Four (or Five!) Reasons Why

…You Should Take Your Lunch To Work

1. Taking your lunch to work can save you money. Assuming that there are about 250 working days in a year and the average lunch costs between $5 (on the low end) and $10 (on the higher-side), midday meals can account for between $1,250 and 2,500 per year! You can imagine that this would be even higher if you throw in a few long lunches and even more if you toss in the occasional beer or glass of wine. If you packed a lunch, even just two or three times a week, you would save yourself a few bucks a day. Added up over the year and you’ve put a few hundred dollars back into your pocket.

2. When you decide and have control what goes in your lunch, not only will you eat healthier, but you’ll eat better. The quality of ingredients, particularly at fast food restaurants, is often marginal at best. And you never really know what goes into what you eat. Even when you think you’re being healthy, like buying a Subway Tuna Sub, a quick look at the nutritional value would shock you. That tuna sub just mentioned - 1,060 calories for a 12-inch! That doesn’t include the Coke you probably get with it.

3. Assuming you use containers that can be washed and resealed, you will reduce waste. So you can feel good about what you put in your stomach and what you leave out of the trash bin.

4. While there is no guarantee that it will make you day any shorter, spending the time that you would normally take out to lunch being more productive in the office may mean that you can justify leaving work early. Or at least on time. You can also use the opportunity to take that midday break in an environment of your choosing without having to waste time lining up for lunch. Get out on a nice day and sit in the sun!

5. Lunch boxes are cool. Go retro - dig up an old tin box from your basement or a local second hand shop. Or go modern - pick up a very cool Bento-style laptop lunch box from Obentec. Or go very traditional - get a furoshiki and learn how to wrap just about anything with a piece of cloth.

More: My Money Blog has some tips on taking lunch to work entitled Frugal Brown Bag Lunch Ideas + Cost Breakdown: Sandwiches Edition.

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….There Should Be Man Malls

1. If there were malls entirely devoted to the needs of men, perhaps it would make shopping a more enjoyable experience - as opposed to something that is avoided unless absolutely necessary. Think about how much better a shopping trip would be if you were surrounded by peers in a relaxed environment with no pressure from wives, girlfriends and children.

2. At a time when there’s no lack of malls or big-box stores, a Man Mall would have a competitive edge and a distinct niche. You have to believe that a Man Mall would have no problems attracting a steak restaurant, bowling alley, sporting good stores, cigar retailer, a sports bar/restaurant and barber (not a hair stylist!), which would essentially cover off most of what any man has to purchase. Give men a shopping destination that meets their exact needs, and hordes of men would flock to the Man Mall.

3. Initially, it would be a tourist and consumer research destination. The curiosity factor of seeing a mall entirely devoted to men would be irresistible to many people, who would want to see how men behaved while shopping in a stress-free environment featuring retailers selling what they want.

4. There would be different rules at the Man Mall. For example, you’d be allowed to bring food and drink into a store. Instead of cramming yourself into a change room, you could try stuff on wherever and whenever you wanted. And you could signal for sales help by yelling “Hey, buddy” or giving the sales guy a subtle nod.

5. It would give men a place to bond without having join a sports team, go on a road trip or drink excessively at bars. Instead, a man and his buddies could head out for an hour or two of man shopping, pick up a few things, and perhaps taking a break to have a beer while watching sports before heading home.

Technorati Tags: Malls, Shopping

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…Surging Oil Is Hurting Public Transportation

1. Unlike their European counterparts, North American cities have been designed and built around the car. Residential areas, particularly in the suburbs, are hard to meaningfully serve with public transportation as they were constructed without this in mind. As more people consider alternative forms of transportation with surging gas prices, the warts of current systems become apparent.

2. While city officials around the continent are urging people to use public transportation, many commuters are finding that existing infrastructure is not up to the task. Many cities are seeing little slack in their systems and capacity needs to be increased in the face of rising demand. In San Francisco, for example, commuters are finding trains more packed than ever, leading officials to experiment with removing seats on some cars to make more room more riders.

