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Best Cannabis Stocks For Your November Watchlist
After rallying for several days in November top marijuana stocks to buy experienced a pullback in yesterday’s trading. After GOP Rep. Nancy Mace unveiled the States Reform Act the legislation was met with some opposition from other GOP members in her home state of South Carolina. Although some GOP leaders oppose the bill Nancy Mace has continued to gain support from a growing number of lawmakers from both sides of party lines.
Marijuanastocks.com – MarijuanaStocks
In other developments on Monday President Joe Biden signed an infrastructure bill with a provision that allows researchers to study the marijuana consumers are purchasing from state-legal dispensaries. With the possibility of ending federal marijuana prohibition, many cannabis stocks have experienced some upside this month. In addition, many leading cannabis companies are delivering strong earnings this month adding fuel to the best cannabis stocks right now.
Because of delays with federal cannabis reform in 2021 top marijuana stocks to buy have fallen near their lowest trading levels this year. Now showing some upside in the market pot stocks could continue rising as things progress in Congress. At the present time, US cannabis companies have been growing rapidly on the state level. Since the beginning of the pandemic, many companies have delivered strong revenue growth and expanded their footprint across the American cannabis market.
Investing In Pot Stocks And What To Know
Before investing in cannabis stocks, it’s important to research a company thoroughly studying their financial results and press releases to find the best-performing businesses. In addition, following how a stock moves in the market can help you establish the best position for your investment.
[Read More] 2 Top Marijuana Stocks To Watch As The Sector Continues To Climb
One important factor to consider before investing in marijuana stocks is the significant market volatility the sector is known for. Right now, many analysts are forecasting significant upside for some of the best cannabis stocks to watch in November. Making a watchlist of top marijuana stocks can help you establish the best entries for your investment. Let’s look at 2 top US cannabis stocks to add to your list in Q4 2021.
Best Marijuana Stocks To Watch For November 2021
- Green Thumb Industries Inc. (OTC: GTBIF)
- Ayr Wellness Inc. (OTC: AYRWF)
Green Thumb Industries Inc.
Green Thumb Industries Inc. is a leading cannabis consumer packaged company that has established a large footprint in key markets across the US. At the present time, Green Thumb has 65 retail locations across 14 states and recently opened its third store in New Jersey. Additionally, GTI has licenses for 111 retail locations for future expansions. In Q2 GTI opened a Cookies on the Las Vegas Strip through an exclusive partnership with the privately-owned Cookies Brand. Also, Green Thumb announced it closed the acquisition of Dharma Pharmaceuticals and is entering the Virginia cannabis market as well.
On November 10th Green Thumb Reported third quarter 2021 results with revenue of $233.7 million up 48.7% year over year. Overall, this marks the fifth consecutive quarter of positive GAAP net income of $20.2 million or $0.08 per diluted share. The company adjusted operating EBITDA grew to $81.2 million or 34.7% of revenue. As it stands Green Thumb ended the third quarter with cash totaling $285.8 million. The company was driven by the expanded distribution of Green Thumb branded products and increasing traffic in the 65 operating dispensaries.
GTBIF stock closed at $24.16 on November 15th down 10.88% for the trading day. Currently, the stock has a 52-week price range of $18.00-$39.11 and has increased by 10.83% in the past five trading days. According to analysts at Tip Ranks GTBIF stock has a 12-month average price target of $46.23 per share. In this case, this would represent an increase of 91.35% from its last trading level. For cannabis investors, GTBIF stock could be one of the best marijuana stocks to buy in 2021.
[Read More] Going Long On Top Marijuana Stocks To Buy? 3 Of The Best Cannabis Stocks To Watch Right Now
Ayr Wellness Inc.
Ayr Wellness Inc. has also built a strong presence in the Florida cannabis market operating 42 dispensaries in Florida and a total of 59 stores nationwide. In addition, the company entered the Illinois market with the acquisition of Herbal Remedies Dispensaries, LLC. Ayr received a provisional license to sell adult-use cannabis at greater Boston dispensaries in Massachusetts. In October the company launched Kynd premium flower in Arizona. On November 12th the company opened its seventh affiliated operating dispensary in Pennsylvania.
Ayr reported its second-quarter 2021 results with revenue of $91.3 million up 222% year over year. As a result, the company adjusted EBITDA was $27.4 million on a US GAAP basis up 225% year over year. Ayr sustained a US GAAP operating loss of $24.9 million which included one-time expenses, and non-operating adjustments of $52.3 million. The company raised its 2022 revenue target to $800 million with a $300 million AEBITDA. Additionally, Ayr provided a 3Q 2021 guidance of $100 million in revenue. The company is expected to release its third-quarter 2021 results on November 22nd before the market opens.
AYRWF stock closed on November 15th at $22.53 up 5.23% in the past five trading days. Currently, the stock has a 52-week price range of $18.01-$37.50 and is down 15.93% in the past six months. According to analysts at Market Beat AYRWF stock has a consensus price target of $56.02 per share. In essence, this would represent an upside of 148.6% from its last trading price of $22.53. As the federal process continues to drive cannabis stocks AYRWF stock could be a top marijuana stock right now.
[Read More] Best US Marijuana Stocks To Buy Right Now? 2 To Add To Your List According To Analysts


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"Nope, we're not all investors." It seems like not all people believes in the recent Robinhood advertisement, aired in the Super Bowl LV.
A video of Alibaba's co-founder and former CEO Jack Ma has finally reappeared in the public limelight. He was seen wearing a navy pullover. Due to this, stock market has also jumped.
A day before President-elect Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated. The stock market is bringing great values. Here are the top five biggest gainers, this week.
Twitter, Inc. (TWTR) continuously dropped its stock prices. If you invested on this company, it's better to look for alternatives as early as now. Here's the list of other companies to look out.
Golden State player Stephen Curry is currently the highest-paid NBA player with over $43 million salary. But, he's not the richest NBA player. Find out which former and current players are billionaires now.
Elon Musk, went from first place to second place, as the richest man in the world. But, did you know the main source of his money?
You already have the money for stock investment. You've been reading Warren Buffet's investment tips. You think you're ready to invest? Hold that thought, first.
US Officials are now planning to stop Americans from investing on two of the biggest Chinese companies. Which companies are included in the possible China stock ban?
Jack Ma, one of the top billionaires in the world, recently reported 'missing' in China. Here are the different sources telling where to find the missing billionaire.
If you're given $1 million to spend in a minute, what's the first thing you will buy? In a new video from MrBeast, he finds out how his fans would react to a $1 million.
Do you have a baby born before Dec. 31, 2020? If yes, here's a great news for you that will give you extra $1,100 stimulus money.
Vice President Mike Pence is now on-fire on social media over an alleged restaurant $45 bill, with VP only giving out $5 tip for the waiter. How much should Americans give to waiters?
Several UK airlines have now cancelled flights after countries announced travel ban from the country. Which airlines offer COVID-19 refund?
Are you looking to invest today? Here are some of the factors and companies you should watch out.
In today's digital world, more and more people are investing in cryptocurrencies. These digital tokens have exploded into popularity over the past few years, and have grown to the point that there are now nearly over 6,000 of them, according to Statista.
Following the pandemic, natural calamities, and major employment shifts, a startling new study on the online news site News Nation shows that 1 in 4 Americans don't have an emergency fund.
Generational wealth is a facet of wealth management that is often misunderstood. Labeled trust fund babies, rich kids, and lucky breaks, those who receive an inheritance from families are rare.
Social media has successfully made it to the mainstream consciousness of over half the global population. DataReportal's latest study shows that over 4.33 billion people worldwide are using some form of social networking site this year. That's why it's no wonder many tech companies are interested in investing or forming the next Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube to capture the hearts and minds of the general population.
Ease of access, freedom to choose in which to invest the money and lines of credit designed according to the needs of consumers, are some of the characteristics that have made consumer credit one of the most important financing products in the world’s market.
While researchers have suggested that individuals who base their self-worth on their financial success often feel lonely in everyday life, a newly published study by the University at Buffalo and Harvard Business School has taken initial steps to better understand why this link exists.
The younger generations are willing to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to sustainable living.
An international research team led by NUST MISIS has developed a new iron-cobalt-nickel nanocomposite with tunable magnetic properties. The nanocomposite could be used to protect money and securities from counterfeiting. The study was published in Nanomaterials.
Bank credit officers are more likely to approve loan applications earlier and later in the day, while 'decision fatigue' around midday is associated with defaulting to the safer option of saying no.
After graduating or leaving college, many students face a difficult choice: Try to pay off their student loans as fast as possible to save on interest, or enroll in an income-based repayment plan, which offers affordable payments based on their income and forgives any balance remaining after 20 or 25 years.

