Christmas pics
Here’s a pic of some fools taking a shopping trolley on the escalator at Highpoint, where Marita and I managed to do a surgical strike for last-minute presents, and be back on the tram to her place within 30 minutes, before it got stupidly busy this morning.
Here’s some wrapping paper I bought last week…
…and here, with the brightness and contrast adjusted, is kinda what the wrapping paper looks like when in a darkened room. Hmmm.
And finally, here’s my experimental office Christmas photography…
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Tags: Christmas, Highpoint
3 comments
If Myer went totally online, would the Christmas Windows turn into a web site?
Myer will close stores in Victoria and New South Wales and shrink surviving stores in response to the two-speed economy and online shopping.
– Myer to close or shrink stores as retail malaise bites
Remembering that Myer Melbourne has already shrunk in size by about half, this isn’t a huge surprise. Sounds like some of the smaller stores will be closed.
I can’t see it happening, but I suppose if Myer went totally online, the Christmas Windows would be transitioned into a web site. Some kind of Flash animation, a Youtube clip or a Flickr slideshow?
I like shopping in person, seeing things up close, and the instant gratification of avoiding delivery times. But I also like online shopping — the flexibility of hours, the wide variety of products, and the generally better prices. This year my Christmas shopping has been a mix of both.
The Bourke Street Mall has been packed this week, especially from lunchtime onwards. It’ll be interesting to see how the retailers have gone this Christmas.
Tags: Christmas, Myer, shopping
7 comments
Symmetry and recursion, all thanks to advertising
Thanks to the miracle of advertising, we have a bank on a tram…
…a tram on a bank…
…and a bus stop on a bus stop.
If you’re curious, the bus stop picture is portraying the 811/812 route on “Main Street”.
Unfortunately the bus stop in the picture doesn’t appear to have another advert with a bus stop on it. Which means it’s not really recursive.
Happily the bus stop sign is nowhere near as faded as some of them are.
Spotted at Minotaur
I’ve shopped at Minotaur Books for decades. I first found it in the early 80s when it was at the top end of Swanston Street. Then it moved to a multi-level shop in Bourke Street. Then to its current home in Elizabeth Street.
It’s always had way more cool stuff than I could afford to buy, though for some time in the mid-80s I was buying Doctor Who Monthly regularly.
Nowadays my kids love going there. Spotted last week…
Doctor Who “Lego” (compatible bricks):
…and, who would like a Doctor Who Myki holder?
(Sanctuary Base 6, for those who don’t remember it, was the base from the David Tennant story The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit.)
Tags: Doctor Who, Lego, Minotaur Books, Myki
2 comments
Coke ads on the sides of trains
It was bound to happen once they started putting advertising on the sides of trains: Coke ads.
Given trains are seen not just by passengers but also by motorists and pedestrians at level crossings, it could be quite lucrative for Metro. One can only hope the money goes into better services.
My guess is we won’t see these on Comeng trains, due to the fluted sides. Too hard to stick ads onto.
But they are putting ads inside the Comeng trains:
And another recent addition is this trial video screen at Melbourne Central Station:
As with (apparently) the ones at stations in Sydney and elsewhere, it goes blank when a train approaches, so as not to be a distraction.
Maybe all this advertising is paying for the shiny new flat-screens popping on the concourse and platforms at the underground stations.
Sunday Age “outperforms the rest”
I’m always amused when one of the newspapers crows about the latest circulation figures.
THE Sunday Age continues to be the best-performing metropolitan newspaper in Australia, according to the latest circulation figures.
The newspaper recorded the best year-on-year growth to September 2011 of any daily, Saturday or Sunday newspaper in the country.
It takes a particularly selective use of the figures to come up with the headline “outperforms the rest”. In the article they quote the Sunday Age’s circulation of 228,826, but fail to mention the circulation of their competitors.
The figures were all published last week. The Age is outstripped by their main competitor in Melbourne, the Herald Sun, every day of the week.
While it’s true that the Sunday Age is growing in circulation (by 2126 in a year apparently), I think it’s rather optimistic to claim it “outperforms the rest” when it’s only selling 41% of the competition, and at this rate of growth (and the current rate of loss for the Sunday Herald Sun), it’ll take another ten years to get equal.
Tags: Herald Sun, newspapers, The Age
3 comments
A few pics for Thursday
Pac-Man on Lonsdale Street
(though if the ghost is blue, Pac-Man must have had a power pill, and should be chasing, not chased)
I don’t want to seem paranoid, but I don’t think this is a real ATM:
Behold! The temple of Gorm!
Tags: ATMs, Ikea, Pacman
5 comments
Coles vs Woolworths… Why pay $10 when you can pay… $9.88?!
The supermarket war of Coles versus Safeway/Woolworths has heated up, with roast chicken.
First, Coles went to $10.
…then Safeway/Woolworths struck back with… $9.88.
These posters were prominently displayed en masse around the Bentleigh Woolworths last night.
“Why pay $10″ “Only $9.88″?
TWELVE CENTS DIFFERENCE?
Or to put it in percentage terms, Woolies are 1.2% cheaper.
And if you pay cash for just the chicken, the price will be rounded up to $9.90, so you’re only saving ten cents.
Did Woolworths design the poster before they knew what their price would be or something? It’s one thing to advertise your product — it’s quite another to highlight that the saving compared to your competition is a measly twelve cents.
If you are tempted by this extra special offer, don’t spend it all at once.
(I was not the first to notice this outstanding offer.)
Tags: advertising, chicken, Coles, Safeway, Woolworths
9 comments
