Recently in Commerce Category

Revision bears, Study Skills for Dummies, Red Bull, caffeine pills.

Seen at a bookshop that's affiliated with a university library. Not our library, but we might be considering.

Yesterday, a friend argued (quite conclusively) why he believes that capitalism and present-day neoliberalism are really a form of Satanism, as the way businessmen act abd behave unto others seems to be taken right out of the Satanic Bible.

Even though maxims like "Only the self is sacred" or "Survival of the fittest" [source] seem to describe capitalist non-ethics, I can only half agree because Satanist principles such as "Do whatever you want as long as you harm no undeserving person", "Respect people, their territory and belongings" or "When walking in open territory, bother no one" [source] would indicate that Satanists are indeed a lot more ethical than the average businessperson. Indeed, "You can do whatever you want, but you pay the consequences" is the opposite of the business principle that "You do whatever helps you make a profit, and make sure that others pay the consequences".

This seems to be proof enough that businessmen are not Satanists, simply because they lack the necessary ethics. This, however, does not mean they're not demons from hell.

I think that I actually found proof for this today: the temperature was 38°C, unbearably hot. In the street, I encountered three men in tight business suits, buttoned-up, ties and everything. They talked to each other and seemed to enjoy themselves. No sign of sweat at all, they even seemed to feel comfortable despite their clothes and the heat.

It was totally unreal. The only explanation that I could come up with is that their usual dwellings must be a lot hotter.

It took me a while to realize that when it comes to new rather than used CDs and LPs, most of the commercial record sellers on eBay don't really have all the items in stock that they are offering. I learned this through a repeated process of waiting, waiting and waiting. At some point I decided that rather than waste my patience, I might as well contact eBay sellers before I am actually ordering an item. My experiences with this kind of correspondence have highly diverse. Only recently, I contacted four eBay sellers about a CD all four of them were offering. I wrote:

To whom it may concern,
I would be interested in buying the CD [XXXX], catalogue number [XXXX], which you are offering "new and sealed" on eBay. However, as this item is listed by the record label as out of print and unavailable, could you please confirm that you do indeed have this item in stock and are thus able to ship it?
Kind regards,
H.P.

The answers I received were as follows: