Lots of stores have a “loyalty card.” It’s a plastic card that the customer swipes in a machine after making his purchases.
Tag: marketing
CBC To Cut 657 Jobs
The CBC announced last week that it plans to cut 657 jobs over the next two years.
The CBC (Radio-Canada in Quebec) had to drastically cut the amount of money it can spend (its budget). Because it had to cut more than $130 million, it had to let go of many people’s jobs because it would not be able to afford to pay their salaries.
Toy Weapons For Girls: Too Violent, Or Too Pretty?
Some toy companies have recently introduced new lines of toy weapons designed especially for girls.
While the toys are a hit with girls, some adults object to them. Some people say the toys encourage violence and aggression among girls. Others say they are too feminine, and promote old-fashioned stereotypes.
Last fall, Nerf introduced its Rebelle line, which includes bows and guns that shoot foam darts or spray water. The weapons have names like the Heartbreaker Bow Blaster and the Pink Crush Blaster gun. They are brightly coloured in mostly pinks and purples.
Bad Manners Will Cost You Extra In This French Café
A café in France has found a way to encourage politeness.
The more polite you are, the less you have to pay for your coffee.
A cup of coffee at La Petite Syrah cafe costs a whopping €7 (seven Euros, or more than $10).
However, you can bring the price down if you’re nice to the server.
If you say please when you order (or s’il vous plait in French) the price comes down to €4,25 (about $6.18).
And if you say hello as well (“bonjour, un café, s’il vous plait”) the price comes down to a much more reasonable €1,40 (just over $2).
Which Logo Will Be Chosen For Canada’s Sesquicentennial (150th)?
In 2017, Canada turns 150.
That’s a “milestone” birthday–known as a sesquicentennial–and the government will be doing a lot of special things to celebrate that year.
In anticipation of 2017, the government tested five different logos to decide which one would best represent the country’s 150th.
The logos were designed by the Department of Canadian Heritage, a department in the Canadian government that is responsible for programs relating to the arts, culture, official languages and multiculturalism.
Each logo features the colour red and has a maple leaf, like the Canadian flag.
And each logo features the number 150 and the word Canada.
Amazon Testing “Octocopters” For Half-Hour Delivery Times (But Not Anytime Soon)
Lots of people buy books and products from Amazon, an online seller.
They order and pay over the Internet and the books are shipped through the mail or a delivery service like FedEx.
One day, people could get their Amazon deliveries from an “unmanned aerial vehicle” — a tiny flying vehicle that looks like a toy helicopter.
And instead of waiting days to get the parcel, it could be at the buyer’s home in half an hour or less.
The company is working on a fleet of tiny vehicles they call “Prime Air.”
The vehicles are also known as “octocopters.”
Lego Minifigures Grumpier Since 1980: Study
Has Lego gotten grumpier?
A new study says that the faces on Lego minifigures have become less happy and more often mad or sad.
The study was designed to find out if the Lego characters have become grumpier over the years.
Christoph Bartneck works at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He loves Lego and even worked for the company in the 1990s. He worked with another researcher on the project.
They looked at all of the 6,000 figures made between 1975 and 2010.
They made a note of each figure’s facial expression: happy, angry, afraid, disgusted, surprised or sad.
They discovered that while in 1980, all of the figures were described as “smiley,” by 1990, only about 80 per cent of them were “smiley.”
Radio-Canada Flip-Flops On Name Change
Radio-Canada, the French-language branch of the CBC, announced on June 5 that it was changing its name to “ICI”.
So many people objected to the change, however, that on June 10 the president of the CBC said the broadcaster would keep the name Radio-Canada after all.
The organization uses the tagline “Ici Radio-Canada” on its TV and radio news stories. It wanted to “rebrand” itself with a name that could be used for all of its services – television, radio, satellite and website – so it planned to drop “Radio-Canada” from its name and be known simply as “ICI.”
But many Canadians were very upset about the name change. They objected to removing the word “Canada” from the name because the organization is part of Canada’s heritage, and because it is paid for with money from Canadian taxpayers.
CBC/Radio-Canada was created by the government in 1936 to be Canada’s national public broadcaster. The organization gets most of the money it needs to operate – about 60 per cent, or $1-billion a year – from the government.
Its official purpose is to provide programming that is “predominantly and distinctively Canadian,” and to “contribute to shared national consciousness and identity.”
Federal Heritage Minister James Moore, who is in charge of giving money to CBC/Radio-Canada, also opposed to new name. He said taxpayers would only be willing to pay for the broadcaster if it was Canadian in content and in name.
Different Toys For Girls And Boys?
Four-year-old Gavin Pope of Garfield, New Jersey, loves to cook.
But when his family decided to buy him an Easy-Bake Oven, they found that the colour and packaging made it look like a “girls only” toy.
The Easy-Bake Oven and its box are purple.
The packaging and advertising show only girls baking with it.
So McKenna Pope, Gavin’s 13-year-old sister, started an Internet campaign for a gender-neutral oven.
More than 54,000 people signed the petition.
Hasbro executives met with McKenna and told her they planned to introduce a black, silver and blue oven next fall.
Chain Restaurants Needs Calorie And Sodium Numbers On Their Menus: Public Health
Chain restaurants in Toronto should have calorie and sodium (salt) counts on their menus, according to the city’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown.
According to a news release from the City of Toronto’s public health department, nearly half (46 per cent) of adults in the city are overweight. Nearly one-quarter (24 per cent) of adults in Toronto have high blood pressure.
McKeown wants that to change.
In the news release he said that, “diners underestimate the calories and sodium in their restaurant meals.”
Having the calorie and sodium figures right on the menu will help people make healthier choices when they order their food.
