Don’t let him fool you, she has the worst case of senioritis you’ve ever seen.

DPxDC Idea

I had a little idea an have no time to actually write a fic, so I just wrote a sorta-summary and am posting it like this.

This is inspired by the game Home Safety Hotline and may contain hints to spoilers for that game. It's really clever, I really like it. I recommend you play it if slightly spooky without any "real" horror appeals to you.

Alright, Danny's been Ghost King for a few years and has realized more than just his usual rogues make their way to the living world, and a lot of those ghosts don't stay in Amity. By himself, it'd take forever to track down all those spirits and specters that are out causing mischief. Luckily, not many that escaped his notice are all that powerful and could only cause minor disturbances, just enough to get noticed by the living.

Many people outside Amity don't even recognize the activity as ghosts, so they blame other sources. Scratching in the walls is mistaken as mice, whispers and apparitions are mistaken as hallucinations and carbon monoxide hallucinations, attempted overshadowings mistaken as stokes or migraines. In this day and age, where does everyone turn to when looking for advice or how to solve problems? The internet.

Team Phantom devise a method to try and track down ghosts that are stuck or tormenting the living by building a website meant to look like a help hotline, and with some algorithm trickery make it one of the top options when searching for signs similar to ghost presences. Add some bits and bobs to make it appear as a more normal-looking website on any computer affiliated with government organizations, and you’ve got some protection from the GIW.

Calls start slowly, so the three of them can handle it by themselves. Once more people are calling, they decide to start a call center. They hired some trusted people around Amity and even a few ghosts who want to help. To get around worrying about the ghosts messing with the tech while personally taking a call, they decide to automate the system to record caller’s reports for the employees to listen to, and then send a report back, offering their services to bring the spirit back to the Realms.

It’s been surprisingly lucrative, and Danny hasn’t had to dip into his kingly funds much other than at the start. He still keeps prices low, just enough to not garner suspicions at offering a free service while paying his workers fairly (he doesn’t want to know why some of the ghosts want mortal money). What he’s started having more trouble with is not enough employees to take the calls. Sometimes ghosts lose track of time and don’t show up for their shifts (he doesn’t blame them, time gets weird in the Ghost Zone), and he’s run out of people he trusts who want the job.

Eventually he decides to put out an ad, deciding he’ll slowly trust whoever takes the job with a little more information over time, see how they react, and measure to see if they’re trustworthy.

What he doesn’t think about is how posting it on the website will let more people than just those that live in Amity apply.

Meanwhile, in Gotham, one Cassandra Cain is looking for a job. She doesn’t need the money, B gives her access to way too much, but she wants the experience. She’s at the age she’s heard most kids get a job, and she wants to see what it’s like.

And she quickly found out retail and fast food are NOT for her. She doesn’t think those conditions are fit for anyone, honestly. She’d have to see if she could get Bruce to work on that. But that still leaves her out of a job. She got overwhelmed with a lot of people, so virtual options would probably be best, and something that let her interact with people without having to speak. There weren’t a lot of options out there, and she wasn’t skilled enough with a computer yet to take programming ones.

That’s when she found the listing for the hotline call center. Based in a small Illinois town, but had virtual options, listen to recorded customer calls, diagnose their issue, and send an information packet on potential next steps. It was indirect, could also help her practice her reading, and flexible. It was perfect.

It didn’t take long to hear back after she applied (Danny was freaking out, he didn’t think anyone outside Amity would apply. He’d turn this kid down, but she’d mentioned her difficulties with speaking in her application and SWEETY YOU DONT MENTION STUFF LIKE THAT ON AN APPLICATION. But she said the job would be perfect for her and he just couldn’t…) and she got the job!

Her first day rolls around and she’s given access to the database. A lot has been redacted, but she has descriptions for common problems like mice, carbon monoxide, black mold, etc. she gets her first call recording and carefully reads through the entries before selecting the one that sounds right. She sends it off and waits for the next. The calls come a little too regularly, with too similar intervals between them, so she figures her new employer is testing how well she’s doing (Danny’s giving her previous resolved calls that weren’t anything supernatural. She even got the ants right! He had even gotten that wrong!)

Eventually, her shift ends and she tells her family how well her first day went at dinner. They congratulate her and go on patrol as usual. The next day, things ramp up a little.

She logs into the database at the beginning of her shift and noticed some new entries. She now had access to descriptions of shades, blob ghosts, will o’ wisps, and more minor spirits. She gets a recording reminding her all this info is confidential and that she’s not allowed to share it with anyone. She’s a little confused, but she reads through each just as carefully. The calls come less regularly, so she figures she’s actually connected to the system now (Danny gave her access to the most common ghosts they get calls about and is listening in while he’s handling ghosts to make sure she doesn’t get anything she’s not prepared for).

Her shift ends and over dinner, she mentions that she’s had to diagnose some odd things. They assure her there’s more pests and hazards out there than you’d expect. She doesn’t tell her family about the distraught woman haunted by the Ecto-Echo of her husband’s habit of making her coffee every morning after he passed a few weeks ago. Or the person who had a Shade masquerading as their shadow. Just about one of her caller's cockroach problem.

The next day follows a similar pattern; more entries, slightly more powerful ghosts, reminder that the info she's been given access to is confidential and could get people hurt if it got in the wrong hands, congratulated for her good work, read through carefully and learn signs of each, diagnose calls, before calling it a day (Danny was so proud of her, she'd only confused a blob ghost with a ghost animal once, and it hadn't caused him any trouble when he went to collect them).

She'd used the bat-computer to check up on some of the callers she'd diagnosed, and they seemed to be doing fine. Some had posted about their weird experiences on their social media and how her employer had somehow helped them, but often didn't quite know how (Danny liked to hide his powers, so most of what customers saw was him using ghost tech. When it couldn't be solved with just a quick souping, he had to pull a little ghostly trickery while the customer wasn't watching). She didn't know how her boss was somehow across the world multiple times a day to help clients in different countries, but he seemed to at least be helping people. She started not having any stories she could tell her family at dinner.

At some point, she heard reports that one of the speedsters probably messed with time travel again before clocking into her shift. She had almost all the available entries and had gotten very good at recognizing tricky cases. She answered a recorded call, just like at the beginning of each of her shifts, but this one was a little different. Danny had sent out an announcement to be on the lookout for a specific phenomena that often occurred after shifts in reality, as they were highly dangerous and needed to be dealt with swiftly.

She studied each entry and paused on what she was supposed to keep a careful eye out for. Revenants, corpses that came back to life, often seen shambling around the graveyards they were buried in. Something about that sounded familiar. A section in their entry said the person brought back often had a ghost in the Realms (which she still didn't know what that was) that was in terrible pain from shifts in reality trying to pull them back to their body, but the separation of dimensions preventing them.

Expectedly, she did get a call from someone convinced there was a zombie wandering somewhere along the east coast. She double checked it couldn't be anything else before submitting it and notifying her boss.

Curious, and she knew no one would be in the batcave around this time of day, she brought her laptop with her down to the bat-computer. She found cameras in the area the caller reported, and froze at what she saw. Shambling across an abandoned street was a rotting corpse. It really did look like a zombie. It was covered in dirt, wearing an old-fashioned suit, and had skin sloughing off its bones.

But what Cass could only focus on was how much its movements read that it was in pain. It was suffering in such a horrible way its mindless being didn't even deserve. It was horrible.

