Janie Nguyen's Blog

I’m not a mall rat, but when I receive emails from my favorite clothing stores declaring a “sale”, I’m guaranteed to drive out to the mall and indulge in the savings… but in reality am I really saving? Of course not. The fact that I’m spending money on something that is most likely an impulsive purchase immediately translates to money down the drain. Despite knowing this fact, these “sale advertisements” reel me in like a fish. Why? Because it’s effective in the sense that “i’m saving money” when in reality the profit margin on clothing is immensely high that the business is still making a lot of money when their clothing is on sale (I know this fact through my textiles studies in high school).

One of my favorite examples are sales from Aritzia. The clothes there are moderately expensive in my opinion and when they do have sales, the savings aren’t much. Yet, people will come flocking into Aritzia simply because they have a “sale”. Good advertisements are appealing to people and reflect in sales. In the fashion industry (and others), the key advertising technique is simply the word “sale”.

– Janie Nguyen

I love shopping at Walmart because their products are inexpensive. My most recent favorite find was a pack of 200 pages of Hilroy Paper for only $0.25! Of course, I stocked up 20+ packs! It was to my surprise when my brother told me that Walmart failed to launch their store in Japan.

At the end of our discussion, my brother convinced me that Walmart failed to expand in Japan because they didn’t understand the target market, the Japanese consumers. Many people in North America like cheap products knowing that the quality will be poor. Whereas, people in Japan like expensive merchandise because it reflects high quality. Since Walmart was an inexpensive store,  the Japanese consumers applied their theory where price reflects quality and refrained from Walmart. In addition, the Japense workers work together as a family. Walmart fired Japanese employees and brought employees from home; the corporate heads were also from North America. This action offended the Japanese culture and further damaged Walmart’s name. In order to avoid this, Walmart should have hired Japanese people to operate the store instead of having brought people over because they would have understood the Japanse consumers from the beginning.

– Janie Nguyen

Many supermarkets are beginning to charge 5 cents per plastic bag to encourage customers to convert to reusable tote bags due to environmental issues. However, many other business such as retail clothing stores and fast food restaurants  don’t charge for bags. Is it ethical for supermarkets to have this fee? By having this fee, it raises awareness of environmental issues and encourages customers to become environmentally friendly. On the contrary, supermarkets are making an additional 5cents per plastic bag and/or making an additional x value for selling reusable tote bags. I think that this additional expense for customers is unethical because supermarkets previously offered bags simply for customer convenience but as the world is becoming hyped on environmental issues, supermarkets are taking advantage of customers and charging for something that they were originally offering for free.

– Janie Nguyen

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11157648

One word that describes this article is inspirational. I’m impressed that Joseph Hayat has established himself well not only in school, but in the business world despite the fact that he is merely 17 years old. His actions convinced me that age is only a number and that you can achieve anything if you work hard and have a clear objective.

To summarize this article: at the age of 17, Joseph Hayat, from Lincolnshire England, began his own charter flights airline. I believe this is a small step towards establishing a fully operational airline in the near future. Luckily for Joseph, his airline was advertised on BBC news  for free.

A few key words that were mentioned in this video clip were “ambitious, drive, and innovative” which are great attributes that an entrepreneur should possess when beginning a business venture. Clearly Joseph Hayat possessed these characteristics and was able to successfully launch his idea; as a result, he became the world’s youngest airline boss.

I encourage everyone to watch the short video clip about Josph Hayat, be astonished, and to really assess what your goals are and how you plan to turn them into reality; “the sky is the limit”.

– Janie Nguyen