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JerseySmarts.com

The Sunday Asbury Park Press – What a Rip Off!

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On Sunday, November 25th I purchased a copy of the Sunday Asbury Park Press at my local PathMark store. Every once in a while I like to get a copy of the press for the coupons (I can read all of the articles online for free). The problem? There wasn’t one coupon in the entire newspaper!

Geez! Are manufacturers so hard-up for sales that they’ve gotten rid of the measly 50 cent coupons that mean nothing to them but really add up for the consumers? Damn it!

Of course, there is a chance that I picked up a copy of the Press that was already rifled through and had its coupons removed from it, though that is unlikely.

What a waste of $1.75! Oh, and where do they get off charging almost $2.00 for the Press? Good grief! You’d think it was the New York Times or the Washington Post!

Introducing a New Website for Usable Web Solutions, LLC

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Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve been able to reach agreements with a few new websites to be hosted, designed, and maintained by Usable Web Solutions, LLC. I’d like to introduce one of them now, even though there are still a few kinks to be worked out in the overall code.

  • BOLTWIC.com – This is a website focused on helping people lead better lives. I like this website for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the basic design and the ability to form (and grow) an online community.

Feel free to take a look around and enjoy what has the potential to be a great website!

What Will It Take For a Profitable Christmas Season?

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Believe it or not, it’s almost Thanksgiving Day! At the beginning of this month, I bookmarked an article on CNN.com that I wanted to blog about and I just haven’t gotten around to it until now – so forgive me if this information and my opinions are dated!

Over at CNN.com they posted an article talking about how major retailers are luring in holiday shoppers with huge discounts. Well, I combined this article with the great information that I found over at one of my favorite holiday websites – BFAds.net – to come to a general realization: today’s retailers have no idea what the public wants! I’m sure anyone can come to these conclusions on their own, but looking at the “deep discounts” that are listed on the Black Friday advertisements is appalling.

I guess what really gets me is that while there are discounts on a variety of items in each of the stores, you don’t see any of the stores really cutting prices on items that people in my age group would want. For example, Circuit City has great DVD discounts, but not really on the programs that I’m looking for on Black Friday. On the same token, all of the stores have some semblance of a sale on the next generation of video games (Wii, X360, and PS3), but none of them are going out on that limb and reducing the prices $50 or $100 below the competition. Granted, there are some restrictions in terms of how much money the various companies expect to receive with each sale, but isn’t that a basic premise of marketing and advertising? Draw the customer in with a blockbuster, financially-bad deal for company and then make up the difference (and then some) with other sales during the customer’s visit.

Looking through the Black Friday ads it just doesn’t appear that retailers understand this concept. What will it take for a profitable Christmas season? Deep discounts on quality items that will bring shoppers into your specific store. Simple, right?

Well, let’s see how it goes on Friday…

SPAM 80000 – Out of Control!

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Joe’s Journal just hit 80,000 spam comments. Good grief! What’s the point people?! Why are people still trying to get spam comments on blogs when there are powerful programs like Akismet that prevent this from happening?

Imagine the extra speed and usefulness of the Internet if there were no spam comments on blogs, guestbooks, or message boards. How about no spam e-mails any more? Imagine the increased processing power that we’d have…

Oh well.

NJ’s County Colleges See Enrollment Boost

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Earlier today a news brief was posted on the Daily Record’s website that spoke about the increase in students attending county colleges. Below is an excerpt of the release, which I’m sure will be made into a fuller article in the coming days:

The New Jersey Council of County Colleges says there are 158,152 students taking classes this fall. Nearly 81,000 are full-time, a 4.6 percent increase over last year.

County colleges previously had more part-time students. But the group says that trend has changed as tuition climbed at four-year schools.

Tuition at New Jersey’s county colleges averages about $2,500. It’s $9,500 at four-year schools.

This is great! Not only are New Jersey students saving some money by attending the county colleges, but as more and more of them make the 2-year pit stop at “county” before heading off to the larger schools, there is less and less of a stigma attached to the schools. County colleges often get tagged with the “13th Grade” moniker or other derogatory nicknames. I’ve never attended classes at a county college, so I wouldn’t know what the classroom atmosphere is like though I can’t imagine it is too much different than attending a smaller class at Rutgers, Monmouth, Rowan, or TCNJ.

As a side note, if this means that more New Jerseyans are going to college, then that is another great outcome of the county colleges!