Canadians Not Terrorized Enough?

On By WinstonIn Global Issues, Politics, Society, Values1 Comment

I was just reading an article on Maclean’s  app about how indifferent most Canadians are to the threat of terrorism.  The implication being our need to take it more seriously.  The fact is, we shouldn’t.

Aside from a couple of highly publicized “threats”, Canada isn’t exactly a commonly declared terroist target.  It isn’t amping up the fear factor that the domestic plots appear to have been orchestrated by people with the technical and organizational skills of a sleep deprived chipmunk.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it couldn’t happen.  We don’t get any more of a free pass than anyone else.  I just don’t see it as really likely.  More to  the point, there’s not a thing I can do about it and frankly,  I’ve got better things to worry about.  Like a Prime Minister who feels that mumbling “Islamicist” is going to take my mind off the lack of employment in my immediate future.

Of course the average Canadian isn’t overly worried about terrorism.  We work in a job market where the idea of long term security is considered extinct.  Politicians boast about their job creation records without mentioning whether or not they pay a living wage, offer benefits, or have any career potential.  Young people graduate from secondary school unable to read, write or do even basic math.  This is supposed to be acceptable to us because technology is replacing these skills.  As someone who has experienced them in the workplace, I can assure you this isn’t the case.

There are so many real and immediate threats for the average Canadian to worry about that marginally possible terrorism doesn’t do it.  Even when our Beloved Leader trots out fun and unusual words like “Islamicist”.  It can’t be easy trying to scare people when  your bogeymen won’t cooperate.  I know a lot of people impacted by our economic and employment issues.  I don’t know anyone who’s been threatened by terrorists of any kind.

A foreign policy of military interventionism is hard to justify if the official bad guys aren’t really doing anything bad to you.  It’s even harder if the bad guys you’re trying to sell everyone on are not as bad or dangerous as others.  Muammar Gaddafi isn’t a nice guy nor has he been a benevolent ruler, but he’s no Kim Jong Il.  It’s just a lot easier and safer to bomb Libya.  Likewise, Afghanistan is far from stable and the Taliban were vile by any standard.  On the other hand, it is a rock solid, model of social justice compared to Somalia.  But again, invading Somailia hasn’t been so easy in the past.

North Korea is a nuclear state run by an absolute dictator who also happens to be an absolute nut.  Mr Harper feels this is less of an issue than the nebulous and ill defined “Islamicist”s.  Somailia has no functioning central government, and the only growth industry seems to be piracy.  They also have Al Shabab which is about as “Islamicist” as you get.  Not that it’s likely to be any quicker, more effective, or affordable than the fiasco which is Afghanistan.

So no, if the leader of the nation doesn’t want to address any actual terror threats, we the people aren’t likely to spare much energy for them either.  I mean really, what do they expect.  Do they truly believe that best way to Canada stay strong and vital is to drop bombs on Gaddafi supporters?  How is our pointless and over-extended invasion of Afghanistan creating jobs or improving the quality of life for ordinary Canadians?  Are they doing anything to encourage sustainable development in society or business?  Of course not.  They are useful mainly as distractions.  The contemporary version of the ancient Roman “bread and circuses”.

If Prime Minister Harper can keep us focused on events in Afghanistan, Libya or on “Islamicist” terrorists, we might not notice the real threat.  Contrary to popular (at least with Harper) belief, the greatest threat to our security is the erosion of our quality of life.  Declining education standards, a widening gap between wealthy and poor with a shrinking middle class, a job market defined by temporary/contract positions and health care cuts are just some of the things distracting Canadians from the “Islamicist” menace.  If our elected officials did their jobs and addressed these issues, maybe we could spare some concern for his “vaporware” terrorists.

That’s not likely to happen though.  Then again I’m not likely to lose any sleep worrying about the Prime Minister’s “Islamicist” bogeymen.  I get little enough sleep as it is worrying about my employment options.  Unless his paranoid delusions are going to land me a job, his sole relevance for me is relegated to providing me with fodder for this blog.  Not really what I look for in a leader, but about what I’ve come to expect from Mr. Harper.  I don’t have really high hopes for anyone who’s election campaign was based such classic staples as “in these troubled times, we need to stay the course”, and my personal favorite, “Vote for me because I’m not the other guy.”

