Less Outsourcing of 'Chores'?

[Annie]

I had cut way back on dry cleaners, bought the dryer ones. Then a One-Price cleaners opened and I'd say the cost has gotten pretty close-and they do a better job.

Instead of having the carpet cleaning service over the holidays, did them myself, with some furniture moving by 'the boys.'

We're eating out a lot less and making more 'special dinners' at home. It's way less expensive, more relaxed, and private.

Will these jobs become 'gone' or will the challenges make them more competitive? Will 'service' change? I've long argued that part of the reason online shopping and 'outlets' have thrived is the poor service given in most service industries. It's not 'fun' to shop most places.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/business/17services.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

January 17, 2009
Outsourced Chores Come Back Home

By CATHERINE RAMPELL
A few months ago, as her family’s income fell, Laura French Spada, a real estate agent in Glen Rock, N.J., began dyeing her hair at home and washing the family cars herself. Her husband, Mark, started learning how to do electrical repairs.

Susan Todoroff, a personal trainer in Ann Arbor, Mich., has begun brewing espressos at home and cutting her hair and cleaning her house herself. And Tamar A. Zaidenweber, a health care market researcher in Astoria, Queens, is spending more time walking her dog instead of taking it to day care each week.

All of these consumers could praise themselves for their newfound frugality in the midst of an economic downturn. But every step they take toward self-reliance — each shrub they prune themselves, each cupcake they bake from scratch — hurts the people and small businesses that have long provided these services professionally.

These small, service-oriented businesses are run in storefronts on urban streets and in suburban strip malls, or sometimes just out of pickup trucks. Responsible for roughly 18 million jobs nationwide, according to 2006 Census Bureau data, these companies have long been seen as engines of America’s economic growth. Yet after years of explosive expansion, many beauty salons, dry cleaners, landscapers, dog walkers, nanny services and restaurants experienced slower sales growth or even decline in the final months of 2008.

Their services are suddenly, and painfully, being perceived as nonessential....

 

[WillowTree]

I had cut way back on dry cleaners, bought the dryer ones. Then a One-Price cleaners opened and I'd say the cost has gotten pretty close-and they do a better job.

Instead of having the carpet cleaning service over the holidays, did them myself, with some furniture moving by 'the boys.'

We're eating out a lot less and making more 'special dinners' at home. It's way less expensive, more relaxed, and private.

Will these jobs become 'gone' or will the challenges make them more competitive? Will 'service' change? I've long argued that part of the reason online shopping and 'outlets' have thrived is the poor service given in most service industries. It's not 'fun' to shop most places.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/business/17services.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

We are do it yourself people. Always have been. We built our home literally. Only jobs we contracted out was the bricking and the really heaving initial plumbing. We did the rest. Don't have carpet. Floors are easier to keep clean. We have the Pergo. We eat at home, only rarely go to a restauraunt. We eat better too. We have a big garden winter and summer, we have cabbages and collards right now, I do get my hair cut professionally, but I cut my husbands hair. I don't own clothes that need dry cleaning. And best of all we are debt free. I hate hate hate starbucks coffee. What a total waste of good money. I'm cheep!

 

[alan1]

I had cut way back on dry cleaners, bought the dryer ones. Then a One-Price cleaners opened and I'd say the cost has gotten pretty close-and they do a better job.

Instead of having the carpet cleaning service over the holidays, did them myself, with some furniture moving by 'the boys.'

We're eating out a lot less and making more 'special dinners' at home. It's way less expensive, more relaxed, and private.

Will these jobs become 'gone' or will the challenges make them more competitive? Will 'service' change? I've long argued that part of the reason online shopping and 'outlets' have thrived is the poor service given in most service industries. It's not 'fun' to shop most places.

January 17, 2009
Outsourced Chores Come Back Home

By CATHERINE RAMPELL
A few months ago, as her family’s income fell, Laura French Spada, a real estate agent in Glen Rock, N.J., began dyeing her hair at home and washing the family cars herself. Her husband, Mark, started learning how to do electrical repairs.

