Keep Our Service Free-Donate

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Become a Smarter Supermarket Shopper


 

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…


ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 


Be a Smarter Supermarket Shopper

When you shop at the grocery, realize that you are a target.



Busy consumers love supermarkets. Row upon row of perfectly presented food allow you to run in, grab what you need, and dash out. You assume you are in control of your decisions. After all, you are the one with the grocery list. But oftentimes you are being manipulated without even realizing it.

Shoppers often fall victim to supermarket manipulations that influence purchasing decisions. It’s a cunningly orchestrated sales process that lures you in, keeps you in, and seduces you into buying as many profitable products as possible—profitable to food manufacturers, not to your health.

Wanted: Impulsive Shoppers


Of the food people consume at home, an estimated 64 percent comes from the supermarket. Few shoppers think about how much their purchasing behavior is being influenced when they step into a supermarket. An abc News consumer watchdog report says the products we see, where they are displayed, and even what we smell are all designed by sophisticated, market-tested strategies with one purpose: to compel you to buy.

Notice the produce department: a stage set of shiny apples and dewy vegetables, giving that fresh-picked look and putting you in a pleasant seasonal mood. As you walk along, the savory smells of baked bread and roasted chicken waft over to your nose. The resultant olfactory overload gives you a shot of dopamine and activates the salivary glands.

Paco Underhill, consumer expert and author of What Women Want: The Science of Female Shopping, believes this last tactic is important. “When you’re salivating,” he says, “you’re a much less disciplined shopper.”

As you pick up products—some that are on your list, some that are impulse buys—a song plays softly in the background. Slow, soft music has been found to slow customers down. Author Ronald Milliman revealed in a 1982 paper that soft background music caused people to walk 15 percent slower and increased sales volume by 38 percent. That’s a powerful strategy, as most consumer choices are made in-store, and 60 percent of those are impulse purchases, according to Herb Meyers, ceo of former New York corporate identity firm Gerstman+Meyers. “If you feel good through emotionally evocative music,” he said, “you’re likely to spend more.”

Priming Us for Captain Crunch


Where these tactics get dicey is in the push toward junk food. These factory-manufactured products are generally cheaper to produce, so the more junk food people buy, the more profit retailers and manufacturers make. These foods also stimulate your taste buds more than, say, broccoli, so you are more likely to keep coming back for more. To hook the consumer, retailers use two main sales strategies: lower your critical awareness, and encourage you to buy on impulse.

This consumer psychology is called subliminal priming and relies on the target (you) remaining unaware that such stimuli exists. So when you head to the dairy section for a gallon of milk, you’ll be exposed to plenty of chips, pop and other temptations along the way. Distraction is the key component to a store’s profitability, with the rationale that the longer you linger, the more you spend.

Walk down any aisle, and you’ll notice the most popular brands sitting at eye-level on shelves. Strategic product placement to maximize sales is known as a planogram model. Food companies pay big dollars to make sure Cap’n Crunch looks your child straight in the eye, pleading with him to pick the box up—and to plead with you.

Other traps, known as “end caps,” hover at the end of aisles. According to the National Retail Hardware Association, these shelves outsell similar products elsewhere by eight times. Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that these shelves get stocked with too much junk: soft drinks, chocolate, confectionery and chips.

Few people notice these tactics, making them all the more powerful. Increasingly, such corporate decisions shape our patterns of purchasing and, as a result, our patterns of consumption, malnutrition and disease.

The Future of Consumer Targeting


To induce even more impulse buying, “smart shelves” soon will use sensors to determine your age and gender and target specific advertisements. Movement tracking is also coming into favor. Retailers are beginning to experiment with a variety of new camera tracking technologies that can tell when you enter a store, where you go and how you shop. Real-time imaging tracks movements and produces heat maps showing where shoppers concentrate their attention. This allows companies to determine consumer habits through behaviors and becomes another effective way to boost revenue.

Even as you leave the store, the loyalty card you used to save a few pennies gave additional key insights into what you buy. An army of experts will now data mine the information to determine how to squeeze your wallet further in the future.

