No Turn On Red

They finally imploded the C-8 building in Asbury Park, as I talked about last week. Here is the video I took, via youtube:

I took a ride down, getting down to Asbury Park before six this morning. It was a wild scene to watch unfold - a ton of people came out to watch, including a lot of the NYC news media and a few of the local radio stations. There was an eight block area blocked off, so I was in the grassy park area near Kingsley between Fifth and Sunset. I was able to get as close and they would allow and I had a good view of the implosion.

For those that aren’t familar with Asbury Park, this construction on this building started in the mid to late 80’s. After 12 of the 16 stories of the building were up, the developer went bankrupt and the land had sat in tax/governmental/political limbo until a few years ago. After the area near Cookman Ave and Main Street had undergone redevelopment, development finally began on the oceanfront area. However, this building still stood as a reminder of what the city once was and overshadowed all of the good going on in the area.

The implosion of the building is a very monumental step forward in the redevelopment. The eyesore is gone and I am very interested in how the city is going to unfold after this.

Here is a recent article from the Asbury Park Press talking about the past and future of the building. And here is another quick article on the Asbury Park Press website about today’s events.

And finally, here are photos I’d like to share. The first is a photo I found that I took on March 29, 2002 that shows how the C-8 building used to look. The rest of the photos are from today’s events.

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This week I got to spend two days in Wisconsin attending the Kohl’s Shareholder Meeting. The company sends one represenative from every store to the meeting. It is a very fun, informative and interesting two days in the Midwest. In years past, anyone I’ve known who has gone to it has said that they’ve come back re-energized and excited. That describes how I am feeling very well. I give the company a lot of credit for the logistical nightmare that they put themselves through in order to make sure that every store is represented, but they pulled it off flawlessly and allowed us all to have a really great time.

I’m not going to discuss any of the real details of the meeting here, however the Milwaukee Business Journal has a good recap of the public portion of the event.

On expansion:

Kohl’s also set its 2006 expansion plans at 85 new stores, primarily in the Midwest and Southeast, and said it will build a distribution center in California in support of its western expansion. The company had previously said it would add 80 to 85 stores this year. In all, the company hopes to grow its total number of stores to 1,200 by 2010, accompanied by net income growth of 15 percent to 20 percent.

On Jersey City:

A quarter of the new stores will be smaller than the traditional Kohl’s store, Meier said. One store will be a two-story, 133,000-square-foot facility in a converted Macy’s in Jersey City, N.J., a style that better fits in urban areas, she said. The traditional Kohl’s store is about 86,000 square feet. The smaller stores are about 68,000 square feet.

(According to this article, original from the Jersey Journal, the Jersey City store may in fact be a little larger than that - clocking in a 159,642 square feet.)

And finally, on last year’s fiscal performance:

The company reported that net income for the 12 months ended Jan. 28, 2006, increased 19.7 percent to $842 million, or $2.43 per share, compared with $703.4 million, or $2.04 per share, a year ago. Net income has increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 19.7 percent, the company said. Net sales increased 14.5 percent to $13.4 billion compared with $11.7 billion a year ago. Comparable store sales — sales at stores open during both years — increased 3.4 percent for the year.

Good times. The rest of the article is here. More information via Reuters and Kohl’s press release.

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From the Asbury Park Press:

ASBURY PARK: The implosion of C-8, the abandoned steel skeleton high-rise that became the symbol of the failed redevelopment of the 1990s, is scheduled for 7 a.m. April 29, city officials said Wednesday.

Details of where the public will be allowed to gather to watch the demolition are still being worked out.

Metro Homes, a Hoboken-based developer, bought the site between Third and Fourth avenues on the waterfront and plans to begin construction of a 224-unit high-rise to be called the Esperanza.

Anyone who’s been to Asbury Park in the past decade knows what building this is. I remember seeing the Suicide Machines at the Warped Tour in 1996 and Jason Navarro pointed the building and asked, “When was the war and why the fuck wasn’t it on CNN?”

The implosion of this building will be a huge step in the redevelopment of Asbury Park. Besides that, it is just going to be fucking cool to see a building get imploded. I am going to do my best to be there.

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Just came across Red Bank TV, which is a new blog discussing the negotions between the town of Red Bank and Verizon Communications, in regards to Verizon wanting to offer it’s new FiOSTV service in the town. Verizon has recently petitioned the town council to grant them a cable television franchise and it appears that this blog is going to cover the negotiations in pretty good detail. This is a relatively new service that Verizon wants to offer and I believe it would be the first time it is offering it in New Jersey. These negotiations will have a lot of business and political ramifications, so it will be very intriguing to watch.

