Vegetarian Chicken at KFC?

Yes you heard correctly! All 461 Canadian KFC locations will soon offer a “tasty” vegetarian and vegan chicken substitute on their menus. This is fantastic news for those of us who like a little vegetarian option at the fast food joints.

But I am wondering if they just drop the patty in the same oil that they fry the real bird in?
Has anyone experienced the new veggie chicken sandwich?
Would you give it a try?
Do you know if they fry it in the same oil as the real chicken?

www.FreshCustomerService.com

Please keep it in my Backyard!

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an interesting story about Starbucks…

Now that Starbucks Corp. has disclosed the 600 locations it wants to shutter, a phenomenon is taking hold: the Save Our Starbucks campaign. Customers are writing and calling the Starbucks headquarters to petition the closings.

In towns as small as Bloomfield, N.M., and metropolises as large as New York, customers and city officials are starting to write letters, place phone calls, circulate petitions and otherwise plead with the coffee giant to change its mind.

Not so long ago Starbucks gained negative attention when a town didn’t welcome it. Independent coffee shops complained about the big-muscled competition, and residents screamed that their local culture was been destroyed.

Will you petition to keep your local Starbucks from closing or just find another location/brand?

Check out the article at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121642002363666365.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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www.TheMichaelDBrown.com

Want More Personal and Professional Success? Add a Little Fresh PASSION

Follow This Proven Roadmap to Personal and Professional Success

While I was in college, I articulated my methodology for creating a successful personal brand (though at that time I hadn’t classified it into this brilliant acronym). I called it Fresh PASSION, a convenient acronym that stands for Preparing yourself, Aspiring to reach your goals, Staying laser-focused, Selling your value, Invigorating yourself, Omitting the negative, and Nailing the brand. And of course all the passion in the world won’t enable you to achieve success if you employ an outdated, stale approach to your career, which is why I make sure to put “Fresh” first!

What exactly does each of these terms mean? “Fresh” means doing something every day to enhance your brand so that it stays fresh—keeping your skills sharpened, packaging yourself well. “Preparing yourself” means continuing your education through classes, professional development, building and contributing to formal and informal networks, and simply maintaining an active intellectual interest and knowledge capital in your career and your life.

“Aspiring to reach your goals” means having particular ambitions and then setting out to achieve your goals—aim at nothing and you’re guaranteed to hit it! “Staying laser-focused” means intently focusing on each area of Fresh PASSION, otherwise you’ll miss the mark and not deliver your brand. “Selling your value” means understanding your return on investment (ROI), having confidence in your fullest potential, and constantly searching for new opportunities that will help you meet, and potentially even exceed, that potential.

“Invigorating yourself” means having the tenacity and discipline to go the distance and secure your personal and professional success—fan the flame within and catch on fire! “Omitting the negative” means learning from the inevitable negative experiences you will encounter without dwelling on them or letting them consume valuable real estate in your head—you have so much more ahead of you! And last but surely not least, “Nailing the brand” means successfully packaging your substance (your core) up and putting a bow on it so that you become a fresh brand that can successfully compete and WIN internally and externally, which will enable you to achieve exponential personal and professional success.

So there you have it. When your brand is fresh and highly competitive, you will be viewed as a branded expert and asset both internally and on the open market (especially to potential employers or customers). This will lead to more people, organizations and/or companies subscribing to what you have to offer while providing you with a great, competitive and substantial return (i.e. more money, more opportunities for personal and professional growth, more customers, etc.). Follow the precepts of Fresh PASSION and you will not fail; you will achieve exponential personal and professional success!

Today’s success-driven article is a platinum nugget from Michael D. Brown’s award-winning and signature work, Fresh PASSION: Get a Brand or Die a Generic ®. Based on the methods and attitudes Michael used to escape poverty and achieve continuing success in his own life, Fresh PASSION allows you to build a personal brand based on your unique strengths and abilities that will guarantee recognition in the professional and academic marketplaces.

Wishing you a year of exponential personal and professional success!

www.TheMichaelDBrown.com

And you thought Starbucks would open a store on Mars?

According to the Associated Press:

Starbucks Corp. announced Tuesday it will close 600 company-operated stores in the next year as the faltering U.S. economy hastened the pain caused by the company’s own rapid expansion.

About 12,000 workers, or 7 percent of Starbucks’ global work force, will be affected by the closings, which are expected to take place between late July and the middle of 2009, spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil said.

The company had previously planned to shut 100 stores. The 500 more that will be closed had been on an internal watch list for some time. They were not profitable, not expected to be profitable in the foreseeable future, and the “vast majority” had been opened near an existing company-operated Starbucks.

Do you think these closures will increase the wait time at the nearby stores and cause people to walk away?

www.FreshCustomerService.com

No more John Hancock for purchases under $25

Consumers can now use Visa debit cards for smaller purchases without entering a personal identification number, the same way they can skip signing receipts.

Visa said Tuesday it is no longer requiring merchants to treat its debit cards differently when customers use them as PIN-debit cards, as opposed to signature cards.

The move prompted the Justice Department to drop an antitrust investigation of the practice.

Visa has allowed banks to permit merchants to waive the signature requirement when customers use Visa debit cards, usually on small purchases below $25, the department said. But Visa has prohibited banks from allowing merchants to waive the entry of a PIN if a customer chooses that route.

Visa said it is ending the prohibition on waiving PINs effective Tuesday.

Do you think this move increases the chance for fraud?

Does this move prompt you to use your Visa card more?

www.FreshCustomerService.com
www.TheMichaelDBrown.com