DUE TO UNFORTUNATE FINANCIAL CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND OUR CONTROL, THE CITY OF HARRISBURG WILL BE CLOSING IMMEDIATELY.  ALL WILD WEST ARTIFACTS, PARKING GARAGES, AND INCINERATORS ARE ONLY $4 EACH.  THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO GET A SOUVENIR BEAVER FOR ONLY $9 OR A MIDTOWN SINKHOLE FOR $15.

My first thought was that this was nothing more than a poorly-executed promotional gimmick.  I mean, come on — who doesn’t know that their city is on the verge of shutdown at least several months in advance?  Mayor Thompson may be dense, but even she’s been acknowledging that the city is in poor financial shape since before her first day in office.

But the more I thought about it, I began to realize that absolutely nobody is this classless.  Nobody is this mean.  Nobody has so much disregard for their neighbors that they’d resort to such a deplorable tactic.  The thought of faking a “going out of business” notice just to drum up business for the city is just vile and would shred whatever reputation the city had left.

So it’s pretty obvious at this point that the city isn’t fooling around.  Clearly this is an honest case of the city making a good-faith, last-ditch effort to drum up some revenue in order to pay final bills.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and I’m certain they’ve done it with only the best intentions.  I implore my fellow Burgers to come out for one final Harrisburg Huzzah, as I am 100% confident that this is absolutely, positively, not a promotional stunt.

Unless they’re still open tomorrow, of course.

If you don’t already know, Centralia is a tiny town about an hour north of Harrisburg.  In the 1960s, a trash fire ignited a coal vein and started an underground mine fire that has been burning ever since.  During the winter months, the ground can be hot to the touch.  Smoke escapes from vents and cracks in the ground year-round.  Trees are bleached white and the entire valley reeks of sulfur.  A four-lane highway — PA Route 61 — was abandoned in the mid-90s after a land subsidence destroyed the road.  Several years ago I flew a Cessna 172 up there, and from the air the “town” is an eerie patchwork of long-abandoned paved streets.

Concrete City is, in a word, depressing.  It is a series of concrete homes built in 1911 for use by management of a Nanticoke coal mine.  And when I say “concrete homes”, I mean that they used poured-in-place concrete.  Not cinderblocks, not just concrete foundations, not just concrete shells, but the entire house — literally every square inch of every wall, floor, and ceiling — is cast-in-place concrete.  Local lore states that the city of Nanticoke tried to demolish the buildings for safety reasons, but generous use of TNT only succeeded in lightly damaging one building.  As such, they were deemed too expensive to demolish and left alone for nearly a century.

Both of these locations provide ample, unique photo opportunities for documenting severe urban decay and a tiny fragment of some of the more unusual history of Pennsylvania.  If nothing else, they both just look cool.

I don’t have an exact date yet, but I’m thinking it will be a Saturday in late September with an alternate date in early October.  As with the Turnpike Hike, both of these locations carry some risk of serious injury.  Concrete City itself is especially dangerous; those buildings haven’t seen maintenance in well over half a century, and a number of them are leaning badly.  Because of the nature of both of these places, this probably isn’t a good trip on which to bring small children.

Centralia is about an hour up I-81.  Concrete City is about another hour past that.  And the return trip is just over 90 minutes.  Driving will be about 85% Interstate, and we’ll obviously be carpooling.  The plan is to leave Harrisburg early in the morning, spend some time in Centralia, stop in Hazleton or Wilkes-Barre somewhere for lunch, visit Concrete City, and then head home.  This will be an all-day, 8-to-5-ish trip.

Further details as events warrant…

Circuit City announced last week that they’re finally throwing in the towel. Kaput. Finished. They’re closing all remaining stores and liquifying all of their inventory. Most consumers will automatically assume that sales of “up to 50% off” are a good bargain. Unfortunately, they aren’t; that Blu-Ray DVD player that you saw for “20% off” at Circuit City may actually cost more than the exact same model at Best Buy.

Years ago we used to have some laws on the books to protect consumers from this sort of thing, but I think they vanished at some point during our, uh, “corporate-friendly” mentality of the past decade.

Basically, what happens is simple. As a hypothetical example, let’s say that there’s an LG 52″ 1080p LCD TV at Best Buy for $1200. And let’s say Circuit City was selling the exact same model a week ago for $1250. MSRP on this particular model is $2000. Now that Circuit City has transferred control of their retail stores to liquidation companies, said companies will immediately adjust pricing on just about everything in the store. What this means is that they will take that $2000 MSRP TV, “mark it down” by 20%, and sell it for $1600. Consumers will walk in, see the eye-gouging “OMG 20% OFF” signage throughout the store, and immediately buy, thinking they’re getting a great deal. In reality, they just lost $400.

Another common tactic is creative interpretation of words like “was” and “previously”. Wal Mart is notorious for this, and they’re not even going out of business.

When a store shows an item on sale and lists a “was” price, it only means that someone, somewhere, at one point in history, listed that exact same item for sale at the “was” price. For example, I bought my mom a 42″ HDTV at Wal Mart for $848 (not on sale) back in September. Just a few days ago, I saw that exact model in-store “on sale” for $858. “Rollback,” the sign said. “Was $958″. Again, a less-educated customer only sees that it’s been “marked down” $100, and instantly assumes they’re getting a good deal. Good for Wal Mart shareholders, bad for you.

Bulk items are another favorite of liquidators. Quick: If a 30-pack of blank DVD-Rs is $8.99 and the 250-pack is $79.99, which is the best deal? Since you’re reading this, you’ve probably already guessed that the 30-pack is cheapest at $.29 / disc (compared with the 250-pack at $.31 / disc). Most consumers, however, always assume that buying in bulk is cheapest. Be wary; always divide the price by the number of units (be it DVDs, ounces, or something else entirely).

A lot of this seems like common knowledge, but … well, to be blunt, most consumers are fairly easy to manipulate. Liquidation companies thrive on that; they have made a very profitable business out of knowing that consumers will buy a more expensive item as long as it says “OMG SALE” on it somewhere.

So before you head out to Circuit City searching for great deals, do yourself a favor and check prices online at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, & Costco / Sam’s. Especially on big-ticket items, you may wind up saving yourself a major bundle of cash.

One final word of advice: When Hilco Trading commenced liquidation of the Circuit City stores that closed last November, they immediately implemented a “no refund under any circumstances” policy. Curiously, they also implemented a strict policy of refusing to allow customers to inspect merchandise prior to purchase. If Circuit City is doing this again with their current liquidator, stay far, far away. If you buy an item that has been damaged in some way, you’re SOL. The manufacturer won’t cover damage under the warranty, and Circuit City won’t take it back.

You know, come to think of it, maybe you should just shop at Newegg instead.

Location.  Over the last month, a few people have suggested finding a new venue for the Tweetups.  As best as I can gather, the concerns are mostly over the lack of reliable WiFi as well as being drowned out by Open Mic night.  Roxbury has offered us use of his downtown space (on State Street, a few doors down from the capitol) to host the Tweetups. 

Schedule.  Pretty much ever since we started having public Tweetups earlier this year, the idea of find a new date and/or time has been floated repeatedly.  While we’re not going to find a time that works for everybody all the time, I think it’s important that the time is as convenient for as many people as possible, as often as possible.

Harrisburg Wiki.  The idea of having a centralized local Twitterer directory has been raised several times.  I have the bandwidth, disk space, and CPU power to host just about anything, and I’m happy to do so for free.  What format should this take?  A static list of Twitter users?  A full-blown community site where everybody has their own page?  Should we resurrect the Harrisburg Wiki (currently idling at midstatewiki.com)?

Bring your ideas and opinions.  If you can’t make the meeting, we’ll be paralleling the major points on Twitter in some fashion (and I’m sure @KathleenLD will be broadcasting again!).  As always, the tweetups are open to anyone who has a Twitter account and/or blog.  Hope to see you there!

