AutoZone is running a commercial titled Fix Finder advising their customers that AutoZone thinks they are idiots:
This is a strange message for a DIY store, because much of the payoff for fixing things yourself is the feeling of mastery that comes with it. So why would AutoZone spend a large sum of money telling their ostensible target audience you’d have to be an idiot to shop there? Why would AutoZone go to so much trouble to associate going to their store with looking like a fool?
In the DFW area AutoZone is one of the big two parts stores. However, I very seldom go there, because in my experience the cranky middle aged woman in the commercial would have been better cast in the role of the AutoZone employee than the bitter wife of the loser who shops at AutoZone. The only thing I did tend go to AutoZone for was car batteries. I’ve had decent luck with their batteries and like the fact that the warranty isn’t pro rated. This isn’t something I had given much thought to, it had simply become a habit. If I needed a battery, I went to AutoZone. If I needed anything else, I went to O’Reilly.
However, a few days after I saw this commercial the battery on the car my wife drives went out. After I pulled it out I decided to check out the batteries at O’Reilly first. It turns out they don’t pro rate their warranty either, so I bought the replacement battery there. As luck would have it later that same day I found that the power steering pump on my truck was leaking, and when I took the serpentine belt off to get a better look I found that the belt tensioner was shot too. Those last two items don’t represent lost share of wallet for AutoZone, because I would have gone to O’Reilly for them anyway. However they do show that I (with my 20 year old truck) am in the target market.
But AutoZone both by their hiring practices and their advertisements seems to eschewing the DIY car repair market (almost exclusively men), and trying to make their business on a new market. The comments on the commercial at Youtube offer a hint at who that new market might be. Denise Robb responded:
This is exciting. My check engine light comes on all the time and this will save me running to a mechanic and potentially getting charged for things I don’t need. Thanks.
Kylie D responded:
I actually used this. As a single woman it was so nice to know what was wrong when my ‘check engine light’ came on, before going to a mechanic! Gave me more confidence. Then I spent time in the store getting other things I needed and could take care of myself 😀 Awesome service, had no idea!
Interestingly, both women’s profile images resemble the cranky middle aged woman in the commercial. It turns out that Denise Robb does bitter feminist stand up comedy:
Kylie D (Kylie Delre) is likewise a comic of sorts. She also appears to be is the actress who played the cranky middle aged woman in the commercial:
But the commercial still doesn’t make sense if you assume AutoZone is targeting women in general. Young single women aren’t going to identify with the bitter aging wife with a loser husband. And most married women don’t aspire to be the bitter aging wife of a loser either. But the ad does work for a narrow category of women, bitter aging unmarried feminists. They can watch the ad and laugh at all three of the participants. They may be bitter cat ladies, but at least they aren’t like the losers who shop or work at AutoZone, and at least they don’t have a loser husband!
This is a strange niche market for AutoZone to go all in on, but they do seem to have their message zeroed in quite well.
Update: You can’t make this stuff up. Here is a video of Denise Robb doing a routine about her cat.
AA and AZ are same coin, different sides. I use AZ for batteries because Johnson Controls makes their Gold Series. And they make Interstate, so they’re good enough for me. Otherwise, I got no use for any of them. And women aren’t shopping there, no idea why they pay any attention to women.
I have been buying Interstate batteries for some time. I recall them being pro-rated. Is that not the case at the places you note if I bought there instead of going to an Interstate outlet or my normal shop (Christian Brothers)?
I couldn’t do all of what you do Dalrock, but I can change a battery. (I dropped a hex screwdriver head in the engine when replacing the air filter…. I got the filter changed, but could never reach that piece without tearing far more apart.
Pingback: Aging lonely feminist humor. | @the_arv
@Jim Christian
Interesting. That is probably how I came to always buy autozone gold batteries. I started off buying Interstate batteries at AutoZone probably 20 years ago (or more), and then switched to their gold batteries when they stopped carrying Interstate.
Auto code readers are inexpensive to buy. Mine saved me lots of trouble and $$$. Everyone should have one. Will save you the trouble of driving to auto stores to use theirs or having a mechanic charge you more than what it costs to buy one. Make sure you buy the correct one. If your car was made after 1995 you need a different code reader.
Interestingly, both women’s profile images resemble the cranky middle aged woman in the commercial. It turns out that Denise Robb does bitter feminist stand up comedy:
I’d be willing to bet that neither of these two women knows a timing light ftom an egg timer, that both were paid by AutoZone to post what they did, and that neither one has the time, patience, desire, or skillsets to perform DIY work on thrir own cars. You would be more likely to see the reanimated corpse of Dale Earnhart Senior in an AZ store than either of these two women.
@feeriker
It could be that they were paid for the comments. Both comments certainly feel fake. My own guess was that Kylie D did it in an effort to boost her career (since she is in the commercial), and that she asked Denise Robb to do the same to help her out.
I’ve bought one too after owning an old vehicle that would have the check engine light come on for the littlest things…helps seperating the gas cap code from something that needs to be fixed.
I’m guessing that both of these women drive late model, still under warranty cars. If they buy anything at at a car parts store, it will be no more mechanical than an air freshener.
Sex with JFK’s decomposed corpse. HI-larious.
From stand up comedian to professor. With today’s academia that actually makes sense.
