The 100th Post (Last for 2012)

As this is my 100th blog post, I wanted to make it special, but instead I decided to weigh in on the current events that have happened in Newtown Connecticut.  This post is being duplicated to all my blogs as I feel it is that important given everything that has happened this year.

Certainly there are no words that can express my feelings for what happened in Newtown, Connecticut this month. What I can express words on is that this could have been avoided if only we had tighter gun control laws.

The bad thing is that it seems that everybody wants to blame “Mental Illness” as the cause of the events. Seriously, is this the excuse to be used on every violent incident now?

It has now even gotten worse as other things have been blamed for all the recent violence. Amongst them include:

• Movies – Let’s stop blaming movies for all the violence. After all, I don’t know of many cars that fly through the air and have weapons in their front grill. The blamers want to convince us that movies are the problem. This has been blamed for too many years and foolishly.
• Video games – I have heard this one ever since the 1990’s when games like Doom came out back them. Do killing monsters really make people want to kill people? I have didn’t buy it then and certainly don’t buy it now.
• Music – Poor Ke$ha. She is being blamed for her song of “Die Young” for being the inspiration for the recent violent acts. I have heard this song many times and I don’t think the blamers get it. Yes, this song gets me pumped only because I like it, but I certainly don’t feel violent because of it. Of course, I still get pumped up over Britney Spears “Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman”, but then again that’s just me.

What we should REALLY be blaming are the things that really count and amongst them are:

· NRA – One of the largest political action groups buys the people who make the decisions in Congress. They wave their second amendment rights around like they were the American flag. We need to get people in Congress who are not puppets of the NRA.

· Gun Resellers/Retailers – Many states don’t do background checks before they sell a weapon and sometimes they ignore the laws anyway. The laws vary from state to state which makes matter worse. I remember when I was working at Woolworth, the rules were that the gun application would have to be faxed to Augusta and then wait about 3 days to get a response. However, one time there was no response after 3 days so the salesclerk went ahead and sold the weapon anyway. It turned out that one NEVER should have been sold after the report came back as being a risky person. Nobody ever heard the end of that one. Resellers have to act more responsible and keep the laws in mind and abide by them.

· People like Norman Hamann – This nutcase needs to be in jail or a mental facility. He believes his own fears allow him to walk around with a gun in his belt. Sadly, I believe everyone else is scared of when he might crack and start using it. What bothers me even more is that he thinks that it is ok to film his encounters with the police. If anybody is mentally ill, Norman is the top of the class.

Sad to say there will be more gun violence if the real issues are not addressed. It does not matter what the President does or Vice President thinks he can do will matter. Mental illness is just a rubber stamp that I believe that everybody has if pushed far enough. Even I was once called mentally ill. I will have more to say about that in a future post.

The biggest question that has been asked lately is “Are we really safe anymore?”. My answer is “I don’t believe so and never will, just don’t scare the children with that information.”

For now the only things we should worry about is the fiscal cliff or even worse the Mayan’s prediction of the end of the world.

Notice to all:

I will not be posting to this blog until after the first of the year as I feel that both the reader and myself need a holiday vacation from everything that has been going on in the world lately. I plan on being back right after the first of the year with possibly a look back at the previous year and my look ahead to the next one. So until then Happy Christmas and Merry New Year or something like that.

Woman Collects $123,000 (Stupidly)

RyiSHisa Morris has done the virtually impossible. It was reported this week that this African-American/Native American mix had won a settlement against the company Piercing Pagoda. However, I believe that this should NEVER EVER have happened!

Apparently Ms. Morris experienced what she calls harassment after trying to return a piece of jewelry she had purchased the day before. The kiosk apparently had a different employee working on these two days therefore when Ms. Morris tried to return the item. When the employee who she dealt with on the second day told her that she could not return the item, Ms. Morris got angry and wouldn’t leave. This is when the employee stated, "I've had enough with your kind," along with some profanity and that is when things got very heated. When Ms. Morris would not leave, she called mall security. At the same time, Ms. Morris was calling the Piercing Pagoda customer service number. When the mall security arrived, the security along with the customer service person told the employee to give Ms. Morris a store credit. This seems that this should have been the end of this situation, but it wasn’t. Apparently Ms. Morris was recommended by a friend to get a lawyer and sue the company.