No wonder Mr. Harper’s focusing on “Islamicist” terror.  With both the Liberals and new Democrats looking for leaders, there aren’t really any viable targets for personal attack ads.  That just leaves him with fear mongering.  If it weren’t for the teenie-tiny chance of a terrorist attack in Canada, the poor man wouldn’t have a sound bite available to toss out to the media.  Who knows, maybe then they’d ask about something that actually mattes.  Nah, probably not.

Cheers, Winston

Netbook Blues Are A Boon For Me

On By WinstonIn Personal, TechnologyLeave a comment

A couple of years ago, we bought our daughter a netbook to use for school.  She was thrilled and happy as a clam… for about a month.  Just long enough that we couldn’t return it.  It seems she might have been mistaken in what she needed from her portable computer.  As well as running office apps to use for school, it suddenly needed to stream video, play Facebook games etc.  It was never made for those things so of course she wasn’t happy with it.  She managed to tough it out until now.

For her recent eighteenth birthday, we bought her a new notebook.  It’s faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and if it goes over any building, it’ll go poorly for her.  Short version, I inherited her netbook.

Now it’s pretty common knowledge that netbooks are underpowered.  Really, that’s sort of the point.  If you want a full power laptop, buy a notebook not a netbook.  On the other hand, this one has issues even by netbook standards.  The processor was bit slower than others at it’s price point, but it was a trade off for other perks.  When all the competition had 1gb of ram and 160gb hard drive, this one had 2gb of ram and a 250gb drive.  It also has an 11.6 inch display as opposed to the usual 10 inch,

As with any tech toy, it’s all about what you expect from it.  I don’t stream video or play Facebook games on the netbook.  I am using it to write this post.  I use it to surf news sites to figure out what I want to write about.  And even those things are a little clunky on this laptop.  Or at least they were.

I did some research and discovered the problem.  It’s actually one of the most ubiquitous problems in the computer world.  No, it’s not a virus.  It’s Windows Vista.  It turns out it’s a little resource hungry for this poor little thing.  On the other hand, there are apparently several Linux distributions optimized for netbooks.  I’ve used Linux before and have a current version on my desktop downstairs.  So I figured, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

Normally, that’s a question I try to avoid because I never really like the answer.  In this case, it wasn’t a problem.  I was going to install the Ubuntu Netbook Edition.  Yeah, that apparently doesn’t exist anymore, but that’s okay.  I’m not that picky.  Netbook Edition, Desktop Edition, whatever.  So I go ahead and install it anyway.

More accurately, I spent a fair bit of time trying to guess the secret of the setup instructions.  Then I spent more time swearing and attempting to guess the secret of the setup instructions.  After a fair number of guesses and a much larger number of words which I’m not about to repeat here, I got it to install.  There was much cheering and rejoicing, very quietly because by then it was 4:30am.

Because I installed the FULL Desktop Edition I sort of expected it to be as slow as Vista was.  Thanks to the God of all Geeks, it’s not.  In fact, it’s really responsive.  If I was typing this on the Vista side, I’d have a huge problem with lag.  When I typed last night’s post, I could literally type an entire sentence before it showed up on the screen.  On this shiny new Linux build, there’s barely a trace of it remaining.  It’s quicker loading web pages.  It doesn’t really care how many tabs I have open, it just goes ahead and does what it’s supposed to.

Now before everyone with a netbook clicks away to download Linux and speed things up, here’s what you need to know.  Unless you know at least a little bit about Linux, it’s not going to be as rewarding as you hope.  It wasn’t until after I installed it that I was reminded of just how many little things you need to know.  A software package I wanted to install couldn’t get some of the files it needed.  So I had to open a terminal window and type something like “sudko apt-get install whatever it was called”.

I’m not telling you not to do it, just be prepared.  Remember, Google is your friend.  The secret is, you have to know enough about what you’re doing to as the right question.  If you can do that, it should be okay.  Maybe.  If not, don’t use the comment section to ask for tech support.  I won’t respond.  No matter how much entertainment you have provided me with.

Cheers, Winston

The Beginning Of The End Of The Beginning…

On By WinstonIn Personal, Society1 Comment

Where I am at the moment, there is less than an hour until the end of rentals at Blockbuster Canada. It’s not easy for me to put aside my anger and look at the bigger picture. Still, I’d like to share a few thoughts about what it has meant, and will mean going forward.

