I really love throwing parties.  I don’t care who they are for but when they are for the family it gets to be even more fun. Last year we threw a party for my mom-in-law.  She was super excited to get into the retirement theme and wanted a special day.  So she let us know that this day was going to be special and that she wanted the whole family there for a day.  She planned out the entire day hour by hour and wanted to spend it sharing all parts of her life with us.  Now in reality it was a bit boring, but it was also very special.  Taking the time to learn from someone who has many more years of living is important and a wise move.  Now she loves treats and we decided to go to the store and pick up her favorite candy boxes and set up our own little surprise for her.

Luckily, I have a great wife who loves to plan and do these kinds of things.  She set the whole thing up.  Our goal was to add a surprise to her special day and with that, we wanted to throw a party at the end.  We planned for weeks to find all of her favorite foods and colors.  We implemented really cool birthday gifts that were all themed.  The main theme was to take her favorite candy boxes of almond joys and make the theme flamingo.  This was a rather crazy task because ti meant everything had to be pink and yet coconut-themed.  It was very colorful and cool.

It was my mom’s day so we let her do her thing and when we had time to sneak away we did.  We took those breaks and instantly made the basement a super special place for a surprise.  The first goal was to fill it with balloons.  So on the first break, we went down and locked the doors.  We then proceeded to blow up several hundred balloons.  This was breathtaking as you might imagine, and we made some crazy fun decorations with them.

The balloons falling from the ceiling were pretty cool.  This made a bed on the ceiling with a pull string.  The idea was when she went down the stairs we would pull the string and the sheet which was taped to the ceiling and filled with balloons would fall.  We put about 50 ballons in the sheet and packing taped it to the ceiling.  We also used scissors to cut the string to the right length in order to have a good pull.  This took some time and many strips of tape to get it to stay in the correct position.  We had to use the pinata and it was a cute sloth.  It was so much fun for her.

We filled the pinata with her favorite treat of almond joys and provided a nice bat.  It was a flamingo pinata and she loved it.  Then we taped balloons across the ceiling and had all her gifts surrounded by a giant set of balloons.  It was a pretty awesome setup and by the time the fourth break happened we finished it up.  Finally, it was our time to surprise her and it was incredible.

We all know that 2021 is the true year for online sucess.  Our economy is ready and primed to be more than successful online. My industry has shown that this is the place to be and I am seeing thousands upon thousands of new companies popping up and actually surviving.  I have also seen a lot of companies not make the cut and end up burning through all their startup funds quickly.  There are a lot of reasons for companies succeeding and failing, but there are some sound things that every company should follow and that is to buy their supplies at the best cost.  Ecommerce is about success and if you are selling online then you already know that you have to ship those items to the customer.  One way or another this is going to be a cost and you want to make sure it is not going to be a cost that will shut down your company. If you are shopping in the wrong place you may just be putting your company into a quick death.  I want to go over some simple basics that can save thousands or millions of dollars.

Don’t just do what is super simple to start with.  Think about it and give the possibility of saving a chance. This means different things for many people too.  For some companies, I have seen them buy all of their shipping supplies locally and then brag about this as a selling point.  What we found is that they supported local companies and that is something that we all liked.  But the downfall is that they only had a small sampling of options available to them.  They had to use the packages, tape, and cardboard boxes available to them within a 20-mile radius.  What this turned out to be for the companies that did this was a plane-looking shipping platform for a very high cost.  The cost was simply just too much and even though some of it was cool and custom that is not enough to be worth it. 

Obviously, lots of companies are buying on Amazon.  That is easy, but not always wise.  Now if you are simply getting office supplies I would say this is an acceptable option.  But people were buying thousands of cardboard boxes, rolls of tape, and bags on a platform that boasts good shipping.  Well, they got their supplies within two days, but they did not get bulk discounts or any advice at all on the products they ordered.  This was a major issue because the fact is these companies were generally not competitive on the shipping section and ended up losing out to the competition that was always cheaper or able to offer free shipping and low prices.  Don’t let this blow your minds, so many higher-ups can’t fathom it either.

Online packaging companies are simply the best and most cost-effective for a company to use. Not only do they give advice on the products you are purchasing when you call in but can help with bulk discounts on the whole order.  They always beat amazon and end up giving companies advice that lowers costs even further. Just take a little time to be wise and make sure you are getting the best deal for your company. 

It is really a fun thing to serve those around you.  Sometimes it can be a problem to serve the wrong thing too much, but in cases like the covid lockdowns, it is nice to go out and get a nice treat for the family.  The existence of many things is now gone and part of that is dining in at most restaurants.  The change has brought about a new way of life and a new way to experience it. This week I learned that lots of people still want the things they wanted a few months ago and are willing to wait a long time for them.  This was made prevalent on my trip to the dairy queen with my wife last night. We were under the impression that a trip to get some ice cream would make the end of our evening a fun time.  one great thing to do is to get in the car and head to some place you know you both will love. 

One thing that is not so great is when there are a lot of people in line, but wating outside is not as bad as being at home.   It turned out that the light was ia lot of other people with the same idea as us..  It was strange because technically the inside of the store should have been open but it was not. This made us a bit sad because we knew we would be waiting for a long time.  Since the inside was closed we imagined that the line would go very quickly. Unfortunately, it did not and was a very poor waiting process. Not all things that seem bad are.  It was actually nice to spend some extra time away from home. 

