Career Tips for Beginners

If nothing else, Away From the Cubicle provides a constant supply of practical, relevant tips that can dramatically improve your quality of life.  In yesterday's post, I provided some spectacularly useful advice for those aspiring to pursue a career in crime.  But if you're like me and you prefer a tamer, more...boring existence, there's some bad news.  Unfortunately, living life on the up-and-up that means that at some point, you're likely to face the dreaded job interview.

Interviewing for a new job can be a very intimidating experience.  It's important not only to make a good impression, but to also size up the potential employer to determine if you'll fit in comfortably with the other workers and enjoy working in the unique culture.  Interestingly enough, yesterday's advice on robbing banks is just as relevant when preparing for a job interview: once again, striking the right balance is critical.

In a formal interview situation, you should make it clear that you'll take the job seriously, yet you don't want to come across as too uptight.  Showing up over-dressed for the occasion can set you up for a potentially uncomfortable and embarrassing situation, so it's important to read the situation carefully before selecting your attire.  You choice should demonstrate that you can pull off a professional appearance, yet also convey confidence that you'll be just as comfortable on casual Friday.

Here's the recent story of a man in Sacramento who learned the hard way what can happen if you misread the situation.  About two months ago, Jose Ayala walked up to a welding shop in the Del Paso Heights area of Sacramento, hoping to get himself a job interview. Business attire would certainly be overkill for a position in a welding shop, so he went a more...shall we say..."casual" route.  Here's a clip to his story, which became an internet sensation:



That's right, Jose not only showed up buck naked to his interview, he was also high on meth.  It was truly a bold move--no one can blame him for not being himself and letting it all hang out (quire literally), but perhaps he took that principle to the extreme.  And Jose wasn't shy about self-promotion, either--when he walked up, he immediately told the shop owner that he was good with his hands.  That's an important skill for an aspiring welder, but when he's standing there naked, I could see where someone might interpret that comment as a little creepy...

I'm not sure that Jose thought this plan out thoroughly beforehand, but I can see a few pros and cons that he might have considered in his interview strategy. The pros:

• Confidence is important in any interview, and Jose immediately made it very clear to his potential employer that he's a very confident man.
• If Jose somehow received a job offer, there's almost no chance the shop owner would make him take a drug test, since those results wouldn't exactly reveal any new information.
• Some employers appreciate staff members who help cultivate a relaxed atmosphere at the office, and Jose's outlook on life seems tailor-made for casual Fridays.

Then, on the other hand, there were some inherent risks with the naked interview strategy:

• Some crazy, stuck-up employers have a weird hang-up about not hiring naked men who wander in randomly off the street--and about allowing heavy drug use on the job.  I don't understand it, but that bias does seem to exist in some workplaces.
• When the cops show up--which they most certainly will--the inevitable naked struggle might give the boss the impression that you don't work well with others.

After weighing his options, Jose went ahead with the clothes-free option.  Unfortunately for him, the story's ending did not include a regular paycheck, just a free trip to the local jail.  It's an unenviable position in which to find yourself, but I feel worse yet for the pair of police officers (and a few bystanders) who had the even less enviable job of tackling and pinning the very naked Jose to the ground.

I have my share of bad days at the office, but not a single one has ended with my laying on top of a struggling, naked man.  If I were those officers after that particular experience, I'd be reading this blog post to collect some valuable, last-minute interview tips in preparation for a job search in a different line of work...

Here's a link to a quick recap of Jose's story:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/man-shows-up-for-job-interview-naked-high-on-meth.html

The First Rule of Bank Robbery

I don't have much experience in this area, but if you're thinking about robbing a bank, one of the keys to success is your ability pose a realistic threat to the tellers.  You need some way scare and threaten the bank staff into immediate cooperation with your plan.  If you show up and threaten to slap the teller, for example, you're like to get laughed out of the bank via an escort from the branch manager.  That's why it's important to come prepared with some kind of weapon...a gun, a knife...even a well-sharpened stick might do the trick if you're intimidating enough.

But, like in so many other things in life, balance is important even when it comes to robbing banks.  You want to pose a realistic threat, but it's possible to go over the top with your method of intimidation.  A man named Marvin Simmons went overboard with his threats in a recent string of bank robberies.  He never showed a weapon, but in each case he passed the teller a note threatening to detonate a nuclear bomb if the teller didn't hand over cash!  Here's the story after a successful robbery in late February:



Surprisingly, Simmons succeeded in robbing at least four banks in Prince George's County, Maryland over the past few months with nothing more than his handwritten, nuclear note.  I suppose the tellers can't risk calling his bluff, but I'm in awe that he was able to pull off four robberies with such a preposterous threat.

