#dave loblaw

[msbarrows]

Well... No Name brand has been around since I was a pre-teen back in the 70s, so this is technically art imitating life. And yes, that means it also came before Repo Man, which I saw mentioned elsewhere in the notes.

(Me blathering on about brand history and other products under the cut.)

Their quality can vary a bit, and there is the problem that sometimes they change suppliers so what's in the package can change slightly-but-noticeably in taste/makeup/whatever, but yeah they've been a staple of the Canadian supermarket scene since 1978, when they were introduced during a time of rising inflation and lowering food quality (gee, doesn't THAT sound familiar...).

Dave Nichol, Loblaws' president at the time, bragged about how it was easy to make No Name items that were as good or better than national brands because they'd all decreased their own quality so much. He used to regularly do ads comparing the cost of a cart of No Name products vs a cart of the same products in name brands, and the No Name was always a considerably lower total for reasonably comparable quality. Very clever marketing, especially since they opened a "No Frills" line of stores that heavily featured a much wider range of No Name products. The No Name brand and No Frills stores are one of the things that saved Loblaws as a company, as they'd been in decline since the 60s and were fighting to turn things around throughout most of the 70s. The addition of a higher end/vaguely gourmet line (President's Choice, with less iconic packaging but still following a unified aesthetic) also helped to turn them from a failing business into the biggest supermarket retailer in Canada.

theres a popular brand in canada called no name brand and it manufactures everything you can imagine in a grocery store and it kind of makes me feel like im in a world no one bothered to do much world building for

[atlanticcanada]

Amid record profits, Loblaw CEO warns food prices will continue to rise

Maritimers grappling with rising food prices are being warned it’s about to get worse.

For 87-year-old Sydney, N.S., resident Bernie Larusic, keeping his refrigerator full has been a challenge.

“We're at a plateau that's way above what we can afford and people are suffering over that,” said Larusic.

It comes as Loblaw's revenue increased by about 10 per cent in the last quarter and a profit of more than half a billion dollars.

“I think people have a right to feel a little bit skeptical, but it's very hard to know exactly what's contributing to these higher food prices,” said Phoebe Stevens, an assistant professor of food security and sustainable agriculture at Dalhousie University.

Canada's biggest grocer says food costs could increase this year and they have more than 1,000 supplier requests for significant cost increases.

Stevens says markets that are heavily concentrated tend to see higher retail prices for consumers.

“When we look at the grocery retail industry in Canada, 80 per cent is controlled by about five companies, so it is heavily concentrated, suggesting that these companies might have control over prices more so than is desirable,” said Stevens.

But one expert is defending the grocery chains and says the producers that supply grocers should be looked at.

“Are they sort of increasing prices more than warranted? I would expect the Competition Bureau to be on it, but I don’t know to what extent they have been on it anymore,” said Dave Chetan, economist at University of Alberta.

Statistics Canada said this week that butter prices soared 19.1 per cent with bread prices close behind, followed by the cost of eggs, and fresh or frozen chicken.

“I don't mind anyone making a profit -- that's business -- but if the term ‘gouging’ gets into there, then that's mean spirited,” said Larusic.

Members of parliament have summoned the heads of Canada's largest grocery store chains to answer for rising food prices.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/7n5V9dO

[thenorwegiancurator]

ElectricJellyfish Worlds in a Forest by Dave Loblaw // Buy here

[theartshelf]

David Loblaw

[paniniwitharugula]

the month-long boycott is in response to the continuing price hikes by Loblaw, whose profits are soaring.

The two main guidelines for shoppers are: • Don't shop at Loblaw and Loblaw-owned stores for the entire month of May 2024 • If shopping is taking place at Loblaw stores, focus on purchasing loss leaders

a loss leader is a product the store is willing to sell at a low price to get you to buy extras, or to bring in more shoppers. the example given is a comment from the organizer's reddit post:

butter has been on sale 4.99 down from like 7.99…so I'll go to shoppers, buy 4, collect my points and leave with nothing else. Only buying the loss leader.

May 12th especially is the day to buy from small, local grocers and avoid the "Big 5" Grocers - Loblaws, Metro, Sobeys (Empire), Walmart, and Costco

Loblaw stores:

Loblaws

Atlantic Cash and Carry

Atlantic Supervalu

Axep

Superstore

Dominion Stores

Entrepôts Presto / Club Entrepôt

Esso Gas

Extra Foods

Fortinos

Freshmart

L'intermarché

Lucky Dollar Foods

Maxi

NG Cash & Carry

No Frills

No Name

Pharmaprix

President's Choice

President's Choice Financial

Provigo

Real Canadian Liquorstore

Real Canadian Superstore

Red & White Food Stores

SaveEasy (formerly Atlantic SaveEasy)

Shop Easy Foods

Shoppers Drug Mart / Pharmaprix

Simplypharmacy

SuperValu

T & T Supermarket

Valu-mart

Wellwise

Wholesale Club

Your Independent Grocer

Zehrs Markets

Loblaw brands:

President's Choice

No Name

Exact

Blue Menu

Joe Fresh

J± (electronics)

Teddy's Choice

PC Splendido

Bella Tavola

PC Premium Black Label

Joe Pet Catz & Dawgz

PC Organic

The Health Clinic by Shoppers

Life Works

Life @ Home

i live in a food desert, so pretty much every store "nearby" is on that list except for one single Giant Tiger. the reddit post has a helpful list of potential alternatives you could shop at instead, organized by province (copied below) as well as three apps that should be helpful in finding loss leaders and other alternatives:

Apps:

Flashfood

FLIPP

TooGoodToGo

Alberta:

Basha Foods International

Calgary Co-op

Earth’s General Store

Freestone Produce

Freson Bros.

