- About a month ago, I learned that Target announced that sales over the April through June period were 7 percent below a year ago, with pessimistic outlook for the remainder of the year, which includes the Christmas period. Target also said that store traffic fell 2.2 percent below a year ago, which equates to about 5 million shoppers. However, as Target decides to build single-stall bathrooms to help implement it's transgender bathroom policy, CEO Brian Cornell states these results have very little to do with its transgender acceptance policy. While there are factors such as overall economy and product mix that probably have much to do with the decline, as one who's worked extensively in retail analytics, I don't know how Cornell can quantify the magnitude of the transgender policy on traffic and sales, unless they have figured a way to rigorously segment transgenders in their analysis, which I have never seen.
- I ran across the following blog post on the Reason blog this past week.
"A professor at the University of Iowa has a problem with its sports mascot, Herky the Hawk: he looks too angry, and if delicate students are exposed to images of a fake scowling bird, they might just kill themselves.
Pediatrics Professor Resmiye Oral wrote to the athletic department to request that Herky be given a different expression. "Herky's angry, to say the least, faces conveying an invitation to aggressivity and even violence are not compatible with the verbal messages that we try to convey to and instill in our students and campus community," she wrote,according to The Iowa City Press-Citizen.
She later said that Herky's currenty expression is "against the nonviolent, all accepting, nondiscriminatory messages we are trying to convey through campus."
When I look at these claims, it makes me wonder what the level of political correctness we have on college campuses. A person in a mascot hawk suit is promoting belligerence amongst the student body? Why wasn't this brought up 25 years ago, when violent crime was notably higher than it is now?
- This past week I was able to go the "Great Minnesota Get Together," the Minnesota State Fair, two times. I enjoy going aspects of the State Fair: the people watch, seeing animals such as the state's largest boar (1200 pounds this year) and some of the food items. However, I have to say in my older age I don't quite get as much out of the Fair as I use to, particularly when it comes to food items. The cost of eating at the Fair is just getting more and more expensive. Nothing says this more than the "All You Can Drink Milk" stand. For the longest time it was $1, but now it's $2. I call that a racket (i.e. scam). Why? Because most folks who pay the $2 will have 8 ounce cups of milk that they will have to keep going up to the stand to wait in line and refill. A half gallon of milk at the grocery store is about a $1.70. So unless someone goes and refills their cup 8 times (64 ounces in a half gallon), the stand makes much more than the grocery store does per unit. Smart business move? I guess so. But not something I'm going to partake in.
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