Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line: FunnyBusiness

RIP: Creator of New York City's Iconic Blue Coffee Cup

If someone asked you what are the biggest differences between the community you live and New York City, chances are the list would be rather long. And, if you are a coffee drinker, one of the items on that list would be the city's coffee cups.

For those of us who travel to the city , or for people who pay attention to details like coffee cups on television shows and movies, you know that the coffee cups in New York, don't look like the coffee cups in Minnesota, Oklahoma or Washington state.

The New York Times has a wonderful obituary today on Leslie Buck, the man who designed the coffee cup that will forever be associated with  New York coffee.

Leslie Buck joined Sherri Cup, then a startup, in the mid-’60s. Originally the company’s sales manager (for a time, he was its entire sales force), he later became its director of marketing. Sherri was keen to crack New York’s hot-cup market. Since many of the city’s diners were owned by Greeks, Mr. Buck hit on the idea of a Classical cup in the colors of the Greek flag. Though he had no formal training in art, he executed the design himself. It was an instant success. Mr. Buck made no royalties from the cup, but he did so well in sales commissions that it hardly mattered, his son said. On his retirement from Sherri in 1992, the company presented Mr. Buck with 10,000 specially made Anthoras, printed with a testimonial inscription.

In its heyday, more than 500 million of the cups were produced each year. In recent years, that number has dropped to 200 million. That's still a lot of coffee. You can read more about Mr. Buck and how he came up with his design, at the NYT. Mr. Buck was 87 years old. I

mage Credit: New York Times

This is cross-posted at 1quickcup.com

Alamo Tried To Guilt Me Into Upgrading From My Economy Class Rental

As Asif pulled up my reservation, he reviewed the details, and then, what I can only describe as  the best puppy dog face since my son Noah was five years old said, " You don't want to stay in the economy rental, do you?"

Now when put that way, of course I didn't want to rent an economy car. I wanted to rent a sports car. But, the rental was not for pleasure. It was a business rental. If I needed to carpool with other team members then I would have rented a larger car. However, for this trip, I would be the only driver and only passenger.

"Are you offering a free upgrade?" I asked,  Last week in Seattle I did get a Kia mini van because they had run out of economy cars, so the idea of a free upgrade was not outrageous.

" No, just $10," explained Asif.

"$10 for the week?"

" No that's $10 each day."

" So that would be $50 more," I clarified. " I don't think so."

Asif is trained to not take no for an answer. Since guilting me didn't work, As if took the inconvenience and embarrassment approach. " If you get an economy car you won't have electric windows or locks. You'll have to roll the windows up and down."

I stood my ground and assured Asif that I could handle rolling the window up and down. I was beginning to get annoyed. If Alamo is ashamed of their fleet of economy cars and think their customers deserve to drive a different car, then don't offer this category of cars. I don't mind up-selling but up-sell with the what I'll get with the upgrade, not what I should hate about the product I'm renting.

Oh, and the little Kia that I'm driving for my week in Los Angeles,  has everything I need. Power windows. Power doors and an AUX connection so I can listen to my audible book on my Kindle.