Since this event happened in March 2010, Ms. Morris filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) shortly thereafter. In September 2011, the commission decided to award Ms. Morris a total of $123,347 ($100,000 to Ms. Morris and the remaining in legal fees and interest charges). This is the highest amount allowed under Maine law.

Ms. Morris lawyer, Kelly Hoffman of the firm Norman, Hanson & DeTroy, wrote in a statement:

"Those who discriminate need to learn the impact their actions have on victims and society, not only for the sake of justice, but also because doing so will result in more tolerance in the future." She continued on by stating "I'm so impressed by individuals like Ms. Morris who find the courage to speak up when subjected to this type of behavior." 

Oh, please! This is all about a woman who is a whiner and a scammer! Now here’s why:

When I first heard this story it was on WGME 13 television station. Ironically, the station neglected to say that Ms. Morris was making a return and not just being a casual customer. Whether or nor this was purposeful to mislead viewers is unknown, but certainly made Ms. Morris’ story much more effective. However, I thought that there must have been much more to this story.

So I did a Google search on this woman. What I uncovered initially surprised me. Apparently Ms. Morris had previously had a case against Regis Corporation back in 2006 for employment discrimination for guess what? She had proclaimed racial discrimination then as well. However, the law office she used in that case was the same one I started using when I had my case against Staples. They failed with her and they failed with me. Unfortunately they went as far as doing a representing of her, whereas they dropped me before it went before the MHRC.

So Ms. Morris tried again in 2010 with a different lawyer and a different type of case by suing for discrimination from Piercing Pagoda. I believe that this scheme was something that was cooked up by Ms. Morris and her lawyer to seek revenge against her previously lost case. Unfortunately, Zales (the parent company of Piercing Pagoda) didn’t show up at the MHRC hearing, which to me meant that they were dissatisfied with the result of the MHRC investigator’s report. If they did the type of “investigating” against Piercing Pagoda as they did against me, nobody with Zales or Piercing Pagoda would have been contacted, therefore the case became a one-sided story with all the other side ignored. Sadly, this is ABSOLUTELY THE WRONG WAY to do any type or case, but this is how they do EVERY CASE! So realistically Ms. Morris deserved NOTHING and I am hoping that Piercing Pagoda will appeal this payoff even though the money has already been given out.

Honestly, in over 20 years in the retail industry, I believe that every employee have had customers who they do not want to deal with or like Ms. Morris plays games to try to beat the system. Many times I have heard the old story that “another employee” said it was ok to return a product when realistically they never said that in the first place. Customers like Ms. Morris like to create their own stories to make it seem easier to do returns. Unfortunately, a smart employee can see through their schemes and refuse to “help” the customer as which was the basis of Ms. Morris complaint. There was many times over the years that I had refused to help a customer on their fraudulent return and sometimes was reprimanded for it, but I usually just brushed it off because I knew that I was right and the manager on duty was completely in the wrong. Whether or not either of the employees at Piercing Pagoda had a managerial title is unknown, but the level of disrespect given to Ms. Morris would be justified if she continued to be an aggressive customer who interfered with normal business of other customers. Having called upon mall security for their assistance is a joke, as they have no authority to do much of anything even regarding shoplifters. (I will have more to say about mall security in future posts).

Given Ms. Morris’ past, it is apparent to me that she was only out for the money and used the race card in order to win her case. Unfortunately, it is lawyers like Ms. Hoffman who are money hungry and blame others for discrimination when none really exists. Its fools like the commissioners and investigators of the MHRC that continue to fuel the pot by approving huge financial windfalls as in this case. Certainly discrimination will never end, but it is the smart one who walks away and brushes it off, the scammer will try to seek financial gains as Ms. Morris tried twice to do.