Then, there was a flash of green and an area of the cameras were covered in static. The glitched portion somehow read with kindness and pity. It slowly approached the corpse, simple reaching out gently (what was presumably a hand), ignoring the way it lashed out. It suddenly fell, caught and slowly lower to the ground by the strange being she couldn't see. It closed the thing's eyes before carrying it off in the direction the map said a graveyard could be found.

After that, she finished her shift and went to dinner. Her family asked if she was alright, and she only replied it'd been a long day.

She clocked in early the next day and messaged her boss for more information on Revenants. Dinner that night was one of the few times Jason agreed to come by, and if he noticed how she kept glancing at him, he didn't say anything.

A week later, she asked her boss what might happen if a Revenant was exposed to, as it was called in its entry, a "Corrupted Ecto-Spring" ("...an ugly hole in the fabric of reality that connects the world of the living to the Realms. The ectoplasm that leaks through the tear stagnates and festers into toxic pools that kills humans and makes ghosts sick."). Danny requested a video call.

The screen I spend the most time with these days is a black LCD monitor attached to a PC in an indie bookshop on Long Island. I spend whole days looking at point-of-sale software called Anthology which also keeps track of the store’s inventory. Often, it’s accurate. Occasionally, it says we have three copies of The Bell Jar that have simply disappeared from the face of the Earth. No one stole them. They were raptured, like socks that never make it out of the dryer.

If you’ve never worked a retail job, let me tell you what it’s like: you come in with a little spring in your step, caffeinated, and ready to greet your coworkers and update them on how terrible your last shift without them was. Though the memory of the previous shift’s slog might give you a little anxiety, and though a hangover can make your fuse a little short, you’re in a better mood at the start of the day than at the end. Tedious tasks like ordering and unboxing books (sci-fi movies did not prepare me for how much cardboard there would be in the future) seem manageable in the morning. Customers seem kind. The items you’re selling feel necessary to human happiness. Whatever is going on in your life is put on pause to manage store operations, and time flies. Then, by 3 PM, whether you had time for lunch or not, you wish you had done anything else with your day — or, better yet — your life. 

While the back-straining work of moving inventory around the store or walking the floor helping customers all day without a second to sit down might make you physically tired, the real work of retail is mental and forces employees to become part-machine. Retail workers have to ask the same three questions (“Rewards?” “Bag?” “Receipt?”) and reply to the same three questions (“Have it?” “Bathroom?” “Manager?!?!?”) for 8-10 of their most worthwhile waking hours. 

In bookstores, there is the added expectation that while you’re participating in this mind-numbing routine, you’re at least able to pretend to like and engage with literature. I'm not arguing that people working at Old Navy aren’t eloquent or as over-educated for their job as I am. If they aren’t teenagers, most retail employees I’ve encountered have, by virtue of talking to coworkers and customers all day, the same high emotional intelligence as the smartest people I know who chain smoke outside bars. Still, my guess is that it’s rare for a customer to see a clothing store employee folding clothes, and think “I wonder what their opinion is of the latest Ann Patchett book” or “I wonder if they read Knausgård and run a book club when they’re not helping me find jeans in my size.” People see booksellers doing the same tedious tasks as any other retail employee and assume they not only possess unlimited knowledge about the state of publishing but also have unlimited hours to read while in the store. Customers hold booksellers to an impossible intellectual standard. When they fail to live up to said standard, they’re subjected to conversations like this:

“You haven’t read the latest Kingsolver?” a customer will ask, “Why not? What about this one? Or that one? It’s so good though! I thought you would have read all of these!” 

What’s a shame is that they think they’re being kind when they half-recommend, half-admonish bookstore employees. Worse are the people who are flat-out rude. Case in point, a man came into the store at hour six of my shift, and without any preamble, treating me like I was a human Google search bar, said the name of an author, then started spelling the name. When I asked for a second to look up what I assumed he was asking for, he rolled his eyes and began spelling slowly and loudly: “PAUL. P…A…U…” 

Sadly, I’m too old to be treated that way and without thinking I raised my hand and said sternly “Don’t do that.” Now some oblivious retired banker is walking around Long Island asking himself why indie booksellers are so mean. My Midwestern niceness has disappeared, my helpful attitude is now nonexistent. I have been worn down by the people I’m paid to be kind to.

Read the rest here.

Isamu Lowell ★ picrew link

gender: male sexuality: pansexual age: 26 height: 6'9 body notes:

type of yandere: Delusional Yandere

these yandere usually don’t really have a good grasp of reality; they have a blurry sense of what’s right and wrong and usually don’t ever acknowledge that either they’re wrong or that there are laws and expectations set upon them. they have an image in their minds of what the world is like, what their darling is like, and they don’t ever take no for an answer. how they understand the world to be is how the world is, plain and simple.

Isamu has been a little spoiled when it comes to mates. He's been blessed with both Mel and Leonard; both of them fell in love with Isamu at first sight and the three of them became inseperable almost immediately. So, suffice to say, Isamu has certain expectations for what a mate is supposed to be like. And, well, if you don't act like how he thinks you're supposed to act, there must be an explanation. Even if he has to make one up. Because he loves you and you're his mate so you must love him too, right?

likes: bubble tea, cars, motorcycles, red bean paste, deer, rock climbing dislikes: clowns, deep water, poachers, the poiice, snakes, rabbits

Isamu actually works odd jobs, often just picking up whatever he can find in the news paper or in job listings. When he's not working that way, he's helping his mate out in the forest with fixing cars or cutting down trees. The Forest is actually just a very large grove of evergreen trees that wrap around most of the north of Lovelock. A lot of people pass by it when they drive by on the interstate highway. Deep in the grove, in a hidden clearing, Mel has built a cabin for himself and his mates entirely by hand. Nobody else but him or his mates have access to this cabin.

Like stated before, Isamu is all over Lovelock. Most of the jobs he takes are delivery jobs. He delivers food, mostly. Sometimes, he'll do moving jobs or wholesale lifting jobs. He'll often do jobs covering for retail workers as well. Not to mention smaller jobs than that like baby sitting, pet sitting, fixing quick things, mowing the lawn, etc.

When he's not running everywhere in Lovelock, he's fixing motorcycles and cars in a mechanic's shop near the edge of the forest. Often times, he's known as their best mechanic. When he gets stuck with a problem he can't solve, he'll call over his mate to help him.

When he's tired doing either of those things, he'll take a break by helping out his mates or spending a couple of days just in the forest or in the cabin. He'll climb the nearby hiking trails, help his mate chop down trees, maybe even learn how to carve wood. Mostly, he'll run around the forest, helping his mate keep track of what's going on in the forest and making sure that troublemakers aren't making their way into their home.

sexual preference: switch verse turn ons: marking (giving/receiving), breeding kink, feeding (giving), scenting (giving/receiving), biting (giving/receiving), voyeurism (giving/receiving), primal play, overstimulation (giving), praise (giving/receiving)

dick size: 9.5in

LO RANT:

I’m gonna be completely and utterly biased when I say that I am 100% a Tori defender. Yep, I said it and I’m gonna stand with it. Listen, do I think it’s wrong that he just assumed the worst about Persephone around the time and spread rumors about her? Yeah 100% I don’t support him with that he’s on his own there, but what I mean by defending him is really understanding why he assumed so much in the first place. I get where he’s coming from besides the rumors.