For many years now, Blockbuster Canada has been the go-to solution for movie and game rentals. Sure, they pushed the independent, mom & pop video stores out of business. Just like Loblaws pushed the neighborhood grocer out of business and Walmart allegedly pushed every other retailer out of business. The fact is, the people who’ve been coming into my store for the past week haven’t been saying “I told you so.”. Mostly, they’ve been saying, “I’ll miss you, the store, the staff and and the movies.”

For many of them, Blockbuster has been more than a place to get movies. You can get movies from a huge range of sources. But we were never a movie business, we are a service business. That’s what kept putting feet on our floor every day and put money in the bank. This isn’t just my opinion, it’s the opinion everyone who’s first question isn’t about their rental options moving forward. It’s the opinion of every person who has asked if my staff, myself and our familiies will be okay. Not everyone shares this opinion, but enough do. I know that everything I did was not in vain. Every person who’s eyes mist up when we say “See ya around.”, they are the validation of what we have built.

So, the media misrepresents the causes of our closure. They say we couldn’t compete with the new digital world, and they’re full of sh*t. But that’s their job. It seems a lot of the alleged journalists writing about the demise of Blockbuster Canada are frustrated fiction writers. That’s the most charitable excuse I can find for the substitution of opinion for observation and fallacy for fact. The truth is, if you or I did our jobs that badly, we’d be fired. Now that I’m going to have all this time on my hands, maybe I should go to journaliism school. Nah, too muich self respect for that.

Moving forward, we come to the most popular question at Blockbuster. “Where a I going to get my movies?” I’ve got a better question. Where an I going to get my mortgage from. Movies are a luxury, but a mortgage, utilities, food etc, not so much. There isn’t going to be another business like Blockbuster. It was a product of it’s time and that time is not likely to come around again. There are a couple of regional players left, but movies rentals are sidelines for them. Sadly, that’s how they treat their rental customers, like an afterthought. Or a potential market for their main product lines. We were the biggest player in the video rental business. Some people hated us for being a big, corporate behemoth. They aren’t the ones who have stopped me in the grocery store to tell me how much they will miss me. Blockbuster Canada may have been a corporation, but they were the most people friendly, customer driven company I have ever worked for. I can’t see how removing that influence from the marketplace is going to be an improvement. Any time you reduce the range of options for the consumer, it rarely works out in their favour.

Having said all that, the time is almost upon me. It is nearly five, and that means the ending of an era in Canada. Some will view this as a positive thing, and others won’t. For myself, I think I’ve made my position abundantly clear. Blockbuster Canada isn’t dying because we failed to thrive in the face of emerging technologies. We are dying because people who couldn’t manage their own company were allowed to destroy ours also. To every person who worked hard to make Blockbuster Canada a success: Congratulations on your victory. To all the fine people with whom I have had the privilege of working for the past four and a half years: Thank you for a great ride. I wish all of you every possible success in your lives. May you be blessed with health, happiness and a long life to enjoy both.

Time ladies. Time gentlemen. The rental business will now be closing for the duration. Thank you, it’s been lovely.

Cheers, Winston

On Education Reform

On By WinstonIn Education, Society, ValuesLeave a comment

I recently visited TED Conversations. It’s one of my favorite places to go when I’m looking for things to write about. They came through for me again.

The thread I was following concerned the need for education reform. I have a daughter who recently graduated high school and is entering college as we speak. So the education system is is something of an issue for me right now. The comments on the subject were amazing, enlightening and sometimes scary.

One of the more popular ideas involved home schooling via internet and virtual tutors. The use of augmented reality for children exploring their environment was another one that caught my eye. Replacing books with digitial information made me laugh too. The general tone was that “traditional” education techniques had failed and need to be replaced.

A personal favorite of mine suggested that reading, writing and arithmetic are over-emphasized. Really? There’s some secret “learn by osmosis” technique that I missed? Darn, that would have been handy back in school. Unfortunately, there isn’t.

What most of them agreed on is the need to make education more interesting and accessible. This is what I like to call horsepoop. Education is what you need to do in order to do what you want. If you want education reform, there are some things that might help more than some radical deconstruction.

Genuine equality of access would be a good start. If all students have the same quality of facilities, instructors, materials etc, that would be a worthwhile reform. If there were an increased societal value placed on education, that could be worthwhile. Ensuring sufficient funds without the political wrangling normally involved could be a worthwhile reform. Re-instating refor schools for those intent on disrupting classes and denying others their education, I think that might be worthwhile too.

