Posts by Sam F
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Scott A,
And one thing that I, as a Wellington civil servant, who lives and works in the city centre has found, over the last five or so years... is you just can't get decent filter coffee anywhere, any more.
Sympathies. But if you ever find yourself lost and caffeine-depleted in Auckland's CBD, teeny little "Our Cafe" (on the corner of Swanson and Hobson Streets) does great filter coffee. They hand you the cup, coffee and hot plate's there, milk's in the fridge behind you... think it's about $2.20 from memory. Nice people there too.
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I do love this sudden rush of political enthusiasm about Kiwi mums and dads.
Obviously after the last couple of years of scrimping and paying down debt, New Zealand families are now suddenly awash in cash, and will jump at the chance to buy chunks of power companies that they actually already own.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Whoops,
One of many surreal experiences in China (with photographic proof somewhere) was entering a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City in Beijing.
This weirded me out too. If I recall right there was some angling to have it removed, but possibly just too good an earner?
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Muse: The High Aesthetic Line, in reply to BenWilson,
Yup, the action sequences were still very well done. I don't think anyone's really captured the "titanic space battle" quite so well as Lucas.
I recall some impressive moments in Starship Troopers but otherwise, yeah, he does do that stuff very very well.
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Hard News: Because it's about time we…, in reply to Andre Alessi,
The production flow behind the counter is horribly designed for what is essentially the coffee equivalent of fast food, and the one-beverage-at-a-time approach to making coffees is absurd with the kinds of capital Starbucks could invest in its equipment and training.
From what little I've heard, McCafe is doing alright for McDonalds; I wonder what they're doing right that Starbucks did wrong?* Might be an exercise for a really good senior analyst...
*Apart from McCafe being tied to a titanic global brand that's already omnipresent in NZ fast food culture. But maybe there are other differences; I can't comment with much authority on quality of McCafe coffee or service...
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Some qualification-free armchair marketing: about the only way I can see that Starbucks might actually have done alright in New Zealand would have been if they - deep breath - dropped the pretense of being a cafe and acted as a milkshake/juice bar franchise with a emphasis on coffee-flavoured drinks (and maybe the occasional coffee)...
You have less drastic real estate costs thanks to smaller premises, and avoid getting into an unwinnable fight with an established cafe culture. I'd wager most of the people who want a caramel frappucino to go would be just as happy to grab it from a milkbar as from a cafe-type setting.
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Hard News: Only what we would expect a…, in reply to Andre Alessi,
Next up: "Secret business plan inside company to set mystery product price at an unspecified level! We ask why you haven't heard about this shocking development! Update: Grapefruit now 3 for $5 at Foodtown."
Oh how I chortled.
Where's Editing the Herald when we need it eh?
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Hard News: Floating the idea, in reply to Leopold,
Anything left of your ratepayer-funded sand after this weekend?
Heh, was thinking the same thing this morning... Point Chev will probably have been sheltered enough from the worst of it, but the resanded eastern beaches may not be so fortunate.
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Hard News: A few (more) words on The Hobbit, in reply to Danielle,
Oh, *that* explains the flooding.
Ah, so we’re talking about the storm now?
(I’d suggest that this be nominated from here on in as the designated general discussion thread, but the nature of PAS discussions might not be containable by such means…)
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Matthew: that's awful news. My deepest sympathies.