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The Texas Transportation Commission has approved more Interstate 40 projects in Amarillo, including a $4.9 million project that will move the location of Interstate 40 exit and entrance ramps near Soncy Road, adding a U-turn at Bell Street, and widening the Grand Street overpass and reconfiguring the Tee-Anchor exit ramp. (Amarillo Globe-Times, July 28)
Vestcor, a Florida-based developer of Calee Crossing apartments, said the company will continue with plans for apartments near Hillside Road and Coulter Street even though the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs turned down its bid to low-income housing tax credits.e company will seek other financial options to fund Calee Crossing apartments.(Amarillo Globe-Times, Aug. 3)
Retailers report generally good sales during the state's second annual sales-tax holiday during the first weekend of August. State and local sales taxes were waived for certain clothing and school supplies.(Amarillo Globe-Times, Aug. 7)
Fashion Bug, a moderate priced clothing store for women, has opened a 7,747 square foot store at Westgate Plaza. The store, a division of Charming Shoppes Inc., includes casual and business clothing in misses, junior and plus sizes. It also sells footwear, lingerie and accessories.(Amarillo Daily News, Aug. 10)
Six small earthquakes rocked Amarillo during August, causing little damage, but causing some Amarilloans to wonder if they needed earthquake insurance on their property.(Amarillo Globe-Times, Aug. 17)
Furniture retailer Heilig-Meyers Co. and department store company Stage Stores, operator of Bealls, both filed financial reorganization plans that included store closings. Heilig-Meyers' list included stores in Clovis, N.M., and Lubbock, but, like Stage, did not target Amarillo locations for closing. Additionally, Luby's Inc. said it would close 15 locations without disclosing if either Amarillo cafeteria would be affected because of poor company-wide earnings.(Special to the Amarillo Business Journal)
Data gathered during the census this spring will be available starting in April, said David Almager, community partnership specialist with the Census Bureau, at a workshop on how small business can use information gathered in the once-a-decade count. Numbers that will determine how congressional districts will be reapportioned will be available first, followed by other demographic information.(Amarillo Daily News, Aug. 19)
Amarillo Globe-News ©2014. All Rights Reserved.


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Renault to hike prices by up to Rs. 28,000 from Jan 1
Prices are being increased due to rising input costs.
Renault has announced a price increase of up to Rs. 28,000 on its entire range of products. The revised prices will be applicable from January 1, 2021.
According to the company, the prices are being increased due to rising input costs for materials like steel, aluminium and plastics.
Renault’s current line-up includes the Kwid, Triber and Duster. Earlier this year, the carmaker launched the Triber AMT and Duster Turbo Petrol. Renault also introduced the 1.0L RXL variant of the Kwid as well as its NEOTECH edition.
Renault is now gearing up to launch the Kiger sub-4 meter crossover in India. It shares its platform with the recently launched Nissan Magnite.
Source: Read Full Article

domain: news


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Tennessee Fire’s Rapid Rise Drives Brown-Forman’s U.S. GrowthMarch 2, 2016
The runaway success of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire propelled Brown-Forman to solid U.S. sales growth in the first three quarters of its fiscal year, but that progress was offset somewhat by the negative currency exchange impact outside the U.S. market.
Brown-Forman’s underlying net sales rose by 7% in the U.S. for the nine months ended January 31. While Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey has leveled off in the market after years of double-digit advances, Tennessee Fire is rising sharply. Released in the latter part of 2014, Tennessee Fire sold more than 400,000 cases in 2015, according to Impact Databank. The new product contributed two percentage points to the Jack Daniel’s franchise’s growth through the first nine months of the fiscal year, according to Brown-Forman.
Tennessee Fire’s rapid rise has clearly impacted its intended target—Fireball. In both 2013 and 2014, Fireball grew by more than 1.5 million cases. However, in 2015, the Sazerac brand’s rise slowed to around 600,000 cases.
Brown-Forman’s overall net sales were up by 5% on an underlying basis for the first three quarters, but down by 2% on a reported basis, largely because of the strengthening dollar. For the full year, the company is projecting 5% underlying net sales growth and 7%-9% growth in underlying operating income.Subscribe to Shanken News Daily’s Email Newsletter, delivered to your inbox each morning.


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The San Francisco Examiner is reporting that Lyft has suspended its e-bike share program on the streets of San Francisco after two e-bikes caught fire in separate locations in the span of a week.
Jonathan Baxter, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department, said the department classified the incident as a “battery pack issue” and a “fire from battery pack.” The fire was deemed not suspicious by the San Francisco Fire Department although a Lyft spokesperson has told media outlets that vandalism has not been ruled out (by Lyft) as the cause of the fires.
This is the second time the Lyft e-bike fleet has been pulled from use in San Francisco. The first time was due to what Lyft claims was a front brake issue.
This is also not the first time a bike share company has battled battery fire issues. In March of this year, Citi Bike’s main service hub in New York experienced a fire caused by a charging battery.
TAKE SOME SIMPLE PRECAUTIONS
The companies who sell, rent and promote e-bikes have done riders a great disservice by not addressing the fire potential of their products. There are simple ways to reduce (but not eliminate) the damage done by an exploding battery.
TIPS RIDERS CAN USE TODAY TO REDUCE FIRE THREAT
1. Never leave a battery charging unattended. Day or night.
2. Don’t overcharge batteries.
3. Don’t charge batteries near combustible or explosive materials.
4. Never charge a battery that has been dropped, damaged or dinged.
5. Charge batteries on wire shelving with rollers. This allows an overheating or flaming battery to be quickly rolled away from structures.
OTHER STORES RELATED TO E-BIKE FIRES:


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News and updates are flowing in from various sources regarding the latest upcoming smartphones. And here we are with news related to one of the leading smartphone making brands HTC. The latest one has it that HTC is all set to launch HTC U Ultra in the month of February while the HTC U Play is going to be unveiled in March and both the smartphones are expected to sport quite a number of high-end features.
The reports have come in that the Taiwan-based smartphone manufacturer HTC is going to launch HTC U Ultra on February 25 and will have a price tag of $898. HTC U Ultra will come with a 5.7-inch display screen with support for the Quad HD display. It is also expected to a have a dual-screen setup with the upper part of the screen dedicated to the Always-on display feature. This always-on bar will have customizable shortcuts, and the notifications are going to be shown in that section.
The camera of the phablet is going to be of 12 megapixels on the back and a whooping 16 megapixels on the front. Both the cameras are going to be assisted by Ultrapixel technology for shooting in low-light conditions. The HTC U Ultra is reportedly going to feature a curved glass body and will run on Android 7.0 Nougat operating system.
HTC U Play will also run on the Android 7.0 Nougat operating system although there are going to be only a few distinguishable features between HTC U Play and HTC U Ultra. HTC U Play will sport a 5.2-inch screen which will be supportive of full HD display. It won’t have the dual-screen display, but the rear camera is going to be of 16 megapixels which is going to be better than the 12-megapixel one in HTC U Ultra. HTC U Play is going to hit the market with a price tag of $548 and will be made available on the market from the month of March.
Other than these, both these smartphones from the house of HTC are going to sport HTC’s Artificial Intelligence HTC Companion. Also, the smartphones are expected to do away with the 3.5mm headphone jack, which is very much in the line of Apple. And that is going to make the smartphone duo much sleek.
So it will be really exciting to keep watch on the HTC U Ultra and U Play which are dubbed to be really sensational smartphones. For now, we just have to hold on to our patience and keep an eye on all the developments on this front. The smartphones are really going to be worth waiting for.


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Spread over a large area, India is a country with impressive history and great culture. From snow crowned peaks of Himalayas guarding the northern frontier to ocean caressed southern part and rain drenched eastern part to vast deserts in the west,...―
On the jacket: ∙ The book is a fictionalized account of the farmers suicides in contemporary India. It is set in Seattle and in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, with the two worlds tumbling together in a web of suicide, politics and betrayal. ...―
Tour Services India providing Goa summer holidays, romantic Goa holiday packages, Goa honeymoon packages in India. ∙ The smallest state of the country is the biggest party popper nation at heart. Its parties are eclectic, people are ...―
Transcription Services India from BPO Outsourcing Services, India. Looking cost effective transcription services for your business without bargaining on quality? Why not come at BPO Outsourcing Services, India. ∙ BPO Outsourcing Services a...―
Intense heat has claimed lives of at least three people in Odisha, India based IBN reported. ∙ Met Office has recorded temperature over 46 degree Celsius in several parts of Odisha. Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Bolangir and Sundergarh districts ...―
On the jacket: ∙ In Jerusalem, two Arabs are on the hunt for the same identity. The first is a wealthy lawyer with a thriving practice, a large house, a Mercedes and a beautiful family. With a sophisticated image to uphold, he decides one...―
MSLGROUP, Publicis Groupe’s strategic communications and engagement network, has now extended its global digital and social media offering Social Hive to India. The company informed that the Social Hive team will consist of more than 40...―
4.7-inch Galaxy Grand Quattro launched Samsung has launched its Galaxy Grand Quattro smartphone in India. The smartphone is the newest addition to the Galaxy Grand series that the company launched earlier this year. The dual-SIM capable Galaxy...―
tribune india-India deserves a rating upgrade in view of improvement in macro-economic situation, the conservative outlook of Standard & Poor’s notwithstanding, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said here today. “Our case is that we...―
Vehicle maker International Motors Limited (ICML) has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Industrial Development Bank of India Ltd (IDBI) for its passenger car biz in the domestic... Read more »―
I think I buy a striped top every year, it means Summer to me. This one with elbow pads ...
Shirt: UniqloTrousers: ZaraShoes: Topshop ∙ Waaaaah, baggy knees. GO AWAY. ...
Yahoo! announced that it has acquired Tumblr for $1.1billion today. According to Tumblr's ...


