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nicosroom · 6 years ago

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My Money Snapshot

[Inspired by Corporette]

Location: Ohio, small college town

Age: 29

Occupation: PhD candidate (English)/half-time instructor

Income: $16,000 before deductions

Net worth: $588 (I’m crying)

Current Debt: $12,844

Living situation: Renting with a roommate

Money Philosophy:

I grew up in the “working poor” category. My parents are divorced and my father never contributed much financially. Mom made around $21,000 per year at work and she cleaned houses “under the table” to supplement that. Somehow, we never went hungry, what we ate was relatively fresh and healthy, and she managed to put two of us through Catholic schools for a total of 14 years. I know now that mom is still paying some of those loans and credit card debts and that part of her strategy included not contributing more than the 3% that her employer matched in her 401k. Every time I complain about the financial stress I feel at my salary level, I have to remind myself how comparatively unstressful my financial life is.

I’ve always been poor and I always knew that graduate school/academia is not a lucrative career. I tell myself that if I can make things work at this pay grade, then I’m ready for just about anything. My main strategy is to have a budget, stay in the budget, and save every bit that I can.

Monthly budget

$1000-1100 for the necessities each month. Monthly spending on eating out, entertainment, shopping and other categories varies widely. I also won’t lie... dating someone who makes 4x more money than me helps... I’m fairly frugal on all of these fronts: I buy most of my clothes second hand and I tend to shop seasonally. Spikes in spending occur around the winter holidays when I’m buying gifts and when I am doing traveling. And I also have totally weak, impulsive moments - like the $3 soap sales at Bath & Body works, or that time I spent $110 on bras and underwear on a whim. Anyway:

Rent: $272.50/month

Other living expenses: $130-170/month (electric, internet, phone, renter’s insurance - lower in summer, higher in winter)

Transportation: $332/month (gas, insurance, car payment)

Healthcare: $162/month (health+dental insurance, no vision coverage)

Groceries: $120-150/month ($30/week)

Debt Picture

Student loan: $2000

Car loan: $10,488

I’m a career student & my motto for all the years I’ve been in school has been “follow the money.” I went to college on very hefty scholarships and I only had to take out the $2000 loan to cover housing costs during my first year. For the subsequent three years, I was an RA, so I never had to take loans again. I applied to graduate programs based on the research fit, and when I got my offers, money weighed heavily in the decision. I would have loved to live in Boston as a wee 22-year old, but I wasn’t about to take out loans for a year’s worth of tuition and the living expenses. And to get a PhD while living in Minneapolis, my very favorite city in the US? It would have been such a dream, but for the quite steep difference in stipends and the significant disparity in cost of living compared with Ohio. My only regret on this front is that I haven’t started paying back my tiny student loan. I’ve been able to defer it since I’m in graduate school, which was a great idea when I was a master’s student who didn’t know the first thing about budgeting. But if I had just paid $25/month from the start of grad school the balance would be $0 about the same time I graduate from this PhD program this August. Instead, I’ll be scrambling to pay off the whole balance before my 6 month grace period ends.

The car loan is less than a year old. I finally broke down and bought a new (by which I mean used) car last summer after really pushing it with the car my parents had bought me in high school. Repairing that car put me into credit card debt more than once and I was getting so stressed about it. It was time. I have a very good credit score, so I qualified for a nice loan rate with my credit union, and to get a better rate I got my mom to co-sign my loan. It’s a popular rental fleet model so there were tons of them on the market, but average miles were high - so when I saw one that was two years old with only a years worth of miles on it at $1000 less than the average price for that make, model, and year, I jumped on it. My payments are $231/month on the 5-year plan. Currently, I’m paying that minimum, but I plan to escalate my payments as my income goes up (I’m on the academic job market now, pray for me). I folded this car payment into my existing budget by giving up solo-living and finding a roommate. When I had my own apartment, very spacious with a huge kitchen and tons of windows/natural light, I was paying about $585 for monthly rent. I hate living with people, but I hated the idea of being trapped in this college town without a car even more - one of my other mantras is “you can do anything for a year.”

A note on credit cards: I love them. I’m one of those responsible people that charges everything and pays the balance like clockwork every month. This is the only way to make sure you’re actually taking advantage of the cash back/reward perks! Currently, I’m using Capital One’s Venture card and stockpiling airline miles for travel (it has a 40,000 mile sign-on bonus). If you’re good for it, I also recommend one card with a great balance transfer program. For me, when I get into an emergency situation, it makes me feel like I have options. It’s been about 4 years since I’ve had to use my balance transfer card to cover costs ($1400 in car repairs, summer 2015), but at my level, I can’t afford to not have back up plans.

Savings and Investments

$5,517 Cash

$7,861 Roth IRA + employer mandated retirement account

Retirement: The biggest financial mistake I've made in grad school is that I did not opt into the retirement account offered by the university when I started my M.A. in 2012. When they ask me that “what I wish I had known before I went to grad school” question, this is near the top of the list. I did, eventually, open a Roth IRA and slowly I started to build something. This year, when my graduate funding dried up and they made me a “half-time instructor” the retirement account for public school teachers was mandatory and the contributions are high: 14% of every pay check (annoying, yes, but on the flipside, there is an equally high employer match). While I’m contributing to this, I’ve paused my contributions to the IRA. I’ll roll this money over, either into the IRA or into another state/employer retirement fund when I move on from here.

Personal savings: I strive for a minimum of $100 per month and frequently do a little more, but each month is different and I consider it a win if I break even. Through most of grad school, I’ve taken on “second jobs” to bolster what I can save (and boost my resume). Both jobs have been through the university, so they limit me to five hours a week. When I max them out, this can be an extra $200-250 each month.

I took up a new savings challenge this academic year to build on my “play money” savings account (a high yield savings account which my bank labels a “goal setter” account). The challenge involves tallying the “total savings” printed on my receipts each month (i.e. when the grocery store is like “you saved $6″ because of sales and coupons). So, At the end of the month, I put that running total into my goal setter account. Sometimes the total savings are like $26, but others its as much as $171. It’s an interesting challenge because it encourages me to do tedious things, like scroll through all the digital coupons on the grocery store app; but at the same time, I know that the higher that number is usually coincides with a lot of shopping which encourages some self-regulation.

I initially set my goal at $2500 when I opened the goal setter account in 2014. When I had to dip into the account in April 2018 to pay $930 in car repairs, I finally set plans in motion to buy my car. Since I bought used, I only put 10% down on the car (just over $1200). When I sold my old car for $1000, I put that money right back into the account to start saving for new things...

What I’m saving for now:

travel: to celebrate finally finishing this PhD, I’m hoping to pull off a trip to Europe. Later this year, I’m also turning 30 around the same time that one of my regular professional conferences is meeting in Hawaii. If I can do one or both in the next year, that’d be grand. (As I mentioned, I'm saving up airline miles with my credit card program, too!)

a multicooker: think InstantPot...but more expensive because my dreams all revolve around small appliances that match my stand mixer.

What I do to be frugal...

I’ve been frugal my whole life, but a couple of major habits I’ve formed include:

Meal planning and home cooking (read my guide to meal prep here). The money part of that means planning what I eat around maximizing the ingredients I have to buy. I plan meals that use the same ingredients so I’m not spending on an entire bunch of celery and then throwing out 75% of it. Routinization also helps, so my grocery lists stay about the same week to week and the bill relatively predictable - for example, I eat avocado egg salad almost every day for lunch. I know, avocados are not cheap, but I also believe in spending on the things that nourish you––literally and “spiritually.” Roxane Gay once said that she never bought avocados or blueberries when she was a “poor grad student.” Once she started making money, she realized she would buy them because she could afford them, but she also threw them out all the time because she didn’t plan her meals right to actually eat them. The point is, buy the foods that you like/feel good about and build habits around them. It’s not wasted money. That said, I won’t pay more than $1.25 for an avocado!

Second hand clothes shopping, especially for my business casual (it’s amazing what people donate to the Goodwill, barely worn!)

#money #money snapshot #avocados #debt #savings #gradblr #gradschool #personal finance

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mezingo12-blog · 5 years ago

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Getting Google Reviews for Your Business in 2019

Everyone knows that “it takes money to make money”. Especially when it comes to marketing our businesses. Chances are good that you get calls every day from someone wanting to sell you ads on Google, Yelp, Angie’s List, radio, T.V., Yellow Pages, newspapers, magazines, restaurant table tops, grocery basket ads or even wrapping your truck.

Let’s assume that you are just sticking to an online presence. Search engine optimization, Pay Per Click advertising, and social media are expensive and time-consuming. Getting a top local ranking doesn’t guarantee leads or sales.

Being seen by the right people at the right time is only half the challenge. Even if you’re the top listing, you’re still competing with all the other listings on the page.

Over 86% of consumers say they read reviews for local businesses and they read an average of 10 reviews before they feel like they trust the business. And trust they do. Over 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

The question is; who do they trust more. You or your competitors?

Your Business has a Problem.

Why is a handful of your competitor's businesses booming?

Building your brand is becoming more important than ever. When you build your brand online and off, you get more love from Google. The more love you get from Google the more people find you. Brands have more weight because a brand is perceived as being trusted. This is one of the ways the search engines and social media platforms are fighting fake news. In theory, brands are less likely to push out fake news.

Another explanation lies within the following statistics.

86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses (including 95% of people aged 18-34) *

Consumers read an average of 10 online reviews before feeling able to trust a local business *

40% of consumers only take into account reviews written within the past 2 weeks – up from 18% last year *

57% of consumers will only use a business if it has 4 or more stars *

80% of 18-34-year-olds have written online reviews compared to just 41% of consumers over 55 *

91% of 18-34-year-old consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations *

89% of consumers read businesses’ responses to reviews *

People trust your successful competitors more than they trust you.

I know it sucks to hear that. You can do everything right. You can deliver exactly what you promise – even over-deliver and your customers just don’t tell enough people to make much of a difference.

Consider this.

None of us leave home without three things. Our keys, wallet/purse and our phone. At our fingertips, we have “the Google machine” to find answers to our questions. Everything from “how to get rid of bunions” to “dentist near me” to “Bob’s plumbing”. We type with our thumbs or ask with our voices. Either way, Google delivers an answer. And the secret to online success lies within these results.

Depending on the keywords that your business should be found under and the industry you are in, you may not be ranked high in Google. You may not be able to afford to be in the top paid ads on the page. There are a lot of competitors all fighting for one of the 3 spots that are featured on the map and a couple of expensive pay per click ads.

You need something to make you stand out and get noticed.

None of this has anything to do with your website. In fact, most people who search find local business listings on the maps at a property called Google My Business. This is as far as a majority of people go in their search for who to do business with. Why? Because everything they need to judge you is right there. Contact information, service area or a map to your location and your REPUTATION.

You may be paying for some of the new customers your competition does business with.

Wait. What? I know, right. Let me give you a couple examples.

We all know that word of mouth marketing is the very best form of advertising you can get. But it is not always free. You go to networking meetings. You pay dues, take a couple of hours out of your day so you can eat the same meal week after week. The skincare salesperson gives the same “a good lead for me is anyone with skin” 60 second commercial every damn week. You tell the same people your story in hopes that they will run across someone at the moment they are looking for you. Hopefully, they will pass your name on.

You have a magnetic sign on your vehicle or even have your truck wrapped. You drive down the street and a lot of people see it. You have your phone number and web address in a HUGE font. Your business name is memorable and you have an awesome logo.

What these examples have in common is that when people see or hear about a business they remember the name. They don’t remember the web address or phone number. So when it is time to look you up later, they search for your name or your industry related words.

They use Google to look up your name because they need a phone number to call or an address to go to your shop.

Anyone who searches for your business sees what other people’s perception of it is. The good, the bad or the meh, no one even bother to write about it. These days the customer’s voice is louder and has more of an effect than ever. Customer reviews are trusted and are spread around the internet.

This IS your reputation and this IS the critical moment where new business is first won or lost. Online ratings and reviews are the number one deciding factor when looking for local products and services. In fact, 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses (including 95% of people aged 18-34) *.

Do You Stand Out from the Crowd?

If you have nothing that stands out and encourages the potential customer to call you, why would they? At a glance, they look for your Google or Yelp or TripAdvisor or any industry-specific site that has a bunch of gold stars. Not only do the stars catch the eye, but they also give an instant vote of confidence in your business. Without the gold Stars, a lot of people will simply change their opinion of you and search for someone else. Now instead of searching for your name, they search for something like “water extraction near me” or “water damage repair in Chandler”. The search results will show them a competitor with a reputation that other people TRUST. A competitor of yours that has a better, more trustworthy reputation than you do.

What just happened is that you spent the money to attract the potential new customer and your reputation drove them right into the open and embracing arms of your competitor.

Reviews are so important that the search engines have made them a part of the ranking factors. Just having a lot of good, reviews isn’t all it takes to get to the top of the local search results page but it is one of the pieces that’s required. Google likes brands that people are talking about.

As frustrating as it can be, it makes a lot of sense. Who would you rather do business with? One whose customers only think they should be rated 2.3 stars or one that has 4.5 stars. This is especially true if the business with a higher rating has more reviews. Of course the more current the reviews the more confidence it instills in potential new customers that the rating is accurate. 40% of consumers only take into account reviews written within the past 2 weeks – up from 18% last year *

What’s the first impression of your business?

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, if you don’t have at least 6-10 recent reviews you are either getting crushed by competitors or you will be as soon as they get a clue. Consumers read an average of 10 online reviews before feeling able to trust a local business *

Even if you have a lot of reviews, if they are not current – in the consumer’s mind, a lot can happen to a business in a couple months or even weeks. New owners, new management, new employees… or whatever. It’s worth repeating, 40% of consumers only take into account reviews written within the past 2 weeks – up from 18% last year * and this number is bound to keep growing. Why your customers don’t leave reviews Even if you have a lot of reviews, if they are not current – in the consumer’s mind, a lot can happen to a business in a couple months or even weeks. New owners, new management, new employees… or whatever. It’s worth repeating, 40% of consumers only take into account reviews written within the past 2 weeks – up from 18% last year * and this number is bound to keep growing.

How do you deal with bad reviews?

Look, everyone gets a bad review. You can’t make everyone happy all the time. And let’s face it, when people are pissed off they are most likely to write a review. Have you ever “done what you do” for a customer and then find out from a bad review that for some reason the customer was not happy? Rather than talk to you, they wrote a bad review?

The point is, people are people. They may be taking their frustration of the moment out on you. If they are angry or in some way feel slighted at the moment they are much more likely to write a bad review. And chances are very good that the review is not going to get removed. Not unless the review includes personal attacks or is filled with hate language. Hiring a lawyer is really hit and miss as well as expensive.

57% of consumers will only use a business if it has 4 or more stars *. The best way to deal with OLD complaints may be to do nothing but get good new reviews to dilute their value. If you have 20, 30 or 50 reviews and one of them is bad it gives the customer a better overall impression of the business than if you have three reviews and one of them is bad.

