Vegetables are driving me crazy!

Ever since the last typhoon, the vegetable situation here has been absolutely crazy. This is not an unusual phenomenon; after any typhoon prices usually jump up, but usually just for a few days. But here we are weeks later and still having problems. Previously our problem was related to price. Tomatoes were the worst, tripling in price to TW$180/kg. We had been product testing using pre-shredded lettuce instead of shredding it in-store but they announced they’d be going to TW$200/kg for that so we switched back to shredding it ourselves.

Today our main vegetable supplier only delivered half our vegetable order to each of our stores. They cited market shortage as the reason for the cut in our order. But that leaves us kinda stuck. We order based on our sales level, so having our order suddenly cut means we don’t have enough. On the other hand, Subway specifies how much of each vegetable goes in a sub and that we can only buy from authorized vendors.

All this means we are stuck with no good choice on how to resolve the problem.

One Hour: 312 Free Hot Subs Given Away


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcosWu-qzBE

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of SUBWAYâ„¢ in Taiwan, participating restaurants had a free hot sub giveaway for one hour on 2007-10-26. This is a time-lapse video from SUBWAYâ„¢ Qingcheng Restaurant where we gave away 312 free hot subs in one hour.

SUBWAYâ„¢: http://www.subway.com/

SUBWAYâ„¢ Qingcheng Restaurant: http://jimmys.tw/subway/36096/

The SUBWAYâ„¢ trademarks are owned by Doctor’s Associates Inc. and the independent franchised operator of this restaurant is a licensed user of such trademarks.

Media Coverage of Free Sub Giveaway

We’re getting some nice news coverage of the free sub giveaway. There was a news segment on ERA TV News (Channel 50) covering the event at the Neihu Ruiguang store. Lots of happy customers trying out the found, some great shots of the subs being made, and a short interview with Brendon, the store owner. It is nice to get a good event like this covered by the media.

Wow! 546 free subs in one hour!

We gave away 312 free subs at Qingcheng Restaurant and 234 free subs at Xingtian Temple Restaurant in just one hour today. One of the other owners gave away even more than that and also had two TV news crews covering the event at his restaurant. We also gave away buy one get one free coupons with every free sub in the hopes that we can get some new customers out of the event. All in all I’m very happy we got to give a lot of potential customers a taste of our food and service.

On Board

Every year each Subway market elects an board of franchisees in the market who will decide how to spend the advertising contributions in the market. Our election for the Taiwan board was in September and I ran for a seat (last year I didn’t qualify as I hadn’t been open long enough). Unfortunately I did not earn a seat in the election and was tied as second runner up. Today I found out that one of the board members resigned. The first runner up passed on the seat and the person I was tied with deferred to me, so I’m now on the Subway Taiwan ad board.

Which Way is She Turning?

Check out this freaky animation (from cranky penguin’s mommy). It’s supposedly a way of testing whether you are right-brained or left-brained. When I first loaded the page I thought she was turning counter-clockwise. I then read the article and looked back and she was turning clockwise. I can get her to switch directions to counter-clockwise by concentrating but it is very easy for her to go back to clockwise again. Which way do you see it?

Wifi vs. Microwave Ovens

Many people know that 802.11b/g/n wifi can suffer from interference from microwave ovens. What doesn’t seem to be well known is that it only affects part of the wifi spectrum and can be worked around. Microwave ovens operate at 2.45ghz which roughly corresponds to “channel 9” on wifi gear. They also interfere on +/- 2 channels. So if you have problems with wifi dropping when a microwave oven is in use, simply avoid using channels 7-11 on your access point/router. I switched to channels 3 and 4 and no longer have an issue of interference.