August 2008 Archives

My family stopped using a phone landline three years ago. And we are part of a growing market if you read Jess Milcetich's story on the reasons you either keep or ditch your landline. We did it too to save money. But the story made me revisit our cell-phone plan.

Another holiday weekend is upon us so before you head off to the beach or your backyard barbecues, here's a quick run down of what you might have missed this week.

Incomes drop a whole bunch.

Local grocery store closing.

Direct bus service to New York canceled.

Blame it on Gustav.

And of course you'll want to check out this week's podcast from the business staff. What can you expect to hear? All about shiny things and dumb people.

Thanks to everyone who submitted suggestions and gave us input on the new name for the business blog. We definitely appreciate all the feedback.

After much debate both on the blog and off, York Common Cents, an internal suggestion, won. The runner-up was Sense and Cent$ibility, submitted by reader John Alfano from Dallastown.

Because we obviously aren't going to give the prize to our own staff, John will receive the prize.

Thanks again for your help picking our new name. The new name will be introduced when our redesign is finished. Don't worry though, you will still get the same content at the same URL, we just felt the new name better reflects the content we produce for our popular business blog.

After I read Brent Burkey's local story on how York's smaller coffee shops were still buzzing in this economy, I remembered my trips to the local java places in downtown York.
Whether it was a caffeine fix or an excuse to get out the office and take a walk on George Street in York, there's something about local shops -- and not only coffee shops -- that make you feel more connected to the community.

Story in the Times this morning about a contract becoming official for the Chinese to start developing an Iraqi oil field. It's based on a contract originally signed with Saddam.

So with oil prices going up again and our troops freeing up that oil from despotism, U.N. sanctions against the regime and whatnot, do you think we should get that oil ... and get it at a discount?

Or is it only fair that the free market play out?

Too many bicycles and motorcycles sharing the roads in Milwaukee as part of Harley's 105th anniversary could cause a few problems, as the upper Midwestern city becomes what some have referred to as "Mecca" for motorcyclists.

Check it out here.

Obviously outside of locals, the geography doesn't make sense. But on a certain level, residents there should be glad. With gas prices being what they are (no, gas is still not "cheap"), this is as good of a problem as you can have, right?

Alternate transportation unite! (Or insert your own silly phrase here.)

I'll be the first to admit that I don't. My mom's an accountant, so believe me I know all the reasons that I should, but it's just so easy not to with everything online.

I monitor my account very closely online and I don't see the need to write it all out too.

I can track every deposit and every expenditure. Minutes after it happens the new balance posts online. My finances are in good shape and I hold on to receipts so I have proof of transactions.

So am I the only one that thinks balancing a checkbook seems a little old school?

In the last year, there's been a lot of talk about Harley's growing appeal overseas. And with the 105th anniversary festivities underway, international devotees have made their way stateside to celebrate.

Here's a story I found this morning about a Frenchman who wants to buy Harley No. 7. He talks about why this particular European is drawn to Harley mystique.

Sure money is tight, and your significant other probably doesn't want you spending money on all the Harley stuff you love.

So just tell her or him that the proceeds go to charity and sign on to Harley-Davidson's co-sponsored auction to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The online auction began last Thursday and ends Sept. 4, and includes a whole bunch of pretty cool-looking stuff.

That's what my 7-year-old told me on Sunday night before he went to bed. Today (Monday) was his first day of school in second grade in the West York Area School District. I'm heading home soon to see how it went.
Reading Sean Adkins' story on back-to-school shopping reminded me of what I have to look forward to when my little guy gets older.
Right now, we can buy his clothes with little input from him. He's not that picky about what he wears. And his first day of school outfit? Plaid shorts and a blue shirt -- thanks to his Nam and Pop. Can't wait to show off those photos when he's older.

My dad told me at a young age to go to college for the same reasons I imagine a whole lot of York County tells their kids:

Get a better, more stable job than working in the factory ... and financial security.

From the bottom of the labor pyramid that supports this country, where I'm proud to say my father is, the view is that if you can get through college, you'll be on easy street.

Well, yes and no. College degrees might on average earn someone more over a lifetime, but it's far from easy street. Especially for those who took huge loans because mom and dad couldn't pay for college.

Some of those horror stories appeared in today's New York Times.

So a question for those York County parents sending their kids back to college this year: Are you worried about repaying the loans you and your children have to pay for college? And do you still think a college degree is worth the cost in today's economy?

The start of school is upon us which means retailers are offering their back-to-school specials.

Those savings aren't just for those of us with children. Everyone can take advantage of some of the discounts.

Hi, it's Joan from Only in York County. Thought I'd drop in on the biz folks to share some personal finance news.

The good news: I got a check in the mail this weekend for $102.56. It was my annual rebate from one of my two credit cards; as a "reward" for charging with them, they give me a certain percentage back at the end of my year of use.

The bad news: Gulp... how much must I have charged this year to get that big of a check?

Happy Friday afternoon, York! Here's the news that you may have missed this week.

Sellers react to E-bay rule changes.

Restaurant goes smoke free early.

Businesses take steps to reduce energy costs.

Russia, Georgia situation still tense.

And of course you don't want to miss this week's edition of Money Talk. Check it out below.

Today's the last day you can vote for the new name of the business blog.

Check here for the list of possible names and then e-mail me your choice by noon to jmilcetich@ydr.com.

Joe, one of our readers, left this comment about where he saw cheap gas in the area:

On 8/20: $3.31 @ Citgo on Rt 30 and Fairlane. 30 cents cheaper than the Citgo at RT 30 and Sherman. The one on Fairlane is a gem. Hands down cheapest, always as of late.

Thanks for the tip, Joe!

If you've spotted stations selling gas a few cents cheaper than the norm feel free to share in the comments section.

This is the kind of story that rules the "most viewed" portion of the Daily Record site for weeks when it happens around here, so I figured I'd share it.

Apparently drug dealers are charging more for their weed.

So one Texas man allegedly decided to start growing his own, just like a lot of York County is apparently growing its own tomatoes and string beans and whatnot because they've gone up in price.

And since the entire country now knows about it, you can guess how the alleged farming operation ended.

I was driving around on my lunch break and noticed a bunch of different gas stations where gas was $3.39.

That's the lowest I've seen so far, has anyone seen anything lower?

I hear this argument from people: Protecting the environment will harm the free market, making it too hard for people to do business. And that's unAmerican.

Part of the argument is correct. We've really made a nearly unsurmountable mess of things, and a lot of York County is one big example of how hard fixing the damage will be.

Yesterday we said that Hershey was increasing prices for its candy because supplies and energy costs for them went up.

Today, the Labor Department said a whole lot more than chocolate is going up in price. Inflation is double what was expected, and inflation basically is a measure of how much EVERYTHING is going up in price.

So if you are in the habit of looking at the gas signs along the road to figure out when this economy is going to turn around, I wouldn't recommend it. Gas is probably the only thing going down in price with an inflation rate of 1.2 percent.

And no, that's not small. That means that for all intends and purposes, for every $100 you have in the bank, you have lost $1.20 in buying power. Have $10,000 to your name? Well, sorry about your luck, you just lost $120 worth of buying power.

Thanks to everyone who sent in potential names for the new business blog.

As we stated in the original rules, we want input from you when we're making the final decision.

Here's the top five that the staff narrowed it down to. E-mail staff writer Jessica Milcetich at jmilcetich [at] ydr [dot] com by noon on Friday with the name you think should win.

1. For the Record
2. York Common Cents
3. Sense and Cent$ibility
4. YorkBiz360
5. Codorus Cash Flow

We went back to the theater.
After swearing off movies this spring after yet another bad experience in a movie theater, my husband and I decided not to go the movies anymore. It was too expensive and folks surrounding you in the theater are either too noisy, rude or -- in our last case -- too young to be at the movie.

Remember when gas was close to $4 per gallon so everyone cut back on their driving?

Well I miss the empty roads.

Road trips were so much quicker without all the traffic congestion on the major highways.

But now that prices have fallen, consumer confidence is starting to creep up a little bit and people are hitting the road again.

The company's costs have gone up, so its prices it charges consumers and others are going up, too. Price increases were effective Friday.

To be honest, I don't know how much more expensive that will make the candy bars I like to eat.

I don't mean to sound like the proverbial detached presidential candidate who doesn't know the price of milk, but my candy purchases are haphazard at best, and usually happen at the last second in the checkout line.

So really, I don't know if this will affect Hershey's sales, if enough people buy its products like I do. What do you think?

And while I'm asking questions, what are some other things you buy in quick snap decisions, which probably wouldn't be affected by price increases?

Traffic is back. That's something I'm hearing from travelers returning from weekend trips. My wife and I went to go to Baltimore Sunday, and we saw the same thing.

Not like we or anyone else on the roads should be surprised. After all, three of the four members of our biz staff (everyone I talked to so far this morning) said they were traveling long distances recently.

It's almost like people have been waiting to drive here, there and everywhere until gas prices improved, then did it all with the $3.42-ish-for-regular weekend we just had.

So what do you think? Is this where people stop saying "ouch" at the pumps and start getting back to business as usual?

