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Take a tour of Costco in Sevilla, Spain with the Ts from Eagle, Idaho
Mike T. promised he would turn in a full report from a Spanish Costco to give Screencaps readers the vibe from inside a store that so many of you know so well.
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At some point, I've seen enough travel photos of the Eifel Tower sent in by Screencaps readers and I want to see oddities. Remember last year when Mike T. sent me down a rabbit hole on mobile pizza ATMs where the ATM popped out pizzas? I still can't believe those aren't everywhere in the U.S., especially with pizza companies wanting to cut out delivery drivers.
• Mike T. writes from his trusty iPad that he always has with him on the road:
Cindy T and I love to visit Costco’s when we travel, the differences and similarities are amazing! There are only four Costco’s in Spain and I don’t think this location is particularly busy.
First, how about a little lunch! Several different options but you can’t argue with a €1.50 hotdog anywhere! All Costco’s are set up the same worldwide. You can see TV’s and electronics aren’t big here.
The clothing section has some different stuff. Notice how neat everything is folded. Ok, you’re in Europe, power is expensive! Everyone has a clothes drying rack!
The bakery still carries 1/2 sheet cakes
The world-famous Costco rotisserie chicken €5.99
Yes, those are anchovies. You’re in Spain.
Produce department is a little small, but check out these mushrooms! I definitely bought these.
Check out the chorizos, two cases of these.
The beer section is beers from around the world.
This is a chocolate drink mix. It is extremely popular.
End base of canned sardines, wow
Very quiet store, Tuesday at 2:00 PM
Time to fuel up, only gas and diesel.€.20 cents a liter less than the market.
Ok, fun times, we love Costco!
Kinsey:
And then the Ts went to lunch.
And that's it from one of the greatest married couples in Screencaps history. They completely understand the mission we're on here. Cindy T. gets it. Mike T. gets it. And then they just keep delivering. I think of things like Mike T. at a Mexican rodeo, or something like that, when the Ts were hiding out south of the border. A vendor was walking around with a backpack of booze who would pour shots, or something like that.
Mike T. got a photo. He knew that was an oddity.
This is the type of material fellow Screencaps readers should have their head on a swivel for. This is what I mean when I say, see something, say something. Follow Mike T's content lead. This retiree understands the game.
Career change stories for Zach R. who is ready to make a change in life
• Derby City Max writes:
I could only imagine the anxiety and apprehension that Zach is facing considering a career change. I faced this challenge myself. I worked for a small independent grocery store chain from the time that I was 16 until 21. My next job was at Coca-Cola. I started driving a route truck making deliveries. I already knew merchandising from the grocery store. This led into Driver Supervisor role. Proctor & Gamble owned our plant at the time, then sold to a Coca-Cola company out of Minnesota. I was forced into a salesman job that I quickly despised. My stress level was through the roof. There was no job security in sales.
I started to put in job applications to different companies. One company was a large automobile company in Georgetown, KY. There was a long-drawn-out testing phase prior to an actual interview. From the application through the testing and physical was a total of 8 months. The first week of March 1991, I was offered 2 different jobs on the same day. First job was with the local Miller Lite distributor. It would have been the same type of job as Coca-Cola.
The 2nd job offer was with Toyota. After discussion with my wife, I took a leap of faith and accepted their offer. This meant a 140-mile roundtrip commute. I knew that I made the right decision when I received a phone call prior to starting that I would be getting a raise. I started in the Assembly department, ended up in the Stamping Department. We ended up moving and eventually bought a house within 10 miles of the plant.
Truly enjoyed going to work each day, it was a great place to work. The pay, health and benefit package were world-class. This was the best decision that I along with my wife ever made.
Jobs you guys hated
I asked for some horror stories and a few of you stepped up.
• Mike writes:
Cold calling indeed sucks—at age 24 I answered a want ad for people of "high spirits and with a desire to help the surrounding communities." Neither of those applied to me but I was desperate for work so inquired and was hired.
