Combo Business

(via Bad Newspaper)

What Happened to the Heart Attack Grill

The Heart Attack Grill seemed like a bad idea from the start. That wasn't just a clever name, the Arizona eatery had waitresses dressed like nurses, and offered free food to people over 350 pounds. The restaurant flourished and moved to Las Vegas. It closed a couple of months ago. But it wasn't because of lawsuits or the medical problems of their customers. 
    
The Heart Attack Grill story takes only three minutes, then Weird History explains founder John Basso's reasons for closing his Heart Attack Grill by taking us through the history of Las Vegas restaurants and how they've changed over time.  

  

Eternia or Ikea?

Alamo Drafthouse presents a new quiz show that challenges your ability to recognize or guess names. They give you a name, and you have to decide whether it's from the fictional kingdom of Eternia from the TV show He-Man and the Masters of the Universe,  or from the non-fictional kingdom of IKEA furniture. There is a certain demographic who should ace this quiz, since they grew up on He-Man and now buy IKEA furniture. For the rest of us, it's a toss up because each of these strange names can go either way. 

As the game progresses, you can start to see how these kingdoms are somewhat alike. IKEA gives its furniture names instead of simply stock numbers to enable customers to share their favorites, creating free publicity. Eternia names its characters so you can keep up with them in a TV show- but that TV show was born to promote a line of toy products. It might help you to know that some He-Man characters are named for their unique features, while IKEA doesn't do that- or if they do, it's in Swedish. (via Geeks Are Sexy) 

Converted KFC

(via Pleated-Jeans)

Why People Love Aldi

Weird History Food gives us the history of Aldi, and only halfway through do they switch to why people love the grocery store. They don't go deep enough into the labor force, though. Aldi saves money by only having two or three employees on duty, whereas Kroger will have 40-50 during peak hours- plus overnight workers stocking shelves. At Aldi, every worker is either stocking shelves or checking out customers, and that's all they do. The employees are paid well and treated well, and they love checking out customers, because they sit down on bar stools to do it, unlike most American grocery chains. The reason you can't get a job at Aldi is because every grocery worker in town is waiting for one of the rare job openings at Aldi. 

Cirque du Soufflé

What else would you expect from a joint named Le Maison Pretentieuse? That doesn't even make sense in French. This comic is from Tree Lobsters.

Mike

Mike has it figured out. (via Bits and Pieces)

Meat

(via She Who Seeks)

Remember CosMc's?

Hey, remember that time when McDonald's opened a chain of coffee shops? Me neither. Weird History Food usually goes through the whole timeline of chain restaurants, but for this one they only had to go back two years. Really. CosMc's was a coffee shop that offered plenty of fancy variations on coffee plus a variety of bizarre cold drinks. There was a lot of hoopla in a very short time, and then it disappeared just as quickly. You will be forgiven if you don't remember it at all, because there was most likely never a CosMc's near you. What we learned from this experiment is that McDonald's, as successful as it is with burgers and fries, is always looking for the Next Big Thing, no matter how weird. Tom Blank explains the big splash and quiet legacy of CosMc's and other failed McDonald's experiments. 

A Truly Interesting Board Game Table Review

I don't normally post product review videos, and I know nothing about premium game playing tables, but you will enjoy this. Jeff Kornberg of The Dragon's Tomb makes videos about tabletop games, and his reviews can be hilariously scathing. Seemingly unaware of this, a company called Starmork offered to send him their new deluxe game table to review. 

Kornberg tells the tale of their correspondence, which took months, but he finally received the table. Here he presents to you in all its glory. As funny as the review is, the punch line at the end is delivered by someone besides Kornberg. (via Metafilter) 

Red Lobster's All-You-Can-Eat Deals

Pay one price, eat as much as you want. The early all-you-can-eat buffets were loss leaders, meaning the establishment lost money, but they did it because it brought people in which paid off in others ways. That works in a casino, but when the idea spread to restaurants, management had to carefully keep up with the economics and adjust prices to avoid losses. That's important, because people can and will eat an astonishing amount of food. Most buffets don't have much in the way of expensive seafood. 

Then there's Red Lobster, which offered all-you-can-eat crab legs and then was astonished that they lost money. So what did they do? They switched from crab legs to endless shrimp on limited days. Then the days went unlimited. When that lost money, they did everything else they could before they rolled back on the shrimp. Red Lobster is still there, but the chain is a shadow of what it once was. However, most folks agree that it wasn't the shrimp that did them in, it was a leveraged buyout by venture capitalists who pulled some pretty skeevy tricks to make a quick profit. That doesn't always work the way you think it will. 

Don't Say Velcro

The lawyers at VELCRO® Brand would prefer you not to use their company's name. What? Not say the brand name? I think the point they are getting to is that you shouldn't use their name when referring to the same product made by companies other than VELCRO®, although they aren't that clear about it. The actual product should be referred to as "hook and loop." The company wants to protect their trademark even though they lost the patent 40 years ago.

The singing lawyers make for a funny video, but as for using the brand names as a generic term, that genie left the bottle long ago. Just ask Crock-Pot®, Xerox®, Thermos®, or any of the other brands that became nouns. People are not going to say "hook and loop," but thanks to this video, they may be more aware of the brand, and that's the real point. (via Metafilter)

Little Caesars

(via Pleated-Jeans)

Apple Store

I'm glad the Apple Store is there, somewhere (not here), so I can order something delivered when I need it. This diagram is from Matt Shirley. 

New Store

(via reddit)

Diversifying the Business

(via Bad Newspaper)

The Foldery has Folded

There's a building on the other side of my block that is intermittently for rent. It's had a couple dozen businesses inside over the time I've lived here, all the culmination of someone's dream business. They happily stock the place and man the register, but their sign is small, they don't advertise, and they don't plan on how to get along without making an immediate profit. I always buy something, within reason, but each business folds within a few months. You can't just sell something because you want to. Other businesses in the neighborhood serve someone's needs, and built a clientele over time. That's why they are still there. This comic is from David Malki! at Wondermark. 

Late Stage Capitalism

Face it, nobody ever wanted to work. But we did anyway, and what do we get? This comic is from Pizza Cake. 

Diversifying the Business

(via Bad Newspaper)

Explaining The New Tariffs

This makes as much sense as anything else I've read about Trump's tariffs. It's from Randall Munroe at xkcd.