Attorney creates eStand

David Sitrick says he has just the gift for the orchestra with everything: the digital music stand.

The musician-turned-attorney has had to peer at charts in poorly lit clubs, deal with pages that flap from ventilation fans and search for sheet music for obscure audience requests.

Sitrick once calculated that musicians spend 20 percent of their rehearsal time marking up their scores to fit the conductor’s plans.

So Sitrick, 52, created eStand, a digital, self-lighted music stand that displays the music on a screen. The stand is capable of storing 20,000 pages of music in its basic memory. It also allows silent messaging between conductors and orchestra musicians. They cost from $3,000 to $12,000.

Above, violinist Cindy Chen, of Fremont, Calif., makes notes to electronically displayed music on an eStand June 18 during the American Symphony Orchestra League’s convention in San Francisco.

Survey

American consumers aren’t loyal to programs

American consumers like loyalty programs, but many aren’t very loyal to them.

Nearly half of consumers belong to one of the myriad programs out there — credit card, airline, retailer, restaurant, hotel, supermarket, ad infinitum — but 40 percent have left one such program out of frustration, according to a national poll.

Overwhelmingly, people say they leave these programs because the perceived value is lacking: 46 percent said they didn’t like the fee and 41 percent said the reward was inadequate. Another 32 percent said they quit because it was difficult to claim a reward and 24 percent said the rules kept changing.

Motley Fool

Name that company

Based in Dallas, I pioneered the convenience store concept 76 years ago when I started selling groceries at an ice store. My first stores were called “Tote’m” stores, since merchandise was toted away by buyers. In 1946 I extended my hours, staying open for 16 hours per day, and changed my stores’ names, too. I operate more than 24,000 stores in 18 nations and ring up more than $30 billion annually. Customers often take a big bite or big gulp of my products, or just slurp them. This is just about my time of the year, too. Who am I?