Ok, so it’s hard to get reviews. It can be uncomfortable for some business owners and their employees to ask for a review. It might be that you are just not comfortable asking to be judged. The truth of the matter is that if you just consistently ask your customers to review you, some of them will. And we know that the benefits of getting reviews are great. They bring in new customers from people who don’t trust your competitor based on their reputation. They help you get found on the maps. Did I mention that recent studies show 91% of the people in their “buying years” trust online reviews from strangers almost as much as from friends and family?

Why your customers don’t leave reviews

According to our most recent study of a cross-section of consumers, even if you ask for reviews, there are three good reasons why they don’t write a review for you.

They forget to

The process to review is too hard

They are too busy and it takes too much time

So let’s take a look at each of these one at a time.

They forget to write a review- We all do it. Once the work is completed to our satisfaction we go on with our lives. Out of sight, out of mind.

The process of writing a review is too hard to do. I don’t know any review sites that allow a customer to post a review without an account. This means that even if someone wants to give you a review and they don’t have a Yelp or Google or Facebook account they have to sign up for one. Then they have to learn how to use the site, find your company and write a review. Even if they do have an account it can be a learning experience to try and figure out how to leave a review. Most of the time, Yelp won’t even show the review because the account is new. It’s really frustrating for you and maddening for the customer.

They are busy and it takes too much time to be bothered with writing a review. Just like the process is too hard it can also take too much time. I know for me, It’s rare that I get home at the end of the day and look back on the transactions I had during the day, squeezed in between appointments, errands, and work. Even if I do think of the transaction, chances are really good that I am not going to take the time away from family to figure out how to write a review.

The simple answer to getting more reviews is to ask for them right when the job’s completed. No matter if you just served a rebuilt a house or cleaned the carpet, the ideal time is while it is fresh on their mind. Just asking for reviews will get you more reviews than you have been getting.

A lot of people are uncomfortable asking for a review. Many employees are uncomfortable or forget to ask. Usually, it is because they are not held accountable for asking for reviews and no one keeps track of them. Keep asking because if you don’t ask chances are really good that you won’t get a review – Unless the customer is unhappy. Unhappy customers are emotionally charged and are much more likely to write a bad review than a customer who is just satisfied.

The trick to getting new customers to call or walk in the door is to maximize all the advertising you do by making it the most effective it can be. The ONLY way to make your paid ads, organic listings, offline advertising and word of mouth marketing perform to their highest level is by building an excellent online reputation. Nothing is more powerful than visual proof! The trick to getting new customers to call or walk in the door is to maximize all the advertising you do by making it the most effective it can be. The ONLY way to make your paid ads, organic listings, offline advertising and word of mouth marketing perform to their highest level is by building an excellent online reputation.

How do I build a reputation that is 100% trustworthy?

I started out by saying we have all been sold on the concept of it takes money to make money. Yes, it is very important to market and advertise our businesses. But hopefully, you can see that your reputation doesn’t really cost you anything in additional funds but it could be costing you a lot of money if you ignore it. Building and protecting your reputation can cost you a lot of time and effort.

mezinGO puts trust-building into your control. Your reputation instills trust with your potential customers even before they contact you. Trust that can’t be bought by any form of advertising.

mezinGO makes it as easy and comfortable as sending a text to ask for a review. It even tracks the requested reviews by the employee so you can see who is asking and how they are performing.

Your customers are much more likely to leave you a review since they don’t have to download an app. or join anything.

When you ask the customer to review you they are one click away from the review page on your site. If they choose to leave you a positive review they are greeted with a video of you or a professional actor, who thanks them for their review and quickly instructs them on how to easily leave a review.

If they were unsatisfied they have presented a video message of concern from you asking for their feedback so you can address the issue. This helps keep negative reviews off public sites like Yelp for all the world to see. Because the form is sent directly to you, you can quickly respond and demonstrate how much you really care about them and their business.

One side benefit to getting reviews this way is that the more people that come to your site and the longer they engage with the site the more the search engines like you. It helps them determine that you have something that interests people. This is a contributor to better rankings in the search engine results pages.

Nothing is more powerful than visual proof!

Let’s deal with the issue of how hard it is to leave a review. Sometimes it is hard because people don’t know what to write. For some people, typing a message using the little keyboard on a phone is difficult.

Some people would rather talk about you than write a message. We have built-in a one-click process that will open a camera on your customer’s phone without installing anything, so they can leave a video message. And when you get people talking, they leave longer more detailed messages. Some folks may even use this to show off the great work you have just finished.

#marketing businesses #Businesses advertisement

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muddyrainstone · 6 years ago

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Care to Lend a Helping Hand? (Emergency Donation/Commission Post)

Hello there!

Kind of reposting information from my dA Journal on this, thus I'll give the same TL;DR for this whole thing: this is a donation journal to help make ends meet due to an upcoming bill and other priorities as well as stretch goals below what's prioritized. I suggest reading down lower in the journal to get the full gist, but if you don't want to read it fully, it'd be greatly appreciated for you to spread the word in case others might want to help out. Thank you!

So, Money has been a little tight in my family lately, due to a lot of circumstances that would be too long to explain properly, but in short--I'm kind of coming up short on cash at an inopportune time, as I have a bill I need to have paid by June 30th this year, one that raised the total amount due recently. I did get a job, but since I'm still new at it and it'll take me a while to work up to a good amount due to how the job works, and it's kind of hard for me to find a second one that as easily accessible as the one I have now, due to different reasons:

I live in an area where it is a two hour walk back and forth from the nearest Gas Station and Hours more from a Grocery Store. I cannot drive and currently, I have no money to afford a Cab, so for the most part, I have to walk, in the summer heat and humidity of Florida. It takes me a total of four hours just to walk to the gas station, then back home. And while I have sent an application back to many places including said Gas Station, I have not received any response back in over two months. My current job, at the very least, has the accessibility for me to work at home.

My Family is out of Town. Since we're really having issues paying off the house we all live in at the moment, my father is looking for a job and currently trying to apply to a position in California that pays really well. As such, to attend the interview, both of my parents have went out of town, leaving me in charge of the dogs and with visiting relatives that also cannot drive, thus limiting my range of mobility in terms of job searching for a while, at least for places that are reasonably acceptable and easy to reach.

So what do I need help with and need money for?

Well, let me list off the necessities that are my top priorities:

For the Bill that's due on June 30th: currently, I'm trying to still work out an issue with the charge due, but depending on how I work it out, I need to have $60 to 120$ USD in my account in order to pay the charge that will be taken out of my account in order to pay said bill. They raised the price from normal means, and with Certain Billing issues, that is the range I'm looking at.

Monthly Bank Fee: my Bank account tends to charge $6.00 USD for holding any amount of money that is below $100 a month, normally around the 20th each month for me. This can get really annoying especially when money is tight, but the only way the fee stops is if I have at least $100 saved up in it (it may also not withdraw a fee if stay above at least $50, but I'm certain the requirements to not have the fee is at least 100)

Internet Bill: this apparently counts as my rent fee, as constituted by my parents--last time I had to cover this bill, it was $105 USD, and it's part of why I began running into money issues because they sprung this on me with no real forwarning.

Groceries: because I like to at least pay for my own food and necessities as well as pitch a hand in any grocery shopping. The grocery bill usually ranges to a total of $50 and higher. This does include necessities like personal hygiene items that I need to restock on.

And here, if anyone cares to help with these too, are personal stretch goals I'd like to meet, but don't have top priority:

Kingdom Hearts III: everyone who knows me, knows I'm looking forward to this game. In fact, it's on my Bucket List to play it. It's also coming out soon this year. Once bills and things are out out the way, it'll be my second priority next to Grocery Money. Currently, the price range i'm looking at just for the regular edition is $50-60 USD. The price for a Limited Edition may be higher, but I am going to aim for just the regular version to order/buy.

A Ticket to Incredibles 2: I'd like to catch this movie on my own soon. That, however, comes with a fair amount of fees overall: $11.33-$12.00 for the ticket, $17.00-$20.00 for a cab to the movie theatre and back (meaning I'm charged two times, pay once i'm there and pay once i'm home), and $22.00 dollars for conessions (popcorn, a drink and a box/bag of candy)

For things that catch my fancy: I'll normally stockpile whatever is left for more important things, but sometimes I won't mind picking something up if I can afford it--usually CDs, books, sweets and other things.

So, now you know the list, you want to help out, the question is how? Well, you can help me out via these methods:

Buy me Drinks: I have a Kofi account that I use to gain extra money, and even offer special rewards and certain exclusives for certain amounts and goals met (and amount of drinks bought). If you choose to give money this way, I can not only provide rewards, but can also work on things I love to do alongside with my current job comfortably and still pool in a steady income!

Paypal.me: if donating/paying through coffee isn't your thing, you can pay me through paypal. I recommend utilizing this if you're willing to just donate and help out, as well as for the best option in regards to the next two options below.

Commissions: now, I know I'm not popular enough to warrant any real payment for my commission work, and I haven't done much with the category since early 2012, but these are always open for me to do, just note me about inquiries and we can talk about it and settle on things.

Possible Item Sale: now, I've always ran into something when it came to ordering items in the past--sometimes I'd end up with duplicates I did not order for. I'm willing to put some of these items on sale, though I'd have to admit, shipping and packaging cost will come extra with the price, otherwise I'd have to pay out of my own pocket just to get it to you.

Spread the word: if you can't help by paying at all, the least you could do is spread the word about this situation through any means you can.

Now, I'm not sure anyone would want to help me out, and all i'd like to do is cover the bill and stay out of the red by not being left with just seven dollars in my account, but if I could at least make 15 to 20 dollars each week, I can have the bill paid and get through it by the skin of my teeth, as well as continue on what I like to do alongside with the work required in my job. If people could at least contribute

3 to 5 dollars a day, that'll help loads! Even if it's one dollar, It'll all help. I thank you greatly for your help in advance.

#personal #signal boost #again thank you for your help in advance.

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coopdigitalnewsletter · 4 years ago

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24 August 2020: 11% of UK food is now bought online. John Lewis will go online first. Loyalty cards.

Hello, this is the Co-op Digital newsletter - it looks at what's happening in the internet/digital world and how it's relevant to the Co-op, to retail businesses, and most importantly to people, communities and society. Thank you for reading - send ideas and feedback to @rod on Twitter. Please tell a friend about it!

[Image: Peter Bond on Unsplash]

11% of UK food is now bought online

Tesco is hiring 16,000 staff in its online business: 10,000 to pick customer orders from shelves and 3,000 delivery drivers. Many of them will be “lockdown temps” already working for the company. This is Tesco’s answer to one of the big lockdown questions for retailers: would shoppers return to the shops as lockdowns ease, or would they stick with online shopping?

💥 Why this matters: the shift to online has been very big and very fast but hasn’t snapped back at the same speed as lockdowns started easing. This suggests that some shopping activity formerly done in store may have permanently shifted online. If so, the virus accelerated online shopping’s share of spend by years.

Three quarters of UK does grocery shopping online: “Waitrose polled 2,000 people across the UK and found that 77% now do at least some of their grocery shopping online, compared with 61% the year before”. If that’s how many people do *some* of their shopping online, how much of total spend is now online? The Office for National Statistics says:

“In July 2020, retail sales volumes increased by 3.6% when compared with June, and are 3.0% above pre-pandemic levels in February 2020. [...] Online retail sales fell by 7.0% in July when compared with June, but the strong growth experienced over the pandemic has meant that sales are still 50.4% higher than February’s pre-pandemic levels.”

Ocado thinks the shift to online is permanent, but that’s their business so they would say that! Research company Retail Economics thinks that “almost half of consumers feel that the pandemic will have a permanent effect on the way they shop” (link to that BBC story because Retail Economics’s site is paywalled).

Benedict Evans’s The ecommerce surge which compares UK and US growth in online shopping in various categories.

Walmart sales up 6% but most of that is from online sales, which doubled.

“We expect John Lewis to be a 60% online retailer”

John Lewis plans to reinvent itself for an era of online, and Chair Sharon White sent a plan to partners (staff) in the group. “We expect John Lewis to be a 60% online retailer, from 40% pre-Covid-19; and Waitrose to rise above 20%, from 5%.”

One interesting part is a new “rental/resale/recycle” option for furniture in which furniture can be rented until purchased, or rented and then returned:

“The scheme means shoppers can use the service to try before they buy - payments stop if they reach the original purchase price before the end of the hire period, and they can keep the item or have it collected. After two 12-month rental periods the items will have been paid for outright.”

The other interesting bit is:

“Private rented housing: As we repurpose and potentially reduce our shop estate, we want to put excess space to good social use. We are exploring with third parties the concept of new mixed-use affordable housing.”

Loyalty cards, membership programmes and delivery costs

Tesco plans to add free grocery delivery to its Clubcard Plus service. Responding to Amazon including free grocery delivery in Prime for some customers, CEO Dave Lewis said:

“I understand the move [from Amazon]. The idea of Prime is very similar to where we are in Clubcard Plus, in terms of bringing a whole bunch of benefits together. So an opportunity into the future for us is to think about how we put delivery into Clubcard Plus. That’s always been the direction of travel.”

Elsewhere in retail, Walmart’s Prime-like membership programme Walmart+ is delayed.

💥 Why this matters: supermarkets are working out how they might recoup delivery costs. One logical end point might be the Costco model, in which the retailer sells goods at 0% markup but finds its margin in membership fees. A big risk is that if the retailer bundles too much or the wrong things into a membership whose fees keep increasing, it starts to look like poor value for money.

UK government and exam results: move fast and break things

The exams results controversy is an early and obvious example of what “life under the algorithm” would be like. Often painful. The problem they were trying to fix (standardised grades that made sense from one year to the next) ended up being a smaller problem than the algorithmic fix (moderating grades downward in a way that ended up disadvantaging pupils from poorer areas). The algorithm’s decisions looked unfair and capricious. The eventual fix was to revoke the algorithm.

Rachel Coldicutt’s piece is good on how the current UK government likes to dismantle things and move faster. It’s not clear that the answer is governance, in that Ofqual no doubt had endless governance process and documentation. Maybe the answer is making sure leaders are empowered to form teams that can achieve the desired outcomes, and held accountable.

💥 Why this matters: it would be good if algorithms were more open and opportunities for redress clearer. “Getting rid of the algorithm is v welcome, but not enough.”

Other retail news

M&S to cut 7,000 jobs over next three months - challenging times ahead for all retail, as job uncertainties increase. Better news: UK retail sales climb back to pre-pandemic levels.

Morrisons considers ditching all 'bags for life' - “It said a full replacement of its bags for life would save 90 million plastic bags being used each year, the equivalent of 3,510 tonnes of plastic per year.”

Google can now read grocery labels for the blind - an update to Google's assistance app adds AI image recognition for food shopping.

Various things

Amazon launches online pharmacy in India.

4 ‘CovTech’ success stories you probably haven’t heard of - Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Togo and Rwanda responding decisively with digital transformation projects.

