Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Gloucester, VA - Shop Local - Wal Mart Needs More Money

English: A Bank of America Banking Center at P...
English: A Bank of America Banking Center at Porter Ranch Town Center, a shopping center in Porter Ranch. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Big Lots
Big Lots (Photo credit: kenteegardin)
English: simulated Wal-Mart logo
English: simulated Wal-Mart logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Rite Aid
Rite Aid (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Old Ruby Tuesday logo and slogan
Old Ruby Tuesday logo and slogan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
 

Photo from the Gloucester Main Street Association.



The Gloucester Main Street Association decided to send us their Shop Local campaign ad to show us what they think are the benefits they are selling.  Shop local, Wal-Mart, Food Lion, Rite Aid, Ollie's, Lowe's, Home Depot, Big Lots, Tractor Supply, Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday's, Bank of America, Sun Trust, these are all local businesses right?  These businesses have local employees right?  They get paychecks don't they?

  If the employees get paychecks, the buck stays here if they pay local bills, isn't that correct?  We can go on and on with local/national businesses that all contribute to the community.  That's the issue here that these people just do not get.  That is if they really want to get it.


Again we will show the poster that shows benefits for shopping local.  You want to show why shopping local makes a difference.  Slogans are all fine and dandy when used properly.  The slogans are not being used properly.  We just showed that above.  

  If we are shopping for the best price on a new LED LCD TV with 3D, We are going to go local in Williamsburg or Newport News.  Not Gloucester.  The selection isn't here.  Wal Mart may have 2 TV's in stock that meet our criteria. In Newport News, we can find a multitude of selections at a number of stores.  It's still local for us.  It has not left Virginia.  Define local.  The GMSA is supposed to be promoting the businesses on Main Street right?  You wouldn't know it with their campaigns.


  Live Local?  As opposed to where?  Are we trying to kick out the tourists?  What message are we sending to the tourists with Shop Local?  Go back home and buy your stuff there instead?  Bank local.  What?  No Internet banking?  You can't get more local than your own home computer.  Anyone have any other great ideas to waste money on?  We just keep falling on the floor laughing very hard at the sheer lunacy of this entire farce.  

  How about fly local.  Instead of flying out of some major airport on a major airline, hire a local pilot to fly you to Japan.  Golf local.  Vacation local.  Take in a major Broadway show local?  What about local wine?  Gloucester has some great vineyards.  Drink local.  Bike local.  Gloucester has some of the best bike paths in the nation.  In fact, we are world leaders here.  Go to our local amusement parks?

 Here's a photo of Gloucester's very own world class amusement park.  Future plans may include broken glass, sharp metal objects and rusty nails.  

Yeah boy, keep it local.  Die local too we would suppose.  



What is supposed to be the idea behind shop local is to get customers into local businesses and not the big box national chains isn't it?  Is that being conveyed anywhere?  No!  Another question.  Is anyone going to be checking ID's at the local stores to make sure that only local people get the local discounts?  Where is the list of local retailers that are participating in the Shop Local campaign?  

  The GMSA does not have a list.  Instead they say see local Main Street businesses for special discounts.  Is the Gloucester County government offering any discounts?  10% off your tax bill today only?  Free park access passes to area parks that are already free?  Free glass of water when you pay your water bill?  Get out of jail free if you get busted today?  (April 27th, 2013).  

  WHERE ARE THE BENEFITS!  Why should we waste our valuable time?  Is the GMSA getting the message yet?  How hard would it have been to put together a list of participating businesses and maybe even include what the discounts might be?  But then they would have to actually care about local businesses.  Quick, everyone run to the GMSA to sign up for all of these great benefits and pay out the nose for that membership.  You too can be included in all of these fantastic concepts that waste your money?  


Be sure to visit this shop while you are in the Main Street area.  They are offering free window tours.  

  In all seriousness, Gloucester Main Street has some very fine places to shop.  Olivia's is a wonderful place to eat as is the Wild Rabbit Cafe.  Kelsick market has a great wine and beer selection as well as wonderful foods.  We have heard that the bakery in the area is also wonderful.  It's more than worth your time to hit these shops and don't wait for the Shop Local campaign to kick in to do so.  Anna's has Gloucester's best Pizza hands down.  The library is worth a visit and so is the Gloucester Museum of History.  We can not forget Rosemary and Wine either.  Well worth a visit when you are hungry.  

