Rangers vs Guardians, again.

My MLB Game tonight again has the Texas Rangers playing the Cleveland Guardians. This will be the second game in a set of three games these two teams are playing against each other. The Rangers won the first game last night by a score of 6 to 3. This game is scheduled to start at 5:40 PM CDT. As I usually do, I'll follow the game's score and stats in real time via MLB's Gameday Service where I'll also find a link to the radio-call of the game.

And the adventure continues.

As I sat down to start pounding the keys and produce the words, I thought maybe this wouldn't be a post about death. “Ha, a short little entry about my life here and how things change, that'll be a novel effort for me.” But the more I thought about what I wanted to say, I realized it's still about death. In a way.

Maybe that's just how things go, though. Maybe anything can be contorted into being about death, depending on how deep one is willing to dive into subtext.

Or maybe it's just me.

This entry is about a store. Can a store die? Perhaps, but it's not even like this store is closing or anything like that. It's just changing names. At least, officially, that's all that is changing. But...

I have somewhat deliberately avoided sharing too many specific details about where on this planet I'm even located, although I think I have mentioned that I do not reside in my country of citizenship. I feel like the word “expatriate” often carries a lot of baggage with it that I'd rather keep distance from. But in the purest sense, the dictionary definition, “a person living in a foreign country” is a descriptor I cannot deny.

It wouldn't be too hard for an internet sleuth to figure out where I now live based on what I'm writing here, if anyone in the world were actually inclined. I don't think anyone will actually ever read this, much less try and dox me. But I'm reluctant to even share this little slice of my life, so apologies that you've had to slog through several paragraphs now of me trying to rationalize it to myself.

Anyhow, when I first visited here, almost eighteen years ago to the day (good lord), it was quite overwhelming. Everyone probably says something like this when they first experience a place radically different than their home, so nothing new, I know. But even in 2008, which doesn't feel super ancient or anything, it wasn't yet like the current era where smartphones and mobile data are ubiquitous. I didn't have a GPS-enabled device, it was still very possible to actually get truly lost within the confines of civilization, and around every corner there was the potential to run into something you'd never expect.

So, on the second or third day in the country, just bumbling around with my then-girlfriend and her brother, I first encountered this store. It was a name unfamiliar to me. The entrance was at street level, and it didn't give me much of an impression. We had to ride an escalator down into the basement of the building, which revealed a much larger store.

I asked my girlfriend, “What kind of place is this?” Trying to explain to a wide-eyed tourist, she compared it to Walmart. Her brother, who had spent a lot more time than her abroad, scoffed. “It's definitely not as big as a Walmart. Nothing is as big as a Walmart.”

Experience would prove her brother to be correct, at least in my opinion. This place was certainly no Walmart, not that I was looking for a Walmart anyway. I didn't buy anything at the store at that time, in fact I don't know if I ever did buy anything from that branch on that trip.

But five months later, in the midst of an economic slump and with zero job prospects, I packed up and moved here. “For a year or maybe two, tops,” I said. I ended up in a totally different city than the first visit. The small bits of familiarity that I had built up from the summer were wiped completely clean. But as chance would have it, my new apartment was within walking distance of another one of these stores.

I ended up finding out it was a European chain. Again, unable to hold a candle to Walmart, but maybe that was a good thing. It was big but not too big. It had everything I needed and, I will admit, had just enough touches of home that it helped stave off homesickness in those first few months and even years.

As time went on, I became a member. I guess I shopped enough there to become a VIP, which is just meaningless marketing nonsense, but still. I wasn't even aware of it, until one time a temporary holiday checkout cashier, perhaps not fully trained in politeness, said, “Whoa, you're a VIP.” And I kind of chuckled, “yeah, I guess I shop here a bit.”

“You have to spend a lot of money here to be a VIP, not just a bit,” she said.

The years went by, and one day there was news that the parent company was looking to exit the market here. Their local partner bought out their stake, and the writing was on the walls. Everyone knew that, at some point, the stores would no longer bear the same name or logo. The stores would eventually become something else. That day, as it turns out, is tomorrow, July first.

Today was the last day for me to visit my old favorite store with its classic signage. To be honest, long before the local company made the announcement about the name change, the feeling was already perceptible. They stopped carrying some of the goods from back home, overall product selection changed, I dunno, maybe just some of the magic was gone. Local products are good, don't get me wrong. But there were already “local” stores I could and did shop at. It's not that this place was an imported goods shop, either. It was still 98% domestic stuff, but there was just a vibe that set it apart.

The kind of vibe that could cause siblings to debate whether or not it was apt to compare it to a Walmart, perhaps.

By coincidence, the end of June is also the point at which my annual spending is tabulated to see if I retain my VIP membership for another year. For the first time since I became a VIP at least a decade ago, I didn't hit the threshold. I didn't even come close. So, the magic definitely was already gone.

Still, I visited the branch near my office, one last time this afternoon. A lot of the logos were already covered up, but the staff still wore vests with the name that tomorrow will just be a piece of history. I bought a small bottle of iced coffee, displaying my VIP membership card to the clerk for the final time. Just to say I did.

I know it's dumb to feel sad about a store changing its name, a giant corporation. But, I won't forget that debate about whether or not it was like Walmart. I won't forget that same girlfriend telling me how cool she thought their logo was from her childhood, and feeling disappointed when I revealed to her what the simple shapes were actually forming.

I won't forget discussing with my first boss here about how to pronounce the name that will now be a relic. I won't forget walking there to buy bottled water after a massive storm hit in my first year here and there was no running water for four days. I won't forget it being my only weekly outing for groceries during the worst of the COVID lockdowns. I won't forget going there on my second date with the person who would end up being my partner, after dinner, just wandering around and laughing. And somehow knowing at that point that she was the one.