Susan Todoroff, a personal trainer in Ann Arbor, Mich., has begun brewing espressos at home and cutting her hair and cleaning her house herself. And Tamar A. Zaidenweber, a health care market researcher in Astoria, Queens, is spending more time walking her dog instead of taking it to day care each week.

All of these consumers could praise themselves for their newfound frugality in the midst of an economic downturn. But every step they take toward self-reliance — each shrub they prune themselves, each cupcake they bake from scratch — hurts the people and small businesses that have long provided these services professionally.

These small, service-oriented businesses are run in storefronts on urban streets and in suburban strip malls, or sometimes just out of pickup trucks. Responsible for roughly 18 million jobs nationwide, according to 2006 Census Bureau data, these companies have long been seen as engines of America’s economic growth. Yet after years of explosive expansion, many beauty salons, dry cleaners, landscapers, dog walkers, nanny services and restaurants experienced slower sales growth or even decline in the final months of 2008.

Their services are suddenly, and painfully, being perceived as nonessential....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/business/17services.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

The self-fulfilling prophecy of a recession is upon us. The MSM has been screaming at the top of their lungs for a year that we are in a recession, and finally, some people started to listen. Many of these people weren't experiencing a decline in their income, nor financially suffering. Yet, as soon as they cut back, the results were obvious. The businesses that they stopped patronizing did start suffering, and laying people off or shutting their doors. The domino effect is is starting to get into full swing.

i think I will go shopping today and help stimulate the economy.

 

[Gunny]

I had cut way back on dry cleaners, bought the dryer ones. Then a One-Price cleaners opened and I'd say the cost has gotten pretty close-and they do a better job.

Instead of having the carpet cleaning service over the holidays, did them myself, with some furniture moving by 'the boys.'

We're eating out a lot less and making more 'special dinners' at home. It's way less expensive, more relaxed, and private.

Will these jobs become 'gone' or will the challenges make them more competitive? Will 'service' change? I've long argued that part of the reason online shopping and 'outlets' have thrived is the poor service given in most service industries. It's not 'fun' to shop most places.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/business/17services.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

I think everyone is having to cut back. I started brownbagging my lunch again. THAT is drastic.

 

[alan1]

I think everyone is having to cut back. I started brownbagging my lunch again. THAT is drastic.

Why do you think everybody is having to cut back?
Are you making less income than you were 6, 9, 12 months ago?
Are you cutting back because you are suffering financially? Or for some other reason?

 

[Gunny]

Why do you think everybody is having to cut back?
Are you making less income than you were 6, 9, 12 months ago?
Are you cutting back because you are suffering financially? Or for some other reason?

Just in case you missed it, the economy is stagnant. I'm not making less, but I also am not making more.

I am not suffering, but I don't have the expendable income I did a year ago.

 

[Ravi]

The self-fulfilling prophecy of a recession is upon us. The MSM has been screaming at the top of their lungs for a year that we are in a recession, and finally, some people started to listen. Many of these people weren't experiencing a decline in their income, nor financially suffering. Yet, as soon as they cut back, the results were obvious. The businesses that they stopped patronizing did start suffering, and laying people off or shutting their doors. The domino effect is is starting to get into full swing.

i think I will go shopping today and help stimulate the economy.

I have to agree with some of what you've said here. If people are still employed and making the same income, cutting back hurts the economy. It's almost a patriotic duty for people in this position to keep on spending money.



I think I'll go out to lunch today.

 

[WillowTree]

I have to agree with some of what you've said here. If people are still employed and making the same income, cutting back hurts the economy. It's almost a patriotic duty for people in this position to keep on spending money.



I think I'll go out to lunch today.

There you go with the patriotic duty again. I think people are leery of spending just to spend. I betcha the smart ones are getting the hell outta the stock market business and into the coffee can business. A penny saved blah blah blah.

