Daily Dose of Common Sense

My grandfather always paid in cash. Never with a check, never with a credit card. He believed that if you didn’t have the cash on hand, you shouldn’t buy it. Well, my grandfather wouldn’t be welcome to eat at the New York City restaurant Commerce. The upscale Greenwich Village restaurant no longer accepts cash.

The owner sited security as a big reason for the policy. Whether he fears getting robbed by thugs or his own employees isn’t clear. Regardless, with no cash around, there’s less chance that some will go missing.

How about the customer’s security? When you use your credit card, you are giving vital personal information that could be sold or misused in the wrong hands. Having waited tables myself, I have witnessed other servers change totals on credit card receipts. I have also heard of servers who tracked down bad tippers (via the internet or phone book) to harass them. How did they track them down? The name on the credit card.

Speaking of waitstaff, I can only imagine that the servers at Commerce are none too pleased about this policy. Yes, the restaurant allows diners to tip in cash if they wish (thank goodness), but most people probably won’t. Why does this matter? Servers get a very (very) low hourly rate and the rest of their income comes from tips. When people tip with cash, the amount a server must claim for tax purposes is nebulous. The IRS assumes the tip was 15 or 20%, but they can’t prove it. However, credit card tips are there in black and white, which means the server pays more in taxes. (On the flip side, I’m sure the restaurant’s accountant is pleased because it makes doing the books a whole lot easier.)

The “privilege” to accept American Express, Visa, Master Card, Discover Card, etc. isn’t free. The restaurant pays a fee to the credit card company on every transaction. So, it would seem in this economy that businesses would be moving the other direction: cash only. Leave it to a New York City restaurant to buck the trend.

What really bugs me most about this policy is that it smacks of elitism. The restaurant’s co-owner said,

“If you don’t have a credit card, you can use a debit card,” said the restaurant’s co-owner, Tony Zazula. “If you don’t have a debit card, you probably don’t have a checking account. And if you don’t have a checking account, you probably shouldn’t be eating at Commerce to begin with.”

Yes, most upscale diners have credit cards and debit cards. But, this attitude is just plain snobby. Besides, shouldn’t the customer have a right to pay however he or she wants? The policy seems a little out of step with the old “the customer is always right” mantra. My guess is that this restaurant isn’t going to bend over backwards for your dining experience.

So, even if you stop by the bar at Commerce to have a $13 cocktail, plan on paying with your credit card. I could tell you what my grandfather would have said about that, but I’ve forgotten how to spell my Italian curse words.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: Andres Rueda

Think your lottery money is going to a worthy cause? Think again. In Texas, a portion of your scratch-off lottery ticket revenue might be going to the Dallas Cowboys. That’s not a middle school or high school, or even a non-profit company. No, it’s THE Dallas Cowboys of Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach fame. The professional football team stands to make about $4.2 million from the new scratch-off tickets.

Yeah, they really need your money. What about asking those overpriced players to take a pay cut? Other people all over the country have taken pay cuts, unpaid furloughs, and many have lost their jobs. Football players should be no exception, even with contracts in place.

There are 14 NFL teams who have sponsored lottery games this fall. I’m sure they are all feeling the economic crunch and need to supplement their revenue. But, the lottery? That’s just a way to pick on the people who can least afford it.

If you know statistics, you’re probably not a lottery player. But, if you are still hoping your retirement will be funded by the MegaBall Jackpot, you might feel better knowing where your money goes.

Or, maybe not.

Photo courtesy of Flickr: dherrera_96

This story shows some incarcerated common sense. Inmates at the Hillsborough County Jail in Brandon, Florida have spent two years perfecting recipes for three flavors of hot sauce. They grew the peppers themselves as part of a horticulture program, and then produced a commercial sauce. There’s “Smoke,” “Original,” and “No Escape,” with the latter being the hottest.

The revenue goes back into the program for the inmates, and the sauce can only be purchased online (through a mail-in form).

It’s a great idea with a killer marketing hook (forgive the pun). If you’re going to be behind bars with a lot of time on your hands, you might as well do something productive. Better to learn a craft and create a product to whittle away the time. Will jailhouse salsa or maximum security spaghetti sauce be far behind?

Rock on, jailhouse!

[via boingboing.net]

Sometimes I think animal lovers go too far. This is a perfect example. A company in Brazil has manufactured the first sex toy for dogs.

