[Sca-cooks] "the Coopers" was Pennsic history

[Bronwynmgn at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/30/2006 4:39:26 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
phelpsd at gate.net writes:

My  reply:

Yes and they have reportedly done very well by their  relationship with SCA.
A fact that I do not begrudge by the way.   However some of their reported
actions in past years I do take issue  with.
I don't think they've done nearly as well as people think.  I mean, if  they 
are so well off why, when one of them got a "new house" a few years ago,  was 
it a new double-wide trailer???  If Pennsic made them so wealthy,  surely they 
could have afforded to build a house.



Was written:

They do not gouge the SCA nor the people  who attend
Pennsic.

My reply:

Well... I would not go that far  as for example I recall the reported hay
controversy of some years  back.
Don't know about any hay controversy and I've been going for 16  years.



Was written:

They don't raise the prices in their  store.

My reply:

Yes but reportedly they have protected their  sales monopoly on certain items
of necessity over the years by actively  attempting to discourage people from
buying at a lower price elsewhere and  bringing in items, such as hay bales,
for personal  use.

My understanding on the hay bale thing is that you are to buy them from the  
Coopers because that way they know which camps will have hay that needs 
cleaned  up at the end of war.  Since it's a real pain to clean up, I think that's  
reasonable.  Certainly, even though they sell firewood and food in their  
store, they also allow ads to be placed for other people that sell firewood and  
food, on their premises and even in the site book.


Was  written:

They have gone
out
of their way to add facilities (such  as an ATM, an on-site bank and post
office), additional water lines, etc.,  to benefit our event.  This has
caused their taxes to be raised and  they pay much more each time they
imnprove their property so that we can  get to the far parking lot, have
camp sites, and so on.   >>>

My reply:

In my opinion such was purely a business  decision brought on by the need to
expand facilities to handle the increase  attendance.  Having served in the
public sector in a regulatory  capacity and holding a master's degree in
Environmental Management, I  suspect that some of these improvements were
most probably required by  environmental and health regulations at the county
and state  level.

They don't have to keep expanding to suit us.  The site is private  property; 
it would be perfectly within their rights to tell us that they are  capping 
the event at 10,000 people and once that many are signed up, nobody else  can 
come in.  Instead, they keep renting and buying and clearing more land  for us, 
most of it land that is NEVER used the rest of the year.  The ATM,  onsite 
bank, and post office are certainly not required by any environmental or  health 
regs, and while the ATM is probably useful the rest of the year, the bank  
and post office are only there for Pennsic.  As far as the water lines, my  
husband was up there once in the off season and found Dave digging up all the  
half inch piping and replacing it with 3/4 inch; Dave told him he figured he  
might as well do it since he was working in that area anyway.  It wasn't  
necessary, just something that might make things a little better.


Ok  all that being said I attended Pennsic for quite a number of years before
I  stopped merchanting.  My observations of the actions of "blue shirts"  in
those years were not, shall we say, universally  positive. 
Nor are all the actions of all those who attend Pennsic and sometimes  even 
those who run Pennsic on the SCA side.  We're all human.  Much of  what I've 
seen as "restrictive" actions on the part of the Coopers has been in  response 
to boneheaded or at least potentially seriously dangerous stuff done by  us.

It is also my
belief that certain elements of  "the Coopers" actively  attempted to squelch
the site of the 25th Year Celebration.  I gained  this opinion from personal
conversations at the time with certain non-SCA  personnel, i.e. a public
official in one case, who were connected with the  site negotiations from the
other side.

I also heard, although I  admit that this is hearsay and not based on direct
personal knowledge,  that  "the Coopers" attempted to squelch the site for
"Gulf Wars"  early on.
 
I find that extremely hard to believe, but I can well believe such a rumor  
got started by someone in the SCA who didn't like how the Coopers handled  
something they wanted to do.  According to some people, you'd think the  Coopers 
were collectively the embodiment of evil greedy slime.  Why they  keep paying 
such evil people to come to Pennsic I don't know.  If I thought  someone was 
that unfair and nasty, I'd think about 20  times before paying  them money and 
putting myself on their property and under their rules for my  vacation.


Brangwayna