Basically, we all know about LO and it’s constant harassment and disregard for employees/workers. There’s multiple times in this comic where a god has used their title to intimidate and even insult beings who “stand in their way” or become an obstacle for them. The way everyone lets it slide is kinda disheartening for me because it feels like what happens in real life too, hard working employees of various stores, restaurants, retail centers, etc. get either harassed, berated, insulted, and even mistreated on the job either by their employers or the customers themselves. This is literally JUST like how LO treats people who work middle class and I’m only saying middle class because that’s the dynamic that LO itself has set up for its world.

Knowing this though, you can also see why there’s some gods (Hera, Hades, Aphrodite, etc) who think lowly of the nymphs and other beings who are forced to work for them and be at their every call. I’m not saying all nymphs and other mythical beings are just plain workers obviously but the ones who are seem to always get overlooked or verbally abused or insulted by those they have to serve. The gods I’ve named have the nerve and absolute gaul to really talk so much incredible shit about these beings almost all the time and interact with them with such terrible intent, it’s genuinely angering how they just blatantly mistreat them and Rachel herself continues to use these themes and implicate them with every single interaction we see between them. I understand that they’re gods and the beings are not but you do not get respect with fear and I know that Rachel is probably trying to show us how respected the gods are but this honestly isn’t the best way to go for me personally.

But again, knowing how the gods treat beings like Tori on the daily it makes sense that he believed that Persephone was also someone just like them. She was around Hades and I’m pretty sure everyone knows of his terrible behavior and inappropriate work ethic so he probably believed that she reflected things such as that. That’s really all I excuse him for because I know he was doing his job but the rumors were completely unnecessary and mean spirited.

I wish though, instead of Hades impulsively pulling out his eye and being creepy and possessive. I say this because around the time he did that she was still his employee and they barely hit the talking stage, it’s weird that he got so attached and obsessive with her without actually knowing her that well and stuff like that is not healthy having someone literally almost kill for you even though you’ve known them for a couple of days shouldn’t be something we romanticize or even want in our lives. But instead of Hades making a life changing decision for Persephone I would’ve much rather either a conversation between them that led to him taking the newspapers down or Persephone handle it her own way. It’s unnecessary that Hades feels the need to do everything for Persephone, it’s not exactly showing that he respects her opinion or judgement.

But this whole exchange really rubbed me the wrong way and made me really dislike Persephone even more. Technically you’ve got your revenge and at the hospital I guess you already made amends of some sort, no need to literally drag a dead dog on a leash just do the account stuff and leave. I know this was her best attempt at standing up for herself and all but really it just makes me roll my eyes because for so long she never had half of the balls to say anything to any of the gods who’ve wronged her in a real way. Persephone always seems to do this thing where she unleashes hell to someone who’s already suffering and plays the victim, she never lashes out on anyone who genuinely deserves it and she basically turns a blind eye to them. She only punishes those she doesn’t think are worthy of her forgiveness even when there’s so many people she keeps around her who deserve it far more, those people are just used as jokes and gags but let a nymph or any being talk bad about Persephone and she’ll literally ruin their life.

All I’m saying is that if she can harass Tori at his work and intimidate him, I better see absolute fucking hellfire to anyone, and I mean anyone who does something worse. Because I’m tired of this shift of energy to some characters and not to others, it doesn’t make her seem like she’s badass just sorta like a cowardly bully in my eyes.

Ok so I finally read who’s afraid of Alexander J Newell bc… not a single person said what they were actually accused of. Not only is the article unreliable but even if it’s 100% true almost none of it is a big deal? Like no one has broken it down yet so I’ll do a small thing saying why it’s not legit and then explain the “issues” that the article actually talks about

Reasons it’s not accountable

1) the “journalist” does not have a degree of any kind

2) this is posted on a site that allows anyone without any verification or credentials to post. It is also seemingly the only place they’ve posted any news articles

3) they work with the competing company and repeatedly compare them

4) go between pounds and dollars throughout the article to skew numbers in their favor

5) they use the word allegedly every other sentence. You should k ow if it’s actual or alleged before starting a a smear campaign

6) (the biggest one imo) not a SINGLE rq source is named except by pseudonym. I don’t believe that dozens of people were willing to call out Harvey Winsting and Trump but that not a single person can talk about their job sucking in normal ways

7) state easily checkable misinformation like them paying minimum wage when they actually pay above that and the living wage (sad those aren’t the same thing but that’s neither here nor there)

8) the writer is 20 which is apparent if you read this and have ever had a job. At that age my brother quit a job bc his raise was less than a dollar amount within the first year, like all jobs. That was Taco Bell. Im not saying the journalist is on that level but think how much you knew about jobs at the time. I was convinced if I didn’t have the drink cart at the retail store done on time I would be fired instantly on the spot instead of nothing happening. I knew nothing. It’s about experience.

Now RQs alleged (their words not mine) crimes:

1) they pay minimum wage. Considering this started out as an unpaid venture between friends in a disco corridor of their house wouldn’t be bad. But also easily proven untrue

2) people joining were under the impression they wouldn’t have to follow the rules on their contract and that the rules were bendable and then they weren’t. It’s a contract guys.

The big issue with the contract is they want to make money back and ad revenue and such doesn’t make a lot. If they take 50% of everything (what they’re asking) and lent you $1000 it would take 62,500 downloads (most shows don’t break 20,000) for them to get their money back that they gave you if my math according to their own numbers is right. A real evil thing for them to do to pay you and your workers paychecks as well as a budget to make the thing you want and then dare to want to break even or heaven forbid profit.

3) you can’t leave a contract early. Again. It’s a contract. That’s how that works in an adult job. Also they’re mad they can later on use the product to advertise for themselves. Like “from the producers of” type of stuff and other general intellectual property stuff. Not great but if they’re paying to have it made it makes sense halfway through they don’t want you changing networks. You don’t start a show on Disney and end it on Netflix that’s just not how the world works. They bought the product, you don’t pay for someone to build a house and then Act like it’s reasonable they want to take it after.

4) that layoffs exist and happen sometimes? Unfortunate yes. Considering how normal that is and that half the article is about how bad RQ is at making money it should not be a surprise. When a company follows laws such as “pay workers” and doesn’t have the money to do it the solution is “have less workers” sorry to say.

5) that money from productions goes to services used to make those productions (acast)

6) that volunteers exist

7) they aren’t good at advertising their own shows

8) this is actually legitimately not great but again not horrible. They expect people to work 16-20 hours a week and they end up working a WHOLE 24 a week. This is in many places known as a part time job.

9) they think the show will pay more than it will but the Patreon doesn’t get enough and when it does they were still bad with ads so the projected amount was bad. They still get that living wage it’s just not the bonus they planned for. Everyone who works in retail or any job that involves making plan that you don’t account for bonus in your budget.

10) if you try to talk to management there’s a waitlist but if you try to talk to your projects team there’s no issue. Almost as if management runs 50+ projects and the project team only runs one 🤔

11) they’re hands off and let you do their thing. I’m not kidding this is a point in there that’s supposed to be bad

That’s about it. Like no it’s not a utopia or a fun thing where you do whatever and get free money. You can unfortunately tell it’s written by a 20 year old because they think a company ALLEGEDLY holding people to their contracts, paying minimum wage for a part time job, wanting to make money, and not knowing the exact amount of hours they’ll have for you or the amount of money a project will make for your bonus is worthy of writing an article about and being scandalized.

