Thursday, January 30, 2020
Grand project on pizza industry Essay Example for Free
Grand project on pizza industry Essay Today, the average American eats 46 slices of pizza per year (about 23 pounds). Buck Jones reports The business is only expected to grow as the industry continues to expand its product base and revenue earnings through imaginative recipes and creative marketing concepts (Jones, 177). Pizza producers are searching for additional pizza products that will appeal to new markets such as the croissant, French bread, and other specialty products showing up today. Most new pizza products are marketed to adult consumers. Adults are targeted because they make up the majority of the lunch crowd and when they take their families out to dinner. Pizza consumption has many different consumers: professional people during lunch, single parent families, two income families, children, high school/college age kids, singles, and more specifically, bachelors. As consumers age, their desire for pizza declines as noted by the survey. Women are generally targeted by pizza chains because they are usually the providers of meals for their families. Currently, pizza carryout represents 46% of all pizza transactions, and home and office delivery account for 26% of delivery. During the week however, Friday through Sunday account for 59% of pizza sales (RI, 88). On average, individual pizza sales are on the rise while the portions sold remain the same. Pizza comes in many different crusts and is sold in the following percentages: regular pizza 56. 8% of pizza sold, deep dish or pan pizza 17. 5%, thick crust 11. 0%, and extra-thin pizza 8. 5%. Overall, beverages were not purchased 52. 9% of the time and carbonated drinks were the majority sold with 31. 1%. Salad bars are surprisingly only seen in 3. 3% of pizza sales. These new products will expand the current pizza markets and increase the average consumption of current pizza users with their new product innovation. Pizza toppings vary geographically based on current trends within a geographic region. Squid is Japans most popular pizza topping and tuna and corn rank high in England followed by Australias affinity for eggs as a pizza topping. The introduction of new pizza toppings has and will continue to be an avenue for increased revenues. Consumers are becoming more drawn to natural ingredients, natural restaurant environments, openness in food preparation, and the need to experience the food ethnically. Presently, newer competitors in the pizza arena are using wood-burning pizza ovens such as Macaroni Bar and Grill, Marios, and Carrabas. Consumers also prefer an open view of the pizza-making process. Pizza consumption has also increased through the distribution of direct mail coupons both locally and globally (RI, 88). These coupons amounted to a 12% increase for pizza chain sales in 1996. Cicis Pizza is presently the pizza segments value leader with their $2. 99 adult buffet ($1. 99 for kids). Many grocery retailers feel inadequately equipped to compete with the major pizza chains and therefore decide to just offer the products demanded. Most retail operators have identified two markets and have created two different product lines for the high quality pizza connoisseur and the price conscious consumer. Another new market in the pizza industry is the selling of raw pizzas. Consumers call in and specify the pizza toppings they wish for their pizza at Papa Murphys. The consumer pays for the convenience of having someone else prepare their pizza and they get to eat it in the privacy of their own home. Future Consumption Trends Consumption is expected to increase in the future due to increases in population and consumers lack of time to prepare their own meals. The pizza industry will continue to expand globally and tap into new pizza markets. This growth will spur on new changes in adapting their pizza product to their environment. Round Table Pizza is the nations fourth largest pizza chain and has 500 restaurants in the Western U. S. and internationally in six Asian countries and the Middle East (Round Table Pizza website. This is a clear example that U. S. companies have great potential in the global market and this can be achieved through adapted or standardized products, depending on the product and its industry. Consumption is also going to move toward more natural, fresh, and healthier pizza products. A shift is under way in the industry away from product novelty to high quality ingredients and an emphasis on taste. Round Table Pizza promotes their Honest Pizza made from dough mixed from scratch, freshly grated cheese, and new sauce. Round Table Pizza also created the Salute Veggie, a pizza piled high with three different cheeses and various vegetables. The Salute Veggie reaches out to the vegetarian consumer who may have previously shied away from the pizza industry due to the meat content. In response to Papa Johns fresher pizza promotions, Pizza Hut has reformulated its entire line, now including more toppings, thicker sauce, and a crunchier crust. Consumption will also increase through the addition of smaller pizza stores/stands that sell pizza by the slice. Although these are smaller sales transactions, they are on the rise as proven by Genuardis Family Market sales, which 75% of its sales are sold by the slice. Smaller Pizza Hut units are being placed inside Stop n Go stores that reach out directly to the consumer on the go. These locations bring the product directly to the consumer they are targeting. On average, there lies the common belief that pizza consumption will increase as a consumer gets married and has children. This is rationalized through decreased time allowed to prepare meals with a family and a desire for easy meals that save time. Another factor is that children on the average like pizza. When an individual thinks of pizza, one conjures up thoughts of a late night at the office, slumber parties, quick lunch meal, pizza parties during the workday in an office, and childrens pizza parlors like Chuck E. Cheese. Pizza generally summons feeling of happiness or fun and is also viewed as a really quick meal. This is a major advantage for pizza chain retailers in that not many foods carry such ideologies or feelings. These connotations generally have to be marketed much like Chuck E. Cheese (fun pizza) or Dominos (quick and delivered to your door). Over the next 5 to 10 years, there will be increases in consumption as a result of more single parent families and two income families. There will be an increase in the amount of women working to support their families and this will add to the need for easy to prepare or fast meals. As single parents continue to work, attend night school, and raise their children they will continue to utilize pizza delivery services to compensate for their lack of time to prepare their children dinner. As the population increases, there will be significant increases in high school and college age kids that order pizza. Another relationship pizza has is with beer. It is very common for students to get their buddies and order pizza to eat while drinking their beer both while studying or partying. Pizza chains should further investigate marketing their products in establishments that serve beer. Retailers could target clubs and sports bars to increase their market share. As consumers go about their daily tasks another market lies in drive-thru pizza restaurants. As people go about their day, pizza chain retailers could better serve some of its customers through drive-thru services. Over time, consumers will remain as busy as they are now and maybe even more so, some consumers could utilize these quick service establishments that allow them to enjoy pizza without having to stop to eat it.
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Order, Memory, and Anxiety in Borges Fiction :: Reading Memorize Memory Essays
Order, Memory, and Anxiety in Borges' Fiction The fundamental questions of how and why we read have an infinitude of answers, none of which entirely 'do the job', simply because they bear too closely upon the automatic, (and therefore, to us, secret) processes of the mind; the act of reading is too closely related to the act of living in the world for us to comprehend definitively. There are few writers who understand and exploit this primal link more persistently than Jorge Luis Borges. One of the ways in which he forces us to examine the parallels between reading and existing (I use the word 'force' because it is not always a pleasant confrontation) is through the thematic use of memory. I. Total Recall "It is because I forget that I read." -Roland Barthes, S/Z One of the most masterful treatments of the memory theme is in "Funes the Memorious", the brilliantly, (and somewhat absurdly), touching story of a man who cannot live under the strain of his natural and inescapable ability to remember everything perfectly. The story begins with the words "I recall", and immediately we are plunged into the realm of memory-we understand that what we are about to read is a semblance of a reminisence. Jon Stewart calls attention to the importance of the repetition of this verb in the opening paragraphs of the story: "The continual use of this verb clearly foreshadows the most important element of the character of Funes-his prodigious mnemonic powers: but there is more to it than this. Borges continually uses the same verb and with it brings together a number of scattered and seemingly chaotic memories that he has of Funes. The point of this repetition is to underscore his own impoverished memory of Funes." (p.74) But Stewart neglects to take this point to its logical and important conclusion; the narrator's 'impoverished memory' is not merely a foreshadowing of Funes' infinitely rich one-it comes to be, in fact, the necessary circumstance, and the subject of the story. Borges tells us that the story grew out of his own bouts of insomnia: "I remember that I used to lie down and try to forget everything, and that led me, inevitably, to remember everything. I imagined the books on the shelves, the clothes on the chair, and even my own body on the bed... and so, since I could not erase memory, I kept thinking of those things, and also thinking: if only I could forget, I would certainly be able to sleep.