I don’t think that easier/more interesting is a viable path for reform. Easy doesn’t generally equate to being worthwhile, and oftentimes, less challenging is boring. The fact is, some things have to be learned because they have to be learned.

I don’t think there’s much that would have made multiplication more interesting for me. I ended up writing my multiplication tables out one hundred times. It wasn’t easy or interesting, but I still do most of my basic math in my head.

One more reform. Let’s lose the idea of passing a set percentage of students regardless of actual achievement. It creates an underclass of people who don’t possess the tools to function effectively in society. They may not get teased for being held back a year in school, but they will be when they can’t get a job because they can’t read.

Reforming education will require a reassessment of what we expect it to achieve, what we are willing to invest in it, and what we expect of our children. There is no “one size fits all” solution. One thing is certain. The longer we wait to address the problems in our education system, the greater the harm to those we should be helping.

Cheers, Winston

Following My Path

On By WinstonIn Personal, Self AwarenessLeave a comment

Job hunting sucks.  It’s one of my least favorite things to do.  Sadly, at this point, it’s also unavoidable.  One of the things I don’t like about it, is trying to figure out what the heck I’m going to do.  I don’t have a degree or even a diploma.  In today’s job market, that’s kind of limiting.  So I was thinking about talking to Employment Insurance about education and training programs.  It feels like the right time to take things in a new direction.

Today when I got home from work, my wife and I were talking about my options.  We had been discussing the possibility of getting more training and I was just waiting for Tuesday (after the long weekend) to call Second Career and find out what my options are going to be.  Second Career is a provincial program that provides education and skills training to laid off workers.  Sinnce that’s what I’m going to be soon, it seemed like it could be an option.  Now, we’ve had a rethink.

She isn’t convinced that I’m ready to fully commit to school and that I’m considering it for the wrong reasons.  She’s almost right, but not quite.  Going back to school isn’t at the top of my good times list, but I do want to improve my education and learn new skills.  I’m not pumped about school, but it’s a step towards doing things that are on that good times list.

During the conversation I mentioned a seasonal opportunity that I’ve probably got a pretty good shot at in retail/customer service.  She said she’d rather I take that until after the holidays.  Take some time to think about where I want to go.  Because she loves me, she’d rather see me do something I enjoy than just something I should.  Since I heard about the job opportunity, I’ve actually been thinking about doing both.  The job will probably be part time, so there’s no reason not to see what options EI/Second Career can offer me.  Maybe it will give me the chance to do what I love while learnning to do it better.

After we finished the conversation, we went back to what we were doing  on our respective laptops.  In my case, that meant doing this post.  Unnfortuately, I had no idea what I wanted to say.  I started writing, but it was even more disorganized than yesterday.  So went surfing for some inspiration.  I stumbled on a commmencement address Steve Jobs gave at Stanford University (you can watch it here: http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html )  .  It was the definintion of serendipity.

He may have been addressing the graduates at Stanford, but he was speaking to me.  He talked about how being fired from Apple years ago had given him the freedom to innovate and re-invent himself.  Then, he tallked about the importannce of doing what you love.  During this time, he developed the concepts which would define Apple’s ressurgence after he was rehired.  It addressed everything we had been talking about in a manner which resonnated strongly with me.

I appears that Mr. Jobs has built himself a time machine, traveled into the future and bugged my livingroom just to get some material for a commencement address at Stanford.  I might have thought it a tad excessive, except that I’m starting to understand about writer’s block.  Some days, it might be easier to build a time machine than to do the next post for my blog.

On the other hand, he might have done all of that just so he could give me a bit of guidance when I needed it.  If so, thank you Steve.  Your timing was impeccable.

Nothing is carved in stone.  I’m going to take a resume and apply for the customer service position.  If I get it, then I can start looking at education opportunities.  These are steps on a path.  I may not know where that path will lead, but I understand better how I want to shape it.  I choose to do what I’m passionate about, and I do it with the loving support of my wife.  It may not, in fact problably won’t go the way I imagine it.  At least I will have given myself the chance.  That’s not such a bad gift, is it?

Cheers, Winston

Scary Movies, Christians, Politicians, Labels and Shorthand

On By WinstonIn Humor, Self Awareness, SocietyLeave a comment

Here I am once again trying to decide what to write for the day.  While I was at work, I had this great idea about the ethics of the situation with Blockbuster, but franklly, I’m just don’t have anything new to say about that.  Once the court hands down it’s ruling and we know what’s happening, then I’m certain to have more to say.

