Business | VivirLatino

Archive for the ‘business’ Category

“Miss Spain” Moves to Mexico

6 Jul 2009

Times are tough for beauty pageants. With every year that passes they become more irrelevant and more of a joke than a competition to most. Perhaps that’s why Spain’s “Miss España” pageant is suffering so much that they need to take the show on the road: to Mexico. The organization’s president admits that the economic crisis is what lead Miss España to leave la madre patria and move to el nuevo mundo:

It is the first time in 49 years that the event will be celebrated outside of the country. “The world economic situation has forced us to open up borders,” said Andrés Cid. He also mentioned that the decision will “possibly open doors to future events in different places around the world…”

Why Mexico? Because the Mexican tourism industry is still suffering the effects of the swine flu and needs a platform from which they can talk the hundreds of thousands of Spanish tourists who visited the Riviera Maya each year into coming back.

So it works out like this: lack of interest on the part of the Spanish public and low ratings = the pageant needing money. Mexican tourism authorities buy something that won’t work for them, since no one is watching this in the first place. Nice little deal.

Via / 20 Minutos

Cracking Down on Taco Trucks, Revisited

20 May 2009

1607880796_d8c6c2720f Back in 2005 we told you about how our beloved taco trucks were getting smacked down by health officials in a few cities, among them Nashville, for being dirty. A taco truck? Dirty? Ha! And what difference does it make, when everybody knows a little chile can kill anything! Now it seems that taco trucks are yet again the victims of haters, but this time in on its real home turf: the Los Angeles area. Wha? Maegan first reported on this last year and The LA Times reports today:

Last summer, the City Council took action.

No longer could loncheras set up for hours at parks or construction sites. Instead, they could stop only at sites where a bathroom was available to patrons, and stay just half an hour, barely enough time to set up and prepare a meal or two before having to break down and drive away again. In addition, all employees had to get background checks.

Palos Verdes Estates is hardly the only community to crack down on the trucks in recent years. Los Angeles County supervisors last year passed an ordinance making it a misdemeanor for taco trucks to park in unincorporated spots for more than an hour after restaurateurs complained they were siphoning off customers. A Superior Court judge later ruled the law unconstitutional.

Similar restrictions have been imposed nationwide in cities large and small, rural and metropolitan, from Hughson, Calif., to Houston, and in seemingly unlikely spots, including Des Moines; Charlotte, N.C.; and Hillsboro, Ore.

Some of the reasons remain the same, among them fears about food sanitation, but truck supporters are citing racism as a cause in some cities, with one Houston official justifying their demise by saying “I don’t want us to become, you know, a Third World area.” Well listen, Mr. Whomeveryouare, from one Houstonian to another, we are pretty much already there and it’s not because of taco trucks but because of people shooting each other for fun or stress relief.

What’s to become of taco truck culture in Southern California with these crackdowns? Probably the loss of a lot of great food. But I’m going to guess that this trendy new “taco truck” — all the rage on Twitter — isn’t going to get the same treatment. Nothing against Kogi (on the contrary, I love what they are doing, genuinely) but they appear to be thriving and there’s something unfair about one taco truck being somehow more acceptable when the patrons are more “high-end” and its owners are, well, less Mexican.

Via / LA Times

Image via el en houston on Flickr

Dirty Lender Charged Latinos More for Loans

11 May 2009

000004273718xfeature With all of the corruption and dirtiness and in finance-related industries of late, it should perhaps come as no surprise that beyond just “legally” taking advantage of unsavvy consumers by lending them money they could never pay back, at least one of these institutions made it a policy to charge Latinos more for borrowed money. A federal investigation has been opened on California lender Golden Empire Mortgage, Inc., of Bakersfield, which allegedly cannot explain the drastic differences in prices between white customers and Latinos. ConsumerAffairs.com reports:

According to the FTC’s complaint, Golden Empire violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) in pricing mortgage loans. They allegedly gave loan officers and branch managers wide discretion to charge, in addition to the risk-based price, “overages” through higher interest rates and higher up-front charges. The defendants allegedly paid loan officers a percentage of the overages as a commission and failed to monitor whether Hispanic consumers were paying higher overages than non-Hispanic white borrowers.

