Who Is Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf ?

For as long as I can remember, the biggest and most treacherous animal out there,

in the “retail” marketplace has always been Walmart.  I think books—many of them have

been written about the “big bad wolf,” that many have labeled Walmart to be, claiming that

they have been so successful in attracting customers, they have decimated so many small and

independent businesses, that they are a “jobs killer,”, as their detractors have claimed.

As someone who has retail locations, Box Brothers has been in business for a long time, but while

everyone is entitled to their opinions, I for one, do not share this opinion, that Walmart is the “big bad

wolf out there, as if they are all of that, as some claim, how come no one complains about the marketing

tactics of Target, or even the goings on with some other large national chains, like Home Depot, for example.

My premise is that while businesses, retail and otherwise, have gotten not only larger, more complex, but

also more dominant in this society, than at any other time since the inception of the series of rules normally

referred to the Antitrust laws of the United States.   My point is that, for whatever reason, these laws are not

working as they should to protect the American consumer and the American small businessman.   Further,

it is also my contention that Walmart has other detractors, unions for example, as the national supermarkets

simply have higher costs of labor than does Walmart, or even Target.  But why Target is never the target of these

groups, is beyond me and the point of this blog.

For example, this past week, I got some emails from Home Depot, and guess what business Home Depot now wants to be

in, this week?   Flowers—yes, I was solicited from Home Depot to buy roses for Valentines Day on February

14, 2013.   From a warehouse that sells lumber, nails, and everything else under the sun, except groceries.

Leverage is not just a television show, I guess, it is what large firms do to make sure they hammer on smaller

competitors to make sure they out muscle them, out market them and convince potential customers that they

are all that.  In that vein, I also saw a story about Home Depot being the place that is going to hire so many new

employees this year, that they alone will pull this region out of its unemployment doldrums….They used an employee

from the local Home Depot, and they put on a 30 second clinic in how they were such a great place to work, etc, etc, etc.

So, why does not our media ask Home Depot what the starting salary is for these positions, how many people they let

go last year, and how many of those who they are hired are in upper management, today.   And even more telling, how

many of those employees can afford to buy a median priced home in Southern California, or even Las Vegas, for that

matter?  The answer is no one working at Home Depot can even afford to rent a median priced apartment in many parts

of Los Angeles, or Las Vegas.   The same holds true with Target, 95% of all of their employees on the floors of their stores,

make less than $12.00 per hour, with little to no benefits.

If I may, my personal experience is one I would like to offer, to show how sometimes truth can be trampled.   I went to Home Depot

to get some Poinsettias at the start of the holiday season.  I went to Home Depot per their heavy advertisements

offering them, at a good price.   So I went there an hour after the start of the sale, they were sold out.   I asked this

same woman who did the tv spot for them, and she told me that they only got a few and were sold out before the

sale even started…….this from one of the world’s largest retailers and the lady laughed at me, saying what did I

expect.   I told her, that I expected the largest hardward store in the world to make good on their offer as I saw

it as a way to simply get me to their store to buy something else… she walked away and that is the extent of the

help and customer service I have had at Home Depot, as their service stinks.   Why is bait and switch not relevant for

Home Depot, as their TV personality said it to me and called me a fool to think otherwise.   I guess it’s fair for them to

do as they please.

If you follow this line of reasoning, they are justified to go after the flower guys, as why not, the supermarkets hammered

the small independent flower guys years ago (did anyone notice, or care?), but the supermarkets did not get blamed for

hurting the small mom and pop flower stores that were hit with competition from well healed money interests, such as

Safeway and Kroger, a couple of behemoths in their own right.  But Safeway and Ralphs (and Walmart) do not presently

have any presence in the flower delivery business.

What is common among all large businesses, is that they have forgotten their humble beginnings, and moved onto

what they consider, as, greener pastures: another way of saying they can hammer competitors that are small independently

owned businesses easier and faster, than they can larger for well healed ones.   So they all hammer on the small guy, who

has no leverage and today, it is my feeling that the American consumer has simply confused price and service and forgot about

service.  How else can you understand just how large these firms have become so dominant and omnipotent?

