Jewel-Osco...a delightful surprise

Jewel-Osco, as most of us know, is one of the primary grocery stores in the Chicago area.  Today I decided to look on their website to see what they offer online... since most store websites are designed to let you buy and look at products offered.  What was interesting is they really focus it on furthering your cooking/baking/drinking/whatever experiences... they even have a blog called What's Cookin.  They seem really involved in their site, updating it and trying to use it in ways to improve consumers experiences.  One of the tabs I found most interesting was the "Recipe Box."  It included things such as recipes, beer pairings, recipes based on seasons, and they even let you submit your own recipe! They have a little of something for everyone, it does not seem to just be geared towards females... which is how most popular "recipe" sites tend to be, at least in my experience.  They also really get the consumer involved, if they choose to.  Jewel-Osco also offers healthy eating tips, pharmacy details, and sale information on their website.  Overall, there website appears well designed and consumer friendly.  This really surprised me since they are a big chain grocery store, but they really make their website geared towards the consumer.  I look forward to looking for new recipes and tips for this summer!

Traveling...made easy

In less than 3 months I will be studying in Limerick, Ireland! It is all becoming more real and kinda scary honestly.  I have never been out of the country or away from home for over 3 whole months, but with this being said I am extremely excited.  Before I can go, however, there are many things that must be done in preparation.  Something I have noticed while planning this trip is that the internet makes traveling a hell of a lot easier.  To book my flight I went online and checked out a few websites and ended up buying the plane ticket through the airline, but on their website.  It was all done online and it was quick, easy, and efficient; I was able to just take the time I needed in the privacy of my own home.  If you need to change anything with regards to the flight they make that easy too and then once it is booked they send you a confirmation email! So now whenever I need to check my flight information for the college's needs I just go to my email and find the information needed.  The internet made this a whole lot easier and I felt that it was a safe route to go.  I trusted the website that I bought the ticket from and so far they have had good follow-up... I don't want to say too much about it though because I'll have to see if it all works out. The internet also provides outlets to look up information about places in Ireland so I can see where I want to go and have trips planned out before I even get there. Oh the great things the internet can do.

Mobile Devices...An Emerging Form of Advertising

While conducting research for my final project I came across an article that I just couldn't wait to talk about.  I have known about the effects of the internet on advertising, but never thought about how mobile devices particularly have a huge impact on advertising.  Marketers are afraid to spend too much of their money and resources into mobile advertising until they have concrete proof that it would be the route to take.  I believe that marketers need to emerge themselves into this newer way of advertising because it will just increase the sales of the products.  The usage of the Smartphone is increasing and is speculated to keep increasing (see picture below) as well as tablets.  Mobile advertising includes smartphones and tablets, when putting these two devices together the usage by far overrides the amount people use laptop/desktop computers.  When advertisers immersed themselves in online advertising the products sold (both online and offline) increased dramatically; there was a positive correlation between the two.  Marketers began advertising online due to the trend of society using the web for their everyday tasks.  Now that the trend has switched over to mobile devices, marketers must follow in these footsteps and begin spending more money in mobile advertising.  It is known that marketers follow consumer trends later because they do not want to rush into a new phase too quickly; they first want proof of the medium's effectiveness before making a dramatic change.

Saying Goodbye...a Character's Farewell

I am a huge t.v. show fanatic, I mainly love comedies (like F.R.I.E.N.D.S.), dramas (like One Tree Hill), and crime related dramas (like Bones).  This past week t.v. fans said goodbye to one of there favorite television characters for the past decade, Christina Yang from Grey's Anatomy.  Personally, Grey's Anatomy is my favorite show because it can make me laugh, cry, and be in suspense; it provides a little bit of everything.

In the episode Fear (of the Unknown), Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital said goodbye to their beloved surgeon Christina Yang.  Yang was finally pursuing another job given to her by her ex-fiance, Preston Burke, in Switzerland where she will run her own surgical unit.  Meredith and Christina have been each others "person" throughout the shows entirety and Meredith finally had to send off her best friend.  As we watched their final scene it was as if all of the fans of the show were losing one of their best friends too.  The dialogue was perfect and the emotion, well as they danced it out it was as if the whole ten years of there friendship was wrapped up in two minutes.  (Watch the scene here) It was absolutely perfect.  Do you think that people can become so invested in a show/movie that they can feel what the characters are feeling and feel as if they are connected the characters in some way?  This really seemed to be the case when I was reading reviews on this particular episode because people have been so invested in the show for ten years.

