AskDong

I made my first trip to New York in almost over a year.  I’ve typically taken the Chinatown or Greyhound bus, but decided I wanted to try something different this time around.  The bus options have increased  since I first wrote about traveling to New York in 2007.

• Megabus: ~$30 Roundtrip*
• Bolt Bus: ~$40 Roundtrip*
• Chinatown Bus: $30 Roundtrip
• Standard Greyhoud Bus: $69 Roundtrip (Non-Refundable)
• Limoliner: $178 Roundtrip
• eFare Greyhound Bus: $38 Roundtrip
• Airline Shuttle: $165-$244 Roundtrip
• Amtrak: $144-$278, $278 is for the Acela
• Driving: $40 in Gas, and potentially anohter $40 for parking (though I usually manage to find street parking)

* Megabus and BoltBus have variable pricing for seats.  There’s are limited seats that can even be had for $1 if booked far enough in advance.

The bus routes in the northeast corridor have happily become more competitive.  Megabus and BoltBus both offer free wifi, and BoltBus offers power outlets as well (not in every seat, but enough).  The other advantage for both Megabus and Bolt over the chinatown buses is that seats are guaranteed.

BoltBus is actually owned by greyhound and peter pan and is basically their low cost carrier, kind of like the now defunct TED (United) and Song (Delta) airlines that were operating a few years back.   Megabus is subsidary of Coach USA.  While I have yet to take Megabus, I found the Boltbus lived up to advertisements.  I had more leg room than I typically have on a bus.  The wifi worked well.  I didn’t grab a seat with a powerplug as I’ve found that traveling with my iPhone to be enough.

I think one thing to keep in mind with all the discount bus carriers is that one need to plan their trip smartly.   The bus that is leaving is usually a bus that may have just arrived.  As a result, there are days when buses can be hours late because of traffic.  I would never for instance take the bus at 6pm on the Wednesday before thanksgiving.   I think taking the bus requires a certain willingness to be flexible.   I remeber a few years ago, I was taking the chinatown bus t New York.  I arrived a little late and had no seat.  I asked the woman if there were seats on the next bus, and she said yes.  As a result I decided to head out for a snack.  I came back with 15 minutes to spare, but the next bus was already full and a line had already formed for the next bus.   At that point, I demanded a refund and headed to train station and got myself an Amtrak ticket.

Many people will have a bus travel horror story to share when prompted.  Everyone has them.  Just as everyone has a airline horror story.  The train does seem to fare better than other modes of transportation - I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad train experience.   At the end of the day though, the bus is just leagues cheaper than either the train or the flying.  I found my ride on the BoltBus pretty good.

I own a iPhone. I even stood in line to get it. So this post is going to sound awfully hypocritical, and you know what, it probably is. Except for those slated for sainthood of the world, people tend to fall into camps 1) hypocrites 2) justifiers. I’m more the former than the latter. I was pointed to the following Canadian Ad from Virgin Mobile(some people may consider the ad a bit risque> from the folks at Crackberry.

There are so many things wrong with the ad, and I’m not in the puritan camp. I think it’s ok to show a little skin. Hell, I’m writing this without a shirt - though I guess my shades are drawn and I’m home alone, and Virgin mobile hasn’t offered to film my daily routine, so it’s not really a big deal. Nor is it just because I could be mistaken for being an Apple iPhone fanboy. It’s the grumpy old anti-consumerist in me.

Virgin Mobile targets a younger (often students) and generally speaking more financially constrained crowd. I would know I used to be a Virgin mobile customer. I was on a prepaid plan not too many years ago. Many people on prepaid plans are on them because they don’t have good credit. I wasn’t one of these individuals. I was just trying to be frugal. I hardly use any minutes, so the paying by the minute actually made more financial sense. I switched off that plan when I went to a family plan that made even more economic sense. Now, I’m an iPhone Family plan that’s really not very economic, but quite fun

What Virgin is selling is a lifestyle. Nothing wrong with that lifestyle, but they are marketing a lifestyle knowing full well their target market cannot afford that lifestyle. How many 20 year olds live alone in such swank digs? I know when I was 22 and straight out of college, I lived in a rodent infested apartment with ratty carpets with two other guys. While everyone is responsible for their own actions, it would be naive to believe that we, the Consumerist North Americana, are not a influenced by the images we are constantly shown. I don’t have a problem with the Ads such as this that pitch the high life, I just wish that there was also more counterbalancing images. Maybe they should show the same girl featured in the Ad asking mom and dad for money, or eating ramen noodles?

