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Jul 12, 2019
Reformation sells majority stake to Permira
Jul 12, 2019
The deal was made through a company backed by Permira funds. According to a press statement, Permira will help Reformation to achieve its growth plans, expand its e-commerce strategy and retail footprint both domestically and internationally, and launch new product categories while maintaining its dedication to sustainability. Outside of Reformation, Permira has provided backing to a variety of brands, e-businesses and retailers, including Hugo Boss, Valentino, Dr. Martens, Minted, The Knot Worldwide and Allegro.
“Uniquely positioned at the intersection of fashion and sustainability, Reformation authentically speaks to today’s consumer,” said David Brisske, Permira principal. “[Reformation CEO Yael Aflalo] has done an incredible job building a brand and a company with a clear mission, beautiful products and a loyal following. It’s rare for a business to have both tremendous brand strength and first-rate omnichannel capabilities, as Reformation has.”
As part of the agreement, Aflalo will continue to serve as Reformation’s chief executive officer and a significant owner, and Hali Borenstein will remain president.
“When we met with the Permira team, it was clear that they shared our commitment to sustainability, and have a strong understanding of how to best navigate the complex and rapidly changing consumer market,” said Aflalo. “Permira’s global consumer and retail expertise is invaluable as we embark on this next chapter of growth.”
The sale comes as the Los Angeles-based brand kicks off its international expansion, bringing its first international location to Canada and announcing that it will open its second international sales point in London this fall.
In order to grow its global business online, the brand has also expanded its e-commerce capabilities. Through a partnership with Global-e, Reformation’s e-commerce platform will now support over 95 currencies, over 50 alternative payment methods, provide guaranteed tax and duties calculations, and ship faster for free.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC acted as financial advisor and Latham & Watkins LLP acted as legal advisor, respectively, to Reformation. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisor and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP acted as legal advisor, respectively, to Permira. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in third quarter 2019. Longtime investor Stripes Group will remain a partner of Reformation.
Reformation currently has 14 retail locations in the U.S. with more to come in 2019, including locations in Austin, Texas; Chicago and New York City’s Upper East Side.
Copyright © 2023 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.


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Some small cars use as much fuel per gallon as larger motorcycles, according to a new article in Ward’s Auto.
This was brought to light in an article which looked at modern plug-in electric cars almost five years after they first hit the market.
Author, Drew Winter said: “One-fifth of Fords sold in Europe are now powered by the company’s turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder EcoBoost engine.”
Unlike some of Ford’s larger EcoBoost engines, it appears to outperform the Environmental Protection Agency fuel-economy ratings in real world use.
Mr Winter achieved 42 miles per gallon in the Fiesta EcoBoost – which is only slightly lower than a Triumph Speed Triple motorcycle.
The bike also uses a non-turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine and weighs roughly one-fifth of the Fiesta.
It is quicker and sportier but it holds half as many people, virtually no cargo and returns 34 mpg in the city and 50 mpg on the highway.
Winter concluded the Obama Administration “vastly underestimated how much conventional internal-combustion engines could improve.”

domain: news


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In a letter sent to their clients, Spa Sydell has announced the closure of three of its locations. According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the company e-mailed a letter to their customers detailing plans to close their Alpharetta, Brookwood Place, and Town Center locations.
Despite these closures, Spa Sydell assures clients that technicians will be available at their three remaining sister locations. The company also said that they will be announcing a new Buckhead location soon as it works “on becoming a more efficient, effective spa.”
Spa Sydell, an Atlanta based spa chain, has been providing treatments and spa services for over 34 years. In 2011, the spa came under new ownership, and in August of this year they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.


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Paul tan - wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Paul tan is a motoring journalist based in malaysia. he is best known for his website, paultan.org or paul tan's automotive news, a popular news portal which covers.
Nissan teana 2014 infohub - paul tan's automotive news
We’ve already reviewed it and even compared it to its 2013 predecessor, so there’s not much else that have yet to be told of the 2014 nissan teana..
Car news and reviews in malaysia - paul tan's automotive news
In most cases, videos detailing a car’s safety features tend to end up closer in relation to an 8am university lecture rather than say a gymkhana video..


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Capitamall Trust says buys Singapore property for S$295 mln
SINGAPORE Feb 28 (Reuters) - Singapore's CapitaMall Trust Management said on Monday it has entered an agreement to buy a shopping mall in the city-state, Iluma, for S$295 million ($231 million).
"Iluma is a new shopping mall in Singapore located at Victoria Street opposite the popular Bugis Junction, one of CMT's existing properties. The mall has a net lettable area of 185,190 square feet," CapitaMall Trust said in a statement.
CapitaMall is part of Singapore's CapitaLand, Southeast Asia's largest property firm.
($1 = 1.277 Singapore Dollars)
(Reporting by Harry Suhartono)
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Fashion rental was one of the unlikely success stories of 2020. Even as the world went into lockdown, and opportunities to show off new outfits fizzled away, rental platforms doubled down on building online communities, with consumers renting luxurious clothes just to wear at home. And some estimates now point to the rental market doubling in size by 2025.
But in one of the largest apparel sub-sectors, childrenswear, the appetite for renting has been relatively low. Kids grow and need new clothes at a great pace, and the constant wardrobe reshuffles present an obvious avenue to explore rental opportunities.
Many businesses have started small, partnering with big-name brands.
• Swedish brand Hyber focuses on seasonal clothing that children outgrow rapidly.
• In Vancouver, Tradle curates bundles of baby clothes in ‘capsule wardrobes’.
But rental is difficult to scale up. A lot of the businesses in the space can only operate within their city or country – the logistics, environmental impact and costs involved with circling kids clothing around the world would make the business model completely unsustainable.
Bigger brands haven’t been that successful up until now. In December 2020, Nike announced the closure of Adventure Club, its subscription shoe rental service for children. Meanwhile, memberships for Rent the Runway’s kids service are priced the same as adult subscriptions ($69 a month for four items), which may be a turn-off for many parents.
Instead, resale currently makes up a large proportion of the kidswear market. Laura Roso Vidrequin, a former fashion buyer, launched Kids O’Clock, a peer-to-peer marketplace for preloved kidswear. ‘The added time and cost of shipping, washing and managing returns in the rental model can put brands off investing in it,’ she says. A marketplace model moves the onus away from brands and on to buyers and sellers, she adds.
Dinoski, on the other hand, actively takes control of the resale process, asking parents to return ski suits that their kids have outgrown for the brand itself to then sell on.
High-street retailer Arket recently announced its kidswear rental programme in partnership with Circos, one of the largest and most multinational businesses in the rental space. So, kids' rental isn’t quite off the agenda yet. Especially since the baby equipment sector seems to have got the rental formula down.


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China’s government is seeking to combat range anxiety for electric vehicle buyers with a pledge to build a charging station for every vehicle on the road by 2020.
China plans a total of 4.8m charging outlets and stations by 2020, a mammoth investment effort that was reiterated by the state council, China’s cabinet of ministers, last month.
Getting to 4.8m will require a total investment of Rmb124bn ($19bn) according to analysts at Ping An Securities — and most, if not all, will be state money. That is roughly the GDP of Cyprus.
At the end of September, China had just 190,000 charging poles and stations, which is still the largest number of any country in the world, but a tiny fraction of the target with three years to go. For comparison, the US has 44,000 charging outlets and 16,000 electric stations.
Plentiful charging stations are considered to be key to increasing consumer appetite for electric vehicles which are a major plank in Beijing’s industrial policy, known as Made in China 2025.
China has identified 10 high-tech economic sectors — including electric vehicles (EVs) — that it plans to globally dominate or be a major competitor in by that year.
In 2016, China made 45 per cent of the world’s EVs, a figure that could rise to 60 per cent by 2030, according to Goldman Sachs.
Appetite for EVs has grown rapidly in China thanks to hefty government subsidies worth up to Rmb60,000 (around $9,000) for a car this year, although these are set to decrease.
However, range anxiety is the most frequently cited fear among consumers when considering purchasing a new electric vehicles.
Xu Qian, an expert on the auto sector at AlixPartners, the US management consultancy said that many people in his home city of Shanghai were buying hybrid EVs — with both battery power and a combustion engine — but rarely plugged them in.
In Shanghai, buyers of EVs get subsidies and free licence plates, which are restricted for combustion engine vehicles.
“Most people actually drive the hybrid vehicle in traditional combustion engine mode,” said Mr Qian. “Even in Shanghai, [there are] still a lot of difficulties to find a charging station. You have to have a personal parking space or garage to install your personal charging post. So if you don’t have a charging post, what can you do? It’s a story of infrastructure
” Yale Zhang of Auto Foresight, a Shanghai consultancy specialising in the car industry, said that for EVs to become truly popular they would have to develop better batteries that allowed a longer range.
“Building charging stations will partly solve this problem, but consumers would really love to have longer range EVs,” he said, adding that drivers wanted a 300-400km range, up from the average of 150km range currently available.


