MAKING SHOPPING AN ART FORM
We all like receiving presents but very often the best presents are the one’s we choose and give ourselves. But shopping at its best is an enormous experience and journey to resolve some daily to obscure requirement with all of the steps of the journey. We first identify our requirements. Next we research potential solutions. Then comes evaluation of the solutions for benefits, risks, availability, acq;uisition lag time, costs, value, best vendor to provide the product or service, and finally the anticipation of actually receiving the product.
BRICK AND MORTAR OR ONLINE TO DELIVERY
There are many items such a food that you need to acquire immediately and the convention solution is to go to a local “Brick and Mortar” store, pick out the items, pay, and take them home immediately. Here the issues are travel since you are limited in the number of stores you can visit, the amount of time you have to find and research the potential products, the time to wait in long lines, and then drag stuff to the car, drive home, and finally unload
YARD AND ESTATE SALES
My wife has a hereditary disease that she got from her mother – Estrate Sales. She cannot drive by an estate sale without stopping to see what bargains she can find. Someone is moving or passed away or whatever and they need to liquidate tons of “stuff” and at prices which range from free to bargain to astronomical. And the joy of estate sales is finding your new treasure at an unbelievable price.
On the other hand with the introduction of internet and ONLINE shopping our ability to shop
ONLINE SHOPPING REVOLUTION
With the internet a who new world has been created. You have intelligent browsers with amazing search and research capabilities. You have tools for tracking and saving your research. Tool to compare features and characteristics of product you are researching, the ability to place items in your cart, painlessly going through checkout, paying for your purchase, use promotional codes for saving money, never having to leave your home, and simply wait for the item to arrive while you can track it online. Then there concerns like scammers, delivery issues, waits from same day all the way to weeks and months depending on the vendor, product, and circumstances. There are also protection mechanism like credit card and vendor based consumer protection, delivery tracking, problem resolution, and so forth. My favorite online shopping sites are Amazon, Ebay, and Temu. They will be discussed in a different section. And then there are also individual vendor sites as well.
MADE IN USA VS MADE IN CHINA
Another important consideration is whether the product is made in USA or abroad. Purchasing products made in USA support the countries economy while buying abroad contributes to foreign trade economic concerns, exchange rates, import export taxes, and so forth. Then there are issues of trust with personal data being protected or stolen, sold on the dark web, feeding scammers data that they can exploit in nefarious ways, an so on. But also important is supporting USA worker’s jobs, keeping innovation under control (eg sensitive computer technologies), economic weaponization (e.g. petroleum controls based on political criteria).
IS IT PROMOTED BY THE GOVERNMENT? (AKA INSTITUTIONALIZED INCOMPETENCE)
One of my guiding principles is whether a product is promoted by the government. The general rule is if the product is promoted by the government it is the worst possible choice.
For example, the USA government promotes ethanol gas which is essential 90% gas abd 10% corn oil that would be better used on your french fries over your automobile engine where is can only do damage. And the problem is worse in small engines such as lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, etc. The best way to protect your small engine machinery is to use non-ethanol gas and that is all that I buy. To find ethanol free gas near you please go to https://www.pure-gas.org/
NON-ETHANOL GAS
For example, the USA government promotes ethanol gas which is essential 90% gas abd 10% corn oil that would be better used on your french fries over your automobile engine where is can only do damage. And the problem is worse in small engines such as lawn mowers, leaf blowers, chain saws, etc. The best way to protect your small engine machinery is to use non-ethanol gas and that is all that I buy. To find ethanol free gas near you please go to https://www.pure-gas.org/
GEO-THERMAL ENERGY IS FAR BETTER THAN SOLAR
The government is constantly promoting solar or wind energy while there are far better solution albeit with a higher and sometime not always doable alternative of Geo-Thermal energy.
Solar sounds great but they uglify your home and complicate your roof. When you need to cool your home and it is nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit you need your HVAC system to expel all the hot air from your home into the saturated hot air outside your home. And the outside air does not want any more hot air.
In a Geo-Thermal system the ground below 8 feet is a constant 55 degrees Fahrenheit day and night, summer and winter. And it is always ready and welcome to absorb all the hot air you can give it. So this is usually accomplished by digging very deep holes and running the tubing underground to your central geo-thermal system heat exchanger which will push out all the hot air easily and efficiently as opposed to HVAC system which are under difficult stress. And in winter the geo-thermal system only has to heat the air from the geo-thermal system by 17 degrees from 55 degrees Fahrenheit to 72 degrees which is easy. So you can easily cut your HVAC bill by 75-80 percent and this will pay for its quickly. Also the equipment does not have to work hard so its lifetime is longer and less problematic. Here the issue is available real estate required and the initial drilling cost. If you are interested please continue to do your research on the topic. Also note that right now there is a 30% tax credit for installing geo-thermal systems and if done correctly you may also be able to include related energy efficient technologies such as insulation and windows.