Fruiticana

Giant Tiger

Italian Centre Shop

The Italian Store

K&K Foodliner

London Drugs

Lucky

Lucky 97

Mike Dean Local Grocer

Quality Foods

Sunterra Market

British Columbia:

49th Parallel Grocery

Ambrosia Natural Foods

Avril (Health Supermarket)

Bruno’s Fine Foods

Castlegar - Kootenay Market

Coppa's Fresh Market

Crescent Valley - Evergreen Market

Fairway Markets

Fresh St. Market

Goodness Me!

Galleria Supermarkets

IGA / MarketPlace IGA in British Columbia only

London Drugs

Nature's Emporium

Nelson - Kootenay Co-op

New Denver - New Market Food's

Pomme Natural Market

Quality Foods

Silverton - Silverton General Store

Slocan - Slocan Village Market

Sungiven Foods

Vince's Market

Winlaw - Gaia Tree Whole foods

Manitoba:

Coleman's

Family Foods

Federated Co-operatives Ltd.

Giant Tiger

Heritage Co-op (Western Manitoba)

North Central Co-op

Red River Co-op

New Brunswick:

Co-op Atlantic (It has been brought to my attention this may be operating under the Sobeys umbrella, so if anyone on the East coast can verify this for me, that would be appreciated so we can update the list!)

Dieppe Food Express

Giant Tiger

Harvest To Home Organic Delivery

Jolly Farmer

Lone Pine Farm Nubians

Northumberland Cooperative Ltd.

Norm’s Butcher Block and Grocery Store

Sunden Farms

Newfoundland and Labrador:

Belbins

Coleman's

Marie’s

Piper’s

Powell’s

Nova Scotia:

Arthur's Urban Market

Avery's Farm Market

Dave's Market

Gateway

Giant Tiger

Kingswood Market

Stirling Farm Market

Ontario:

Ambrosia Natural Foods

Askew's Foods

Asian Food Centre

Battaglia’s

Bruno’s Fine Foods

Centra Food Market

Coppa's Fresh Market

Cousin’s Market

Denninger's

Fairway Markets

Family Foods

Fiesta Farms

Foodex

FoodFare

Fresh City Market

Galleria Supermarkets

Georgia Main Food Group

Goodness Me

Giant Tiger

Grocery Outlet (formerly Almost Perfect)

Healthy Planet

Highland Farms

Karma Coop

Kim Phat

Lalumière Bonanza

L&M Markets (Hometown Grocers Co-op)

Le Jardin Mobile

Lococo’s

Lucky Supermarket

Mike Dean Local Grocer

Nations Fresh Food

Odd Bunch

Organic Garage

Panchvati Supermarket

P.A.T. Mart

Rabba Fine Foods

Starsky Fine Foods

Supermarché PA (5 stores)

Vince's Market

Yummy Market

Prince Edward Island:

The ADL Store

Atlantic Grown Organics

Charlottetown Farmers’ Market Coop

Giant Tiger

Harvest Wholesale

Julio’s Seafood Market

Kensington Food Basket

Lezeen Store (Formerly Grain Essence Garden)

MacKenzie Produce Inc.

Monaghan Farms

Montrose Meats PEI Ltd.

MR Seafoods

Nabuurs Gardens

Pure Island Market

Riverview Country Market and Cafe

Summerside Farmers’ Market

Sunshine Farm

Quebec:

Avril (Health Supermarket)

Coppa's Fresh Market

Euromarche

Giant Tiger

Kim Phat

Le Marché Esposito

Le Marche Fu-Tai

Le Marché Végétarien/Les Arpents Verts

Lian-Tai

Organic Garage

Panchvati Supermarket

P.A.T. Mart

Planet Organic

Supermarché PA (5 stores)

TaiKo Supermarket

Vince's Market

Yummy Market

Saskatchewan:

Coleman's

Federated Co-operatives Ltd.

Giant Tiger

North Central Co-op

Prairie Roads Market

Saskatoon Co-op

Red River Co-op

The Wandering Market

Northwest Territories:

Co-op

The North West Company

Northern

NorthMart

Nunavut:

The North West Company

Northern

NorthMart

Yukon:

Bigway Foods

Bonanza Market

Dawson City General Store

The Gourmet

The Little Green Apple

Porter Creek Super

Riverside Grocery

Yukon Asian Market

[everythingstarstuff]

Artist Dave Loblaw

[theonlymagicleftisart]

Incredible work from Dave Loblaw

Prints: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4

“As a graphic designer and visual artist, I work with many clients from large national brands to single proprietors, who have conceptual ideas of their brands and need someone to tell a cohesive story about them through visual strategic design.”

Follow on Instagram: @theonlymagicleftisartinsta

[ul741f]

source: theonlymagicleftisart.tumblr.com Dave Loblaw

[reportstore]

Canadian baker Weston Foods put up for sale

Canada-based bakery and cereals market provider Weston Food varieties is set for a possession change following a declaration from its parent organization George Weston Ltd.

The declaration today (23 Walk) follows a survey by the George Weston Ltd. (GWL) board, the consequence of which is it plans to zero in its endeavors on the retail and land areas by means of its Loblaw and Decision Properties organizations.

GWL said "regardless of its situation as a main North American bakery, Weston Food varieties stays a little piece of GWL's general worth".

It added: "without appealing chances to build its general scale inside the organization, the board accepts that a deal addresses the best an open door to open its development potential."

Galen Weston, executive and Chief of GWL, added: "Weston Food sources has been at the center of our organization for quite some time. It has areas of strength for a, appealing and developing edges, a hearty rundown of clients, solid brands, and a top notch supervisory crew. As George Weston concentrates on Loblaw and Decision Properties, we are certain this is the perfect opportunity to open the essential development expected that exists inside Weston Food sources through its deal."