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Comic Books As History Essay
Comic books have long been regarded as a genre of literature for the immature and the trivial. The graphic representation of a story at first glance provides a lightweight medium to carry a serious message. The utilization of two types of media, the written word and the graphic portrayal, serves as a conflict of messages, a breach in the unity of form. However, in Joseph Witek’s book entitled Comic Books as History, he provides case points and works where comic books have both the authority as well as the authenticity to suitably serve as a medium for portraying history. Who has the right to speak? When does the gap between art and life become so wide that fiction becomes a blasphemous lie? Witken p.38 These are the questions put forth by Author Joseph Witek in chapters 4 &5 of his Comic Books as History. The first, â€Å"who has the right to speak?†denotes an active search for a medium with authority to portray dark parts of history. And few events could be much darker than the Holocaust. The era of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and their atrocities to the Jewish people beg the question of how to portray it. The revulsion of providing aesthetic description to an evil event stems from authors’ reticence in taking another people’s suffering as their own. And yet, if the alternative is silence, then future generations will be unable to see a representation of those dark days. If the silence were to endure, then no condemnation, sympathy, no regret, no emotion whatsoever would be imparted to those unaware. Therefore, as Witek asserts, the alternative to silence is to speak out with a medium that resonates with both the authority to speak, and the authenticity to do so, which he implies in the second question â€Å"When does the gap between art and life become so wide that fiction becomes a blasphemous lie?†. In Art Spiegelman’s autobiographical comic Maus, the subject of the Holocaust and its survivors was taken up. To Witken, Spiegelman’s work is a credible medium to tackle the holocaust because he has the necessary authority and authenticity to do so. The authority, Witken claims, comes from a â€Å"personal psychological necessity†. Maus for Spiegelman is a kind of therapy, a way to comprehend his own history, both as a person and as a Jew. The comic becomes a way to breach a gap produced by the Holocaust, a distance between the Jews who experienced, and those who did not. This is evident in the portrayal of the interactions between Art and his Father Vladek, most noticeably in the scene showing making of Maus. The interactions show transference of the pain, the pain of the Holocaust to the father, and as a result, shaping the father to a being that brings emotional pain to the son. In a scene in the Prisoner on the Hell Planet, the story of Spiegelman’s mental anguish as a result of his mother is portrayed. Spiegelman feels that the emotion he feels from his parents is caused by their experiences in the holocaust and yet, he is unable to understand how those experiences shaped their person. Thus, in a way, the Maus was written to provide an understanding of knowledge just present at the back of the minds of the generation of Jews after the Holocaust. A generation, who like Spiegelman, won’t be content with just silence. To successfully portray history, the accuracy of the details is not enough to attain authenticity. The inclusion of every emotion felt, and every though, as well as their representation. And it is in this representation that Spiegelman defends his use of animals instead of people. In order to pass through the authentic message, the use of people would inevitably show a false image, but in using animals, Spiegelman portrayed the emotions as they are, not as people show them to be. This is evident in the dialogue of Art trying to draw his wife. The use of animals is limited to just portraying the themes, bestiality, extermination, but the humanity of each character is still there. Another case point in Witek’s book is the American Splendour series of comics made by Harvey Pekar in collaboration with various artists. This series is hailed by Witek as a comic genre separate from others, as it tries to make the reader experience the life and times of the author. This â€Å"autobiographical’ comic book portrays various events in Harvey Pekar’s life, from the exceptional to the more occurring dull moments. The reader sees what Harvey Pekar experiences in various situations, through various styles and viewpoints. The authority of the comic to tell an existing person’s story is exemplified by American Splendor. Pekar states his reason for the theme of American Splendor by saying I want to write literature that pushes people into their lives rather than helping them escape from them. Most comic books are vehicles for escapism, which I think is unfortunate. I think the so-called average person often exhibits a great deal of heroism in getting through a normal day, and yet the reading public takes this heroism for granted. They’d rather read about Superman than themselves American Splendor does exactly that. It let’s the readers face the reality of Harvey Pekar’s hum drum existence, and in doing so, makes the readers see the parallelism of it with their own.            So what right does Harvey Pekar have to exhibit such unbiased realism in comic book form? His authority, as Witek implies is in his persona. Pekar is a full-time employee, and just a part time comic book creator; in essence, he lives the life that his comic books portray. All the vulgarities, emotions, thoughts and experiences found in the comics are essentially his to share.            