How does McDonald's Do it?

I was wondering the other day how McDonald's is able to keep prices so insanely low. I mean, come on, 1.49 for a burger? At first I thought it could be the mass of min. wage school workers, and of course, there's obviously an economy of scale. If McDonald's buys enough cow meat to sink Manhattan with its collective bovine weight, I'm sure they get a good discount.

Then, I thought they make a tonne of cash off of Fries and stuff... and just manage their loss leaders well... but why were the prices never this low? It's almost like giving the burgers away.

It came to me while I was watching an Arby's commercial. There's something a lot different about the McDonald's of today. Surcharges.

If you remember the early 90s or the 80s, you'll remember that if you wanted an extra packet of ketchup or one more slice of tomato or something else... they usually just did it... but in the last 10-15 years, a noticable change has happened, you want something extra, you will pay... and you will pay a lot. I don't know about you, but getting dinged 0.49$ for a slice of bacon when a whole pack costs a couple of bucks seems like extortion to me. Or how about how they try to upsell the Big Xtra (with Bacon, sir?) suggesting that it's included, but they just want to make sure that you wanted it. Most people don't notice the "Xtra" charge on their receipt.

This isn't just at McDonalds, it seems that prices just couldn't get lower without cutting these extra services. Some would argue that it's a good thing for consumers... gives them what they pay for and penalizes the ones that try to abuse it by ordering 10 extra pickles, but I would say that it gets us used to surcharges. Now, when I get surcharges on my mobile phone bill, or some random bank charge (they never USED to charge as much as they do now) I barely flinch.

And I don't know about you... but I blame McDonald's for it all.

fun with fog

It's really foggy here in Vancouver, and one of my favorite places to go in the fog is Trout Lake. The whole city is blanketed in fog, but Trout lake has some really cool and sometimes creepy willow trees and and many trees with tortured branches sticking out from its troubled leafless trunk. Apparently, the fog is low lying so you can get above it on Seymour or Grouse, so I'm going to try that today, I think. 

Only in the Wack

Only in Chilliwack could you find a major street that's not busy enough so that you can push a car that doesn't start, down it. Is that proper grammatical english? 

Nature Matching game

I chose this picture because I thought it was cool that the lights were matching the sunset. It's almost as if they're an extension of the sunset and they too would fade to night as the sun goes down. Sunset sensitive traffic signals.

If you look carefully, you'll see the murder of crows in the sky on their way to the roost by McDonald's headquarters. Sidepoint: Did you know that crows are officially considered songbirds? They may not sound as pretty to most people's ears, but they're actually very intelligent and apparently, as the largest of the songbird family, they sing. 

Sensory Overload

It's too easy to be non-caring about 3rd world countries and their plight. It seems it takes effort to actually caIt's too easy to be non-caring about 3rd world countries and their plight. It seems it takes effort to actually care. I don't mean caring on the surface... like knee-jerk reactions to the starving faces of gaunt African children on TV infomercials. That’s natural. I mean, the deeper caring, the inadequacy that comes from feeling you have to do something, and you really want to, as well. That takes effort. It is much more difficult. This partly results from, simply, too much disaster. But it’s not just the disaster in itself, but rather, the unending coverage of them that dulls us.

With the pervasion of media, we can offer instant satellite fields from the battle fields of Iraq, or a report from the eye of the hurricane. In fact, watching the news wasn’t always all about getting a good video clip of the disaster site. It used to be the case that some news stories were only reported on, or were audio only. That seems more and more rare these days. Just think, a split second event in New York was caught by half a dozen video cameras… and if you can think back 4 years… if there had been no video footage, you probably would’ve almost craved it… and as it was, people pored over the available video footage.

Well anyways, I digress (a lot). The point of all this is that unless things are sensational, they don’t evoke an emotional response… and isn’t that sad? I think we really have to experience it first hand… and even then… in Vancouver, passing beggars in the street no longer elicits much more than an apathetic “no thank-you” as if I’m refusing the service of supplying them with a few cents. You never really get used to seeing people in poverty, but it sure gets easier to tolerate as your sensitivity to it gets dulled. I suppose we just have to work at doing what we can and try not to separate ourselves from that all. Which is harder than it looks. How does today’s picture make you feel?re.

I don't mean caring on the surface... knee-jerk reactions to the starving faces of gaunt African children. Those feelings of inadequacy which result from the thought of "well, what can I do" 

Eskimos in style

In Search of coolness...
So, apparently, these new furry hooded jackets are in style again. Cool, i remember being 3 the last time they were in style... it's about time. Our model, Reuben, here is modeling how you are meant to walk down the street. You are not actually meant to wear the hood (that would be uncool... you can't let people think you're dressing for the weather, after all. Rather than that, you're meant to strike the quasimoto pose and stagger down streets... and that, my friends is definitely the coolest thing I've ever seen.

And if you didn't detect the whiff of sarcasm... then your ofactory sense needs a new scentometer. Seriously though, these jackets are cool... though I don't know why I'd need one in Vancouver, unless it had a built in reverse tractor beam for rain... now someone has GOT to invent some sort of rain force shield. They'd make millions... and of course, spend billions in making it... but that's what military trickle down technology is for, right?

If you click the title bar, you'll be able to get your very own minks... Yay. ^_^

Toe Socks!!!

I got a package in the mail from Seiko today. And among all the wedding picture stuff I found two pairs of toe socks! They're pretty cool and after the first little bit of weirdness, they're comfortable, too. They take a little longer to put on, but apparently they reduce toe sweat (ewwww!) because the toes don't touch each other.

You can get them here too (not only Japan) but it's so much nicer getting socks as presents... especially when they're mailed. Who doesn't like getting a package in the mail.

Don't buy these headphones

Yes, they're cheap Jensens. Yes, they're only $10 at Future shop... but it's my second pair in about 6 months. One side always quits on me. I know I'm rough on my stuff... but still...

I'm going to buy some quality ones... and lo' and behold I may actually go for the Future shop warranty... i work right beside future shop and so it's not difficult. Also, I've been listening to more and more podcasts recently, so I want something nice...

Normally I HATE those rip-off warranties, but we'll see.

Torigami - fun with cloth

Fun at Centro!

Just a little explanation... Tori (鳥) means chicken in Japanese... so therefore, the art of rolling and folding a cloth napkin (serviette for any aussies) should be torigami... right?

Hmm... I wonder what Seiko would think if I decided to put torigami on all the place settings as a plate decoration at our wedding reception. ^_^

A brave new day...

So, I decided to make use of the fact that I have a blackberry (and yes, my dependence on this beast is growing daily) and set it up so I can actually email updates to my blog from anywhere. It's too bad I can't send pictures as this thing has no camera (what was RIM thinking!!!) But it will serve its purpose well as a mobile rantbox.

It scary how fast the world has changed from sending mail to one person to posting videos and photos from a mobile phone (except blackberries) the size of a few credit cards stuck together.

Recently I've also been getting into podcasts, the video versions of which have been feeding my lust for a new video ipod, or at least a new nano.

But alas, weddings are expensive... And therefore technolust will have to be put aside... For a few months.

But if you want to check outwhat video podcasts are all about, you should go to itunes (you are using itunes, right?) And do a search in the itunes music store. There's some pretty cool stuff in the regular podcasts too.