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Abdolnasser Hemmati said Iran’s measures to neutralize sanctions imposed on the country are working well.
“We will also try to make other countries prepare the ground for us to have access to our [financial] resources as soon as possible,” he said.
The official further noted that some $9 billion calculated based on an exchange rate of Rls. 42,000 for the US dollar has been set aside to provide basic goods for people in the year to March 2021.
The CBI chief then indicated that a “single exchange rate” should be defined for the greenback against the Iranian rial.
“However, different dimensions of such a move should be reviewed, so that people’s day-to-day lives won’t be affected,” he underscored.
He also said forex revenues from Iran’s exports are “good.”


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One Year Later: Establishing a Fair Financial System
Today marks the first anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the start of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The event had negative effects on our entire economy, and consumers still deal with the aftermath daily in the form of decreased retirement funds and hefty bank fees from banks desperate for the extra cash, and more.
President Obama spoke from Wall Street today about the need for financial reform, calling for accountability, responsibility, disclosure, and the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. From the center of the financial collapse, the President mentioned the need to end regulator-shopping, close regulatory gaps, and eliminate contracts meant to be confusing, while noting the industry’s staunch opposition to regulation.
The New York Times quotes President Obama as saying, “instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we are still recovering, they are choosing to ignore them…. They do so not just at their own peril, but at our nation’s.”
Today, it is vital that we all note the importance of establishing a fair financial system for the sake of consumers and for the American economy as a whole. To write to your members of Congress and ask them to support Obama’s proposal to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, click here.


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Olivia, Minn., businesses continue their 20-year tradition of saying thanks to local shoppers
Published 12/21/2011, West Central Tribune
For 20 years now, businesses in Olivia have been offering holiday shoppers something they can’t find in any big box store or at a major shopping center. Their gratitude. “My lucky day,’’ said Mildred Zaske, laughing, as Nancy Standfuss surprised her while shopping Friday at the ALCO store in Olivia. Standfuss handed Zaske a $5 certificate for Olivia Corn Capital Cash, which can be redeemed at any of more than 50 participating Olivia businesses.Word count: 417
The full article is available to newspaper subscribers. If you are a subscriber please log in to continue reading.


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Fisker, the California-based EV startup that makes the Ocean SUV, built over 10,000 cars last year but delivered fewer than half as it struggled with its direct sales approach, according to Reuters.
The undelivered cars, most of which have been largely paid for by the customers, have a value of about $290 million, the company said. In total, roughly 4,700 Ocean SUVs were delivered last year, but the EV maker expects to move all of the remaining inventory in the first quarter of 2024 as it pivots to a dealer-partner model.
Get Fully Charged
Direct sales failed for Fisker as inventory piled up in 2023
Fisker failed to deliver more than half the cars it built last year. The automaker said it plans on emptying the inventory by the end of the first quarter in 2024 with help from dealers, in addition to the direct sales approach it used until now.
This isn’t exactly great news for the American EV startup that manufactures its vehicles under contract in Austria. Previously, the Henrik Fisker-led automaker cut production output in December of last year to prioritize liquidity and slashed its production guidance several times in 2023.
Fisker had a pretty optimistic target of almost 42,400 vehicles for 2023, which was subsequently slimmed down to 32,000, then 20,000, then 13,000, and ultimately finishing the year with a little over 10,000 units built.
On the flipside, the startup said over 100 dealers in the United States, Canada, and Europe have expressed interest in becoming Fisker dealers, but it’s unclear how many will end up selling Fisker-branded vehicles in the end.
It’s worth noting that the company will try to sell cars both through dealers and the direct sales approach. At the beginning of 2024, the automaker’s CEO told Automotive News that the decision to offer dealer franchises is based in part on how fast the company can expand with dealers or without.
“I discovered that in this current situation, with high interest rates, [expensive] real estate, and getting people trained is much more difficult. I think we just went that route because everyone does when you are a startup,” Fisker said. “I went to my accounting department and asked what is the cost of selling a car? We decided we would rather give that money to a dealer so that we could expand faster,” he added for Automotive News.
To jumpstart its dealer franchise experiment, the California startup said it will host dealers at its headquarters in Manhattan Beach next week and several execs will make an appearance at the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) show in early February to try and convince dealers to sell Fisker EVs.


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MYER and the Victoria Racing Club have finally signed a new five-year sponsorship deal, quashing speculation the retail giant may axe its long association with the Spring Racing Carnival.
The new multi-million-dollar agreement sees Myer continue its sponsorship of Fashions on the Field and its VIP marquee presence on Millionaires Row in the exclusive Birdcage enclosure, and takes the partnership to 35 years.
Myer chief executive officer Bernie Brookes said additional elements of the new deal would include a more substantial commitment to the national Fashions on the Field competition and exclusive naming rights to the Beautiful Girls Lunch in March and the larger Spring Fashion Lunch, to be held on September 5.
"We always wanted to re-sign but it had to be on commercial terms," Mr Brookes said.
"The VRC have been very much understanding that retail is very tough. We need some degree of flexibility and we need a greater recognition of the brand.
"Everyone thinks it's all champagne and good times, but we use it to reward our high-performance team members, customers and sponsors.
"What is grossly underestimated is the growth we see."
Racegoers spent $29.6 million on fashion items for the four-day Melbourne Cup Carnival last year, an increase of more than 10 per cent.
More than 65,000 hats and fascinators, 54,000 pairs of shoes, 53,000 dresses, 26,000 handbags, 23,000 items of jewellery, 29,000 ties, 14,000 pairs of sunglasses, 11,000 items of underwear, 14,000 pairs of socks and pantihose and 17,000 suits were bought.
"We'd probably sell some of those anyway, but I think when people think of racing they think of Myer," Mr Brookes said.
There are plans to expand the Fashions on the Field enclosure to make it more accessible to the general public.
VRC chief David Courtney welcomed the new agreement, saying it realigned the benefits with the current business objectives of both organisations.
"Such an enduring partnership is extremely rare and is a testament to the fitting pairing of Myer, Australia's most established fashion destination, and the Melbourne Cup Carnival," Mr Courtney said.
Myer ambassador Jennifer Hawkins, who is in contract negotiations to continue with the retailer, said she was thrilled that Myer's association with the iconic event would continue.
"I would have been disappointed (if they had not re-signed). I love the atmosphere, it's such a fun time," she said.
The Myer Fashions on the Field National Competition is already under way for 2013.
The new deal is effective immediately.
Originally published as Myer, VRC finalise new five-year deal


