Stores Online is coming back to Medicine Hat, Lethbridge and Calgary to do their yearly Internet Marketing Conference.

Vaughn and I attended the conference last year when they were here and learned a lot about their practices, both in attending, and through the Internet afterward. We also learned that lots of people seem very taken in by the notion that they can make lots of money through the Internet with minimal effort. Do not forget to read the review on our attendance from last year. You can bet with their snappy dress codes, offerings of a free meal and MP3 player and encouraging words exclaiming “Anyone can do it, even you!” that their conference this time will be all about luring people in to get as much money as they can and offering poor website templates just as much as it was last year.

To summarize and make a few points, the last time they were here:

• The entire crowd, except for Vaughn and me, was pretty much all people above 40 years of age. (An attempt to lure people in who may not have as much experience with eCommerce as newer generations).
• They offered us a free meal for attending, which was poor at best.
• They offered us a free MP3 player that ended up having multiple virus’s that installed automatically upon connecting with our computers.
• They coersed people into buying their product by using powerful phrases like “You have to make decisions fast!” followed by “Some people don’t make any decisions ever in life.” to make people sound like failures if they do not buy in.
• The website templates they offer look like they are circa 1998 at best.

There is a whole website dedicated to the review of Stores Online and has over 800 comments, which can be found here.

Last year, we had found out that Stores Online had received as Cease and Desist order from the State of Utah. Now upon Googling it, it seems they have received even more.

Vaughn and I might be at the conference again this year, as I received two free tickets to attend it through my place of employment. Oddly enough, to add their their unprofessionalism, they spelled both the first and last name wrong on the tickets I have.

*UPDATE* September 8th – It is now confirmed that Mucho Burrito is open to the public once again.

*UPDATE* Just got an email reading: “I just reviewed your comments on line and do respect and appreciate. We will be reopened in a few short weeks. Looking forward to seeing you there again as a customer.” – Stephen Travers, President – Extreme Brandz Western Canada.

Looks like it is good news for all the fans, we might do an update when it re-opens. Otherwise, below is the original article:

Mucho Burrito has recently closed as of this weekend. A lot like East Side Mario’s closing earlier this month there is a lot of speculation and not a lot of information as to why. I only stopped in there once when it first opened because I was intrigued at the concept. Although I wasn’t completely sold on the variety of sides they had (for example, I was expecting mexi-fries rather than plain tortilla chips with salsa)  the rest of the food was good and I thoroughly enjoyed the homemade-style salsa. I believe I got both a chicken burrito and a beef burrito with the hottest salsa – and it definately was HOT.

Seemingly this place would of got a lot of business being so close to everything in the new developing area, but then again, East Side Mario’s was seemingly doing well as well. So what’s going on? Anybody with more information, feel free to comment or contact us.

I was reading the Medicine Hat News on Tuesday when I stumbled upon my favourite section, Ticked Off & Tickled Pink and read this comment:

Ticked Off
I’m ticked off at the placement of the pap test ads. First they were next to a headline talking about student accomplishments, then beside a muffin. Appetizing. Now they’re a Canada Day treat. What a fantastic way to celebrate Canada Day.

I more or less read the paper everyday, but mostly just the headlines so I didn’t see what he or she was talking about days earlier. I flip the page back over, and see the following:

Talk about unforunate ad placement, it’s even worse than the location he or she described, especially since the arrow in the ad points to “Salmon”. I know most of this stuff is fairly automated or at least not a conscious decision by the layout person, but, sheesh…

It seems that the road on Dunmore hill is under construction yet again; as if we did not get enough of the nuisance last year. It took the city workers almost all summer last year to finish the road, and now I ask: Why is it under construction again? The road was smooth, except for a couple manhole covers, but that is to be expected, and easily avoid by a very slight turn of the wheel.

I am all for upgrading roads, but not when they do not require it, and not when it reduces traffic to a one-lane nightmare, although, I do admit watching people in my rearview mirror waving their hands around in detest is hilarious, as if every second they are held back from where they need to go is worth more to them than the air in their lungs.

I wish that the roads in Saskatchewan were half as good as they are here.

