Stories — Business

What do they remind you off?

There’s a reason why QR codes might remind you of something else.

"I used to play Go [the Japanese game involving black and white stones played on a 19x19 grid] on my lunch break. One day, while arranging the black and white pieces on the grid, it hit me that it represented a straightforward way of conveying information. It was a eureka moment."
  ~ Masahiro Hara on Nippon.com, 10 February 2020

The gambling game that’s not gambling

Gambling for money is, for the most part, banned in Japan. But some sneaky punters found a way around the stringent laws in the form of pachinko: a very noisy, very colourful, and very addictive pinball-cross-pokies arcade game that’s wildly popular throughout Japan. As you will discover if you read the post, the work around is convoluted; but the system works. In 2021, the pachinko market amounted to a whopping 14.6 trillion Japanese Yen (approximately 157 billion AUD), representing almost 4% of the country’s GDP. 

Oysters, Clams, History and a Secret “Whispering Gallery”

The Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station in New York is as old as the terminal itself. It opened as a 440 seater in February 1913, barely three weeks after the opening of the station. It was an immediate hit. 109 years after it opened, the Grand Central Oyster Bar remains a New York City landmark devoted to serving the finest quality seafood supported by its many long time employees.

The Sizzle is the Steak

REMORANDOM is a community sourced curation of REMO Stories: Everything Interesting; a selection of ideas, stories and observations designed to inform and entertain. An accumulating and multi channel celebration of “interestingness”.

You are here! Read the backstory.

“Be good and you will be happy and make others happy.” ~ E. W. Cole

Edward William Cole was born in England in 1832 and died in Victoria in 1918. Entirely self made, he combined philosophy, philanthropy and humour with business acumen in the development of a truly unique retailing empire.