Recession Red

Paul Kreider, owner of California's Ross Valley Winery, is adapting to the recession by using a creative pricing strategy.By May of last year, Kreider had begun to see his sales and revenue seriously affected by the slump in the economy. So he decided to respond in kind. He created a blend that he called "Recession Red" and priced it to match the market. Every day he sold his bottles of "Recession Red" for exactly 0.1% of that day's Dow Jones index. When he began to sell "Recession Red" in March of '08, it cost $12.50 a bottle. By last October he was selling it for $9.44. How's that for a silver lining?
Before long Kreider's marketing gimmick was paying off - "Recession Red" was bringing in as much as 20 % of his sales; even when the wine sold below value, Kreider mantained, "what I lose in sales, I gain in publicity."
He must have been on to something, because several other wineries are now jumping onto the trend. Concannon Vineyard (of Livermore, CA) was second to ask for trademark approval of the term, on June 3, 2008, and Woods Lake Winery (of Woodinville, WA) was third, on October 2, 2008.

BBQ for the Recession!

courtesy of thereifixedit.com

Frugal Brooklyn

Last week, Brooklyn was named the most frugal city in the U.S. by Mint.com, based on discretionary spending figures. Of course, since the numbers correspond to the percentage decrease in spending since 2008, it could just mean that Brooklyn was one of the most outta hand back in bull-market 2008...

Either way, its a great graphic and is fascinating in its specifics, charting how much each (at least, each of the 5 least frugal) spent on clothing, books, electronics, hobbies, and sports respectively (Chicagoans love them some books). I wish they had broken it down for the most frugal as well-could be a very interesting comparison.

No Overhead = Gourmet for $10 per Head

It all started in a taco truck.

What is now a growing phenomenon of "nonrestaurants" in the bay area got its start with one guy named Anthony Myint. He was a line cook with a dream, a dream that one day he would get out from behind that hot and sweaty grill, escape the monotony of an established restaurant, and run - or drive, as it were - his own damn kitchen!

Myint decided to sublet a local taco truck - the cost of which was low enough to allow him to dive right in without too much planning or paperwork. Working out of that truck a couple nights a week, he started to create original, delicious sandwiches and sell them on the street in San Francisco's Mission District.

The mobile venture was so cheap in fact that Myint could afford to use only excellent, eco-friendly, local and generally P.C. ingredients - and for this he gained huge popularity with the crunchy foodies that abound in the Bay area.

The truckstaurant eventually could not meet the demand for Myint's creations, so he moved on to sublet a local Chinese restaurant for use two nights a week, with the help of his wife. To their own amazement, the (semi?)restaurant continued to turn a major profit, week after week. The couple decided that they would, after paying themselves a modest hourly wage, donate the rest of their proceeds to food-related charities.

They hope that what they've done will be profitable enough to really catch on as a business model, and that the idea of having a restaurant (or other business) that directly benefits the community will come to be so popular that it will be its own marketing strategy. Whether or not this happens, and I hope that it does, the idea is also a great way for restaurants and other small business to deal with decreased demand and profit during the recession - giving up their lease and sharing that of another restaurant, for example, and using the space on alternating nights.

Mission Street Food now has a blog, where they advertise their special events, favorite food charities, and menu. Some delicious-sounding and creative selections from the latter are: a pork belly jicama salad, shrimp and grits, smoked duck beignets, and a buttermilk panna cotta dessert. All of these at only $6 - $8 each!

Save on Spouse

Free breakfast and a wife?!?

Best deal ever!

Ebay + Recession = Zilok

A new website takes a page from the ebay/craigslist book to create a forum for peer-to-peer renting. Offering everything from electronics to party supplies to heavy duty maintenance tools, Zilok.com fills that niche in the market for the items that so many people want or need for just a few uses. Use it to get some rent a plasma screen for your next superbowl party ($250/day for a 42 inch in manhattan) or fancy camera accessories for between $3 and $40/day (a fisheye lens goes for $6/day in manhattan.)

The best part of this website is that takes the monopoly power out of the hands of companies like U-haul, which have traditionally been the only place to find a van rental for a day or two (believe me, I moved this summer and looked everywhere.) On Zilok I found moving vans available in California for $85/ day whereas my U-haul experience broke the $300 mark.

But that brings us to the downside: based on the availability of items on the site, it looks like Zilok started on the west coast and is only gradually making it over to the east. All the more reason to start using it now. Offer up for rental those items that cost you more than you should have spent, and in a few uses they'll have paid for themselves! That's what I call shopping for the recession.

Eat for Cheap in the New Year

You don't have to join in the American obesity trend just because you can't afford to get all your produce at the Greenmarket anymore.

Here are some foods that are cheap AND healthy, adapted from the website Divine Caroline and also reproduced in my very favorite food blog, Not Eating Out in New York.

1. Oats: High in fiber and good for cholesterol. A dollar buys you a week’s worth of breakfast. Also great for adding to chocolate chip cookies or using to bake oat bars.
2. Eggs: A cheap source of protein, at about a dollar for a half-dozen. Also, yolks have lots of Vitamin D, which is important and hard to get enough of without taking supplements.
3. Kale: At about a dollar a bunch, this is one of the cheapest greens you’ll find in the supermarket.
4. Potatoes. Been there, done that.
5. Nuts, especially when bought in the shell.
6. Bananas: Shop around for deals; DivineCaroline found them for 19 cents apiece at Trader Joe’s!
7. Garbanzo Beans: Also known as chickpeas, garbanzos are cheapeast in dry form, but even precooked beans will still only cost about a dollar. With a food processor, they can become hummus in a flash.
8. Broccoli.
9. Watermelon: The whole melon costs more than a dollar, but the per-serving cost is only about 20 cents, the site says.
10. Wild Rice or Brown Rice.
11. Beets: Roasted in the oven or shred into salads, beets are packed with nutrients. For extra value, buy them with greens on for stir fry or to toss in a salad. Beets have been a popular topic on the NYTimes Well blog: check out Pass the Beets, Again for several recipes that take beets beyond the can.
12. Butternut Squash: In season, the butternut squash costs less than a dollar a pound. It’s hearty and pretty easy to bake or prepare as a soup.
13. Whole Grain Pasta
14. Sardines: A little fish so low on the food chain it doesn’t accumulate mercury and packs tons of nutrition. Mash them with parsley, lemon juice and olive oil for a spread or toss into salads or on pizza.
15. Spinach: Cheap year-round and very nutritious.
16. Tofu: It is one of those "elitist" foods that a political candidate could get in trouble for liking, but its not really that expensive. Add to smoothies for a protein boost.
17. Milk: Per serving, milk and many milk products like yogurt are still under a dollar. Watch for a homemeade ice cream recipe in an upcoming Recipes for the Recession!
18. Pumpkin Seeds: Not the most practical item on the list because most of us aren’t carving pumpkins every day and they are expensive to buy on their own. Still, they are great on salads and as a snack, so it’s always worth saving pumpkin seeds when you have a pumpkin.
19. Coffee: may protect against disease, which is the best addiction-justifying news i've heard all recession.