Now open but rather small

Indigo Spirit store, Granville and Robson Streets, Vancouver, BC

A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to visiting the new Indigo Spirit store on Granville Street in Vancouver.

About 10% of the size of the old Indigo location at Howe and Robson, the new space looks reassuringly like a book store and one of the staff told me that the product mix was focused on books. This struck me as a rather odd comment to make.

It will be interesting to see if the store succeeds.

Raising awareness, but is it having a real effect?

Pink Shirt Day awareness event, Vancouver City Centre SkyTrain station, Vancouver, BC 

Pink Shirt Day, February 24, 2016, was pretty much inescapable this year. The signs were all over. London Drugs sold the tee shirts, and I wore mine to school. At my daughter's primary school they talked about bullying.

But in conversations with my students, especially female ones, the concern is that while schools talk about preventing bullying, so much of it happens online and most schools are unable or unwilling to tackle the problem.

In a few years I'm sure that our family will have to deal with and it is not a prospect that I'm looking forward to.

Is this promotion no longer bringing in the crowds?

Lines outside McDonald's (left) and Tim Hortons (right), Royal Centre, Vancouver, BC

I've been keeping an eye on Tim Horton's "Roll Up The Rim To Win" for a few years. McDonald's seems to be doing everything possible to undermine its biggest competitor in the coffee business.

The last few times I've looked at this mall, where the two firms are right across from one another, the line up has been bigger at McDonalds. (Yes, I know that this is a tremendously unscientific survey and fraught with many types of error.)

Sign in the window of McDonald's, Royal Centre, Vancouver, BC

McDonald's is also using free coffee as a way to capture more market share. This will be the the second time this year that McDonald's has offered its customers free coffee for a week.

It will be interesting to see the next financial results from Tim Hortons to see if McDonald's disruptive efforts are actually have a negative effect on Tim Hortons' sales.

Some things are real at McDonald's

Transformers and My Little Pony colouring sheet, McDonald's, Vancouver, BC

I'm often surprised by the areas where businesses try to save money, and the areas where they splash out for the real thing.

McDonald's current Happy Meal promotion includes the choice of either a Transformers or My Little Pony toy. As part of the promotion, the restaurants have colouring sheets available. The thing that surprised me about this was that the red crayons provided are real Crayola crayons.

The difference in cost over a non-name crayon is probably modest (In the order of pennies), but the difference in reputation is huge. In children's art supplies brand names such as Crayola carry enormous weight. Parents have an expectation of quality and safety, and a brand like Crayola delivers.

This company can't even spell. Of course I'd trust them with my money.

CIBC website promoting the bank's new Dividend VISA card

Advertisement on website promoting CIBC's new Dividend VISA card
(Source: Screen capture from YouTube.com)

Advertisement on website promoting CIBC's new Dividend VISA card 
(Source: Screen capture from YouTube.com)

Banks build their business on trust. If I trust the bank I should not feel nervous about depositing my money there. And my credit card details will be safe. 

So, how will my opinion of a bank be affected by an advertisement with spelling mistakes? (And what does "cash bac" mean?) 

I would say the opinion will be negatively affected. And it makes me wonder what other details is this institution failing to pay attention to?

Simple, stylish, and effective

Display window for The Room, The Hudson's Bay, Vancouver, BC

The Room is where the Hudson's Bay sells the most expensive women's designer clothing that the store carries.

For a couple of years I've been taking photo of this display window. The displays are always simple and striking. There are few if any props and the focus is on beautiful clothing.

What more do we need from a display window?

From educational to sexist

Happy Meal books, McDonald's, Vancouver, BC

Happy Meal toys (Transformers and My Little Pony), McDonald's, Vancouver, BC

Every couple of weeks the Happy Meal toy changes. The last batch of toys were children's books. Some great titles including Pete the Cat and Paddington.

And the latest batch of toys? Transformers for the boys and My Little Pony for the girls. And for children or parents that might miss the hint, the backgrounds are colour coded. Transformers on blue and My Little Pony on pink.

Could McDonald's sexims be more patronisingly obvious?

We have 31 flavours, just not today

 Baskin Robbins is known for having 31 flavours. In the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off the ice cream chain is referred to by the number alone.

But ice cream is a seasonal business with much higher demand in the summer. I was killing time between ferries and went into the Baskin Robbins in Horseshoe Bay for a cone. This location has two coolers with a total capacity of 32 different flavours of ice cream, but in the winter the selection is reduced with only 16 flavours on offer.