The blog’s first post contains a lot of information about what Verizon is looking to do and how it will effect the town. In summary:

I believe that Verizon is a forward thinking organization and we should be proud that Verizon has chosen Red Bank as a beacon for their new television service. I believe that a lot of communities around our state will be watching to see how our town negotiates our deal with Verizon. I think that our town Council is in a unique position in which we have the ability to negotiate a deal with Verizon that will be beneficial to Verizon and pioneering for our town. Our council should not accept a deal that does not address the issues I have brought up in this essay. Verizon needs Red Bank at this point a lot more than Red Bank needs Verizon. There are no laws compelling Verizon to address most of these issues but there is also no law saying that we have to allow Verizon to operate a cable TV franchise in our town. Verizon stands to gain a lot by getting the franchise but they stand to loose so much more if we decide to walk away from this deal. Not for a long time has our town wielded so much sway over a corporation as big as Verizon. I encourage Red Bank residents and Red Bank Town Council members to work for a deal with Verizon that will benefit our town for a long time to come.

As I’ve already said, this blog will be very intriguing to read.

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From the Boston Globe, eight reasons why “Blogs ‘essential’ to a good career“. It’s a small article but interesting ideas. An excerpt:

Blogging is good for your career. A well-executed blog sets you apart as an expert in your field.

Ben Day blogged his way into a career as a high-earning software consultant while maintaining the freedom to schedule frequent jam sessions and performances as a keyboard player.

Blogging gave him the opportunity to stand out enough to support the life he envisioned for himself. ”For your career, a blog is essential,” says Phil van Allen, a faculty member of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.

”It’s the new public relations and it’s the new home page. Instead of a static home page, you have your blog,” he said. It’s a way to let people know what you are thinking about the field that interests you.

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Guy Kawasaki has posted two great entries about the art of customer service at his site. Looking over the two posts, there are a number of great points (18 to be exact!) about customer service.

I’m looking at his points from my viewpoint as a customer/consumer and he is spot on. I am thinking about the companies that I enjoy, or the places that I shop, and what seperates the good from the great is the customer service. To me, good customer service makes me forget that the person on the other end may be dealing with a thousand other people every day and makes me feel as if I am the only customer or client that matters. That is as easy as:

1. Use their name. Though it may seem obvious, you’d be surprised how much of a difference addressing a customer by name can make. If a customer has their name somewhere in their email (as well as in the actual email address such as bob@bobinc.com), start the email with “Hi Bob.” If someone is calling you, ask for their name, and then actually address them by name when appropriate (basically anywhere you’d use sir or madam). Another good way to make the customer service experience more personal is to ask for the customer’s name instead of just a reference or a ticket ID. If there’s a lot of people with their name, then ask for another personal piece of information like an email address or phone number. If all else fails, use the reference or ticket ID.

As hokey as it sounds, when I am treated as an individual rather than a nameless consumer, I am likely to respond positively to that company and much more likely to continue my relationship with them.

The only other point that I am going to highly here is this:

8. Follow-up. Probably the biggest difference between acceptable and great customer service is how often (and how well) the customer service department follows-up. If a customer makes a suggestion, follow-up on it and give them a call or send them an email with the result. If a customer calls with a customer service problem and you believe it’s resolved, send them an email or give them a call asking if their problem has been resolved to their satisfaction. Make follow-ups personal (avoid “Our records indicate you had a problem on April 1, 2006. If you need further assistance, please contact us.”) and sincere and customers will truly appreciate it.

I was talking with my father about companies following up with their customers and how few do this well. Especially at the local business level, this should be a no-brainer move that requires a minimal investment. For example, last year my father got his driveway resurfaced. Now it is twelve months later and it’s getting to be the time where he has started thinking about doing it again in preparation for the Summer. He called up the company, gave them his phone number and the represenative was able to pull up all of his information, treating him well and treating him like an individual and not just another customer. Within a few minutes he had his appointment set up and was off the phone.

The next day he gets a card in the mail from the company reminding him that it had been one year since he got his driveway resurfaced and telling him that maybe he would like to think about getting it redone again. This is exactly what great customer service (and the point, above) is about.  It is just a fluke that he had called them on the same day that they were sending out a follow up postcard, but it happened.  Had he not been thinking about getting his driveway redone, this card would have put the thought in his mind and would have made him more likely to contact the company again.  Such a simple concept but not often executed well.

For more from Guy Kawasaki’s blog, check out his excellent posts: The Art of Customer Service and The Art of Customer Service, Part II.

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I think one of the greatest, yet creepiest, commercials of recent memory all involve Burger King’s “King”. Especially the new one where the King wakes up in his bed, rubs his eyes and looks at the crowd in his bedroom. Because of my fondness for the King (and the fact that I am still mad that I didn’t buy a King mask for Halloween), I find this video especially funny. The King flipping off all of the BK competitors to the tune of the Safety Dance? Hilarious.

