Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Changing news stories isn't nearly as awesome as change Getter

Ian Bush, 22 year old and dead from a shot to the back of his head, but that's not the point here.

For the first time, I saw a news story being changed within a day of the initial report.

This morning, CBC Radio 1 reported an incident where a police killed a son of a woman in BC in an act of self defence. The women went ahead and filed a lawsuit against the police, not with the intention of prosecuting the officer, but rather to draw attention to cases like this where the killing could have been prevented and to encourage change in the police's internal structure. Upon hearing from the police that there are plans to refine this internal investigation system of the police, she promptly dropped the lawsuit, acknowledging that the financial burden is also a bit too much at the moment for her. At least this is what is said in the initial version of the story.

Friday, October 23, 2009

¥500/kg(or $160/lb) Beef Sold in China

Recently in China, various super markets started to appeal to the high-end luxury consumers by importing various food products from other countries and sell them as luxury food items in China. As the market becomes more saturated with numerous small super markets intended to appeal to the general public with the main strategy of lowering prices, competition between stores rose and big companies soon began to realize the much higher potential for profit at the other end of the spectrum. Thus, the luxury super markets are born.

Various stores such as the "International", the "BHG" and "Olé" import their products from countries over the world and redistribute them for a much higher price. According to reports various items like import fruits from Thailand sold for 100s of yuan per kg, imported European bread sold for 10s of yuan per loaf and even imported beef from Australia being sold for nearly five hundred yuan are now becoming a common sight in these luxury stores.

To put that into perspective, one US dollar is equal to 6.82 yuan. Which means that import fruits with price tags of up to $44/kg or $97/lb or higher(from a 300 yuan price), bread sold for $7.3 per loaf and beef sold for up to $73.22/kg or $161/lb are being sold as luxury items in China, where the average wage is approximately ¥1500 or $220 a month.

This may seem like a shocking development in the Chinese economical structure, but in reality, it was only a matter of time before the businesses recognized the business opportunities the growing upper middle class provided. With newfound wealth the demands for high quality products imported from foreign provided business with nearly limitless opportunities for profits. As of now, China is the world's second largest consumer of luxury products, having just surpassed in the most recent survey. Additionally, a research survey published by Abrams Research recognizes China as the largest potential market for future luxury products. At this rate it's no wonder why there's market for those beef.

But still, $161/lb beef?

Holy. Shit.