Pizzza

I graduated from BYU with a degree in Business Management (with an emphasis in finance, in case you were wondering). As such, a lot of my thinking is devoted to how business are run. I'll pass a new start-up on the street and wonder what sort of market there is for their product, how much initial outlay there was, how they financed their business, etc. Needless to say, it's a little nerdy. But I like it.

So a while back I was walking down center street in downtown Provo and noticed something strange. Wait, let me go back further in time. One of my friends was taking me and another one of his friends out for dinner since I helped him with a side business he started (it wasn't consulting, I'm not that good). We were hungry for pizza, and we settle on Pier 49 Pizza, the famous sourdough San Franciscan style pizza. Delicious? Yeah! But as we drove down Center Street to where we thought it was, we couldn't find it. Instead we found The Parlor, which is another pizza shop. We decided to dine there. I inquired what happened to Pier 49 Pizza, and the employee informed me it went out of business.

This perplexed me. Not why a pizza place would go out of business, but why you would replace a failed business (in this case, a restaurant) delivering the same product at the same exact spot. That's like throwing out sour milk to replace it with milk that is a day away from going sour. However, let's give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there was bad management (or maybe not?). Maybe the franchise has been suffering (not to my knowledge). Poor location? Maybe The Parlor is simply a better business that makes a superior pizza? BINGO, that's it!

Apparently not. I drove past it about a month ago and saw it went out of business. Was it to do the stubborn economy? Was it not financially sound? Was the pizza not that good? Bad marketing? (You can see the business gears just chugging along in my mind, can't you?) At least another new restaurant is moving in.

Strangely enough, it is another pizza place! Maybe the popular adage is right, "Thirds time a charm!" I'm not sure if it makes the most business sense to open the same type of restaurant at the same place where two have already failed (as far as I know). But I'll be optimistic on this one. Hopefully this one is here to stay (for the pizza's sake).

*Note: Don't think I messed up on the title of this post. I don't make grammatical mistakes. The three Zs are symbolic of the pizza restaurants. GET IT?

The Str Spangled Banner

Look again.

There is a slight omission from the title. You may have missed it, but now you can't stop thinking about it reading this. Stay with me, there is a point.

Yesterday, being Flag Day, there was a celebration of sorts and a little ceremony hosted by a company at the business park where I work. The event was talking about the importance of the flag in our lives, and also some boasting about the giant flag pole and accompanying giant flag that can be seen easily from the highway. I have to admit, it's pretty patriotic. But this isn't:

Now if you can't notice, there is a star missing. A slight oversight in my opinion. I mean, we have had the current flag since 1959, so I would think it wouldn't be anything new to make. It took the company (not mine, mind you) a day to change it.

I just thought the whole thing was ironic, that's all.