Bye-bye Puppy Place

Route 9 in Dutchess County is dotted with strip malls and destination malls. These malls have every type of stores to satisfy any consumers' needs, from the big name s like Macy's, Dick's, Wal-Mart to the mom and pop shops such as Futon King and Wits Construction.

Recently, I found out the Puppy Place has gone out of business and all its contents were removed from the store. The Puppy Place's business was exactly as the name implied. It sold puppies. Puppies were places in children's playpens on hard linoleum floor. Each playpen has a bowl of water, a bowl of food, a blanket, and some chew toys. Everytime we went in there to pet the puppies, parents and childrens ooh'd and ahh'd around each pen.

The place was clean and neat, but I still felt that something wasn't right. The puppies looked well-kept, well-feed, and cared for. But it's wrong to charge $1000 for a puppy when there are many puppies in the local ASPCA shelter about 4 miles away.

Now that the Puppy Place is out of business less than a year after it opened, maybe it's a sign that even in a community where every household has at least one dog, people are not going the shell out the big $$ for a life that was solely created to generate cash. I will miss going into the Puppy Place to pet the puppies every couple of weeks, at least I know now there will be one less place to keep the supply of puppy-mill puppies in my consumer-centric neighborhood.

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Market's Ups and Downs

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped (crashed) 400 plus points yesterday. The largest drop for the last four years. Well, since the last time the Dow has moved so much, I have been certified to be more of a business person. I have my nifty MBA degree from a fancy university. I can talk the talk of an educated investor. My first thought was, my investments!Okay, not really much of an investment. At least not in the stocks and bonds. I have a nice little 401K through work that is set for long term forecast and return. I'm still pretty far from retirement age. So, I don't have any worries about my 401K going down the crapper.But, I checked anyway. And yes, it went down. But no, in the whole scheme of things, yesterday's market problem will not affect my 401K.My educated brain has already told me that. My emotional gut wouldn't listen.

I wonder, how many people my age reacted like me. Checked their 401K, mutual funds, etc. basing on one day's activity. Even though the market activity was shocking and devastating to some. Reallocating is probably unnecessary. It was just a market correction. Well, brain, tell gut!

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Rats, Rats, and more Rats

Rats and cockaroaches were filmed running through a KFC/Taco Bell restaurant in New York City's Greenich area. Local news crew interviewed people on the street making statements that they will not return to the establishment ever again.

 I have been to that specific fast food joint before, during my graduate school days. Since it is located 5 blocks away from NYU and right next to the subway entrance, it was extremely convenient. I always thought the place was a little dirtier than other food places in NYC. But, seeing the rats scurrying around the seats made me gag.

Beyond the disgusting images, my thought moves to the franchisee. The location is a prime spot, on a main avenue, near an international University with tens of thousands students.  That's on top of foot traffic in the area. The franchisee must have paid a handsome amount for the licensing and rent for the location. How can a business person not care about the investment that much to let it be tarnished to the point where recovery will be impossible.

I doubt the KFC/Taco Bell will be there for long, even if the health inspectors give it a clean bill of health. That location will have a hard time attracting another food services entity. It will turn into another tattoo parlor, sex novelty shop, or another Baby Gap.

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Apologies from Jet Blue

 I'm so special. Today, I received a personal apology letter from David Neeleman, Founder and CEO of Jet Blue. He apologized for the delay and the inconvenience his company caused me over the Valentine's Day flight delay in the Northeast that cascaded to the rest of the country.Â

Okay, it wasn't really a personal letter. It's a form letter sent out to everyone who belongs to the Jet Blue database. I and about several million people received the letter. Jet Blue's attempt at winning back their customer and rebuilding their brand and reputation has been a big talking point on many cable news and business new channels.Â

 Personally, I appreciate Jet Blue's effort. I wasn't effected by the delay since I was no where near an airport during Valentine's Day and the days after. I did read about the passengers' account of being stuck in the sweltering plane sitting on the tarmac for 10 hours. I can empathize. I was stuck in a plane for extra 3 hours circling the San Francisco airport because there was cloud cover over the landing strip. A cloud! A cloud stopping a 747 from landing, sure. I don't remember what airline I was on, but it didn't apologize or make any effort to ease my dislike of it.Â

 I have always like Jet Blue's service and value. Although heir effort to clean up their tarnished reputation has an eye on the bottom line, I'm appreciative of their effort. Not too many companies take the extra steps to make me (their customer) feel important. And, it worked. I will continue to include Jet Blue in the pool of airlines to use whenever I need to travel.Â

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