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In May, Google plans on reinforcing the obligation for websites to be mobile friendly. What do you need to remember? Will your web-to-store policy be impacted?
A few days ago, Google announced its intention to launch a new update of its ranking algorithms in order to better account for the compatibility of websites with smartphones.
Mobilegeddon: Is it back?
This update comes one year after it was first announced that mobile friendliness would start to be a significant consideration. Launched in April 2015, the operation was dubbed “Mobilegeddon” at the time.
The aim of this new update seems to be the same: to penalise websites that do not display correctly in search results on smartphone screens.
Important for your web-to-store
If you wish to appear in the search results of mobile users when they do a local search near one of your points of sale, this update concerns you. All your efforts would in fact fall flat if Google rejected your website because it was not mobile-friendly enough for them. You better make sure then, with the help of the mobile-friendly test in Google Webmaster tools.


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Drivers on business trips more likely to take risks, finds new research
French drivers on work-related journeys are more likely to take risks behind the wheel, according to new research from Axa.
According to the AXA Prevention Barometer, business drivers are more likely to use their mobile phones, speed or drive while fatigued.
In response to the findings, AXA Prévention has launched a package of services for businesses to prevent road risks, including risk assessment and a communication kit to raise awareness for its employees using video, emails, posters and leaflets on the dangers related to speed, alcohol, drowsiness and smartphones in particular.
The research found that 8 in 10 drivers on professional journeys use their smartphione compared to 6 out of 10 for all French drivers.
Of this figure, 65% call (vs 39% for all French), 36% send or read text messages (vs 24%) and 58% follow a route on their smartphone’s sat nav (vs 40%).
Business drivers are also more likely to drive while tired. A total of 76% drive at night, between 10pm and 5am for long journeys (vs 58% for all French people). In addition, 52% drive while they feel tired (vs. 45%). In addition, these drivers neglect breaks with 43% driving without stopping when travelling between 4 or 5 hours in a row (vs 34%).
The survey also found that 9 out of 10 speed on business trips compared to 82% for all French. When it comes to moderate speeding – in the region of 20 km/h above the speed limit – this was widespread.
On the motorway, 17% of business drivers drove at over 160 km/h (vs 11%) and 54% at 140-150 km/h (vs 46%). Risk taking is even more important on the secondary network where 29% travel at 120/130 km/h (vs 23%) and 66% at 100 – 110 km/h (vs 51%).
Finally, 30% of drivers drove after drinking more than 2 glasses of alcohol (vs 22% for all French). And 7% get behind the wheel after drinking 4 or 5 drinks (vs. 4%).
The study was carried out before legal changes that now require companies in France to reveal who was driving a company vehicle in the case of an infraction such as a speeding ticket.

domain: news


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World of Warcraft: Looking for Group Documentary
An all-new documentary celebrating 10 years of adventure, camaraderie, and /dancing on mailboxes all around Azeroth.
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In 1963, on their way home from the hospital after he was born, Louis Rozzo’s parents stopped by a building on Ninth Avenue in Chelsea, where the family ran a wholesale seafood business, to weigh him in a scallop scale. This March, when virtually every restaurant, club and hotel that bought seafood from him closed and his firm’s income dried up in a matter of days, Mr. Rozzo went back to where it all began.
The F. Rozzo & Sons building was still in the family. Mr. Rozzo converted the ground floor into a makeshift store where he sells clams, scallops, sea bass and American red snapper to people who are suddenly cooking at home a lot more than they used to.
“I’m seeing people taking home fish, then coming in the next day and showing me pictures of how they prepared it,” he said. Some of them undertake recipes that require the better part of a day. Mr. Rozzo enjoys their enthusiastic feedback, although he also suggested that some of the energy New Yorkers are devoting to their kitchen projects is, like his overnight fish store itself, born of desperation.
“There’s not much else to do,” he said. “It’s either that or go home and drink all day.”
A future historian combing through the social-media records would have to conclude that Americans in the pandemic period subsisted on a diet of banana bread, whipped coffee and obsessively decorated sheets of focaccia. The only evidence that people ate seafood might be a few stray images of the more photogenic Portuguese sardine cans, all dating to the early days of the crisis, when you could still find them on store shelves.
But people are cooking seafood as never before, whether they’re documenting it or not. At supermarkets and other stores, seafood purchases have set records. Year-over-year sales of both canned and frozen seafood were around 37 percent higher for the four weeks that ended April 19, according to data from IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm.
Some large supermarket chains closed their seafood counters for a while so their regular workers could help stock shelves that were emptying nearly as quickly as new cans and boxes could be unpacked. Still, fresh seafood sales were up by about 13 percent in the same four weeks.
Workers in the United States fishery, a $5.6 billion industry in 2018, have not seen the mass outbreaks of Covid-19 that have swept through some meatpacking plants. But the routines of seafood trade have been knocked sideways by the pandemic.
Restaurants and other food-service establishments normally account for about two-thirds of the sales of fresh seafood in the country. When nearly all restaurants closed except for takeout or delivery, the entire seafood distribution network seized up. Along the Atlantic coast, some boats were dumping fish they couldn’t sell. The weather didn’t help the fishing crews make up for lost income.
“We’ve had an awful, just a terrible spring,” said Ernie Panacek, the general manager of the commercial fishing dock at Viking Village, on Long Beach Island in New Jersey. “It’s been very stormy and windy. That has helped contribute to a reduction in seafood production.”
The bright spot in Mr. Panacek’s business has been retail. Sales are considerably higher than usual at the seafood stores his wholesalers supply.
“People are still hungry for their seafood,” he said. “They can’t go out and get it at the restaurants, and they’ve got to eat.”
Like others in the seafood business, he has heard all the excuses consumers make for not eating fish at home — they don’t like the smell, they don’t know how to cook it, they’re afraid it will go off. But he hopes the quarantine may bring some of them around.
“I really think it’s going to change, eventually, the way people buy seafood,” he said. “They’re going to realize it’s easy to cook, it’s quick to cook. As long as you have good-quality seafood, they can handle it.”
This has been the experience of Robert DeMasco, who reinvented his Brooklyn restaurant supply company, Pierless Fish, to make home deliveries to housebound civilians last month. Mr. DeMasco said that after a somewhat rocky transition, business had been brisk. His new customers, he said, are even buying things that many restaurants won’t, like fish collars.
“I probably sold 30 pounds a day of collars,” he said. “I bought shad roe. I ran out in a day, and I had 60 pounds. I was like, really? You guys know what this is?”
In addition to the dried anatomical scraps it markets as pet treats, Pierless has also been offering Spanish mackerel, skate, silver dory and blue catfish. All have sold out.
Cooks stuck in lockdown have also been eager for shelf-stable products like smoked salmon, finnan haddie, salt cod and even one product that none of Mr. DeMasco’s restaurant clients will touch: frozen fish.
He said he had received a rave review for his two-pound boxes of frozen squid from Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a longtime customer who, when his restaurants are open, rarely orders so little of anything.
In the old family headquarters on Ninth Avenue, Mr. Rozzo has also been surprised by how willing people are to take a flier on some strange aquatic specimen. “People want a challenge to create dinners with,” he said. “They can’t go to a restaurant, so they’re creating the excitement at home.”
In one day, the improvised Rozzo shop sold 100 pounds of drumfish from the Gulf of Mexico, which doesn’t often swim as far north as Chelsea. All the octopus Mr. Rozzo draped over ice as a conversation piece? Sold.
He has fielded requests for items as prized as bluefin tuna belly (he sold it for $25 a pound) and as ordinary as whiting ($1.50).
Mr. Rozzo noted that the wholesale side of his business is down by 95 percent after a record year in 2019. Getting back to that level, he estimated, will take two or three years at least.
Part of his rebuilding plan is retail sales. It would give the company extra stability and, as much as he prides himself on the friendships he has made with chefs, he has found that he enjoys talking to amateur cooks about seafood, too.
“The volume is a pittance of what it was, and the money follows along with that,” he said. “But you can’t always do everything for money.”
Pete Wells has served as restaurant critic for The New York Times since 2012. Mr. Wells joined the Times as dining editor in 2006.@pete_wells


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Year 2019 – GBHB is excited to have brought in DRAPER DRAGON Richard Wang（China）、TokenInsight（China）、Korea M&A Center (Korea)、OBITO.IO（Taiwan）、BLOCKTEMPO（Taiwan）、AsiaTokenFund-ATF（Southeast Asia）as the election committee; Token Economy Association、QUEST CRPITAL、PAX Economy TV、TEK&LAW、Chinese Society of Technology Economics-Blockchain Committee、Great Wall Commune、Block Monster Lab、Korea Blockchain Startup Association are formed as co-organizers; Top media such as jinsecaijing、huoxingcaijing、chainnews、walianwang、xingkongcaijing、shiliancaijing、bikuaibao、lianguantianxia、beimeicaijing are invited as targeted media; all parties will jointly launch the first “2019 Global Blockchain Leader List” in April 2019.
We have been evaluating the candidates from 2 dimensions, “industry influence” and “industry contribution”which were unanimously approved by the global panel of judges, hereby present to all “TOP20 global investment institutions”, “TOP25 global industry experts”, “TOP11 global exchanges” and “TOP51 global star projects” from China, China (Taiwan), South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam. The goal is to lead the development and implementation of the global blockchain industry.
To promote knowledge in the industry, GBHB has invited BlockGlobe xingkongcaijing、Korea M&A Center (Korea)、Gametoc(Korea) as co-organizer and chairman of the “global blockchain summit dialogue”, to deep dive from multiple perspectives such as “global industry development trend”, “global investment and fund raising“, “global branding and community building“, “global solution landing” and “global top resources connection“ to help global blockchain entrepreneurs and “+blockchain”traditional entrepreneur to “broaden global vision””Secure international investment and fund raising”“Design business model””Focus on global branding”and finally how to become the world’s top elite in the industry.
There will be a 3 in 1 super experience including “branding+ learning+ networking”. We hereby sincerely invite friends from all over the world, participate in the “global blockchain summit dialogue”, help promote blockchain technology development in the industry.
Please join our GBHB for further information and updates.


