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John Thomson  

Here and there

Even as a tight supply of coffee drives wholesale prices steadily higher, Canadian chain Tim Hortons said it's not planning to raise the price of a cup of coffee. Starbucks also said it will be able to offset the "short-term fluctuations" because it has diversified coffee purchases into multiple growing regions.

McDonald's Canada said it is well positioned to handle the impact of higher raw material costs, including coffee, because no single commodity dominates its menu. The chain currently has no plans to hike prices.

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Rod O’Keefe of the Vernon Century 21 office sold the Urban Point complex in downtown Vernon. On the market twenty-eight days, VSM Realty Inc. purchased the 12-unit condominium, which had just been renovated, for the asking price of $2.53 million.
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You saw the ads on TV for the charity event “Blizzard Day” for Dairy Queen but there wasn’t much follow-up after the event and there should have been because they did a great job.

Dairy Queen celebrated another successful Miracle Treat Day at the 8th annual charity drive in August that raised more than $2 million to support the Children's Miracle Network. More than 600 Canadian DQ franchises took part in the special day that led to the sale of 600,000 blizzards.

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The new buzz food at this year’s CNE in Toronto was deep-fried butter. The indulgent treats are made with butter combined with secret ingredients, dipped in funnel cake batter, fried for 20 seconds and served with a drizzle of raspberry, chocolate, caramel or vanilla and icing sugar.
The feedback has been good for the unusual dessert, which, according to the Toronto Star, was originally invented by Dallas resident Abel Gonzales Jr., who has already won trophies for his deep-fried coke and deep-fried peanut butter.

Within days of the story a concessionaire at the PNE had deep-fried butter available and from the news reports, the people interviewed love it. I just can’t get my head around that one. I like the deep-fried Oreo cookie and the deep fried Mars bar, but just once thank you.

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There are plenty of things to annoy airline passengers these days, but a recent poll pinpointed the top three.

In flightnetwork.com's online poll of 768 people,77.6 per cent cited added fees (e.g. - paying for additional luggage) as one of its top three travel pet peeves. Following closely behind were too-small plane seats (63.5 per cent) and delayed flights (40 per cent).

Here are more statistics in a descending order of annoyances:

  • Rude passengers: 30.3 per cent
  • Long security lines: 29.8 per cent
  • Noisy babies and children: 21.5 per cent
  • Large passengers taking up too much room: 12.8 per cent

    Want to add your opinion to the discussion? Log onto flightnetwork.com's blog or Facebook page where you can add your two cents on topics from green travel to the country's best and worst airports or whether cell-phones should be allowed on planes.

    I still have a problem with so much luggage being carried on board. On our last flight a couple brought on three bags just so they wouldn’t have to stand around with the peons at the baggage carousels.

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    Zellers has remodeled five stores in Winnipeg as a test for offering fresh produce as a way to draw in additional shoppers. Winnipeg is a seemingly reasonable choice for this test, as the market is not as competitive in discount groceries as BC or Ontario. There are not Walmart Supercentres or Real Canadian Superstores in the neighborhood.

    Zellers does not yet have the appropriate logistics in place for perishable items, so it is using a third-party distributor for fulfillment. If the tests go well, Zellers will roll out additional stores to Ontario and other markets.

    This is a tough one because fresh produce is difficult to handle with professionals on the job all day. This time the company has opted to have a contractor deliver the produce and manage the inventory that has to be refurbished every day.


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    About the Author

    John Thomson is the Okanagan's pre-eminent business columnist writing his column, Rumours and Things, for over 24 years. Plugged in to the valley's who's who, John keeps his readers coming back for more with his straight talk and optimistic perspective on where we are headed next.

    When John is not writing his column, he runs a sixteen year old think tank called the Executive Roundtable and holds his popular "Thomson Presents" quarterly business speaker seminars.

    Have a comment, question, or tip for John? 

    E-mail John at
    [email protected]
    or send him a fax at 250-764-8255.

     



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    The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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