Brown Sludge

Brown Sludge… Lunch?

So… one day last week I end up with a free lunch hour. My job is a high pressure sort of affair. Most days it’s necessary that I eat at my desk while I work through some emergency of some sort. I don’t often end up with a chance to eat out.

I lucked into a slow day, and as a result, I lucked into a chance to actually get out of the building and get some sun on my face and lose some of that jail-house pallor I get from being a combat-coder.

I head to one of my favorite places for Tex Mex.

It’s a chain, and not locally owned, but - I knew it to be independent at least, and not (yet) claimed by a big Megabucks Brown Sludge Food Conglomorama.

The food was always “fresh” (one of their big claims to fame) and I (and everyone else I knew) was always amazed that the wait staffs ability to manage the huge lunch crowds that their excellent quality and reasonably priced menus seemed to bring in. Even though it was so crowded they never seemed to be “behind” and the food was always delivered timely and spot-on quality wise.

I headed out to this place - with a big smile on my face - and my usual high expectations.

My first clue should have been the parking lot.

I was about 20 minutes later than the typical “lunch” crowd. I was apprehensive because this place (usually) gets pretty crowded pretty fast. If your too late - your gonna wait. Awhile.

Today though… the parking lot is strangely not crowded. As in… plenty of parking spaces.

No line at the door. Unusual.

No wait once inside. It’s 12:30. Prime Lunch Time. Unusual.

Even though there is no wait inside - I still have to wait a few minutes to get “noticed” and therefore seated. The lady who seats me isn’t the usual girl I remember. I look around and notice that ALL the faces seem new. The usually peppy wait staff that always seemed so “prepared” and “professional” seems to have been replaced by more “typical” restaurant wait staff. Younger. Less well trained. Less “concerned”.

Once I get the menu - I notice a substantial increase on their normally reasonable prices. Entrees that were in the $5.95 - $8.95 range are now going in the $7.95 and $11.95 range. Substantial indeed. I sigh a little bit. Being able to get in and out for under $8 bucks if you were prudent was one the places big draws.

I relax a bit, and just go with the flow. The food is worth it here. Fresh ingredients. Always done really well. So it cost a couple of extra bucks. I’m determined to enjoy my lunch.

I flag the waiter down - and ask for a basket of chips and some salsa. Apparently they were no longer delivered without question. Now you had to ask (beg?) for them. A few minutes pass and no chips and no salsa. I ask again. He shoots me one of those “alright already” looks, and finally brings a basket over.

The salsa seems to be the same, but the chips seem to be a little different. Not fresh and crisp like the times before. More “pre-made”. Blech.

The food comes. (Finally).

Something is really wrong.

The chicken breast isn’t the fresh grilled boneless breast I’m used it. It’s more preformed. Not very good. The rest of the ingredients aren’t fresh anymore either. They all seem to be canned now.

I’m crushed.

I pay my (much bigger bill) and head back to the office - terribly disappointed.

What happened to this place?

I look around the almost empty restaurant and realize that word was out on the place.

A quick Google session yields the answer.

They’ve been purchased.

By one of those aforementioned Big Food Conglomerates.

The pattern is clear. They were like robots, incapable of escaping their basic Greed programming.

Stop training your staff. It’s too expensive and nobody cares anyway. Find ways to decrease cost - even if it means sacrificing quality - and raise prices. Profits go up. For a while anyway.

Until people get wise.

When did this become The American Way? When did it become okay to INSTANTLY try to screw the consumer the minute you purchase a business? When did cutting quality and raising prices become a legitimate tactic? When did the American Consumer decide he was going to accept being treated this way?

I wonder.

It’s not enough to Talk the Talk.
You gotta Walk the Walk.

The Walk:

I vow to never set foot in this restaurant again. I also did the legwork necessary to find out which OTHER restaurants the Brown Sludge Monster that operates this chain owns, and I vow never to set foot into one of THEM either.

I’ve also promised myself I’ll check periodically to see what other independents they’ve gobbled up - and steer clear of them as well.

I’ve often heard of the “7/11″ rule of Customer Satisfaction. The Old Saw general goes something like “A happy customer by word of mouth will bring you 7 new customers - an UNhappy customer will cost you 11 potential new customers”.

I’m dedicating to doing my part to make sure that old saying rings true.

Add comment October 31st, 2005

Why Brown Sludge?

Brown Sludge?

What is “Brown Sludge” all about?

In a word?

It’s about “corporatism”.

Now, corporatism is a tricky word. It’s been around for a long, long time, and it has come to have a few different meanings.

One of those meanings is an older traditional meaning that has its roots way back in the days of European feudalism and represents the way that different socio-economic classes used to organize themselves so they would be included in state politics.

But… there is another more modern, pejorative meaning that is generally accepted to refer to the way in which today’s corporations, aided by a willing government via legislation and unrestricted lobbying, are growing in power and influence at the expense of the public’s welfare.

This later definition is the sun around which the term Brown Sludge orbits.

What do you get when you take every good, nutritious, vital thing – and process it completely. Grinding down into it’s base elements and stripping it of all nutrition. What comes out on the other end? Brown Sludge of course.

Remember when you were a child in school, and your art teacher explained to you that the color White was the “absence” of all color, and that Black was the “presence” of all color? The idea was that when you stripped out all of the colors of the spectrum – you were left with white, and when you blended every color together – you ended up with black.

So… when it came time to paint – you mixed all those thick beautiful tempura colors together – and got what? Not the literal black that you expected. Instead you got a grotesque brown color – the color of… sludge. You’d seen that crass color before of course. It’s when you suddenly understood that combining all things together and mixing them mercilessly would always yield something that sickly brown and viscous. That color and texture of all things that have been “digested”.

Every day in almost every city across the country, the forces of greed and corporatism are consuming and then digesting the true American way of life.

The original Independent Small Businessman doesn’t stand a chance against Behemoth Big Box Monsters.

The original American Consumer doesn’t stand a chance against a culture that has legitimized Greed as a legitimate business tactic.

Your Community doesn’t’ stand a chance either. When every Independent Local Businessman has been ground into Brown Sludge, and soulless corporations are leeching the money and resources that *should* be going back into YOUR Community, what will be left? Who will you work for?

It’s time.

It’s time we de-legitimize the Culture of Corporate Greed.
It’s time we let our politicians know that the price to be paid for selling their soul to Big Money Corporate Lobbyists is to be voted out of a job, and into obscurity.
It’s time we neuter Big Corporate Money’s ability to buy favorable legislation by making it swift and terrible political death to any politician who accepts it.

It’s time we return to our roots and learn the high price we pay for those low prices that our own greed drives us to seek out.

It starts here.

It starts today.

It’s not enough to Talk the Talk.
You gotta Walk the Walk.

The Walk:

I quit my job working for a Fortune 100 Brown Sludge Monster - one of the worst of the worst - and just walked away.
I found a job with a local, independently owned company that isn’t publically traded and went to work for them.
I ponied up the money for this Blog (this is significant, when you’re struggling to make ends meet - a couple hundred dollars for a domain and hosting package and all the associated extras is meaningful).

Feels good.

Add comment October 30th, 2005