Manicures were once for special occasions only. Now they have become a staple for women across the economic spectrum. With more than 17,000 nail salons in the United States, there are about 2,000 nail salons in New York City alone. This New York Times research article looks at the dirty little secret of exploitation of… Read more »
Posts Tagged: qualitative issues in cost decision making
Schedules: The Next Labor Fight
While the minimum wage issue has come to the top of political agendas over the past few years, it appears that the new frontier in labor reform will be schedules and pushing back against the corporate trend to time shifts when labor is needed. Questions: 1. What are some of the requirements that proponents hope… Read more »
A Solution for Separation Anxiety
People feel guilty about leaving their dogs home all day alone. Now there’s a solution – DogTV. Some viewers even report that their dogs were on medication for separation anxiety, but since subscribing to the channel, the dogs no longer need the drugs. Questions: 1. What year was the channel launched and in what country?… Read more »
An Expensive Glitch
On April 24, a computer outage hit 7,000 U.S. Starbuck’s company-owned stores and 1,000 Canadian company-owned Starbuck’s locations. The outage was resolved Friday night after several hours. Questions: 1. Did all locations deal with the problem in the same way? What did they do? 2. Why do you think that the outage did not affect… Read more »
Adjuncts with Ph.D.s are now Rising in the Ranks with the Working Poor
Are academics actually resorting to government aid? According to the article by Jeremy Weissman, 25% of part-time college faculty are on government aid. Questions: 1. According to NBC News, how many part-time faculty are on public assistance? 2. What programs do these include? 3. According to the article, what are the three things that need… Read more »
How would you like a Big Raise?
Dan Price, the founder of Gravity Systems—a credit card processing company based in Washington—shocked his employees by raising the minimum wage to $70,000 over the next three years. Questions: 1. What percentage raise will that be based on the average wage now? 2. Where did Dan get the idea? 3. Do you think that his… Read more »
Need a Repair? Need Drum Lessons?
Need a plumber? If Amazon.com succeeds, it will soon be a very large marketplace of home services and will connect customers with electricians, plumbers and painters in a move to have its services tied to every product sold on its website. Questions: 1. How will this change Amazon’s chart of accounts? 2. Provide three accounts… Read more »
The World of Drones
At a farm in Dublin, Ireland, Paul Brennan took a video that has gone viral for its creativity in using drones – rounding up sheep. Questions: 1. Put on your thinking cap. Is there any task that a drone could do in the future to assist the accountant or auditor? 2. Besides Amazon, what other… Read more »
The Slump of the Big Mac?
According to the CEO of McDonalds, Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s has an “urgent need to evolve” after unveiling another slide in worldwide sales, which is the ninth month in a row that sales have fallen at the fast-food chain. Questions: 1. How does McDonalds propose to get out of this slump? 2. What is Mr. Easterbrook’s… Read more »
Huge Food Merger
Heinz is going to buy 51% of Kraft in a deal brokered that is by Berkshire-Hathaway and the Brazilian-based private equity company 3G. As a result, Kraft shareholders will get a $10 billion special dividend (about $16.50 a share) under the deal. Questions: 1. What happened to the price of Kraft shares after this deal… Read more »