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Amber O’Hara was stuck at sea. But that didn’t ruin her appetite for another cruise.
The Golden, Colo., retiree had been aboard the Azamara Pursuit for nearly two weeks when the industry decided to pause operations because of the coronavirus pandemic. She and her partner, Jim Ward, spent 29 days on board before disembarking in Miami, more than a week late and a continent away from where the trip was supposed to end because ports had closed to cruise passengers along the way.
Still, O’Hara enjoyed her time on board, and couldn’t resist an offer from the cruise line to make up for her troubles: a credit worth 125 percent of the trip she was on that could be used for a future cruise. Conveniently, cruise ships have a dedicated place to make new reservations on board. She booked it on the spot.
“The guy was overwhelmed with people booking,” says O’Hara, 58, who put the credit toward a November trip from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. The “hardcore vacationer” who loves to cruise is still watching to see what the state of the world will be in October, when she and Ward have two cruises booked out of Venice.
“I guess I’m the eternal optimist,” she said.
Since the coronavirus started its rapid global spread earlier this year, thousands of passengers have been infected and dozens have died in high-profile outbreaks on ships, even after the industry paused all new cruises in mid-March. That has led many to vow they would never set foot on a ship, even if they had taken a cruise before.
But some passionate fans are not scared away and are even eager to return to sailing as soon as they can — provided they feel as though cruise lines have put enough health and safety measures in place. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a no-sail order in place until July 24, but could extend the mandate as the agency and Coast Guard work with cruise lines on their coronavirus response plans. Carnival Cruise Line has tentatively said it hopes to start sailing with a handful of ships in August, but warned that those plans could change.
“There’s a sense for many people that they’ve got cabin fever,” said Lin Humphrey, an assistant professor of marketing at Florida International University who once worked in the cruise industry. “We yearn for things that make us feel like our life prior to March. There will be people that will be looking forward to that cruise.”
On Cruise Critic, a review, news and community forum site filled with avid cruisers, the prevailing sentiment is a cautious eagerness to get back to their favorite type of vacation. In response to one informal poll on the site, 64 percent of people who responded said they would cruise as much as they used to, and 10 percent said they would go more often.
“We are seeing a strong interest from those cruisers to return to the sea once they are able to do so and once they are comfortable that it’s going to be a safe experience and the vacation they love,” says Colleen McDaniel, the site’s editor in chief.
For Paula Kaisner of Austin, who has been cruising for more than 15 years and started her own Dream Vacations travel agency franchise eight years ago, the desire for ships to sail again is both personal and professional.
“I am itching for it. My husband and I, we love cruising; that is our main form of our vacation travel,” she said. “I absolutely miss it, I will absolutely support the industry when it’s ready to come back. I am not afraid at all to get back on a cruise ship.”
Kaisner, 52, was supposed to sail to the British Virgin Islands in late March, but that trip was canceled. Her next trip, a work-related shipboard conference on Oceania Cruises in early August, is so far still on the books.
“It’s still a go, but that’s questionable right now,” she said. “If it’s happening, I’m there.”
Also a question mark for Kaisner: the conferences on ships scheduled for October and November, and the sailings in December (Caribbean) and February (Hawaii).
Cruise lines love customers like Kaisner and O’Hara because, they say, once those passengers get hooked, they keep coming back. Humphrey, the marketing professor, said cruisers who spend enough time and money on particular lines take their status (and the associated perks) seriously.
“I don’t think this is going to scare them off in the long term,” he said, though the risk-averse might wait a while to return.
Ben Hewitt and his husband, David McDonald, who run the Cruise With Ben & David YouTube channel, have already had a handful of cruises canceled this year. On Hewitt’s last cruise before the shutdown, the ship was turned away from Abu Dhabi and briefly quarantined in Dubai before he decided to fly home out of fear of tightening travel restrictions. The canceled trips include personal vacations and promotional events that cruise lines had invited them to attend.
“We were supposed to be in the Caribbean right now,” Hewitt, 35, said in a recent interview. He and McDonald, 32, took their first cruise in 2016 on the Disney Magic and dreaded the trip in advance but found they had a great time. The Cambridge, England, couple has since taken about 30 cruises and turned the habit into a job making videos about ship tours, tips, advice — and, more recently, the pandemic’s impact on the industry.
Hewitt said his fingers are crossed that a November Caribbean cruise that they booked last year will still be possible, but he said he’s trying to be realistic with his expectations.
“We definitely can’t wait to get back on a cruise, but it has to be the right time, it has to be when things are ready,” he said. Hewitt said he’d like to see more thorough plans from cruise lines about how they plan to handle outbreaks, with more details on cleaning procedures and food service. He said he expects cruise ships to be one of the last forms of transportation to return.
“They really can’t do with any more bad stories,” he said. “The worst thing possible would be for a cruise to start sailing and for covid to break out on that ship. It would be an absolute nightmare.”
Cruise fans interviewed for this story said they would be willing to undergo more testing before boarding ships and want to see cruise companies talk more openly about the health and safety changes they’re planning to make before people can start sailing again.
“I think that even avid cruisers recognize that hey, we’ve got to figure out this virus first and then talk about returning to cruising,” McDaniel said.


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Kohl’s reported Q3 revenue of $4.33 billion, a 0.1% year-over-year increase, while same-store sales also climbed 0.1%, a much-improved performance from the 1.7% decline seen in Q3 2016.
The comparable sales growth is important given that Kohl’s had seen six straight quarters of declines, and Wall Street had predicted a seventh. Yet in the midst of the good news, the department store saw a net income decrease of 20% to $117 million, with an increase in merchandising expenses taking some of the blame.
As longtime CEO Kevin Mansell prepares for his departure from the company in May 2018, the retailer has sought help from some of retail’s most popular brands to lure traffic into its stores. On Oct. 18, Kohl's launched a joint venture with Amazon, adding new Amazon Smart Home Experience spaces in 10 Kohl's stores in Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as offering Amazon returns in 82 Kohl's stores. Kohl’s also has continued offering Under Armour products in its stores, which it started selling in early 2017.
These and other factors may combine to give Kohl’s a happy holiday season in the current quarter. “We expect a rebound in comps in Q4 (1.0%),” said Chuck Grom, Research Analyst at Gordon Haskett in commentary provided to Retail TouchPoints. “This is driven by an acceleration in digital sales (25% vs. approximately 15% year-to-date); the release of seasonal demand; the natural mix lift from home sales, which rose mid-single digits in Q3 (approximately 20% of total sales); continued gains from competitor door closings and associated gains from BOPIS and Smart Cart efforts.”


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Thug who tragic teenager Gaia Pope lived in
By Harry Pettit For Mailonline. Experts have argued that 'loot boxes' in video games are a form of gambling. One psychologist has said that the boxes, which regularly appear in games for children and can be bought with real money, are gwmbling slot machines'. Loot boxes feature in many modern games, including popular shooter Overwatch and football simulator Fifa 18, which are rated PEGI 12 and 3 respectively in the UK.
The boxes are regularly given to players when they level up or accomplish certain tasks, and when opened give users a gambling internet machine slot in-game reward. On top of boxes earned through playing, intternet can also buy them with real money, causing some to argue publishers are using the same tactics as casinos to take thousands from gamers every year.
Experts argue that 'loot boxes' vide video games are a form of gambling. Pictured is a loot box in the popular shooter Overwatch. Loot boxes feature in many modern games, including roulette cam free shooter Overwatch and football simulator Fifa.
The boxes are regularly interndt to players when they level up or accomplish certain tasks, and when opened give the player intfrnet random in-game reward. On top of boxes earned through playing the game, players can also gamblkng them with real money, causing some to argue they are a form of gambling.
One video game publisher that includes loot boxes and other 'micro-transaction' features in its free pokies online wheres the gold is Electronic Arts, which is behind the Fifa franchise. It sort of obfuscates how much money they're spending,' he said. Gabe Zichermann, an expert on addiction to technology, told cbc that loot boxes use 'operant conditioning.
This means they give interet the best rewards at random intervals to stop people from recognising a pattern. When people cannot predict how much they're going to get, they often get very focused and fixated on it, and want to do it over and over again, past the point of rationality. One publisher that regularly includes loot box and other 'micro-transaction' features in its games is Electronic Arts, which is behind the Fifa franchise.
Loot gamblinng feature in many modern games, including popular gamf Overwatch. The boxes are regularly given to players when they level up or accomplish certain tasks, and when opened give the player a random in-game reward pictured. Research published earlier this month found that video game addiction probably isn't real. Very few gamers meet the criteria for addiction, known as 'internet gaming disorder' IGDand instead use games to fill gaps in other areas of their life.
IGD is loosely defined as someone who suffers from five or more of nine criteria, including: Jeopardising jobs or education because of playing video games; lying about time spent gaming; and using gaming to relieve anxiety. The research, from experts at Cardiff University, followed thousands of online gamers over a period niternet six months. The team gave over 2, adult US gamers questionnaires about their physical activity, health and lifestyle. None of the participants met the criteria for IGD at both the gamd and end of viceo six-month study and so game diagnosed with addiction.
The research also found that those who showed some symptoms of gaming addiction gme more likely to be unhappy in other areas of their life, such as their relationship or career. The debate has now spread to British Parliament, with MP for Cambridge Daniel Zeichner starting intfrnet government petition earlier this month to tackle gambling elements in children's games.
The government response read: The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Are video games encouraging children to gamble? Experts claim 'loot box' features use the same tactics as casinos to part gamers with their money Experts have argued that 'loot boxes' in video games are a form of gambling The boxes feature in many popular interne including Fifa and Overwatch Players can pay for the boxes and are given a random in-game reward Earlier this month a British MP appealed to gambling business expense to do more to protect children from so-called micro-transactions By Harry Pettit For Mailonline Published: Scroll down for video.
Share this article Share. Are video jean jacques rousseau online becoming gamblinv much like gambling? Share or comment on this article e-mail 5.
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Capello at EXPO 2015
At CIBUSèITALIA, the Federalimentare pavilion, an exhibition space has been set up by Federunacoma, the Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Federation, which is hosting Capello.
Federunacoma is taking part in EXPO 2015 to promote agricultural mechanisation as a key factor of food chain sustainability. For this reason and since it is such an excellent event, Capello is honoured to be part of it.
Like other leading Italian companies, Capello has been allocated a space, where a video illustrates, in an exciting way, all the potential of the products made by the company, which is celebrating 50 years in business in 2015.


