Goldierebel, a lot of the folks who do merchandising set up routes of jobs that they do regularly. Some of the jobs are weekly, some are biweekly, some are monthly. I don't do merchandising but certainly the per hour rates I hear mentioned are more than $4/hr. If you are interested in pursuing merchandising, check with the folks in the merchandising section at MSFreedom.org and sign up at Narms.com to see what is available in your area.

Thanks for the advise,the companies that I looked into were mentioned in the forum as low paying jobs that people had done and are staying away from because it just wasn't worth the money. Thank you for the information I will look into that. I'll see what in the area and what type of jobs they have.

The ones I've been offered are $5 and $6/hr at Wal Mart and Kmart. As for me it's not enough pay to get me to buy a portable microwave and a card table plus dress like they want, then go stand on my feet for 6hours for $6/hr. cooking little pastries or pizza.

Goldie,

I've never seen a merchandising job for $4 an hour. Do you suppose it was $8 an hour? Some will then say that the second hour is a different rate, and all have a time cap.

NARMS.com has a merchandising vocabulary list.

If you sign up for merchandising, sign first with the companies that have assignments once in a while. This way, you will learn as you go. Some have part-time work, but it varies greatly as to what you do. I'm signed up with one company that gives me work almost every day. It pays $9 an hour. Another company gives me three or four assignments a month, and pays $11 an hour. Another pays by the job, usually about $8, but the assignments rarely last an hour.

I started with one assignment, then took the same one in other stores in the chain for several months, slowly adding. This year, I went after the merchandising jobs. I still do quite a bit of mystery shopping. Since I'm signed up with so many, I've found my favorites.

With merchandising, sometimes the assignment is difficult, such as 8-ft. resets or putting together shelves, and sometimes extremely easy, such as putting coupons on boxes on the shelf. For a beginner, it's best to sign with a company where you can pick the easy ones.

Billienicolosi,

The card table and microwave assignments are demonstrations. I don't look for them because I'm not interested in them right now.

Hi,Thanks Sandra Sue
I signed up with MSFreedom.org and there was a email address to register for NARMS.com. Do you have the name of a couple of good companies that you would recommend to look into. billienicolosi had said that Wal..was $6 a hr,thats so little for what needed to be done.I would love to create a route plus my mystery shopping, and bank assignments I love to do. If you have any advise or can recommend to me any company that may be in my area (Suffolk County New York) that would be a great help,or a step in the right direction. There are so many companies... Thanks

Goldie:

Wait until NARMS.com sends you notices. (You have to be signed up.) Then apply to the ones you can do. Then wait. There is a time period between the application and the activity. It's not like some MSP's. These notices will say whether they need someone in such-and-such an area.

You can also apply to other NARMS companies while you are waiting. Eventually, someone will have what you want. Some want highly experienced people or people with certain expertise, such as selling electronics or teaching store personnel how to sell them.

Another thing you can do is notice the merchandisers in the stores. Ask them how to apply to their companies. Some will tell you what the work is like and how they pay beginners. You will usually get assignments close to home. Since I live close to several rural communities, I am asked to travel sometimes, but mostly it is MSP's that ask that.

Thanks for the information....Appreciate the input......Goldie

Come live in Virginia, and get taxed to the poor house. Natural gas and electricity is being raised 18% this year. On top of that we are going to be taxed more on GAS to pay for maintaining the highways,We are taxed already 17.5% federal is payed at 18.4% . We are taxed .10 state on store purchases. Groceries are 2.5%.Add the 7% state income tax, property tax,city tax, etc..
Done venting.

Pretty much the same way here in TN Hellbent. We don't have a state tax on income. Our property tax isn't too bad.
Seems like things are getting worse all over.

Have you ever had the thought the "rise in oil" could possibly be "terrorism" The OPEC nations control the price of oil. And the OPEC nations are made up of what countries?????? Think about it!!