To gain more information on the Canada bakery & cereals market forecast, download a free report sample

Weston Food sources has retail and foodservice clients all through Canada and the US. It produces bundled new bread and moves as well as frozen and craftsman bread and rolls, cakes, doughnuts, pies, treats, saltines and wafers.

The organization produces items under brands including Expert Bakery, private-name lines and is a maker of Blossoms Food sources' Dave's Executioner Bread brand under permit.

GWL said it plans to begin a deals cycle presently. Houlihan Lokey and CIBC Capital Markets have been held by the organization to exhort on the removal.

Weston Food varieties had deals of CAD2.06bn (US$1.63bn) and changed EBITDA of CAD200m in 2020, down, separately, from CAD2.15bn and CAD223m in 2019.

[orbemnews]

W. Galen Weston, Who Transformed a Family Food Empire, Dies at 80 W. Galen Weston, a polo partner of Prince Charles who transformed and expanded the international food empire founded by his grandfather, a baker, and went on to collect luxury department stores, died on April 12 at his home in Toronto. He was 80. His death was announced by George Weston Ltd., the family-controlled holding company where he had been chairman until retiring in 2016. The announcement did not say what the cause was. When Mr. Weston joined the family business in 1961, it controlled bakeries in Canada, the United States, Britain and Australia, as well as food shops including Fortnum & Mason, grocer to Queen Elizabeth, and British, Canadian and American supermarkets and food wholesalers. Dairies, chocolate makers and a Canadian paper mill were also in the mix. In 1972, after working for the business in Ireland, Mr. Weston was given the unenviable task of deciding the fate of Loblaw Groceterias, a Canadian supermarket chain the family had gradually taken control of by 1956. Burdened with debt and poor sales, the chain was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Part of Mr. Weston’s plan was conventional: He swiftly closed unprofitable stores, slashing Loblaws, as the company is now known, in half. But he also hired Dave Nichol, a former college classmate who was with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Working with Richard Currie, another Canadian hired away from McKinsey, and the designer Don Watt, Mr. Nichol turned the remaining stores from fluorescently lit boxes filled with metal shelving into outlets that were spacious and almost luxurious. The key to making Loblaws the dominant grocer in Canada was the group’s approach to the previously sleepy private-label business, beginning with household staples. Mr. Watt came up with vivid yellow packaging with bold, black Helvetica lettering for a line of “No Name” products that promised to exchange fancy packaging for low prices and quality. The real breakthrough, however, was the decision to create private-label products, like Memories of Kobe Tamari Garlic Sauce and Candy Cane Chocolate Fudge Crackle Ice Cream, that were of higher quality than brand-name goods and, more important, distinctive and fashionable, while still being less expensive. President’s Choice, as the line was named, began with a chocolate chip cookie. The market leader at the time, Nabisco’s Chips Ahoy, had 24 percent chocolate chips and used vegetable oil. President Choice’s Decadent cookies were 40 percent chips and used butter. To pitch the new line, Loblaws supplemented its traditional grocery store fliers with something that resembled a cross between a magazine and a comic book, which it called the Insider’s Report. Rather than promote weekly sales, the report featured Mr. Nichol in photos with his family dog, telling stories about new products, all of which became more profitable for Loblaws than brand-name products. Today in Business Updated  April 26, 2021, 6:10 p.m. ET While President’s Choice attracted imitators, some American grocers began buying or licensing the products. Walmart hired Loblaws to develop similar products for its stores in the United States. “The impact was profound,” said Daniel Bender, a cultural historian of food at the University of Toronto. “Loblaws upscaled their stores so that they were meant to look like a market rather than a supermarket.” Willard Gordon Galen Weston was born on Oct. 29, 1940, in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England. He was the youngest of nine children of Willard Garfield Weston, who had become president of the family company in 1924, and Reta Lila (Howard) Weston, a former schoolteacher. The family returned to Canada after World War II. According to a brief profile in The New York Times in 1978, as a young man Mr. Weston was “the archetypical playboy of the Western world” who “chased girls and spent almost as many college hours in movie theaters as in the classroom.” Mr. Weston studied at the University of Western Ontario before joining the family business. He started in Ireland, where he bought supermarkets as part of an expansion. When in Dublin, where he had also acquired the luxury department store Brown Thomas, his eye was caught by images of a model on billboards throughout the city. He married that model, Hilary Frayne, in 1966, in a ceremony followed by a reception where the wedding party wore clothing styled after that of the 1890s gold rush in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Ms. Weston was active in the family’s luxury store operations, which are now anchored by Selfridges in Britain and include Holt Renfrew in Canada. In 1983, antiterrorism police officers in Ireland warned Mr. Weston that he was the target of a kidnapping plot by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. At their request, he left a car behind at his Irish home as a decoy before heading to England. When a shootout between seven masked gunman and police took place at the home, injuring four of the would-be kidnappers, Mr. Weston was playing polo in Windsor on a team with Prince Charles. Under Mr. Weston, Loblaws continued to expand through acquisitions, including a takeover of Canada’s largest drugstore chain, and by introducing new varieties of stores. But it also initially struggled when Walmart added fresh groceries to its Canadian stores in 2006, and the botched launch of a new inventory system led to empty shelves in Loblaws stores and bulging warehouses for the company. In 2017 both Loblaws and George Weston told competition authorities in Canada that they had participated in a bread price-fixing scheme with other bakers and retailers for 14 years. Loblaws give customers gift cards worth 25 Canadian dollars in atonement, but a class-action lawsuit against all the companies is still making its way through the courts. Mr. Weston let Mr. Nichol (and his French bulldog, Georgie Girl) to be the face of Loblaws in television commercials and in print advertisements. But he did regularly visit Loblaws stores, both to speak with shoppers and to inspect the store’s garbage, one of his preferred indicators of efficiency. While he rarely gave interviews, Mr. Weston became more of a public figure when his wife became the lieutenant governor of Ontario — Queen Elizabeth’s proxy in the province — in 1997. She served in that position for five years. Mr. Weston’s wife survives him, as do his son, Galen, who succeeded him as chairman and chief executive of George Weston; his daughter, Alannah Weston, the chairwoman of Selfridges Group; five of his siblings, Grainger Weston, Nancy Baron, Wendy Rebanks, Gretchen Bauta and Camilla Dalglish; and four grandchildren. Mr. Weston’s transformation of George Weston was underscored not long before his death when the company announced that it was selling the last of its bakeries, long its predominant operation, to focus on its grocery stores and real estate holdings. Source link Orbem News #Dies #empire #Family #Food #Galen #transformed #Weston

