Category: Business

So a co-worked passed this link to me today — a group is trying to shame McDonald’s into not giving out toy Hummers with their Happy Meals. If you’re so inclined, you can also make your own McDonald’s road sign there.

Like this:

But oddly, after I was done checking the site out, I started thinking “wouldn’t a hamburger for lunch be a good idea?”

Not that I would have gotten said burger at McD’s, but still, it got me thinking. Maybe that Ronald McHummer site is in fact an evil marketing ploy designed to get people going to McDonald’s!

Oh, and for the record, I ended up having schwarma for lunch. Yum yum.

Heh:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Friday it plans to sell its 85 stores in Germany to rival Metro AG, a move that effectively ends a nearly decade-long effort by the world’s largest retailer to crack the market in Europe’s biggest economy.

Terms were not disclosed, but Wal-Mart said it expects to incur a loss before taxes of about $1 billion related to the deal in its second quarter.\

…

Sy Schlueter, chief executive of investment house Copernicus in Hamburg, said Wal-Mart had trouble winning over German consumers, who tend to be very price-focused and would rather drive to a different store if they know they can buy something cheaper. National discounters such as Lidl GmbH and Aldi Einkauf GmbH put the heat on Wal-Mart’s sales, he said, by offering the same products at competitive prices.

Furthermore, Schlueter said consumers rejected some of Wal-Mart’s signature features, like stores outside of town centers, employees required to smile and heartily greet customers, or baggers at checkouts.

Philip Kaplan, who ran the controversial Web site FuckedCompany.com during the dot-com bust, has stepped aside as CEO of a small, profitless start-up he founded in 2004.

Kaplan, 30, told CNET News.com on Wednesday that he made the decision to turn AdBrite, which sells online advertising, over to “professional management.” While he said he wasn’t forced out, he acknowledged that his board of directors didn’t try to dissuade him from stepping down.

Karma? Only a little bit. AdBrite’s not fucked — it is still in business, even if he’s not running the show anymore. And given Pud’s habit of serial entrepreneurship, I suspect there will be other ventures in his future.

Thinking about mashups this morning, I had an idea for one that I don’t think has been done yet.

It would be a three-way mashup of Google Maps, job listings, AND information from local mass transit so that you could pinpoint all jobs in your area that are accessible by public transportation.

In other words, it would help you find a job that you didn’t have to drive to.

Perhaps this has already been done — I need to get to work, or I’d look right now. But if it hasn’t, then you read it here first!