Billiencolosi,

I think you are pretty much on target. I recently received an email, however, that said that Al Gore once said that our gasoline should cost 5.00 per gallon so we would stop driving as much. I haven't had time to verify his quote. Throughout history, people who supposedly are in favor of their own country (naturalists/Democrats) work knowingly or unknowingly in cahoots with people who want to capture or destroy their country (radical Islamists). I have a headache and that dancing creature on the screen isn't helping any, but I had to think a while about whether "naturalist" was the right word. I know from talking to people that Homeland Security has people on the ball, but from the rest of us and the media, it doesn't seem like people are paying a bit of attention to the fact that the terrorists are out to get us. It troubles me a great deal. Well, I could write an essay, but we're not supposed to ut politics on here, and especially if I didn't have such wide peripheral vision and be able to see that dancing thing no matter how I twist my head and turn my eyes.

I can't believe Al Gore would say gas prices should be $5/gal. I don't believe anyone would say such a thing. Unless he was thinking our country should be a "wefare state".

I think as a whole we are all paying a lot of attention to terrorist threats. But oil being high and going up more everyday is a form of "terrorism" from the OPEC nations. The price of oil is effecting everyone. Our job loss is at an all time high. The stock market is failing. Everything we buy is going higher in price as we speak. Crime is going to climb as loss of jobs and income increase.

It's a domino effect.

I can neither prove nor disprove the Al Gore statement at this time. I wish that the original writers of emails that are forwarded would provide proof, but sometimes they just want to pass on what they've heard. I thought maybe you had heard, which is why I mentioned it, saying I wasn't sure. I haven't read his book.

Our economy has suffered since 9/11. I can think of specific incidents that appeared to me to have outside sources. Recently, I received an email that said that Islamists of the hate-infidel persuasion have sought throughout history to undercut the economy of the peoples they are focusing on that particular century. This email did provide some incidents. The richer ones (oil barons) and the ones who know our country from having visited a lot or lived here would know our soft areas.

I was intrigued why terrorists chose airplanes and skyscrapers (and New York). It seemed such a cartoonish version of how to attack America. Maybe they had been reading too many "caped crusader" type comic books or Japanese monster movies. They all seemed geared toward "metropolis", "Gotham City", or other version of New York City.

If anyone doubts whether 9/11 was a huge conspiracy, I have several accounts which I heard first-hand (I'd be the second-hand account giver.) in which it appeared that the average Arab Muslim was very aware in advance that something was going to happen on 9/11. They are varied accounts from different parts of the country. In some cases, I know the people well that they happened to.

During the Cold War, there were books written on how to live "when the Russians come". The Russians never had the ability, for some reason. The Islamic extremists do. Perhaps part of the reason is that we wouldn't let Soviets in this country, but our universities have welcomed people from "third world countries" for decades.

There have been a number of folks who have indicated that the TAX on a gallon of gasoline should be raised so that consumers would THINK about the fossil fuel they are using. Part of that whole philosophy was to encourage taxpayers to put pressure on their state and national legislators to force car manufacturers to produce more efficient vehicles. California made the move on less polluting vehicles out of dire necessity and since it is not cost efficient to manufacture vehicles in two distinctly dissimilar versions--one to be able to sell in California and one to the rest of the country--most new cars are almost to California standards with California having just a couple of add on parts. It has helped us all. Clean fuel requirements were DROPPED by the current administration on imported refined gasoline to meet the needs and in the long run this will hurt environmental quality though it helped gas prices a little.

But it is greedy and unfair for the current generations to consume the remainder of the earth's fossil fuels without coming up with viable alternatives for the future. The time necessary to generate those fossil fuels exceeds man's inhabitation of the earth. So while I am not a big tree hugger, I do recognize that natural gas, oil and coal are irresponsibly cheap even at their current high prices when you consider the generations to come.

Atomic energy is an excellent way to avoid ravaging the fossil fuel supply, but most communities have decided that the risk is not worth the reward, even though more folks have been killed and evacuated due to oil refinery mishaps in the past ten years than were ever killed or evacuated due to a US regulated atomic energy facility.

