Cricket Courier Cooperative

At Cricket, we love are Giants too!

As the weekend creeps ever closer, I'd like to take a moment to shed some light on the poor messenger's best friend: Two Buck Chuck. Charles Shaw Winery is owned by Bronco Wine Company based in Ceres, CA. The company's modus operandi is to save on costs wherever possible and pass those savings on to us, the consumer (bless their hearts!). They use lighter bottles, saving on materials and distribution costs, as well as lower-quality corks. Another major aspect of their savings... comes from the grapes themselves. Rather than growing grapes exclusively in the premier regions of CA such as the Napa Valley where land comes at a premium, they grow their grapes elsewhere. Bronco Wine Co. owns tens of thousands of acres of land in CA, but most of it lies about two hours south of California's notable wine country. The net result is a lot of grapes at a lower operational cost, but with much lower average quality. So what do they do? They even it out by combining all grapes, regardless of origin, and whatever the product is, it's good enough. Think of it as a lottery--although each batch is sold under the same name and same vintage, one batch may be dramatically different in terms of quality. For the most part, Two Buck Chuck would be considered average, but when you have a lot of variance and a high volume of product, there will be some outliers. Some outliers will be remarkably bad, while others--including a 2002 Charles Shaw Shiraz that won the top prize of a double gold medal at the 28th Annual International Eastern Wine Competition, beating out over 2,000 wines--will be exemplary. In closing, we here at Cricket would like to salute Two Buck Chuck for doin' the damn thing and helping us reach max enjoyment of our weekends for the cost of a load of laundry!

Do you remember the Domino's Pizza Noid? He was their mascot from 1986-1989 and promised delivery within 30 minutes of calling in an order. Despite his popularity, he was abandoned as a mascot shortly after a 5-hour police standoff on January 30, 1989 at a Domino's chain in Atlanta, Georgia. A man named Kenneth Noid was convinced the character's name wasn't a coincidence, and he intended to express his anger with a gun and a list of demands, including $100,000, a getaway vehi...cle, and a copy of The Widow's Son. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Domino's ran into more trouble in 1989 when a delivery driver struck another car en route. The other driver suffered injuries to her head and back. She later sued the driver, the local franchise, and the Domino's Corporation, claiming their 30-minute guarantee caused their delivery drivers to drive recklessy. In 1993, a jury awarded her $79 million in damages to be paid by the corporate parent. Immediately after that ruling, Domino's ended the 30-minute guarantee. The Cricket mascot and our 30-minute delivery guarantee have yet to cause any police standoffs or physical injuries to innocent passersby. Go us!

60% of the Cricket workforce went out to support the Giants yesterday at the ballpark. It was a beautiful day despite the loss. Back to the grind!