  It's worth your time to once again explore Main Street for a few hours.  The sidewalks are a serious joke especially with the light poles in the middle of them, but do not let that discourage you.  Parking is also a mess, but again, well worth your time to find a good spot.  We would love to see a good solid campaign done for the area businesses.  Just don't look for it to come out of the GMSA.  The area needs one solid business leader to take a leadership role in the area and actually do what has to be done.  It's not that hard or that expensive.  Time consuming yes.  But not at all hard.
 
  It has to be making area businesses sick with all the poor planning yet all the money poured into this joke of Shop Local that was not in the least well executed.  Can the businesses get their money back?

  It is our best wishes that local area businesses do get benefits from this.  We are sure that the GMSA will have an article in the paper claiming it was a huge success.  It's not in their best interest not to.  If you are one of the local businesses participating in this campaign and do not see a benefit, let the paper know about it.  They might even report it.  Maybe.

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Gloucester, VA - Animal Control Appreciation Week


Creative Commons License
Gloucester, VA Animal Control is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

April 22nd through April 26th, 2013 is Gloucester, Virginia Animal Control appreciation week here at GVLN.  To show our appreciation for the hard work these folks do for us all, we have designed this new logo for them.  Not only does it make for a great poster, it would also make for a great T-Shirt, coffee, mug, mouse pad, patch, or even a flag.  In fact, Wal-Mart has a great selection of ideas you could put this on.  Here is the link.  http://photos.walmart.com/walmart/storepage/storePageId=Photo+Gifts?povid=cat1070145-env172199-moduleA080112-lLinkGNAV_Photo_Photo_SeeAllProducts

  Share the love with everyone.  The image is free and open.  You can sell T-Shirts with this image or mouse pads, or anything your heart desires.  Now of course this image is satirical, but the use of the image isn't.  Enjoy.

Copy the image above or download a copy from here.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5NJpRCvjyV8emcxNjlNNllCcTQ/edit?usp=sharing


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Free Gloucester, VA Triad Poster

Creative Commons License
Gloucester Triad is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

The above poster is a satirical representation of the Gloucester, Virginia Triad.  Designed to pick fun at the 3 organizations on the poster.  It has a license for use.  It can be printed, sold, whatever you want to do with it.

Download a full size copy or just copy the image from here.  It's full size and pre sized at 8.5x11.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5NJpRCvjyV8bUo5djlXLUxsN2c/edit?usp=sharing



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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Gloucester, VA - Readers Respond To No New Taxes In The County


Please publish this open letter to the Gloucester County Board of Supervisors.

You made the correct decision to not raise taxes on the people of Gloucester; however, why were you considering raising taxes in this economy in the first place?

            To pay for schools that are not needed?
            To make changes to downtown that do not help the businesses located there?

To help you make intelligent choices in the future, I guess you need to be taught what you missed in school for whatever reason.

Why do people live in Gloucester County Virginia?
            Not for the high paying jobs in the county
            Not for the shopping
            Not for looking like every other city/town in the area?

This is a bedroom community where people go to get away from the governments across the river with the restrictions, taxes, and wall-to-wall cars.  Thanks for keeping the toll on the bridge, because that basically keeps us a “gated community,” and it limits the growth and congestion that are in all the other areas of Tidewater.  We want limited taxes, limited restrictions, and limited services.

On the subject of restrictions, why did you vote to approve the Triad suggestions for downtown Gloucester?  Why do we need to do the same thing as everybody else?  We do not need to follow; we do not have the population (tax base) that other areas of tidewater have.  If you want that type of living, you need to move to any other area in Tidewater.  Oh, that’s right – you live here for “low taxes.”  That will not be the case if you go through with the proposed plans.

Do you want people to shop in downtown Gloucester?  Based on the websites of “ The Triad” the answer is no.  However, I would think the business owners would like it to be yes.  Here is a hint for you:  the more they sell, the greater the sales tax income there is for the area as well as employment.  How can you help businesses succeed?  Good question!  Stop making changes to the rules requiring them to spend lots of money to just keep the doors open.  I saw the pictures of what is being done in the Edgewood Shopping Center.  Loss of parking -- resulting in fewer customers and less income.  This causes prices to go up and the businesses to be non competitive with businesses across the water.

