I’m a St George Bank customer. Given the proposed merger, it seems that soon I’ll be a Westpac customer, despite what Westpac management are saying. During yesterday’s briefing, Ms Kelly was adamant the branch network would be maintained, saying even when a St George branch and a Westpac branch were side by side in the ... [More]
I’d generally consider myself a patient man, but one of the things that makes me cranky is customer service that doesn’t live up to expectations. I don’t expect shopkeepers to grovel to me or anything, but I do expect them to at least attempt to make my shopping experience as smooth as possible — or ... [More]
Safeway and Coles are going to put self-serve checkouts into their supermarkets, starting with newly refurbished locations. I’ve used these for a couple of years at Big W at Southland and QV. You scan each item, then put it in a bag in a tray of the checkout, and it appears to weigh the items ... [More]
Plenty has been written about this before, but I’ll put my oar in. Facebook knows lots about you. Most users key in a bunch of stuff about their hobbies, favourite music, TV shows, all that kind of stuff. They know (roughly) where you live, how old you are, often your marital status, your interests. So ... [More]
How’s this for a scheme? 1. Buy discounted Kit Kat Chunky chocolate bars for $1.29 at Safeway. (On special only until closing time tonight; normal price $1.88) 2. Eat bar. 3. Use code inside wrapper that gets me a $1.69 song from iTunes. 4. Profit! I like chocolate, and I already have an iTunes account. ... [More]
I don’t mean to gloat or anything, but I’m rather pleased I locked-in my mortgage interest rate last year. It’s locked-in for 5 years (the maximum) which may or may not have been a good idea — only time will tell — but it certainly looks pretty good right now. Mine’s locked-in at 7.85%, whereas ... [More]
How is it that this happens every year, every Good Friday? Almost every shop in the country is closed. And yet there’s a continual stream of cars into the supermarket car park, driving up to see if it’s open. It’s not open guys. Almost nothing is open on Good Friday. The empty car park should ... [More]
When they first arrived in Australia, my mum used to call 7-11 “4-7-11”, because the TV jingle went “Thank heaven… for Seven Eleven!” In Swanston Street, just a few doors down from the 7-11 on the corner of Flinders Lane, is a fake 7-11: the 24-7 Cafe, with a colour scheme that is similar, but ... [More]
Don’t use Dymocks bags for permanently storing things in. They seem to be made of some kind of plastic that degrades quite rapidly. I’ve had two that were kept in drawers, out of the sunlight, which have unexpectedly disintegrated into lots of little plastic bits. Actually I think it’s great that they’re using this kind ... [More]
I nipped briefly out for a quick hot choccie with my valentine, with a wrapped box of chocolates and a card in an envelope. I returned with an unwrapped box of chocolates and a card in an envelope. They weren’t the same ones, honest. That would be a bit sad and tragic, wouldn’t it. No, ... [More]
1. It was what I needed. I’ve been surviving on a (slightly rickety) old mono laser printer for some time now. I decided to upgrade to a colour copier/scanner/printer, to get back colour printing, to clear out the aging scanner that is only just compatible with Windows XP, and to avoid having to go to ... [More]
Well I haven’t quite finished my Christmas shopping, but I have at least got over the hump, thanks to a few fruitful hours spent at the very noice Highpoint yesterday. It wasn’t half as crowded as I expected — and the beauty of Highpoint is you can easily get there without the car, and the ... [More]
Happy Gravy Day. Last night I saw the Bourke Street decorations by night for the first time. But I was in a bad mood this morning. After a recent good run, I had two hassle-filled commutes in a row — last night at 10:30 the trains were still stuffed after the storms, and this morning, ... [More]
A comment on a very funny Scott Adams’ post about a Las Vegas casino sucking money out of his wallet led me to this fascinating post about casino design. In turn, some of the comments there are very interesting too. It reminds me a bit of supermarket design. How things like milk (that you might ... [More]
Call me slow, but I didn’t know until I spotted the ribbon-sellers in Collins St this morning that it’s World AIDS Day today. There are various causes out there with varying degrees of deservedness (is there a better word to use there?). Some of those that put highway collectors out on weekends in particular I’ve ... [More]
Eh? From last Monday’s Herald Sun: Melbourne restaurant manager Monique Moussi rented out her home in Seddon, on the city’s edge, in favour of a fast-paced and closely networked lifestyle in the fashionable Docklands precinct near the city’s heart. She’s far too busy running the family restaurant, Medici’s, to maintain a house and garden, and ... [More]