[onlygodis]

Dave Loblaw

[bdscuatui]

Thay đổi người bảo vệ tại Royal LePage Hai gia đình kỳ cựu trong lĩnh vực bất động sản đã hợp nhất dưới một môi giới. Bill và Bonnie Culver và con gái Sarilla, trung tâm, đã nắm quyền sở hữu công ty môi giới bất động sản Royal LePage ở Simcoe và Port Dover. Bán doanh nghiệp cho họ là anh em Dave Brown bên trái và Mike Brown, bên phải, cả hai sẽ ở lại với tư cách là nhà môi giới bán hàng. - Ảnh Monte Sonnenberg Nhà cải cách Montte Sonnenberg / Simcoe Browns và Culvers đã tìm thấy điểm chung về tương lai của công ty môi giới bất động sản Royal LePage ở Simcoe và Port Dover.Với 87 năm kinh nghiệm kết hợp, hai anh em Dave và Mike Brown gần đây đã đồng ý bán Royal LePage Brown Realty cho Bill và Bonnie Culver. Các Culvers cũng là cựu chiến binh của bối cảnh bất động sản địa phương với 61 năm giữa họ.Đây là một công việc đang tiến triển trong khoảng 18 tháng, từ đó, Bill Bill Culver cho biết hôm thứ Hai. Chúng tôi đã tiếp cận Mike và Dave, có một số cuộc trò chuyện ban đầu và nói: "Này, hãy để Lừa làm điều này.Các Culvers như thế là môi giới đầy đủ với một đội ngũ đầy đủ các đại lý và nhân viên hỗ trợ có kinh nghiệm. Tổng số bổ sung là 25, bao gồm chính anh em Brown. Cả hai sẽ vẫn hoạt động như môi giới bán hàng.Tự doDave Brown đã bắt đầu lăn bóng vào năm 1972 khi cha anh Grover xây cho anh một văn phòng nhỏ dưới tầng hầm của ngôi nhà gia đình. Brown đã làm việc để đạt được chứng nhận bảo hiểm của mình - ngày trước - thường bao gồm thử nghiệm cho một giấy phép bất động sản.Dave Brown đã thấy rất nhiều thay đổi trên đường đi, bao gồm cả việc bạn không còn có thể trở thành một nhà môi giới bất động sản và bán bảo hiểm cùng một lúc. Khái niệm mua sắm một cửa có ý nghĩa trở lại trong ngày nhưng các ngành công nghiệp ở Ontario đã bị tách ra.Mike Brown đã đến bữa tiệc muộn một chút. Ông đã đi đường vòng sớm trong sự nghiệp của mình như là một đại diện quảng cáo cho chuỗi báo cũ của Brabant.Một điểm nổi bật đối với Mike Brown trước khi anh gia nhập anh trai vào năm 1981 là giúp nâng cao vị thế của chuỗi siêu thị Fortinos khi đây là một hoạt động khiêm tốn ở Hamilton. Ngày nay, công ty hàng hóa khổng lồ loblaws của Canada hoạt động gần hai chục cửa hàng dưới biểu ngữ Fortinos.The Culvers cũng tìm thấy sự đầu tư hấp dẫn bởi vì con gái của họ đã ở trong lĩnh vực bất động sản được năm năm. Kế hoạch kế nhiệm sẽ chứng kiến ​​Sarilla Culver nhận trách nhiệm môi giới khi cha mẹ cô nghỉ hưu.Đây là một cơ hội, anh ấy nói Bill Culver, một thành viên cũ của hội đồng thị trấn Simcoe trước đây. Khi một cơ hội đến và cảm thấy tốt, bạn sẽ làm được. Có một đội ngũ tốt ở đây. Tất cả chúng tôi làm việc rất tốt với tư cách là một nhóm gia đình.Bonnie Culver sẽ đóng vai trò là người môi giới của hồ sơ, điều đó có nghĩa là cô sẽ là người liên lạc vững chắc khi giao dịch với Hội đồng Bất động sản của Ontario. Vợ của Dave Brown, bà Nancy Brown - quản trị viên văn phòng tại công ty môi giới từ năm 1980 - sẽ nghỉ hưu.Brown Realty hợp tác với Royal LePage vào năm 1995.MSonnenberg@postmedia.com [ad_2] Nguồn

[nanna-penney-blog]

The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook

Yesterday morning, my friends and family were on my mind. I thought to call my mum & Lowell and my dad & Lou. When I got distracted, I wrote a song called The Solo Man. After about three hours I realized that the chorus was the chorus of Soul Man by Sam & Dave (with an extra syllable).

I went downstairs to pack my things. My first instinct when packing is to bring my life, and I spent two hours experimenting with folding in wait for the dryer to finish. I thought about last night. 

Andy and I had a little debate about Canadian Dairy’s use of supply management and Donald Trump’s comments concerning. We did some research. I still don’t know that much about dairy. I read some Wikipedia entries about Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and NATO’s planning to build a base in Poland, and about the massacres in Kosovo on the bus in the morning. I sat for a while and thought of that while I folded my clothes on the floor.  