Apple’s low-carbon aluminum is a climate game changer - the same metal but a manufacturing process that doesn’t result in the direct release of greenhouse gases. Apple plans to be “carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle by 2030”.

Amazon is now delivering 66% of its own orders - gradually bringing in house all of its logistics. It shipped 415 million packages in July. But thanks to the virus delivery cos like Fedex and UPS are still growing.

South Wales police lose landmark facial recognition case.

Co-op Digital news and events

Introducing our accessibility policy for Co-op products and services - “The policy makes accessibility standards more tangible because colleagues can see what their responsibilities include”.

Free of charge events:

Andy’s Man Club – Gentleman's Peer to Peer Mental Health Meet Up – Mondays 7pm

PyData Ethics in Data Panel, 24 August 6.30pm – PyDataMcr welcome everyone with an interest in all things data, from beginners to seasoned pros. At next week’s meet up they have our very own Julian Tate from Open Data Manchester and Dr Keeley Crockett from MMU talking everything that is ethical in data. Sign up here.

LGBTQIA – Hackathon – 28-30 Aug

Northern Aze User Group - Meet Up – 2 Sept – 6pm

Motion North – Meet Up – 17 Sept - 7pm

Paid for events:

Invisible Cities - Online Tours of Manchester or Edinburgh – Various Dates & Times

Mandala Yoga – Online Yoga Sessions - Various Dates & Times

Tech Ethics – Meet Up – Various Dates & Times

Future Health Tech – Webinar - 26 Aug - 6.30pm

New & Emerging Technologies: Big Data - Webinar – 26 Aug - 7pm

More detail on Federation House’s events. You can also see how The Federation is planning for a safe return to the co-working floor.

Thank you for reading

Thank you, beloved readers and contributors. Please continue to send ideas, questions, corrections, improvements, etc to @rod on Twitter. If you have enjoyed reading, please tell a friend! If you want to find out more about Co-op Digital, follow us @CoopDigital on Twitter and read the Co-op Digital Blog. Previous newsletters.

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easyfoodnetwork · 5 years ago

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Your Reservation Has Been Cancelled

How apps like OpenTable, Tock, and Resy are pivoting to keep themselves — and restaurants — afloat in a world without bookings

Gregory and Daisy Ryan opened Bell’s, a 35-seat French bistro in Los Alamos, California, in 2018. The pair had worked in restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin before returning to Daisy’s hometown. The couple had several choices when it came to online reservation booking platforms and ultimately went with Tock, a system that they say worked so well, the restaurant didn’t even need a phone. “I didn’t want to have people sitting at the bar and listen to me explain something that someone can find on the internet,” says Gregory Ryan. “I didn’t want that to ruin someone’s experience.” During a typical dinner service pre-COVID-19, about 80 percent of guests had reservations.

Because of its location, in a small town near California’s central coast wine country, Bell’s wasn’t beholden to the early occupancy reduction mandates, and later closures, that happened so quickly in major cities like New York and San Francisco in response to the spread of COVID-19. “It wasn’t until the second week of March that we knew something was on its way — but we didn’t know what it looked like yet,” Gregory Ryan says. He tried to figure out a way to use Tock to accommodate takeout instead of reservations and events in an effort to stay open. Plus, the restaurant didn’t ever offer takeout before. “Not because we think we’re too good for it, or anything,” he says. “Because we only have two [chefs] on the line.”

But before he could figure out a technical solution on his own, he says, Tock contacted him offering a new online ordering system he could implement quickly. When he first considered takeout, Gregory Ryan says, “I was like, ‘Oh, shit, am I going to have to get a phone?’ My staff was like, ‘No, absolutely not.’” Today, Bell’s remains phone-free.

“We opened a restaurant for certain reasons,” he says. He didn’t ever expect takeout to be his business’s lifeline.

Since the spread of COVID-19 began forcing restaurants across the country to cease dining room operations, there’s been much talk about its effect on both individual restaurants and the industry as a whole. But what about the industries that support it? Reservation services like Tock, OpenTable, Yelp, and Resy are big business, and make their money by charging restaurants to use the software. Diners use them to book available tables, and restaurants also use them to manage their dining rooms’ floor plan and record notes about customers. It’s how the host knows where to seat you when you show up for your 8 p.m. booking.

Plans vary, but a restaurant can expect to pay at least several hundred dollars per month for a basic plan that includes both reservations and table management. Prices go up from there depending on additional features like custom messaging, ticketed events, or, in OpenTable’s case, the number of people it brings in the door. OpenTable collects a per-diner commission fee on each reservation it facilitates, and busy restaurants can expect a monthly bill that easily stretches into thousands of dollars.

Of all the brands, OpenTable is the largest reservations service in the U.S. In mid-March, as the national rollout of dining restrictions was just beginning, the company released year-over-year data that showed a 45 percent diner reduction in Seattle, 40 percent in San Francisco, 30 percent in New York, and 25 percent in London, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Ten days later, on March 23, every market listed on OpenTable’s COVID-19-inspired state of the industry dashboard showed a 95 to 100 percent reduction in bookings. That is: There were essentially zero reservations booked at the nearly 60,000 restaurants the company supports worldwide.

In response to the slowdown, OpenTable and its competitors have been forced to pivot as quickly as the restaurants they serve. All fairly quickly suspended most fees they charge restaurants to use their software. They’ve also proactively begun making changes to their apps and website to reflect the realities of the restaurant business today, offering both temporary and permanent solutions for restaurants that saw their operations upended overnight.

OpenTable added a grocery feature, allowing shoppers to reserve a shopping time slot at a store the same way they’d book a seating time at a restaurant. According to Andrea Johnston, OpenTable’s chief operating officer, the idea came from an OpenTable advisory board member — a restaurateur himself — who noticed that many restaurants were operating as small grocers to stay open. So far, in OpenTable’s hometown of San Francisco, just a handful of businesses offer the service, but Johnston says the company is actively onboarding several large regional grocery chains, with more to come. She confirmed that the service is free for all grocery stores and restaurants-turned-grocers, whether or not they’ve worked with OpenTable in the past.

“I hope that the world won’t continue to need a product that supports grocery store reservations.”

Johnston says she’s also encouraging partner restaurants to update their profiles to reflect current operations, including delivery, takeout, gift cards, and fundraisers, which are then displayed in the OpenTable app. The company is waiving gift card fees through June; previously, restaurants paid $25 per month to sell gift cards through the OpenTable system. And at this point more than 1,500 restaurants have added their fundraising efforts to their listings, Johnston says.

OpenTable had already added a delivery category to its app in 2019. Listings are in partnership with companies like Uber Eats and Caviar, which each charge their own fees on top of the booking service. In the last month or so, clicks on delivery options within the app have grown 172 percent.

A reservations app probably isn’t the first stop for a diner looking to support local restaurants right now, and in response, these companies have had to modify their marketing strategies. To diners, OpenTable, Tock, and Resy have all begun sending emails with lists of partner restaurants open for delivery or takeout. To restaurants, they’re sending a steady stream of news, ideas, and tactical information to survive. OpenTable has launched a dedicated restaurant resource center to share news and product information related to the coronavirus pandemic, and hosts a weekly webinar series for restaurants. Resy, too, just announced a new industry-focused podcast in partnership with the Welcome Conference.

“It has been nice to see that for the most part they’ve been doing what they can to support us — obviously knowing that supporting us supports them in the long run,” says Gina Buck, general manager of Concord Hill, a small Brooklyn restaurant that uses OpenTable. The restaurant remains open for takeout, serving food and cocktails seven days per week from noon until 10 p.m.

Speaking from the middle of her new busy workday fielding, packaging, and distributing to-go orders, Buck says she isn’t sure what more reservations services could offer to help. “I think the normal before this has completely died and will never exist again,” she says. “We’re able to stay open. We’re doing okay. It’s just two of us — we can’t afford to bring anyone else in at the moment, but we are getting through this.”

OpenTable competitor Resy has also shifted its strategy to support eating at home. Instead of reservations, diners can order takeout food directly through its app and website. They select a meal option, choose a pickup time, and pay, all through the Resy platform.

Greg Lutes is chef-owner of 3rd Cousin, one of the handful of restaurants in San Francisco that’s currently offering takeout via Resy. “It’s useful, but there’s not much volume in it,” he says, noting that they’ve sold “a few meals” through the platform. He also signed up with Uber Eats and DoorDash for the first time, but says most customers just call orders in to the restaurant directly.

When a customer books a pickup on Resy, it’s communicated to the restaurant the same way a reservation would be: in an app that’s meant for a front-of-house staffer to manage. Lutes was recently surprised by a customer who showed up at the restaurant to pick up a family meal he had only just ordered. Even so, he plans to continue offering takeout through Resy, and isn’t worried about accepting orders from multiple sources. “We need all the revenue we can get,” he says. Resy has also modified the format of the restaurant pages on its website to allow operators to link to outside initiatives, like fundraisers. “It’s so that customers can see all of the preferred ways that their favorite restaurants are asking for support,” says Resy co-founder and CEO Ben Leventhal.

Tock went a step further, building out an entirely new product — in a week.

While all the big booking services have adjusted their functionality to meet the moment, reservations and event ticketing service Tock, used by more than 3,000 restaurants worldwide, went a step further, building out an entirely new product — in a week. Tock To Go launched March 16 for existing and new Tock customers. It allows customers to reserve and purchase restaurant meals for pickup or delivery and charges the restaurant a fee of 3 percent per order. (Tock has waived its regular monthly fees.) “We cannot operate without doing that,” says Nick Kokonas, Tock’s co-founder and CEO, who’s also the co-owner of Chicago’s Alinea Group restaurants.

Tock’s To Go system has allowed restaurants to sell completely new, exclusive-to-takeout offerings, something that’s proven useful for the kind of fine dining and higher-end establishments that Tock has become known for. In New York, Dan Barber’s Blue Hill restaurants are offering takeaway boxes of various goods at both the Manhattan and Tarrytown locations. Customers can select from a variety of options, including stews and purees, garden vegetables, grass-fed beef, dry-aged pheasant, bread, and even a sommelier-selected bottle of wine to accompany a diner’s selections.

In San Francisco, Tosca Cafe recently reopened under new ownership in the midst of the pandemic by selling family-style dinners — shrimp alfredo, spaghetti alla Norma — to go on Tock, and in LA, sister restaurants Bestia and Bavel are both offering weekly changing menus that have sold out within days of being listed on Tock. Proceeds go to maintain employee health care, and chef-owner Ori Menashe says if demand remains high, he may even be able to re-hire some staff to keep up.

Kokonas says that Tock currently supports close to 400 restaurants offering takeout across the U.S., Europe, and Australia, with another 650 in some stage of onboarding. One month in, the company already processes nearly $1 million in to-go sales per day. On one weekday earlier this month, restaurants on the platform sold 11,700 orders for nearly 40,000 meals.

“Tock is not just a booking system,” says Kokonas, “it’s a sales engine ... and it links and leverages, meaningfully and transparently, to the largest networks — search and social media.”

At Bell’s, Gregory Ryan uses social channels to promote the restaurant’s current offerings on Tock To Go, including kits for making the restaurant’s popular egg salad sandwich at home, and other a la carte offerings, like CSA-style produce boxes. Ryan likes that Tock’s system of pre-ordering gives restaurant staff some idea of what to expect each day. It also helps him know how much of which ingredients and supplies to purchase.

“That’s why takeout is always tough, because you’re never really sure when something’s going to come,” he says. “But if you’re able to wake up in the morning and know, ‘We have seven takeout orders, six chicken dinners tonight, and an egg salad,’ you’re at least working toward something. As those continue to populate [throughout the day] you’re a little bit better able to handle the information.”

He’s also happy that it’s allowed him to continue to keep 11 of his employees on payroll, though he says everyone has taken “a little bit of a haircut” on their paychecks. (Ryan and his wife stopped paying themselves completely.)

Still, even with new measures in place, not all booking platforms are pivoting as gracefully. So far, Yelp is the only major reservations provider to announce a reduction in staff, laying off or furloughing 2,100 of its approximately 6,000 employees. OpenTable’s Johnston says for them, anything related to a layoff would be “an absolute last resort.” At Tock, Kokonas says he will be hiring soon. “We never really stopped,” he says. “The only tricky part to bringing on new employees is training... We will figure that out.”

As they work to support restaurants, executives at reservations companies are asking the same questions as chefs and restaurateurs: How long will this last? Will anyone even want to come and sit down for a meal in a few weeks? “Restaurants are going to reopen at some point with occupancy restrictions, extra and important safety measures, and lower demand,” says Kokonas. “Yet — and this is very important — the fixed costs of rent and utilities remain the same, and the business model was built with high demand in mind.”

Leventhal indicates that Resy would likely continue to support its expanded initiatives in the future, but stops short of confirming any product changes. “This is without a doubt a reset moment for the industry,” he says. “Evolution, innovation, and creativity are going to be crucial for restaurants, and the tech platforms that support them, to survive in a post-COVID world.”

Tock To Go is now a permanent part of Tock’s functionality moving forward, built directly into the product’s dashboard. It’s an acknowledgement that the industry isn’t going to go back to “normal” anytime soon, and much about the future of the industry is unknown. “Will there be a market for $35 takeout meals in 2022? Who knows?” says Kokonas.

For OpenTable, Johnston says the company will continue to offer new options as long as restaurants need them. “I hope that the world won’t continue to need a product that supports grocery store reservations,” she says, “but we will keep it free and available as long as necessary.”

Disclosure: Resy’s Ben Leventhal was one of the co-founders of Eater, but is no longer involved in its operations.

Kristen Hawley writes about restaurant operations, technology, and the future of the business from San Francisco. She’s the founder of Expedite, a restaurant technology newsletter that’s existed, in some form, for the last seven years.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2VrjjGv https://ift.tt/34TS7Dq

How apps like OpenTable, Tock, and Resy are pivoting to keep themselves — and restaurants — afloat in a world without bookings

“We opened a restaurant for certain reasons,” he says. He didn’t ever expect takeout to be his business’s lifeline.

“I hope that the world won’t continue to need a product that supports grocery store reservations.”

Tock went a step further, building out an entirely new product — in a week.

“Tock is not just a booking system,” says Kokonas, “it’s a sales engine ... and it links and leverages, meaningfully and transparently, to the largest networks — search and social media.”

Disclosure: Resy’s Ben Leventhal was one of the co-founders of Eater, but is no longer involved in its operations.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2VrjjGv via Blogger https://ift.tt/34VEbc1

#Blogger #cooking #Eater #food #recipes

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shirlleycoyle · 5 years ago

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There Are Two Types of People Now: Online Shoppers and the People Who Serve Them

A society that already had deep divisions due to economic inequality has now had that division thrown into stark relief by the coronavirus pandemic. America is now divided into two factions: Those who can afford to offload their risk of becoming infected with a deadly pandemic onto others, and those who serve people who are holed up in their homes, delivering them food, video game consoles, toilet paper, diapers, and scrapbook material at great risk to themselves.