Before believing something check sources. If you don’t want to do that, at least read the article before deciding that somethings horrible and evil. There isn’t any dodged workers comp or wage theft or anything seriously upsetting. If the lack of any named sources or credentials or the fact it’s a competing network or the use of the word alleged 1000 times and the rewrites and misquotes other people have brought up don’t mean anything, then at worst this is all true and you might be asked to work a few extra fully paid hours a week and get paid minimum wage at a part time job and have to follow the rules you agreed to with little bonus. Oh no. I wonder what that’s like, what a nightmare.

Robot Redux

One of our recurring topics this semester is the use of robots, and how they are being used to replace humans in the workplace. The most common examples have been in QSR—Quick Service Restaurants—which include many of the fast food and fast-casual places people like to patronize. And, as you might recall, there has been public outcry over jobs lost.

This is followed by the predictable response that robots create new jobs in their wake, albeit jobs that require more skills than the mundane ones the robots replace. Don’t you mind the usual mantra of robot-specific benefits, like never calling in sick, not needing a potty or smoke break, working straight through lunch, never joining a union, and never walking out on strike. Those are shining attributes in the eyes of some companies.

Then there’s the announcement by Amazon a few days ago that it will be testing humanoid robots in some of its fulfillment centers. These robots do not have wheels. No, they have legs—and arms—just like humans, and can walk up, down, around, anywhere they need to go. Just like opposable thumbs give humans, and not to mention some of our simian relatives, a huge evolutionary advantage, these robots will be able to grasp and not drop, run and not fall.

I’m sure the folks at Amazon HQ are drooling over the prospects of a rank and file who do everything they are told to do, even if it is by virtue of programming.

Amazon has already gone on the defensive, correctly anticipating the push-back from critics and labor unions. They argue that humans will always be part of the fulfillment process. They’re probably right, but they conveniently dodged the ultimate question, which is: How many net jobs will be lost?

Good question indeed. Amazon went on a hiring spree recently, both before and during COVID. In fact, the firm went from 798,000 employees in 2019 to 1,608,000 in 2021. Last year, they shed 67,000 jobs, which some people took as a sign that Amazon was on its way down. That declaration was made in haste, because it is anything but the truth. Essentially, they had to right-size a bit after their seemingly drunken hiring binge.

Humanoid robots, though, could eliminate more jobs, or at least keep more humans from being hired. As the race continues to heat up over delivery times, these robots—along with drones and drivers revving their engines—could work together to deliver the goods faster than the next guy. That next guy, of course, is Walmart, and if ever there were a retail Dodgers v. Yankees rivalry like baseball of old, this is it.

Sure, as we have noted other times this term, robots have a huge up-front expense. But the benefits start to accrue from Day 1. Well, that’s as long as they work as designed. But those are technical issues, and when they are working flawlessly, they eliminate all of the random quirks and foibles of humans.

It’s not like Amazon hasn’t already deployed robots, because they have a workforce of 750,000 thus far. And while the company swears the new ones will “free up” humans to do other tasks, it does hint that these “other things” will be skilled jobs.

The broader message to the workers everywhere is clear: If you are unskilled labor, your job is in peril. You really could be replaced by a machine, and at any time. Keep beating that union drum, and it could happen sooner than later. Fail to show up and perform consistently, and you’re writing your own pink slip.

Still, in the long run, robots tend to cut costs, as well as resolve a litany of HR issues. It is understandable that companies would look to them as substitutes for humans, especially for tasks that do not require a bright and cheery face. Essentially, any repetitive task that is conducted behind the scenes is a candidate for replacement by robots.

And like one of my students pointed out yesterday in the blog about supermarkets kind of having come full circle a century later with humans picking orders, this is just one more example. But this worker doesn’t talk back when you tell it to work on the weekend.

Dr “I Could Use One Of These At Home” Gerlich

Audio Blog

let’s talk about Blake Blachert, shall we?

i must be so bored that i’ve stooped so low to watch shitty youtubers. 

Blake Blachert is a pretty shitty youtuber. 

he’s a downbeat bum with no real job who lives in his car and drives cross country to play pranks on staff working at various stores as well as their unsuspecting customers. 

supposedly people think this is entertainment. 

there is nothing remotely entertaining about a guy who’s never worked a real job in his life who feels the need to pester people working 40 hours a week and making minimum wage. like, they work hard enough without some dumbass coming to bother them at work for some youtube views. 

he’s obviously never worked customer service. it’s bad enough we retail workers have to put up with shitty customers on a daily basis without the added bullshit of a youtuber. like, we don’t get paid enough to put up with that and you wonder why half the people featured in his videos (against their will, i might add) become so disgruntled. 

he claims to spread ‘’positivity’’ in his videos but all he does is annoy people to no end to a point where people start attacking him and cussing him out because he won’t leave them alone. 

there’s nothing wrong with harmless fun and harmless pranks but he goes too far. 

it’s store policy that you can’t film inside because it’s technically private property and tho filming inside a store is not technically ‘’illegal,’’ the store has every right to decide what you can and cannot do inside their store and they reserve the right to remove you from their premises if they feel you are violating store policy. 

Blake actually did get forcibly removed from a HOME DEPOT by a police officer because a customer felt intimidated and did not want to be filmed. Blake refused to respect the wishes of the customer and continued to invade their privacy and staff called police who informed him that filming was not technically illegal but the store had the right to decide what he could do and wanted him to leave. 

he gets booted out of every store in the first 5 or 10 minutes of walking in for not even making an effort to conceal the camera, to which he always comes up with the lame punchline that, ‘’oh he [the camera man] is not filming, he’s CoMpUtInG.’’ 

Blake always underestimates the intelligence of the people he’s pranking. dude, c’mon, it’s 2022, do you think people have never seen a camera before or know what filming looks like?

they ask him nicely over and over, ‘’please stop filming’’ and he won’t. 

sometimes he’ll pretend his camera man is deaf and mute, which is also very lame.

he never fools the people he’s attempting to prank because they’re a lot smarter than he gives them credit for.

he’ll also repeat questions back at them, like once he walked into an art gallery or something and inquired if the jewelry in the gift shop was an ‘’artifact.’’

the saleslady simply replied, ‘’sir, this is jewelry, recently made. it’s modern. it’s not an artifact.’’

he goes, ‘’oh those are really cool artifacts.’’

‘‘sir, it’s jewelry, it’s not an artifact.’‘

and it’ll just go on and on like that. he thinks he’s being cute and funny when he’s just being annoying. 

the problem with videos like these is that the majority of his fanbase will be young kids and teens who don’t know any better and will use this grown ass man as a role model for how they might act in public (which is extremely immature, by the way).

other youtubers have done similar videos and so rather than spreading ‘’positivity’’ and appreciating the hard work of customer service or sales associates, videos like these end up spreading negativity. 

maybe some people won’t mind being pestered at work like this but i know i sure won’t like it. 

and if Blake ever walked into my store, i’d cut off his balls and shove them down his throat. 

May I was wondering, if a doctor (for example) is a marshal, wouldn’t they still be considered medical personnel? Or it’s specifically for FIA medical personnel for some lawsuit? I totally get (and agree) on why there’s the rule, but doctors are doctors no matter where they’re volunteering (obviously if it’s safe for them to go on track, like… there’s already a red flag and driver is conscious) and they should know how safely extract a driver.

And another question (don’t kill me). I’ve read some marshals at the opposite side of the track were cheering about Lewis’ crash. There’s a rule about being as neutral as possible? Or it’s just “common sense”?

