In Japan, we are usually disciplined people.
We respect rules.
We avoid causing trouble.
Then Costco gives us unlimited onions for a hot dog.
Suddenly, centuries of social order disappear.
I bought a hot dog at Costco in Japan and walked over to the toppings station.
I added some onions.
Then a little more.
Then enough onions to make the sausage legally classified as missing.
I added relish.
Mustard.
Ketchup.
Then more onions, because apparently I had become a farmer.
At some point, it was no longer a hot dog.
It was an onion salad with a sausage trapped underneath.
The man next to me stared at it and said,
“Are you eating that here, or taking it home to feed a family of six?”
I tried to pick it up.
The bun immediately gave up.
The sausage escaped from the back.
Onions fell everywhere.
One landed in my drink.
Another landed on a stranger’s tray.
A small child pointed at me and said,
“Mom, that man broke his hot dog.”
No, child.
The hot dog broke me.
I used twelve napkins, lost half the toppings, and smelled like onions for the rest of the day.
The hot dog was cheap.
The laundry bill was higher.
I went to Costco for groceries.
I left smelling like onions and carrying emotional damage.
As long as it’s $65-70/hr for a UAW line worker and the levels of automation per model volume stay equivalent, the US legacy automakers are on a path to insolvency.
No China does not have magic dust to come here and build at those labor rates either… they wouldn’t even start…
BREAKING: As of tonight, 1 in 7 homes for sale in America is in Florida - a state with only ~8% of the nation's homes.
The Florida for-sale market is flashing warning signs:
45% of listings have taken a price cut (6.6 pts above the national rate)
1 in 10 homes are selling for less than the original owner paid