(OT) Consumers' Duty to Choose

Information and Choice are at the core of my post today:

Three disputable cases of corporate decision-making were the catalyst to make me reflect about my position in a modern consumer world, and how far my convictions may propel me.

Case 1: LG’s and Samsung’s new US headquarters

Both Korean electronics firms are currently planning new US headquarters, LG in Englewood, NJ, Samsung in San Jose, CA. In a recent piece “An Energizer Versus an Eyesore”, NYT’s architectural writer Michael Kimmelman examines both projects and minces no words: “Samsung comes across as a good citizen here; LG as a lousy neighbor.”

Kimmelman explains how LG pulled various strings and the “new jobs”-card to override local zoning laws and protective ordinances to build 110 feet higher (!) than allowed next to the protected Pacific Palisades in Englewood, NJ, a designated National Natural Landmark. Protests from every corner didn’t faze LG, which refused to build lower and wider.

Kimmelman: “The project in San Jose is thoughtful. LG’s is a public shame.”


Case 2: General Motors and that Pesky Ignition Switch

If you have looking at a newspaper – any newspaper – since January, you may have read that GM, being aware of installing faulty and dangerous ignition switches in over 2.6 million vehicles since 2001, has reluctantly acknowledged that there is a tiny lil' problem with them pesky switches.

As in: they may completely shut the vehicle off while driving, including airbags. Or they may keep the engine running after you turned it off. Or possibly anything in between.

GM’s approach to the problem was classic Customer Service 101: Don’t talk about it, maybe it’ll go away. Or script #2: It wasn’t us.

After hesitantly recognising at least 13 deaths caused by those darn switches without being able to blame the drivers – who are not supposed to have anything but a single car key on the key ring, lest they assume responsibility for wrapping themselves around the next lamp post – GM under its new chief Mary Barra came up with a brilliant thought:

Let’s just state our dogs ate all of our homework. If that fails, let’s claim we’re immune from any lawsuits for the years we were under the bankruptcy umbrella. That may get us out of the pickle. - Or similar. But you get the idea. – More here


Case 3: Publix Supermarkets and the Tomato Pickers

Florida supplies almost all of the nation’s winter tomatoes. The pickers’ conditions have been anything but comfy, from carrying buckets holding 32 pounds of fruit to lack of shade on the fields to failure to pay for all work time.

But a group of intrepid tomato pickers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, has successfully enlisted major tomato buyers, which in turn pressured growers responsible for 90 percent of Florida’s tomatoes to increase wages for their 30,000 workers and follow strict standards that mandate rest breaks and forbid sexual harassment and verbal abuse.

The participants in the “Fair Food Program” — including Burger King, Chipotle, Subway, Taco Bell and its parent Yum Brands, Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Whole Foods — have pledged to buy only from growers who follow the new standards, and to pay an extra penny a pound which goes to the pickers. The companies also pledged to drop any suppliers that violate the standards.

But the supporters don't include the giant Publix chain of supermarkets. The company refused to join the Fair Food Program despite its weighty position as the eighth-largest food retailer, stating it already buys only from responsible growers. – More here.


What to do?

Three cases of (for me) objectionable corporate policy, three questions of consumer choices.

If I disagree with one or all of the corporate decisions above, will that influence my consumer behaviour?

And if so, how much will I let inconvenience get in the way of my righteousness? Do I avoid shopping at Publix, sell my LG phone and eliminate GM cars from my short-list?

As a single consumer, I have no voice in the decision or conduct of corporate giants. By the same logic, my single vote won’t make or break an election either. And yet I vote.

So my conclusion is that I will do as much as I can:

Share my questions and opinion with as many friends and readers as possible, delete GM vehicles from my list, replace my LG phone, and avoid Publix – especially their tomatoes – whenever possible.

What about you? How far would you go to exercise your right of choice?


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Update 3 July 14: sold my LG phone and bought a Sony. No GM in the garage, and Winn-Dixie tomatoes have a really nice flavour to them.

Construction Adventures

This series – written in retrospect, not in real time – follows the ground-up construction of a 4,000+ sf modern waterfront home.

A short time ago, new clients - husband and wife – contacted me to find a modern home for them. The criteria were: minimum three bedrooms, two baths, between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, deepwater (local speak for "ocean access without fixed bridges"), pool and garden for two large dogs, all under $2.5m.

The buyers would be in town in a few days – could we please meet? Which of course we did.

The couple had very clear and concise ideas about the property and the style they were looking for: ideal from a real estate agent's perspective. Within seven days of our initial contact, we conducted the first six viewings.

But it quickly became clear that we would have to also consider ground-up construction. The clients being on travel again, I took video clips of areas I recommended to include in our search for vacant lots and tear-downs.

One of the waterfront lots the clients were considering

Upon their return, I also introduced them to several long-term rentals where they could stay during the construction period, which I anticipated to be at least 14 to 18 months from programming – the architect’s brief on the builders' criteria – to move-in.