I left home with Elan’s pink Jansport and a black canvas bag from Loblaw’s, reached the King Mart, bought cigarettes and picked up cash, and walked to the bus stop. I saw my reflection in the window of the 710 headshop, and the matching pink of my backpack and headphones. I like this matching. I do wish it was with a less bright colour. 

I picked up a medium coffee with two cream, then walked toward the 502 stop. My parents were about two cars away from the intersection when we saw each other. They drove us to a path that starts near Bath & Centennial that they’d walked before with Sochi, that follows a river a ways toward Andy’s house. When they dropped me off at Andy’s house, I got tears in my eyes. It’s been a long time since I left my home and the people who live there. 

When mum & Lowell stepped out of the car, the colour of their sweaters jumped out at me - her sweater the pink like the Jansport and the little headphones, his sweater like my coat. It would have been a nice picture, it kind of made me feel complete for a second. 

I’d mentioned to mom that I planned to buy The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook because of the things that made me start writing music: that book, The Paul Simon Songbook by Paul Simon, and Mr. Lepage’s grade seven music class, and my first guitar: a mini red Squire Strat that Lou and dad gave me when I was twelve.

Mr. Lepage taught music in two ways: one as the frustrated conductor of a bunch of thirteen-year-olds, one as a man whose real passion is music, and wanted to share its history and genius with the world. He loved French Canadian music. He also taught my grade eight history class, and like Mr. Frühling, my favourite French teacher (shout out to Mme Poulin and Mme Yari, great French teaching), Mr. Lepage said that the only way to keep a language was to immerse yourself in its culture. 

In that class, I heard the oboes in Around This Corner by Sarah Harmer, the story and some of the songs from Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and When I’m 64 for the first time. Up until that point, the only way I’d heard When I’m 64 was when my dad played it for me when I was a kid. I would sit in his guitar case because it had a soft inside with grey fabric, quite comfortable paired with a blankey, and he would play When I’m 64 and You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away on his acoustic guitar.

When my sister and I were at our mum’s, she would play Oh What A Beautiful Morning from Oklahoma!, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry by Hank Williams, and a French song about chickens that went: 

C’est la poulette grise Qui pont dans l’église, Elle va pondre un petit coco Pour Nadia quit va fair dodiche Elle va pondre un petit coco Pour Nadia quit va fair dodo,  Dodiche, dodo.

when she put us to sleep at night. 

My dad still has the same copy of The Beatles Chord Songbook that I used when I started writing back then. I asked him if I could borrow it - this way I wouldn’t have to buy it for the trip. He brought it to me on the way to the gig he was playing in Kemptville, an hour and a half away from Kingston. We had a hug and a goodbye. I might only look at the book once; I’m just happy it’s with me. Like watching Larry David, or deciding which recipe you’ll use from a beautiful cookbook. It’s a little piece of what I’ve done for a long time, and it came directly from my dad. 

It’s odd to think of a forty-two day stretch as a moment in time because of the sleeping that separates the days. I did a lot of listening during that moment. 

The analogy is dark, but bear with me: 

The company I used to work at, Channel 3 Communications, Inc., looks over Lake Ontario. It was last year on an overcast day in spring that I saw a raven attack a starling in midair and snap its neck as it flew away. I couldn’t avoid looking at it - it was down a path I needed to take. I had to get back to work, lunch was ending. 

Last week on Tuesday, I was looking out the window of Al’s truck while he and Andy were inside the shop. There was a shiny, large cockroach shimmering in the sand of the empty parking lot. A raven flew down and stood behind it. It would peck, then look away as the bug would scramble. Peck, then look away, until the cockroach was dead on the ground. The raven took it in its beak, stood for a moment, then flew away. I had the options to stop or ignore this.

The past forty-two days have been like this - letting moments in music happen without stopping or ignoring them, and knowing when to follow them when it’s right. It’s moments like the first, that you're forced to look at, that might be the most difficult to see are happening to you.

Not all of the accidents will appear as vivid these did. Like seeing my parents, their sweater colours and watching the ravens, remembering lessons from school when the knowledge was needed, taking three hours to write a knockoff of Soul Man. I was listening. If I hadn’t been listening to my instinct, just to watch, I wouldn’t have seen what was going on. 

Yada yada yada, it’s all very philosophical. I like writing about it! 

We leave at 3:30pm from his house - we spend Sunday driving to and spending time in Ottawa. We’re going to New York on Monday at 6am. 

[michaelmfergusonusa]

Real Lawyers Have Blogs with Tanya Forsheit

Kevin: This is Kevin O’Keefe for real lawyers have blogs of all things and who am I talking with?

Tanya: Tanya Forsheit the chair of the Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz privacy and data security group.

Kevin: I first talked to you when you called one evening and said, this is Tanya Forsheit from Proskauer and I’m going to do a privacy blog. How did that come about in your mind?

Tanya: It was a really long time ago, I think that was in 2006 or Like that and I was a like a senior associate and I was trying to develop privacy practices at a time when privacy was really not so well-known. As a legal practice, we had breach notification laws and in California, we had some other laws, you know, Cal APA and things like that, but wasn’t that well known. I had an idea, as a senior associate at a large law firm. The idea was, how do I make people aware of my expertise and my knowledge and that I’m doing this and blogging was around already for sure.

There were some large law firms that already had blogs, they were many, there are few and I had threw that doing some research had discovered your company that was helping law firms, new blog specifically. The idea had first come from even like a business development class, I was doing that maybe blogging was a good idea. I thought well, let’s give it a shot, let me get some information. The Firm was open to me finding out what would be involved and then we had to make the case for it, but yes, that was how it happened.

Kevin: When you saw the privacy isn’t, you saw it as an opportunity?

