Thoughts From The Cake Scraps

Every now and then you just have a day that is a good day. Today was that day for me. I think I might do a few posts on GMAT stuff just for the heck of it. Make sure to check back and see if I actually do that.

Also, I found out that pinball is quite a bit of fun. I have to admit that I would still never spend money on it, but it is fun. Okay, I may spend like $0.25 but not whatever it is those places are charging these days.

Which brings me to my final point, as much fun as they are, are arcade games on their last legs? Let me know what you think.

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

Well folks, it looks like we have yet another ‘entertainment shopping’  site on our hands.  SevenSnap has thrown its somewhat different hat into the 3rd ring at this 3 ring circus we have.  We’ve previously covered Pennycave and Swoopo on this blog (found here and here) so what better place to cover SevenSnap.

SevenSnap, at its core, is more like a XXX phone line or live show than anything else.  Rather than paying for bids and the risking getting nothing on the bids, SevenSnap charges you just to look at the item.  Yes, that’s right.  You have to pay just to get the chance to buy it.

Here’s how it works.  A new item gets put up every 60 min.  You have to create an account and buy minutes to get into the ‘Snap Room’.  Yes, they actually call it that in their guide.  Once in the room, the price of the item drops by as much as $100 a min, based on the number of people in the room.

Hold on; that sounds good for a second, but think about that.  They are capping the rate that it can drop to $100 a min, no matter how many people in the room.  If there is only 5 people it drops $5 a min, but if there are 1,000 people (or 5,000 for that matter) it only drops $100 a min.

After you have paid to gain entry to the oh so wonderful Snap Room, you can ‘Snap’ the product at any time.  As you can tell, they spent a lot of time on the names of things.

Once anybody in the room Snaps a product the price goes back up to the original amount and begins the price dropping anew.  So while you may try and get a good deal, the likely thing that will happen is that someone will ‘snap’ it before you, leaving you with nothing.  And remember, the price only drops every min – unsure how they deal with people joining at different times – so it is not constantly dropping, just in big chunks.  As with most of these sites, most people will lose out.

The worst part here is that there isn’t even risk to SevenSnap.  If you buy it right away they get their asking price and then sell another one.  If you don’t buy right away, the price is only dropping if people are paying.  So they are still fine.  They determine their minimum margin from the start and then anybody that is in the room over 100 (since the price decline caps a $100 a min) is gravy.

I would stay away from this, just as I would every other ‘entertainment shopping’ site.  Go buy a lotto ticket, your odds of coming out ahead are probably better.  At least SevenSnap is limited to the iPhone and iPod Touch.  This way a few extra people will save their money.

So do you think this and other ‘entertainment shopping’ sites are a scam?  Let me know your thoughts below.

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.  (Hat tip to TechCrunch for their post)

Every now and then a person stumbles across a small tip that makes life easy. Well, maybe just easier. Today I share one of those tips with you, the shift key.

We all use the shift key, but few people know about the additional power that it can provide. Gone are the days where it is used just for making a letter upper case or YELLING on the internet.

On a Windows OS,  holding the shift key while right clicking an item in a folder allows you to open the document read-only.  Very helpful if you don’t want to lock people of of the document, but still want it open.

The second and more helpful trick that I learned is in Excel.  Have you ever wanted to have a single page summary, but just couldn’t get it to work because the column widths for the stuff above doesn’t match with the stuff you want below?  Shift can help.

Copy the area that you want and then hold shift and go up to Edit > Paste Picture Link.  You now have a picture that is easily moved around, no matter the above column structure.  Better yet, if you change anything in the original range, it changes along with it!

Update: As commenter Ryan, of RyanMalesevich.com fame, points out, this is for Excel 2003.  For 2007, no shift is needed.  Just click the down arrow below “Paste” > “As Picture” > “Paste Picture Link”

Do you have any tips to share?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

I have been out of college for around two years now and, amazingly, I am having the same issues with community sustainability in my new location as I did back in college.  This is both frustrating and a bit sad.  Here’s the basic problem, there are only certain times of the year where ‘fun’ businesses make money and so they just don’t make the cut long term.

This is a huge problem at UW-Whitewater.  The city literally loses half its population every summer to the departing masses of students.  Now this is hedged a bit by the fact that 1/2 the students go home on the weekends anyway (with weekend being Thursday to Sunday).  So really even though you have these masses of consumers, it is very hard to make any money because 50% of the time you are way under capacity and 50% of the time you are way over.  And, to make matters worse, often times the demands that college students have are so far out of alignment with the demands of the local population that there is little to no crossover in activity interests.  This makes an already tough situation that much tougher.

A similar thing appears to happen in Dodgeville (and surrounding community).  There are huge amounts of hotel capacity and stores that depend on tourist traffic.  The problem?  Who is coming to WI for a vacation in the winter?  And how can cute, fun, but out of the way places draw traffic if there isn’t a constant stream of people?