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Pittsburgh, PA. – August 23rd, 2021 – The shipping crisis is getting worse. Here is what that means for holiday shopping.
The vast network of ports, container vessels and trucking companies that moves goods around the world is badly tangled, and the cost of shipping is skyrocketing. That’s troubling news for retailers and holiday shoppers.
The partial closure of the world’s third busiest container port is disrupting other ports in China, stretching supply chains that were already suffering from recent problems at Yantian port, ongoing container shortages, coronavirus-related factory shutdowns in Vietnam and the lingering effects of the Suez Canal blockage in March.
That spells trouble for retailers and consumer goods companies trying to restock inventories heading into the crucial year-end holiday shopping season.
“Name almost anything and it seems like there’s a shortage of it somewhere,” Biesterfeld added. “Retailers are struggling to replenish inventory as fast as they’re selling, let alone prepare for holiday demand.”
As we’ve been forecasting for months, shoppers are going to see some bare shelves at the holidays
Read the full article here: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/business/global-supply-chains-christmas-shipping/index.html


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Chinese dairy company Bright Dairy is raising sales by investing heavily in its yogurt brands, Bright AB100 and Danone Bio. Chinese customers are becoming more sophisticated about their dairy products and are more interested in foods such as cheese and yogurt.
Supermarkets have lowered prices for their private label milk, hurting sales of Arla's Cravendale milk brand. The company is studying ways to restore Cravendale's sales growth, and has already extended the range to include flavored products.
Well-being is on the mind of many Americans this year, as nearly half report they want to make health-related improvements in their lives in 2006, according to a recent Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive health survey. Plans for eating better, exercising more and losing weight lead the pledges for 2006.


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Branding the concept as an “electric development series”, running at selected European rounds of the calendar, IMG says the “underlying aim of Projekt E is to evaluate electric racecars in a World RX environment in accordance with the roadmap for electrification of the FIA World Rallycross Championship which was recently ratified by the FIA World Motorsport Council.”
Manfred Stohl’s STARD firm revealed in May that it will develop and produce the electric powertrain kits to convert steel-bodied Supercars to Projekt E specification, with the cars set to produce 450kW and 1100Nm torque.
“We have been working with STARD on the future electrification of world rallycross for several months. We have now reached an important stage in the ongoing development of electric solutions for rallycross and in particular Projekt E,” said World RX managing director, Torben Olsen.
“Our technical collaboration with STARD on Projekt E is further proof of our commitment to future mobility and relevant technologies in rallycross.”


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Global Independent Omnichannel Ad Exchange Taps Former OpenX Executive Richard Ottoy to Expand Global Footprint.
MONTREAL, April 5, 2022 – Sharethrough, one of the top global independent omnichannel ad exchanges, today announced the opening of its new office in London and the appointment of Richard Ottoy as General Manager, EMEA. Ottoy will lead the company’s efforts to expand its global footprint and accelerate business development across Europe. He will report directly to JF Cote, CEO & President of Sharethrough.
Ottoy brings more than 18 years of experience to Sharethrough, having held leadership positions at both adtech companies and publishers. Prior to joining Sharethrough, Ottoy was Vice President of Business Development, EMEA at OpenX, where he led the publisher development team, managed various teams across Europe and developed relationships with top level publishers. Ottoy has worked with some of the largest brands in the world throughout his seven years at OpenX, helping publishers better manage and monetize their ad inventory.
“Richard Ottoy brings a wealth of invaluable experience to Sharethrough’s global expansion plans,” said JF Cote, CEO & President of Sharethrough. “With Richard at the helm of our EMEA team, Sharethrough will continue to provide seamless service to our clients with European interests while opening the door to new partnerships throughout the region”.
Ottoy will be responsible for overseeing the EMEA region, utilizing his key leadership and business acumen to lead all departments as a cultural leader and head administrator. This expansion lays the groundwork for Sharethrough to increase the company’s overall global footprint, as the UK is projected to increase programmatic ad spending for a third successive quarter at 5.2%, according to the IPA Bellwether Report.
“The opportunity to work for a company that is investing so heavily in its product roadmap is very exciting, and I jumped at the chance to lead Sharethrough’s EMEA expansion efforts,” Ottoy said. “It’s thrilling to be part of such a growth-driven team, and I look forward to having the EMEA office serve as the blueprint for additional Sharethrough offices around the globe.”
Sharethrough is one of the top global independent omnichannel ad exchanges. Driven by our conviction that advertising should be underpinned by respect & care, we believe taking a human-centric approach to advertising and monetization is the key to a sustainable path forward for the independent and accessible internet to thrive. Advertisers & publishers leverage Sharethrough’s unique technology to enhance every impression by rendering a higher-performing banner, video, CTV or native ad that dynamically fits into any placement on any site. Our publisher partners benefit from directly-sourced demand, scale, and quality, prioritizing their monetization efforts while elevating performance. With its headquarters in Montreal, Sharethrough has several offices across North America including San Francisco on the west coast & New York City in the east.


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A report by Ampere Analysis research director for games, Piers Harding-Rolls, suggests that the PS5’s sales are going to vastly outpace the Xbox Series X. The report from Harding-Rolls, published by GamesIndustry.biz , said that the PS5 could sell 66 million units by the end of 2024 compared to Xbox Series X sales of 37 million units.
This would put the PS5 sales at nearly double the number of Xbox Series X sales in the same timeframe. However, Harding-Rolls doesn’t expect the Sony console to get off to such a flying start as he also said that the next-gen PlayStation will sell 4.6 million units by the end of 2020 compared to 3.3 million Xbox Series X sales.
A report by Bloomberg revealed that the PS5 will be in limited supply, of around six million units. Sony expects the console to sell less because of its higher price and so will produce fewer units. 4.6 million units sold would be a good start but be within Sony’s rumored production plans.
Harding-Rolls said that the strong PS5 sales performance will be down to Sony’s current market lead, PS5 exclusives like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and the global strength of the PlayStation brand. These things “are especially hard to dismantle.”
The Ampere Analysis’ report is supported by another report today from Video Games Chronicle , which has collected data on last week’s PS5 reveal event. The publication has revealed that videos of the event got more than 80 million views around the world, which is more than the 53 million views that the PS4 reveal got or the 55 million views from PlayStation at E3 2018. The console design video got 17 million views in four days.
These viewing figures haven’t come out of nowhere. The reveal of the PS5 logo also got a ridiculous number of likes despite offering up no real details about the console.
While the Xbox team is doing some great things with the Xbox Series X, with several exclusives planned and features like Smart Delivery making gaming more affordable, this may not be enough to beat the PS5’s sales.


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February 06, 2013
China official 'just trying to learn about wine' in photo causing internet uproar
A senior Chinese official who was excoriated for allegedly using public money to bankroll an extravagant wine-tasting session has reportedly claimed he was just trying to "learn" about wine.
© 2014 Wine Communications Group - all rights reserved.
privacy & terms