‘Comedian/activist Denise Munro Robb is currently a full-time Professor of Political Science at Los Angeles Pierce College. ‘
http://www.denisemunrorobb.com/
Well, she’s a terrible comedian, so maybe she’ll have better luck at university.
I never get a good vibe from AZ or O’Reilly. If you walk into either store near me, the vibe is that your odds of getting the right part are about the same as winning PowerBall.
I go to NAPA. There was a time, when it seemed that their parts were better quality. Now, it’s all the same made in China lottery. Could be really good. Could be really bad.
Same old, same old. It would appear that demeaning men is the go to play for any business these days, even if their customer base is mostly men. I don’t shop at Autozone for a number of reasons, and this commercial is just indicative of one of the reasons why.
I keep an inexpensive scanner in every vehicle in the glove box for roadside checks. I have taught my wife and children how to use them and if the vehicle might be safely driven home or if it needs to be towed. You can get the basic scanner models that work for OBD II vehicles (after 1996) for less than $20. I use Rock Auto for all my parts.
Parts for my Vespa, NAPA actually carries many of them. Surprised bc so few scooter in the USA. Usually I have to go to the dealer for some stuff. Most of my tools to work on the temperamental and moody scooter (flooding, fouling and the like) were given to me by my dad. Mostly “craftsman” stuff from the 1960’s with newer “metric” fittings and adapters and all.
Yeah all the girls are gonna get a bunch of snickers over this dumb commercial.
One wonders if this reflects the type of people they have running the marketing department rather than a targeted ad intended to appeal to this very narrow niche. I remember a post over at Heartiste’s site where one of the commentators mentioned that a lot of the propaganda being put out in corporate America has less to do with an intentional campaign as it is with the demographic (SWPL single white girls) they tend to hire for marketers.
[D: You could well be right.]
Having done some marketing work myself, I could see a lot of opportunity for rivals such as NAPA to come up with subtle, yet clear ads intended to say “this is where men who know what the hell they’re doing come to buy their tools and car stuff from other men who also know what the hell they’re talking about.”
[D: Good point. This would seem like an excellent opportunity.]
@earlthomas786
That is funny. I grew up in the Valley, and we always called Pierce “High School with ash trays”. They did put on a pretty good fireworks display on the 4th as I recall, and a half way decent rodeo (they are–or at least were–an agricultural JC).
You know Dalrock….this commercial does work with a larger segment. According to that chart a few posts back……..women are marrying later and settling HARD. Fits this dynamic pretty well n’est pas?
[D: Good point.]
@Allen
Good to know. I haven’t had to pull a code for over twenty years, so I must be lucky. The only time the check engine light has come on in my truck is off roading at altitude. All it meant was that the emissions were high for a while, so I ignored it. A few starts after returning back to lower altitude and the light would go away until the next time we went off road in the mountains. Our old Saturn had a cool feature where you could jump two nodes with a paper clip to prompt it to flash out the numeric code. Then I could look up the code in my Haynes manual.
The last car I owned was a brand new 1994 Plymouth Neon. It had an “idiot light” on the dash that said “engine” and that could mean anything if it came on. Fortunately while I drove it for two years it never came on
You don’t necessarily need a different reader for pre-OBD II cars. Just a different connector. OBD-1 connectors were proprietary to the manufacturer. OBD II are universal. Many code readers have OBD-1 and 2 capability. You can find one for about 100 bucks. You can also find apps for smart phones that allow you to read the codes via a cable or bluetooth transmitter. Some of those are dirt cheap. My old Matco Scantool had both 1 and 2 capability. My Jeep ZJ just required an OBD-1 Chrysler connector, and a 6 foot 25 pin cable ($6 at Frys).
Auto parts stores will not clear the code for you. That alone is worth a cheap reader as a lot of time the code is something minor like a gas cap with a bad seal.
As far as batteries go, Optima are the best I’ve seen. Particularly for hot climates like Texas. I get an average of 5 years solid out of one. Not 2 and a pro-rate from a conventional lead-acid battery. Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) batteries are far superior to them.
Parts droids are something of a running joke within the auto repair/modification hobby. They’re just that, droids. They pull parts. They might have a POS in the parking lot they try to work on, but for the most part the chain auto parts stores are to auto mechanics what fast food workers are to the culinary arts. NAPA tends to have the most knowledgeable employees, as many of them actually own their own store. A little more expensive.
As far as women working on cars? Laughable. Been going to junkyards since the mid-1980’s. Have yet to see a woman in a self-serve junkyard. If they’re targeting that demographic, they’re foolish.
Steve
It doesn’t matter. We’re talking “roundhouse kicking girls” here. She can fix anything. She’s amazing. She raised kids on her own. She awesome, hot, sassy and sexy. Just like TV and movies! If she can’t she will find one of many of her orbiters to “fix” it. If she is in church, the pastor will find a man in the flock to help her (never have met or seen a pastor work on a car) for free
I watched the ad – twice – and still have no idea what it is about. Really, I have no idea.
As someone who has no idea what the ad is about, this is what struck me: The presenter is overweight, the boyfriend (?) is latino, but his girlfriend is white.
I will now, having watched the ad twice be plagued with Car Repair Ads and YouTube encouragement to watch the same. I don’t own a motor vehicle.