There are great businesses that just can’t make it.  Great restaurant, like the Walker House in Mineral Point, WI- to whom this post is dedicated to, don’t get the traffic they need to make it.  I have great memories of the Walker House in the short time I have been here.  I ate my post-marathon meal there.  I tried to bring in new customers as often as I could.  They even started to know my name, and most definitely knew exactly what I was going to order (Patty Melt w/ the best homemade fries you have ever had).  Heck, they even remembered that I was always bringing someone new.  It had atmosphere.  It had class.  It didn’t have traffic.

The Walker House is now closed and looking for a partner.  I think that they have many of the right components, but just fall short on a marketing and business plan.  It would be interesting to do some discovery and see what it would take to open up again or what sorts of sales they had when they were open.  Just a thought.

This just leaves me with that buring question, how is it that some small out of the way restaurants can make it and by word of mouth they get more traffic than they can handle while other places with equally good food and atmosphere can’t generate the same thing.  The only conclusion I can think of is a concept that I read about in the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  Basically you need somebody to love the place that knows people and will spread the word.  You need a reliable and passionate brand advocate.  I guess Walker House just didn’t have enough of them.

Do you know any great restaurants that are out of the way?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

If you’re like me, you see a bed full of pillows and wonder what the purpose of all of them could possibly be.  After all, if one were to use the bed, all of the pillows would have to be removed and the put back on after the cat nap.  It is very easy to think that the extra pillows have no purpose.  But, I have found that there is a very subtle error in this way of thinking.

Many things are not designed with practicality in mind.  Yes, the widget has to accomplish the job it was made for, but it also has to look good doing it.  Here again you may argue that as long as it gets the job done, it doesn’t matter; again I have to say that there is an error in that logic.

The common error between the throw pillows and the widget examples is that it ignores that instant judgment that people make upon viewing the object.  The reality is that many, if not all, people judge a book by its cover.  Knowing that, it is easy to see how this ties into business.

The experience that people have with your product matters, the story it tells matters.  What is often overlooked is that this extends beyond the product to the company itself.  This includes everything form retail locations to corporate headquarters.  Money has to be spent to preserve the experience and the brand image.

I have a great example.  Out at Lands’ End headquarters in Wisconsin we have both offices and a distribution center.  Out in the back there is an area where semi trailers are parked that are not being used.  I have not idea how much space, but it can hold a few.  What I noticed on a run the other day is that there is a big grass mound/hill between the offices and this parking area.  It has been there for a long time, but how much did it cost to build it?  I have no idea, but it also makes me wonder, how many people decided to work for Lands’ End, or how many vendors gave a better deal, or how much business has been done because of a great experience on the campus.  An experience that was great, in part, because they saw a beautiful grassy hillside with trees instead of parked semi trailers.

That is why as much as I wonder why a business would pay for an office in downtown NYC or why people spend what they do on nice suits, or why a company does what might be considered ‘fat cat’ spending on things such as landscaping, art, architecture, and the like…as much as I wonder about all of that and as much as people love to criticize it I think at the end of the day it matters.

People will argue until they are blue in the face that they would like to just have something that gets the job done and that all that spending is wasteful.  Mostly this is because we want to believe that we are completely rational and don’t make ‘shallow’ decisions.  But as much as we would like to believe this, it is simply not true.

What do you think about throw pillows?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

I enjoy a drive through the countryside every now and then.  There is something that is just relaxing about it.  You just get to cruise along, maybe have the windows down and the music up.  If you are lucky then you have a few hills and turns to keep things exciting.  And if you are in the right spot, at the right time of year, you may even stumble across a home selling whatever happens to be in season.

Often times these places have handmade signs listing what is being sold and what price it is being sold at.  Perhaps there is also some obnoxious arrow pointing you up the driveway.  And if they really have it together, they may have a flag waving in the wind with the word “OPEN” on it.  That will really get people to stop in…or will it?

When I see an “OPEN” flag I cannot help but wonder if the place is actually open.  Do they really take it down each day?  What about when I drive by after suppertime and the flag is still displayed?  Should I assume that they are still open for business?  It seems like a good idea to have the flag, but I’m just not sure how genuine most people think it is.  Oddly enough, I think that a cardboard sign will actually help because I know that can’t be left out very long before it falls apart.

Another idea would be a light.  If I see that there is a light on the flag or sign, then I am more likely to believe that it is in fact open.  All of this is interesting, but it paves the way for a broader issue: credibility.

A home shop with a cardboard sign or “OPEN” flag has plenty of credibility.  A light that is turned on and off has credibility.  The problem is the open flag always looks the same.  It is always there.  Nothing is ever different.  The owners are not considering what leaving the flag up might do.

