I’m a Facebook user and enjoy its services, but I wasn’t crazy about beacon. I’m happy that they changed the program into an opt-in. It seemed invasive to have this as an opt-out. Frankly I felt the program went against the spirit of Facebook, which was about choice of privacy.
Read the rest.
I’m graduating in 3 weeks and it’s great to see light at the end of the tunnel. Overall, I enjoyed college, but I’m just tired of being a full time student. Now I’m focusing on my career ahead. If I stay with my current job after graduation and work full time, my gross monthly income would be $2,424.80.
I’m writing my goals for 2008. Thanks to Patrick for his contest that gave me a little extra boost to write these goals quicker. J Plus, I would really, really like an IPod. Not only would I put music on it, but I’d like to put some language podcasts on there (Italian and Spanish).
If I had to pick a goal that I’m really focused on accomplishing it would be paying off my car loan. I had gotten it with a 13.75% interest rate and I really want this off my back. I have students loans due in June and it would be great to deal with my students loans as my only debt.
I will aggressive pay $700/month towards my car loan bill and pay it off by July 31, 2008.
Mrs Micah and Gather Little by Little also have their goals up. I wish them the best, both for the contest and the goals.
Photo Credit: Paul Worthington
How much is the merchandise at Disney World marked up? I did an informal comparison while on vacation. Outside Disney World there’s a Walmart that sells some Disney souvenirs. Donald Duck is my favorite Disney character of all time, so I wanted to get a doll for myself.
I bought a Small Donald Duck doll for $5 plus tax(6%). The next day we went back to Disney World and I kept an eye out for a comparable doll. I didn’t have to find a comparable doll. I found the exact same doll, for $13 after taxes. (Disney seems to have a standardized price on dolls based on size.)I don’t know the wholesale price of that doll, but I’ll use Wal-Mart’s price since they claim to have the lowest price. Let;s see how much Disney would make off of the Donald Duck doll.
Last year Disney saw approximately over 16 million people in the Magic Kingdom Park (this is just one of the 4 main parks). If they each got a doll, then they would make $208 million. After taking out $80 million for costs, they get $128 million before taxes. That’s how Disney World makes its money. The ticket prices which seem high go back into the park. Disney World spends $100 million on renovations every year.
So is Disney World a rip off for souvenirs? Not really. I think that you should shop outside Disney world to confirm that you’re getting something exclusive from the park. Don’t spend money on what you can get at Wal-Mart. If you don’t, then you can lose some money.
After waiting for our turn to present our case, we were called up. The judge ruled in our favor. The defendant has 10 days to either appeal or pay. After the case was finished the owner of the shop said he’s just rather pay.
I hope his insurance company agrees and we can put that money into the bank. I’m grateful for the ruling. If there was anything I learned that I could pass on it would be :
I’m grateful for the verdict, not just for the money, but it felt good for someone to stand up on our behalf. Thanks for everyone’s support. If our experiences can anyone, then I’m happy.
I just hope you’d never be in that situation. It’s not over yet. We still have to see if they will pay or change their minds and fight this. I have some peace of mind, so I’m ok. I hope everyone has a great day.
Photo Credit: dbking
This morning we’re going to court to try and resolve the car situation. It started as a clutch replacement and became a $1000 repair nightmare. The main issue is bailment. The car was moved off their property without our knowledge and it received water damage to the car computer.
I’ll update you later today on how it went. I’m pessimistic (hate getting hopes up) and my husband has no idea.
I’m working on a paper for my business ethics class and the topic is regarding advertisements and their influence. The main focus is the average American consumer. I have some articles assigned to read and comment on, but I thought the topic is relevant to this blog. The bad news is that the assignment won’t let me include any outside sources, good new is that this blog doesn’t have that constraint. If you have any thoughts on the matter, please share.
John Kenneth Gallbraith, an economist, had a quote in his article The Dependence Effect:
“A man who is hungry need never be told of his need for food.”