One wonders if this reflects the type of people they have running the marketing department rather than a targeted ad intended to appeal to this very narrow niche
I’m inclined to believe that you’ve hit the nail on the head. “Marketing experts” tend to overwhelmingly consist of “Communications Studies” or “Sociology” majors who tend to be overwhelmingly female, with all that that implies.
@Opus
Much of this is the fault of the ad itself. However, some context might help. In the US, emissions laws require that a car’s computer light a “Check Engine” or “Service Engine Soon” warning on the dash when any of a host of parameters are met. This is a frightening warning to get, because it sounds like something serious is happening. If the light comes on, you can hook up a reader to the car’s computer to read the code, and then look up the meaning of the code in a reference. But most people don’t have their own readers, so they take their car to a mechanic who tells them what the car needs. DIYers can either buy a reader or take their car in to pretty much any parts store who will pull the code for you. Autozone is advertising that they offer this service, while using it as an opportunity to express what they think about their customers at the same time.
NAPA guy here. Small mom and pop in my town. Guys are very professional and knowledgeable. I have my own code reader obd 1 and 2 w/ live data. I also have a repair manual under the seat for all my vehicles. I didn’t really get the commercial at all,the wife was a little snippy. It didn’t make a commercial appeal to shop there for me. I was not offended am I missing something?
It’s like most current American ads…it’s not about actually selling a product or service, it’s about showing men as clueless liars and women as the smart know-it-alls.
Do any other states represented here have emission control standards to meet on your vehicle? In California you must get your vehicle checked and “stickered” every other year unless your vehicle by body and engine vin number is pre 1974. It’s expensive as well unless you are “low income” then its free. Hence why the cost for everyone else is so high
it’s not about actually selling a product or service,
Just as well, since most American businesses don’t sell anything anymore that’s worth spending money on.
Ok, was posting just after Jason’s Vespa comment. See the interesting points definitely a marketing fail. Still was not offended by snippy broad perhaps they are so common as to be unremarkable.
Pingback: Aging lonely feminist humor. | Reaction Times
In Colorado it’s a $25 flat fee, every four years. Also, many freeway on ramps have emissions sensors with cameras, so you usually don’t even need to get the inspection (but still pay the $25 fee). Don’t know if the “poor” get it for free.
As a former Californian, I know that registration fees in Colorado are also lower than in the Golden State.
Since I quite watching broadcast TV years ago, I guess I have been spared of most of the misandry in the ads.
While I did cut the cable (satellite TV actually) about 10 years ago, I do have a small indoor HD antenna, mostly for watching sporting events. Watching anything else broadcast is an exercise in self inflicted pain. I thought broadcast (and cable channel) TV was bad 10 years ago, it’s far worse today, utterly unwatchable. News shows are unabashedly leftist, the dramas and action shows are boring (and leftist) and the comedies are unfunny (and are also leftist). Everything seems to target young liberals.
And of course, to get most of those channels, whose mission seems to be to insult white people, you have to pay big bucks. Of course, since many are cutting the cord, the broadcasters are now offering “streaming channels” for a fee. Want to watch CBS’s new Star Trek series? You’ll have to pay for it. And everyone is jumping on that bandwagon. Even DC comics will be ushering in a new non free streaming channel next year, so you can mostly watch animated reruns (bet you never thought you’d have to pay to watch “Superfriends”)
Pretty much. But when all your production is either out of Hollywood or New York…that’s the only bubble these people know so they assume the rest of the country thinks that way. It’s quite funny how clueless most of these people are.
The husband doesn’t look white, that’s for sure. Maybe the takeaway message is that only loser white women marry outside their race?
I watched the ad – twice – and still have no idea what it is about. Really, I have no idea.
You and me both, buddy. And I am from here, and work on my own cars.
Apparently, the guy is too stupid to know how to buy a reader and pull codes out of his cars computer to point him in the direction of what is wrong with it.
This is a frightening warning to get, because it sounds like something serious is happening.
And usually its something really stupid because the tolerances in the values all the sensors are reading are ridiculous. (Because of emissions laws, as you point out).
The husband doesn’t look white, that’s for sure. Maybe the takeaway message is that only loser white women marry outside their race?
Nope. White Trashionalists tend to be manginas, so they miss the point and see their own issue in everything.
There is no shortage of similar ads portraying white men badly.
He’s just a happy Latino a la Cheech Marin. He’s a safe one to poke fun at.
Good thing I shop at O’Reilly. Except for batteries. I buy those at Sam’s Club.
What? Not one person goes to Seats and buys the classic “Die Hard” car battery anymore 🙂
One time, on the road, I must have purchases some subpar gasoline, because the check engine light came on just a few miles out of the gas station. The engine seemed to be running fine. My suspicion was later confirmed when I refilled the tank and within minute the check engine line turned off. It never did it again,
With all the fancy telematics cars come with now, I just don’t see why the fancy dashboards don’t tell you exactly what’s going on. Maybe because it would still be obscure: xyz sensor reading is out of range.
I think that the point they were trying to make was that her husband is just as clueless about cars as she is, and that he was trying to cover that up.
@seventiesjason
In order to buy Diehard batteries from Sears, there must be a Sears. Sadly, the one where I live closed in March and got replaced by a giant decor store.
