5 reasons why I never drank one Tealive drink to this day

From the sun daily

KUALA LUMPUR: Tealive owner Loob Holding Sdn Bhd will file an application for a stay and for leave to appeal to the Federal Court after the Court of Appeal granted an injunction by Chatime franchisor La Kaffa International Co Ltd against Tealive from continuing its operations.

La Kaffa had filed the appeal after the High Court dismissed its injunction bid in May 2017 against former franchise holder Loob from carrying a similar business as Chatime.

As we all know Tealive is a bit of a joke today after the high court of Malaysia ruled they can't do business.

1.  It's a dodgy business practitioner

I actually can't believe how most Malaysians had agreed it was alright for TeaLive to basically "steal" all the ChaTime franchises and how courts were manipulated to agree with TeaLive that it was alright to break contract with the master franchisor.

2.  I've always enjoyed ChaTime drinks to this day

The way a franchise works is that customers are generally loyal to the original franchisor.  They have great products and sorry, I'd rather find a ChaTime any day over TeaLive.

3.  The media spin

I think that the majority of Malaysians are educated and judge with their wallets and not with their voice.  The media here made it so TeaLive was the victim and not doing dodgy business practices.  Now all these media newspapers should be put to shame because most Malaysians are educated and can spell a rat.

Check out the lowyat forums for people's true opinion of TeaLive.

I am just guessing it was likely the mentality of worshipping young successful entrepreneurs without question and the obscene amount of cash TeaLive was spending on marketing which led the media to paint TeaLive as a legitimate Malaysian business being exploited by a foreign entity.

4.  It's not the taste, it's the principles

In all fairness I could have given TeaLive a try, but for me, businesses that are dodgy from the getgo don't deserve my hard earned money.

5.  The owner

No doubt Bryan Loob is a famous entrepreneur in Malaysia.  But he never struck me as a very honest guy with principles.  Sometimes you just got to look at the owner and what he stands for as a basic litmus test for business.

3 unexpected reasons Malaysia online shopping will flourish!

Just a little backstory of what has formed the premise for this post, I've just gotten back from a long trip in Australia and it is fascinating to see the differences between economies.  Traveling in Australia has been a fantastic experience and something I probably would have never done on my own accord and owe it to my other half.

Anyways, lets get on with the reasons:

1.  Malaysia has a workforce where many parents both work while raising a child

So, what does having both parents working have to do with online shopping?  When both parents work, little time is spent doing other endeavors, such as going to shopping malls.  But alas people will argue, look at Malaysian shopping malls!  They are world class, always full on the weekends, surely you (me) are wrong!

I don't think I am, and here is why.  If you ever go to the shopping mall on weekdays, it is generally empty.  In Australia, the opposite is true, weekdays, in most shopping centres, you can barely find parking.  But who might you ask is filling up Australian shopping centres?  That's right it is the non-working spouse with their kids.  

Something I noticed, with Australia's high minimum wage structure and ultra expensive child care, one parent usually does not work.  The economics simply don't justify it for the most part.  Childcare in Australia is 2800 AUD per month per kid.  Even with government subsidies at 1500 AUD, it seems not worth it for a lot of families, especially with two kids.

The opposite is true for Malaysia.  Here, child care is much cheaper, from daycare to having maids at home to watch over the kids.  With two parents able to earn so much more, it is a no brainer for both parents to work.  

Therein lies the disadvantage for shopping malls, two working parents is not good for shopping malls which only see massive traffic on weekends and holidays.  So this unusual demographic culture helps put the big competitors of online shopping at bay.  

2. Time  

If you ever go to a shopping mall, it is actually a fairly taxing trip, mentally, physically, eats up your day.  30 minutes spent finding parking, walking to the store you want to buy items, paying, carrying the shopping items, etc.   Yes, eventually people will be put off by the time spent walking up and down the escalators, compared to online browsing over at shoppee or lazada.

3.  Strong earning power of households with two parents

Households with two streams of incomes earn a fair amount of money and while much of it is likely saved or used to pay off necessities of life items, some of it does leak out to other activities.  A two income household lacks time.  Families generally don't want to be hassled when it comes to spending their hard earned time to go shop around for products.  

To people like these, money spent is about how much time it saves, and the quality of items produced.  If quality can be guaranteed, then it solves a lot of issues for time-strapped dual income families.  Online shopping as we know does save time, we just need some kind of quality guarantee.  To some extent, brands do offer some kind of quality assurance, but sometimes its not enough.

Nonetheless, the time saved is great when going online compared to going out.  The earning power of a dual income household trend in Malaysia bodes well for online shopping. 

