http://gizmodo.com/5542437/how-to-make-your-credit-card-obey-your-every-desir
1. Just in Time method
It won't because:
Nearly all companies already utilize some version of "Just in Time" (JIT) method already. JIT works for places like DELL, Walmart, etc. because the customer is willing to wait for their ordered item. This is not the case for the food industry.
It will because:
Although nearly all companies utilize the JIT method, not all those who use it have the same degree of success. Take for example, assuming most people know how to read (which I'm actually finding out is not the case!), not all people have the same reading skill level. Some are more successful at reading than others. This is why Linens' N Things filed for bankruptcy in 2008 despite it being a large chain store with plenty of resources like JIT and customer analysis.
check out
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/02/linens-n-things-files-for_n_99867.html
There is a new local organic food movement that has been going on already for sometime where people put in orders for their fresh pesticide free fruits and vegetables anywhere from a week or more to a few days ahead of time. People will wait for high quality products. One such nonprofit organization called Rawfullyorganic has already proved this to be true.
check out
http://www.rawfullyorganic.com
In addition, thanks to the US government insistence on a stronger Chinese yuan, all those cheap Chinese goods sitting on American store shelves will become relatively more expensive by the end of 2010. This will cut into the profits of the stores selling these items. Walmart is one such store unless Walmart can change their inventory by that time.
2. Advertising and Customer Analysis
It won't because:
Grocery stores bank on people having to come in for milk and buy stuff they may or may not need. That's why the milk is placed at the farthest corner of the building. For all the other products on the shelves, being in that particular grocery store is a form of advertising. Also, given the fact that there are thousands if not millions of different items in a grocery store, think of the overhead involved in doing demand analysis. Grocery stores already analyze what their customers are buying.
It will because:
Yes, grocery stores do bank on people coming in and because of that, it allows them to do another form of advertising of product placement on shelves. Yes, it's incredibly expensive for grocery stores to do all that kind of customer analysis and product placement particularly if their customers stop buying those unnecessary items.
Unfortunately, this method only works assuming that their customers actually have enough money to buy those extra things they don't need. Right now, in this point in time on June 6, 2010 the American people are cash poor. They have tapped out of their home equity, used up a lot of their savings if not all, tried investing but in some cases lost even more money than they put in, sold their cars/homes/clothes/anything to raise cash. With each passing day, more and more Americans are going broke. The people who go broke first, are the poorest of the poor. Then, it's the poor. Then, it's the lower class. Then, the lower middle class. Then, the middle middle class and so on and so on. We have reached breaking point. The crash of 2008 was just a glimpse of the more intense economic downturn that's coming unless Americans can change their ways and how they view the world and themselves. If they choose not to change and choose to give up hope, then yes, our future will be even harder than it is now.
3. The Financial System will Correct Itself
It won't because:
People know that the financial world has corrections and crashes. During crashes, the weakest and least efficient businesses go out of business leaving the strongest to survive and flourish. Therefore, people do not need to do anything. The system will correct itself. The crash of 2008 already weeded out the weakest. It can only go up from here.
It will because:
People also know that the reason why the financial world has corrections and crashes is because the financial world is created by people. The financial world is a product of people's thoughts and emotions and how they view the world and their own future. It is not just about the numbers. The prices and numbers are determined by people according to how valuable things are to them. Hence, creative accounting. In accounting, you can make numbers look better or worse depending on what kind of desired result you want and none of it is technically illegal. Why? Because accounting is circular. More and more sophisticated investors recognize this, which is why they are able to make millions of dollars. The investors who don't recognize this are the ones who lose money.
The 2010 crash will likely be as great or worse than the crash of 2008. What will make this crash as bad or worse is simply due to recorded history. In 2010, the CFTC actually held a meeting on gold manipulation and for the first time SEC regulators are actually doing an investigation into it. Before they hardly acknowledge it. Another new development is the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. The European Union has already decided to bail out Greece thereby undoing and ignoring the very rules that were agreed upon since the creation of the EU and the euro. Another is the US government insistence on a stronger Chinese Yuan. A stronger yuan will make all those relatively cheap Chinese products on shelves more expensive, which will cut into the profits of every single chain store selling them, including Walmart.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B5QY20100412
Another new development is the passage of the health care reform act/insurance for all plan. This is putting an even bigger financial strain on American companies who are already seeing shrinking profits and nearing the red. More and more businesses are realizing that they can't afford to hire Americans even if they wanted to. Don't believe me? Ask these guys...