I showed up at the address given at 4 PM, which was a thirty-mile drive from home, to find out I would be getting in a van with twelve strangers driving a further 80 miles to go door-to-door attempting to convince the locals to vote for a "union dues required" law. My dad was a lifetime union member, so I had some sympathy for the cause, but I was certainly not passionate about it.
On the way, the team leader forced us to talk about our feelings and stuff—what kind of animal would I be, describe my previous lives, that sort of thing. I was handed a script, given an eight-block territory and a rendezvous time (10:30 PM!) back at the van, and sent on my way.
A handful of people listened politely, most resented being bothered at home during prime time, but there was one lady, a business owner, who laid into me because the law in question would bury her in paperwork, cause her to lose workers, etc.
I got the haranguing I deserved as a paid dilettante spewing nonsense I didn't fully believe. On the drive back the team leader told me not to be discouraged but by now it was past midnight, still an hour or more from my bed, and I resolved my first day working for a political action committee would be my last.
• Chris in NE has been down the cold-calling route. He writes:
Worst job I ever had was doing telemarketing for a famous steak company that everyone has heard of. Just the worst job ever, I lasted about 8 weeks and I probably called out for 2 of them. Everyday was just soul-crushing. I was set up on an autodialer and there was a certain threshold of time you could be off the phone in between calls. I made sure to hit that margin exactly every single day. I'm not kidding you when I say that I felt a small piece of me died inside each day I spent there.
In addition, I also spent 2 summers doing blacktop work and spent a year working in a box factory and I would take both those jobs on their worst day 11 times out of 10 versus do that godforsaken telemarketing job again.
Kinsey:
As someone who started doing blacktop at 16 and did it for four summers, I would agree with Chris. Give me those blazing hot SW Ohio summers in western Montgomery County on Chicken Bristle Rd. praying for the road grader to make it to a farm shade tree over cold calling. I was paid $5.25 an hour to bake in that sun working with boiling tar and it was heaven compared to my one-day cold-calling career.
• Jim T. in Sandy Eggo writes:
(In) the early 1970s, I had to go door to door to collect the subscription money – the papers weren’t directly billing subscribers yet. And you’d be surprised at the lengths people would go to screw over an 11-year-old kid.
Understand, I had to pay for the papers for my route – and then do my collections to pay that off and earn my nut. My mom had even bought me one of those change makers you could wear on your belt. (CHANGE MAKER WORN ON BELT BY C.T.A. CONDUCTORS AND OTHERS | CHUCKMAN'S PHOTOS ON WORDPRESS: CHICAGO NOSTALGIA AND MEMORABILIA)
One family, who only got the paper Wednesday and Sunday (for the grocery store coupons), never had any money when I showed up. Ever. I should have cancelled their subscription, but the dad was out of work and they had kids my age. Across the street and down two doors from them, the dad was always drunk. Always. Felt so bad for his kids – and he did pay, but generally with loose change that smelled like stale beer. Another house, whenever I’d ring the bell, the lights would all go off, the TV too, and once I even heard the dad shooshing everyone to be quiet until I left.
And I LIVED on the block where my route was! These adults knew who I was, had subscribed to the paper willingly, and still were willing to screw me over. (When it snowed and they’d call the house to see if I was available to shovel their driveways for $2 – a fair price 50 years ago – they were a hard no; I was glad to go help the folks who paid on time – didn’t even charge the older folks on a fixed income.)
Plus, while I had friends who delivered the Dayton Journal Herald (the morning paper) or the Kettering Oakwood Times (2x a week, but carried Erma Bombeck’s humor column), the Dayton Daily News insisted we park our bike at each driveway, walk up to the door, and carefully place the paper either on the porch outside the door or, if the subscriber requested, we were to open the storm / screen door, and drop the paper between the storm door and the main door so the subscriber could get their paper without getting cold (or hot). Meanwhile, the Dayton Journal Herald carriers are going all Leave it to Beaver and tossing the paper in the general vicinity of the house as they ride by. They could do their route in 10, 15 minutes; took me over an hour weekdays; Sundays even worse.
