Building Strong Customer Loyalty in American Markets

To conclude the year, we asked our contributors and staff to make a prediction for 2023. You would think that after last year, we'd learned our lesson about making forecasts, but we couldn't stop ourselves. Feel free to keep these if you want to disgrace us later.Sir John A. will return to the news in 2023.History is always a good topic for making predictions. The matter is always with us, as it should be. What will 2023 bring from the past?Sir John A. Macdonald will be in the news again, this time when Canadians recall the Pacific Scandal, one of the most scandalous in the Dominion's history. Macdonald's cabinet was forced to resign 150 years ago, in 1873, after accepting campaign money from shipping mogul Sir Hugh Allan. The election resulted in Canada's first Liberal government, led by Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, although Macdonald returned in 1878 and governed until his death in 1891.The Toronto Argonauts football team, a Canadian institution, will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2023. The Double Blue will defend its Grey Cup championship from the previous season, but the smart minds at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment will fail to capitalize on the charisma of their star linebacker Henoc Muamba, missing an opportunity to rekindle the city's dormant affection for the once-dominant franchise.One final prediction for 2023 is that Library and Archives Canada, the supposed leaders in the preservation and promotion of the country's past, will continue to fail in this endeavor. Lacking openness, service, and leadership for Canada's history, the past does not have a promising future at LAC next year

Someone must say it: the Jays will win the World Series

The act of forecasting victory for one's favorite team carries significant epistemic and ethical risks. Let's pretend I predict that the Jays will win the World Series in 2023. Of course, subjectively I want them to; objectively, they have what it takes, as we now have a super-strong rotation to compliment our outstanding hitting and fielding thanks to the arrival of Chris Bassitt. But if they weren't good enough, wouldn't I imagine them to be better than they actually were? Of course, I would, and this would alter my prognosis. But if they were truly wonderful enough, would I have the bravery to say it, facing the terror of jinx? I like to believe I would. I know I would. Finally, all we have is the truth, and we must defend it, despite our own doubts and personal costs. The Blue Jays will win the World Series in 2023.Winemakers will react to cash-strapped consumers.The narrative of late 2022 has been that the post-pandemic party has ended. Inflation and high interest rates, like parents whose teens return home early from a weekend away, barged into the living room, switched on the lights, and turned off the stereo. So the tale of 2023 must be about clean-up. However, much as a hungover partygoer wishes to return to normalcy the next morning, the approach of more peaceful moments may have certain advantages.

Locked up in our homes and anxious to 

find pleasure in whatever was allowed, wine consumers were willing to be upsold, and the sweet spot of ordinary retail excellent wine appeared to grow fast from $15 to $20 to $25 to $30 with each new wine release. The old $19.95 middle was gone, and the range of wines at that price point remained limited as things opened up and the actual party began.That will alter as producers respond to cash-strapped consumers in the coming months. In reality, I see evidence on store shelves in email ads from importers that it is already happening. Look for better value across the wine-producing regions. Newcomers will have to calibrate their premium labels, while well-known terroirs will ramp up production of the second and third, more cheaper, labels.This prediction, admittedly, treads a thin line between clairvoyance and wishful thinking. But if there's one benefit to whatever disaster we're in by 2023, it's that we'll be able to console ourselves with better-value wine.This piece was written as a thinly disguised request to my editors to provide me with a hefty spending account. I assumed I could take prominent interview subjects out for boozy lunches, like the British financial publications do. 

I would select my topics exclusively 

on the basis of their epicurean and oenophile credentials, and I would write profiles long enough to cover at least three meals and two bottles of thorough inquiry.Then I had second thoughts. That arrangement, I realized, was neither good for my girlish body nor my liver. The quality of my notes may likewise be reflected in whatever twisted copy I turned in. In any case, the botched plan reminded me of how much I enjoy a good lunch in excellent company, which prompted the following.For me, 2022 was a year of nonstop travel and culinary extravagance. I made up for two years of rarely leaving home by taking as many planes as I could. When I reflect on the whirlwind of the year, the moments of peace that did occur were often at lunchtime; a pause in the middle of the day to reflect on the journey. Here are three moments that made my year.