This is a comment on Sophia Park’s Blog

It was reported that a new Compass Card System will be launched, which means that passengers have to tap their card to reader machine ever time in order to make sure nobody evade fares. For the people who obey this regulation may have to wait for another 5 minutes just because of the accomplishment of this action. It is this “5 minutes” that maybe cause a person be late for an appointment. To be honest, this system will not be as effective as the policy makers predicted, for the reason that unscrupulous free riders will finally find a way to escape from paying for tickets. What’s more, government will pay extra maintenance fee for those machines and system. Where is this money come from? The answer is tax. While where are those taxes come? It is the citizens that pay taxes. The government is supposed to represent the right of public, however, the establishment of Compass Card System actually hurt their behalf.

If they government’s purpose is to increase income, I’d like to recommend Sophia’s suggestion. By budgeting their money into the improvement of Translink’s service rather than invent a Compass Card System, they can gain a higher percentage of citizens using public transit. Consequently, profits gained from public transportation will soar.

Sources:

Sophia Park’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/sophiapark/

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/translink-defends-compass-cards-despite-fare-evasion-loophole-1.1500292

No refunds or fare amnesty after Tuesday’s major Skytrain delays: Translink

American Airlines-US Airways merger was announced months ago, while American authorities prohibited this action at that time. Economists concerned about a possible occur of monopoly. It is true that the merger of two of largest airline companies definitely is a threat to their competitors. They will become significantly more competitive compared with other companies in airline field if they complete merger. Consequently, their rivals will be forced to sell tickets with some favorable terms. In this case, the party that will receive most benefits is consumer segments.

However, as a tradeoff, it is recently reported that two companied gave up a number of takeoff and land slots in order to make American justice department approve of their merger. As a result, now-freed slots can be allocated to other small companies and those companies can have more chance to make profit. This indicates a less competition among airline area in long run. Which means the ticket price maybe increase and keep stable. It is the behalf of fliers that will be harmed.

American Airlines and US Airways are predicted to finish their merger successfully in December.

Sources:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/12/american-us-airlines-merger-justice-department

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/biggest-winners-losers-american-air-us-airways-settlement/story?id=20877291

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/justice-set-to-approve-merger-of-amr-us-airways/2013/11/12/2531b9f0-4bab-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/do-american-airlines-and-us-airways-really-need-to-merge.html/2/

Canada Goose has launched a lawsuit against Sears, accusing that sears department sell the coats that resembles its “Kensington”. Not only the design, Sears also use similar tag and trademarks, which lead consumers to confusion.

If the selling price of Sears’ copycat coat is relatively lower than Canada Goose’s, Sears will be more competitive in market. To be honesty, everyone is inclined to the side of more benefit they can get. And the behalf of CG will be harmed when this situation occurs. Sears do not need to pay design fee, while they can earn more profit. This is not fair. The negative effects that Sears given rise to Canada Goose are far more than the current profit loss. If fake coats have any quality problems, misled customers will put the blame to Canada Goose rather than Sears. Canada Goose has high brand identification; consequently, it is the Canada Goose’s reputation that will be harmed rather than Sears’. Damaged brand name indicates large amount of potential loss in the future: lose of royal customers, reduction in sales, lose of key partners’ trust, etc. All of these will burden by Canada Goose and these are unlikely compensated.Sears copies other brands’ design, sears do not obey business ethics although they can make a great fortune.

sources:

http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2013/11/08/pm-tours-canada-goose-inc-manufacturing-facility-toronto

http://www.thestar.com/business/2013/11/08/canada_goose_sues_sears_over_parka_design.html

Third quarter’s financial statement of Tim Hortons was published and it was reported a significant rise in profit by 11%.

It may because of this impetus, Tim Hortons is seeking to expand globally. Chief executive Marc Caira announced that he plans to grow the restaurant’s operations outside the company’s home base and the US, starting first with the Middle East and then moving onto other countries.

Normally, it’s hard for new entrants to survival in competitive markets, especially markets, which are nearly, reach saturation point like café market. Fortunately, Tim Hortons has the advantages of high reputation and brand identification. However, the threat of substitutes is still strong, and customers face tradeoff when choose which café to consume. Rational buyers will bargain leverage. They will consider which coffee brand will bring them more benefits. Since the soar in Tim Hortons’ profit is mainly due to an increase in selling price and customers often inclined to buy cheaper good, Tim Hortons are supposed to come up with other tactics to attract consumers.

Recent news said Tim Hortons aim to reduce wait time, which exactly panders to customers’ wish. For example, in UBC students have to wait in line for 10 to 20 minutes, while the break between classes is extremely short. Myself have left several times with disappointment. If this problem can be fixed, the profit of Tim Hortons will be witnessed a new high. In addition, it will achieve a great success in world market.

It is reported that Bell  is to start tracking users’ internet, phone, and TV habits to display targeted ads. “They’ll literally know virtually everthing about you” says Michael Geist. This strategy does be in accordance with the law, however, is it ethical?

Somehow this action will bring benefits to consumers, since  advertising received by customers will no longer be random anymore, instead  ads are going to be customized in order to pander to individuals’ preference. It sounds like Bell is considerate. But the positive side only work for people who feel it is acceptable to expose personal information to Bell. For customers who aren’t in agreement with being tracked, there actually has no choice.

Bell is originally a service business, their priority is to do things what cheer cusomers up. It doesn’t make any sense if Bell forcing consumers to opt being monitored, which will definately harm consumers’ privacy  . The reason why Bell firstly wants to do this action is to provide better service to public and attract more customers; however, it is more likely the reality is on the opposite direction to their expectation. Bell is predicted to lose either royal or potential customers’ trust if they are insist to put “tracking” strategy into action. The puzzle may be solved by offering customers an option to decide whether they are willing to be tracked in order to perceive ads suit their tastes.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bell-s-data-collecting-may-be-legal-but-is-it-ethical-1.2158593

American federal government was partially closed in the beginning of October due to the disagreement of two parties about 2014 financial budget. While the original cause of shutdown seems to be Obama health care policy. Obama wants to provide more benefits to people who live in poverty. Barack Obama said House Republicans are on an “ideological crusade” against his health-care law. As a result, the tax charged increased for someone needs to pay for the costs.

The shutdown caused around 800,000 federal workers off the job, which means they have no income. Consequently, this results in a negative effect on consumption. In another word, American economy is facing a challenge. Tourism industry is hit since national garden and public museums also stop service.  This probably triggers more serious financial recession if this hassle cannot be solved in half month, just like what happened in 1996. It is reported that there was approximately 1.4 billion losses at that time. In long term, the close of Whitehouse may become a threat to the America’s relationship with other countries and even worldwide economic stability.

Comment ZeXin Zhong’s blog:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/qq215535891/2013/10/07/the-obama-health-care-plan/

Giant tiger, one of Canada’s largest discounters, was firstly founded in Ottawa fifty years ago. Now giant tiger has over 200 franchises around whole Canada and it is continuously making profit and growing as CEO Andy Gross announced in April. While company’s biggest share holder Gordon Reid is considering put Giant tiger for sale and explore for other business options. “Our current sales and profit growth in a stagnant market, and we are focused on ensuring a successful future for Giant Tiger.”

The sale of Giant Tiger is facing several hassles. Who is planning to take the entire store chain under the violent competition of Wal-Mart and Target? Although Giant Tiger has great reputation and royal customer groups, Wal-Mart and Target has widely invaded Canada and are likely to domain the market. The other issue is that the size of Giant Tiger stores varies a lot. Which potential buyer is willing to buy a small scale located in a dilapidated building? In addition, considering the perfect competition in discount retail market, what kinds of revolution will Giant Tiger make in the future?

Source: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Giant+Tiger+owners+consider+selling+discount+store+chain/9002136/story.html

There was a slowdown in property sales industry in 2012. Some estate experts said this might be caused by a change in government-backed mortgages policy. Some buyers were knocked out of market because of the reduction of mortgage period. While housing sales in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver started climbing again after a period of slump. And house price is witnessed a huge gain. Toronto’s growth in price is mainly driven by detached homes. According to what the Toronto Real Estate Board said, detached homes saw prices rise 10.2% in September from a year earlier.

Housing sales surged 63.8 % in Greater Vancouver last month. Mr. Harris predicted Greater Vancouver’s resale housing prices may keep increase roughly 3 % over the next 18 months to two years. In my opinion, the biggest factor contributes to this surge in property sales is the growing number of immigrants. The immigration reopened to non-Canadians in May. Large number of people swarmed into Canada, the requirement of shelters is extremely high. When the demand is rising, the price of house will become higher as a response. In addition, of Canada’s 6.8 million immigrants, over 60% are live in the Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver areas. That’s why house price in these areas are far high.

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/housing/home-sales-surge-in-september/article14675391/

Immigration statistics are retrieved from:http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/05/08/young-suburban-and-mostly-asian-canadas-immigrant-population-surges/

Blackberry used to be the most popular smartphone maker in US, owning 48% market share. While this figure experienced a continuously decrease to only around 8% now. Blackberry also falls off top 100 global brands list. We must feel curious about what conducts Blackberry to the current situation?

Apple, who is the top one business now, mastered touch screen technology and applied it to cellphones. It dragged large portion of Blackberry’s customer to buy iPhone. In Fact, Blackberry is the one who first invent touch screen. Unfortunately, Blackberry missed this fabulous opportunity, and apple became the biggest threat to Blackberry. Now Blackberry is facing a serious financial puzzle. Smartphone maker reported a nearly US$1-billion loss, due to weak demand for their newest smartphones. And Blackberry stock trade has ceased in Sep 23,2013 in American stock market. Blackberry is going to be purchased by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. The purchase price used to be $9 per share. Nonetheless, analyst Michael Walkley sees a final offer of just $7, because investors hold a susceptible attitude to the likelihood of this transaction.

Well, does Blackberry still have the chance to go back its position in cellphone market? It seems not impossible as long as Blackberry maximize specialize its inherent strength. American president Obama, for example, still uses Blackberry for its safety and security. What Blackberry needs to focus on is to develop BBM to dominant chat service.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/analyst-expects-fairfax-to-cut-blackberry-bid-to-just-7-a-share/article14599920/

It is indubitable that China is experiencing an astonishing speed of economic growth and the corporations devote a lot of energy to the soar of GDP. The problem is, however, the ethics of the business seems gone while they are creating wealth. The food security has become one of the biggest issues that China is facing. Dating back to 2008, the Chinese dairy company Sanlu was reported that toxic melamine was added to their milk powder. The reason why Sanlu add melamine into milk is to make the protein level appear higher and their purpose is to reduce expenditure in order to raise the net profit. As a result, children who feed Sanlu milk powder suffered from kidney stone and even 13 of them died. To those businesses, complying with the laws and social custom seems not worthy of mention compared with maximizing profit.

In January, there is another scandal of food safety. Fonterra, a New Zealand dairy producer, has been exposed that their infant milk formula contain chemical ingredient. Theo Spierings, the chief executive of Fonterra, as the representative of Fonterra has already deeply apologized for their oversight. He also said “food safety, not only in China ,but also around the world , is our first and foremost interest.” What I’d like to say is that food safety represents the ethics of a business and it is the key criteria to judge the moral principle of that business.