FreshDirect, a company that delivers groceries in New York, announced that one of its warehouse workers tested positive Wednesday. An Amazon warehouse worker in Queens became infected with coronavirus, workers learned Wednesday night. Remaining workers were told to come in for their 10:15 pm shift but refused.

In a video posted by Amazonians United NYC, an Amazon worker can be seen shouting at management: “You’ve all have done this already to us. We know, either you’re gaslighting us about our sick leave, or you’re gaslighting us about coronavirus for Amazon’s profits. We know what you’re doing. There’s an absolute disregard for the value of our lives. We do not buy it anymore.”

Amazon has said it will hire 100,000 new workers to keep up with demand in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which means that instead of going to stores, we are simply putting risk on those who have to take those jobs. Seamless is sending out alerts to customers saying that their delivery orders “can help save restaurants … Local restaurants need your delivery and pickup orders more than ever.”

As I scroll through social media, friends discuss how they are going to wait out the pandemic in their homes by getting into new hobbies, buying new video game consoles, discussing which cocktail ingredients Whole Foods had available for home delivery. They say they are going to continue to support their local restaurants by ordering delivery. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that this is not the right thing to do. We're not going to be able to shop or ecommerce our way out of this. At this moment, in these circumstances, it is unethical to buy literally anything more than you absolutely need to survive, and that doing so unnecessarily puts others at risk.

Unfortunately, our society's goal is the accumulation of capital, not the wellbeing of people. Some of us will die delivering video game consoles or pizzas not because it's a noble goal in and of itself, but because this is what the system we live in was designed to keep doing beyond all reason and sense.

It is not time to buy yoga pants, or an Instant Pot, or Easter candy, or solar-powered surveillance cameras, sales of which are all through the roof on Amazon. Part of “flattening the curve” means making do with less, being entertained with what you already have, and if you really need to, buying digital products instead of physical ones. It means realizing that our online orders do not magically appear at our doorsteps without human labor, without putting people at risk. It means realizing that the people working in Amazon warehouses and grocery stores and pharmacies right now are heroes. At the very least it means realizing that the people working in those jobs are people.

A major problem in our broken society, though, is that capitalism does not care for these people. In the last week, we have seen some of America’s biggest companies slowly do the bare minimum—roll out guaranteed paid sick leave—but continue to insist on remaining open and asking their workers to work. The dystopic subtext, as we argued Tuesday, is that workers must continue to work until they are infected with the highly contagious, deadly pathogen that epidemiologists and public health officials are desperately trying to stop, and then hoping that these under- or uninsured people don't happen to die.

The effect coronavirus has had on economic activity in this country is so profound that buying a takeout cocktail from a bar, ordering delivery from a restaurant, suddenly getting into scrapbooking, or buying a gift card is not going to be enough to help businesses or workers weather the storm. Federal and state governments need to give no-strings-attached money to workers, now. Amazon needs to stop selling all but the absolute bare necessities. Seamless and GrubHub need to shut down. And we need to stop shopping online.

Humanity has not faced a crisis like this in over a century, and has never faced a global pandemic in a society that is built entirely around the single purpose of buying and delivering consumer goods in service of allowing individuals like Jeff Bezos to hoard unprecedented, unconscionable wealth. But one thing coronavirus has made painfully clear is that our society is not structured to deal with it.

Governments, scientists, and health care professionals are struggling to reduce the human suffering this crisis is causing, and there are few clear answers that don't have frightening, unpredictable side effects. What is the safest way to get a loaf of bread today? Is it better to go to the store where there's increased foot traffic and risk infecting yourself and others, or is it better to have that loaf of bread shipped from a centralized location, risking all involved in the process of delivery? Should we all be eating spam? We are all struggling with these questions.

I do not know what the answer is, as some people have no choice but to order basic necessities online because they are sick, elderly, immunocompromised, or at high risk. I don't have the answers, but I do know that in the midst of the worst public health crisis any living person has ever seen, we should not be buying frivolous bullshit on the internet and pretending that those actions don't have consequences.

There Are Two Types of People Now: Online Shoppers and the People Who Serve Them syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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xzyzzz-blog · 7 years ago

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toothextract · 6 years ago

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Affordable, Stat-Based Retail Strategy For Your Agency’s Clients

Posted by MiriamEllis

Retail clients are battling tough economics offline and tough competitors online. They need every bit of help your agency can give them.

I was heartened when 75 percent of the 1,400+ respondents to the Moz State of Local SEO Industry Report 2019 shared that they contribute to offline strategy recommendations either frequently or at least some of the time. I can’t think of a market where good and relatively inexpensive experiments are more needed than in embattled retail. The ripple effect of a single new idea, offered up generously, can spread out to encompass new revenue streams for the client and new levels of retention for your agency.

And that’s why win-win seemed written all over three statistics from a 2018 Yes Marketing retail survey when I read it because they speak to motivating about one quarter to half of 1,000 polled customers without going to any extreme expense. Take a look:

I highly recommend downloading Yes Marketing’s complete survey which is chock-full of great data, but today, let’s look at just three valuable stats from it to come up with an actionable strategy you can gift your offline retail clients at your next meeting.

Getting it right: A little market near me

For the past 16 years, I’ve been observing the local business scene with a combination of professional scrutiny and personal regard. I’m inspired by businesses that open and thrive and am saddened by those that open and close.

Right now, I’m especially intrigued by a very small, independently-owned grocery store which set up shop last year in what I’ll lovingly describe as a rural, half-a-horse town not far from me. This locale has a single main street with less than 20 businesses on it, but I’m predicting the shop’s ultimate success based on several factors. A strong one is that the community is flanked by several much larger towns with lots of through traffic and the market is several miles from any competitor. But other factors which match point-for-point with the data in the Yes Marketing survey make me feel especially confident that this small business is going to “get it right”.

Encourage your retail clients to explore the following tips.

1) The store is visually appealing

43–58 percent of Yes Marketing’s surveyed retail customers say they’d be motivated to shop with a retailer who has cool product displays, murals, etc. Retail shoppers of all ages are seeking appealing experiences.

At the market near me, there are many things going on in its favor. The building is historic on the outside and full of natural light on this inside, and the staff sets up creative displays, such as all of the ingredients you need to make a hearty winter soup gathered up on a vintage table. The Instagram crowd can have selfie fun here, and more mature customers will appreciate the aesthetic simplicity of this uncluttered, human-scale shopping experience.

For your retail clients, it won’t break the bank to become more visually appealing. Design cues are everywhere!

Share these suggestions with a worthy client:

Basic cleanliness is the starting point

This is an old survey, but I think we’re safe to say that at least 45 percent of retail customers are still put off by dirty premises — especially restrooms. Janitorial duties are already built into the budget of most businesses and only need to be accomplished properly. I continuously notice how many reviewers proclaim the word “clean” when a business deserves it.

Inspiration is affordable

Whatever employees are already being paid is the cost of engaging them to lend their creativity to creating merchandise displays that draw attention and/or solve problems. My hearty winter soup example is one idea (complete with boxed broth, pasta, veggies, bowls, and cookware).

For your retail client? It might be everything a consumer needs to recover from a cold (medicine, citrus fruit, electric blanket, herbal tea, tissue, a paperback, a sympathetic stuffed animal, etc.). Or everything one needs to winterize a car, take a trip to a beach, build a beautiful window box, or pamper a pet. Retailers can inexpensively encourage the hidden artistic talents in staff.

Feeling stuck? The Internet is full of free retail display tips, design magazines cost a few bucks, and your clients’ cable bills already cover a subscription to channels like HGTV and the DIY network that trade on style. A client who knows that interior designers are all using grey-and-white palettes and that one TV ad after another features women wearing denim blue with aspen yellow right now is well on their way to catching customers’ eyes.

Aspiring artists live near your client and need work

The national average cost to have a large wall mural professionally painted is about $8,000, with much less expensive options available. Some retailers even hold contests surrounding logo design, and an artist near your client may work quite inexpensively if they are trying to build up their portfolio. I can’t predict how long the Instagram mural trend will last, but wall art has been a crowd-pleaser since Paleolithic times. Any shopper who stops to snap a photo of themselves has been brought in close proximity to your front door.

I pulled this word cloud out of the reviews of the little grocery store:

While your clients’ industries and aesthetics will vary, tell them they can aim for a similar, positive response from at least 49 percent of their customers with a little more care put into the shopping environment.

2) The store offers additional services beyond the sale of products

19–40 percent of survey respondents are influenced by value-adds. Doubtless, you’ve seen the TV commercials in which banks double as coffee houses to appeal to the young, and small hardware chains emphasize staff expertise over loneliness in a warehouse. That’s what this is all about, and it can be done at a smaller scale, without overly-strapping your retail clients.

At the market near me, reviews like this are coming in:

The market has worked out a very economic arrangement with a massage therapist, who can build up their clientele out of the deal, so it’s a win for everybody.

For your retail clients, sharing these examples could inspire appealing added services:

A small pet food chain is offering health consults in addition to selling merchandise.

Even small clothing boutiques can provide personal styling sessions.

I know of a particular auto parts store where salespeople show you how to change windshield wipers and headlight bulbs for free and it brings our household back almost every time..

It’s common for shops like toy stores to have kids’ birthday clubs, but sophisticated businesses offer loyalty programs, too

I wrote about offering shipping last year as an additional service with self-evident value in this age of convenience.

The cost of these efforts is either the salary of an employee, nominal or free.

3) The store hosts local events

20–36 percent of customers feel the appeal of retailers becoming destinations for things to learn and do. Coincidentally, this corresponds with two of the tasks Google dubbed micro-moments a couple of years back, and while not everyone loves that terminology, we can at least agree that large numbers of people use the Internet to discover local resources.

At the market near me, they’re doing open-mic readings, and this is a trend in many cities to which Google Calendar attests:

For your clients, the last two words of that event description are key. When there’s a local wish to build community, retail businesses can lend the space and the stage. This can look like:

Any type of class, like these ones that teach how to operate an appliance or machinery, how to re-skill at something like wilderness survival, or how to cook/make things.

Any type of event, like the open mic night I’ve cited, above, or celebrations, or appearances by well-known locals such as authors, or ongoing club meetups.

Any type of special appeal, like this recycling deal gifting participants $20 off new jeans if they donate their old ones, or housing a drop-off point for light bulbs, batteries or charitable giving, or hosting the kick-off of a neighborhood cleanup with some added benefit to participants like a breakfast or discount.

Again, costs here can be quite modest and you’ll be bringing the community together under the banner of your business.

Putting it in writing

The last item on the budget for any of these ventures is whatever it costs to publicize it. For sure, your client will want:

A homepage announcement and/or one or more blog posts

Google Posts, Q&A, photos and related features

Social mentions

If the concept is large enough (or the community is small) some outreach to local news in hopes of a write-up and inclusion of local/social calendars

Link building would be great if the client can afford a reasonable investment in your services, where necessary

And, of course, be sure your client’s local business listings are accurate so that newcomers aren’t getting lost on their way to finding the cool new offering

Getting the word out about events, features, and other desirable attributes don’t have to be exorbitant, but it will put the finishing touch on ensuring a community knows the business is ready to offer the desired experience.

Seeing opportunity

Sometimes, you’ll find yourself in a client meeting and things will be a bit flat. Maybe the client has been disengaged from your contract lately, or sales have been leveling out for lack of new ideas. That’s the perfect time to put something fresh on the table, demonstrating that you’re thinking about the client’s whole picture beyond CTR and citations.

One thing that I find to be an inspiring practice for agencies is to do an audit of competitors’ reviews looking for “holes” In many communities, shopping is really dull and reviews reflect that, with few shoppers feeling genuinely excited by a particular vertical’s local offerings. Your client could be the one to change that, with a little extra attention from you.

Every possibility won’t be the perfect match for every business, but if you can help the company see a new opportunity, the few minutes spent brainstorming could benefit you both.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

from https://dentistry01.wordpress.com/2019/02/28/affordable-stat-based-retail-strategy-for-your-agencys-clients/

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earnmoneyonline19-blog · 6 years ago

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31 Creative Ways to Make Money Fast

Regardless of whether it’s the end of the month and you’re short in rent cash or you’re just looking to make a tiny extra spending money for the weekend, sometimes all we need are generally easy ways to make money fast (and preferably something you could start today).

If you need to know how to make 100 dollars in a day (or maybe even earn 200 dollars in one day) you ought to be able to find a few options on this list that you can do to pull that off. On the other hand, if you’re in debt and need 2, 000 money fast, this list probably isn’t for you – yet fortunately $100 and maybe even $200 in a couple of days certainly is not totally out of the question. 31 Best Ways to Make Money Fast

The best way to commence Earn Money Online 2019 fast is to get some quick wins. Here are a few suggestions to get you started: 1 . Take Paid Surveys

Websites like Review Junkie will pay you a decent chunk of change for the low-maintenance, termes conseillés mindless task of completing surveys. Companies want to realize consumers better, and one way they do that is by paying survey-takers. Most surveys pay between $0. 50 in addition to $1. 25, and many of them take less than 5 minutes to accomplish. You can read our full Survey Junkie review for more info. Questionnaire Junkie adds new surveys every day, which means you can make income faster than you think. If you’re really into surveys, make sure you check out our list of recommended paid survey sites. 2 . not Deliver with Postmates

Postmates’ slogan is simple: “Anything, whenever, anywhere. We get it. ” As a delivery driver meant for Postmates, you’ll get paid to deliver things like groceries, take out, and also alcohol (which is a genius business idea, by the way). There are no fees or time commitments, so you have got complete freedom over when you want to work. You’ll take home fully of what you earn every time you complete a delivery, and you will be able to see an exact breakdown of how your commissions usually are calculated. 3. Get $5 from Swagbucks

Swagbucks can be another great survey site to make money fast. It’s just like Survey Junkie, but there are also a few other ways you can earn money as being a member (including a $5 bonus just for signing up). Other ways you can earn with Swagbucks outside of surveys: Cash back plan for internet shopping (includes $5 bonus). Get paid for browsing the web (includes $5 bonus)

Watching videos (includes $5 bonus)

4. Get a Free $300 Bonus as a Fresh Lyft Driver

If you’ve got some free time plus don’t live in the middle of nowhere, becoming a Lyft driver can be quite a very lucrative side hustle that allows you Earn Money Online 2019 quickly. And right now, they’ve got a promotion going on where any fresh driver will instantly get a $300 bonus after completing their particular 100th ride. If you start now and hustle hard on the particular weekends, you can probably unlock that bonus within a weeks of driving (and that’s in addition to your normal earnings). 5. Download the Nielsen App (and Collect $50)

Have you heard of Nielsen, the company that tracks TV scores? Turns out they collect data on a lot more than just TV SET. One area they’re really into is internet usage analysis. What does that mean for you? It means Nielsen will pay you fifty dollars a year to keep their app on your favorite internet exploring device. The app itself collects statistics on your net usage anonymously, so you never have to worry about any data getting linked to you. And the best part is, the app consumes barely any space and doesn’t slow down your telephone or tablet at all! 6. Link a Card for you to DOSH and Get a Free $5 Instantly

The DOSH a cash return app has been creating a ton of buzz on social media marketing lately, and for good reason: they are offering free money to draw new users. Here’s how it works: Download the software package and connect your credit and debit cards (they make use of bank-level encryption technology to keep your info safe) Accumulate cashback Deposit your cash back into your bank account Perks of DOSH: Just about all rewards are pure cash. You get $5 when you url your first card, and an additional $10 for each friend anyone refer to the app. Get a few family and friends to sign up as well as the money adds up quick! (Note: The $10 referral added bonus varies. Sometimes it’s only $5, but we’ve noticed it as high as $15 per referral).

