Posts from — September 2010

I recently went to Kerrisdale Shota for dinner and the owner’s daughter was telling my family and I about their recent conflict. Some customers pay for their meals with credit card, debit card, or cash; the main focus to this blog post is on smart cards.

Restaurants, at their own risk, can choose to make the customer sign as opposed to entering the customer’s PIN number. Technically, restaurants are supposed to get the customer to enter a PIN number if the credit card has a chip but Shota, half of the time, skips the PIN and gets the customer to sign instead. They believe that chip cards slow down their efficiency because one waiter has to be standing and waiting for the customer to enter his/her pin before doing something else (no multi-tasking).

The manager understands that they were wrong but what made Shota angry was that the banks argued that the signatures on the receipts (only for the smart card transactions) were not the credit card-holder’s signature; thus, banks refused to give Shota money for all those transactions. If it was $200 or even just $3.00, Shota weren’t allowed to get a single penny from those transactions that required PIN numbers but had signatures instead.

Isn’t PIN numbers just as dangerous? Someone could know someone’s PIN number on someone’s credit card and excessively use the credit card, no? Should Shota be fined? Because the banks argument was because it is not safe, but smart cards are just as unsafe.

Sources:

Shota Manager, Maggie.

Blockbuster Inc.  declared bankruptcy early this morning, September 22 2010 . Blockbuster’s debt was about US$1 billion.

How do you feel about this?

Well, The first thing that went through my mind was “WHAT REALLY?” but then when I really thought about it….Let’s face it, who really rents movies now-a-days? Not me!  I have passed by the Blockbusters in Kerrisdale almost every day of my life but the last time I rented a movie was probably at least two years ago.

I google-ed more information on this case and a ton of articles that have been published within the past few months all say that Blockbuster will eventually come to an end. Now that it has, it’s too late for me to visit one more time! Bummer. Because Blockbuster is such a big company, we don’t expect it to go bankrupt compared to a smaller company; the possibilities of filing for bankruptcy are just the same.

Out of curiosity, I searched what companies may possibly go bankrupt and this is what I found using three different articles:

(I only listed the companies that I were interested in)

• Porsche Automobile Holding
• Eastman Kodak Company
• United States Steel Corporation
• Hertz
• Sprint Nextel
• Macy’s
• CBS
• Las Vegas Sands
• Six Flags
• Harrah’s Entertainment
• MGM Mirage
• United Airlines
• Ford Motor
• General Motors

Sources:

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-big-companies-skidding-toward-bankruptcy-2010-5#15-central-european-media-enterprises-cetv-1

http://www.businessinsider.com/blockbuster-declares-bankruptcy-now-see-what-big-company-will-drop-next-2010-9?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Business+Insider+Select&utm_campaign=BI_Select_092210_Personal

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-household-names-veering-towards-bankruptcy-2009-9#interpublic-group-ipg-10

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/10-companies-that-may-go-bankrupt-this-year.aspx?page=4

One of the 300,000 workers from Foxconn Technology, the main supplier of most of Apple’s products, rather die than to suffer working in the company’s factory. This was at least the tenth employee suicide of the year. Is that realistic? Are conditions that bad?

Yes, they are.

“The company is obsessed with security, and I must say that, from the outside, the place looks like a prison” said Geoffrey Crothall. Factory workers suffer from huge workloads for pennies a day and are constantly being beaten and humiliated.

“In America, Apple is one of the best and most employee-conscious companies in tech, but consistent reports of worker abuse and unhappiness in China really does raise the question: is Apple having the wool pulled over its eyes by companies like Foxconn and Wintek over the well-being of the workers who make our MacBooks and iPads?”

Profit may appeal to be the most important thing in a business but as they realize later, no matter how hard they try, they are far from achieving their goals without business ethics.

Business ethics works on eliminating exploitation; however, Foxconn has failed to do so.

Click on the image below to listen to a news report regarding this case

Sources:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/27/world/la-fg-china-suicides-20100527

http://www.cultofmac.com/suicides-and-poisonings-at-apples-chinese-manufacturers-provoke-calls-for-investigation/42990

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