On another note, what makes this case so different from another story reported on WGME of the Santa Claus, who was fired at the Maine Mall for being grumpy and rude to customers? What stops the parents whose children were traumatized from seeking a monetary settlement against the mall for a type discrimination as well for not being allowed to visit Santa unless the parents were willing to pony up for the picture package to get their picture taken with the jolly old guy? Ironically, this story got as much top story billing as Ms. Morris’ did and brings up the whole idea that they too should sue to get money as well. Sadly, Ms. Morris’ case has brought bad precedence to all kinds of discrimination and has opened the door for even more stupid frivolous lawsuits in the future. My advice to all the parents whose kids were traumatized: Get a lawyer, sue the Maine Mall, file a complaint with the MHRC, then wait till your case comes up than claim your case is just as stupid as Ms. Morris’ was and sit back and collect your $100,000 payday as well. And on that Merry Christmas to all (except Ms. Morris and her money hungry lawyer, of course).

Store Review: Newbury Comics

Newbury Comics has been in the mall now since mid-June of this year, but now I have finally gotten around to give my review of this fairly new store, at least in the mall.

Let me say that when the store was across the street from the Maine Mall I visited the

store just once and wasn’t impressed by it at all and never returned. Now that the store is located in the mall, I decided to give the store another look.

The store is located in the Sears wing of the mall next to Sears in the location that previously was occupied by Waldenbooks. Since I am very familiar with the old Waldenbooks location I was a little surprised at this new store. First thing of interest is the sheer size of the store. Anybody who remembers the old bookstore will remember that it was significantly smaller than this new store. This is a deception portrayed by the fact that they did 2 things to make the store larger:

1. Broke down the walls in the back creating a much larger store. The old bookstore had a pretty large stockroom whereas the new store has the fire exit right as part of the store area itself. This door leads right outside the store to the parking lot. It appears that the new stockroom is to the back right corner of the store and possibly goes into the empty area between Payless Shoes (in the front end facing the mall) and Old Country Buffet (in the back end facing the parking lot). Back in the 1980’s, that entire area was occupied by the Anderson-Little store (owned by the Woolworth company) from front to back with an actual exit from the mall to the parking lot.
2. Broke down the side walls to expand the store’s space. Back in the early 1990’s, Waldenbooks had down a remodel, which reduced the physical size of the store by about 30%. This was at the time they created the Waldenbooks/Waldenkids split store idea. This was something that when I asked the managers at the time if they liked the downsizing of the store, they said they didn’t. Little did they know that a few years later it would all be over for the company permanently.

Now onto the new store format:

The store has a large glass front not uncommon in most mall stores nowadays. Any indication of its past is completely gone from existence.

Inside the store, merchandise of various types is kept in an orderly manner. New releases greet the customer on entering the store and the remainder of the store is loaded with all kinds of items. These include:

• DVDs, both new and used
• CDs, both new and used
• Clothes including shoes, hats, gloves, jackets, pants and other miscellaneous items
• Calendars
• Toys
• Books (a small selection)
• And finally comic books and other items

Ironically, for a store that calls itself a comic book store is lacking in 2 ways:

1. The comics are way in the back of the store.
2. No back issues of the comics are available like a normal comic book store would have. To add insult to that is that many of the new comics look well read.

It appears that the bulk of focus is on CDs and DVDs. However, the prices on most of these items are significantly higher than the competitors. This is true of both new and used items. In fact many of the used prices are more expensive than what other stores are selling new versions for. Yet if you are looking for some old item long out of print, they may have it even if it is used, if of course you are willing to pay the price. Somehow, I don’t think some prices are worth it though.

Overall compared to the competition, this store just doesn’t deliver a good value therefore it is one store I will not be doing any shopping in at all. However, if you enjoy overpriced items than this is the store for you.

Pros:

· Decent selection of DVDs and CDs

· Descent selection of movie and TV related toys

Cons:

• Small comic book inventory
• Overpriced compared to competition
• Weird looking staff members

Overall: My Rating: 2