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The post pandemic world will be a dramatically different place, with more people working from home and shopping online than ever before due to COVID-19. As a result, we are living in an increasingly digital world. There is no turning back with at least 500 million tweets, 294 billion emails and 65 billion messages on WhatsApp being sent around the world every single day.[i]
We will see technology and in particular Artificial Intelligence (AI) having an even greater role to play in helping organisations to adapt, drive new business and keep people safe and secure. No longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’, AI presents a significant opportunity provided it is harnessed and applied intelligently. Success depends on good quality data otherwise, in the words of Ajay Bhalla, President of Cyber & Intelligence Solutions at Mastercard, “we’re in danger of creating a society without trust” and “without trust, you can’t do business.”[ii]
Global research from Capgemini reflects this sentiment, revealing that 62% of consumers would place higher trust in an organisation whose AI interactions they perceive as ethical. Get it wrong and 34% of consumers would stop interacting completely with that company, while 41% of business executives have abandoned an AI system altogether in the event of an ethical issue being raised. Such issues include collecting personal patient data without consent in healthcare or over-reliance on machine-led decisions without disclosure in banking and insurance.[iii] Get it right and 61% of consumers said they would share positive experiences with friends and family, 59% said that they would have higher loyalty to the company and 55% said that they would purchase more products and provide high ratings and positive feedback on social media.[iv] Therefore, ethical AI is an opportunity not to missed.
The question is: How do organisations maximize the benefits of AI technology to build consumer trust?
AI and consumer trust – a delicate balance
To benefit from the delicate balance between AI and consumer trust it is necessary to create an effective data-driven strategy followed by a plan to use the latest conversational AI solutions for customer service. Follow this 3 step formula to ensure the right data and customer service offering to boost customer confidence:
Follow this formula to build consumer trust and confidence. Without trust organisations will find it difficult to build a loyal customer base and without customers there is no business. New technology allows consumers to have a stronger connection with their favourite brands, therefore it is time to use AI to build trust through an effective data-driven strategy and greater transparency.


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Beijing: The Government of India has banned 59 apps from China on Monday amid tensions following the violent skirmish between India-China troops in the Galvan Valley of Ladakh. These apps include quite popular apps like TikTok, UC Browser, Hello and Share It. India has argued that the servers of these Chinese applications exist outside India and users’ data was being stolen through them. On the other hand, the Chinese government may not have given any response on this matter, but the Chinese government media has described India’s move as copying America. China’s official newspaper has said that India is also looking for excuses like China to boycott Chinese goods.
Explain that the Government of India has clearly stated that the security and unity of the country were threatened by these apps, that is why it has been decided to ban them. The government has banned these Chinese apps under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. In the complaints received by the Ministry of Information, it was said that some Chinese mobile apps on Android and iOS platforms are being misused. These apps were secretly and illegally stealing user data and sending it to the servers outside India. Apart from this, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Center, Ministry of Home Affairs was also sent a recommendation to immediately ban such dangerous apps.
This move of India makes China’s official media quite angry. China’s official newspaper Global Times has described India’s move as increasing proximity to the US. The newspaper has alleged that such sanctions have been imposed from China as a threat to malware, Trojan horses and national security. According to the newspaper, America also started targeting China’s goods under the guise of nationalism. The Chinese media has reiterated that such steps will only harm India’s economy. Referring to the statement of Power Minister RK Singh, the newspaper has said that India imports $ 42 million of solar modules from China. Also, Indian power companies are also working through equipment made by China. In this case, the call of Boycott seems extremely difficult.
The business will decrease by 30%
In another article of Global Times, concerns have been expressed about the declining business from India. Even though China is constantly saying that India is at a greater disadvantage due to the decrease in trade, but China itself is scared. The Chinese media has acknowledged that India-China trade may decline by up to 30% this year after tensions and due to Kovid-19. According to China, trade has started to decline in many areas, which is going to prove to be a costly deal for both countries. The newspaper has alleged that India has started imposing additional customs duty on cargo going from China from June 22, which will affect big companies like Apple, Cisco, and Dell.


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South Africa has reached the end of entrepreneurial development because of the government's "draconian" labour legislation, founder of Black like Me Herman Mashaba has said.
Small businesses are said to be important drivers of job creation but Herman Mashaba said South Africa had reached the end of entrepreneurial development because of the government's "draconian" labour legislation.
Mashaba, also executive chair of Lephatsi Investments, was the main speaker at the 2014 Sanlam/Business Partners Entrepreneur of the Year competition, which was launched today.
He said the minister of labour should calculate the impact of the labour laws on society because the legislation on minimum wages was infringing on the rights of South Africans.
"Small businesses are the biggest employers and they are suffering the most. As long as you have this piece of legislation in place, small businesses will not flourish," he said.
Mashaba added that poor and unskilled South Africans were not being given the opportunity to work because small business employers could not afford to pay them high wages.


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Apple iPhone installed base in the US has seen a downward trend for quite some time now and its estimated base saw a dismal growth in the first calendar quarter of 2019, new data Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) has said.
Apple's plans of introducing its own iPhone 5G chip could take as long as six years, the media reported.
OnePlus 7 will be priced at Rs 32999 (6GB RAM) and Rs 37999 (8GB RAM). The OnePlus 7 Pro will be available in three variants -- 6GB, 8GB and 12GB -- priced between Rs 48999-57999.
Premium smartphone maker OnePlus Tuesday said it is aggressively expanding its retail presence in India and will set up its largest experience centre in Hyderabad.
Apple has started rolling out its TV app in over 100 countries that includes India, which would run across devices, including iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs and all of the Samsung smart TVs that are part of its 2019 line-up.
A divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that consumers can pursue an antitrust lawsuit that claims Apple has unfairly monopolized the market for the sale of iPhone apps.
Apple users will be able to subscribe to HBO, Showtime and a handful of other channels directly through Apple's new TV app, bypassing the need to download or launch a separate app.
The iPhone XR was the most popular smartphone in North America during the first quarter (Q1) of 2019, with nearly 4.5 million units shipped, even as handset shipments declined 18 per cent year-on-year (YoY), according to Canalys Research estimates.
Half store, half museum, Apple's new location in the US capital within a historic landmark is being described as the "most ambitious" project for its retail operations.
The Cupertino-based premium smartphone maker is redoubling its efforts in the world’s fastest-growing market.
CEO Tim Cook seems to be leading Apple without any unique or clear perspective that drives innovation.
Launching a more affordable variant alongside premium variants seems to be a trend followed by almost every smartphone brand
When Google launched its now distinctive digital assistant in 2016, it was already in danger of being an also-ran.
The 2019 line-up of iPhones is expected to come with a changed antenna structure, according to famed Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
The European Union (EU) has decided to investigate Swedish music-streaming giant Spotify's allegations accusing Apple of unfairly hindering its rivals and favouring Apple Music through its App Store policies.
Qualcomm hangs on to most Apple gains after earnings report
Paid subscriptions for Apple Services business reached a record high of over 390 million at the end of March -- an increase of 30 million in the last quarter alone, the company's CEO Tim Cook has said.


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Identifying how collusion works promises to boost competition where it is least expected — in regional communities
Big data innovations are helping shine a light on issues affecting regional Australia, and a University of Melbourne academic is at the forefront of the transition.
Support from the Samuel and June Hordern Endowment helped Dr David Byrne undertake groundbreaking research into “tacit collusion” in Perth’s petrol market.
Tacit collusion can occur when, without explicitly talking to each other, companies raise prices in tandem. A dominant company might raise its prices, for example, and then other companies, seeing what it is doing, raise theirs accordingly.
It is different to explicit collusion, which is illegal.
Along with a colleague from the University of Sydney, Dr Byrne secured access to information on the price of petrol at every single pump in Perth from 2001 to 2015.
The result was a complete set of data, a relative rarity in the world of economics. “For years, economists have studied collusion after it’s already established,” says Dr Byrne, a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics and a director at the University’s Centre for Market Design.
Having super rich micro data on prices that researchers haven’t previously had access to allows us to study the evolution of pricing behaviour over time.
“Perth is the context for this, but these data sets are now emerging in retail markets around the world, especially regional ones.”
Dr Byrne’s research found evidence of “tacit collusion” among petrol companies in raising prices. He does not suggest that any explicit collusion took place. But it didn’t have to – companies could see what dominant market players were doing, and adjusted their prices accordingly.
Dr Byrne found that the companies doubled their profit margins between 2010 and 2015, from 5 per cent to 10 per cent, costing a typical petrol consumer around $150 to $200 per year.
“It shows how companies, without phone calls, are able to co‑ordinate,” he notes.
Thanks to the emergence of big data sets like this one, researchers are beginning to paint detailed pictures of how regional markets work. This is something of a breakthrough in economics, where data has often been concentrated where people are – in cities.
“It’s like we have a new microscope allowing us to gain insights into what regional market competition looks like,” he says enthusiastically.
Dr Byrne is currently partnering with the NSW government on a research project analysing petrol data in all urban and regional markets across the state. The research makes use of the state’s FuelCheck website, which was designed to give consumers up‑to‑the‑minute information on petrol prices at every pump in NSW.
Dr Byrne says that high petrol prices are a major problem in regional markets, where there’s less competition than in the cities.
“There’s very good reason to believe, based on research I’ve done in Canada on petrol, that we will potentially find even larger issues in rural places, where markets are even more concentrated.”
The rise of big data might be ushering in research breakthroughs, but it’s also creating all sorts of opportunities for collusion-like activities. Information that’s available to researchers and consumers is also available to companies.
Dr Byrne notes that, in a legal context, collusion can currently only be proved if it can be established that firms communicated with each other.
“The definition in the law is that the medium for communication is words. Phone calls, emails … that sort of stuff.”
So, what happens when companies start using big data and algorithms to change their prices automatically based on those of their competitors? We could very well see “battling algorithms”, operated by companies and regulators, duking it out to adjust prices or detect collusive behaviour. And while that might play out on a global stage, the impact on regional Australia would be profound.
We already worry in rural markets that tacit collusion exists because there’s so few petrol stations who all watch each other.
“This would only exacerbate some of these problems and bring them to even larger markets.”
Established in 2011 by the Aranday, Yulgilbar and Myer Foundations, the Samuel and June Hordern Endowment supports activities that increase linkages between the Faculty of Business and Economics and rural Australia.
Funding from the endowment helped Dr Byrne’s research in two very different ways. Crucially, it helped the researchers promote their findings more broadly, and talk directly to governments. They presented workshops on their case study to regulators far and wide: from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to the US Federal Trade Commission in Washington DC.
Thanks to this profile building, the case study was featured at a 2017 OECD conference for global antitrust agencies.
“If you just wait for governments to find the research they’ll eventually find it, but it could take years. We just went out and got things rolling. [We are now] informing an ongoing debate around big data and algorithmic collusion.”
The funding also helped the researchers buy “auxiliary data” to firm up their findings by contrasting the Perth data with other markets.
“This funding is contributing to solving a massive societal challenge that will affect not just Australians but people around the world,” Dr Byrne says. He both recognises and relishes the challenge algorithmic collusion poses to researchers and regulators.
It’s a hard problem, but universities hit their stride when people are working on the hard problems that societies are facing.


