London, Ontario, has two Costco Wholesale outlets

Costco Wholesale is big. Really big. And very popular. London supports two Costco outlets. From the incredibly busy look of  the Wonderland Road outlet Sunday, it's clear the city needs its two outlets.

I know Costco started in the States and I know it stretches across Canada but what other countries have Costco? Answer: It has over 200 outlets outside the U.S. These included locations in Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Iceland, Spain, Taiwan, South Korea and Australia.

But Costco is more than just big and growing. Costco knows how to endear itself to both its employees and its customers and in doing so it locks in support. For instance, the Canadian Costco runs an annual $2500 (Cdn) scholarship competition for its employees and their children. 

The scholarship offer meshes nicely with the carefully nurtured Costco employee-focused reputation. Costco is known for offering fair wages and good benefits to its employees. A fact born out by speaking with some of the London staff. They are very positive about the place. I am more than a little amazed. I didn't expect the reputation to be true.

Costco doesn't carry anywhere near the selection of products carried by competing grocery stores and the like. But what they do carry seems to be of good quality at a fair price. Recently, Costco has been getting heavily into clothing and they are selling such name brands such as Haggar and Nygard. 

I've read stories in business publications questioning this move. Nygard allowing their pants to be sold for $15 and Haggar having shirts going for $20 is good for Costco and its customers but many wonder what is in it for Nygard and Haggar? 

My wife says the Nygard pants she buys from Costco are not available at the Nygard store. The pants are well made, stylish and comfortable but she believes only available at Costco. The  Costco sales appear to increase a brand's name recognition but whether this translates into more sales of the higher priced line is an open question.

And Costco seems to be quick to support local businesses. The Greek style feta cheese sold in the London stores is made in a small town outside of London from a mix of sheep and goat milk. It's a great tasting feta at a good price and locally made. 

These are all smart business moves and from the busy lot, filled with cars and, of course, shoppers, both coming and going, it is clearly a winning strategy as well.

Dahlias fighting Canadian cold, fighting losing battle

The pretty dahlia flowers are not supposed to survive the first heavy frost. Cold Canadian fall nights leave the bright yellow flowers black, along with the green stems and leaves, according to the experts. So how our Dahlias dodged the first frost bullet is a good question but they clearly have. Look carefully at the pedals and you will notice some streaky cold damage but, all things considered, the flowers still look pretty good.

The Dahlias are not the only surprising survivors of the recent cold snap. Our raspberry bushes are still bearing fruit and that fruit is still ripening. But no matter, the Dahlia flowers will soon wilt and the raspberries fall from the bushes. It's inevitable. Snow is in the forecast and the water in our bird bath will soon be ice.

Today is NOT feature-the-colour-brown day

Yesterday members of the Daily City Photo group were asked to feature the colour brown in their November 1st post. While searching for my brown-photo post, I was thinking fall leaves, I saw this red, wet leaf on my paving stone driveway.

The image in my viewfinder said minimalist art and brought to mind the city of Trieste. Why Trieste? Because that's the city Nora Pallavicini calls home. And who is Nora Pallavicini. She is one of my favourite people on the Net. She shoots and shares colourful, simple but sophisticated, images which are often posted as minimalist art.

Nora Pallavicini: click her name, it's a link and scroll her page. Note, Pallavicini doesn't shoot everything she posts. But she does give credit to the artists, and make no mistake, the images she posts are art and the photographers talented individuals.

And if you do visit Pallavicini's page, you might find yourself seduced by a page dedicated to Doors. (Click the word "Doors". This will take you to another amazing page.) I worked for a chief photographer who understood the visual power of doors. The paper would feature a page of doors annually just before Christmas. The seasonal decorations tied the entire page together.

The Doors page features doors from around the world. Some are absolutely incredible. Give it a visit and follow the links you find. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Cheers, Ken!

Theme for the day: Brown (but not a photo of rust)

Fall leaves sitting in fallen water, a sparkling brown mix to all taking the time to notice.

The kids appreciate the duck

Condo living is popular in London. The other grandparents of two of my granddaughters live in this complex. They sold a wonderful lakefront home to move here. The lakefront home had clear advantages but it also had one big drawback: it wasn't close to the grandkids.

The grandchildren love the condo. The oval roadway is ideal for practising riding one's first two-wheeler. There's next to no traffic. The only problem for a child of five is finding the right unit when it is time to return home.

Hence, the importance of the black-painted, iron duck. No one else has a black duck displayed on their privacy wall. Thanks to the duck, the kids never have a problem finding their grandparents' unit.

Differentiating the units when viewed from the back can be almost as hard as telling them apart from the front. But, if you are observant, there are clues: gas barbecues, planters, patio furniture and pumpkins at Halloween.

Look for the duck

Condo developments are everywhere in London, Ontario. Often condos like these attract seniors. With bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and living room all on one floor it means there is little need to go up and down stairs. Also, condos like these are compact and that translates into easy to clean and inexpensive to light and heat.

Keeping the design simple and repetitious helps to deliver an attractive selling price. But there can be a downside to the look of the units. Seniors with grandchildren may find the little kids have difficulty telling one unit from another.

Hence the metal duck perched on the privacy wall pictured above. The grandkids look for the black-painted duck and when they spot it they know they have found their grandparents' place.

Tomorrow we'll take a look at what this type of condo looks like at the front and at the rear. You will appreciate why the grandchildren are glad to have the duck.

Columbaria: apartment living for eternity

Room for the living is shrinking. The planet seems be getting smaller. Room for the dead is shrinking too. Housing for both the quick and the dead just keeps going up in price.

Woodland Cemetery doesn't push its clients to choose cremation over traditional burial but the advantages are clearly spelled out: it's less expensive, simpler and saves valuable space. I'd call the columbaria for holding the ashes a green solution but the scatter garden is surely an even greener solution.

 I  haven't gotten the details about the columbaria straight from the folk at the cemetery but these units appear to be like those at other cemeteries. If I'm right, these circular structures come in a variety of standard sizes with each move up in size offering more niches for cremation ashes. Each niche often holds up to two urns. One good sized columbarium may have 84 niches holding as many as 168 cremation urns.

My wife is not keen on the scatter garden. I'm not even sure she would feel comfortable sharing a small niche for eternity. She's a private lady and never liked apartment towers in life. An "apartment tower" for eternity may not be for her. But me, I find the concept appealing. 

I confess, I find the immediate wild debauchery of the scatter garden appealing. And, when my ashes tire of the mixing, I would be off to see the world on a beckoning breeze to become one with the world. All very Zen.