Defining…
I wrote this around 2 years ago. I can still recall my passions back then. I was so excited earning money by blogging, learning about wordpress and investing on unit trust.
Well as you might notice, I rarely wrote posts, none of them lately is about investing and wordpress is not part of my daily readings anymore. My interests have changed but I’m still doing some of old stuffs, just not as much as it used to be.
I’m spending my winter break doing nothing. That’s why I keep thinking about myself and my future a lot(that, and a lot of sleeping).
I missed the time when I did the iphone business. It was so exciting. Imagine going to Apple store early in the morning. While people were rushing to work, I strolled loosely amid the darkness of emerging morning, along the the walkway of Plaza Hotel(where Home Run movie was shot). I missed a couple of classes but compared to experience that I had, it’s worth it. Don’t tell my mother I said that though. It’s hard to get the same excitement again.
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Snow
It’s a snowing time again. It has been snowing for the past 4 days. It was very exciting to watch it on the first day. I wish I were outside on that day because now the fluffy snow had turned into hard slippery ice.
It is cold outside. I had several layers on me when I went out this morning to return my final batch of Netflix blu-ray. I wanted to go to 8th street post office but the chill forced me to find the nearest post box. I hope it will reach Netflix tomorrow, the due date.
I am alone in my room. My roommates are enjoying their winter in DC and Florida. I don’t have any plan for the winter except for Vermont trip in early January. Until then, I have nothing to do. Well, not nothing but nothing extraordinary.
I just finished watching Alexander movie. It is a long movie, much more of a documentary but filled with enough actions and fine actors/actress that it is entertaining. It is not a bad representation of Alexander but since the history itself is more or less a myth, I can take anything out of it other than the great spirit of a great man and the certain failure of a greatness. Human are bestowed with temporariness, that every success had to be fought for with great effort. And later, once the top has been measured, a man will fall and begin to start a new journey again until his last fall, where he will sail for eternity based on which peaks that he has conquered. A far metaphor.
Hi
I need to write something to break this blogger’s block. Done
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri
I know it’s too late but those who are celebrating, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
Spoiling the market?
I do regularly ship some items back to Malaysia for resale especially electronics. One of the main reason is that the price in the US is much cheaper even after the cost of shipping and taxes. Just now I received a message from the sole distributor of one of the items that I’m sending back. The message stated that I was spoiling the market by selling items at lower than market price and the company is bearing the cost of what I’ve done. I actually don’t care what happen to them as they are my competitors. However, what keep me thinking is the effects to the community. So here is an analysis of my current business practice:
Am I practicing predatory pricing?
Predatory pricing can be best described as selling an item at a very low price with the intention to drive other competitors out(wiki). Competitors with lesser resource would close their businesses and this gives monopoly power to those who’d survived. In my case however, the price I’m to offer is strictly based on my personal cost estimation and expectation of demand. With such a low volume, no business will go out of business due to my activity.
Is free market is a bad thing for consumers?
I would rather think my act as a balancing activity in a free market. Right now the price of the items is heavily inflated as a result of distributor’s monopoly strategy. I received the price list sent by authorized distributor and I was shocked to find out that the dealer price is even more expensive than my selling price. This shows that distributor is cutting out the lion’s share for themselves. With the pressure that I introduce to the market, I hope retailers would also pressure the distributor to lower its price.
Concern for future demand
I do concern about the effect of the demand to future customers. As I’m selling items at much cheaper price, current and future customers would seek the same discounted price even after my bulk has completed. If none is available, this would curb the demand in anticipation of lower price, and thus would reduce the presence of the brand in the market. The next order in the effect chain would be up to the distributor. If they’d realized that the demand is diminishing, they’d either ramp up the advertisement and introduce cheaper price, or they would just increasing the price to cover total operation cost. I hope it would be the former as the later is unsustainable and leads to greater loss.
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Remembering September,11
Castle Point encompassed by Stevens campus is the highest point in Hoboken. When the horrified tragedy of September 11 occurred, Steven’s students and faculties gathered here to witness the attack with their own eyes. We as Muslims students at Stevens condemn this attack as a betrayal of humanity. Standing at the same spot, we offer this picture as the symbol of peace.