In the current business environment, this is a critical issue.  How credible are your promotions (because everybody is running them)?  Are you running the same thing over and over?  This will work just fine for a short amount of time, but make sure that you have an exit plan.  Even if you take pause for just a week you rebuild credibility.  You rebuild a scarcity factor.

If the “OPEN” flag isn’t always up, then I know that I had better stop in when it is up because otherwise I may miss my chance.  There is no urgency if there is always a sale.  I can’t stress this enough: Small things, the ‘scraps’ as I like to call them, matter.  Leaving the flag out and the promotions running may be the easy path, but sometimes it pays to take the path less traveled.

Do you believe “OPEN” flags?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

All brands have some sort of logo, even if it is just a stylized version of the brand itself.  It is something that people see and can recognize instantly.  The real question is how much does a brand speak for itself without a visible logo.  Can you tell the car is nice just by looking at it?  Does the shirt look comfortable?  Does the toy look fun and durable?

A good brand will stand out beyond a logo.  Too often in the apparel industry for young adults (whatever that means) is so over the top in the amount of branding that it just looks silly.  A logo on the shirt is one thing.  A leather patch on the waist band of the jeans is fine.  But then they take it to the next level.

Take the shirt at the top of this post.  You will not have any problem telling where it is from, but really?  This is style?  I guess I got it confused with a billboard.  Other brands are just as bad.  AE, A&F, Aero, etc. are just a few.  But there is hope.

I have recently been enjoying Express shirts because they don’t blare the brand.  They just let the uniqueness of the shirts speak for themselves.  It could be viewed as a missed opportunity to brand.  I view it as a sign that they are confident enough in their product that they don’t need to do anything as bad as AE did with their shirt.

What do you think of branded shirts?  What is okay and what is too far?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

As an analyst I can’t help but try and figure out why something is done a certain way if it doesn’t seem immediately logical.  Sometimes these thoughts are fleeting and other times they keep nagging me.  The nagging thoughts tend to be the ones that seem totally illogical; that no thought or reason has been put into the things I am observing.  I always think that I must be missing something.

One that has been nagging me for far too long is the gaps in the bathroom stalls.  I just cannot figure it out.  Google searches leave me with no definitive answer – but there is interesting conversation about it here.  So I turn to you, my readers, to answer this question.  This is an issue that really needs to be solved.  This is our privacy people!  There’s not all that much left of it in the world (I say as I sit here and blog about my thoughts).

In case you have not recently been in a bathroom stall at work, school, or any other place that has public facilities I will break it down for you.  There seems to be some sort of engineering gaff that nobody has noticed.  The door that are supposed to keep out eyes from outside have large gaps around the edges of the door.  In some cases they are as large as an inch!  Now that may not seem like much, but at a distance of just a few feet it is enough to see plenty through the gap.

Now lets be clear, I am not talking about the gaps on the bottoms of the stalls.  This makes for easier cleaning and whatnot.  I get it.  I’m not talking about the gaps between the stalls and the ceiling.  Clearly this is for ventilation so that things can air out.  Or maybe so that those automatic air fresheners have an easier time of perfuming in the stalls.  Whatever the specific reason, it makes sense.

I am not even talking about the gaps between the stall walls and the wall.  Again, I don’t know the specific reason.  I can only guess.  Perhaps it has something to do with caulking it, or cleaning it, or ventilation, or to pass notes when you don’t want to go under the stall.  Really, I don’t care.  There is nothing to see against the back wall.

My issue is with the door.  Doors exist so they can be closed.  Now I don’t expect it to be a perfect fit.  I understand that there is more cost with a tight fitting door.  But these things can be mass produced to a greater extent than a 1 inch gap on each side, right?

Or, if you don’t want to worry about a close fitting door, then put a nice big strip of plastic on the side of that door that opens (e.g. if it opens out when in the stall, have the plastic on the outside).  That way not only with the gap be non-visible, but you will not have to deal with tight doors or anything else.  The cost of a plastic strip in comparison to the cost of the total structure ($250 – $1,000) cannot be all that much.

And to address a final concern – I won’t even complain very loudly if these bathroom gaps existed at truly public places such as restaurants, subways, and parks.  But in corporate offices people?  There are no concerns about what graffiti or activities might happen there.  So really, what’s the deal with the gaps?

Have you ever wondered this?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

Recently I got quite the offer from Fortune Magazine on a 3 year subscription.  I have always thought about getting a subscription but it always seemed just a bit to expensive for me.  If you know me you know I take my money very seriously.  So after much consideration (mostly in the form of having the offer sit on my desk for a few weeks) I decided to go ahead and send in the form.