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Panasonic has launched its new range of POS systems gadgets this week, providing companies with new designs that hope to address the challenges retailers face. The new specialist retail Countertop POS cradle can be integrated with a retailer‘s existing POS system, and is one of many ways retailers are trying to technologically stay ahead of the game:
“Panasonic Retail Solutions are designed to help retail staff take customers through the entire buying process in an easy and efficient process, whatever their preferred buying channel” said Francesc Castro, European Manager of Retail at Panasonic.
Data expert Mark Weston, Partner at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP believes that retailers need to keep on top of new technology, in order to ward of rising competition on the high street, allowing retailers to play ‘Big Brother‘.
Weston highlights how devices such as a personal iPad allow consumers to shop with ease, while also collating information on what items have been looked at and ignored. Weston stated, “For retailers, it‘s as vital to find out why their customers didn‘t buy something as why they did”.
With changing buying behaviour, it is more important for retailers to track customer trends and purchases, while keeping up with an omni-channel age. Weston highlights that even CCTV can be used to keep track of customer spending, not just as security. Facial recognition is particularly popular with luxury brands, which allows them to check the database to see if a valued customer or celebrity has entered the store.
Ted Baker‘s Westfield White City store has followed House of Fraser and Jaeger and installed beacons in its mannequins. Mobile technology then allows users to communicate in-store, finding out more information on selected items by downloading a Ted Baker app.
Weston suggests that automated software is also key to retailers, with companies tracking logos from social media sites and targeting individuals with personalised advertising and offers. “Through these methods, companies can gain insight on the interest and concerns of their customers allowing them to tailor their product and services accordingly” he said. Businesses can also track keywords in users‘ personal emails, targeting potential customers with ‘specific advertising‘. Big Brother appears as a norm in today‘s society and key for retailers wanting to target current and potential customers.


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NASHVILLE -- Ernie Garcia Jr. has a big glass gumball machine full of cars overlooking the interstate on the south side of Nashville.
The just-opened structure dispenses used cars to customers -- but it also serves as eye candy to an even bigger oddity on today's automotive landscape: Garcia's company is not selling the used cars here at the gumball machine. He is selling them online.
Customers merely drive to Nashville to pick up what they already purchased on their home computer. The Nashville structure will be followed by a slew of similar delivery buildings in other cities, all built as glass-and-metal dispensers, tall as a two-story house, built by the German parking system contractor Nussbaum Parking GmbH.
Garcia, a former New York financial manager, launched Carvana in Phoenix in 2012 as a solution to a disadvantage that most used-vehicle retailers probably didn't realize they had: Their overhead costs.
Garcia compares his costs to financial data from his prospective competitor and fellow segment-disruptor, CarMax. According to CarMax's public financial data, it spends close to $25 million to build one of its mega-lot sales locations, which sell an average of 340 used vehicles a month. Garcia anticipates Carvana will move two to three times that volume through each vending machine location.
"So when you look at what we're spending for this, it costs us less than 5 percent of what a traditional set-up would cost us per sale."


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With price and discounts remaining consumers’ key purchase decision factors, retailers are racing to change the way they set prices and markdowns.
Merchants are trying to navigate a narrow path: They don’t want to be undercut by competitors and lose sales, but they also don’t want to get caught in a “race to the bottom,” where price cutting becomes so extreme that margins disappear.
A new study by market research firm RSR shows dramatic changes in the way retailers set prices. For instance, more than three-fifths of retailers are now collecting data from “new channels,” or non-transactional areas, including consumer email opens and click-through rates and social media to help them make better pricing decisions, up from 38% a year earlier, the study found.
The RSR study, released in March, is based on a survey of 105 mostly US-based retailers. A majority of the respondents have at least $500 million in sales each and more than two-fifths of them generate at least $1 billion each.
The study found that 84% of retailers said they’ve increased either “somewhat” or “significantly” the price changes they sent to stores the past three years, the highest level since 2010.
And more than half of the retailers, or 55%, said they now share sales results with their suppliers to help decide how best to use “trade funds,” the allowances that vendors give to retailers to promote their products. That’s double from 27% a year earlier.
A majority of the retailers also said that they now have tools in place to manage prices and promotions across different sales channels and can quickly respond to competitors’ price changes.Nearly three-fifths believe real-time “dynamic pricing” is more effective than price matching.
As price matching has become the norm, offered by retailers from Walmart to Best Buy to fend off competition led by Amazon, nearly three-fifths of the retailers now believe real-time “dynamic pricing” is more effective than price matching, up from 43% a year earlier, according to the RSR study. (Dynamic pricing is based on a variety of factors including demand and inventory availability.)
Why are such changes imperative? Retailers admitted by the beginning of 2016 that their pricing practices had become “ineffective, almost to the point of damaging their business,” the study found.
“In the 10 years we’ve been doing this, price transparency has become a reality,” said Brian Kilcourse, an RSR managing partner and co-author of the study, in an interview. “That has caused retailers to have to change their approach to pricing…. Consumers have become addicted to that never-ending cycle of discounts…. They use their mobile devices to check on pricing all the time. Retailers can’t play games with them.”


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Hong Kong’s two main toy industry groups have said that sales of Chinese-made toys will be flat next year due to the recession in the US and Europe, the South China Morning Post reported. The Toys Manufacturers’ Association and the Hong Kong Toys Council said they expected to meet their target of 3% growth for this year, but that poor demand would keep sales level in 2009. Lawrence Chan, chairman of the Hong Kong Toys Council, said the industry has been caught in an 18-month "deep winter" since consolidation began in the summer of 2007, which he hopes will be followed by a thaw. Hong Kong investors account for about one-third of China’s 4,000 toymakers, which have been hit this year by rising costs, falling orders, product safety-related recalls and tighter safety regulations.
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WhatsApp has released a new “Message Yourself” feature to iOS and Android users, worldwide. The new feature makes it easy for users to chat with themselves to send reminders, to-do lists, save links, motivational quotes, and more.
Previously, WhatsApp introduced Communities on the app to everyone which was announced earlier this year. This feature allows users to connect with multiple groups like neighbors, parents at the school, workplaces, and others under one umbrella.
Here is how to use WhatsApp’s new “Message Yourself” feature
Sometimes you want to share a piece of information with yourself to review later or create a grocery list. WhatsApp has made that possible for its users. Now, the app natively supports the option to message oneself.
Here is how you can use the new “Message Yourself” to start a chat with yourself.
- Open the Whatsapp app and click on the “compose” icon to start a new chat.
- In the contacts lists, your phone number will appear.
- Tap on your number and easily create a chat thread with yourself.
- You can also pin your chat on top of chats’ list so that your message to self does not get lost amongst other conversations and is readily available when you need it.
- WhatsApp will soon allow users to create avatars on iOS and Android
- WhatsApp to block screenshots for “View Once” media on iOS and Android
- App Store devs in South Korea will no longer have to pay Apple 33% in commission
- AirPods Pro 2 lack Lossless audio support, Apple engineer explains why
- New $49 Apple Pencil was scrapped right before launch at the September event
- Apple and Epic System to bring health record sharing on macOS
- Apple TV+ quietly expands back catalog, offering third-party content for the first time
- Foxconn apologizes for delay in payments caused by a “technical error” at the iPhone City


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If something is connected to the internet, there’s a great chance someone will figure out how to hack into it. Cars are increasingly connected, leading to several stories of hackers accessing and breaking various automakers’ vehicle functions. One benevolent hacker took to Twitter to outline an interesting hack he and others were able to pull off on several automakers’ vehicles.
Following an internet trend that proliferated on TikTok over the summer, there’s been an alleged surge of vehicle thefts targeting Kia and Hyundai products. The issue reportedly began with a video tutorial recorded in Milwaukee showing how to steal the cars by shoving a connected USB cable into a cracked-open ignition. But the resulting problem has spread to major cities across the country, often with rowdy teens – known as “ Kia Boyz” – taking random cars for little more than joy rides.
Hertz customers have issued complaints that the company falsely accused them of stealing rental cars. Numerous renters have made claims that they were stopped by police to be informed that the vehicle they had paid to borrow was reported stolen. Complaints became so prevalent that CBS News launched an investigative report last November to uncover whether individuals were simply lying about their innocence to avoid prosecution or if Hertz was habitually screwing things up.
By December, 191 claims had been filed in federal bankruptcy court on behalf of the people who said they were falsely arrested. But it took another two months for a Delaware bankruptcy court judge to issue a ruling that will require Hertz to make the number of renters it accuses of stealing its cars every year publicly available.
Over the last few weeks, there has been an influx of news articles linking Apple’s AirTag tracking devices to car theft. Apple released the coin-sized device in April as a way to help people keep tabs on their keys, luggage, any number of other personal possessions. But reports have emerged claiming that thieves are now using them to mark and track vehicles they later want to steal.
The scenario usually begins with a person who has parked their automobile in a public lot when a thief spots a model worth taking. The device is then affixed to the vehicle in an inconspicuous spot and the criminal waits until the owner is fast asleep. However, some version of the story also involves crooks targeting high-end automobiles in the hopes that it resides at a home with similarly high-end goods worth robbing. Since there are similar devices on the market, it’s odd that Apple would be singled out. But the AirTag was updated by the company to reduce the length of time the trackers would need to be away from its owner before it began to alert iPhone users who have been traveling in close proximity to the device as a way to prevent stalking attempts. This resulted in a number of them being found out before cars were stolen.
Car theft has been trending downward over the last couple of years. According to data from the Insurance Information Institute, 2019 represented a 4-percent decline in thefts across the United States vs the previous annum. But things look even better when you zoom out. The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that automotive transgressions have fallen by 64 percent since 1993, mimicking the general trajectory of property and violent crimes within that timeframe.
Unfortunately, crime is back on the rise and vehicle theft is coming along for the ride. Let’s explore the how and why before determining if your personal ride happens to be a preferred target. Then we’ll get into what you can do about it because the latest statistics are pretty disheartening.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) released its annual Hot Wheels report this month. The good news is that auto thefts declined in 2018, according to the FBI.
The bad news? NICB is still doing a running tally of all the rides ripped away from their owners, putting the 2000 model-year Honda Civic on top. It was followed closely by the 1997 Honda Accord. Fortunately, the NICB also kept track of the 2018 model year specifically, proving that the nation’s most-stolen automobiles continue to be the ones that sell the best.
Dozens of recalled Volkswagen diesels have vanished from the Silverdome parking lot in Pontiac, Michigan, over past last week. The stadium was once home to the Detroit Lions and monster truck rallies. Now defunct, it has been converted into a makeshift purgatory for thousands of emission-cheating VW and Audi-branded autos waiting to be fixed and resold.
Michigan authorities are working with out-of-state police to track down over 60 stolen vehicles. Roughly a dozen of the missing cars were located at an auction lot in Clarksville, Indiana, last Friday. Those recovered units have laid the groundwork for how the police are handling the investigation.
Twitter users are well aware of the hilarious and perplexing misadventures — usually fueled by alcohol or meth — of “Florida Man” and “Florida Woman,” but in Pinellas County, the person behind the wheel of your recently stolen vehicle is much more likely to be a Florida boy or girl.
There’s an epidemic afoot in the Gulf Coast county. Local law enforcement is scrambling to combat a growing tide of repeat juvenile car thieves as the danger on the county’s roads grows. Meanwhile, it seems local residents haven’t exactly made the thefts a difficult task.
In terms of the most basic adult behaviors, not leaving your keys in the car falls right behind feeding yourself without help and going to the bathroom like a big boy. It’s an uncomplicated concept that can be easily adhered to by anyone who has access to hands.
Despite this, one out of every eight vehicles stolen in the U.S. had the keys left inside by a person that society somehow deemed fit to operate a motor vehicle. Common sense is on a steady decline — and it’s a boon for thieves.
Where is a parked car not a parked car? The answer is California, where your vehicle will magically transform into an empty spot with a scattering of window glass on the pavement.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) just released its 2015 vehicle theft Hot Spots report, and the Golden State gets top billing, with eight of its cities listed in the top 10.
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- UnoGeeks Thanks for the informative article. Unogeeks is the top Oracle Integration Cloud Training Institute, which provides the best Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC) Training
- Varezhka And why exactly was it that Tesla decided not to coat their stainless steel bodies, again? My old steel capped Volant skis still looks clean without a rust in sight thanks to that metal vapor coating. It's not exactly a new technology.
- GIJOOOE “Sounds” about as exciting as driving a golf cart, fake gear shifts or not. I truly hope that Dodge and the other big American car makers pull their heads out of the electric clouds and continue to offer performance cars with big horsepower internal combustion engines that require some form of multi gear transmissions and high octane fuel, even if they have to make them in relatively small quantities and market them specifically to gearheads like me. I will resist the ev future for as long as I have breath in my lungs and an excellent credit score/big bank account. People like me, who have loved fast cars for as long as I can remember, need a car that has an engine that sounds properly pissed off when I hit the gas pedal and accelerate through the gears.
- Kcflyer libs have been subsidizing college for decades. The predictable result is soaring cost of college and dramatic increases in useless degrees. Their solution? More subsidies of course. EV policy will follow the same failed logic. Because it's not like it's their money. Not saying the republicans are any better, they talk a good game but spend like drunken sailors to buy votes just like the libs. The sole function of the U.S. government is to take money from people who earn it and give it away to people who didn't.
- CecilSaxon Sounds about as smart as VW's "SoundAktor"


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After years of speculation about WeWork’s potential overvaluation, fans and critics have finally been granted a closer look at the coworking company’s current status. In the past, WeWork’s leaders have justified its astronomical estimated value, last projected at $47 billion, by pointing to an ever-expanding customer base of freelancers and entrepreneurs who could benefit from flexible office rentals in luxury settings. WeWork is practically recession proof, its higher-ups have argued; its services, the startup claims, are attractive to larger companies looking to cut costs, and will become invaluable to laid-off workers entering self-employment. As journalist Gideon Lewis-Kraus explained in his 2019 New York Times Magazine feature, “The Rise of the WeWorking Class,” WeWork’s product is not the office space it leases, but the makeshift corporate culture it fosters. The startup’s services promise independent workers relief from the increasing professional isolation brought about by the booming gig economy.
WeWork’s initial filing, however, submitted in mid-August, has revealed that the company is facing a far more precarious situation than its public statements would indicate. The company’s business model — turning rented office spaces into coworking hotspots that offer lavish perks, like free beer and wine— has cost WeWork twice as much as the business’s revenue. WeWork’s future growth could also be hampered by competitors, some of which have been in the business long before the startup’s launch in 2010.
The company’s meteoric growth, its past controversies, and its upcoming IPO, which is expected in mid-September, have invited comparison to popular companies that went under during the Dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. Defenders of the startup point out, however, that a number of companies later become wildly successful despite worrying initial losses. The more apt comparison, these fans say, is to Amazon or Netflix, companies that prioritized rapid growth over more traditional, and sustainable, economic business models.
WeWork thinks of itself as a tech company, but its actually more akin to other startups that have used technology and an abundance of venture capital to introduce modernized business models for pre-existing industries. Like other fast-scaling companies, such as Uber and Lyft, its popularity rests in part of the charisma of its founders—and on investors’ desires to leap onto the next big thing. WeWork’s continued popularity, despite expert skepticism, provides insight into the larger changes that have affected the economy, as well as the temptations facing stock traders who fear missing out on the newest, lasting trend.
WeWork’s co-founders, Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, have frequently credited their desire to create coworking spaces to the collective atmospheres in which they were raised. As explained in a 2019 New York Magazine article, Neumann, who is originally from Israel, lived for several years in one of the country’s agriculturally based collectives. McKelvey spent his childhood being raised by five single mothers in Eugene, Oregon. Those origins haven’t spared the pair from accusations that WeWork’s business practices are less than labor friendly, however. In 2015, the company came under fire for failing to hire a number of cleaners it had previously employed through a contracting service when it decided to create its own janitorial service, according to a New York Times article. Neumann, when addressing those contractors who had recently lost their jobs, seemed to show little empathy for those workers affected by WeWork’s decision, and provided no explanation for why they could not be offered the higher pay and benefits Neumann was promising to the new cleaning crew.
Neumann has also been criticized for perceived efforts to exploit WeWork’s business model for personal gain. WeWork generally operates by renting buildings owned by others in the real-estate business; it then sublets portions of those buildings to its customers. A 2019 Wall Street Journal report revealed that several of WeWork’s buildings, however, are owned by Neumann himself. The company claims that all of its deals are approved by a board, but since Neumann owns the majority of WeWork’s shares, it’s unclear whether his desires outweigh any objections from the company’s other leaders. The questionable decisions made by the company’s leaders reflect WeWork’s overall coworking perspective: work can be a communal activity, but not at the cost of individual profit.
The Rise of the Unicorn Middle Man
Like more prestigious technological startups, such as Apple or Amazon, WeWork was co-founded by a charismatic CEO who has become synonymous with the brand. Unlike Apple’s or Microsoft’s founders, however, Neumann can hardly boast a revolutionary product. As pointed out in a 2018 Financial Times article, the short-term leasing business was already in existence before WeWork entered the market in 2010 with its offer of rentable working space outfitted for millennial tastes. It’s primary competitor, IWG, has a much larger industry presence and has proven itself to be a profitable enterprise.
WeWork is one of several companies valued at more than $1 billion which has muscled into a pre-existing market with an unconventional business plan and a large amount of venture capital. As technology columnist Shira Ovide explains in a 2019 column, Uber, Lyft, and other so-called unicorns promise a future in which pre-existing businesses in a given industry are shuttered by technology companies with more streamlined, flexible operating procedures. These companies have been heralded with much fanfare, but their performances on the stock market have been lackluster. Most have lost between 2 and 47 percent of their initial value since going public.
Even WeWork’s recent filing obscures its shaky financial future. A 2019 Financial Times article points out that the prospectus contains no tables detailing the profits and losses of more mature WeWork offices, despite the existence of more than 150 offices which have been in operation for at least two years. The company’s projected revenue, as outlined in the prospectus, is also based on the presumption that all of its available workstations will be rented out. At present, more than 10 percent of WeWork office space remains available to potential tenants. The filing’s failure to account for future marketing expenses, as well as its omission of projected maintenance costs for existing location, lends further credibility to skeptics who worry that the company’s promise of future success is largely smoke and mirrors.
WeWork is one of several twenty-first century startups that has employed a strategy known as blitzscaling to achieve market dominance. That method, as authors Chris Yeh and Reid Hoffman explain in their book, Blitzscaling (2018), has allowed companies like Facebook and AirBnB to dominate growing industries by using venture capital funds to corner the existing market. While the method has led to success for a number of companies, it can also lead to unstable, or even unsustainable growth. Investors who are interested in following WeWork, or any other emerging company, should exercise caution, and evaluate its future prospects using the same metrics they would use with more traditional businesses. A company’s net gains are usually a better reflection of a stock’s true value, and can help an investor better account for temporary stock increases caused by wild speculation.


