Comment Spam
February 28, 2004 | People & Society
I just deleted a ton of *#$%@! spam comments from this here weblog. Who do these @%#&$%'s think they are? Why are they trying to advertise junk products on my website?
The free market in action: Shift costs to someone else. Sell people things they don't need. Assume that laws define moral and ethical and community-standard behavior – do whatever you want that is legal; who cares what people think.
What You Can't Say
February 11, 2004 | Life
Paul Graham: This essay is about heresy: how to think forbidden thoughts, and what to do with them. The latter was till recently something only a small elite had to think about. Now we all have to, because the Web has made us all publishers.
[....]
The trouble with keeping your thoughts secret, though, is that you lose the advantages of discussion. Talking about an idea leads to more ideas. So the optimal plan, if you can manage it, is to have a few trusted friends you can speak openly to. This is not just a way to develop ideas; it's also a good rule of thumb for choosing friends. The people you can say heretical things to without getting jumped on are also the most interesting to know.
(Paul Graham co-founded Viaweb, which was bought by Yahoo in 1998 and turned into the Yahoo Store.)
News Update From World Coop
February 8, 2004 | Cooperatives
It's been a busy two weeks for me as regards Co-ops. Last Saturday, January 31, our co-op held a board and management retreat. We invited the Brattleboro Food Co-op Board President up to participate. Yesterday, February 7, the Brattleboro Food Co-op held a board retreat, and invited the general manger and board presidents from five regional co-ops (including me) to join them.
We're writing up detailed notes from both events, but here are my initial overview thoughts.
First, all this inter-coop participation is fantastic. We all share a vision of a cooperative economy, fair trade, local food supplies, a humane workplace, etc. It is so thrilling to be in a room of colleagues with similar progressive ideas as the baseline for discussion. It's a very hopeful environment.
A dominant background issue is a proposal on the table to merge several regional Cooperative Grocer Associations into a single National Cooperative Grocer Association (NCGA). This cooperative entity would be a business services and trade group for it's members. It would offer services such as a national purchasing program, to leverage our combined buying power for better pricing and terms. As a trade group, a single voice speaking for our members would unify and make coherent our business goals to both government and consumers.
To get a sense of the scale, if the proposal is approved, the new NCGA will represent 300 cooperative grocery stores totaling over 400,000 member-owners (consumers), with annual sales of over $625 million. That would make us, as a virtual chain, the second largest grocery chain in the US - behind Whole Foods and ahead of Wild Oats. Also realize that many people shop at Co-ops without becoming members, so the consumers "touched" by co-ops is somewhat larger. Our co-op has sales to members of around 77%, which is quite high in comparison to other co-ops. Some are as low as 40%.
These stores, and their members, are interested in many things, but the broad spectrum includes safe, healthy food; multiple bottom lines of profit, social responsibility and ecological sustainability; fair trade with partners; a living wage for employees; higher standards of customer service; community creation, support and participation; and strong educational programs (as opposed to marketing efforts). Any one organization may weight these issues differently, and have additional items on the list (I'm working from memory) but this is the general thrust of the mindset. Detailed market research has been done, which I'm not at liberty to share, but this "enlightened consumer" currently represents a fringe of society, but we expect that concerns of balance and fairness to continue to gain traction. I'm sure Candida is laughing at us, but we continue in our work.
It is extremely unfortunate, but helps our cause, that mad cow disease has people worried about the beef supply; mercury levels have people worried about the ocean fish supply; farmed fish have their own problems; and Asia is destroying literally millions of chickens to try to quell the spread of avian flu. Beef, fish and chicken are the three dominant sources of protein. Other than tofu and nuts (you have to eay a lot of nuts to get enough protein) there's nothing left. Protein is a critical component of human survival. So where is your protein coming from these days? My recommendation is to buy the most local food you can, as often as you can. Buy from people you trust, not based on the lowest price.
There's more to write in the future.
The Kindness of Neighbors
February 8, 2004 | Life
We live in the woods of northern NH. The kindness of our neighbors continues to amaze me. A couple of weeks ago it was 26 degrees below zero (F). Our car died on the side of the road. Almost immediately someone stopped and gave us a ride up the road to borrow a car. Later that day, as I was driving to return a tow rope he loaned us, our other car died too. I walked to the nearest house to use the phone, and they offered to give me a ride home. It was a pretty bad day for our cars, but it was an amazing day for generosity.
Just now, I heard a motor running outdoors. I thought it was Lynne's car, since she was getting ready to run some errands. Turns out it was our neighbor - snowblowing our driveway!! Our driveway is about 600 or 700 feet long. When big snowstorms hit our other neighbor plows us out, in return for tapping our maple trees to get sap and make maple syrup, which he sells for a cash income. But plowing doesn't always leave the driveway wide enough, and so we've thought about buying a snowblower to trim up along the edges. Apparently, our neighbor is just out snowblowing for the fun of it, going up and down the street helping out. Just amazing.
And I think: What can I offer in return? Not in direct exchange, but what do I offer in general? Free Wi-Fi for the neighborhood? Business startup consulting? It hardly seems valuable, compared to getting a lift when it's cold enough to break metal, or keeping your driveway wide enough so you don't get snowed in later in the winter. While I work in the larger world, trying to foster cooperation among coops, etc., when the chips are down I still rely on extremely local assistance.
We are graced to live in such a beautiful and cooperative area.