Fans have grown with the show over the years and have grown with the friendship between Yang and Grey and now that Yang is gone many fans do not know if they will continue watching the show.  This tends to be the case in many shows, when one of the lead/supporting characters is no longer in the show, fans stop watching.  Can you think of why this would be?  People love watching the show for the show typically, not for one particular character.  Can one character really change the dynamic of a show that drastically?

Cooking Online...Will it cause cookbooks to go extinct?

As Netflix is taking over DVDs are recipe websites/apps. taking over for buying a cookbook?  Today, the internet is used for so many things and as I have mentioned on my blog before, baking as one of them.  People go online to look for new recipes to try out and can even read reviews about the recipe first.  All of this is usually free! Sometimes people have to pay a few dollars for a cooking app, but that's nothing compared to buying a printed cookbook.  What is the point in even buying a cookbook these days?  Many people feel that it is just a waste of money, most things you can find in a cookbook, you can find online anyways.  Some people like having a printed copy and in a nicely bound book and some people like it because of the nostalgic memories... etc.  But are these reasons enough to continue wasting money on printing all these cookbooks?

 I think that eventually cookbooks will go practically extinct, there will still be some printed, but it will be rare.  People will have to go to thrift or antique shops to buy cookbooks, but at that point there won't be any new ones.  To look up new recipes people will have to go online, which seems to be the trend already.  Is this okay?  Personally, I don't have a problem with this.  Yes, I own cookbooks, but I never really use them anymore.  I tend to go online, find a recipe, print it out, and try it.  If I really like the recipe I'll put it in a small binder that I keep in my kitchen cabinet.  It's a compilation of all my favorite recipes and it only costed me about $3 (the price of the binder!)  I think this is a great solution for people that like recipes printed out.  I really do like cookbooks, but I just am starting to not see the use for them anymore.

Netflix...Has it found an efficient way to sort movies?

After today's in-class discussion I decided to check out my own Netflix account and see what the top categories actually were. Just scrolling through the first ten categories, six of them were based on what I watched.  They do this in three ways, "Top Picks for ...," "Because you watched...," and "More like...".  I didn't understand why they don't just have more basic categories like "Romance" and "Horror."  Personally, when I am picking out something to watch, I do it based on the "type" of movie/show I am in the mood for.  I think Netflix should focus on putting more of those categories as a priority.

 When looking further into each of these categories I found that sometimes the shows/movies they selected seemed to fit, but other times they did not.  One of the ones that surprised me the most were the shows it picked for "More like American Horror Story."  To give a little bit of background, American Horror Story is a very dark, mini horror series.  The top suggestions for me based on watching that were "Family Guy," "Futurama," "American Dad," and "Bob's Burgers.".  These are all animated shows that do not seem to parallel to American Horror Story...AT ALL.  I was shocked by this, why would Netflix suggest these shows to me based on a horror series, that by the way, is NOT animated.

 I decided to look up what other people thought or had to say about Netflix's rating system.  I found this article that described ways you can help Netflix choose better movies/shows for you.  Check it out! I think I'm going to try some of these and see if I can get any better suggestions, things that actually interest me.  This will help the "Top Pics for..." category, but it still does not explain why Netflix was so off on the suggestions based on American Horror Story.

Watch this video... did it make you speechless?

I don't know if people have watched this video yet, but I came across it on Facebook the other day and highly suggest you watch it!  Many friends were posting it saying that it was a must watch video and I think that it correlates to the material we have been watching in class.  I especially like the part where he talks about how if we are always looking down at our phones we will miss all the little things around us.  I think this is so true and I am very guilty of this.  I am constantly attached to my phone, checking it for messages, email, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.  When you do this you miss all the little things that just happen, things that can be seen by simply just taking a walk, unattached to all devices.  I can't remember the last time I really just sat/walked outside and enjoyed the nature around me.  What did you guys think of this video?

http://blog.petflow.com/a-video-everyone-needs-to-see/