fact OR fiction....
*raise curtains* the narrator, age 27 and obviously asian, looks at the screen of his computer, the screen reflects off his glasses, and the reflection is blankness....
muttering, "oh, this may work" he hurriedly types... "i just need a few paragraphs for this week"
_____
"philosopher - i wonder if the life i've been living is the proper one...
chimpanzee - ooh ooh ahh ahh
sage of the ages - is moral rectitude the prime goal of all humankind?
giant squid - *glurp glurp*"
_____
"i can't believe what i've just written... what IS this?"
the narrator anxiously tears at his hair, as if offering his whole scalp to the cosmos would grant the delivery of a perfect livejournal(TM) post, filled with obscene adventures of women and mcRib sandwiches that would astound anyone outside of the state of texas ... (but even if it were possible, the recent haircut he had makes this act futile...
but he can grasp at nothing... the stage darkens... outside the window, the sun splits atoms for a nearby squirrel, making the rodent chatter ever more reminiscent of the time the narrator saw this other squirrel chattering... the chattering crescendos... into a deafening chatter, as if squirrels possessed the hand strength to use human-sized megaphones.)
__________________________
preview party of the HEB store
thursday night, mom and i go like president and vice president of banyan foods to the preview party of the 90,000+ sq. ft. grocery store. there was demos everywhere and lines of people waiting to eat. a mariachi band was playing in one corner, in another corner an asian girl was playing some asian banjo-type (where is yao?). and i saw some black man juggling knives... can't HEB do better than that? (have kim fields sign autographs or something/find arsenio hall) all for the message of "this is YOUR store, you asian/hispanic/black shopper." frozen taquitos, breakfast sausages, nachos and cheese being handed out. i had made up a sign in english, mandarin, and vietnamese to hang above our tofu shelf. "freshest in houston since 1978" and other propaganda. next to the sign i made hung a sign that proclaimed our tofu on sale (3/$1). but no one could buy anything tonight. tonight was about previewing the store, walking the aisles, freeloading on some food. we met the owners of viet hoa there, a viet grocer nearby, who's breaking ground on a store right across the street from heb later in the year. he seemed optimistic about his future, under the shadow of heb, with an average foot traffic of 20,000 customers/day. the store's hours are 6am to midnight. guaranteed craziness.
__________________________
grand opening and the asian grocery backlash
fri morning i'm in austin, doing my demo thing. the prez calls me and tells me that tofu is flying off the shelves. at the end of the day, almost 4,000 packages of tofu are sold. that's 2 tons of cubed, white gold. the sale is until the following tuesday, and even after a slow saturday and sunday (due to rainy cold weather) another tofu sale is planned in february. what is interesting is that our competitor's tofu will have the same sale, after ours ends.. prez and i have theorized on the probable outcomes -
1) asians have been buying tofu furiously now, and need a break. (eh... tofu is like a staple good.)
2) our competitor won't be able to meet the demand. (very likely, since we know our competitor does not have the manufacturing capability that we possess. in this case, we've asked heb if we could enter the sale with our tofu, or else customers will not be happy to see empty shelves.)
monday prez is on the phones talking with the heads of the nearby asian grocery stores. of course, they all want their own tofu sales. the problem is, none of them have the deep pockets of heb. my mom tells them like it is. to their dismay, we've been selling to heb at a higher wholesale price than the asian grocers. heb has borne the whole cost of the tofu sale themselves. the price of plastics, cardboard, beans all have risen, and banyan foods has not raised prices on anyone, we've digested the rising costs ourselves. the owner of one grocery bluffs that our competitor is offering them a discount for their own 3/$1 sale... my mom tells them "i can give you a discount, but due to our rising costs, not as low as our competitor is offering you." this same owner proceeds to tell the other asian grocers not to buy tofu from us, instigating a possible boycott... (we know this b/c the owner of viet hoa told us he received such a call.) which gets even more sinister... since the grocer recently ordered some tofu from us, trying to feign a boycott, meanwhile funneling a bottleneck their way. this grocer actually calls my mom her friend. backstabbing beeyotch.
what do i feel about this situation?
asian businesses succeed b/c they are astutely aware of cutting costs. this has been my mom's experience. this has been my own as well when i sold car wash machines to taiwan. so we've eaten alot of "bitter" in business, but the important thing is to never let this harden you beyond pliability.
after 20 yrs, banyan foods is branching out beyond the asian community, and while "selling out" may be on the minds of every asian grocer who is currently facing the heb juggernaut, with respect to banyan foods... it's on my mind as well. i told the boss of viet hoa that i'd help him in anyway possible to remain competitive, right across the street from heb (heb does have some distinct weaknesses, attempting to cater to the black/latino/asian/white consumers, they specialize in nothing.) if the other asian grocers would stop the backstabbing mind games, they could coordinate a proper response as well.
