Based on what's still around, likely the one (now rebranded a Star Market, same holding company) in Porter Square, right by Porter Square station.
Based on what I recall, I believe there was one on the southeastern end of Green Street, a bit between Central and Kendall Square, barely northwest of MIT's primary campus area on the corner Massachusetts Ave and Vassar Street. That location has apparently closed in recent years.
Not California, but recently I had "SIXSPD" denied by a state after putting the first known 6-speed manual (all were sold as dual-clutch automatics) in an enthusiast car.
I was told that abbreviations weren't allowed. That was the denial reason.
Resubmitted it, not denied yet. We'll see if it shows up in another 3-5 weeks or if I get a denial letter followed by an another application refund 4-6 weeks after that.
I saw Battle Royale as a subbed bootleg around 20 years ago. Fantastic B-movie, and I understand some of the young actors got some notable roles as they got older (Takeshi Kitano was there because he was Takeshi Kitano), but it’s still a B-movie. Good time though, even today.
As an aside on Takeshi, for those who want to go down a rabbit hole, dig into “Takeshi’s Challenge” on the Nintendo Famicom. That game is a trip.
In my very first game I got to Rank 6 with 24K points. However, there's some cases where the client and server get out of sync (despite only supposed 10-20ms latency) where the server eventually syncs you with some wild rubber banding. I died because during this rubber banding where I was shoved across the map, I likely was picked off by the leader with 118K points.
Take care of the latency issues and you have the core of something. Something similar-but-different is "Realm of the Mad God" which originally was a Ludum Dare entry using the Oryx spritesheet. So add in some interesting NPCs, and deal with the latency issues and you have the core of something that actually is monetizable.
Yes, Boston is considered the educational capital of the planet.
Boston itself is about 700,000 people, but if you extend things to a 20 mile radius from Boston (say from DTX), in that area there is a transient student population of 400,000 people that are only there to attend higher education and ultimately call elsewhere home. Within 20 miles of Boston are several dozen (nearly 60?) universities, making education one of its six or seven tent-pole industries.
>Potentially it's items that move very very low volume but provide significant value by being available?
That doesn't matter, and exactly why corporate brought it up. Again, opportunity cost.
I asked my nearest 7-Eleven manager (I never go to convenience stores, so I just went in to the closest one) about how many customers he gets a month, and he said about 8,000. How many SKUs? About 2500. So for 40% of his SKUs, of the 8000 customers that walk in, 1 of 8000 is willing to buy a specific one of those 1000 items (at that elevated price) from that store. That's 1000 SKUs that could be at least partially replaced with something with far better sell-through. Shelf space isn't free. Backroom space isn't free. That's dedicated square footage, he's paying a lease on every single month, forever, for stuff that doesn't move.
The guy isn't running a convenience store out of the goodness of his heart. There's a supermarket 3 blocks away selling the same items for far less money, so it's not like he's selling something you can't get just a 3-minute further walk (or 1-minute drive) away.
I asked him about slow selling items. "Oh, you saw the video too?!" He was fully onboard with corporate support to not just get much better sell-through (and ergo, revenue), but having a reason for more people to come into the store, especially on a regular basis, and not simply getting things because, "they happen to already be here."
This location in particular WASN'T with a service station out front (inner city location). So for the manager, a way to get more regular customers, that are coming in to buy things they want -- possibly if they can't get it as easily (or at all) nearby -- is a HUGE potential win for him. That might help him get hundreds more customers every month, which might buy other things as well.
What was more surprising to me is the realization by corporate that 40% of the in-store SKUs in their US stores (in a given location) only sold through 1 or fewer units per month. That means if a franchise store got shipped a box of 12 units of a SKU, it might take a year or more to sell that box through.
What kills me is they're possibly just realizing this in 2024. What on earth has the corporate analytics team been doing all this time to not make that sort of opportunity cost screamingly obvious? Even if the margin is good, you're moving no volume.
I realize that it's probably cleaning products and other shelf stable items, but that just blew my mind.
At my local Home Depot, all the staffed registers are long unavailable, with the exception of one in the "pro" section. There are self-checkout registers... but they're all manned by Home Depot Employees. Not to watch over you, but running them in an admin mode, and using them as normal registers. It is absolutely ridiculous.
I believe the reason may be related to theft. All of the entrances no longer open except one. Well, at least for entering the store, as you can still exit through any of the doors just fine.
If this seems bad, here's how bad it is: Last time I went to Home Depot to get one or two things because they had it and I wanted them now, there were two older women in line in front of me. Aged 60+. They were discussing how ridiculous the situation was. One even said, "I realize they've probably done this because of theft, but this is so stupid now that honestly, I almost feel as if I should steal from the store to stick it to them!"
When old ladies feel that stealing from your store is justifiable, you've done messed up.
I agree the math is a bit off, so let's look at the percentages.
The current Toyota Corolla, in 3-box sedan form, starts at 119,800 RMB in China. The BYD Qin is also a 3-box sedan, similar dimensions, but starts at 109,800 RMB, or 8.4% cheaper.
To compare this directly to the US, a 2024 Corolla starts at $22,050. So this would be like launching the Qin in the US at $19,995. If you did the same percentages it'd be $20,210, but "$19,995" gets you the "Under $20,000" which would be extremely noteworthy in the US where there's not much left under $20K. They'd probably be willing to eat $215/unit of margin at launch just to be able to run with "Starting at under $20K" in advertisements until the sales really roll in, then raise the price a bit 2 years later to get the margin they wanted.