We had tons of time to talk and decide what would really be good and tasty for the night. The upside is that we got to go through the entire menu on our phones for a long time and talk about the best items to get.  Many were based around our favorite candy box candy. I mean is there much better than getting your favorite type of candy box in your ice cream? I am honestly not sure and I sure love a Reese cup-filled treat. The chocolate brownie was definitely had by my wife.  I almost went for the warm cookie and ice cream.

Waiting was actually part of the problem though.  We ended up spending as much in gas as we spend on the ice cream and honestly being behind someone shooting exhaust fumes for an hour was not the best thing for us. The big issue was that we waited a very long time and the order we received was shoddily put together and an extra topping was missing.  That was a bit of a bummer to be honest.  It really showed a very poor lack of management.  A store that was being staffed with so many people should have had that line flying and orders should be correct considering that you are only taking one order at a time and not the 4 to 5 when the store is running at normal capacity. I wish we had a better after the experience, but at least we got out of the house and spent some fun time together. 

There have been many changes in the last year or so and one of them is how our economy works in the United States.  We are now an eCommerce based country and that is because of all the local regulations due to COVID-19.    It is 2021 and we are just passed our state lockdown laws. But as always they are saying they should come back.  Clearly it didn’t work last time and yet that is the first thing they want to do again?  Work has mostly gone back to normal but it is still stressful to out and shop.  There are many rules and regulations that have happened and that are still in place.  This means that with it being so crazy outside we are buying more through online retailers.  E-commerce is becoming our main shopping center and it has caused some extra areas of stress that we didn’t have last year.  Now we have so many packages piling up we don’t know what to do.

How many packages are getting delivered to your door per day?  We get at least two a day. This means that our goods are sitting outside in the heat and weather and even open to people simply walking up and taking them.  This leaves me and my wife with lots of stress.  It is hard to think about hundreds of dollars of items getting delivered and sitting unsafe outside our home for hours on end.  Really it does bother me and causes me a large amount of anxiety which makes working harder.  It is the little things like this that really make the whole situation simply awful.  I don’t like the regulations or being forced to purchase online. It has caused so much social anxiety in the country it makes me sick.

The change in our ability to get rid of the cardboard boxes is the real problem.  The purchasing habits that we now have are really unfortunate.  It costs extra in our neighborhood to recycle.  This is because our trash is private and not government-run.  The cost to recycle means extra money per month and also I have to purchase a 200 dollar trashcan or rent one.  Either way, it costs a lot of extra money and I simply do not want to pay it.  With the economy the way it is I am simply unable to pay for it.  So now our garage is filled with cardboard boxes because I am only allowed to use so many cans each week.  

What was the answer to this?  Really, I have to take extra time each week to go and break down the boxes.  It is partially unsafe because I am not able to do it by hand.  Some of them are very hard and simply I don’t want to strain myself.  This has led me to use knives in order to break them down and make them small enough to fit them into the bags.  I first used scissors but they dulled quickly and left blisters on my hand.  I had to move to a fixed blade knife to get through them all. 

This is not something I like doing either.   I know it is simply a waste to trash all these paper products and I am contributing to the waste our society is so well known for.  I hope the regulations in our State end soon because they seem to be just making our lives worse.

The change of our culture in this new year has been saddening.  We are living in a totalitarian world of fear where facts and science do not matter.  We have mask mandates that are based on 100% lies and they are proven to not protect against COVID-19.  Yet here we are forced to cover our faces and dehumanize ourselves for the sake of a political control game.  All I want to do is enjoy life and go out and get snacks without fear of getting arrested.  The phrases such as Pandemic and Essential have been played to death and are getting on my nerves.  The topic came up when I told a friend that I was going to the store to get snacks for the family. It is wild the rules in place in some states.  They immediately chastised me for putting lives at risk over snacks. Let me tell you that snacks are life and I am happy to take that risk in order to live a normal life and have a happy family. I want to let you know that the need for anything outways the risk of freedom and if you need to get some top of the line candy boxes for your family then go right ahead and get the things done that you need. Don’t live in fear and don’t get arrested either.  

Enjoying food is essential, and life, liberty, and the pursuit of justice are as well. It is when someone goes and tells me that any kind of grocery shopping is not essential that I must protest.  I live in the United States due to freedom and going shopping is part of that.  I take a massive risk of driving to the store. The risk of getting into a crash is always there and that is higher than any other health risk in the world. I say this to let people know that they are at risk of dying every day. But being at a store and getting groceries who have been touched by tons of people has always been a risk. 

Don’t give in to fear and the idea that food is something to be afraid to get. That is how I look at many things these days.  It is no one’s right to tell you what food is good and what is not. That is part of why we live in this country and that is the freedom that it brings.  Yes, that even comes down to the candy boxes we choose when walking down that lovely aisle. So indeed don’t let anyone tell you what food is essential or even come close to taking away the choice as to that. It could mean later on that some choices for food for your children may be limited. The FDA says aspartame and corn syrup are healthy. If they are soon the only options then we may all be dying of following the rules if they take away healthy alternatives. 

 The right to freedom is involved and even in 2021, we are seeing no real death rates beyond a normal common cold.  So do not fret, but go out and be free. Enjoy your astonishing groceries and don’t be afraid of news that is proven to be false all the time.  We are seeing now that it has all been a lie and still no one is in jail because of it.