Ice Cream counter, Baskin Robbins, Horseshoe Bay, BC (16 flavours)

Ice Cream counter, Baskin Robbins, Horseshoe Bay, BC (Empty cooler.)

I can understand the desire to reduce inventory during the slow months, but it does make a bit of a mockery of the firm's branding. The logo even includes the number 31 in pink.

Baskin Robbins logo
(Source: http://logok.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Baskin-Robbins-logo-Vertical.png)

Just another one of those things that few people notice but that annoys the pedantic observer.

Only 10 more months to Christmas

Christmas Coca-Cola can, Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, BC

Last week I stopped by to visit a friend at the Hotel Vancouver. I was thrilled to see that it was still Christmas. When I opened the minibar fridge I was that Santa, that jolly old elf, was smiling out at me trying to entice me to spend $6.00 on a can of Coke.

This can is probably at least two months old. Not quite as bad as the Soccer (Football) World Cup can I saw last year that was at least six months old.

Given the age of much of the contents of these fridges, and the prices, I wonder who spends their hard earned month on such overpriced beverages? Whoever they are, they must not be very observant.

How does this store survive?

Microsoft Store, Pacific Centre, Vancouver, BC

Microsoft is making a brave effort to make a stand in the retail marketplace. I know that the firm still has deep pockets, but how can this business survive?

When I go by this store I usually see more staff than customers. When I look at the Apple store I see about a two or three to one customer/staff ratio, and about 20 staff on the floor.

In the Microsoft store I've never seen more than six staff and about the same number of customers.

I give this noble experiment another year, at the most.

Tough to do high resolution

Pepsi Super Bowl display, Save-on Foods, Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC

This grocery store regularly has displays that uses cases of soft drink to create an image. Often it is letters. This one, spelling out NFL, was obviously in place to take advantage of Super Bowl parties and the accompanying orgy of consumption.

My problem with this? The available resolution is not very good.  I think that the intent was to recreate the NFL shield logo (See below.), but it just didn't really work.

NFL Logo
(Source: http://www.sports-logos-screensavers.com/user/NFL_Logo.jpg)

It is tough to reproduce a detailed logo when your screen is only 13 pixels wide and 13 pixels high.

We may not be not legal but we just don't care

Licensing warning on computer, Vancouver, BC

Last week, well February 10 to be exact, I was staying at a hotel in Vancouver. I saw this notice on a computer that the hotel provided for guests.

Two things surprised me.

1. That "This copy of Windows in not genuine".
2. The staff didn't really seem to care or know what to do about it.

I wonder if the hotel management will react the same way if they discover that the cash I paid with is not genuine?

We don't need no stinking bloggers!

Video display wall, Shoppers Drug Mart, Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC

Last week I was told, in no uncertain terms, that I could not take photos inside a Shoppers Drug Mart store. (I took this photo from outside the store.)

I thought the video wall was great and I wanted to take photos to share with my students. Has Shoppers missed this whole social media explosion? I can't imagine that Shoppers enacts, or even tries to enact, the same policy with the young Instagram users who form a hugely profitable slice of the firm's cosmetics business.

I can understand that a firm may wish to prevent its competition from copying the store's designs and visual merchandising. But the copying can be done with secret cameras that the retailer will never notice. The photo taken openly by a professor is the least of Shoppers' worries. And the fact that I could get almost exactly the same photo from outside the store make the entire policy ridiculous.

Smaller packages and lower costs

Jelly bean packaging, Dollarama

Jelly bean packaging, Dollarama (Reverse)

In recent years the packages of many foods have decreased in size. This "inflation by stealth" has occurred across a broad range of consumer packaged goods.

But here is a case where the package gets smaller, but actually does not change size. Based on the "Best before" dates on the back of these bags of jelly beans, I presume that the shorter bag on the left is the new one. (2017 date) while the taller bag on the right is the old one (2016 date)

The remarkable thing is that both bags contain 250 grams of jelly beans. The smaller bags will take up less space in shipping and storage, Lower costs and more space in the store. And best of all, the customer is not getting stiffed.

No attention to detail required.

Source: http://www.workopolis.com/jobsearch/job/16592394?uc=E8&searchFragment=

I saw this advertisement on the Workopolis website. Nothing wrong with the job, but I might think twice about applying for a job with a firm that can't even spell the name of the province correctly.