Link via Church of the Customer.

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Article from the Chicago Sun Times recapping the first year of the Sears/K-Mart merger in an article called “Furniture, new luxury items in Sears’ plans“.

Interesting points:

A few certainties emerged at the first shareholders’ meeting of the newly combined Sears Holdings Corp.: Lampert sees great opportunity in home fashions without Martha Stewart, even though Kmart’s existing contract with Stewart gives the parent company the right to sell her goods in Sears Roebuck stores.

Stewart’s contract exacts too high a price in guaranteed minimum royalty fees from Kmart, and the two sides have been unable to work out a long-term agreement, Lampert said. Kmart’s contract with Stewart ends in four years.

It doesn’t make sense to sell Martha Stewart goods in Sears stores for just a few years, Lampert said. Another sign of the fraying relationship came last week when Stewart agreed to provide higher-end home goods exclusively to Macy’s department stores.

Instead, Sears will try again to sell furniture — this time, ready-to-assemble furniture; will expand to 100 stores its test of high-profile Lands’ End “shops,” featuring dedicated salespeople and online ordering and hotline telephone access to Lands’ End; and introduce a new, private label line of luxury bed and bath products called Everyday Luxe.

Martha Stewart no longer in K-Mart? Speaking for current and former K-Mart execs, I don’t think that they would have ever thought that they would see the day. I’ve heard stories about the extravagant measures that K-Mart has gone through to keep all eyes focused on that brand. It was their cash cow, as one former exec told me. The people I know that still shop at K-Mart seem to only shop there because of the Martha Stewart line. If K-Mart loses this, I don’t know how they’d recover. They need something big — huge — and furniture is not going to cut it.

However, Martha branching out to Macy’s is a win-win situation for both sides. Martha is diverisifying her retail presence at a time when her brand is red hot and Macy’s gets a red hot brand to add to their home line. Great move by Martha, smart move by Macy’s, and whoever is making the moves at Sears/K-Mart should be fired.

Store managers are asked to act as cheerleaders by passing the rules on to their subordinates, and to pledge their allegiance to the new culture. If they don’t, they must leave. The result: 35 percent of Sears’ 870 store managers have departed since the merger, and 25 percent of Kmart’s 1,400 have left.

What an incredible rate of turnover. Who are they filling these positions with? New hires? I don’t know how many people from other retailers are really ready to make the jump to Sears at this time - I don’t know of any. Internal promotions? With the amount of holes to be filled, have they really promoted the best people from inside? I have to imagine that there were some rushed promotions of people who may not be ready just yet. But of course this is speculation. I’d just relaly like to know how they have filled over 650 store executive positions. On top of that, what’s the rate of turnover at the ASM/Lead level? I’m sure that is just as high, if not higher.

From the grumbles that I read on employee message boards, it seems that most days there is no captain at the head of the ship and the employees are trying to do the best they can with little or no leadership.

Both Kmart and Sears are getting upgraded information technology systems in stores, and concentrating on the basics such as cleaning the bathrooms, stocking the shelves and sourcing merchandise that customers want, Lewis said.

Isn’t this what is taught in Retail 101? Amazing that a multi-billion dollar company can announce a turnaround plan revolving around “stocking the shelves with merchandise that customers want.”

My dad went to Sears the other day and had an unpleasant customer service experience. I won’t get into the long story now but at one point he told me that he showed his Sears card to the cashier, showing her that he’s been a Sears card holder since 1978. “Doesn’t that mean anything?” he asked me. I told my dad that this weekend he went to Sears - but his loyalty was the Sears, Roebuck & Co. “That company no longer exists.”

You can read the full article here.

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The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works — and how It’s Transforming the American Economy

by Charles Fishman

Wal-Mart isn’t just a store, or a huge company, or a phenomenon anymore. Wal-Mart shapes where we shop, the products we buy, and the prices we pay—even for those of us who never shop there. It reaches deep inside the operations of the companies that supply it and changes not only what they sell, but also changes how those products are packaged and presented, what the lives of the factory workers who make the products are like—it even sometimes changes the countries where those factories are located. Wal-Mart reaches around the globe, shaping the work and the lives of people who make toys in China, or raise salmon in Chile, or sew shirts in Bangladesh, even though they may never visit a Wal-Mart store in their lives.

– excerpt from the book via walmarteffectbook.com

With 93% of American households shopping at Wal-Mart each year, with over 3,800 stores, with over 1.6 million direct employees, and with over $300 billion in sales, it is hard to imagine the magnitude in which one store can permeate many aspects of our daily lives. This book delves into the “Wal-Mart Effect”; what are the ramifications from one corporation on their employees, their business partners, people who shop there, and consumers and people in general?