muttering, "oh, this may work" he hurriedly types... "i just need a few paragraphs for this week"
_____
"philosopher - i wonder if the life i've been living is the proper one...
chimpanzee - ooh ooh ahh ahh
sage of the ages - is moral rectitude the prime goal of all humankind?
giant squid - *glurp glurp*"
_____
"i can't believe what i've just written... what IS this?"
the narrator anxiously tears at his hair, as if offering his whole scalp to the cosmos would grant the delivery of a perfect livejournal(TM) post, filled with obscene adventures of women and mcRib sandwiches that would astound anyone outside of the state of texas ... (but even if it were possible, the recent haircut he had makes this act futile...
but he can grasp at nothing... the stage darkens... outside the window, the sun splits atoms for a nearby squirrel, making the rodent chatter ever more reminiscent of the time the narrator saw this other squirrel chattering... the chattering crescendos... into a deafening chatter, as if squirrels possessed the hand strength to use human-sized megaphones.)
__________________________
preview party of the HEB store
thursday night, mom and i go like president and vice president of banyan foods to the preview party of the 90,000+ sq. ft. grocery store. there was demos everywhere and lines of people waiting to eat. a mariachi band was playing in one corner, in another corner an asian girl was playing some asian banjo-type (where is yao?). and i saw some black man juggling knives... can't HEB do better than that? (have kim fields sign autographs or something/find arsenio hall) all for the message of "this is YOUR store, you asian/hispanic/black shopper." frozen taquitos, breakfast sausages, nachos and cheese being handed out. i had made up a sign in english, mandarin, and vietnamese to hang above our tofu shelf. "freshest in houston since 1978" and other propaganda. next to the sign i made hung a sign that proclaimed our tofu on sale (3/$1). but no one could buy anything tonight. tonight was about previewing the store, walking the aisles, freeloading on some food. we met the owners of viet hoa there, a viet grocer nearby, who's breaking ground on a store right across the street from heb later in the year. he seemed optimistic about his future, under the shadow of heb, with an average foot traffic of 20,000 customers/day. the store's hours are 6am to midnight. guaranteed craziness.
__________________________
grand opening and the asian grocery backlash
fri morning i'm in austin, doing my demo thing. the prez calls me and tells me that tofu is flying off the shelves. at the end of the day, almost 4,000 packages of tofu are sold. that's 2 tons of cubed, white gold. the sale is until the following tuesday, and even after a slow saturday and sunday (due to rainy cold weather) another tofu sale is planned in february. what is interesting is that our competitor's tofu will have the same sale, after ours ends.. prez and i have theorized on the probable outcomes -
1) asians have been buying tofu furiously now, and need a break. (eh... tofu is like a staple good.)
2) our competitor won't be able to meet the demand. (very likely, since we know our competitor does not have the manufacturing capability that we possess. in this case, we've asked heb if we could enter the sale with our tofu, or else customers will not be happy to see empty shelves.)
monday prez is on the phones talking with the heads of the nearby asian grocery stores. of course, they all want their own tofu sales. the problem is, none of them have the deep pockets of heb. my mom tells them like it is. to their dismay, we've been selling to heb at a higher wholesale price than the asian grocers. heb has borne the whole cost of the tofu sale themselves. the price of plastics, cardboard, beans all have risen, and banyan foods has not raised prices on anyone, we've digested the rising costs ourselves. the owner of one grocery bluffs that our competitor is offering them a discount for their own 3/$1 sale... my mom tells them "i can give you a discount, but due to our rising costs, not as low as our competitor is offering you." this same owner proceeds to tell the other asian grocers not to buy tofu from us, instigating a possible boycott... (we know this b/c the owner of viet hoa told us he received such a call.) which gets even more sinister... since the grocer recently ordered some tofu from us, trying to feign a boycott, meanwhile funneling a bottleneck their way. this grocer actually calls my mom her friend. backstabbing beeyotch.
what do i feel about this situation?
asian businesses succeed b/c they are astutely aware of cutting costs. this has been my mom's experience. this has been my own as well when i sold car wash machines to taiwan. so we've eaten alot of "bitter" in business, but the important thing is to never let this harden you beyond pliability.
after 20 yrs, banyan foods is branching out beyond the asian community, and while "selling out" may be on the minds of every asian grocer who is currently facing the heb juggernaut, with respect to banyan foods... it's on my mind as well. i told the boss of viet hoa that i'd help him in anyway possible to remain competitive, right across the street from heb (heb does have some distinct weaknesses, attempting to cater to the black/latino/asian/white consumers, they specialize in nothing.) if the other asian grocers would stop the backstabbing mind games, they could coordinate a proper response as well.