It's been a while since my last physics class, but from what I recall, a nuclear bomb creates a rather large explosion...one that would probably wipe all of Prince George's County off the map, bank robber and all.  And while suicide bombings are certainly not uncommon, especially in some parts of the world, I have yet to hear a single case of a suicide bank robbery.

The good news is that Simmons was caught and arrested in Texas in late March.  The bad news is that the ending to his story wasn't nearly as hilarious as it could have been.  The perfect finish would have been an unsuccessful robbery that fell apart when a bold teller responded to his nuclear bomb threat by laughing and saying, "fine, go for it!" while calling the police.

Regardless, my advice to all the budding young bank robbers out there is this: when you make your move, don't get too swept up in the showmanship of the event.  When choosing your weapon of choice for the robbery--whether that weapon is real or simply written threateningly on a note--strike that all-important balance somewhere in between Nerf slingshot and nuclear bomb.  Stick to the basics, and go with a knife or a handgun.  Fear is your friend, but it's gotta be believable...chances are, you won't have the dumb luck that Simmons enjoyed during his successful robbery streak if you go over-the-top nuclear.

Here are some links to the highs and lows of Simmons' robbery streak, from success to arrest:

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/02/prince-george-s-county-bank-robber-threatening-tellers-with-nuclear-bomb-73096.html

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Nuke-Threat-Bank-Robbery-Arrest-143589716.html

Beware of the BYOP

A Denny's ad found it's way into my email inbox recently, and it got me thinking about some of the classic scams in the restaurant industry.  It's a poorly kept secret that bars give away free salty snacks like peanuts and pretzels to encourage patrons to order more drinks.  The pictures on restaurant menus take full advantage of the zoom functionality on cameras and make every steak, every burger, every entree look like a mountain of food even when those dishes are often closer in size to a toddler's butt cheek.  And any time a restaurant offers any kind of all-you-can-eat meal, they use the oldest trick in the buffet playbook and push the salad and dinner rolls to keep people from filling up on the expensive meats.

Some restaurants really delve into the psychology books when they design a menu.  One article I read explains how restaurants use tricks like choices of portion size, "Dinner for Two" offers, bundling, selective use of pictures for high-margin items, and location of items on the menu to fool people into spending more for dinner.  It sounds like a classic case of over-thinking, but all this analysis must pay off if restaurants devote so much time and attention to the seemingly mundane details of menu design.

Anyway...back to that Denny's email that I mentioned.  Here's the message that showed up in my inbox:

I'm not crazy about breakfast food, and I'm even less excited about pancakes.  But I'll have to admit, the pictures do look rather appetizing--chocolate, nuts, strawberries, whipped cream, blueberries...not bad at all.  Yet this whole "Build Your Own Pancakes" concept is a bad idea of epic proportions.  At this point, it would be easy for my to delve into all the reasons that this is a poor meal choice for the simple fact that this offer requires one to eat at Denny's...and believe me, that's a list that could go on for days.

The idea of a customizable meal might appeal to some, but let me warn you: this is nothing more than a well-disguised restaurant scam.  I most certainly do not want to go anywhere--let alone Denny's--to build my own pancakes.  Perhaps you're familiar with the more common and concise term for "building your own meal": it's called cooking.  And you can do it at home at a significant discount to anything you'll find at a restaurant.  Best of all, if you "build your own meal" in the comfort of your own home, you won't have to mingle with the unseemly clientele and surly staff at Denny's.

Interestingly, despite the fact that Denny's positions itself as "America's diner," I'm fairly certain that the chain stole the concept for this pancake promo from our neighbors to the south--the Mexicans.  You may not have noticed this, but all of the dishes on the menu at a Mexican restaurant are virtually identical to one another. Think about it--you've got cheese, salsa, rice, beans (black or refried), seasoned meat, and a shell or chip of some kind (soft tortilla, taco shell, or a tortilla chip).

If I listed those ingredients and asked you to name the menu item I just described, you could give a seemingly infinite number of correct answers: quesadillas, tacos, enchiladas, burritos, chimichangas, nachos, or a fajitas.  Mexican chefs clearly aren't the most creative bunch in the world.  But I'm not saying that's a bad thing--quite the opposite, in fact.  I love Mexican food, and if you're on to a great concept, I say don't mess with success.