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When customers shop at one of Good Food Holdings’ grocery banners, the parent company wants them to feel like their shopping trip — be it online, in-store or a blend of the two — is curated just for them.
The Carson, California-based holding company has already established a reputation for running high-end banners: Bristol Farms, Lazy Acres, New Seasons Market, New Leaf Community Markets and Metropolitan Market. As it looks ahead, its leaders see an opportunity to bring that high-touch, personalized experience into the digital age.
“[We’re] imagining how we’re going to get the point where a consumer can walk into a store and I know what they've purchased, I know what their list is, I know what your dietary restrictions are, and I can take those 40,000 items that I have in my store and make it much easier for you as a customer to get to the things you actually want,” Good Food Holdings CEO Neil Stern said.
Good Food Holdings, which is owned by South Korean retailer E-Mart, has begun testing cutting-edge innovations like a “connected store,” smart carts, electronic shelf labels and more in an effort to bring this curated digital shopping vision to life. Its unique structure as a conglomerate of small regional chains gives it some unique advantages in testing, learning and scaling new opportunities, executives believe.
But Good Food Holdings, like many other grocery companies, is still in the very early stages of realizing that vision. And it’s unclear what, exactly, a more personalized shopping experience will look like. Will it include the sort of high-tech shopping carts, digital shelf labels and back-end technologies the company and its banners are now testing? Or maybe none of these?
Like most regional grocers, capital and labor restrictions are also challenging Good Food Holdings and its digital innovation journey. The company has to carefully choose what it tests and scales, and has partnered with numerous third parties to help enable its omnichannel offerings.
“As a smaller retailer, we have to be really careful on how we're placing our bets,” Stern said.
Making connected stores
While its high-touch stores are still drawing in-store consumers, Good Food Holdings is also seeing the convenience of online shopping shifting consumer behaviors, said Scott DeGraeve, the retailer’s chief digital officer.
“Customers are kind of channel agnostic. So that's how we have to treat it — however they want to shop, we should be able to provide them a way to shop like that,” said DeGraeve, a former executive with AutoStore and Ahold Delhaize.
The company and its banner chains are trying to embrace this shift. At a Metropolitan Market store in Mercer Island, Washington, for instance, signs throughout the aisles recently exhorted shoppers to try the company’s curbside pickup offering. “Let us shop for you,” one sign in the pantry section read.
Good Food Holdings is also in the process of implementing new websites for all five banners and installing Storefront Pro, Instacart’s white-label e-commerce platform, across all of the banners, DeGraeve said. The company also offers delivery through the Instacart and DoorDash marketplaces, partnerships that add “incrementality” to the company’s e-commerce operations, said DeGraeve.
Inside its stores, Good Food Holdings is testing out new systems that promise to make shoppers’ trips more convenient and connected. Its Bristol Farms Newfound Market banner in Irvine, California, which opened last March, has been serving as a testing ground for several of the digital components in Instacart’s Connected Stores initiative, including that company’s Caper smart carts, Food Storm prepared food-ordering software and electronic shelf labels known as Carrot Tags.
Good Food Holdings plans to expand its test of the Caper carts to two additional stores over the next quarter as the holding company works to better determine “how to best utilize them in-store and figure out how far to take it,” DeGraeve said, noting that the company will be looking at metrics such as customer penetration levels and basket sizes.
One of the upcoming Caper deployments will be at a high-volume, high-density store, Stern said.
“Is that cart going to justify — either from an ROI like a pure business standpoint or from a customer satisfaction standpoint — being something we want to roll out? Right now it's too early to tell,” Stern said.
DeGraeve said Good Food Holdings envisions customers checking in with their loyalty programs through smart carts, which link to their purchasing data, and then having lights on the digital tags flag specific items, like ones they’ve ordered before or products that are on sale. Those flashing ESL lights can also help with e-commerce fulfillment, DeGraeve added.
Stern said Good Food Holdings sees the potential to offer promotional games and personalized offers for consumers using smart carts, along with serving up ads for brands.
“I'm very excited about ChatGPT coming on a smart cart,” Stern said. “A store customer says, ‘Hey, I have chicken, onions and tomatoes — what can I do?’ And the answer is, ‘Hey, let's give you this great recipe for chicken.’”
Good Food Holdings is also adding Instacart’s Scan & Pay solution, which allows customers to scan and pay for products, including loose items like weighted produce, using a mobile browser. A new online catering menu at Bristol Farms, meanwhile, makes the ordering process more efficient for consumers, DeGraeve said.
Eventually, Good Food Holdings plans to tie the online catering system, which is offered through Instacart’s FoodStorm service, into its normal online grocery shopping experience so that customers can buy made-to-order items with their regular grocery purchases, DeGraeve said.
The Bristol Farms store in California isn’t the only location in Good Food Holdings’ ecosystem that’s testing leading-edge technology. At the Mercer Island Metropolitan Market, electronic shelf labels are in place throughout the store. In select spots, large digital shelf labels offer additional product information — like one situated beneath boxes of store brand crackers noting they “pair well with full-flavored cheeses, charcuterie, and spreads.”
Ultimately, the grocer wants to use digital tools to provide “a curated set of products” around personal preferences, dietary restrictions and more, DeGraeve said.
“So many people have certain elements in their diet, whatever that might be, that they're trying to avoid or they aspire to want to have more. So how can we then take the tools and as they're going through their shopping trips, make sure that that's how they want to shop, either less of something or more of something else?” DeGraeve said.
Working behind the scenes
DeGraeve described Good Food Holdings as “half corporate and half holding company” — a firm that aims to provide strategic oversight to support its banners, each of which has their own executive team.
Good Food Holdings has the benefit of being able to scale solutions across its stores after running specific tests that can be focused on one banner or specific customer demographic. The goal is to create common tools and transform back-end systems, DeGraeve said.
Good Food Holdings communicates with each banners’ leadership team to understand what kinds of areas they are looking to address. When the time comes for a banner-wide change, like a new website or merchandising system, DeGraeve said Good Food Holdings works with a team made up of both centralized and banner leadership members to evaluate solutions.
Having a cross-banner team helps ensure that everyone is on the same page and that resources are aligned, DeGraeve said.
This corporate structure is roughly similar to what Ahold Delhaize, with its collection of East Coast banners and centralized technology and supply chain resources, has built over the years to stay ahead in the supermarket industry — albeit on a much smaller scale.
Project proposals go through an internal justification process that looks at questions like: What problem am I trying to solve? What will implementation require? What are the impacts on capital and human resources? How am I going to measure it?
Good Food Holdings recently went through this process when it decided to begin adding self-checkout stations early in the pandemic. The company first piloted the checkout method in the Seattle market before rolling it out to more stores, Stern said, noting self-checkout will be available across all banners by August.
Good Food Holdings will typically test one tool or technology in one banner and then try another in a different banner, allowing the company to run multiple pilots simultaneously, DeGraeve said: “That's an advantage of having these five banners under one umbrella.”
Even though customers are a little bit different for each banner, they share attributes of being more premium, highly educated customers with a focus on healthy products, Stern and DeGraeve said.
A banner with a passion for a certain innovation or technology will usually take the lead on trying it out, DeGraeve added. Bristol Farms CEO Adam Caldecott, for example, has a goal of eliminating all lines, Stern said.
“If they're not waiting in line, they could be shopping, right? They could be doing other things and ordering [in] other places in the store,” Stern said.
“Customers are kind of channel agnostic. So that's how we have to treat it — however they want to shop, we should be able to provide them a way to shop like that."
Chief digital officer, Good Food Holdings
Hurdles and headwinds
Good Food Holdings recognizes that it will never be able to tackle all of the items on its long wish list of digital tools, Stern said.
“At some point, you have to go through the filtering process of: What do you prioritize?” Stern said, noting solving customer needs, getting a return on investment and reducing labor costs are top considerations.
Good Food Holdings has also had deal with economic and banner-specific challenges. High inflation has spurred many shoppers to trade down from high-end grocery stores in recent months, putting pressure on chains like Bristol Farms and Metropolitan Market to prove their value. Good Food Holdings has also had to stabilize New Seasons Market, which it acquired in 2019, after that chain over expanded and had to curtail its growth plans in recent years.
Good Food Holdings is also undergoing some legacy system transformations with its merchandising systems and data warehousing — changes that DeGraeve characterized as less about digital innovation and more “backbone” initiatives. Good Food Holdings has already upgraded its stores to have higher network bandwidth to support more digital innovation, Stern said.
Some of the innovation to fuel Good Food Holdings’ long-term vision is a waiting game at the moment.
Good Food Holdings wants to do a “deeper dive” into diet and nutritional data that goes beyond labels like “low-fat” and understands diet and health, where a nutritionist could code up products that suit people who have high blood pressure or have other wellness needs. But that type of offering is still too nascent, DeGraeve said.
In another example, Good Food Holdings has its eye on sidewalk-roaming delivery bots but hasn’t determined yet if that type of technology is worth piloting, DeGraeve said. Good Food Holdings is also “playing around” with Simbe, the aisle-scanning robots that grocers like Schnuck Markets and SpartanNash use, Stern said.
Metrics are another challenge, DeGraeve and Stern cited. Having “good, clean, centralized” data is a challenge, Stern said.
“A bag of Oreos might appear in our system — same product — three different ways,” Stern said.
As online sales continue to grow, DeGraeve said Good Food Holdings and the grocery industry overall will be faced with finding ways to improve e-commerce profitability.
“Finding ways to take costs out is also going to be important as you have a bigger percentage of your sales coming through e-commerce,” DeGraeve said. “There's added costs that go into fulfilling and getting orders to customers.”
While linking data and information in an online environment is easy, such as letting customers shop gluten-free products with filters and lists, translating that to an in-store offering is still a challenge to overcome, Stern said.
“We want to be able to inspire customers [so that] they're coming through our store with the same sort of tools they have in the online world,” Stern said.
He continued: “All that's trying to lead to is when you come into my store, I want you to have the stuff you want when you want it.”
Jeff Wells contributed reporting to this story.


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General Motors will introduce its new compact Buick, the Verano, in mid-January at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show and debut the car for sale in the United States toward the end of this year.
The Verano will be offered with a 177-horsepower 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine and a six-speed automatic transmission. The car is expected to get 31 miles per gallon in highway driving, according to GM.
“It is a smart choice that delivers unexpected luxury in a compact sedan — and it will compete head-to-head with competitors from Audi and Lexus.” John Schwegman, vice president of Buick marketing, said in a GM press release.
The Verano, designed to compete against the Audi A3 and Lexus IS 250, looks similar to the Buick Regal but is about 10 inches shorter. Buick re-introduced the Regal in 2011 after discontinuing the brand in 2004.