“It doesn’t matter. We’re talking “roundhouse kicking girls” here. She can fix anything. She’s amazing. She raised kids on her own. She awesome, hot, sassy and sexy. Just like TV and movies!”
And I’ve noticed this trend on Home Depot ads where the short haired chick installs bathroom tiles and a countertop. All by herself, and without getting dirty. Yeah right. Just a couple of weeks ago, I had to change the starter on my 1990 Honda Accord. Now this was the first time I had to change a starter so I looked it up on YouTube. It took me three hours just to take the old starter out because the space was restricted and I couldn’t turn the socket to remove one of two screws, not to mention that being a Japanese car, I had to buy a metric socket from AutoZone. And it took me another hour to actually install it. Bear in mind I’m not mechanically proficient. But I succeeded.
Now imagine your ordinary woman, especially a woman like the one in the ad up there trying to change a starter. She would have failed. She wouldn’t have the strength, stamina, analytic power, but especially, patience. She would start crying desperately while looking at her chipped nails and hands filled with grease. Now I’ve known women close to me that know how to work on cars, but that’s by sheer necessity, namely, because they can’t afford a mechanic, or they don’t trust them. These women can just get a mechanic or some beta to fix their car and take credit.
And on this note, there is a Texas cable provider called Grande Communications that put out an ad which I wasn’t able to find online. It’s this girl who brags about how awesome Grande’s service lets her parents watch every cat video out there. Then she claims that she was able to try to learn to play guitar and become a “guitar goddess” with an electric guitar she printed herself on a 3D printer. Seriously. She looked no older than 11.
What’s strange about this particular permutation of the oafish husband to smart elleck wife shtick is the autozobe employee is soft/overweight.
I would expect him to be super-hunky alpha guy where both he and the wife have a gig and eye roll at the husbands expense.
It had an “idiot light” on the dash that said “engine”
That meant you had an engine installed 😉
Frank,
I realized I hadn’t watched my Tivo and HD antenna for several months a while back. I keep it running, but didn’t even watch for long a couple of times I looked at Saturday football games recently. (I have pretty much given up on the NFL at this point.)
I am a cord cutter and I still don’t watch much. I zipped through most commercials when I did watch some in the past as well and avoided a lot of these commercials by not watching where they tend to show them.
Maybe this is the real reason my ex-wife left. We stopped cable when we moved and she got hooked on broadcast TV….
The Questions,
One wonders if this reflects the type of people they have running the marketing department rather than a targeted ad intended to appeal to this very narrow niche.
100% correct. The marketing chicks are not addressing a small niche in a detached manner. They are just projecting their frustrated worldview outwards.
This is a variant of Sailer’s law of female journalism. Women cannot market to anyone considerably different to themselves (similar to how there is almost no woman who can teach a young man Game). They can only produce one type of marketing message, which reveals a) their utter frustration in life, b) their solipism, and c) their inability to practice any type of psychology other than sexual psychology.
Men can put sexual thoughts aside when need me (that is why men never turned everything into a ‘gender issue). But for women, SMP thoughts comprise the entirely of their psychology, and they just cannot shelve that even for a short while.
*entirety of their psychology/
There used to be mechanically minded people working at parts stores. Napa is about the only place youll find this anymore. The problem with Napa is that they are independently owned Mom an Pop stores with no computer warranty system. Not too much of a problem unless you travel (as I used to), then you want a national chain that you can get a replacement if the piece of chinese crap you bought fails.
I’ve use DuraLast Marine dual purpose batteries from Autozone in EVERYTHING for the last 15 years. Am starting to look at Oreilys more now but they are new to the area.
As for codes, they are only as useful as your knowledge about engines. I drive a 90 Wrangler, carb, no computers so if I need help diagnosing something, I need a guy who knows about engines. Not a douchbag with a scanner telling me its my downstream O2 sensor causing the problem or some other such nonsense
I think the actress in the first commercial is Diane Dilascio: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0226721/
I’ve seen some of her 1990s work, and the woman looks and sounds like an older version of her.
She just wants someone to go through the process.
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a12063822/emotional-labor-gender-equality/
Taciturn … Wow, what a BITCH. This woman is inventing problems to whine about.
She doesn’t do housework. She has cleaning services. But just calling a maid service is so oppressive, she “asks” her husband to do it for her on Mother’s Day.
The gift, for me, was not so much in the cleaning itself but the fact that for once I would not be in charge of the household office work. [Household office work?] I would not have to make the calls, get multiple quotes, research and vet each service, arrange payment and schedule the appointment.
Oh, my God! She must “research” and “vet” the cleaning services. Serfs and slaves never had it so hard.
But her husband betrays her. Instead of doing all that “emotional labor” (her term for delegating housework), he simply cleans the bathroom himself.
My husband … vowed to clean the bathrooms himself. …
What I wanted was for him to ask friends on Facebook for a recommendation, call four or five more services, do the emotional labor, I would have done if the job had fallen to me. … I knew exactly how exhausting it was going to be. That’s why I asked my husband to do it as a gift. …
In his mind, he was doing the thing I had most wanted — giving me sparkling bathrooms without having to do it myself. Which is why he was frustrated when I ungratefully passed by, not looking at his handiwork …
She was angry because he hadn’t suffered enough. He cheerfully cleaned the bathroom in a flash, proving that she had no grounds for complaint. The abusive bastard.