7. Make Rewards Easily with the Drop App

Drop is a free of charge app that rewards you for your everyday spending. Just how it works is simple. Once you download the app and create a merchant account, you’ll need to link a debit or credit card to start out earning. Whenever you shop with one of Drop’s hundreds of lover brands, you’ll earn points. In addition to the points you make for shopping, you can earn more rewards for completing straightforward tasks. Every friend you refer is worth 1, 000 points. You can also earn additional points for integrating additional apps or completing a Linked or Mobile offer you. Every 1, 000 points is worth $1. Once you have earned 5, 000 points, you can redeem them with regard to gift cards to your favorite places such as Amazon, Starbucks, Concentrate on, and more. For more details on how to earn with Drop, have a look at our complete Drop App review. 8. Let Reduce Lower Your Bills

I recently stumbled on the Trim app and i also have to say, this one is a game changer. It’s a very simple app that acts as your own personal financial manager. Once you web page link your bank to the app, Trim analyzes your wasting, finds subscriptions you need to cancel, negotiates your Comcast costs, finds you better car insurance, and more. And of course, the app will be free! My bet is that it will only take a few days regarding Trim to put an extra $100 in your pocket. So easy! 9. Get a Free $5 to Invest from Acorns

five money signup bonusAcorns is a simple investing app that helps you increase your savings by putting your money into investments designed to develop value over time. If you are new to investing and want to get your foot wet, this is a great app to start with. Acorns works by “rounding up” the spare change from your everyday purchases and investment the difference in the stock market. For example , if you buy a coffee intended for $3. 64, Acorns will move 36 cents as part of your investment account (so you spend $4 total). Over time, these kinds of small contributions can add up. Acorns is now offering some sort of $5 signup bonus for new accounts opened. After completing your own personal account registration, Acorns will deposit a free $5 into the account to help you get started. Read our full review here. 10. Cryptocurrency – At Your Own Risk!

Surely you have read all the mania surrounding Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. If you are looking to have in on the action, you can do it with the Coinbase request. If you sign up through this link and invest $22.99, Coinbase will deposit $10 into your account — immediately 10% return! Warning: Trading cryptocurrencies is very risky, and you ought to never invest more than you can afford to lose. That being said, you possibly can make a lot of money fast if you buy low and sell high. 11. Locate Unclaimed Money

Unclaimed. org is an awesome site to get finding money that’s due to you that you may have forgotten concerning. Examples: A utility deposit on an account you had forever before, money left in a bank account you had as a kid, or even a check from a former employer.

12. Go walking Dogs in Your Neighborhood

Rover is a dog walking and even pet sitting website that is always looking for qualified doggy walkers in cities all over the United States. So when you in order to pup on a walk, you can also take a second (or third) dog with you and get paid to walk. 30-minute taking walks fall in the $10-30 range. With a neighborhood route, that will add up quickly! You’re just a short application away from starting. 13. Drive with Uber and/or Lyft

This is a excellent use of your time if you are trying to make some extra cash in a saturday and sunday. By driving with Uber, you have the flexibility to drive if you want, which means you can make money fast, and it’s in your schedule. Pretty slick! 14. Get Paid to Let People Borrow Your Car

If you do not have time to drive with Uber or Lyft, you can continue to make money with your car with Getaround. In fact , some people are converting this side gig into $1, 000s of cash per year in extra income. As a car owner, you can make $5+ on a daily basis just by letting someone else borrow your car. Getaround offers $1 million primary insurance coverage, so you don’t have to worry about possible injuries. Signing up for Getaround is pretty straightforward. Name your car, set the and pickup location, and add a description. When someone would like to rent your car, they can do so straight from the app. An individual don’t have to worry about meeting up to exchange keys or managing the logistics. Just work, sleep, and live your life although your car earns money for you. Learn how you can potentially constitute to $1, 000 per month (or more) with Getaround. Car owners get paid on the 15th for the prior month’s earnings. Register here to get started. 15. Share Your Home by having an Airbnb Guest

Make the most of your spare space by position it for short term rentals with Airbnb. If you know the way to be an Airbnb host that wows their friends, you have an amazing opportunity to make money fast. By creating a amazing experience for your guests, you’re setting yourself up for fantastic reviews and lots of repeat guests. Check out our complete guidebook on getting started as an Airbnb host. 16. Deliver Foods with Uber Eats

Tons of folks nowadays have started out delivering food with Uber Eats because it’s is actually a flexible, easy way to earn money on your own schedule. You can supply day or night, for however long you’d just like. You just sign onto the app, and you can start obtaining delivery requests in your area. 17. Make $100 Fast using Listverse

Do you love to write? Listverse, a popular site offering tons of list articles, will pay you $100 to write a new “listicle” of your own. You don’t need to be an expert—you simply need to have English equal to that of a native speaker, a feeling of humor, and a love for things unusual or exciting. 18. Be a Personal Grocery Shopper with Instacart

Seen of Instacart? It’s a grocery delivery service for people who rarely want to bother with the hassle of going to the store. What does which means that for you? An opportunity to make extra money! It works in a similar way to Best Eats, in that whenever you need to make money, you simply sign to the app and mark yourself as available for shopping. As a possible Instacart personal grocery shopper, you will actually be doing the trips to market yourself (so don’t crush anyone’s avocados! ). Your current compensation depends on several factors, like the average size of your personal orders and average number of miles driven per vacation. You can also get tips in addition to the pay that will come directly from Instacart (most people report an average earnings level of $15 per hour). 5 Ways to Passively Earn passive income

Once you get a bit of cash on hand, let it grow itself with these ways to passively earn additional income. 19. Wide open a High-Yield Savings Account

CIT Bank is making significant waves in the banking world with their savings account. Seriously, it may be off-the-charts good: 20. Peer to Peer Lending

Have you heard regarding peer-to-peer lending? It’s a financial system that matches borrower having investors that are willing to fund their loans. As an buyer, essentially YOU are acting as the bank, which is pretty cool. Using a service like Lending Club is a great way to behave as a lender and earn interest on your money. Making Money with Lending Club: Open an account and exchange as little as a $0. 01 minimum initial deposit. Quickly build a portfolio by investing in a range of Loans in augmentations as little as $25 Receive monthly payments of principal and curiosity as borrowers repay their loans Reinvest payments or perhaps withdraw If you’re still unsure about how it works, or you need to learn a little more, check out this short, 2-minute video shot simply by Lending Club. It does a great job of explaining peer to see lending. 21. Invest in Real Estate (Starting with as Little as $500)

If you’ve ever wanted to try real estate investing but don’t would like to deal with all the stress of being a landlord, you might want to take into account investing with Fundrise. Fundrise is a new platform lets you invest directly in a real estate portfolio that a team of execs identifies, acquires, and manages on your behalf. With a starting purchase as small as $500, you get exposure to dozens of solid, value-producing property. 22. Start a Blog

I’m a huge fan of blog because I love writing and connecting with people all over the world. To offer you an idea of what is possible with blogging, DollarSprout. com is part of a group of blogs that routinely brings in above $100, 000 a month in revenue. While it takes time to create your blog up to that income level, you can get the initial create done in under 30 minutes (no experience needed). 23. Acquire Dividend Paying Stocks

It’s been said that the average uniform has seven streams of income. Dividend stocks are generally one of them. What are dividend stocks? They are just like regular stock shares of stock, but with one exception: For every share of your dividend stock that you own, you are paid a small portion of the company’s earnings. Basically, you get paid just for owning the inventory! If you are looking to get started with dividend investing, check out Ally Spend (which is included on our list of best investment apps). 6th Creative Ways to Make Money Fast

If you’ve made it this specific far, I know you’re committed! Here are a few more ideas how make money fast. 24. Collect $1 coming from Vindale Research

Vindale Research asks for information about you in order to match you with fitting surveys. At up to 50 bucks a pop for some surveys, and a free $1 simply for signing up, it pays to check in daily to see which ones can be obtained to you. Cashouts are through PayPal. 25. Collect $12 from Ebates

Ebates is another cash back app, similar to DOSH, and right now they are offering a $10 signup extra. There’s no rule saying you can’t have multiple cash rebates apps, so why not sign up for a couple just so you get the additional bonuses? Once you get your bonuses, then just use whichever practical application gets you the best deal on your upcoming purchases. Easiest capital ever! 26. Tell 3 Friends About Ibotta and create $100

The cash back industry is ruthlessly competitive, isnt it!? All of these apps want new users, which means you can easily load up on welcome bonuses. The Ibotta app is a opportunity to get a bonus: they are giving people $10 whenever they sign up. Unlike the other apps mentioned in this article, Ibotta focuses primarily on getting you cash back at grocery stores. Bonus: Refer several users and they’ll credit you with $100. 00. After that, get $10 for every person you refer. 27. Help to make Extra Money as a Freelance Writer

Not quite ready to start your own personal blog, but still like the idea of getting paid to write? You might like to consider trying your hand at freelance writing. Many blog writers and website owners are willing to shell out some serious cash pertaining to high quality writers. In fact , Holly Johnson from ClubThrifty. com makes over $200, 000 per year from freelance perform! And she has a course that teaches others how to the actual same. 28. Get Paid as a Freelance Proofreader

If creating isn’t your thing, do what Caitlin Pyle did: Inside 2014, Caitlin made over $43, 000 by functioning as a freelance proofreader working only part time. After the woman had a ton of success doing that, she decided this girl wanted to teach others how to do the same, so your woman started up Proofread Anywhere. Sign up for one of her free training courses to learn more about how to make money fast from home as a proofreader. three or more Ways Make More Money at Your Job No guide on how to generate profits fast would be complete without mentioning the fastest option of just about all: getting more money from your employer! 29. Get a Promotion

Should you be willing to go above and beyond and prove your value to your employer, you can move up the corporate ladder. Check out this article from The Equilibrium on how to get promoted at work.

30. Get a Pay Boost

Getting a raise is harder than getting a promotion. Think it over from your boss’s perspective, would you rather a) pay more revenue for the same service, or b) pay more money for additional obligations. Regardless, sometimes a raise is in order, especially if you been employed by for several years without one.

31. Work Overtime

It’s certainly not glamorous. But at a lot of jobs, the opportunity is there to help rack up some overtime hours. Earning More Money Means Possessing More Freedom No matter what your circumstances may be right now, remember a very important factor: earning more money means having more freedom in your life. Flexibility to eat what you want to eat, live where you want to live, vacation where you want them vacation, and more. Making extra money starts with a simple selection: Do you want to have more freedom in your life? If the answer is of course, it’s time to go for it. You may have to try more than one money-making thought before you find one that sticks, but I promise you actually, once your income starts to rise, you will gain control of your wellbeing and find even more opportunity than you could ever imagine!

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dnpgays · 8 years ago

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Heartbeat

Authors Note: This was my gcses, just with other names hehe. Therefore not all of this will sound completely like Dan and Phil. The task was basically to write about adventure. I got a 6 (which is like an A) yay

Summary: Inspired by last minute trips. Dan and Phil throw a dart at a map and travel where it lands. It’s up to you if you think it’s platonic or not ;)

Words: 2618

Dan entered his apartment after a long day at his job at the local music shop. His colleague, Sophie, had decided to go and get sick and called in last minute, which lead to Dan having to cover her shift. It had happened a lot lately and he was pretty sure she had something against him. The extra shift was the reason why he didn’t come home before 17:25. He walked into the living room to find his flatmate on the couch watching a weird game show on the TV.

“How was your day at work?” His flatmate named Phil questioned. Dan just groaned in response before lying sheepishly down with his head on Phil’s lap. Phil chuckled and tried to push him away without any luck. There was loud cheering on the TV as one of the contestants had just won.

“My head hurts” Dan complained. Phil took the hint and turned off the obnoxious game show. Silence filled the room and all they could hear was the London traffic from outside. A serine could be heard from the distance alongside with a man shouting something at honking.

“Oli, what are you doing this weekend?” Phil asked after a couple moments. Dan thought about it. He didn’t really have any plans in mind except spending all day playing the new video game he’d just bought. He was curious as to what Phil had in mind because you never really know with that guy.

“Playing the legend of Zelda, but nothing else. How come?” Dan asked him. He looked up at his ebony-haired best friend. Phil had blue eyes that could also look green and yellow depending on the lighting. He also had sharp cheekbones and a bright smile. Phil was very nice and good at making Dan feel better about himself and situations. They had met on the internet a couple years back and after a countless amount off video calls they’d decided to meet up.

“I have an idea” Phil he said with a smirk. Dan rolled his eyes with a sigh. Last time he’d heard that sentence from his friend, they’d almost got arrested. Even though Dan was 25 and Phil was 27, Dan sometimes wondered if he was 10 years old. His need for adventure all the time was insane. If he said no Phil would make him feel mad about not living life to the fullest and stuff. Dan looked up at him expectantly.

“What if we throw a dart at a map of England, and then we’ll take a road trip to where the dart landed on” Phil explained excitingly. Dan looked up at him with wide eyes and his mouth open. It was a creative idea, he had to admit, but what if they ended up in some sketchy area or in the middle of nowhere? Phil pouted and gave him pleading eyes just like a puppy would do.

He went over the pro’s and con’s in his head. It was a very risky decision, but at the same time they would probably end up somewhere they would never go to otherwise. Plus he was beginning to get tired of the loud and stressful London. When their friends from smaller places came over they told them that they loved that there were so many people, but in the long run it got a little bit too much.

“You’re crazy you know that?” Dan said more as a question than a statement really. Phil giggled and nodded. Their playful banter was a huge part of their friendship and they always teased each other for everything. Especially Dan since he was the most sarcastic person in the universe.

“Is that a yes or a no?” The blue-eyed man asked, ignoring his flatmate’s comment. Dan contemplated it a little more, but figured that he had to take more risks and not overthinking everything like he always did. It wasn’t like they lacked money either. In addition to their jobs Dan liked to make short-films which he earned some money on. The videos were usually very artistic and poetic. He would definitely document this trip.

“It’s a yes” Dan answered finally. Phil beamed and threw his hands up in the air in joy. Dan mumbled something about Phil being an idiot and a dork. He sat up in the sofa which liberated Phil. He immediately hurried out to his bedroom and shouted for Dan to join him. Dan chucked and decided that his friend was in fact a child.

