Day: December 27, 2011

The first domino to fall?

Well, that didn’t take long. This morning the Sears Holdings conglomerate, which operates both Sears and KMart stores around the country, announced over 100 underperforming stores would be closing in the next few months. It’s too early to tell whether any of the stores on this part of Delmarva will be among the victims – there are KMart stores in both Salisbury and Rehoboth Beach, a full-service Sears at the Centre of Salisbury, a smaller Sears in Seaford, and Sears Hometown stores in Rehoboth Beach, Milford, Easton, and Onley.

The story cites one expert who claims Sears “offers a depressing shopping experience and uncompetitive prices.” To be honest, I work there more than I shop there and neither is done all that much. But I’m told their prices are fairly steep and most of the clientele I see when I am in there is older.

Yet the trouble also extends to KMart, as the combined concern reported same-store sales for those open a year or more were off 5.2% for the most recent quarter, which included the holiday season.

I don’t often delve into business stories like this, but if you read my Christmas message you’ll note that I pondered what the retail season may bring:

I suppose if I see a lot of “Going Out Of Business” signs in 2012 I’ll know there was a lot of coal left in retailer’s stockings.

Well, looks like Sears and KMart may have received a double dose of anthracite. It’ll be interesting to see how other retailers do once the holiday season numbers come in, and also whether any local Sears stores are on the chopping block.

Why add to the debt?

Obviously this post I cite is an oversimplification of the educational approach needed for many children, but I thought it was appropriate to point this out given the fact a small group of parents – backed by an all-powerful school board and sympathetic County Executive and newspaper – are putting big-time pressure on our County Council to approve the debt necessary to build a new middle school.

But Richard F. Miniter, a writer posting on the American Thinker website, makes the case that education can be as simple as applying a little discipline and effort, given the vast library now available to anyone who has an e-reader and cares enough about their child to make sure they learn. And there is a time savings, as Miniter writes:

It also sums down to a little block of time because without having to get ready for the school bus; the bus ride; dispersing to classroom; disciplinary issues in classrooms; having to raise your hand to go to the bathroom; noisy, chaotic hallways scenes every fifty minutes; noisy, chaotic lunch periods; announcements; fire drills; lectures about bullying, respecting alternative lifestyles, or strangers; then preparing for the bus ride home, followed by homework, one can do a better job with a child in two hours than a traditional school classroom setting can in eight.

Now extrapolate that to the building itself. If one can learn in the small space of time allotted to learning at home, it can also be assumed that learning can be achieved in a regular school building, regardless of the age.

Continue reading “Why add to the debt?”