Nearly all companies already utilize some version of "Just in Time" (JIT) method already. JIT works for places like DELL, Walmart, etc. because the customer is willing to wait for their ordered item. This is not the case for the food industry.
It will because:
Although nearly all companies utilize the JIT method, not all those who use it have the same degree of success. Take for example, assuming most people know how to read (which I'm actually finding out is not the case!), not all people have the same reading skill level. Some are more successful at reading than others. This is why Linens' N Things filed for bankruptcy in 2008 despite it being a large chain store with plenty of resources like JIT and customer analysis.
check out
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/02/linens-n-things-files-for_n_99867.html
There is a new local organic food movement that has been going on already for sometime where people put in orders for their fresh pesticide free fruits and vegetables anywhere from a week or more to a few days ahead of time. People will wait for high quality products. One such nonprofit organization called Rawfullyorganic has already proved this to be true.
check out
http://www.rawfullyorganic.com
In addition, thanks to the US government insistence on a stronger Chinese yuan, all those cheap Chinese goods sitting on American store shelves will become relatively more expensive by the end of 2010. This will cut into the profits of the stores selling these items. Walmart is one such store unless Walmart can change their inventory by that time.
2. Advertising and Customer Analysis
It won't because:
Grocery stores bank on people having to come in for milk and buy stuff they may or may not need. That's why the milk is placed at the farthest corner of the building. For all the other products on the shelves, being in that particular grocery store is a form of advertising. Also, given the fact that there are thousands if not millions of different items in a grocery store, think of the overhead involved in doing demand analysis. Grocery stores already analyze what their customers are buying.
It will because:
Yes, grocery stores do bank on people coming in and because of that, it allows them to do another form of advertising of product placement on shelves. Yes, it's incredibly expensive for grocery stores to do all that kind of customer analysis and product placement particularly if their customers stop buying those unnecessary items.
Unfortunately, this method only works assuming that their customers actually have enough money to buy those extra things they don't need. Right now, in this point in time on June 6, 2010 the American people are cash poor. They have tapped out of their home equity, used up a lot of their savings if not all, tried investing but in some cases lost even more money than they put in, sold their cars/homes/clothes/anything to raise cash. With each passing day, more and more Americans are going broke. The people who go broke first, are the poorest of the poor. Then, it's the poor. Then, it's the lower class. Then, the lower middle class. Then, the middle middle class and so on and so on. We have reached breaking point. The crash of 2008 was just a glimpse of the more intense economic downturn that's coming unless Americans can change their ways and how they view the world and themselves. If they choose not to change and choose to give up hope, then yes, our future will be even harder than it is now.
3. The Financial System will Correct Itself
It won't because:
People know that the financial world has corrections and crashes. During crashes, the weakest and least efficient businesses go out of business leaving the strongest to survive and flourish. Therefore, people do not need to do anything. The system will correct itself. The crash of 2008 already weeded out the weakest. It can only go up from here.
It will because:
People also know that the reason why the financial world has corrections and crashes is because the financial world is created by people. The financial world is a product of people's thoughts and emotions and how they view the world and their own future. It is not just about the numbers. The prices and numbers are determined by people according to how valuable things are to them. Hence, creative accounting. In accounting, you can make numbers look better or worse depending on what kind of desired result you want and none of it is technically illegal. Why? Because accounting is circular. More and more sophisticated investors recognize this, which is why they are able to make millions of dollars. The investors who don't recognize this are the ones who lose money.
The 2010 crash will likely be as great or worse than the crash of 2008. What will make this crash as bad or worse is simply due to recorded history. In 2010, the CFTC actually held a meeting on gold manipulation and for the first time SEC regulators are actually doing an investigation into it. Before they hardly acknowledge it. Another new development is the sovereign debt crisis in Europe. The European Union has already decided to bail out Greece thereby undoing and ignoring the very rules that were agreed upon since the creation of the EU and the euro. Another is the US government insistence on a stronger Chinese Yuan. A stronger yuan will make all those relatively cheap Chinese products on shelves more expensive, which will cut into the profits of every single chain store selling them, including Walmart.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B5QY20100412
Another new development is the passage of the health care reform act/insurance for all plan. This is putting an even bigger financial strain on American companies who are already seeing shrinking profits and nearing the red. More and more businesses are realizing that they can't afford to hire Americans even if they wanted to. Don't believe me? Ask these guys...
http://www.bakerlaw.com/
These are the guys hospitals/businesses are hiring to give them financial advice.