But the last item on that list--the fajita--is a clever little scam that's gone largely unnoticed for centuries.  Fajitas are priced the same as everything else on the menu, but think about what you're really getting.  It's nothing more than a "Build Your Own Soft Shell Taco."  The staff brings out all the ingredients--tortillas, meat, rice, grilled vegetables--and you do all the assembly.  What kind of deal is that?  When I go out to eat, I want someone else to do all the work for me.  At the end of the meal, am I allowed to scale back on the tip because I helped carry the workload?  Absolutely not.

This scam has succeeded so consistently and for so long because Mexican restaurants do an excellent job of selling the sizzle, quite literally.  No other dish turns heads when it comes out of the kitchen like fajitas do.  They're sizzling, steaming, and they're often delivered on their own special tray, with a little container of tortillas.  It's a much bigger spectacle than the unveiling of a soft shell taco, that's for sure.  When the waiter brings out fajitas, you can hear the collective whisper from the other customers, "I think I'll get that!"  But they never continue watching long enough to witness that poor fajita-eater toiling away, assembling their food for the duration of the meal.

It's a brilliant idea, and you can't blame Denny's for trying to Americanize this little trick.  But I'm onto them, and I'm no fool.  Customizable food may appeal to some, but be warned: "Build Your Own" is just a fancy phrase that's masking its evil synonym, cooking.

Halfway Heroic

I can't believe the end of April is already here. Maybe it's hard to believe because the weather has been spectacularly disappointing, especially after the unseasonably warm May-arch weather last month.  That's not to say that April hasn't had it's share of nice days...it's just that without fail, the temperature immediately plummets, clouds roll in, and rain starts to fall on Friday night and continues through Sunday night.

Then Monday morning hits, the sun returns, and the temperature leaps back into comfortable territory.  Seriously, this happened every single weekend, all April long!  It's like the weather gods were mocking my every step two and from work.  I think I spent a grand total of thirty-five minutes outside all month, and that's the cumulative total from walking between the car into various buildings.

But enough about the sad, depressing weather.  The final day of the month means that it's my last chance to post my monthly ad revenue update, a long-standing tradition here at Away from the Cubicle.  And by long-standing tradition, I mean second post on the topic...but all traditions have to start somewhere.

I hadn't checked my AdSense account for quite a few weeks--Google's overhaul of the Blogger interface made it temporarily difficult to locate the Earnings button, but I finally found it and did some investigating this morning.  I was beyond pleasantly surprised by the results--Blogger business is booming!  First of all, with March's money in the bank, I'm up to $26.82 in revenue, not including anything from April:

And, like I said, April has been a very good month.  At this risk of making this feel a little too much like work and not enough like a blog titled Away from the Cubicle, let's go to the woefully undersized graphs:

I nearly doubled my ad revenue in April, with over $25 for the month!  And the lifetime earnings chart is looking pretty darn good, too:

With more than $50 in the bank as April comes to a close, I'm officially more than half way to my $100 AdSense-minimum cash-out goal. And, as you may recall, when I break through that illustrious $100 barrier and receive my first Blogger payment, I wiill officially proclaim myself a professional writer. Given powerful trend I'm working with, I'll be wealthy and retired by the end of next year.

Ad revenue is more than doubling every month, and with two months worth of data supporting this explosive exponential trend, I see no reason why that won't continue indefinitely.  Who knew it could be this easy?!  With all the free time I'll have in retirement without that pesky little thing known as "employment," the quality of this blog will surely skyrocket along with my earnings, creating an unstoppable, virtuous cycle.

The Three-Eyed Hurricane

As I reported last Sunday, I was expecting a stormy week ahead at the office.  That week is now behind me, and I'm happy to report that those five days went shockingly well, blowing away even my most optimistic expectations.  On the latest night of the week in the office, I was out of there by 5:15PM--not bad at all considering that this time last weekend, I was mentally preparing myself for an office camp-out.

By late Tuesday afternoon, we had essentially finished building our budget.  But that's not the tough or scary part.  Once we've finalized what the actual total dollar amount, we start preparing the explanation to that annoying, looming question: "What changed between this year's expense and next year's budgeted expense?"  This entails filling out the dreaded analysis of change template, or "AOC," the three-letter acronym and resident four letter word of the Spring Plan process.

