Archive for the ‘Business and Finance’ Category

Post-Christmas Shopping and Holiday Deals

Published by Angie Burns on December 26th, 2011

Retailers across America have been anticipating December 26th, the day after Christmas, for weeks now. This year’s post-Christmas shop will be even more dramatic, since it fell out on a Monday.

The day is a shopping day every year, with shoppers ready to exchange items or redeem gift cards at the break of dawn. Last year, however, the 26th was a Sunday; a day often dedicated to family time, and a day on which blue laws usually require at least limited opening hours for stores. This year, it’s a Monday, and often still a vacation from work, too.

ShopperTrak, a retail research firm, predicted that foot traffic on the 26th would be 60% up from last year’s day-after-Christmas. In a survey from American Express, 57% of Americans said they planned to shop on the 26th, while last year the number reached 43%.

In general, after Christmas sales are popular for reasons other than just gift cards. Millions of Americans reported that they decided to cut back or delay on their Christmas spending, with many waiting for the 50% or 75% discounts available throughout the country after the holidays. A survey revealed that 6% of respondents are waiting until after January to do the majority of their shopping.

Retailers, on the other hand, prefer that shoppers buy sooner rather than later. Hundreds of stores offered 40% and 50% off deals BEFORE Christmas, instead of waiting.

The chief executive of a retailer explained: “The inventory is worth so much less in two weeks. With that kind of inventory, you’ve got to get rid of it. Whatever the margin is today, it’s that much lower next week and the week after when traffic stops.”

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FedEx Smiles in the Holiday Season

Published by James Fishman on December 14th, 2011

 

Everyone enjoys a bit of festivity. Even busy businessmen and those who have to work over the holiday season can’t help but adorn their faces with a smile.  This is definitely the case for FedEx which delivers tons of packages around the holiday season.  Indeed, reports show that a couple of days ago the company delivered over 17 million packages in just one day!

The people at FedEx work especially hard around the holiday season.  Sometimes employees are working more than 12 hours shifts and it doesn’t matter if it’s snowing outside – those FedEx packages have to be delivered. But at least they bring smiles to the faces of the people receiving the packages. When people get their Christmas FedEx packages, you can feel the radiation from the smiles from miles away.

And, come Christmas 2011, FedEx is ensuring its customer base that every single package will be delivered for Christmas.  So if you’re looking for something to smile about, when you see those men and women in their navy-blue and purple-stripe clad uniforms, you’re sure to say goodbye to them with a smile on your face!  Now let’s see what’s in those packages…

 

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Building Erected Upside-Down Intentionally

Published by James Fishman on December 1st, 2011

India is now privy to an upside down building…that was built that way intentionally near New Delhi!   The Caracella Club forms part of a new development in Indirapuram, as well as the new Orange County.  It was constructed by the Meriton Group which took its inspiration from the WonderWorks inverted amusement parks that are in Tennessee and Florida, in America.  It is all about the ‘wow’ factor, and is filled with extreme experience zones including: sound and light; laser tag; disaster and more.  As well, it is going to be a great place for locals to socialize and hang out, but of course, with that bit of extra pizzazz. And of course, it’s bound to draw in the tourists – hopefully in no time at all it will become one of the city’s “must-see places” – and more visitors will start flocking to Indirapuram,that currently does not attract all that many people.  Well, now it has something “attractive,” or at least an interesting conversation piece.

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Posted in Real Estate
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Ronald McDonald Is No Longer My Friend

Published by James Fishman on November 30th, 2011

 

“Happy” Meals Sadden Kids?  Not for 10 Cents!

It’s like taking a candy from a kid…but in this case it’s a toy.  Well, it could be, now that the McDonald’s chain is set to charge for the toy that they put in the “Happy Meal.”  It’s not quite the company’s fault though and it does not look like this will be happening nationwide. 

The issue is that there is a law in the city of San Francisco that bans putting toys in kids’ meals that are deemed to be unhealthy (which means they have a high fat, salt and sugar content, aka the McDonald’s Happy Meals).  This law goes into effect tomorrow. 

Cleverly however, McDonald’s has a plan.  The way it is “dealing” with the issue is by charging customers for the addition of the toy (so it doesn’t break the law about being a free toy). Actually, it’s not as bad as it sounds as the charge will be pretty negligible… 10 cents!

San Francisco Making the Most of It!

Actually what is going to end up happening is that the way San Francisco is going to get around the law is to ultimately produce MORE smiley faces!  Because of the ban – and given what Scott Rodrick (owner of 10 out of the 19 franchises in the city) is doing to work within the law to enable kids to still get their toy – the money will be used to help construct a new Ronald McDonald House which will probably temporary housing for families with sick children.  This will be built at the new UCSF Hospital that is currently being erected on the Mission Bay campus.

So indeed it seems that every cloud has a silver lining.  Kids will still be thrilled with their “Happy Meals” and parents for sure won’t mind basically donating 10 cents to a really good cause so that they can get a toy as well.  It’s a win-win for everyone!

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Groupon Deal Leaves Cupcake Cook in the Red

Published by James Fishman on November 24th, 2011

 

Groupon – a website that advertises a ‘deal-a-day’ from television sets to coffee house deals – got a cupcake shop owner into a real pickle as she perhaps failed to read the small print.  The problem was, Rachel Brown – a professional baker and owner of ‘Need a Cake’ with over two-and-a-half decades in the business – somehow forgot to put a limit on how many cupcakes could be ordered.  Thus she received 8,500 orders and had to produce them for £6.50 a box instead of her standard $26 price. This resulted in a loss of $2.50 (nearly $4) per box!  On the error, Brown commented, “without a doubt, it’s the worst business decision I’ve ever made.”

100% More Cupcakes

Brown knew that her cupcakes were popular.  But perhaps she didn’t realize just how popular they were.  She usually bakes around one hundred a month, but due to the deal she had to increase this figure to 102,000!  Since she’d given out such a great deal, so many people responded and she actually made a significant loss on each of the orders.  This put her in a financial loss situation for the entire year! She ended up spending an additional £12,500 (almost $20,000!) on hiring more workers and other expenses to fill the order.  Usually the company has eight workers on staff; due to this order it had to bring in an extra 25 workers from an agency.

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Top Target Profits: Economic News?

Published by James Fishman on September 12th, 2011

Keep Shopping at Target: It’s Where It’s At

Everyone loves Target.  And it seems like the store is definitely reaping the benefits.  At least if you look at its latest financial report, released at the end of last month.  Target Corporation reported its “net retail sales for the four weeks ended August 27, 2011 were $5,292 million.”  This marked a jump of 5.4 percent from $5,023 million for the same four weeks of last year. Further, again if you look at figures for last August compared to August 2011, you will find that sales for comparable-store sales jumped up 4.1 percent.

US Economic Upturn?

Thus the question on economists’ lips is, are these sales figures indicative of an economic upturn?  Does the fact that Target has made this increase in sales in the last year mean that the global recession – or at least the United States of America’s part in it – is over, or perhaps on its way out? Chairman, president and CEO of Target Corporation, remained unsure.  Gregg Steinhafel remained ambivalent on the subject, commenting, “while the pace of the economic recovery is uneven and uncertain, we are confident in our ability to execute on our strategy, to offer the right balance of extraordinary value, convenience, newness and differentiation and to remain our guests' preferred shopping destination."

Indeed, the top Target figures could simply be indicative of consumer satisfaction with the store, as opposed to an indirect comment on the nature of the direction of the world economy.  What might further encourage shoppers to choose Target is that for the last 65 years, the company has donated 5 percent of its income to community grants and programs. The way its profits stand today, that works out as over $3m a week.

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Posted in Business News
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