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- Key legal trends in Africa - Part 3Darryl Bernstein, Johan Botes, Kieran Whyte and Lerisha Naidu
- Key trade and investment trends in Africa - Part 2Ashlin Perumall and Janet MacKenzie
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#BizTrends2020: Tech skills in 2020
Access to software skills is now critical for any growing company. Our world and economy have changed, and they're now powered by technology and the people that create it. But how does South Africa compete for the skills required to drive and support this change? Do we have what it takes?
Stephen van der Heijden, VP Growth for OfferZen
Demand for tech skills
For a start, the demand is real. We often read in the media about the massive tech skills shortage facing South African companies, with industries like banking and fintech being particularly affected.
In fact, Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie is on record as saying he would hire 100 tech professionals ‘immediately’ if he could, with the bank looking to expand its workforce by up to 600 people.
What’s interesting is that we’re seeing a rise in demand for tech talent not only from tech companies, but also traditionally non-tech companies as they compete for the unique skills needed to remain relevant and innovate. This demand for developer talent is only going to grow in 2020.
But the really exciting trend that we’re seeing is that we seem to have an increasingly good ecosystem to foster great tech talent. One of the big takeaways from the survey was that developers feel like they have growth potential locally, and that’s one of their most important concerns. 1 in 3 developers want to start their own businesses, and we’re also seeing self-taught developers coming through strongly, to the point that they have similar earning trajectories as those with degrees.
Right now, developers and tech talent are among South Africa’s top earning professions, like actuaries, lawyers and medical professionals, even though you don’t need a degree to be a developer. Their spending power in South Africa is actually higher in real terms (when adjusting for tax and cost of living) than many countries, and there are great opportunities here.
Back in 2015, StackOverflow found that when using the Big Mac index, which is a cost of living index comparing the price of Big Macs across the world, South African software developers ranked second highest in the world after Ukraine.
A look at the local market place
The State of the Software Developer Nation survey also put a dent in some widely-held perceptions in the local marketplace – not least the old ‘brain drain’ refrain. The reality is that tech is an international game, and we believe the narrative of specialists leaving the country in their droves is overhyped.
Yes, many developers are going abroad to places like Europe and the United States to gain exposure to international tech companies but with the intention of coming back to South Africa. And it’s not just talk - people are actively re-joining our recruitment platform and bringing their skills and experience back to our country.
A further case in point would be the story of the founders of OfferZen, brothers Philip and Malan Joubert, who ventured off to Silicon Valley but brought their drive, passion and newfound insights back to South Africa to start OfferZen.
So, what trends can we expect in the local marketplace in 2020?
We’re going to see companies taking a more proactive approach than ever to building winning tech teams as competition intensifies and tech becomes more global. We’re already working with companies that are looking to build out their employer value proposition to access and attract top talent, and create world-class hiring practices. Ultimately, this will make South African companies more competitive internationally in the talent market, as well as becoming more successful as businesses.
We're also seeing a greater recognition of the tech community's specific needs and wants. One example is our collaboration with Investec and our community of software makers to make programmable banking a reality for developers.
In general, the South African developer community is thriving, but we as companies still have a long way to go to really empower this community. We need to get better at understanding what makes developers tick and what drives them, supporting them in ways that matter to them, and to compete for their scarce skills on a global stage. If we can continue to invest in making South Africa a great place to be in technology, I believe we can make an outsized impact on our economy and the people in it.
About Stephen van der HeijdenAs the VP of Growth at OfferZen, Stephen van der Heijden focusses on guiding his passionate team to grow the business by adding value to the tech community.
Read more: tech trends, software developer, Biz Trends, trends 2020, Stephen van der Heijden, #BizTrends2020


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Online store platform Shopify today launched in Jakarta for the Indonesian market, in collaboration with Singapore mobile company SingTel and Indonesian e-commerce agency Ideoworks. As a regional partner, SingTel brings Shopify to the region having also launched in India, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Shopify allows individuals to actually set up their own shops using their own domain in ways that are “as easy as setting up a blog”, according to head of Ideoworks Andi S. Boediman. Would-be store owners can choose between four monthly plans that cover a range of services costing from roughly USD 20 up to USD 220. If the default services are not sufficient, there’s the Shopify App Store which enables store owners to add components to their stores according to their needs.
Ideoworks was selected as the Indonesian partner due to Boediman’s extensive network and experience in the local e-commerce landscape. Previously he was involved in Plasa.com/Mojopia which is now partly owned by ebay and he currently oversees a number of e-commerce companies and other tech startups through his separate venture capital firm Ideosource.
Indonesia was selected as one of the early countries for Shopify in Asia due to its size and potential in becoming a significant online commerce market. With more than 19 million online transactions just this year totaling $478 million in value (and it’s not even the fourth quarter yet), the figure nearly doubles last year’s total of $266 million, the company said in a statement. In terms of market size, Indonesia currently has over 70 million people online, projected to reach up to 150 million by 2015.
The significant number of individual online stores set up by Indonesians on places like Facebook, Instagram, BlackBerry Messenger and other social networks, show that there is a strong desire by Indonesian entrepreneurs to sell items online and set up shops in the least amount of effort possible. Boediman acknowledges these individual sellers and told DailySocial that, “this is clear proof that Indonesians want to be able to sell online easily”.
The nature of the market allows individuals to run their stores in multiple instances or locations and this is something that Boediman encourages. “Sellers must have their own stores because that’s the only way they can own their customer’s data, but it doesn’t mean they can’t have a presence elsewhere. You can sell your products on classified sites, be part of a larger marketplace, and still have your own self-branded stores. After all, your products come from the same source anyway, right?”
During his presentation at the launch, Boediman highlighted the fact that Tesla Motors, Wikipedia, and Bon Jovi all set up their stores using Shopify. He notes that the platform is not just for small time sellers but also easily used by major corporations. Ideoworks will be running workshops to assist Indonesian sellers in adopting online commerce as one of their trading channels.
Shopify’s platform allows shop owners to manage their stores from desktop and portable computers through the traditional web interface or using their mobile devices through Shopify’s mobile app for iPhone. Currently there doesn’t seem to be a plan for Android nor Windows Phone apps, the two major platforms currently dominating the Indonesian smartphone landscape.


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Last week at GDC, it was all about game physics. AGEIA finally announced that their PhysX hardware game physics chip was available to be purchased via gaming PC makers like Alienware, Falcon Northwest and Dell. Havok showed off their Havok FX software that works with graphics cards to increase physics. Even Sony during their pre-E3 press conference showed off some advanced physics during their PS3 game demos.
But what if you could get those kinds of interactions and effects on a regular PC or even on a PS2 and Xbox?
Developer BugBear did just that with FlatOut, their off-road rural racing game that was a surprise sleeper hit in 2005. Now BugBear is getting close to completing FlatOut 2 and once again it's targeting the PC, PS2, and Xbox. As FiringSquad got to see during a private demo of FlatOut 2 during GDC, you don't need a fancy new PC rig or a next-gen console to have tons of interaction in a game (indeed the demo of FlatOut 2 we saw ran on a laptop PC).
As we said, the original FlatOut was a surprise hit for BugBear along with its publishers Empire Interactive in Europe and VUGames in the US. According to what we were told during our demo, FlatOut has sold over 850,000 copies so far with well over half of those sold in the US. A sequel to the game was a no-brainer but rather than wait for next-gen hardware, BugBear decided to stick with the current generation stuff and instead optimize, optimize and optimize their graphics and physics engine programming. The result is a game that will look and act just as well as next-generation games in these areas.
The single player game has gotten a bit of a revamp for the sequel. The original simply had you driving through races against unnamed opponents, but for FlatOut 2 BugBear has actually created a number of different characters that will have their own driving styles. Having the single player game focus on trying to beat different characters, from tough babes to cowboy hat wearing guys certainly gives it a lot more variety. There will also be different types of cars to drive this time instead of a fleet of similar looking racers. Demolition derby cars along with street and racing cars will be a part of the mix this time for FlatOut 2 along with some secret rides that we won't mention here. Overall the game will have 34 vehicles compared to just 16 in the original.


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An Internal DNS error at Apple on Wednesday led to major outage of Apple Services including Apple iCloud, Mac App store and iTunes for almost 11 hours.
11th March 2015 witnessed a major outage of Apple services which included App store, iTunes, Apple iCloud. The problem began at about 1 am GMT on Wednesday and persisted until 8pm. Millions of Apple users suffered drastically due to this issue. Users who saved their files and essential data on the Apple iCloud may have suffered major losses in their business as they were not able to access this data. The service is back now and Apple has addressed their customers with the outage issue as well as apologized for the same. Apple has blamed its Internal server issue for its outage.
In a statement given to CNBC Apple said “We apologize to our customers experiencing problems with iTunes and other services this morning. The cause was an internal DNS error at Apple. We’re working to make all of the services available to customers as soon as possible, and we thank everyone for their patience.”
Due to the outage issue customers were not having access to App Store, iTunes Store, iBooks Store, Mac App Store and hence no purchases could be made. As per a recent report from Apple it seems iTunes services generated about $2.6 billion in their first quarter for 2015, having said that it would make sense if Apple says it has incurred a loss of around £17.6m due to the outages.
The recent Apple iPhone 5 battery issues (which they have ensured to replace) and now a major outage…….wonder if users will have the same trust on Apple any more!


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The Ornua PPI (Purchase Price Index) has risen for the month of May, driven by “generally stronger returns” across the product range, the Irish dairy exporter has confirmed.
In a brief statement to Agriland this morning (Wednesday, June 2), about the Ornua PPI, a spokesperson for Ornua said:
“The Ornua Purchase Price Index for the month of May is 116.8 and is up from 115.1 in the previous month.”
This converts to 34.8c/L, including VAT, based on Ornua’s product purchase mix and assumed member processing costs of 7c/L and excluding member margin.
The Ornua representative continued, adding:
“The increase is driven by generally stronger returns across the product range.
“In addition, the Ornua Value Payment payable to members in the month is €7.63 million, which equated to 5.2% of gross purchases in the month (year to date 5.8%).”
Meanwhile, earlier this week the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) index recorded a slight drop to mark four consecutive decreases over the last two months in its latest auction.
The most recent tender – event 285 – concluded yesterday (Tuesday, June 1) with the GDT Price Index down 0.9%.
Lasting one hour and 56 minutes, yesterday’s event saw 165 participating bidders take part across 13 bidding rounds, with 116 winning bidders emerging.
A total of 22,825MT of product was sold on the day.
The most dramatic move on the day was recorded by the butter milk powder (BMP) index which saw a 7.5% slide; butter also recorded a hefty 5.4% drop in index.


