Transference

This is a fancy way to say that times are changing and businesses that can't or don't change will lose out. A story told in a lot of Business classes is the Conestoga Wagon company changed to become Studebaker and survived. Yes, we all know that Studebaker didn't change with the times and it failed. I read this morning that Borders is going to close a couple of hundred of their super stores and they are blaming it on hard times. I think they can't keep up with the pace of change and the electronic books are putting them out of business. No, I don't have an idea what they could do but they had better do it quick and well.

Look around your city and see where the video rental stores are? In most cases, Blockbuster and Hollywood Theater stores are closed because for the same money you can rent movies from an online provider and never leave home or have a late fee. For a buck, you can rent movies from the "Red Box" outside the local grocery store. The same change is happening to books and the book stores have to be paying the price.

The other day, I went to my local resale/used book store and the new owner was shipping out about 10 books to the online market. She is trying to reduce her inventory and meeting the market need to have some old books available at a much reduced price. Her on-line prices are a little higher than the retail market in Topeka and the customer pays the shipping and handling. The next week I went in to a store a lot like the first one and picked up a book. I mentioned that the new store owner was shipping on line and he didn't seem interested in that business. He was sitting there with only me in the store and he was eating a McDonald's breakfast. I wonder if the transference of business to the on-line market will pass this guy by. I feel sure that the owner of the other store is watching the market and transferring her business where it pays well.

Today, I read in the paper that Kansas is considering allowing the quick shops and Grocery stores to carry liquor and that will probably close the Mom and Pop Liquor stores unless they change. I have always thought it was stupid that back in the day when I drank, you could not buy a bag of ice, chips or mix where you bought the booze. Those that do not recognize the transference of money to their business and are not able to change to meet the new need will go broke. Do I feel sorry for them? Not really, they can invest and grow or close.

This morning, Barb commented that if you read the paper today, it confirms that the world is a dangerous place out there. Yep, living will lead to death and it is only how fast and where you live that will get you slower or faster. I would think that in places where the need for political change is high, there is a higher chance that you might get caught up in the change. For now, while there might be a big need for the entire Government to change, the stability of our system will make it not as dangerous to live here. Not sure how long that may last.

One big change needed is for our Government to either find out what it needs to do, or stop trying to do everything for everyone. At 13 trillion dollars in debt, we can't continue to do business the old way. I saw a piece on the news and it said that China is about to pass Japan in the amount of Gross Domestic Product. It is interesting that their annual GDP is about equal to our debt. Someday, we will have to start a transference of our money to China as their GDP is about equal to the Debt we owe them. Between the cost of oil and our Debt, things must change or we will become the Studebaker and no amount of Government ownership will help us.

MUD