We fill out all of the things that we know changed--total production volume is up or down, our mix of more expensive versus less expensive products changed our budget by $x amount, and these three hundred other known changes also caused our expense to go up or down.  The leftover amount--the gap between what we can explain and what our actual budget amount is...that's the part that can really create problems.

There are horror stories where the unexplained amount reaches into the tens of millions of dollars.  Unfortunately, there's no "uh...we're not sure..." section in the AOC template, so closing the gap requires some brilliant fiction and storytelling to come up with possible explanations on why things changed form one year to the next.  It it makes presenting and defending the budget very challenging and unnerving, knowing that if there are questions about the stuff you made up, you need to make up even more stuff to defend it...

That part of the process had me the most scared--if that gap was big, it was going to be a very, very long week.  When we got everything put together, the gap was $15,000.  That's tiny...microscopic...on a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars, fifteen thousand is less than an fraction of a percent!  It doesn't even show up in the rounding.  I could easily walk in and say "I have no idea what this $15,000 is," and I'd get laughed out of the room for even talking about such an immaterial number.

I could not believe my good fortune.  This was the stuff of finance legend--if there were a Finance Hall of Fame, I'd be a first ballot inductee.  I wanted to high-five my calculator and frame my spreadsheet when the budget came back with almost $0 unexplained dollars.  That never happens...never!  The freakish rarity of the situation made me worry that I'd missed something in the process, but there was no time to get too concerned--we had to shift our focus toward presenting the budget, first on Wednesday and again on Friday.

The presentation portion of the week went equally well.  The overall budget was generally good news, which always makes things easier, and having logical explanations for all of the changes in the AOC template further simplified the process.  No fiction this time around; no feeling like the whole thing was a giant house of cards that could come crashing down at any moment during the presentation.  It didn't hurt that me and the other two guys in my group coordinated the night before Friday's presentation and all wore green shirts, which drew a few laughs and one "Three Stooges" remark.  By Friday afternoon, I was thrilled--no late nights, no missed workouts, and expectations wildly exceeded.

But it's not over just yet.  I'm sitting in the eye of the hurricane this weekend, and it's back into the storm tomorrow morning.  Our portion of the budget is behind us, but we receive two other important inputs from other groups tomorrow afternoon, then frantically consolidate everything and start preparing the presentation of the overall picture on Thursday morning.  The verdict's still out on whether it'll be good news or bad news.  Once again, a staggering amount of things need to get accomplished this week.

Next weekend will be the second eye of this hurricane before we present the budget one final time the following Monday morning to a different, and perhaps our most critical, audience.  At that point, the third, longest, and most peaceful eye of this storm arrives, lasting for a few weeks before the final two-day whirlwind when we do the whole thing over again in two days in early June.

This past week went unbelievably well, but I can't allow myself to set my hopes too high for the coming week.  Things have a crazy way of averaging out over time, so last week's smooth sailing could easily mean violent waters ahead.  I've only weathered the first eye of this ferocious triclops storm, but I can't deny that my outlook for the future is decidedly more positive than it was last Sundae.

Nutella and Nigerian Princes

If you're standing, you'll probably want to sit down for this shocking revelation: Nutella, the chocolate-hazelnut spread, is not health food.  If you're feeling ignorant and foolish after learning this nugget of information, don't feel too bad--it's not your fault.  Ferrero, the Italian company who makes Nutella, has produced some highly convincing advertising over the past few years that would have you believe that Nutella cures obesity and the common cold:



This one's my favorite.  With words like "whole wheat" and "multi-grain," could there possibly be a healthier way to start the day than Nutella?!   No, it doesn't matter that you're spreading chocolate sauce on other foods like waffles or toast that could contain whole wheat or multi-grains.  And it's a food that kids will "want to eat!"  I certainly can't argue with that--if you can slather an old tennis shoe with enough chocolate sauce, kids would undoubtedly love eating that, too.  "Breakfast never tasted so good!"  That's a strong indicator that you're not dealing with a healthy breakfast.  Health food and good taste go together like like oil and water.

The ad is so unconvincing that it's downright funny.  But if only I were smarter, I would have viewed this as a potential money-grab instead of a piece of comedy; while I was laughing, I should have been calling a lawyer like a mother in California decided to do.  The San Diego woman filed a lawsuit in February 2011, complaining that Fererro's highly convincing ads led her to believe that Nutella was a healthy breakfast option for her young daughter.  When she finally discovered that the health profile of her chocolate spread looked more like a Snicker's bar than a garden salad, she lawyered up.  It makes me wonder if this California mom is friends with Stella Liebeck, the crazy McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit woman.