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| Sep 26, 2012
| 9:33 AM
On October 5th, the Chicago International Social Change Film Festival will be kicking off at the Showplace Icon Theater on Roosevelt Road. Showcasing films that "heighten public conciousness" of social issues, one of the festival's featured screenings...
| Jul 12, 2012
| 12:12 PM
Zynga's shares hit an all-time low after an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities lowered his estimates for the company, citing a steep decline in the social game company's traffic.
The San Francisco firm's shares traded at $4.88 early Thursday, down 7...
| Sep 5, 2012
| 2:28 PM
As president of a company that just came out with a game on Facebook called "Sports Casino," Matthew Cullen is surprisingly OK with the prospect that the U.S. is not likely to see legalized online gambling anytime soon.
Cullen's company, RocketPlay does,...
| Jul 26, 2012
| 1:31 PM
Facebook's first-ever earnings came in on target Thursday, with revenue of $1.18 billion on profit of 12 cents a share.
Facebook posted a second-quarter loss of $157 million, or 8 cents a share. But on an adjusted basis, after accounting for restricted...
| Aug 3, 2012
| 10:58 AM
Electronic Arts has filed a copyright infringement suit against Zynga, alleging that the social gaming company's "The Ville" misappropriated EA's "The Sims Social" game.
In a blog post explaining the lawsuit, Lucy Bradshaw, head of the studio that...
| Aug 7, 2012
| 4:20 AM
Amazon is getting into the game-making game. The Seattle-based company announced its first major social-game title, "Living Classics," on Monday.
The free Facebook game is the first from its Amazon Game Studios, a new department at the e-commerce giant...
| Aug 14, 2012
| 1:20 PM
The tiff between the world's largest social network and the company behind the "FarmVille" social game escalated this week.
Facebook on Tuesday shot back at Zynga, saying the number of people playing games on the social network on a monthly basis grew...
| Aug 14, 2012
| 3:55 PM
Stocks in the beleaguered social-media sector keep heading down.
Shares of Angie’s List Inc. and Groupon Inc. plunged Tuesday as investors continued their retreat from the formerly red-hot sector.
Angie’s List, the consumer-review website,...
| Aug 20, 2012
| 9:29 AM
As Apple's stock rose to new high on Monday, the technology giant set another record: It became the most valuable public company in history.
Apple's market value -- the price of its stock multiplied by the number of outstanding shares -- hit $623 billion...
| Oct 16, 2012
| 2:26 PM
Hundreds of computers, monitors, office furniture and digital design tools were auctioned Tuesday in Timonium to raise money for creditors of defunct Big Huge Games and its Rhode Island parent company, 38 Studios LLC.
Traces of a one-time creative...
| May 10, 2012
| 12:21 PM
Facebook users who haven't yet discovered the joys of FarmVille or plugged in to the sounds of Spotify will be getting an easier way to find apps that run on the site.
On Thursday, the site unveiled Facebook App Center, a clearinghouse for social apps...


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The 160-cover site will occupy the top floor of the Holiday Inn Plymouth, which is set to relaunch under the Crowne Plaza brand in April.
It will be the chef’s 17th steakhouse to open in the UK under a franchise agreement with Black and White Hospitality.
Valor, which manages 19 hotels nationwide, currently operates two other Steakhouse Bar & Grill restaurants in Chester and Liverpool.
White said the new opening would offer ‘affordable glamour’ for ‘every taste and budget’.
Dishes will include Welsh Rarebit; Chicken Kiev; and a selection of 28-day aged native breed steaks.
Nick Taplin, CEO of Black & White Hospitality, said: “After the success we’ve had working with Valor across the country, we’re certain this latest partnership at the new Crowne Plaza hotel will be a resounding success.”
Black & White Hospitality owns the franchise rights to five of White’s restaurant brands, including Wheeler’s of St. James’s, Steakhouse Bar & Grill, Mr. White’s English Chophouse, Marco’s New York Italian and Bardolino Espresso & Bellini Bar.


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App analytics help developers promote their apps but a new self-service authoring tool makes it possible for non-developers to make mobile apps to compete with developers' apps.
Big data is hard work and it's changing everything, even the way you think. So how can you assess how your new way of thinking measures against those in the C-suite? One way might be to use a new benchmarking tool from the Economist Intelligence Unit and Platfora to "find out where you fit in to the spectrum of C-Suite understanding of big data."
According to recent research, nearly every medical information website--from About.com and CDC.gov to Health.com and university websites--is collecting and monetizing information based on searches about symptoms or diseases.
To help vendors, app developers, and other interested parties sell big data products, services, and ideas to the government, I asked a panel of federal government agency leaders to share what government agencies are interested in buying and to reveal how best to sell to them.
Much has been said about the challenges in using big data, from data scientists having to spend too much time on data janitor duties, to adoption resistance stemming from corporate culture. Still, the biggest hurdle by far is in the Business-IT divide. Until business and IT reach a point where they truly understand each other and work as a team, big data and other initiatives will continue to falter and fail.
Yes, data scientists are the sexiest beings on the planet but that doesn't mean they get the superstar treatment they deserve--frustrations are high. Everyone wants big data but they don't understand it, yet they try to manage the data scientists. It would be funny if it weren't so darn destructive.
While many industry watchers, myself included, have long sounded the warning on the dangers of taking data security too lightly, it appears that good advice is less effective than massive lawsuits in potentially rectifying the situation. Health insurance giant Anthem may end up the poster child in mega-lawsuits for data security negligence. Suits were filed in Alabama and California just one day after the breach.
There's lots of terms for these elusive professionals who possess a unique mix of tech chops, business acumen, cunning intuition, and innovative problem-solving abilities--data artists, data diviners, data creatives. Whichever term you prefer, these are the pros you need to take your big data projects to the next level.
A new survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and Teradata finds a huge gap in how CEOs and other executives see big data. They found that it is CEOs who now wear the rose-colored glasses. Other executives, especially lower-level managers, have a bleaker view.
CES 2015 showed us that the notion of personal privacy no longer exists in mainstream product production. The focus is keenly on the consumer not as customer but as product. And, big data users learned that a flood of useless minutiae from the IoT is headed our way to clog our pipes and create bottlenecks in analysis. So now what?


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REBA McENTIRE sells out Festival show
REBA McENTIRE’s upcoming performance at the 85th Annual Florida Strawberry Festival is sold out.
McENTIRE will perform at 7:30 p.m. on the Wish Farms Soundstage, and about 10,000 guests are expected to attend.
“Would you expect anything less from a country legend?” said Florida Strawberry Festival President Paul Davis. “We look forward to hearing our dear friend REBA and can’t wait to see so many people enjoy the show.”
Reserved seat tickets are still available for the festival’s other headline entertainment acts and can be purchased online at www.flstrawberryfestival.com, over the phone at 813-754-1996 or at the Amscot Main Ticket Office on the festival grounds.
Click here to read the full press release.


