I find an external blog which talks about a very interested topic––KFC vs McDonald’s in China. I have never think about the comparison between these two fast-food restaurant and this blog really attract me.

As the author of the blog indicates, KFC seems to have won the bout of being preferred fast food chain in China with more than 2100 outlets in around 450 cities and towns across China. And the reason is very simple, KFC understands and cateres to the Chinese people far better.

Through my own experiences, KFC often adapt their whole product range to meet Chinese needs but more importantly their local needs. Province to province, and this gave KFC the edge over its rival as McDonald’s stuck firmly with its Western style. For example, many friends of mine likes Preserved Sichuan Pickle in KFC rather than fried chicken wings in McDonald’s. And the author of this blog also mentions that KFC has more of a Chinese based menu to serve the people. It is clear that this is the most important reason why KFC can develop much better than McDonald’s in China.

the external blog:

http://blog.ub.ac.id/karinaadhitia/2012/04/06/27/

The blog linked indicates that iPhone 5c could spell trouble for Apple. The author clearly demonstrate two reasons why iPhone 5c meet temporary failure. And I totally agree with these two reasons that the biggest difference between 5c and 5 only is the color which will not really influence most people’s choice while 5s improve the functions but the price of it only 100 dollars higher than that of 5c.

In addition, in my opinion, there is another reason why iPhone 5c cannot sell as well as 5s. Apple seems to have lost sight of one of the big reasons people go crazy for its products: iPhones make buyers feel “superior,” and allow them to flaunt the latest and greatest gadgets for all to see. That is to say, because iPhone 5c does not make anyone  jealous while iPhone 5s does, people are more willing to but 5s rather than 5c.

As author mentions, the best way to increase the sale of iPhone 5c is to decrease the price of it to increase the gap between 5s and 5c meanwhile 5c and 5. But it is not easy before the next product published. But it is not deniable one of the reasons why iPhone 5s can sell so great is the publish and comparison of 5c.

The link of the blog I comment:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/richardchen/2013/10/07/apple-is-stuck-in-the-middle/

Alibaba is a online shopping website which connects businesses with suppliers enabling them to negotiate contracts, and AliExpress is a platform of Alibaba to sell small quantities of goods. And both sell the goods manufactured themselves. As we know, that buying goods from manufacturers can save the cost of the complexity of shipping, importing and clearing customs.

But is it really recommendable to buy goods on AliExpress? At first, It is deniable that the free of shipment for all goods no matter how far the distance is is really attactive. However, through my own experiences of buying goods on AliExpress, the delivery time is really long (it often take more than 20 days to deliver to me). Furthermore, although the prices of the goods on AliExpress are really cheap, the qualities of those goods especially which only sold at 30,40 dollars are dubious. When I receive those goods, I feel they are unworthy the price.

It is important to choose the goods carefully on AliExpress and then it is possible to find excellent goods. But this website is not really recommendable because of the long delivery time and poor qualities of most goods.

As the blog linked indicates, the waiters in Little Mongolian Hot Pot in Burnaby are reluctant to serve the second round with meat. But I have been to the Little Mongolian Hot Pot in Richmond. The circumstance is not really the same.

On the menu, there are clearly several parts with different dishes showing that some parts only can be ordered for one time while other parts can be ordered for second time. And in the second round after we ordered some dished which can be ordered for the second time, we waited for about 10 minutes and then the waiter served all the dishes we ordered in second round.And the meal is really substantial.

There might be some differences in different branches although I cannot understand why. But though my own and some of my friends’ experiences, I disagree with that Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot as a well-known chain restaurant is really reluctant to serve second time.

The link of the blog I comment:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/cicisong/2013/10/16/little-sheep-mongolian-hot-pot-reluctant-to-serve-costumers-for-a-second-round/

Very few people are aware of the fact that the tablet computers have existed for almost 20 years. People really started focusing attention on them in April 2010 because of the release of iPad 1. And since iPad was launched, the sales of iPad are extremely high, even higher than that of iPhone and that of iPod.

There are two of many reasons why iPad can be sold better than Android tablets. The first one is that iPads are only manufactured and sold by Apple company whereas Android tablets are manufactured differently by every single companies. That is to say, the different companies’ tablets have to compete with not only iPad but also other companies’ tablets.

In addition, the Apple programmers did plenty work and research before they launched the iPad. When they launch iPad, there were already plenty of applications. While the Android producers were too anxious to follow the step of Apple to launch the tablets. When the first Android tablets ‘Xoom’  was launched, there was too little applications in there Android tablets.