Solar power is an economically viable way to produce electricity but the start up/installation cost is a huge one time hit that few can afford and with our geographic mobility (the average American stays in their home under 11 years) you cannot completely amortize the cost during your tenure in your home. With my local power company I am not even allowed to plug a solar system into the power grid to feed my excess in and pull out power when the sun is not shining. So yes, my electric bill will be $8 more per month at least starting in a few months to cover the "fuel surcharge costs" and the electric company is @#$%& because they needed a $20 minimum extra charge.

Wind power is a viable alternative in many parts of the country though obviously not something that could be done readily in large urban areas unless you put wind turbines atop buildings. But building tops could carry solar panels and indeed with the new materials developed over the past few years you could even "panel" the exterior of a tall building with solar collectors.

There are a lot of things that could be done and should be done or at least explored because it goes against all notions of "fairness" for several generations to entirely deplete the earth of a non-renewable resource.

As for raising taxes on a gallon of fuel to do road maintenance, that will have to come as vehicles become more fuel efficient. Our hybrid vehicle gets more than three times the miles per gallon of the vehicle it replaced. Granted the vehicle is lighter and so will cause less wear and tear on the roads, but if we all went to hybrids we would be using about 1/3 of the gallons we currently are consuming so there would be 1/3 of the tax revenue generated to maintain roads for the same road miles travelled. The real loser (as usual) will be those folks who for economic necessity are running less fuel efficient vehicles and will be paying higher per gallon taxes. I expect that within a few years there will either be a rethinking of how taxes are collected for road maintenance (miles per year x weight of vehicle) or perhaps a tax rebate for miles for less efficient cars (instead of a tax rebate for hybrids and alternate fuel vehicles available at present).

We have known many of these things for 30 years. Little has been done. I remember a time when we would have gotten a rebate or an amortization if we added solar fuel, but we could not afford to do that. The timing of the increase is off, and the speculation is going on in places like Indonesia. This we have to recognize and be extremely wary of. We do have lots of oil here in this country. We should have been handling things differently for a long time now. We can't take care of future generations during a time of need in this country because it will make our country weaker, and many others want it. I don't know what the answer is, Flash.

There's boo kootles of oil in this country. Remember the Alaskan oil line? And they are finding oil in other states besides the normal oil rich states.

The thing that boggles my mind is coal. A fossil fuel used to make electricity. Trains run on coal fuel. It's about 15c per gallon as opposed to diesel fuel at $5/gal. There's several companies around who change coal into fuel.
My son is an engineer on the rail road. He's traveling along on Diesel to get the train out of the station then when he gets her rolling "flips a switch" and it transfers to coal fuel.
Why can't they make cars to run on coal fuel?

I know people who have "bit the bullet" and gone hybrid. They are only getting about 10miles/gal more than I am getting in my car. For the price of a hybrid I can buy a lot of gas. If they would make them cheaper maybe more folks would buy hybrid.

And there is another issue. Automobile manufactures are in trouble.
They can't sell their cars they have already built. The economy is keeping people from buying.

Trickle down effect.
And your right something should have been in the works 30 years ago. Why wait on catastrophe?

I know some people in Canada and England and the price of gas is much worse than it is here.
Looks to me like it's going to have to be a united effort for several countries, not all the effort on America.

Last I heard the Alaskan oil was all headed for Asia as closer ports. Things may have changed, but at least a few years ago virtually none of it ended up in the American supply chain.

For a while in the 1970s many police departments changed over their vehicles to natural gas. Production of nat gas was increased heavily and the bottom fell out of that market when oil supplies regained equilibrium.