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Ban the Barbie: Police in Iran shut down toy shops selling the U.S. doll in crackdown on Western culture
Banned: Reports said the move is part of a decades-long crackdown on signs of Western culture in Iran
Toy shops are being targeted and closed down by police for selling Barbie dolls.
The move is part of a decades-long crackdown on signs of Western culture in Iran, the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported today.
Mehr quoted an unnamed police official as saying police confiscated Barbie dolls from toy shops in Tehran in a 'new phase' of its crackdown against 'manifestations of Western culture.'
Created in 1959 by American toy manufacturer Mattel Inc, Barbie dolls wearing swimsuits and miniskirts are sold in a society where women must wear head scarves in public, and men and women are not allowed to swim together.
A ban on the sale of Barbie dolls, was imposed in the mid-1990s.
Despite the ban, the doll has until recently been openly on sale in Tehran shops.
When the new order, was issued around three weeks ago, reproved hiding the dolls behind other toys to continue selling them but while avoiding being closed down by the police.
In 1996, a government-backed children's agency called Barbie a 'Trojan horse' sneaking in Western influences like makeup and revealing clothes.
Authorities launched a campaign of confiscating Barbie dolls from toy shops in 2002, denouncing what they called the un-Islamic characteristics of the uniquely American doll. The campaign was eventually dropped.
No longer in stock: In this file 2008 photo Iranian shopkeeper Hamid Reza Delband displays a doll at his toy shop, in Tehran, but now toy shops are being shut down for selling the U.S doll
Also in 2002, Iran introduced its own competing dolls - twins Dara and Sara - who were designed to promote traditional values with modest clothing and pro-family stories.
But the dolls proved unable to stem the Barbie tide.
Despite bans on many Western books, movies, satellite TV channels, music, haircuts and fashions, young people maintain their interest in Western culture.
Even channels of Iran's state TV broadcast several Western and Hollywood films every week.
Competition: In 2002 Iran introduced its own competing dolls - twins Dara and Sara - who were designed to promote traditional values with modest clothing and pro-family stories, but they weren't as popular
Islamists have repeatedly tried to fight what they see as a Western cultural 'invasion' since 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted a pro-Western monarchy.
As well as banning Barbie dolls in another swipe at the West, Iranians will soon be able to buy toy versions of the U.S. spy drone that it captured in December.
New toy: In another swipe at the West, Iranians will soon be able to buy toy versions of the U.S. spy drone that it captured in December
Models of the bat-wing RQ-170 Sentinel - which Iran's military displayed on TV after it was downed near the Afghan border - have been revealed by an Iranian toymaker.
Since then, importing Western toys has been discouraged by a regime that seeks to protect Iranians from what it calls the negative effects of Western culture.
In 2008, the Iranian judiciary warned against the 'destructive' cultural and social consequences and "danger" of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys.
Even so, Iranian markets have been full of Western toys aimed at Iranian children.
One-third of Iran's population of 75 million are under 15 years old.
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From consumers and merchants to financial institutions and investors, fraud is a global problem that damages healthy economic growth. Two sobering statistics illustrate that as the world has become more connected, fraud has only proliferated. In 2001, the FTC received 137,306 reports of fraud. In 2019, that number increased to 1,697,934 – an increase of over 1,000%. As fraud has increased, so too are disputes about who bears the cost. A recent case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania highlights the strains in the system, as credit card issuers try to hold a retailer liable for negligence in its handling of payment card data. Cases like this could make a difference in the structure of the payments industry. Traditionally, under the card network rules, issuers take the cost of fraud losses, which they can shift to acquirers when card data thefts can be attributed; and acquirers can pass those losses on to merchants under contractual indemnities. A model in which the issuers can directly sue the merchants could alter that system, changing the risk calculus for merchants accepting cards.
In In Re: Wawa Inc. Data Security Litigation, No. 2:19-cv-06019, a group of credit unions alleged that a convenience store chain’s failure to abide by the PCI DSS–the payment card industry’s data security standards–should be the standard of care for determining a negligence claim. Several courts have rejected negligence claims from card issuers in the past, but the plaintiffs in Wawa say their situation is different.
In December 2019, several class action lawsuits were filed against Wawa, Inc. (“Wawa”), a popular convenience store chain, in response to a data breach that allegedly disclosed information collected from its consumers at “most” of its 850 locations. The complaint alleges that the breach began in March 2019, when malicious actors installed malware on Wawa’s point-of-sale payment system. According to the complaint, the malicious actors then began harvesting the financial data submitted during purchases, a practice that continued until December 12, 2019, when Wawa announced the breach.
According to the lawsuits, Wawa’s practice of accepting “swiped” payment cards, as opposed to “dipped” cards with chips, enabled the data breach. Whereas a swipe-only payment processing system enables easier theft, a chipped card uses “industry developed EMV chip technology” that makes fraud “significantly more difficult”. Whenever a chipped card is insert into a payment system, it generates a unique code for each transaction. This unique code makes theft more cumbersome.
In one of the class action lawsuits, a group of credit unions alleged significant damages stemming from the data breach. These damages included the costs of reimbursing fraudulent payments, investigating fraudulent activity, and issuing replacement debit and credit cards. The credit unions seek to represent a class of “[a]ll banks, credit unions, financial institutions, and other entities in the United States . . . that issued payment cards (including debit or credit cards) used by cardholders to make purchases from Wawa from March 4, 2019 to December 13, 2019.” The credit unions alleged tens of millions of dollars of losses, such as the cost of replacing 30 million compromised cards, that they say were caused by Wawa’s allegedly negligent “deficient security measures” and failure to take reasonable and appropriate steps to prevent the breach.
At the heart of the credit unions’ claim is an allegation that the PCI DSS should be the standards upon which a merchant’s liability for damages from a data breach should be determined. Under this theory of tort liability, the PCI DSS could displace any other best practices and standards to become the de facto practices for merchants to follow. A link between the PCI DSS and common law tort duties could result in a seismic shift in liability. According to the Verizon 2020 Payment Security Report, only 27.9% of organizations fully comply with the PCI DSS. This is down from a historic high of 55% in 2016.
Wawa allegedly failed to comply with all or some of the requirements. The credit unions alleged that Wawa’s failure to comply resulted in negligence under at least two different theories.
First, Wawa had an independent and common law duty to use reasonable care to safeguard the data used by credit and debit cards for payments. This duty arose “under general and well-established principles of negligence,” which were “independent of any duty Wawa owed as a result of any purported contractual obligations.”
Second, Wawa had a duty of care because of the “special relationship” that existed between it and the credit unions. That relationship arose because Wawa was “entrusted” with its customers’ payment information and “[o]nly Wawa was in a position to ensure that its systems were sufficient to protect against the harm” that financial institutions will experience from a data breach.
Additionally, the credit unions requested the court enjoin Wawa to “utilize industry standard encryption to encrypt the transmission of cardholder data at the POS and at all other times” and “comply with all PCI DSS standards pertaining to the security of its customers’ personal and confidential information”.
In its motion, Wawa primarily argued that a contractual relationship between it and the plaintiffs precluded any non-contract claims, including the independent theories of tort liability. Wawa relied on a “web of interrelated agreements and rules” between it and the credit unions. Wawa alleged that these “agreements and rules” were “binding” and “set forth the rights and responsibilities” of the parties for data breaches, including recovery. In support of this argument, Wawa acknowledged that “claims brought by financial institutions following data security incidents are relatively new,” and compared its case to two recent decisions by the Third and Seventh Circuits that dismissed negligence claims for purely economic damages between parties with contractual relationships.
Wawa argued that in Sovereign Bank v. BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc., 533 F.3d 162 (3d Cir. 2008), the Third Circuit affirmed dismissal of a negligence claim. In Sovereign, a group of financial institutions alleged damages in the form of the cost of reimbursements and cancellations related to a data breach. The court rejected a negligence claim alleging purely economic loss. Similarly, in Cmty. Bank of Trenton v. Schnuck Markets, 887 F.3d 803 (7th Cir. 2018), Wawa argued that the court declined to find a remedy for financial institutions for its costs arising from a data breach when there was a contractual relationship between the parties. Wawa specified that the court focused on the existence of a contractual relationship, instead of the scale of the remedies that the contracts permitted.
In opposition, the credit unions argued that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently recognized a common law duty to exercise reasonable care to protect against a foreseeable risk of harm, which includes the possibility cyber theft. See Dittman v. UPMC, 196 A.3d 1036 (Pa. 2018). In Dittman, a case involving a data breach, the court held that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center had a duty to use reasonable care in collecting and storing its employees’ personal and financial data. The parties disagreed over whether Dittman should be limited to an employer-employee relationship.
The court’s decision remains forthcoming. Regardless of the outcome, In Re: Wawa will be a case to monitor.


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Woolworths today announces a sustainable fish sourcing strategy, which aims to empower customers to make more sustainable fish choices.
With Sustainable Seafood Day on Friday 18th March, 2011 and with global consumption of fish hitting a record high – reaching an average of 17kg per person – Woolworths is announcing:
1. MSC certified canned Salmon and Tuna
Woolworths has introduced Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified canned Salmon, and will introduce MSC certified canned Albacore Tuna this April, into its Select range.
Woolworths Director of Supermarkets, Greg Foran says, “We want to assist customers in making more informed and sustainable fish choices. We are enabling this by providing options, at an accessible price point.”
Patrick Caleo of the MSC says, “It’s great to see Woolworths playing a key role in supporting sustainable fishing. This is a big step and we are extremely pleased to be working with Australia’s largest supermarket chain to help transform the seafood market to make it more sustainable. By introducing MSC certified canned Salmon and Albacore Tuna, Woolworths are providing consumers with the tools to make more informed choices, and are making a real commitment to helping safeguard fish stocks for future generations.”
2. Fresh wild-caught fish
Following advice from fisheries experts, Woolworths has delisted fresh Yellowfin Tuna and Orange Roughy from all Woolworths’ stores, to ease pressure on the species.
Woolworths is also currently undertaking an assessment with the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership of its wild-caught fish to identify which are available in sustainable supply. The assessment will assist in identifying fisheries that need improvement in their sustainability practices.
Woolworths will offer funding incentives under its Fresh Food Farming sustainable food program to a select number of fisheries in its supply chain to conduct MSC pre-assessments and develop improvement plans for more sustainable practices leading to MSC certification.
“By supporting fisheries through the MSC pre-assessment process, and any required fisheries improvements, Woolworths is taking a strong leadership role, and will be working in partnership with the fishing industry to contribute to real improvements on the ground. As a direct result of their support, select fisheries that may not have been able to meet the cost of the MSC pre-assessment can now do so,” Caleo says.


