Alan Fox

One recent evening, when she was ready for bed, I started to sing an advertising ditty to Daveen.

Every day’s a special day at Thriftimart

Every day’s a special day just for you

Whatever you put in your shopping cart

You save and save at Thriftimart

‘Cause every day’s a special day

Yes, every day’s a special day

‘Cause every day’s a special day at Thriftimart.

The tune is probably more enjoyable when you hear it being sung.  But it makes me wonder how many of us remember the catchy tunes from our youth.  For me that was 70 years ago – and I still remember a lot of them.

I know Thrifitmart produced the jingle to attract customers to their stores.  Since they are no longer in business this tune lingers in my memory – an artifact from my past, like Frank Sinatra singing, “Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you, if you’re young at heart…”

We all have special days we remember.  Daveen is amazing.  She remembers the birthdays and anniversaries of hundreds of people – family, friends, and even acquaintances.  Last week she reminded me (four or five times) to wish one of my sons a happy 55^th birthday, (I think he was 55).

For me Saturday and Sunday are special days.  I don’t have to work, and that means I don’t have to solve problems.  All I need to do is decide how I’d like to spend my day, and then do it.  This weekend was particularly special.  The USC Trojans won their football game and remain undefeated.  Next month they will play their archrivals, the UCLA Bruins, who are also undefeated.  For me that will certainly be another special day.  I might even buy a ticket to the Rose Bowl to enjoy it in person.

When I begin writing a blog I seldom know where it will lead me or how it’s going to end.  As someone famous said, “No surprise for the author, no surprise for the reader.”  When I started writing this, I didn’t know I would discover something new about myself.

As I contemplate how I spend my days, I realize – every day is special because I’m here.  That’s all I need.

Next time we’re together, if you ask me, I’ll sing you the Thriftimart jingle, to remind us both that – yes — Every day is special just for you.

And you and I are special too.

Alan

I have always lived in Los Angeles, California, with a population of millions.  Yesterday I visited Stevenson, Washington with a population of 1,414.

Daveen and I enjoyed both lunch and dinner in a Mexican restaurant.  At dinner we began chatting with the server, who turned out to be the owner and was also originally from Los Angeles.  She expressed the same concerns I have heard from restaurant owners in L.A.

“My business held up through the pandemic,” she said.  “We do a lot of take-out business, and that continued to do fine.  But in the past few months our orders are way down, and I might have to close.”

Another one of the challenges has been staffing the restaurant.  According to her, the state of Washington has implemented a program that pays the rent and utilities for many of their residents who, as a result, don’t have to work.  Presumably, their subsidized income is not high enough to pay for restaurant food. I have heard similar complaints from restaurant owners in Los Angeles, and some have closed or limited their hours because they aren’t able to hire enough employees.

I founded ACF more than fifty years ago and, just like the restaurant owner, we are also having difficulty in filing vacant staff positions.  Fortunately, we have the option of outsourcing some of that work to other companies.  But that alternative doesn’t exist in Stevenson.

Since our entire ACF investment portfolio is in retail shopping centers, I am always interested in the successes or challenges faced by our tenants.  Every time I drive down Ventura Boulevard, I take note of the vacant retail space.  There is more today than at any time that I can remember.

It’s important, however, to heed the advice given during the Great Depression in the 1930’s by the extraordinary stock market trader Bernard Baruch.  When asked what he expected the stock market to do he replied, “It will fluctuate.”

And whether we are owners, employees, or investors, that is exactly what we can expect in the future.  Things will fluctuate.

That is true whether you live in Los Angeles, or Stevenson, Washington, or any point in between.

Alan

Easter Island is a speck of land in the South Pacific, about 2,500 miles from either Chile or Tahiti.  I’ve visited there four times, but I won’t be going back.  For good reason.

The last time I was there, the owner of our motel charged me for an extra day, and also for an extra dinner.  I argued the point with him, as I normally would when I feel I’m right.

The argument was not going well.  The man was steadfast in his seemingly flawed reasoning that I owed the extra money.  It was not a small amount.

It was then I realized, like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.  In other words, I was in a foreign country where I didn’t know either the people or the local rules.  For all I knew the proprietor was also the chief of police who could detain me on Easter Island indefinitely.  And what would I do then?  Call the President of the United States?

I paid the extra money but promised myself I would never return.

You have to choose your battles in life, the fewer the better, and never those you can’t win.

A friend of mine once had a two-hour argument with U.S. Customs.  The result?  He missed his connecting flight and for the next five years, every time he traveled abroad, he was hassled by a U.S. customs official when he returned.  Perhaps there was a note in his file read by every agent he encountered as he passed through customs upon re-entering the country?

Years ago, when I was practicing law, I needed to obtain default judgements every month or two from a specific court clerk in downtown Los Angeles.  I was always very nice to him, and he promptly provided what I needed.  Just as on Easter Island, I did not have a choice of vendor, so I made sure to maintain a good relationship with the clerk.

We’ve probably all noticed over the years that in dealing with people, especially a stranger, it’s better to start out nice.  You can always shift to a hardline later, but that’s a one-way street.  It’s difficult to switch from nasty to nice.  As they say, you only have one chance to make a favorable first impression.

I have many places yet to visit or revisit.  Alas, Easter Island is not one of them.

Alan