Photo of Andy Arthur

Andy Arthur

October and already the leaves are fading away in the Adirondacks. ๐Ÿ‚ Most shocking to me is that we are less then a month away from November, which in many ways should be a sigh of relief with the craziness of work and with the deep blue skies and crisp days of that month.

Is corporate greed to blame? : NPR

Grocery price inflation: Is corporate greed to blame? : NPR

NPR crunched financial disclosures by a dozen of the largest grocery-item makers and sellers, including Walmart, Pepsi, Oreo-maker Mondelez and Procter & Gamble, which makes Pampers and Bounty.

The idea was to track changes not in the sheer dollar amount, which rides the waves of our shopping sprees, but in the percentage of money that stays in corporate coffers after a sale. Economists and accountants use different metrics for this. The gross profit margin is one of them — the portion that companies keep after paying just the direct costs to make or stock their goods.

Companies' financial disclosures cover global operations, meaning lots of variety in costs and prices. But for almost all companies that NPR analyzed, between 2018 and 2023 the margins either declined or grew less than 1%.

Beautiful Morning

Cruzing along the bike trail heading into the office. Blowing past the stopped traffic on Interstate 787 and South Pearl, watching as that yacht cruises down along the river. One of those great September mornings.

Taken on Monday September 9, 2024 at Albany Corning Preserve.

Where have all the flowers gone? ๐ŸŒธ

Mid September is kind of an odd season, one where you are really looking forward to the brilliant colors of autumn and the crisp mornings but you also know much too soon the days will be short, skies gray, air cold and snowy and leaves brown.

Up at five o’clock, making coffee โ˜•, slicing apples ๐Ÿ and frying up onions ๐Ÿง… to have with eggs once I get to store ๐Ÿณ and get milk. ๐Ÿฎ You can smell the silage being chopped on the air ๐Ÿ‘ƒ as autumn rapidly approaches on this cool early autumn morning.

Monday morning, a five day week, though I plan to work remote on Friday the 13th ๐Ÿ–ฅ hopefully some place much nicer then the Delmar.ย  Moratorium is in effect which should slow down the rate the state work is coming to my desk, though I’ll be in early to get any work done before heading over to the campaign committee later in theย  day. Now a lot of it’s going to be preparing for 2025.

The goal is leave for work around 7 AM and be in the office sometime between 7:30 and 7:45 am this morning. Bringing the rain coat ๐Ÿงฅ as it’s likely to be raining at the end of day โ˜” but getting wet then won’t ruin me. I can always catch the bus home from the old train station, or store my bike in my office overnight ๐Ÿข and catch the shuttle ๐Ÿš€ to the Plaza if it’s an absolute downpour. Or work late until the rain stops. There’s always more work to do.