As for hybrids, we standardly get between 42 and 56 mpg with the Honda Civic Hybrid we got. The mileage seems to depend more on whether we catch up with a tank of real gas or have to use the 10% Ethanol stuff. It is a comfortable car that we have had now for about 7 months and there have been absolutely no issues that required a visit with the dealership under the warranty. The capability to make more efficient vehicles is there but there has to be the will and foresight to get them out there on the market. And yes, for the moment if you only drive a limited amount the expense of any new car purchased for better mileage is not economical. What you save in gas you will pretty much pay in higher taxes and the raised insurance premiums on any new vehicle. But when you need a new vehicle anyway it may be worth looking into. We needed a new vehicle when the existing one was about to collapse, and because gas prices were going down some last November and December when we bought it, the premium for a hybrid was only around $2000 but the tax break was I think $2200 for getting a hybrid. We did the calculations for my son, who is driving a 2000 Taurus and figured he would, with his annual mileage and current mpg and at the current prices, save about $1700 per year in gas. But his Taurus is old enough it has virtually no trade in value but it is still a reliable, well cared for vehicle. If and when it is time for another vehicle he will probably get a hybrid but for now it is not worth chasing down one.

I expect at least to some extent that the fuel efficient vehicles such as the Civic Hybrid are fashionable graspings at fuel savings. We did go with it because there is a sense of social responsibility in trying to limit our use of a non-renewable resource. We don't do that in all aspects of our lives, but this one seemed both sensible and do-able. It is a 4 cylinder so not the roaring power of most American cars, but it has sufficient pickup to get you out of trouble in traffic. I still drive my 1999 Ford F150 with its big Triton because with our farm we do need to be able to haul rolls of hay for the critters and pull trailers and such. Hopefully by the time it needs to be replaced there will be a more efficient vehicle in a format that can meet our needs.

Marketing of vehicles in the US creates the "need". There is little reason for most of us to be driving big SUVs and trucks, though a need has developed because it is unsafe to be the smallest car on the road. Perhaps some sanity will come out of all this and the multi passenger vehicles will be available for multi passenger families but not hawked as sexy for the young single solo passenger.

We cannot anticipate that taxpayers will support, nor will legislators push, technologies for which they do not perceive a current need. It is sort of like the credit card--some folks use it as a convenience and can pay it off each month; some folks use it as a way to have now what they can't afford now and may not be able to afford in the future either. So planning for 10 years from now is almost as obscure a notion as planning for 50 years from now.

billienicolosi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There's boo kootles of oil in this country.

Any chance you're from Oklahoma? My OK friend says "boo koo."

I've seen it spelled a different way, but I can't remember how right now. It is probably a corruption of the French "beaucoups" as in "merci beaucoups" (which I believe translates to "big thanks". When we homeschooled our sons, they and I took a year of French from a woman. I knew the meaning but I had to ask my son its literal meaning.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2008 11:53PM by Sandra Sue.

That's what it is.

Nope hate to disappoint but "boo kootles" is an old hillbilly word. Heard it many times from my grandpa who was as country as they come. And he had never been to France or ever heard any French. LOL!! And I'm from TN.

My car is getting older by the day but it runs great!! And gets great gas mileage. To replace my car (it's a luxury car) and still worth a good bit even with trade in value. But to trade for another car just because it's a hybrid would not be sensible. Best to keep what I have for the time being. The payments would off set any savings of gas. And I hate a car payment. This one is paid for and I'm not willing at this moment in time to go into debt for a car. I'm of the opinion to wait this thing out and see what happens to our economy before I jump at another car.

My last car was a Joy car. A Mazda Miata, automatic, 40-42miles/per gallon.

Great fun car. I traded my Miata cause my grandchildren were being born and needed the extra carrying space.

I agree there is no reason for people going out and buying the big SUV gas guzzlers. Never have seen the sense in buying those things.
Our other vehicle is a Toyota 4 runner. Runs on regular gas and gets pretty good gas mileage. We need the space because of my hubbys profession. And we do all our traveling in the Toyota.

Which reminds me I was talking to my Sister today. She lives in Touristville (Sevierville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, TN) and the tourists are down big time this year so far. They were in hopes of recouping some tourists over the 4th but it didn't happen.
There's been a big change in people going out to eat in restaurants in our area. Down, way down. Places we had to wait in line to get seated don't exist here anymore. Not only is the restaurant hurting but the waitresses and waiters who depend on tips to live are in trouble.