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The revolutionary Nanosite goes mobile. A mobile Nanosite features multimedia content, polls, and full social media sharing capabilities via Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
You are here: Home » Twitter
|09/14/2014 - 09/17/2014||Montauk NY|
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|09/30/2014||New York NY|
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|10/07/2014 - 10/08/2014||New York NY|
Promoted Tweets have been around for a while, and according to recent research, they’re the Twitter ad format of choice among marketers.
How are Promoted Tweets performing? Looking at Twitter campaign activity run on its own platform, AdParlor found that for Promoted Tweets in North America, CPM, cost per click (CPC), and cost per engagement (CPE)—which includes clicks, follows, replies and retweets—had risen between January and June 2014.
During that timeframe, average CPM increased from $10.26 to $11.59. However, this metric fluctuated every month, moving up and down several times between January and June 2014, when it showed its second-highest level.
Meanwhile, CPC rates rose throughout the first half of the year (with the exception of May, when they dipped by 1 cent) and hit an average 29 cents in June 2014. Further, CPC averaged 25 cents in Q2 2014, compared with 11 cents in Q1 2014.
CPE also followed the trend, rising from 10 cents, on average, to 28 cents between January and June 2014. AdParlor noted that this made sense, since nearly all engagement with Promoted Tweets in North America was via clicks (95.8%).
Facebook is by far the most effective social media platform for driving offline sales for small businesses, according to a new report.
Digital marketing company G/O Digital surveyed 1,000 US users aged 18 to 29 for a study on Facebook advertising and found that 84% of respondents said local deals or offers on that site were a major influence on their purchasing decisions. Further, 25% said “it’s very important and I would be likely to make an in-store purchase within a week”.
Facebook offers that could be redeemed at a local store were by far the most persuasive marketing tactic. Some 40% cited this as being most likely to influence them to make an in-store purchase at a local or small business.
Promoted Posts were effective for 12% and photos/videos for 11%, while loyalty app promotions gained a 10% response.
Facebook was also way out in front when respondents were asked which social media channel they found most useful for researching products or services before visiting a local business. Fully 62% opted for Facebook, with Pinterest (12%), Twitter (11%) and Instagram (9%) trailing in its wake.
“The most bang-for-your-buck way for many small businesses to drive in-store activity and sales through social marketing in the short term is going to be Facebook,” Jeff Fagel, G/O Digital CMO, told ClickZ.
“Pinterest and Twitter should definitely have a place in their larger social marketing strategy, but will serve different purposes and support different objectives,” he added.
Amid the ongoing debate about privacy, and recent revelations surrounding Facebook’s manipulation of news feeds, G/O Digital’s research suggested that local relevance and personalisation might be more important for users.
It found that just over one third (36%) of respondents felt that “ads that are targeted based on your personal interests and past purchases” were most likely to influence them to interact with Facebook ads from small businesses. More than one quarter considered “ads that are targeted based on current location” to be most influential.
“It’s all about relevancy,” Fagel declared. “For example, if you offer me $2 off a hot dog at a baseball game, I won’t mind having my mobile viewing experience interrupted by this ad, because it’s solving an immediate, relevant need that I have: feeding my hunger and giving me a discount at the same time.”
The social network is introducing the model through four ad formats that brands will pay for if a user takes the desired action as a result.
This means brands can choose to pay based on tweet engagements, web site clicks and app installs, as well as gaining followers. For example, app installs or app engagement campaigns will only be charged on a cost-per-app-click basis. Targeting options are also provided to ensure tweets reach users at the right moment, the company added.
Twitter will suggest the appropriate ad format to advertisers using the self-serve tool.
The company said the launch aims to encourage brands to think harder about campaign objectives in order to lift performance to “the next level”.
“Let’s say you’re a camera retailer, and you want to drive more visitors to the summer promotion on your web site. You can create a website clicks or conversions campaign and then promote a tweet with a website link or website card our recommended ad format that is specifically designed to drive website traffic,” the company said in a video (see above).
Twitter said the tool delivered positive results during initial tests earlier this year and is currently offering the service to small and medium-sized companies ahead of a wider invitation-only rollout. The business has said in the past the majority of self-service buying on the network comes from smaller companies.
The launch aims to refresh the company’s pricing model, which previously only let ad buyers pay for Promoted Tweets when they were clicked, replied, retweeted or favourited. It is the latest in a pipeline of products from Twitter as it looks to lift ad revenues and address criticisms from some observers that user engagement and growth is stalling.
An upcoming tool will make it easier to create ads on the platform, allowing brands to crop images and more easily customise photos. Earlier this week, it launched its “Flock to Unlock” tool via a tie-up around Puma’s “Forever Faster” global campaign.
Twitter says it sees the “hundreds of millions” of visitors logged-out of its platform as the next key revenue generator for its nascent advertising offering and is exploring ways to monetise the audience.
European brands are spurning chances to convince and convert social media fans into long-term leads by concentrating on attention-grabbing campaigns instead of functional content created to serve a specific purpose.
Marketers know the likes of Facebok and Twitter are key to online success but all too often talk about “likes” and “retweets” as indicators of success. Granted, buzz is important when tussling with competitors for share of voice. Nevertheless, with all the data and tools at a marketers disposal surely the need for more long-term objectives is far bigger.
It has not gone unnoticed by Twitter. The social network is letting advertisers from today (8 August) create content focused on specific marketing goals or what it dubs “objective-based campaigns”. It is part of a wider masterplan to get marketers to think harder about campaign objectives with the business realising its cost-per-engagement will only go so far before brands shift social media strategies to be more business focused such as driving web site visits or app downloads.
The dearth of maturity when it comes to social media marketing is highlighted by Forrester in a recent report on social media (mis)use. Social media is a “tick box” activity that focuses on attention-getting campaigns across Europe, it found, as many Europeans show lower interaction and trust levels to social marketing than any other region. The report goes on to draw parallels to search natural search engine results, which a third (33 per cent) of Europeans’ trust in comparison to 45 per cent of US consumers.
It points to the lack of advancement in standard operating procedures for social media marketing across Europe. If a campaign fails, there is a tendency to blame social media not working in that market. In fact, the discipline works just fine in European markets; strategies are just off.
However, there are brands making structural changes to enhance their ability to produce content based on consumer preferences. Pernod Ricard, Adidas and Mondelez have all restructured to give more local spin to their marketing, which could bring about social efforts that better reflect the intricacies of a market’s social media usage.
Like, many marketers, all three are working to find the right balance between global and local, particularly when it comes to digital activations. Key to this charge is community management, one of the most underrated marketing roles and tools. By understanding local nuances and what makes your local fans tick, marketers can augment their investments to secure long-term value though stronger advocacy and ultimately sales.
The need for better social infrastructure investment is pivotal as social spend is tipped to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.6 per cent from 2012 to 2017, according to Forrester. With more people using social networks to explore brands, brands need to be more surgical in their efforts to tie activities to users’ preferences and usage of Facebook and Twitter.
Twitter and Facebook are killing it with mobile ad sales right now chiefly because they are expanding their customer base from smaller direct-response and app-install players to big brands, according to industry observers. While Facebook is clearly out in front of Twitter in terms of getting packaged goods and carmaker spends (see graph below), increasing business with such deep-pocketed marketers will likely be key to each of their long-term futures.
“[Facebook is] getting these CPG companies—the Cokes and the Pepsis and the automotives —to look more seriously at their mobile advertising products,” said Rebecca Lieb, an analyst at Altimeter. “I think we are going to see a continuation of this for at least the next year or two.”
Twitter yesterday reported that it raked in $224 million in mobile ad sales during the second quarter, up from $180 million in Q1. The newest figure also represents a 36 percent jump compared to 2013′s fourth quarter, when the social media platform brought in $165 million. The San Francisco-based tech company will achieve more than $800 million in mobile ad revenue if it keeps the pace it has set in 2014 so far. Facebook’s Q2 mobile ad sales were 34 percent greater compared to Q4 2013, and it could draw a whopping $6 billion from the marketing category with a strong finish to the rest of the year.
“It is difficult to reach consumers on their mobile devices, and the Twitter and Facebook feeds represent two of the better opportunities for advertisers to do that,” said Jim Anderson, CEO of tech firm SocialFlow. “Put another way: Attention follows eyeballs, and money follows attention.”
And so, they follow brands such asHeineken, Tide, Charmin and McDonald’s, which have invested in paid ads on the social-mobile platforms. (Neither Facebook nor Twitter categorically break out, as one example, their number of CPGs vs. e-tail advertisers.)
“Everything is moving mobile as our agency is seeing a huge lift in mobile ad spend and response rates when comparing our client data from the end of 2013 to Q2 2014,” said Dinesh Boaz, managing director and co-founder of Direct Agents. “Both Facebook and Twitter are positioned so well for the mobile paradigm shift that the surge in revenues comes as no surprise.”
Alex Taub, SocialRank’s CEO, added, “I believe Facebook and Twitter’s paid mobile advertising revenues will continue to surge.”
Well, they will for a while—but probably only as long as the data warrants the spend.
“They are going to have to answer to the results,” Lieb from Altimeter said. “And I know that Facebook is very assiduously working with its largest advertisers to help them craft really compelling mobile campaigns.”
Speaking on the company’s second quarter earnings call, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said he sees a “big opportunity” in the size of its logged-out audience who visit after seeing tweets on network news or in the newspapers to search for specific content and profiles.
He added: “We feel like we provide limited content to those hundreds of millions of other users who are unique visitors to our properties and we see a big opportunity to serve them just as well as the other two audiences.
“You get a great signal for the kind of content they like to consume and we think those signals will provide the data that we need to deliver the right kinds of monetisation experiences to that audience.”
That could include serving ad units to visitors to profile pages, for example, although Costolo sought to make it “very clear” that Twitter’s focus in the short-term will be enhancing the experience for logged-in users.
Twitter has been criticised by observers and investors for stalling user and engagement growth in previous quarters, but focusing on a different pool of users could allay concerns about its long-term investment potential.
Its number of monthly active users increased by 16 million to 271 million in the three months to 30 June, up from an increase of 14 million users in the first quarter.
Timeline views – Twitter’s measure of user engagement – grew 15 per cent year on year to 173 billion and up 11 per cent on the previous quarter. Ad revenue per 1,000 timeline views grew 100 per cent year on year to to $1.60.
Overall, revenue grew 124 per cent year on year to $312m, with ad revenue up 129 per cent to $277m – the highest rate of year on year growth the company has experienced in six quarters. This acceleration, Costolo said, was driven by higher engagement which “translates into improved ROI for our marketers”. The majority (81 per cent) of ad revenue was generated from mobile devices.
The company reported a loss of $145m, up from a loss of $42m a year earlier, as it continued to make investments in its platform and acquisitions.
Mike Gupta, Twitter head of strategic investments and outgoing chief financial officer, says as the company looks to make improvements to the experience, making it easier for users to find the content they want, it expects timeline views to decrease among monthly active users.
Twitter is continuing with a collection of changes to drive more value to users immediately after they create an account. Costolo said he would not rule out changing the timeline to be curated by an algorithm – similar to the Facebook news feed – as Twitter looks to convert new users into active ones.
IDG News Service
Foursquare unceremoniously dropped its “check in” feature this week.
Now, the service has been re-created as a third-rate Yelp instead of a first-rate Foursquare. Check-ins are now done via Swarm, a new app launched recently by Foursquare.
The trouble with this is that, for many of Foursquare’s most loyal and passionate users, checking in to locations is what Foursquare has always been about.
This kind of late-stage pivoting is something of an unhappy trend. I believe the cause of these strategic errors by companies is a combination of taking longtime and passionate users for granted while simultaneously coveting thy neighbor’s business model.
That’s a risky strategy. A company that goes that route could fail to succeed with the new model and also fail to hang on to its most passionate users. Then it could be acquired by Yahoo, never to be heard from again.
The poster child for this kind of error is Twitter.
People who love Twitter fell in love with it when it was a hyper-minimalist, quirky, secret-code-controlled text-centric microblog. It was minimalism that made Twitter great.
But Twitter got a bad case of Google andFacebook envy. The company redesigned its spare minimalism to look almost exactly like cluttered Facebook. The CEO of a company called Berg illustrated this perfectly by putting his Twitter and Facebook profiles side by side. The redesign is part of a larger direction for Twitter streams to move from text-based to picture-based. Twitter is joining Google+ and Facebook in the arms race that has broken out as people use images, rather than words, to compete for attention.
Twitter has recently been testing a feature called “retweet with comment,” which gathers up the original tweet in a card and essentially attaches it to the retweet. This moves Twitter away from its core idea, which is forced brevity.
Of course, new features can fail their tests and may never be rolled out. But the nature of Twitter tests suggests that the company is making the dual mistakes of taking its core user base for granted and simultaneously flirting with the business models of competitors.
For example, Twitter tested a feature that causes a link to a movie trailer to automatically appear when a user types in a hashtag for that movie.
Twitter is even considering dropping both the @ symbol, for identifying and linking to specific user accounts, and the hashtag, for linking to specific kinds of content, according to some testing it has done.
Over time, Twitter is evolving from something that people loved to something that is just like other services and has has few differentiating features.
Marketers have a “unique and valuable” opportunity to win the attention of Twitter users in Brazil who are already following brands on the platform, but not yet engaging with them directly, a new report has argued.
That is the conclusion of digital marketing agency 360i, which analysed how Brazilians used Twitter as part of its ongoing series exploring social media behaviour in the country as well as in India, South Korea, the UK and the US.
It found Brazilians have some unique cultural and social habits when it comes to using Twitter – for example, using it more as a means of self-expression rather than as a means of connection.
Compared to the other countries surveyed, Brazilian Twitter users are less likely to interact directly with other users, the report found, and they post a higher proportion of status updates about themselves and their personal views.
Also unique to Brazil is that the volume of tweets peak during the mealtime hours of breakfast, lunch and dinner whereas volumes peak during the evening in the US and are more consistent throughout the day in the other three markets.
And unlike in the UK and the US, where emotions other than joy are less likely to be shared publicly on social media, Brazilians are inclined to share any emotion they feel, suggesting they have a higher level of comfort with online self-expression.
In another key finding, the report found a majority of Brazilian Twitter users follow brands to keep updated about new products or share their opinions, but their level of engagement is comparatively low.
Only 3% of tweets in Brazil involve mentions of brands compared with 6% in the UK and as much as 15% in India, but the report expected an increase in brand engagement and brand presence as Brazil’s economy continues to develop.