I thought about doing something political, but I’m not sure I could do that without being ill today.  That much sleaze just might be too much for me.  So no poliitical stuff.  Besides, I forgot my phone today and my daughter took it with her to Birthday Party 2.0.  Without all my different news apps, I might have to actually surf and stuff.  That seems like way too much trouble.

Which brings back where I started.  What to write?  What to write?  Hmmmmmm……  What to write?

Too much of that, and people are goinng to start thinking about Jack in the “The Shining”.  Speaking of “The Shining”, now I know what I’m going to write about.  Apparently there’s something to that “stream of consciousness” stuff.  I always thought it sounded too easy to be real.  Turns out, it’s not much more than typing while my mind wanders.  Basicaly, my natural state, but with typing added.  Where was I…?

Ah yes,  “The Shining”.  Contrary to what you’re probably thinking, this isn’t going to be a review.  It’s actually about something from work.  Maybe also something about people needing to be told what to think.  That last bit might be a bit more ambitious than I am right now.  To put that in perspective, there are damp sponges with more ambition (but less bacteria) than I seem to possess at the moment.  Darn!  Apparently the stream of my consciousness meanders quite a bit.  Where was I…..?

Ah yes, “The Shining”.  Today at work, a customer asked me to help him find a scary movie.  Pretty exciting story so far eh?  I asked him to tell me the scariest movie he had seen recently and he didn’t have a clue.  So I asked him to tell me what kind of scary movie he likes.  Does he like ghosts, slashers, fauxcumentaries, gory, creepy etc.  He didn’t have a clue.

I can already hear some of you saying, “What do you expect from someone who watches scary movies?”  Save your breath.  It’s the same for any other genre you can think of.  Even the nice people who insist on only watching “films” and would never deign to watch a mere movie ask me for the best film.  They don’t have any more of a clue than the scary movie guy.  That’s what happens when you think in terms of groups instead of individuals.

You see, it’s like this.  The group Scary Movies includes The Exorcist and Drag Me To Hell.  The group Films, includes Winter’s Bone and Rubber.  Belonging to a group doesn’t mean that all of the qualities of the members are shared, only the single characteristic that identifies the grouup.    To illustrate, The Exorcist is creepy, gory, atomsopheric, well written, brilliantly directed and has a stellar cast including Max Von Sydow.  Drag Me To Hell on the other hand is creepy, gory, atmospheric, well written, brilliantly directed and has a stellar cast.  Both belong to the Scary Movies group.  This is true of many things in various groups.

Mother Theresa and Warren Jeffs both belong to the group Christians.  Rick Perry and Mahatma Ghandi belong to the group, Reiligiously Inspired Political Leaders.  The list could go on.  I think I made my point here though.  If you want help finding a scary movie, it helps if you know what scares you.  If you’re looking for Mother Theresa, don’t ask for Religiously Inspired Political Leaders.  Warren Jeffs may not provide the same experience.

It’s something I do myself.  I ask people for their opinions all the time.  The secret is, I understand that just because several people told me that Paraormal Activity is the scariest movie ever, doesn’t mean it will be for me.  It just helps me guage what to give them when they ask for a Scary Movie.  The truth is Scary Movie is just a label.  The label isn’t the thing.  The label isn’t scary, the movies are scary.  That’s my great breakthrough for the day.  What I put in the group Scary Movies may not be the same as someone else’s group.  Each person’s group is valid for them.

So here’s my point.  The contents of the group aren’t the problem.  The problem is our label.  Instead of Scary Movies, we should use something more like, Winston Lake’s Scary Movie List.  Then I could have something to compare to Jane Doe’s Scary Movie List.  Comparing those list’s would give me a better idea what to reccomend.  Just using  Scary Movies is too broad.  Saying Christian, or Politician or any other broad generic label isn’t really saying anything at all.

The label isn’t the thing, but the greater the resemblance, the more useful the label.  People use labels as a shorthand to describe the world around them.  It’s only when we want to share our world that we understand the problem.  Each of us uses our own shorthand.  Any similarities are purely coincidental.

To My Daughter

On By WinstonIn PersonalLeave a comment

I’m not going to write a lot right now because I have to get ready to go out with my family to celebrate my daughter’s eighteenth birthday. From there, I may be heading pretty much straight to work for the evening so might not have a chance to post later.