When Dan entered the room, Phil was already taping a map to his white wall. On his blue bed sheets were a dart. He’d already gotten the things they needed because he knew he would get Dan to say yes, that bastard. His green blinds made the room have a green tint. Nothing was color coordinated at all and on the floor there were a couple socks and a t-shirt.

“You’ll get to throw the dart” Phil told him like he was the best friend in the world for allowing him to do that. Not that he wasn’t the best friend in the world, but it wasn’t for that reason at least. Once the map was up Phil walked over to his bed and picked up the dart before handing it to his friend.

Dan inhaled deeply as he got ready to throw the sharp object that decided where they’d go. He closed his eyes and threw it. Phil squealed as he speed-walked to the map. He looked at the map for a moment and turned to look at his friend.

“Right outside of Manchester” He smiled. Dan walked over to take a look and sure enough. The dart had landed in what looked like the middle of nowhere. He was actually starting to feel very excited about the trip. Suddenly he remembered something.

“We don’t have a car” He reminded. Phil smiled slyly. He was starting to feel quite anxious about the whole thing and his rational part of his mind was screaming at him to not do it. He knew that if he just told Phil that he really didn’t want to, he would respect that. There was a reason why Dan had stayed friends with him for so long. He trusted Phil with this, even though he probably shouldn’t.

“That’s where you’re wrong. I borrowed a van” Phil said clearly feeling like a genius. Dan face palmed, but laughed. Of course he had. They agreed on going after work the next day and disappeared into their own rooms.

The next day Dan woke up to his alarm clock. He contemplated snoozing it, but he knew that he would just end up snoozing it again and again until he was too late. He had troubles sleeping the night before, because he was so nervous about the whole road-trip.

He got up and put on some clothes. A black sweater with a logo from his favorite Netflix show on it and some black skinny jeans. He then proceeded to go to the bathroom. He looked himself in the mirror. His brown bloodshot eyes stared right back at him. He cringed at his curly mess of a hair and got up the straightener. He’s never really liked his natural hair and always straightened it.

Phil always left an hour earlier than him to his work at the pet store. When they’d first met Phil was working at a grocery store that he hated, but one lucky day when he was passing the pet store he saw a sign that said they were hiring. They couldn’t find a more perfect guy for the job, and Phil was very happy with his job now.

Dan brushed his teeth and washed his face before hurrying out the door, late as usual. He’d decided that it was better to just take a cab than the subway, totally not because he couldn’t find his oyster card. The white cab was luckily standing ready outside once he got out of their apartment and ran down the two sets of stairs.

He arrived at the store just 4 minutes late and got nothing worse than a glare from his manager. They weren’t very busy that day which was good, because Dan was exhausted. He sorted some CD’s and made sure that the prices were correct. He hated when costumers got angry because it said that it was cheaper than it actually was.

A bald guy with a beard entered the shop and after a lot of looking around he came back with two old vinyl’s. One Nirvana and the other one rolling stones. Ah so he was that kind of guy Dan thought before he scanned the objects. The man paid and Dan made sure to tell him to have a good weekend.

An hour before Dan’s actual shift was over his manager came up to him. He told him that he could take an hour off because he’d covered for other workers so much. More like one worker Dan wanted to say, but he didn’t. He just thanked his manager and packed his stuff.

When he was home he was not surprised to find a grey van outside their apartment. When he looked inside the window he could see two bags. He instantly recognized one as his own. Phil came out of the building just then. “Did you pack my stuff?” Dan exclaimed. Phil just shrugged and nodded.

“Now get in the car” He demanded. Dan gaped, but didn’t object. At that point he just didn’t care anymore. He noticed that the car was hot and smelled like old when he got in the passenger seat so he rolled down the window. Phil struggled to get it to start, but eventually they heard the motor starting.

“Let’s go then” Dan sighed. Phil did exactly that and started driving the van. Dan was pretty sure that they could’ve afforded a better car, but he didn’t comment on it. He just looked out the window on all the people and buildings. He saw a couple lost tourists and a man running in a dress with a business bag.

Phil plugged in his phone and turned on some music. The sound of Ed Sheeran filled the almost empty car as they drove away from their hometown. Dan dug out him Iphone from his back-pocket and took a couple pictures out the window. Unfortunately the glass was pretty dirty.

As much as Dan didn’t want to he could feel sleep creeping up on him, something Phil noticed. “You can take a nap you know” He assured him and Dan did so. He let his eyes fall shut and rested his head on the window. The soft sound of guitar sent him to a deep sleep.

He was waked up to a car that was standing still and an impatient Phil shaking him. Dan looked around out the window and saw that they were standing on a parking lot with a big mountain in front of them. He groaned and stretched his back before yawning. “What do you want?” He asked sassily.

“We’re going to climb that mountain” Phil decided. Dan’s eyes widened in horror, before he shook his head vigorously. He was not climbing up a mountain just after he woke up. “Oh come on it isn’t even a big mountain” Phil said. It didn’t matter if the mountain was the smallest hill; he refused to go up there. A hill was actually a better way to describe it.

“Not happening” Dan made clear. Phil smiled slyly and disappeared. Content with himself for getting his friend to leave him alone Dan shut his eyes again and rested his head on his hand. Well, that’s what he thought. Suddenly a cold liquid was being spilled all over him. His eyes shot open and he saw his friend giggling with an empty cup in his hand.

Luckily it didn’t take long for him to notice that it was just water, but it was still icing cold. Dan yelled some curse words before getting up ready to kill his friend. Phil backed up and held his hands out in horror. He was still laughing though. Dan stared to chase him as he ran up the hill in front of them.

Dan, being more fit than his flatmate, grabbed Phil’s arm not long after. He angrily threw Phil down of a patch of grass where he was sure that he wouldn’t get hurt. They both started laughing loudly.

“I got you up here” Phil said once they had both cached their breaths. Dan face palmed once he realized that it was what Phil had intended to happen. He wasn’t that mad though. Perhaps this trip wouldn’t be that bad, he thought and pulled up his phone to take some pictures.

He breathed in the cool air and took in the beautiful view. Then he looked down at his laughing best friend. No, this trip would definitely not be that bad.

#phanfic #phan fiction #phan fic #phan #fanfic #shitty fic #meh #idek

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newstfionline · 8 years ago

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How Online Shopping Makes Suckers of Us All

By Jerry Useem, The Atlantic, April 18, 2017

As Christmas approached in 2015, the price of pumpkin-pie spice went wild.

It didn’t soar, as an economics textbook might suggest. Nor did it crash. It just started vibrating between two quantum states. Amazon’s price for a one-ounce jar was either $4.49 or $8.99, depending on when you looked. Nearly a year later, as Thanksgiving 2016 approached, the price again began whipsawing between two different points, this time $3.36 and $4.69.

We live in the age of the variable airfare, the surge-priced ride, the pay-what-you-want Radiohead album, and other novel price developments. But what was this? Some weird computer glitch? More like a deliberate glitch, it seems. “It’s most likely a strategy to get more data and test the right price,” Guru Hariharan explained, after I had sketched the pattern on a whiteboard.

The right price--the one that will extract the most profit from consumers’ wallets--has become the fixation of a large and growing number of quantitative types, many of them economists who have left academia for Silicon Valley. It’s also the preoccupation of Boomerang Commerce, a five-year-old start-up founded by Hariharan, an Amazon alum. He says these sorts of price experiments have become a routine part of finding that right price--and refinding it, because the right price can change by the day or even by the hour. (Amazon says its price changes are not attempts to gather data on customers’ spending habits, but rather to give shoppers the lowest price out there.)

It may come as a surprise that, in buying a seasonal pie ingredient, you might be participating in a carefully designed social-science experiment. But this is what online comparison shopping hath wrought. Simply put: Our ability to know the price of anything, anytime, anywhere, has given us, the consumers, so much power that retailers--in a desperate effort to regain the upper hand, or at least avoid extinction--are now staring back through the screen. They are comparison shopping us.

They have ample means to do so: the immense data trail you leave behind whenever you place something in your online shopping cart or swipe your rewards card at a store register, top economists and data scientists capable of turning this information into useful price strategies, and what one tech economist calls “the ability to experiment on a scale that’s unparalleled in the history of economics.” In mid-March, Amazon alone had 59 listings for economists on its job site, and a website dedicated to recruiting them.

Not coincidentally, quaint pricing practices--an advertised discount off the “list price,” two for the price of one, or simply “everyday low prices”--are yielding to far more exotic strategies.

“I don’t think anyone could have predicted how sophisticated these algorithms have become,” says Robert Dolan, a marketing professor at Harvard. “I certainly didn’t.” The price of a can of soda in a vending machine can now vary with the temperature outside. The price of the headphones Google recommends may depend on how budget-conscious your web history shows you to be, one study found. For shoppers, that means price--not the one offered to you right now, but the one offered to you 20 minutes from now, or the one offered to me, or to your neighbor--may become an increasingly unknowable thing. “Many moons ago, there used to be one price for something,” Dolan notes. Now the simplest of questions--what’s the true price of pumpkin-pie spice?--is subject to a Heisenberg level of uncertainty.

Which raises a bigger question: Could the internet, whose transparency was supposed to empower consumers, be doing the opposite?

If the marketplace was a war between buyers and sellers, the 19th-century French sociologist Gabriel Tarde wrote, then price was a truce. And the practice of setting a fixed price for a good or a service--which took hold in the 1860s--meant, in effect, a cessation of the perpetual state of hostility known as haggling.

As in any truce, each party surrendered something in this bargain. Buyers were forced to accept, or not accept, the one price imposed by the price tag (an invention credited to the retail pioneer John Wanamaker). What retailers ceded--the ability to exploit customers’ varying willingness to pay--was arguably greater, as the extra money some people would have paid could no longer be captured as profit. But they made the bargain anyway, for a combination of moral and practical reasons.

The Quakers--including a New York merchant named Rowland H. Macy--had never believed in setting different prices for different people. Wanamaker, a Presbyterian operating in Quaker Philadelphia, opened his Grand Depot under the principle of “One price to all; no favoritism.” Other merchants saw the practical benefits of Macy’s and Wanamaker’s prix fixe policies. As they staffed up their new department stores, it was expensive to train hundreds of clerks in the art of haggling. Fixed prices offered a measure of predictability to bookkeeping, sped up the sales process, and made possible the proliferation of printed retail ads highlighting a given price for a given good.

Companies like General Motors found an up-front way of recovering some of the lost profit. In the 1920s, GM aligned its various car brands into a finely graduated price hierarchy: “Chevrolet for the hoi polloi,” Fortune magazine put it, “Pontiac … for the poor but proud, Oldsmobile for the comfortable but discreet, Buick for the striving, Cadillac for the rich.” The policy--”a car for every purse and purpose,” GM called it--was a means of customer sorting, but the customers did the sorting themselves. It kept the truce.

Customers, meanwhile, could recover some of their lost agency by clipping coupons--their chance to get a deal denied to casual shoppers. The new supermarket chains of the 1940s made coupons a staple of American life. What the big grocers knew--and what behavioral economists would later prove in detail--is that while consumers liked the assurance the truce afforded (that they would not be fleeced), they also retained the instinct to best their neighbors. They loved deals so much that, to make sense of their behavior, economists were forced to distinguish between two types of value: acquisition value (the perceived worth of a new car to the buyer) and transaction value (the feeling that one lost or won the negotiation at the dealership).

The idea that there was a legitimate “list price,” and that consumers would occasionally be offered a discount on this price--these were the terms of the truce. And the truce remained largely intact up to the turn of the present century. The reigning retail superpower, Walmart, enforced “everyday low prices” that did not shift around.

But in the 1990s, the internet began to erode the terms of the long peace. Savvy consumers could visit a Best Buy to eyeball merchandise they intended to buy elsewhere for a cheaper price, an exercise that became known as “showrooming.” In 1999, a Seattle-based digital bookseller called Amazon.com started expanding into a Grand Depot of its own.

The era of internet retailing had arrived, and with it, the resumption of hostilities.

In retrospect, retailers were slow to mobilize. Even as other corporate functions--logistics, sales-force management--were being given the “moneyball” treatment in the early 2000s with powerful predictive software (and even as airlines had fully weaponized airfares), retail pricing remained more art than science. In part, this was a function of internal company hierarchy. Prices were traditionally the purview of the second-most-powerful figure in a retail organization: the head merchant, whose intuitive knack for knowing what to sell, and for how much, was the source of a deep-seated mythos that she was not keen to dispel.

Two developments, though, loosened the head merchant’s hold.

The first was the arrival of data. Thomas Nagle was teaching economics at the University of Chicago in the early 1980s when, he recalls, the university acquired the data from the grocery chain Jewel’s newly installed checkout scanners. “Everyone was thrilled,” says Nagle, now a senior adviser specializing in pricing at Deloitte. “We’d been relying on all these contrived surveys: ‘Given these options at these prices, what would you do?’ But the real world is not a controlled experiment.”

The Jewel data overturned a lot of what he’d been teaching. For instance, he’d professed that ending prices with .99 or .98, instead of just rounding up to the next dollar, did not boost sales. The practice was merely an artifact, the existing literature said, of an age when owners wanted to force cashiers to open the register to make change, in order to prevent them from pocketing the money from a sale. “It turned out,” Nagle recollects, “that ending prices in .99 wasn’t big for cars and other big-ticket items where you pay a lot of attention. But in the grocery store, the effect was huge!”

The effect, now known as “left-digit bias,” had not shown up in lab experiments, because participants, presented with a limited number of decisions, were able to approach every hypothetical purchase like a math problem. But of course in real life, Nagle admits, “if you did that, it would take you all day to go to the grocery store.” Disregarding the digits to the right side of the decimal point lets you get home and make dinner.

By the early 2000s, the amount of data collected on retailers’ internet servers had become so massive that it started exerting a gravitational pull. That’s what triggered the second development: the arrival, en masse, of the practitioners of the dismal science.

This was, in some ways, a curious stampede. For decades, academic economists had generally been as indifferent to corporations as corporations were to them. (Indeed, most of their models barely acknowledged the existence of corporations at all.)

But that began to change in 2001, when the Berkeley economist Hal Varian--highly regarded for the 1999 book Information Rules--ran into Eric Schmidt. Varian knew him but, he says, was unaware that Schmidt had become the CEO of a little company called Google. Varian agreed to spend a sabbatical year at Google, figuring he’d write a book about the start-up experience.

At the time, the few serious economists who worked in industry focused on macroeconomic issues like, say, how demand for consumer durables might change in the next year. Varian, however, was immediately invited to look at a Google project that (he recalls Schmidt telling him) “might make us a little money”: the auction system that became Google AdWords. Varian never left.

Others followed. “eBay was Disneyland,” says Steve Tadelis, a Berkeley economist who went to work there for a time in 2011 and is currently on leave at Amazon. “You know, pricing, people, behavior, reputation”--the things that have always set economists aglow--plus the chance “to experiment at a scale that’s unparalleled.”

At first, the newcomers were mostly mining existing data for insights. At eBay, for instance, Tadelis used a log of buyer clicks to estimate how much money one hour of bargain-hunting saved shoppers. (Roughly $15 was the answer.)