 

[Annie]

Just in case you missed it, the economy is stagnant. I'm not making less, but I also am not making more.

I am not suffering, but I don't have the expendable income I did a year ago.

The high gas prices of spring/summer ate into my 'savings' meager though they were. Now I'm just working at paying off debt, without becoming a huge tightwad.

Today though, thanks to the dog, going to throw $700 into the economy for my replacement hearing aid.

 

[WillowTree]

The high gas prices of spring/summer ate into my 'savings' meager though they were. Now I'm just working at paying off debt, without becoming a huge tightwad.

Today though, thanks to the dog, going to throw $700 into the economy for my replacement hearing aid.

don't do it. You won't have to hear him bark!

ps cats don't eat hearing aids, and they don't eat dog poop either.

 

[Annie]

don't do it. You won't have to hear him bark!

Twas my own fault, arrggg! Left it where she could get it. I am sooo glad I took out the insurance on them, (I need two). Would have been close to $2800 if had to pay the whole thing!

 

[alan1]

Just in case you missed it, the economy is stagnant. I'm not making less, but I also am not making more.

I am not suffering, but I don't have the expendable income I did a year ago.

I don't think I missed anything.
I was just curious why you (personally) were cutting back.

I personally think you should go out to lunch more often and tip big. My youngest daughter is a waitress, she needs your money.

 

[alan1]

There you go with the patriotic duty again. I think people are leery of spending just to spend. I betcha the smart ones are getting the hell outta the stock market business and into the coffee can business. A penny saved blah blah blah.

I'm following the investment advice of Warren Buffet,
When people get scared, get greedy.

I've increased my position in the stock market.

 

[editec]

I've been cutting back for so long essantially there's very little I could change.

I have changed y phone service (to Vonage) and stopped having somebody pick up my garbage though.

BTW, if anyone's in the market for some garbage cheap, I'm the man to talk to.

 

[Old Rocks]

Well, let's see, why am I cutting back. Just because they laid off over half the fellows where I work in November? Surely that is not a reason, right? Just because they cut all overtime, even for maintencance? Sheesh, going from 50 to 60 hours a week to only 40 affects one's income? Just because the company I work for had to get a 1.8 billion dollar loan, ruble equivelant, from the Russian government to stay in business? Is that any reason to cut back? Because I have seen what I can sell my properties for plunge by about 30% in less than a year, does that mean that maybe things have changed economically for most of us?

Right now, I would have to say that only the people that are very well off can afford to live at the same level as a year ago. For most of us, our jobs, and our homes, are in doubt. If one owns a home with a mortgage, as most do, and that mortgage is more than 70% of the value of the home, you are in serious financial danger. As more jobs are lost, and the value of homes plunge, many are finding themselves without a job, with a home worth less than the mortgage. Any kind of additional debt is just that much more weight. Seems that the majority are in for a rough ride. If Annie's position is as stated, she is one of the few that will get through this in good shape.

 

[alan1]

I've been cutting back for so long essantially there's very little I could change.

I have changed y phone service (to Vonage) and stopped having somebody pick up my garbage though.

BTW, if anyone's in the market for some garbage cheap, I'm the man to talk to.

These guys might be interested in your garbage, Anything Into Oil | Alternative Energy | DISCOVER Magazine

Now, why isn't that information being widely disseminated by the MSM?

 

[Old Rocks]

These guys might be interested in your garbage, Anything Into Oil | Alternative Energy | DISCOVER Magazine

Now, why isn't that information being widely disseminated by the MSM?

Batboy, one of the Hotrod magazines just tested some HHO sytems and got a 60% increase in mileage on a hopped up small block Chevy. The patents on these systems were taken out between WW1 and WW2. So why are not these systems in wide use today? How about wind power? As more of the big turbines are built, the price is per kw of energy of the mills is declining, much below coal when all costs are considered. Yet you constantly read how expensive wind is.

