Sunday, November 25, 2007

what is worth money

IMGP3326On Friday, my girlfriend and I walked down to the new Apple store on Chestnut Street in San Francisco. Friday was "Black Friday", so all the stores were very busy, and Apple was not an exception. But being their first day, they had extra specials and were also giving away free T-shirts to the first people to go in. We did make it in time to get T-shirts.

I don't use Apple products (not even an iPod), and this was actually the first time I was in an Apple store, so the T-shirt doesn't excite me too much (plus it is too large). So I placed one of the shirts up on Ebay for sale on Friday. Now, with 5 days still to go, someone has already bid $20 for this shirt!

With the shirt the wrong size for us, the fact that we already have too many T-shirts, and that we would have to carry them with the other items we bought (nothing at Apple, but at other stores), we did consider not taking the shirts. But now that it looks like it has some value, I am glad I did take them.

How much do you think the shirt will go for?

日本語を話せる人へ:ごめん、英語だけで書いた。

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Friday, November 02, 2007

Live near fast food

Goo.ne.jp is a web site in Japan that is similar to Yahoo. They do surveys, including a recent one on what foreign food stores do Japanese people wish was near their homes.
Gooは先週海外チェーンの店舗のランキングに関する調査を行いました。そのことを来週プレゼンテーションしました。



  1. Haagen-Dazs / ハーゲンダッツ
  2. Starbucks / スターバックス
  3. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts / クリスピー・クリーム・ドーナツ
  4. Subway / サブウェイ
  5. Burger King / バーガーキング
  6. Taco Bell / タコベル
  7. Hard Rock Cafe / ハードロックカフェ
  8. Wendy’s / ウェンディーズ
  9. Cold Stone Creamery / コールドストーンクリーマリー
  10. OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE / アウトバックステーキハウス

There are some interesting results to this. For example, the number one choice was Haagen Dazs, which doesn't have stores in Japan, as far as I know (but is available in just about every convenience store and grocery store). Similarly, Taco Bell is #6, and also doesn't have stores in japan (excwept on American military bases).
おもしろかったです。1番はハーゲンダッツです。でもハーゲンダッツは日本の店があまりないと思います。米軍基地以外タコベル(6番)も日本にある店がありません。どうやって知っているか分かりません。

Number 3 is Crispy Creme Donuts. This is a total fad in Japan right now. They opened their first store less than a year ago, and only a few weeks ago opened their second store. Very much in the news, with pictures of lines around the block.
3番はクリスピー・クリーム・ドーナツです。去年の12月、クリスピー・クリームの日本第1号店が開店しました。2号店は2週間前です。新しいチェーンです。多分ニュースで見た、でも食べたことがないでしょう。流行のものでしょう。

Burger King is number 5, but interestingly McDonalds is not on the list. I think this may be because McDonalds are already all over the place in japan, so they don't need to wish to live near one (they already do).
バーガーキングは5番です、でもマクドナルドはランキングに入っていません。びっくりしました。マクドナルドはバーガーキングより人気だと思います。あちらこちらにあるので、もうみんな日本人はマクドナルドの近くに住んでいるでしょう。だから欲しくないかもしれません。

The ranking system is kind of strange. They give the most popular choice a score of 100, and then give the other responses in relation to this. This tells you how popular in comparison different stores are, but doesn't tell you the overall popularity of the choices (do half the people want to live near a Haagen-Dazs, or just 2%?).
いったいその序列法を使っていましたか。ハーゲンダッツは1番人気です、でもどれほど人気か分かりません。何パーセントを書いたほうがいいでしょう。

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