For quite some time now, I have been a deal hunter. I’m cheap. I love deals. And thus, Aldi, a value oriented grocery store, has become a staple in my life. Aldi’s strategy is quite simple; offer a low variate of store brand products at a small no frills store.
If you want a cart, you have to deposit a quarter to borrow it (you get the quarter back when you return the cart). Want a bag? It will cost you $0.15.
With all this attention to cost cutting, you would think they would also skimp on customer service. That is not case. I recently communicated with Aldi about a change in their Bran Flakes recipe, and I have been amazed at the level of service I have received.
The Bran Flakes I used to buy from Aldi were outstanding. And at $1.59 a box, you couldn’t find a better deal, even if your life depended on it. However, the manufacturer of the cereal recently changed the recipe they use to produce the product, and I was not impressed with the change. I still eat the Bran Flakes, but I don’t enjoy them as much as I used to.
I thought I would express my dissatisfaction with the recipe change to Aldi via their website.
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After visiting the Signature Lounge, part of the Signature Room, located in Chicago’s John Hancock building, I felt compelled to write this letter. Both the service and product were poor and left my friends and I greatly underwhelmed.
To Whom It May Concern,
A little over a month ago on May 22nd, my best friend and I were entertaining two friends from out of town. None of use had ever been to the signature lounge so we thought we could give it a try and see what all they hype was about.
Our first impressions while waiting in line were good; there were many staff members to direct customers through the lines and bring them upstairs, and they were all well dressed.
It wasn’t too long after we were seated that our server, Adri P., took our drink order. Even though the wait wasn’t too terribly long, it was still much longer than one would expect given the expectations a $15 drink would bring. Waiting for our drinks to arrive gave us the same feeling.
We were very underwhelmed when our drinks finally came. If you were unaware, the cocktails served at the Signature Lounge are quite low in alcohol content. The presentation was decent, but that doesn’t make up for the fact we received what many would consider $15 virgin drinks.
Last Saturday I was trying to print a simple postage label for a package I wanted to ship. All I wanted was a shipping label. I thought it would take me five minutes at USPS.com, but it turns out a pot-roast cooks in less time that it takes to print a shipping label! After using their sites, I have come to the conclusion that the United States Postal Service (USPS) and United Parcel Service (UPS) go through very little, if any, user acceptance testing. FedEx isn’t much better; I did get a label in 10 minutes, but their rates are significantly higher than I was willing to pay. Here are the pains I felt while navigating though the websites of the three major United States shippers.
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Problem
I recently rearranged furniture in my condo. Doing so required me to use the wireless 802.11 G network on my iMac. I was not too thrilled with the solution; media transfers to my Tivo were extremely slow, and the connection was not as reliable as the hardwired one I had become accustomed to.
I remembered that my condo had many phone jacks throughout, so I thought I would research how my builder wired my unit, and maybe change the phone jacks to Ethernet jacks. Worse case scenario, I could at least get one 100 Mb connection from my iMac on one wall, to my Tivo under the TV on the other wall.
Solution
Turns out, the builder did a remarkably robust job with the wiring! He used Cat5 cabling and all connections went to the closet! What a blessing!
I replaced all the wall plates with new versions and terminate the cat5 cables with Ethernet keystones. I then created a small little networking area in my laundry closet. Luckily, the builder also wired the cable lines to the same location he put the phone wiring. I was able to tap into the cable line right where I terminated the Ethernet in the closet.
After some cable crimping and wall mounting I was set! My cable modem and router were hidden in my laundry closet, with hard wired Gigabit capable Ethernet jacks throughout my condo. Pretty slick! And all under $15.
Next Step: Gigabit 802.11 N router!
I had a problem with my Samsung LN-S4095DX cutting off the edges of the image and was able to fix it with a firmware update.
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Over the past few weeks I have been developing a business plan for a business I would like to open in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago Illinois. It has been quite the learning experience, but I have a lot more to do before it is completed. As it stands, I have a rough business plan generated and a preliminary cash flow statement.
To develop the cash flow statement, I used my extraordinary Excel skills and created a tool that is quite robust. The tool has a multitude of settings including options for new or used equipment, leases, energy, Point-of-sale system, labor, and raw materials, among others. All which can be edited on a granular level, down to the cost of each raw material. Utilizing a bill-of-material, expected sales quantity, and retail price for each item, a revenue stream and cost-of-goods-sold is created to develop a net margin. Along side fixed costs, initial equity infusion, and loan payments, the tool can generate the first eight quarters of cash flow. It is quite the tool if you ask me!
Hopefully in the future I will post the plan here to get some feedback. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day!