Then economists realized that they could go a step further and design experiments that produced data. Carefully controlled experiments not only attempted to divine the shape of a demand curve--which shows just how much of a product people will buy as you keep raising the price, allowing retailers to find the optimal, profit-maximizing figure. They tried to map how the curve changed hour to hour. (Online purchases peak during weekday office hours, so retailers are commonly advised to raise prices in the morning and lower them in the early evening.)

By the mid-2000s, some economists began wondering whether Big Data could discern every individual’s own personal demand curve--thereby turning the classroom hypothetical of “perfect price discrimination” (a price that’s calibrated precisely to the maximum that you will pay) into an actual possibility.

As this new world began to take shape, the initial consumer experience of online shopping--so simple! and such deals!--was losing some of its sheen.

It’s not that consumers hadn’t benefited from the lower prices available online. They had. But some of the deals weren’t nearly as good as they seemed to be. And for some people, glee began to give way to a vague suspicion that maybe they were getting ripped off. In 2007, a California man named Marc Ecenbarger thought he had scored when he found a patio set--list price $999--selling on Overstock.com for $449.99. He bought two, unpacked them, then discovered--courtesy of a price tag left on the packaging--that Walmart’s normal price for the set was $247. His fury was profound. He complained to Overstock, which offered to refund him the cost of the furniture.

But his experience was later used as evidence in a case brought by consumer-protection attorneys against Overstock for false advertising, along with internal emails in which an Overstock employee claimed it was commonly known that list prices were “egregiously overstated.”

In 2014, a California judge ordered Overstock to pay $6.8 million in civil penalties. (Overstock has appealed the decision.) The past year has seen a wave of similar lawsuits over phony list prices, reports Bonnie Patten, the executive director of TruthinAdvertising.org. In 2016, Amazon began to drop most mentions of “list price,” and in some cases added a new reference point: its own past price.

This could be seen as the final stage of decay of the old one-price system. What’s replacing it is something that most closely resembles high-frequency trading on Wall Street. Prices are never “set” to begin with in this new world. They can fluctuate hour to hour and even minute to minute--a phenomenon familiar to anyone who has put something in his Amazon cart and been alerted to price changes while it sat there. A website called camelcamelcamel.com even tracks Amazon prices for specific products and alerts consumers when a price drops below a preset threshold. The price history for any given item--Classic Twister, for example--looks almost exactly like a stock chart. And as with financial markets, flash glitches happen. In 2011, Peter A. Lawrence’s The Making of a Fly (paperback edition) was briefly available on Amazon for $23,698,655.93, thanks to an algorithmic price war between two third-party sellers that had run amok.

#online shopping #online retail #online pricing #variable pricing #list price #cost of pumpkin pie spice

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charllieeldridge · 5 years ago

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Cost Of Travel in Cuba: A Full Budget Breakdown

When preparing and planning for a trip to Cuba, it’s important to think about your budget, the prices in Cuba and how you’re going to pay for things while travelling around this incredible island nation.

With the internet and wi-fi being scarce and a hassle to connect to (although, it is getting better), you must have your finances and your budget sorted out beforehand.

It’s not as easy to check your bank balance online, or acquire Cuban money as it is in other countries.

We travelled independently around Cuba for almost a month and I’m here to give you a full breakdown of what the best currency to bring to Cuba is, how much money to bring, how to get Cuban money, and how much you can expect to spend while visiting Cuba.

What is The Cuban Currency?

Before even figuring out how much cash you’ll need to bring to Cuba, it’s important to understand the Cuban money (there are two currencies) and the rates.

The National Peso (CUP)

This currency is what most of the local people are paid their salary in.

Using the National Peso, you can purchase smaller items and the “basics” that one needs. It’s important to realize that this isn’t the “Cuban people’s currency”, foreigners can use this money as well.

Here’s what you can buy with CUP:

Rides in the local inter-city buses (which are jam-packed full, no room to breathe)

Fruit and vegetables from the markets and side-of-the-road stands

Street snacks such as popcorn and fried plantains

Rides in a collectivo (shared) taxi

“Peso” food such as pizza, ice cream, sandwiches, rice & bean meals, and other smaller meals (pork & rice, spaghetti)

Fresh fruit juice

Basic groceries and produce

The Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC)

This currency is used for “luxury” items and is the Cuban money you’ll mostly find yourself spending during your travels here.

Locals who earn this currency rather than the National Peso are typically those in tourism (casa owners, tour guides, taxi drivers, hotel staff, etc.)

Being a Cuban and earning CUC is ideal.

With just 1 CUC (after exchanging it into National Pesos), they can buy 25 rides on a bus, 25 fresh cups of juice, or some rice and beans. This is the currency everyone wants.

Keep this in mind when musicians or dancers ask you for a tip — your 1 CUC goes a long way in Cuba.

Here’s what you can buy with CUC:

Meals at a sit-down restaurant

Cocktails and beer

Bottled water

Tourist bus (Viazul) tickets

Internet

Hotels and casa particulares

Scuba Diving, horseback riding, and other excursions

Car and scooter rentals

Anything you want to buy, you can with this currency

How to Tell The Difference Between CUC and CUP

The two currencies actually look quite similar so when you first arrive, familiarize yourself with them to avoid being ripped off.

The main difference is that CUC does not have any faces on the note. It also says “pesos convertibles” in the center of the bill. Like this:

This is what CUC (convertible pesos) look like

CUP has faces of famous Cuban people and says “pesos” in the center of the bill. Like this:

CUP has a large face of someone famous on the bill

Always check your change to make sure that if you paid for something in CUC, you receive CUC back, (sometimes people will try to scam new travellers by giving them change in CUP, which is worth significantly less).

You can buy things that are normally charged in CUP with CUC and vice versa.

What is the Exchange Rate?

25 National Pesos (CUP) = 1 Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC)

1 Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) = 1 US Dollar

Can I Use My Debit or Credit Card in Cuba?

If you have a debit or credit card issued by an American bank (ie: CitiBank), then it will NOT work in Cuba’s ATM machines.

If you have a bank card from any other nation, it should work at the ATMs, but a 3-12% fee will be charged with each transaction.

Even if you opened your account in your home country (ie: Canada), but the bank is affiliated or run by a US company (ie: CitiBank), your card will not work in Cuba.

Expect to spend cash when you’re in Cuba, rather than swiping your card.

Note: Make sure to inform your bank of your Cuba travel plans. If your account gets frozen while you’re abroad due to “suspicious activity”, it’ll be a hassle trying to connect with your bank back home to lift the hold on the account.

What Currency Should I Bring to Cuba?

Many people have asked us “How much cash should I bring to Cuba?” and “What currencies are accepted in Cuba?”

Well, if you’re not an American citizen and you don’t have a bank that’s affiliated with the USA, I would suggest having only a couple of hundred Canadian Dollars, Euros or Pounds on you as back-up funds.

Otherwise, you can use your debit and credit card at the machines in Cuba to withdrawal local currency (however, you will be charged 3% at the ATM, so it’s up to you as to whether or not you want to bring your full budget in cash and exchange it in-country).

Do NOT bring US Dollars to Cuba, as you will be charged a 10% conversion fee when you try to exchange into Cuban money.

Also, note that Australian dollars are NOT accepted. The best currencies to bring into Cuba to convert into Cuban money (CUC) are Canadian Dollars, Euros, Pounds and Mexican Pesos.

How To Exchange Money in Cuba

If you’ve travelled to Cuba with one of the accepted currencies (Canadian Dollars, Euros, Pounds, etc.), then you will need to exchange this currency into Cuban money — CUC.

So, where do you exchange your money?

Look for a CADECA, which are the money changers that are found in the cities. Line-ups can be long at these money changers, but it usually moves pretty quickly.

Make sure to bring your passport when exchanging money at a CADECA.

You’ll find a CADECA at the airport in Havana, or click here to find one in Havana on Google Maps.

The upside to withdrawing money from an ATM is that you won’t need to travel to Cuba with a bunch of cash on you, and then have a bunch of CUC once you exchange it at the CADECA.

The downside is that you’ll be charged between 3-12% by the ATM (we were charged 3% by the machine using Canadian bank cards).

How Much Money Should I Bring to Cuba?

If you’re American, and you’re wondering how much spending money you’ll need in Cuba, this will depend entirely on your travel style.

Your personal travel budget for Cuba might differ from ours, so check out the prices in Cuba for various activities (information below), and figure out how much you think you’ll need — it’s always better to err on the side of caution and have too much money, than not enough.

Our daily average in Cuba was $100/day for two people.

Remember, you’ll want to bring cash in the form of Pounds, Euros or Canadian Dollars, which you can get beforehand at your local bank at home.

Read on to see how much we spent, and what everything costs in the country.

How Much Does Cuba Cost?

People often ask us “Is Cuba expensive?” Cuba is very strange in that (depending on how you choose to travel) it can be one of the cheapest travel destinations in the world or one of the most expensive.

For the sake of simplicity, prices in this article are in CUC / USD (they’re equal), unless otherwise stated.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the prices in Cuba.

Cost of Accommodation in Cuba

$20 – $30 / night for a double room in a casa particular. Solo travellers can get a discount.

$25 – $180 + / night for a hotel room.

For authentic Cuba travel, Casa Particulares are the way to go!

If you’re wondering where to stay in Cuba for cheap, this is it. Casas are affordable, comfortable and you will enjoy a more local stay while in the country.

This is the best way to get to know the locals — feel free to chat with them about their life in Cuba, and practice your Spanish!

The food served by the casa owners is also very good. I highly recommend eating at least a meal or two at your casa particular.

Read more: What is a Casa Particular? All You Need to Know, with Video

Check out this video where we give you a tour of a casa so you can see what it’s like.

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I recommend booking your casas ahead of time because once you’re in Cuba, finding internet (or at least, a solid connection) can be a hassle and it’s expensive.

It’s best to have your accommodation sorted out ahead of time unless you’re prepared to wait in queue for internet.

These days, you can book casas on Airbnb. Click here for a list of the top casas, guesthouses, villas, apartments and more in Cuba. Or, if you’d rather book hotel stays in Cuba, click here for a list of the best on Booking.com.

Another option is to just show up at each city and look around without booking ahead. Many casa owners will greet you at the bus station and offer you a room. But still, it’s best to book ahead so you can read reviews and have it all sorted out beforehand.

Cost of Food & Drink in Cuba

The prices in Cuba for a meal out varies greatly. Some cities are cheaper than others, such as Camaguey, while some are much more expensive. The cost of alcohol varies as well depending on where you choose to drink.

Cocktails at your casa are often cheaper than at a bar. Expect to spend $2 for cocktails and $1 for a beer.

At a nicer restaurant or bar, cocktails and beer are often similar in pricing, $2 – $3 each. Go for a mojito, trust me, you’ll love it!

Bottled water is what you need to watch out for. It’s hot in Cuba and you’ll want to make sure you stay hydrated. The cost of a 1.5L bottle should be $0.70, however, most shops charge tourists $1.50.

Shop around until you find the real price, or better yet, just hand them $0.70 and act like you know what it should cost. Also, some casas have potable water and juice for free. Just ask.

Better yet, bring a reusable water bottle and a SteriPen so you can purify the tap water and won’t have to use so much plastic during your travels to Cuba.

Here’s a chart showing some of the prices in Cuba for food — notice how cheap it can be!

RESTAURANTS

Pizza: $2.50

Tapas: $1.50 – $3.00 each

Beef stew with rice and salad: $8

Spaghetti: $5.50

Fish in sauce with rice and salad: $9

Lobster/fish with sides at a restaurant: $8-$10

Fish, pork or chicken meal at casa (too much food to finish): $7 – $10

PESO FOOD

Egg sandwich w/cheese: 9p ($0.36)

Cheese pizza: 6p – 30p ($0.24-$1.20)

Fresh fruit juice: 1 – 2p ($0.04 – $0.08)

Ice cream cone: 1p ($0.04)

Grilled pork & rice: 35p ($1.50)

Check out our video where we sample peso food around Cuba!

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Contrary to belief, the food in Cuba is pretty good! Don’t believe us? Check out our article about Cuban cuisine.

Cost of Attractions and Activities in Cuba

All of the museums, sites, and activities that you’ll want to partake in will be paid for in CUC.

For tours, I recommend booking them online beforehand so you don’t need to deal with the wifi in Cuba.

In Havana:

Museo de la Revolucion (Museum of the Revolution): $8 entrance fee

2. Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabana (Fort of Saint Charles): $8 entrance fee

3. Museo de Bellas Artes: $8 entrance fee

4. Ride in a Classic Car down the Malecon: $25 for 30 minutes depending on your bargaining skills. A better idea is to book your Classic Car ride here, and enjoy 2 hours of cruising around Havana, with a cocktail — plus, you won’t have to deal with tourist pricing problems. Check out the 2 Hour Classic Car Tour here:

5. Walking Tour: $40/person. On this walking tour, you’ll discover the UNESCO listed Old Havana with a knowledgeable guide. At the end, you’ll enjoy an authentic local lunch. Click here for details, or check out the walking tour here:

For some really unique and eye-opening tours in Havana, check out this list of Airbnb Experiences with locals.

Costs in Other Cities

If you’re going to pay for some tours in-country, here’s what you can expect to pay.

Viñales: Horseback riding tour – $25 for a 4-hour trip

Viñales: Santo Tomas Cave – $10 entrance fee (with guide)

Trinidad: Horseback riding tour – $15 for a 3-hour trip

Cayo Jutias: One tank scuba dive, including equipment – $40

Geared up to go caving outside of Viñales

Cubans can enter museums and other attractions using the National Peso. For example: If it’s 5 CUC for foreigners to get in, it’s 5 CUP for locals ($5 vs $0.20).

This is one situation where it feels like there is a currency for foreigners and a separate currency for Cubans.

Although it truly is tourist pricing in this case, we do believe that if it weren’t this way, then many of the local people wouldn’t be able to visit the historic sites of their country.

Tourist pricing is a hot topic, something we’ve covered in length before, but we won’t get into that here.

Cuba Transportation Costs

Transportation in Cuba is comfortable and reliable, and the options are plentiful. The cost of transport varies with each city, and with all of the transport options I list below, make sure the price is per vehicle, not per person.

Here’s a rundown on the types of transport, and their costs:

Private Taxis: $2.50 – $7 for a journey within a city.

From the airport in Havana to Central Havana, the cost is $25 for a taxi.

An intercity, 60 minute private taxi costs around $30. Cuba taxi prices are quite high compared to other modes of transportation and although taxis have meters in them, they won’t be turned on. Arrange a price before you get in.

Shared Taxis (Collectivos): $0.50 / ride in the city (paid with 10 CUP. Don’t pay with CUC)

In Havana, very old classic cars run up and down various streets, on a set route. They will pull over and pick up people who are going in their direction, but you must flag them down. If you don’t know the route, this can be confusing.

