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Arizona Cart Retrieval Co

Despite alert store personnel, sophisticated anti-theft systems and other precautions, shopping carts seem to have lives of their own, disappearing like magic from Valley retailers.

Enter Tom Martinet, whose company, Arizona Cart Retrieval, operates every day of the year except Christmas to locate and return the carts to area businesses.

"I knew there was a cart problem," Martinet said, "but I didn't realize the extent of it until we started this service."

When Martinet began working in grocery management in the 1970s, cart theft wasn't much of a problem, he recalls. "We'd send a bagger over to the nearby apartment complex to pick up a cart or two," he said. "That was about it."

Things have changed.

In an average week, one of Martinet's contractors will have dispatched crews to round up and return close to 15,000 carts to Arizona retailers.

The retrieval service employs 18 flatbed trucks that serve more than 30 retailers and about 460 stores in the state. Clients include Fry's, Safeway, Albertsons, Wal-Mart, Family Dollar and Lowe's Home Improvement.

Martinet is philosophical about some customers' need to roll home with a private set of wheels.

"Households in certain areas buy a lot of groceries," he said. "They need a way to get them home."

Sometimes, cart-napping can even have health benefits.

"We've seen older people leaving the lot with their cart; at least they're getting a little exercise," he said. "Some of them are even using the cart as a walker. You wonder if they could make it without the cart."

Often, a single cart attracts others, Martinet adds. Recently, the company got a call from a landlord in Avondale. "He had evicted his tenant from the house and found 17 shopping carts."

"They were all in good shape; we just returned them to Wal-Mart."

Jim Oliver of OT Cart Service, a contractor for Arizona Cart Retrieval, is unflappable after 35 years in the business. Oliver said most folks are unperturbed about returning the carts.

"You get a few who have a temper, but most people realize they're not supposed to be in possession of them in the first place."

Oliver has found the carts used as unique home storage and decor solutions, too.

"People turn them on their side, lay a plywood top on it and use it for a dining room table. We've picked up carts that have been used to wheel out trash, sort the laundry, and do other household chores. They're pretty handy," he said.

Once captured, the carts are steam-cleaned or refurbished on-site using equipment loaded onto the flatbeds. Most of the repair work is limited to replacing handles and seat straps and welding wheels. Carts that can't be fixed are parted out.

A percentage of carts is retrieved from desert washes, alleys and other areas that serve as temporary homes for transients, but that number has remained steady over the years, Oliver said. "We haven't really seen an increase in the number of carts used by the homeless, especially if you compare Arizona to states like California," he adds.

Even the carts with anti-theft locking systems built into the cart's wheels are not a deterrent to a determined cart bandit.

"One guy rigged up a block of wood underneath the wheels with wire and tape. He had it sliding across the parking lot, just like a sled, and he got his groceries home that way," Oliver said. "It's kind of amazing the solutions people come up with."

Business can only continue to increase for the cart service, especially as the Valley becomes more congested. "In areas that are built up with apartment complexes, office buildings and condos, you're going to see this continue," Oliver said.

Fast-growing sections like Arrowhead are exceptions because much of the residential growth is confined to single-family homes.

The average steel shopping cart costs about $100. Custom styles, such as the plastic race car kiddie carts, cost $400 to replace. The firm works on a contract basis with retailers to retrieve carts.

[Via Arizona Business Gazette]

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How To Become A Super Affiliate And What Is It Anyway?

Robin Williams stand up comedy part 9

Over the last few days I have been getting pounded by IM’s and emails from AM’s (affiliate managers) and brass from networks, most of whom I’ve never even heard of. Why? God only knows. I think someone dropped my name and email info in an atricle or post somewhere, but I have yet to find it and have them remove it. The reason they are after me? Not because of my forum or blog, but because I am labeled as a super affiliate. But what is a super affiliate really? And why is this label being thrown around more and more than ever before? Because it’s the spot that every affiliate wants to be in, and that every ad network wants to attract into it’s network.

Let’s just go over really quickly what used to make someone a super affiliate marketer, and what currently makes someone a super affiliate marketer. Years ago, super affiliates were the guys who never posted on forums, never sold any ebooks or products, never really spoke to anyone outside of their inner circles, never had a blog, never let anyone know who they were either. Suddenly, in the last year or less, there are like a million of them popping out and coming out of the woodwork claiming to be a super affiliate, or selling some piece of crap ebook to gullible webmasters on how to learn how to be one for $97, or just bragging about giant checks. Where the hell did these people come from, and since when are they really super affiliates?!