The DoggieLoveDoll is aimed for dogs who are alone a lot of the day, presumably because no owner is around to rub against. What’s wrong with the couch?

And, how disturbing is this photo? (Answer: Really disturbing.)

[Via Gizmodo]

Many people consider bottled water, with its fancy packaging and names that recall clean and natural sources, to be purer than tap water. Only, don’t let the marketing fool you. While tap water doesn’t have a PR firm, it’s usually the better product of the two.

What, exactly, are tap water’s bragging rights? Cheaper and cleaner. Tap water comes out of your faucet and costs a fraction of the price of bottled. Sales for bottled water in 2008 were approximately $11.2 billion. At a recent hearing of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations:

“Americans are willing to pay top dollar for bottled water, which costs up to 1,900 times more than tap water and uses up to 2,000 times more energy to produce and deliver,” Michigan Representative Bart Stupak told the hearing.

Plus, with tap water, you know what you’re getting. The contents of bottled water aren’t regulated as heavily as tap water. The EPA oversees the quality of municipality water, and has stringent testing and safety regulations. The FDA oversees bottled water, and they don’t have the same standards of testing.

“Over the past several years, however, bottled water has been recalled due to contamination by arsenic, bromate, cleaning compounds, mold, and bacteria. In April, a dozen students at a California junior high school reportedly were sickened after drinking bottled water from a vending machine.”

If you believe the marketing hype that all bottled water comes from pure springs and crystal clear lakes, you’ll be interested to know where it really comes from. Between 25 and 40 percent of bottled water comes from U.S. municipality water supplies.

Lastly, we’d be remiss if we didn’t touch on the fact that plastic bottles are clogging up the landfills. And, most bottled water doesn’t contain fluoride, which helps to fight cavities.

So, do your wallet and your body a favor: turn to the tap next time you’re thirsty.

Photo

An AP story came out this week discussing how alternative medicine is more often sneaking into the mainstream. But, at what cost? The benefits of alternative medicine have yet to be proven, and some practices and supplements are flat-out harmful.

A few herbal supplements can directly threaten health. A surprising number do not supply what their labels claim, contain potentially harmful substances like lead, or are laced with hidden versions of prescription drugs.

“In testing, one out of four supplements has a problem,” said Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, an independent company that rates such products.

Some doctors interviewed said they include alternative methods in their treatment because it causes patients to relax and, at the same time, feel as though they are receiving better care. The doctors know it’s hoodoo, but are concerned more about what the patient perceives than the science. It’s almost a prescription of the placebo effect.

And it’s not just supplements, which may be just a waste of money. More dangerous are people with life-threatening diseases who miss a critical treatment window while off seeking unproven cures. Last week, a couple in Australia were found guilty of manslaughter after homeopathic treatments of their daughter’s eczema failed. The little girl died after the parents continued to reject conventional treatments for the condition.

Mainstream medicine and big pharmaceutical companies have had problems over the years, for sure. But, regulatory agencies, consumer watch-dog groups, and standard guidelines are in place to act as a system of checks and balances. So, the level of risk involved isn’t as high as that of alternative medicine.

The latest government survey shows the magnitude of risk: More than a third of Americans use unconventional therapies, including acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic, and native or traditional healing methods. These practitioners are largely self-policing, with their own schools and accreditation groups. Some states license certain types, like acupuncturists; others do not.

The “natural” claim doesn’t mean it’s without risk. If a treatment promises something that is too good to be true, chances are it is a waste of time and money.

In a move that will elicit many “Yeah, duh” responses, a Chicago radio host declares that waterboarding is torture. Only, he was trying to prove waterboarding isn’t torture. Yesterday, conservative shock-jock Erich “Mancow” Muller subjected himself to a waterboarding experiment in order to silence the critics of the procedure. Mancow expected to chill out for thirty seconds while water was poured down his nose. Instead, he lasted six.

“It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,” Mancow said. Yes, that’s what we thought you would say. If you’ve ever been in a pool and read the description of waterboarding, you should be able to put the pieces together. It would be hellishly horrible. A Vanity Fair reporter did the same experiment last year and said he was traumatized for months afterwards.

It’s not called “torture” for nothing. The technique of waterboarding has been around for centuries and there is a reason why bad people still use it as an interrogation device. Now that Mancow has seen how awful it is, let’s hope he puts his big mouth to use and pressures our government to stop doing it.