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Paytm Payments Bank might’ve already been directed to stop all user deposits and shut down its nodal accounts, but the troubles for the bank might not have quite ended.
Paytm Payments Bank has been hit with a Rs. 5.49 crore penalty by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The penalty was imposed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The FIU found that proceeds of crime were routed through accounts at Paytm Payments Bank, and the bank did not have proper procedures in place to prevent them.
The FIU had carried out a review of Paytm Payments Bank Limited after receiving specific information from law enforcement agencies about entities engaged in illegal acts. After an investigation, it was found that proceeds of crime were channeled through bank accounts of these entities at Paytm Payments Bank. The FIU had then issued a show-cause notice to Paytm Payments Bank for violation of Prevention of Money Laundering rules. The Rs. 5.49 crore penalty was imposed after considering the written and oral submissions of the bank.
The penalty comes days after Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the majority shareholder in the bank, had resigned from the board. His resignation had come after weeks of drama following strict curbs that had been imposed on the bank by the Reserve Bank. The regulator had essentially crippled the the operations of the bank, disallowing it from accepting new customer deposits, or use services like FasTag.
The action had felt harsh to many, but the charges against the bank had appeared to be serious — it had been reported that Paytm Payments Bank had inadequate KYC procedures in place, which had allowed up to a thousand bank accounts be linked to the same PAN number. It now appears that this wasn’t mere oversight, but proceeds of crime were being illegally channeled through these fraudulent bank accounts.
The latest penalty will come as a fresh blow for Paytm, which is already reeling under the impact of these curbs, and is seeing rivals chip away at its marketshare in the payments business. The company, however, had consistently denied any wrongdoing on its part. But with a penalty being imposed on the bank for allegedly allowing money to be laundered through its accounts, the taint of money laundering be the biggest challenge yet for the beleaguered payments company.