Five weeks after our first contact, I met with the clients again. We looked at several larger rentals and as well as waterfront lots – including the rental they were going to live for next two or three years, and also the very lot they would have under contract only five days later.

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To be continued.

Happy Easter!

Photo ©tckaiser

Market Report for Southeast Florida, First Quarter 2014

The first quarter of 2014 repeated some trends that I have observed at least since 2009, most obvious being the falling inventory.

This year, all three counties started 2014 quite a bit higher than year's end, but over the course of three months fell back to December levels quickly.

Median relative inventory now stands at 6.3 months (means: if no new house comes on the market, everything is sold in 6.3 months). That is due to rising number of sales, outpacing the rising number of homes on the market.

In all three counties, asking prices per 31 March exceeded asking prices per year-end, and except for Miami-Dade, the same goes for selling prices (absolute and per sf).

However, the time homes spent on the market (beginning of the listing until a contract is signed, the so-called “Days-on-Market”) increased in all three counties, most noticeably in Palm Beach county.

Interesting also: the very same goes for the Seller-Buyer-Disconnect, the gap between what sellers want and what buyers are willing to give (= pay). As it has been since I analyse monthly, the disconnect number again is largest in Palm Beach county, with 161 percent.

South Florida single family home market, last three years: Inventory, Median asking prices and Median selling prices, Apr 2010 - Mar 2014.

As all projections – especially mine – are notoriously off, I will not lean out of the window except to say that the second quarter will be a very active one, as it traditionally is:

June is busiest home selling month in South Florida. With rising sales and stagnant inventory, that should lead to further price increases.

We’ll see.

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“All is Lost”

Did you watch Robert Redford’s latest movie, “All is Lost”?

My wife and I did on Tuesday, together with a sailing friend. I just have to vent.

Even as a non-sailor and non-boater, as someone who can barely differentiate a boom from a mast, all three of us were incredibly ticked off by the countless flaws and harrowing boating mistakes – obviously dramaturgically necessary to propel the story forward, else the plot would have sunk much faster than the poor boat in the film did.

She only had a nasty gash in the hull, but the film’s story had holes you could drive the Exxon Valdez through. What an insult to our intelligence.

Seems though that – outside the sailing community perhaps – everyone else, including my fav reviewer Joe Morgenstern from the WSJ, loved the movie.

I don’t get it. But at least now I feel better.

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Coming up

A new series, following the ground-up construction of a 4,000+ sf modern house

Chance Encounters with Modern Architecture: Red Reef pavilion, Boca Raton, FL

"Chance Encounters with Modern Architecture" is a series of unexpected finds of modern architecture – or perhaps art – which caught my eye. It's about sharing delicious little morsels that pop up while on your merry way to get a snack or stock up at, say, Seaboard Wines.

Today: Red Reef park pavilion, Boca Raton, FL

On the west side of the Red Reef golf club – actually behind the west parking lot – I discovered this neatly designed pavilion (?) gazebo (?) right on the Intracoastal Waterway.

A single massive steel column supports the roof structure made of T-beams and tubes, which carries sheathing looking like corrugated pvc.

 

Note the two roof parts facing east, while the west-facing roof is "fractured", probably to ease the wind load. Neat, no?

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photos ©tckaiser

4 FL Supermarkets to offer rebates for "modern healthy eating"

In an inspired move to make the connection (any connection?) between modern life and healthy lifestyle - aka regular exercise and healthy eating – the non-profit South Florida Society for the Promotion of Modernist Architecture (SFSPMA) has teamed up with four supermarket chains to offer food discounts to its members.

Fresh Market, Whole Foods, Winn Dixie and the new Florida-entry Trader Joe's are onboard a deal offering SFPPMA members a 13 percent discount on storewide purchases.

Seal the deal: Trader Joe's Joe Saussenheimer, SMFAPPF's Bettyann Hepplethorpewithe, Whole Food's Santiago Manchego, Winn Dixie's Christina Carbonara and Fresh Market's junior CEO Jim-Bob Fresh (counterclockwise from left).

The trial phase will run from today through May 31st. After that, results will be tallied, and managers from the four chains as well as from SPSFAM will decide if to continue the cooperation on a permanent basis.

Noticeably absent from the discount offer are Publix Supermarkets, which lately has been under flak from consumers for their non-organic high price-policy aiming at their organic-food competitors Fresh Market and Whole Foods.

SMASPSF's trial voucher; see below for link to printable version

SFMASPF offers a limited amount of vouchers on a first-come-first-serve basis to non-members, supposedly to generate interest in the Society's work. To print a trial discount voucher, click here.

Please let me know if the voucher worked for you, and I will post the success rate during the trial run.

It Caught My Eye: Old and Young in Starnberg/Bavaria

Starnberg/Bavaria, county seat ca. 15mi/25km south of Munich, pop. ca. 22,500:

Embedded between the old church, houses nearly as old as the church itself and some nasty road construction, I caught a glimpse of a little white gem shining through.

No further detail is available, due to Germany's famously strict privacy laws. But it seems to have nice views over the lake... Have you been there?