Thursday, August 13, 2009

RE gets lucky once again

Wow, really Kevin Johnson? In a budget crunch this is how you want to spend your money? Man, if I hadn't talked so much shit I wonder if I could have gotten hired as the special blog advisor with a salary of 100k. I really blew it.

There's a real, Olympia-style show at The Hub tonight. Warm Streams and Party Line (Allison from Bratmobile) and She Beast. Put some barrettes in your hair and stop by!

19 comments:

Jeff M. said...

Or maybe you didn't talk ENOUGH shit. According to the blogger Joe Sacramento, RE had this to say about the mayor seven months ago:

"Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson promised to be different. Yet his first two months have featured one stumble after another. The collapse of Johnson’s self-indulgent 'strong mayor' scheme proves Johnson has much to learn as he fills the vacuum of leadership at Sacramento City Hall. Sorry, Kevin wasn’t elected to be our king."

But I think that maybe the real reason behind the hire is that city hall lacks for bros to talk sports with. Buy yourself some hawaiian shirts, start listening to Jim Rome instead of NPR -- you never know what might happen.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know why the Arts Dir./40 Acres woman resigned? Apparently KJ did something she couldn't look past.

Jed, gossipy little bitch

beckler said...

I think more information will probably come out about that at some point.

Anonymous said...

I am glad you gave big ups to Mercado Loco in your article, but here's the real reason that it is the best market in Sac.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhUJnMinEBY

gbomb

beckler said...

I had to omit it because of space, but I also liked the pastries at Mercado Loco the best. They have this eggy bread (in triangles) that's very good, and I liked their molasses pig the best.

Anonymous said...

What is going to do as a special assistant that warrants an $80k salary? The lack of information in that blurb is sketchy.

DKK

Anonymous said...

I went to Mercado Loco a while back and their fee to use my debit card was muy loco! I think they wanted to charge me $5 on top of my $2 purchase because it was under $10. So they have good molasses pigs? That's my favorite pan dulce. Oh, well. They can't be good at everything.

Niki

DJ Rick said...

I'm glad I live only three blocks from Mercado Loco. It's my one-stop for chile-powder-caked treats. While roadie-ing XYX from Mexico on their CA tour last month, they got me hooked on 'em!

beckler said...

have you had the pepino paletas at mercado loco? the one I had didn't have any sugar, just salt, tamarind, and chili. i like them savory like that

DJ Rick said...

Not yet, but I usually don't like my snacks to be too salty. I like those little mango lollipops.

manzana loca said...

come on. using a debit card for a $2 is the contemporary equivalent of writing a check for a similar amount. it costs money to provide that service and larger grocers like safeway can eat the cost of such transactions because they have high volume business. coulda gotten around that by using your debit as a credit card.

and really. you didn't have 2 bucks on you?

Anonymous said...

I knew I'd get ripped for mentioning their debit fee!
Niki

beckler said...

you totally got ripped a new one!

Anonymous said...

A big ol' new one.

-miller

Anonymous said...

Actually, my big ol' new one is pretty nice! I've got room for at least two dollars in here.

Niki

Anonymous said...

It costs businesses money to take a debit card or a credit card. There's a reason why some businesses don't take American Express because they take a higher percentage. That's why there's often a 10 dollar limit so when you buy something for less, you don't cost the business money. You've taken more than just the profit away on a small purchase, you've actually taken money from them.

To hold it against a small business accountable for getting that fee paid is unthoughtful.

You weren't ripped, something you didn't understand was explained to you in a rational way. Then instead of giving it some thought, you said you got ripped.

Other Scott said...

C'mon anonymous, the fee is maybe 75 cents to use a debit card. Even if the fee is $1.50, charging $5 is ridiculous. If the market is actually being charged $5, they need to contact someone at their bank and rip them a new one.

Thanks so much for the lecture which stated facts already in evidence. I bet you're wrong about Niki not knowing why the fee was charged, though; the issue was the amount of the fee.
Niki, your last comment made me laugh out loud, unlike the comments of that humorless patronizing know-it-all anonymous jerk.

der no-it-alls Skipper said...

Ten dollars is pretty outrageous considering it's a flat-rate of 7.5 to 10 cents when a PIN is used online to process a transaction, while signature-based debit is processed offline at up to 2% of the transaction, which the bank collects, gives you points for, and ultimately charges you again with when merchant fees are trickled back into the price of the goods you're buying. Effed once already and Mercado Loco wasn't even involved yet.

It's Mercado Loco's business though if they wanna rip off gringo for coming in with no cash and a short shopping list. They could not offer debit at all like a lot of pretty good shops/restaurants in LA don't (and in Sac for that matter).

Debit's pretty non-existent in Berlin unless you pay extra to get an ATM card that has an RFID chip in it, which I didn't do when I set up my account years ago.

We'll all probably get hit a few times with fees in the end after all this new credit card legislation. Banks need new ways to rip off customers, so some are not mentioning that they're starting to charge POS fees ($0.10-1.50) for debit use and scam their customer's money from them further with the unsuspected overdrafts fees. It'd be a good idea to read your bank's annual disclosure pamphlet. Bank abuse has just moved from credit to checking accounts, which is pretty dumb. Dumb of people to stay with large banks!

Anonymous said...

"...un-expected overdraft fees."

-der not-so-know-it-all Skpr