Hi ROss,

On Thu 2037-Jun-04 15:42, Ross Cassell (1:123/456) wrote to Richard Webb:

 RC>> All stores have a cost structure in order to do business, the cost
 RC>> of the bags they use, maintaining shopping carts, utility costs,
 RC>> payroll, rent, business taxes etc, they normally build all that
 RC>> into the retail prices of their merchandise.

 RW> OF course, and I"m sure this is factored in some sort of way .

RC> Well unless Sauer's state of Wisconsin is one of these states and
RC> the bag tax is passed onto the customer as an itemized detail on the
RC> receipt??? 

Might be, but I bet it's just factored in.  Be more
practical that way.


 RC>> I think states that tax the shit out of tobacco to offset health
 RC>> costs are fiscally stupid, if the tax forces people to quit or get
 RC>> their tobacco elsewhere, then what they budgetted for the health
 RC>> programs suffer.

 RW> AGreed.  I"m close enough to the border that after Tennessee pulled
 RW> that BS I just make a run down to MIssissippi where they haven't been
 RW> so stupid once a month and buy my tobacco products there.

RC> Here in SC they have tried to raise the tobacco tax this year and
RC> last year. Last year the Governor vetoed it and the Legislature
RC> failed to override, this year the bill languished in Senate
RC> Committee. Most of the rationale both times was to raise it because
RC> we have the nations lowest state tax. I expect them to successfully
RC> raise it next year because I think part of the reason it failed, tho
RC> not publicized was that the tax hike would have come at the heels of
RC> the major federal tax hike on it.

Probably so.  wOnder how the tobacco states are really
handling this one .

 RW> cOst of a carton of plain end no big name smokes, already
 RW> manufactured for one in MIssissippi at the shop I use:
 RW> $21.98.

 RW> WHo lost?

RC> Your state and Mississippi won.

OF course.  tHEy get the taxes.  I may go 10 miles out of my way, since I
combine those trips with a trip to MEmphis for
other business.

RC> Here is the profit a bootlegger makes..

RC> They prefer to buy disks when they are on sale, which we typically
RC> advertise them every week, but even not on sale they make a handsome
RC> profit. 

RC> A spindle of 100 DVD's costs regularly average $38, when on sale
RC> they can be half that, so lets say the sale price is $20.

RC> They are paying 20 cents a disk.
OF course, and using the cheap paper sleeves.  Quite a
profit.  ME otoh, I give the client a jewel case with his
disk.


RC> His profit is $454.02

RC> Not bad eh?

NOt bad at all.  DOwnload the movie once, burn disks.

RC> I think it is safe to say that he recoups equipment costs relatively
RC> quickly and probably did so after his first 3 to 5 spindles.

I"d say so too.  REst of it probably goes in his crack pipe.

RC> His customers are getting a movie for 50 or more percent of the cost
RC> of buying the studio released disk from Walmart.

wHich makes them as stupid as he is.
RC> I think this is a economic thing more than anything else although
RC> these bootleggers are catering to "their own".

OF course, it's mostly younger folks as well.

RC> I wouldnt take that music if you recorded it and paid me to take
RC> ownership of the disk. I dont have an appreciation of a music type
RC> that degrades females and more often than not advocates violence,
RC> even if it is doing so under the guise of story telling from the
RC> "hood".

RC> But the music apparently catches the ears of the young and
RC> resonates, when I moved down here in 1987, the white kids would be
RC> dancing to it while at the same time exhibiting the typical southern
RC> racist attitudes.

I know, saw the same thing in the midwest, and never
understood it.  I like plenty of quality music, the old
MOtown stuff, STax, old jazz.  DUke ELlington is one of my
all time favorites.  MIles DAvis, Charlie Parker, etc.
IF you held a gun to my head and told me to list my top 50
favorite composers and artists I'd venture to guess that 60% of them would
be black folks.
 RW> Strange as it may seem, the hip hop rappers and dj types are also the
 RW> most abusive to sound reinforcement equipment, often provided by
 RW> others.  I'm not the only one that refuses to work with them because
 RW> of this. Btw it's the white rappers and dj types too, so it isn't
 RW> a race thing.

RC> Its a music genre thing.

Yah it is,  and you'd think that many of them would at least learn to
respect the equipment.  i even refused to work with them in the studio
because of the hangers-on they bring to
sessions with them.  A friend of mine lost a couple of
microphones from his drum room a few years ago, probably
$10k worth one fell swoop.  Another friend was closing down
his studio after a hip hop session when he was robbed at
gunpoint for a lot of expensive equipment which could be
easily carried out.

 RC>> Helper magnets for the malware.

 RW> OF course they did, and too dumb to know that those
 RW> so-called services invite that stuff in.  Hope you charge a
 RW> real good price for that service, and explain to them why
 RW> they keep coming back to pay you for it.

RC> 169.00 to remove them.

NOt bad if you need it.

RC> 199.00 if they want removal and *REAL* protection put on.

wHich they probably don't go for.

RC> I am starting a new echo, already boned called CYBER-DANGER, I can
RC> tell you some horror stories I have witnessed.

SHould be interesting.

RC> When I get the particulars together, the echo will become more
RC> active. 

I'm sure.  FIdonet needs something like that since
dirty_dozen is definitely just lying there these days.

Regards,
           Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+