Monthly Archives: November 2012

After Twinkie maker Hostess announced bankruptcy and plans to close its doors forever, people flocked into stores to fill their shopping baskets with boxes of cream-filled sponge cakes and other snacks such as Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and Zingers.

Opportunists began marketing their hoard to whimsical collectors and junk-food lovers for hundreds and in some cases, thousands of dollars. The profit margin is extremely fat, taking into account that the retail price for a box of 10 twinkies is $5.  Since Hostess has closed its bakeries, it is clear that twinkies are worth more compared to before.

Edmonds, 50 was one of the many people who spent a couple of hours driving around stores to purchase twinkies. He wound up with 16 boxed of twinkies and Ding Dongs and started advertising three boxes for a price of $300.

It is not surprising to see the novelty effects when demand for a product skyrockets due to the its existence being threatened. Twinkies was started in 1930 and the american people have grown up accustomed to the popular snack. Knowing that the twinkies are no longer produced, there is no doubt that many americans are going to crave the product and some finding it worthwhile to collect them.

The Twinkies are still produced in Canada by  Saputo Incorporated’s Vachon Inc. We might expect their business to boom, mainly in exports to the United States as demand for the product has greatly increased.

The article can be found here

The article i am about to post is based on Hugh Chow’s blog post.

The article summarizes the recent emergence of Amazon.com to cause investors and owners to be skeptical of Best Buy’s future. This is due to the increasing number of people shopping online rather than shopping at stores. Best Buy’s profits has decreased by 92% in total and its yearly sales have dropped by 3%.

Hugh Chow states that he believes Best Buy must find a comparative advantage, and that could possibly be the price matching approach that Best Buy has recently launched. I believe otherwise. I’ve check computers on sony.com and bestbuy.com. Both prices for the same computer was identical. I believe if Best Buy had offers such as giving away a free dvd, more customers will be attracted.

Furthermore, best buy as a store, can give that shopping experience where online shops cannot provide. Best Buy of course, must ensure its services must be excellent so that customers leave the shop satisfied. Best Buy also runs an online store and therefore can still compete with its online competitors. Although Hugh and I have different opinions on how Best Buy can increase its competitiveness, i still agree with him that its strategies must prove to be profitable.

The article “Quest for the perfect potato pays off for McCain Foods in India” briefly describes the success of MacCain foods in India.

India’s love affair with the french fry is so intense that the Canadian potato giant is injecting another $69 million on top of its current $37 million investment into greatly increasing output at its plant in Mehsana that MacCain Foods currently captures nearly 80% of India’s frozen potato market. Even the production of 43,000 tons of potatoes each month is not enough to keep up with the demand of the Indian population.

A pair of agronomists from India and Canada have played majors roles in helping McCain achieve its Indian miracle. Devendra Kumar, the general manager for agriculture at Mehsana, and Ghislain Pelletier, who is based in Canada, spent eight years driving more than half a million kilometres around India in a relentless quest for the perfect potato and the ideal place to grow it.

“We were looking for big potatoes. What we mostly found were tiny baby potatoes. They were low yield, had too much sugar, leached too much fertilizer into the soil and were produced using outdated agricultural practices such as flood irrigation that wasted water and encouraged pests that cause blight.” says Kumar.

The solution Kumar and Pelletier arrived at was a combination of drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation. The potatoes came from tissue grown in Canada, the United States and Europe. It is used to create seeds grown at high altitude in the Himalayas near Tibet. The cultivation of the potatoes was mostly centred in Gujarat because its sandy loam is good for potatoes and its reliable, frost-free, dry climate, combined with drip irrigation, discourages blight.

To date, McCain Foods still remains as a key corporation in serving potatoes to the Indian people.

the article can be found here