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The former Economic Minister MP Mohamed Saeed has tweeted out in support of the Free Trade Agreement with China. In his tweet, the Maavashu Constituency MP said that the Free Trade Agreement with China will have “remarkable gain to Maldives”.
He further stated that maintaining China as an economic partner would be beneficial for the Maldives as China is a major country with continuous economic growth with a high number of imports and exports. He continued on to state that developing such economic ties with China will result in the development of trade routes through the Maldivian atolls. He also pointed out that such a scale of trade would pave way for the development of infrastructure which would advance the Maldivian economy to new heights.
MP Mohamed Saeed who currently serves as the Opposition Vice-President, has been an ardent supporter of the Free Trade Agreement with China. In recent weeks, Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed and Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail has made a string of statements against the Free Trade Agreement with allegations of it disrupting trade with other states. However, both the Chinese Ambassador Zhang Lizhong and MP Mohamed Saeed has retorted to their allegations.


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Madden NFL 16 Will Be Available On August 25, But Can Be Played Now, Here's How
It is final, Madden NFL 16 will be available on August 25, but gamers and fans of the game can get their hands on it days before the official launch, here's how.
Madden NFL 16 has a 10-hour trial which is now available through subscription and the only requirement for it, is an Xbox One and an EA Access membership.
Although the game will not give out everything that the full version will, the teaser will definitely satisfy the gamer's temporary crave, but surely fuel the fire to get the full version come release date.
Another good thing about the 10 hour trial is that subscribers can carry it over to full subscription, if they want to get the full version and get an automatic 10 percent slash from its $60 retail price.
The game will be launch for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.
In relation to the NFL news, the 1TB Xbox One bundle which is retailed at $400 will carry a 12 month EA Access membership. Madden NFL 16 is part of the package but will remain locked until its official release on August 25.
The newest NFL game will feature New York Giants' wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. on its cover.
Odell Beckham Jr. competed with other NFL superstars like New England Patriots' tight end Rob Gronkowski, Arizona Cardinals' cornerback Patrick Peterson, and Pittsburgh Steelers' wide receiver Antonio Brown for the spot.
After careful deliberations and voting, the finalists were Beckham Jr. and Gronkowski. Beckham Jr. was eventually announced as the winner on May 13th.
The Madden NFL 16's in-game soundtrack is composed of 31 tracks by various artists such as Big Data, Brooke Candy, Don Bronco, and James Bay and will also be available for streaming in Spotify.


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The automaker also says it will take a charge of $500 million in the second quarter related to the latest recalls, raising the financial cost of this year’s safety campaigns to $3.2 billion.
Latest GM recall includes millions of older-model Chevy Malibus.
issues six new recalls targeting 8.4 million North American-built vehicles built over the past 17 model years, with two of the campaigns again addressing the ignition system and potentially linked to three deaths.
“We undertook what I believe is the most comprehensive safety review in the history of our company because nothing is more important than the safety of our customers,” GM CEO Mary Barra says in a statement announcing the recalls today, just hours after the release of a compensation plan for victims of a separate recall involving a defective ignition switch.
“Our customers deserve more than we delivered in these vehicles. That has hardened my resolve to set a new industry standard for vehicle safety, quality and excellence,” she says.
The latest recall, for vehicles built between the ’97 and ’14 model years, increases the number of safety campaigns conducted this year by the automaker to 54. The campaigns target some 28.8 million North American-built vehicles. Both numbers smash annual recall records.
“We have worked aggressively to identify and address the major outstanding issues that could impact the safety of our customers,” Barra says. “If any other issues come to our attention, we will act appropriately and without hesitation.”
GM also says it will take a charge of $500 million in the second quarter related to the latest recalls, raising the financial cost of this year’s safety campaigns to $3.2 billion.
GM says it is aware of seven crashes involving the newly recalled vehicles and eight injuries, in addition to the three fatalities. The deaths occurred in older-model large sedans being recalled for “inadvertent ignition key rotation,” GM says, adding that no conclusive evidence shows the defect caused the crashes.
The other safety campaigns from today address various electronic and mechanical glitches and call back 220,964 North American-built vehicles.
Earlier today, attorney Kenneth Feinberg released a compensation plan for victims of vehicles involved in crashes where defective ignition switches turned off inadvertently and disabled the car’s airbags. That defect has been linked to 13 deaths and 54 crashes, although with the release of Feinberg’s plan those numbers are expected to rise.
The financial cost of GM’s poor safety processes also will escalate, as the automaker instructed Feinberg to formulate a plan without a dollar limit.


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You only need look on Twitter to see how rampant players are getting over the upcoming release of Resident Evil: Village on PS4, PS5, Xbox and PC on May 8th. Capcom obviously knows this, as its just begun teasing some exciting announcements in anticipation of the second Resident Evil Showcase event, which promises to show off all-new gameplay and a never-before-seen trailer that further highlights what Ethan’s next adventure is all about. The livestream itself will take place on April 15th (next Thursday) at 11pm BST here in the UK.
The tease comes hot off the heels of Resident Evil Re:Verse’s open beta launching on PS4 and PC today, allowing players to get a taste at the free PVP multiplayer expansion that will release free alongside anyone who picks up Resident Evil: Village at launch. Featuring classic heroes and villains from the franchise like Leon S. Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Nemesis, Tyrant and more, Re:Verse celebrates 25 years of the established canon by mixing together locations and characters featured from all across the series.
Next week’s Resident Evil Showcase again appears to be hosted by What’s Good Games’ own Brittney Bombacher, who will guide us through this new look at the game. Expect to see even more Lady Dimitrescu doing her large woman thing, a better glimpse into the world Resident Evil: Village presents, plus a potential new gameplay demo. The last one released exclusively on PS5 back in January, challenging players to escape a gloomy castle after rising up through the cellar.
Why do we think that a new Resident Evil: Village demo is incoming? Well, aside from Capcom itself conforming that a second one would release on all platforms some time in the spring, website MP1st has seemingly unearthed files that suggest the latest demo will weight in at around 10GB. Expect this demo to be playable almost immediately after the Resident Evil Showcase finishes.
Already sold on Resident Evil: Village? The game is currently up for pre-order on all major platforms at a range of online UK retailers. Below we’ve listed the lowest possible price for the game on PS4, PS5 and Xbox, making it easier for you to save money when diving back into this grizzly and atmospheric world of Resident Evil. You’ve been warned…
Wondering what Black Friday 2023 Nintendo Switch Deals will be available on November 24th? We break it down.
Wondering what deals to expect for the Xbox eco-system during Black Friday 2023? We lay it all out.
What to expect in terms of PS4 and PS5 deals, offers and discounts ahead of Black Friday 2023. Info on PS5 console, games, accessories as well as why we expect this to be the best sale on the PS5 since it was released!
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Press Release (ePRNews.com) - IRVINE, Calif. - Apr 06, 2020 - JobGallery wants to help Americans find work by offering all of its internet employment services free of charge. JobGallery will be providing a free platform for workers to connect with companies looking to hire. Company spokesman Charley Deuschle says, “We wanted to help out workers who were recently laid off due to the coronavirus, and the JobGallery platform helps workers and businesses connect. Making the site free is just our way of helping America get back on its feet.” Workers and businesses can connect at JobGallery.com and help keep America working during this difficult time.
Contact: Charley Deuschle


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BUSINESS BUZZ: Fitness Evolution will open at Big Lots site
• New tenant next to Safeway: Fitness Evolution is slated to open this fall at the former Big Lots store, 1211 S. 320th St., next to Safeway. The announcement was confirmed by Merlone Geier Partners, which has owned the site since 2011. Fitness Evolution has franchises in eight states and bills itself as "a premium fitness club without premium prices." Big Lots closed on April 15, and according to a corporate spokeswoman, the store is looking for a new location in Federal Way.
• Congressman meets with small businesses: Congressman Adam Smith (D-District 9) will hold a Small Business Advisory Council Meeting at 9 a.m. May 31 at the Federal Way Chamber of Commerce. Smith welcomes small business owners to discuss current policies and initiatives in Congress that support small business development. RSVP to Karla Zuspan at (253) 838-2605 or KarlaZ@FederalWayChamber.com.
• Top Foods building: Top Food and Drug closed last month in Federal Way, leaving behind an empty building at 31515 20th Ave. S. Federal Way's department of economic development has reached out to the building's owners to help recruit a new business to the site, according to city spokesman Chris Carrel. Finding a tenant is a challenge because the 60,000-square-foot building was meant for a grocery store, and few grocery stores are expanding at this time, Carrel said, likening the challenge to the former Metropolitan Market building on Dash Point Road. "If the owner brings potential tenant projects through the permitting system, the city stands ready to work with them to see that the space is filled," Carrel told The Mirror.