I work on the other side of the river and do about half my shopping there because of costs and selection.  I have and do shop local to help local businesses, but the economy does require me to consider prices.  I live here because there are good deals on real estate; however, your artificially high assessments and considering raising taxes hurts the local builders and all of the new subdivisions that are being built.

The downtown proposal for Gloucester would cheapen what we have to start with in the downtown.  I have traveled to many locations in Europe, touring the cities and towns in many countries.  I have also seen a number of the Town Centers that are being built in the US with a lot in Tidewater.  They look like cheap plastic copies of European Cities. But they miss the most important part of the European Cities, the people and character that has developed over the many years they have been there.  Like a new subdivisions they have no charm or character for a number of years.  Compare Historic Williamsburg to any of the Town Centers in the area.  They will never have the character of Historic Williamsburg.

A Registered Voter

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Free MP3 Download.  The Medics - Great Is My Fear is the track for this post.  It's under a Creative Commons lic. 3.0 non commercial/no deriv distribution.  Alternative track very upbeat.  Nice sound.

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Monday, April 22, 2013

Free Royalty Free Gloucester, Virginia Images

Battle of the Hook - By Chuck Thompson of TTC ...
Battle of the Hook - By Chuck Thompson of TTC Media (Photo credit: Battleofthehook)
Battle of the Hook - By Chuck Thompson of TTC ...
Battle of the Hook - By Chuck Thompson of TTC Media (Photo credit: Battleofthehook)
Civil War Monument - by Chuck Thompson of TTC ...
Civil War Monument - by Chuck Thompson of TTC Media (Photo credit: Battleofthehook)
Gloucester Courthouse - By Chuck Thompson of T...
Gloucester Courthouse - By Chuck Thompson of TTC Media (Photo credit: Battleofthehook)
Gloucester Main Street Flower Light Pole Baske...
Gloucester Main Street Flower Light Pole Basket - By Chuck Thompson of TTC Media (Photo credit: Battleofthehook)
Walter Reed Birthplace - By Chuck Thompson of ...
Walter Reed Birthplace - By Chuck Thompson of TTC Media (Photo credit: Battleofthehook)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94782749@N03/sets/72157633198505865/
This is a link to a Gloucester, Virginia photo set on Flickr.  Within this photo set are 47 images at present that are all pre licensed under a Creative Commons license 3.0 usage.  You are free to use the images on web sites, copy or download them and bring them to your local printer, frame them and hang them and even to sell copies of the prints if you so desire.  The only thing to consider is that you must attribute the work to Chuck Thompson of TTC Media no matter how you us them.  If you want to sell copies of the images, you must let people know that they can download the images for free and from where before selling them the print.

  If you frame and hang any of the prints, attribution must still be made for the print.  We expect to have several hundred images on the Flickr site within the next few months all with the same license.  The images vary in size but some are very large poster size images. Derivatives are not allowed from these images.  We also have another photo set on that site of the Battle of the Hook.  Those images are also pre licensed.  Information about those images are available on the Flickr site.

  Of course these images can also be used in newspapers, magazines, book covers and any other commercial us desired.

Bookbuddie


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Gloucester Main Street Association - Marketing 101 With Free Posters


The above picture is what we would expect coming out of the Gloucester Main Street Association for promoting local businesses.  Now the businesses on the above picture are fictitious and not meant to be a true representation of area businesses.  We have been looking at marketing coming from the GMSA for several years and all we have continued to see is the GMSA promoting itself with very little promotion if any for Gloucester Main Street businesses.  

  We spent 15 minutes on the above design creating a high impact visual that creates benefit for shopping local.  The GMSA only markets a slogan mantra that states shop local without any reason why anyone should.  This is why we created the satirical poster on a below post for shop local.  The shop local everyone has been touting has only been a mantra without benefits.

  Since everyone seems clueless on how you are actually supposed to go about marketing local businesses, we decided we have to show you.  So this is marketing 101 for dummies.  (Based on the popular book series).  It's not our place to market local businesses.  There are costs associated with that that would need to be paid.  

  Distribution on the above piece can easily be handled for mere pennies per print.  The Gloucester Main Street Trust talks about branding on one of their PDF's where they are trying to brand the area as the Gloucester Main Street Village.  A name we have decided we really do not like as it is to wordy for one. The area is also not a village.

