Target usurps Zellers in Canada

with Wal-Mart shopping at an all time high, and monopolizing Canada with it's chain of retail superstores, it was only a matter of time until it's true competitor came to the Canadian market.

Target has been setting up base in Canada since early 2012, and has been undermining fully homegrown and run businesses like Zellers, a retail chain that could be compared to Wal-Mart on a smaller scale.  Target had an interesting plan when they made their foray into Canada:
first, Target bought most (if not all) of the leases to the buildings Zellers stores across Canada, and waited on the leases to expire.
second, they took over the Zellers union, dismantling it and laying off employees.
finally, they 'saved face' by offering the old Zellers employees their jobs back - at a severely reduced rate, thanks to the deflated union.

it's companies like these that bring a marked shift to the employment sector, sure jobs are being created, but the majority of the jobs produced are at or close enough to minimum wage that the impact they have on the overall economy is almost negligible.

to anyone affected by this situation or any like it, try to make more work for the manager of the store - go shopping and on your way out demand copies of the surveillance tapes, put stuff back on the wrong shelf, or just take a dump in the dairy aisle, that would definitely get your point across.

the uphill battle of stupidity on facebook

some days it's hard to feel like there's anything good left in the world, and then you get on facebook and realize that there are a few good things left, but they're diminishing pretty rapidly.

facebook was founded on a principle,
i'm not entirely sure what principle, as the endless debate of Facebook privacy issues seems to placate the masses.  every now and then a quick nod is tossed to privacy concerns by a few citizen watchdogs who duly inspect Facebook's policy with caution and their fingers ready to spam post their unwitting 'friends' with notices every now and again, but the issue has evolved and no one has noticed.

for every 'like' companies like McDonalds gets, for every comment they get on their inane questions and absurd photos, they profit.  you've spent your leisure time promoting a companies grasp on you when you associate your name with their group, they can pull any information you've left mistakenly unsecured and use it to sell to other marketing companies, or worse.

i propose the next time you see a post from a company on Facebook with a question that needn't even be asked, or a photo that's posted specifically for it's ability to fulfill the old adage "a picture's worth 1000 words", maybe take some time, and spend that time doing something productive, like watching porn, or gambling on online casinos.