Reduce rental car tank refill charges

Car rental companies charge ridiculously high prices per-gallon if the customer doesn't return the car full tank. Makes profit, sure, but also makes customers unhappy. Why not give small discounts (say $5-$10) to all customers who return the car full tank and charge a progressive flat fee (say $1-$10) on empty tanks based on the amount that has to be refilled? Customers on empty tanks will be penalized less than if they had to pay on a per-gallon basis and everyone gets the incentive to return the car full tank. The discount can also help lure more customers to the company.

http://www.thinkaloo.com

bring your own drink to the bar. Get a discount

You go to a bar where they serve a beer for 4 euros when they bought it for 2 euros. Their profit is 2 euros. What is there was a place where you could bring your own drink and you just had to pay the profit to the bar. In this case bring your own beer and just pay 2 euros!

There could be two prices in the catalogue. One for those who bring the drinks on their own and one for those who order the drink at the bar. It's up to the customer if he thinks it's better for his budget to bring his own drink

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Make money creating the crisis. Make money solving it!

Here's the skinny. The guy gives tons of loans to people who can't afford them and sets the stage for the sub-prime crisis. The crisis erupts. He buys the loans back from the government ridiculously cheaper than the government bought them from the banks using taxpayers money. As a result he can afford to lower the interest homeowners pay on those loans and still make a 20% profit from them. Desperate to keep their houses, homeowners will gladly say thank you to him for helping them keep their houses.

And I want to ask a very simple question. Why is the government selling the loans to him? Why can't the government hire Him or other people like him to do the job of lowering the interest rate on those loans itself? Why let Him do the job via PennyMac and let Him keep the 20% profit? Why not have the government do the job and return the 20% profit to taxpayers whose money it used to buy the loans in the first place?

Is our government stupid, incapable or what? Or is the former No2 of Countrywide Financial that brilliant?

I have to say, just by looking at the name of his company PennyMac, he is a brilliant shyster. Penny for thriftiness and Mac for creative! Son-of-a...spiv :((

Check the full story here

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Profit margin on display

Do you think it would be fair game to require companies to label along with the price of a product the profit margin they make out of it? I wonder how such practice would alter shopping behavior and in turn pricing of products. For example, would you consider not buying a favorite product because you thought the profit margin the company makes is too high compared to what others make even though you have no problem with the price? By the same token, would you consider buying the most expensive product in the shelf if it had the lowest profit margin thinking the company is honest in reporting the true cost of making it?

http://www.thinkaloo.com

Think of your next purchase as an investment

This thought was posted on Thinkaloo on 5 March 2008 by member sandy

Visit www.thinkaloo.com, our new online community where you can share your thoughts and knowledge, discuss your ideas, ask questions and meet smart people

---

Investing in something has the meaning that you get something back in return for your money. If you purchase a hybrid car what you get in return is the intangible profit of a less polluted atmosphere.

I think we should consider ourselves not just as consumers who buy something but as consumers who choose to buy something over something else because we know this purchase is a kind of investment and support for new technologies that are more environment-friendly over others.

For example, by choosing to buy a hybrid car over a conventional one you indirectly invest in the research behind energy-saving new technologies by supporting corporate profits that help fund research and help attract investors with capital that will in turn fund research in these new technologies.

When it comes to buying your next car for example, would you consider purchasing a hybrid car over a conventional one as a means to invest and support hybrid technologies that are more environment-friendly? Would you ever think of yourself as an investor this way?

Or would you only think of yourself as a consumer who saves money on gasoline or as a driver of a fancy, fast, reliable good car or whatever else its key selling points are?