I’ll let you in on a little secret. You cannot LEARN how to be a super affiliate from an ebook or a forum or even a blog. It’s not something you can read in a book or learn from by watching TV or even attending an expensive seminar. It’s something that you can only become by doing a shitload of trial and error, over and over and over again. It’s like comparing this to being a hedge fund manager or some hot shot lawyer. Do you think they learned it from a few sources? Nope! They may have learned some stuff, but the reason they are at the level they are at right now is because it came from this one magical word, with no shortcuts or quick secret routes to, called…. EXPERIENCE. It’s not something you can learn in school, seminars, books, videos, or from friends. You can only gain it by actually trying it, and being successful, but also failing and learning from your mistakes! So why the hell are people still buying these scam artist ebooks?! I guess the greed, naive, and just plain lazy factors are things that they can’t get over.

Anyhow, back to the topic…

So a year ago, there were a very few bunch of people that were called super affiliates. But now there are tons of them. My theory behind this is pretty simple. Times change. That’s all there is to it. A year ago, is about the time when the ringtone boom started. So now you have alllllll of these guys spamming the crap out of social networks, using PPC, SEO, adware, whatever they can to make bank. And by the old and outdated standards, yes, they are considered super affiliates. The old standard was if you make at least $25k a month in affiliate revenues, then you’re considered a super affiliate. I don’t think that’s true at all anymore. Because we are an internet industry, things change and move pretty damn fast, and so should the minimum requirements or earning platforms for affiliates.

What do Darren Rowse (problogger.net), John Chow (johnchow.com), Lee Dodd (leedodd.com), Aaron Wall (seobook.com), Rosalind Gardner (superaffiliatehandjob.com), Joel Comm (whocares.com), or any of those losers giving the $10k seminars and selling those $97 “tell all” piece of crap ebooks have in common?

THEY ARE NOT SUPER AFFILIATES!!

They may all do well in their own right, not bashing most of them, but they are by no means super affiliates. I consider myself friends with some of them, and I’m not trying to be a prick here, and certainly not discrediting some of them (although some of the others should be), all I’m saying and pointing out is that their monthly and annual income levels are nowhere near what super affiliates are doing, not to mention very few of them actually do any real affiliate marketing. I’m sure I can make the list larger, but I just wanted to point out a few of the more popular ones that people always make references to.

A super affiliate 2.0 should be the following:

• Part of the 1% of all legitimate affiliate marketers (ebooks don’t count!)
• Monthly affiliate marketing revenues should be no less than $250k a month (revenue, not profit)
• Annual profits should be no less than $1 million based on your total affiliate marketing revenues
• You must be hitting the minimums for at least 1.5 years consecutively (to make sure it isn’t a fluke)

With those rules in place, that should cut down all of these bullshit claims by people dubbing themselves as super affiliates. Hell, with my retirement from affiliate marketing, I don’t even meet those standards anymore! But luckily I did, twice, once in adult, and another for 3 years (2003-2006). /end self plug.

So to all of you network reps, AM’s, and fake super affiliates, time to work harder, because finding people that hit the above criteria are pretty tough to find. There are under 1,000 of them in the world. You won’t find them actively posting on forums or blogs (because they have work to do!), you won’t be able to bribe them with higher payouts (they probably get that anyhow), and IM’ing and emailing them because you heard their name mentioned is a really dumb way to present yourself. Treat these people like they are CEO’s of major companies. Would you IM Bill Gates and say “hey, I heard your name from so and so, and they told me you are BIG!”.. only if you want to be blocked or laughed at. No, you approach them with respect, and don’t try to lie to them or give them the run of the mill ad network sales pitch of “well, we have the highest payouts and best converting offers” because EVERY network advertises that, and I for one am sick of seeing and hearing it. Generic pitches don’t work! Just be respectful, and honest, because by earning their respect for you, just getting 2 or 3 of these guys on board your network will make you more than all of your other affiliates combined on average!

To all of you self proclaimed super affiliates… Grow up. Stop lying to yourself, and get busy, instead of trying to trick everyone into liking you because of how much or how little you earn. Flaunting and bragging can get you only so far with the type of people you probably don’t want or need to impress. Want to impress someone and keep them reading your blog? Stop pretending to know what you’re talking about, trying to sell them shit, and start doing it on your own and reach that super affiliate status! It’s not THAT hard. Yeah, it takes work, but hell, everything does! And you also have to play the volume game and scale the hell out of your operations. Not to mention you can’t just depend on one single market or niche or even traffic source. Diversifying is your friend!

