The Best Day of My Life

Today was the best day of my entire life.

Wal-Mart was having something called an “Anniversary Event”.

From what I can gather, this means that they take a select group of products -- products that, by the virtue of Wal-Mart's 3% net profit margin, are already cheaper than everywhere else -- and put them ON SALE. They then apply limits per customer in some cases, but one can thwart those by simply making multiple trips to the store. A list of the items of awesomeness that can be purchased for a mere pittance can be found in the pesky flier sitting on your front steps. It's absolutely incredible, and ends on Thursday.

Yesterday afternoon, I spent a small portion of the many thousands of dollars my wife and I save each month, by not worshipping real estate, on a new netbook. After a small amount of research, I decided I wanted an Asus product, and I subsequently picked up the Eee PC 1015PED in black. My vintage 2007 MacBook has been failing me for over a year, and after I realized how out to lunch Apple's prices are (look at what you can buy from Dell for less than the cheapest, smallest MacBook), and how very little I actually do with the device (I built a new world-crushing desktop machine back in January that serves all my gaming and multimedia needs), I figured I could improve my portability significantly and save 66% versus buying the new version of the MacBook I have now.

In other news, I wanted to talk a little bit about another company I like: WestJet (TSX:WJA).

I like WestJet, because they continue to have the sense to realize that if you can provide a product that people want at a price higher than your cost, you can make something called profit. In an industry that has summed to a net loss since its inception, this is a pretty important concept. Someone should tell Air Canada.

WestJet also had the sense to realize that if you look after your workers' interests, they are likely not to form an enormous, immobile, margin-destroying labour union. They have 7,700 employees.

When you add to the fact that WestJet only operates one type of aircraft, the versatile Boeing 737, it isn't hard to see why their operating costs are 30% lower than Air Canada's.

Now, I will say that I sold my WJA shares a few months back, which means I do have a few concerns; one of which, is the new CEO. Once I get a feel for the management going forward, I plan to re-evaluate.

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