Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Funny counterfeit brands

Just saw a lot of counterfeit brands made in China on this page and can't wait to share some of the funny ones that are familiar to the Americans with you :P

All images are from 6park.com



Tids



Okay... so it should be okay to use it right?



Sprite (the left one is counterfeit, note the difference
between the first Chinese characters; the one on the left
means "cloud" while the one on the right means "snow")



Cala-Cala


Three "Oreo"s competing in the Chinese market


Nokla cell phone

Oh, that's IV, so it's IVIKE, not NIKE


Almost forgot the "a" man

avivas...

adadas...

adidos...

adibas... Man how many variations of adidas
do you have?

The cougar has a punk hairstyle for the
Punk brand, that makes sense :P
How did the cougar "evolved" into a bear?

And the bear becomes a tuna for, duh, Tuna

Pama.. Look likes a "pa pa" (dad) cougar?

Bessie

And last but not least, try our KFG chicken :)

Saturday, September 27, 2008

You And Me - Lifehouse


One of my favorite scenes in Forrest Gump is the moment when Forrest met Jenny again in front of the Washington Monument (at 1:00 of the video). Nice song :)

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Buy one entree and two drinks and get a free entree at Marie Callender's

Buy one entree and two drinks and get a free entree at Marie Callender's:
Image from mcpies.com
Or you can get 20% off you total bill too. See this coupon for details :)

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Overpriced stuff

One time, a friend asked me why I don't order alcoholic beverage at restaurants. To start with, I don't really like alcohol. The real reason, however, is that they're seriously overpriced.

If you buy a pack of 30 Budweiser beer at some supermarket, it probably costs you less than $1 per can. Get it at a restaurant like Yard House? It'll cost you at least $5 per glass. That's a 500% increase in price.

Well, in a free market, price is determined by supply and demand. How can something be overpriced?

That's true in a market with competitors who can compete freely. When you're having dinner at some restaurant, there's no way you can go to the Albertsons next door to buy your own beer. The restaurant has basically become a monopoly in the dining area "market"; if you want a taste of alcohol, you gotta buy a glass from them.

There are many examples of these artificial monopolies in one's daily life like:
  • Coke and popcorn in a theater
  • Drinks and dessert at a restaurant
  • Fast food at an airport
  • Parking at some event/fair
  • Any food in a theme park
I know that you're not only paying for the beer but also the service, environment, atmosphere etc. of the restaurant. Still, when you overprice the products to a certain degree, I just can't help feeling ripped off when I pay you. In general, I consider something as way overpriced if you're asking for 100% more than the average price. 500%? Forget about it.

What actually puzzles me is that many Americans are happy paying for all these overpriced goods (using their credit cards probably). If they're not doing that, these businesses may be forced to lower their prices and thus benefiting more people.

You may say that these are just different ways of marketing. Business A sells cheap and profit from quantities while Business B sells way high and profit from the large margin. At the end, both Business A and B make the same amount of money so they're even, right?

To me, there're at least two advantages for Business A:
  • You create good will because your customers don't feel ripped off; in fact, most people are happy when they think that they get a good deal.
  • If you're talking about food business, Business A's food will be fresher since it's not kept long before it's sold to the customers. For non-food businesses, I believe that Business A has a more flexible cash flow.
I've yet to see a theater that doesn't overprice their drinks and snacks. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't; it doesn't sound so bad as a new business idea to try out though, right? I promise I'll grab a bag a popcorn for my next movie if you try that :P

Thursday, September 18, 2008

1995 MTV Video Music Awards Performance "Dangerous" - Michael Jackson


One day I saw this performance by Michael in Fry's Electronics and that was when I began to like him. I actually bought his DVD that day (trust me, I very rarely buy DVDs). Enjoy :)

Monday, September 15, 2008

Bird's Nest

A senior Wahyanite Peter gave me this photo of the Bird's Nest that he took during the Beijing Olympics and it's one of the best gifts I received in many years. Will need to buy a photo frame for it. Thank you so much Peter! :)

Saturday, September 13, 2008

You think that the noises of your motocycle make you look "cool"?

I really hate the loud noises produced by some motorcycles such as those made by Harley-Davidson. Every time one of those noisy monsters goes by the street it will
  • trigger the alarm systems of all the cars
  • shake the windows in my home
  • wake me up from my sleep
What's up with those guys?? Do they really think that the freaking loud noise of their motorcycles make them look cool?? To me, they're nothing more than some stupid teenagers trying to annoy their neighbors with super loud music while they're doing it as a grown adult.

If you like riding motorcycles, no problem, get one that's quiet such as those made by Yamaha. Loud noises only make you an inconsiderable moron instead of "tough" man.

Note: If you're also a victim of noise pollution caused by motorcycles, you may want to read this page at NoiseOFF for more information on this problem.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Holding a Mii in the air


Do you guys know what happens if you hold a Mii in the air? It "dances"! :P

Sunday, September 7, 2008

"We don't give out our prices"

Let's imagine this scenario:

One day, you're shopping at Best Buy and an nice desktop catch your attention. You like it pretty much but you can't find any price tag on it. So, you ask a nearby salesman how much it costs.

"It's only $750 sir. If you want a wide-screen 20" monitor it's going to be $100 more. You can also add $50 to get this nice Epson printer. Of course, this set of wireless keyboard and mouse from Logitech is yours if you're willing to pay just $40 more. It's a very good deal!"

Hmmm, sounds like a lot of optional accessories. You think that it's probably wiser to find out how much Amazon and Walmart are selling them.

"Would you give me a price sheet with the costs of all those optional accessories?"

"No. We don't give out our prices."

"What?? But you just told me about them!" You exclaim.

"Yes but we don't give those out on paper."

"..........."




How will you feel about that?




I don't know about you, but for me, I'll immediately feel that a scam is going on. How can I not feel like that if you have something to hide?

No kidding, I just personally experienced this last week. Not at Best Buy though (they'll be dead if they've such a practice). This happened in a Chinese dentist's office; I asked them for a price sheet of their services and they refused. It was as if they were so afraid that I'd compare their prices with the ones of other dentists (which was what I was going to do).

The Internet, especially Wikipedia, has forever narrowed the gap between experts and laymen. Much of the knowledge (such as public companies' financial data) that's not easily accessible 20 years ago can be brought to your fingertips within seconds by Google.

The funny thing is that many industries (dentistry in this case) still don't realize this fact (or, they realize it, but choose to deny it and continue dreaming) and think that they can overcharge you by keeping their knowledge and prices secret. This is not only unethical but also stupid.

Come on, we live in a capitalist country. No matter what business you want to do, competition is inevitable. I can't find an accurate word to describe how naive it is to try to avoid competition, and, very ironically, this is practiced by some so-called highly educated people like dentists.

Hammer said that

"中國人做生意,大慨都以為講良心是白痴﹗"

which translate to

"Chinese think that it's stupid to be conscientious in the business world."

Alright, if you'd like to cheat your customers, no problem, be damn smart at doing it so that no one in the world can discover it. Otherwise, you really are very stupid when you got caught by normal people like me because your tricks are just too obvious.

Trust me, even you just care about your own benefits, it's much easier to do business with honesty and transparency than cheating customers. Why not spend time on thinking on how you can improve your services/products instead of trying to design the next new trick to cheat people? (~__~ )

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Thriller performance from CPDRC inmates


An impressive performance of Thriller from the inmates at CPDRC (Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center). I think it's a good thing that the Philippines government is willing do let people in jail do this. Oh that "woman" is really funny hahaha :D