Funny Thing About Businesss

While I am not a big fan of gossip television shows, I do enjoy the spots were they talk about the massive houses of the stars that are up for sale, sold and re-sold and re-sold. You see the point. Real Estate changes hands daily but there are certain landmarks that age with a history of it own. I read the stories in the New York Times, LA Times, Miami Herald  and others about the sales and the storied past that goes with the article.

Recently,  the story of El Fureidis, 631 Para Grande Lane, Montecito,California appeared.

Even this A-380 can move a house or a steel coil Funny Thing About Business

It is one of those homes with a long storied past and an architects dream floor plan. It is the fabled home known as the Old Scarface Mansion. The house was listed for a mere $35 million but was marked down to $17.9. Roughly, a half price sale.

That article got me to thinking. Again. The real estate market can be a fickle business. The instability in the market and especially to the attachments and/or affections of its owners, move houses and also let them sit on the market, sometimes for years. While I was doing all that thinking, the eureka point finally materialized this morning as I was pouring my first cup of coffee. The real estate market is just like the steel business. If these two businesses are not twins, they most certainly are brothers and sisters to each other.

Over the years, I can recall one coil of steel sitting in a super large warehouse down off Jefferson in the old warehouse section of near Downtown Detroit. The coil sat in one bay, right on the corner of a cross isle were trucks would pull inside to load under an overhead crane. Nothing so unusual about that at first glance except, that the coil had been produced at the River Rouge Plant of Ford Motor Company's steel plant, which at the time was the 9th largest steel mill in the world. Another thing about those coils were that they were massive for steel coils, with 60 OD and weighing in 48,000 pounds. I have seen some that hit the 50,000 pound mark. The point being is that in the coil world, a coil that size is like having a 7-foot 6-inch center on a basketball team of 5-foot 8-inch players. It stood out like a sore thumb.

As I would walk through the warehouse, I would look at the tag. The names on the tag was always different. The coil had not moved an inch on the floor of the warehouse but the tag information told a whole different story. Going into the office and pulling up the information on the tag would bring up the coil sale price. That was where the story came about.

Sale 1

The coil came into the warehouse at a price of $18.00 per cwt (hundred weight). It sat for several months. Tag change. The coil now was sold to a steel company in Chicago for $13.00 cwt but the coil remained in the warehouse with a new tag showing the new owner.

Sale 2

Several more months went by and there was another tag change. The coil had been sold to a steel broker in Cleveland, Ohio at $15.00 per cwt. Once again, the steel coil never moved out of the warehouse.  At this point you are thinking that someone should be charging rent on that thing. Well someone did. The warehouse collected the rent fee. The typical rent went like this: $1.00 in;$1.00 on; $1.00 out. That translates to one dollar per cwt when the coil came into the warehouse. One dollar per cwt added on each month of storage and one dollar per cwt when the coil shipped out of the warehouse. Does not sound like much but there are no expenses. The storage bay can be under roof for more than a quarter mile, It's hot in the summer It's cold in the winter. The lights are provided by the day and at night it is a place where  horror movies sometimes got filmed.

Sale 3

The coil had another tag change. This time, nearly two years later, the coil was sold back to the original owner by the broker in Cleveland. The price was entered as $ 17.00 cwt. The original owner had repurchased the original coil, that he had sold to a Chicago warehouse at 13.00 cwt, for $17.00 per cwt. In essence loosing $5.00 cwt the first sale and spending $13.00 to repurchase. That is, if the original owner really did have $18.00 per cwt in the coil when the coil came into the warehouse the first time. Chances are he purchased the coil either from River Rouge or from a broker at $7 to $8.00 per cwt. Things like that happen in the steel business.

It's time to also mention that financial market conditions, supply and demand in the steel business, production at the mills, imports, exports, the automotive industry, the metal furniture business, the appliance industry all played a part in the sale of steel coils sitting in a warehouse owned by steel distribution centers, steel warehouses, steel brokers, individual fabricators, contractors and who knows who else excluding the scrap dealer.

The final sale

The shipping tag was finally placed on the coil some 5-years post arrival. It shipped to a steel ware house/service center near Richmond,Indiana where it was used in a small stamping plant that hammered out pieces for a metal casket company. The coil was a good buy at the time for both the seller and the end user.

So, in the long haul or in the short haul, steel coils sit as the unglamorous sisters of the real estate market. The are much the same, while being their own beast. The steel salesman, the warehouse owner, broker all have brothers in the real estate market. In the family of business every thing is much the same.

It was not so strange to find  steel industry people in a Federal Golf League; a bunch of steel salesmen, warehouse owners, steel processors playing golf weekly with partners that were FBI, IRS, US Customs, Postal Inspectors, US Attorneys,US Marshall's. My partner, Barney, was IRS, God Rest His Soul. As it turned out, Barney was the best golf coach I ever had. He even knew my neighbor, an attorney husband and wife that both worked for the IRS.

