Want Nespresso, BYO Coffee Pods

We got new coffee machines in the office last week. I quickly skimmed through the announcement, only picking up that we had new coffee machines and that we had to bring our own pods. I found it a bit ridiculous. Why were they investing on a new machine and scrimping on the beans? It seemed like the term 'cutting corners' was getting a new meaning altogether. Having never really used the old machine (I hate powdered milk), I decided it was not my place to comment. Someone out there must have thought we deserved something better and got half of what (s)he deserved.

The new machine arrived on the floor below ours and there was a bit of a hula-hoop that I did not quite get. I went back to read the email. If everyone was excited about a machine when they had to bring their own beans, there has got to be something I missed. It was a Nespresso machine! Whoever convinced the powers-that-be surely deserves a medal. 

So, we all went to check it out. There was a little poster that explained how to make your first coffee. Cute. There was a big glass bowl next to the machine for the used pods. The machine is a pretty little thing that makes one coffee per pod (or capsule, as the website calls it). The milk holding containers barely make a coffee or two. You can make all the usual (and more) varieties of coffee with the press of a button. If you are one of those who never tires from too many options, there are 16 flavours or Grands Crus to choose from. At 60c a capsule, i.e. a cuppa, it is cheaper than the $3.50 - $5 coffees most people were getting from the cafes every morning. 

Well, that explained the excitement of the new coffee machine. I watched the grand opening of their store at the mall a few weeks ago and boy, was it flash! It is the new big thing in the coffee world. 

Suddenly something strange is happening all around me. In the last 1 week, I have had at least 3 emails from individuals selling coffee capsules! Everyone was selling Nespresso capsules at a dollar a piece, making a 40% profit. I am speechless. I could not help but wonder if there were more people selling that coffee than drinking it. Why would I pay a dollar for one capsule when I could get a box of 10 for 6? Maybe, they were trying to sell single capsules to coffee newbies or those that wanted to just 'give it a shot'? It is quite the win-win situation, isn't it? When a colleague mentioned that in the team meeting on the first day, I marveled at his ability to turn any situation into a profitable business. Obviously, he is not alone. While he did not actually implement the idea, the others have definitely turned it into a business.

The competition has been worth following. The first email that went out merely mentioned coffee pods being sold for $1, with 4 different Grand Crus being available. Then somebody sent out an email saying they were selling all 16 Grand Crus for the same price. Before long, another email followed, offering coffee-flavoured choccies at 60c each. Whose turn is it next? I wondered for a second if I sold coffee pods for 90c, I would make a profit. Maybe not. People would rather pay a dollar than dig out small change. Who thinks about the extra 40c they have to pay when it is only a dollar? That seems to be the logic used here. 

I do not know if the coffee-pod/capsule businesses are thriving. I have no clue who is leading the competition. What I do realize that all those researches on employee incentives that insist that more money does not mean happiness are bang on the money (no pun intended). Most people would rather overpay  for good coffee than drink the free watery liquid that passes off for coffee. And everyone hates loose change.

I've been putting off trying one myself. Over the next few days, I must give each of the flavours a try. After all, it's a short walk from my desk and I am saving $2 for every dollar I spend on the expensive capsules. With that, I find myself sucked into the abysmal trap of wanting all the fancy things that the Joneses are drinking. Oh well, it is only coffee. I am only going to try it once. Ok, sixteen times. At least. 

Mark As Read

Three books this weekend, all different genres. Matthew Reilly's contest (loved it), Nishant Kaushik's romantic chaos (not bad) and Agatha Christie's 13 problems. At this rate, I might just finish the pile of unopened books in my shelf. The thought of something like that happening in the near future excites me! I am trying hard not to remember that it also means I will need to buy new books for my new life in Australia. 

I am one of those people that hate too many unread emails in my mailbox. Unread email means things to get done, work that is incomplete. That nags the life out of me. I just have to read the emails, tie a bow around the task and wind up. Tomorrow is another day. No, I cannot just mark emails as read and attend to the task later. I forget. So, I need the ugly dark coloured email, sneering at me each time I open my mailbox, reminding me of the mammoth list of tasks ahead. I am so used to this routine that on the rare no-email days, I go crazy. I get restless and fidgety. 

As a long-standing member of the OCD club, I have many such fetishes. Do you have any that drive you crazy? Is there something that you must do or you lose your sleep over it? 

Message from CreeKay

One can never emphasise enough, the importance of the subject-line in an email. If you ever attended a session on how to write better emails or improve your communications, this is one of the first things you are taught. The subject of the email helps the receiver decide the priority of the email and whether he wants to read it at all.

It is something like a resume. A resume cannot promise you the job but it will decide whether you will get that interview which can get you the job. If you fail there, you do not even get to make the journey further down that road.

I do not like too many highlighted emails in my mailbox, so I click on the the 'Unread Mail' tab regularly to see if I can quickly read and get rid of the mark-up on as many emails as I can. Almost every time, it is the subject-line that helps me decide the priority of the email. Emails that come with the 'newsletter' or 'general announcement' kind of subject-lines are usually left to be read later. The subject-line does not even register in my head as something to go on priority. They don't bother me even with a mark-up.

I rode in to work this morning and in the light of my recent accident, I decided to ride slow, which meant I got to work later than I wished to. It was one of those days where you have enough work to keep you busy and there are numerous emails flying in to your Inbox. I have a preview pane on the right hand side of my Outlook window so when I find something that I want to glance through quickly before I brush it aside, I just have to click on the email. While I was sorting emails that I wanted to read and those I wanted to put off, I hit one of those bad subject emails.

I was reading another email on status of an upcoming installation and a new email popped in that irked me greatly. Firstly, it distracted me from the email I was reading (the email was boring, I was trying to finish it quickly). When I glanced over to see what email it was, the subject said 'INFO: Message from CreeKay' and the sender was CreeKay (name changed). If I have an email from CreeKay, I know it's a "message from CreeKay". Aaarrrrggghhh! The pop-up feature that Microsoft Outlook provides came to my rescue, to an extent, in that it showed me the first line of the email. It was an announcement of a change in some team structure (or so it seemed). A little later, I clicked on the email to view the preview and decide if it was something that would affect me. The heading of the contents of the says 'Message from CreeKay'. This is really heights! Bad bad email! Coming from someone really high up in the management ladder, it left me with a bad taste. Agreed, it was his secretary who sent the email, but is she not supposed to be good at this stuff? Is this not an integral part of her job? When she sends an email from CreeKay's id, is she not responsible for the effects the email has, on her boss' reputation?

It is one of the first things we learn in schools in Letter Writing and Essay Writing classes. It is hammered into us whenever we talk about letters and emails. Everyone knows it. I bet if I sent her an email back with an incomprehensible subject-line, she would be agitated and annoyed as I was. Yet she, and many others like her, do not stop to give a thought to the subject-line in their emails. Simply put, it ought to be a one-line summary of the contents of the email or a pointer to what the email contains, with an indication of the action to be taken by the receiver. The subject-line in the above-mentioned email started of well with the "INFO:" part indicating to me that it was merely to be read and did not require any action. However, immediately after that is where the etiquette died. "Message from CreeKay". Duh!