I tried to gingerly explain the concept of emotional labor: that I was the manager of the household, and that being manager was a lot of thankless work. Delegating work to other people, i.e. telling him to do something he should instinctively know to do, is exhausting.
These are Rich White Folk problems. So exhausting to delegate work to a maid.
Then there’s the problem of The Box. Her husband had cruelly left a box on the closet floor. She wanted The Box on a shelf, but refused to put it there herself, or tell him to do so.
I stumbled over the box of gift wrap he had pulled off a high shelf two days earlier and left in the center of our closet. In order to put it back, I had to get a kitchen chair and drag it into our closet so I could reach the shelf where it belonged.
“All you have to do is ask me to put it back,” he said, watching me struggle.
It was obvious that the box was in the way, that it needed to be put back. It would have been easy for him to just reach up and put it away, but instead he had stepped around it, willfully ignoring it for two days. It was up to me to tell him that he should put away something he got out in the first place.
“That’s the point,” I said, now in tears, “I don’t want to have to ask.”
She’s projecting. She “willfully ignored” the box on the floor for two days. He likely hadn’t given it a thought.
My husband is a good man, and a good feminist ally. I could tell, as I walked him through it, that he was trying to grasp what I was getting at. But he didn’t. He said he’d try to do more cleaning around the house to help me out. He restated that all I ever needed to do was ask him for help, but therein lies the problem. I don’t want to micromanage housework. I want a partner with equal initiative.
He’s a Beta Slave, eager to please. But she’s tired of training him. So exhausting. She wants a Beta Mind Reader who’ll obey her wishes without her having to ask. It’s just so much emotional labor. So unfair to her.
Who are these abusive husbands who require their wives to call and vet the maid services? Time to “man up” and schedule the maid services yourselves, relieving your wives of that onerous burden.
Now I’ve known women close to me that know how to work on cars, but that’s by sheer necessity, namely, because they can’t afford a mechanic, or they don’t trust them.
They can’t afford a mechanic AND they’re such nasty bitches that they can’t even get a thirsty beta pussybeggar with evrn marginal mechanical skills to do greasemonkey work for them for free. Even then, when they try to do it themselves, they screw it up so badly that they either wind up without a functioning car or beg, borrow, or steal money to get a pro to do it right.
@rocko
You’re correct. There is NO WAY the average chick is going to do something like change a starter, especially on a newer car (Eric Peters wrote a couple of articles a couple of years back on how the positioning of components in newer cars makes their replacement an ordeal even for pro mechanics anymore). She’ll either use every wile she can muster to get a beta pussybeggar to do it for her, or she’ll beg/borrow/steal/go into debt/sell her body to raise money to pay a mechanic. NO WAY is she doing any of that work herself.
Wow, what a BITCH. This woman is inventing problems to whine about.
Isn’t that what almost ALL of them do?
Emotional labor?
Chris Rock was correct…you cant make a woman happy, it’s impossible.
‘My husband is a good man, and a good feminist ally. ‘
And there it is…just find the key sentence in the piece where you find out the problem is her.
Umm… That 1990 Wrangler has an OBD-1 connector in the engine compartment. Probably in the same place as my ’94’s. Right next to the battery.
OT – schools have to fight the “faith-based”
http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/heres-the-full-recording-of-wilfrid-laurier-reprimanding-lindsay-shepherd-for-showing-a-jordan-peterson-video
This is a theme that Pimlott takes up later in the recording; that Wilfrid Laurier University is bringing in young naïfs from a prejudice-filled society who aren’t yet ready to handle complex ideas without proper training. He said it takes a while to properly challenge “the faith-based, family and other types of structures in society that they’ve been inculcated with for years.”
The ones who are too lazy to fear the Lord, do housework, raise children, and be a functioning woman of society. Idle hands for a woman seem to turn her into the devil’s mouthpiece.
I think a lot of these feminists have ’emotional labor’ because when they got married they expected to marry a woman but found out even the most beta of man is still not a woman.
RPL –
He’s a Beta Slave, eager to please. But she’s tired of training him. So exhausting. She wants a Beta Mind Reader who’ll obey her wishes without her having to ask. It’s just so much emotional labor. So unfair to her.
I like your prose. For this poor man, a good feminist ally, and so many like him, “happy wife, happy life” is just out of reach. And always will be.
Despite the fact that I do not have a motor car (no I have not been banned and have a valid licence – we have, despite Dr Beeching, an extensive rail network – we did after all invent the thing so have had longer than anyone else to fill the place with miles and miles of track) I visited the British equivalent on AutoZone* a week or two back. Why, when you need an assistant will no one even answer the bell to secure assistance? My search (for distilled water) was not being aided by the crappy in-store muzak which instead of playing muzak was broadcasting a discussion between the jock and a local academic (who knew his stuff) about the Russian revolution of a century ago – the BBC have been treating it like it was a good thing, which if you ignore all the bad things as they do I suppose it was. Really put me off my task (not aided further by the poor lighting).
Somehow I suspect that one obtains better service, better lighting, and less inappropriate muzak in America.
