Federated to consolidate May credit centers

Best of luck to those of you working at the Credit Center. Still no word on the fate of the Lorain Data Center...

AP Wire | 10/25/2005 | Federated to consolidate May credit centers: "Federated to consolidate May credit centers

Associated Press

CINCINNATI - Federated Department Stores Inc. said Tuesday it plans to consolidate credit centers acquired in its merger with May Department Stores Co. into its main credit services division in southwest Ohio.

Federated, which operates Macy's and Bloomingdale's, plans to close a Lorain division that employs 760 workers and a Parma center that employs 35. A center in Houston, which employs 380, also is slated to close.

Up to 300 jobs will be added at the main credit services center north of Cincinnati, which now employs about 2,000 workers.

The company said the change will help with its goal of saving $175 million next year and $450 million in 2007 as a result of the $11.9 billion merger, which was completed in August.

Executives working at the centers to be closed will be asked to express interest in relocating to facilities with positions available, the company said. Federated has promised it will not cut any May Co. jobs before March 1 next year.

May Co.'s Earth City credit center in St. Louis will remain open.

Federated sold its credit card business and May's credit arm to Citigroup earlier this year for after-tax proceeds of $4.9 billion, but the customer service functions, such as processing new accounts and handling customer questions, remain under Federated's control.

Federated, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, now has 244,000 employees and stores in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.

Federated shares rose 38 cents to close at $61.63 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares have traded from $46.60 to $78.05 in the past 52 weeks."

McDonalds promo

I've been collecting the Best Buy Bucks from the McDonalds promotion and decided to read through the fine print to see just what the odds of winning some of the "big ticket" prizes are.

Bottom line appears to be that besides Best Buy Bucks and free McDonalds, you'd be better off playing the lottery.

I found one little gem of a statistic in the fine print that I think you'll find amusing:

The odds of collecting all 4 railroads (Reading Railroad #5023, Pennsylvania Railroad #5024, B&O Railroad #5025, Short Line #5026) in order to win the Dodge Viper, valued at $100,000, is a staggering 1 in 17,836,429,305!

Now, according to the US Census Bureau, the world population is only 6,473,841,545.

This is probably explained by the fact that they make sure that one rare piece is at a McDonalds in Guam and the other rare Railroad piece is located in Saskatchewan...but come on! 1 in 17 BILLION???? Geesh...the odds of winning the Mega Millions Lottery jackpot is only 1 in 175,711,536.

The Vibe GT has been laid to rest. Meet my new wheels.

gotta love the leaper

This guy had the worst job in the park. His job was to pull the "fat" people out of the line and subject them to the Test Seat before boarding the Millenium Force. Since I'm a wuss and don't ride rollercoasters, I was thoroughly entertained by watching this guy single out the obese amongst the Cedar Point patrons.

Mobile Post

374 mph...that'll wreak havoc on my average driving speeds

Mobile Post

I stopped for crazy expensive gas last night on my way home from work and got a laugh out of this. The person that used the pump before me decided that at the current prices, all that they could afford was 7/10 of a gallon.

NPR predicts the current

A 2002 NPR series predicting exacly what just happened to New Orleans. If only more people listened to NPR, maybe LA would have been better prepared for all of this.

This didn't help traffic...

This crazy accident is what snarled traffic and made my commute home today a mess.

It happened on the eastbound side of I-480 today. I was taking I-480 westbound so I got to see the accident without getting stuck in the 15+ miles of traffic jam that it created.

(Yes...that's a Corvette wedged underneath a semi)

WWFSMD?

In honor of a bumper sticker I saw the other day that read, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" I'm going to put up another politically motivated thread here amongst vacation pictures and Jimmy Buffett.

If you haven't read about the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, check these sites out:

http://www.venganza.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster

According to the creator of FSM, Bobby Henderson, if the Bush-ites in Kansas and the rest of the Bible Belt think that Creationism and other religious teachings should be required in American schools, than the teachings of this rediculous, hilarous religion should also be included in the text books of our nation's youth.

I think this "movement" is a great, light-hearted way to mock the convergance of religion and our government.

If only the Margelism creator had been so insightful to create a national movement around a certain pig...

Thanks Bob

Unfortunately the picture didn't come out very well, however, I thought you might enjoy this anway.

The sign reads "You are in our prayers". It is at a Bob Evans restaurant in Wickliffe, OH.

Why is Bob Evans praying for me? And why should the fact that he's praying for me make me want to stop in and have biscuits and gravy?

UFO

This contraption flew over our car as we drove back this evening. It looks like a pretty cool ultralight...kind of an airboat with a parachute. I can understand how the fan on the back could propel this thing forward, but what I want to know is how does thing take off? How can you achieve vertical lift w/ just a parachute and a fan? If you figure it out, let me know.

Sunset

Beautiful sunset tonight as we were driving back from the OBX. I was playing around w/ the effects on my digicam and I think this picture came out pretty cool.

another picture from the drive back

Result of an afternoon rainshower at the beach

Awesome PMB concert at Kelly's tonight.

Me and Pat

In honor of Pat McGee Band playing in Nags Head, NC while I'm going to be at the Outer Banks next week, here's an oldie for you.




Laurelie Wallace, Pat McGee, and Me after a Pat McGee Band concert on January 27, 1999 at The Stadium in Oxford, OH.

Couch picture

Thanks, Jakki, for sending this picture out. Who knows when all of the cousins will be in one room again.

From L to R: Ross, Eric, Evan, Eric, Jakki, Eric, Monica, Eric, Jessica, Eric, Lauren

Icing on the cake

It is never a good day when one must attend the funeral of a loved one. However, it makes for an even worse day when you get in an accident on your way to the service after the funeral.

As I was turning into the driveway, a Ford Taurus that was traveling behind me crashed into the left rear corner of my car. The impact caused the Vibe to spin around 180 degrees and did significant damage to the rear and side of my car.

My car had to be towed because the accident rendered it un-drivable while the Taurus was able to leave under its own power. Now the fun of dealing with an out-of-state accident begins...at least it wasn't my fault.


The immediate aftermath of the accident. Notice that even though I used to be traveling the same direction as the Taurus, the Vibe has been spun 180 degrees and is now facing South.


View of the driver's side rear section of the Vibe


You can see how badly the rear wheel was damaged in this picture


It is common for people to congregate and watch the aftermath of an accident. However, it is not usually your entire immediate family that is present to watch.


This is the extent of the damage to the Taurus. It was still drivable after the accident.