Why I Think Bricks and Mortar Businesses are Struggling

This week, as part of my Valentine's gift to myself, I ordered a bike trainer from Amazon. I truly would have got one in town, but the cheapest in town was at Canadian Tire for $199.00 plus tax. Other places had them upwards $300.00 plus tax. I paid less than $300.00 for my entire bike. My bike trainer from Amazon cost $89.95. I added the front wheel riser for around $15. In total my order including tax and shipping was about $140.00.

I find bricks and mortar businesses are often not in tune with consumer needs. The one I ordered is supposed to be fairly quiet. The one at Canadian Tire is apparently so noisy one can't hear a TV over it or use it well in a condo/apartment building. What made them choose to only stock one option of the many available? I intend to get in shape while catching up on the plethora of TV shows I'm behind in. I don't think it's unusual for people to do cardio workout while watching TV either. If it was, the gyms wouldn't have TVs in the cardio area.

I also wonder why the bike-only shops either don't carry them at all or only have the super expensive ones. It feels like they want to discourage indoor biking. I'm not one for winter biking. It's too cold, wet, and slippery for my liking. I know some people bike all year round, but I never enjoyed biking to work as I'd just end up all sweaty with no way to clean up and usually got rained on.

I'm eagerly awaiting my bike trainer. To be clear, a bike trainer lets you use your regular bike as an indoor stationary bike. It's great for getting in shape during the winter months and I wish I would have ordered it sooner as my area was under such heavy construction that I didn't want to bike at all last summer.

I have more housework to do before it arrives, but this post was a nice breather. Time for some water and then I'll get back at it.

Ciao,
R~

2020 Vision

Mostly, I’ve been planning for the new year, but I discovered I know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was a recollection under the influence that brought this to light. I also discovered I still suck at drawing, but I’m okay with that. I used to think I had to be good at everything, and I’ve realized that’s just not so. Some friends and I recently hit up a local board game pub. It was a pretty fun night. The first game was Balderdash and I was terrible at it. Because I was the writer in the group, some of my friends thought I should be more embarrassed about it and hide the fact that I don’t spend all my free time learning advanced vocabulary. But I’m not upset about it. Why? Two reasons: 1. I now know what I don’t know. 2. If one takes a close look at the top selling novels on the market, the level of the language used is not the level of many of the words in Balderdash. Not that I’m comparing my own work to those, but audience is what matters in writing. To me, it is far better to e...

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Merry Monday - A beautiful day for taxes

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] With French done, I have a lot of other things to catch up on. It seems like I have Mount Everest ahead of me, but I'm just going through the list one at a time. I've gotten a couple of things done and some started. Renovations Before the weekend, my new kitchen floor was installed. After the credits that Jiffy gave me, install cost less than $40. The old floor was light grey peel and stick tile, which was peeling itself up on the edges. Because I couldn't get all the glue up from the floor underneath the peel and stick, I needed to put new floor in. Oh, I started peeling it up with a hair dryer. I really don't recommend that. It doesn't get hot enough to work well. It was taking around 20 minutes each tile with the hair dryer. With a proper heat gun, a couple hours for the whole floor. Old floors: [gallery ids="9630,9631" ...

Rae Roy

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