Tag Archives: Starbucks

Oct 25 2010

Sticky nectar – waste of time

I am one of 16.8 million people who have a Nectar card. I wonder why.

I got sick of being asked about 2 years ago – so fell into the marketing trap. I am a card carrying member. And I do remember to use it.

I pick my lunch up and buy my Petrol (now diesel) at Sainsbury’s store at Castle Marina in Nottingham. Well, I do until they close Starbucks – at which point I will go somewhere else as a point of principle.

I digress. I must have spent thousands of pounds in the last couple of years so enquired about my balance. I have never cashed it in. My reward?

£20.41

Well that has really been worth it. Twenty quid. For my ‘loyalty’. Wow. Two tenners.

I suppose it’s better than nothing, but is this really the reward I get for all those trips? All that clogging of my wallet – all that fumbling around?

What a complete and utter waste of time. And I have let them watch my predictable spending habits – petrol, food, petrol, food, petrol, food, petrol…ad nauseum. I hope they have enjoyed the experience.

I am going to cash the thing in to buy a tee shirt – pictured. And then I’m going to cut the card up. And join the facebook group here.

I hate Sainsbury’s. Again.

Oct 23 2010

The simplicity of writing

You may guess that I write my blogs at various times of the day (and night) – mostly on my trusty macbook pro. WordPress lets me publish at any time – genius!

When I started writing I used ‘word’ as most people do. It is the omnipresent word processor.

Remember these?

But for the last six months or so I have used a programme called Ommwriter. It is brilliant – it has a really simple interface and is designed to avoid distractions. There’s not much to it in the ‘less is more’ style. It will even play plinky plonky music to you!

Then this week came an upgrade and It looks as good as before but this new version is called OmmDana.

I love it for writing blogs. The new chromatherapy background and typewriter sound are great. It does let you concentrate on writing, you can’t embolden or italicise text! It’s just about content.

Sometimes we get bogged down in complicated stuff in our lives. I love the fact that this does what it says on the tin – it just gets your thoughts onto digital paper.

And best of all the basic version is free. The upgrade is offered at a price you set with a suggested price of $4.11 (£2.57) – about the same as a cup of Starbucks finest!

Oh, did I mention that it’s only for mac… sorry beige box people… one day you will understand!

Sep 25 2010

Another milestone….

A few minutes ago, my blog reached 20,000 hits. I reached 10,000 on 6th May.

The list of most popular blogs goes something like….

1. An interesting opportunity in Russia
2. Jamie Oliver brings Italy to Nottingham
3. Justice – Crown Court or Twitter
4. MIPIM 2010
5. Architecture – the great divide
6. ipad – a new beginning
7. Cruel April Fool
8. I hate Sainsbury’s
9. Rage against Cowell
10. Little Boots food menu

Thanks for dropping by….

Sep 11 2010

BB RIP – too clever by half

I was driving to work on Friday morning and spotted a new billboard. It was stark, black and huge! Perplexing though?

It was early and my Starbucks craving hadn’t been satisfied, but I had no idea what it was all about. I did wonder – even making a mental note to google it! And it wasn’t until Friday evening when I got home to the subliminal adverts between Channel 4′s actual ads that I saw it again.

The penny then dropped that it was something to do with Big Brother. The final one apparently. The Ultimate Big Brother. So “Rest in Peace”, but “R” “eye” “P”. Oh, very clever.

But too clever by half?

My excuse was that it was early when I saw it – and maybe I needed to think about it? But is it too late then? – or am I just out of touch with what the ordinary people are watching. I should maybe read The Sun tomorrow.

The reality is that I would rather spend an hour in Ikea than watch BB. I don’t get it. Much like their clever logo really!

Anyway – it’s finished apparently. Forever. Shame. Just as I nearly got it.

I won’t miss it. At all. My sister-in-law will though – apparently she cried…

Aug 27 2010

Shanghai – Starbucks!

I mentioned in my last blog that I had ‘found’ Starbucks in Shanghai. It won’t surprise you to know that I had done some research before I came out to Shanghai (purely out of interest of course). There are ten branches.

The Peoples Square Starbucks branch

I also found a review on-line, but this was in Chinese – and my Chinese is pretty limited. I can say “yes”, “no” and “goodbye”. So Google translator was useful back in the UK, but is less so here! The translation was:

Been put pigeons. Shopping shopping ah wandered here on. Other nearby café. Would like their home. Attitude has always been good. Sincere smile. Out accompanying the new Tiger Cup is nice. Super Cup 卡普奇诺加 or favorite little cinnamon. On the second floor of the sofa seat is very comfortable. Toilets very clean.

I’m not sure I saw any Pigeon based food or drink, they did have some of the regular Starbucks food – but not all. Blueberry muffin was good!

The food was quite ‘westernised’ and it is here that you realise that the Chinese people in Shanghai really do want to (literally) have a taste for the west. The formulaic way of serving and delivery was just the same as back home. The shop layout was identical as were the colours. They don’t have brown sugar though!

And there’s no sign of Sainsbury’s trying to shut them down…yet?

Aug 19 2010

An amazing office

A former colleague of mine – who now swans around Seattle going from Starbucks to Starbucks sent me some incredible pictures in the week of the new Google offices.