I had that paper route for about 3 or 4 years, and did manage to save about $2,400 which I later used to buy my first stereo and then a ’67 Mustang fastback in college. Should have bought stock in Apple with it …
The Lions victory was emotional for fans around the NFL
• Kris K. in Manchester, NH writes:
Just read Monday’s post. You hope I saw those Lion’s fans crying? Empathy? You bet.
Man, I tell you, it got a little dusty in my house when they won.
The purge, the relief. Gives me shivers just rethinking it. Good for Detroit!
I hope the Pack graces the Lions’ doorstep in two weeks …and it’s a heck of a game. We are well overdue.
Why are cable sports talk shows repetitive?
• Ryan Z. writes:
Why do you think it is that the cable sports talk shows, (especially the one's on ESPN), basically talk about the same things all of the time? I wouldn't think there is an audience for repetitive debates and conversation 5 days a week, but I guess that there is.
Kinsey:
Why does commercial radio play the same 200 songs on repeat day after day after day? Because there are marketing reports that tell the radio station computer algorithms which songs you guys will stop and listen to over and over and over.
TV executives have data on you.
I have Internet data on Screencaps readers.
I know which Instagram models to include in the headline to get your attention. I know which names Google likes to see in a headline. I know what time of day to publish Screencaps based on Internet traffic levels. I know which keywords you guys are searching for.
We have real-time engagement data on this column.
TV executives have engagement data. They know how long you're watching when they talk Cowboys. They know how long you're watching when there's a fake debate over Dak vs. Patrick Mahomes. They know when to start a fake LeBron debate and how long you'll last before changing the channel.
Debate shows know the race and age of viewers and what topics they'll engage with.
It's human intelligence science.
Now, if Screencaps was just based on using human intelligence science and not giving you value, this column would be toast. I don't include Mike T. in a Spanish Costco because it plays well with Google's algorithm. I include it because I'm actually interested in this stuff. I want to know where there are vintage Pizza Huts. I am interested in basement projects. I want to see garage bars. I want to see photos of mowed lawns.
That's the big difference here. ESPN just shoves the algorithm down your throat. Screencaps uses the algorithm, but I'm not a whore to the algorithm.
ESPN is an algorithm whore. That's why outside of its contractual stuff with the NHL, you don't see the NHL. It doesn't make money for ESPN.
ESPN has the NHL to funnel live entertainment to its app so you have a nightly reason to watch and have the app. Outside of that, ESPN doesn't care about the NHL.
That's the sports content business, folks.
School extortion rackets
• Louis in Savannah sent over this one last week:
Its that time of year again...
I know this was discussed at some point last year but it hit my home again this week, the school-sponsored extortion for donations. I will preface with saying I am a big fan of the Dept. of Education where I live, the teachers, principles, and staff are hard-working and tremendous.
I do also pay an insane amount of property taxes.
Now here comes the flyer with YouTube idols Dude Perfect promising a trip to groomer world, I mean Disney, if parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and neighbors can fork over enough money to get the kids eligible. Donations aren't even met with anything for this one, at least give me a candy bar...
It's for a good cause but yikes...
Kinsey:
Remember, if there's an extortion racket -- it's a huge time of year as travel ball squads, cheerleading squads, school bands, etc. start selling Super Bowl squares so parents can subsidize their summer travel budgets on your dime -- I want to hear about it. I want to know if there's a laundry detergent racket on Facebook. Tell me about the latest racket out there so fellow readers can be on high alert.
And I'm desperate to find a travel ball or softball team that is raising money to go play in some rag-tag Dominican tournament where suburban parents put their kids up against legitimate competition.
And that's it this morning. It's like 20-below with the windchill. Winter is definitely here and it sucks, but we'll make the best of it. Last night I played a ton of VR golf to keep the muscles loose.
Tonight, it's back to the links.
Have a great day. Stay warm. Hopefully the pipes don't burst.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com