3. You have to worry when politicians get involved. John McCain recently proposed repealing the federal gas tax ($28 savings per person for the three-month moratorium), with seemingly little consideration about the impact on public transportation. The American Public Transportation Association recently responded by noting that, “At a time when more and more Americans are using public transportation to beat the high cost of gas, the federal government needs to increase its investment in public transportation. If instead, the gas tax was suspended for the summer, it would eliminate $1.4 billion of federal funding for public transportation and severely restrict the industry’s ability to add and improve transit services for a growing number of Americans.”

4. More expensive oil means more expensive operating costs, which leads to either higher fares or reduced service levels.

5. Public transportation systems have not been designed to be more than utilitarian. There’s needs to be a dialog about how to make it more enjoyable and convenient, not just about how to move more people around. The question remains as to whether the motivation exists for governments to make the required investment.

More: Take a quick look at “The Role of Public Transport To Reduce Green House gas Emissions and Improve Energy Efficiency” by the UITP European Union Committee. The graphs on pages 2 and 3 are enlightening!

More more: Toronto seems to be suffering as well. Article here.

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….Big Box Stores Are Bad

1. Often built in suburbia or the outskirts of towns where land is less expensive, big box stores such as Price Club and Costco suck the retail life out of downtown streets. Lured by cheaper prices and choice, choice and more choices, consumers flee smaller retailers - even those with great service for big box bargains. Meanwhile, once-lively downtown storefronts stand vacant or become home to cash-checking services and dollar stores.

2. Big box stores eat up vast expanses of real estate with buildings that have little to add architecturally while reflecting nothing of the community where they exist. If you took a quick look at a Home Depot store, you could be in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico or Portland, Maine, and not be able to tell the difference.

3. With huge parking lots, they encourage people to drive to get there. In fact, there is no other way to get there other than driving, which is not particularly green or eco-friendly.

4. They encourage - no, compel - people to overspend and buy things they don’t need. Who goes to Price Club without buying a trunk-load full of stuff such as a two gallon jug of pickles or 128 rolls of toilet paper.

More: There are instances - albeit far too rare - when local retailers go head to head with big box stores, and win. Case in point is Fireside True Value in Brattleboro, Vermont, a family-owned business that had to fight back when Home Depot opened across the street. With good customer service, competitive prices and hard-to-find products, Fireside True Value not only survived but watched as the Home Depot closed.

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…Even Addiction Isn’t Recession-Proof

1. It is often said that in hard times, the things to which people are addicted are the last to get bumped off the grocery list. However, this isn’t necessarily the case. The sale of beer, wine and liquor is often thought to actually increase during hard times, as people take to the bottle for consolation. According to the Distilled Spirits Council, while the booze category is relatively stable during times of economic uncertainty, it’s not immune to a slowdown. Its VP of Economic and Strategy Analysis notes that growth in sales volume will fall from 2.9% between 2000 and 2006 to 1.9% in 2008. It may not seem like much, but that’s a lot of money being taken off the table. You can also imagine that people are buying cheaper booze - a sacrifice of quality for quantity.

2. What’s the easiest way to put a few extras dollars in your pocket when you need it most? Gambling! (Well…not really.) Somewhere in our heads we know that gambling is a loser’s gambit. And somewhere in our hearts (or guts) we feel that we can beat the odds. Unfortunately for casinos, it seems that the empty feeling in our pockets is ruling the roost. (It also doesn’t help that there’s a glut of places to gamble, and companies are tightening their travel-budget belts.) All the big gaming companies have recently reported weakness in their financial results. One Vegas visitor notes, “Gas and gambling kind of come out of the same pocket. I’ll have to have less action because my gas tank needs it.”

3. You’d figure that people would smoke regardless of circumstance. With nicotine being one of the most addictive substances around, it seems like a no-brainer to invest in cigarette stocks. Not so. Back in 2001, 7-Eleven noticed the emerging concept of a “working man’s recession” - sales of cigarette cartons give way to single packs, and beer sales began to shift from six-packs to single cans.

4. The Dallas Morning News points out that there is a recession in the trade of illegal drugs, with general demand down across the U.S. How could this be so? While they attribute most of the decline to heightened law enforcement, you have to imagine that drug use feels the pinch when you have less discretionary income to play with.

5. I’m not sure if this is an addiction (maybe for some), but it certainly is a sign of the times. The Movable Buffet: Dispatches from Las Vegas has an interesting read about how strippers are being urged to “recession-proof” their bodies. Classic.

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