Day 8 - Free Refills, but Still No Free Lunch

Tully’s free refills make my day. Free, no-strings-attached, WIFI lure me to their Eastgate store as well. I’ve frequently located at the square table in the corner near the window for my morning coffee, reading, writing routine. A few years ago a Toyota dealer moved in to fill the half-block sized, adjacent lot.

According to Dennis, my cycling friend, Tully’s profit margin is microscopic. I wonder why since the place is always busy. Maybe it’s that they give away refills and Internet access. I hope they survive the rocky economy.

The Toyota dealership next door reminds me of the recent GM bailout. Apparently, 58% of Americans don’t like the government’s takeover of the car making giant. I’m not sure how many billions of dollars the feds are putting into the company’s survival. I’m sure they’d not give Tully’s ten cents to keep their enterprise going. I guess GM’s takeover is not without some pruning. There’s the bankruptcy, the reorganization (seems like that only took the better part of a weekend), and the demise of many models. C’est la vie Saturn but good riddance to the gas guzzling Hummer.

I’m not sure what my share of the ¾ billion plus dollar bail out fund amounts to, but I bet over a couple of years it would buy me a fairly good used GM automobile. But, unlike free refills, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Or, I suspect, a free car.