The Dirt Lawyer's Blog Archive

I don't get it.  I guess I am not just not as smart as the folks in Bentonville.  Walmart was originally a dumpy box of a store with the interior feel of a warehouse.  It wasn't a great place to shop, although it sure was the place to buy American and cheaply, at that.  Now the stores look nicer and the products are all from China but the media says Target, which I still enjoy way, way more than a Walmart, may be cheaper .  (My wife prefers Walmart locally because of size, perceived value and the fact that our Target isn't a super store.) But that isn't the main thrust of this piece.  Rather, it is about the small store format that the company is pursing.  I really don't get that.  So Walmart is going to open a 10,000 sf store in Chatham, a south side Chicago area known as a solid middle class minority neighborhood.  (Yes, I have driven through it and driven by this site many times.  It is not a particularly pedestrian friendly location, though not an awful one eit

I know I haven't posted in three months.  I even write a farewell post, but decided not to put it up in case I changed my mind so I would then not look like a schmuck or the blogging equivalent of a pinch-drunk boxer coming back for more punishment.  I have been concentrating on work and other things in my personal life.  As to the former, you can guess what that is about.  As to the latter, well, I am not prepared to discuss that except to say it is all good and hopefully will be better as time goes on.  If things go the way I want I will eventually tell you about it. A couple of weeks ago one of my old bosses called with about the highest compliment one professional can pay another: a referral.  It was for a small deal that his firm could not handle economically but that I could.  After quoting a rate that I thought was fair -- I later realized that it was identical to the rate on my proprietary formula that I have for pricing flat fees -- we adjusted it and sent it on to the pro