1. Go now.  Nothing in the store is over $20, so prices are already awesome.  If you wait for the liquidation to start, odds are good that their selection will be poor.
2. Go to the store in the Schuylkill Mall.  Not only is this mall a fascinating enigma of 1970s-era planning gone horribly horribly wrong, but the Lancaster Steve & Barry’s is dark and tiny.  This one is huge and bright.  Added bonus:  They have a Chick-Fil-A.

As I pointed out the last time, everything in the store is cheap.  DIRT cheap.  A few weeks ago I picked up two wool coats, 8 dress shirts, two pairs of gloves, two polos, and two pullovers for a total of $110.  None of it was top-shelf quality, but it was all far-better-looking and far-better-made than what you’d get at Target for twice the price.  Their jeans are the exception; all the jeans I’ve bought from there have out-lasted all my other jeans.  No fade whatsoever.  Awesome.  Go; you won’t be disappointed unless you wait.

While I was digging around for this story, I came across a few other disturbing retail trends.  Rite Aid, for example, is back down to 1999-era post-fraud-announcement prices of 41 cents per share, putting it down 90% from its 52-week high.  It’s in the same boat as The Bon Ton ($1.13 per share, down from $15.06). You can buy a share of Talbot’s for half the price of a pint of water at HersheyPark, and McDonald’s refused to list Pier 1 on their Dollar Menu because it’s not expensive enough.  Even Sprint, the only publicly-traded wireless company, is being beaten down to $2.33 / share (and believe me, that’s low even for Sprint).  Circuit City, Tweeter, Boscov’s, and Linens & Things have already filed for bankruptcy.  And don’t even get me started on the whole GM / Ford / Chrysler LLC nonsense.

Of course, stock prices aren’t the sole factor in determining a company’s health.  But they’re a good early warning sign that trouble is a-brewin’.  And when I ducked out of the retail industry in late 2006, when I traded in my well-rounded management career for a shiny new IT career, my timing wasn’t accidental.  Consumer confidence had been slipping for years.  I saw this coming.  With payroll being most retail organizations’ single biggest expense, it stands to reason that staff trimmings are the first line of defense against a sagging economy.

(Well, smart development, conservative growth, and fiscal responsibility are actually the first three defenses, but nobody bothers with those pesky ideals anymore.)

So with Thanksgiving just a few days away, I’m thankful that I’m working for what is arguably one of the most critical (not to mention noble) state agencies.  I’m thankful that as far as job security goes, I’ve got about the best that anyone can hope for.  I’m thankful for my new promotion, and I’m thankful that said promotion has me playing with one-of-a-kind mobile data environments.  I’m thankful that democracy continues to triumph.  I’m thankful for the fact that, as of this exact instant, I haven’t yet been run over by a bus, eaten by an elephant, or gored by a giant squid.  And of course, it goes without saying that I’m thankful for all the standard fare:  my health, my well-being, my family and friends, and the like.  Perhaps most importantly, I’m thankful that I’m fortunate enough to be able to consider those things “standard fare”.

I’m going to be heading up to Parts North for Thanksgiving weekend, so I’m temporarily shutting down my short-lived re-Twitterizing.  Have a happy and safe holiday!

I’ve been pretty much absent from the social media / blogging scene for the past few weeks, so I really didn’t get the chance to hype up this month’s tweetup as much as usual.  I’m working a ridiculous amount of overtime (almost 80 hours per week in total).  What little time I have left is dedicated to sleeping, grocery shopping, and not having a social life (in that order).  On the plus side I’ll have my student / flight training loans paid in full by early next year ( saving me 9 years of monthly payments and compounding interest), but the downside is not having enough time to do much of anything at all.

Nonetheless, tonight’s Tweetup was fun!  I was a little disappointed in my Bear Chili (“made from ground beef (not bear)”, the menu says), officially making this the first time I’ve had un-awesome food at ABC.  Also, the ever-flaky WiFi was completely out, so we were relegated to using cell phones for Twitter access (the horror!).