What I do not get, is that I have yet to find any of these large firms, that dominate American Business, that are open,

accessible, fair and reasonable—but most importantly, they all would rather hire a focus group to hear what they think

their customers want, instead of simply being brave enough to simply meet their customers and ask them to their face. 

Why?

Cause these decision makers, are so far removed from their actual places of business, and their customers, they would not even

know what to ask or how to answer a question from a customer.   If you own a business, why would you not want to meet and greet

your customers, or speak to them about what is right or wrong with your firm?  Instead, you hire surrogates to come up with what you

can find out on your own, again, I ask why?

Today they make a TV show called Undercover Boss, and no one says how dumb it is that these owners/CEO’s have to

hide their own identity in their own firms, to learn what is going on….so we have now, an entertainment focus group….

how appropriate and no one has the balls to come out and say, is this the best that you can do?

Perhaps the more important question is why do we, as a people, spend our money with those firms who do not care about

them as customers, or who, are even willing to speak to their customers?  Ever try to speak to someone at American Express

who was not a $10.00 per hour employee at a phone bank in El Paso, Texas?  Ever get a letter from American Express from a

corporate officer who had no return address, phone number or a way to engage him with a question? 

How about at Home Depot?   Once I was enticed, as a customer of ADP, the world’s largest provider of processed payroll services,

and they said if anyone ever had an issue with any part of their service, I could call up their corporate offices and speak to one of

their officers.   It worked, I signed up and when I had a problem with one of their phone room people who messed up some of my

employees checks by being negligent and careless, I got put on hold, and they never called me back, they had no idea who was to speak

to me or anything.  It was a pure lie.   And they benefitted by their lies, and then like other large dominate firms, they just spend more

money on branding, trying to get all of us to believe how great and benevolent they are.

As I said earlier, the antitrust rules are not working today, as intended, as large companies are the only firms who can go do work

in China, or Mexico, or some other place with low cost labor, not small businesses, and we have seen a general lack of competition

in trucking, package shipping (only 2 national firms do all of the private transport in the United States), hardware, appliance sales,

and this discussion leaves out the large dominant online firms—that’s for another day.

What is troubling is that when these large firms get comfortable maintaining their market share, they refrain from competing as they

should, and that will lead to some stagnation in our economy, I believe, as they become allegiant to maintaining the status quo, and

not taking any competitive risks.   Since only large firms can have access to money or capital today, this is a hidden plaque on all of us

in America today.  The only new entrepreneurs we will have will be those whose family had the money to get them going, as the large

businesses out there just want to divide a market and maintain it, just like the oil companies, do, and so long as our government allows

this kind of thing to keep going on, the divide between middle class and the wealthy will only get bigger, as this last recession has clearly

shown.

By looking at this picture fairly, and I have no hope this will be done any time soon, that    

Mark S. Frydman

Box Brothers Corp.

1-800-842-6937

www.boxbros.com

Measure Correctly, Mistakes are Costly

For many years, there have been rules associated with shipping that vary according to the mode,

or how you decide to ship your items.

For example, it used to be the case that for most domestic ground packages, your charges would be

simply based upon the actual weight of your shipping container, but today, there are rules about the

how big your package can be, or maximum limits on weight, or even limitations on how long an item can

be for shipping.

For as long as we have been in the shipping business, we have seen it all.   UPS used to have a rule for many

years that nothing could be shipped if the length, width and girth (yes, girth) did not exceed 140 inches, and

they used to give out chains to their customers to use to see if the package in question did not exceed the length

of the chain…….

Today, almost every package that goes into a system (ground shipping, air shipping and international shipping)

has rules associated with how big or how heavy a given package can be.   For the international arena, the rules

get more complex as several nations have their own set of rules about size, etc.   For those of you who have also

had to take a box or a package on a plane trip or use an airline’s cargo division, to ship a pet or something else,

the rules can be not only daunting, but I tell anyone and everyone who asks, to check no less than twice when

getting the permissible sizes.

I had been visiting one of our locations in Nevada and I happen to meet one of our customers, actually a young

married couple with a story that illustrates how these rules for shipping can be complex, easily misunderstood and

often they can end up with some harsh results…..

