|
NRI's
feature. Tea Party : Garam Chai for Sale!
|
For some luxury goods, the more you charge the more people
want the product. Vodka is like that. So is tea. Jill Portman
and Gary Shinner used to associate tea with romance and
relaxation. They recall shopping for wedding rings in Chicago
in 1990 when a jeweler served them an aromatic pot of oolong.
Later, when they were married and Portman was pregnant,
she enjoyed drinking rooibos tea, an African blend that
is supposed to help with digestion. Today tea brings other
associations: profit and loss.
Portman
and Shinner are cofounders and 85% owners of Mighty Leaf
Tea Co., a San Rafael, Calif. company that peddles overstuffed,
overpriced organic tea bags. These megasacks, made out of
corn starch, hold 2.5 grams of tea, flowers, herbs, dried
fruit and sometimes cacao nibs. A box of 15 retails for
$8. Mighty Leaf's sales last year rose 27% to $16.5 million.
Its pretax profit margin: 10%.
This
is the company's second act in the tea business. The first--a
sort of Starbucks (nasdaq: SBUX) for tea--flopped.
Shinner,
53, chief executive, spent seven years as a mergers and
acquisitions investment banker. Portman, 50, the president,
worked as a construction management consultant. At a juice
bar one day in 1992 they were struck by the market for healthy
beverages. Two months later they decided to work toward
quitting their jobs so they could start a retail business.
They settled on the idea of opening a tea cafe. "This
could be a concept that could be on every street corner,
like Starbucks," Shinner remembers saying.
They
didn't have any retail experience, so Portman got a job
at a Starbucks store in Evanston, Ill., some 15 miles from
her office so clients wouldn't see her. She spent three
months waking up at 4 a.m. to work a three-hour shift. She
was impressed by the retail chain's training program, which
emphasized selling the gourmet experience of coffee.
In 1995
the couple took $200,000 out of their personal savings and
borrowed $200,000 from family. Where to put the store? The
Midwest is for Dunkin' Donuts. To sell gourmet tea you're
better off in a blue state. They headed to San Francisco.
It took
them 12 months and $300,000 to open Tea & Co., which
served its first $1.75 cup of tea in 1996. At its peak in
1999 the Fillmore Street store was serving 300 customers
a day, bringing in $400,000 in annual revenue--and losing
money. The $54,000 rent, for 1,900 square feet, was a killer.
It also hurt that they couldn't tart up the tea into $4
fancy drinks.
But
a sideline, packing and selling bags containing tea and
exotic ingredients, saved them. Because of Tea & Co.'s
prime location, they were able to sell the rights to their
lease for $200,000. The couple changed the name of the venture
to Mighty Leaf and retreated to an industrial warehouse
in Sausalito.
Then
they went to work injecting the razzle-dazzle they had picked
up in the retail business into their tea-packing venture.
When pitching stores, hotels and restaurants, their demonstration
often includes cutting open a paper tea bag, containing
only broken leaves and tea dust, from a mass-market brand.
They then compare it to one of their biodegradable tea bags,
with its aromatic whole leaves. They brew the teas and do
a taste test. Servers in fancy restaurants are instructed
to present a Mighty Leaf tea box and rave about the various
tastes and aromas. Portman and Shinner even provide test
tubes from which restaurant customers can get a whiff. Mighty
Leaf is carried in 17,000 hotels and restaurants and 6,000
food stores.
Selling
ritzy tea is like selling premium vodka or perfume: Marketing
and price are important. This outfit spends 10% of revenue
on marketing. But look at the margins. Mighty Leaf spends
20 cents on an average tea bag--the couple contracts out
the production of the bags. Mighty Leaf sells bags at an
average 40 cents. Is the restaurant going to complain about
the price? No. The theatrics enable it to sell the resulting
beverage for up to $7.
Last
year Mighty Leaf got its first outside investment. VMG Equity
Partners, among the first investors in VitaminWater, spent
$7.5 million for a 15% stake in Mighty Leaf, valuing the
company at $50 million. (The investment from family is considered
debt; they get interest.)
Trouble
looms on the horizon. Celestial Seasonings (part of Hain
Celestial) and even Lipton (part of Unilever) are elbowing
their way into the deluxe tea business. And then there is
the recession that is probably now under way. This couple
is likely to prevail. Says Shinner: "Passion is a little
bit like a drug. It eliminates the fear factor because it
focuses you."