Tanya: I did, I mean certainly no one could have predicted what has happened because at that time remember there wasn’t even really Facebook. Facebook was still like a Harvard thing, and social media hadn’t exploded the way that it eventually did and we hadn’t had many of the large breaches that have attracted attention from the c-suite, boards and created the I mean the public consciousness of this has changed completely. Then over the last few years with things like the Edward Snowden revelations and Facebook Cambridge analytical, everything has changed.

I picked well, but it wasn’t known and there was a lot of skepticism. There was a lot of skepticism in the legal community about privacy as an illegal practice for sure. So this was a way to get more visibility.

Kevin: One of the things I tell lawyers now is rather than just say, okay I’m in this practice group, we’re struggling and I’ve got huge competition so I’ll start a blog and everything will be better in my life, but it doesn’t really work out that way. You better off to sit back and say where might the opportunity to be in certain niches.

Tanya: To be honest with you the big thing that was even more important came not long after I started the process our blog I decided to go out on my own and start my own firm called info log, which is still around as well. Blogging that started in 2009, blogging was at the absolute core and heart of what we were doing in launching that firm because that was how we were putting out our knowledge base about lots of things, privacy issues, data security, cloud computing which was really big and growing at the time, we did a whole series of blog posts on cloud computing that got huge response. I mean even to this day, I think some of those 10-year-old blog posts are still around.

Kevin: Who is the driving force and saying, okay we’re going to blog, and we’re going to build notoriety through blogging.

Tanya: In that situation and it was both myself and Dave Nevada who was one of my co-founding partners who’s now it Coolie, he was blogger even before we started the firm he had his own blog and was doing a lot better.

Kevin: What I remember about that site was it led with the content. So it wasn’t like, okay here’s everything our firm does, here’s your pictures of who we are, usually went to school you led your insight and commentary.

Tanya: At that time we wanted the blog to be the website and obviously over time they’re different philosophies about how that works. Doesn’t work I think today things are different to some extent but at the time it worked well because that was how people got to know us and I still run into lawyers and other people these days who will know me through that and its need that we were able to develop a brand. I mean really a brand in a reputation through that.

Kevin: What have you learned from blogging and maybe even better question, what has it done for you? I mean you just said brand, if you look back on it over the years, going back a while.

Tanya: I’ve done it each law firm I’ve been, I did it Proskauer, it info Law Group did a bigger Hostetler when I was there and we’re doing it here now, although and I’ve already said big caveat for those are going to go to our blog which is focused on the data, we don’t blog as often as we like to but that’s because we’re so busy.

Kevin: You’re not the only one it has happened to, you are at work.

Tanya: With the California consumer privacy act. The biggest thing it’s done for me is you build your brand and my brand is built not just associated with the firm’s I’ve been with but for me, which is surprising and interesting, but I’ve become known individually through it as well because I’ve been willing to go out and write things that are not necessarily always the like lawyer Lee, like I’m writing a sort of a scholarly article or I’m just writing like a little blurb. It’s something in between where I really am sharing some knowledge, I’m not giving legal advice but I’m sharing some knowledge that is unique to my perspective and based on my experience within the industry et cetera.

That’s had huge returns over time. It’s not just individual it, it’s rarely just like I wrote this article and then somebody thought and called up, that happens sometimes but more often it’s the collective of somebody is looking for personally. particular expertise, goes online does they’re searching and all of that comes up all those old blog posts, word of mouth et cetera it’s just adds to that reputational and so one of the reasons why I’m so busy today, fast forward from 2006 to 2019.

Kevin: Jeff Noah is now at littler blogs on FMLA said the same thing elevated him to a trusted advisor status and it took time, it wasn’t like it happened, somebody clicked a button and said I saw your posting I’m calling you up and he also said what you said to he used the term helping people you shared some knowledge that people could find of help. When you were blogging, Proskauer and then coming on with your for Law Group, when you were hitting your stride logging how much time we were spending on it?

Tanya: It really varied, I’m sure there were Point in time when I was spending a tremendous amount time, but usually what would happen because think back to the times when there was a really good post and usually what would happen was you just sort of get inspired by something like you would with any writing like and I like to write I mean that’s another thing is like if you don’t like to write, you’re probably not going to like blogging but if you like to write that will happen to me, I’ll get inspired by something and want to write about it and so it’s just sitting down and putting pen to paper and then those would just flow so sometimes it would take couple of hours sometimes it might take longer.

There wasn’t just me, that was my colleagues and I’ve had that experience even here where something has happened, a good example I can give you here my partner Jeremy Goldman who’s a litigator here, but he does some privacy stuff as well and he does kids privacy Cava. I don’t know two years ago the show Silicon Valley had an episode about Kapa and it was actually much more legal focus than in it’s hilarious. It’s a hilarious episode of the show so Jeremy was inspired by that and he sat down that night, I think he did it overnight and wrote a post about the Silicon Valley episode of about Kapa and what was accurate what was it?

That happened so you spent a couple of hours and you crank out something really good, I don’t think that good blogging should take more than a couple of hours at most to have something solid. You don’t want it to be super long and crazy, I mean occasionally, it’s nice to have a really meaty post and we used to talk about that info Law Group. We would do short ones and then we do something really longer but no, I mean you could do something in an hour if you really wanted to so an hour or two a week is probably something ideal, I think for maybe more for people who are really confident.

Kevin: Think about what that accomplishes of building a brand. I was talking with Amy, SCOTUS blog on Monday when you realize hundred people have contributed to that blog this year. She’s gone at the Supreme Court in the morning before we met, that’s a totally different deal.

Tanya: That’s actually one of the ones that were like, I mean, I still think of that like one of the very best right, there’s the SCOTUS blog. There’s like air Goldman’s technology marketing Loblaws and those people I mean those are the ones who are really at the top of their game and I’ve done like guest post for Eric also like they did that’s the other nice thing now, although I should do more of my own blog but yes.

