[aamefford]

  Chapter 33:
Black Friday
 
BIG Snip - - -
 
We talked for a while longer, they had a listen to Ragnarok and Yggdrasil, and listened to Mike Moffat say, well, whatever he says at shows (sometimes I don’t want to know.)
 
And in the end, they nodded and grinned, clearly understanding.
 
“Good choices,” they said.

I met you and Mike and maybe Alex or Tony (CRS moment) at one of the recent SF Bay gatherings.  You were busy and very friendly in spite of it.  Mike and I chatted for a few moments about dive bars and a dive steak house somewhere near SLO that I can't remember the name of.  It was great!  Talking about audio at audio shows is over-rated.

 

[tronco]

Of course, this is US-centric, and perhaps other countries around the world don’t have this yearly buying orgy. If so, you’re fortunate.

 
One day is nothing. We do have a little thing called "Christmas Shopping" here in Switzerland, it begins early October.
 
 

 ‘Schiit sales departmement org chart’ on it, with an empty box below.”

 
You have my respect for this. I used to work in presales for a US software company and the sales world is crazy. Highest salaries in the firm (2x of an engineer salary or more), unbelievable travel expenses and no true commitment to the product (well, it's sales). Just to pay the sales staff salaries we had to make approx. 2 million profit a year. But we were hiring engineers and developers in eastern Europe and India to keep costs low.

 

[Jason Stoddard]

  I met you and Mike and maybe Alex or Tony (CRS moment) at one of the recent SF Bay gatherings.  You were busy and very friendly in spite of it.  Mike and I chatted for a few moments about dive bars and a dive steak house somewhere near SLO that I can't remember the name of.  It was great!  Talking about audio at audio shows is over-rated.

Jockos. Insane steaks, mediocre to frightening everything else. But the steaks make up for it. They're a perfect example of an organization that knows exactly what they do best, and that it is better than probably anything else out there, and they don't give one single crap about anything else. Take a date there if you want to terrify them. 
 
True story: we took a friend from Holland up to Jockos. This is a 2.5 hour drive from where we live. Of course, this happens to be the night that somebody has crashed into a power pole with his jacked-up monster truck (not much more to do in Nipomo) and the restaurant is dark.
 
Any other restaurant? Shut down.
 
Jockos? People eating with flashlights. The oak-fired pit? Still running. People sitting in the bar with candles drinking the beers before they got warm. A line still out the door. No schiit. 
 
I had to visit the restroom, which has no windows, and thus was pitch dark. I turned on my phone flashlight. An entire row of beer bottles was lined up along the top of the toilet paper dispenser. Someone else was at the urinal.
 
"Thanks for the light," he said.
 
"Better than pissing in the corner," I told him.
 
He laughed. "Who cares? It's Jockos."
 
Yeah, that kind of place. 
 
They were about to finally call a shutdown due to the lack of hot water for doing dishes, when the power finally came back on and we went in. Our Dutch friend is looking skeptically at the greasy diner ambience, and his suspicion goes full-bore when the salsa and crackers (yes, saltines) arrives. Like I said, Jockos doesn't give a crap about anything but the steak.
 
He glares further at us over the iceberg lettuce salad (complete with a canned beet on top), and grumbles until the steak comes out: the large Spencer (AKA ribeye). 22 ounces of amazing. Jockos has never had a wrongly-cooked steak, even when you ask for it blood-rare. Total cost for that, salsa, salad, potatoes/rice, and ice cream for dessert? $28. 
 
In the end, he's grinning. "Only in America." He says.
 
Any sane person would take Jockos, remodel it, add fancier stuff around the steak, pick from a nice range of local Paso Robles wines for the wine list, and charge $95-125. 
 
I'm very happy Jockos remains insane.

 

[jgreen16]

As the man said "Only in America".

 

[jgreen16]

Oh, and I think if I'm ever in the area, I'd love to try Jocko's. It's hard to never get the doneness of a steak wrong, If they can do that, I'm all in. I'll have to take my 17 year-old daughter too. Ever since I introduced her to 20-24 ounce bone-in ribeyes, she really doesn't want any other type of steak.

 

[warrenpchi]

 
Oh gawd, people are crazy.
 
More crazy does not usually equal "better."

 
My flavor of crazy is pretty effing cool.  Just in case you haven't seen it, Ima leave this right here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/headfi.org/permalink/10152821404794736/
 

 

[aamefford]

   

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

My flavor of crazy is pretty effing cool.  Just in case you haven't seen it, Ima leave this right here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/headfi.org/permalink/10152821404794736/
 

 

Duuuuuuuuuude!  You know I can't un-see that!  Oh well, off to gouge my eyes out.....

 

[rblaiklock]

A company I know of used to do two big catalog promotions; an early Christmas print run in early November and a larger one in late November

Over time the effectiveness of the early promotion dropped off - why?

The observed trend is that Black Friday is the green flag on the season and everything before that is ignored, and in fact the trend is now global.
Now they only do one Christmas catalog.

Here's to celebrating the day by spending it with our families and maybe listening to some good music on good equipment.

...r

 

[warrenpchi]

 

   

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

My flavor of crazy is pretty effing cool.  Just in case you haven't seen it, Ima leave this right here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/headfi.org/permalink/10152821404794736/
 

 

Duuuuuuuuuude!  You know I can't un-see that!  Oh well, off to gouge my eyes out.....

 
For the record, that's not actually my ass.  But yeah, if he makes it and brings it to a show for me, I'd totally rock that.

 

[Anavel0]

For the record, that's not actually my ass.  But yeah, if he makes it and brings it to a show for me, I'd totally rock that.

I'd totally wear them!

 

[drgajet]

So, where do we get those shirts the schiit crew was rockin at canjam?

Jim

 

[aamefford]

For the record, that's not actually my ass.  But yeah, if he makes it and brings it to a show for me, I'd totally rock that.

If all of that happens, and I'm there, I won't be checking out your Schiit. As far as you know…

After reading the linked post, I do appreciate the minimalist packing strategy though.

Back to the eyes.

 

[Delete]

I purchased a black Lyr and Bifrost, too damn sexy to pass up. I wasn't even in the market for the pieces either. Too bad they can't stick a Valhalla 2 in the black Valhalla 1 chassis. I tried to purchase it and got shot down would've been nice. I guess I'll have to wait until the next screwup to get lucky.

 

[Nomad Girl]

Warren is most deserving of a custom pair of Schiit Pants!!! But...I think the Schiit logo would look better on yoga pants...not jeans!!  

 

[swannie007]

Hey Jason, ...screw you! Why did you have to bring Jocko's up? I used to live in San Luis Obispo at one time in my life and was a regular at Jocko's . I now live in Australia(we met briefly at the Orange County meet earlier this year) and I miss the place badly. I went there earlier this year when I was in the States on vacation and it is still da bomb! Damn I miss it!! I can't get it out of my head now and it's all your fault, damn you!