The Gas City? - Original Photo by Mitch Woods via Flickr

To those of you who haven’t been following this, several weeks ago, Mayor Norm Boucher told the Medicine Hat News’ Amanda Stephenson that he was thinking of trying to re-brand Medicine Hat; he described that the current slogan and marketing might not be giving us much credit in terms of recognition. He also brings up the point about how Medicine Hat is ranked 82nd out of 157 best places to live in Canada which he postulates might be a matter of “how we sell ourselves”.

There’s been a huge uproar over this in both the comments section and in the Ticked Off & Tickled Pink sections on the Medicine Hat News. The majority of which are personal assaults against Norm Boucher – real mature, guys/gals.

Released today in a Medicine Hat News story by Amanda Stephenson, the slogan will officially stay “The Gas City” after the much criticism against the change. The votes against the change was unanimous by the Medicine Hat Aldermen who meet last night to settle the fate of the slogan.

While I understand the heritage and long standing culture behind the slogan, does it really represent what Medicine Hat is now or where it is going in the future? If we are keeping it for the sake of tradition then what’s the point of a slogan that doesn’t describe the place that you live accurately. I originally moved here from Regina, “The Queen City” and even though I am attached to the slogan and heritage behind it, It doesn’t represent it anymore – its slogan, like Medicine Hat’s becomes functionless nostalgia. I’m a little bit torn on the whole thing.

Rebranding the Gas City – Medicine Hat News
Gas City slogan to stay – Medicine Hat News
Mitch Woods’s Photostream @ Flickr

It’s been over a week now since East Side Mario’s closed its doors for good here in Medicine Hat. I’m posting because I wanted to ask our visitors if they know why? I haven’t been able to find out personally, but I have made a couple speculations based on our global economy.

East Side Mario’s was busy every time I’ve went there, and even when I visited on obscure times of the day, like between lunch and dinner there was still quite a few people. I wouldn’t recommend anybody to go on a Saturday night because it seemed like a madhouse with all the people there. So with all these people, why did it close? Was it the food? Was there health problems? I found the food good every time I visited and I tried a lot of the menu over the years of going there, although it could be a bit pricey the soup and non-stop french bread (YUM!) more than made up for it. The Alberta Health Services site no longer lists East Side Mario’s so I can’t confirm any health problems.

Like I stated above, the only reason I could think of is with all these chains (like Starbucks) closing and shutting down their locations across the globe due to the recession, it could just very well be that this one was targetted for whatever reason. Anybody know?

A couple of days ago as I was on my merry way home to my farm roughly thirty miles outside of The Hat, listening to some tunes, enjoying the scenery when I noticed an obnoxious blemish. Someone had driven ten miles out of the city to abandon their dumpy couch. I have to wonder what this individual was thinking when they decided to spread their refuse across an otherwise beautiful piece of scenery. Perhaps they thought magical garbage fairies periodically clean the sides of highways, or maybe they just don’t really care that the side of that road is pretty much the equivalent of a few dozen people’s backyard. The furnace at my house is about to crap out, I might consider loading it into the back of a truck and dropping it off in Kin Coulee when its life is finally over, that makes about as much sense as abandoning it on the side of the highway.

This seems to be becoming a fairly regular occurrence as washers, dryers, Realtor signs and the like seem to find their way into the ditches of rambling country roads. It almost seems illogical to me. These items can hardly be loaded into a fuel-efficient Honda Civic, therefore these litterers are spending more than a pretty penny driving their large vehicles this far out of the city to dodge the $5 charge at the city dump. Although I am by no means an Al Gore-style environment enthusiast I would like to encourage people to use the city landfill so we can at least let our disgusting garbage congregate in a place where it isn’t such a nuisance to rural inhabitants, perhaps we’ll even save a few dollars in gas money while we’re at it.

The Medicine Hat Municipal Landfill is open Monday to Friday 8-6 and Saturday and Sunday 8-5 right through to the 31st of October and with a very low standard $5 charge with some additional charges depending on what is being dumped let’s do our best to use it!

The name of the restaurant is “Buffet Medicine Hat”. That means, when you say something like, “Oh, I feel like some buffet food!”, everybody automatically assumes you mean Buffet Medicine Hat because you’re in Medicine Hat. It’s kind of like if there was a place called “Fancy Dinner Medicine Hat” and you felt like a fancy night-out, it would be assumed you would want to go there. No? Okay, obviously I’m being a little facetious here, the naming always intrigued me though. It is pretty generic, but I think in a marketing sense it works a lot better than “stereotypical Asian reference restaurant” that a lot of businesses use in the same genre of eating.