Winning the War


These aggressive and even invasive methods are effective largely because shoppers are ignorant of them. We allow subliminal suggestions to nudge us toward unwise purchases and unhealthy foods.

Here are a few tips to help you become a smarter shopper:

Before heading to the market, eat something to prevent excessive or unhealthy purchases.

Make a shopping list and stick to it.

Shop only once weekly.

At the supermarket, learn to recognize the strategies that are targeting you. Stay focused on your list and avoid falling victim to persuasion and impulse. If you do, the battle between supermarket profit margins and your health will claim one less victim.
 

NOTE:  Our family makes use of loyalty cards [Kroger] and it does save us lot of money.  We shop their sales and house brand items.  This past week for instance, their whole chickens were only 58 cents a pound so I bought six of them. Because of my heart condition we buy many prescriptions through their pharmacy.  We purchase phone cards for our pre-paid phones [no contracts for us] and we frequently purchase gift cards for our many out-of-town friends and family-all of which earn discount fuel points which have shaved as much as a $1 a gallon off our fill-ups!  Additionally, Kroger frequently mails bonus coupons [including freebies] to our household targeting the items we buy most frequently and we take advantage of them. 

If you’re a shut-in or don’t like crowds you might consider Jet.com which delivers and if you spend $35 or more, delivery is free and the more you spend, prices get reduced and they offer a section where you can sign up if you need large quantities of items.  This sure seems to beat the crowds and expense of joining the big wholesale clubs [although places like Costco do offer great deals on tires and prescriptions, for instance].

 

 

Yours for better living,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

 

 

 


Arm Up System-Defense Without Regulation
PM’s Guide to Home Defense


It is a crazy world out there with plenty of violence and everyone knows you that under most circumstances, police usually arrive after the fact. Your rights to defend yourself are often under attack, even for non-lethal self-defense tools…Includes 2 books and 3 bonus CD ROMS

http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Guide-to-Home-Defense-Arm-Up-System-Defense-W-out-Regulation-Bonuses/370808566

 

{Note:  We also offer a Three Set CD-ROM-only version at a lesser price for those with limited budgets]

 

Support our efforts by making a purchase…


 


Additional Resources

8 Signs You’re a Shopaholic — and What to Do About It


 
How to let Uncle Sam help with college costs
As kids go back to school, check out these tax breaks for a family's education costs

 
Complaining Effectively
A simple solution to getting what you want

 
Why would you want to pay full retail? Read more.



·         Whether you’re cleaning out your kids’ old toys or giving college books to the Salvation Army, the non-cash items you donate have a value. When you itemize your taxes, you may be able to write off the value of those items, ultimately saving you some money.


The Anatomy of a Breakdown

The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster

Prepper’s Home Defense: Security Strategies to Protect Your Family by Any Means Necessary

Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival

20 Very Cool Especially Useful DIY Survival Hacks From DIY Ready: Looking for some cool DIY projects that can help you when SHTF? Wants to learn a new skill in the process? These 20 Diy Projects For Survival will have you prepared for anything and then some.


[Love Liberty?  See How your State is Doing Right Here Courtesy the CATO Inst.]

 

 

A Shallow Planet Production

 

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Like Many of our Founders, I'm a Deist


 

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…


ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

Hal Lindsey once said that we “can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air…but only for one second without hope.”

 

 

Like Many of Our Founding Fathers, I’m a Deist

 

   I grew up in what some might consider an oddly mixed neighborhood of old world Italian Catholics, Protestants and Lutherans and Jewish families with a few families from India mixed in.  My mother was Lutheran, my Dad was Catholic, my neighbors were a Heinz-57 mixture and I learned later some of our family heritage included Russian-Polish Jews who had escaped Hitler early on [many had secretly changed their religion to escape persecution], while others were Germans who had left for America and had served in our War of Independence.

 

We’re related to the German WWI flying Ace, the Red Baron and to Henry Winkler, best known as the ‘Fonz’ of TV show Happy Days

 

As kids we attended the Lutheran church, the Catholic Church and even the Jewish synagogue – just tagging along with our friends, it didn’t really make any difference to us.  Growing up I attended the Bar Mitzvahs of my Jewish friends as well as the confirmations of my Catholic friends.  My parent’s never discouraged us from exploring the faith of others. 