Having just moved office (not much) I thought it would be really cool to have some of these features – OK, just one of these features would be good!

So, this is a short and not wordy blog – check out the pictures below! It really must be a great place to work…

the stress capsule

time out to chill out

keeping fit alone?

all the fun of the fair?

an ideas place - not an office

my kind of office!

Today, Google employs 20,223 people around the world, receiving a CV every 25 seconds from job-seekers, hiring an average of nine new employees a day. It’s not a surprise really. And to cap it all off a full-size replica of Virgin Atlantic ‘s Spaceship One (space tourist vehicle) hangs in the reception area…

Aug 10 2010

Love or hate – marmite now more than petrol!

I know what I’d rather eat – marmite any day. Petrol never really appealed to me.

Marmite XO - puts hairs on your chest

But there was news earlier this week that the proice or marmite has now reached the dizzy heights of a fiver. Five quid for a jar of the black stuff. I have to admit that I love it. This is despite spending a day with my late dad in about 1977 on what was then ‘work experience’. We went to the most boring meeting I could have ever imagined in Burton on Trent. It was at a foundry which was near to the marmite factory. I can still smell it now.

But this didn’t put me off Marmite. It put me off meetings!

It is made from spent brewers yeast – hence the connection with Burton on Trent home of a number of Breweries including Marstons.

And earlier this year I bought some XO Marmite in Selfridges in Birmingham. It is a bit potent…

But in reality it’s not so expensive compared to some of our other commodities:

Printer Ink – £1,700 per gallon
Chanel No.5 – £15,600 per gallon
Evian water – £4.00 per gallon
Scorpion Venom – £24.3m per gallon

And that essential of all commodities – a Starbucks Grande Cappucino weighs in at a mere £19.60 a gallon!

My only observation is that the Marmite goes quite a bit further than a gallon of petrol – especially in my car!

Aug 2 2010

Nottingham : a top liveable 25 city by 2011?

One of my favourite printed magazines is Monocle; I sometimes pick it up for the office, but last week took it on holiday. It is a weighty tome – and you need a few hours to pick your way through it.

It was good edition to buy – as they published the ‘liveable cities index‘ for 2010.

I was sad to see that Nottingham didn’t make the list, but then not one UK City did! We need to put this right immediately – or at least in time for the 2011 survey.

Liveable City, according to Monocle is

“urban settlements where human life can thrive because they are easy to navigate, diverse, pulsating and full of opportunities”. Easy then!

Munich came out top with Copenhagen and Zurich in second and third respectively.

What Monacle don’t do is print you a convenient tick list against which you are measured. You need to read between the lines, I will have a go at the headlines…

Transport – this features highly, whether it be the airport, public transport or cylcing. Reducing the reliance on the car is clearly a big factor. Easy to say but difficult to achieve…

Public Space – the winning cities all have a familiar theme – there are public spaces where people can walk, relax and play. Please walk on the grass!

Art / culture / technology – these intertwined things are an important part of the Cities life. Galleries can inspire people. But inspiration isn’t enough on its own – we need to create opportunities. Culturally you have to be diverse. We need to make it easy for people to start businesses and keep them running…

Food – when we were in the USA last year with the Sheriff of Nottingham we quickly spotted that ‘food’ was a key component to making something work well. The presence of an eclectic mix of restautrants – from Michelen starred establishments, to basic street cafes.

Sport – both watching and taking part are important in the mix of a City. People feel good if they are taking part or watching winners; they feel great if they are winning…

Ambitious and proud – the Cities featured had some familiar themes – they had ambition or were competitive (on a national and international stage). But critically their citizens were ‘proud’ – and this is a hard won badge.

Looking at this list, I don’t see that it is out of reach for Nottingham. In some ways we are ‘there’. I’m not saying we couldn’t do better – we could. But we have a great platform to work from.

Anyone up for the challenge?

p.s it was noted that there is a ‘chain’ index and the number of Starbucks is one of the measures. Shutting them down won’t help my cause..

Jul 26 2010

Lymington – a very nice place!

I am in Lymington this week – enjoying a week away from the frantic office!

Quaint cobbled-ness of Lymington

It is a fantastic place and you don’t need to take my word for it. It came out top in a survey in 2008 as the best seaside town in Britain.

We are staying at the excellent Elmers Court – a sort of modern day posh Butlins. Originally it was a Country House but is has had a chequered hsitory – including as a Magistrates Court, a School for ‘delicate’ children and during the war as a spy training school. Famously Odette Hallowes was trained here.

Lymington town itself is centred around a yacht harbour – the cobbled high street rises steeply and shares something with Nottingham; there are a warren of tunnels below the town! This was a smugglers paradise. It fits my story about rebels too.

Apparently Ben Ainslie CBE (Gold sailing Olympian) and Ken Russell (film director) live here. Johnny Depp is also rumoured to have a place here too. I haven’t seen any of them…

Like most places there are vacant shops on the High Street – but it sustains a Tesco Metro, Waterstones, ASK restaurant and others. The house prices are holding up; there are quite a few available in the £2-£4m range! I counted 6 estate agents in the town.

But there’s no Starbucks and so I’m beginning to wonder if we could move the Sainsbury’s Castle Marina branch here?