5 ms·

This is spot on. An anecdote from my undergrad studies and living in Madison, WI: the UW has a division of housing, which provides (shoddy) canvas carts to th

This is spot on. An anecdote from my undergrad studies and living in Madison, WI: the UW has a division of housing, which provides (shoddy) canvas carts to the students to use for moving in/out of the dorms. My student organization happened to "acquire" some of these carts, and when using one I was confronted by none other than the director of housing, who promptly called the police on me. In the end I was happy to return it and he asked the police not to press charges on the condition that I help him walk the cart back to the dorm where it belonged. He told me that people stealing the carts drives him crazy because they cost about $800 each because there's a complicated bidding process to even attempt to sell them to the school! I told him I'd be happy to go to the Home Depot and bang some together if he paid me half that for carts.

fenwick67 8y ago
So your org stole carts from the university, then when you got caught, you proceeded to complain about how expensive they are?
- goodells 8y ago
  We were dumb kids, and it's a story. The director was quite nice and we were making conversation on what would otherwise have been a boring walk across campus. He was clearly appalled at how expensive they are as well, but I got the impression even he didn't have much agency to change it.
Casseres 8y ago
> there's a complicated bidding process to even attempt to sell them to the school! Did he mean complicated process for the school to buy them, or was he making them and selling them to the school himself?
- goodells 8y ago
  My understanding is that there was a bidding process wherein the school would publish a request for proposal and companies would win the contract through it. I'm sure such an approach would be valid in other contexts, but in this case it just speaks to the unnecessary bureaucracy surrounding the procurement of something that could realistically be bought off the shelf.
lotsofpulp 8y ago
There is a reason those carts cost $800, and you definitely can’t make them from Home Depot materials for half that. Hotel owners don’t waste money on $2k and $3k luggage carts for no reason, google how much they cost. Also, theft when you are an adult is not excused by claiming you were dumb kids in my opinion.

fenwick67 8y ago

So your org stole carts from the university, then when you got caught, you proceeded to complain about how expensive they are?

goodells 8y ago
We were dumb kids, and it's a story. The director was quite nice and we were making conversation on what would otherwise have been a boring walk across campus. He was clearly appalled at how expensive they are as well, but I got the impression even he didn't have much agency to change it.

Casseres 8y ago

> there's a complicated bidding process to even attempt to sell them to the school! Did he mean complicated process for the school to buy them, or was he making them and selling them to the school himself?

goodells 8y ago
My understanding is that there was a bidding process wherein the school would publish a request for proposal and companies would win the contract through it. I'm sure such an approach would be valid in other contexts, but in this case it just speaks to the unnecessary bureaucracy surrounding the procurement of something that could realistically be bought off the shelf.

lotsofpulp 8y ago

There is a reason those carts cost $800, and you definitely can’t make them from Home Depot materials for half that. Hotel owners don’t waste money on $2k and $3k luggage carts for no reason, google how much they cost. Also, theft when you are an adult is not excused by claiming you were dumb kids in my opinion.