The complaint alleged that the company’s policy and practice of allowing loan officers to charge discretionary overages resulted in Hispanics being charged higher prices because of their national origin – price disparities that are “substantial, statistically significant, and cannot be explained by factors related to underwriting risk or credit characteristics of the applicants.”

I don’t know why I am surprised by this. It seems that when it comes to the finance sector, the news just gets more and appalling as the days go by. Is it any wonder why we are in the situation we are in now, with so many dirty banks in control of our money and our homes?

Via / ConsumerAffairs

Mexican Government Up in Arms Over Burger King Ad

14 Apr 2009

Burger King has pissed off Mexico’s Ambassador to Spain because of a new ad campaign running in that country for a product called the “Texican Whopper”. Ambassador Jorge Zermeno wrote to Burger King in Spain to denounce what he called “denigration” of the Mexican flag.

“This advertisement denigrates the image of our country and uses improperly Mexico’s national flag,” Jorge Zermeno wrote in a letter to Burger King in Spain, the Reforma newspaper reported on Monday.

The ambassador contacted the local offices of Burger King after he saw the posters in Spain, Reforma said. The burger is only available in Europe, according to the paper.

Mexico has strict laws prohibiting the defamation of the flag, Zermeno said. He asked Burger King to cancel the ad campaign that “offends Mexicans and Mexico.”

You might remember from numerous posts on VL over the past few years that Mexico doesn’t like people doing weird things with their flag, and this offense can be punishable with harsh fines and even jail time.

Reuters reports that Zermeno’s complaint was related to posters (image above) for the campaign found around Madrid, but I wonder if he’s seen the TV version (video after the jump) – which from the looks of it was created for the U.S. or Canadian market — as it’s much worse.

RIP: Your Neighborhood Starbucks

5:37 pm By Maegan La Mala · Marketing| Money| business · 5 Comments

28 Jan 2009

Living in San Francisco, watching the neighborhood coffee shops fold only to later have their storefronts converted into Starbucks is a pretty common sight, or least it was. Now it looks like the inverse is about to happen…karma is a bitch! Or perhaps it’s just the economy that’s a bitch or an asshole or a jerk but check this out: Starbucks is starting to shut down stores. It’s the end of an era:

Starbucks Corp. said Wednesday that it would cut as many as 6,700 jobs as it closes hundreds more stores and eliminates more positions at its corporate headquarters.

Faced with slowing demand for lattes and cappuccinos because of the recession, Starbucks plans to close 300 stores, including 200 in the United States, and eliminate about 6,000 store jobs. The company also plans to eliminate about 700 corporate jobs, including about 350 at its corporate headquarters in Seattle.

The coffee giant made the announcement as it reported that its profit dropped 69 percent in its fiscal first quarter with sales continuing to slide.

I guess that with all the unemployment, foreclosures and inflation paying $6.50 for a weak cup of milk starts looking questionable. What’s sad about all of this is the layoffs, which of course affect people like students and the working class.

But if it were up to me I’d settle for, say, just one Starbucks in a 5-block radius in San Francisco, instead of 15 in a 2-block radius in my hood (I’m not exaggerating…the photo above actually shows one right in front of the other in Vancouver). The growth rate that they had up until now — 8 stores per day — was insane, and the small neighborhood coffee shop went the way of the dinosaurs because of this.

Know what also suffered? My tolerance level. Seeing aggressive office workers basically ready to off anyone who stands in their way between them and their skinny vanilla latte really tested my own humanity and made little old me feel murderous on a regular basis. I know I’m not the only one who has felt this way. New Yorkers, you know what I’m talking about!

Are you mourning the decline of Starbucks or celebrating it? Tell us your thoughts.

Via / MSNBC

Image via orangejack on Flickr

Michelle Obama vs. Beanie Babies

26 Jan 2009

How would feel if a toymaker (say, the maker of Beanie Babies) started manufacturing dolls in the image of your two young daughters without asking for consent or even respectfully letting you know in advance? Spittin’ mad, I’d say, especially if you were a woman interested in shielding your children from the massive spotlight that will fall upon them as children of the president. It sounds a bit surreal, but that’s actually what has happened, and Michelle Obama isn’t happy:

First lady Michelle Obama is not pleased about the marketing of a pair of dolls that bear the same names as her daughters.

“We believe it is inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes,” Ms. Obama’s spokeswoman said.

Ty Inc. has released the 12-inch plush dolls as part of the company’s “TyGirlz Collection,” introduced in 2007. The Sasha doll has pigtails and wears a white and pink dress with hearts. The Malia doll has a side ponytail and a long-sleeve shirt with capri pants.

Still Confused about the Economy?

3:38 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · business · Comments Off

9 Oct 2008

Never you fear, La Macha has been sitting through hours and hours of television, radio shows and reading newspapers to try to figure it all out for you!

The latest greatest explanation comes from This American Life from NPR Radio in Chicago. In a show aptly entitled, “Another Frightening Show About the Economy,” Ira Glass and guests explain the latest Wall Street Freak Out (in the form of the commercial paper market) in easy to understand terminology that gets to the core of how economics in the U.S. work and why said economics in the U.S. is collapsing into hell.

I haven’t listened to the entire thing yet–the part I’m looking forward to hearing:

Act Four. What’s Next?

Ira and Adam answer the question: Was the $700 billion bailout bill signed into law today a good idea or a bad one? (10 minutes)

Some how, I think I already know the answer to this–and it’s not one I will be happy with.

Still confused about the bailout plans and how it might affect you?

1:53 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · business · Comments Off

1 Oct 2008

Suze Orman has the answers! Although I find a lot of the scenarios talked about in this video clip a bit out there (who the hell has excellent credit for heaven’s sake, and why are you even calling in? Please, make way for the rest of us who are drowning, thanks much!) at the same time, I always appreciate Suze’s answers, even if they have little to do with me. They clarify financial situations in ways that I can understand and most of the time she works with people who are more realistic than Mr. I-have-perfect-credit-I’m-so-scared.

By 2050, Mexico Will Be a World Leader

4:05 pm By Maegan La Mala · Latin America| Money| World| business| mexico · Comments Off

5 Jun 2008

Felipe%20Calderon.jpg It may sound like a long way away, but according to Mexican president Felipe Calderon, by the year 2050 Mexico will be the world’s 5th most important economy. These claims were made before a group of businessmen at a conference this week organized by The Economist magazine, and Calderon said that he believes that Mexico will reach the lofty goal “if the right decisions are made.”

Calderon’s predictions would put Mexico in 5th place after China, the U.S., India and Brasil.

The current ranking has Mexico ranked as number 15; the current number 1 is the U.S., followed by Japan, Germany, China and the U.K.

Via / Milenio

For Fear of Deportation, More Immigrants Take Taxis

11:39 am By Maegan La Mala · Controversia| Georgia| Immigration| business · Comments Off

3 Jun 2008

Way back in 2005, we told you about a market phenomenon that was occurring as a result of increased Latino immigration: more taxicabs. Back then, it seemed that the reason for the boom in taxis in cities like Houston, Texas, was the fact that many newly arrived immigrants don’t have cars. Now the phenomenon has repeated itself in Georgia, and locals point to a more compelling reason: harsher laws are driving some to avoid driving for fear of being picked up and deported.

In the past month, taxicab companies have seen an increase in business by as much as 30 percent — a direct result, owners say, of a new law enforcement initiative targeting immigration violations.

The initiative, a local-federal partnership known as 287(g), was implemented in April by the Hall County Sheriff’s Office. It allows detention officers to begin deportation proceedings for any arrestee who is brought to the county jail and determined to be in the country illegally.

Sheriff Steve Cronic has said that the initiative has already cut down on the number of arrests for common traffic offenses such as driving without a license.

Some cab drivers in Gainesville are saying that the effect of the law has been such that traffic has been notably reduced on freeways, as more immigrants choose to cab it over driving.

Via / Gainesville Times

Older Entries

Link Cariño | Hissip: [...] Who’s your mama? [...] [...]

la Macha: I agree totally with you bubbles. [...]

Bubbles: Re: "Many women have mental, emotional instabilities which cause them to end up in abusive relations [...]

la Macha: and whaaaa? women who have mental health issues are suddenly to blame for getting beaten? [...]

la Macha: gabriel--i don't agree with you that women have a submissive nature--but that's ok, I guess. I agree [...]

VivirLatino