You can also take shared taxis in between cities for (often) the same cost as the bus. From Trinidad to Havana, the cost is $25 / person. Ask at the Infotur offices for more details, or at your accommodation.

A collectivo taxi in Havana

City Bus: $0.04 (yes, 4 cents!)

This transportation is very cheap, but the buses are packed to the brim with people. If you know the route and where you want to go, this is a good option.

Astro Bus: (generally around 1/2 the price of a Viazul bus)

This is the regular choice for intercity buses in Cuba. The prices of the Astro are cheaper than the Viazul below, however, there are only a few seats reserved for foreigners, the buses aren’t as new, and they aren’t as reliable.

Note: locals pay in CUP, while tourists pay in CUC.

Viazul Bus: $4 – $5 / hour

This is the tourist bus, which has air conditioning and runs on a reliable schedule. Some sample costs:

Havana to Viñales: $12

Havana to Varadero: $10

Havana to Trinidad: $24

Viñales to Cienfuegos: $35

Viñales to Trinidad: $37

Cienfuegos to Trinidad: $6

Trinidad to Camaguey: $15

The comfortable Viazul tourist bus

Cycle Taxi: $1 – $3 (depending on your bargaining abilities)

This is one mode of transportation where we always felt bad for the poor guy who had to cycle our big butts around in 35-degree heat! Bargain with the cycle drivers, but remember that this is a very hard job.

Scooter: $25 / day ($20 if you rent for 3 days)

This is the best way to get around in our opinion…especially in Viñales!

Check out our video of us scootering around Viñales!

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Total Daily Cuba Budget

After spending 25 days in Cuba, we spent $2,500, including accommodation, tours, food, in-country transport…everything.

That’s $100 / day for two people.

However, I have to say that we lived pretty well while we were in Cuba as it was our vacation from blogging and being online. It would be possible to travel here for less if you ate more peso food, and took the local transportation, rather than Viazul buses.

We did stay in casa particulares, we often ate peso food, we limited the number of entrance fees we paid, and we took many cycle taxis.

However, we did drink mojitos and beers on the regular, ate good food and did a few activities (scuba diving, horseback riding, and caving). We also rented a motorbike in Viñales.

I think that $100 / day for two people to travel around an incredible Caribbean island is worth every penny! But, as I said before, your travel budget will differ from ours.

I recommend booking your tours and accommodation ahead of time before arriving in Cuba, and then use the cash for food, booze, entrance tickets, bus tickets, tips, souvenirs, etc.

Now You Know The Prices in Cuba

There you have it. When it comes to travelling Cuba, even though it’s not as straight forward as other countries, it’s worth every minute of extra travel planning time!

I hope this article helped you plan your Cuba budget and that I was able to shed some light on the (confusing) Cuban currency as well. Happy travels!

Note: Some of the images in this post are courtesy of Shutterstock. Check them out for royalty-free photos and videos, here.

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easyfoodnetwork · 5 years ago

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How apps like OpenTable, Tock, and Resy are pivoting to keep themselves — and restaurants — afloat in a world without bookings Gregory and Daisy Ryan opened Bell’s, a 35-seat French bistro in Los Alamos, California, in 2018. The pair had worked in restaurants in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin before returning to Daisy’s hometown. The couple had several choices when it came to online reservation booking platforms and ultimately went with Tock, a system that they say worked so well, the restaurant didn’t even need a phone. “I didn’t want to have people sitting at the bar and listen to me explain something that someone can find on the internet,” says Gregory Ryan. “I didn’t want that to ruin someone’s experience.” During a typical dinner service pre-COVID-19, about 80 percent of guests had reservations. Because of its location, in a small town near California’s central coast wine country, Bell’s wasn’t beholden to the early occupancy reduction mandates, and later closures, that happened so quickly in major cities like New York and San Francisco in response to the spread of COVID-19. “It wasn’t until the second week of March that we knew something was on its way — but we didn’t know what it looked like yet,” Gregory Ryan says. He tried to figure out a way to use Tock to accommodate takeout instead of reservations and events in an effort to stay open. Plus, the restaurant didn’t ever offer takeout before. “Not because we think we’re too good for it, or anything,” he says. “Because we only have two [chefs] on the line.” But before he could figure out a technical solution on his own, he says, Tock contacted him offering a new online ordering system he could implement quickly. When he first considered takeout, Gregory Ryan says, “I was like, ‘Oh, shit, am I going to have to get a phone?’ My staff was like, ‘No, absolutely not.’” Today, Bell’s remains phone-free. “We opened a restaurant for certain reasons,” he says. He didn’t ever expect takeout to be his business’s lifeline. Since the spread of COVID-19 began forcing restaurants across the country to cease dining room operations, there’s been much talk about its effect on both individual restaurants and the industry as a whole. But what about the industries that support it? Reservation services like Tock, OpenTable, Yelp, and Resy are big business, and make their money by charging restaurants to use the software. Diners use them to book available tables, and restaurants also use them to manage their dining rooms’ floor plan and record notes about customers. It’s how the host knows where to seat you when you show up for your 8 p.m. booking. Plans vary, but a restaurant can expect to pay at least several hundred dollars per month for a basic plan that includes both reservations and table management. Prices go up from there depending on additional features like custom messaging, ticketed events, or, in OpenTable’s case, the number of people it brings in the door. OpenTable collects a per-diner commission fee on each reservation it facilitates, and busy restaurants can expect a monthly bill that easily stretches into thousands of dollars. Of all the brands, OpenTable is the largest reservations service in the U.S. In mid-March, as the national rollout of dining restrictions was just beginning, the company released year-over-year data that showed a 45 percent diner reduction in Seattle, 40 percent in San Francisco, 30 percent in New York, and 25 percent in London, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Ten days later, on March 23, every market listed on OpenTable’s COVID-19-inspired state of the industry dashboard showed a 95 to 100 percent reduction in bookings. That is: There were essentially zero reservations booked at the nearly 60,000 restaurants the company supports worldwide. In response to the slowdown, OpenTable and its competitors have been forced to pivot as quickly as the restaurants they serve. All fairly quickly suspended most fees they charge restaurants to use their software. They’ve also proactively begun making changes to their apps and website to reflect the realities of the restaurant business today, offering both temporary and permanent solutions for restaurants that saw their operations upended overnight. OpenTable added a grocery feature, allowing shoppers to reserve a shopping time slot at a store the same way they’d book a seating time at a restaurant. According to Andrea Johnston, OpenTable’s chief operating officer, the idea came from an OpenTable advisory board member — a restaurateur himself — who noticed that many restaurants were operating as small grocers to stay open. So far, in OpenTable’s hometown of San Francisco, just a handful of businesses offer the service, but Johnston says the company is actively onboarding several large regional grocery chains, with more to come. She confirmed that the service is free for all grocery stores and restaurants-turned-grocers, whether or not they’ve worked with OpenTable in the past. “I hope that the world won’t continue to need a product that supports grocery store reservations.” Johnston says she’s also encouraging partner restaurants to update their profiles to reflect current operations, including delivery, takeout, gift cards, and fundraisers, which are then displayed in the OpenTable app. The company is waiving gift card fees through June; previously, restaurants paid $25 per month to sell gift cards through the OpenTable system. And at this point more than 1,500 restaurants have added their fundraising efforts to their listings, Johnston says. OpenTable had already added a delivery category to its app in 2019. Listings are in partnership with companies like Uber Eats and Caviar, which each charge their own fees on top of the booking service. In the last month or so, clicks on delivery options within the app have grown 172 percent. A reservations app probably isn’t the first stop for a diner looking to support local restaurants right now, and in response, these companies have had to modify their marketing strategies. To diners, OpenTable, Tock, and Resy have all begun sending emails with lists of partner restaurants open for delivery or takeout. To restaurants, they’re sending a steady stream of news, ideas, and tactical information to survive. OpenTable has launched a dedicated restaurant resource center to share news and product information related to the coronavirus pandemic, and hosts a weekly webinar series for restaurants. Resy, too, just announced a new industry-focused podcast in partnership with the Welcome Conference. “It has been nice to see that for the most part they’ve been doing what they can to support us — obviously knowing that supporting us supports them in the long run,” says Gina Buck, general manager of Concord Hill, a small Brooklyn restaurant that uses OpenTable. The restaurant remains open for takeout, serving food and cocktails seven days per week from noon until 10 p.m. Speaking from the middle of her new busy workday fielding, packaging, and distributing to-go orders, Buck says she isn’t sure what more reservations services could offer to help. “I think the normal before this has completely died and will never exist again,” she says. “We’re able to stay open. We’re doing okay. It’s just two of us — we can’t afford to bring anyone else in at the moment, but we are getting through this.” OpenTable competitor Resy has also shifted its strategy to support eating at home. Instead of reservations, diners can order takeout food directly through its app and website. They select a meal option, choose a pickup time, and pay, all through the Resy platform. Greg Lutes is chef-owner of 3rd Cousin, one of the handful of restaurants in San Francisco that’s currently offering takeout via Resy. “It’s useful, but there’s not much volume in it,” he says, noting that they’ve sold “a few meals” through the platform. He also signed up with Uber Eats and DoorDash for the first time, but says most customers just call orders in to the restaurant directly. When a customer books a pickup on Resy, it’s communicated to the restaurant the same way a reservation would be: in an app that’s meant for a front-of-house staffer to manage. Lutes was recently surprised by a customer who showed up at the restaurant to pick up a family meal he had only just ordered. Even so, he plans to continue offering takeout through Resy, and isn’t worried about accepting orders from multiple sources. “We need all the revenue we can get,” he says. Resy has also modified the format of the restaurant pages on its website to allow operators to link to outside initiatives, like fundraisers. “It’s so that customers can see all of the preferred ways that their favorite restaurants are asking for support,” says Resy co-founder and CEO Ben Leventhal. Tock went a step further, building out an entirely new product — in a week. While all the big booking services have adjusted their functionality to meet the moment, reservations and event ticketing service Tock, used by more than 3,000 restaurants worldwide, went a step further, building out an entirely new product — in a week. Tock To Go launched March 16 for existing and new Tock customers. It allows customers to reserve and purchase restaurant meals for pickup or delivery and charges the restaurant a fee of 3 percent per order. (Tock has waived its regular monthly fees.) “We cannot operate without doing that,” says Nick Kokonas, Tock’s co-founder and CEO, who’s also the co-owner of Chicago’s Alinea Group restaurants. Tock’s To Go system has allowed restaurants to sell completely new, exclusive-to-takeout offerings, something that’s proven useful for the kind of fine dining and higher-end establishments that Tock has become known for. In New York, Dan Barber’s Blue Hill restaurants are offering takeaway boxes of various goods at both the Manhattan and Tarrytown locations. Customers can select from a variety of options, including stews and purees, garden vegetables, grass-fed beef, dry-aged pheasant, bread, and even a sommelier-selected bottle of wine to accompany a diner’s selections. In San Francisco, Tosca Cafe recently reopened under new ownership in the midst of the pandemic by selling family-style dinners — shrimp alfredo, spaghetti alla Norma — to go on Tock, and in LA, sister restaurants Bestia and Bavel are both offering weekly changing menus that have sold out within days of being listed on Tock. Proceeds go to maintain employee health care, and chef-owner Ori Menashe says if demand remains high, he may even be able to re-hire some staff to keep up. Kokonas says that Tock currently supports close to 400 restaurants offering takeout across the U.S., Europe, and Australia, with another 650 in some stage of onboarding. One month in, the company already processes nearly $1 million in to-go sales per day. On one weekday earlier this month, restaurants on the platform sold 11,700 orders for nearly 40,000 meals. “Tock is not just a booking system,” says Kokonas, “it’s a sales engine ... and it links and leverages, meaningfully and transparently, to the largest networks — search and social media.” At Bell’s, Gregory Ryan uses social channels to promote the restaurant’s current offerings on Tock To Go, including kits for making the restaurant’s popular egg salad sandwich at home, and other a la carte offerings, like CSA-style produce boxes. Ryan likes that Tock’s system of pre-ordering gives restaurant staff some idea of what to expect each day. It also helps him know how much of which ingredients and supplies to purchase. “That’s why takeout is always tough, because you’re never really sure when something’s going to come,” he says. “But if you’re able to wake up in the morning and know, ‘We have seven takeout orders, six chicken dinners tonight, and an egg salad,’ you’re at least working toward something. As those continue to populate [throughout the day] you’re a little bit better able to handle the information.” He’s also happy that it’s allowed him to continue to keep 11 of his employees on payroll, though he says everyone has taken “a little bit of a haircut” on their paychecks. (Ryan and his wife stopped paying themselves completely.) Still, even with new measures in place, not all booking platforms are pivoting as gracefully. So far, Yelp is the only major reservations provider to announce a reduction in staff, laying off or furloughing 2,100 of its approximately 6,000 employees. OpenTable’s Johnston says for them, anything related to a layoff would be “an absolute last resort.” At Tock, Kokonas says he will be hiring soon. “We never really stopped,” he says. “The only tricky part to bringing on new employees is training... We will figure that out.” As they work to support restaurants, executives at reservations companies are asking the same questions as chefs and restaurateurs: How long will this last? Will anyone even want to come and sit down for a meal in a few weeks? “Restaurants are going to reopen at some point with occupancy restrictions, extra and important safety measures, and lower demand,” says Kokonas. “Yet — and this is very important — the fixed costs of rent and utilities remain the same, and the business model was built with high demand in mind.” Leventhal indicates that Resy would likely continue to support its expanded initiatives in the future, but stops short of confirming any product changes. “This is without a doubt a reset moment for the industry,” he says. “Evolution, innovation, and creativity are going to be crucial for restaurants, and the tech platforms that support them, to survive in a post-COVID world.” Tock To Go is now a permanent part of Tock’s functionality moving forward, built directly into the product’s dashboard. It’s an acknowledgement that the industry isn’t going to go back to “normal” anytime soon, and much about the future of the industry is unknown. “Will there be a market for $35 takeout meals in 2022? Who knows?” says Kokonas. For OpenTable, Johnston says the company will continue to offer new options as long as restaurants need them. “I hope that the world won’t continue to need a product that supports grocery store reservations,” she says, “but we will keep it free and available as long as necessary.” Disclosure: Resy’s Ben Leventhal was one of the co-founders of Eater, but is no longer involved in its operations. Kristen Hawley writes about restaurant operations, technology, and the future of the business from San Francisco. She’s the founder of Expedite, a restaurant technology newsletter that’s existed, in some form, for the last seven years. from Eater - All https://ift.tt/2VrjjGv

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shirlleycoyle · 5 years ago

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There Are Two Types of People Now: Online Shoppers and the People Who Serve Them

There Are Two Types of People Now: Online Shoppers and the People Who Serve Them syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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jobsearchtips02 · 5 years ago

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What You Want To Know About Making Cash On-line

There are lots of people on the market who need to make some cash by working on-line. Tons of alternatives exist, however many require cost in an effort to study extra. Use these tricks to increase affords and keep away from scams.

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Flipping Area Names

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from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/what-you-want-to-know-about-making-cash-on-line/

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