The way it works is that if you're a flag/course/comms marshal, then that's what you are for the duration of the event - it doesn't matter if you're a lawyer/doctor/retail worker etc in "real life" (hope that makes sense lol)

On track medical personnel is trained specifically to respond to on track incidents. They know how to best stabilize a driver's neck, how to safely extricate a driver from a car etc. Someone's who is a family doctor irl will (most likely) not be trained on how to safely stabilize a neck during a potential extrication, so there is the risk of doing more damage than good. That being said, people with medical background are a bonus as they can assess quickly the situation and report it back to RC, so that Race Control may make the call on wether or not to deploy a medical car/ambulance (Formula 1 has sensors for that, but smaller motorsport series are not that fancy - Race Control relies on the trackside personnel feedback)

There is always the ever present threat of lawsuits as well lol (I do think this is more of an American concern but I'd assume Europe is the same) - that's why they stressed to us that if a driver gets out on their own, we're good to assist them. But if a driver feels that for whatever reason they want to stay put for a sec, then don't touch them and call for the medical car/ambulance etc.

The only time (and thankfully very, very rare) these rules would not apply is if the car is a ball of flames and the driver is unconscious (ex. Similar to Romain's accident).

In regards to biases - marshals are not tied down to some sort of Hippocratic oath lol. It is understood that in your role as a marshal you would help anyone who needed it. That being said, it's a volunteer position that people join because of the love of the sport. And with the love of the sport come... Uh... Preferences? Dislikes? 😂 (Idk how to word it lmao) towards teams/drivers etc. I will say that 99% of people I've volunteered with have been nothing but outstanding professionals but unfortunately you will always find some individuals who are the human equivalent of a big bag of small dicks.

Hope this makes sense :)

life feels hard and unforgiving sometimes so here’s some highlights just from a single day from last week to remind anyone out there that life is still worth living and enjoying, and there are plenty of kind people :)

I stopped at the grocery store (different from where I work) to kill time waiting for my second bus. I found some jeans in the clothing section, but wanted to know how much they were, so i went to the dressing rooms where two older women working then had a friendly battle to see who could log into their scanner first to check the price, it was really fun

After the second bus, theres a short half mile walk to my work, and as i was passing by businesses on the way (it was like 9:30am), one fast food worker opened her window (the drive thru was empty) and waived for me to come over. I ran over and she said she loved my outfit and asked where I got my stuff so I told her the goodwill I go to and where the best clearance stuff I find is. It’s also been heavily raining recently so I told her where the best raincoats are in town

I’m at work doing my (retail) job, and a lady asks me for help. She starts apologizing (a lot) because she couldn’t find an exact photo of what she was looking for, and I told her she doesn’t need to apologize at all! I said if she wanted to stop reflexively apologizing all the time, she can change up the words she uses like I do. When I’m doing something and it takes a while, I say “thank you for helping me/ thank you for waiting,” and it usually works really well. It’s also my job to help people find things in the store so there’s no need to feel guilty about asking for help! In the end I found the bookshelf she wanted and she said that it was good advice that she wants to practice more

Whenever I find something broken or unusable, i bring it up to the front desk and put a sticky note on it saying what’s wrong, usually with a little frowny face. My manager saw me doing this finally and said “so its YOU who’s been leaving this stuff up here!” And i was like oh no! Do you want me to stop? And she replied “nah, honestly I think it’s funny and I like finding this stuff up here. Just wish people would stop breaking our shit.” This new note was on a open bag of chips and said “someone was eating me like a feral animal and then decided to leave the bag :( “

Sometimes when someone breaks an item, especially glass or ceramic, they feel bad and start to try to clean it up themselves. I, trying to be as friendly as possible but still firm, go “NOOO nO don’t touch it, sTOPP >:0 its sharp you need to stay safe” in the most silly way possible to try to distract from the fact that they feel bad. I call for someone to grab a broom and guard the broken pieces while looking at the customer like 👀 dont you dare touch any of the pieces this isn’t your job LOL. I know how quickly one small thing (dropping & breaking something at the store) can really hurt your mood (speaking from experience) so Im very over-the-top silly when it comes to cleaning these accidents. Dropping shit happens! Don’t feel bad lol im rushing in to clean it up >:)

While at the front of the store I was approached by an older man and he said, “I’m sorry if this comes off as rude, but where is the nearest real grocery store?” And when I tell you i SNORTED and said “nah that’s not rude, I don’t get any of my meat or produce from here,” and told him the nearest store with actual fresh produce and meat was a little bit further down the street.

Whenever I’m working and friends come in, they pretend not to know me to some degree so I can put on my retail face for a moment and “help” them while they tell me briefly about their day :) and then I actually tell them wherever the stuff they’re looking for actually is located in the store lol

I get asked pretty frequently how I do my hair and how I get it to stay like that, (medium length curly hair that actually holds its curls), to the point where I made a little diagram i keep on my phone of my routine + products I use and recommend, and show it to them to take a picture of or airdrop it to them :) 

It was close to closing for the front cafe department (i am trained for multiple departments and switch during the day sometimes lol) and one of our last customers for the night was very unsure of what she wanted to drink. Since we throw out most of the tea for the night, i broke out the little sample cups and let her try allll of them so she could narrow down her choices. Halfway through trying them, she asked “do you do this all the time?” And I was like “no, usually it’s too busy, but we’re about to close and I want you to get a good experience & drink out of this” :) she laughed at that and decided on a peach tea lemonade w/ another fruit drink mixed in it.

Leaving work I went to say goodbye to a handful of my coworkers, as per my routine, and my one coworker always gives me a cup of whip cream and a fork. I never asked her to do this but she’s started it as part of her routine so I’ve accepted it into mine. I take the cup home with me and put the whip cream on a little bowl of fruit every night :)

Source:

Regardless of how much inner peace I’ve cultivated, I’m always impressed when I see someone keep their cool in a stressful situation. I’ve witnessed countless retail or hospitality service workers deal calmly with difficult customers, as well as health care workers and teachers.

I remember once when I was younger, overhearing a hate-fueled conversation in a waiting room. Finally, my outrage built to the point where I felt I needed to say something—when an older woman caught my eye and gently shook her head. It’s not worth it.

And she was right. Because acting out your emotional reaction is rarely going to make things any better. It it far more likely to make things worse. Blasting a group of strangers for their sexist banter isn’t going to change their minds one bit. In fact, it will more likely reinforce whatever stereotypes they’re working off of.

Consider, for example, how much better things tend to go when you complain about something calmly rather than stomping around in outrage and blaming people. Even if you do somehow get what you want in the end, you’ve ruined at least one other person’s day and likely feel rotten afterwards.

In a previous post, I looked at the 7 components of wisdom researchers at UCSD have identified. I then proposed that in the next few posts I would look at each one in more detail. This is the first of these posts.

Emotional Regulation

Of the traits researcher identified, I consider emotional regulation the primary factor of wisdom, or the place to start.

Being able to regulate your emotional reactivity is the key to keeping calm under fire, and it’s arguably the holy grail of your connection to the wisdom within you. This core wisdom skill hinges on being aware that you’re reacting and that your mind is racing in a way that feeds that reaction so that it will continue.

According to Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, in what she calls the 90-Second Rule, it takes no more than 90 seconds for stress chemicals to wash through and completely leave our bodies. This means that when we feel upset for longer, it’s due to our fixation on the issue. And so, our bodies keep releasing the hormones that then keep fueling our thoughts and emotions.

