PSoTD

I'm not sure it's really "free", but somebody's tracking offers.

Garbage trucks eat a lot of fuel.

A daily gas bill for Kevin and Dawn Wright averages about $3,200.

The couple owns K&D Disposal Inc. in Palmyra, and that’s what it costs these days to keep their fleet of 13 garbage trucks on the road.

Six months ago, their daily gas bill averaged around $2,100. Eighteen months ago, it was about $1,700 — or close to half of what it is now.

“It’s terrible — it really is,” said Kevin, seated in the small office in the back of a giant pole barn at the business’ Garnsey Road headquarters. “That’s our biggest thing, and it is for everybody. It’s the fuel.”

Think the mileage on an SUV is bad? Each of the Wrights’ giant garbage trucks gets a wee two-and-a-half to three miles for a single gallon of diesel, which last week was up to $4.89.

It’s not just the size of the trucks that makes the miles-to-fuel ratio so dismal, it’s the fact that garbage trucks are stop-and-go, stop-and-go. They’ve got 75-gallon tanks, and by day’s end, about 50 gallons have been spent.

You realize that the "scooter" needs a lot of marketing brainpower, and probably design brainpower, to co-exist with American testosterone.

How will the art gallery survive?

First Fridays at Fusion Art Gallery have been among the most popular events in the downtown Bentonville area since the art supply store and gallery venue opened its doors in 2005. The first Friday of every month, a new exhibition featuring local artists opened - and Fusion's doors opened to masses of art enthusiasts. It was a monthly celebration of not only original art, but local art.

But the First Friday event scheduled for June 6, which will feature every artist that's even shown at Fusion, will be the last. Owner Cindy Suter recently made the decision to close Fusion Art Gallery for good.

"It's going to be difficult," Suter said of closing the business. "When the economy is struggling the way it is, artwork, galleries and art supplies are normally the first to go. People have to buy groceries, put gas in their car and pay their mortgages. We've clearly felt the effect of what's going on in the economy today."

I'd be curious to see if, ten years later, this has changed.

And in the light of the information marketplace, it ought to be called idiocy.

Its creators admit it is the ultimate in decadence: a $175 hamburger.

The Wall Street Burger Shoppe just raised its price from $150 to assure its designation as the costliest burger in the city as determined by Pocket Change, an online newsletter about the most expensive things in New York.

"Wall Street has good days and bad days. We wanted to have the everyday burger (for $4) ... and then something special if you really have a good day on Wall Street," said co-owner Heather Tierney.

Hey, you want to know what I want? A federal 50% sales tax on any restaurant item that costs over $150. If these people are stupid enough to waste their money like this, at least somebody ought to benefit besides a marketplace that promotes such excess.

Sure, they're down nationally, but they must be up at repossession auctions.

Most of the suggestions listed in the article "How consumers can cut their grocery bills" are painfully obvious to anyone who spends more than a couple of times each year doing grocery shopping, but at least the writer didn't recommend going to more restaurants.

There's no shortage of articles about how people should spend, and are spending, their rebate checks.

I'm going to have to take The UPS Store up on this for our mailbox service.

Call-in MailCheck® Save time. Save a trip. Call us to find out if you have mail.

It's just not worth going down there if the mailbox is going to be empty.

So why isn't it the law? Why should we let those with the "need for speed" help the terrorists?

This Saturday, May 10, 2008 call Countrywide to discuss your mortgage options.

#####, your estimated home equity may be as much as $##,###. Call now for a Special Online Discount.²

Exciting news! Call 1-800-514-0292 or apply online. You may be entitled to refinance, possibly lock in a lower interest rate, and receive up to $41,041 cash from your home's estimated available equity, through our exclusive Fastrack Loan Program – available to you as a select, qualified Countrywide Home Loans customer.

In addition, you may qualify for a Special Online Discount2 on your next home refinance mortgage.

We already have a good rate. We are already a Countrywide client. They keep sending this kind of stuff, by both email and regular mail, to try to entice us to borrow more.

It's getting to the point where, if there was no cost to it, we'd move our loan because Countrywide is becoming very, very annoying.

What's wrong with it?

Unfortunately, news that most people believe gasoline will be $5 a gallon before the end of the year may well guarantee that it will. If oil companies see that the market expects it, don't you expect they will try?

From the April 2008 Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business:

COMMODITIES REPORTED UP / DOWN IN PRICE, and IN SHORT SUPPLY

Commodities Up in Price

Airfares (2); Alcohol; Beef (2); Car Rentals; Carbon Steel Pipe (2); Carbon Steel Plate; Coffee; Copier Paper (3); Copper Wire (2); Corn; Diesel Fuel (7); Eggs (2); Flour; Foodstuffs; Fresh Dairy; Fuel (15); Gasoline (8); Hay; Hotel Costs; IT Support; Milk; Natural Gas; Oil (2); Paper (6); Paper Products (2); Petroleum (2); Plastic Bags (2); Printed Forms and Papers; Shipping Costs (2); Steel (2); Wheat; and Wood Shavings.

Commodities Down in Price

Cheese is the only commodity reported down in price.

In my humble opinion, patio furniture prices are ridiculous. I'd like someplace to sit outside, but damn if I'm spending over $1000 for a set. When people are over, they'll just have to enjoy these seats.

So when will car dealerships begin to refuse taking SUVs as trade-ins because they just can't move them anymore?

It seems to me that there may be a convergence in the economy and technology that will lead to a boom in lawnmower sales.

I live in a comfortable, 40 year old neighborhood. When we moved here in 1995, it seemed like everyone mowed their own lawn. Today I am in the distinct minority as a lawnmowing homeowner. Everyone seems to be hiring services to mow their lawns now.

There are only a few reasons why I could see considering hiring such a service, but then again, I kind of like mowing the lawn. One reason would be health - your physical condition prevents you from mowing - and I guess there's no way around that. The other primary reason would be lack of time.

Mowing the lawn in our neighborhood takes an hour. Is an hour so hard to find?

Eventually, people have to look at cost, also, and that's where saving that hour could find itself on the other side of the ledger in today's economy. With everything going up in cost, in some cases quite rapidly, people will cut back on luxuries, and for many, a grassmowing service is a luxury. And so it will be time for them to return to the turf, decked in glory, ready to smite the overreaching grass blades that dare rough up their view.

For many, however, a new lawnmower will be in order - an investment in the process. They've gone many years without mowing, and the old mower was one of the reasons they went to a service - keeping it running, keeping it gassed, keeping it cutting efficiently - was a battle they were losing before, back in the day.

So what to buy? The pressure is growing - go green! Recharge with solar - no more gas to buy! Look for more states to provide incentives for residents to buy such items in the first place. Electric mowers sales have grown 25 percent in the last few years, according to one manufacturer. Another pegs the growth at sixfold during the last decade.

I suspect that the "green lawnmower revolution" will go electric, and not to this style of machine, regardless of the spokesmodels. But if not this summer, then next summer I suspect the green lawnmower boom will be on in earnest, in my neighborhood and thousands of others around the country. And lawnmowing services will not be happy about it the business result.