/end rant

So the moral of the story really is that ANYONE really can become a super affiliate. Sure it can be intimidating, but then again, what isn’t when it deals with being successful. I’ve said this loads of times.. if you find something that works really well, keep it to yourself or inner circle of friends, and play the volume game by scaling the crap out of it! You’ll never be BIG if you don’t take chances or gamble a bit. Make sure you do all of your trial and error, and your market research with things on a small or medium level too. You don’t want to screw something up by growing too quickly either. This whole thing takes time, and don’t be a lazy idiot and say you don’t have time or patience, because there are people sitting on death row right now with more time and patience and some optimism of being free than most affiliates have with making lots of money some day. Also, please stop buying these stupid ebooks on how to be the next millionaire on your block. They are a waste of money, and I promise you they won’t teach you anything that you can’t learn for free on a forum.

That’s it from me. Another long whinded post. But seriously. Instead of saying you agree or disagree, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Nothing will work out itself. So set your goals to a normal level, read, practice, read, practice, read, practice.. and when you’ve worked out YOUR own strategy, write it down, keep it to yourself, and add some volume and take some chances with it. If you fail, so what, we all do, just try again and this time you’ll have learned from your mistakes. Trust me, I make a ton of mistakes, sometimes pretty costly, but that only makes me want to try harder to get it right, and it should too for you!

[Via Aojon.Com]

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Newest Fad In Farming: The Internet

Kissimmee inventor hooks up with Haier

Tucked away in the den of his 127-year-old farmhouse, Ed Winkle huddles over his computer. The screen's soft glow lights up his eyeglasses, reflecting messages about tractors, corn hybrids and crop insurance.

Winkle is checking the latest postings on his favorite Internet farm forum. Advice from fellow farmers around the country has enabled him to increase his corn and soybean production, better market his crops, learn how to rebuild engines and get good tires for his tractor.

Online forums, message boards and chat rooms are replacing rural coffee shops and feed mills as places for farmers to talk farming and trade tips as more of rural America goes online.

"You get the best thinkers in agriculture," Winkle said of the forums. "You're mixing such a diverse group of people — from different areas, from different backgrounds, different experiences, different ways of farming."

Fifty-one percent of U.S. farms have Internet access, according to a July 2005 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from 48 percent in 2003. More than two-thirds of them still use dial-up access.

The popularity of online farm forums has grown as well, said Mack Strickland, an agricultural engineer at Purdue University and farm-computer expert, with some forums claiming to have as many as 30,000 registered users.

The Internet division of Farm Journal Media, www.agweb.com, says user traffic doubled between October 2005 and October 2006, with the forums on the site enjoying similar growth. Traffic on the Des Moines, Iowa-based www.agriculture.com has increased 20 percent to 25 percent over the past year, said editor John Walter. Both sites are funded by ads and free for users.

Enthusiasts say the forums have improved farm production and saved farmers precious dollars by helping them avoid costly mistakes in planting, fertilizing, equipment buys and maintenance. And forums have enabled farmers — many of them miles from their nearest neighbor — to educate each other and build community.

"We all like to talk to folks like ourselves who have the same problems," said Stan Ernst, a marketing instructor at Ohio State University's department of agricultural economics. "We have so much riding on many of our decisions economically that you've got to find people with experience."

A farmer can spend as much as $160,000 on a combine, for example. If it breaks down during a critical harvest time, that could mean the difference between a profit and a loss for some farmers.

Walter said the average visitor to www.agriculture.com spends 11 minutes at a time on the site.

"It's enough time to have a cup of coffee and a conversation and learn something," he said. "It's just rearranged who their neighbors are in a sense. You can't help but think that has changed farming to some degree."

Rural America has lagged behind the cities in Internet usage — especially broadband — because wiring the population-rich cities is more profitable and wiring the countryside more expensive due to long distances and natural barriers such as hills. In addition, rural businesses haven't needed the Internet as much to compete.

However, farmers and existing rural businesses are becoming more reliant on the Internet to be competitive, and rural communities are becoming more aggressive in seeking Internet access. They see it as a way to attract white-collar jobs, and urban dwellers who have moved to the country are demanding it.

Paul Butler, who grows corn and soybeans on 260 acres in Macon, Ill., returned to farming four years ago after 25 years in the computer business. He doubts he would have made it without the Internet and online advice from fellow farmers.

"I would have made a lot of expensive mistakes," said Butler, 39, who logs on using broadband. "Purchasing seed is a pretty complicated decision. It was nice to have 20 unbiased people that weren't selling seed that could give me an opinion on it."