I’m not by any means advocating for an emotion-less existence or for avoiding the experience of pain. But when we find ourselves triggered (often by something petty and unintended), emotional regulation can help us calm down before we react in a way we’ll likely regret.

Regulate Your Emotions with the Practice

At 1Body, the Practice of mind, posture and breath provides the simplest of tools for regulating your emotions. The goal is to tear your attention away from whatever is triggering you and focus instead on your breathing.

Notice that as you maintain this focus on your breath, you become aware of the muscular tension that occurs as a result of the stress response.

As you continue to breathe, feel your posture soften and relax a little. (Deliberately relaxing your shoulders while you focus on your breathing is a great way to support this process.)

When your thoughts intrude, just keep returning your attention to your posture and breath.

Here is the reason it works: Focusing your thoughts primarily on your posture and breath keeps them from fueling your emotions. More importantly, focusing on your posture and breath activates the prefrontal cortex — the part of your brain that can consciously focus on your physiological state and quiet your body’s emotional alarm systems when you’re under stress.

Suggested Further Reading

This article by

Kayli Kunkel

gives some great in-depth explanations for getting in touch with emotions and reflecting on them (which I’ll talk about next). She starts by explaining the difference between necessary and unnecessary pain, and emphasizes the importance of self-compassion to deal with the latter. She then explains how to go about identifying what you’re feeling and breaks down some steps for going deeper, self-soothing and engaging with the emotions of others.

Emotional Regulation for the Uninitiated

Feeling your feelings 101

kaylikunkel.medium.com

A weird reflection on a conversation with a Pro-Capitalist

In the not-so-distant past I had a mutual acquaintance who was very pro-capitalism. I will call him Carl. He had a degree in something finance related, I don’t entirely remember the specifics, but I remember he said things a lot of the time that seemed very apathetic and nonsensical. So, to continue my newfound habit of utilizing this blog as a hybrid between a journal and gateway for conversation; I want to navigate some of the thoughts and realizations I had from this individual. 

Here is some further relevant context between the two of us as individuals; I am an educator at a childcare center that is a part of a primary schools out of school hours care program. I earn a pretty decent amount but that is weighed down by the low hours I have. My fiancé who works at a retail store for less, but has higher hours earns roughly the same amount in her paychecks as I do. Carl had studied economics at a college and had a well-paying office job and putting in years of dedication toward his career, however, was well known for struggling with work life balance and maintaining social connections. 

We had a lot of arguments about the nature of capitalism and how it either served for the employee or exploited them. The main point of his argument was that capitalism is extremely misunderstood, and required a lot of education to understand but once you acquire that education you would know it is in the best interest of all involved. Now in most circumstances I’d agree that education is one of the most important tools for someone to have. And that it is important to take into account the wisdom of those who are educated. However, the problem here is that if the only way to properly understand how the system that will affect every aspect of your life is through university level education, the system might simply be too complicated. 

I’m of course no expert in the matter, but I don’t think it's that unreasonable to believe you want most people who’re a part of a system to understand said system. And I think it’s a little naive (which, don’t get me wrong is not a negative thing to be. Rather tragic) to have not realized how easy it is for a system to be exploited when the majority of the population are not experts educated enough to understand they’re being exploited. 

This segues into my next point, I think human nature plays a bigger part in any system, not just Capitalism, then Carl really understood. It goes without saying there is a chunk of the population in our world that is willing to exploit others for their own personal gain. It also goes without saying that no system is ironclad, and all will have loopholes. Unfortunately, those willing to exploit those loopholes are going to find themselves at an advantage over the honest people who don’t do that. The more they are able to exploit the greater that imbalance becomes until it becomes impossible to ever reach their heights through genuine means. This is closer to the reality we see today, where movements are popping up as people realize there is no such thing as a good billionaire, because they have reached heights unattainable through honest means. 

It does concern me a little, what people are being taught in financial courses to have such rose-tinted glasses. Maybe it's solely the theory of how the system is supposed to work without any of the reality, and none of the exploitation. I hope one day he realizes the problems people like myself face as workers, rather than continuing to believe that those who financially struggle in their day to day lives are at fault. 

i can't sleep so im gonna gush about the warehouse i work at bc im also working on not masking anymore and letting myself just gush about things i love and god do i think warehouses are cool. not as cool as the assembly line i used to work at, but the management at that place was super corrupt

(im dyslexic and my autocorrect is off, forgive any typos bc i just dont care to fix them)

anyway. my warehouse is a Direct to Consumer (D2C) warehouse. we do a whole lot of stuff and i have experience in most of the departments by now. essentially if someone orders from our store (huge major retailer) there is a high likelyhood the package will be from the warehouse i work at.

we receive tons of merchandise from the ppl who make it, as well as customer returns both from the physical stores and returns mailed in by the customer. ive worked in both returns departments and boy do i got stories of nasty stuff people thought was okay to mail in to us.

and of course we send out packages to customers. my least favorite department so far was Pack, its so competitive over there as far as production numbers. the way packaging customer orders worked over there was like this: many rows of conveyer belts that orders would come down on. on either side of the belts were our stations, a desk in front of you and a shelf of boxes behind you. then under the first conveyer belt is another one going the other way that you put packages on. that one would take the packages over to Shipping, ive never worked over ther cause im kindof a little guy and heavy lifting not so much for me.

the competitive part of Pack is that people who take the stations further up the belt where the orders come from get first pick. my store sells both clothes and larger home goods that are stored in our Home department. the Home goods take longer to pack while clothes are pretty quick. so people at the head of the line would always cherry-pick the quick orders while shy people like me at the very end always got stuck with huge comforter sets and stuff like that. i never had good numbers over there lol. but ive only ever worked in Pack during our holiday season rush when we have tons of seasonal workers, so it may not be so competitive in the off-season.

another of our departments is called Active, i think because thats where most active merchandise is. mostly just clothes bundled in plastic but ive seen more toys and random stuff this season since toys r us closed. we have three floors in this dept. over here we put product away as well take product out, called Picking. which is what i normally do this season. a Picker takes a big metal cart and a few of these big boxes we call totes, they're like hard plastic with cutout handles and no top. using a scanner, that right now just looks like a cell phone with a good case, we walk through the isles of merchandise and pick stuff from cardboard boxes on shelves. when the tote is full enough we'll end it on the scanner and put it on a conveyer belt. the totes arent like, one customer order per tote, more like a random assortment of things that need shipped that day.

the people who decide what gets picked and in what order are Wave Planners over in Wave. i have no idea what they do except that its complicated and the rest of us depend on them for our work.

we have a few other departments where merch is stored too. in the center of our building is Beauty, where all the makeup, perfume, and idk beauty related items are. they have their own shelves and their own packing stations and a sorting area where orders are put together. its pretty neat. ive helped out in Beauty a couple times, with sorting, called MSL, and with Picking. ive heard certain parts of it stink of mixed perfume from damaged products.

another place is Case Reserve where basically stuff is put for longer than in Active. the shelves there go directly to ceiling, all three stories worth of space, so those are some tall shelves. they use big warehouse vehicles to get to high up merchandise when needed. i dont what the vehicles are called except MHE. i was almost trained to drive them once but i got covid and had to stop working before they could. now im glad though because i definitely did not realize what i would have been getting into lol.

a similar place is Home. like mentioned before, thats where our home goods are. ive never worked in Home directly but the gift wrap stations for Pack are back there and i used to do some gift wrapping sometimes. they have a big sorting area over and additional packing stations there too that ive helped out in. i don't much else about it other than that.

upstairs is Prep, they get stuff from Receiving and prepare it for getting put away on shelves, on the conveyers the boxes go, over to my department to get put away. they tried to train me in Prep once during the pandemic when there was nothing to do, but i was so confused lol. i have maybe a fourth of a day of experience in Prep cause they needed help in Beauty more.

the first department i worked in at this warehouse was ICQA, Inventory Control and Quality Assessment. basically trying to make sure that things are where theyre supposed to be and assessing what items are actually in a location vs what the computer thinks is there. icqa does a whole lot more than i can really describe here and a lot of it is complicated. icqa basically has sub-departments. my experience with icqa is walking around Active with a scanner and counting the items in whichever location the scanner tells me next. this called a Second Count or Seconds. its when the systems see an inconsistency in what a person said is there vs what is supposed to be there, and i go check to see what the truth is, so accuracy is the most important aspect of working in icqa.

