Libraries as Amazon Associates

Amazon.com has a program (AmazonSmile) which allows you to designate a charity which can receive a percentage of the total of your purchase.  It has another program (amazon Associates) which allows people to promote products through their websites, social media, YouTube etc and receive a percentage of those purchases.

While this appears all well and good, AmazonSmile contributes.5% (yes that's 1/2%) to your designated charity, while the associates program pays roughly 5% of the purchase price (10 times what the Smile program pays).

Who is a greater promoter of books, movies, music and magazines than libraries?.  Why shouldn't they be given the opportunity to be treated like the promoter they are rather than a charity?    The idea is to ties user's library accounts and turn it into a purchasing platform and earning them up to 10% on some products.

The Idea

Library patrons can log into their library account and search for a book.   If the book is in the library's collection, they can request it and/or buy it. If it is not in the library they can purchase it.   Users can also go into their lending record and retrieve titles they've borrowed so that hey could purchase those as well.  For every sale made, the library gets a percentage.
Patron's credit card and address are on file and products are shipped (free) directly to the customer.   Free shipping incentivises people to purchase their media through the library rather than externally.

This would give libraries another (much needed) stream of income and blend a natural place for discovery of books and media to a way for people to own that media.  How many times have you taken out a book and thought that you'd like to own it or that it would be a great gift.  This would give you a way to easily buy it and benefit your local library.

Roving Restaurants

I love Maine and moved back here because of the access to the lakes, mountains, rivers and the ocean. However, at times, the lack of choices is maddening. I realize that small urban centers can't support separate Brazillan, Thai, (proper)Mexican, Japanese, Middle Eastern/ North African restaurants simultaneously.

I'd love to see a number of restaurants pool their resources and create a circuit for chefs where the restaurant is more of just a location and the food changes. Rather than a rotating menu, you would have a roving restaurant.  The schedule of a single location could change on a nightly basis where one night you have Brazillan food, and the next Middle Eastern the next Thai.  The chef teams would change location each night, or every few nights to a different location (ensuring an equitable distribution of week night and week end nights for each team at each location). Wait staff could be stationery and belong to the location, as could other core restaurant staff such as the hostess, bar staff and busboys and dishwashers.   They could be trained to serve the different dishes and work with the different chef teams.

This obviously poses bigger issues such as staffing, product/ supplies, preparation and equipment. The basic kitchen equipment would be the same regardless of the specialty and there would be a few specialized pieces.  Items could either be ported or have an individual one at each location.

If there were more than one circuit running, other chef teams could do guest nights in a location.  So, chefs from the coast could come inland and do a night in the central part of the state offering unique specialist seafood or a team from a well known restaurant could do a guest stint at the restaurant.   This might allow restauranteurs to test the market for a particular type of food or offer specialist nights in a location. 

Though challenging for the staff, roving restaurants would allow small urban markets to get a range of unique and ethnic foods and that the location always has something different to offer and  filling the restaurant with different clients every night.  It just might be the solution to the high rate of failure in the restaurant industry.







"Food" sign courtesy of Flickr user Kevin Harber. Be sure to check out his Generic Sign Project for more great signs.