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This is one in the eye for greedy American retail giant K-Mart. The proposal to open its NSW stores during the morning marches sparked national outrage. Kmart managing director Guy Russo was quoted as saying yesterday that the company made the decision after an avalanche of criticism from politicians, ex-Diggers and customers.

“Having listened to the strength of feeling from our customers and the broader community, I will withdraw Kmart’s application for early trading on Anzac Day. I got this one wrong and on behalf of Kmart, I apologise,” Mr Russo said. Nice one then Mr Russo!

Federal Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin had said Anzac Day was an occasion for remembering those who fought and died for their country, not for shopping and he is so correct. Anzac Day is a very important day in Australia, on par with Australia Day in January, and to think that this store could not go one day without making a profit is annoying to say the least. We don’t shop on Anzac Day, we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

Popularity: 6% [?]

There have been a rash of accidents involving young children being injured by falling televisions and in some cases the child has been tragically killed. This is not surprising seeing as how large some of these tv’s are and it is fashionable to set them up high on wall units – this is problem and it has happened several times since Xmas already. The answer is to have the tv mounted securely.

You can get a plasma mount for your television which will keep it in place and not in danger of toppling over onto a toddler or baby playing on the floor underneath it. The danger with wall units is when the child tries to climb up and holds onto the unit for balance – the tv wobbles and over it goes…then you have a nasty accident.

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Going to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney has been a family tradition for decades, for almost all of the 20th century anyway. And for most of that time it was really quite affordable to take the kids along and have a really good day out. I would say around 15 years ago it started to become a challenge to be able to afford to take the family, park the car and buy the food, go on the rides and buy the stack of showbags you traditionally always buy.

I remember back in the 70’s dad giving me and my sister $2.00 each and we would leave with showbags hanging off each arm – about six each. Now the bags cost as much as they would if you bought each item in them from a shop and that is wrong – they were meant to advertise promotional products at a vastly reduced price but that message has long been lost. The showbags too, these days, reflect the materialistic society we have become – there are showbags for everything now whereas before they were basically from companies you would not normally purchase from. The Commonwealth Bank bag was always brilliant because you went back to school after Easter with some new pencils, pens, writing paper, money box and other odds and ends you got in their showbag. These days I reckon you would get an application for a mortgage and a brochure of their bank charges…

Yes, it has become too expensive these days and the promoters are now out to make as much money from the public as possible rather spend money to earn our custom – the advertising industry has become too arrogant and self-assured to see the need to court us. But it is still the thing to do at Easter and I really feel for those parents who cannot afford this special day out – I remember back in 1999 I admitted defeat when I saw the admission prices and prices of the showbags alone. With three kids it would have meant paying the rent or going to the show – in fact paying the rent cost a lot less!

Popularity: 5% [?]