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newsletternewsletter 302
Best FREE Computer Website Best FREE Computer Catalog and Website
By the way, neither I nor pcAmerica have any association with MicroCenter.com nor have we received any payments for writing about them. I personally used Micro Center to repair my laptop. They did a good job. This is a great website and catalog for comparing prices, buying and finding all sorts of computers, parts, and accessories. The best part of MicroCenter.com is their FREE monthly flyer that you can sign up for and have delivered to your home or business. The monthly 20 page catalog contains photos, descriptions and prices for everything you can think of related to computers. Micro Center sells new or refurbished computers and laptops (HP, Apple, Toshiba, Sony, Acer, Gateway and others). The catalog contains $7.99 4 GB USB flash drives, all types of blank CD’s and DVD’s, hard drives, memory, software, graphic cards, printers, hard to find and easy to find cables, digital cameras, mice, power protection devices, and all else computers. I have to admit, I have never made a purchase from Micro Center (other than having my laptop repaired). However, I do look forward to receiving my catalog monthly and looking at all the computer goodies packed into their 20 oversized pages. As a computer enthusiast, I miss all the computer catalogs and magazines that I used to receive in the mail each and every day. Most of the magazines have ceased publication. Most of the computer catalog companies sell over the internet and have ceased or limited their catalog publications. Micro Center is one of the remaining complete catalogs that you can actually hold in your hands and read in … well, let’s just say your favorite place to read this type of publication. To visit Micro Center, go to: You can subscribe to the FREE Micro Center Catalog at (submit your mailing address towards the bottom of the page): http://f.microcentermail.com/asbs/servlet/SS?F=2790842 Micro Center currently has 21 stores within the United States. I visited one of their stores. It was a supermarket of joy for any computer enthusiast and far superior to the now defunct CompUSA chain of stores. Best Publication for Restaurant Owners
If you own any type of restaurant, you need to subscribe to Restaurant Startup & Growth. At $39.95 per year, it’s a steal. I rate this magazine 10 of 10. The magazine has a great website with lots of materials essential for restaurant owners. Click on a copy of the magazine article on the right side of the magazine website home page and get a FREE copy of the magazine. Add your email address and get a FREE weekly newsletter with valuable tips for increasing your profits and running a more efficient restaurant. To get your FREE emails and magazine, go to: This week’s Restaurant Startup & Growth email newsletter is called “Customer Buying Habits Are Changing. Are You Adapting?” You may own a very fancy restaurant or a less than fancy fast food establishment. We all have something in common. We are all suffering from a lack of consumer spending. McDonald’s is benefiting from the recession. Many restaurants and fast food establishments are offering value to customers are doing very well. On the other hand, other food establishments are doing poorly and closing. Much of the success or failure of a restaurant has a lot of do with laziness or lack or desire to change. We have a new President who based his campaign on change. In our bad economic times, it seems that “change” is the magic word. It is no longer good enough to offer good food and service. Your restaurant also needs to change in order to survive. I live near a very successful local diner. Recently, a competitive diner opened down the road reducing revenues in the original diner by about 50%. The older diner changed some of its staff, added new chairs, a more friendly smile, added a bunch of value dinners and now offers free refills (soda and coffee). They made a bunch of minor but significant changes. The diner got back its old customer base and is now busier than ever. The diner’s profit margin has gone down somewhat, but total gross profit is up due to higher volume. A restaurant that starts a birthday club, keeps in contact with its customers, and adds value to their menu, will overcome the temporary consumer spending reductions. Need to assess the profitability of your menu? Go here to download Menu Engineering Worksheets: http://www.restaurantowner.com/public/322.cfm Is it time to discount? I say never. Lots of restaurants are offering discounts to customers in order to draw them in. Once you offer a customer a discount, it’s hard to take it away. Look at the auto industry.
According to Restaurant Startup & Growth, “Instead of
discounting and cutting already thin profit margins, some of our
members are having success in bringing more guests through their
doors by enhancing the perceived of value of certain It’s a great magazine and a great web site. Go to: http://www.restaurantowner.com/ Bus Your Own Table Bob Evans restaurants, TGI Friday’s, and Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza are some of the restaurants that have fired busboys leaving clearing the table up to the server (some, but not all locations have fired busboys). According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, things are not always going smoothly. Plates are lingering longer on tabletops. Floors aren’t getting cleaned. And, in several restaurants, spoons are mysteriously disappearing. The theory is that servers are throwing them out with discarded food when cleaning up tables. Firing busboys (or is it bus persons?) is pretty complicated. Besides overtaxing the waiters and waitresses, restaurants may find themselves in the middle of some legal difficulties. Busboys in some restaurants get $6.55 per hour. Waiters and waitresses get $2.13 per hour and are exempt from certain minimum wage laws because they receive tips. Now that waiters and waitresses are performing the duties of busboys, restaurants may be required to pay them an additional amount since they now have a dual position. For many restaurants, busboy was a starting position for many high school students who wanted to move up to waiter or waitress status. Restaurants were able to test future servers by seeing how they handled their busboy positions. At times, busboys were able to help and even fill in for servers during busy and hectic periods of time. I’m not sure that firing busboys is the best way to curb costs in restaurants. Will the time come when customers will need to bus their own tables? To read the entire Wall Street Journal article, go to: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123302375460718461.html Or, go here: http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/01/27/recession-hits-busboys/
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I
have lots of favorite computer websites. I have to say, that
MicroCenter.com is my current favorite.
“Good
Restaurateurs Are Always Learning.”
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