Monthly Archives: February 2011

So Long Mobil

Mobil logo taken from marketing materials foun...

Image via Wikipedia

The very first credit card I acquired was from Mobil Oil.  They offered one to college seniors and I had a car.  I’ve had the card ever since (and that’s 35 years for those of you counting).  My father-in-law actually worked for a division of Mobil for at least that long as well, so there’s a definite reason to be loyal to that brand.

I like to think my family is the kind of customer a gasoline company would want – four cars, a fair amount of driving out here in the suburbs.  So what happened over the weekend which cost them our business is kind of weird.  But I’ll let you judge. Continue reading

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Filed under Helpful Hints, What's Going On

Just Say No

Today's Special

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Friday at last and some Foodie Fun to go with it.  I have a question for you today.  When you sit at a restaurant and the server tells you all the specials, do you ask for one of each?  Probably not.  You may have also suffered as you listened to a server pitch you some dish you don’t really want but for which the chef overbought the ingredients and needs to sell a bunch.  You just say “no thanks” and move on.  So why is that so hard for someone to do the same in business? Continue reading

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Filed under Thinking Aloud

Stress Tests

When you get past the speed limit age-wise (that would be 55 in many states), your doctor wants you to have all kinds of tests as “baselines” so when you start to complain about stuff she can see what’s changed. I was told to go get a stress test even though I tried to explain that I’d been getting them regularly for the last 30 years or more. Let’s see if you buy the explanation because she didn’t! Continue reading

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Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks