Reading Time: < 1 minute But the controversy is not over. Here is a Chinese article talking about the “culture misunderstanding between China and the west”. On a related matter, people are wondering those “American Express” sponsored boards (in English) should remain.

Reading Time: < 1 minute It appears Heelys is well prepared to the new school season. The other day I saw FinishLine has put the Heelys by the front entrance. Today I saw Sports Authority, and Dick’s Sporting Goods have new Heelys on display. Heelys has two seasons: the X’mas (winter) and “back to school” (summer). It will be interesting

Reading Time: 2 minutes These days “Virtualization” and virtualization software maker VMware are hot in both IT world and the Wallstreet. Jim Cramer pumped it as next Google on his “Mad Money” show on CNBC; guys at “Fast Money” (also CNBC) touted it as the next big thing. Both of them encouraging people buy the EMC (parent co. of

Reading Time: 2 minutes in Japan. I read this news from MSN that McDonald is going to open McCafe stores in Japan. Quote the news: “The Japan unit of U.S.-based McDonald’s Corp. will launch 15 pilot “McCafe” stores in the Tokyo area on August 29, according to a company release. The stores, the burger chain’s first foray into the

Reading Time: 2 minutes Yum Brand, the parent co. of KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, had a great quarter yesterday, thanks to the loyal customers in China flocking to KFC and Pizza hut. Maybe because they think the steamed bun in Beijing are unsafe? Yesterday I heard about this Big Mac index (link to Economist) from NPR. This

Reading Time: < 1 minute John Mackey, the founder and CEO of Whole Food Markets (WFMI), allegedly used pen name “RahoDeb” (his wife name is Deborah) publishing his opinion on the stock at Yahoo Message Board. Here is the link to the mesages. Of course, the thing really hits news is his comments about competitors, such as Wild Oats and

Reading Time: 2 minutes I bought my first stock back in 1994 when I worked for a manufacturing company in Shanghai, and I got to buy 250 shares when the company went public. After that between 1996 and 1997 I did some trade in stocks because at that time the Chinese stock market was very hot, if not as

Reading Time: 2 minutes 1) International: no secret here, as you can count the stores (more stores in India than China), from their web site www.crocs.com (international). The trick here is they expanded internationally at much early stage compared to Nike, etc., considering they are just a few years old. We can attribute partly to the globalization of economy

Reading Time: < 1 minute We all know Wal-mart calls its employee “associates”, today I noticed Starbucks calls its employee “partner”, from its annual report. We all know this is more a sloagn, or public relation, nonetheless it’s good public relation. Seriously, what is partner or partnership exactly. It’s almost like spouse. According to wikipedia, “A partnership is a type

Reading Time: < 1 minute AAPL: is Apple a computer maker, an eletronic (fashion) gadgets maker, or music store? It’s all of the above. I did not realized it’s the No. 3 music retailer in the US until a few weeks ago (behind Wal-mart and Best Buy). The reason is it created the digital music market: iTune. For graphical designers,