There are still many reasons why iPads are so successful in the area of tablet computers. And now Apple company launched the iPad mini with Retina, although there are not many differences from iPad mini, it still are sold very well compared with other Android tablets.

Citations :

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/tablets/ipad-vs-android-tablets.htm

Taobao is a website for online shopping in China which is similar to eBay or Amazon. This website launched a sale date which was called ”shopping carnival” on November 11 in 2009 to celebrate the super single day in China. That many goods in many online shops take 50% off on that day motivate most shopaholics to buy the good through taobao no matter if these goods are necessary or very useful for them. Through the Xinhua news agency’s statistics, the sale on Taobao Tmall on 11^th November in 2012 reached 19.1 billion yuan($3.043 billion).

But to be honest, behind the huge sales there are many not so optimistic. For instance, the problems in logistics caused by the huge sales make the goods need much more time to be sent to the customer. What’s more, some reports have emerged about the genuine nature of the sales. Some news revealed that many buyers realized that some prices were increased significantly and then discounted to make it look like there was a good deal.

Now it is November 11 in China again, many people are already excited to get much cheaper goods through Taobao Tmall. But it is vital to choose goods by comparing rather than to put all the wants to the shopping cart.

Citation:

http://www.ibtimes.com/taobao-chinas-cyber-monday-breaks-records-causes-chaos-photos-915241

Washington navy yard shooting has renewed debate about guns-control  laws and the need for improvement of the mental-health system in US. And Starbucks has become a target for gun control advocates because Schultz said Starbucks would not ban customers from wearing guns into its stores. To show the support to Starbucks, more guns rights advocates went to Starbucks with guns in recent months.

Considering the bad effect of more guns in Starbucks, the Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz claimed that Starbucks customers should no longer bring guns into its stores or outdoor seating areas. This decision really started a controversy among customers. Some guns rights advocates said they would not go to Starbucks any more while some other guns control advocates feel  much better with the decision made by Starbucks. Schultz said that the gun would make other customers feel uncomfortable and he cannot make both guns control advocates and guns rights advocates satisfied. He just clarified his company’s position.

Citations:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/starbucks-says-guns-no-longer-welcome-1.1858745

http://www.kimatv.com/news/local/starbucks_gun_poll-226319331.html

Today, there is a scarcely of children who doesn’t recognize Ronald McDonald nor a parent who is nagged to visit the Golden Arches. But these years there are so many sounds that wish Ronald McDonald a speedy retirement.

Almost 50 years ago, McDonald’s showed a clown named Ronald McDonald first which exploited the marketing vulnerabilities of children worldwide. From then, McDonald’s became one of the top corporations in the world. The colourful and funny clown attracted the children all of the world and became the most well-known character just second to Father Christmas in US.

But as a result, in the past 30 years, the percentage of obese children has tripled in children ages 2 to 5, and quadrupled in children ages 6 to 11. Most people who care much more about health appeal that it is time to stop using such attractive character to children to advertise the harmful food to children. Because kids are not like adults, they are vulnerable to marketers’ manipulation and even cannot grasp Ronald’s persuasive intent. Most of them are attracted to those unhealthy food in McDonald’s just because of the attractive Ronald!

For our kids, it is time to retire Ronald.

Citation:

http://www.retireronald.org/

http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/04/time-ronald-mcdonald-retire/

In recent years, the sales of point-and-shoot camera have a steep fall compared with the significant rise of the sales of single lens reflex cameras as well as that of the smartphone cameras.

In the first place, the use of smartphone cameras really changes people’s reliance on point-and-shoot phones. Many phones such as iphones, android phones and windows phones continuously develop the capabilities of their smartphone cameras. For instance, Nokia recently released lumia 1020 with a powerful 41-megapixel camera which enables the sharper images even when zooming. It is much more convenient and accessible for moat people to use the phones to record everything around them rather than to use the point-and-shoot cameras.

In addition, while point-and-shoot camera sales are down these years, SLRs are up 5 percent compared to last year. The big amount of photos taken by people because of the convenience make many people especially the shutterbugswant to make better photos which can be different from others. The super awesome image qualities of SLRs exactly cater to these people who do not want to compromise to the quality of their images and want to absolutely control their cameras every aspects like focusing.

Being attacked by smartphone cameras and SIRs, the decline of sales of point-and-shoot cameras is accelerating each quarter. The situation of point-and-shoot cameras’ market is not optimistic.

Citation:

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/05/point-shoot-collapse-why-big-camera-companies-are-the-next-blackberry/?__lsa=a375-3133

http://www.kare11.com/news/extras/article/1040719/26/Smartphones-create-unique-trends-in-camera-sales

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