*Halfords
OT. Back in the day, sluts had the good sense of being quiet about their sexual affairs. Now, they write about them for everybody to know them. Brave new world.
Interstate Batteries are good and last time I checked they weren’t converged.
RPL,
Thanks for the excerpts. I hadn’t looked at Taciturn’s link. I could try for q week to describe my wife, but those excerpts do it much better. It is somewhat strange though, to read about my life like that. When I see it from the outside it is much easier to see as a very difficult situation, hard really. That is a woman who is tearing her own house down. I feel sorry for that man, and then I remember that I am that guy. What is incredibly confounding, is that my church, and the church culture, takes her side and increases the burden on me. That is why Dalrock’s exposing of TGC and CBMW and other pastors is a life-ring to me in the midst of trying to make sense of such a miserable woman.
Well, for starters, you can buy distilled water at the supermarket in the USA, for about $1 a gallon. I remember the time we tried to find distilled water at a Tesco and we got funny looks when we asked the staff where it was kept, as if we were asking for nitrous oxide.
As for auto parts stores, if you want service you go to the counter, for most non trivial products that is what you have to do,
Where I grew up we had “Johnson’s Automotive” and it was a “NAPA” store. It opened in the early 1970’s. My father started going there evidently because it had the novel idea of being open on Sunday from 6am to about 4pm. Something that was urgently needed in the area I grew up in.
Andrew Johnson (the owner) grew it into five area shops by the late 1980’s. In 1988 or 1989, our family was at symphony performance……..and after the show while walking out of the theater (Proctors, Schenectady, NY) we bumped into Andrew Johnson, his wife and three children. His eldest son was about my age…..anyway, we discovered that he was a “music major” in college, he got out in 1968 and couldn’t find a job……..he was a pretty decent self-taught mechanic, and so he got with “Napa” to franchise a “auto parts store” operation. Who would have thought he was a music major?
He was tough on his staff, he had folks working there that knew about engines, cars and the like but all the workers there “liked” their jobs. He also was helpful, and he knew a lot about his trade.
Were there auto parts stores in my area before “Johnson’s Auntomotive”? Sure, but he found the initial niche by being open on Sunday. All it takes is just a novel idea!
A thing I find funny about the commercial is that the woman is barely involved. She’s essentially there to catch her idiot husband in a lie about how long the engine warning light has been on. She’s presumably doing something more important (or at least more interesting) on her smartphone while her husband ‘takes care of business’.
In that respect the unattractive casting for the salesperson makes sense. Since he’s borderline creepy it’s best that he just talk to the loser husband and not bother the wife.
@RPL
I just checked the ispot page for the ad, and it confirms that Kylie Delre is the actress.
All of this “emotional labor” stuff was prophesied in the Cathi Hanauer book “The Bitch In The House” from 2004 or so. Available used for 99 cents if you must have your mitts on it. When read with RP eyes it’s pretty fascinating: 20 or so women who are mad as hell that they have good feminist ally husbands, husbands who try too hard to please, who don’t do enough as fathers, or who do too well as fathers to the point mom feels jealous, men who cook, or don’t cook, etc. All furious at their hubbys/POSSLQS’ lack of telepathy to anticipate and satisfy their demands and whims in advance of their articulation. It’s all there. The BB lifestyle and what it looks like. All of it still true apparently.
Though she now has a 2016 sequel, “The Bitch Is Back (And Happier Than Ever)” in which, supposedly, the original Rat-out Pack shows how they’ve mellowed and found acquiescence with their decidedly inferior menfolk. Used hard copies seem to be around $1.50 if you can stand it. Not sure I need to see it, having perused volume 1 as part of my own journey.
From the new book blurb: “More than a decade after the New York Times bestselling anthology The Bitch in the House spoke up loud and clear for a generation of young women, nine of the original contributors are back—along with sixteen captivating new voices—sharing their ruminations from an older, stronger, and wiser perspective about love, sex, work, family, independence, body image, health, and aging: the critical flash points of women’s lives today.”
‘Back in the day, sluts had the good sense of being quiet about their sexual affairs. Now, they write about them for everybody to know them. Brave new world.’
Red flags and slut tells are all there to see…a lot of men are wilfully blind.
She’s definitely bragging about still being able to ride the carousel with younger men. She pretends to talk about her feelings, but it’s obvious that what she’s saying is “I still have it”. However, the fact that it took her so long to get a new job (about a year) betrays that she is indeed no longer young (wait until she’s in her forties or fifties, then she’ll see just how hard it is to get a good paying job). That she was banging the kid next door simply means she probably wasn’t ugly or fat and not that she looked “26”. She’s a cougar, and a lot of young men who aren’t getting any will hold their noses and jump in.
@Frank K
Agreed. And she’s not looking 26, of course. She is 37 but she looks older. The first woman to the left.
https://www.google.com.sv/search?q=marisa+lascher&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjM74eqntDXAhVITSYKHas3B9oQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=588#imgrc=4SN9DGV1cciJkM:
So basically the problem once again is her. He’s too good of a husband so she’s a jealous bitch or he’s not a good enough husband so she’s a nagging bitch. Isn’t it easier to be content or even better doing your own labor to get the reward.
I looked at her twitter photo…I got the ‘predator’ vibe from her smile.