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Online retailer VidaXL has started the realization of its second distribution center. Just like the first one, this building will go up in Venlo, in the southern part of the Netherlands, near Germany. The new dc, which will measure 80,000 square meters, is set to open in March 2020.
Below you’ll find all the articles we’ve written about Dutch ecommerce, online retailers, acquisitions, cross-border initiatives and more. If you want to know more about the Dutch online retail industry, check out our information page on ecommerce in the Netherlands.
Apple Pay is coming soon to the Netherlands. And the first partner is known. Major bank ING will be the one introducing Apple Pay on the Dutch market. It’s not exactly clear when consumers will be able to pay with Apple Pay in the Netherlands.
Micolet, an online marketplace that sells second-hand clothing for women, will expand to two new markets in Europe. The startup will set foot in both Poland and the Netherlands later this year. With this expansion, Micolet will be active in eight countries across Europe.
Picnic, the online-only supermarket from the Netherlands, launched its business in Germany one year ago. Now, the ecommerce company is already profitable in two German cities. In Mönchengladbach, the supermarket makes even more revenue than at the best location the Netherlands.
Beerwulf, a Heineken-owned startup that sells beer online, will expand to more countries in Europe. The company will expand to the same countries where home tap retailer The Sub is already active. Last month, Heineken consolidated The Sub and Beerwulf.
There were 5 million Dutch consumers who shopped online cross-border last year. That’s a significant increase of 32 percent compared to the situation one year before, when there were 3.8 million cross-border shoppers in the Netherlands. Together, these 5 million people spent about 880 million euros at foreign ecommerce websites.
Dutch supermarket Albert Heijn has revealed a sneak preview of its latest innovation. The company is working on delivery robots. During this summer, the little robot cars will deliver groceries to customers on the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, home to more than 140 tech companies and institutions.
De Bijenkorf, a high-end department store chain from the Netherlands, will soon open an online store in Germany. The retail company will start with its German ecommerce website somewhere during the summer.
Ecommerce in the Netherlands was worth 23.7 billion euros in 2018. That’s an estimated growth of 10 percent compared to the situation one year before. Last year, 96 percent of consumers aged 15 and over have purchased something online at least once.
Bol.com, the biggest online retailer from the Netherlands, is rapidly transforming into an online marketplace that accommodates other vendors. The company’s own revenue is still higher than those of its partners on its platform, but the third party seller’s revenue is however increasing faster.
Ecommerce is becoming more and more important for Dutch postal company PostNL. Last year, 48 percent of the company’s total turnover came from revenue derived from ecommerce logistics.
Dutch omnichannel retailer has generated revenues worth 1.35 billion euros last year. That’s an increase of 160 million compared to the situation in 2017. According to Coolblue, this growth is partly due to the introduction of an English and French website and app.
iDeal, the most popular payment method in the Netherlands, is being used more and more on mobile devices. Currently, seven out of ten iDeal payments are done from a smartphone or tablet. Mobile person-to-person payments are particularly popular.
Dutch online retailer Bol.com reported net consumer online sales worth 2.1 billion euros in 2018. That’s an increase of 31.25 percent compared to the situation in 2017, when Bol.com generated net consumer sales worth 1.6 billion euros.
Couriers from PostNL who deliver parcels to customers’ homes, will now also accept parcels that need to be returned to an online retailer. By offering this new service, PostNL hopes to the reduce the amount of trips to the supermarket or store, where most customers hand over their returns.


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Storis, a provider of software solutions for the appliance, bedding, furniture, and electronics industries, has revamped its Protection Plan functionality, available to retail partners in its new Release 10.6. Retailers can enhance their processing of Protection Plans with direct integrations to industry partners, Guardsman & Montage.
Barrette Outdoor Living, Inc., has announced the consolidation of several of its individual brands and rebranded as The Outside Company. under the Barrette Outdoor Living umbrella. This includes
New orders in August were down 14% over August 2020. However, orders are up 30% over 2019. Year to date, new orders were up 29% and up 35% over the same period of 2019, according to a report by Smith Leonard accounting and consulting firm.
TD Bank has announced that providing financing options for major purchases can be a key driver of sales for retailers, according to TD’s latest Retail Experience Index, a bi-annual survey that tracks purchasing habits, particularly when it comes to big-ticket items.
Leading mattress manufacturer King Koil has launched its SmartLife Mattress by King Koil in 23 Mathis Brothers stores in California, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. It is the first time King Koil has been on the retailer’s floor.
Dr. Richard Bennington, former chair of the business school and home furnishings marketing program at High Point University, has published a new book, High Point University and the Furniture Industry.
Ikea U.S. has announced its plans for two new planning studios in the Los Angeles area that are set to open in spring 2022, one in Long Beach and a second in another central location that will be finalized soon.


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DE Beers last month said it had sold $485m worth of diamonds in its eighth sight, where it meets with pre-approved buyers of its rough or unpolished diamonds. This was lower than the previous sight of $639m but far, far higher than the $200m sold this time last year.
The view among analysts is that the diamond market is showing signs of recovery which is extremely good news for Anglo American, the 85% owner of De Beers, as well as Petra Diamonds, a UK-listed company which operates mostly of out South Africa.
For instance, from January to June, De Beers sold about 30% more diamonds than it produced which has the effect of eating into inventories that had been built in the downturn of 2015.
Macquarie warns that diamond sales tend to taper as the year draws to its conclusion whilst new diamond production is coming on stream following the commissioning of De Beers Canadian operation, Gahcho Kue among others. All in all, global production is expected to increase to 150 million carats by 2018 from 127 million carats in 2015.
But fundamentally, it looks good for diamonds. “In the short term of between three to six months we think there’s potential for a dip in prices, before a stabilising period,” said Macquarie. “But thereafter we think a period of price growth [of between 5% to 10% a year) during 2017 to 2019 is likely,” it added.
Said Johan Dippenaar, CEO of Petra Diamonds: “The US market is ticking over very nicely and we have bridal underpin [to sales] which is gaining acceptance across China and India”.
“There has been a slowdown in China growth, but it will continue to grow nonetheless. The market is in a much better shape than many expected, but we are not planning for higher prices in the current year,” he added.
“We are not lighting the fires of celebration yet.”


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Trending This Week: The Latest on Inside Sales at SaaS Companies
Here are three key findings from research into inside sales at SaaS companies and how you can apply the insights to your advantage.
March 30, 2017
If you lead an Account Executive (AE) team for a SaaS business, it’s helpful to understand how your peers drive success among their teams. For its SaaS AE 2017 Metrics and Compensation research report, The Bridge Group (led by Trish Bertuzzi) analyzed responses from 384 B2B SaaS companies to uncover the latest inside sales trends. While the report sheds light on many aspects of managing an inside sales team – including team structure, compensation, and top challenges – we want to highlight three findings in particular.
Pipeline Sourced by Marketing
We all know that marketing plays a bigger role in filling the pipeline now that buying committees have more content to aid their decisions. The Bridge Group found that, on average, 36% of an AE group’s pipeline is sourced by marketing. However, as Annual Contract Value (ACV) revenues rise, the percentage of marketing-sourced pipeline falls.
The Bridge Group has seen the percentage of pipeline sourced by marketing decrease as Annual Contract Value (ACV) rises for the past eight years. And it rightly underscores that account-based marketing is focused on driving high-ACV pipeline from strategic accounts. As the report says, “ABM was born, in part, as a way to more effectively engage with larger organizations and their sprawling buying groups.”
This data shows that sales teams should not be relegated to the sidelines of ABM initiatives. In fact, your sales team can be the secret to your organization’s ABM success.
Dials and Emails
The report found that AEs average 33 dials and 33 emails per day. While it didn’t say whether those were cold or warm outreach efforts, it did find that AEs only averaged 6.3 quality conversations per day. Quality conversations included those where “at least one piece of qualifying/disqualifying information is learned.”
Other research has found that 90% of decision makers don’t respond to cold emails or cold calls. Even if your AEs are contacting a known connection, it’s important for them to take steps to build trust with their outreach.
According to the survey, companies are investing in four different tools to help their reps close deals faster, on average. For companies that invest more into the sales team, that toolkit includes LinkedIn Sales Navigator. While we are biased, we’re not surprised to see that sales acceleration tools are helping reps perform revenue-generating tasks more proficiently. When sales professionals can more easily find the right prospects and share informed insights, stronger relationships are a natural byproduct.
For a steady stream of the latest sales insights and trends, subscribe to our blog.