 

At the time my mother worked as an ER nurse and frequently brought home interns from other countries, especially from India which had been my first encounter with a vegetarian…who ever heard of someone not eating a hamburger was my first thought?

 

I’ll admit, my Dad forced us to attend Sunday school and even the Catholic version taught by the nun Sister Mary ‘burn-in-hell-you-brat’ McCarthy and being a particularly annoying young man, the nuns were aggressive in reminding me of that fact by frequently applying a ruler to my knuckles – my first nightmare!

 

As far as I can recall all of us got along well, there was not religious strife, no jihad or burning at the stake, no beheadings or fiery sermons damning the other guys’ religion.  As I got a bit older I began to question the purpose of religion, especially once I learned there were more than 1700 different versions of Christianity alone and how Muslims would not tolerate infidels.  Many religions taught ‘tolerance’ but practiced  just the opposite – they were too busy casting the first stone in judgment.

 

Ironically, our Founders ensured us Freedom of Religion…”The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of blood for centuries.’ –Thomas Jefferson

 

Too often the leaders of some religions behave like intolerant zealots intent on forcing their rigid view on how everyone should live on everyone else and/or to control the politics of a nation.  I believe the real purpose shouldn’t be some tired, intolerant dogma but instead a practice of teaching that seeks to help each other – every day!  Make the world a better place, help those less fortunate.

 

Deism\De”ism\ (d[=e]”[i^]z’m), n. [L. deus god: cf. F.
d[‘e]isme. See Deity.]
The doctrine or creed of a deist; the belief or system of
those who acknowledge the existence of one God, but deny
revelation.

 


Over the years I’ve learned that many of our Founding Fathers were Deists and have adopted this philosophy as the one which works best for me as well…

Deism is not a specific religion but rather a particular perspective on the nature of God. Deists believe that a creator god does exist, but that after the motions of the universe were set in place he retreated, having no further interaction with the created universe or the beings within it. As such, there are a variety of common religious beliefs that deists do not accept.

 

Famous Deists:


A large number of United States Founding Fathers were deists or had strong deist leanings. Some of them identified themselves as Unitarians, a non-Trinitarian form of Christianity that emphasized rationality and skepticism. These deists include Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison and John Adams.

The religious sensitivities of early Americans were such that the Founding Fathers avoided the mention of God in the Constitution.  They spoke about reverence for Almighty God and encouraged religious toleration, but many avoided discussing their personal beliefs.  So which of the Founders were Deists?  Most often the Founding Fathers included amongst Thomas Paine’s allies are spoken of as Deists.  These allies included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson.

  • Was Washington a Deist?  Washington was closed-mouth about his personal religious beliefs.   He attended church services, but in the later part of his life he was not a communicant.  He promoted religious toleration, and he promoted the belief in God.  Washington established the tradition of chaplains serving in the United States military (see here).  In addition, Washington inaugurated the first Thanksgiving (see here).  Nonetheless, as he never made his personal beliefs about Christianity publicly known, Washington was a Mason and a Deist.
  • Was Franklin a deist?   In his autobiography, Franklin makes it clear that he was a Deist.  Nonetheless, it is also apparent that Franklin had great respect for the teachings of Jesus as well.
  • Thomas Paine was certainly a Deist-See or read his  The Age of Reason.

Outside ancient Greece many other cultures have expressed views that resemble deism in some respects. However, the word "deism", as it is understood today, is generally used to refer to the movement toward natural theology or freethinking that occurred in 17th-century Europe, and specifically in Britain.

The challenge which each of us faces each day is how can we make the world a better place?

