I was watching some interesting documentaries today about some food products and you had these farmers arguing with each other on why certain items are better in their native country versus the other. Of course that then creates more value for one as anything labelled made in X country is worth more money as the quality is supposed to be better. One guy then decided to do something interesting where he imported the food from the area that apparently produced inferior quality products and all he did was simply repackaged the item in his native country. Because of that he was allowed to write in the packages that it was “made in” his home country.

Of course, I guess the average consumer would assume based on the label that the product is coming from a certain country when really it’s not. At the same time because it costs him less to make the product he can then sell it for less too and so everyone thinks they are getting the same quality items for less. So sneaky huh? This is one of those industries where as a consumer you don’t really bother to do the research either. I can only imagine most of the stuff we think we are buying is a great deal when really it isn’t. Guess the people that were doing it sure knew how to capitalize on an opportunity as well.

I heard a funny argument of sort today. Well, it was mostly friendly anyways. Basically, there was a person who has owned and operated a business for a long time where they obviously started way back and as a result you see them with things like these old stone age fax machines that they keep and also revolve their business around even though mot people would rather use things like an e-mail. This then started a conversation as one of their friends was telling them to get rid of the thing to reduce clutter and that it will probably make their business more efficient too if they got rid of it.

However, they were insisted in keeping it as to them it reminded them on where they were and how they started. This then started some conversations about how this is a business and it’s not like it is a relationship and the fact that it is just an old and outdated machine. But, it got no where as they were pretty keen in keeping it there for sentimental reasons. Is there really no room in a business environment for sentimental items like these?

I always think it is interesting when people have ancient items and equipment for sentimental values in a business as usually I assume there is an interesting story behind it. You most commonly see these types of things in restaurants to demonstrate how a business has grown through various generations. Of course I think the fine line here is if you are insistent in using items for sentimental reasons where it is hindering your ability to compete with others in an ever evolving market/industry then something needs changing I would think.

I have been watching the Olympics here and there while at the same time just chatting with people about some of the results. This then led to a conversation that a good way at times to help promote a creation or idea is to simply try and invent a competition around it. I was thinking that must be a little difficult for the purpose of promoting a product as it is almost like creating a new product in itself.

It then reminded me of games that some companies have tried to invent such as a pizza company inventing an eating game of sort where its almost like playing spin the bottle where whatever piece it lands on you have to eat it with the catch that one piece in the bundle is super hot. I think for myself this would be one of those things that would have to kind of happen on accident such as during a random conversation daring someone to do something.

It’s almost time to start submitting in taxes again and of course one thin that I am doing again is looking for a tax software to purchase and use. One thing I noticed is that some of the products have gotten more expensive and from a consumers point of view some of the packages got fancier. Funny enough, if you try to just get the plain product online it is still the same price.

That is usually the case too where if you try and avoid buying products with all those fancy packages it can often end up being a lot cheaper. I found this to be true especially if you ever have to buy a lot of small parts to build something such as a computer. Even when I shop for stuff like groceries if I see one thing that I want to buy I try and see if they sell the same product expect in a different packaging as more often than enough aside from quantity reasons the packaging itself can make the item cheaper or more expensive. A funny example is buying fruits that are in a bag as opposed to a box. The best over exaggerated example is bottled water though right?

I always thought buying things like bottled water is kind of a waste of money considering you can easily get clean drinking water here. As well, if you are really paranoid about drinking say tap water for health reasons then there is always the option of boiling it. That then got me thinking the other day as my mom used to buy a lot of bottled water or in some ways pay money to get filtered water. Even though she had a kettle and such too she never used it. It wasn’t until she got this new kettle which seemed to boil stuff faster is when she started to use it more. Specifically, it was this Hamilton Beach one that you can see here at http://www.hamiltonbeach.ca/hb_detail.php?item=40898&mc=KA&fc=2&catID=27 .

Not surprisingly, she hasn’t bought any bottled water since using that more which definitely saved her money in the long run. I suppose in many ways if you are buying appliances of some sort to save money you have to make sure that it is actually easy and appealing for the person to use where they won’t dread to take it out to put it into use. Otherwise it kind of reminds me of the time where we knew our mom loved to buy bread all the time which costs her a lot of money and so we figured we would get her a bread machine. I guess it is too bulky or something but she still had the habit of buying the bread from the store.

In cases like those if you have to pay a little more to get something more compact or powerful to make sure that the person will actually use it then I suppose the investment will be better that way. It is a little funny when you think about it where say a person won’t bring out something as simple as a kettle because they think the design is ugly. But I guess with all the options we have in life we are all a lot pickier.