There's other departments. as well as offices upstairs that ive never even seen. but those are the ones i have most experience in.

the whole place fascinates me. its intriguing knowing how every single department is working with each other, its one big flow. but also so super complicated. i love walking through the warehouse and just gazing up at conveyer belts that are two stories above my head. watching totes zip along complicated conveyer lines. the Active department has no walls separating it from Wave so i get to see it from the second floor, sometimes even the third floor, and its just so cool. we seriously have so many conveyer belts just all over the places going in and out of walls, going up and down at steep angles, taking all sorts of things all over the place.

the warehouse i work at supposedly has 2 million square feet of walkable surface and i believe it when im walking around at work. ive heard that people who do my usual job, Picking, can walk up to ten miles in a day just working.

i guess im done gushing lol. sorry for the long post, i just really like my line of work :D if anyone happens to read this and has any kind of warehouse questions please feel free to ask

20221218

for jonghyun,

five years is a long time.

this fateful day that i dread every single year is finally here once again. five years. half a decade. one thousand eight hundred and twenty six days since you left.

it’s surreal. it’s crazy to think about. it’s been so long, and yet it’s gone by in the blink of an eye.

there’s still nothing i wouldn’t do to bring you back. i miss your bright smile, and your eyes that twinkle like they house billions of stars. i miss your voice. i miss the way you’d laugh with your entire chest, or how your whole body reacted to just about anything. i truly, deeply miss you, jjong.

so much has happened in just a year, and i can’t even begin to think of the person i was five years ago.

desi and i just hit our one year anniversary on the 7th. they’ve been really good to me and for me, i hope you’ve been able to see it. we’ve been talking about moving in, and it just about seems like it might be something happening very soon. i love them, i really do. they make days even as gloomy as these feel okay. they’re amazing, and i wish you could’ve been here to see.

i recently adopted a(nother) cat. yes, desi’s cat piper is technically mine too, but i hardly see piper. i don’t live with her yet, i don’t get to call her mine because she’s technically desi’s. but this cat, he’s all mine. the cat rescue my neighbors have, they asked me to take care of it for a month while they’re in the amazon. of course i wanted to, and i can’t say i didn’t expect to get attached to all of the kitties, but this one really won over my heart. his name is cloud, like cloud strife from final fantasy, and it really fits him. he’s a real cutie, just a big sweetheart. i think you’d love him, and i could totally see you wanting a cat someday. i’ll make sure to tell him all about you later tonight.

i’ve made and lost a bunch of friends. i haven’t necessarily lost many, but some distance has grown between us, and that’s okay. i don’t hate them, but i’ve grown to realize that what i think is good for me and what i want to constantly surround myself with just isn’t them. as for the friends i’ve made, they’re pretty great. i’ve also grown a lot closer to some friends, and i can say i’m happy with my relationships right now.

i got a new job, too! my last job was horrible, that’s for sure, but this new one isn’t so bad. i’ve never worked in retail before, so it’s definitely been a new, stressful experience for me. nevertheless, i think i’ve definitely grown to love the people there and the state i’m at. though, i am late quite often and i put myself in a lot of sticky situations. i have many flaws as a worker, but i’m trying to fix them, i swear.

i tried to contact my doctor for an adhd assessment. it’s been something i’ve struggled with for the longest time, and i finally pulled the trigger, just to be told there’s a countless number of hoops i have to jump through just so i can actually get the help i need. they basically need to treat me for my “severe anxiety” first (their exact words) which doesn’t really help because i needed help with my inattentiveness, but it’s okay. i’ll call them back eventually, i just need to find the motivation (and also not forget on the days which i am motivated). i’m getting it all sorted out, slowly, but it’s a work in progress.

this time of year always gets a bit gloomy remembering you’re not around. i try to have fun and make the most out of days like these, and i try to stay positive around the holidays, but some nights are harder than others, naturally. i just hope you’re doing well wherever you are.

i love you, jjong. i miss you endlessly and i really hope you’re happy. you did well, and you worked hard. you are always in my heart. thank you for letting me love you.

How to Rent a Retail Property for Your Business

How to Rent a Retail Property for Your Business

Whether you’re opening a new business, looking to expand into a bigger space, or ready to sign a new lease, locating retail space for lease requires careful research and skilled negotiations.

Making the right choice increases your chances of long-term success. However, if you go for a bargain-priced space, business may suffer. 

While shopping for new retail commercial space may appear similar to a residential rental, there are major differences. We’ll go into these further later in this article.

In the meantime, here’s the best place to begin your search for retail space for lease.

Determine Your Business Requirements

As you’re already aware, what works for one retail business won’t work for another. Therefore, you’ll need to determine the best location before you begin viewing rental spaces for lease.

If you’re opening a bargain outlet, customers probably won’t mind going out of their way in search of a deal.

If you’re selling five-figure entertainment systems or designer footwear, customers will expect you to be neighbors with similar businesses.

Opening a franchise? Network with other franchise owners regarding space and location requirements.

If you’re expanding or relocating an existing business, consider your regular customers’ shopping habits. Will your new location be convenient to them? Doing this can help build loyalty, something particularly valuable in today’s shopping environment. 

Next, you’ll want to look at retail lease prices in the areas you’ve chosen, and determine what’s truly affordable in the long run.

Triple-Net Leases and Other Costs

If you’ve been searching for your first retail rental, you may have noticed the acronym NNN following a space’s square foot price. This isn’t an acronym: It’s short for “triple-net” lease. 

This means that you’ll be paying more than a basic, square foot rental rate. Your lease will probably contain some, or all, of the following costs:

Property taxes are part of commercial real estate (CRE) ownership. A triple-net NNN lease will include your retail space’s share of these taxes. Since your landlord has no control over tax rates, this isn’t a negotiable number.

Property insurance is another non-negotiable part of your lease. Depending on your business, you may need to provide proof of insurance to qualify for tenancy.

Liability and worker’s compensation insurance, while usually not part of your rent, is still a requirement for a retail business. Your landlord may want to see proof of coverage.

The following costs may or may not be in your lease, as they’re usually limited to retail space within a multi-tenant building.

Upkeep of Communal Areas

CAM, or Common Area Maintenance, are fees charged to maintain shared or “common” spaces. Some examples include:

Parking lots;

Hallways;

Landscaping; and

Common-area restrooms

You may be able to negotiate your CAM fees, especially if your retail space is one of the smaller ones in the building, if your business is far away from the landscaping, or if you’re allowed fewer reserved parking spaces than others.