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Running On: Part II
Run specialty retailers share their stories of survival and ingenuity during the COVID crisis.
Charm City Run
Josh Levinson, owner and founder of the seven-door Maryland-based Charm City Run chain, says he has been amazed by the “support local” efforts in his run communities.
“We go through periods where we sell lots of gift certificates as people are just trying to keep us going,” he says. “And then we have customers buying shoes for the whole family. It’s been really cool,” he says, later adding, that when a threat to local business is evident, people double down.
Levinson is also realistic about the pandemic’s overall impact on business. “We’re down 80 percent. But that’s 10 percent more than where we thought we’d be, [so] there’s a little bit of a light there.”
Levinson says he’s planning for some of the pandemic initiatives to stick around.
“So much of what we’ve had to do in this weird time is going to carry forward,” he says. “I don’t see curbside pick-up, home delivery service or our virtual fittings going away. I see us setting up different fitting zones and having greeters at the front door. And we will have a conversation with the customer when he or she walks in to determine their comfort level: Are we taking shoes on and off people, or are we giving them some space?
“There are certain people who are going to be uncomfortable for a while, and we have to respect that,” Levinson adds.
Charm City credits a “huge bump” in e-commerce sales to its decision to team with Fitted. The relationship allows the chain to offer every color, every style in the shoes it sells, something it was previously unable to offer customers.
Charm City has received extra dating from vendors, many of whom are staying in regular touch with Levinson and others in the chain.
“But I do worry as the calendar for this [pandemic] extends, everyone starts feeling the pressure — landlords, managers, vendors,” Levinson says. “And if at the end of the day, [vendors] start slashing prices, it’s going to be hard for us.”
“Our economy is fairly resilient. People going out to dinner has been cut back. They can’t go to the movies or theater,” Levinson points out. “If they are employed and secure in that employment, I don’t think they’re going to trade down on footwear. The running specialty customer who spent $150 before, I don’t think comes back in large numbers and says I only want to spend $100.” —Bob McGee
Shu’s Idaho Running Company
For Boise, ID-based Shu’s Idaho Running, staying flexible and planning ahead are what will get them through the shutdown, according to manager Leone Rusher.
“We’ve reduced our hours, our staffing and how we get items to the customers: We’ve been taking orders over the phone, social media messaging, email and texting,” she says. Pay-by-phone, curbside pickup and appointment-only try-ons to preserve safe social distancing practices have allowed sales to continue.
But Rusher says the store is keeping a close eye on financials.
“We are really watching what our inventory numbers are and looking at the arrival dates of future product. We don’t want to get too much inventory in then have it sit here with no sales or very little right now,” she says. “It’s a good time to assess numbers and make changes if necessary.”
Lessons learned from the shutdown will be key to setting up for the new normal, she says.
“One thing I’ve learned [is] to always have a reserve of money in the bank, items for giveaways for those customers that buy just to support you during a tough time, and a way to sell items either online through your own website or an online site like locally.com.” Oh, and one more thing, she adds: “A positive outlook is always key to make anything work whether you have a plan or not.” — Jennifer Ernst Beaudry
Fleet Feet Maine Running
John Rogers wants to be realistic about what his two Portland, ME-based shops will be facing when the shutdown ends.
“We’re really working on our cash flow models on the backside,” he says. Despite a supportive local community and more runners and walkers than ever — “the phone has been ringing off the hook” — he says, sales are still down 70 percent with doors shut, and he’s projecting business to be 50 percent down for the year.
When doors reopen, he says, he’s expecting to see appointment-based shopping, reduced staffing levels, a glut of product in the marketplace, and shaken consumer confidence. “The impacts from this, when we come out of it, are going to last into winter,” he says. “You have to redo all your metrics and right-size your business.”
To adapt, he says, he’s resetting his store to allow social distanced shopping and fitting, reduce his apparel and accessories offering to the essentials, and with gatherings and training groups on the back burner he’s considering converting a large space used to host the groups into an annex to help flush through discounted product.
But Rogers says he’s not intimidated by the challenges — quite the opposite.
“I’m actually invigorated by the problems,” he says. “The solutions we are coming up with are a new way of doing business, and the specialty channel will thrive.” — JEB
Runners High ’n Tri
Mark Rouse is taking the shutdown day by day.
Rouse, who owns Runners High ’n Tri in suburban Arlington Heights with his wife Pom, says the pair have been able to keep serving customers, despite not having an e-commerce operation.
“Pom has set up virtual chat and product fittings, and they have a really high success rate: the conversation rate is huge,” he says. The store has also added local delivery and curbside pickup, and that’s kept business ticking. Rouse says he hasn’t looked at the year-over-year numbers deeply. He jokes, “I’m afraid to,” but says that the new methods of selling has let them meet the smaller daily goals they’ve been setting for shutdown sales.
The reopening period, he says, will bring major questions. Apparel sales — including event t-shirts and other related merchandise — will be impacted, especially if race cancellations continue. (Race day gear, Rouse says, especially for triathlons, is a major driver for the store.)
But virtual events have been a bright spot.
Late in April, the store hosted an interview on Facebook Live with Will Chesney, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and co-author of the book, No Ordinary Dog. While the event didn’t sell books the way past in-person events might have, Rouse says that not only did hundreds of people watch the livestream, the post’s reach was in the thousands, and sales at the store saw a noticeable spike for two days afterward — sales doubled, in fact. While it wasn’t what they had initially planned, “It was a nice way of a nice way of keeping our name in front of people,” Rouse says. — JEB
Colorado’s shelter in place order went into effect on April 1, later than some other states, so Runners Roost owner Sonya Estes says her Lakewood store could see what was coming. But that doesn’t mean there’s been a roadmap.
The store has been doing contactless curbside pickups, orders via social media and drop-shipping products. Apparel sales have completely dried up, she says, but footwear and nutrition are moving. That being said, she says, sales are down 70 percent.
“Every day is completely different,” she says. “I played basketball for a long time, and I feel like right now we’re man-to-man, playing scrappy defense to take any sale.”
The store is down to 4 core employees, including Estes and her husband — the other 16 were let go with two weeks pay at the end of March, she says — and she’s trying to figure out how staffing will look when the doors reopen.
In the interim, the team is doing what they can: deep cleaning, redecorating, reorganizing the backroom and receiving room to make them more efficient, working on invoices and dating, and building the website for reopening.
“Our mindset right now is where we were 17 years ago, just getting everything ready for the grand opening,” she says.
She’s planning for the virtual fittings and curbside pickups to stick around, as well as the virtual events, which have been a surprise hit.
“For us, some of these virtual runs, the 5Ks and 10Ks, people seem to dig it,” says Estes. “They want to be part of something, but they want to do it on their own time.”
Those learnings, she says, have been an upside in a challenging situation.
“We knew we needed to do the digital stuff — the online sales, Fitted, Locally — but it was an eye-opener. It’s really made me rethink how we do business,” she says. “Everything was going just fine, everything was really good. And we thought we needed to get back to the basics, but in reality, we needed to push forward.” — JEB
Fleet Feet West Hartford
For Stephany Blozy, owner of Fleet Feet West Hartford in West Hartford, CT, the shutdown has, in some ways, been busier than ever.
“Yesterday I had 26 calls and contactless orders and then 23 web orders,” she says. “And it was just me in the store. I did 17,000 steps.” Closed since March 18 — even in advance of Connecticut’s March 23 stay-at-home order — Blozy says Fleet Feet corporate’s commitment to a fast rollout on internet and curbside pickup orders has kept her hustling. That being said, it’s no substitute for being open.
“I was just talking to [a fellow store owner], and we were saying, you’re working 10 times harder for 10 percent of the revenue,” she says.
To keep in contact with her customers during the shutdown, Blozy has opted in to Fleet Feet’s “phenomenal” marketing emails, that strike that right balance, she says, between inspirational and product-oriented. She’s also leveraging social media to be personable and relevant — making sure shoppers keep the store top-of-mind. Local connections have proven critical: The store spearheaded the creation of a “The Beat Goes On” shirt that shows off — and supports — West Hartford businesses. Blozy says 100 shirts have been sold already, and she’s ordered 100 more.
Blozy is using the shutdown to rethink some of the bedrock assumptions she’s held about her business, and what her customers are looking for.
The response to curbside pickup and virtual fits, she says, has her thinking. “For a long time, we thought people wanted a lot of service with their shoes. But people also value convenience. And we’ll still offer the full fit process, but [maybe] there’s another way we can offer faster service with more convenience,” she says. “We always talked about a fast track service, and this sets up the technology and program and marketing to do it. That’s one thing I’ve been saying this time is allowing us to do: figure out the future.”
Planning in a pandemic means being okay with change, according to Ross Martinson, owner of the five Philadelphia Runner locations based in the City of Brotherly Love. “Every week we make plans, and every week we change them,” he says.
In the first days of the shutdown, the chain kept staff working and generating ideas — a process Martinson says may be the most lasting of all. “We had them working on blogs and ideas for website and shoe reviews and updating employee manual, and people were excited to get to do that,” he says. “And the quality of everything they did was incredible. I’ve learned that what I thought was a talented staff have talents I didn’t know about.”
After the initial period, the store furloughed all but two employees, keeping their 15 full-time employees on benefits. But even that has changed. E-commerce sales through the site’s web store — which was only a few weeks old — have been stronger than expected, letting them bring back another person.
“Honestly, it’s grown every day since it started, and I can see that as a bright spot going forward,” he says. “If we can maintain even a quarter of those sales, it will be a nice business.” (That being said, he adds, the total sum of e-comm sales only represent 15 to 20 percent of the normal take. “But it’s better than zero.”)
Changing rules have made social outreach a moving target, too, he says. To connect with runners during self-isolation and inspire them to keep running, Philadelphia Runner launched a “PR Solo” Facebook Group, which had more than 1,000 members in its first week. The store has also launched a daily, opt-in email with a running quote and a shoe of the day that they’ll downshift to weekly when the store reopens (or sooner “if we run out of ideas,” he says.)
Although the projected opening date for Philadelphia, like many places, is still TBD — what was once planned for the end of April is now end of May if not later — Martinson is planning for things like virtual fittings, distancing, and canceled races to continue past the summer.
“We can only control what we can control. As an industry, we’re lucky — our customer is on the healthier side, and there will be pent-up demand, hopefully, that balances out the people who still don’t want to come in stores. I’m really excited to get everybody back on board. And I love seeing so many people out running and walking,” he says.
That includes him, he adds.
“I’ve been running more than I ever have,” Martinson says. “I did really forget what a great stress reliever running is.” — JEB
Chris Lampen-Crowell, co-owner of Gazelle Sports, says working through the shutdown has meant going virtual in more ways than one.
With all five Western Michigan Gazelle Sports doors shuttered (as well as the organization’s New Balance Grand Rapids and Lole Grand Rapids shops) and not able to do curbside service under Michigan’s stay-at-home order, the retailer has turned even more to its e-comm site. While sales online don’t compare to sales in store (Lampen-Crowell says sales to date in April were 55 percent behind the year-ago period), they’ve been growing. And while prior to the shutdown orders had come from across the U.S., it’s clear that now its local Gazelle fans who are clicking “add to cart.”
“The online business has been substantially focused on local buyers, which we love,” he says. “People care about us and we’re really pleased to see the people here in Michigan just a few miles away placing orders.”
But it’s more than just sales, he says. When the store made the decision to move one of the retailer’s fundraisers, the Gazelle Girl 5K, 10K and Half Marathon event in April, to an online event, they were surprised, but pleased, to see that half the entrants opted to run the event virtually instead of deferring to next year. Even more encouraging: an online virtual expo was a hit.
“It was really good, and we were able to sell merchandise and have people share it with their peers,” Lampen-Crowell says. “It was a good opportunity to learn that these events matter to people — and they’re willing to do them virtually.”
It points to a roadmap the store will be using when it gets back to business.
“The focus on health is going to be something we utilize and talk about, just that whole movement of healthy at home and running and walking,” he says. “People are responding to that, and it’s good for our entire industry. And we own that community connectivity and all that that can do.” — JEB
Naperville Running Company
For Kris Hartner, owner of Naperville Running Company, reacting to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shutdown has gotten personal.
In the days after the shutdown, Hartner’s plan for his three locations in suburban Chicagoland was proactive, launching a new e-commerce site, offering virtual fitting and offering curbside pickup and local delivery within 13.1 miles.
But, Hartner says, conversation after conversation during those early weeks underlined a fundamental disconnect.
“Customers and friends would ask how we’re doing, and congratulate us on all the new things, and then ask how business was, and they’d be blown away when I said it was 90 percent down,” he says. “There’s a perception that you have all these new venues and it’s positive, and they just didn’t know.”
At the end of March, the store sent out a message from Hartner and his wife, Susanna Gotsch. It read, in part, “The most important step we have taken is to assure all of our employees that they will remain employed and fully compensated. They are family and we will continue to do whatever we can to take care of them. However, like many small businesses, we are losing thousands of dollars per day to honor our commitments. We share this information to provide context for the following request: Please consider shopping locally owned businesses whenever you can.”
Hartner says the response to the note was “surprisingly positive — beyond what we had expected,” and led to a busy few days. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do — I decided not to do it at least 20 times,” Hartner says. “I didn’t need them to feel sorry for me, but I felt like I had to tell them that, hey, if you shop locally owned business, you can help.”
The shutdown has birthed a new level of transparency in Hartner’s business, he says: At an all-staff meeting, he opened the books, and shared the numbers and the financial outlook. He’s also delegated as much as possible to staff — things like the virtual fit process, were developed without him. “I gave literally no input,” he says. And those initiatives will stick around when doors open back up — NRC is planning to schedule shopping reservations and triage guests among the stores to make sure social distancing is maintained. “If we can open to some level in June, we’ll probably be doing 30 percent of what we were in-store,” he says. “If maybe we’re at 70 and 80 percent of the business by fall, that would be amazing. But we’re not counting on that.” He says once business starts growing again, rebuilding that rainy day fund will be a priority — and maybe making it bigger (6 months worth of expenses instead of three?) might make sense. It’s that same balancing act, he says. “You want to live rightly within your means, but not by being cheap.” — JEB
Lincoln Running Co.
According to Ann Ringlein, manager for Lincon Running Co., the Lincoln, NE shop has had a different experience of the COVID-19 crisis than most shops. Nebraska is one of the few states that didn’t impose a statewide shutdown, and Lincoln Running Co. has kept its doors open without interruption — albeit with limitations on the number of customers and with social distancing protocols. In fact, the spring months for the downtown shop have been had strong sales, she says — both in store (at times, she’s had to ask people to wait outside to maintain the permitted numbers) and by phone. “We’ve been swamped with phone orders,” she says.
But that’s not to say that there haven’t been adaptions: the store opens earlier for less crowded buying time, shop employees now hand shoppers the shoes to try on instead of fitting them themselves; the store’s races and training groups have been canceled or moved online, and she has her college age staff wiping down all the furniture and fixtures after customer interactions, and the store has added shop by phone, curbside pickup and delivery.
Deliveries, in fact, have become a way to go the (literal) extra mile. Done by bike (generally by Ringlein herself or employee Robb Finegan, both avid bikers, although she adds that customers have even jumped in to volunteer to take orders out themselves to fellow shoppers), they’ve brought shoes out as far as 30 miles from the downtown, and have started bring pints of cookie dough from neighboring business The Cookie Company with them on select delivery runs.
Ringlein says the store has also seen great response to its team with the Run Solo Project, a virtual race series. Runners pay $50 for the 4-week series of weekly 5Ks, $20 of which is given directly to the store they elect. Ringlein says Lincoln Running Co.’s team has 150 members, and between the fees (which, since the store has remained open, she intends to donate) and a matching gift, she expects to be able to give $5,000 to the city’s community foundation for COVID-19 relief efforts.
But while there’s a lot to celebrate, Ringlein says she’s not assuming things will stay pat.
While the area has been largely insulated from the spread of the coronavirus, an outbreak at a meat processing plant 30 miles from the town had only just been discovered at press time. And Ringlein says she fully expects a quarantine to be imposed as cases rise.
“I’m more worried about when this is done, with the industry having all those shoes out there and stores closing,” she says. “The trickle-down effect is huge.”
To prepare, she says, she’s watching her buying — helped, she adds, by “amazing” vendors. “We’re just being tight and careful with inventory,” she says.
And, she adds, she making sure she and her staff are taking care. “I just tell them, we need to be very, very kind to everybody who comes in,” she says. “We need to be super kind and understanding and patient. Everybody’s stressed, and they need to know, ‘We’ll take care of you.’ Everybody needs that in their life.” — JEB
Running On: Part I
In these challenging times, it takes grit, ingenuity and a strong community to get through — luckily, run specialty retailers have them all in spades. We talked to 20 shops across the country to share their stories of keeping the faith — and planning for the future — during the COVID crisis. Read Part I.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated shutdowns have sent a shockwave through the retail world — and the world, period. With no roadmap to follow, run shops across America have been adapting on the fly, trying to keep the lights on and planning for an uncertain future. Read the full story.
The Survey: Consumer Expectations Post-Pandemic
As shops begin to plan for reopening and the new normal, the question remains: What are consumers — shaped by weeks of quarantine and confronting rising unemployment — looking for? See the full consumer survey.
Supporting Independent Retailers
Josh Higgins, president of OS1st, discusses the importance of supporting independent retail and what the future holds.
Read the full story.