The fall weather was perfectly crisp for our final deck Tweetup of the year.  Just enough chill to let you know we’re in mid-September, but not unbearably cold (though we did move inside mid-way through).  That’s my kind of weather!  Next month we’ll be indoors (just look for the pile of laptops), and I promise to let everybody know about it further in advance.  See you then!

“Before I met the Harrisburg Tweeters, they weren’t much different from the people I followed [on Twitter] all around the country,” Danielson said. “But once I met some of them in person, an actual relationship formed and it changes the way you interact on Twitter. Now that people have met me, they know I’m the young one, and for me that’s a blast, because a lot of times I feel like everybody’s kid sister.”

The blogHarrisburg tweetups have really made an impact on our local blogging & Tweeting community.  Sure, we all know each other’s screen names and general online personality.  But actually getting together in a casual social setting — where you can put a face to the URL — creates an irreplaceable, special community among us.

After reading the article, it looks like everyone else feels pretty much the same.  When I launched blogHarrisburg back in 2006, this was exactly the kind of community I had hoped to help develop.  So to everyone who’s been coming out to the tweetups, and to anyone who’s planning on coming to a future tweetup, thanks!

Right now we’re in a sweet spot for home-efficiency improvements.  Utility costs are rising, and both PPL and Met Ed have announced their intention to spike the hell out of your prices by 2011.  But the cost of many inexpensive improvements either has not risen, or better yet, continues to fall.  Compact flourescent lights, for example:  They can now be bought in bulk for about $1 each, and they use about 65% less electricity than an incandescent or halogen bulb.  Now is the probably the best time in history to look around your home and save some cash.  Here’s what I’ve done so far:

About three years ago I switched my house over to all-flourescent lighting.  Every bulb in every socket — including my outdoor dusk-to-dawn security lighting — was replaced all at once.  My electric bill immediately went down about $15 / month.  The upgrade has since paid for itself several times over.  My brand-new master bathroom remodel replaced all of my light sockets, and I decided to purchase color-accurate CFL bulbs to replace my old “economy” CFLs.  At a price of about $1.50 each, I was really impressed with the color temperature of the new bulbs, as well as the “instant on at full brightness” characteristic so lacking in older models.

This past spring I had my roof re-insulated.  It was a 30-minute job using blown-in insulation in every available inch of crawlspace.  Now, instead of my central air running continuously to barely keep the house under 80, it switches on and off holding the house around 70 even on those mid-90s days a few weeks back.  The job cost me about $300; I estimate it’ll save me about $50 / month during the summer months, to say nothing of how much it will help my $300-a-month winter heating bill.

This fall, before the worst cold weather hits, I’m going to replace about half of my windows with heavily-insulated thermal pane windows.  What’s in there right now is terrible, even with the plastic sheeting.  The ones I was eyeing up are about $300 at Lowes, and my contractor is charging $50 each to install them.  I’m not sure that I’ll break even on this before I sell the house next year, but they’ll definitely add resale value.

Since I learned how unbelievably easy drywall is to install, I’m going to remove all the 20-year-old, horribly-installed drywall from the walls of my home.  Not only will I be dropping in the 1/2-inch fire-code stuff, but I plan on pulling out the insulation (also 20 years old, and apparently of the cheapest possible variety) and re-wrapping the house room-by-room from the inside.  Total cost?  A few hundred bucks; maybe a grand at the most.  The cost of the insulation is guaranteed to pay for itself within a year, and the drywall will make a huge cosmetic improvement.

The only thing I haven’t really looked into yet is insulating my HVAC ducts.  Being metal they obviously leak a lot of thermal energy.  Has anyone done this?  I also need to basically rebuild / replace my door frames to get rid of the 1/4″ gap around the entire door; my solution of duct tape is growing a little too redneck anymore.

I know, I know. This post was really more of an excuse to show off that I’m going to see Infected Mushroom and to link to a video using that PQM track.

EDIT – fixed the Infected Mushroom link to point at the actual video