter and I went to Macy’s and the prices were $495.00 for the coats I wanted. I was actually prepared to pay $300.00, but I couldn’t see myself paying $495.00 for the few days I’m up north in the winter.

I tried them on in the store and fell in love with them, but I just couldn’t. So I ended u buying the coat on Temu. I’m not sure how, I am not a Temu shopper and I am guessing the good old internet saved my cookie from Macy’s and sent me ads online including the Temu add.

Anyway, the coat is beautiful, but knowing it was from Temu and $37.00 bothered me. Perception.

***The Kors coat I bought from Macy’s.***

I saw an ad on tv for Macy’s one day sale, where things were up to 70% off and I ended up buying the coat from Macy’s for only $137.00 plus sales tax. I had to order it online because when I went back to the store they had all been shipped out somewhere to make way for Spring clothing.

I ended up getting a gorgeous Michael Kors Wool Cashmere Blend Overcoat. It is so nice. To be honest, I don’t know if you can tell the difference between the Temu coat, other than the colors – Temu is black, Michael Kors is Charcoal.

But I’m all set for winter now. It seems way to dressy for me, I usually wear a bomber-style jacket in winter. But I’m looking forward to walking around the city in this new overcoat. I noticed that the charcoal coat at Macy’s is now $199.00 but all the other colors are back to the original price of $495.00. When I purchased the coat, they were all $137.00. The games retailers play.

I tried giving away the Temu coat, but I always preface it by saying it’s from Temu, and that sort of lessens the value in people’s eyes, so no one wants it.

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Supermarket phone calls

The last year or so I noticed this strange phenomena in Whole Foods. People are on their phones, usually on Facetime, showing someone what they are buying and asking their advice.

I thought it might be the Amazon delivery service people, I know at times when I used Instacart they would text me, asking me questions about something I had ordered or telling me they needed to substitute something, but I don’t think this is that.

The people shopping for the service usually have carts with lots of brown bags on them and they are shopping for multiple people at once, it seems. They are easy to notice. These people I see on the facetime calls are usually without a shopping cart and usually at the hot bar. They are asking people on the phone what they want to eat or what they should buy to eat. And it’s usually Latin people, because the people talking are speaking in Spanish.

I’ve seen more than once a person go through all the items at the hot bar and salad bar, explaining to the person on the phone what’s what. It almost seems as if they are speaking to another country and showing off what an American supermarket looks like.

It’s annoying and rude and almost as annoying as those jerks with dogs on a leash in the store. Even though they have signs around that say, “No dogs allowed,” people have dogs in the supermarket, around the food.

Publix seems to be strict about the no dogs policy, I never see dogs there anymore and I also don’t see the Instacart people there anymore. They must pick up the food at a different location and not directly from the actual stores. Not too long ago, the aisles were crawling with these Instacart people who would push anyone out of their way to get to what they needed. They were crazy and pushy in their quest for the freshest loaf of bread or whatever.

Some aisles had quite a few at once and it was difficult to shop. I haven’t seen that in a long time, which is good.

I have a friend that says I’m always at the supermarkets, which I am. He says I like it. Which I don’t. I go because I need food and I prefer to go in person rather than use a service. I’m in and out, since I know where things are, so it’s not a chore. I just do my routine and I’m quick.

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Checking the gifts

Have you ever done this? Or looked up the price of gifts you may have received online?

I got this cartoon idea because I was checking the price of something I bought and it just came to me. It wasn’t a gift. I bought a new mattress and went online to check to see if I got a good price after the fact. It was on sale at Macy’s. I did get a good price.

I’ve done this with a lot of things. After I bought my car a few years ago, I went online and checked the price of the car to see if I did the right thing. I bought a long overcoat recently, a trench coat. I checked that price, too; after the fact.

I did check the price of these things ahead of time, but I wanted to be just check afterwards, too. I’m not sure why, as I wouldn’t be returning anything, but I just get curious that way. I do check reviews ahead of time when buying things online. It’s funny, an item could have 1000 five star reviews, but I dwell on the one negative review and may not purchase the item because of that.

I do that with hotels. If someone leaves one bad review, something stupid, like the elevator noise kept them up at night, I’ll pass up that hotel and go to the next one.