Kevin: Eric moves from Marquette to Santa Clara on the back of that blog because I met him that way.

Tanya: He has one of the very best I mean, there’s no question and people use it as a resource, I mean lots of lawyers.

Kevin: You’ve mentioned some things already, but if you were talking to a lawyer that was on the fence about starting a blog with now starting a blog you’re talking about the time, you’re talking about writing. Although I started a blog because I was in a non-compete and I wanted to learn to write better. After having practiced law for 20 years, I thought I could write like a person and this would be a good way to practice that we can even put that under here. So I concluded that you can you can write bad but for only so long after your blog, but what other advice would you give somebody that they were on the fence about thinking about doing it?

Tanya: You do need to be committed to it. It’s problematic if you’re going to do blog and you’re never going to do it and I continued to struggle without to this day. You have to be committed they’re going to keep doing it and keep blogging but if you’re on the fence, if you feel like you have something to say and to add to a conversation about a particular legal topic that’s unique, especially you’re trying to establish yourself in a niche space, it’s a really good way to do that because it does raise that visibility through not a whole lot of effort especially if you like to write and you can write about things that you’re already working on not obviously they were privileged that you can’t get the cleanser.

You can write about topics that you’re working on or something that you might otherwise need to do. There is such a thing as repurposing which doesn’t mean that you should write something and then post it everywhere it means, maybe you’re doing a presentation and that something goes hand-in-hand with that and it all comes together. Then once you have all this content you really can use that in other context you can do presentations, you can use it in your own client work.

Kevin: What about the importance of a niche?

Tanya: Is important, because if you’re just writing about the same things that everybody is writing about then it doesn’t matter and so was one of the reasons why ours was successful early on both prosperity of the letter-writing about stuff that wasn’t being covered as much at the time. I mean now I don’t know how many privacy blogs security are out there, here are many.

Kevin: Proskauer got busy. Everybody else got busy blogging.

Tanya: Everybody has a privacy blog. If you’re writing not just topics that are unique, but if you’re bringing a different perspective to it, especially if you’re willing to be not so weirdly and by that I don’t mean like say things that wouldn’t be appropriate for a lawyer to say what I mean is don’t talk about it the way any other lawyer would talk about it, be yourself, have your own voice. When people talk about both blogging and social media. This is true not just in legal if you don’t have your own unique voice, you’re going to be boring and it comes off as advertising or comes off as just a news flash that everyone’s already seen before or headline. You have to have a sense of humor, you have to bring something unique to it that’s going to draw people.

Kevin: How did you figure this all out? Maybe it was just over the years by the seat of your pasts because you could go out and teach a course now?

Tanya: I figured it out because I had too, I really wanted to have a successful practice and I had come out of being a general commercial litigator which I enjoyed I really but I didn’t see an ability to turn that into the tice of my own that was unique to me and I was lucky to be in a place where privacy was an option and there were other people I was practicing with, I was lucky that the blog had also come out I should say. Proskauer had come out of a book, a treatise there we had done a Proskauer on privacy treatise through PLI that Chris Wolfe who at the time was Proskauer then went on to Hogan had done and so the blog was sort of a jumping-off point from that.

It could be a continuation because you can only update so often and then you’ve got this book that paper has to be inserted. Blog you can keep much more current and you can have topics that are much more timely.

Kevin: Not pocket parts anymore.

Tanya: There still are.

Kevin: How’d you get the other people in Proskauer? It sounds you had this idea, the firm says, okay you can explore it but other people jumped in that Proskauer, how did that all come about because usually you’re not going to have the associate give the free range to do that and then bring everybody else in?

Tanya: For one thing I was pretty senior even though I was an associate and I was to the firm’s credit. I was somebody who they treated very well and they had a lot of regard for and so they gave me– I certainly had to prove that this was something worthwhile but then once we did that there were a group of Associates and we didn’t really– I mean we had a privacy group of there weren’t that many people who were really technically privacy there were litigators, they were corporate people and so all of us we’re just wanting to be involved because you get your name out there at that time that was very appealing. As a way for a more junior person to become known as associated with something and Google yourself and your name show up.

Kevin: It’s amazing.

Tanya: You get news alerts about stuff that in especially the other thing that happens is that journalists, as you know, pick up on the stuff. You get journalists who will want to take your content and do something with you. You also get people who call you for interviews about you become sort of a quoted expert, so if you’re an associate that’s an opportunity that it’s different from, I’m just going to write this brief and someone else going to take credit for it and have their name on it. One of the very deliberate decisions we made at Proskauer and then also at the other firms I’ve been at is the blog posts are in the name of the person. Some firms have decided to just say, by Proskauer or by Frank Ricard whatever which is fine is another way to do it.

Kevin: Doesn’t work very well.

Tanya: I’m not going to judge but when we started each of these we were blogging in our own name and as I’ve left some firms in the interest full disclosure sometimes and this is not surprising. I don’t blame anybody because those are from blogs so sometimes my name has become a firm name, which is fine. I’m still very proud of that content, I still consider it very much at that I created and I am very happy about that but that’s how you got people involved. I mean, of course when people are busy it’s very hard to get people to continue that momentum. I have found even here today even when were super busy if there’s an associated really wants to write about a particular topic. You cannot stop that person, it doesn’t matter how much they have to do billable work. They will find a way to find way to do the middle of the night because they want to get that out and they want to make that statement.

Kevin: I mean it’s still, after all these years it still works.

Tanya: It does, it’s fascinating.

Kevin: Publishing always worked, if we probably look back long before we were lawyers, 150 years before what did lawyers do, they probably spoke, they were interviewed they wrote absolutely and we’re just doing it digitally today.