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Bitcoin is not an unknown cryptocurrency, notwithstanding some “financial experts” claiming otherwise. It is clear a lot of people would like to see some-more anonymity when regulating cryptocurrency, though. As a result, they group to alternatives, such as Monero and ZCash. A new BIP might finally extend Bitcoin a anonymity so many people are looking for. Dandelion is an intriguing judgment that deserves a closer look.
Dandelion Is Now A Bitcoin alleviation Proposal
It is critical to note a Dandelion network is not something that has grown out of a blue. The judgment was primarily due in Feb of this year in a form of a whitepaper. At that time, a feedback was altogether positive, as it seems to check a lot of a right boxes for Bitcoin users looking to urge their anonymity. Fast brazen to today, and a doing of Dandelion might be a lot closer than many people would anticipate.
Under a hood, a Dandelion custom packs some engaging features. It is designed by a ZCash confidant and a group of university researchers. By introducing a whole new form of transaction broadcasting, a Bitcoin network can effectively be anonymized. More specifically, it would forestall blockchain research teams from


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I'm as down on big organics as the next guy who makes homemade sauerkraut out of cabbage grown by his farmer wife. As Stephanie Strom details, the standards of organic certification could be much stronger, and most national organic brands are owned by the very mainstream companies they're standing in implicit objection to. Not exactly a recipe for systemwide reform.
Still, I think Tom Philpott's right: Michael Potter of the independent holdout Eden's Organics, Strom's primary focus, goes too far in slamming the certified-organic label as a "fraud."
The New York Times has never been exactly hesitant to publish articles that look cluelessly down on the cultural life of U.S. cities with fewer than 8 million residents. So I'm not sure I'd blame nepotism alone for the A. G. Sulzberger clunker the paperpublished this week.
Pastors have long known that there is more going on with food and eating than the mere filling of the stomach. We know that the Eucharist is more than bread, wine and people gathering around the Lord's table.


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DHL Thermonet Tracks Drugs and Life-Sciences Goods With RFID Temperature Tag
The solution, employing UHF RFID tags with built-in temperature sensors applied to containers, will enable DHL's customers to maintain a record of shipping temperatures, and receive an alert if an exception occurs.
Jun 18, 2013—
DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist within Deutsche Post DHL, has commercialized DHL Thermonet, an RFID-based air-freight service allowing customers to track the temperatures of their goods throughout the shipping process, for such temperature-sensitive products as pharmaceuticals or biomedical items. The technology has already been tested by several global firms, and is now available to DHL's customers worldwide, says David Bang, the CEO of LifeConEx, a DHL Global Forwarding cold-chain-services subsidiary that created Thermonet.
The technology has been many years in development, Bang reports, with the goal of monitoring customers' shipment integrity. In 2005, DHL and Lufthansa founded LifeConEx to develop a technology platform to help customers track the temperatures of goods in transit—specifically, for its life-sciences and health-care customers that manufacture highly sensitive products that must be kept cool.
In 2007, DHL developed an ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) sensor tag for pharmaceutical customers, in partnership with IBM, Intel, NXP Semiconductors and SAP, which was tested by several pharmaceutical companies (see DHL Expects to Launch "Sensor Tag" Service By Midyear). DHL opted not to adopt the system, however. The LifeConEx solution is based, in part, on the first generation of that sensor tag.
In 2011, DHL bought out Lufthansa's interest in LifeConEx, which then continued the development of a technology-based temperature-management solution. This included the creation of software that stores and interprets the collected data, and alerts customers in the event that the temperature measurements exceed certain parameters. The result, the company reports, is the DHL Thermonet service.
In addition to hardware and software, the service involves DHL's Global Proactive Monitoring & Intervention Centers, to monitor data from the DHL Thermonet system and forward that information, when intervention is needed, to local Certified Life Sciences Stations—DHL's local centers for handling, storing and transporting customer shipments. For example, if a temperature has become too warm, a Life Sciences Station will receive notification of this problem, and may then send personnel to visit the site where the goods are located, in order to discern the cause and ensure that it is addressed.
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What’s Happening at T.G.I. Friday’s? [VIDEO]
People know I love to eat at Friday's so I've been getting asked what's happening to the restaurant on Frederica St. Are they closing? Is a new restaurant coming? Is there a remodel underway? Barb has the answers!
It was actually in March that my niece, Shelby, sent me a story about how some T.G.I. Friday's across the country would be undergoing transformations. Since nothing was happening at our Owensboro location I thought maybe it was just in bigger cities like New York or Chicago. Nope. It's finally happening here! The company that owns the Owensboro location also owns 20 other locations and chose ours to remodel first. It's getting a more contemporary look inside and out. The bar will be lit from underneath and my hope is that there will be more bar seating as that's where we like to gather on a Friday night! Already inside it's much more open and there will be new booths and tables. A complete transformation is in store and set to be completed by November 10th. So far construction is on schedule and they are open during the renovations. I can't wait to see it all finished!
In this commercial you get a small glimpse that it's for sure more contemporary and open!