At this point I would like to admit that I am a credit-card-aholic.  I hate to use cash and never use a check – at least when it can be avoided.  Its not that I rack up the debt, it’s more that I just prefer it as a form of payment.  I like the perks that it offers.  I like the convenience of it.  I like being able to review my transactions BEFORE the money is taken out of my account.  And that’s my beef with debit cards.  I can contest a credit card charge before the money ever leaves my holdings.  I have to get the money back if there is an error and I used a debit card.

With that background in mind, I move on to my issue with Fortune.  On the slip they provided, an option was to be billed later (and probably use my own stamp), send a check, or fill in my credit card info.  I did the credit card info.  It was just the easiest and quickest way to pay.  I slipped it into the provided return envelope (postage paid by them), licked it shut, and was all ready to send it off when I noticed something odd.  I could basically see right through the paper and read my credit card number.

This didn’t take some special light, or even holding it up to the light.  Literally all I had to do was set it on my desk and press down on the envelope and I could see, plain as day, my credit card number.  Hmm….seems a bit odd.  So I didn’t send it and instead put in an inquiry to Fortune Customer Service – to verify that the offer was in fact real – and said the following:

Comments : Hello – I got an offer in the mail for Fortune that advertises a corporate rate of x yrs. for $xx. The listed address is PO BOX 61xxx Tampa FL 33xxx-1xxx I have filled out the form, but before I send it off, I wanted to see if the offer was real. Main reason I question it is that you can see right through the envelope. Odd for an offer that asks for payment info to have a return envelope that is easily seen through.
Thanks,
David

It took them nearly the full 2 business days they quote to get back to me and they said:

Thank you for contacting FORTUNE Customer Service.

Yes, the offer is a legitimate offer from FORTUNE magazine.  Any further questions, please let us know.

We appreciate this opportunity to be of service.

And then they had a bunch of links to useless info at the bottom.  Does this strike anybody as an odd response?

Here I am, a potential customer.  I was suspicious about the offer but I didn’t discard it.  I went through the trouble of making sure it was real.  But more importantly I let them know why I was concerned and they didn’t even address the issue.  And they certainly didn’t thank me for bringing it to their attention.

Keep in mind that this is Fortune magazine.  One would think they would be savvy about the real danger of identity theft.  And yet, they seem to have no problem giving you return envelopes requesting payment information that can easily be seen through.

This is the sort of stuff I just don’t get.  How can they totally ignore the issue in their response?  I know there is just a small chance of anything actually going wrong but in the days where it is not difficult to hear about one story after another about a stolen identity, one would think a magazine of Fortune’s reputation would do what they can to protect the people they are prospecting to.  I don’t want to make a big issue out of nothing, but I can’t help but feel that being able to see my credit card number and expiration date through a business reply envelope is a big deal.

What do you think?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.

When you are driving along the highway and suddenly notice that you are almost out of gas you want one thing: gas.  You glance up and see a huge billboard advertising the very thing you are looking for.  It talks about the “Cold Beer”, “Fresh Coffee”, and “Exit Number 32” but most importantly it is a gas station.  If you are lucky it even has the current price.

You quickly look for the small green mileage posts to figure out just how far that is.  After a few moments you see that you are at mile post 30.  Only 2 more miles.  You feel a bit more at ease.  About a minute or so later you see the familiar signs listing Food, Gas, Lodging and the like. A moment later you are upon the exit ramp.  You take it off cruise control and start slowing.

Halfway down the ramp you see the sign with the logo of your favorite gas station and an arrow to the right.  You roll up to the stop sign at the end of the exit ramp and turn right.  No gas station in sight.  You drive along anyway until you finally just turn around and continue on to the next exit.  Now you’re angry.  The gas station was only another mile ahead, but you will never see it.

I have one thing to say to businesses that are on these exit ramp signs: don’t lead people on like this.  I’m not sure what the rules are, or if it varies state by state, but I hate it when locations on the exit sign don’t have a distance on them.  It is such a small thing to do.  It’s not like the distance changes each day.  There is just no reason not to have 1.2 miles or 5.7 miles or whatever underneath the logo on the exit ramp.

Perhaps it is just me, but I like to know the distance to my destination.  It is so easy to add this to the exit signs and yet for some reason no exit around me has that piece of information.  How many displeased customers are created because of this?  More importantly, how many people does that business lose because people can’t see it from the highway and don’t know how far away it is.  If they know it was just a mile away perhaps they would take the exit, instead the just keep driving hoping that the next exit will have a sign visible from the highway.

Small things, like distance to location on the exit sign, are so critical in providing an optimal customer experience.  This blog is built on that very principle, that every little scrap of information has value; if you overlook the scraps (also called “the long tail”) you are going to miss huge opportunities.

Does your area have distance on the exit ramp signs?

This has been a Thought From The Cake Scraps.