Los Angeles: February 27, 2008: Victor Caballero
We are seeing the average price of gas at $3.32 per gallon in the Los Angeles area this morning.
I paid $2.21 at the Burbank Costco yesterday and then drove by a Chevron on San Fernando and the price was $2.28.
Looking for the best price on gas?
Use various shopping sites including:
www.gasbuddy.com
www.gaspricewatch.com
Starbucks had it barista training yesterday 2.26.08, the best story to come out so far this morning is that because of the economy Starbucks is market testing $1 cup of regular coffee in the Seattle market.
A good move to continue to build marketshare in the ever increasingly competitive coffee space.
Experts are predicting that consumers will see gas at over $4 per gallon before Summer 2008.
The current price per barrel can impact prices at the pump by over $.50 a gallon today.
I predict that we will see $4 per gallon gas before the end of June. Actually, I have a bet with a friend, Jeffrey Naumann who doesn’t believe we will see $4 before June.
Orange County in Southern California is seriously considering implementing a restaurant grading system very similar to Los Angeles County.
This is a good move as it would help consumers to better evaluate their dining options.
There are cities within the County of Los Angeles such as Pasadena that do not use the grading system.
This system can be controversial as it can be unfair to some establishments that cannot control items that are part of the facility.
You can pickup the code here to add this to your website as well:
https://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/New
So I have decided to cancel my Vonage service.
Here’s the obstacles you need to overcome to necessary to cancel service with Vonage.
1. You have to call between certain hours.
Account Management Department is available to assist you Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. EST at 1-VONAGE-HELP (1-866-243-4357).
2. You have to navigate through the account management and have them tell you to call back in an hour, that they cannot make any changes to the account. Ask why the systems are down and they have no clue. I tried to call them twice to see if they would give me the same answer.
Why is Vonage taking down a vital system during business hours? Most likely this is a tactic to retain customers? I am now more determined to cancel my service and not let Vonage take advantage of me as a consumer.
I will be calling Vonage back in an hour to see what answer I get this time.
Early Bird registration has started for EconSM at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
This event is shaping up to be a great event.
Hope to see you there.
Early bird is $695 + $9.95 fee, the regular rate goes to $995 after the early bird which should last about a week or two.
Congrats to Rafat Ali and staff for putting together another great event.
Yang and Decker from Yahoo! made an appearance at the the IAB Conference in Phoenix today.
It appears that conversations are still ongoing with Yahoo and Microsoft, although it is a little confusing what is really going on, one thing for sure is that Microsoft is going for it and has started hostile takeover steps with preparations for a proxy battle and the ousting of the Yahoo board.
What will Yahoo do?
At this point it appears is preparing their Apex ad system, which has some buzz. We will see if it is as promised. Indications are good so far.
Along with Apex we should expect to see a Buzz offering from Yahoo.
We haven’t heard too much about Yahoo Live, it appears to still be up and running with about 1500 viewers and 100 channels broadcasting live. Most of the video is not worth watching but there are a few that are interesting. How is Live going to be different than ustream and justin tv? That is the question.
Yahoo has to offer a product that is different than anything else out there. Maybe playing catchup and surpassing the competition is part of the strategy?
More to follow.
I am a big fan of Disney movies. Now with the Disney Movie Club you can save a few dollars when you purchase moviews.
Disney is excited to announce they have just rolled out a brand new (and improved) offer for customers! New members to the Disney Movie Club will now enjoy 4 Disney movies for just $1.99 each, and Free Shipping! This new offer applies only to the U.S. site.
This past weekend on February 23, 2008 we went out to Aguora with our good friends on a short hike to the Mash site. It was the celebration of 25 years since the last episode was shot on the location.
I took some video and pictures at the location with various celebreties that had come out to show their support and talk a little about MASH.
I was not a huge fan of the show, but it is amazing that they did use the site and the surroundings to make it look like a war scene from Korea.
Mike Ferrell
Loretta Swift