  The area is the Gloucester Courthouse area.  Defining the business area as Gloucester Main Street is fine in our book, but adding more words to the area just drives one to not even consider it.  Both the GMSA and the GMSPT are trying to brand slogans without benefit.  That simply does not work.  The way you brand is by attaching your branded name to a benefit.  In the above picture, the GMSA would add it's branded slogan and branded image to the piece and pay part of the costs of the advertising piece.

  How the above advertising piece works.  Each picture is a small but highly visual representation of each business being presented.  It's designed to show people what they are missing.  It's designed to create desire to explore.  It's designed to get people saying to themselves that maybe there is something they are missing by not shopping local.  (Benefit).  That's salesmanship, marketing and branding all rolled into one.  That is how you create a high impact advertising piece.

  It has to make you wonder why neither the Gloucester Main Street Association nor the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust has ever done this for local businesses?  You have to ask what the real agenda is behind these two organizations or if they are just run by highly incompetent people.  Looking at the quality of the writing on their two sites, they sure do not seem incompetent.  Potential conclusion?  They are not what they claim to be would be a fair assumption then.  Let's look at what they tell us.

  
First off, from what we understand about the true history of the GMSA, it was not formed as stated above.  It's a direct offshoot of both the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust and the Cook Foundation.  Now here is the inside trick on how they get away with misinformation.  But first a little background.


On the left hand side of the image from the Gloucester Main Street Association's web site, you will read the claim that Gloucester is Virginia's oldest living village.  Not so and they know this for a fact.  They used to claim that Gloucester was the oldest living village in America.  It wasn't until they were challenged that they changed the statement.  But how can we say they know for a fact that Gloucester isn't Virginia's oldest living village?  It's on their other site.  The Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust.

 http://mspt.org/documents/courthouse/1-Introduction.pdf  A link to a PDF file on the GMSPT site.  here is a quick view.


  
Right here they are showing you they know that Gloucester is a break off of Yorktown.  There are a number of areas locally that are much older than Gloucester that can rightfully make the claim that the GMSA keeps making.  Elizabeth City, Henrico City, Jamestown, Yorktown, Charles City are just a few of them.  Lancaster County was incorporated at the same time as Gloucester.

  A direct quote from Jenny Cittenden, "We stand by the claims until they are challenged".  Jenny is the Executive Director of the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust and past director of the Gloucester Main Street Association.  

  What is really disturbing about all of this is the fact that Gloucester County Officials are well aware of these deceptive practices and allow and even encourage them.  Remember Louise Theberge is on the board of the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust.  Louise is the Chairperson on the Gloucester Board of Supervisors, a clear conflict of interest.  

  It's the same for Gloucester, Virginia supposedly the capital of the world for Daffodils.  Not so.  The claim has just not been challenged yet so they will continue to make and promote this claim.  They even put up a wiki on this to help solidify the claim.  

  To be considered a member of the Gloucester Main Street Association  you must pay a yearly fee that ranges on price based on level of membership you want.  If it were really created the way the site describes, you would expect more business promotions than what is actually on the site.


Depending on your level of participation, you can get listed on the business directory of the site.  The above image is from their directory page.


 If you click on a participating business within the directory, this is a typical listing for your business.  If you do not have your own web site, you are out of luck.  Not much information is posted about your business to help you promote your business on the site.

  Isn't that strange for an organization that was supposed to have been formed mostly by businesses to help promote their interests?  The main interests being promoted on the GMSA site is about the GMSA.  The main interests promoted on the GMSPT site is about the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust.  Each promote each other and the parent, the Cook Foundation.  Our very own triad.

  The more we look at each of these organizations we can not help but look back at history and compare these three organizations to the Knights Templar.  Gate keepers and toll collectors looking out for their own interests and charging everyone else that comes along a fee to pass, (Gatekeeper) and new and ever changing landscape that must be paid for to stay in compliance. (Tolls).  


The above image shows what we consider how these organizations work as gatekeepers.  Give away a free service and you can get a ton of personal information that would not normally be shared under other circumstances.  If the person or business has deep pockets, you know exactly where to send them to get the most fees out of them as possible.  You then know where to send them to inside membre services to again continue to get maximum fees from them.  If you do not like the person or the business, you milk them for everything you can and make it impossible for them to open up.  (Gatekeepers).