Witek focuses on Pekar’s use of various forms and styles within the comic to show the authenticity of the work. American Splendor has no underlying consistent narration or view point. The persona may shift from the Harvey talking, and then to his wife reminiscing, and then coming back to a past event shared by both. This, instead of confusing reality with various viewpoints, lets the reader fully grasp the Harvey Pekar experience. Every detail from every role is portrayed accurately just as the author experienced it, thus we may see strips of stories simply heard by Pekar, as well experiences seen from Pekar’s view point, or the viewpoint of others towards Pekar. This adds a dimension of realism that successfully conveys the feeling of experiencing a day in the life of Harvey Pekar.            The success of the American Splendor series comes from its realism. We see Harvey Pekar as a person, full of foibles, emotion, errors and triumphs. We see and yet we do not judge, for in seeing those things in him, we also recognize that we as persons are guilty of the exact same reactions. Harvey Pekar does not portray himself, but the experience he has in the run of a normal day. Thus, no overtones of glorification or damnation can be evidently found within the text, for Pekar describes it as it is, without thought for shame, pride and ego. He focuses on the situation, making it, not Harvey Pekar, the real protagonist of his comics.            According to Robert Harvey, the comic book is just the sum of its parts. The unity of form that is achieved when the written word and the visual depiction merges makes the comic an ideal medium for expressing mood and tone. To fully utilize the comic as this medium, all of the graphic elements, the page layout, style, the narrative and composition must meld with the written caption. This in effect highlights the authenticity of the comic in bringing across the message of the author.            Using these elements, we can find key scenes in both Maus and American Splendor which serve to support Witek’s argument of the comic as history.            On page 83 of chapter 4 of Maus, we see an example of the effect when the caption fits in perfectly with the visual depiction. Due to the nature of the characterization, the visual element depends on the caption to identify which animal is which. The first words of the page set the whole tone, a somber realization. The following scene further reinforces the message, the interplay showing the noticeable distress of Vladek when he comes home and recounts the news. The boxed captions showing Vladek’s thoughts serves to highlight the underlying tone that it could be him hanging on the streets instead of the people he deals with. The final emphasis comes from the use of shaded lines to color the masses witnessing the hanging, giving them an aura of unimportance due to their impotence.             In American Splendor- A Marriage Album, we can see examples that illustrates how the factors mentioned by Harvey colluded to heighten the experience of the reader.The story starts with Pekar seeing his wife Joyce off, then it shifts to a reverie of Herschel/Harvey about the marriage. The scene then shifts to Joyce’s recounting of their then budding relationship, with highlights on the difficulties. Both accounts fuse together in the end, and the final scene shows perfect timing in summarizing the totality of the story, the interplay of how other people see their actions, Joyce’s joy in telling Harvey, and Harvey’s discomfort, which he tries to hide by throwing the box he was loading into the truck.            The two stories justify Witek’s premise of comic as history. The Maus focuses on the interplay of Jewish generations and the gap between the Holocaust and post-holocaust jews. American Splendor on the other hand emphasizes the scenes found in real, normal life, showing a reality as experienced by the author, Harvey Pekar. Both the authors of Maus and American Splendor exhibit the authority to tell their story in the comic medium. And in analyzing the different factors they use in telling the story, we see that they have the authenticity to do so as well. References Witek, J. (1990). Comic Books As History (The Narrative Art of Jack Jackson, Art Spiegelman, and Harvey Pekar).
Monday, January 6, 2020
My Life At The Veterans Home Essay - 1423 Words
I vividly remember that chilly night in March as I walked out of Fifer, the building my father now calls home, for the first time. I had goosebumps, but they were not from the cold I felt hit my skin. Instead, they were from the sickness in my stomach. As I got in the car, I began to cry and had to stop myself from running back inside. My entire world had turned upside-down. How could I go home without my father? How could I leave him in a nursing home, a place where he was too young and mentally fit to be confined? I had to fight the feeling that he didn’t belong. I had to remind myself of why he chose to be there, and I hated it. During my junior year of high school, my father made the difficult decision to go live at the Veterans’ Home. For thirty-five years he had lived with Multiple Sclerosis, a debilitating disease characterized by the destruction of the myelin sheath insulating the nerve cells. This degradation affects all movement by slowing or altogether halting nerve impulses to the muscles. As a result, my father became permanently wheelchair-bound around the time I started kindergarten. By my junior year of high school, he struggled with even simple tasks such as writing, dressing, grooming, and eating. It reached the point where he could no longer live at home without round-the-clock care. This revelation was earth-shattering but not a shock. It was yet another natural progression of the disease. Still, this did not prepare me for the emotions I experienced.Show MoreRelatedVeterans Deserve a Second Chance Back Home in the USA1467 Words  | 6 PagesPeople come to America to live a better life, but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. When Veterans come back home, all they want is a second chance at life again. They want to come back and be able to start from where they left off. But the government has done very little to help these veterans. 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