-Sent from an iPhone

A friend of me pointed to this article on NPR on the benefits of taking turns paying the tab. I’ve always been a fan taking turns. My friends and I almost always do it with drinks, and sometimes with smaller meals, but hardly with more expensive meals. Maybe we should start.

The basic premise is that whenever we have to spend money, we feel a little bit of pain regardless of how much that is. As a result it’s better to take turns paying the bill because only one person feels that pain. In addition that person who picks up the tab gets the opportunity to feel good about him or herself. It’s good feelings all around.

This is all great, but from purely financial perspective there can be pitfalls. There of course is the free loader problem, something I feel fortunate in not suffering from amongst my group of friends. However, usually there will be at least one person if not a few individuals who will take advantage of the generosity of others, purposely or by thoughtlessness. This problem can be avoided by not associating with these individuals which is generally advisable anyways.

The bigger problem is overspending. Because taking turns is really quite effective in minimizing the pain of spending money, we often spend too much. I know this is the case, and there is no place more obvious than at a bar when taking turns buying rounds of drinks…

I was hoping to pick up a copy of Wii Fit yesterday on it’s North American debut. I had no such luck. Wii Fit is generally sold out at most retailers to my great disappointment. It looks like I’ll be repeating my Wii hunt of 2007. I’m not hugely suprised by the shortage of Wii Fit, but I am more astounded there are still shortages of the Wii almost 20 months after the initial launch.

Wii Fit retails at $90, but if I were to buy it now from less savory sources I would have to pay as much as $250. I’m not paying that extra premium. While I’m certainly not supportive of people and companies somehow jumping the line and hoarding items only to resell them, I can’t blame people for pricing a product at which it’ll sell.

I’m biased by the nature of the industry I work in, and my study of economics. I’m a strong believer in price. Price is agnostic, and price is what ensures the markets work properly. If people are willing to pay $250 for Wii Fit, that gives Nintendo incentive to produce more. Pricing it at $250 also dissuades someone like myself from going and buying the product. The price balances the market.

The efficacy of price is the clearest in the commodity market such as oil, copper, and natural gas. By it’s nature a barrel of oil from one producer is indistinguishable from one produced by another. I’m fudging a bit because crude does have different grades, but for the purpose of pricing the basic commodity the variation between West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Dubai are inconsequential. While Nintendo may not have a monopoly on video gaming, it does have a monopoly on the Wii and Wii Fit.

In the world of oil, the closest thing we have to a monopoly is OPEC, The Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries. While they have influence, it would be foolish to think they control the oil market. OPEC learned it’s lesson in 80s. Other countries start producing more oil, and consumers started consuming less. As much as it hurts the pocketbook, high oil prices are part of the solution. However this time around, I don’t believe Oil prices will fall to 1980 levels. Many non-OPEC countries are tapped out - the North Sea is about dried up, and other such as Russia are not so eager to see prices come down. Demand management, especially in Developed nations such as the U.S., will be critical lever to keep things in balance.

Mazda is choosing to cut it’s babies in half. A couple years ago there was freak mishap on a freighter, the Cougar Ace, that rendered it unseaworthy. The ship tipped to port at nearly a 60 degree angle. As a result, much of the cargo was drenched in seawater, or stored at odd angles. There were over 100 million worth of Mazda cars in the cargo hold.

Mazda has now decided to destroy all the cars to prevent them from making it onto the gray market as new cars. Mazda has originally intended to sell some as new given that many of the cars are likely undamaged. Financially, it doesn’t matter to Mazda. They had insured their cargo, and as result are probably better off destroying the cars rather than risk their reputation if the cars turned out to be faulty. Interestingly enough, casualty and property insurance developed for exactly this type of event.

While I understand Mazda’s intentions, and the Insurance company’s reluctance to enter the car salvage business, it seems like such an awful waste. While I would be weary of Mazda if they had attempted to sell these cars as new, I would think that these cars can be at least salvaged for parts. I can’t imagine there’s much if anything wrong with the body panels. Instead these cars are being shredded. Such a waste.