Franchise Shops - Skechers and Uggs

 Hi there

Photo: stock Skechers advert

In 2014 Skechers shoes got a shop in New Zealand.  It was in Auckland.  I went up to Auckland on holiday and discovered the store.  It was positively crowded with customers grabbing shoes.  I hadn't even known Skechers existed - 

I fought my way through the crowd.  I gushed to a shop assistant, "Oh, I love these shoes.  They are ... coloured!"

They were a light blue court shoe.

And so wonderful to walk the hard floor in them.  "Ahhh, the comfort...."

But could I really be seen in blue shoes?  Out in the real world?  Yes!!!  

Goodness, how daring of me to step out in blue shoes, instead of plain old ordinary black, navy, or brown.  Very few people wore colour on their feet in those days.

I have been wearing Skechers since I chanced upon that first store in Auckland.  I still buy coloured pairs.

Today, there are Skechers stores everywhere.  I first noticed this franchise takeover a couple of years ago when I was wandering through Sydney.  It was a surprise to see a Skechers store on practically every city block.

The Skechers franchise epidemic has also hit New Zealand. 

But ... isn't there a saying about familiarity bringing contempt?

I hate to say the magic words, 'Too many..'  But are there too many Skechers shops in 2025?  Have I been so bombarded by so many stores that they're not meaning anything any longer to me?

And .... there's a second shoe franchise snapping hard behind Skechers' heels:  UGGS?   UGGS shops are beginning to spread through New Zealand.

Both firms, please be careful.  You could be flying (walking?) too close to the sun...

Thinking about my visits Las Vegas

 Hi there

I have been to Las Vegas ten times!  My friends ask WHY?  Or more specifically "WHY 10 TIMES?"

It's because I love the exciting vibe of the place.  I adore walking down the neon-splashed Las Vegas Strip and being surrounded by thousands upon thousands of others:  Singles.  Conventioneers.  Adventurers.  Newbies.  Locals.  Dads and Mums grumpily herding their family of chicks away from those cosplayers working the pavement on The Strip - hey, but, doesn't every kid want a photo with Tinkerbell or Shrek?

Well, be careful, travellers.  Shrek can be meaner than he looks.  The second after you've taken his photo with your kids, this cute character in costume may intimidate you into handing over cash.  On my first visit to Vegas I photographed two high-heeled, leggy, be-feathered, scantily-dressed, glittery showgirls who I figured were advertising something.  But the pair demanded a cash fee from me that was the equivalent of a front row seat at a Celine Dion concert over at Caesars Palace.  

 I threw a five dollar note at them and took off.  

That first visit to Las Vegas introduced me to continual tipping.  During the week I was there, I spent two hundred American dollars on tips.  On later visits to the place, I economised and just tipped where I couldn't get away with not paying out.  

Being a single traveller, I appreciated that as long as I kept to The Strip, or Downtown's main street, I was completely safe.  Weaving one's way through those thousands and thousands of people ensured I was always surrounded by others. Day or night

I varied hotels a lot in LV.  The tariffs weren't that steep, there were magnificent buffets, and lots of shops to meander through.

When I arrived in Vegas last year, I was surprised by the changes since three years before.  previously the queue for taxis at the LV airport had been a winding roped maze of - always - a minimum of a hundred people ahead of me in the queue.  Yet, surprisingly, I would get through in not too many minutes because of the continuing line of taxis waiting for passengers. The airport guy at the head of the queue would ask for my hotel name, pass it on to the driver, usher me into the cab, and take my one dollar tip. 

But in 2024, I exited the LV Airport to see.... nobody lined up for a taxi.  I quickly wound my way through the rope maze, and straight up to the head taxi.  I was Numero Uno, number 1, head of the no-queue.  And there wasn't even an airport guy to usher me into a cab.  Such a heady feeling to shout "Flamingo Hotel please" to the cabbie.  I should have tipped myself.

Now, I don't know if any of my five readers have you-tubed or googled "Is Las Vegas Dying?" but I suggest you give it a try.  Vegas is now touted as "out to get tourists"

The hotel Resort Fees - only added to a bill about a dozen years ago by greedy hotels, one following the other as the idea spread -  was a hidden not-optional extra fifty or so dollars per night that you often discovered as you were checking in.  Or out.  

