Mocked by Country Outfitters - Cross Border Shopping Fail

Last night I thought I found the perfect boot.​

Lucchese Amelia harness boot. Not too country, not too city, perfect with the boot socks that just arrived from Sock Dreams.​

I did my diligence, read the reviews, checked the prices and was willing to roll the dice that even though these boots were made in China, as opposed to Texas, Country Outfitters would stand behind their product and all would be fine.​

Alas, it wasn't meant to be.​

Country Outfitters is still stuck in the 20th Century, despite their fabulous social media campaigns that drive thousands of Canadians to their site. Country Outfitters doesn't ship outside of the US of A. Really. I'm not kidding. You don't kid around when you're talking about boots.​ I made the silly assumption that because they had a snazzy site, a progressive marketing campaign that included neat social media features, that they would at least have the ability to ship to Canada. 

My night:​

• Find Lucchese boots
• Click *Add to Cart*​
• Swear a blue streak when it's discovered that there's no shipping to Canada.​
• Swear a purple streak when I confirm via their Customer Service FAQ that they're sorry, they don't ship outside of the United States.​
• Close the Country Outfitters window and try to reduce heart rate.​

​This morning, what do I get in my inbox, but a reminder from Country Outfitters that I've still got a purchase in my shopping cart, just waiting for completion. REALLY!?!?!? Can you pour more salt on my wounds? Seriously. I'm livid now. 

I'm an old pro at buying boots from the US. From Shepplers, from Amazon, from Boot Barn, even from Piperlime.

Country Outfitters, oh how you disappoint.​

Signs of the Times - Locusts Next

Ice Shelf larger than 11,000 football fields breaks free of Artic Circle
Cloned Meat for Human Consumption Needs No Labels
193 Killed in Indonesian floods

3 significant stories.
1 day.
How are we ever going to keep up, and change before it’s too late?
Methinks I need to watch some lighter entertainment for the next while, else this blog becomes something a little too serious.
I need to get back to basics. Where did that Pirates of the Carribean DVD go?



Technorati Tags: Artic Circle, Cloned Meat, Indonesian floods

Changing the World, One DVD at a Time

The Wiz got me 2 very outstanding DVDs this Christmas - The Corporation and An Inconvenient Truth.


The Corporation was by far the most revealing movie I’d seen since Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11.  Even Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room pales in comparison of what terrible repercussions corporate cultures can inflict on society. The fact that coporations have enough muscle to push around government and media; to impact laws that protect society, with their only interest being profit, is terrifying.  Likely I’ve been too much of an optimistic twit to not catch onto this earlier.  And now that I’ve seen, I’m curious, and more than a little pissed off.

The idea of the corporation as a psychopathic person, with no accountability is almost beyond comprehension.  We spent the better part of 3 hours wondering what we didn’t know about the companies we bought things from, and if they were *good* or *bad*. Now we’ve got a bit of homework to check into:

Monsanto, Gap, LLBean. Eddie Bauer, Loblaws, Nestle, etc….. It may come down to making some serious choices about what we buy and who we buy it from. It could also come down to who you work for.

What sort of corporation do you work for, are they sustainable, do they have ethics, morals and good government? TELUS is pretty serious about community, the environment and ensuring that it’s sustainable and non-invasive.  AT&T? Well… you know.

An Inconvenient Truth was a continuation to the themes already being illustrated in The Corporation, and made us both talk to our families about what is going to happen to the world in the next 20 years, if global exploitation remained unchecked.

It all comes down to global responsibility. Corporate and citizen responsibility. Government responsibility. Your responsibility.


Technorati Tags: An Inconvenient Truth, The Corporation, Global Warming, TELUS, AT&T, Al Gore

Update on 2006-12-29 15:31 by jules

Changing in the right direction:  check out The Naked Corporation.

It’s by Don Tapscott and David Ticoll. 

If you have to be naked, you had better be buff. We are entering an extraordinary age of transparency, where businesses must for the first time make themselves clearly visible to shareholders, customers, employees, partners, and society. Financial data, employee grievances, internal memos, environmental disasters, product weaknesses, international protests, scandals and policies, good news and bad; all can be seen by anyone who knows where to look. Welcome to the world of the naked corporation. Transparency is revolutionizing every aspect of our economy and its industries and forcing firms to rethink their fundamental values.

Excerpt from The Naked Corporation

Christmas Relief - 362 Days

For another 362 days, we are spared from the excess, from the over indulgence, from the consumerism and the commercialism.
Spared from children who turn into christmas monsters for 72 hours. Fighting for that last present under the tree.
Spared from cartons and cartons of ripped papers, torn boxes and wrinkled tissue.

Next year, I vow to make a difference.
Next year, I vow to make it different.

my berry died...

… and i am feeling a little lost without it…..

tomorrow i will revive it.