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When asked to write down an article about automotive automotive insurance coverage I was not fairly certain how to slot in all the info the common consumer would need. Whether you’re available in the market looking for a automobile to purchase, a car enthusiast passing by for updates, news, and video content, or a journalist working on an auto story, it is our sincere hope that you’re going to find what you are looking for on our site. Chevrolet has taken the highest down for the 2019 Corvette ZR1 — the primary time since 1970 that the corporate has offered its high-notch sports automobile in a convertible format.
An overview of the automobile business reveals that it is massive and has carried out over the past couple of years, however only this 12 months its efficiency has nosedived. Low value Vehicles are driving the growth of automotive business in emerging financial system, similar to China & India. Mark Rober , who we final noticed engineering a dart board that assured a bullseye with every throw , has just constructed what every automobile-loving kid all the time dreamed of: an epic Sizzling Wheels monitor that has tiny automobiles racing between flooring, by way of swimming swimming pools, and leaping over giant explosions.
New Atlas retains you up to date on new vehicles, ideas, EVs and the latest automotive information together with check drives, reviews and protection of all the most important auto reveals across the globe. However, the new market conditions said before have significantly changed the way auto manufacturers think of the long run and this in turn may change their pricing and competition insurance policies, and even decide their existence out there.
This might indicate a 4 % jump from automotive sales in 2016 (when a complete of 1,061,859 car units were bought). Subscribe and get the most recent news on NVIDIA automotive solutions. The automobile rental industry is a multi-billion dollar sector of the US economy. With the announcement that testing would begin in March, the company has laid out its first concrete plan to get its autos on the streets of Japan.
AutoGuide is a one cease shop for the latest automotive information & opinions. Lastly, Ford has come up with a automobile that has potentials to be the subsequent big thing within the industry. The company thought-about the value rise after reviewing enter and freight costs periodically, which can also be a general industry phenomenon. Automotive News China produces two e mail newsletters each week.


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carnage of the NASDAQ market - and the stock goes up 50% in the two days after the release of earnings.
They note: "(AMRN - $5.50) announced third quarter revenues increased from $2.04 million a year ago to $5.35 million, a blistering 263% increase. AMRN earned $0.01 last quarter versus a loss of $0.30 a year ago. Going forward we feel that revenues and earnings will continue to increase at a healthy rate. We also expect margins to improve as the business plan is implemented and economies of scale begin to emerge. "


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We have already talked about the Chinese Innosilicon at the beginning of the month. After presenting its cards, Innosilicon, has just launched on its domestic market its cards based on the Fantasy One GPU. The company revealed more information by giving the specifications of each variant. At a recent event, the company also featured its Fantasy One GPUs in GFXBench. While it’s hard to get an idea of the true potential of these cards, it’s interesting to note that for the first time, a Chinese company manages to launch a GPU-based product in full autonomy.
The company has several versions of its graphics card that it has named type A and type B. Type A Fantasy One graphics cards are intended for the consumer market and workstations, while Type B versions are intended for data centers, cloud computing and AI. The most advanced version, known as Type-B, has two Fantasy One GPUs on the same PCB. For the moment, the performance of the latter seems modest since the figure of 10 TFLOP FP32 is mentioned.
These graphics cards will support a range of APIs, including DirectX, and were seen in Unigine Heaven, a way to show that DirectX technology is properly supported by Fantasy One GPUs. The company doesn’t intend to stop there and has already announced that it is finalizing its future Fantasy 2 and Fantasy 3 GPUs made in China, which will be unveiled in 2022 and will use 5nm etching technology. However, there is still a mystery about the origin of its GPUs, which do not seem to be engraved in China.


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Brotherwise partnered with VR pioneer AltspaceVR (Redwood City, Calif.) to bring Boss Monster to the virtual table. AltspaceVR made waves in the gaming community in 2015 with their VR Dungeon & Dragons sessions, but Boss Monster VR represents the first virtual reality version of a tabletop game with complex pieces, cards, and interactions. “We were blown away with the fidelity of the VR experience,” continued O’Neal. “It really looks, sounds, and feels like you’re sitting in an old tavern, playing Boss Monster with a group of friends.”
The tabletop game market has been experiencing double-digit growth for several years, and the population of gamers continues to grow. VR offers a new frontier for game developers, and AltspaceVR allows multiple people to be together in virtual space, which is ideal for tabletop games. “The VR gamespace is fascinating for us as publishers,” said O’Neal. “We imagine a time when anyone, anywhere can play our games; whether they’re disabled, homebound, deployed overseas, or just in a different town from their traditional gaming group, the possibilities to engage new gamers are just too exciting to pass up.”
Brotherwise and AltspaceVR will demonstrate Boss Monster VR at booth #2343 during GenCon. Interested gamers are encouraged to stop by at any time.
The game is already available online. To sign up, sign in, and play, go to altvr.com/bossmonster. Boss Monster can be played in AltspaceVR in full VR mode using Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or Samsung Gear VR. Players without VR devices can play Boss Monster in desktop mode on their PC or Mac, using an audio headset with a microphone
Brotherwise Games, LLC, is an independent tabletop game developer started by brothers Chris and Johnny O’Neal, and driven by their love of board games, video games and all things geeky. Boss Monster, created in 2012 with support from the Kickstarter community, has been a top selling card game ever since, and is now being produced in five languages and enjoyed worldwide. Boss Monster is available at game shops and retailers across North America.
AltspaceVR is a virtual reality software company building a new communication platform. It is now used by people in over 50 countries to share a variety of experiences and interact in the most natural and fulfilling way possible online. Founded in 2013, investors include Tencent, Dolby Family Ventures, Raine Ventures, Lux Capital, Western Technology Investments, Maven Ventures, Promus Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Formation 8, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Foundation Capital, SV Angel, Haystack Fund, and Startcaps.