Finally, the market has not had a real correction ever since they started using the model of stimulus spending and lowered interest rates. People have finally recognized this which is why Alan Greenspan is in the hot seat now after having been long adored by the American public as some sort of god. The public is a funny thing. They ask for things and when they get it, because they lack the foresight and the understanding of what the costs of those government "freebies" are, they punish the very government who gave them the freebies they asked for. How fickle is man.
Case in point. Look at Thailand. This is precisely what they are doing. It's a vicious cycle that repeats and repeats until the country becomes dirt poor. If the American public is not educated on how economics and investing works, we will continue spinning in this vicious cycle until we are all poor. Upper, middle, lower class it doesn't matter. Eventually we will all be poor through war/strife/civil unrest/ etc... There's a reason why french nobility and members of the wealthy class got their heads chopped off during the French Revolution. Personally, I'd rather not have a financial correction through war and civil unrest. I'd rather have a renaissance, but I guess I'm just crazy like that.
4. Giving Away Perfectly Good Food that can't be Sold
It won't because:
Aren't there laws prohibiting items from being giving away to the poor/homeless? Central Market throws all their unconsumed loaves of bread into the trash bin at the end of each day.
It will because:
If there are laws prohibiting food from being giving away to starving children, then those laws must be changed because they don't apply anymore. Not at this point in time. Those regulations were likely put in place during a time when unscrupulous vendors sold bad products to consumers. But now the food industry has currently met and/or surpassed the food standards of long ago.
Now on June 6, 2010, America still operates on outdated rules and regulations that do not apply at this point in time. Very many people have ceased to use their common sense. They have become no better than walking dinosaurs because of their refusal to use common sense.
In Jamie Oliver's Food revolution TV series, there is a scene where food regulators who, although he/she is quite smart and know that fries are not a vegetable and not healthy, they still insist on resisting Jamie Oliver's progress. Why? Because they are fearful of losing their jobs which depends on whether or not they enforce outdated rules and regulations. Therefore, they resist change even if it's for the better.
check out http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution
It is my belief that no one has yet changed the rules to better reflect what's going on at this point in time because they are waiting around for someone else to do it and that is a problem in itself.
5. Advertising Nightmare
It won't because:
This is going to turn into an advertising nightmare for businesses. Think of all the products that are not advertised on tv because they depend on the consumer 'seeing' it on the shelf alongside of other similar products.
It will because:
see answer to point #2.
Yes, it will be a nightmare now, but it'll be an even bigger nightmare later. But I suppose it won't matter by then because they will be out of business if they don't change their ways. Hopefully, smart businesses have the foresight to see what's coming. Whether or not they take steps to stay in business is entirely up to them.
6. Fear Over Giving an Answer
It won't because:
Calling the grocery store and asking how many cans of tuna isn't a good idea because the employee who answers the question may get in trouble if, say, he forgets to mention a particular brand amongst others. If that vendor gets wind of it, they may sue the grocery story for unfairly promoting one product over the other.
It will because:
The very fact that the employee and grocery fear this very problem, this will in turn cause them to ensure that every product is promoted when answering the question.
Besides, at this point in time, questions like these are asked everyday by people to their concierge service already although they are not necessarily about cans of tuna. Because it has already been part of recorded history that the concierge service is already working, those fears are unfounded at this point in time.
7. Online Grocery Shopping
It won't because:
The future is online grocery shopping. It's already in place in some cities in the US and Europe. Humans are all about laziness. If there's a process in place that will make a task easier, then they'll embrace it. Otherwise, they can't be bothered unless they are forced to.
It will because:
Because of the current economic downturn, presently on June 6, 2010, they are becoming more and more forced to. Humans will work extremely hard in situations where they understand that if they do not, they will end up on starving in the streets. Now is one of those times.
see paragraph of original post about the mother's planning meals a week in advance.