It may deserve the naming though. It literally is the biggest buffet joint in the hat – in terms of eating space but also in terms of the amount of food and deserts they serve. The dinner (which starts at 4:00PM each day) buffet is a little bigger than their lunch selection – at dinner they bring out the big things like roast beef and a full turkey/chicken with stuffing. They also have a special brunch on Sundays when they serve every breakfast thing you could ever imagine.

In terms of the quality of the food (since that is the biggest factor of any buffet place), it is decent – which may be interpreted as “meh”. I say that because although I do have a “once every month” craving for buffet food I usually end up at the Jungle Cafe instead of other buffet restaurants in town such as: Buffet Medicine Hat, New Imperial Palace Restaurant, Ming Court Family Restaurant, Hat’s Restaurant (another silly generic named one), or Sizzling Wok. This is because Jungle Cafe literally is the best Buffet place in Medicine Hat (my opinion), but it is a little pricey. Although that would count as getting off the subject of this review. In the list of other buffet places in the city though, Buffet Medicine Hat would definitely be the top in terms of quality, taste and atmosphere. You also have to weight in the amount of diversity of food available at Buffet Medicine Hat as well which definitely raises it above its competitors.

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »

Since most things we post about on Medicine Hat Media are up and coming events or news articles, I thought a post about things to do in Medicine Hat all year-round would be a nice deviation. Here is a short compilation:

Medicine Hat Family Leisure Centre offers 4 pools, including a wave pool, lane swimming pool, and a deeper end to accommodate the three diving boards and rope swing. The pool also offers a water slide, steam room, adult hot tub, and a warmer pool for babies and younger children.

Shortgrass Library is a spacious library consisting of thousands of books, magazines, audio tapes and CD’s, spread over multiple floors. Also offered are meeting rooms that include room enough to seat people comfortably, Internet connections, projection screens and whiteboards. The library is not just used to sign out books, but also offers TV, VCR/DVD, overhead and slide projectors, and theater LCD projector rentals.

Medicine Hat Menus is a menu website that includes a very large assortment of restaurants in Medicine Hat. Their slogan “Decide before you dine” is nothing short of the truth, as with nearly 30 menu listings and 150+ restaurants listed you do not have to drive around wondering where to go. The website provides users with the address and phone number of any restaurant in its listing, and also provides menus for the restaurants who allow their menu to be posted online with the website, which is very handy when ordering. Coupled with Medicine Hat Menus, MH Restaurants is a sister-site and provides reviews for many restaurants in the city. Check them out to see what people have to say.

THE JUMP – Read the rest of this entry »

The Beefeater – it pretty much sums itself up in its name and it’s damn proud of it too! It is Medicine Hat’s premier “beef eating” establishment and probably one of the most expensive places you can eat at within the city (save M Grill and DeVine). I maybe should reword that for some people, it is an expensive place to eat if you are going there for a really nice cut of steak, such as a Filet Mignon or sirloin cut – but really you get what you pay for. Otherwise though, there is a standard selection of chicken, seafood, and other beef meals (ribs, burgers) that are reasonably priced and like I said, if you want the nice stuff, you’re going to pay for it. I even noticed a $10 hamburger – I was kind of intrigued since it seemed quite reasonably priced for the type of place. Throw the $1 salad and soup bar into the mix, and it’s actually a pretty good deal if you’re looking for a “fancy-ish” night-out.

Let’s talk about the soup and salad bar. There’s normally two soups available, piping hot and both delicious. Usually they serve a beef soup (such as beef barley) and an other alternative soup (such as french onion). Both are delicious, and the beef variety of soups they serve seem very “home-made” in the sense that it seems like they cooked the beef themselves and thrown it into the mix – this isn’t condensed soup grade beef (like Campbell’s), it is prepared in the kitchen. There’s a huge selection of salads: lettuce, macaroni, 6 different dressings with all the fixings. This is all for $1, unlimited servings, granted you buy an actual meal. Continue reading…

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