Restaurants - markups and bargains

A few weeks ago, I read an article from a local newspaper deconstructing the markups at restaurants.  One can easily guess that drinks and booze are by far the largest profit makers (per $) for the restaurants.  In general, the restaurant does not want the cost of the spirit per each dollar it sells to be more than 22 cents.  The markup is eye-popping:

wine by the glass: up to 5 times
tea: up to 10 times
fountain soda: up to 20 times

Some food also commands outsized markups:

eggs: 5 times
pizza: up to 8 times
some pastas: 6 to 10 times

However what is interesting is that restaurants actually break even or lose money on some items:

organic vegetarian pasta: break even
rib-eye steak: break even or lose
dungeness crab: lose
oysters: (each 1$ oysters, restaurant loses 50 cents)

(Source: SF Chronicle)

Surely, the markups have to pay for the labour and energy costs, as well as liquor license, insurance, etc.  Though I rarely eat steaks/red meat, but if I do, I will definitely eat it at a restaurant - my guilt is lessened as my purse is better taken care of.

iPad 2 craze and corruption

As my siblings and I are contemplating to buy an iPad 2 for our Dad in Hong Kong for Father's Day, my brother in Hong Kong told us that iPad 2s were still out of stock there.  There is no official Apple store in HK, so resellers, typically large electronic chain-stores such as Fortress allows customers to buy 2 iPad 2 per day (with a catch that the "preferred" customer is expected to buy a second product from the store of at least HKD2,000 or USD256).  Even before the day of legal sale (April 29) of iPad 2 in HK, iPad 2s had already travelled from the U.S. (which started selling on April 3) via students, buyers, etc. and had fetched prices in the grey market almost doubled that in the U.S.  There are often long queues in front of the HK stores for iPad 2, not just because they are popular in HK, but because there are Hong Kong people who are "hired" by buyers from mainland China where iPad 2 is still not available for sale.  Allegedly a person who brought an iPad 2 into China can get a rebate of about USD60 per iPad.