A Resort Fee covers use of the gym, wi-fi, and the pool, even if you don't want any of them. Authorities have just recently moved in to declare that Resort Fees must be openly stated by a hotel as the guest reserves their stay. 

I guess a Resort Fee is a little  similar to our city council plotting to bring in a nightly hotel bed tax - don't let them do this!

Most LV hotels have dropped buffets and brought in food courts (think Westfield Mall food courts).  Hotel parking is no longer free.

The city bosses are worried that tourist numbers visiting the city have dropped substantially.  Well, who wants to pay $19 for a hotel bottle of water? 

Or negotiate oneself around so many buildings under construction...

...and no stage musicals any longer.   Vegas has become sports-orientated ... Casinos are concentrating on the high-rollers.

Then there's the heat....  Last year I was there in August.  The daytime temperature never dropped below 41c.  The highest was 47c.  I couldn't take it.  I tried putting up an umbrella, but the heat still surrounded me.  I tried a hand fan, but the flapping just moved the heat around.  The wind was hot, and I'm sure you could cook an egg on the outside escalator bannisters.  To walk across a road or a bridge, or through the grounds of a hotel took all my effort; it was like negotiating crossing the Sahara Desert.

Sadly ... because of the heat, and the extra taxes everywhere, and the construction-work, and not many hotel buffets or musical shows any longer, and every hotel determined to take all your money, I don't feel I can go back to Vegas...

Sad emoji.

above:  taken from the outside balcony at The Venetian Hotel & Casino. From balcony to the main road doesn't look far but try walking it in the heat.

***

PS:  I tried to change photos on front page of blog.  Made a big mess of it.  Pass me a typewriter please? And a few months/years to sort everything out. Sigh.

Hataitai Beach Parking

 Hi there

I'm sorry, but I am just about fed up with the road and beach repairs going on around Hataitai Beach.  They have now been at it for a year.  I found out last week that the road repairs might be finished by Wednesday which, I guess, in road repair-speak means December?

I used to always drive to the southern end of the beach looking for a parking spot  but I can't turn the car around to get to the spaces now; it  would entail knocking over a dozen road cones, plus the lollipop person holding up a stop-go sign.  And don't think I haven't visualised doing all that ...?

So I line up for ages waiting until he turns over that darn sign.  I drive past the beach as slow as a snail and get to the northern end to discover the parking spots there are full of road cones and bull-dozers.

I turn my car around.

Lollipop guy number 2 (northern end) ensures that I have to wait for ages before I'm allowed the privilege of driving back past the beach again, but this time on the seaward side of the road.

I beep my car horn to let my swimming friends know that I am trying to get to them before dark.  

Last week I did find a space opposite a stop-go guy who glared at me as I hopped out of the car and I moved a road cone from the gutter to the footpath.  I am such a rebel.

LIKE?

 Hi there

Here's a rough guess ....  it's probably been about 15 or 20 years since young teens started inserting the word 'like' into their conversations:

"So he ... like ... walked into the classroom and he ... like ... was ...like ... wow..."

I think the word 'like' came into conversations around about the time the popular teen movie "Clueless" came out.  The rich ditzy main character - Cher - used it a lot.

But, still, I could never understand how 'like' was adopted by young people in the first place.  And what's more, the word has been carried forward with them.  Now, that those teens have grown up, they are still saying it.

But a few years' ago, I chanced upon something that was sort of mind-blowing.

The article I was reading said 'like' had taken the place of a word that older people have always been saying.

Huh?  What was this article talking about?  I had no idea...

Apparently, the word 'like' has taken over from the word "um".

Whaaaat?

Both the words 'um' and 'like', being used in the same context are, in other words, a pause in a sentence whilst the speaker is thinking of what to say next.

How's this:

"So he ... um ... walked into the office and he ... um ... was ... um ... wow."

Goodness, um, who'd have thought....?

 But it, like, totally makes sense.