Over the past weekend while we were in Dallas, my brother was looking to buy Mario Kart Wii after he saw how much his daughter enjoyed the game in store. Best Buy either didn’t have it in stock or was holding it back because it was in the ad for the next day, I can’t remember which, but we couldn’t get it there so we went to Circuit City instead for which he had a gift card anyway.

Long story short, we ended up getting the game. But it’s the Circuit City experience that I was really soured with. My brother wanted to get another wheel for the game so that he would have two. Since Best Buy was selling it for $9.99, we figured that Circuit City would price match it and everything would be fine. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. As it was explained to us, in order for them to do the price match it had to be in an ad, they had to call the store to verify it, and the other store had to have it in stock. In our situation, the ad didn’t come out until the next day and they were holding the wheels back so they would be in-stock when the ad did come out.

Keep in mind that it was just the ad that was coming out the next day. The regular price was still $9.99 at Best Buy while it was $14.99 at Circuit City. All this just comes down to poor (very poor) customer service. If these are really the stipulations of their price matching policy (I’m not exactly sure it is yet) then it’s poor customer service from corporate on down, and it’s no wonder that Circuit City’s stock price and financials are tanking. Needless to say, I definitely won’t make Circuit City my first stop when I’m looking for something. The only chance they have of my future business is if they’re the only ones that sell something I really want, which is highly unlikely given their competition.

So we decided to head back to Dallas for an extended weekend, and we’re leaving tonight. It’s not something that I had really planned on doing, but I happened to find some pretty cheap flights on Southwest. Round trip for the both of us is just under $300, and we’ll stay with my brother and his wife.

I’m hoping to be able to post regular updates, but I guess we’ll just see how things go.

We knew it had to eventually happen. Honda just yesterday announced the new FCX that runs off of a hydrogen fuel cell and an electric motor. You can read the story about the announcement for all the details.

It’s a great concept and couldn’t come at a better time (for marketing and consumer demand), but they’re unfortunately only going to produce about 200 units over the next three years, and then only in Japan and California. So for most of us it’ll be a little ways off until we can get our hands on one, but it’s about time that we can actually see the ball rolling in that direction.

A little while ago, I received a couple of questions in response to a post that I wrote about various post MBA opportunities. Here’s the comment in full:

After reading both articles, I’m curious what sources you used to research the MBA program. I find myself overwhelmed at the information available on the internet and the fact that I have to weed through advertisements to find the real stats and information.

Were you saying in your other post that you are not fronting any money out of pocket for your program what-so-ever?

I’ve also been told by a number of people who have completed their graduate work to just pick the school that requires the least amount of credits and will be the least expensive. Some people give the reasoning that it is just another piece of acquired paper that the employer wants to know that you have. What do you say to that?

Thanks for your insight and feedback!

So, there are a couple of questions here, and I’ll just answer them one at a time in order. To research the different MBA programs and ultimately choose one, I used (for lack of a better term) a funnel approach. I more or less started with the U.S. News and World Report rankings of the best graduate business schools. I wouldn’t say that I was all that concerned with the specific rankings, but I used it as a starting point to find the schools that I would look into further. I also narrowed the field of schools by geographic location; I wanted to stay in the southwest region if I could, and I didn’t want to be on the west coast or up in the northeast.

Once I chose about 5 to 8 different schools that I could be interested in, I started looking into them in more detail using information from U.S. News and more importantly from the individual schools’ websites. Among other things, I looked for the program specialties and the size of the entering class.

As for the second question, I was fortunate to receive a generous financial aid package from Arizona State so that the out of pocket costs for the program will be minimal at worst. I think everything would have been covered except that the tuition cost has gone up this year compared to last and I have to buy an approved laptop for the program.

For the third point, I’ve heard similar comments myself and my answer is two-fold. If you are planning on staying with your current employer and the culture is such that you just need an MBA to check the box in order to move up, then the least expensive and the fewest credits could be the best option for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking to get your MBA full-time and make a significant change to your career, either by accelerating yourself into leadership or by completely changing your career path, I think that the type of MBA program does matter.

For one, you can look at the average starting salaries of graduates from the different schools. There really is a pretty wide range from the top of the pack on down. This information is available from U.S. News or from each school’s website individually. Aside from this aspect, and I think more important, is the network that you will gain from the school and the fact that you will be an alumni. And as I briefly mentioned before, each school usually has a specialty or at least has some programs that are stronger than others. If you’re interested in marketing vs. entrepreneurship vs. supply chain, then you’ll want to look into schools that are stronger in your area of interest. These specialty rankings can also be found in U.S. News and World Report.

Hopefully some of this has been helpful in answering the questions. If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask them in the comments or email me directly using the contact form.

I thought I’d list some of the things that I’ve read over the last little while that might be worthwhile for some of you out there as well. But I’ll leave that last part up to you…

Here’s an interesting article from Tim Ferriss where he basically publishes his notes from the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting. It’s usually beneficial to here what the Buffett has to say.

Since I have an interest in real estate, I found these two articles informative. I’ll call them number 1 and number 2. They’re both from the same blog and someone who has made a lot of money in real estate.

Over at Guy Kawasaki’s blog there’s a great question/answer post entitled, How to Escape Corporate America.

Well it’s been a long wait, but I’ve finally received the economic stimulus check. I don’t have any specific plans for the money other than to help pay for things that we’re already doing and would have bought anyway. Of course it’s always nice to get some extra cash, but it’s not going to change our spending habits or encourage us to splurge.

If you’re still waiting on your check, they’re still being sent out according to your social security number. You can check the IRS website to see the schedule and find out when you can expect your check.

It’s interesting how so many people have so many different views about credit cards. Some people think that they’re evil and should never be used while others see them as useful tools. I happen to think that they can be extremely useful as long as they are understood and are used responsibly.

If you’re looking to find more information about credit cardsand find the type is best for your needs, then you can visit the site CreditCardsClub.com and browse around. You can find information about business cards, travel rewards cards, cash back cards, and many others. So check them out for more information.