# 12 (2nd part)

Damndest thing, wife and I wasted a tank of gas looking for some place called 2246 South Shore Center. Obviously some kind of new place, can’t even spell centre.

#11
Where’s South Shore?

“Honey, let’s go shopping at Park Street”.

“OK, let’s take the car this time even though it’s 6 blocks away — why not? — Parking is free!!”

Instead of the city just leaving revenue on the table, how about making a promotion in association with the local business associations to directly donate all parking meter revenue to a local charity, like the Alameda Food Bank? That way, there wouldn’t be any additional incentive to drive to your shopping destination, and the money would go to a good “seasonal” cause.

Two things; first, there will be free parking in the Park Street District every Saturday until Christmas. The free parking was supposed to start last Saturday but because of a lack of communication on my part, our meters weren’t bagged. They will be bagged December 1, 8, 15, and 22.

Second, I can’t speak for Webster Street, but we use the white plastic bags with a sticker on it indicating “Free Parking”. The simple reason is cost.

The white plastic bags cost $13.00/thousand at Costco. The labels we put on them cost $35.00/1000. Because the bags have a bad habit of disappearing we use one box of both the bags and labels during the holiday season at a cost to PSBA of about $60.00 including tax.

The company you refer to in your post quoted me a cost of $16.00 per hood + a $40.00 set up fee; I did not inquire about shipping cost. At that price, PSBA would have to spend in excess of $3,000 to bag every meter in the District. I found other companies that would sell meter bags at a cost far less than $3,000 (best was about $500 + shipping but these were plastic bags also).

I understand your concern about the bags being “tacky”, but in all my years at PSBA, 9 years, one month and still counting, no one has ever made any comment about the bags until now. Most shoppers are just happy to have free parking on a Saturday and we just don’t have the budget to spend the kind of money I found out it would cost for any other way of bagging the meters. If anyone can think of a low cost ($100 or less) alternative to the white plastic bags and labels please call me at the PSBA office (523-1392) and let me know what your thoughts are.

All the staff and members of PSBA wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season.

Best Regards,
Robb Ratto
PSBA, Executive Director

My conclusion is that BBB is more of the same that you’d see in any number of US retailers: Target,Pier 1, and even some of the ‘fancy’ stuff sold at Wal-Mart.It is almost All made in China.BBB’s stuff just looks shinier and fancier. The sneaky thing is that it wasn’t as obvious at BBB. For example, there was a pricey set of All-clad cookware that cost around $1,500.That set was actually US-made.But right Next to it was another pricey set.It was either Caphalon or Cuisinart. Looking very carefully at the underside revealed a teeny “Made in China” label on the white box. All for around $750.I know that there is no way that that set cost anywhere near that amount to produce.That isn’t to say that the quality was bad, but I have a set that is perhaps just as good that had the same heavy-duty cladding purchased at Target for $50 for the whole set.

I find that rather clever since I assume most people don’t bother to look, hence a company like BBB can probably make a small killing on cookware that probably cost $20 to make in China.

Retail sales are down across the board- Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot… and BBB. All because of the nice little continuing credit issue/end of the funny money problem.

Anyhow, I made the stupid mistake of actually going out on Friday. More for my own curiosity. I’ve never seen that many humans crammed into a line to buy nose trimmers, underwear, cheap toys, and shoes in my life nor do I wish to repeat the experience again. My curiosity was sated.