In Response to Abby's "Starbucks and Keurig team up" Post

 After finishing this article, I realized what a good marketing plan this was. Why not make a deal to sell one of the most popular coffee brands in one of the most used coffee makers? This is going to benefit both Starbucks and Green Mountain and I think they will see tremendous profits as their outcome. Do you agree that this is a good idea, or do you think one of these companys will hurt in the long run?
      I do agree with you that this was a good idea for Starbucks and Keurig to team up. One thing I learned from reading your post was that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. owns the Keurig coffee machines. The Keurig coffee maker is an extremely popular product and by teaming up with Starbucks it can only help their image. As of lately Green Mountain Coffee is having a hard time defending their image because of the accounting fraud that phased them just a few months ago. Anything that this company can do to reestablish their credibility with the public is going to be beneficial to them. Also as Abby stated since Starbucks is one of the most used coffee brands why would they not want to serve their coffee in one of the most used coffee machines. Not only will this bring in profits for Starbucks when people buy there coffee cups to make in the Keurig Coffee maker but the popularity of Starbucks could in return make people go out and buy the Keuirg so they can have Starbucks coffee in there in their homes. All in all I think that this was a smart move by both Starbucks and by Green Mountain and I believe that both companies should see profits stem from this relationship.

The Overspent American

       After watching the video titled "The Overspent American" it really got me interested in the concept and really made me question the lifestyle that Americans are living at the moment. In  today's reality every person wants to have the best of everything and have an extremely lavish lifestyle. It seems to be a common trend that people are always comparing themselves to others and they always want to have bigger and better things. The saying used to go "keeping up with the Jones's" which meant that the Jones's were a family that you looked up to and wanted to have the same lifestyle as. The thing about this though that made this concept okay was that the Jones's were a family that lived in the same neighborhood as you and had around the same yearly income. Although now-a-days this saying has changed to "keeping up with the Gates". This concept goes along with the theory that everyone is constantly comparing themselves to each other and wants to have the bigger and better thing. The saying means that instead of looking up to the Jones's who were a family in your neighborhood with the same social class, you are now looking up to the Gates who is a family that is extremely rich and has a lifestyle that 90 percent or more of the population will never be able to have. This thought process that people are stuck in has caused people to enter into a lifestyle called  work-to-spend.
      The most interesting thing about this video was that in the past there was a time when America was moving towards a leisure society that was going to consist of a  four day work week and a three day weekend. I think that this concept makes so much sense and I believe that if this was ever put into affect than people would enjoy life much more. I think that people would  not be as stressed and if we just added one more hour to each work day than it would make a 4 day work week possible and everyone would have a better quality of life. I'm wondering if other people agree with me and if they think that a four day work week and a three day weekend is logical?