Oct
29
Everyone enjoys sharing their “favorite” Comcast moments, though some people do a better job documenting those moments than the rest of us. Our local paper reported a story last week about a 75 year old lady named Mona who now has a tale of her own to tell.
After a week of runarounds from phone and cable provider Comcast–apparently installers failed to show up when scheduled, came two days later but didn’t finish the job and then cut off all service shortly after that–the normally mild-mannered Mona marched into the company’s Manassas office and clobbered a phone, keyboard and monitor with a hammer, all the while shouting, “Now do I have your attention?”
Simply Comcastic.
Nov
19
the coffee business
Filed under business, coffee at 3:15 pm | Leave a Comment
Not wanting you to look down on Starbucks for their support of a premature Christmas, I thought I’d mention them in a more positive light today. I read an interesting article a couple weeks ago about how Starbucks is literally flooding certain areas with multiple stores … without the existing stores losing business. At first glance that seems to defy logic, but their explanations are pretty straightforward. They are simply trying to remove barriers for their customers, whether that be the convenience of not having to cross a street, or trying to provide shorter lines because there are 2 stores instead of 1. On average, Starbucks is opening 6 new stores per day.
I’ve always heard Starbucks treats their employees well, and that notion was furthered this week when I was told they can have all the free coffee they want while working (both 30 minutes before and after their shift, too), and 1 free pound of coffee per week– in addition to all the stuff today’s employees expect (401K, paid leave, health benefits, stock options, etc.). What’s unique is this all applies to their part-time employees, too. It would be interesting to read about the business of Starbucks and the strategies they’ve used over the years.