Here are two sites which offer more information:


 
http://deism.com/

 

 


Yours for better living,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

 

 

 


Arm Up System-Defense Without Regulation
PM’s Guide to Home Defense


It is a crazy world out there with plenty of violence and everyone knows you that under most circumstances, police usually arrive after the fact. Your rights to defend yourself are often under attack, even for non-lethal self-defense tools…Includes book and 3 bonus CD ROMS

http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Guide-to-Home-Defense-Arm-Up-System-Defense-W-out-Regulation-Bonuses/370808566

 

{Note:  We also offer a Three Set CD-ROM-only version at a lesser price for those with limited budgets]

 

Support our efforts by making a purchase…


 

Additional Resources


The Anatomy of a Breakdown

The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster

Prepper’s Home Defense: Security Strategies to Protect Your Family by Any Means Necessary

Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival

20 Very Cool Especially Useful DIY Survival Hacks From DIY Ready: Looking for some cool DIY projects that can help you when SHTF? Wants to learn a new skill in the process? These 20 Diy Projects For Survival will have you prepared for anything and then some.


[Love Liberty?  See How your State is Doing Right Here Courtesy the CATO Inst.]

 

 

A Shallow Planet Production

 

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Big Government Squanders Your Money with Relish & Abandon


Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…


ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 

 

"The trouble with most folks
isn't so much their ignorance,
  as knowing so many things
     that ain't so."

-- Josh Billings

 

 

Big Government Squanders Your Money with Relish & Abandon

 

The EPA Spent $5,000 on a Single Freakin’ Office Chair… plus Hillary told us your taxes will go up again if she gets into office

While Bernie Sanders is busy picking out new furniture for his THIRD HOME (because 23 types of deodorants is an atrocity, but three homes for a politician, that’s socialism, duh), his followers are still pushing for higher taxes.  Because, of course, they’ve yet to feel the tax-induced butthole clench after looking at a real paystub.

Until then, we advise that they look at the EPA to get a small taste of how Big Government manages money.  They don’t manage – they squander your money with relish and abandon!

Over the past decade, says a recent report from transparency advocate Open the Books, the EPA has spent a whopping $92.4 million on office furniture.

“The agency,” Kristie Eshelman writes on the Generation Opportunity blog, “spent $48.4 million on Herman Miller furniture alone. If you’re unfamiliar with the furniture market, that’s about as high-end as you can get. To put it in perspective, one Herman Miller chair cost $4,047. Granted, it was nice chair -- it could swivel and tilt and had adjustable arms -- but mine can do that too. Someone must have given a really good sales pitch.

"Perhaps the only furniture brand more expensive than Herman Miller is Knoll. The EPA just couldn’t resist, shelling out $5 million on Knoll designer furniture.

“And we can’t forget the pencil holder. While the average pencil holder costs $10-20, the EPA was persuaded to $813 on theirs. I just hope it looks better than the half-forgotten one that’s gathering dust in the supply room of our office.”

Some poor American paid for that pencil holder with about a month’s worth of hard work. Tell me again why we need to raise taxes?  That’s what carpetbagger Shillary plans to do [in the best Democratic/Socialist tradition] if she is elected [and she’ll screw us some with another half-baked health plan] and if the American people are foolish enough to entrust her with her with another security clearance…I wonder how much cash they’ll rake in this time selling influence to foreign governments?

 

 

Why American Jobs are Vanishing & We’re in Decline

 

Long ago in the Land of the Free, if you wanted to start a saloon, you rented a space and started serving booze.

 

You didn’t have to go through years of petitioning a bunch of bureaucrats for permits and licenses.

 

If you weren’t qualified or good enough at your job, your reputation would suffer and you’d go out of business.

 

This is the way it used to be for just about every industry and profession.

 

It wasn’t until 1889 that the US Supreme Court ruled in Dent v. West Virginia that states had the right to impose “reasonable” certifications or licenses for various professions.

 

At first, most states only licensed physicians, dentists, and lawyers.

 

In fact, by 1920, only about 30 occupations in the US required any sort of licensing.

 

By the 1950s, about 5% of US workers required a license to perform his/her job.

 

Today that number has risen to 30%, and climbing.

 

Some of our modern examples are completely insane.

 

According to the Brookings Institute, the state of Nevada requires 733 days of training and a $1,500 fee for a license... just to become a tour guide.

 

Over in Michigan, it takes 1,460 days of education to become an athletic trainer.

 

45 other states have license or certification requirements for athletic trainers. All fifty states have licenses for barbers and cosmetologists.

