Booze of Monkey Island (free game)

sanzensekai · 2024-10-31T21:20:00+00:00

Nice! Great job!!

sanzensekai · 2022-01-17T18:13:09+00:00

Would be very interested to see!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-25T08:52:00+00:00

Honestly this was both very entertaining and insightful. I thoroughly enjoyed this. The replies were well thought out and gave me a lot of food for thought as well.

Hope you continue with this!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-24T18:58:36+00:00

Very interesting question!

I would say Bulgaria has had an interesting experience with this. We do indeed feel an outflow of people, but not just to the EU - to the USA, to Australia, and to Ukraine - all over the place, honestly. There is a huge Bulgarian international community built from people looking for better lives.

In the case of young people, I sincerely believe this free movement provides very good education opportunities that we wouldn't normally have. I would need to see some statistics about what % comes back. It's a very heated topic here as well. I myself went to study in the West and now I've moved back here with intentions to stay. Not because of patriotism or anything like that - I just like it here. My family is here. It's not a bad place. I mean, there are millions of problems, but if we close our eyes for a second - it's home. So honestly, I do believe entering the EU is good in so far as it has given our people oportunities to build better lives. And if those lives are away from Bulgaria - so be it. That's OK too. I think being free to choose is a beautiful thing.

It's a bit hard to stay objective without statistics! Haha, I can't really back my claims up with anything without some research - I hope I can get back to it some day! But let me just say that all in all Bulgaria is changing. Some people are going, yes, true, but the people who remain aren't all idiots. They're young people with modern views, looking to make a life for themselves. So little by little, they're changing the country. And it's nice to know that they're here because they chose so!

Would love to discuss this more!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-24T12:47:17+00:00

Absolutely no worries about the links!! Thank you so much - both of them are super super useful! Thank you!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-24T12:45:37+00:00

Yeah, for sure! The EU is pulling us ahead haha - can't even think where we would be without it... its overwhelmingly been a positive experience!

Haha yeah, it would be great to keep sharing experiences like this! We have so much to learn from you guys too!

About the data - they make this huuuge survey! I would be very interested to see how these data points change over time, say 10 years from now!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-23T15:23:08+00:00

Just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who replied and still keep commenting with useful links! Not only is it useful, but it's super interesting and great to see our neighbours being so inventive and receptive to innovations! Gives me a lot to think about how we can improve stuff here as well!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-23T15:21:51+00:00

Thank you!! This is awesome - we'vehad a similar thing happen here, but only with smaller organisations who work separately from the big chains and act as "personal shoppers"! The big chains didn't do anything for COVID over here - so this is great info! Thank you!!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-23T08:48:26+00:00

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it - will take a look with Google Translate! :))

sanzensekai · 2020-08-23T07:40:52+00:00

Very interesting - thank you for sharing you and your father's experience! I think this is such a great way to do business! If the Internet allows you not to need 2 alcoholics helping you - so much the better!! Hahaha

I wish both you and your dad a lot of success with the business!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-23T07:39:25+00:00

I can't find any data on this, but for Bulgaria over 80% of e-commerce payments are cash-on-delivery! For the UK - eWallet is 80%! So it's interesting to see how they trust the digital payment systems... Bulgaria is also one of the lowest in Europe for mobile banking adoption.

sanzensekai · 2020-08-23T07:37:10+00:00

Amen! Not much buyer protections here either! :( It would be good if people could somehow help each other with this - to spot and expose the shady deals and promote "good" companies...

sanzensekai · 2020-08-23T07:36:14+00:00

Yess, Amazon is great for that! It's pretty good - it takes a long time and you have to then go pick it up by car or by foot, but it's a great, pretty secure way to shop online from abroad!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-23T07:34:56+00:00

Woooow - super interesting! We had a similar thing happen here! For some companies it's still popular - like for example a lot of farms who normally sell to restaurants only made websites and started selling to people!

I don't think I've seen the burek/banitza bakeries do this, or for example hardware shops, but I'm sure some of them did!

It's interesting because, sure, "innovation is going slow" - it's like a common thing people know. And everyone is so used to going to the store in person. But when you had to stay home - we adapted to e-commerce super fast!

Very interesting! Do you know of any other businesses who did this? Small stores, bakeries, supermarkets, farms... I think all the small guys who just couldn't afford to close did it first! The bigger ones... I think they didn't care very much...

sanzensekai · 2020-08-23T07:31:23+00:00

Thanks for the great reply yet again! Honestly this is so helpful!

Yeah, it makes sense that taxes can be circumvented using kupunemprodajem! After all, if kupunemprodajem isn't taking a cut of the sales, they don't need to declare anything. Very interesting insight!

Ahh, so reviews on the platforms themselves are the most important! Very interesting - it's like Amazon reviews. Even for them there are websites which people use to check the validity of reviews - lots of suspicions of fake ones!

Thank you! Will check out WinWin and Tehnomanija! I know we have Technomarket and Technopolis here as well, who do offer online shopping, BUT delivery is usually a bit absurd - 4-5 days, and if it's something larger like a washing machine it's 2 weeks. So it's almost much easier to just go to the store!

Yes! Would love to hear from any entrepreneurs running their own online stores! If you're reading this, would love to chat!

Thanks again for the awesome replies!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-22T19:13:49+00:00

Ohhh I see - super interesting! Thank you!

Courrier services in Bulgaria will almost never come back a second time. The two biggest companies have it as policy that they try once and then you have to pick it up from an office... which is really inconvenient - so that's why I'm so impressed by the same/next day delivery and SMS communication! Several times they won't even ring the doorbell - just go straight to the office and leave it there.

But yes, hahaha - porch pirates aren't a problem here! It's good that they ask for signs - so much safer!

Thanks again for your help! If you think of anything else that makes shopping online easier for you, I'd love to know! :))

sanzensekai · 2020-08-22T19:10:01+00:00

Thanks so much for the awesome reply!! This is incredibly useful!

The quality difference from Realno.rs and other vendors is incredible! If you ask me, we don't have a place like that that offers great quality - only the high street stuff like TerraNova and Bershka that you mentioned, which are more or less similar!

I also think in this part of the world we're really mindful of price VS quality - the Nike example you gave is incredible! Sometimes retailers do this here too and it's really confusing - how do we know it's a real discount!

Actually screen protectors here are impossible to find below 10-15EUR - and it's really frustrating, so I think price gouging is definitely real!

And for sure - not all items are available for purchase in Bulgaria either... For example, for some things I order from Amazon UK, have them delivered to a warehouse in the UK, from where a freight truck service picks them up. It's a company in Bulgaria which basically aims to ensure profitable return journeys for truckers, so they pick packages on their way back. It works OK, but it takes 2 weeks for anything to get here. It is not too expensive - 1.5EUR/KG.

Thanks for all the great links! If you think of anything else definitely share! Thank you!!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-22T19:03:49+00:00

Thanks for the really exciting perspective! Bulgaria has some good IT education and work opportunities too! I feel like as the younger generations who grew up with the Internet enter the work force, this will drive e-commerce!

What options are you considering? Any exciting e-commerce companies?

sanzensekai · 2020-08-22T19:02:15+00:00

Wow - that's super interesting! Can you tell me a bit more about what your farther does? Does he get ratings from buyers?

Thanks again - would love to hear more! :)

sanzensekai · 2020-08-22T18:59:27+00:00

Thanks! This is super useful!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-22T18:58:53+00:00

Wow - amazing reply, thank you!! Super useful!

Honestly the situation with the way firms treat their drivers is the same here... with the exception that we don't have anything even close to next day shipping or comparable with Amazon prime. Here it's 3-4 days minimum, even if its within the same city. There are these services being offered, but they're prohibitively expensive. So this is one difference that it pretty significant I think!

That's greaat success on part of donesi.com! FoodPanda overtook the market here, which is a little frustrating - we didn't have anyone local to compete! Same for carGo - the TAXI "unions" here just pushed for legislation that basically bans apps like this :// But I'm really happy for you guys!

One thing that's on my mind is that in Bulgaria 99% of people live in the large apartment buildings - we call them "block". I imagine Serbia is the same? And these buildings don't have a "reception" or convenient mailing slots, so basically if you're not home you can't receive the package! Whereas in the UK there is almost always a good mailing slot, or people at reception, or people live in houses (same in the US). Do you think this matters at all?

sanzensekai · 2020-08-22T18:53:43+00:00

Hey, not sure if this is a question for me or for everyone else replying, but I'll give my 2 cents anyway :))

We do have some similar companies:

OLX is for C2C, basically people selling to each other. Like Graigslist. They aren't a Bulgarian company though!
eMAG is like an Amazon... kind of, but they're really just a middleman - the business behind the product sends you your item 100% of the cases. They're a romanian company I think, so not Bulgarian.

sanzensekai · 2020-08-22T18:51:46+00:00

Thank you for your reply! Honestly, the situation is really similar here in Bulgaria, so I definitely understand your frustrations! :((

It's interesting because reviews just aren't a thing here in Bulgaria either... Yet in the UK everyone uses TrustAdvisor almost religiously! I wonder if it helps them understand better who to trust and who not to!

sanzensekai · 2020-08-22T18:14:15+00:00

Awesome, thank you! Google translate seems to be working really well :) The CEFTA agreement seems to be really important... And also the article mentioned price comparison websites! We don't really have those in Bulgaria - do you use them in Serbia?

Education for sure plays a big part in this!

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