Noon International: Food Trading Import Export

The Toilet Restaurant

Edward Noon — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:59:19 +0000

From Alan Davis, a Taiwanese restaurant with a toilet (twist).

Toilet Restaurant

Toilet Restaurant enjoying Toilet Meal

Toilet Restaurant

Toilet Meal

Dessert a la Toilet

Toilet Restaurant

More dessert

Visit the blog to see more information: http://mrnaomi.wordpress.com/2008/02/13/taiwan-modern-toilet-restaurant/

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Obesity, Obesity, Obesity

Edward Noon — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:26:55 +0000

The latest report out confirms that obesity is on the rise in the US headed by Mississippi.

Some quick facts:

Mississippi ranked number 1 for the 5th year in a row.
More than 1 in 4 is obese in 31 states.
Obesity among adults rose in 23 states over the past year.
The rate of obesity is highest amongst 55 – 64 year-olds.
Medicare spends anywhere from $1400 to $6000 more annually on health care of obese seniors than for non-obese.

The solution? Just maybe Ukranian Dr. Hryhory Chausovsky who invented the Smart Plate has the answer. The Smart Plate is a normal size plate that has a micro chip embedded with a weight sensor and talks to you once the weight on the plate is over the threshold.

It scolds you with phrases such as, “stop right there” or “where’s your will power”.

Of course its not full proof because we don’t know what kind of calories we are loading the plate up with but it just might be a start in the right direction.

Have a happy 4th of July and be careful of the weight of your food on your plate.

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China’s Largest Cold Chain To Be Completed End Of Year

Edward Noon — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:28:46 +0000

Alan Davis of Strategic Solutions Partners, LLC points us to a recent article in Cargo Business News June 26, 2009.

The largest cold chain complex in Tianjin, China with a capacity of 200,000 metric tons will be completed by the end of this year.

The facility will be made up of 5 cold storage warehouses and a 15,000 square meter aquaculture market with processing capacity of 10,000 metric tons per annum.

It is projected to have frozen foodstuff trade volume of 1,000,000 metric tons with a trade value of approximately $4,000,000,000.

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Cow Farm, Fresh Milk

Edward Noon — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:04:01 +0000

Fair Oaks Farm, milks 32,000 cows daily, enough for 8,000,000 people. Entertainment plus.

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Independent Supermarkets A Dinosaur Of The Past

Edward Noon — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 03:33:55 +0000

In this day and age of Walmart’s, Target’s, Safeway’s, Kroger’s, etc., how is an independent to compete, let alone survive?

Hot Sauces

The answer of course, is to be or do something remarkable. Create WOW and the customers will come.

I just recently read a book, Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores In America, by George Whalin. One of those retail superstars is Jungle Jim’s International Market, a humungous supermarket in Fairfield, Ohio.

Jungle Jim’s International is a 285,000 square foot (6.5 acre or 26,000 square meter) Supermarket that has it all (compared to the typical American supermarket from 35,000 – 45,000 sq. ft. or a Walmart or Target Supercenter which can be up to 200,000 sq. ft.). The store is based on themes that entertain the customers. It has one of the largest wine collections in the U.S., live seafood tanks, a cooking school and more. They have foods from around the world, they have Amish, Asian, European and other International foods. In fact if you can’t find it here chances are you can’t find it anywhere.

Jungle Jim's

How about foot traffic? Jungle Jim’s has 50,000 shoppers per week passing through and annual sales of $100 million! Not bad for an independent located in a city with a population of 42,097 based on the 2000 census (Cincinnati is a good 30 minute drive away).

Independents can thrive and do thrive in todays environment. The key is creativity and being remarkable and they will come.

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Obesity, Is It In The Plate Size?

Edward Noon — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:01:21 +0000

How much does the plate size have to do with obesity? If you live in America most plates are piled high with food, and if you were brought up like me, then you were taught to clean the plate.

This leads to the following formula, More Food Than Necessary + Eating Plate Clean = Eating More Calories Than Needed. Eating more calories than necessary leads to gaining weight, which can lead to obesity.

So I ask is the key in just less food on the plate?

Compare food quantity below:

Japanese Bento Box

Plate of Chinese Food

WOW!! An American Hamburger.

Smaller plates, less food, is it that simple?

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Memorial Day Remembrance

Edward Noon — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:13:37 +0000

American Flag

Memorial Day Holiday
Pause to give thanks to those who have lost their lives, for those who fought to defend our freedom, our way of life.

May God Bless You All.

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Increase Sales, Take A Survey

Edward Noon — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:42:12 +0000

Just recently we conducted a survey with our Japanese customers to determine how we can improve our relationship while at the same time increase sales. What did we learn? Not much.

The common theme was cheaper prices and a faster resolution to claims. Of course, what else would you expect the response to be?

Everybody wants cheaper prices and at some point in time this ends up being a nail in your coffin, your out of business. How many “low cost” companies have lasted over the long haul?

Claims resolved quickly? Of course they want them resolved quickly. If I were to purchase a shirt at Nordstroms, take it home only to find out it had a spot on it, would I not want to take it back and get it replaced or refunded right away? Yes, of course, I don’t want to explain what happened, why there is a problem, I just want it exchanged or refunded without any hassle. Unfortunately, nobody does this in the food industry. Everybody is pointing the finger and trying to avoid the problem, and of course nobody likes working on claims, so what happens? They drag on and on and take forever to be resolved. Of course this is a problem with our Japanese customers.

To me, the survey should be conducted between the final seller and the end user. If we can understand what frustrations and problems they have, then
we can develop a solution for them that would be far more meaningful then just lowering prices. So in my mind, we should be out spending more time trying to understand the end consumer and developing something that has a “WOW” factor as Tom Peters would say, or create a “Purple Cow“, something “Remarkable” as Seth Godin says.

How do we create WOW or REMARKABLE, well first start by spending 20 minutes watching Malcolm Gladwell video on Spaghetti sauce (see video below), this just might spark some creativity.

Regardless of what we do we should always strive for “Excellence”, as recently seen at Tom Peters post:

“Excellence can be obtained if you:

… care more than others think is wise;
… risk more than others think is safe;
… dream more than others think is practical;
… expect more than others think is possible.”

Lastly and most important:

Excellence.
Always.
If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?

Be Remarkable, create a Purple Cow!

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Everest Base Camp, Photos

Edward Noon — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 16:39:47 +0000

Walking up to Everest Base Camp.

A stupa memorial for one of many lost lives on Everest.

Lily Noon at Everest Base Camp

Mt. Everest peeking through the clouds

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Everest Base Camp

Edward Noon — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:28:27 +0000

Team Noon International made it to Everest Base Camp 9 days after we started our trek from Lukla. It was one of our longest days, starting from Lobuche and trekking to Gorek Shep (3hours) our camp site for this evening where we camped out for the night and then continuing on from there to Everest Base Camp (another 3 hours) spending a half hour at Base Camp and then trekking back to Lobuche (another 3 hours) were we arrived just before sunset. Everybody was exhausted and had no problems sleeping after a quick dinner.

The trek got harder and harder the higher we went. It was one step at time as we fought the elements of high altitude and the thin air.

Glaciers, Kumbu Ice Fields, Mt. Everest, Everest Base Camp it was all there right in front of us. We all looked in awe at the beauty that surrounded us, Heaven on Earth!!

Pictures to be coming.

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