This Holiday Season

This Holiday Season has Pressure to deliver

For FedEx, UPS holiday challenge includes throwing off the thieves

 

FedEx courier

Bob Hazelton knows South Boston inside out. A 19-year veteran of the company, he winds his way easily through the busy streets, following whatever route he thinks will let him make 100 or more daily stops most efficiently.

At this time of year, however, the routine changes. Hazelton is more aware of people who don’t seem to belong­ on a certain corner. He scans the area before deciding to leave a package at the front door. He may turn left where he usually turns right.

“During the busiest season, you try to mix it up a bit, just in case you’re being­ followed,” he said.

Since retailers first took to the ­Internet, the holiday season has created a shipping frenzy in November and December. This year, however, record numbers of consumers are heading to their nearest computers to do their shopping.

Thursday will be the busiest package-delivery­ day for the Postal Service as well as for UPS, which expects to distribute 28 million packages globally, up from 27 million last year. Its rival­ FedEx experienced its busiest day ever on Dec. 10, with some 19 million packages moving through its system worldwide, a 10 percent increase over last year’s peak day.

With this e-commerce boom, shipping companies must also grapple with the annual influx of package thieves who snatch newly delivered parcels from doorsteps and building lobbies. This year is no exception.

“Every year we deal with holiday theft,” said UPS spokeswoman Natalie Godwin. “Criminals will follow behind the truck.”

Three women were arrested in Stoneham earlier this month for allegedly following a delivery truck and pilfering the packages it left for customers. Similar thefts have been reported in several other places, including Cambridge, Wellesley, and Southborough.

For the police, watching for such crimes can be tricky, said Deputy Superintendent Jack Albert of the Cambridge Police Department.

Last year, thieves concentrated on certain parts of Harvard and Central squares, Albert­ said. Police distributed flyers throughout the neighborhoods and passed on alerts to building managers.

But when thieves are not working in an area that they are known to target, it is difficult to know where they will strike next, Albert said. This year, there has been no pattern detected, he said.

“We do put out extra patrols during the holidays, but it is very difficult to patrol for packages,” he said.

UPS tackles the problem, in part, by using technology, Godwin said. The company’s new online My choice service sends customers free text or e-mail alerts 24 hours before a package is scheduled to arrive.

Those using the basic service can reschedule the delivery, redirect it to another address, or have it delivered to a UPS retail location for a $5 fee.

The premium service, which costs $40 a year, gives members these options at no additional charge and lets users track their shipments and provide instructions to leave parcels on a back porch, in a garage, or in any other designated spot.

FedEx offers the option of having packages delivered, at no additional charge, to one of the company’s locations, rather than to a customer’s door.

Drivers are trained to watch out for vehicles that may be following them and to assess whether a delivery can be made securely, said Patti Yandle, a manager at the FedEx station in South Boston.

“It is his discretion whether it is a safe place to leave a package,” she said.

It is a decision that couriers will be making more than ever this year.

Online spending between Nov. 3 and Dec. 10 was up 13 percent over the same period last year, to a record high of $29.2 billion, according to a report released last week by the digital business analytics firm comScore.

To deal with the holiday rush, FedEx adds hours to the schedules of part-time drivers that it has hired throughout the fall, and full-timers work a bit harder.

“There’s no vacation, no scheduled time off,” Yandle said. “We have everybody here unless there’s an emergency.”

UPS follows a different strategy, adding about 55,000 seasonal employees to its US workforce of 322,000, company spokeswoman Godwin said.

Some online sellers are also adding options that increase the security of deliveries.

The Amazon Locker program lets buyers have their purchases delivered to a secure locker in a retail store, to be picked up at the buyers’ convenience.

The Boston area does not yet have any lockers available, according to an Amazon.com search.

This Article was pulled from the boston globe Newspaper. You have to say Fedex does deliver. I do not work for fedex. but I  do get my packages on time...

Something I noticed While I was driving around today

What I noticed was disappearing restaurants.

In the past 10 years, some of America’s biggest food chains have lost more than 50 percent of their sales as they closed hundreds of locations nationwide.
These restaurants, which include former American staples such as Big Boy, Ponderosa and Bennigan’s have not been able to maintain a steady crowd. They have failed to update their brand or menu options. As a result, locations have been closed in favor of a new generation of eateries. Based on data provided by food industry consulting and research firm Technomic Inc., 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the large restaurant chains with the biggest decline in locations and sales between 2001 and 2011.