 

36 states require licenses for make-up artists. 34 states license milk samplers. And a mere 33 states license auctioneers.

 

These license requirements continue to grow, along with the overall level of rules and regulations in the Land of the Free.

 

Just this morning the US government published an extra 227 pages of rules, regulations, and proposals.

 

This happens every single business day in America.

 

Last week the government published over 2,000 pages of new rules, many of which border on absurdity.

 

To give you an idea, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service proposed a rule about minimum and maximum diameters of potatoes that are sold in the State of Colorado.

 

Yes I’m serious.

 

This is the sort of madness that government bureaucrats churn out on a daily basis: more rules, more licenses.

 

Needless to say, the more of these rules they create, the more difficult it becomes for people and businesses to produce.

 

So it wasn’t exactly a big surprise when the US Labor Department released statistics a few days ago showing that, for the third straight quarter in a row, productivity in the Land of the Free declined.   Obama’s White House has churned out red tape like Frito Lay churns out snack chips and it costs us jobs and higher prices and is choking the lifeblood out of our national productivity and international competitiveness.

 

Hillary promises more of the same – Obama 2.0

 
 


A few simple ways to fight back…

 

1. Agorism: “Agorism,” says Wikipedia, “is a libertarian social philosophy that advocates creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics, thus engaging in a manner with aspects of peaceful revolution. It was first proposed by libertarian philosopher Samuel Edward Konkin III in 1975, with contributions partly by J. Neil Schulman.”

Taking part in agorism is easy. Simple trade with others freely and without government interference. Use cash or other untraceable forms of payment.

In short, support your local black markets. Because, of course, a “black market” is a free market.

2. Jury Nullification- Jury nullification is truly one way the power can be returned to the people. Problem is, few know what it is. And those who try to inform the masses out in public or in the courtroom are often locked in cages.

In short, jury nullifiers have the ability to refuse to charge someone for a victimless crime, no matter the law.

We’ll be talking more about jury nullification in future episodes. In the meantime, learn more about jury nullification here.

3. Private Security: Yesterday, we talked about how you can keep yourself protected when you’re on the move.

Today, we invite you to take it a step further. Take self-defense classes. Bone up on the latest research. (Target Focus Training and ex-CIA Officer Jason Hanson’s latest book are both good starts.) Eat healthy. Stay in shape. As you know, when it comes down to it, the only thing between you and a victim is your level of awareness and preparedness.

4. Homeschooling: Public schools have failed our children. Not only that, but they’re filling their heads with all kinds of crazy nonsense.

More and more, I’m meeting people who are catching onto this and homeschooling their kids. Not only is this a good idea, it’s also a great opportunity for educators to catch this trend and make it a business.

You could create courses for homeschoolers, offer to teach kids in your community and even, if you’re feeling froggy, open up your own micro-school.

We need liberty-minded educators for our kids. Do you fit the bill?

5. Become a servant to your fellow human: Be self-sufficient and cut all ties with the public sector. This one’s pretty self-explanatory. But most people don’t truly understand why entrepreneurship is so great -- and it’s not about making money.

Sure, making money is nice. It gives you freedom to do things you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise. But what make entrepreneurship great, really, is it’s about becoming a servant to mankind.

 

 

 

Yours for another revolution,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

Additional Resources


The Anatomy of a Breakdown

The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster

Prepper’s Home Defense: Security Strategies to Protect Your Family by Any Means Necessary

Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival


As I’ve said for the past 25 years “We don’t need another election, We need another revolution!”

 



Arm Up System-Defense Without Regulation
PM’s Guide to Home Defense


It is a crazy world out there with plenty of violence and everyone knows you that under most circumstances, police usually arrive after the fact. Your rights to defend yourself are often under attack, even for non-lethal self-defense tools…Includes book and 3 bonus CD ROMS

http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Guide-to-Home-Defense-Arm-Up-System-Defense-W-out-Regulation-Bonuses/370808566

 

{Note:  We also offer a Three Set CD-ROM-only version at a lesser price for those with limited budgets]

 


Support our efforts by shopping my storefront…


 

 


A Smoking Frog Feature, Shallow Planet Production