Technically, it was a 2010 Nutella commercial that got Fererro in hot water, but the message was remarkably similar to the one in the ad above: Nutella is part of a healthy breakfast that includes other healthy foods that have nothing to do with Nutella.  Sure, Nutella can be part of a healthy breakfast...it's just not the healthy part.



"It takes a lot of energy to be a kid!"  Do kids need to sugar-up to sit on the couch and eat junk food? Sadly, common sense lots its battle against the overly litigious and, this month, Ferrero settled that 2011 lawsuit and agreed to pay out $3.5 million, including $2.5 million to be paid as part of a class action settlement. If you bought Nutella at any time between the beginning of 2008 and February, 2012, then you, too, can jump on the shameful money train and cash in on the stupidity of the general population--no receipt or proof of purchase required!

***

When you read about someone falling for the classic Nigerian prince email scam, it's always good for a laugh.  Aside from the blatantly stupid, the most frequent victims are naive senior citizens who don't realize that it is, in fact, possible to tell lies via electronic means of communication.  The second they hear about a distressed Nigerian in dire need of an American bank account to safely store his fortune, they hand over their bank account number and throw in their social security and credit card numbers just to make sure the prince has enough to survive until he can escape his war-torn country.

The semi-intelligent and marginally-informed are generally immune to financial losses of this variety...generally.  But this month, a local Minneapolis law firm filed a downright Nutella-esque lawsuit against Wells Fargo after falling for a new twist on the classic Nigerian prince scam.  This specific scam targets lawfirms and lawyers and, believe it or not, the scammers have successfully pulled of this scheme nearly eighty times and raked in a total of $31 million over the past few years.

The African con artist contacts a lawfirm, seeking help collecting a debt...but unbeknownst to the laywers, the debtor is in on the scam.  When the lawfirm pursues the unpaid debt, the debtor sends a check, and the lawfirm deducts their fees and transfers the remaining balance of the debt to the original customer. By the time the lawyers realize the debtor issued a phony check, it's too late.

In this case, the Edina lawfirm Milavetz, Gallop & Millavetz lost nearly $400,000 in one of these scams, which included the fabricated story of a middle aged Korean woman pursuing settlement money that was owed to her. Authorities believe one of the famous Nigerian scam artists, Emmanual Ekhator, was behind the fraud.

But instead of taking the loss and hiding their embarrassing mistake, the lawyers put their professional skills to use and sued Wells Fargo, blaming the bank for missing warning signs that the transaction was fraudulent and claiming that Wells Fargo should have been on the lookout for this increasingly common scam.  The biggest warning sign?  The check that Wells Fargo received from the fictitious debtor included spelling errors in Wells Fargo's address.  It makes perfect sense--this wouldn't be a proper Nigerian prince scam story without spelling errors...just think how much damage they could inflict if they learned proper English...

This one promises to drag out in the court system for a long while, as Wells Fargo promises to vigorously fight the lawsuit.  If I've learned anything from these absurd lawsuits, it's that I should always have a keen eye out for money making opportunities.  I've been letting common sense cloud my judgment and block my vision when it comes to potential paydays.

I haven't received one of those Nigerian prince emails in many years, so I'm going to post an ad on Craigslist, offering my bank account to anyone who needs a safe place to store large sums of money. I haven't hammered out all the details of my plan just yet, but if I lose money on this, it'll surely be someone else's fault, and I have faith that the court system will find a way to compensate me handsomely.  And to add another level of security to my financial future, I'll be eating Nutella while I'm posting my ad. I have a feeling I'll somehow be able to cash in on that, too...

Check out the full stories:

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/today-food-finance-nutella-not-broccoli-162956191.html

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/11/minnesota-law-firm-sues-wells-fargo-for-36g-fraud-loss/

Efficiently Wasteful

Earlier this year, I walked into the Lifetime parking lot after a workout and noticed that someone had tucked one of those annoying Chinese takeout flyers under the windshield wiper of the Malibu.  My car wasn't the only one who'd been victimized--white slips of paper fluttered in the breeze on the windshields of every vehicle in the lot.  There's something very unsettling about the thought of strangers touching the Malibu, even if they're only lifting the wiper blade to slide a piece of paper underneath.  When you drive a vehicle that's been known to suffer major breakdowns while sitting untouched in a climate-controlled garage, even the little things pose a potentially catastrophic risk.  I was mildly annoyed, but the Malibu seemed to be unfazed and maintained its standard of mediocre performance and sub-par fuel efficiency.

