Gary wrote in comments asking about "the business model" of old-time, general stores
Unlike modern stores where all of the merchandise is purchased at a corporate level and is funneled to the retail outlet through a network of warehouses, the old-style, general store functioned partially as its own "market-maker".
If you ever dabbled in "collectibles" then you have dealt with market-makers. Market-makers have two prices, the price you (the customer) will pay for an item and the price they are willing to pay you when you sell the collectible back to the market-maker. The difference between the two prices is called "the spread". The market-maker also appraises the quality of the item which can have a huge bearing on its value.
The old-time general store market-maker was the broker who provided an orderly market between the myriad of small producers/collectors of eggs, butter, strawberries, blackberries, poke-greens, firewood, asparagus, apples, live animals, furs....and the people who wished to purchase and consume those commodities and "buyers" outside of the community (canners, tanners, soap and glue makers).
Why not sell direct?
There was never enough time/labor to spare having somebody going door-to-door to find a buyer.
Even if a neighbor approached you and asked you to "save a few bushels of apples" for him to purchase directly, there still needed to be a mechanism for setting the price. And what if you saved him four bushels but he only wanted two? What do you do with the extra? What if the buyer says your apples were bad apples and didn't want to pay you? What if the buyer didn't have any cash or any produce that you wanted to trade for?
The small-town grocery store had enough traffic that SOMEBODY would buy those apples. And as the season went on, the store owner would dynamically adjust the price he offered growers so he would always make a profit selling to his retail buyers.
One way he would do that would be to look at "days-supply-of-inventory". If the item was perishable, he might stop buying when he knew there was any risk of getting "stuck" with the goods that would go-bad before he could sell them.
The shortage-of-cash issue was partially resolve by the store keeping books and crediting the merchandise they purchased against the bill the seller owed the store. This doesn't "create" money because somebody has to pay enough cash for the merchant to replenish his supplies purchased from "outside". But the crediting did make it possible for cash-strapped families to gain access to flour, salt, lard, beans, coffee and other items they could not produce on-farm.
It was also a way for school-aged kids (and pensioners and drunks) to participate in the economy and buy luxury items like shoes and fishing gear and .22 ammo, RC colas and Moonpies. They could pick blackberries, mushrooms, catch catfish, pick poke greens, sell mistletoe and collect returnable beverage containers.
Reader Dragonslayer observed "Don't farmers have large fields of soft dirt, equipment that digs large holes, and a constant need for fertilizer?"
The fact that the thief knew his way around a central-pivot rig suggests that the theft was an inside job.
If you, as the farmer, opted for the Three-S solution, how are you going to cope if you end up shooting your neighbor's kid or somebody who dated your daughter or even your own kid? Even if you are hardened enough to not feel emotional remorse, will you be able to keep your mouth shut for the rest of your life?
The Three-S solution can seem attractive when the details are abstract or we can fantasize that the perps are anonymous "sum dudes" from a far-away big city but the realities are often more complex and involved than that scenario. Even what appears to be a home invasion can be a case of your 40 year-old son getting kicked out by his old-lady...getting falling down drunk and then coming to your home in the middle of the night because he has no where else to go.
Student loans
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| Graduated in 2011. 19 loans! Loaned amount $46k. Now owes $83k. Link to 51 second video of angry, whining "student". |
19 separate loans! How many years did she go to school?
She said that she qualified for a repayment plan based on her income. Since interest rates were paused for two years due to Covid, then only 12 years accrued on the interest between 2011 and 2025. If her original loans were at 6% interest (which seems plausible) then the only way for the principle to have doubled in 12 years is if she never made a payment.
Was she in prison? Was she in a coma? Stranded on a desert island? Caring for a rich sugar-daddy? Living in her mama's basement and clubbing for 14 years? Maybe she never actually graduated so she could never get a job in her field.
She borrowed money. She didn't pay (hardly) any of it back. What did she expect to have happen?
My second wife’s daughter is 52. She still owes almost 90,000$ on her student loans. For any number of reasons she hasn’t paid them back and has gotten away with it. Constant complaints about them yet does nothing to alleviate the issue. I as a taxpayer should not pay back anyones loans but my own.
ReplyDeleteThey can garnish social security payments for student loans, I read about it happening to a co-signer.
DeleteWell, back in my day….. yes, a Boomer rant.
ReplyDeleteParents taught us to always pay back. Never use credit except for emergency repairs. You only took out a loan for what you could probably pay back. Creditors had requirements to be met, concerning ability to pay. This type of person would not have qualified for a loan anywhere.
As for the thieves and S-S-S, I don’t know. More security cameras? Guard dogs? I remember one farm in town had a pair of Rhodesian Ridgebacks that were out at night on patrol. Good dogs, never left the property. Intimidating to run into.
Southern NH
The fact that paying back a loan is even being debated, shows you just how marxist our country has become in the last 20+ years.
ReplyDeleteHow is that even a debatable topic? The instant anyone suggests they shouldn't have to pay the loan back for any reason, the conversation should come to a full stop.
"Beauty may only be skin-deep, but 'ugly' runs clean to the bone."
DeleteThat girl is U-G-L-Y.
That general store business model sounds a lot like a pawn shop today.
