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Junkyard Management

Clutter Sells

Here’s a junkyard lesson that I never consciously knew was true, but once I read an article in the New York Times it struck me as obvious: Americans equate clutter with bargains.

The more inventory that is piled onto shelves, stacked in the middle of aisles, and generally creating a sloppy look around the store, the more shoppers equate your prices with bargains. This is apparently the new trend in retails stores, especially after Wal-Mart’s recent “make it sleeker and slimmer” makeover failed miserably.

If you have a neat, clean, well organized, minimalist layout in your store, your customers think …

Goble Properties, Junkyard Management,

The Wisdom of Walt

Walt turned 98 last month. He’s the oldest employee at Goble Properties. Yes, he really is on our payroll, and he really does show up for work. Not a full forty hours a week, but he’s still on call whenever we need an old school solution to a problem.

My father hired Walt nearly 40-years ago to do some maintenance work. Nobody has worked harder for the family company since then. And nobody knows how to fix things — anything — like Walt.

The hardest I ever worked was the summer I poured concrete with Walt at our family ranch. …

Family, Goble Properties, Junkyard Management,

Call Lloyd

My friend Lloyd retired last week. He didn’t really want to retire. What he wanted to do was go on vacation and never come back. Which I guess he did. He’s on vacation now in Kauai, where he plans to stay for the rest of his life.

Lloyd has worked for my family for about 30 years. From the junkyard to the warehouses, he fixed, swept, repaired, tuned, tweaked, oiled, overhauled, or patched just about everything we’ve owned. Lloyd was the guy I’d call when I had something I couldn’t figure out. Windshield cracked? Call Lloyd. The toy railroad track …

Junkyard Management, Random Thoughts,

Civility, Humility, Tragedy

The tragic violence in Tucson has led to more conversation about civility in our society. Whether the action of an unstable young man was fueled by the violent language of politics or not is important, of course. I tend to think that he was not. But having said that, this is the time to reflect on a key point that too many have forgotten: our words matter.

Democratic Congressman and Methodist minister Emanuel Cleaver said it well, “Whether the shooter was inspired by speech or not to do his dastardly deeds is irrelevant. The truth of the matter is the …

Goble Properties, Junkyard Management, Random Thoughts,

Competition

I’ve been thinking a lot about competition lately. We compete in business, politics, global affairs, sports, and even in many personal pursuits (I know people who live in angst because they have fewer twitter followers than a competitor). Competition can be good because it can bring out the best in us, but other times it can be ugly and harmful. The trick is knowing how to manage our competitive instincts.

One easy junkyard tip to share on this is to first identify who your competition is.

A recent conversation had me thinking about how our competitive natures can interfere with …

Book Reviews, Junkyard Management,

Attila, by John Man

It was common to have customers who couldn’t pay their bills at the junkyard. People would buy parts on credit, be unable to pay the bill, and we’d end up having to chase them down. It was even more common in property management; tenants regularly fell behind on their rent.

When this happened, in would step our favorite bill collecting agency and process server: Attila the Hun School of Charm. Seriously, that was the business name! And they did a great job. All of the guys working there looked like Hells Angels, so they had a knack for getting …

Junkyard Management, Random Thoughts,

National Prozac

What this country needs now is a giant dose of Prozac.

It really amazes me how much whining is going on these days. People worry about all kinds of things, the bulk of which are issues that exist only in the imagination of cable news producers. All of this national angst seems to come out in the form of fear. There is fear of a “double dip” recession despite the fact that corporate earnings are breaking records. There is fear of the rise of China, despite the fact that our economy is still 3 times as large. There is fear …

Family, Goble Properties, Junkyard Management,

New Blog!

Today marks the first day that Junkyard Wisdom has gone live under its own domain. I’m excited about that and eager to add new elements to the blog. Any suggestions?

To start it off, I thought I’d share a fun family photograph of the junkyard. This is an old photo in bad condition, but it strikes a chord with me because it is so…well, it’s so junkyard. I remember seeing my Dad in exactly this pose many times, and I remember the clutter and chaos of the stuff that filled the place. Somebody suggested I have it restored. But I …