American Management Explained. This Guy Nails It.

Putting People Before Profit — These 15 Stores Will be Closed on Thanksgiving

Can there be any doubt at this point that corporate consumerism and family life just don’t get along? Kids fight and obsess over the newest and most useless crap, college funds are spent on the latest gizmos, stay-at-home parents have become practically extinct in the bottom 40 percent of the income spectrum, and family holidays like Thanksgiving Day have become little more than starting pistols for the race to “BUY MORE CRAP!” However, at least a few stores still care about the humanity of their employees and customers — reportedly. But hey, it’s a start.

Costco and Sam’s Club

The fact that Costco closes on Thanksgiving probably comes as no great shock; it’s been the Anti-Walmart for some time now, so it’s probably safe to assume that whatever Walmart is doing, Costco is doing the exact opposite. Which also evidently goes for business hours on Thanksgiving. Costco spokeswoman Beverly Akada told the Huffington Post:

“Our employees work especially hard during the holiday season and we simply believe that they deserve the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with their families. Nothing more complicated than that.”

That’s a nice sentiment, and very likely sincere coming from Costco. But it’s also worth noting that Sam’s Club (which has always been Costco’s direct competitor) is also closing on Thanksgiving. And Sam’s IS Walmart. So, if you’re feeling cynical, you might just draw the conclusion that there’s simply not enough profit to be generated on Thanksgiving day to keep bulk stores like these open, after accounting for the holiday bonus pay et al. And there are still almost certainly employees inside busily gearing up for Black Friday.

However…in Costco’s case, we’ll give the benefit of the doubt. Sam’s, you’re still evil.

 T.J. Maxx, Marshall’s, HomeGoods and Sierra Trading Post

All of these stores are owned by parent TJX Companies, formerly known as T.J. Maxx. Of interesting note: The company is still headquartered in T.J. Maxx’s original hometown of Framingham, about an hour’s drive up the Massachusetts coast from Plymouth Rock, and 20 minutes inland from Boston. So, it’s probably safe to assume that TJX has a pretty healthy respect for the Thanksgiving holiday. And surprisingly, not just in America.

TJX is a global brand, with a heavy presence in both Canada and Europe. TJX will also be closing many of its stores in Canada on Thanksgiving day…provincial laws allowing. This includes the foreign-market HomeSense chain, sister company to our own HomeGoods. European locations will remain open.

Dillard’s, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus

Several upscale and luxury department stores will be closed on Thanksgiving, which is nice. Though you might be excused for feeling a bit of the old cynical twinge here. Macy’s and Saks Fifth have dominated Thanksgiving day for years, and they’re direct competitors for all of these. And it’s not as though Neiman Marcus customers are rushing in to beat each other to death over Black Friday sales. That’s what they have servants for.

Still, it’s nice to know that at least some people will get to spend a day at home with their families, rather than selling stuff to others that they could never afford to buy themselves.

Burlington Coat Factory, American Girl and Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW)

These factory and designer outlet specialty shops will all be closed on Thanksgiving; in the latter two cases, probably for the same reasons Dillards and Nordstrom will be closed. All of these places specialize in either high-end products, or high-end products sold year-round at factory or designer discount deals. So, they’re not depending on a few hours’ jump on Black Friday.

Fun fact about Burlington: It’s one of the many companies acquired through hostile takeover by Mitt Romney’s vulture capitalist group Bain Capital, which still owns it today. So, Burlington is still worth avoiding, unless you feel comfortable sending a big, green Christmas card to Lord 47 Percent.

REI and Patagonia Sporting Goods

These two stores specializing in the hiking, biking and granola-healthy lifestyle (like TJX’s Sierra) will be closed on Thanksgiving day. Probably because the majority of their employees and customers plan to spend it attempting to digest three pounds of Tofurkey and vegan humus casserole.

Fox New Logic

Fox

Texas’ Abbott: ‘Drive around’ to look for dangerous chemicals

It’s been well over a year since a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, exploded, killing 15 people and injuring more than 200 others, while leveling a significant part of the small town. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, there were plenty of questions raised about prevention and public safety.

Indeed, as we talked about last year, it seemed like a good time for a conversation about the fact that the plant had no alarms, automatic shutoff system, or firewall. It was also time for a discussion about zoning laws that allowed a highly-explosive plant to be built across the street from two schools and a nursing home.

A year later, however, no new safeguards have been created.

The issue is coming to the fore again recently in the Lone Star State because Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R), the frontrunner in this year’s gubernatorial race, declared that state records on dangerous chemical locations can be withheld from the public. The Texas Tribune reported yesterday on the state A.G.’s rationale.

Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, under fire for blocking public access to state records documenting the location of dangerous chemicals, said Texans still have a right to find out where the substances are stored.

As long as they know which companies to ask.

“You know where they are if you drive around,” Abbott told reporters Tuesday. “You can ask every facility whether or not they have chemicals or not. You can ask them if they do, and they can tell you, ‘Well we do have chemicals or we don’t have chemicals,’ and if they do, they tell which ones they have.”

This would be hilarious if it weren’t so alarming.

Is Hobby Lobby circumcised?

Hobby Lobby, an arts and crafts chain run by an uber-Christian family, says it should be exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s (Obamacare’s) contraceptive mandate because the store’s owners, and thus the store itself, is “Christian.”

As a person of faith, Hobby Lobby says it shouldn’t be compelled by the government to act against its Christian beliefs.

But I was having a hard time understanding how a store could be a person, let alone a person of faith.  And the more I thought about it, the more confusing it became.

So, if Hobby Lobby is really a person of faith, I have some questions for it:

1. Is Hobby Lobby circumcised?
2. Is Hobby Lobby baptized?
3. When was the last time Hobby Lobby went to confession?
4. If Hobby Lobby went to confession, what kind of sins would it confess?  (Dear Lord, I coveted my neighbor’s bridal shop?)
5. Does Hobby Lobby only date other Christian stores?
6. Are there Mormon stores too? And do they spend a lot of time telling coffee chains how to live?
7. Has Hobby Lobby ever been married? (I’ll bet Walmart’s looking for an uptight Christian brand who knows its place.)
8. How old should a store be before it can merge?
9. How does Hobby Lobby feel about inter-racial mergers — you know, when, say, an arts and crafts store wants to merge with a sports store? Is that an abomination?
10. Is American Girl a jezebel?
11. Is Abercrombie kinda gay? And if so, do we now need a Defense of Corporate Marriage Act?
12. Has Hobby Lobby ever been divorced?
13. Is there a corporate hell that bad stores go to?
14. Are Jewish stores going to hell?
15. Are all Muslim stores terrorists?
16. Is bankruptcy abortion?
17. Did Entenmann’s kill Jesus?

A Senator Asks A Panel Of Experts To Defend Walmart. It Gets Awkward.

Hey you guys! Guys! OK, I have a new idea. Kind of radical, but just hear me out: What if we don’t pay Walmart’s employees ... but Walmart pays them instead?

Well, what do you think? Still not sure? Listen to the smart man giving his testimony at 4:50. 

It figures....

I went on Google earth to check out the area where the WV spill occurred. Was not disappointed nor shocked by the ignorance. Freedom Industries: job killer.

Billboard text:
Obama's NO JOB ZONE
The President talks about creating jobs but his EPA is destroying jobs.

Stand up for coal jobs.

If you think this was Photoshopped, it was not. It was a screenshot taken in Google street view. Feel free to view it yourself 2237 Pennsylvania Avenue, Charleston, WV.

http://goo.gl/maps/vm7Vn

Corporations have religious liberty, my friend

Especially after the 2012 presidential race, we're pretty familiar with the assertion that corporations are people, so I suppose it's only natural for some corporate lawyers to argue that they have the same religious liberty rights as people, too.

In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. asked a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill.

The Oklahoma City-based arts-and-crafts chain argued that businesses -- not just the currently exempted religious groups -- should be allowed to seek exception from that section of the health law if it violates their religious beliefs.

When it comes to the federal law that treats contraception as preventive care, available without copays, the Obama administration already exempts houses of worship. The White House also created a compromise for business owners so that they wouldn't have to cover contraception costs directly through their insurance plans.

But for Hobby Lobby, that's apparently not quite good enough. The company's lawyer, Kyle Duncan, said that if corporations have free-speech rights under Citizens United, then corporations have religious liberty, too.

"We don't say, well, a corporation can't exercise a right because it's in corporate form," Duncan said. "Is religion the kind of right can only be exercised by a natural person? Well, the question nearly answers itself. ... It's not a purely personal right."

And in this case, this "person" is so opposed to birth control, he/she/it doesn't want his/her/its employees to have subsidized access to contraception, the workers' preferences notwithstanding.
The Obama administration, not surprisingly, doesn't see it that way.

A lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice argued that allowing for-profit corporations to exempt themselves from requirements that violate their religious beliefs would be in effect allowing the business to impose its religious beliefs on employees.

"If you make an exemption for the employer, it comes at the expense of the employee," said Alisa Klein, who argued the government's case in a similar contraceptives mandate appeal heard Wednesday in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

So, do the religious-liberty claims of pseudo-people (corporations) trump the interests of real people (the business' employees)? I'll look forward to the ruling.