Unless, of course, that somewhere there is place called "British Columia". Perhaps I'll visit one day.

Just lie to the customers (They won't notice.)

Best Buy raincheck

Best Buy raincheck (Detail)

Best Buy had a hard drive on sale. I stopped in to buy one. I was told that, despite the half dozen empty boxes on the shelf, there were none in stock.

I was not offered a raincheck, but was given one when I asked. I gave my email address and was told that I would be contacted when the drives arrived.

Last week I stopped in at the store. It had been a couple of weeks and I thought that perhaps more of the drives had arrived in the store.

I learned three things.

1. This Best Buy location only gets shipments of new stock one per week, on Thursdays.
2. The drives had arrived, but the salesperson I spoke to had sold the last one that day.
3. Despite what is says on the raincheck, Best Buy will  not contact customers when new stock arrives.

If you won't contact customers when stock arrives then why make the promise on the raincheck?

A great big game of confusion

Receipt and "Now Serving" screen at McDonald's, Vancouver, BC (Both are for number 134)

Receipt and "Now Serving" screen at McDonald's, Vancouver, BC (The receipt is for order number 773 and the "Now Serving" screen is showing number 567)

McDonald's has rolled out self-serve kiosks in some of its Canadian locations. You place an order and pay by some form of card (Credit, debit, or gift). The machine then spits out a receipt with an order number on it. You then proceed to the order delivery area and await your order.

Logical and confusing. The order number you get depends on the place your ordered with each self-service kiosk and each cash register getting a different starting digit. In the lower example my kiosk's orders started with a "7", while the order up for delivery was from a  kiosk that started its orders with a "5".

In reality the first digit is irrelevant.. In the bottom example I had order "73" and order "67" was currently being served. So, I could have thought that I would have to wait for over 200 orders to be delivered before my number came up.

So why have the starting digit? I think it is because orders may not come out in sequence, and this adds another layer of confusion for the customer. This way the slow-witted person who orders 15 burgers won't be able to figure out that the person who ordered a single cup of coffee got their order first.

Living in the "on demand" world

Advertisement for "Just Eat" app, Granville SkyTrain station, Vancouver, BC

Advertisement for "Just Eat" app, Broadway and Commercial SkyTrain station, Vancouver, BC

This looks like a fine idea. The one problem I can foresee is that the restaurants most likely to sign up will be the chains that I would not want to eat at anyway.

But is that where business is heading? We will increasingly make our choices from amongst what is easy and available, rather than picking the option that we'd really prefer, but which is a bit more of an effort?

Is this working or running a risk?

Skid of merchandise at the Apple store, Pacific Centre, Vancouver, BC

A few weeks ago I showed a skid of merchandise destined for the BOSE store. The driver told me that Apple is even more strict about the security of its shipments.

So, this is a shipment waiting to be delivered to the Apple store. Nothing on the label or wrapping tells you that the goods inside are for Apple. And the black pallet wrap hides the boxes.

But is the black pallet wrap not potentially creating a problem? If I was a thief and saw a truck full of skids of merchandise awaiting delivery, I'd presume that anything wrapped in black was worth stealing. This system of using black pallet wrap for high value shipments may be a self-defeating exercise. If it is hidden from view it must be worth the risk of getting caught. The problem is that the black wrap is both more expensive, and harder to recycle than the clear wrap. As a result the clear wrap is more popular for shippers. If everyone used black wrap then the colour would not be a signal to thieves.

I wonder how this will shake out?

Just bad luck

Scaffolding on the up escalator, Granville SkyTrain station, Vancouver, BC

Advertisement for Bank of Montreal, Granville SkyTrain station, Vancouver, BC

It is more bad luck than anything else, but I saw this advertisement for the Bank of Montreal, and just around the corner was an out of order escalator covered with scaffolding. (This station has one of the longest escalators in the SkyTrain system.)

There is nothing that advertisers can do to control this sort of problem, but having a campaign that depends of technology beyond your control working as promised is a bit of a risk, or perhaps just bad luck.

But the worst part was the up escalator was not running, so that effortless escalator ride was a long hike up stairs.

How to deal with inflation or Solve one problem but cause a few more.

Sign at Dollarama, Vancouver, BC (Photo taken February 3, 2016)

Price are going up. The decline in the value of of the Canadian dollar is forcing retailers to increase the prices fr all of the goods that they import. And as prices go up, the value of the average transaction is also rising. For a business that previously only accepted cash and Interac, rising prices run headlong into consumer cash flow problems.