There are many alternatives to what we do today. Many that are less expensive and far less destructive of our environment. But all too many of them lessen the incomes of some very powerful people. People supported by, and who own, most of our media.

 

[alan1]

Batboy, one of the Hotrod magazines just tested some HHO sytems and got a 60% increase in mileage on a hopped up small block Chevy. The patents on these systems were taken out between WW1 and WW2. So why are not these systems in wide use today? How about wind power? As more of the big turbines are built, the price is per kw of energy of the mills is declining, much below coal when all costs are considered. Yet you constantly read how expensive wind is.

There are many alternatives to what we do today. Many that are less expensive and far less destructive of our environment. But all too many of them lessen the incomes of some very powerful people. People supported by, and who own, most of our media.

Ahh, but it was still a gas powered Chevy engine, thus not a truly green source.
Just like the source I linked. It doesn't have merit in the eyes of the MSM until it isn't petroleum based.

 

[Old Rocks]

Well, we are not going to instantly get off of petroleum based fuels. But when we do, the bio-fuels will still need extenders, and this works just as well on diesel engines as gasoline engines. In fact, just as well for an alcohol based engine. It also cuts the NO emmisions significantly. The point is that this system could be in use from the factory, that we have known how to do it for 70 years, yet only people that have done it on their own have such systems.

 

[Zoom-boing]

I had cut way back on dry cleaners, bought the dryer ones. Then a One-Price cleaners opened and I'd say the cost has gotten pretty close-and they do a better job.

Instead of having the carpet cleaning service over the holidays, did them myself, with some furniture moving by 'the boys.'

We're eating out a lot less and making more 'special dinners' at home. It's way less expensive, more relaxed, and private.

Will these jobs become 'gone' or will the challenges make them more competitive? Will 'service' change? I've long argued that part of the reason online shopping and 'outlets' have thrived is the poor service given in most service industries. It's not 'fun' to shop most places.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/business/17services.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

January 17, 2009
Outsourced Chores Come Back Home

By CATHERINE RAMPELL
A few months ago, as her family’s income fell, Laura French Spada, a real estate agent in Glen Rock, N.J., began dyeing her hair at home and washing the family cars herself. Her husband, Mark, started learning how to do electrical repairs.

Susan Todoroff, a personal trainer in Ann Arbor, Mich., has begun brewing espressos at home and cutting her hair and cleaning her house herself. And Tamar A. Zaidenweber, a health care market researcher in Astoria, Queens, is spending more time walking her dog instead of taking it to day care each week.

All of these consumers could praise themselves for their newfound frugality in the midst of an economic downturn. But every step they take toward self-reliance — each shrub they prune themselves, each cupcake they bake from scratch — hurts the people and small businesses that have long provided these services professionally.

These small, service-oriented businesses are run in storefronts on urban streets and in suburban strip malls, or sometimes just out of pickup trucks. Responsible for roughly 18 million jobs nationwide, according to 2006 Census Bureau data, these companies have long been seen as engines of America’s economic growth. Yet after years of explosive expansion, many beauty salons, dry cleaners, landscapers, dog walkers, nanny services and restaurants experienced slower sales growth or even decline in the final months of 2008.

Their services are suddenly, and painfully, being perceived as nonessential....

I know these people provide these services but these services, imo, are nonessential. One can live without a dog nanny and car washer. Many, many things people pay for are DIY type things. But . . . what do you cut back on when you never purchased any of these services do begin with? I've always cooked dinner nearly every night, we rarely eat out, I bake from scratch, I walk the dog, I prune, we keep the heat at 64/65, I yell at the kids to get out of the shower to conserve water, I consolidate car trips . . . I'm at a loss as to what to cut back on next. TV guide - gone; new trash service saves us $200/yr; looking at cutting back on cable for additional savings. We've even cancelled our vacation this summer. I feel for those people whose jobs may be in jeopardy, but . . . . luxuries are the first things to go in times like these.