Then looking at her eyes I could see some desperation, perhaps a hint of regret. It wasn’t so much the crazy, dull, dead, or the stare that’s all too common.
@Frank K
Exactly what I would have expected asking for Distilled Water in Tesco – and remember their minimum wage employees do NOT have attitude – always pleasant to deal with.
Do NOT try either asking for Isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) at a pharmacist (the chemist).. They will assume you are an alkie who wants to drink the stuff – very difficult to find anywhere.
Another reason why I need to seek refugee status in your America.
@Opus – LOL! We even went to the pharmacy section in the Tesco (or was it a Sainsbury’s, I forget). The pharmacist was a pleasant Spaniard and he told us that no, they didn’t carry distilled water. My wife does these nasty sinus rinses with this stuff called NeilMed, which is sold in powder form and you mix it with distilled water. He seemed genuinely perplexed over her need for distilled water. Like I said, here they sell it in 1 gallon jugs:
https://www.kingsoopers.com/p/kroger-distilled-water/0001111042133
It sure seems odd that you can’t buy rubbing alcohol in the UK, given the liberal (compared to the US) drinking laws.
I just checked the Boots website in the UK. You can buy the NeilMed packets in the UK!
http://www.boots.com/neilmed-sinus-rinse-120-sachets-10077018
In the end, she ended up using tap water to mix the packets.
Another reason why I need to seek refugee status in your America.
We have our own problems and idiosyncrasies.
Now, if you want to buy a firearm, you came to the right place. My home state, Colorado, is very supportive in using firearms to protect yourself. We have a law here nicknamed the “Make My Day Law” (think Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry). The law basically stipulates:
Meaning, you can shoot an intruder dead, even if said intruder does not have a firearm. I have to say, I’ve never heard of a single break in burglary in my neighborhood.
In the event I found a two pint tin of Isopropyl Alcohol in Maplins but I was incredibly lucky to find it at all.
Children can drink alcohol in pubs from the age of seventeen but they only have to be fourteen to enter the establishment and as we don’t carry I.D…. make of that what you will. Seventeen is also the age for appearing in Porn shoots.
Being asked for I.D. in case I might be underage whilst visiting a club in L.A. was very flattering as I was about to turn forty. Now do you really think I might be under twenty one I asked the bouncer almost hoping that he would agree with my youthful view of myself. He waved me in. As I say we don’t carry I.D. or Passports around with us.
@Frank K
In England Trespass in not a crime (save on the railway). One can only use reasonable force in self-defence or in defence of property. The police however treat any attempt at defence as attack. Few own guns which have to be locked away in any case which is thus just as well.
Opus. Part of my “mission” and trip to the UK in 2019 is to hopefully find a job. It’s part of my adventure. I am 47. Never married. An audiophile. No children. Good sense of style…one of the record shops I buy frequently from online in Manchester……the owner is going to put me up for a few days when I visit. He mentioned “It would be cool to have a Yank working here with me!!!”
I have family in Wales, so there could be a possible “workaround” to declare a temp residence there while I work out “visas” and permits. I am employed by Salvation Army here in the United States Command, so I am going to visit HQ in London while there to see if they have anything as well. If I have to return to the USA, and close loose ends and then fly back, will be willing to do that as well. It’s something I just want to try. Who knows, I could even get hired as a soda jerk or pearl diver in some “american themed” diner over there as well.
I got my seat and reservation for a “taping” of the Jeremy Kyle TV show as well for my visit. Love that guy.
Most Americans have never owned a passport, and NO ONE carries them, and to be honest you probably can’t use one for ID to get into a night club, as the bouncer has probably never seen a real passport in his life.
Driver’s licenses are another matter. Most kids get one when they turn 16, and they are ubiquitous. Thus they have become the defacto standard form of identification in the US (other than a US Passport there is no form of national identification in the US). You can use one to get through airport security. In the US, driver’s licenses are issued by the individual states and not by the national government, and each state has it’s own look:
This is a California driver’s license:
vs. a Colorado driver’s license:
Contrast this to the EU, where licenses in different members have the same basic look and feel
So, no distinction between wandering onto someone’s land vs. breaking in? I can pick your door’s lock, enter and it’s not a crime?
RP Latecomer
She wants a Beta Mind Reader who’ll obey her wishes without her having to ask.
She wants him to Just Get It.
@Frank K
If you pick my lock the police will assume that you did so for the purpose of Burglary which is a crime, but entering through an open(able) door or window is not itself a criminal offence though it is an actionable civil wrong – Trespass is a Tort.
You live in a house in the middle of nowhere which Gypsy’s and on a regular basis visit and so you lie in wait and shoot one of these thieving Gypos in the back when he invites himself into your property. You will be charged with and convicted of Murder. Everyone is sympathetic to the plight of farmer Tony Martin and my former colleague Mr Bhalla put up a splendid effort in his defence and the police say that they would love to have posted (as they now do) a policeman outside his house but had not the man-power yet I am afraid that it is still murder and so Mr Martin languishes in prison. For some strange reason the police regard the word Gypsy as a form of Kryptonite and insist on your using the word Traveler. Thieving Traveler has a certain ring to it but I have as it happens represented a fair number of Gypsy’s (they are not without their charm) but I don’t recall their complaining about the use of the word Gypsy. I once successfully brought an action for Libel against The Telegraph for referring to one of my Gypo clients as a Pikey. I cannot judge whether he was or was not that low in the pecking order of Gypsy though he was certainly always drunk whenever I saw him.
