Does cooking home really cost less than what fast food chains charge?
I have asked myself this kind of question many times. Is it worth cooking your lunch at home and if you do so, will you be able to beat Quiznos and Subway’s rock bottom prices?
For me this question is out of table since lunch out is not just a meal but also an opportunity to meet friends (which is priceless) and therefore I personally vote for the “not so cheap” food at a restaurant.
Where do you eat your lunch?
Source: Does Cooking At Home Really Beat The McDonalds $1 Double Cheeseburger? at SimpleDollar
Woot partners with Yahoo! Shopping
The most popular of one day a deal sites strengthens its position by partnering with Yahoo! Shopping, a price comparison and shopping portal. If you head to Yahoo! Shopping front page, it is very easy to spot the new “Deal of the Day” section in the middle. Powered by Woot it will however serve different deals than those on Woot.com (no bag of crap for you, Yahoo? :-)).
According to the blog post at Woot.com, there is no money involved as part of this agreement. What is in it for Woot then? “access to their gigunda audience of shoppers who’ve never met Woot”. Plus they probably get to keep all the proceeds from the suddenly increasing sales.
What is in it for Yahoo!? “Yahoo! gets to lure you all (old Woot users) through their front door”. I really doubt devoted Wooters is who Yahoo! really after. What Yahoo! gets is an experienced team and a smoothly running “deal a day” machine which is a great addition to their portal. Cnet has one and it is very popular.
Source: Woot Sells Out! at Woot.com
Farecast flexes muscles with hotel prices
Farecast, the startup known for their air fare prediction service is testing waters in new area, hotel pricing. Just as airline tickets, hotels prices have seasonal changes and are affected by local events (conventions, fairs, etc). Farecast helps you decide if a specific hotel offering is a good deal or not by comparing historical hotel prices to the price on the day of your stay. There is not cross hotel comparison. Why?
We believe that supply and demand within a market is a fantastic indicator of the quality of a hotel. If Hotel B is inferior to Hotel C, Hotel B is not going to be able to charge a premium rate in the market and fill their rooms. Therefore, the prices other hotels have available is not relevant to whether the given hotel is a deal.
Makes sense to me. At least this is how it should work in an ideal market with abundance of information about the quality of services offered by all competitors.
Source: Finding Bargain Rooms at a Glance at New York Times
