Today’s question isn’t why credit cards expire. It’s how much work the card holder is saddled with when they do run out. In my case, the expiration date on my VISA is 01/14, and updating the autopays in my online life has already started.
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Category Archives: Business Beat
Expires 01/14
Posted in Business Beat
From Movies to MJ
A great place to sell pot?
Tad Sooter, a business reporter at the Kitsap Sun, recently blogged about the applicants for marijuana retail licenses in Kitsap County. Curious, I perused the list he provided to see if a pot shop will be opening near me. Assuming the licenses are granted and business plans succeed, there will be several, with two businesses indicating that they want to operate out of former video rental stores.
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Need a Bank?
There’s more than great landscaping going for this place.
For as long as I can remember, a bank has occupied the triangle lot where Bertha Avenue dead ends into Marine Drive. That could end in about 3 months. This week Kitsap Bank account holders got a letter saying that the West Bremerton branch, located at 1140 Marine Drive, will permanently close on June 28, 2013.
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Great Potato Soup
The Mud Bay Blog doesn’t often rave about a product you can buy in the grocery store. Safeway’s baked potato soup with bacon, available in its Signature Café, is worth an exception. The soup is that good.
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New Paint, No New Tenant
Just sprucing up the exterior
Darn. I thought I had a scoop. Last Friday, when I noticed that part of the Oyster Bay Plaza is being repainted (see photo), I thought that we might be getting a new business soon at 4205 Kitsap Way in Bremerton. That would be news as the space has been vacant for years. But in a call to the Bradley-Scott agent who is trying to lease the space, I learned that he hasn’t found a new tenant. The owner is just freshening the building a bit.
The retail space in the photo is in the same building as the QFC. It was occupied by Rite-Aid until about five years ago, when Rite-Aid moved to its own building a few hundred yards east of there. It’s not the only empty space in the Oyster Bay Plaza. Blockbuster left a big space to fill when it closed last fall. I just hope that new tenants are found in time to bring in additional customers to help keep the QFC open. Their sales seem to have gone off a cliff since Win Foods opened last year.
Posted in Business Beat
Tying the Knot with Comcast
In a post last December, I joked that because I bought a customer-owned modem I was “Married to Comcast.” I should have called it a pre-nuptial agreement. The real wedding took place today. We just tied the knot for at least two years.
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Posted in Business Beat
Twinkies—Goodbye for Now
Is this the end of a sweet ride?
In happier times the Mud Bay Blog ran the above photo in a post titled Must Be a Great Job. My tribute to the passing of Hostess Brands snack cakes is simply to run the photo again only with a different and sadder title.
I don’t know whether to blame labor or management (or both) for the Bakers Union strike that caused the company to announce that it is shutting down its operations and selling its brands. So I’m not going to take sides. Hopefully, sooner than later, some enterprising investor will figure out a way to start making Twinkies, CupCakes (my personal favorite), and the rest of the sinful Hostess treats again. Then maybe the Twinkies van, with a new logo, can get back on the road.
Hide the Deals
In case you haven’t spent enough already…
You expect to run into lots of advertising on web sites run by for-profit companies. Still I was surprised to learn that Bank of America allows online vendors to promote themselves while you are reviewing your banking transactions. (Is no area free from commercials?) The above screen capture shows an example. Directly under the entry for my credit-card purchase from the Orvis Company is a message to shop at Sports Authority and earn 10 percent cash back.
Bank of America benefits of course. First they probably charge the vendor to post the message. Second the offer is only good if you use a BOA credit or debit card. You learn this if you click the offer to get the details. In fairness to the banking giant, you can opt out of learning about additional ways to spend money by clicking the “Hide Deals” link. But I wonder which way the screen was set by default. I’m not sure how long these “helpful” messages have been there. The Orvis/Sports Authority deal is the first one I have noticed.
Posted in Business Beat
Film Piracy Dilemma
What should you do when the theft of intellectual property affects you personally? In my case I bought a DVD online that I’m almost certain was recorded from a television broadcast and sold without a license. My dilemma is that I want to add the film to my small collection and cannot find it for sale anywhere else.
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Call It WalBucks
Now Open Bucks
Now that it’s open, it needs a name. Or at least a better name than “West Bremerton Starbucks.” That’s what a recent article in the Kitsap Sun called the latest store (see photo) to join the Starbucks empire.
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