Fattening of America - A Conspiracy

As if "want us to super size that for you" wasn't enough of a reason to think there was some kind of conspiracy to fatten up America I've now found that several local sandwich chains now charge you more if you want less food. When you approach the register for your sandwich and small drink you are asked if you don't want to "make it a combo" which includes a bag of chips. When you decline the sales clerk quite helpfully will let you know that declining the combo, i.e. foregoing the chips, will increase the cost of your meal by 10%. What kind of business model is that???

I guess the idea is that if they fatten us up and stretch our stomachs we will buy more later? But what about the premature deaths of customers? Or is Frito-Lay giving kickbacks?

Hearting Amazon - the Wii Fit Chapter

I've liked Amazon from the beginning but as it expanded its offerings and services I came to totally love it. Innovation and value is a combination I can't resist!

Latest example is my purchase of a Wii Fit - without needing to spend a lot of time checking retailers or paying some "middle man" markup. When I checked Amazon.com awhile back I noticed that even though these were out of stock there was a link to have Amazon notify me via text message when stock arrived. Had never noticed this before but since I knew Wii Fit was hard to snag I signed myself up. Sure enough I got text messages on my iPhone when they were available. All I had to do was respond with "buyfit" to snag one. The first time I wasn't near my phone and they were gone by the time I responded. Twice more I missed out. I think once because I had a typo in "buyfit" - these things sell out nearly instantly.

However today I saw the message right away and had no typo in my "buyfit" response. Very soon I got a confirmation that I had snagged one to be shipped two-day for free (I have a Prime membership). I feel all lucky and proud today :-)