But to be honest, I’ve never ever checked the price of a gift, or looked up ratings or reviews of a gift. After all, you can’t look a gift horse in the mouth. There’s a cartoon in there somewhere.

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All they have to do is deliver!

I guess I’m in a grumpy mood these days – airing all my gripes.

The other day I got a notice from Amazon that my package was delivered. Only I looked all over the building and I could not find the package.

This is a common thing. We have a sign out front that says leave all packages on the table by the elevator, but no one reads it or pays attention, so we’ve found deliveries back on the table by the pool, in unused emergency stairwells, on private balconies of neighbors and other places. So I looked all over and the package was nowhere.

I went on line to double check and it says it was delivered and signed for by “Fermin” who is one of the security guards at the building next door. So I traipsed over and he handed five packages – for five neighbors, including me. The Amazon guy just dumped all of our deliveries next door. But who is wrong? The guy did get a signature, and Fermin just accepted them without reading the labels.

Either way, Amazon is always screwing up. I know it’s the start of a busy delivery season, but he did manage to the packages next door. He just neglected to read the addresses.

We have a great UPS guy. He has my cell phone number and often calls about deliveries and other things. When I was in Greenport last week, he called, it was about a neighbor’s delivery. I told him I was just thinking about him because as we drove to Greenport, we drove through a lot of farmland and there right in the middle of it all was a UPS truck delivering a package to a house.

One day, recently, our UPS guy called to tell me he had a delivery I needed to sign for. I went downstairs and there he was at the pool (dressed) talking to one of my neighbors (dressed), both lying on lounge chairs feet from the bay, chatting away. I joined them and we all ended up talking for about 45 minutes. Sorry for the neighbors expecting deliveries!

Village life.

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The string beans

I was at Whole Foods the other day getting lunch at the hot bar. I was at the mixed veggies and there were string beans next to them. In this picture you can see two sets of tongs, but when I was getting the food, only the mixed veggies had the tongs, so I used that for both – I took mixed veggies and some string beans.

Well, a lady who worked there started yelling at me – “Sir! Don’t do that with the tongs, you are causing cross contamination!” And she gave me a second set of tongs.

I was shocked. Not because she yelled at me, but because she spoke English. You see, every time I’ve have a question or complaint in the past they would tell me they don’t speak English and they would quickly walk away. That day they spoke English!

I didn’t say anything to her, but I was thinking the cross contamination comes from all the customers’ hands all over the tongs, and all the people breathing and sneezing all over the food. Not from tongs going from string beans to mixed veggies, which by the way, had string beans in with them. I’m not sure why I was taking them from another bin, I think I was probably taking the shallots that were in with the one batch of string beans.

When I have complained in the past, it was about the empty bins at the height of lunch. It’s not uncommon for 50% of the bins to be empty, you can see that by this one photo below that was taken about 12:30 pm one day. And the bins there have no variety anymore. Nothing new. Same old, same old. It’s like they are trying to save money at the customers’ expense.

The rest of the staff is always nice. I just notice the people with the hot food and salads are moody. I guess they get complaints every day. I only took that photo below with the empty bins because there were a lot of people complaining – not so much to the staff but to each other and just saying things in the air. I mean, you come for lunch and that’s what you are greeted with. And it’s like this almost every time I stop by.

Whole Foods has been going down hill for a couple of years now. There’s a new Sprouts opening in my neighborhood next month. I don’t think I’ll be going back to Whole Foods once Sprouts opens.

**Empty food bins at lunchtime at Whole Foods. Almost a daily occurrence.**

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The speakers

My neighbor asked me if I wanted two large speakers he had. I didn’t. But this reminded me of a story from some years ago. These aren’t the speakers my neighbor had, but they look like the ones I am going to tell you about

Many years ago, I was leaving Macy’s with my friend Jorge and a couple of guys approached us. They wanted to know if we wanted to buy these two big speakers, like the ones shown here. I don’t know why, but I agreed. Oddly enough, I had my checkbook with me, which I never carried around, but I was about 22, and I guess I didn’t have credit cards yet. I wrote the guy a check, we took the speakers and left.