Trickle down economics!!!

billien, I am one of those people who has the gas guzzling SUV. For many years I drove a smaller car but was unable to get my sales aids into the trunk or interior. Many times I am hauling around display racks, signage and demo. items. There is not enough room in a car for all of these things. I only get 16 miles per gallon but I have made changes to compensate for the gas. I do my shopping on the way to or from work. This is how I do all of my errands. My SUV is a necessity for my work and I would not have it otherwise. If I ever quit this kind of work, perhaps I will look for something else. Oh yes, I also have a 100lb. Rotty that loves the SUV and looking back I don't know what we did without it.

I had applied with NARMS and I still have not heard back from days ago. Does it take a while before you gt a email back from them acknowledging receipt of your application? Does anyone know? I was not sure if there is a way that I could check or should I just wait? ........thanks......Goldie

Mo--how about a minivan or station wagon? I have an 13-year old Toyota station wagon, with hundreds of pounds of tools and building materials, and I get 20 mpg city. Not wonderful, but better than yours. Minivans are pretty spacious too, really just raised wagons.

Goldie--I don't remember if I got a confirmation, but when companies post a job on your web page, you get an email.

Sneakers, I had a station wagon for many years and was happy with it when the kids were young. My SUV is great and quite comfortable. I have no complaints with it. It is also a 4WD and I can go into the mountains with it during the winter. We occasionally get snow and ice in the foothills. When they are not on fire. I drive a Chevy Tahoe and at this point would not trade it for anything. I waited a lot of years for it.

You said it was a gas-guzzler.

What ever you have to have to do your business MO. That's the reason we have the Toyota 4 Runner. Hubby has to be able to take his equipment to perform or do live recordings. Put the back seats down and he's in business.

I don't know of anyone who is going to stop driving because of the cost of gas anymore than someone giving up food because of the increases. This is the time to look at our spending habits and decide what our wants and needs really are. Cutting back on unnessary items is a good start. Eating out less and buying a cheaper cut of meat. Only purchasing items that are on sale. There are many ways to compensate for the rising gas and food costs. In the end everything that we now consume will go up in price. You are the only one who knows what you really need and what you can do without. Today is the time to start because a year down the road will be to late.

Well said MO!! My thoughts exactly. When it comes to going out and buying new clothes to eating..eating is going to come first and it's looking like that's the way things are going to have to go with people. The necessities first then the "treats"
We eat out a lot but the cost is pretty much what we would have to pay to buy and cook the food at the rate grocery prices are climbing daily. And I have changed my habits at the grocery store. Look for "sale" items especially "butchers sale" on meats. I can take those home put them in the freezer and they are good for a long while.
We don't do fast foods. At the cost of fast foods we can eat cheaper at a sit down restaurant than buy Mikey D's. We do an occasional Hardee's. Best burger in town!! And cheaper than the usual fast food. I get coupons in the mail for Hardee's and we end up eating a full meal for about $7 for 2. Can't buy the hamburger, cheese, fried taters and drinks for $7 at the grocery store.

I've quit going shopping just to be shopping. Only time I shop now is when I'm doing a shop.

My motto these days is "if you can't live without it, buy it but if you can live without it..don't buy"

And while I'm not shopping the economy is going downhill.
One thing is amazing to me. The price of gas and the general mood and climate of people we were thinking my hubby's business would go into a decline and he has been busier than ever for this time of year. Can't figure that one out!!

Thanks sneakers,I will wait until I hear something first......As far as the car situation I have a 2001 camaro convretible z28 5.7 engine. It eats gas faster than I can put it in,I need to sell and get myself something smaller and better on gas. My son told me today to get a toyota small car, like a 2003 something good on gas...Im really thinking of selling the car that I waited forever to get and love it. In Ny I cant get out of my own driveway and its fast and fun but you pay for premium gas and sometimes I think Is it really worth it.I have to start thinking smart and save any way I can,Its hard it live in NY and own a home. Im having problems making ends meet with the Mortgage and all the other bills. Its just not working, and I dont really want to move..... So I am also cutting back on everything, and trying to work as much as possible.What else can I do...Goldie