With a very good look at the history of Wal-Mart - from meager beginnings in Arkansas in the 1960’s to the international behemoth it is today, Charles Fishman examines how Wal-Mart’s commitment to their costumers has both positively and negatively impacted the world at large. “Always Low Prices. Always.” means that at some point money is going to be saved, no matter what. Through gray area strongarmed tactics, Wal-Mart is able to squeeze every last penny out of a supplier, forcing them to cut costs as much as possible. When they can no longer cut costs enough to meet Wal-Mart’s needs, it is time for Wal-Mart to move on to another supplier — overseas if needed — in order to meet consumer demand.

How ironic is it that the very people Wal-Mart has put out of business, through high pressure demand for low low low prices, are the very people who must now shop at Wal-Mart because they can no longer afford to pay $2 more for grocieries at a competitor of Wal-Mart’s.

This book examines the changing face of our society as traced through the history of Wal-Mart. As this book points out, asking “Is Wal-Mart bad for America?” is like asking “Are cars bad for America?” Eventually the scale of some things can get so large that public policy reform is needed in order to keep things functioning. This book discusses that, as well as the complexities of the backlash against Wal-Mart across the country.

I highly recommend this book to anyone. I think it is a must read if you a currently involved in the retail industry. Beyond that, I think, for consumers, it paints a very interesting picture of the stores that we shop in today, whether or not that store is Wal-Mart. It all ties in and it all effects us equally.

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It is unfortunate that good customer service seems to be the exception, no longer the rule, these days. How about a tale of very good customer service from an unlikely place, Six Flags Great Adventure?

I am a huge theme park junkie. Christine humors me and goes to Great Adventure with me more than I am sure she would. The theme park opened for the season on Friday, March 31. We took a ride down that night to take a look at what work they’ve done over the off season and ride a few roller coasters. I love the park and I am exciting to see what happens with new ownership this year and so far, all of the talk has been positive and encouraging.

However, right from the start of the night, something was not right. As we went through the toll plaza to purchase our season parking pass, we were given a sticker/decal instead of the familar hangtag (to hang from the rearview window). I was told to put it on my windshield (which I immediately did not) and that was the new pass for the new year. To top this off, up until the week prior, Great Adventure was selling 2006 parking hangtags through the Jackson Outlet Mall. Where’d the stickers come from?

I was very upset about this. With the hang tag, you had the ability to transfer it between cars. Now, maybe this is against the “park rules”, but it was commonly done. Christine and I both have our own cars and we took each of them to the park an equal amount. I know plenty of families with multiple cars that were in the same boat. A family can purchase multiple season passes but really should only need one parking pass. Right? Apparently, wrong.

This new policy did not go over well. That night, forums about the theme park had plenty of compliants about the new parking system. On GADV.com, many users voiced their opinions on the new parking situation. User stew560 said:

I am 100% against this idea. I think it is just another way for the park to get more money out of us by forcing the families with multiple cars to purchase multiple passes. (Even though they will only be using one at a time!) If they are that concerned about people sharing the passes, then put the “P” back on my Season Pass and I’ll show that everytime.

Judging by the 100 replies on the topic, this was obviously an issue of concern for a lot of long time and new customers to the park. A lot of suggestions were made as to ways to work around the new policy, but it was clear that people were upset. You can also add me to the list of people who e-mailed guest services to voice my frustrations with this policy. But indications were that the park was aware of the guest’s concern and something was being done.

Now two weeks later, before the park has even hit it’s third operating weekend, they sent out an e-mail to everyone who contacted them in regards to this issue:

Since a lot of guests have had the same concerns you do, we have changed the procedure for the parking pass a little. You can affix it to the back of the season pass of the person who is going to come the most. If it is on your car and you are able to remove it, please bring it to Guest Relations and we will replace it for you.

Now how about that for quick, efficient and good customer service?

Great Adventure took their feedback and quickly made a wise decision - are they going to make more money keeping customers happy or are they going to make more money selling more parking passes? It seems like a no brainer, but often in our various industries, decisions are made based on short-term profit/gains rather than the long term, bigger picture.

Two weeks into the season and people are commenting across message boards about how good the staff is this year, in comparision to years pass.  Snyder has put forth a renewed emphasis on customer service.  It is very visible and people are reacting favorably.

As the park enters it’s 45th anniversary, under new owners, with new directions and policies, let’s hope that they learn from this first stumble of the season. It was such a simple and seemingly small policy change — switch to parking decals, who’s gonna care? — but it showed the power of the consumer and the power of good customer service. Keep the customers happy, make sure they have a good experience every time they walk into the park, and they will keep coming back. Keep them coming back and Mr. Snyder may be off to a great start.

Good job, Six Flags.

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