Tag: Arby

The tough gets going

Steelers‘ number 33 and 34. Back to basics. One yard at a time to Super Bowl.

On the field or off it, we have to retrench and defragment. USA Today cover story features “the faces of today’s unemployed”, showing a nuclear family, sitting in the back of  the family pick-up truck, with two beautiful young daughters, a wife and a Dad who couldn’t turn to face the camera.

What have we done to ourselves?

Instead, we managed to distract ourselves with I-pod and I-pad, scrapbook and Facebook. User-generated content but not corporate-generated income.

World leaders are heading to Davos on private jets, while world factory workers take a nap on the last train home (Chinese New Year).

Instead of  having another Sputnik moment, we can barely have a picnic moment in the park, whose benches often serve as home for the homeless.

Each demographic cluster has its own “medium” of expression. In this case, card-board signs that say “anything helps”.

The longer the red light, the more time for guilt to build up (they should be in Davos street corners this week holding those card-board signs. Better donor pool).

I have noticed that:

– Star Wars and Apocalypse Now re-release (Blu Ray), the former made it as memorabilia for future generations.

– Men grooming sector surges with the rise of unemployment (first in Japan and now in the West).

– Virtual funerals, instead of “the Big Chill” reunion (In traditional China, they even hired mourners to jazz it up).

– McDonald did well during the Recession, so they can afford to raise the price, while Arby’s is up for sale.

– The life cycle of tech companies (or their CEO’s) is shortened as compared to brick-and-mortars’

– Starbucks’ new logo is not the answer to boost sales. Another bubble is.

– Facebook photos, men in long shots, while women in close-ups

– Amazon keeps plugging away, under the radar, to position itself for virtualization and cloud computing

(while letting Google, Facebook and Apple steal the headlines).

– Yahoo, AOL and My Space already look like dinosaurs from Web 1.0

– China is leading in solar panel manufacturing. This plays to their strength (very similar to India’s momentum post-Y2K).

So, we are content with old institutions e.g. Larry King Show (whose guests feel like they are on America Got Talent), Regis Show and Tonight Show while Boomers seek familiar routine and route (35 miles an hour speed limit, same channel on TV, same store for breakfast. No wonder they can afford to raise the price. No place else to go!).

Some old tricks still work, as the case with the Steelers’ that got them to the Super Bowl. Makes one wonder if we should bring back Reagan-Thatcher’s strong-handedness (whose inflationary consequences are still felt today). This time, it is going to be without Mr Stockman.

Defunct fast

Fast food companies got fast funding last week: Wendy, then BK.

For the past two years, I have stopped by BK twice, each time, for the buy-one-get-one-whopper-free deal.

We will look back to this Recession as a house-cleaning era, when BK might mean bankruptcy, or Burger King.

HUD Secretary was interviewed on Capital Connection this weekend. However articulate he was, the housing sector and homeless prevention program have room for improvement.

Winter is coming. And I know a thing or two about volunteering to help the homeless.

The vicious cycle of not having a permanent address to receive the assistance checks.

(Just like many of us who were just above the poverty line, wishing sometimes we fell below it to qualify for assistance).

In fact, right after the interview, the show went on with latest poll figures showing voters’ discontentment i.e. intention to switch from coffee to tea.

I have seen change at work, from hot war to cold war, from RCA to Apple. (BTW, Ritz was acquired by Marriott, Rolls by Tata, surprising?)

Where is Bob Dylan? The time, they are a changin!

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich put it well in this weeks’ NY Times Op Ed  that unemployment is structural (top percentage of wealth earners get to keep more than ever before, leaving the shrinking middle class unable to afford life they are capable of ). Super Frugal instead of Super Power. US turns Britain i.e. less action in world affairs (can’t afford it to spread defense funding every where). It’s fitting that a new domestic infrastructure overhaul bill , Obama’s Great Society, is announced on this very day.

When still at Penn State, I tried both Burger King and McDonald. At the time, I did not know better, so I liked Mc Fries. BK , meanwhile, offered me bigger burgers for the bucks.

I did not know at the time that Hardees was home of then defunct Burger Chef (just like Arby’s now absorbs Wendy “where’s the roast beef?”).

American business landscape witnesses all sorts of consolidation: oil, airline, telecom, fast food industries, car rental and car companies.

Telecom executives are now pitching cars. “May the best car win”, push-talk advertising (from former Nextel exec).

Somehow I wish to hear from the other side of this prolonged Recession, “May the best worker rise”. The rest can join in Network-like protest: ” I am mad like hell, and I won’t take it any more”. I am glad for blog, for Web 2.0 and whatever invention that comes next. It shows human are still in charge, despite the forces that try to keep them down.

As a book’s title, let’s have the audacity to win. Not to keep the status quo, but to be true to forms. After all, each of us exists for a reason. Mine is not different from yours: a shot at life and an invitation to prom. That’s all. But these days, the barriers to entry seem enormously high.

Thanks to all the structural impediments  and bills that came due, one won’t hear “Happy Labor Day” from 9.6 percent of the population for a while. Let’s fade in “Monday is Happy Day.” instead.  How I wish we could bring back the innocent 50’s, and yelp! Grease.