I had a hard time waking up this morning so I stayed behind in the room to drink some coffee, take a shower, and study a company I’ve been researching lately. I met everyone over at the Animal Kingdom theme park for our lunch reservations at Yak and Yeti. What has been on my mind…
After the Guerlain fragrance purchases earlier, I ended up buying several new bottles of Acqua di Parma, including the Colonia, Colonia Intensa, and Blu Mediterraneo Bergamotto di Calabria in the Italy Pavilion of Epcot at Walt Disney World. Again, I realized that most of the people who were in the store with me probably didn’t know the story of the high-end brand, or the business behind it that provides a great example of how a left-for-dead business can be revitalized to become relevant, fresh, and lucrative.
After visiting the Guerlain boutique, we headed to Les Chefs de France in the French Pavilion at Epcot. You foodies who frequent the park already knew about it. Last year, we didn’t have a chance to try it so it was scheduled for this year’s trip to Walt Disney World.
If Creed is the king of French perfume houses, Geurlain is the Queen. It is one of the oldest perfume companies in the world, and for 166 years between 1828 and 1994, the business was in the hands of the Guerlain family. In Walt Disney World’s Epcot French pavilion, I visited the Guerlain store, which…
Several people had told me about the supposedly legendary Disney Tonga Toast at the Kona Cafe in the Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World. It is like a loaf of French toast, stuffed with bananas, sugar, and cinnamon, then accented with maple syrup and a strawberry confit. Trying it, I will say it was delicious,…
From September 2nd through September 9th, I will be attending my family and friends’ annual Walt Disney World vacation in Orlando, Florida. This time around, our group included eleven people and we all stayed at the Animal Kingdom Deluxe Resort and Villa. Personally, I prefer The Grand Floridian of all the on-site properties because of the transportation access…
The primary purpose of any education system is to develop the human capital of the next generation so that it joins the ranks of the workforce and improves lives; doctors heal people, artists create beauty, musicians entertain us, designers clothe us, engineers design bridges, construction workers then erect those bridges, and computer programmers make our…
If you are a school teacher, a firefighter, a police officer, a municipality worker, or another type of government worker, the chances are high that over the next decade or two, your benefits are going to be slashed. The reason is simple. There are only two ways to maintain the retirement pensions and other benefits…
In 1950, Sam Walton was 32 years old and had spent the five or six years working for himself building a Ben Franklin retail store in Newport, Arkansas. His talent had already begun to show and his little business became the most successful five-and-dime in the state, generating $250,000 in annual sales and $30,000 to…
When I was 14 or 15 years old, I met Molly in freshman year gym class at the high school in Missouri we both attended. Somehow we became best friends, though I can’t tell you how it happened. It just evolved and she became part of my family. It was rare, especially at that age,…