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- ″India could increase its trade footprint in (the) midst of the US-China trade conflict, particularly under categories on which US has imposed tariffs on China," an August report from Singapore's DBS Bank said.
- India could benefit by $11 billion as some manufacturers move production to the country, the report said.
- But businesses in India face some challenges, including the need for land and labor reforms, as well as the lack of infrastructure.
India could benefit from the fallout in the U.S.-China trade war, experts told CNBC — but much-needed reforms on land and labor could prove to be a challenge for companies trying to do business there.
Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing have caused some manufacturers to shift production out of China, to avoid higher tariffs.
As a result, Southeast Asian nations, such as Vietnam, have often been cited as winners in the trade shifts. India could be a beneficiary too.
″India could increase its trade footprint in (the) midst of the US-China trade conflict, particularly under categories on which US has imposed tariffs on China," Radhika Rao, an economist at Singapore bank DBS Group, wrote in an August report.
"Apart from trade, diversion in investment flows is an opportunity that India could benefit from, as manufacturers seek alternative origination destinations," Rao added, implying it could attract foreign investments into the country.
India's share of the global export market is relatively small.
Even though Germany's population is nearly 16 times smaller than India's, German exports made up 8.17% of the world's total trade flows in 2017. Comparatively, Indian exports accounted for only 1.68% of world trade that year.
The top three sectors in India that could benefit from the trade war are: pharmaceutical, chemicals and engineering, Rao told CNBC in an email.
India is already competitive in these industries globally and will likely be well-placed to meet further demand in these areas, she noted.
The South Asian nation's pharmaceutical industry supplies over half the world's vaccine demand, and 25% of medicines in the United Kingdom, according to a July 2019 report from the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF).
On the engineering side, India was the world's 12th largest producer of machine tools in 2017, a separate IBEF report said. The country also exports more than 60% of its engineering goods to the U.S. and Europe.
The manufacturing sector may benefit too — particularly the textiles, footwear and electronics sectors, said Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit, in an email.
That's because exports from the U.S. and China will become more expensive as the tariffs kick in, and some manufacturers may move production to other Asian countries — including India.
"India may be able to benefit from this trend over the medium term, with global manufacturers increasingly focused on the rapidly growing Indian domestic consumer market," Biswas said.
For instance, Taiwan's Foxconn — the largest electronics contract manufacturer in the world, which assembles Apple products — moved production into India from China this year. This was to "diversify their manufacturing supply chain away from excessive reliance on Chinese production," said Biswas.
The Indian economy could benefit by $11 billion from these trade shifts, Rao wrote in the report, citing estimates by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Businesses in India face two key challenges: land laws and labor regulations.
Land laws are the "biggest hurdle" for manufacturing and infrastructure development, said Societe Generale economist Kunal Kundu in a note to CNBC.
Current land laws make it difficult for the private sector to obtain space for manufacturing units, he said.
That's because land ownership is fragmented across several states, and companies need extended periods of time to obtain land, or bypass legal issues that may crop up.
Another problem is that labor laws in India are "extremely complex," noted Kundu. They comprise about 40 acts and companies are required to adhere strictly to all of them. This makes it difficult for manufacturers.
Land and labor reforms are two of the "most important factors of production" needed, according to Kundu.
Hence, he recommended, a national employment policy should be formulated — particularly one that allows manufacturers to make labor redundant during business down cycles.
The lack of proper infrastructure could also be a problem, Nomura economist Sonal Varma told CNBC.
That includes connecting manufacturing plants to proper roads and ports, as well as ensuring that power is available.
The government has been seeking to improve some of these policies, but it will be some time before they can be fully realized. It is also trying to boost infrastructure and foreign investment in India through a multi-billion dollar budget.
Recent policy reforms in August were seen as a step forward for investment. For instance, the government approved 100% foreign investment in coal mining, and eased rules in contract manufacturing and retail.
"India needs to move fast, through innovative policies and clear focus on infrastructure development ... But (a) lot more remains to be done and done urgently," Kundu said.
More changes to existing laws are needed before India can reap the full benefits of these investments to boost the economy.
As India is a big country, a lot of laws are controlled by the state government — not by the central government, Varma said. "The changes need to be not just ... top down from the central government, but also bottom up from different state governments."


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LATEST NEWS All-new Nissan sedan to make world premiere at 2019 Shanghai Motor Show
April 8, 2019
IMs and IMQ concept cars to join in showcase of
Nissan Intelligent Mobility
SHANGHAI (April 8, 2019) – Nissan will unveil an all-new sedan and display two electrified concept vehicles at this year’s Shanghai International Automobile Exhibition, showing visitors how the company’s technologies and design are changing the future of mobility.
The all-new sedan features Nissan’s latest distinctive design cues and offers an array of technologies that embody Nissan Intelligent Mobility, the company’s vision for changing how cars are powered, driven and integrated into society.
First unveiled in January at the 2019 North American International Auto Show, the IMs defines a new vehicle segment – the elevated sports sedan. The vehicle’s design takes advantage of its 100% electric powertrain, with the battery located under the body. Along with an extended wheelbase, this results in an elevated, spacious cabin that allows for an innovative seating layout. In autonomous driving mode, the IMs features
completely hands-free operation. In manual mode, it delivers the exciting, high-performance driving experience that only an advanced electric vehicle can provide.
The IMQ crossover is equipped with Nissan’s e-POWER technology, which combines an electric drivetrain with a gasoline engine that generates electricity. Because the wheels are driven solely by the vehicle’s electric motors, the IMQ delivers the same powerful and agile performance as a 100% electric car. Striking with its high beltline and aggressive stance, the IMQ was first unveiled at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show.
Visitors to the Shanghai show will also see a full range of current Nissan models, including the Lannia and Tiida, the legendary GT-R performance machine, and the world’s best-selling electric car – the Nissan LEAF. Nissan’s SUVs – the Kicks, Murano, Patrol, Qashqai, Terra and X-Trail – will round out the lineup of vehicles on display.
The 18th Shanghai International Automobile Exhibition will take place at the National Exhibition and Convention Center. The show is open to the public from April 18-25.


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U.S. stock futures were little changed on Sunday night as investors looked ahead to a stacked week of earnings, including reports from major tech companies such as Amazon and Apple.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were flat. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.1%, and Nasdaq 100 futures were little changed.
Those moves come ahead of the busiest week yet in corporate earnings season. About 160 companies in the S&P 500 are expected to report earnings this week, and all eyes will be on reports from big tech companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google-parent Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft.
Meantime, investors will be watching Twitter, which reportedly is re-examining Elon Musk’s takeover bid after the billionaire investor disclosed he secured $46.5 billion in financing, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing unnamed sources.
On Friday, all the major averages declined as the likelihood of rising interest rates and the week’s corporate results spurred investors to sell.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 981.36 points, or 2.8%, to 33,811.40, in what was the Dow’s worst day since October 2020. The S&P 500 was 2.8% lower at 4,271.78, its worst day since March. The Nasdaq Composite declined by 2.6% to 12,839.29.
“There has been severe damage in many areas of the market, while money rotated into perceived ‘defensives’ like Utilities, Staples, Pharma, and even mega-cap growth,” said Jonathan Krinsky, chief market technician at BTIG. “Those areas, despite their strong momentum, are now unwinding lower, while the low-momentum names continue to trend down.”
Coca-Cola is expected to report before the bell on Monday with a management call set at 8:30 a.m. ET. Other companies reporting on Monday include Activision Blizzard, Otis, Whirlpool and Zions Bancorp.
Wall Street is also looking forward to a key measure of inflation this week. The personal consumer expenditures index is set to be released Friday before the bell. In February, the core PCE jumped 5.4%.


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Last month, new data on the U.K.’s gig economy surfaced from the University of Hertfordshire, concluding that the number of gig workers in Britain has more than doubled in the last three years, now reaching 4.7 million professionals.
Experts say the explosion of technology platforms like Uber and Deliveroo ushered in waves of opportunity for professionals to have greater control over when, where and how they work. The U.K.’s Trades Union Congress, however, sees this surge in gig workers from a different angle.
“The world of work is changing fast and working people don’t have the protection they need,” said Frances O’Grady, Trades Union Congress general secretary, in an interview with The Guardian in June. “Huge numbers are being forced to take on casual and insecure platform work — often on top of other jobs.”
Whether out of choice or out of necessity, gig work is on the rise, and with it comes a slew of new challenges for this growing population of professionals — most notably, a lack of time and resources available to larger, more traditional businesses.
According to Billel Ridelle, founder and CEO of newly-launched U.K. expense management platform Sweep, professionals like gig workers, freelancers and the smallest of the SMBs are being left out of the T&E solutions market because they lack those resources.
“Small businesses today end up with a large number of tools not tailored to their specific needs,” he told PYMNTS in a recent interview. “They’re either too complex in terms of technology, and hard to implement, or the pricing structure is too complicated for them to make sense of it and on-board.”
That “systematic” avoidance of small businesses and independent workers leaves them forced to rely on solutions that still require manual intervention. Ridelle pointed to the task of sifting through paper receipts to manually enter in expense data — a process a larger business might allocate to administrative workers — that keeps business owners and entrepreneurs from focusing on the true objectives of their firms.
On top of that administrative burden, the growing gig worker population in the U.K. is facing heightened compliance burdens that similarly force administrative, manual tasks on professionals that need that time to focus on their businesses. Regulatory initiatives like Making Tax Digital, which requires taxpayers to send HMRC income and expenditure summaries on a quarterly basis and in a digital format, can place a significant burden on gig workers and freelancers, said Ridelle.
“Having the ability to report taxes correctly all comes down to the fact that you need to have your expenses sorted correctly from the get-go,” he said. “HMRC doesn’t allow for mistakes, and that can cost you a lot of money when you freelance and have even more limited resources than an [SMB].”
The U.K. is considering a way to simplify taxes for gig workers by enabling technology platforms that hire these professionals to automatically deduct taxes – a move proponents say will ease the compliance burden on gig workers, but, according to the Office of Tax Simplification, could further blur the lines between self-employed and employed professionals, raising some concern that it would complicate the tax status of gig economy professionals currently considered self-employed, Financial Times reports said last year.
Focusing On Integration
The U.K. regulatory landscape has, however, opened up an opportunity for gig workers, freelancers, and businesses of all sizes to take a different approach to expense management.
Ridelle said that PSD2 and GDPR allow for solution providers like Sweep to integrate directly into those businesses’ bank feeds to collect expense data, analyze it, and report it appropriately, instead of requiring users to handle physical receipts.
“A few years ago, you would not have been able to build the system that we built [with Sweep],” he explained. “Before PSD2, U.K. banks would never share data with any third party.”
Expense management is yet another use-case for open banking and PSD2 regulations that initially disrupted the consumer financial services space but are quickly making their mark on B2B solutions.
Integration, said Ridelle, is key to streamlining travel and expense management processes for small businesses and freelancers — and not only in the use-case of integrating an expense management platform directly with a bank account feed. He said that Sweep is gearing up to launch a corporate travel booking platform in September to provide a more holistic T&E experience and connect travel booking to spend management and reconciliation.
And, moving forward, the company also plans to offer a spend analysis platform that similarly integrates with the expense management portal, again in support of integration from booking to expenditure to reconciliation and analysis.
He noted that this is another challenge for the smallest of the small businesses.
“The issue that [SMBs] encounter on a regular basis is they want to make the best use of their data, but they don’t have the right tools,” he said. “If they did it manually in Excel spreadsheets, it would take so much time — they would have to hire another person to do that. Solving that problem means small businesses have the ability to put the data sets of travel booking and expenses together in a meaningful way, which brings a huge amount of value to those businesses.”