As you can see, I’m not incarcerated. It’s not because I made bail, more about having only the good customers in last night. I got hugs, handshakes, good wishes, and one guy who’s going to bring me his business card. It was a good crowd last night.

Yeah, I choked up a couple of times. That was just a preview of what it’s going to be like at my daughter’s brunch this morning.

Just yesterday, she was thirteen and thought I should be able to answer any question. About a week before, she was eleven and believed that I could make growing pains go away by rubbing her ankle at two in the morning.

A couple of months before, my wife and I had been together for a while. We had been out somewhere and when we were getting in the car to come back her four year old daughter asked me to ride in the back with her. Today, that little girl turns eighteen.

For the past fourteen years, I have been honored and proud to call her my daughter. I have been blessed to have her tell me, “I only call you Win because that’s what I’ve called you since I was little. I love my biological Dad, but you are the one who gets up in the middle of the night if I call you. You are the one who fights to get me to do my homework and hugs me every day and tells me you love me. I may call you Win, but it really means Dad.”

Happy Birthday Sweetheart

Love you more, Win

I’m Not Bitter About Losing My Job… Much

On By WinstonIn Personal, Rants, SocietyLeave a comment

I wasn’t really sure what I was going to write today. I hadn’t chosen a title or a “feel” for it. I knew there was more I wanted to say about my store closing, I just wasn’t sure what. I just started writing, and let it come. The original post starts below the line. It is what it is.

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So yesterday’s post was very personal for me. It was also personal for a bunch of other people. I got messages from people I hadn’t heard from in ages. A couple of former co-workers phoned me to make sure my family will be okay. It was kind of cathartic for me, and that’s a good thing.

Tonight will be my first shift at Blockbuster since I heard the news. It’s going to be tricky. There are going to be the people who will miss the business and that’s fair. Some are going to miss “us”, and that’s going to be hard. Then there are the ones who will come in to gloat or look for early sales like vultures circling the last weakened members of a soon to be extinct species. Those will be the tricky ones.

They could be the hardest, if I have to control my natural impulses. On the other hand, they could be the easiest. Really, it’ll depend how hard they push me. I firmly believe everyone is entitled to their opinion. What a lot of people don’t realize is that I have one too. Normally when I’m on the other side of that counter, I keep it to myself. Now… we’ll see how that goes tonight.

During the first round of store closures I had people who were really upset that my store wasn’t closing too. I had one person swearing at me because I wouldn’t sell my rental movies at the liquidation prices of the store down the street. If any of “those” people come in, they could go home with a whole other kind of customer service experience. Not to mention, a better understanding of how store closures are about more than just awesome prices. They’re about people, and some of those people may not be in the mood to play nice with a self-obsessed twit-bag who thinks their cheap movies are more important than whether or not I can pay my bills!

Like I say, it could be a little tricky tonight. I’ll post later to let you know how it goes… if I make bail ;^D

Cheers, Winston

Blockbuster Canada Was A Victim Of It’s Own Success

On By WinstonIn Media, Personal, Society, Values1 Comment

I think it’s only fair to say upfront that I work for Blockbuster Canada, but not for much longer. The most recent deal fell through, and with nothing promising on the horizon, the receiver is recommending the liquidation of the company to pay the creditors. The problem is, they aren’t our creditors.

Before our parent company Blockbuster US went bankrupt, they bought themselves some time by using Blockbuster Canada as collateral for their debt. When they went under and were purchased by Dish Network, that $70,000,000 bill wasn’t part of the deal. That debt transferred to us. We didn’t incur the debt, but we were held accountable for it. Such are the joys of international commerce. Dish Network chose not to exercise their option to purchase Blockbuster Canada, largely it seems to avoid the creditors we inherited. Nice for them, not so much for us.

Blockbuster Canada was a successful, profitable and slowly expanding business. When the fiasco in the US pushed our company into receivership, we had posted an operating profit of $112,000,000 last year and had about $15,000,000 in liquid assets. That success is what ultimately killed us. That success is why we could be used as collateral. If we hadn’t been as strong as we were, we’d be better off now.

Now of course, the story is that we were struggling for relevance in an increasingly digital age. That’s the problem when you just recycle your stories from when Blockbuster US was tanking. There isn’t the same pressure from streaming/mail/kiosk use. I’ve worked at Blockbuster for nearly five years and in that time, I’ve definitely seen customers drop out of sight as they move to the other entertainment channels. I’ve also seen more than a few of them come back. Some come back for the selection of new releases and older titles, or for the rental terms which are apparently better than the on demand service they were using. The one thing almost every returning customer listed in common was service.