Eric Neer, 24, of Davenport, Iowa, discovered farm forums from fellow students when he was in college.

Although he seldom posts a question, Neer — who works for a farm equipment manufacturer — devours the information he sees on precision farming, using the forums to shop for equipment and information about tractors and combines that are steered by computers linked to global positioning satellites.

Machinery — the universal language of farmers — is a hot topic in farm forums. So is when best to take crops to market to get the best price. Sometimes the talk veers away from pure farming.

In a recent exchange on www.newagtalk.com, a popular farm forum, an Illinois farmer complained that the starter on his pickup truck was acting up. A fellow farmer replied that the electric solenoid atop the starter was probably worn out and the contact sticking in the closed position.

"I would put a whole new starter on it," he wrote. "Fix it now before it ruins the flywheel teeth."

An Ohio farmer wondered if he should replace his fuel-oil furnace with a geothermal heating system. The idea got high marks from a farmer in Indiana who said a geothermal system leaves no smell or residue, makes less noise and leaves no hot/cold spots. Then he offered tips on insulation and heat distribution.

Farmers have to decide themselves whether the advice they get is sound. Walter said he tries to screen out the hokum, blowhards and occasional shyster. Strickland said some users give opinions not based on fact or research.

And some farmers still rely on the neighbor they know.

"You can get some good ideas from people in other states, but they're dealing with different circumstances," said Jim Meimer, who raises corn, soybeans and wheat on 900 acres.

Meimer, 28, goes online to get market data but prefers to get advice from friends and neighbors. He often sees them at the feed store and fertilizer plant when he goes into nearby Mount Gilead, Ohio, to pay bills.

Glen Feichtner, 48, who raises 300 head of cattle near New Washington, Ohio, prefers to get his tips from fellow farmers at the stockyard and grain elevator because he knows they have been successful.

"I get face-to-face interaction," he said. "I know these people. I know their story."

Winkle, 57, became a believer when a tip from an Iowa farmer prompted him to change his no-till farming technique. Winkle increased his yield by about 30 percent.

During the winter, he spends about two hours a day wading through the forums from his farm, about 40 miles northeast of Cincinnati. Since April, he has posted 1,738 messages on one forum alone.
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Great Falls Tribune - www.greatfallstribune.com - Great Falls, MT

Young Entrepreneurs Face Higher Hurdles

MONTANA CITY — Kim Waltee's not just Autumn's mom or Drew's mom any more. She's the Fish Queen.

The proprietor of 4-year-old Montana Mountain Smoked says the title earned for her lines of smoked trout and salmon fits her just fine.

"It's nice because when I call my meat guys I tell them it's the Fish Queen on the phone and they all remember who I am," Waltee said.

A former hairdresser, Waltee says she smoked fish her entire life, learning the craft from her grandfather.

"People would bring me their fish all the time," she said.

In 1993, she was looking for a career change and decided to turn her hobby into a business. She added a shop to her home, bought a commercial smoker and went to work. Today that shop has expanded twice and holds three smokers.

Montana Mountain Smoked products are never frozen after the three-day curing, smoking and packaging process is complete, which means they are fresh, she said. The salmon and halibut she uses are caught in the wild.

In addition to the smoked fish products, Montana Mountain Smoked makes a spread with sockeye salmon.

"We sell about 25,000 tubs a year," she said.

The business' up-and-down workload means Waltee does not have employees. Instead, she recruits family and friends to help with production for big orders.

"During the holidays I get orders for 1,500 tubs of spread at a time," she said. "My crew will kid about calling in the A team."

As mostly a one-woman show, Waltee puts in some long hours. However, the flexibly of being her own boss is worth it.

"Both my kids do sports and I can travel to their games," she said. "You can start earlier in the day, 4 a.m., and be finished by the middle of the afternoon."

Waltee once hired a sales team based in Salt Lake City but was unhappy with the results, so she does all the marketing herself. Her products are sold in Montana, several Western states and as far away as West Virginia.

"Word of mouth is probably my best advertisement, along with demos in the stores," she said.

Three years ago, she did get some marketing help in the form of a $50,000 grant from the Montana Department of Agriculture's Growth Through Ag program.

She used the money to redesign her labels and set up a Web site.

The Growth Through Agriculture program awards loans and grants for projects that add value to Montana agriculture products, said Lindra Davies, a marketing technician for the program.

"The ag business is diversifying like crazy in Montana," she said.

Great Falls Tribune - www.greatfallstribune.com - Great Falls, MT

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