So, apparently, in China there’s a new tradition called tuangou. Collaborative Haggling. What happens is that consumers who all want to buy the same or similar products walk into a store en masse to negotiate a rebate better than that of individual purchasers. Of course, there’s a price horizon- chances are you can’t haggle for anything less expensive than, say, $200. But the idea is somewhat ingenious, especially since it’s applicable here in the United States.So, I’ve been thinking. When I buy my next car, if I, say, find 5 to 10 individuals who all want to buy that or a similar car at the same time, and we all walk onto a lot……or, alternatively, start a car dealership entirely based on the “lot order” concept.

There’s an advantage to the time of year that we chose to travel. Quite a few of the colleges were having their graduation ceremonies this weekend (or rather, will be having) and so Providence was doing its “River Aflame” thing every night. Thus, when we wandered out to dinner on the first and second night, we were greeted by the fragrance of burning pine and the sight of baskets of fire lining the river, accompanied by new age fusion/jazz. Very, very cool.

No matter how well you do in life, the best you can do is break even, in fact the only thing you can do is break even. Given that, even if everything is transient, you can still have fun while doing it. Nothing is Permanent, Entropy will assert itself. This is what makes me think that all humans are actually engaged in two ratraces. The transient one: Trying to make the most of their lives to maintain an acceptable lifestyle and propagation of the species, and the spiritual one: To make sure that once you break even with the first rat race, you don’t lose the game that matters.

I used to wonder why subway seems to be doing so well with competitors like Wendy’s and McDonalds, but then I really thought about it- Subway, really, doesn’t have any competitors. The company is in the low-cal fast food market, bordering on healthfood. Yes, other burger joints are trying to muscle in on that territory, but when you think McDonalds, the first thing that comes to mind is ‘Burger’. Subway has managed to position itself as equivalent to ‘healthy’, even though some of their sandwiches really aren’t.