Restaurant brands are facing new challenges, Darren Tristano, Executive Vice President of  Technomic, told 24/7 Wall St. in an interview. “What’s happening today is that the contemporization of restaurants is creating a new breed, a new generation of restaurant in a competitive environment.” The struggling brands, which “tend to be older in nature," Tristano said "have not kept up with current generations, or have been dominated by new competition within the segment.”

The type of cuisine these restaurants offer has also played a major role in their decline. In the case of barbecue establishments such as Damon’s and Tony Roma’s, competition isn't the problem. Rather, the barbecue segment as a whole is performing poorly because it's a necessarily limited cuisine. Tristano explained that this is in large part due to the fact that barbecue typically tends to attract male customers more than women. It also isn’t a meal diners tend to eat every day. Tony Roma’s sales declined by more than 70 percent between 2001 and 2011, while Damon’s sales fell by more than 75 percent.
Other chains are in segments that are doing fine, but the restaurant is losing out to newer chains with exciting brands and new offerings. TCBY, the frozen yogurt chain that experienced meteoric growth starting in the 1980s, has been cooling off for years. Traditional ice cream chains such as Coldstone Creamery have eaten into its sales, as have new frozen yogurt establishments such as Pinkberry. In 2001, there were 1,777 TCBY locations across the country. By 2011, there were just 405.
Many of the restaurants with the biggest declines in sales saw their heyday come and go several decades ago. Of the 10 chains with the biggest declines, eight have filed for bankruptcy in the past decade. In some cases, hundreds of locations were closed overnight. The chains were either then purchased or resumed operations only once the company emerged from bankruptcy. The remaining franchises continued to operate. But reinvigorating these brands will be an uphill battle.
The recent economic recession has further made the recovery of these brands challenging. While it is clear that actively pressing into new markets is necessary to keep these restaurants growing, these chains have been forced to devote most of their resources just to remaining afloat. Tristano explained, “The economy’s been a big negative for these restaurants trying to gain traction or even grow, and so in many cases they’ve actually just continued to struggle and close units that were underperforming.”


Based on sales data provided by Technomic, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the restaurant chains that had 60 percent or greater declines in the number of actual store locations operating from 2001 to 2011. In order to identify the chains that were once the biggest, restaurants had to have sales of at least $225 million in 2001 and experience 50 percent or greater declines in sales over the same period.
1. Bennigan’s
·         Percent of stores closed: 88.2 percent
·         Total stores: 33
·         Stores closed: 247
·         2011 sales: $62 million
·         Percent decline in sales: -89.0 percent
In the past 10 years, no major restaurant has lost as much of its business as Bennigan's. The Irish-themed restaurant and bar’s parent company, Metromedia Restaurant Group, filed for bankruptcy in 2008. After declaring bankruptcy, Bennigan's abruptly shut almost all of its franchises. As of last year, there were just 33 Bennigan's restaurants and the chain’s sales for the year totaled just $62 million -- more than half a billion dollars less than the chain’s 2001 sales. Despite these events, there is some hope for Bennigan’s -- and perhaps some of the other chains on this list: a group of investors purchased the company and plans to open new locations. Technomic described one of the group’s new locations in Appleton, Wisc., as taking “all the best features of the casual dining restaurant today.”
2. Ground Round Grill & Bar
·         Percent of stores closed: 80.9 percent
·         Total stores: 25
·         Stores closed: 106
·         2011 sales: $37.5 million
·         Percent decline in sales: -83.4 percent
Ground Round is a family style dining chain, founded in 1969 to provide a “‘neighborhood pub’ experience where everyone, including couples and families, felt comfortable.” Like a number of other chains on this list, Ground Round declared bankruptcy relatively recently. However, unlike other disappearing restaurants, after its bankruptcy in 2004, the chain was bought by its former franchisees. Despite the change in ownership, the chain has struggled to survive in recent years, maintaining just 25 restaurants in 2011.
3. Country Kitchen
·         Percent of stores closed: 79.1 percent
·         Total stores: 52
·         Stores closed: 197
·         2011 sales: $44 million
·         Percent decline in sales: -82.4 percent
Country Kitchen was started in 1939 as a hamburger stand in Cincinnati, Ohio, and has been a national chain since 1958. Currently, however, it is concentrated in the Midwest and Plains states. In recent years, the chain has struggled to continue attracting customers. According to Technomic’s Tristano, the restaurant exists in the highly competitive mid-scale family style market, which has been crowded out by fast-casual dining. Between 2001 and 2011, Country Kitchen closed almost 200 locations, with the total number of restaurants falling from 249 to 52, as sales declined by more than 80 percent during the same period.