Funny thing about business.

20 July 2015 edit to change type points and take out a sentence to combine with another for clarity.

The Intermodal Way

Realizing that some have yet to figure out what inter modal is, much less how it works, the idea of economics is greater than meets the eye. There is another side to inter modal that some main stream journalist have yet to figure out, too. Sure, articles have appeared about the tank car problem shipping oil via the rail. The accident-grabbing articles of print and visual media on the subject are beginning to pile up in the search engines. Yet, not a single one that I can find have made mention of the flammable and dangerous gas materials that ship over ground transport and end up on  the rail.  In other words, no one has paid any attention to the fact that danger as great or greater than the tank car problem moves over the rails every hour of ever day with hazardous material placards on the end and sides of the trucks anchored down on inter modal rail cars.

The danger is real. The risk is not as bad as one might think but there is risk and danger none-the-less. The US Department of Transportation Haz-Mat List and Codes are easy enough to look up on the web site. In fact there is a HazMat Code List.pdf file on the site also.

The First Cherry 

For the sake of argument, let's say that a trucking company's rates are $1.50 per mile. The rail road sends its cars down the rail for $1.00 per mile. If the trucks can go the distance on what we once called Piggy-Back shipments, then the trucking firm profits $0.50 per mile or they have reduced their cost by the same amount. It makes no difference except in accounting methods. There is also something else to consider. By using inter modal or flatbed piggy backing trailers, you have meet your competitions  rate-per-mile for most of the distance. So the advantage can work for the majors as well as the smaller businesses. It also enables companies like Target and Walmart to bring their goods to their stores at a lower price. In short. Inter modal shipments-which can include piggy-backing- are here to stay on the landscape of commerce.

Today, I found five major trucking firms, including freight forwarding Moguls like FedEx and UPS along with Roadway, J.B. Hunt, KLLM and two frozen food plants with  reefers on the same inter modal train makeup. It must be remembered that shipping containers can ship via rail and truck both and inter modal trains are stacking  containers two high per car. That is the beauty of inter modal cars and it also reduces cost even more.

The Second Cherry

On several of the FedEx Pigs, the HazMat Code Placards flashed red for flammable and also for Danger on materials with gas.  Learning to look for these placards when you are sitting at a crossing instead of listening to your favorite tune and zoning out as the train rolls by could save your life. In being aware of your surroundings also includes things like this, especially in the world that we live in today.

The Third Cherry 

The last cherry to roll up was something like a stroke of luck of being in the right place at the right time  Had I been on the back side of the train, with the No Trespassing signs posted, I would not have been able to get the shots that I got. Instead, by the luck of fate I was on the public street side of the tracks and had an interesting perspective of light and angles. Here are a couple of shots to support this article.

Pigs from both FedEx and UPS with the red placard on the end of the FedEx trailer. This is the prize finding a UPS and a FedEx end-on-end on the same train make up with the HazMat placard as a bonus.

The shipping contaner for JB Hunt can take another container of the same length on top unless it is marked for no stackers.

 

Yes, this is an addendum to the last post.

And, if you want to find a new garbage truck and a cement mixer  on the lot....well, it's totally possible!

Yes, Virginia, it is possible to find almost any kind of truck on the lot.

And The Winner This 4th of July Week

In the hay day of Detroit's auto prowess, it wasn't common knowledge, but loyalty customers to a brand could go to a depot lot to select their new cars after their dealer made the appointment.  An example of that process went something like this: You are at your dealer. You want to buy or lease the latest of Detroit's hot new car. The dealer says that it will take 12 weeks to order that car and that doesn't include shipping. But if you were a loyal customer to that dealer, he would send you to a depot lot after making your appointment. You go to the depot lot. They ask what color or what model you were looking for and then load you up in a golf cart and drive you "out back". Out back was a lot about the size of the Nebraska Furniture Marts store and distribution center that opened in The Colony, Texas. That's Texas style. That is about 22-football fields in size. So you say you want a blue car with 4 doors. The cart takes you down to row 47B and as far as the eye could see (so-to-speak) all you could see were blue cars with four doors. In short. on a depot lot, you are going to find what you want. Guar-an-teed.

It's the white one....oh, wait....

Or, the red ones.....

Oh, it's blue........ What's it's a KW,no it's a  Peterbilt. OH, so many colors, so many makes.....thank goodness I didn't find the Diamond Rio dealer!.They are all winners!!