Jorge and I went home to my apartment and left the speakers and other stuff we got at Macy’s and we went out, I don’t know where, probably to lunch or something.

When we got home for lunch, there sitting on my kitchen counter was the check I gave the guys outside Macy’s and the speakers were gone! I had the guy’s phone number and I called him to ask him about this. He told me the bank, I think it was Centrust at the time, wouldn’t cash the check for them. I guess these guys looked quite shady, which they were.

I asked him how he got into the apartment, he said he broke in through the window. And this did not faze me, because I guess when you’re 22, things don’t faze you. It is creepy to know now that the “secure” building was not so secure from the front building entrance to my window. Both easily broken into.

I told the guy to bring back the speakers, I wanted them. He came back and I don’t remember if I gave him cash or we went to the bank together or what. But I ended up with the speakers.

And you know what? For many years, they just sat there. I never used them; never attached them to any music equipment and they were mostly used as sort of plant holders or end tables. I don’t even know if they ever worked. I had to have them, but never even tried them to see if they worked.

Ahh, to be young and carefree again, not letting anything bother me. Although I don’t think I let many things bother me now.

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How do you feel about self-check out?

This recent cartoon, really hit a nerve. I didn’t think it would affect people so much. It got thousands of shares an untold number of comments on social media.

Mostly people who work at Walmart were upset, thinking I was picking on them, but I just chose Walmart because I usually hear people complain about the check-outs at Walmart. Truth be told, I don’t remember the last time I was in a Walmart, I think it could be 10 years or more and it’s only because there are no near where I live, I think the closest is 10 to 12 miles away, which isn’t much, but why not go to closer stores, rather than drive 10 miles to get something?

If you didn’t realize, the lady in the cartoon has a Walmart logo on her vest.

And people seem to hate the self-check out, but is it mandatory in Walmart? Every place I have been that has them has them as a choice; they have the usual cashiers, as well.

I prefer the self-check out, I seek it out. I use it at Publix, Whole Foods, CVS, Home Depot and I’m sure whatever place I see it. I find it convenient, fast and I don’t have to speak to anyone.

I’m glad the cartoon made the rounds, it must have been seen by over a million people so far.

One site where it was shared, got so hot and heavy in the comments section, it almost came to blows, that they removed the cartoon! And it had hundreds of shares and almost as many comments!

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Ads, lots of ads – and phone calls!

Ever notice that when you look for something on Facebook or even other places you start seeing the item as ads every other second on Facebook? I mean it’s not secret, I did a cartoon about awhile back. Sometimes you think you are being listened too, as well, as you seem to just think of something and you start seeing ads all over the place for the item.

They should have a button on the ad where you can click it and say, “I already bought it,” but I think there is an “ignore” button or something, but of course, why would Facebook want to do that when they can keep getting money for those ads that are running, even though they aren’t needed anymore. Once the product is purchased, all those ads are wasted and just racking up clicks and money for Facebook from the advertiser.

But now something interesting happened the other day. I was looking around for an ultraviolet sanitizer lamp. I didn’t know I needed one, but I saw an ad and thought, “why not?” So I looked around online, not really for the best deal, but for the fastest delivery.

I bought air conditioner filters from a place I always go. I didn’t shop around or do a search, I need a certain size I can’t find in stores, so I managed to find a place online. I just went there, ordered and that was it. Now I am seeing air conditioner filter ads on Facebook. Which is a waste of money for the advertiser, since I am not in the market for those now and it’s unwanted spam.

One trick I did learn is that if you fill in the form and abandoned it, most times the advertiser will email you a coupon code to complete the order, and you can save money. So I did that. But apparently I put my real phone number in, not that I put fake phone numbers in the form, but I usually put my old landline, which I got rid of years ago – so it’s a real number, just not used anymore.

Anyway, I guess I put in my cell number and I started getting calls from the companies where I filled out the form and then abandoned it. In the meantime I bought it from one company and the other companies kept calling me. I only answered the calls because I was expecting a call from my insurance company and I didn’t know what number the would call from.

So it seems that you are not just stalked on Facebook but now they will actually call your phone number to attempt to complete the order.

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