Uncommon in the USA, but they are around…..Gypsy’s that is.
Usually “tarot readers” and “psychic’s / palm readers” are Gypsy’s….
@jason
I wondered whether the Gypsy had made it to America. Gypsy in the plural should of course (my mistake) be Gypsies.
@Opus – You guys in the UK sure do like to split hairs (and I thought we were bad).
I have also read that if someone assaults you in the UK, that many fear defending themselves, even with their fists, out of fear that they will be prosecuted.
I love telling Brits about gun laws in the US and watching their eyes boggle, especially when I tell them about the Make My Day laws some states have. Note: in many states one does have to obligation to retreat from an assaulter or home invader first, but some have what are known as “Stand Your Ground” laws, which allow you defend yourself with deadly force, even in public, without having to attempt to retreat first. This is why George Zimmerman was not convicted of shooting Trayvon Martin, in fact he wasn’t even arrested at first. That case was very controversial, as Zimmerman did accost Martin as he thought he was up to no good, even though minutes before, on the phone the police told him to not approach Martin.
As some gun advocates like to say in the US: “When seconds matter, the police are only minutes away.”
I do not own a firearm, though as I am getting older I am beginning to consider purchasing one and applying for a concealed carry permit. Anecdote: In Colorado, at any large public venue that does not have metal detectors, say a shopping center, there will be dozens of people present carrying concealed weapons on them. My wife used to work at the local library, and she has told that over the years she has seen weapons in some female patrons purses as they open them to pull out their library cards.
I’m seeing no coincidence at all that the thread introduced Marisha Lascher and then veered into a discussion of passports.
The bigger issue here is the salesperson. Is this the healthiest looking person they could get to wear an AutoZone shirt for the advert ? Not to body shame but his torso looks like an overinflated yoga ball.
Makes the beta husband, who should say he JDGAF about the engine light, look like a stud by comparison.
What’s the point resetting your car obdII light if you’re gonna have a heart attack and lose your toes to diabetes in the next month anyhow ? Stop Eating
This fat normalizing is Killing people.
I stopped going to O-Reilly’s when the guy behind the counter spent five minutes arguing with me about whether or not a particular light-bulb was, in fact, a thing. I knew I was right because I had been running them in my Harley for the previous ten years, he knew he was right because … works in an auto parts store. I went over to NAPA across the street and bought them right off the shelf and have never gone back to O’Reilly’s. Except for their free motor oil dump.
Opus…..late 1970 something….at my great aunts small dairy farm……..upstate New York………our family came by for a the usual every / every other weekend visit. Out in her back pasture were indeed Gypsies!
There was a mid sized truck. Some horses…and ALL painted up, gorgeous animals. A wagon or two. My aunt said “they asked to spend a night or two” on the property. In old Polish / Slavic farming lore……it was “good luck” if they stayed on your farm. Since I was a little blonde child, my mother said “stay away from them, they steal little blonde children!!!!”
They are around in the USA, but very uncommon. Like I said, if you see a “psychic” store front or palm reader type of place…….you can bet they are gypsies.
@Frank K
In brief: all violence is reserved to the State i.e. The Police (who as you know do not carry firearms). As you rightly say even if you are defending yourself and your property you will be charged (until common sense prevails). Happened to me, I was lucky not to be charged and the only reason I wasn’t was because my lieing attacker decided to tear-down all the posters off the wall in the police station. Otherwise and even though the police knew all about what was going on (I had made six or seven statements) they treated me like the criminal!!!
To all of my fellow Americans here, I wish you and your families a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving Day!
You as well Feeriker!!!! At the desk at my job, street person comes in and “begs” to use the bathroom. Out of human sympathy, I let him……..and of course…….thrashed. All the toilet paper stuffed in the bowl, excrement all over the seat and floor.
Just finished cleaning it. Lesson learned (again) yet the media, the people who work for social services for the state and county always tell me “the homeless are just like you and I, and just need some dignity and help”
If I wasn’t a Christian, or at work would have tackled him, dragged him back here, and rubbed / smeared his nose in it. Works when housebreaking an animal.
Just finished cleaning it. Lesson learned (again) yet the media, the people who work for social services for the state and county always tell me “the homeless are just like you and I, and just need some dignity and help”
They should all be compelled to do a few days of what you’re doing right now. They won’t do it, of course, because they know that the line their pushing to the public is bullshit and that they’d be forced to admit that.
Man, dude, what a shitty (pun intended) way to spend Thanksgiving! I hope it gets better for you soon!
Pingback: It tastes better that way. | Dalrock
Pingback: This Week In Reaction (2017/11/26) - Social Matter
This makes no sense. It’s supposed to appeal to women (who spend very little in places like AutoZone). And it promotes getting the fault codes read from your car’s computer so you won’t get ripped off by a mechanic. “Not getting ripped off by a mechanic” doesn’t translate into sales of auto parts. Reading codes doesn’t equate to ANY sales. It’s a free service. And now, they’ve insulted the exact demographic that DOES spend money in AutoZone. What Einstein came up with this ad campaign?