It's been a while since I enjoyed the thrills and excitement of such an adventure. Egos ran higher then than they do today. But during the last month going down to the bridge complex to check on the water levels of the Trinity River, that  old excitement began to return.  Trip after trip I would pass this stretch of roadway. That is where I would slow down, stay out of traffic and just gaze at what I was seeing. It was awesome.

Yesterday, I make that trip again to see the waters finally receding after a month since Mother Nature turned off the taps. That stretch of roadway is Irving Boulevard beyond the renamed part known as Riverside Drive. It's beyond the Market District. It's beyond the Medical District. It's about midway between downtown Dallas and downtown Irving, but oh, it's that "Miracle Mile" of big trucks.

That miracle mile of logistics inhales and exhales commerce on such a big scale, it virtually goes unnoticed as cars whiz by on this stretch of road.  Only old marketing executives could appreciate finding such a gold mine and that creative approach to business stirs again from  terrain memory.

Aviation History at DFW Today

Aviation history was made today on the taxiways, runways and a final approach to 18R for the world's largest airline, American Airlines. The moment would have gone unnoticed had it not been caught by a few photographers and aviation buffs in Founder's Plaza.

The historic moment  happened when brushed aluminum with the Astrojet eagle wings in a red circle above the red lightening bolt neared landing while both the two logo liveries that came after the red circle and wings wait on the taxiways for clearance. All three can be seen in a single photo while all three were in active service.

The image can be viewed on the live news rotation cycle at  http://www.Alamy.com or you can click on the black "a' and when it opens in a new window, click on the black "a" a second time  The final step will be to click on the drop down box in the search box where it says "Images"  Easy as 1-2-3.
The image is rights managed and under copyright protection. There are 5 images on the news cycle currently.

For the A-380 buffs, The Emirates has the London 2015 rugby logo livery on the side. Nice billboard if you can get it!

Shinola Detroit

If you haven't yet heard about Shinola Detroit, like me, you have missed a lot. It was by accident that I stumbled upon the most amazing shop to open in the Dallas area in sometime. Oh, Uptown has some interesting shops. The upscale malls have their gig as well, but even when you are outside,looking in, the romance of the Shinola Detroit shop draws you in. The gravity pull is a delight because once inside, you are not disappointed. Not even the slightest.

The staff were friendly, warm and welcoming. There wasn't that bottom-line mentality, although with this fairly new start up in major cities, the bottom-line mentality does come into play. The shop is spacious. Floor space is airy and vaulted. The 38-star American Flag, which probably should be in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn hangs respectfully from the second floor to the first floor with only inches to spare. I was informed that the owner is willing to sell the flag to a collector. It should not be a hard sale.

The shop is unique because the products are all made in American and if not made in Detroit, they are at least assembled there. Those familiar with Detroit will recognize the Midtown Cass Corridor near Wayne State University.  Bikes, watches and leather goods seem to make up the collection in the store that I discovered in downtown Plano.It was the bicycles that caught my eye because I am of the generation when those bikes were common place. One of the staff explained the watch and when I ask about the clothing in the one-story room, the explanation was once again delivered with class and dignified explanation. In short, this shop; this concept; this product line; this desire to announce that you were fanning out from the once great, yet declining and mismanaged city that  lost nearly half its original population of over a million proud people and yet stands ready again for greatness, is not only gutsy, its a quality American greatness was built upon. Hip.Hip Hurrah. Hip,Hip Hurrah. Hip,Hip Hurrah, for Shinola Detroit. May you grow and be well rewarded for your courage.

One of the store windows at Shinola Detroit.

Diagnosis: Moment in Maine

It was an October morning, on the coast of Maine in 1975, when I first noticed the symptoms. Two weeks later, the symptoms returned.  Over the next thirty years there were moments that came and went and I continued to ignore the symptoms until 2005. By then, it was a full blown disease.  I live with it every day, now. I can still recall that fateful morning sitting on a cliff before sunrise in the mist and fog hearing lobster boats put,put,put as they went about their daily trips of putting out lobster traps. The sun's glow began to light the morning sky before  that beautiful ring  of nuclear  fire crested in that rainbow-like arch and I could feel the heat on my face.I know now that it was then, that the disease had entered my bloodstream.

In 2005, the time had come to acknowledge the disease. It was a difficult thing to do. But someone had already made the statement that I was feeling. Although it was an Anonymous statement, it said exactly what I already knew about that Moment in Maine. So I can use that Anonymous statement :

"Once photography enters your bloodstream, it is like a disease." --Anonymous

Yes, the disease is photography and I work at it daily to keep my eyes sharp. With that said, I will begin to post on the side bar a column from some of the best photographers that have this disease, also. It is to be hoped that you will enjoy reading their quotes.

A Man Takes Time on a Hot Roof to Smile for the Camera

Under the Pink Umbrella--Life is Good.