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On the surface, Taco Bell and Shake Shack appear to have nothing in common.
The former is a popular, long running purveyor of Tex-Mex food that has been mired by recent scandals about its ingredients. The latter is a gourmet hamburger outlet that attained listing on the NYSE for the first time this year, and touts the freshness of its menu’s items. Yet both chains are surprisingly linked by their recent plans to set up shop in Japan.
The Japan Times recently reported that Shake Shack will open its first Tokyo location in 2016, thanks to its partnership with Sazaby League Ltd., the famed company that assisted Starbucks Coffee with its Japanese expansion. Nine more outlets will crop up across the country after the opening of that flagship location, according to Nikkei Asian Review.
In a press release, Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti said, “We are absolutely thrilled to bring our first Shack to Tokyo. For years, a tremendous amount of fans have asked us when we would come to Japan.”
Meanwhile, Taco Bell president Brian Niccol released a statement in which he noted that the “key element to our growth strategy includes focusing on restaurant development both domestically and globally.” Niccol isn’t limiting the scope of those efforts to Japan—in fact, The Daily Meal reported that Taco Bell will more than quadruple its current number of overseas locations to 1,300 by 2017 in a host of countries, including the U.K., Poland, India, Korea, Chile, and Peru, along with Japan.
However, Japanese customers may be wary of the Tex-Mex giant’s expansion into their already troubled fast food market, due mostly to the recent string of controversies in the country’s McDonald’s outlets, which have prompted droves of former patrons to eat at home or buy from Japanese convenience stores. Critics argue that Taco Bell’s record has been even more checkered: from a 2011 lawsuit that slammed the chain for false advertising about its then “35% beef meat mixture,” to the company’s more recent disclosure that its meat is 88 percent beef, with the remaining ingredients having admittedly “weird names” that are nonetheless “safe and approved by the FDA.”
And while that spotty history may be a hurdle for Taco Bell’s future in Japan, Shake Shack’s reputation for fresh ingredients could help it ward off the troubles that have confronted its more scandal-plagued competitors. With Cage8 noting that Shake Shack “has been consistently well reviewed in the markets it has expanded into,” although the New York Times has dinged the promising chain for consistency issues, particularly at its Brooklyn location.


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Smart infrastructure solutions company opens new fiber optic factory in Romania
Datacor, a Romanian integrator of intelligent infrastructure solutions, is investing EUR 1,25 million in the construction of a new fiber optic plant. The new facility is located in the Bistrita-Sud Industrial Park. The factory will start production in January 2021 and will address the following market segments: fiber-to-the-home, data centers, 5G, LANs (Local Area Networks). For its operation the company undertakes expansion of its team in the region.
“We believe in the future of fiber optics as a central element of IT&C infrastructures for new technologies. No other medium offers the capacity and speed of transmission offered by fiber optics. That’s why we chose to invest in the production of pre-connected cables and fiber optic connectivity solutions”, said Calin Brehar, development manager at Datacor. With this new development Datacor’s goal for 2021 is to launch the company’s products on the European market, focusing mainly on Germany and Austria.
LATEST issue 1/2024


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A man who claimed to have a weapon stole an undisclosed amount of money from a Bridgewater convenience store Tuesday night, authorities said.
A robber struck the Martinsville Krauzer's/ Blimpie's shop at about 9:10 p.m. Tuesday, making off with an undisclosed amount of cash, according to Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey D. Soriano, Somerset County Prosecutors Office Chief of County Detectives Timothy Fitzgerald and Bridgewater Township Acting Chief of Police Capt. Manny Caravela.
Detectives are investigating the robbery at the Washington Valley Road store after a store employee reported a white male about 5-foot-7 with a medium build, wearing a black-hooded jacket, black pants, black footwear, black gloves, and what appeared to be a black scarf over his face entered the store and said he had a weapon.
The store employee said the man took an undisclosed amount of currency from the cash register, then left on foot. The employee could not tell which direction the man went, police said.
Anyone with information about the incident or anyone who may have been in the area and observed the suspect should contact the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit at (908) 231-7100, the Bridgewater Township Police Department at (908) 722-4111, or the Somerset County Crime Stoppers’ Tip Line at 1-888-577-TIPS (8477) or online at www.888577tips.org or www.scpo.net and click on either “Crime Stoppers” or “TIPS HOTLINE.”
will be kept confidential.


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Telecom sector highly taxed like tobacco industry, says Sunil Mittal
According to the National Digital Communications Policy, revenue maximisation is not the objective: Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal
New Delhi: The telecom sector continued to be highly-taxed like the tobacco industry, and the issue of high levy should be resolved, Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal said on Thursday.
Speaking at the inaugural session of India Mobile Congress 2018, Mittal said the National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP), like the previous telecom policy, clearly acknowledged that revenue maximisation was not the objective.
“There is also one overarching objective of previous policy and also enshrined in NDCP that revenue maximisation is not the objective...Then why operators and Department of Telecom are under litigation for revenue maximisation.”
The industry, he noted, was being taxed “like tobacco industries” and emphasised that the issue needed to be resolved at the earliest.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
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A LOCAL teenager stole an iMac computer, a Playstation 3 computer console and other items from a house in the town.
James Lawton, 18, of New Burlington Road, pleaded guilty to burglary at a hearing at Bridlington Magistrates Court last week.
Prosecuting, Heather Levitt told the court that between 5pm and noon on September 19, Lawton broke into a house on St Albans Road by smashing a window next to the front door.
Lawton then looked around the house, whose owners were away on holiday, before stealing the computer, the games console, eight ladies watches, a car key and a black and red Nike holdall bag.
The next day at around 2.40pm, PC Prendergast noticed Lawton and a group of teenagers walking along the street, then double back on themselves a few moments later.
He pulled up alongside the group, at which point one of Lawton’s friends, referred to as Mr Brown in court, ran away. Lawton told PC Prendergast that he was carrying a playstation 3, which was his.
After the bag was searched, Lawton had no explanation for where the eight ladies watches he was carrying had came from.
Mr Brown was found in a nearby cafe with the iMac computer.
When questioned by police, Lawton initially said he had found the items and was trying to make some quick money by selling them on, but when inconsistencies in his story were pointed out, he admitted that he had committed the burglary.
Mitigating, Mike Farr told the court that Lawton had been under the “disinhibiting effects of alcohol” at the time of the burglary, and under normal circumstances “would have thought twice and walked on”.
“He noticed the items in the window while he walking by, and he had been drinking. He has acted upon impulse - he comes from a respectful, law-abiding family and he is not the most popular person at home right now,” said Mr Farr.
“He receives £30 a week in Educational Maintenance Allowance, £10 of which is taken by his parents by way of board. This was a mistake made for financial gain.”
Presiding magistrate David Smith told Lawton: “This is a serious case. You have started your hopefully short criminal career in the deep end.
“People have a right to be able to go on holiday without having their treasured items taken from their home. I’m sure that you wouldn’t like it to happen to you.”
Mr Smith sentenced Lawton to a 12 week prison sentence, suspended for one year and ordered him to complete 250 hours of unpaid work and pay £85 in costs.


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Employing over 2,300 people, two-thirds of the leather goods manufacturer’s 103 stores are located in shopping malls, which have been shut during the Covid-19 lockdown. The company also plans to use smaller tannery drums once business resumes.


