Tag Archive - Good Business

Boston Bans Bottle Service

April 21, 2008 in Boston with 0 Comments

This kind of made me smirk. I personally think bottle service belongs where money, stupid, and ego intersect. Which in Boston, is at the few wanna-be NYC bars that hold needless lines and pound awful music for our North-Shore friends to grind to. So needless to say, I am not exactly shedding any tears over this.

The party is coming to an end for Grey Goose-swilling big shots as the city’s licensing czar says he’s banning “bottle service,” an expensive perk that draws high-rollers to Hub hotspots.

The service – a staple in exclusive nightclubs from Miami to Manhattan to Las Vegas – allows big spenders to have private VIP tables in exchange for purchasing a bottle of high-end booze, usually for $300 or more. Servers bring buckets of ice, tumblers and non-alcoholic mixers to make cocktails.

Although, I did get a kick out of this quote.

“We’re not New York and we’re not South Beach,” he said. “The city of Boston has a lot more to offer than just getting people inebriated. If all they can offer their clientele is just swilling down alcohol, then perhaps they shouldn’t be in the business.”

The full article is here.

Dr. Pussum’s Catnip

May 10, 2007 in Uncategorized with 5 Comments

This is a totally unsolicited product endorsement for Dr. Pussum’s Catnip. All I can say, is that I have never seen an animal go crazy for an item like Cat does for Dr. Pussum’s. My friend Becca initially got the cat this little treat for Christmas, and it was an instant hit. He would go bananas, blasting around my apartment, throwing the “small sack” up into the air and chasing it wherever it landed. He was actually so vigorous and aggressive with the Dr. Pussums, that he actually destroyed the little burlap bag and sprayed catnip seeds all over my bed. good times.

catnip

Long story short, I found a little multi-pack on ebay last week and ordered it right away. When the padded manila envelope came, Cat jumped onto the counter, pushed the envelope (and all of my other mail onto the floor) and rolled around on top of the packaging – before it had even been opened. Once the “toss about” was out of the packaging for him to play with, he did not let it out of his clutches for 20 minutes straight.

I am just continually amazed by how much the cat loves this product, so if you have a cat, get this stuff…its insane.

Networking Karma

April 17, 2007 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I have been on a white hot streak lately when it comes to facilitating some great business relationships between friends and associates of mine. So far, none of these relationships, regardless of how large or small the outcome for the match-ees, have really benefited me directly yet…which for the record is fine by me. I believe in good referral karma, and I am told that lately, I have a lot of credit sitting out there should I ever need some favors down the road. So when the time comes hopefully it will pay dividends.

Anyways, it reminded me of something a bit more robust I wrote on the topic a few months back that I thought deserved another pass.

Here it is.

And of course, catch me on linked in if you want to virtually lay claim to the fact that you know me professionally. Business-social-networking…I hear it’s wild.

JetBlue Mea Culpa

February 21, 2007 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

Noah is all over this already, so check out his back story and associated thoughts to get some context in case you are unclear as to what specifically happened with JetBlue last week.

It will be interesting to see how this continues to unfold, as the golden child of the airline industry took one on the chin big time this past week, and is now frantically trying to right things. Given that air travel is one of those things where a terrible experience is just part of the experience, and that JetBlue’s entire philosophy has always been to buck that trend, I can’t say this move is overly surprising.

(more here)

What is surprising though (as Noah points out) is the relative candor and sincerity with which they are delivering this message of change to their consumers. You get the sense that David Neeleman is genuinely upset about this mess, and there is no denying that they he is in fact putting his money where his mouth is…both admirable things to see in an industry where bending the customer over is the norm.