Tanya: Well, the thing that both I love it and it drives me crazy is when I’m sitting in a meeting it could be here. It could be out in the bar association world or something and somebody goes he are going to blog, like no one has ever thought of this before, blogging and it’s like yes blogging of course but you’re it’s just as effective in just as compelling now, and that’s why people are still like you know light bulb.

Kevin: You need to have an individual that becomes the driving force for a little bit of energy because sometimes firms will say we have to have a blog and if I ask them what the goal is the goal is to have a blog that’s really not a good enough goal, what’s going to measure success? Well, we’ll have a blog and then it tends to die out because nobody’s passionate about it. I still think passion is real important, there must have been some passion that you had for privacy law back then and I still do.

Tanya: For sure still do, I think then I was intrigued by it and I wondered what the possibilities were. It had some interesting relationships to other things I’d done and enjoyed on the intellectual-property side, even on the traditional property side and so I wouldn’t have imagined that it would have been as high profile of a practice as it turned out to be which is a surprising thing.

Kevin: You must have some moments when all of sudden this stuff started breaking you go holy cow.

Tanya:  Absolutely, it’s and it’s been fun to watch the rest of the world catch up and then to also have people who consider themselves to be Old Timers in the Privacy world who have only been doing it for say five years there. Our people believe it or not and I’m not even the most senior of them by a long shot. There are people who’ve been doing privacy now for maybe even 20 years, meaningfully. A lot of them in DC where it was something that started a little earlier and those are the real pioneers but I mean blogging is something that allowed me and many others to have a voice.

Kevin: Well you mean I think at this point I’m your looked at this one, but one of the leading lawyers yet in the country.

Tanya: Shockingly, but apparently, yes, and since California has decided to stick it’s neck out there and wave the charge, it’s been an even more strange journey and experience. Yes. This is all one of those reasons. Certainly, my name would not have been known without blogging.

Kevin: Yes, because I’m seeing here today, we’re sitting in Century City, California, and I’m assuming you have a lot of clients. You built a book of business.

Tanya: Yes, yes. Over many years, yes.

Kevin: Well faster than you probably think.

Tanya: Yes. Actually, I mean in the grand scheme of things, I think it has been faster also because things move much more quickly these days than they used to. It’s still early I mean, I think your point earlier that it takes time, right? People can’t expect that these things are going to happen overnight but that’s what’s rewarding about it, is when they do happen. So I’ve had people that I’ve known in my legal world for 20 years who, maybe I knew them in some capacity when I was a mid-level associate somewhere, and now today, those people are my clients, and just coming to me because they think of me as a leading expert in privacy, and could I have ever seen that evolution happening? No, not at all. There’s just no way that that would-

Kevin: At the speed.

Tanya: The speed of- right, 10 to 15 years to go from nobody.

Kevin: Talk, yes, that’s why we talk- I talk to people, I said I haven’t joined the other State Trial Lawyers Association then nationally get on the board of these things and I still wasn’t there, and now people are doing it with publishing, and people might say, “Well, two years is a long time,” and I’m thinking, “That’s really relative.”

Tanya: Right. That’s very fast, yes.

Kevin: One question, we don’t have to connect it to everything else but if I don’t ask you the question my [unintelligible 00:21:45] will get upset, what was the problem that LexBlog solved for you as to why you have reached out and called me? [laughs] Because you could’ve done a blogger blog.

[laughter]

Tanya: Yes. Okay, so I was a very typical big firm lawyer in many ways, right, and it was like, “I wanna start a blog, I’m a lawyer, what do I do?” I probably google and remember- Actually, you know what, I probably had seen an article or something, because I think you are already getting press and “LexBlog” was getting a lot of press at the time, because it was catering to-

Kevin: Lawyers

Tanya: Lawyers and law firms and there were some big firms who are using you guys, so I think that’s where- because I knew that If I went to management and said, “Look, they are these other big firms who are using this as a platform,” right? It wasn’t just some random thing where I was going to spin up my own WordPress or something. That was why. It was designed, it was customized for lawyers and especially people who weren’t necessarily that savvy about how to do it.

Kevin: Yes, because when I started it, I think it was Rob Kahn and he was at Fenwick and may still be, invites me to speak at a conference, all these people are asking me questions about blogs and [unintelligible 00:22:55] announce me as the National Leader in Blog for Lawyers and I would type that blog, cost me four dollars for about 60 days. I thought it was all very funny, so then I go down to Tim Stanley’s place and Tim and his wife, Stacey had started fine law and I said, “Can you do blogs for lawyers because they’re free. I said, I’m a lawyer and I had a firm, I would be scared to death to do this, in fact, I’m really scared that they’re already finding my silly blog. It looks bad and I don’t know what to do.

[laughter]

Tanya: Right.

Kevin: Truth be told, that’s how the company started. I thought that lawyers are professionals, they didn’t want to look lame, they didn’t want to do anything stupid and they need to just relax about the process.

Tanya: Absolutely, no, I think you did, even if some of the things that were being done were relatively straight forward, having that as a platform to work off of, right, where you basically are logging in or you’re not even necessarily logging in. If you’re in a law firm and you’re a partner and you’re drafting something in word document and then either your assistant or an associate or somebody is going into this-

Kevin: Logs and publishes it.

Tanya: And it’s so user-friendly, etcetera, and it’s gotten obviously even more so over the years. It’s great, everyone here these days now, the lawyers themselves, they know exactly what to do, right? You don’t have to explain to them great detail.

Kevin: I was like, when word-processing came to me, I practiced law before there was Word Press.

Tanya: Right, no, now it’s very intuitive for them.

Kevin: Yes, I can tell somebody, “It’s just a Word Press Platform, oh that’s easy.”

Tanya: Exactly, yes.

Kevin: Well thank you very much, it is delightful.

Tanya: Yes, of course. Thank you, appreciate it.

[maticesilustrados]

Hermosas ilustraciones por Dave Loblaw