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Cloud in pictures
News about Cloud
Interviews about Cloud
IT systems are becoming more complicated and driving businesses to the Cloud, according to Schneider Electric.
Dimension Data is set to quadruple the size of its datacentre business to US$4 billion in the next five years.
Pacnet Business Solutions and China Telecom have announced a partnership to push development of datacentre and Cloud services in Chongqing, China.
Businesses will not be at a significant competitive disadvantage if they do not deploy a public Cloud solution, according to SolarWinds.
Some cloud storage providers who hope to be on the leading edge of cloud security adopt a "zero-knowledge" policy in which vendors say it is impossible for customer data to be snooped on. But a recent study by computer scientists at Johns Hopkins University is questioning just how secure those zero knowledge tactics are.
Red Hat is hosting its annual summit this week - this year in San Francisco - where the company is seemingly basking in the glory of making more than a billion dollars off a free open source project.
Following its acquisition by Cisco in July 2013, Sourcefire APJ managing director, Ammar Hindi, said the two companies have been working closely together.
Sedgman has cut its IT service management costs in three by shifting ITSM platforms, according to Sedgman IT Manager, Andrew Reid.
Features about Cloud
Value-added distributor Connector Systems aims for double-digit growth in Australia as a ‘bare minimum’, and looks for acquisitions to strengthen its presence in the market. But that is just one part of the story.
ARN took some one-on-one time with the high profile CEO to discuss his vision of where he wants to take the company in 2014, and how it will compete with key rivals.
As part of its worldwide reorganisation under CEO, Steve Bennett, Symantec will focus on the channel. Senior director Pacific channel sales, Klasie Holtzhausen, sat down with ARN to discuss the company’s new channel strategy in Australia, and the company’s plans heading into 2014.
Cloud computing gives organisations the opportunity to rethink many traditional IT practices, but it may be a particularly good fit for disaster recovery and business continuity.
Most ReadGet exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events.
Do private Clouds work? You bet they do, says Cisco, which has more than two years of experience under its belt with its Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services (CITEIS) Cloud.
Microsoft just appointed its Cloud guy to be the company's next CEO. Satya Nadella has impressively grown Microsoft into being one of the relevant members of the cloud computing industry, but industry watchers say there is a lot more the company must do to grow into one of the dominant companies in the market.
Amazon Web Services this week rolled out a new cloud-based data analytics tool named Kenesis, which can analyze massive amounts of data in real time and be paid for by the hour.
Going into 2014, a whirlwind of security start-ups are looking to have an impact on the enterprise world. Most of these new ventures are focused on securing data in the cloud and on mobile devices. Santa Clara, California-based Illumio, for example, founded earlier this year, is only hinting about what it will be doing in cloud security. But already it's the darling of Silicon Valley investors, pulling in over $42 million from backer Andreesen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Formation 8 and others.
When most people who track the industry think of the Cloud computing market, big names like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google, Rackspace, Verizon Terremark and others come to mind. HP, Joyent, IBM and Dell even. But Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)?
As CIOs try to make sense of the hype surrounding software-defined networks (SDNs) and their potential in data centers, some experts and vendors say IT leaders are looking for answers in all the wrong places.
It is quite a stretch for most cloud service providers to match the geographical reach of Amazon Web Services.
This may be the last time that Adobe will be releasing new versions of its products all at once, according to Adobe digital media product marketing manager, Michael Stoddart.
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Microsoft has now ended its support for Windows XP, which means that a security sinkhole will likely open and gradually widen, threatening hundreds of millions of PCs worldwide in homes, companies, government agencies and schools. Along with the Y2K bug, Windows XP’s support termination is one of the computer industry’s most publicised -- and most ignored -- deadlines, towards which many business and IT managers have taken a curiously casual attitude. The implications could be dire for those organizations that continue to use Windows XP, a decrepit operating system Microsoft.
- 'Francophoned' cybertheft operation reportedly back in action
- In Heartbleed's wake, tech titans launch fund for crucial open-source projects
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Marketing leaders from around the world met recently in Chicago for the Annual Marketing Law Conference of the Promotion Marketing Association, entitled Converging Platforms and Diverging Laws. Attendees heard from a wide variety of speakers, including representatives of the world's largest brands, the Federal Trade Commission, technology pioneers and leading law firms.
The agenda was chock full of presentations designed to address the seemingly never-ending challenges that lawmakers and practitioners face while trying to keep pace with new technology and practices. Topics ranged from traditional advertising concerns and challenges with ever-changing social media and digital platforms to disclosure requirements in mobile app development. Perhaps the most commonly discussed theme, however, was that of data privacy — particularly concerns surrounding online/mobile tracking and targeting. It is clear that data privacy issues present unique challenges to an advertising industry that now relies heavily on highly targeted ads.
In the United States, it’s been reported that almost 200 class action lawsuits have been filed against publishers, ad servers and advertisers. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission is pushing for the industry to adopt a “Do Not Track” option for consumers. Meanwhile, the European Union has imposed strict consent rules for tracking and targeting. Here in Canada, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner has released a policy position on online behavioural advertising (OBA). Despite stating that all information collected for OBA will be considered as “personal information” for the purposes of Canada’s privacy legislation (regardless of whether that information can be reasonably used to identify an individual), the guidelines do purport to allow for the collection of personal information for OBA so long as certain requirements are met (e.g., that users be given notice of the option to immediately and persistently opt out of being tracked).


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Google‘s just released a new resource for enterprises that are struggling to adapt their business models to address the new mobile technology revoltion. In building the Mobile Playbook, Google says it spoke to “hundreds” of companies, and that they “understand that they need to invest in mobile to engage with their customers on this platform. The problem is, most don’t know where to start.” Hence the HTML5-based resource that Google’s put together. It’s accessible on tablets, of course, and Google has a vested interest in helping companies go mobile as it supplies the OS behind the majority of the world’s smartphones, and also sells billions of mobile ads this way. Keen eyes will spot, however, that Google’s example image is of an Apple iPad.
To keep up with news like this as it happens, visit our main Fast Feed page throughout the day.


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Most game developers are not interested in NFT, Web3 and other blockchain technologies.
In the latest annual survey commissioned by the organizers of the Game Developers Conference (GDC), more than 2,300 developers were surveyed on a variety of topics related to their work and the industry as a whole. When asked about their studios’ interest in blockchain, 75% of people said they were “not interested”, while 7% said they were “very interested”, 16% said they were “very interested”, and 2% mentioned that they “already using it.” “.
The GDC also asked developers to provide anonymous reasons why they are for or against the blockchain. Interestingly, the first answer was more balanced. “Like any technology, it has its pros and cons. I think it’s become too trendy to openly oppose it and score points on social media, but I know a lot of developers who are exploring its use in a more subtle way.
“Now that the hype has died down and the scammers have moved on, I think it’s time to seriously look into its usefulness for any positive player experience. I don’t think that such a big thing as a blockchain is completely unnecessary,” said another.
However, many other answers were negative.
“Blockchain is a classic example of finding a solution to a problem. Although it has been well known for more than a decade, it has no practical application – except for cryptocurrency, which itself has the only use case for financial fraud. I am suspicious of any company that uses blockchain technology because they tell me that they do not understand this technology well or act unethically,” said one of the respondents.
One developer was much more forthright: “I developed a game to use the blockchain, and after spending three months doing nothing but researching use cases, I firmly came to the conclusion that ‘not worth chasing’.
Another buzzword in the industry shouldn’t be well received either. While companies like Mark Zuckberg’s Meta continue to talk about the idea of shared and inclusive virtual worlds, just under half of developers (45%) said they believe the so-called “metaverse” will never live up to its promises. It was a response to the companies they thought would best handle the metaverse concept.
Meanwhile, 14% said that Epic Games (Fortnite) is in the best position in this regard, while Meta (Horizon World) and Microsoft (Minecraft) received seven percent of the votes each. Meanwhile, Google and Apple received only 3%.
The developers have pointed to many hurdles the Metaverse will need to overcome, including proper monetization, cheaper VR hardware, and better standardization of controls across apps. However, one developer put it well: the lack of a proper definition. The “Promise of the Metaverse” as such is nothing. The people trying to sell it have no idea what it is, and neither do the consumers. Do you remember what happened and continues to happen with cloud gaming ten years ago? »
Another area of concern and uncertainty is the rapid wave of acquisitions. On everyone’s mind, of course, is Microsoft’s upcoming $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, but others include Sony’s acquisition of Bungie and Embracer Group, taking over several studios, Square Enix.
When asked what impact these acquisition waves would have, 44% of respondents said they would have a “negative” effect. Another 32% answered “I don’t know” or “I don’t know”. Only 17% of the respondents answered “positively” and 7% said “no effect”.
Some respondents were either realistic (“Consolidation will happen and we shouldn’t be afraid of it”) or indifferent (“As long as they pay their bills and let people play the games they want, that’s fine with me.)
Others were more pessimistic. “Consolidation is bad for innovation, product diversity, consumer satisfaction, and the ability of new voices to compete on an equal footing.”
“I am a Blizzard kid still traumatized by the Activision Blizzard merger. Large purchases will always leave a sour taste in your mouth. There is a lot of money to be made in this industry and the business community knows this. Judging by the trends of the past two decades, these latest acquisitions are going to be terrible for the industry.
Perhaps the most dryly humorous response is: “Big corporations are getting bigger. More homogenization. Less original. But hey, I think Banjo-Kazooie might be in Guitar Hero now.
However, accessibility is an area of game development that continues to gain a lot of support. When asked if their games had options for players with disabilities, the number of people who answered yes was 38% (compared to 39% last year), and the percentage of people who answered no fell from 36 to 32%. . Specifically, respondents said they added features such as text captions, motion blur reduction, colorblind mode, and “arachnophobia mode” to change the appearance of enemy spiders.
According to Microsoft, this is a good trend, especially since there are 400 million gamers worldwide with some form of disability. In recent years, we’ve seen a number of high-profile titles lead the way in terms of accessibility, including Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part I and Part Two, Santa Monica Studios’ God of War Ragnarok, and Eidos. . In addition, PlayStation recently followed the Xbox with an accessibility controller for the PS5.
The full GDC 2023 survey is available here.
Image Credit: Meta