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NEW YORK (MainStreet) CannaBuild is enhancing its brand among digital talent by co-sponsoring the first annual Marijuana Tech Startup Competition September 26 through the 28 along with MassRoots.com.
"We will be releasing our application programming interface (API) for usage during the event and it will be the first public use of our API," said Zach Marburger, CEO of CannaBuild, an online management system for dispensaries.
The Denver event will focus on creating and refining digital products for the legal cannabis industry with participants pitching their marijuana tech startup or concept in two minutes.
"We expect this weekend to produce several apps and systems that solve real problems in the cannabis industry," said Isaac Dietrich, CEO with MassRoots.
So far, 57 people have registered for the event including 8 developers and 13 pitch tickets. Tickets are $20 to attend and $50 to pitch a business or concept.
420 Investor Founder Alan Brochstein plans to attend.
"I think the competition serves several purposes, including marketing marijuana companies to potential consumers and also to attract employees directly," Brochstein told MainStreet.
Among the entrepreneurs lined up to pitch are a cannabis-themed advertising network for websites and apps, because Google, Facebook and Twitter currently ban marijuana-related ads and a crypto currency-like Bitcoin that would address restrictive banking regulation.
"Having programmers develop applications on our API will help us gather feedback from a qualified community and optimize our plans on launching the most comprehensive cannabis information API to the general public later this fall," Marburger told MainStreet.
On the first day of the weekend, five pitches will be selected based on whether they solve a problem in the marijuana industry, already have a minimum viable product or have the ability to create one over the weekend.


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Sigma CEO Confirms: Most New Products Exclusively for Mirrorless Cameras
Sigma will focus on mirrorless cameras
In a tweet published on March 10, Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki shared a bit of information that hints at what products we should most be expecting to see from Sigma in the foreseeable future.
In response to a question from a Twitter user the CEO wrote: “Most new products in the future will be the DN series designed exclusively for mirrorless cameras,” reads the machine-translated tweet. “The DG DN series for full-size mirrorless, which is frequently requested, will be the center, but we believe that we need to expand the DC DN for APS-C (+ MFT), which is currently popular.”
Sigma Corporation is – as the company describes itself – “the largest, independent SLR lens manufacturer in the world,” producing over 50 lenses for a variety of camera systems and brands.
This is bad news for DSLR photographers but also a little confirmation of the fact that mirrorless cameras might be the future of photography.
The news comes shortly after the announcement from Canon about focusing on RF, not EF lenses.


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As the government continues its cross-party talks with the Labour today (May 13) GiftsandHome.net asked independent gift retailers what effect, if any, Brexit has had on their businesses so far this year.
At Maia Gifts in Glasgow, co-owner Soni Ahmed says it’s hard to say if Brexit is the primary contributing factor or whether there is just a low in the economy generally. “However, I do believe that there is a sense in people’s minds to sit tight with their money until we know what type of trade relationship we will have with Europe, and whether the forecasted downturn will actually happen post Brexit,” he states. “With so many unknowns around Brexit it is hard to predict how this year will turn out but, as always, we will work hard to make sure we put ourselves in the best possible position to succeed.”
Meanwhile, Aga Gabrysiak, co-owner of Highworth Emporium in Highworth, says that Brexit has been taking its toll. “Brexit has impacted big time,” she confirms. “People are definitely spending money more cautiously. Plus, in our area, the announcement of the Honda plant closing in Swindon has added to the uncertainty.”
Florian Kleinlercher, managing director of independent gift multiple Between The Lines, concurs: “I feel that it is not so much Brexit that is affecting business, but the uncertainty around it.”
Concerns have also been highlighted by members of The Giftware Association. A recent Giftware Association survey revealed that members had serious worries about how Brexit would affect them and their businesses, to the fact the cost of exporting and business will rise.


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Three of the six albums Google Music featured for sale for 25 cents last week experienced explosive sales jumps this week, with "Now 41" coming out the big winner.
The title may have moved up just one spot in the Billboard 200 to No. 3, but sales jumped to 152,000 units from 46,000 units the prior week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, with digital albums accounting for 124,000 units of last week's sales.
During the week ended March 4, Google Music featured that title and five others for 25 cents on its home page, a price matched by Amazon for each title, but not touted by the Seattle-based merchant. The Google price move was unpopular with label and retail executives, who told Billboard.biz they believe this type of pricing devalues music.
The pricing move by Google Music, which has had a slower-than-expected launch in reaching consumers, is seen as copying the low-pricing strategy employed by Amazon, which regularly features $2.99 daily deals and last year sold Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" album for 99 cents. Industry executives believe Amazon uses low price to raise consumer awareness. Consequently, the play by Google is seen in a similar light.
Business Matters: When is it Safe to Say Google Music Has Failed?
Lady Antebellum and Coldplay also enjoyed big boosts by the Google Music's pricing. According to Nielsen SoundScan, "Own the Night," enjoyed a sales jump to 108,000 from 20,000 the prior week, with 93,000 of last week's sales coming in the digital format, while "Mylo Xyloto's" sales jumped to 99,000 from 18,000 with 93,000 coming from downloads.
Lady Antebellum's title jumped to No. 4 in The Billboard 200 from the prior week's rank of No. 16, while Coldplay comes in at No. 5, whereas in the previous week it was No. 29. The titles are eligible for the Billboard 200 because they were released more than four weeks ago, per a November, 2011, revision in Billboard's chart policy.
While SoundScan doesn't break out individual account sales, labels sources indicated that the 25 cents sales were split almost evenly between Google and Amazon, with iTunes getting a sliver of digital sales. In fact, while Amazon wasn't promoting its 25 cents albums the way Google was, it almost garnered a larger portion of the digital sales on the 25 cents featured titles, but for the "Now 41" title, where the search engine scored heavily with its promotion. Meanwhile, iTunes garnered almost 8% of the digita sales on the titles, Billbaord estimates.
The other three albums priced at 25 cents by Google and matched by Amazon, were Lil' Wayne's "Tha Carter IV," Drake's "Take Care, and the Rolling Stone's "Brussels Affair." The latter title hardly had any sales bump, but Drake's sales doubled to 58,000, with 43,000 coming from digital while Lil Wayne's sales almost tripled to 36,000 from 13,000 in the prior week, with 29,000 units coming from downloads. The Drake sales was good enough to move the album up one slot in The Billboard 200 to No. 7, while Lil Wayne's title jumped to No. 8 from No. 37.


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VIJAYAWADA: The idea of veganism is not just a foreign idea anymore. It has caught the minds of Indians as well. Animal rights activists along with the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisation (FIAPO) organised a campaign to raise awareness about veganism in the city on Sunday.
FIAPO conducted campaigns across 35 cities in the country on Sunday. Nearly 100 passers-by participated in the programme.
The team suggested various alternatives available for many products. For instance, there are as many as eight alternatives to cow’s milk which include soya milk, rice milk, hemp milk, oat milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk, coconut milk and cashew milk.
Ravikeerti, another member said, “Many people now have completely adopted plant-based diet.”


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European group swoops for logistics group
Carousel Logistics has acquired time-critical logistics company BDA Logistics Innovation (BDA), which has its UK hub at Birmingham Airport.
The company said the acquisition increases its European coverage and sector experience.
The deal is also a major milestone for Carousel, as it continues to extend its European service and technology platform, Gateway.
It is Carousel’s third acquisition since 2016, the largest in its history, and one which it says will increase the company revenue by more than 50%.
The transaction dem... For the full story register now for free or login below...


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One of the biggest reasons for this increase in food prices is the weather. The Weather Channel website has a feature on 5 foods that are impacted by weather the most as we begin this year. You can click here to see the whole thing, which includes a couple videos, but here are the highlights.
|Frozen Oranges courtesy of AP/Chris O'Meara.|
- Beef--The terrible drought in Texas is showing signs of improving, but it's still very dry there and will be for a while. The damage has been done, though, to the beef industry. The dry weather has diminished the ability of farmers to feed their cattle well, so many of them have had to sell off large parts of their livestock creating a shortage of beef--and an increase in the price of beef that is available.
- Orange Juice--It's been a mild winter, but when it did get cold in places like Florida, Texas and California, it really did a number on the orange crop. On top of that, other orange-growing countries (Brazil and Mexico, for example) have been very dry, also hurting the crop. Expect higher OJ prices throughout the year.
- Milk--As it has done with the beef industry, the Texas drought has caused big problems in the milk industry. Not only are the herds thinning, but the dryness has provided poor quality food for the cows, which leads to less milk production. Luckily, much of the milk we buy around here is more or less locally produced. Other parts of the country, however, aren't so lucky and will see milk prices rise.
- Peanuts & Pecans--Extremely dry conditions in the Southeast and California have given peanut farmers their worst crop in 30 years. This could lead to as much as a 30% increase in the price of peanut butter. Don't think that's that big a deal? In the US, we spend $800 million on PB each year. A 30% increase would mean us spending over $1 billion just on PB. That's a lot of nuts. Pecans are a little different. 80% of the world's pecans come from the US and although supply is down because of dry weather, demand in places like Asia is not. This leads to an increase in pecan prices. (Be sure to watch the Weather Channel's short video on this subject and tell me if you think that the desalination idea makes sense to you. It sure does to me!)
- Sugar--The world's biggest sugar cane producer, Brazil, has been extremely dry and the crops have been hit hard. Sugar prices will continue to rise and, although you may not see it too much when buying a bag of sugar, you probably will notice it in the price of sugary items like cookies and candy.


