When I was a kid and attached a clothespin to my nose, my ear, my fingers; it hurt! Today, due to the Walmart effect one can cover oneself in clothespins with no ill effect.

Walmart does such a great job of beating up vendors over price that their products have to suffer to be included in Walmart's inventory. Take the clothespin, it looks like the clothespin of days gone by, yet the wood is closer to balsa wood than the hard woods of vintage clothspins. The spring is cheapo pot metal that has no real spring to it. Overall it is thinner, lighter and a flimsy visage of its former self.

Extend that business model over a huge array of consumer products and you have a bunch of cheap Chinese crap that fails to make the grade. After a season of lawn mowing, your mower's wheel axles will be bent from making the turns about ones property, especially if one has a thick lush lawn. That out door water fountain will have its paint peeling, plumbing failing and electrical components fizzling long before the first fall leaf falls. I wonder if Chinese car bumpers have their chrome peeling off or corroding away within the first ten thousand miles? Oh heck, they probably don't use chrome; too expensive!

Our screen door has a pneumatic shock absorber, designed to keep the door from slapping one in the ass when using that portal. This particular dampener allowed the door from its wide open position to spring closed 85% before any dampening took place. I made a conscious decision to avoid Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes and the like and opted for the locally owned Fort Collins Ace Hardware (Harmony and LeMay) in my shopping trip to replace that cheap closer with a top notch model. Once I got it installed and egressing the doorway, I was promptly slapped in the ass! I've had similar experiences with my toilet flushing handle and sink sprayer. Cheap Chinese crap, all of it.

How can we fight back?


As the economy worsens Walmart's stock is going up. I no longer shop there but am hard pressed to avoid product disappointment as there are no shops who aren't in the tank for cheap Chinese crap. Do you think there is an opportunity for a store who's business model would be promoting "Not Cheap Chinese Crap" or "Vintage Made in America"?

If you know where a functional replacement door closing dampener can be purchased I would appreciate the information. Summer is here and I don't need to have a daily ass whacking.

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FotoPlayer makes great software for managing an online photo gallery. I use it here for my Flash Gallery. I purchased three licenses for three different domains.

Recently I asked Dhina to re-purpose the license for a domain that was deleted to a new domain. The answer was:

Sorry, license cannot be transferred. if you wish to use PF on a new domain, you'll need to purchase additional license (20% discount provided).

Now that really chaps my hyde! It isn't good enough to be a repeat customer, or a customer at all in this day of readily available gallery softwares.

Has anybody besides myself noticed that pencil erasures no longer function as they did in the sixties and seventies? Today they just smear the lead around the page.

I have recently purchased pencils for Walmart. Walmart as you know is famous for getting cost of common products down. It is my contention that much of this is done by employing Chinese labor and or supplies. I wonder what they are using to make pencil erasures? Melamine? They sure look real don't they?

Papermate American HB 2 had fake erasures, even though it is marked as having been made in America. My bet is that it is 'assembled' in America with Chinese erasures.

I spend a little extra to get a package of Ticonderoga 12 HB 2 pencils and finally I have a pencil with a functional erasure. The Ticonderoga is made by Dixonand boasts quality, latex free erasure and black graphite point for smooth, easy writing.