The fact is, that’s why those services cost so little. There’s no human interaction, so you only have to pay a handful of people at the back-end. There’s no front-end cost. But that lack of personality is also the problem with that model and the reason that so many people come back to brick and mortar stores. That’s the first thing I emphasized to every new hire. We aren’t in the movie/game business, we’re in the service business. People can get their movies or games anywhere. The only reason they come to us is because we offer something none of those other channels can provide. That one special ingredient is service.

It’s an attitude that was encouraged at every level. I’ve worked more than a few jobs over the years, and Blockbuster Canada was the most customer driven. AlLL of the staff were empowered to use discretionary credits to resolve problems. It was understood that it’s better to lose a few dollars now, than a lifetime worth of business.

Our customers come to our store because they want that level of service. If there’s a problem, they want it solved on site and usually on the spot. They want people to remember what they like and be able to recommend things to watch or to avoid. That’s part of what sets us apart from an algorithm that tracks your viewing habits and makes recommendations based off of them. Algorithms work great for machines, but not so great with people just yet. I’m not saying they never will, but so far, not so much. Of course, people can get all the review information they want from rottentomatoes.com. This is true of course, but I’ve been there and frankly, they and I tend to have some divergence of opinion. They provide an aggregate result of all the reviews they receive. Unless you agree with the taste of most of the people you know, it’s not much use.

So what is going to be lost when they lock the doors that last time? My job and those of about 2300 other people. Some much needed income for my family and those of the other 2300 families. Most importantly perhaps, a business where people are treated like people and not just ambulatory ATMs. You see, I specialize in customer service. That doesn’t mean that I try to upsell every person who walks through my door. It means knowing the people who come into my Blockbuster location as people. Sometimes, it means telling them why they don’t want to sign up for that tempting sounding promotion. Sometimes it means telling them that the movie they are thinking about buying is much cheaper at another retailer. Sometimes, it means giving them a shoulder to cry on or an ear to vent to.

What are people gaining by the destruction of Blockbuster Canada? Not a damned thing. When Blockbuster Canada closes, it’s not going to make anything better for anyone. It’s actually going to make things a little bit worse for the thousand-plus people who enjoy coming into my store each weak. People might gain a couple of bucks by not paying our outrageous prices to rent movies. To some that might be enough. I just don’t think it will be for everyone.

I’ve enjoyed my time at Blockbuster. I’ve been fortunate to work with some truly wonderful people. Some of my regular “customers” have become close friends. Anywhere I go in my community people smile and say, “Aren’t you the Blockbuster guy?” That ‘s a rare gift. It’s just one more thing I’m going to miss. Like I’m going to miss the ten year old girl who’s mother gives her the Blockbuster card and five dollars to come in and rent her own movies. The mother has been a customer at that store for years. We’ve talked often and she got to meet my daughter when she stopped in to see me after school one day. So she feels safe letting her daughter come into the store and rent her own movies. Her daughter gets to feel “all grown up” and I smile every time she comes in. I’m going to miss this one older couple who come in about once a week but only when I’m working. They know that I understand what kind of movies they like. When I’m cleaning the shelves or doing returns, I always keep an eye out so I have something new for them. I could write a dozen more, or a hundred more. It doesn’t make a difference because this isn’t about what I do, or the lives I touch. It’s about the bottom line. It’s better for Blockbuster Inc.s creditors to liquidate my company, my store, my livelihood, my community.

I’m certain I’ll find another job. I’m confident I’ll be good at it. I’m not sure I’ll ever get that sense of being part of the community around me again. When the people you serve come in week after week for years, and want to talk to you about movies, games, their kids, their job, their car, their vacation, their neighbor etc, they become real to you. They aren’t customers anymore. The secret is, they never were. They are people like you, like me and they are what I’ll miss the most.

Cheers, Winston

Just A Quick Note

On By WinstonIn Personal4 Comments

I have just found out that the company I work for will be closing shortly. This is a lot for me to process, need a bit of time. Once I’ve come to terms, I’ll fill in the details. In the meantime, I just wanted to make sure I meet my postaday2011 commitment.

My thoughts and prayers are with my fellow employees and their families.

Cheers, Winston