Thwart Mediocrity » Products

Still obsessed with the Chevy Volt

Trey Reeme — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:01:46 +0000

I’m sitting here watching the Olympics live without using the DVR to skip commercials. And I see the new Volt commercial and it induces chillbumps.

After following the product development for many months now, I’m still as excited by the Chevrolet Volt as I was about the Wii before its launch.

It’s sexy, it’s fresh, and it’s going to be just as hard to get.

It’ll be the GM-saver.

Free sells

Trey Reeme — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:36:26 +0000

Four years ago my friend Jeremy and his wife came for a visit to Dallas. We both grew up around Shreveport, Louisiana – you know, the town where the actors in that Oliver Stone movie had a fistfight last weekend.

Shreveport had no Starbucks at the time of Jeremy’s visit. Thus Jeremy had never gone to a Starbucks (unbelievable, no?!). Plus he avoided caffeine at the time. Health nut.

During his visit, we ended up near a Starbucks inside a mall.

I was distracted on the phone with Jenn trying to gauge how much longer we’d be waiting for them to finish shopping when the barista called out, “Strawberry Frappuccino… [long pause]… Strawberry Frappuccino.”

Jeremy walked forward, claimed his, ahem, free drink and enthusiastically said, “Thanks!”

We walked down the mall and I only noticed his unintentional theft after he’d gulped it down halfway. “I thought they were giving away free samples,” he pleaded.

Jeremy and I spoke today on my way to the office. He was in a Nashville drive-thru ordering his daily fix, a venti no-whip triple somethingorother.

Which got me thinking, do we charge for coin counters in our lobbies for non-members? If we do, we shouldn’t.

401(k) + Debit Card ≠ Peanut Butter + Jelly

Trey Reeme — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:45:13 +0000

Some things just don’t go together.

I’d never heard of this before seeing it on Yahoo! Finance today.

A spokesperson for the company offering a 401(k) debit card offers this, ahem, reasoning:

“…the cards give people a sense of confidence and control, which in turn encourages otherwise reluctant people to participate in retirement programs, knowing that their savings won’t be locked up for decades.”

Um, really? Call me old-fashioned, but the speed bumps hindering access to my retirement savings exist for my own good.

Get Rich Slowly makes Advantis get rich quickly

Trey Reeme — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:13:17 +0000

J.D. asked “Is a 6.25% Checking Account Too Good to be True?”

Advantis Credit Union might not yet realize this, but this single post made yesterday may well prove the most effective marketing tool for the CU in the new year.

Why?

Less than 24 hours after being posted, a Google search for “Portland checking” put J.D.’s post at number 8. (Note that I didn’t specify Oregon or Maine.)

For “Portland checking account” it’s number 1.

For “Portland bank checking” it’s number 4.

Touchdown, Advantis. You can’t buy that kind of exposure.

Thousands, including me (and apparently Google), trust J.D.