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Home » Business And Finance Articles » Whats For Lunch

What's For Lunch?

As an entrepreneur, I'm always intrigued by small businesses, home-based or not, that exceed the expectations of their customers in a big way.

Let me tell you about one of them.

Recently I spent some time with my daughter in her college town of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We were spending the day getting her apartment ready for her return to school in the fall. When it was time for lunch, she wanted to take me to a restaurant in the small town of Northport, just to the north of Tuscaloosa.

Northport is one of those typical southern small towns whose downtown area has been converted into a delightfully quaint shopping area. Central to it is a restaurant called City Cafe.

What an experience.

We arrived at the location at 11:30 a.m. Typically I like going to restaurants for lunch at that time so that one can "beat the rush." I commented on this to my daughter before we arrived; she just laughed.

When we walked in, I understood why. I faced a room with

1. a lunch counter to the left (full)
2. booths to the right (full) and
3. a line that stretched all the way to the back wall and then circled around.

Like visitors to Disney World, we automatically took our place at the end of the line. Then I began to look toward the front of the line and realized that it continued on into another room (which I couldn't see). So I asked my daughter, "where is the FRONT of this line?"

Her response - "you'll see."

Sheesh!

So I began to look around at the diners surrounding me. Their plates were piled high with what can only be described as "down home Southern cooking." And the diners themselves? A quick glance around the room told me that this establishment attracted customers from every walk of life. At this moment, however, they all had one thing in common - the serious business of eating.

Meanwhile, the aroma was making my mouth water. So I turned my attention back to the ultimate end of the line. When would I have my turn?

About 15 minutes later we made our way to the next room. It was there I discovered that the front of the line ended at the doorway between this room and yet ANOTHER room. Both of these rooms had two rows of booths on either side. I didn't count them, but my estimate is about six on each side of the room, making about 24 booths in total. They could sit as many as four to a booth.

I looked around for a hostess; there was none. Then I began to understand the system; you waited in line with your party, and when someone got up from one of these booths, you just went and sat down. Period.

The waitress appeared at our table almost instantaneously, cleared off the previous diners' plates, wiped the table, and took our drink orders. Actually, what she said was, "Tea?" And you're an idiot if you order anything else. It's important to note here that if you order tea anywhere in the Deep South, it is understood that it comes iced and sweetened. If you want it any other way, you'd better tell them that.

Time to check out the menu. It was at this time I realized that City Cafe operates five days a week only - Monday through Friday. The lunch menu consisted of your choice of entree and/or vegetables which you chose from the list for that particular day of the week. The price of the meal was determined by the number of vegetables and entrees you chose.

This was Tuesday; my choices included fried green tomatoes. Who was I to pass this up? Beef tips with rice and steamed squash rounded out my meal, but I could just as easily have chosen from a dozen other tempting selections. It was tough to pass up the fried okra and steamed cabbage (my daughter chose the cabbage along with chicken-fried steak), but I was pleased with my meal. Dinner rolls and cornbread were, of course, provided as well.

And the tea? Try drinking it to the bottom of the glass - won't happen at City Cafe. It's another person's job to make sure of that.

The price for both our meals? I spent $10.75 - but $3.00 of that was a tip. No kidding. She and I had dined at a well-known restaurant chain the night before and the tip for that meal was the same as the price of the City Cafe meal itself.

Guess which one I enjoyed the most?

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Hi-Yo, Silver Fund!

"Stay long precious metals" ...

I'm beginning to think that's Graeme Irvine's mantra.

He's the business columnist on Longer Life's Bourse page, and I'll leave it to you to discover his reasons for this four-word chant. Amidst Graeme's siren calls, I've taken notice of his recent daily listings of silver transfers. It seems that HSBC-Hong Kong is in the process of accumulating a substantially high percentage of the current market inventory. The range is something like 60%, an achievement I find as breathtaking as it is intriguing.

Why would that much of the world's investment-grade silver be moved to one depository? So far, I've not been able to find anyone willing to provide an answer. The accumulation is public knowledge, so I'm not suspecting a conspiracy.

I think most investors recall the Hunt brothers' clumsy attempt to corner the silver market three decades ago --- driving their Texan empire from billionaire to bankrupt within eight years --- and wouldn't think of trying to duplicate that stunt.

Super-investor Warren Buffet is, of course, much more sophisticated. His acquisition of 130million ounces of silver approximately nine years ago was made in tranches calculated to coincide with the market rather than drive it. All outward appearances indicate that he has no clandestine intentions; instead, he's simply substantiating his confidence in the metal and possible lack thereof in the long-term strength of the dollar.

Perhaps the HSBC-Hong Kong hoarding is a result of an announcement made in June 2005 by the United Kingdom's Barclay's Bank in which they filed their intent with the USA's Securities & Exchange Commission to establish an Exchange Trading Fund ('ETF') for silver. Specifically, the applicant is a Barclay's subsidiary, iShares Silver Trust, and the process gained momentum in January 2006 when the SEC approved their listing on the American Stock Exchange.

The Silver ETF is meeting with strong resistance, most notably by the Silver Users Association (SUA), who represent entities who make, sell and distribute products related to silver. Their complaint is that in order to support the ETF, so much silver would have to be taken out of the marketplace and held in reserve that its membership would be burdened by the metal's higher cost. As the SUA membership processes 80% of all silver produced in the USA, they represent a significant voice in this matter.

Ted Butler is one of the most respected silver analysts in the world. His opinion is that, no matter what the outcome of the Barclay's application, the entire episode is a positive development for silver investors.

First, let him explain how Exchange Trading Funds for commodities operate, and then describe how the Barclay's proposal is being positioned:

"In order to establish a commodity ETF, a financial institution buys and stores a quantity of the commodity in question and then issues shares of common stock at a fixed unit of conversion to represent fractional ownership of that commodity. In the case of silver, Barclays would buy the metal, in industry standard 1000oz bars, have them stored in London and elsewhere, and issue common stock shares in a ratio of one share of stock for every ten ounces of silver. The shares would then be traded on a recognized stock exchange, hence the name, exchange traded fund. In the case of the Barclay's Silver ETF ... they've even decided on the stock symbol, SLV. The amount of silver bought and stored would increase and decrease depending upon the investment demand for the shares, similar to how the gold ETFs currently function."

The practicalities of a silver ETF include:

- Stock certificates are certainly easier for the investor to store than the metal itself, and

- The 'common stock' format allows more categories of investors the eligibility to participate.

What is interesting about the Barclay's proposal is that its goal is to put 130million ounces of silver into reserve, the exact level of Warren Buffet's holdings. Could they be using that precedent as a model? Burton notes that even though Buffet was careful not to disrupt the market, the price of silver still doubled during that accumulation. Furthermore, Burton says, "I see nothing in the Barclays prospectus suggesting such buying restraint, either in time or price."

So, Butler reasons, this makes the situation most favorable for involved investors:

"This silver ETF announcement is a true win-win for silver investors. (If) their silver ETF becomes effective, the impact on the price of silver will be great. That's win number one, obvious and straightforward.

"But if ... this ETF never sees the light of day, that will be a big win as well for silver investors. Why? Because it will prove for all to see just how critical the supply/demand and inventory situation is in silver. If the government says no way to this ETF, it will be for one reason only â€" there is not enough real silver in the world to fund it."

Either way, it's a development worth watching. Graeme lists the Comex figures daily at the end of his column and always mentions when another allotment of silver moves to HSBC-Hong Kong. The growth of those figures could well be the 'tracer' of things to come.

Stay long precious metals.