This couple has two Saint Bernards, and you can tell, to this couple, they are as close to being their children as any

pets can be.   They needed to travel by plane and in their research, the airlines told them they had rules for shipping

pets, that they needed pet carriers, and gave them the maximum size permissible for flying animals on a commercial

airliner.

Long story short, the couple arranged for us to make them crates for their animals, as there were no pre made pet

carriers for dog breeds as large as Saint Bernards (how they can even get a Great Dane, Newfoundland,  or a Mastiffs….

into one of those smaller dog crates is beyond me…..our crates are custom, so we made them to the maximum size,

and we had air grates on both sides so the air would flow, we made wood receptacle frames for food and water

containers, easy access doors, to ensure that there would be no issues.

Our customers loved them, as they were genuinely concerned that these containers were safe, complied with the rules

of the airline, and would house their “loved ones”  for the trip to visit their grandparents.   Only problem is that our customer

was misinformed by the airline, and this resulted in them having to have two more crates made to conform to the airline’s rules.

I know there is more to this story, for sure, but the point is that we were directed to make a set of custom crates for a specific

purpose and this was not a happy ending for them since they had to have the crates remade, through no fault of their own.

So, always be careful when you need to comply with shipping rules, as they are easily misunderstood, complex and largely

inflexible in many cases.   Or if you need to, it never costs more to ask us to confirm measurements and maximum sizes for

different modes of shipment—at Box Brothers and this is the best advice when you need to ship something to a faraway place.

I am very proud of the way we worked with our customers as they told us that almost all other crating firms they contacted were

not interested in helping make a crate with the features that we added for the safe transport of their large family (dogs) members.

For Box Brothers, the customer and their needs are what we come to work for each and every day.   Ask any of our customers,

they know who we work for, even if they are Saint Bernards.  Kudo’s to our staff in Las Vegas, for doing such a great job helping

our customers.

Mark S. Frydman

Box Brothers Corp.

1-800-842-6937

www.boxbros.com

Snowflakes And Moving, No Two Are The Same !!!!

I have been in the transportation (Moving) business for about three decades and what always impressed
me about Professional Moving Services was that they were always based on matching the needs of the customer with the capability of the mover and his equipment.

For example, in moving interstate, all professional movers or the legitimate ones, all charge by actual
weight.   So if a mover comes to your home and does a survey of what is actually moving from the old
location to the new location, he or she can offer a price based on the weight of what is actually moving.
Not for more or less, but based on the items that are moving.   The mover is to get a "light weight" or a weight of his van before he loads your shipment, then after the shipment is loaded, the mover returns to the public scale site to get a "heavy" weight afterwards.   The difference between the two is the actual weight
of your shipment.

Likewise, when the moving firm arranges for the actual mover to show up to do your move to another state, the carrier matches the space in the van with the load that is being picked up, as usually, a mover van or trailer accommodates multiple loads going to the same general area.  So, in essence, if the estimate is correct and the mover has the right amount of space, the system not only works well, but the overall service the customer receives is generally, very, very good.

Why, cause the interstate mover, is his/her own businessman, who owns the truck, employs the help and the mover receives the highest portion of the moving cost, as he is the one doing the move.   If he has a claim, it comes out of his pocket and his earnings, dollar for dollar, up to a certain amount.  What better incentive
could there be for the customer?

The problem with less than adequate service, or a poor move,  is usually, ask me, that a lot of customers tend to confuse purchasing a product vs a service.   Or put another way, a low price may have to do more
with getting a bargain, that does not always materialize into a good deal--sometimes you get what you pay for.

This entire discussion then, leads to the question of why are so many moving customers desiring to move
in a 20 foot container like those being rented to customers by both container firms and movers alike?  For the life of me, I simply do not understand why any person would want to take their own liability for moving
when they do not have to.   When you do it yourself, who else can you blame when something goes wrong?

I know, I know, movers are not that smart and if they can do it, so can I.....goes the mantra.  But this is not
even a fair or intelligent fight.   To move with a container and do it yourself, simply costs as much as having a mover do the whole thing for you.  Yes, it does. 