Then, late last month, I was in the middle of my daily post-work, pre-workout routine, sitting in the Lifetime parking lot, wolfing down a container of vegetables and boiled chicken.  Out of the corner of my eye, something caught my attention and interrupted me as I inhaled my flavorless meal.  Someone was walking in between the row of parked cars, pausing at each one, and sliding a flyer underneath the wiper.  It was the annoying flyer-placing guy, and I'd caught him in the act!  As he worked his way up the aisle of cars and approached the Malibu, I wondered if he'd have the courage to slide an ad under the wiper while I was sitting right there eating.

He reached the car next to me and finally noticed the strange guy eating chicken and staring at him from the parked Malibu next door.  Was he going to do it?  I glared at him, hoping he'd get the message that I wasn't interested in buying anything he was selling.  He backed away, skipped my windshield, and continued on his annoying way, littering the windshields of every other car in the parking lot.  Me: 1, annoying flyer guy: 0.  I dodged that bullet--no one puts two unwanted ads on my car in the same year.  I finished eating and went inside to work out, basked in glory.

When I came back outside after the workout, the parking lot was covered in snow.  This was terrible and shocking news, especially since it was a warm and sunny day...but wait...that wasn't snow!  The Lifetime parking lot was blanketed with white advertisements.  Apparently every single person did exactly what I had done months before when I found the ad under my windshield wiper--they pulled it off their car, threw it on the ground, and drove off without giving it a second thought.

At least it wasn't a Chinese takeout flyer this time--a closer look revealed that Liquor World & Tobacco was to blame for this out-of-season blizzard.  I'm surprised the descendants of Marilyn Monroe haven't presented the owners of Liquor World with a cease and desist order to get the likeness of their famous great-grandma yanked from the ads.  I'm sure Marylin liked her alcohol and tobacco, but even at her lowest point she would never have been caught dead anywhere near a run-down suburban Minneapolis booze shack like this.

I was pleased with my victory on the drive home, small though it may have been--I had successfully avoided my second unwanted ad of the year.  Good thing I enjoyed my success, because that sense of accomplishment would be short-lived.  When I got home, I walked up to my apartment door, turned the key in the lock, opened the door, and...bam!  Something ironic that had been wedged in my front door floated toward the floor:

What are the odds?!  While I was over at Lifetime narrowly escaping having my car unwillingly advertised upon, someone from Ju Yuan Chiese Restaurant was staking out my apartment, waiting to hit me where I live with a takeout ad!  Liquor World and Ju Yuan couldn't have coordinated this any better if they were working together.  Victory was not mine!

As I stood open-mouthed, staring at the flyer of doom, it struck me that flyer-based advertising is the most efficient process on the face of the earth...unfortunately, the only output of that perfectly efficient process is pure waste.  Not a single person wants one of these flyers.  That's why the Liquor World guy didn't knock on my widow, interrupt my meal, and hand me a flyer in person. And that's why he was placing them on the windshields of empty cars instead of handing them to people face-to-face as they left the gym.  It would take about fifteen seconds before someone punched him in the face.

Think about it--in what other situation do companies spend money to design and print a bunch of ads, pay someone to distribute them, and annoy and piss off potential customers who glance at the ads for a split second before throwing them on the ground?  It's a spectacular way to litter the ground and drive away customers while also wasting paper, time, money!  Spectacular!  Even if I were an alcohol, tobacco, or Chinese food fanatic, I would refuse to ever set foot in Liquor World or Ju Yuan simply out of principle and pent up frustration for having their advertising thrown in my face.

If small businesses feel the need to advertise with flyers, they could put themselves in a better position--and do it cheaper and more quickly--by cutting out the middlemen entirely.  Why not have the guy at the print shop take those hot-off-the-press flyers, run out into the parking lot, and throw them directly on the ground?  No alienated customers, and no time or money wasted distributing those frustrating flyers!

The dynamic duo of Liquor World and Ju Yuan may have won the battle that day, but I'll have the last laugh.  I'm off to order Italian takeout food and get drunk off someone else's liquor. Take that!