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After clinching control of the world’s largest fruit and vegetable distributor Wednesday, billionaire David H. Murdock said he’s ready for his next project: telling the planet to eat more of what his company sells.
Murdock, chairman and chief executive of Dole Food Co., won shareholders’ approval to purchase the 76% of the company he doesn’t already own for $1.4 billion, or $33.50 a share, and the assumption of about $1 billion in debt.
Taking the company private, he said, would allow him to expand Dole’s operations around the globe and develop new products without having to worry about pleasing investors.
He said it also would allow him to finance scientific research on nutrition and health that Dole can use to market its produce and fulfill the chairman’s personal vision of a healthier, slimmer America.
“It takes capital and we will be spending capital to teach people how to eat,” the 79-year-old Murdock said in an interview in his office at the company’s Westlake Village headquarters. “I’ve never been sick a day in my life. I’m healthy and I think I can make other people healthy too.”
The veteran deal maker and self-professed “fish-vegetarian” started Dole’s health and nutrition campaign last year, when the company published an “Encyclopedia of Foods” in conjunction with scientists at the Mayo Clinic and UCLA and built a $1.5-million food science and nutrition laboratory at Dole headquarters.
The lab’s advisor, Dr. David Heber, director of UCLA’s Center for Human Nutrition, said he and other scientists have begun studying most of the world’s fruits and vegetables to pinpoint their health-benefiting compounds and to develop more potent varieties that Dole could bring to market.
Heber acknowledged that the fruits of the research will be a valuable marketing tool in reaching health-conscious consumers. But he said the whole project also is Murdock’s “personal passion.”
According to Murdock, he fully intends to use the research to tout the health benefits of what Dole sells, from fresh pineapple and bananas to bagged salads and canned fruit.
Labels on Dole’s bags of baby spinach, for instance, soon might carry information on the green’s eyesight-aiding substance lutein. The ultimate goal would be to have labels that explain to consumers what size serving they must eat to get the benefits.
In addition to the research conducted at Dole, Murdock said he has earmarked company funds for nutrition research at eight universities.
He said he also is designing a 300-room health and nutrition resort -- similar to Dallas’ famed Cooper Institute, though that is a not-for-profit entity -- near Dole headquarters.
The kind of expensive research Murdock is undertaking probably wouldn’t have gone over well with Wall Street.
“Now we can do whatever we want to do -- within reason,” Murdock said with a grin. “We are not beholden to Wall Street and the stock market.”
Analysts said Dole, which had sales of $4.4 billion last year, probably should never have been publicly traded, given the volatile nature of agriculture -- and Murdock’s tight oversight as its longtime controlling shareholder.
It already was a “quasi-private company,” said Heather Jones of BB&T; Capital Markets in Richmond, Va. Murdock and other management, she said, were not “as forthcoming and communicative as they could have been” for a company whose shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
The sale to Murdock is expected to be final this week. He initially offered to pay $29.50 a share but was forced to boost that after shareholders objected.
For his part, Murdock acknowledged he wanted to be free to pursue his vision of how Dole should expand.
“Taking the company private was not the easiest thing I’ve done in my life,” he said. “Now we can grow faster.”


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International Business News Writer
After exerting oneself through a busy day of classes and meetings, buying a cold drink from a vending machine may be a good option to cool down. Back in the day, vending machines used to be white metal boxes that dispensed mainly bottled drinks and snack bars. With advancing technology and increasing innovation, these machines have transformed and now serve a variety of other items. Vending machines in Japan are reported to give out lettuce and bananas. In Germany, farm-fresh breakfast foods such as sausages and eggs are possible options for buyers. Strangely enough, Singapore has taken the renowned convenience and efficiency of vending machines to the next level, offering an even wider array of unusual items. Machines now offer bread, curry puffs, freshly squeezed orange juice, freshly cooked pizza, and even cooked chili crab, which is a famous local favorite dish priced at sixty dollars.
According to Euromonitor International, the world’s leading independent provider of market research, the revenues in Singapore from vending machines alone grew from $91 million in 2014 to approximately $105 million in 2019, which is about a 15% increase in only five years. In addition to the expansion of the market, entrepreneurs in Singapore have expressed interest in selling products through vending machines due to other reasons. Manish Kumar, the managing director of Norwegian Salmon, states that the machines allow him to own his personal retail space. His products have to compete with those of other popular businesses that sell fresh salmon, but competition is less in the vending machine sector. Additionally, Mervin Tham, a founder of EasyMeat, says that products sold in vending machines continue to diversify due to the relatively low barriers to entry. It is an easy and cost-efficient way of testing a product out, especially if you want to start your own business.
Initially, 2020 was not a financially successful year for the national vending machine market, due to the pandemic. However, people have since then found advantages with buying from machines, rather than going to the supermarket. Some of these benefits are that vending machines are available 24/7, social distancing may be practiced, and the food is safe to eat. For these reasons, vending machine growth is expected to continue in the following years. In addition, vending machines played a vital role during Singapore’s pandemic response. Through the country’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, Singapore was able to install 1,200 machines throughout the country to dispense free masks.
Vending machines have proven to be an efficient way for people to purchase food, especially late at night when grocery stores are closed. However, food is no longer the only thing provided by the machines; services and house appliances are part of the lineup as well. People can now have their laundry done and can buy items such as printer ink and detergent. With ever-increasing technology, it is possible that vending machines will provide even more services and items in the future.
Contact Ariel at firstname.lastname@example.org


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Firms face 'bumpy ride' in 2010, as House of Fraser can testify
Profits warnings from companies
listed in Britain have fallen to a
six-year low, but analysts at accountant
Ernst & Young warn this year could be
the real test for business.
Only 50 companies issued profits
warnings in the last three months of
2009, according to an Ernst & Young
survey, taking the total for the year to
just 282, down by 37 per cent on 2008
and the lowest quarterly and annual
figures since 2003.
But analysts at the accountancy giant
warned that while the recovery had
come quicker than expected, this year
could hold unpleasant shocks.
Cosmetic recovery: House of Fraser is one business to start the year badly, hit by repayment costs and losses on property investments
recovery costs – and 2010 is when we
start paying,’ the firm said.
Britain and other countries would
have to cut spending, raise taxes and
withdraw economic stimulus measures
this year and this would herald difficulties for business.
‘This retrenchment-will at best hold back the speed of the recovery or at worst cause a second dip.
Brace yourselves for a bumpy recovery,’ the E&Y report warned. The low headline figure on profits warnings also masked worrying signs in some sectors.
While companies dependent on
consumer spending saw a sharp decline in
profits warnings, helped by
Government measures such as low interest
rates and the cut in VAT, industrial
companies showed little sign of
Warnings from engineering firms and
those providing equipment and
services to the oil industry rose in 2009.
The economy has shrunk by six per
cent so far in this recession, compared
with just 2.5 per cent in 1990-1991.
the Ernst & Young report highlighted
how the effects of recession had been
much milder, with lower
unemployment rates and a lower number of
However, it warned that with the
removal of Government stimulus
measures, growth would have to come from
‘The economy will need a boost from
the private sector and exports to avoid
stagnation or, worse, a second dip.
However, the signs do not bode well,’ the
‘The survey shows most industries
performing better than this time last
year. But the reports have shown
inconsistent progress, with recovery often
moving three steps forward and one
House of Fraser parent
group hit by £61m loss
The parent company of House of Fraser is making significant losses, according to the latest accounts. Highland Group Holdings lost £61.5 million in the year to January 24, 2009 compared with a loss of £19.6 million the previous year, writes Neil Craven.
The bigger loss was blamed
on a charge of £38.3 million
due to a property revaluation.
Interest on debt also hit the
business. Several stores have
since been sold and leased
Privately owned companies have ten months to file accounts with Companies House, so detailed figures are usually delayed.
Children’s clothing retailer Adams went into administration on Friday for the third time in as many years. Buyers for the chain are being sought.
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Countdown to 200 Parking lots
June 18, 2020
Next generation mobile electronic service
Recently, our #technology was deployed in a new off-street Parking facility for Via Verde Portugal in Portimão. With this, we are celebrating the countdown to 200 #Parking lots!
A-to-Be’s offering can be diversified to provide full smartphone app-based access, allowing users to control their accounts, transactions and services. All using the existing systems and infrastructures, and not requiring large investments.