The thought behind it was that advertisments for actual needs aren’t as cost effective because the consumer already wants it. They’ll find the closest and cheapest food that they can.
Here’s a cheesy example:
You put a billboard ad for some great sandwich place. It looks great, wonderful font, clear directions to the place. If the very hungry (completely famished) person happened to be right by a (comparable quality) hotdog stand looking at this delicious and wonderful ad. He has money to pay for the product and he can walk to the sandwich place.
There’s huge chance he’ll take the hot dog stand as a choice rather than listen to your ad and walk 5 blocks down to your cafe. His immediate need has to be satisfied.
Many people that I know have their basic needs filled. They have a roof over their heads, food in their belly to keep them alive, and clothes on their backs. The have some discretionary income left over after taking care of their needs.
With wants or ‘extended’ needs, advertisers have more leverage. Now the trick is to get the consumer to believe that this product is necessary. It’s a mixture of psychology and marketing to get an ad to be successful. I’m thinking of the bottle water industry and luxury apparel as examples. People spend huge amounts of money on products that aren’t necessarily needs.
With the current economic situation where foreclosures and huge debts on credit cards, who is to blame?
I think that consumers are ultimately responsible, but it would be foolish to say that advertising has no effect. After all, Google makes over 90% of its money from advertising and companies spend billions of dollars of their money for marketing and ads. I refuse to believe that they are tossing this at mere chance.
What do you think? Next post will be how this relates to our Disney World vacation.
I’m behind by two days. Sorry, but I’m having such a good time. Thursday night we went sightseeing with some friends who are locals. I had an awesome time, since we went to this scenic park with hardly any tourists. A real treat with musical water fountain performance. It’s a lot of fun and it was nice to relax.
After the park we decided to get lost in he crowd and go down to Downtown Disney.Parking is free and there are so many shops,restaurants clubs, and crafts down there. We were window shopping and still had a great time. One favorite of mine was the Lego Store. It had a huge robot made of Lego bricks and major cities from a round the world.
The wood carvers ad the leather tanners were amazing to watch and I have a new respect for the amount of talent and work that is involved.
Our friends’ treated us to Mojitos at Bongo’s and so we didn’t spend anything except the gas to get there. (Don’t worry Friday we spent money for souvenirs for out family and dear friends, we’re not cheapos) It’s a beautiful city and there are a lot of things to do here.
I hope you enjoy our pictures. I got to work on organizing this photos better. If anyone has advice, please email me.
Well, the good news is we’re here in Orlando, Florida. It jut took longer than we liked to get here. Tuesday night we picked up the rental. I took care of a last minute errand with the car (mistake) and on my way home it got a flat. Good thing was I was across the street from our place, so my husband came out to help.
I called the rental car company to see how we could get this fixed so we could still leave on time (4am was our goal). It was a $50-70 charge to get someone to put a spare on and then we either had to pay out of pocket and get a shop to fix it or turn in the car and the rental company would charge us the fee. Considering that they charged $6.99/gallon for gas, we decided to find a shop ourselves in the morning. It would be at least a four hour delay, but the cost would be too much.
Photo Credit: JeffWilcox
We called my insurance company to see if they could help, but 24hour road side assistence is not in our policy.
Lesson: Check your insurance policy before renting a vehicle.
Morning came and we went to two shops 8am and both of them didn’t carry the specific tire size. We left a message with the company and we were told the manager was out for the moment and would callus back for a quote on the amount. We saw another tire place and decided to give it a try. They had it and the car was fixed in under 10 minutes. We hopped on th road, a mere 5 hours later than planned.
We got here at around 9:45pm and then we had to find our hotel. I like the room, it has a mini kitchen and space. After settlingin for a few minutes we went to the local Wal-mart and got some food to stock up on. We want to have a good time with dinners, shows, parks, etc, so we decided to save on our breakfasts.
Right now here’s how we’re doing with our vacation:
We’re finishing up on breakfast and we’re going to do some sight seeing. Have fun!
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