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The digital shift is forging new battlegrounds for the grocery segment.
For the platforms and the giants of retail — Amazon and Walmart among them, along with DoorDash — the focus is on price, fees and the value of consumers’ time as they battle for consumers’ share of wallet and loyalty.
PYMNTS Intelligence data revealed that 63% of shoppers made most of their common grocery item purchases in stores in early 2020, but this figure has dropped to 44%, as digital gains a wider embrace. Separate research done jointly by PYMNTS and Amazon Web Services (AWS) noted that the average order for grocery purchases online stood at $116, compared to in-store purchases of about $88.
Sixty-two percent of shoppers who buy more groceries through digital channels than in stores cited convenience as a significant factor. Fifty-four percent of respondents mentioned high prices or the lack of benefits and deals as reasons for their switch to digital alternatives.
Convenience and cost, then, are key considerations, and convenience and cost are the key attributes of what the platforms, with scale and thousands of options, seek to promote in order to cement customer loyalty.
As noted during the recent Amazon conference call to discuss earnings, CEO Andy Jassy said that the company is seeing “significant growth … in consumables and everyday essentials. When customers are getting items as quickly and conveniently as they are now from Amazon, they’re going to consider us more frequently for more of their shopping needs.” Those consumables and essentials include foodstuffs.
Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky elaborated on the call: “From a customer behavior standpoint, we still see customers remaining cautious about price, trading down where they can, and seeking out deals coupled with lower spending on discretionary items.”
Walmart, for its part, has continued to gain traction in grocery and digital initiatives. We’ll know more when the company posts its latest earnings results later in the month, but the most recent fiscal quarter showed that grocery helped lead comp sales in the United States and digital commerce momentum — where that latter stat was up 24% year on year (grocery as a segment was up mid-single digit percentage points).
Walmart has an outsized presence in food and beverage, with an 18% share in the segment, overall, as PYMNTS has estimated, far outpacing the roughly 2.5% share logged by Amazon.
Cost demands an examination of fees, and, as reported last month, Amazon lowered the threshold for free grocery delivery for Prime members to $100, down from the previous minimum of $150. Walmart offers free grocery delivery on orders over $35.
For the aggregators, the push is on to move beyond restaurants, as fees in that channel have had the impact of spurring consumers to show up and pick up their orders. In the meantime, DoorDash has sought to leverage its existing audience to acquire eGrocery customers in the face of competition for consumers’ delivery spending.
“We have a strategic advantage because we have a network of consumers; we have a network of dashers already built out, and that’s allowing us to improve unit economics at a much faster pace,” DoorDash Chief Financial Officer Ravi Inukonda said, noting that the grocery business’s gross order value doubled relative to last year.
And Instacart, as Karen Webster noted in a column previewing its initial public offering (IPO), seeks to forge “a way to deliver an omnichannel experience for grocery stores and Instacart shoppers [as well as] an opportunity to create a digital grocery shopping identity that also connects to grocery store loyalty programs that can save consumers time and money while shopping in store.”


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Windows Phone developer summit to be held in June
Microsoft will hold its Windows Phone developer summit on June 20 and 21 in San Francisco, California. The company has started sending the “Save the Date” invitations to Windows Phone developers. Through this summit, Microsoft will select Windows Phone programmers.
According to a representative of Microsoft, “You should expect a formal registration process as with most events. Will have more details in the coming weeks.” Although, Microsoft has not officially announced the topics that will be discussed at the summit, developers are expecting that the company will reveal details regarding the Windows Phone OS 8.
The new Windows Phone 7 operating system that will be launched later in 2012 is code-named Apollo. It is also expected that Microsoft will divulge further plans for the Windows Phone 7.5 Tango update that was released to support low-end handsets. The Windows Phone developer summit could also clear the air regarding speculation whether or not the existing Windows Phone devices will be upgraded to the Windows Phone 8 operating system.


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To raise brand awareness and create positive stress-reducing moments that are key to its brand positioning, SpringHill Suites by Marriott in October went where few brands have ventured before—the airport security checkpoint at Dallas Fort Worth and Charlotte Douglas International airports. Working with the airports, SpringHill Suites transformed the security checkpoints into stylish comfort zones reflective of the overall experience of staying in one of its suites. The three-month program, which is labeled “The Next Level Experience,” ends on Dec. 31.
SpringHill Suites’ advertising creative offers images of environments traditionally perceived as dull, such as a subway car, an elevator and a work cubicle, transformed into spacious and stylish spaces. “We were looking for an opportunity to bring the creative to life by transforming a real-world experience such as it would be encountered by travelers in an airport security area in a memorable way,” Craig Fowler, senior director of brand marketing, select service brands, at Marriott International, told Buzz.
The experience spans the entire checkpoint area with lounge seating at the entrance and a re-composure area featuring furnishings from the hotel where passengers can collect their belongings following the security check. Among the amenities: stylish décor, soothing wall art, calming lighting and the SpringHill station on Pandora playing in the background. A video wall showcases SpringHill properties and brand imagery. The brand is distributing free luggage tags that direct passengers to its website. Wait times are automatically calculated and displayed at the checkpoint on websites and mobile devices.
“SpringHill Suites is a brand that offers a style of space that is an antidote to the stress of business travel, and our hope is that this experience zone can bring some of that same hospitality to travels,” Fowler said. Agency: MEC, New York City.


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By Esther Lauaki
Brimbank council is set to join Australia’s biggest community and sustainability event for the fourth year running this weekend.
The Garage Sale Trail: Recovery Edition, this year encourages residents to make and save money by buying and selling second-hand goods, reducing waste and reusing items in the process.
For the first time ever Brimbank council will deliver the trail as a virtual garage sale event on November 21 and 22.
This online alternative ensures COVID-19 safety measures remain in place and keeps the community safe while allowing everyone to participate in the initiative which aims to divert landfill and farewell fast fashion.
Brimbank chief executive Helen Morrissey said she hoped to see the whole community get involved in the event and use this opportunity to declutter and rehome unwanted items while having some fun and making some extra money at a time when people really need it.
She said the initiative is part of council’s commitment to reducing landfill and supporting residents to reuse items and reduce waste at home.
“Not only is the event a fantastic way to save and make money from the comfort of your home, it gives people the chance to connect with their neighbours and community, something that has been greatly missed since the pandemic began,” Ms Morrissey said.
Everyone can get involved virtually. Households, schools, community groups, businesses and anyone else who wants to join is welcome.
This year the focus is on second-hand items that are easily shippable or can be picked up contact-free such as clothing, household items, plants, books etc.
“I expect there will be some unique treasures at this year’s event and despite our focus being shifted towards the pandemic, the issue of waste in our community hasn’t gone away,” Ms Morrissey said.
Brimbank libraries is leading the way with its own group Virtual Garage Sale – staff from each branch will be donating preloved items (bags, shoes, plants and homewares) which will then be available to be viewed online.
Customers can register their interest in items and once allocated, can pick up via click and collect from the nominated library. There will be no charge for these items. Details: www.garagesaletrail.com.au/brimbank


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David Lisot Video Library (2009)
Beth Deisher, editor of Coin World, has enlisted the aid of Susan Headley of the New York Times and Dr. Gregory Dubay, a serious collector, to help expose the flood of counterfeit United States coins that are being manufactured in China. These coins are being sold to unwary buyers all over the world.
In this presentation you will see and learn:
*That the Chinese believe they are not breaking Chinese law
*Why the quality of the coins is so good*
*How even the experts are being fooled
*How to protect yourself buying coins on eBay
*Diagnostics for PCGS counterfeit slabs
*How you can tell a counterfeit using a magnet, magnifier caliper for measuring diameter and thickness and a scale using a kit assembled by Amos Press
Speaker(s): Beth Deisher.


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Brokerage firm Credit Suisse estimates that more than 8,600 brick-and-mortar stores will close their doors in 2017. This projection trumps the rate of closures experienced during the 2008 recession, which is the worst year on record.
Some retailers, like the aforementioned JCPenney, are succumbing to the pressures placed on businesses by an increasingly e-commerce-centric economy. “We believe closing stores will also allow us to adjust our business to effectively compete against the growing threat of online retailers,” JCPenney CEO Marvin Ellison said earlier this year in a press release announcing the impending closure of between 130 and 140 locations.
Read more …


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Last week, Time Magazine in the US awarded the Apple iPhone its prestigious ' Invention of the Year' award. The smartphone officially launches in the UK today, riding a wave of hype that's been building since the US launch in June.
The Time Magazine prize has previously been won by the likes of video sharing monster site, YouTube, and before that, Snuppy the cloned puppy. The awards have certainly been no stranger to controversy over the years. After all, this is a magazine which gave the ' Person of the Year' award to George W Bush. Not once, but twice.
Why is the iPhone so imporant?
Despite a tendency to choose an unlikely winner for some of its honours, you'll be hard pressed to find many people who would argue against the iPhone winning the best invention of 2007 gong.
Sure, we're all sick of hearing about it. But as a piece of technology, the iPhone could well be the most important phone of the last few years. The simple fact that people will queue a day early to buy one, shows you what impact Apple's GSM-equipped iPod has already had. Did anybody queue for a Nokia N95? Or an HTC touch?
The iPhone isn't even a perfect phone. There's no 3G in the model that launches today, only 8GB of memory, no removable (or upgradeable) battery and a piddling 2.0 megapixel camera. Apple dangles the carrot of third-party application support in the future, but for now the iPhone is a mobile system that's locked down tighter than a prison. It's no wonder hacking iPhones is referred to as 'jailbreaking'.
Nevertheless, rival manufacturers will be treating the iPhone as a benchmark; the thing to beat. As a result, the entire industry should leap forwards. Better products should now be produced, usability standards should soar, prices should fall.
Even if you don't buy an iPhone, you'll ultimately be better off for having it around.
iPhone is the spark of change
The iPhone is easily the most advanced gadget ever put into the hands of the everyday person on the street. It's a phone; it's a PDA; it's a music and video player; it's a web tablet. We've not seen a single person who has failed to be impressed by the iPhone when they've had play with it. Mostly importantly, the iPhone represents change.
Look how YouTube has changed the world of online video. Have you heard of something interesting that happened on TV recently which you weren't able to find on YouTube? It's not only a fantastic idea for a website, it's also something that has changed the way millions of us access information.
Likewise, Snuppy the dog in 2005 represented an enormously large leap forward in cloning technology and stem cell research. While a cloned Afghan Hound might not be terribly interesting now, this is the technology which will one day help scientists create human organs from stem cells. That is revolutionary .
Time Magazine views the iPhone on a par with these other winners because it promises to give the world of mobile devices a good, hard kick up the arse.
Besides... can you think of anything else that could have won this year?
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Tech.co.uk was the former name of TechRadar.com. Its staff were at the forefront of the digital publishing revolution, and spearheaded the move to bring consumer technology journalism to its natural home – online. Many of the current TechRadar staff started life a Tech.co.uk staff writer, covering everything from the emerging smartphone market to the evolving market of personal computers. Think of it as the building blocks of the TechRadar you love today.