Yes, the future is online grocery shopping. So why bother calling in? See answer to point #11.
8. Undesirable Products on the Shelves?
It won't because:
As per the article, if a grocery store operates like McDonalds, then they will likely serve junk food and other undesirable products to their consumers.
It will because:
As per the laws of supply and demand, people will get what they ask for. If they ask for junk food, they get junk food. If they ask for healthy cheap food, they will get healthy cheap food. The non profit organization, Rawfully Organic, has already proven this to be true.
check out
http://www.rawfullyorganic.com
9. Being Able to Buy When One Feels like it
It won't because:
People don't want grocery stores to turn into JIT inventory systems. If one decides to cook something spontaneously, they want to trust that the grocery store will have what they need that day! Otherwise it'll be like Netflix, where you have to wait a whole day or the queue for you to get the movie when usually the impulse is immediate and it passes by the time you receive the movie.
It will because:
Grocery stores will never go to that extreme where they will keep no extra inventory because they are aware of this spontaneous and unexpected need as well. It's part of the stock inventory equation. The trick is to decrease the standard deviation as much as possible while still meeting the demand of spontaneous behavior. But in the end, if they are struggling to make a profit, their desire to take a chance and make a little extra money through spontaneous purchases will become less and less.
10. Human Nature
It won't because:
Humans are lazy and greedy by nature. They don't change their behavior unless they are either forced to by an authority or because of necessity.
It will because:
Humans are lazy and greedy by nature. They don't change their behavior unless they are either forced to by an authority or because of necessity.
Likewise, humans are incredibly hard working and generous by nature. They don't change their behavior unless forced to by unreasonable authority/regulation or because of necessity or reciprocity.
11. Food riots
It won't because:
Food riots in America? That has never happened before in my life time and probably never will.
It will because:
If Gerald Celente sees food riots as a likely possibility, are you really prepared to question a guy who has accurately predicted every major trend since the 1980's? What's your track history for accurate forecasting?
Unfortunately, I see the same things Gerald Celente forecasts right now. However, unlike Gerald Celente, I do not share his doom and gloom outlook on human behavior. The only reason why Gerald Celente is able to forecast so accurately is because he knows that it's very difficult for humans to change their ways and he also is aware of the laws of social inertia. People like Gerald Celente are only wrong when people do the unexpected, such as changing their way of thinking and taking chances on new ideas.
For example, laugh in the face of danger, call around for cans of tuna just for laughs and possible buy some. Asking stupid yet smart questions to a concierge service is a completely nonsensical and temporary solution that just might spur on real sustainable innovation and innovative thinking that will most likely prevent a gloomy doomsday future that is currently predicted by assuming that people will never change their way of negative thinking.
The lessons that we should all be taking away from all the drama in the world is that we must persevere, grow, learn, and constantly improve ourselves. If there are inefficiencies out there, learn why they are so, what has been done in the past, and what solutions we can put into motion for tomorrow.
The trouble is we just keep forgetting that we can always change our ways, our thinking, our future but only if we want to and only if we actually do something about it.... in time to prevent the very future we want to avoid.
12. Will Asking Stupid Yet Smart Questions work?
It won't because:
It is too extreme and too ridiculous a solution.
It will because:
It is an extreme and ridiculous solution that will garner attention to a subject that far too few people care about learning. The economy. This solution will gather attention because even if it doesn't work, it will not cause any real lasting harm except maybe bruising of a few egos and causing Chase employees headaches as the rest of us laugh our asses off. After all, in May 2010, Chase advertized their concierge service as allowing their customers to ask anything they want. How do I know? Because I walked up to the local Chase branch and asked. By the way, here's the original article and author.
http://gizmodo.com/5542437/how-to-make-your-credit-card-obey-your-every-desire
Not to shoot myself in the foot, but I too already know that should this stunt ever take off, it will not last long simply because it is too extreme. However, my hope is that this will get people thinking about economics and investing and whether or not they want to change their ways to provide a better future for themselves and their children. Being a mom myself, I will do anything to protect my children and loved ones. This is why I write this blog. I do this for them. Myself. And also for laughs. =)
Again, the key is.... is it relevant at this point in time?
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