1198. Wegman's lessons

Williamsport, Pennsylvannia

I have not known about Wegmans. Wal Mart is global and I know of its existence. Wegmans in Williamsport, Pennsylvannia is a huge market with food 3x much bigger than any in Singapore. Source locally and supports local produces.  3 children take over the business. It is said to be a 3rd largest and expanding to a 2-storey building in New York, according to one employee selling grapes and apples.

Founder at entrance

Retiree works 4 days/week

Two marketing lessons from this successful businesses are:

1. Charge buffet food by the weight rather than by person. Probably makes more money as people eats more. My tour guide narrated that once had to pay much more out of his pocket as he treated the coach driver to a buffet lunch at Wegmans over his budgetted expenses. The American driver ate a lot and incurred a large cost for him as food is payable by weight, not by person.  Increased expenses for a travel agency by the tour guide mean reduced net profits and so the guide had to pay for his mistake, not the company.

2. Thermal paper to print out the receipt instead of an A4 paper. It is much faster, saves money and save more trees from being cut to make paper. An expense item e.g. one bottle of shampoo is printed in an A4 paper is a waste of resources and money when printed in some vet practices.

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Seen on the road, a Wegmans' truck  2-in-1 container saves transport cost

1197. Niagara Falls. Living life to the edge

It is not easy to live to a ripe old age, with diseases, cancers and accidents happening anytime. 

It is part of the character for some young people. They want to live life to the edge, taking great risks like standing on the edge of a parapet wall to dare the Gods.

1196. Travel stories from Montreal

Oct 16, 2013
Delta East Toronto Hotel Rm 303

Will be going to the Niagara Falls today. Left Sheraton Hotel near Montreal Airport yesterday after staying 2 nights.
For one 60-year-old widow, it was 2 nights of pain as she had to walk at least 200 strides to the receptionist to and fro. The 200 strides are mine with full leg extension. My room is around 180 strides.  It was most stressful for her and we cursed the agent for not being caring. But he was also unaware and offered to change the room the next night. I noticed that packaged tour companies who don't know how to negotiate, get the ground-floor rooms for their Singapore guests, facing the highway or road level.

NEGATIVE MENTAL ATTITUDES
"I will not live long," the disabled traveller told me. Her SGH specialist had told her that her knee pain is due to old age. So she took many Pannadols up to 8 per day. Her right eye popped out 7 years ago when she fell and she was blind for 25 days. The right eye had a corneal transplant and she had to take cyclosporin tablets twice a day for the past 7 years  

1000 Islands homes for the film stars

Nearest to the USA. Most popular with the mega rich.

1195. Costs of removing a hamster's tumour

to judy

Hi.

I would like to know if the clinic provides treatment and surgery for small animals.

My roborovski hamster has a relatively large lump, possibly cancer.

It is already 1.5 year old but I hope to do my best to see what I can do to help it and get some advice.

I have brought it to ,,,,,,clinic today but they mentioned that diagnosis and surgery will cost more than 700SGD. I'm not sure if it's the same for other clinics and that is why I approached your clinic.

I would like to know if the clinic provides consultation and surgery for hamsters, can I have a rough quotation to remove the lump before I bring it down for treatment.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Thank you so much.

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I am Dr Sing from Toa Payoh Vets.
Thank you for email. Estimated costs of surgery at Toa Payoh Vets for removal of hamster tumour  is around $150 - $300 depending on size of tumour and surgical and anaesthetic time. For example, a small subcutaneous skin tumour of <5 around="" cost="" diameter="" in="" mm="" p="" will="">

1194. Cost to remove a microchip from a cat

EMAIL REPLY FROM DR SING DATED OCT 16, 2013 FROM TORONTO

Cost will be estimated to be around $80 for anaesthesia and around $ 80-120 for surgery, removal and stitching in uncomplicated cases.

1193. A travel agency's all-or-nothing optional tour to Mont Tremblant, Canada

Oct 15, 2013
Sheraton Hotel, near Montreal Airport

It is just too competitive in the travel industry and so the management keeps prices low by offering optional tours as "hidden costs"  To be competitive, the travel agencies in China and Hong Kong advertise "cheap" tours. However, the tourists waste much time having to visit jewellery or souvenir shops as part of the tours as they get commissions from the shops for purchases.

In my travel with a Singapore travel agency, a new marketing strategy was to tell the 36 travellers from Singapore that all 36 must opt for the optional tour to Mont Tremblant (US$50/person) or none will go. Just one objection would do. The tour guide asked each party individually and there was a consensus to go. As an incentive, there was a "free" trip to visit the 3rd largest waterfall the day before.

I find this marketing strategy to be blackmail. The management should have included this inside the package as the group would have to spend the whole afternoon on their own in Montreal city, after visiting it in the morning if 1/36 objected to visiting Mont Tremblant.    

Singapore travellers are not that sophisticated and many look only for "cheap" tours rather than quality tours. This is mass tourism and profits are dependent on volumes rather than quality. The same applies to other businesses catering to the masses. In the morning, it was drizzling but the sun shone brightly at Mont Tremblant and the visit was much better than loitering around the city of Montreal on our own.      
 

 

1193. A sprint past a graveyard in Scotland in 1969

Sheraton Hotel near Montreal Airport, Canada
Oct 15, 2013

When my coach passed a cemetery, I recalled an incident in 1969 when a kind Scottish couple in their late 50s invited me to their house for dinner.  I had arrived in Glasgow to study veterinary medicine under the British Government's Colombo Plan scholarship. At 19 years of age, I had never boarded an airplane and I flew by BOAC to London alone. At the railway station to catch a train from London to Glasgow, a Caucasian Londoner warned me not to leave my bags unattended. At the Glasgow railway station, 3 young people greeted me and took me to Kelvin Lodge where I would be staying.
Some time later, this Scottish couple invited me to their house for dinner as they were to be my guardians. I took a bus to their house and had a pleasant dinner. At around 10 pm, I had to catch the bus back.

There was a cemetery I had to pass by. Like the image in this article. Neat rows. Darkness of night in the Winter of 1969. I was a 19-year-old boy whose furthest trip from home was to Bentong, Pahang by train and bus and had not encountered funeral wakes and visits to grave yards in Singapore. I walked as fast as I could, covering my neck with the scarves against the bitter cold breezes. Or were they the souls of the graves enveloping me? My heart beats were explosive and I could not slow down in case a ghost pops up from the grave. Do ghosts exist? I was not ambling alone in the cemetery to find out. I could have been murdered there too, in retrospect, since it was dead quiet but there were residences nearby as in the image.   

I do not read ghost stories or watch horror movies unlike many youngsters and so that trip running past the graves was much more memorable to an impressionable young adult.

Kindness to strangers and helping non-relatives are values many older Singaporean parents do not teach their children.  So many grow up to be selfish and thinking of how to enjoy themselves. The school education system is changing to teach values of compassion, empathy and others but how successful can the system be if parents do not play their part?