Dorothy
Pomerantz [Forbes
Magazine November 17, 2008]
|
Feature:
Online Matrimonials
|
|
Indian
Internet Matrimony - Dos and Donts -
By: Mrs Gayathri Sanyal (Marriage Consultant) for IndianMillionaireMarriages
.com
Marriage is one of the most important decisions of your
life. Be wary of matrimonial sites.
Don't
s
1) Marriage is a sensitive, personal and private matter.
Don't let any mass market matrimonial websites commoditize
you as a product on a catalogue
2) Don't get carried away by sites that claim they have
millions of members. It is immaterial to you. Multiple
choices are only an illusion. You are unique and there
is only one match and you can marry only one.
3) Don't get carried away by success stories they claim
on their sites. It is irrelevant to you and you cannot
validate their authenticity
4) Don't let automatic software matchmaker programs
spam your mailbox. It will distract you and keep you
single for years. Remember - most mass market matrimonial
sites desire that you remain single so that they can
get renewed subscriptions.
5) Don't start exchanging pictures from the beginning
however beautiful or handsome you may be. You spoil
your chances of finding a good match due to a focus
on too superficial parameters. You will end up with
the wrong person
6) Establish Trust. Furnish the facts of who you are
in tangible terms so you are not a virtual identity.
There is nothing wrong in sharing a traditional biodata
instead of being abstract.
A generic profile says - I am a doctor. A specific profile
says - I graduated from G.S Medical in 2000 with Ist
class and practice as a pediatrician in Mumbai
7) Exchange each other's pictures if you feel that basic
background is compatible. Don't plaster your picture
on websites. You are demeaning your identity from a
multi dimensional personality to a static, one dimensional
image. You attract or repel someone based on your personality
and not your picture.
8) Don't correspond with multiple profiles simultaneously.
You will not be able to do justice.
9) Don't use Video/ SMS alert or Messenger services
to exchange initial information. SMS shows how abrupt
and irresponsible you are with the most important chapter
of your life.
10) Instant Messenger invites parallel processing with
multiple people and leads to no outcome. Use it only
after you have exchanged basic info and would like to
pursue a relationship with someone but have geographic
constraints
11) Don't copy other people's profiles just to make
the profile look fancy. Be yourself.
12) Don't just walk away but RUN from websites that
offer multiple distracting popup windows when you are
searching for your partner
13) Don't use websites which offer you the false ego
boost of Declining someone. It is rude, immature and
silly.
Dos : KYS Know Your Self
1)
List your strengths and weaknesses
2) List down your key achievements in life
3) List down what you will offer the marriage
4) List down what you value in her/him and what she/he
should value
5) List down your personal and professional future plans
6) List down what you can compromise on in terms of
location, financial status, food habits, religion, mother
tongue, field of work and the likes
7) List down what you cannot compromise on - "must
haves"
Communication
Tips
8)
Take initiative in communication when you find someone
of interest
9) Introduce yourself with a traditional biodata
10) Share the KYS with the person across
11) Request for a KYS discussion from the other person
12) Be prompt, patient and mature
13) Be Realistic in your expectations.
Read
rest of the feature
|
|
Headlines
and In the News
|
|
Festive
Season is around the corner
Check
out our new listing of Diwali celebrations in cities
across North Ameica in 2008
These
articles on Diwali may take you back the memory lane
-
A
New Yorker's very first Diwali: When I asked
Indian friends at work about Diwali, they told me
about the customs of the many lamps being lit, new
clothes and gold bought, sweets shared and consumed,
and, often recalled by the guys, firecrackers being
set off. On a Hindi language CD-ROM at home, I learned
a snippet of a song that went Deep jalao, deep jalao,
aaj Diwali re. Khushi-khushi sab ansate aao, aaj
Diwali re.
-
Diwali
in New York city: About a decade old viewpoint
of an alien in New York.. To round off the Diwali
festivities there was a `Bollywood Beats Night'
organised at the Gallery 678 just north of Soho.
Love
Guru: What's the big deal?
The
movie "Love Guru" has a simple plot. "Pitka
an American raised outside of his country by gurus,
returns to the States in order to break into the self-help
business. His first challenge: To settle the romantic
troubles and subsequent professional skid of a star
hockey player whose wife left him for a rival athlete"
[IMDB]. The film is generating a lot more buzz in
the Indo-american press:
-
Wal-Mart,
retailers urged to shun 'The Love Guru': Hindus
of USA have urged various retailers worldwide, including
Wal-Mart, not to carry DVD of Hollywood movie 'The
Love Guru' when it is released next month, because
it lampoons Hinduism.
- "The
Love Guru" yet to be submitted for certification
in India: According to acclaimed Hindu leader
Rajan Zed, this movie appears to violate various CBFC
"guidelines for certification". He listed
the apparently challenged CBFC guidelines in this
movie as: " such dual meaning words as obviously
cater to baser instincts are not allowed"; "visuals
or words contemptuous of racial, religious or other
groups are not presented"; "human sensibilities
are not offended by vulgarity, obscenity or depravity".
- Film
makers ‘rarely do justice to faith issues’
says Hindu leader: Rajan Zed, the president of
the Universal Society of Hinduism, has said that the
idea of film-makers satisfying the demands of cinematic
art and a truly religious experience may be ‘very
attractive’, but may not be reachable ‘many
times’
HTCC
Priest: Position Vacant
(A
Non-Profit Organization Registered in the State
of Washington)
3818 212th St SE, Bothell WA 98021
Ph: (425) 483-7115 URL:
HTCC
is looking for a SMARTHA priest hailing from South
India (preferably Telugu Speaking priest from Andhra
Pradesh) who has studied vedas and apastamba purva-apara
prayoga in the traditional way. He should have served
in a temple (or matha) for a few years, and have
some grasp over Sanskrit, Jyotisha (muhurtha shastra)
and dharma shastra. He should be able to converse
in English along with at least one South Indian
language, and wishes to be an ambassador of Hinduism.
For more detail information on Priest requirement
please click here. Please contact Vishwa Gaddamanugu
(vishu2@gmail.com or Phone (425) 269-4066) or Executive
Committee for more details and submitting biodata/resume.
Requirements
at: http://www.htccwa.org/Community/SIndianPriestReq.htm
HTCC is looking for a priest hailing from North
India who has studied vedas and apastamba purva-apara
prayoga in the traditional way. He should have served
in a North Indian temple for a few years, and should
have some grasp over Sanskrit, Jyotisha (muhurtha
shastra) and dharma shastra. He should be able to
converse in English along with Hindi, and wishes
to be an ambassador of Hinduism. For more detail
information on Priest requirement please click here.
Please contact Vishwa Gaddamanugu (vishu2@gmail.com
or Phone (425) 269-4066) or Executive Committee
for more details and submitting biodata/resume.
Requirements
at: http://htccwa.org/Community/NIndianPriestReq.htm
HTCC
is a multi diety (Venkateshwara & Lakshmi, Shiva
& Durga, Rama, Lakshmana, Sita & Hanuman,
Krishna & Radha, Ganesha, Subramanya, Saibaba,
Navagrahas and Mahavir & Rishabdev) temple and
would like to have candidates who are willing to
serve each and every deity.
Thanks in advance.
-- Vishwa Gaddamanugu [President, HTCC-Executive
Committee. Ph: (425) 269-4066]
GaramChai.com
Editor's note: Please contact the temple directly
|
|
|
Search
|
|
Search
GaramChai.com and other information
|
Though
websites like Sulekha, Search India and others attract advertisers
by providing listings, events, chat and discussions, Garamchai.com
aims to be the most extensive information directory with a
simple but elegant user interface. GaramChai.com is a complete
resource listing of hundreds of temples, restaurants online
shops, grocers and bazaars. Other listings include jewelers,
wedding specialists, theaters, beauty salons, mehndi services,
places of worship including Temples, Mosques, Churches and
Gurudwaras. With the large amounts of information, the site
is well organized dividing most listings into state categories.
Sending comments or suggestions is simple with a form that
is provided on the site or by emailing us [Replace _at_ with
@] This
section of GaramChai.com will attempt to address some of the
Frequently Asked Questions on Life in the US and Canada that
immigrants, visitors and others from different cultures attempt
to address.
|
|
|
Travel Partner
|
|
|
|
Legal
A dvert Partner
|
|
|
|
Advert
Partner
|
|
|
|
Matrimonial
Advert
|
|
|
|
Advert Partner
|
|
|
|
Insurance
Channel
|
|
|
|
Google
Advert
|
|
..
|
|
|