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Several months after temporarily shutting its doors and laying off dozens of workers, the United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) distribution center on Cameron Boulevard in Gilroy is back up and running. Its first product shipment was dispatched late last month and a new general manager is leading operations at the state-of-the-art plant.
“The future is bright for UNFI Gilroy, our associates and the community,” said Crystal Brennan, an 11-year veteran of the $6 billion publicly traded company, and UNFI’s first female general manager.
“The state-of-the-art distribution center was built for growth and is temperature-controlled to handle a variety of natural and organic products that our customers want, while still being energy efficient. UNFI Gilroy has applied for Gold LEED [Leadership in energy and environmental design] certification,” she said.
Brennan, a Texas native who worked at seven UNFI Distribution Centers in a variety of management positions, from human resources to operations and transportation before assuming the top job at UNFI Gilroy, said UNFI will “focus on giving back to the community through volunteer activities and green initiatives.”
UNFI Gilroy was not yet fully operational when it was announced last July 21 that the 425,000-square-foot distribution center would delay its start of business until early this year because it lost a critical customer, Safeway, in its Northern California market.
At that time, the Dispatch reported, then-mayor Don Gage had received a phone call and confidential note from UNFI’s chief operating officer, Sean F. Griffin, confirming the loss of Safeway and delay of the plant’s grand opening. Griffin said work would continue “on building and equipping the Gilroy plant with an eye toward opening in February.”
Consequently, the company laid off the 38 employees who had just started working at the plant and offered good-will payments to the other, eligible new hires that had not yet started working.
According to UNFI, more than 50 percent of the original active associates and others who had been offered positions are now working at UNFI Gilroy. The company has 132 employees, 43 of whom are Gilroy residents. The facility is huge and has room for expansion as the company gains more clients.
Many of the hires have prior experience in warehouse operations, according to UNFI, and all associates receive extensive training regarding policy, procedure, operations, position function, equipment and safety.
Brennan said that unlike other big warehouse companies, UNFI won’t replace workers with robots. The demands of the companies seeking their products are too specific for machines to do the work, she said, and the kinds of consumers who would buy the products would prefer knowing that people worked on the process, not robots.
While earlier reports stated the Gilroy plant would eventually expand to 700,000 square feet, UNFI said there are no plans for expansion.
The current plant size is 425,600 square feet.
Gilroy UNFI ships to customers including Whole Foods, CVS and Sprouts.
“I look forward to UNFI being an active member of the Gilroy community for many years to come,” said Brennan.


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Twenty years have passed since the Fòrum Gastronòmic Barcelona event started cooking for the first time. After the experiences of these years, it is time for the 2019 edition to take an introspective look at what is happening in gastronomy. Although tradition is still the dominant force, creativity and the avant-garde have opened new paths in a sector that is on the boil. There are both time-honoured and modern recipes, often spiced up by the influence of other cultures and adapted to the new demands of consumers who are increasingly conscious of their eating habits.
Taking the topic of ‘(Re)thinking gastronomy’ to heart, the talks between renowned chefs and rising stars will focus on innovation, sustainability, young talent and female leadership. This event, which will bring 31 Michelin stars to the Montjuïc site from 18 to 20 November, is the meeting place for many agents in the sector, from craft companies offering locally sourced products to major food corporations.
“The reassessment of local produce, small producers and even home-grown food, are among the main trends that are guiding the food industry in recent years” said Pep Palau, co-director of Fórum Gastronómico Barcelona. He also added that “it is important that the event reflects the sector’s sensitivity towards sustainability, social awareness and preference for ethical products”. Some examples of good practices are the optimisation of production to avoid food waste, the choice of local and seasonal ingredients as a way to reduce environmental impact and the creation of healthy dishes.
In this sense, Palau stated that “we are going through a period in which gastronomy is more plural, open to suggestions: some are adapting classic recipes or returning to traditional cooking, others concentrating on plants, health and quality… the event is a platform for identifying all these trends”.
A showcase for trends
Fòrum Gastronòmic Barcelona will attract 300 exhibiting companies and around 45 chefs, who will present new ideas in European cooking and put the variety of the gastronomy sector on display. There is a greater focus on wine with Forum Vino, which will host talks by respected oenologists, winemakers and sommeliers. There will also be a space for preparing desserts and sweets and sessions on business and hotels in the Fòrum Empresa.
The activity programme includes a number of showcooking sessions with famous local chefs such as Paco Pérez, Jordi Cruz, Carme Ruscalleda, Sergio and Javier Torres (Cocina Hermanos Torres) and Oliver Peña. The session “The Effervesence of European Cooking” will bring together five young European chefs to share their views on haute cuisine: David Andrés, Nadia Sammut, William Jorgensen, Francesca Barreca and Marco Boccarelli.
The FórumLab space will discuss gastronomy and look at new business models with the aim of detecting and discussing new developments in the sector. More than 35 experts will offer presentations on running a business, digitalization and sustainability for the restaurant sector. The speakers will include the expert on social media Phil González, consultors Eva Ballarín and Oskar García, chefs Sergio and Javier Torres, Victor Quintillà, Xavier Pellicer, Marc Puig-Pey and other representatives of the academic, business and agricultural sectors.
A very sweet edition
Panettoni, chocolate, ice cream, cakes, pralines… this year Fórum Gastronòmico Barcelona will leave more space for dessert. The Foro Dulce section will premiere its new Expo Nadal/Sweetfusió, organised by the Gremi de Pastisseria, Barcelona’s cake making guild, which will have exhibitions from 25 companies in the dessert sector. Josep Alcaraz, co-director of the event, explains that “desserts have a special place in this edition because this sector is growing in Spain through famous names with an international reputation”.
There will be specific sessions on business management and product preparation. Finally, the German chef René Frank will present a workshop to show the latest trends in gourmet desserts. Similarly, the cooks Jordi Brutron and Xano Saguer, creators of the pastry school Espai Sucre, will host a special masterclass to show how chocolate can be used in contemporary cooking.
According to the sector survey by Produlce, ceach Spaniard eats an average of 27 kg of sweet products per year: eight of bread, six and a half of biscuits, five of chocolate, four and a half of cakes and three of sweets, gum and nougat. All in all, the dessert sector, with a volume of sales of 5,679 million euros in Spain, represents 4.79% of all turnover in the food and drink sector.


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(Reuters) - Britain’s Tesco Plc (TSCO.L), the world’s number three retailer, is set to announce on Friday an agreement to merge its operations in China with a division of state-controlled retailer China Resources Enterprise (CRE) (0291.HK), Sky News reported on Thursday citing people close to the talks.
Sky reported that the supermarket group is set to sign an agreement to merge its store estate in China with that of Vanguard, part of CRE. (r.reuters.com/pym32v)
A spokeswoman for Tesco declined to comment on the report.
The Sky report, citing people familiar with the talks, said Tesco was likely to have a 20 percent stake in the enlarged business and that finalizing the agreement was likely to take several months.
Reporting by Karen Rebelo in Bangalore. Editing by Jane Merriman


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The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has launched a probe into an IT firm behind a listed penny stock seeking to raise $15 million via an initial coin offering (ICO) for the launch of a cryptocurrency exchange.
Called Byte Power Group (BPG), the public firm issued a statement on Wednesday with answers to a total of 17 questions raised by the ASX requiring the firm to provide details on its intended token sale, disclosed on July 19.
Based on a release at the time, BPG aims to issue a total of 1 billion Byte Power X Loyalty Tokens (BPX Tokens) and plans to sell 25 percent of the amount to private investors at a price of US$0.06 per unit.
The goal is to raise as much as $15 million for the firm to fund the launch of the exchange, where the BPX Tokens can be further traded and used to offset transaction fees. The remaining 75 percent will be allocated for “pre-registered users of the exchange, company special releases, pre-opening and future marketing drive,” according to the plan.
As BPG aims to become the first publicly traded company in Australia to launch a cryptocurrency exchange via the ICO funding model, the move sparked concerns from the ASX over whether it is “in compliance with the ASX Listing Rules.”
On Aug. 1, the ASX’s compliance team sent a letter to BPG, requiring the firm to justify the legality of the planned operation, listing the 17 questions that asked about the status of the ICO, whether it had obtained any legal advice and more.
In today’s written response, BPG said it had already started selling the tokens to private investors in Australia and Singapore with a plan to further roll out the scheme in Hong Kong. It has not responded to a CoinDesk enquiry on how much it has raised so far, or whether any of the 75 percent of the total tokens would be further sold to investors.
In both of the jurisdictions in which it has started selling tokens, BPG claimed it received legal advice that the tokens are not deemed as securities, claiming they are not regulated as a financial product under the Corporations Act of Australian law.
As previously reported by CoinDesk, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) issued regulatory guidance for ICOs in September 2017.
The financial watchdog said at the time ICOs that offer financial products should be regulated under the Corporations Act and gave further details on how it defined such financial products, stating:
“If the value of the digital coins acquired is affected by the pooling of funds from contributors or use of those funds under the arrangement, then the ICO is likely to fall within the requirements relating to MISs [managed investment schemes]. This is often the case if what is offered through the ICO has the attributes of an investment.”
As of press time, the ASIC has not responded to CoinDesk’s request for comment on the BPG case.
It now remains to be seen how the ASX will respond to the letter and whether it will take any action over the listed firm’s ICO activity.
Australian dollar image via Shutterstock
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.


