Walmart Prices vs. Living Wages

In the series “The Secret Life of a Food Stamp,” Marketplace reporter Krissy Clark traces how big-box stores make billions from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, aka food stamps. What’s more, the wages of many workers at these stores are so low that the workers themselves qualify for food stamps—which the employees then often spend at those big-box stores.

This video crunches the numbers on how much Walmart, the single biggest beneficiary of the food stamp economy, might have to raise prices across the board to help a typical worker earn a living wage.

Starbucks WiFi Ending?

It has been only just over a year since Starbucks announced that all stores would have free WiFi, and now it seems they are regretting the decision. In a true American fashion of getting something for nothing, there have been droves of people who come into the stores and soak up the free WiFi without spending any or much money. Rather than treat the company as a business, people have been using the stores as their own personal offices or living rooms.

So now Starbucks faces the dilemma of how to reduce the amount of time people are sitting and not buying, weighing options from limiting the time to a few hours to putting covers over the electrical outlets to limit the use to only as long as your battery lasts.

Personally, I am very curious how this will work out. I know when I was a barista, it was frustrating to have someone sit there all day and conduct their business from the seating area. Even though they were in a public place, often the people camped out would try to take over the entire seating area for their own, meeting clients and expecting the other patrons to be quiet and respect their needs only. While I can fully understand the need for some people to use public WiFi due to pricing or availability at home, that does not mean Starbucks or any company there should be expected to accept people who sit for half the day in their stores without the patrons paying back into their profits.

Waste of Money

Dear Great Clips,
Today is not a good day to have a plane flying around with a banner advertising $6.99 haircuts. It is grey, cloudy and overcast, and visibility is only 8 miles. In the future, before you waste your money to try to convince me that I really should invest in a cheap haircut through such innovative marketing forms, please take into consideration that ruining my vision trying to read your banner is not the best enticement. In the future, please spend 30 seconds looking outside or at the weather channel to determine when I will be the most easily swayed to have you ruin my hair.

Thanks, Nicole

Disturbing Burger King Ads

"It seems that the Onion depicted in this image isn’t a quality ingredient. Yikes.
The Onion is standing in the middle of the airport with his pants around his ankles while an angry, brawny “pickle” slips on a examination glove in preparation for a body cavity search.
I’ve got so many questions.
In addition to Botox and anti-aging cream (to make itself look fresher than it actually is and try to sneak into Burger King’s ingredients)… Look at the collection of articles airport Pickle security has dumped out of the Onion’s bags… (i.e. Burger King has allowed the artist to depict in the cartoon artwork). "

..Really, read the whole article. This doesn't make much sense as to why this ad is on a tray at a restaurant. But, maybe this will win enough ridicule to make it even more famous.

Why Didn't I Think of This?

Reserve a Spot in Heaven

There's a few of you that might want to give them your money. 100% guaranteed or your money back!

My brain holds all the wrong things

Secret Menu Items

Starbucks will make you absolutely anything you want no matter how insane it is, according to our tipster.

"Baristas might try and tell their customers that no, we can't do that with the blenders. This is a lie. Starbucks corporate policy is that the customer is ALWAYS right (even when the request is stupid). If you really insist that you want your iced soy latte blended, the baristas HAVE to do it. If they continue to refuse, ask to speak to a manager and either they'll realize they're about to get in trouble and will fill your request, or the manager will come out and politely tell the barista to make the customer happy.

Absolutely any concoction that you can think of (involving any type of milk, syrup, coffee, etc.) will be made for you. The limits to Starbucks "secret menu" are merely the limits of your imagination. You can even bring supplements from home and ask the barista to please include that in your drink."

Well, damn.

This is all too true. All you need is a base and then add from there. All about the customization. When I request an iced tall vanilla breve less-ice chai, all I want is a chai, add vanilla, add a little more breve than normal. On ice. Not so hard. That iced soy latte blended from above? Better request that correctly b/c blended also means half non-fat, half whole milk. Figure that out with the soy. The actual drink? Asked for daily by a wonderful little woman. Customization is also the way to pay much less for the same thing. Want an iced quad venti latte? Ask for a quad espresso over ice in a venti cup and then walk over to the condiment bar and pour in as muct milk as you wish. This pisses off the baristas but saves you 3 bucks or more. Tip well to make it up.

When I worked there I came up with all sorts of combinations of flavor since I didn't really like coffee. Want a chocolate chip cookie dough-like ice cream shake? Combine UBB (Universal Base Beverage: the white stuff for the cream Frappuccinos) up to a centimeter of the lower line on the cup, add Frappuccino Light Mix to the line (to try to compensate for the cal/fat content of the UBB), add one scoop brownie chips, 2 scoops Vanilla Bean powder, one pump mocha and 2 vanilla syrup. Add ice and blend. Sounds complicated but takes 30 seconds. Yummy.

We used to have people buy espesso fudge brownies and ask they be put in the blender with the Frappuccino. Or others would mix every syrup available with every milk and drink it daily.

Yes, all customization is possible. It does not, however, makes you less a dumbass.

Link/Quote via The Consumerist

How to both love and hate Whole Foods

Damn damn damn. This explains the setup. Welcome to new future Hot Account at work we're going to get screwed with.