ReplyDeleteShe expected Joe Biden or the Subsequent Democrat to forgive the debt in exchange for her vote.
ReplyDeleteIn past experiences I have seen how just a few individuals can terrorize a neighborhood, or community.
ReplyDeleteThey will always attract similar but weaker individuals to themselves forming a group.
Yes it could have been an inside job but many kids growing up working later got into drugs or alcohol or debt and then started stealing from things they were familiar with.
Alot of electric wire thieves that were not familiar were found in the early morning.
I know several El Salvadorian families who now visit their home country that they fled. The current President has found a way to put the terrorists in a hole, so far without making 19-19-19 fertilizer.
Seriously if you haven't started hardening your heart to the required level, read more history.
Love your blog with coffee.
That's correct, one or two individuals can have a whole neighborhood in turmoil. Put them in the pen, the whole neighborhood settles down for years until they get out, then the process starts over.
DeleteConcerning shooting your drunken son "breaking" into your home.
ReplyDeleteThey made a wonderful device years ago called a light switch. When you flick in on you can see who needs shooting and who does not.
When I shared this with a tactical buddy he popo-ed the idea and lectured me about the benefit of low light shooting practice. Fortunately it stuck somewhere in his brain because one night it saved him from shooting his daughter and her boyfriend. sneaking into the house at O dark hundred,
I am pretty sure there is not a "one size fits all" answer.
DeleteIn our house, there are sixteen paces from the main entrance to the door of our bedroom. When we are sleeping, the door (steel, exterior) is locked with a deadbolt.
To get from the main entrance to the door, the unsub would have to walk ten paces through the "living room", past the light switches and then six paces down a hall.
In your scenario, I would have to sense somebody breaching the main, exterior door and move 6 paces toward them before being able to activate the switch that illuminates the living room. Most night-time home invasions would have the invader inside my O-O-D-A loop and hitting the light switch to light them up just isn't going to happen, even with the geriatric German Shepherd gumming them.
Topology dictates tactics...or something like that.
Clap on clap off - the Clapper!
Deletesam
When my daughter went to college, we weren't financially able to help her. She took out student loans to cover tuition and a little extra. We were able to provide a credit card, for incidentals, which she used very frugally. When she graduated she worked for 3 years at jobs she really hated, to pay off her loans. Now she's working at a job she's comfortable with, and pays her well.
ReplyDeleteERJ, once upon a time a college loan was seen as a means to an end that was worth having, with the understanding that it had to be paid back. Now, it strikes me that too often loans are seen as a "right" to a job that I am destined to have and should be rewarded for because it is "important" and "my calling".
ReplyDelete"Following your destiny' has led to a world of hurt for many people, fiscally and personally. I know; I was one of them who almost managed to throw away a perfectly good career for something that I felt was my "path". I was fortunate: I took the lesson given, knuckled down in a career that was not my first (or second, or even ninth) choice, and have done very well.
Which, incidentally, allowed me to "follow my destiny", just as hobbies and interests.
I dunno about your stance that the old general store is obsolete and impossible, Joe?
ReplyDeleteI think the old general store has “morphed” into the modern convenience store - especially in rural areas. I can think of a half dozen in my domain that are family owned and seem to be doing well enough….?
Up here in Canada the more urban evolution of the old general store is the CO-OP.
https://www.co-op.crs/about
I think that the sentiment behind that pic in the meme (that you shamelessly STOLE from Yours Truly😂👍) - is that people are fed up with the bloated, soulless mega-corporations that are trying to strangle us today…
I think that when the iron boot of corporate-tyranny-socialism finally stomps down on our country… I’ll start up a business with the inevitable black markets that will spring up everywhere.
My uncle ran a 'general store' in central Louisiana in the 1950s/60s. He carried a little bit of 'everything, including local produce, meat, hardware, boots, etc. In other words, anything that the 'customers' wanted/needed. And he was successful!!!
ReplyDeleteFraud voids contracts. Back in the 90s the government in NY passed some stringent laws to force car owners to clean up their cars to cut down on pollution. It was supposed to end the various tricks like emptying out the catalytic converter, spark plug anti foulers, turning up diesel engines etc. I knew a guy that went to a community college majority in automation technology because allegedly he would be able to make a decent living diagnosing and repairing cars. A few years later the government backtracked on the legislation so then dude was on the hook for student loans. He never paid them back. His reasoning was that he was sold one thing and bought it based on the law and then he got stuck working shit jobs at low wage. He tried the dealership scene but that was institute thievery and he couldn't stomach the dishonesty. Last I heard he was working as a carpenter and regretting that he didn't major in electrical technology. That was how he got black pilled.
ReplyDeleteWith regard to manufactured goods, a lot of general stores sold stuff ordered from the Chicago firm of Sears, Roebuck. At a markup, of course. Anybody else could also mail order the desired widget from Sears at the catalog price, and wait and wait and wait for it to arrive on the slow train, but the general store usually had a widget in stock, right here and now, at a slightly higher price. Sears catered to this secondary retail market by not marking their goods with the “Sears, Roebuck” name to obscure their origin; the manufacturer’s mark usually referred to a “Chicago (something something) Company.”
ReplyDelete