And the remedy for consumers who don't have enough cash, either on hand or in their bank accounts, credit cards can the the answer.

Of course with credit cards come all of the attendant fraud and abuse. But is someone really going to use a stolen credit card at Dollarama? There are lots of other places that sell goods that are much more attractive.

One of these things is JUST like the other

Advertisement for Humber College, Lou Lou magazine, October 2013 

Advertisement for Douglas College, Granville SkyTrain station, 2015

I have no idea when Douglas College started using the "Do What You Love" line. It is a great line and does work well with the college's name.

The two colleges serve very different markets and are not really competing for students, but two Canadian post secondary institutions using the same slogan is a bit of a coincidence. I wish both of them well.

It's coming around again

Poster promoting "Pink Shirt Day", Take Five Cafe, Pacific Centre, Vancouver, BC

Bullying is getting more attention. (When I was a kid you tended to take your lumps. And please don't think that I'm saying that is or was the best option.)

So, with the problem getting much more visibility, efforts to deal with bullying have moved to the forefront. Pink Shirt Day, observed since 2007, is one of the main events to raise awareness of the issue of bullying.

So, with less that three weeks to go it is time to look in your wardrobe for something pink. Wear it with price on February 24, 2016.

Has this campaign run its course?

Telus van, Vancouver, BC

Telus SUV Vancouver, BC

Telus has been using this campaign, and a number of variations on it, since the 2000 absorption of Clearnet. (Clearnet used the campaign from the mid-1990s.)

Now 16 years later, the puns and animals on a white background has probably run its course. The problem that Telus has is the campaign is too well known. How can you change something that you are so closely associated with?

It will be interesting to see when Telus pulls the plug and moves on to something fresh and new.

A sensible line for trying times?

Display windows for the Coach department, The Hudson's Bay Company, Granville and Georgia, Vancouver, BC

Display window for the Coach department, The Hudson's Bay Company, Granville and Georgia, Vancouver, BC (Detail)

Coach produces some good looking bags. The quality is reasonable and the brand, started in 1941, actually does have a bit of genuine heritage.

The display windows look very good. The windows above are the new Spring 2016 windows at The Hudson's Bay Company store in downtown Vancouver.

The problem for Coach, and lots of other mid-market brands, is that the mid-market seems to have disappeared. The brands at the top end; Dior, Gucci, Hermes, Prada, Louis Vuitton etc., don't seem to have any trouble selling their bags, regardless of how many thousand dollars they cost.

But the mid-market continues to struggle. With cheap knockoff from below, and the real luxury brands above, are there still customers for the middle ground?

It will be interesting to see if Coach can survive.

Changing behaviour and saving time, but will it improve quality?

Advertisement for Starbucks order and payment app, Granville SkyTrain station, Vancouver, BC

Now I can use a smartphone app, iPhone or Android, to pre-order my beverage at Starbucks and it will be ready by the time I arrive at the store. Sounds great, or is it?

If I remember, Starbucks used to make a big deal about using all espresso shots within 15 seconds. If the beverage are made in advance, rather than made to order, I guess that 15 seconds of freshness goes out the window.

What's next? All beverages made in a centralized plant and sent out to the customers via drone? Or just coffee drones flying around delivering beverages on demand.

Someone played with LEGO when they were little

Partially Complete Quad-Lock concrete form

Partially Complete Quad-Lock concrete form

I looked at this and wondered why I hadn't thought of it. A series of interlocking foam panels that are both the form for the concrete and also the insulation. Two birds with one stone. Faster and easier.

In could only think that someone had played with LEGO as a child and saw the possibility of adapting the principles of the LEGO system to a whole new industry. The company is local and has been producing these types of systems for over 20 years. I wonder why it has taken until now for me to notice it?

I'll post more pictures as the building process continues.

One thing I like, two things I don't

Poster for Shaw "FreeRange TV", Granville SkyTrain station,m Vancouver, BC

The name 'FreeRange TV" is great. Cleven and conveys a lot. And using a chicken is also good.

But showing "Dora the Explorer" is inexcusable. I hate that show and I'm sure I speak for thousands of other parents. If my kid can get "Dora" using this service that is a very compelling reason for me NOT to get FreeRange TV.

The other problem I have is punctuation. Shouldn't it be "kids' shows"?