Does a leopard change its spots? Dr. M wants to build another National car company!

From the star:

Malaysians have had a mixed reaction to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s announcement that the Government intends to launch a new national car company.

Speaking during a dialogue at the 24th Nikkei Conference on the Future of Asia on Monday, the Prime Minister said the new Government is thinking of starting another national car, perhaps with an Asian country such as Thailand, South Korea or Japan as a partner.

This did not go down well with everyone, with some urging for more focus on public transport.

Within minutes of the news, SK Teo created a petition titled “We should not have a national car at this point in time”, earning only five signatures out of its 100-person goal within an hour.

It's actually ludicrous to talk about ANOTHER national car project.  I mentioned before that well, Dr. M has his own ideas when it comes to economics and a country.  He thinks we should build massive things like Putrajaya.  He thinks we should build national car companies.

Maybe he has changed politically, but economically, he's sounding more and more like the old Dr. M.  And it's just more evidence that he hasn't changed and investors should be afraid. 

 

Why Dr. M believes in a national car company (in my opinion)

I've always wondered why Dr. M loves national car companies.   I mentioned that Dr. M is a numbers type of person in a previous blog on the HSR.  This means, if a project has no profit, it is a no go.  His types of projects are a very calculated movement. 

What does a National car company do for the country?  I believe his goal is hopefully for a national car company to be self-sustaining, it doesn't need to be super profitable. 

If we look at it from a foreign exchange standpoint, it achieves some goals on a purely numbers basis.  The average household spends large amounts of money in a couple of categories.  One is housing, while the next largest is autos, and another one is utilities (electricity, petrol).  Only one of these categories sees a massive negative trade balance with foreign entities, autos. 

So, if a national automaker were to be moderately successful, then Dr. M would achieve his goals of a having a more balanced trade deficit, meaning less dependence on foreign entities, and thus a stronger ringgit.  It's a very calculated idea in theory, but can it work? 

I don't really agree it can, because the products of a mediocre national car company is not what people want.  People want top quality cars at the best price, not a moderate quality national car at a bad price.  I don't think many people's goals are to have another national car company.  They want things like faster travel time, better public facilities, safer environments, better education. 

Hopefully Dr. M can have a change of heart.  They want freedom to buy what they want without being overpriced.  Right now, people are paying out the nose for better foreign cars.  And at this price point, they STILL would rather pay that ridiculous price than be forced to buy the national car.  People's wallets have spoken!

Astro considered being taken Private? Ananda Krishnan's third fail?

From the star:

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Billionaire T Ananda Krishnan (pic) is weighing the possibility of taking Astro Malaysia Holdings

 Bhd private after shares of the pay-TV operator dropped to a record low, people familiar with the matter said.

The tycoon has revived deliberations about a buyout of Kuala Lumpur-based Astro, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Krishnan has been speaking to potential advisers about funding options and is reaching out to some major investors to gauge their interest, the people said.

Recently, Ananda Krishnan had made headlines for its failure in the India market for the bankruptcy of Aircel.  Before that, we have another almost failure of Bumi Armada where he was looking to get out as oil prices fell back to earth.

He should just realize that perhaps when the tough gets going, he should get running.  Astro's prospects are getting bleaker with online streaming services like Netflix and streaming from android and apple boxes.

The newer generation of kids are learning to cut these big television behemoths out of the picture.  So Astro's grip on the population does get weaker with every passing year.

Will they continue to pay ridiculous prices for EPL games and the like?  Sports for now are still Astro's only saving grace. 

 

Pakatan Harapan's Debt blunder

From Malaysia Kini:

The implementation of an RM100 monthly public transit pass would have "huge" financial implications for the federal government, said Transport Minister Anthony Loke.

BN Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin believes that the Pakatan Harapan administration may have exaggerated the national debt situation to buy time for the implementation of its election promises.

Pakatan Harapan has been using the "National Debt is bigger than expected" as a reason not to implement some of their campaign promises. 

I tend not to agree with their logic.  Looking for a reason not to implement policies is a bit of stupidity.  Blaming others is never the right way.  They should have some degree of knowledge how big the debt is or not make so many promises they cannot implement.  It is common knowledge every country's debt is larger than what is stated on "official records."  I don't think it should be a surprise for most competent parties that they have an idea what the debt is before they come into power.

I tend to agree with Khairy that Pakatan is using this debt media blitz as a way to not implement some of their promises.

I believe Pakatan Harapan should just take their lumps and not blame others.   But nonetheless, most people already know they are a new party and will take some time to adjust to governance.  Just don't make it worse by making a show of it.