Also, while you're thinking about that, take a look at one of our stories last week about a local share-a-ride service expecting their best month ever this August, despite the month's slow drop in gas prices.

Do you still use a land line for your main phone service? It seems that so many people have given them up in exchange for cell phones.

I'm looking for people who have dropped their land lines or people who refuse to give it up. I want to know your reasoning behind either decision.

Drop me a line at jmilcetich [at] ydr [dot] com and let me know!

Now, I know I was idealistic coming out of school. Most grads are. But I am amazed that 68 percent of the members of Gen. Y (referring to someone who graduated high school in this millennium) said they would not work for a company that was not "socially responsible."

Scroll down on this story for the talking point, under the "More than just talk" heading. I kid you not, it's that high. I for one was very surprised.

What do you think? Is this the start of a more philanthropic capitalism ruling the world? Or does it mean 68 percent of Gen. Y have hopelessly limited their job prospects?

With just a few hours until the weekend, it's time for your dose of business news.

Gas still too high; people want to share rides.

Local businesspeople get their groove on.

Green-collar jobs on the rise.

And for the latest from your biz staff, check out this week's podcast for a look at the real estate landscape and what first-time homebuyers need to know.

...for you to compete in the Name Our Blog competition.

Make sure you e-mail your entries by noon today. (jmilcetich [at] ydr [dot] com)

Check the rules here.

Growing up and getting my license when gas was 89 cents a gallon - just 10 years ago, mind you - my parents had their version of the "we walked uphill both ways to school" story.

It was called the 1970s, when gasoline was rationed and long lines existed at stations just to fuel up. Battlefields in the Middle East were hot, and America backed the little guy called Israel, and it wasn't the country with the oil.

Came across this really interesting article about the top three ways the Olympics are being marketed.

But I found this blog post more interesting. It suggests that the Olympics are marketed solely to females. The author makes a good argument for his case. Just take a look at the ads that run during the games. As he says, you would never see Neosporin, Wal-Mart or furniture polish ads during an NFL game.

John McCain's visit to York yesterday sounded like a policy speech for part of the time set to "Georgia on My Mind." But why does Georgia (the country, not the U.S. state) matter?

Oil. I mean, c'mon, why else does anything that happens outside the borders nowadays matter to Americans?

Read this from Time magazine.

The move into Georgia is muscle flexing south and east, and south and east of Russia are just about the only places in the world that have more oil than Russia itself.

Anyone else more interested now?

...to submit an entry for the "Name our Blog" contest. The deadline to e-mail me submissions (jmilcetich@ydr.com) is this Friday.

If you haven't checked out the rules, you'll want to do that here.

I'm looking forward to getting some crafty submissions.

That's right, Barack Obama plans to announce his running mate by text message and e-mail.

You can sign up here if you don't want to wait.

Obama's on Twitter too if you want to check that out.

He has to be the first presidential candidate to make this kind of use of technology.

It's bad, but I was pretty giddy with excitement when I drove past Delco Plaza and saw gas was $3.49 per gallon.

That's a far cry from cheap, but it's cheaper than it was.

I just hope it keeps coming down.

It's been a crazy busy week for the business staff. What with a bunch of companies releasing earnings reports and Boscov's filing Chapter 11. Yeeesh.

I'm glad it's almost the weekend. And I'm sure you are too.

We're going to mix things up here this week and instead of a list of links for you to check out, I'm going to leave you with our brand-spanking new podcast. Take a listen. (P.S. You have to leave this page open while you listen, but just open another browser window so you can get on with your regularly scheduled Internet surfing.)

This weekend, my wife and I are planting a few trees in our backyard. We're hoping that we'll gain some privacy and add character to the yard. We decided to sink some money in fixing up the yard rather than spend cash on a vacation to some tourist trap. I think its paid off. We're getting some exercise, not wasting gas and increasing the value of our property. Have you taken a vacation this year? Can you afford the trip?

Retail stores are really hurting and just about everyone is pointing a finger at the economy.

Even with the government stimulus checks, stores like Steve & Barry's and Boscov's filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and BonTon earnings took a hit.

The last time I went shopping was to buy a dress for my friend's wedding. I can't even remember the last time I shopped for fun and not necessity.

When was the last time you shopped for fun?

Anyone else notice that Google Maps got a little bit of a new look recently?

It's nothing drastic, just a few simple changes.

The link to get directions moved from under the main search bar to the top of the left sidebar.

It is the No. 1 reason I do not cook as often as I would like.