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Yesterday, an important PSA went out regarding Cyberpunk 2077 and portions of the game that could be problematic for those prone to seizures. CD Projekt Red has since responded to this, promising to implement a more prominent warning in-game while also working on a ‘permanent solution'.
Following on from the PSA, CD Projekt Red tweeted out in response, saying “we're working on adding a separate warning in the game”. Prior to that, CD Projekt Red had only included a seizure warning in the game's EULA, which as we know, nobody ever reads. That's not the end of it though, CD Projekt Red has also committed to implementing a more permanent solution as soon as possible.
Thank you for bringing this up. We’re working on adding a separate warning in the game, aside from the one that exists in the EULA (https://t.co/eXpPn73VSK). Regarding a more permanent solution, Dev team is currently exploring that and will be implementing it as soon as possible. https://t.co/lXFypnSit2
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) December 8, 2020
Unfortunately, this means that those with epilepsy may want to avoid the game on day-one. However, an accessibility feature patch should arrive in the not too distant future, ensuring the game is playable for a wider range of people.
For those that didn't read the original story – the issue here is that a sequence in the game features blinking red and white LEDs, similar to the ones used by doctors to induce seizures for diagnoses purposes. CD Projekt Red will hopefully consult with some experts on this while developing upcoming accessibility features.
KitGuru Says: This is an unfortunate oversight on CD Projekt Red's part but hopefully, a fix won't be too far off. As one of the most anticipated games of all time, including accessibility features to maximise the number of people able to play safely seems like a no-brainer.


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Sustainable packaging campaign group, Beyond the Box, has crowned Sir David Attenborough its inaugural Celebrity Sustainability Hero of the Year for 2020.
Over 8,000 people voted for various celebrities to win this award and have a corrugated bust made in the celebrity’s honour. Sir David Attenborough received the highest number of nominations by over 25%, beating an impressive list of British sustainability heavyweights and well-known environmentalists to the top spot.
Beyond the Box has created a new sculpture of Attenborough made from 97 layers of the UK’s most sustainable packaging solution, cardboard. The impressive bust, which stands at almost 2ft tall and took over 500 hours to construct, was unveiled in Battersea Park in December and commissioned as a tribute to Attenborough’s tireless efforts to promote sustainability amongst the British public.
Andy Barnetson from Beyond the Box comments: “At Beyond the Box, our aim is to keep Britons in the know about sustainable packaging solutions, like cardboard, and encourage everyone to make positive choices to help support the environment – whether that’s recycling pizza boxes or reusing shopping bags.
“This year, we wanted to take the opportunity to celebrate the famous faces doing the same, particularly those who are using their own platforms to keep sustainability in the spotlight and front of mind for people all over the UK – and what better way than to pay homage with an impressive sculpture painstakingly created out of this incredible, versatile material.”
The research conducted by cardboard campaign group, Beyond the Box, reveals Brits consider Attenborough an ‘icon’, calling him ‘the nation’s conscience’ and ‘the greatest influencer’, when asked which celebrity had the greatest impact on their sustainability efforts this year.
The research showed that almost 30% of Brits say their favourite famous faces encourage them to act more sustainably, while close to half said celebrities and influencers have a responsibility to use their platforms to encourage others to make eco-friendly choices.
The good news is, when celebrities and influencers do use their platform to talk about environment, their followers are particularly engaged. Three in 10 (30%) respondents said they would make an effort to help the environment if their favourite celebrities or influencers advised them to, compared to those who would buy a product or service (23%) or go to a restaurant (24%) after a celebrity endorsement.
Barnetson explains: “It’s clear that celebrities and influential figures have a big impact on the British public, from guiding the purchases they make, to informing their opinions on all manner of issues.
“With sustainability such a hot topic, it’s crucial those in the spotlight use their voices to encourage members of the public to continue to make small sustainable changes in the home or in their workplace.
“During an incredibly turbulent year, Britons have continued to make sustainability a top priority and we look forward to seeing the nation continue working together to create positive change throughout 2021.”


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Theodora is opening in October at 7 Greene Avenue, near Fulton Street, in Fort Greene, from owner Tomer Blechman of the Mediterranean restaurant Miss Ada, especially popular in the neighborhood for brunch. The new spot will “offer a menu focusing on dry-aged fish and seasonal produce, anchored by an open kitchen and wood-fired cooking,” according to a spokesperson; natural wine will also be available. Theodora is part of a larger takeover on Greene Avenue. Blechman has also signed on a space down the street, a former deli, that he plans to turn into a bakery. He also operates Nili, a cafe in Carroll Gardens that opened in 2020.
A new bakery from the team behind Nami Nori
Since opening in the West Village, hand roll spot Nami Nori expanded to Williamsburg, and Montclair, New Jersey. This fall, the team is gearing up to open a new concept, a Japanese bakery and teahouse called Postcard by Nami Nori. “Expect housemade pastries, sandos, bubble tea and more,” says a spokesperson. Postcard by Nami Nori is located next to the original location of the restaurant at 31 Carmine Street, near Bleecker Street.
Slice shop from Lilia co-owner opens at Barclays
Earlier this week, Fini Pizza, the slice shop from Lilia co-owner Sean Feeney, opened at Barclays Center, after being announced earlier this summer. This is Fini’s third location, with the first having opened in Williamsburg in 2022, followed by a satellite outpost in Amagansett, in the Hamptons. It replaces the Starbucks once housed in the building, at 620 Atlantic Avenue, at Flatbush Avenue.
A mushroom pop-up is staying put
&Beer, originally intended to be a pop-up residency space where beer remained the constant by Ravi DeRossi’s Overthrow Hospitality, says it's keeping its vegan mushroom theme as the permanent menu. &Beer opened in the East Village in May at 21 E. Seventh Street, between Second and Third Avenue, and garnered a nod from Grub Street thereafter.


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Airlines KLM and Air France launched today special rates for various destinations in Europe and the Middle East.
The special rates are launched due to the increase of frequencies of the airline Air France and the inauguration of KLM in October.
The promotion will be exclusively for customers traveling in economy class and purchase their ticket early between today and May 5. From San José the travel dates with Air France are from October 21 to December 6, 2017, while KLM will travel from October 31 to December 6. The destinations in the promotion are Amsterdam, Barcelona, London, Berlin, Milan, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Tel Aviv. Air France offers rates from $ 862 to London; $ 811 to Milan; $ 871 to Amsterdam; $ 920 to Tel Aviv and from $ 1,201 to Moscow. KLM, meanwhile, will make trips to Barcelona (from $ 634) Berlin ($ 738), Rome ($ 797), Paris ($ 858) and Madrid ($ 869). For more information on the conditions of these special rates and to make reservations, you can access the website of Air France or KLM.
The airlines that offer direct flights from Costa Rica to European soil and vice versa continue to increase, with the reincorporation of the Dutch KLM, which announced a new frequency between San Jose and Amsterdam, starting in October.
Iberia, British Airways, Air France, Condor (Germany) and Edelweiss (Switzerland) already offer these services, making on average two trips per week.
Most of them offer these flights by seasons, which normally extend four months, favoring the tourist and commercial activities of the country.
KLM will not only open the door to the Dutch market, its non-stop travel will facilitate the country’s commercial contact with Scandinavian nations like Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, taking advantage of the airline connections.
“The European market’s interest in Costa Rica has convinced us to inaugurate direct flights to San Jose, taking advantage of the fact that KLM already carried Costa Rican passengers through Panama,” said Pieter Elbers, the airline’s CEO.
The flights will allow the number of tourists of the Old Continent to continue increasing, as the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) wants to increase the numbers of the previous year, of more than 353 thousand visitors. The diversification of airlines will allow a greater competitiveness in the prices of the tickets, in order to make it more attractive for those who come with family, groups of friends or for business.
“The decision of these companies to offer direct flights to the country continues to strengthen the image and positioning of Costa Rica in the Old Continent as a suitable market for investment,” said Tourism Minister Mauricio Ventura. The opening to European markets will impact the generation of direct and indirect jobs for the 600 thousand people related to the tourist activity. One benefit of European tourism is that seasonality is lower than that of other markets such as the United States, which allows hoteliers and hoteliers to maintain a stable employment and income.
Currently, there are about 17 direct flights a week to different European cities, and Edelweiss and KLM are still to start operations (in May and October respectively).


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Black Friday - Page: 8
Small-business retailers may not be able to match the Black Friday extravaganzas offered by the big-box stores, but there are certain things they can do to compete.
These five tips help your staff help harried shoppers on one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
Overall spending from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday is expected to be relatively flat, but online shopping is expected to buck the trend.
Business owners eager to break out of the Small Business Saturday box are banding together in an attempt to conjure up some Black Friday magic.
With Thanksgiving falling so late in November, there are fewer precious shopping days this year. For retailers, this means having to be extra creative to get customers through the door.
The retailer announced it will be open for its first Thanksgiving in history this year and while critics are grumbling, it's a brilliant sales strategy.
The restaurant franchise Moe's Southwest Grill has figured out a way to make money on Black Friday: Feed all those shop employees ringing up purchases.
Early reports show that the big holiday weekend was actually big this year, but consumers are looking for deals. Will retailers still be able to turn a profit?