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The three fixed rate products have been designed specifically for applicants purchasing a property using one of the Government’s shared equity schemes to raise a deposit.
The first product is a three-year fixed rate at 4.59 per cent, with a 70 per cent loan to value and £199 fee until August 31 2012.
The second product is also a three-year fixed rate at 5.89 per cent with an 80 per cent LTV and a fee of £199 until August 31, 2012.
The RBS four-year fixed is at 6.29 per cent cent with an 85 per cent LTV and a fee of £199 until August 31, 2013.
All three products will move onto a 4 per cent SVR after the fixed-term is out.
RBS IP head of sales Graham Felstead says: “The interest shown by intermediaries in the shared equity scheme sector is definitely growing. These new products should provide our business partners with a range that fits the needs of first time buyers buying through one of these schemes.”


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Italian Village Aquatics Project
With the onset of Spring Columbus own Seventh Son has decided to scrap plans for it production brewery expansion in favor of a bar themed water park. No longer will Cincinnati's Kings island have the only game in town. "Sure we love making craft beer but as everyone knows the market in Ohio is tightening and with people offering beer hotels, showers, hot tubs etc we felt like we needed to do something to step up our game- the waterpark was a natural fit" says operations manager Collin Castore.
To help fund the venture Seventh Son will be offering commemorative floaties that double as beer koozies along with weekend "diving for bottle cap" adventure packages and shares in the guppie, minnow, trout, and megalodon fan groups which will offer early park access and happy hour specials daily. "For years people in the industry have been asking what is the next IPA- turns out the answer is Aquatics" says Castore. Currently beach towels are being offered on seventhsonbrewing.com towards the cause with more to come in the following weeks.


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Trends Taking the Wealth Management Industry by Storm Q4 2023
In the dynamic realm of wealth management, 2023 has unfolded as a pivotal chapter, sculpted by a confluence of regulatory shifts, the rise in AI implementation, political mayhem across the globe, and ongoing inflation. Furthermore, with retail investors seeking increasingly personalised services and regulatory bodies worldwide recalibrating their expectations concerning measuring climate impact, it is fair to claim that we are on the brink of entering a more scrutinised, digitally empowered and environmentally conscious phase of the industry’s lifecycle. As we prepare for the end of the year and chalk out strategies for 2024, let’s delve into the trends that dominated the sector in the last quarter of 2023 and will undoubtedly continue to define the wealth management landscape.
Key Trends in Wealth Management Q3 - 2023
How can wealth management companies ensure profitable growth during this volatile era? As the industry continues navigating an increasingly difficult financial landscape, several key trends have continued reshaping how wealth is managed. Among these trends, the rise in importance of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, more regulatory attention to consumer treatment, more recognition of the financial analytics tools, and the deeper integration of AI, machine learning and automation, all stand out as notable drivers of change.
Bridging Gaps in Consumer Duty
The purpose of the UK’s latest regulatory update goes beyond additional reporting and addresses the value created by wealth management and insurance businesses. It aims to set a higher standard of care and deliver better consumer outcomes throughout the customer journey. The overarching principles set out to change how products and services are evaluated, priced, explained and supported, and it should transform the relationships within wealth management value chains.
Democratising Wealth Management by Utilising Financial Analytics
The wealth management sector is embracing emerging tech like machine learning and gamification to enhance workflows. Despite inflation and conflict challenges, technology is poised to reshape finance. A key concern though is how to leverage tech to expand services while maintaining margins for mass affluent clients.


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Editor's Note: Wellspent Brewing Co. reopened in St. Louis on Feb. 15.
It's a sad day for the St. Louis beer scene: Wellspent Brewing Co. has closed its doors, effective immediately.
Owner and head brewer Kyle Kohlmorgen, who owns the business with his wife, Angela, announced the news on social media, writing that the business just can't sustain the amount of debt it took on to get the doors open.
"We had a vision for Wellspent and a commitment to quality in both beer and experience," he said. "To realize that vision and maintain that commitment, we needed a LOT more money than we had. We didn’t want to take on private investment for fear of diluting that vision and commitment. We hoped we could sustain long enough to reach a break-even point. We did all we could after starting way too fast, and it wasn’t enough."
Since opening in early 2018, Wellspent became a fixture in Midtown for its Belgian-style mixed-fermentation beers and community-minded taproom, which hosted everything from trivia nights and movie screenings to cornhole leagues and succulent-potting classes.
"We couldn’t be prouder of our little brewery, and I couldn’t be more thankful for our customers and crew," Kohlmorgen said. "We made great beer, built a great team, and welcomed so many folks from St. Louis and beyond. We’ve met so many wonderful people in the brewing community that we now call friends. We watched a hardworking volunteer grow into a capable, talented brewer. We hosted a newlywed couple and their families on the night of their wedding. We put so much effort into this place over the last two years, and every bit of it was well spent."
Although Wellspent is closed indefinitely, Kohlmorgen says he isn't looking to get out of the craft beer industry.
"I love making beer," he said in the post. "I don’t want to do anything else. We have a lot to sort out, but my next (professional) chapter will be making beer. Always learning. Always growing. Always striving to be a better brewer."
Wellspent Brewing Co., 2917 Olive St., Midtown, St. Louis, Missouri, 314.328.0505, wellspentbeer.com


text: Tesco ‘raises the bar’ – Supermarket to ban non-recyclable plastic packaging by 2019 by The Good Shopping Guide | May 24, 2018 | Ethical Shopping Blog | 0 comments Following the release of the company’s annual report, which revealed that Tesco is on track to meet its science-based emissions targets, the supermarket has made a massive announcement. In a move that some are suggesting ‘raises the bar’ for all others, the UK’s biggest supermarket announced it will ban all non-recyclable plastic by 2019. The news has been received by campaigners and waste experts with positive cautiousness, as, despite the show of ambition, Tesco has yet to “make a firm commitment when it comes the volume of plastic it produces and sells”. As quoted in The Independent, Tesco’s chief product officer Jason Tarry has reportedly commented that the company is “committed to reducing the total amount of packaging used across our business”, this includes working with suppliers to “redesign and reduce all packaging materials.” Tesco is also calling on more Government action in support of the development of better recycling infrastructure and practice. More here.


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There’s one brick-built car kids can’t drive at LegoLand Florida Resort — the Bugatti Chrion.
Lego unveiled its latest creation to the public on Thursday at the Grand Prix Formula 1 event in Monza, Italy, according to an article by CNN.
There have been over 100 Bugatti Chirons ever built as of this year, but Lego’s Chiron is the only one that is made from 1 million plastic bricks, the article showed.
While Lego’s vehicle, which is 90 percent made of bricks, looks like the real deal, it doesn’t quite mirror a legitimate Chiron’s speed.
The Bugatti Chiron broke a world record last year; reaching 249 miles-per-hour in 42 seconds, according to Bugatii’s website. Its Lego duplicate reached a top speed of 12 miles-per-hour on the same track where the original Bugatti Chiron was tested in Wolfsburg, Germany, the CNN article showed.
It took 13,000 hours to build the electrically powered vehicle made with two batteries, over 2,300 Lego power function motors and over 4,000 Lego gear wheels that transfer power to the vehicle, CNN reported.
The article did not indicate if the vehicle was available for purchase. However, a 1:8 scale Lego Technic model of the Chiron is available for purchase on Lego’s website for $350.


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When Stephanie Winston-Wolkoff left her post as Director of Special Events at Vogue last summer, insiders feared events like the Met Gala wouldn't survive under anyone else. Now she's resurfaced with a new (even bigger gig): Running point at the upcoming Lincoln Center Fashion Week.
Wolkoff was recently named Lincoln Center's director of fashion week, a hefty responsibility that includes coordinating communication between the powers that be at Lincoln Center and the heavyweights of the fashion industry -- designers, retailers, the CFDA, IMG, et al. Indeed, the stakes will be high to pull of a flawless first fashion week at Lincoln Center next September, as the fashion set can be particularly merciless when it comes to poor organization (and long lines).
In a released statement, Reynold Levy, the president of Lincoln Center, said, "Stephanie's understanding of the specific needs of the fashion industry in tandem with her experience in organizing high profile, logistically complex events, will be invaluable as a resource in ensuring that Fashion Week's presence at Lincoln Center will be very special--exciting, convenient and efficient."
Indeed, landing Wolkoff is a major win: She was so good at her job at Vogue that rumors were rampant after her departure that high-level events like the annual Met Gala would simply cease to exist. Considering her close relationship with heavy-hitters like Anna Wintour, it will be interesting to see how she chooses to coordinate New York's fashion's biggest bi-annual gathering.