Category Archives: Uncategorized

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

Hey everyone, i was browsing through a few blogs and i came across an interesting post about electronic cars. The post was posted by Tony.

Basically, the blog post was about small-sized, environmental-friendly and cheap-priced electronic car, called the ZEVe ultracompact, that will soon be running on the roads of Japan. Toyota Motors Corporation has paid $254,800 for the establishment of the ZEVe and have received a quota approval by the government to produce up to 70,000 units annually.

There are pros and cons of electronic cars. On the pro side, electronic cars causes less pollution, therefore creating a more sustainable environment. Also, 25% of Japan’s population is above 65 therefore the electronic car is very useful mode of transportation for the elderly. The price of a ZEVe is believed to be 800,000 yen ($10,000) and may dip down to as low as 600,000 yen ($7,500).

There are, however concerns about the safety of the car because it “looks easy to crush” says Ikuo, Doi, a Japanese senior. Furthermore, these cars cannot carry large amounts of equipment such as farming tools. Still, some say that their diminutive size could be a plus: The government is expected to approve the vehicle category because their slow speeds and light weight mean they pose less of a danger to other vehicles or pedestrians.

The main article can be found here

hey guys,

This morning, Calgary-based Progress Energy Resources stated that it is disappointed because the federal government blocked a multi-billion-dollar bid by Malaysia’s state-owned oil company Petronas to take it over. The company’s CEO Michael Culbert says that progress will be made for the next 30 days to determine the nature of the issues as well as potential remedies.                                                                                                    

He also added that “The long-term health of the natural gas industry in Canada and the development of a new [liquified natural gas] export industry are dependent on international investments.”

The Industry Minister Christian Paradis however, said that the proposed takeover worth between $5 billion to $6 billion did not meet Canada’s benefit test. Paradis has sent a letter to Petronas indicating that he is not satisfied with the proposal and thus extended the review period to 30 days. This review period might extend again. Paradis added that his government has a “long-standing reputation for welcoming foreign investment” and “remains committed to maintaining an open climate for investment.”

Petronas and Progress Energy are already partners in an ambitious project to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) by ship from British Columbia.

The proposal now on hold would give Petronas control over Progress Energy’s Montney gas shale assets in the foothills of northeast British Columbia, reserves that could feed a planned LNG facility in Prince Rupert, B.C.

The article can be found here

Hey guys,

I was browsing through the net and came across the news of the European Union (EU) winning this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The EU won the prize for fostering peace on a continent that was ravaged by war. Since World War 2, the EU grew out of the disaster, fueled by the conviction that ever-closer economic ties would make sure that century-old enemies never turn on each other gain.

The EU has been seen as possible candidate for the Nobel for many years, and the members of the committee had previously praised the community’s significance as a promoter of peace and democracy in Europe. Although the European financial crisis is still haunting the region, the 27 country member of the EU are still standing united and deserve global recognition. It is still however, undecided to whom will represent the EU to collect the prize.

The article can be found here

Hey everyone, Happy Thanksgiving day!

It is really unfortunate of me to announce that a few hours ago, European stocks and oil fell as concerns over the global economic outlook and its impact on the coming corporate earnings season weighed on investor sentiment. It appears that the World Bank has cut its estimate for East Asian growth including China, thus has undone some of the positive sentiment that followed a sharp drop in U.S. unemployment for September.

In Europe investors are also focused on a meeting of euro zone finance ministers later. They will formally launch the region’s new permanent bailout fund and are expected to discuss the problems facing Spain and Greece. But they are not expected to make major progress in solving the debt crisis so German government bond futures were ticking higher in early trade.The signs of strength in Europe’s biggest economy failed to help to the euro which was down 0.4 percent at $1.2975.

The slow global growth would reduce investments in corporate firms globally. This would definitely slow progress in rebuilding Europe’s economy. unemployment would remain high, while economic stability is threatened.

the article can be found here

Hey guys,

you guys should already know what gundams are, but for those who don’t, Gundams are giant military robots. The Gundam series started on April 7, 1979, as a serial TV show called Mobile Suit Gundam. That first TV series has since spawned a franchise that has come to include works released in numerous media.

we know that Japan loves Gundam. in fact, the japanese love it so much that  a major political party has announced that it is considering an actual, real-life Gundam development program for its military.

Reactions online in Japan have been mixed. one commentator criticized the impracticality of fielding billion-dollar machines that could be taken down with some tripwire, Battle of Hoth-style. “Gundams would be useless in a real war. If their intent is anything more than to curry favour with otaku they should start looking at what would be.” Others were more optimistic. “People ridiculing this are the same people who would have been ridiculing the car a century ago!” exclaimed one. And yet another simply had qualms with the LDP’s choice of giant robot. “Why Gundam all of a sudden now?

Personally, although it sounds really exciting to watch a real-life Gundam fly over the skies, however i firmly believe it is a waste of resources. Instead of investing billions of dollars into the military, why not invest in better infrastructure and education. Japanese infrastructure is by far one of the best in the world, but it is still not perfect. Look at what the tsunami did to the nuclear reactors of Japan during the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

the article can be found here

Hey guys, i hope everyone is having a good time.

General Motors recently recalled 40,859 cars because a plastic part in the car might crack and cause a fuel leak. The car models being recalled are Chevrolet Cobalt and the Pontiac G5 sedans from 2007  through 2009. The reason why they are recalling the cars is because in an incident of a fuel leak, the car would be ignited, thus poses a potential danger for its customers.

Although the act of recalling cars would directly harm General Motor’s brand image and reputation, i believe it is ethically right. Many dangers to people’s lives would be prevented from this course of action. I am however disappointed of the fact that General Motors only noticed the cracked parts recently, after 5 years since the car model was released.

On the bright side, General Motors announced that so far, there has been no incident reports on fire or injuries.

The article can be found here

Hello everyone,

You may or may not heard of the Chinese Milk Scandal that occurred in 2008.  The milk scandal was a food safety incident in China, involving milk and infant formula being adulterated by a chemical substance called Melamine. It appears that when melamine is added to milk, the protein content of milk increases. This blindly led people to purchase the tainted milk because the protein content of tainted milk was seemingly higher than normal, clean milk. The case is a strong example of using one’s knowledge, to exploit the money of the people.

As of November 2008, China reported an estimated 300,000 victims, with 6 infants dying from kidney failure, as well as an additional 860 babies hospitalized. The incident destroyed the people’s trust of its own national milk brand thus the Chinese government received countless criticism of its health and safety regulation of food products. Globally, other nations also decided to stop importing China’s dairy products. The Chief executive officers of the companies that produced tainted milk were executed, while 7 local government authorities as well as the director of inspection and quarantine were forced to resign.

                  “Chinese babies were hospitalized

                    as a result of the contamination”

In my opinion, it was very smart of the Chinese businessmen to taint their milk with melamine so that their milk products gain an advantage over their competitor’s product, which in this case – protein content, which directly translates a better quality product to the consumers. However, ethically speaking, i strongly believe it is wrong and immoral to sell products with dangers than the consumers are unaware of. The Chinese businessmen were dishonest about their products and definitely deserved to be punished. The incident was referred as one of the largest food safety events the World Health Organization had to deal with in recent years, and that the crisis of confidence among Chinese consumers would be hard to overcome.

Information of the Chinese Milk Scandal can be found here

Timeline of the Chinese Milk Scandal can be found here

“Stripped shelves in a Chinese supermarket”