Just like moving today with a rented truck and you are going over 1000 miles away.   Anyone see the price
of fuel and how many miles per gallon trucks get, especially those in a rental fleet?   I still cannot figure out this "new new math" as I am old enough to have learned the "new math" but I cannot figure out why anyone
would want to move themselves, take full liability on themselves and the risk of injury to themselves, NOT TO OBTAIN ANY SAVINGS.   Besides, there is no one I know that can do a move better than some of the interstate owner operators I have seen in my life.

The older I get, the less things in life make sense to me.  For example, today, there are firms that want you
to rent plastic bins to move with, instead of using cardboard boxes.   Their proponents argue that this is a
"more green approach" to moving......cause you return the bins after you use them....so they are greener than
boxes made of 50% recycled cardboard and paper........and that you only need 20 bins, instead of 60 cardboard boxes.....(get this).....cause you can reuse the bins......lets just think this out.

Say you are moving 10 miles away to your new place and you have a economy car like a Chevy or a Ford
and you pack up 5 bins.   Then you have to carry those bins to your car, and load them into your car, drive
them over there (20 miles total) bring each bin up to the new place and then unpack them, and then load
them back into the car and do it again 5 or 6 times.   How long will this take to move this way and is this not harder on the customer to shlep these containers back and forth and do all the work, not to save any money?  

Please tell me so I can understand this logic as it makes no sense to me and I suggest that every person
who is moving should ask the right questions as none of these modern ways to move are less expensive
or are advantageous to the customer, ask me.

Bass Pro Shops, Shops at Bonhams and Ships with Box Brothers....

As always, our San Leandro Office handles valuable and rare items.... Last month when I was in that office, we got a call from Bass Pro Shops Corporate Office.... They were the winning bidder on a Kiowa Painted Buffalo Robe from the Native American Fine Art Sale... We picked it up From Bonhams and Butterfields, crated it, shipped it and insured it for over $20,000.00 in value... Ganzo and Biamba made sure that it arrived in perfect condition... They also handled a rare stained glass that arrived in perfect condition... Here are a few photos of the stained glass and the buffalo robe.....

Packing Art done the right way

We have always packaged art at our stores and warehouse's. Pacasso, Lichtenstein, Rembrandt, Pollock and Warhol Just to name a few. Our Crating Dept. has built many a crates for all sorts of Artwork, Statues and paintings. We do a lot of work for local artists as well as Auctions. African sculpture, Ming Dynasty, and Matisse. In 25 years you do see a lot. If you need a free quote call us at 800.842.6937 or just stop on by.

Go Chris G.

Good morning Mark, I was given your name by Chris because I wanted to let someone know what a great job Chris has been doing. I live in Florida but our son lives in Woodland Hills CA and is in the process of moving back east to FL. Chris has gone beyond the call of duty to help me get our son's items ready and is assisting us in getting the items shipped. He is quick to respond, has explained the process for shipping so many items, has been clear on the costs and just overall a pleasure to work with. I had spoken with moving companies and they just want the job but they don't want to give you the time of day. It is mostly, trust me and don't ask questions attitude.

It is so refreshing to find someone who does care about their work and most importantly the service they provide to their customer. Over the years customer service industries seem to be more concern with how quickly can they get it done and not how well it is done. If Chris is at all representative of your other employees then you should do very well in the future as a company.

It has been a pleasure doing business with Box Brothers and most especially with Chris Greene.

Regards,
Joyce M.
Punta Gorda, FL

artwork large fragile packed and shipped

This item is a large very fragile piece of artwork. Wood Crates are by far the most safe way to ship high value artwork. High value items need to be packed in a manner where they are insurable.

We ship large fragile items like this everyday. Since 1985 we have packed and shipped anything anywhere. Visit us at boxbros.com

Box Brothers Redondo Beach Open 7 days

Today in Las Vegas

Today in Vegas weather has warmed up and lake season is due soon. All of our atv/offroad adventures will be turning lakeside. It's great working with guys that you get along with and also share the same interests off the clock! I am still pondering how to market out on our adventures in the wilderness.... Elementary schools love our small,medium, and large moving boxes for storing everything until next school session. A customer just informed me how wonderful of a job we did here crating and shipping his flathead v8 engine and car parts we do it all!!! http://www.boxbros.com/summerlin-nevada