It's not so much that it's difficult to get Americans to use dollar coins — Americans have never been given a choice to. The only time I have any in my possession is when I go out of my way to do so.
Those stores you mourn had crap selection, extremely inflated prices, and limited hours. Heck, many of them were probably closed on Sundays. If it wasn't for the Internet and Walmart, people in Malone would be driving to Montréal all the time to get a better selection, even if things are more expensive north of the border. (For all I know, they do. The closest I've been is Ithaca, and I can assure you that if it weren't for the large chains there everyone would still burn metric buttloads of gas driving to Syracuse.)
This is the same sense of entitlement British merchants have — they can't be bothered to have trading hours, inventory, or any other reason at all for customers to visit, and then wonder why the grocery stores have turned into general-merchandise stores. "Throw money at my closed doors" is not a sustainable business plan; moaning about how nobody will burn their vacation time to shop at your store, instead of at a merchant that actually wants the business, accomplishes nothing but making sure everyone gets the message to not even bother with your third-rate establishment.
I can understand VZW not keeping track of every warrantied part swap — but it's less usual for Cisco to not notice that USD 5*10^6 of supposedly-defective parts (at least) hadn't been returned.
(untitled comment)
It's not so much that it's difficult to get Americans to use dollar coins — Americans have never been given a choice to. The only time I have any in my possession is when I go out of my way to do so.
Re: Small Town Business
Those stores you mourn had crap selection, extremely inflated prices, and limited hours. Heck, many of them were probably closed on Sundays. If it wasn't for the Internet and Walmart, people in Malone would be driving to Montréal all the time to get a better selection, even if things are more expensive north of the border. (For all I know, they do. The closest I've been is Ithaca, and I can assure you that if it weren't for the large chains there everyone would still burn metric buttloads of gas driving to Syracuse.)
This is the same sense of entitlement British merchants have — they can't be bothered to have trading hours, inventory, or any other reason at all for customers to visit, and then wonder why the grocery stores have turned into general-merchandise stores. "Throw money at my closed doors" is not a sustainable business plan; moaning about how nobody will burn their vacation time to shop at your store, instead of at a merchant that actually wants the business, accomplishes nothing but making sure everyone gets the message to not even bother with your third-rate establishment.
(untitled comment)
I can understand VZW not keeping track of every warrantied part swap — but it's less usual for Cisco to not notice that USD 5*10^6 of supposedly-defective parts (at least) hadn't been returned.
Because scribd is annoying
PDF copy of the Sandia response mirrored on S3 for your viewing pleasure.