Ground Round Grill & Sports Bar

·         Percent of stores closed: 78.1 percent
·         Total stores: 30
·         Stores closed: 107
·         2011 sales: $70 million
·         Percent decline in sales: -75.4 percent
Damon’s was founded in 1979 and is currently based in Columbus, Ohio. It “is a leading full-service, casual dining restaurant concept” with locations in the Midwest and Southeast United States, as well as in the United Kingdom. The chain, which is part of the struggling full-service barbecue restaurant segment, filed for bankruptcy in 2009. According to Tristano, other restaurants have increasingly offered much of the food found on a Damon’s menu. As of 2011, Damon’s had just $70 million in sales, down more than 75 percent from 2001 when it had nearly $285 million in sales.
5. TCBY
·         Percent of stores closed: 77.2 percent
·         Total stores: 405
·         Stores closed: 1,372
·         2011 sales: $98 million
·         Percent decline in sales: -60.4 percent
TCBY started in 1981 in Arkansas as “the country’s first frozen yogurt shop.” The chain was purchased by Mrs. Fields Holdings in 2000. At the time, the Chicago Tribune noted that “both TCBY and Mrs. Fields have considerable [brand] equity among consumers,” and that “in the still-escalating fast-service wars, it makes sense for operators to offer more than one product in order to create more traffic.” Despite this optimism, the combined company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008, and again required a restructuring deal to avoid bankruptcy last year. Between 2001 to 2011, TCBY shut well over 1,300 stores, leaving just 405 locations as of 2011.

I was on internet this morning and noticed this article.... wow




   


Spanish police arrested a Panamanian woman on Wednesday who landed in Barcelona from Bogota, Colombia with cocaine stuffed inside her breast implants.
The woman was taken to the police at Barcelona's El Prat airport after her vague answers to questions about the reasons for her trip from Bogota raised suspicion at the border control, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Spanish authorities carry out rigorous checks of passengers arriving on so-called "hot flights" from Latin America, to fight drug smuggling.
When border police discovered fresh scars and blood-stained gauze on the woman's chest she was taken to a nearby hospital to check her claim that she had recently undergone breast implant surgery.
The implants were found to carry 1.38 kg of cocaine.


What do you think

Setting Goals

Planning to Live Your Life Your Way

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Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile.
A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!
Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality.
The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

Why Set Goals?

Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.
By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your confidence, as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you've set.

Starting to Set Personal Goals

You set your goals on a number of levels:

• First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.

This is why we start the process of goal setting by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.

Step 1: Setting Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.
To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you):

• Career - What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
• Financial - How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
• Education - Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
• Family - Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
• Artistic - Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
• Attitude - Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
• Physical - Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
• Pleasure - How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
• Public Service - Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?

Spend some time brainstroming these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals that you can focus on.
As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants - however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)

Step 2: Setting Smaller Goals

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan.
Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.
Then create a daily to do list of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals.
At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.
Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Staying on Course

Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.
Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.) And stay on course.

20 things you should stop doing to you

I think we all need to look at ourselves and think about what we are doing

1. Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.  If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you.  You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot.  Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth.  And remember, it’s not the people that stand by your side when you’re at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you’re at your worst that are your true friends.
2. Stop running from your problems. – Face them head on.  No, it won’t be easy.  There is no person in the world capable of flawlessly handling every punch thrown at them.  We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems.  That’s not how we’re made.  In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall.  Because that’s the whole purpose of living – to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time.  This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become.
3. Stop lying to yourself. – You can lie to anyone else in the world, but you can’t lie to yourself.  Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult chance we can take is to be honest with ourselves. 
4. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner. – The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.  Yes, help others; but help yourself too.  If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you.
5. Stop trying to be someone you’re not. – One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you like everyone else.  Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you.  Don’t change so people will like you.  Be yourself and the right people will love the real you and what a great person you are.
6. Stop trying to hold onto the past. – You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.
7. Stop being scared to make a mistake. – Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.  Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success.  You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did.
8. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. – We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us.  We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past.  But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.  Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come.
9. Stop trying to buy happiness. – Many of the things we desire are expensive.  But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions.
10. Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness. – If you’re not happy with who you are on the inside, you won’t be happy in a long-term relationship with anyone else either.  You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else. 
11. Stop being idle. – Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place.  Evaluate situations and take decisive action.  You cannot change what you refuse to confront.  Making progress involves risk.  Period!  You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first.
12. Stop thinking you’re not ready. – Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises.  Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.
13. Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. – Relationships must be chosen wisely.  It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company.  There’s no need to rush.  If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely.
14. Stop rejecting new relationships just because old ones didn’t work. – In life you’ll realize that there is a purpose for everyone you meet.  Some will test you, some will use you and some will teach you.  But most importantly, some will bring out the best in you.
15. Stop trying to compete against everyone else. – Don’t worry about what others are doing better than you.  Concentrate on beating your own records every day.  Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only.
16. Stop being jealous of others. – Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.  Ask yourself this:  “What’s something I have that everyone wants?” I guarantee you have a lot more than they have.
17. Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. – Life’s curveballs are thrown for a reason – to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you.  You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens, and it may be tough.  But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past.  You’ll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation.  So smile!  Let everyone know that today you are a lot stronger than you were yesterday, and you will be.
18. Stop holding grudges. – Don’t live your life with hate in your heart.  You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate.  Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.”  It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.”  Forgiveness is the answer… let go, find peace, liberate yourself!  And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too.  If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time.
19. Stop letting others bring you down to their level. – Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.
20. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others. – Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway.  Just do what you know in your heart is right. you know what is right.

Lady

There was a girl who could do anything in the world she wanted.  All she had to do was choose something and focus.  So one day she sat down in front of a blank canvas and began to paint.  Every stroke was more perfect than the next, slowly and gracefully converging to build a flawless masterpiece.  And when she eventually finished painting, she stared proudly at her work and smiled.

It was obvious to the clouds and the stars, who were always watching over her, that she had a gift.  She was an artist.  And she knew it too.  She felt it in every fiber of her being.  But a few moments after she finished painting, she got anxious and quickly stood up.  Because she realized that while she had the ability to do anything in the world she wanted to do, she was simply spending her time moving paint around on a piece of canvas.

She felt like there was so much more in the world to see and do – so many options.  And if she ultimately decided to do something else with her life, then all the time she spent painting would be a waste.  So she glanced at her masterpiece one last time, and walked out the door into the moonlight.  And as she walked, she thought, and then she walked some more.

While she was walking, she didn’t notice the clouds and the stars in the sky who were trying to signal her, because she was preoccupied with an important decision she had to make.  She had to choose one thing to do out of all the possibilities in the world.  Should she practice medicine?  Or design buildings?  Or teach children?  She was utterly stumped.

Twenty-five years later, the girl began to cry.  Because she realized she had been walking for so long, and that over the years she had become so enamored by everything that she could do – the endless array of possibilities – that she hadn’t done anything meaningful at all.  And she learned, at last, that life isn’t about possibility – anything is possible.  Life is about making a decision – deciding to do something that moves you.

So the girl, who was no longer a girl, purchased some canvas and paint from a local craft store, drove to a nearby park, and began to paint.  One stroke gracefully led into the next just as it had so many moons ago.  And as she smiled, she continued painting through the day and into the night.  Because she had finally made a decision.  And there was still some time left to revel in the magic that life is all about.

That is why we need to take our passion and turn it into what we desire and want to do, we may never make tons of money but we can really enjoy life.

life is short

feeling about life

Life is strange it can be good and bad, it is a struggle to surviveand maintain lifestyles, I am going to put up my ideas of things that can help us in this day and age.
 Some people say that life is a never endng task and some people say that life is the secret which only god knows. We do not understand the fact why we have to do to live by forgetting pleasure of life which is in ourselves and why do we have to live our life by throwing away the value of life.

The duty of thsi era is ho do we know about life and choose what we have to live for. The most imporatant tihing for us to consider is to love ourselves and create a good self from you.