Spoiled produce. It only takes one unplanned late night at work or other schedule speed bump to throw off my well-laid plans of cooking for a week. And when the plans go awry, the ingredients spoil, so I just give up all hope of cooking the next week because I don't want the food to just go to waste again.

Thankfully, the article offers some tips, especially important as more of us (myself included) try to cook more to save money.

Does anyone else have this problem? Or was this story written just for me?

I usually try to stay away from opinion pieces for blogs, but I thought this one referenced a lot of good information in terms of how people see the very broadly termed group "big business."

It ranks the profit margins (basically, the amount of money companies keep for themselves after they sell stuff to people) that the average company pulls in by industry. Anyone surprised at the leading profit margin-generating industries?

Of course, as with anything marked with the opinion label, take it with a grain of salt, but if you want to educate yourself with some background on this whole "windfall profit" debate going on, I'd recommend this as something to read.

Talked to a friend over lunch today who is planning a party this weekend, and he was going over what a lot of the stuff is going to cost.

Some of the prices he was throwing out sounded really high to me on stuff like shotgun shells and clay pigeons (it's a rural party, of course). But it's in buying stuff like that, which you don't buy too terribly often, that really drives home how much prices have been going up on everything in the last year or so.

It's not like food, which might go up a cent or two between weekly grocery store visits. For stuff you only get once a year, the increases are several dollars to $10 or more between purchases.

Then I came back to work and saw this story. Looks like this might be the only big party for the guys back home for awhile, the way prices are going up.

What are some of the things you don't buy very often (things other than food and gas that have people talking normally) that are really showing you how much prices are increasing?

I've written numerous times before about how gas prices seemed to be cheaper on the east side of town.

So I was more than a little surprised on Saturday when I was out in Springettsbury Township to see that gas was about six cents more expensive than it was on the west side.

The way different stations set their prices will never cease to boggle my mind.

Another week has come and just about gone and I'm here to catch you up on what you might have missed this week.

Shoppers be on the alert for sales.

New winery opens in Adams County.

Is anyone surprised Big Oil had a big quarter?

Big name sports company finds major worker violations.

How germy is your work environment?

Fast-food and sit-down chains were ranked together, and interestingly enough, the fast food ranked a whole lot better, according to a story posted on Yahoo Health by way of Men's Health.

I found this really interesting because of another story I heard on NPR last night about how people go to fast-food restaurants over sit-down restaurants when times get tough. And that worried me because I assumed it meant people were also eating less healthy because the economy is rough. But, looks like I was wrong.

And what's the healthiest chain tested? Chick-fil-A. The last letter in its name is the chain's score. Subway, which was probably everyone's first guess (including mine in the fast-food category) came in second.

The worst scorers, mostly the sit-down chains, got poor marks because they won't list nutritional info.

See the whole list here. Any surprises?

But the company also said it was not telling those on their payrolls who to vote for. According to Reuters, management meetings over the past few weeks have outlined how a bill backed by Obama could make it easier for Wal-Mart employees to unionize.

The result could be higher labor costs which, in addition to the obvious and implied drain on the bottom line, would result in layoffs.

Keeping overall labor costs flat while having to pay individual workers more would mean Wal-Mart could keep fewer people on the payroll.

Again, the company says it's not telling employees who to vote for. But then again, how else is could a statement like "we would have to eliminate jobs if a union comes in and does its job" come across to John Q. Worker?

Do you think that is going to hurt Obama come November? Do you think it's right for Wal-Mart do do? And do you think the only reason we know about this is because it's at Wal-Mart, and similar conversations are happening at smaller businesses all over the country?

The business blog, which is currently titled "Mind Your Own Business," is going under a bit of a redesign, which will launch shortly. Along with our fresh new look, we'd like a fresh new name and we want your help in coming up with one.

The rules are simple.

I think Kevin Costner is one of the two most underrated actors in Hollywood (the other being Jeff Daniels, but he's not vilified, so I'll save his defense for later).

That being said, I thought I would be alone in thinking Swing Vote would have some redeeming quality, even though on its surface its summary is absolutely stupid: One man decides presidential race, yeah right.

Well, looks like the New York Times has my back. The movie holds up a mirror to a political process where politicians forget who they are to mumble a party line, and how and why our American everyman (played by Costner) has dropped out of the process. It tries to be comedy, but it's undertones are serious, and spot-on. Yes, the New York Times said all that.

So why is this on the business blog?

Because it seems like this is what the review is saying: In order to tell the story of the breakdown in the political process, you need to first tell the story of one every working man (or woman) who has been left behind. He is the backbone of this story, and when he breaks, America comes falling down. I kind of like that a Hollywood movie respects that notion.

I think I have a movie to see ...