Ketchup.

Diversity Issues at work:

Often at Sears we have customers who call and ask for someone who speaks Spanish...in Spanish. I panic. I don't speak a word of Spanish and don't know what to say. I stumble over a "Uno momento?" and put them on hold. Then I desperately call and page every department, searching for a Spanish-speaking associate, only to have the customer hang up for being on hold for so long. Or even worse...call back.

It hasn't been as bad in recent months because we have 3 Spanish speakers on staff - at least one is usually in the store. But 3 out of 80 or more employees really isn't enough to serve as many Spanish-only speaking customers as we have. None of our managers speak any Spanish either.

With high turnover and a smallish applicant pool, we can't require anyone to be bilingual for a job, but it would help a lot.

It's a lucky thing Sears feels like small-time business in the Golden Triangle Mall because I'm sure no PR firm could get away with such an inability to serve and communicate with its clientele.

Too bad I didn't minor in Spanish, I guess.

Catsup.

If Steve Jobs really wanted to apologize:

I'd like to sincerely apologize to all Apple consumers for making you feel cheated by the iPhone price drop. It was our intention to provide a quality product to as many people as possible, not to alienate a smaller group. I would like to rectify the situation by offering a $100 rebate voucher to those who bought the iPhone in the 2 weeks preceding the price drop, and I encourage all our customers to write to us on the Apple forums with suggestions about how Apple can best serve you in the future. I want to open the lines of communication with the Apple community and promise the best service we can provide for current and future products starting today. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to hearing from you.