  

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5NJpRCvjyV8NFZjWERENEk2dFE/edit?usp=sharing  Download it for free.  Licensed under the Creative Commons License 3.0 attribution/no deriv.  Commercial Use is allowed.

A recent reader comment about our satirical poster.
Why are you actively trying damage the image of the Gloucester community? You state in one breath that you like the County and support its businesses and then take action in another that likely has a detrimental affect on those same businesses as they attempt to maintain a profitable enterprise.

We appreciate the comments.

So if you did not understand or appreciate the satirical nature of the poster above, maybe you can now.  It's not meant to be anti business, it's anti triad.  The Cook Foundation, dedicated to the arts has access to plenty of artists that could easily create a high impact advertising piece for the Gloucester Main Street Association and member businesses yet it does not do so.  Why?   These 3 organizations could be making a serious impact promoting businesses along the Gloucester Main Street Business area and just do not do so.  Instead they are busy promoting themselves and collecting fees from everyone else.  They are experts at spending OPM.  (Other People's Money).  

  What we recommend for local area businesses to help promote themselves and lower their costs while doing so is to produce advertising like we have at the top of this article.  You are free to copy what we have presented you.  With 9 businesses getting together to produce one ad, you can get the ad published in numerous periodicals for a much lower cost than each one doing so individually.  Do not look for anyone in the triad to do it for you.  If they had any intention of doing so, it would have been done long ago and would still be done now.

  Also, if anyone is wondering, a lot of the images on the 3 sites, The Cook Foundation, The Gloucester Main Street Association and the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust, all use images on their sites that were donated to them by us back when we supported their efforts and before we really knew what they were all about.  That is how we also got the quote from Jenny Crittenden about how they stand behind the outrageous claims they all make until the claims are challenged.  These 3 organizations however will not credit us for most of the images and that is fine.  We have been making the images available for free on various sites anyway and will be doing so here soon.

   So again, we say we are not anti business,  We are however, anti triad based on what we have already presented on this site and will continue to present.  There is much more that everyone needs to understand about what is really going on in this county.  Not everything is as it seems to be.


Creative Commons License
Gloucester, VA Arts On Main by Satirical Poster by;  Chuck Thompson of TTC Media is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5NJpRCvjyV8cWNaQjNjbEJPVUE/edit?usp=sharing  Download the poster from this link.

This is a new satirical poster designed to poke fun at the Cook Foundation and it's Arts on Main events.  And while we are at it, we need to point out yet another fact.  Why are some of these events designed to work against local businesses instead of help them?  The Gloucester Main Street Association has promoted a farmers market for years and held them at the Main Street District.  Ware Neck Produce is a farmers type market with a brick and mortar building on Main Street.  The farmers market is unfair competition to this local business.  Anyone ever notice that?  The GMSA is helping Ware Neck Produce how?  Ware Neck Produce is a member of the GMSA, but you have to wonder how they felt about all this.  As a member, I would be highly offended.

  Events that have vendors with competing products to the brick and mortar businesses on Main Street, that do not have the overhead expenses, is fair how?  You have to look at all the facts and ask a lot of questions.  

Since we are on a roll here, have you ever noticed that Gloucester is a gated community?  The tolls on the Coleman bridge were supposed to come off after the bridge was paid for.  It was paid for a long time ago.  The tolls are still there however.  Is this by design to keep people out?  We have been thinking of creating another satirical poster that would read as follows.

Gloucester, Virginia
You Have To Pay To Get In
You Have To Pay To Stay
When You Are Done Doing Your Time,
You Are Free To Leave.

The toll is only one way and that is into the county.  It's free when leaving the county.

  In conclusion to this article, we must once again point out that marketing slogans without showing benefits does not work.  Paying for advertising to promote a triad organization and it's slogans only promotes the triad at member expenses.  Local businesses would better be served by getting together with each other and creating their own high impact advertising pieces and all are free to copy our example above.

Free MP3 Download.  Aisllinn - Drops of Brandy - The Mountain Kid is a Celtic upbeat tune.  Lic CC 3.0 embedded in the meta on this track.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5NJpRCvjyV8ZTQwbGtrWkFURUU/edit?usp=sharing

Our way of saying thanks for spending time with us.  Enjoy.


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For all the latest news, please click on the Home button towards the top of this site.
Have a news story? Submit it above.
Some of Gloucester's most incredible history is found on this site in detail.
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We cover what no one else will.

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