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Last year during my trip to Guatemala I had the opportunity to witness firsthand the devastating Roya disease that is currently plaguing the coffee crop in Central America. Roya, or coffee leaf rust, is a parasitic fungus that deprives a coffee plant of nutrients thus denying the leaves any nutrition. Without its foliage, the plant is unable to breathe and ceases producing fruit and eventually dies. 1
This disease is affecting the growth of coffee beans and according to the Associated Press, has “caused more than $1 billion in damage across Latin American region.”2
Thousands of individuals in Latin America who depend on coffee production for their livelihoods are going to be facing hardships, including threatened food security for their families, as this disease continues to ravage the coffee crop. Additionally, reduced yields of the coffee crop could contribute to coffee prices rising as the amount of high quality Arabica beans become more scarce.
Organizations throughout the world, and within the coffee industry, have been supporting efforts to limit the spread and further devastation of the coffee crop caused by Roya. This week the United States announced a $5 million partnership between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Texas A&M University's World Coffee Research program to study potential methods that would eradicate the fungus.
The goal of this partnership is to develop rust-resistant coffee varieties through research. Additionally, it will aim to help organizations within Latin America monitor and respond to any future outbreaks of the disease before a rust-resistant plan can be developed.
After traveling to Guatemala and seeing how reliant the region is on coffee and viewing the devastation Roya can bring, I am sure I am not going to worry about my future coffee purchases being a few more cents. I will choose to think about all the lives affected in those coffee producing regions and hope for an end to the fungus.
1. Bladyka, Emma. “Some Insights on Coffee Leaf Rust (Hemileia vastatrix).” The Specialty Coffee Chronicle. Specialty Coffee Association of America. http://www.scaa.org/chronicle/2013/02/15/some-insights-on-coffee-leaf-rust-hemileia-vastatrix/
2. Associated Press. AP http://bigstory.ap.org/article/coffee-fungus-raising-prices-high-end-blends
3. Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/18/us-usa-coffee-rust-idUSKBN0DY0O320140518
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Tesco focuses on customers
Retalix 10 Store Suite Software Piloted
The platform unifies and streamlines deployment and management of in-store systems, mobile commerce and online storefront channels, the company said in a press release. The platform ensures a consistent and personalized shopping experience across all touch points and sales channels, which include POS , self-checkout , self-scanning, customer scale, customer kiosk , fuel sales, mobile commerce and e-commerce , as well as a range of store and chain management applications.
"We are delighted with our choice of the Retalix 10 Store Suite, which we plan to implement in all of our stores worldwide," said Mike McNamara, chief information officer of Tesco Plc. "Retalix 10 will form the foundation of our store technology. Its extensible, service-oriented architecture allows us to add new features and services for our customers at speed."
The third largest grocery retailer in the world has been a Retalix business partner since 1995, and is operating a range of Retalix store solutions across more than 4,000 stores in 11 countries.
Thursday, January 19, 2012


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NEW York’s largest cruise ship the Norwegian Breakaway will make its inaugural visit to Nassau tomorrow.
The 4,000-passenger capacity ship will be greeted by a delegation that includes Prime Minister Perry Christie and Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe.
From her berth at the New York Passenger Ship Terminal in Manhattan, Norwegian Cruise Line’s newest vessel will make seven-night cruises to Bermuda, May through September, and seven-night cruises to the Bahamas and Florida, October through April.
Describing it as Norwegian’s “newest and most spectacular ship,” chief executive officer Kevin Sheehan said: “The incredible attractions and adventurous tours offered in the Greater Orlando area rival the world-class dining and high-calibre entertainment we offer on board.”
Norwegian Breakaway features 29 dining options, including restaurants from Food Network Star and Iron Chef Geoffrey Zakarian, and Master Baker Buddy Valastro, star of TLC’s “Cake Boss”; three Broadway shows; an ice bar; a weekly fireworks show at sea; and the largest Aqua Park and ropes course at sea, including five water slides. Her signature hull art, designed by legendary artist Peter Max, brings the energy of the Big Apple to the ship wherever she sails.


text:
Nearly a year after landing on iOS, Office 365 business users can try out a pre-release build of a native Outlook Web App for Android.
Now you can chat about how much email stinks while achieving inbox zero.
Microsoft offers a quick way to check for possible intrusions to your accounts with its services.
From alias support to server-side searches, the overhauled Outlook.com Android app is packed with handy new features. Here's how to use them.
Like Yahoo, Microsoft is recycling email accounts, and doing so without mentioning the practice in service agreements for Hotmail, Live, and Outlook.com.
More than a year after Microsoft unveiled its modern mail service, it finally supports the widely used IMAP protocol.
Microsoft has integrated Outlook.com with Skype in several countries, including the U.K., the U.S. and Germany, offering users the ability to tap Skype functions and contacts from within the interface of the webmail application.
Microsoft on Saturday apologized for a three-day partial outage of Outlook.com and said the email service was back up and running, only to note hours later that problems still plagued some customers.
Microsoft has launched a version of its Outlook Web App for the Apple iPad and iPhone that is actually a native app, complementing the app suite it released last month as Office Mobile.


text:
Gameforge released some RaiderZ screenshots and launch trailer to mark the PC MMO’s release. Players can look forward to exciting battles against massive boss opponents, tons of engaging quests, extensive PvP features and a sophisticated guild system. RaiderZ also allows players to create truly individual characters and to imbue them
IO Interactive released the official Hitman Absolution launch trailer ahead of the game’s release on November 20th. HITMAN: ABSOLUTION delivers a cinematic experience in a living breathing world, where player choice is paramount. Experience unique disguise gameplay, improvised weapons and a myriad ways to take out a target.


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Cynical UK Public Disbelieve Companies’ CSR Claims
New research shows a deep public cynicism about companiesâ claims of action on the important CSR issue of climate change.
The research, from business and environment experts The Carbon Trust, found that only 7% of people believe companiesâ claims about actions theyâve taken to reduce their environmental impact. 66% are sceptical as to whether firms are genuinely cutting carbon emissions as part of their overall CSR strategies.
The Carbon Trust asked people if they wanted firms to commit to a 3% emissions reduction. This is what is required for the UK to meet its 2050 targets. Unsurprisingly, 90% did. Those questioned said that climate change was the greatest threat facing the environment â hence their desire for action.
Transparency emerged as an important theme, with 70% of people wanting businesses to be forced to reveal their carbon emissions. 56% said they were more worried now about business action to reduce climate change than they were five years ago.
A major public concern around the CSR issue of environment in general and climate change in particular is a lack of business authenticity. 53% of those questioned feared that firms just make one-off improvements for publicity reasons.
It would appear that most consumers (60%) are looking for third party endorsement from bodies they respect before they are willing to believe corporate claims of CSR action on the environment. The first place they look for evidence about corporate climate change claims is search engines.
However, companies which can demonstrate transparency â and verified action on tackling environmental issues â will definitely benefit. 56% of people said they were more loyal to brands that can show, at a glance, evidence of action. 53% said they want to work for companies which can clearly demonstrate commitment to reducing their impact on climate change.
The Carbon Trust joined forces with BrandZ to conduct brand analysis on how members of the public are reacting to CSR claims about the environment. They found that, in analysing the most powerful brands, environmental responsibility is one of the top characteristics of leading companies. This is a powerful motivator for consumers. On average, 80% of sales are generated by the product brand, but a solid 20% of sales are directly linked to corporate reputation. In breaking down that category further, at least 2% of sales are attributable directly to environmental reputation.
Harry Morrison, General Manager of the Carbon Trust Standard, an independent verification system of corporate action on climate change, said that green washing, over claiming and excessive jargon has created mistrust. However, itâs not all doom and gloom.
He said: âThe good news is that by taking voluntary action now to measure, manage and reduce their impacts, there are huge opportunities for brands to stand out from the crowd.â
The research launches to coincide with the start of Climate Week, in which I personally am involved. This aims to raise awareness around climate change and to inspire businesses, communities and individuals to take action themselves.
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