Linchpin Media
Atlanta, GA
ph: 678-613-8956
christin
Feature stories
Scoutmob: In just nineteen months, it's gone from Groupon wannabe to the darling of Atlanta deal seekers. But for the merchants, is it worth the price?
Christine Van Dusen
8/1/2011
One day in February, a salesman met with Barbara O’Neill and promised to dramatically increase her business. As the owner of the Cookie Studio, set in a Decatur strip mall down the street from the Waffle House Museum, O’Neill has spent the last four years baking cookies, cupcakes, and dessert bars in a white-walled space barely big enough to fit ten customers. The chalkboard menu is limited mostly to what’s baked fresh: Cherry Ginger Explosion cookies, Key lime cupcakes, toffee pecan bars, and chocolate brownies. On the counter sits a tip jar, the proceeds of which go to the day shelter for women and children where O’Neill volunteered after leaving her job at a New York law firm to live a more family-focused life in the South.
The man with the promises, Evan Pease, explained that he worked for Scoutmob. O’Neill had heard the name before. If you live in metro Atlanta and have a smartphone, you probably have, too. Launched in January 2010, Scoutmob is a website and mobile application that provides discounts at restaurants, boutiques, and other businesses. Unlike big competitor Groupon, which requires users to purchase a coupon in advance, Scoutmob doesn’t cost customers a thing. They simply flash the deal to their server or cashier and presto—the bill is reduced by as much as half.
The pitch to O’Neill was simple: Sign up with Scoutmob for no cost up front and we’ll drive thousands of customers to your business over a three-month period. In return you’ll pay us a small fee every time someone clicks on or claims the deal.
By virtually any measure, the Cookie Studio had been a success since it opened; revenues were growing by as much as 50 percent a year, and O’Neill had customers she knew by name. Still, she was eager to bring in new business. She didn’t have the money to advertise in the newspaper or on television, which can cost upwards of $3,200 to $6,000 a month. Scoutmob sounded like a cheaper, easier way to spread the word. Without giving too much thought to what would happen next, she signed on.
At 6:30 a.m. on May 17, more than 250,000 people in the Atlanta area received an e-mail with a coupon from Scoutmob that read, “Everyone has their own version of a pick-me-up: a long walk on the beach, quiet meditation, perhaps a few bad reality show reruns. But no number of beachy strolls or Flavor [Flav] can equal the healing power of the homemade cookie.”
The tease was vintage Scoutmob—conversational, youthful, nostalgic—and the offer to its members was tempting: 50 percent off at the Cookie Studio, for a maximum $10 discount.
At the moment the deal went live, O’Neill was in the shower. Two workers were already at the bakery, preparing dozens of cupcakes and 800 cookies, about 200 more than usual. The shop opened at 9 a.m. By 2:30 that afternoon, the racks were empty and O’Neill and her team were back to baking.
By closing time at 6 p.m., about 3,654 people had claimed the deal via text or e-mail, reserving for them the right to use the coupon at some point in the next three months. For each of these, O’Neill was charged fifty cents. That meant she was going to owe Scoutmob a minimum of $1,827 for that day alone. That didn’t take into account the number of times the coupon was redeemed via smartphone, which would cost her $3 a pop. And the number was only going to rise, because the smartphone deal wouldn’t expire for three months. (By the end of May, 172 smartphone users had redeemed the deal.)
“I didn’t think about the repercussions,” she says.
She didn’t realize that in less than two years, Scoutmob had gone from a two-man operation in Castleberry Hill to a juggernaut in thirteen cities. Along the way, the deal maker helped transform the relationship between business owner and customer with its message: Bargains are your birthright! And the message to merchants is just as crystalline: Sign up with us for free and we’ll boost your business. But what some merchants are learning is that when Scoutmob takes them from slow to slammed, it’s for better and for worse.
(full story -- free registration required)
One girl couldn't look at herself in the mirror, so Surrea Oglesby made sure all reflective surfaces in the Safe House were covered up. Another girl clawed at her sheets in the middle of the night, fighting off some unseen evil, so Oglesby grabbed on and held her until she fell back into fitful sleep. Another girl was found naked and barking like a dog in the street, so Oglesby took her in.
And then there was 16-year-old Katelyn. She called for help, saying she tried to run from her pimp but couldn't run fast enough and he broke her legs and her teeth and her collarbone. She cried into the phone and said she was sorry and hungry, and that she'd never been hugged. So Oglesby promised to hug her, to feed her, to save her.
"Hold on," she told Katelyn. "I'm coming." (full story)
Hot List: Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Paris, Washington, D.C.
December 10, 2008 | Posted in Restaurants & Hotels
You might not think Atlanta's best bowl of grits would be served in this stately space, frequented by mostly businesspeople nibbling on seared foie gras and perfectly peppery tuna beneath sky-high ceilings and arty black-and-white photos of dogwoods. But it's true; Dogwood's small boat of maize-based porridge, best topped with braised mushrooms or poached lobster, achieves the perfect mix of decadent and down-home. The same can be said for most of Dogwood's menu and the restaurant itself. The open, seemingly calm kitchen is where traditional dishes like fried okra and cheese soufflé are updated. In-the-know daters come here to meet up; the gently dim lighting and low noise are perfect for getting-to-know-you conversations. 565 Peachtree St., Midtown. 404/835–1410. www.dogwoodrestaurant.com. AE, D, DC, MC, V. Closed Sun. No lunch Sat. Median entrée price: $22.
Do you believe in second chances?
