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Once again, it’s time to stop in for a chat with Neopia’s leading economic experts. Joining Neil and Maria this week will be Javanna the Shoyru, manager of Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe, who’ll be here to talk about her company’s surging success during the holidays. And now, here are our hosts…
KAUVUTO: Hello and thank you for joining us this week at The Neo-Market Report. I’m your host Neil Kauvuto, and as always it brings me great pleasure to introduce my co-host, the lovely and talented Maria Blumaroono, who comes to us from the floor of the exchange with all the latest news. Maria, how are things going?
BLUMAROONO: Well Neil, just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, they’ve gone and done just that. For the third straight week, the Neodaq has posted a loss, dropping eighty-three points to finish below 1000 for the first time in nearly two months. Leading the way among this week’s biggest losers is Skeith Feeding, who saw shares collapse after Tuesday’s announcement that the Neopian Health & Welfare Commission would be launching an investigation of what ingredients go into the foods they serve their clients. “In the past,” Chief Investigator Rogan Shuttlesby said on Tuesday, “Skeith Feeding has made numerous claims about the ‘benefits’ that clients receive from their ‘specially tailored’ diets. Now, it has come to our attention that these ‘special diets’ that Skeith Feeding serves up are little more than table scraps.” When asked about the investigation, Skeith Feeding President Jonas Lupendrup had no comment.
KAUVUTO: Another company feeling the pinch has been Shop Wizard N-Commerce. With the economy down, Neopians are buying much fewer presents than they have during past holiday seasons, causing the Shop Wizard’s searches to drop drastically. As a result, shares in SWNC have fallen a staggering twelve points. When asked about how the slumping economy is affecting his work, the Shop Wizard said, “I know; at times, it’s almost boring. Unless things pick up, I might just get a part-time job, as a way of staying busy.”
BLUMAROONO: On the other hand, one merchant who’s doing brisk business during this festive season is today’s guest. As the manager of Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe, Javanna the Shoyru has been busy whipping up Mochas and Cappuccinos for all the holiday shoppers. Javanna, thanks for stopping in today…
JAVANNA: Well Maria, it’s been so long since I had a day off, I’m glad to put away my apron for a while and stop in.
BLUMAROONO: Now we just heard that, overall, sales numbers are actually down this holiday. And yet, your numbers have skyrocketed… how do you account for this strange phenomenon?
JAVANNA: The thing is, our market share has grown quite a bit in the past year, so now when Neopians think, “Oh, I want a hot cup of coffee” they’re going to think of us first. So, even though the overall Christmas market might be down this year, the fact is that our brand is much stronger than it was last year. That’s why we’re doing way more business now than we could have imagined twelve months ago.
KAUVUTO: The emergence of your company has been rather quick. Are you concerned that things might be happening a little TOO fast?
JAVANNA: I have to say that, a few months ago I was a little worried about the speed with which our company was growing. I thought that maybe, if things stayed at that pace, that we might get burned out. But now, it looks like we’re through that, and I think we managed to do it without too many growing pains. Our biggest concern, of course, was our customers… if we got too big, too fast, then service might slow down and our quality could suffer. But in the end I understood that, as long as we did our best and kept our focus on making them happy, then things would turn out okay. And so far, they have…
BLUMAROONO: Well, that’s all the time that we have today. For Javanna the Shoyru and Neil Kauvuto, this is Maria Blumaroono saying thank you and so long….
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