Utilities

Utility bills may also be a cost that’s not included in your base rental rate. Like a residential property, you’ll be paying for your retail space’s electrical, HVAC and water bills. 

Depending on your business, you may have other utility costs, such as:

Specialized lighting for displays, especially if you’re opening a boutique-type business.

Power-intensive fixtures, such as kitchen utilities within a cafe or restaurant.

Researching your future utility bills can be tricky, and you may have to depend on estimates. 

Now that we’ve reviewed costs that are included in most retail lease agreements, here are some additional costs to consider.

Preparing for Your Opening

While you may be lucky and find a retail space that requires minimal effort to make it your own, most will need some remodeling. This is called a build-out. 

Costs for a typical build-out are sometimes reimbursed by the landlord. This is done with a Tenant Improvement Allowance, or TIA. These are usually calculated on a square foot basis. 

Here’s an example: 

If you leased a 4,000 square foot retail space, and you negotiate a $20.00 per square foot improvement allowance, your landlord would agree to cover $80,000 of the costs of your build-out.

Keep in mind that you’ll pay the costs of the build-out when work is performed before you open for business. Ask your landlord if you can defer your initial rent payments until you’ve been open for business for a while. 

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by these costs and details? You may be best off working with a commercial real estate (CRE) broker.

Retail CRE Broker Benefits

First and foremost, a CRE broker spends 100% of their time negotiating leases for clients. This means that, when you decide to enlist the services of a broker, you’ll benefit from their experience.

Other reasons to work with a broker include:

Local networking skills. This is especially important if you’re unfamiliar with your new neighborhood. A broker will be familiar with much more than the current market atmosphere. Brokers are often aware of future changes, such as the arrival of a new residential subdivision or major highway, that could bring more business your way.

Networking connections. Brokers spend a big portion of their working hours with other retail tenants and their landlords. This means that a broker may know about the ideal retail space for your business before it hits the market. 

A savvy CRE broker will also refer you to local attorneys, contractors and businesses related to your own. 

Earlier in 2022, data showed that over 50% of consumers were comfortable returning to traditional, bricks-and-mortar retail stores. 

In addition, more retailers have found that adding services that enable consumers to pick up retail goods after ordering online have increased their profits.

Do your research, consider working with a CRE broker, and good luck finding your perfect retail space for lease in Illinois!

hermes crocodile bag 9

Hermes Violet Niloticus Crocodile Birkin 25 We’ll hold you posted concerning the news on this bag, as it's certain to interrupt data. And though I won’t be bidding myself for obvious causes – one being finances -I find a bag and story like this so interesting. And what I actually need to know is who buys this bag and the way they plan to use it. Tamara Ecclestone, daughter of F1 boss Bernie, revealed her wardrobe was filled with Hermes handbags. Both farms supply tanneries utilized by Hermes to provide skins for his or her luggage, as well as watch-straps, purses, belts and shoes. The French luxury trend home Hermes designed what turned generally recognized as the Birkin in 1981. Animal rights protesters was once a mainstay at fashion weeks in New York and Europe, storming the runways with predictable regularity at high-profile exhibits by Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier and others. But lately, they've been largely silent as PETA shifted its message online to social media. This controversy is a victory for the group, which has half a million Twitter followers, and additional proof of how celebrity shaming is normally a tactic to promote outrage and activism. The ne plus ultra of luxurious fashion status symbols is the target of a take-down by its superstar namesake. She said she was "flattered to death and stated yes, yes, sure". One of the one locations that sources and sells authentic Hermès merchandise is Luxity, which holds the title for the most expensive pre-owned purse in SA. This was the Hermès Epsom Birkin 35 Menthe, which was bought for R220,000, and had a retail worth of R280,000. In the meantime, start investing in our other coveted Hermès beauties, not only are they probably the most coveted luxurious designer goods in SA, but they're also rare and are certain to make any outfit scream luxury. phoenet.tw replica hermes crocodile bag We can't start a dialogue about the most costly Birkin bag without a good understanding of the brand’s history and heritage. Guaranteed genuine distinctive Hermes Birkin 35 Diamond Porosus Crocodile bag featured in honeyed Miel. Exquisite and uncommon color, this Hermes Birkin bag with 18K Yellow Gold hardwa... Mightychic presents a guaranteed authentic Hermes Birkin forty bag featured in Fauve matte Porosus Crocodile. Accentuated with bone high stitch, this is the ultimate every single day, go everyw... Alligators are one of few species recognized to use tools to catch their prey. They rest twigs on their snouts to seize birds who come to take them to construct nests. In a variety of the film’s most upsetting scenes, workers at Lone Star Alligators may be seen hacking on the necks of seemingly stay alligators. Guaranteed genuine 2020 Hermes Kelly bag featured in coveted Limited Edition Himalaya crocodile. This Hermes Kelly Himalayan bag is amongst most uncommon luggage produced by Hermes. Mightychic offers a guaranteed genuine very uncommon diamond Hermes Kelly Cut bag featured in wealthy jewel toned Blue Marine. Jane is out there to personally information you and choose the perfect bag. If you want to rotate your collection, grow it, or sell - Jane will personally work with you and share her experience to perform your targets. While many luggage can be mentioned to be collectable in some ways, be they vintage beaded purses, bejeweled Judith Leiber... Will normally ship within 1 business day of receiving cleared fee. This item will ship to Germany, but the vendor has not specified delivery choices. The rarity of this Birkin ought to be famous, considering the mix of Porosus crocodile leather-based and essentially the most sought after 30cm dimension. The value we are offering this model new crocodile leather-based Birkin at should also be noted. A rare handbag certainly,that is an exceptional price for a Porosus crocodile Birkin! Porosus is called the premier crocodile leather-based for handbags, thus rather more pricey than it is counterparts. Not to be confused with crocodile, alligator tends to be sourced from Florida within the United States and its scales are typically more patterned than crocodile. Other aspects of indication include a sq. symbol close to the embossed Hermes logo and a prominent umbilical scar to painting authenticity. After the alligators’ miserable lives and sometimes sluggish, ugly deaths, their skins are despatched to France and made into “luxury” gadgets similar to watchbands. Python is a very popular selection in vibrant colours, as the scales tackle dye very well – assume fuchsia, turquoise, and scarlet red. Chanel baggage crafted from python are much-coveted collector’s items on the resale market and often price around €2,000 to €4,000. The clasp of the bag is eleven inches in length, adorned with 10 carats of white diamonds which leaves no query as to why this Birkin bag is so highly-priced. wikipedia hermes crocodile In 2016 a Hermes Birkin bag broke global information to turn into the most costly bag ever to sell at public sale for a document £208,a hundred seventy five. Sold to an nameless purchaser at Christie’s, Hong Kong, the bag is created from rare Himalayan crocodile pores and skin with white gold detailing and encrusted with over 200 diamonds. It comes with a lock, keys, clochette, sleeper, raincoat, and Hermès box. Find out extra in regards to the Hermès Birkin Vert Fonce Crocodile. Next up we now have an consideration grabbing Hermès Birkin 35 Bougainvillea Porosus Crocodile. Crafted from a slightly totally different crocodile skin, the Porosus crocodile, this bag is extremely rare and troublesome to seek out. The Porosus crocodile skin is among the many rarest in the Hermès collection, with the addition of the Bougainvillea colour including extra exclusivity to this explicit handbag.