The stores will still be there tomorrow. They will physically exist. I can go shop at one. But, it's just not the same. God, I feel stupid for even thinking this way about stores, about a place I go to spend money to buy toilet paper or salad dressing. Well I might be stupid and hopelessly a part of the capitalist machine. But I'm not dead, at least. FYI.

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Chimeri standard dress watch (Photo by Unattributed, License CC BY-NC-SA)

“What are hobbies about?” is a question I started asking myself when I was watching YouTube videos about watches and fountain pens. The answer to that question showed that I have a fundamentally different view of hobbies than others. Worse, the things that I think of as hobbies aren't hobbies to a lot of people.

There are, at least three kinds of people that are interested in the areas that I consider to be hobbies. At least three kind of people that have a different type of interest than I have in the areas. I've been trying to come up with a way to define these people, and I think I have them down now.

Luxurians

The people I call “Luxurians” aren't interested in these hobbies because of genuine interest in the subject. They might learn about the subject, but that's a side effect of feeling that they need to feign interest to others.

Luxurians are the people that buy into these hobbies not from genuine interest. They buy into them because they have the money to blow. They are more interested in the brand, and the marketing over the quality of the product.

But, the top reason they buy into these hobbies is that they can spend a lot of money. The Luxurians are the “flexers” of the internet. They are buying symbols of their status, and couldn't really care about anything else.

The Investors

This is a peculiar breed of hobbyist, and they are infecting a lot of hobbies, from watches and fountain pens, to LEGO, Pokémon trading cards, and anything Disney.

The Investors are the people that study the resale markets. They are looking for something to “invest” in. Many times it doesn't matter what it is, they will chase the trends of whatever market is the “hottest”. They are collecting items they believe will appreciate in value, and thus bring them a payday when they sell the stuff they've horded.

The Chasers

This is an interesting intersection of the Luxurians and The Investors. They are the people that are just interested in whatever is the trendiest at the moment. If they can buy something that will appreciate in value that is the best for them.

Depending on the hobby this might be acquiring the latest and greatest item on the market, the item that the majority of people will not be able to get their hands on. Whether this is due to outrageously inflated prices, or because of genuine scarcity is inconsequential. However, as soon as the novelty of the item wears off, it will quickly be replaced with something else.

Why Do I Bring This Up?

There is, I feel, a massive level of distortion around hobbies in social media. That distortion comes from the types of people I listed above. There are a lot of them making content, and it's important to identify them in order to not kill your joy for your chosen hobbies.

Let me provide an example of how these types of people almost killed my joy for one of my hobbies: wristwatches.

Watching various “influencer” types, you encounter some extreme bias towards certain brands, like Rolex and Audemars Piguet, Tissot and several others. It was effective, I found myself wanting a Royal Oak, a PRX, and other high-end watches. (One I had my eyes on was over $100,000.)

And it was making me miserable. Then I realized some things about these “influencers”. They tended to have more involvement in the secondary market, and sometimes in the primary market for watches than they tended to disclose.

For example, one of them had an online shop for watches, and managed to turn that into their own boutique. Another one was a dealer who only presented watches he carried in his store. Several influencers started their own watch brands. And, even ones that didn't have a direct conflict would occasionally mention they had sold, or had listed watches for sale they had recently done videos on.

And there were two more things I noticed: (1) All of these types of people would dismiss the majority of watches that were quartz, solar, etc. (with the exception being Casio watches—but typically only specific models). (2) they had a focus on Swiss mechanical watches, and frequently dismissed watches from other regions.

Their reasoning? Well, they wanted to present watches that had “real” heritage. Watches that would mean “mean” something in the years to come. Yada-yada-yada.

In other words: they were full of Public Relations and Marketing terminology. That's when it clicked, I wasn't being informed by reputable and knowledgeable people. These were people that were using their knowledge to shape a narrative to promote a product, or influence a market.

So What Do You Do About It?

The answer to this comes in two fairly simple parts:

• Learn to identify people that have some type of self-interest in the hobby. Sometimes this is difficult, but sometimes they are transparent about it. Basically, be skeptical of anyone in a hobby until they prove themselves.
• Always remember the reasons you became interested in a hobby. Stick to your guns, and dismiss influencers that don't share your values or interests.

For example, I tend to stay away from most of the wristwatch “influencers” these days. There is one that I will still watch because his values are pretty transparent:

1. He purchases most of the watches himself.
2. He resells a lot of watches he reviews. (He's very up front about this.)
3. When he receives units for review, he often doesn't just say they provided it, he frequently summarizes the communication he had with the company (a few times he's even shown the email exchanges he had with the company).
4. He doesn't have a bias towards certain brands or regions. He's open to watches at all price brackets, and all regions.
5. He doesn't have a bias towards specific movements.
6. Expensive watches are frequently borrowed from a friend.
7. He independently tests the claims of various companies. (He's acquired his own equipment and shows his tests.)

So, how does he make money doing this? He understands the game. He has multiple income sources: advertising, channel memberships, Patreon, and a community app that offers a subscription level, and occasional “sponsored” reviews (those are typically the watches sent to him for review, which he is allowed to resell).

And the big thing I've learned from him: don't always take his comments as gospel. In one case, he couldn't recommend a watch because it didn't sit well on his wrist, even after resizing the bracelet. But, here's the thing: his wrist is 2.5 inches smaller in diameter than mine. The same watch fits me well with some adjustment. His other issues were minor aesthetic things that he didn't like, I didn't have an issue with those points. So, a watch that he couldn't recommend is one of my most frequently worn watches, and it brings me joy to wear it. (And no, it's not the one in the photo, but I enjoy that one too.)

And that's the bottom line: learn and remember the things that you enjoy. Don't let influencers drive you away from your values. Don't let them steal your joy.