By CHRISTINE VAN DUSEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/27/05
Charles "Roscoe" Heaton stood at the freeway exit with a homemade cardboard sign on a Friday morning last February.
His scalp itched. His stomach ached. A mustard sandwich had been his dinner the previous night, washed down by Kool-Aid sweetened with sugar packets smuggled from McDonald's.
This spot, at Clairmont Road, netted him $14.50 not long ago. He needed to make more money this time, or the power and water would be turned off at his apartment again.
Roscoe smoothed his polo shirt and jeans, then looked around; he hoped no one he knew would see him. He raised the sign a little higher.
"Emory University grad, can't get work. Need a job, food, or money. Need help...Thanks." (full story)
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American Teen
Review
Writer: Christine Van Dusen
7/24/08
A teen's fate changes from minute to minute, text message to text message, and nothing illustrates this fast and fickle phenomenon better than the shifting skin conditions of a nerd: one minute a veritable lunar landscape, the next a blessedly and surprisingly clear expanse, if a little shiny.
You're cool; then you're not. You're hopelessly in love; then you're not. You're feuding with a friend; then you're not. You're filled with inconsolable rage and a need for revenge; then a day later you're ready to forgive yourself or someone else.
Documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein skillfully and artfully captures this speedy and perpetual shifting of fortunes for four archetypal teenagers — the nerd, the jock, the popular girl and the artsy outsider — in American Teen, a documentary that is at once MTV slick and earnestly warm. (full story)
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Low-cost laptop experiment under way: Birmingham's pioneering use of XO computers from the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child initiative has captured educators' attention
By Christine Van Dusen
8/18/08
Ask Amicah Bitten about her home life, and what she likes to do outside of school, and the 9-year-old is cagey, doling out only small details: She reads the J.C. Penney catalog, she likes to swim sometimes, and she knows someone who does drugs and she hates that.
But ask the Birmingham, Ala., girl about her computer and Bitten opens up, smiling brightly and chatting easily as she taps the machine's tiny green keys and shows off what she can do and what's possible with this machine, a small and ultra-light laptop known as the XO.
Bitten was given the green-and-white computer, about the size of a hardcover book, as part of the One Laptop Per Child initiative's first foray into the United States. (full story)
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Women Last: For women who live through disasters around the world, every storm hits twice.
Pink Magazine, July/August 2008
Sumatra Dhamadeva's small tent was always spotless. Maybe the cleanliness was her way to stay civilized amid all the destruction of the tsunami – a way to hold on to her identity as a once-successful businesswoman, homeowner and wife.
The massive waves had surged onto the shores of Sri Lanka, pummeling fishing villages, overtaking trains and cars, and killing thousands. Those who survived fled the water with only the clothes on their bodies and the children in their arms. Dhamadeva ended up in a squalid refugee camp, seeking privacy with her 11-year-old daughter in a very tiny but immaculate tent made of sticks and a tarp.
Weeks later, she and other women survivors in the camp were still wearing the same underwear. They had no sanitary napkins. They struggled to get a place among men in food lines. They worried about being assaulted on the way to and from makeshift, unisex latrines and in unguarded showers.
Sera Bonds, founder of the women's health advocacy group Circle of Health International, saw it all and was saddened and discouraged. After so many years and so many disasters in the world, relief agencies were doing a better job of getting food, water and shelter to the general population of survivors. But the specific and important needs of women were not being addressed. "It was so frustrating," Bonds says. "Women should be a bigger priority."
(full story here)
Finding her way in the dark
By CHRISTINE VAN DUSEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/12/04
Gloria Morton is afraid of the steel cabinet. She makes jokes, excuses and hasty exits to avoid confronting its contents. But there can be no more delays. She watches as the door squeaks open.
The pungent smell of rubber hits her first, then the sight of dozens of canes. Some have crooks. Others are straight, with black rubber grips or small rolling tips.
All of the canes are white.
Gloria knows how people respond to a white cane. They stare, or flinch, or give a wide berth when they pass. She knows it will be impossible to blend into a crowd if she carries one. It will make her look like an old lady at just 51, and undo all her efforts to appear "normal." A cane will mark her as vulnerable.
She has brought herself here, to the Center for the Visually Impaired on West Peachtree Street in Atlanta, to learn to live with her dimming vision. But she is not ready to accept that any day she may go blind. (full story)
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Dwight Yoakam
Dwight Sings Buck
[New West]
Writer: Christine Van Dusen
Reviews, Issue 37, Published on 12 Nov 2007
Bakersfield disciple pays tribute to hitmaker and Hee Haw host Buck Owens
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Dwight Yoakam’s new album honoring country-music legend Buck Owens, who died at 76 in March 2006, is pretty dang flattering: Yoakam’s renditions stick fairly close to the original honky-tonk hits. When Yoakam does stray from his mentor’s simple twang, the results are mixed. Witness “My Heart Skips A Beat,” where Yoakam goes a little hokey-yokel by scooping each note in the title. But when he adds a sexy little growl to the “aw” of “aw yes / you are my every dream come true,” the affectation actually improves the material. Where Owens’ voice and arrangements were sweet and old-fashioned, some of Yoakam’s add a little pop-country shine and occasionally inspired touches: A syncopated snare gives a kick to “I Don’t Care,” and the organ in “Only You” infuses a gospel quality. Yoakam oversings the tinkling piano and strummed guitar of "Together Again," but all in all, he does Buck proud.
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From the first issue of Kiki Magazine (snapshot) 
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Linchpin Media
Atlanta, GA
ph: 678-613-8956
christin