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Cimpress plc (CMPR - Free Report) provided its financial update, considering the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on its operational performance. Notably, the company’s share price declined 2.7% to eventually close at $78.42 yesterday.
Cimpress’ chief executive officer, Robert Keane, communicated that the company anticipates undergoing a long and uneven recovery phase from the adverse impacts of the pandemic. However, it noted that its latest revenue and profit trends have been better than what it earlier expected.
Earlier, the company stated that in April 2020, bookings in its Vistaprint segment witnessed a decline of 51% on a year-over-year basis, while that for the Upload and Print segment fell 57%. Also, bookings in the National Pen segment and All Other segment declined 65% and 6%, respectively. Notably, this led to a decline in the company’s consolidated bookings for April by 51% year over year.
However, it also noted that bookings in all segments started to show signs of improvement from the second half of April compared to the first half, which continued throughout May 2020. For May, bookings in the Vistaprint segment decreased 18% year over year, while that for the Upload and Print segment fell 40%. Bookings in the National Pen segment recorded a decline of 43%, whereas the same for the All Other segment increased 24%. Notably, the company’s consolidated bookings for May decreased 25% year over year, narrower than the previous month’s decline. For a couple of weeks ended on Jun 13, 2020, the consolidated bookings recorded a decline of about 24% (on average) on a year-over-year basis.
Notably, Cimpress stated that the latest trend highlights the outcome of its change in focus to products and product content templates, and the impacts of ongoing relaxation of government restrictions in certain end markets.
The company also stated that it has been continuing its variable and fixed cost-management initiatives. In addition, it stated that its current liquidity level (including available cash and credit facility) stays almost at the same level recorded at the end of March 2020.
Cimpress, with a $2-billion market capitalization, currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). In the past three months, the company’s share price has increased 33.5% compared with the industry’s growth of 32%.
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks from the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector are Activision Blizzard, Inc. (ATVI - Free Report) , Brunswick Corporation (BC - Free Report) and Camping World Holdings Inc. (CWH - Free Report) . While Activision Blizzard sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Brunswick and Camping World Holdings carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Activision Blizzard delivered a positive earnings surprise of 31.34%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.
Brunswick delivered a positive earnings surprise of 8.42%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.
Camping World Holdings delivered a positive earnings surprise of 75.00% in the last reported quarter.
Zacks’ Single Best Pick to Double
From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each picked their favorite to gain +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Zacks Director of Research, Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.
This young company’s gigantic growth was hidden by low-volume trading, then cut short by the coronavirus. But its digital products stand out in a region where the internet economy has tripled since 2015 and looks to triple again by 2025.
Its stock price is already starting to resume its upward arc. The sky’s the limit! And the earlier you get in, the greater your potential gain.
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The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has set the 2021 Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) limit at $6,000. If you have made some good bucks doing some online job or investing in crypto, here is your chance to save that money for your future. Many young investors invested a large portion of their savings in Bitcoin and Dogecoin without understanding what they are getting into. Some have beginners’ luck, but you can’t be lucky all the time. If you made some windfall gains through meme stocks or cryptos, make these gins last longer.
Leverage the tax benefit the CRA offers on the TFSA and let your money grow passively. History shows that holding fundamental stocks is the best strategy in the stock market.
Here I will talk about three fundamentally strong stocks that are a buy and hold for 10 years. A $2,000 investment in each of them will give you strong double-digit growth.
Since last year, Descartes Systems (TSX:DSG)(NASDAQ:DSGX) has been on my buy list and it still is. Thi stock has delivered stable growth in thick and thin. It is the nature of its logistics and supply chain management business to be resilient.
With every passing year, commerce is only growing more complex. Globalization, trade war, door-to-door delivery to confidential information transit, everything is making supply chain management solutions stickier. Companies are looking to optimize operations further. Customers want flexibility in managing one trading consignment to a whole fleet. And with the economy re-opening at different levels worldwide, airlines and industrial customers are back in business.
After reporting single-digit revenue growth in 2020, Descartes returned to its normal revenue growth rate of 18% in the first quarter. Despite this, the stock surged 30% last year. It has already surged 15.7% year to date. If the stock continues to grow at its average annual rate of 20%, it can double your money in five years.
Like logistics, cars are also becoming complex. They need more than just component suppliers and assembly partners. They need automotive engineering solutions, and Magna International (TSX:MG)(NYSE:MGA) provides just that. It has adopted the TSMC model, where the company offers third-party manufacturing solutions while protecting intellectual property.
Magna is shifting from being a component supplier and partnering with auto and tech companies to offer automotive manufacturing services. Magna stock has already surged 30% year to date. It is a long-term hold as it chases the electric vehicle (EV) revolution and the autonomous vehicles (AV) dream. There will be short-term corrections in the stock, allowing you to buy the dip. But it is in a long-term uptrend with the potential to triple your money in 10 years.
The 2030 decade is also bright for telecom giant BCE (TSX:BCE)(NYSE:BCE), which is chasing the 5G dream. The 5G technology is multiple folds bigger than 4G as it will connect more…


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The digital asset exchange notes that during Binance’s Month 43 (January 15 to February 15, 2021), BNB managed to reach new heights after a “remarkable” token burn. Meanwhile, Binance Smart Chain has now emerged as a leading blockchain with “record-breaking” milestones, the exchange revealed.
Binance confirmed its crypto market report:
“Within just over a month, the entire crypto industry went from $1 trillion in total market capitalization to almost $1.7 trillion, with Bitcoin solely accounting for $1 trillion. As for crypto milestones, BTC surpassed $50,000 and hit an all-time high of $56,609.14 from as low as $30,400 in the middle of the month. ETH went from staying barely above $1,000 to breaking past $2,000. Then, BNB went above $50, then $100, $200, and all the way to $300 in a span of three weeks. With this rise, BNB is now the third-biggest cryptocurrency in the world.”
Binance also mentioned that it started its 43rd month of operations by burning a total of 3,619,888 BNB, which was valued at almost $165.8 million (at the time of the burn). This 14th token burn event is the largest in terms of BNB and USD values, supported by an “accelerated” burn program that Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has recently discussed in a blog post by the company.
Binance has also launched several new products that aim to make it easier for more consumers to purchase and use Bitcoin and other virtual currencies.
The crypto firm has introduced Binance Lite, which is a new addition to the Binance app that features an intuitive UI for purchasing and trading crypto-assets with “some of the lowest fees.” Currently, users may easily switch between default mode and lite mode on their apps.
The crypto firm has also launched Binance Pay (beta version). This new option was announced during the Binance Blockchain Week, where CZ had introduced the new feature. It allows customers to pay and get paid in cryptocurrency from their friends and family members from anywhere in the world. Binance Pay wallet presently supports Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Bitcoin (BTC), Swipe (SXP), Ethereum (ETH), and EUR. This Pay feature is available to select users, and the exchange says it plans to offer it to more consumers within the next few months.
Binance Launchpad has also announced its first token sale for 2021: SafePal (SFP). This time, the platform launched a completely subscription format that “opened up the token sale to even more users,” the exchange confirmed. In the days that followed this particular announcement, the BNB token price surged in value from around $50 to as high as $140 in only about a week.
As noted in the report:
“The next catalyst in the growth of BNB came from Binance Smart Chain (BSC), which has rapidly increased in popularity as an Ethereum-compatible blockchain alternative with faster transactions and lower fees. BSC’s daily transactions are on par with Ethereum’s as of February 8, and then BSC’s lead in that front grew to as much as 246% as of February 19. On that day, BSC processed 3.2 million transactions, compared to 1.3 million transactions on Ethereum.”
The TVL (total value locked) on BSC’s initiatives have also doubled in just a week, from $4.69 billion to $10.52 billion, Binance revealed. It also mentioned that PancakeSwap, the largest DeFi platform on BSC, managed to surpass Uniswap “in terms of 24-hour trading volumes.” This has led to BNB’s “best week in the market, elevating from around $130 to as high as $340 and propelling it past Tether (USDT) to take the No. 3 rank in terms of crypto market cap,” Binance noted.
(Note: for more updates from Binance, check here.)


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Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort in Saint Lucia, has appointed industry-veteran Scott Seger as the resort’s new Managing Director.
As Managing Director, Seger will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of Windjammer Landing as well as overseeing the marketing and sales efforts of the resort where more than US$40 million has been invested in renovations over the last two years. Seger will lead a dedicated team of 460 employees, many of whom have been with the resort for over 20 years.
“While this is a bittersweet transition with the passing of our leader Mark Ozawa, I am honored to serve as the resort’s new Managing Director,” said Seger.
“I will give everything I have to make sure Windjammer Landing continues to offer the ultimate vacation experience with the personal dedication and service for which we are renowned to our valued guests,” he added.


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Olivia Newton-John’s iconic ‘bad Sandy’ outfit from Grease has raised over £300,000 for her cancer charity after going up for auction.
The actor, 71, put a selection of her belongings up for sale to raise money for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Centre, including this famous outfit.
Despite the trousers having an estimate of between $40,000 – $60,000 (£31,000 – £46,000), they actually sold for $162,500 (£126,000), and the jacket beat its $100,000 – $200,000 (£77,000 – £155,000) estimate to sell for $243,200 (£188,000).
The combined total of the two items raked in £314,000, and given that she put around 500 items into the auction, Olivia definitely made a massive profit for her charity.
The leather jacket and trousers were worn in the 1978 film Grease, and the anonymous buyer of the jacket told Darren Julien of Julien’s Auctions: ‘I’m proud to be the owner of this incredible piece of pop culture history.’
Olivia was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 and revealed in November 2018 that she was once again battling cancer, and has campaigned for health awareness ever since, even setting up the cancer research centre in her home town of Melbourne.
The tight-fitting pants, which became synonymous with the character of Sandy, were already vintage (and not in the best of states) when Olivia wore them in Grease. The ‘bad Sandy’ outfit is one of the film’s most iconic looks.
She revealed in her memoir, Don’t Stop Believin’: ‘Albert Wolsky [Grease costume designer] didn’t disappoint. He found these body-hugging, high-waist, skin-tight, black sharkskin pants (even better than leather!) that were actually from the 1950s.
‘They were so old, and there was just one pair, so there was no room for error. One rip and disaster. ‘When I tried on those pants for the first time, the zipper was broken and Albert didn’t want to rip them trying to put in a new one or remove the old one. Instead, I’d be sewn into them each morning!
Olivia Newton-John wants ‘everyone’ to have access to medical cannabis amid cancer battle Olivia Newton-John ‘doing really well’ as she shines on red carpet amid cancer battle ‘My first thought after hearing this complex fashion fix: What if I need to pee? What am I going to do?’ This is the first time a fan has been able to own the outfit, as Olivia has kept hold of it for 40 years.
News from Metro


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Pub deals are signed while longtime owners call the last drinks
A brand new lease is offered with an initial term of ten years and numerous other options. The retail price is expected to be around $8 million.
Other recent deals showing the jump in value and reflecting significant improvements by owners include the Corrimal in North Wollongong, which was purchased by Damian Kelly’s Pub Invest in 2016 for $10 million and sold for $32.5 million last March .
Another is Windsor Castle in the Hunter Valley, which was originally purchased in 2015 for about $10.5 million and sold for $51 million last year.
JLL chief executive John Musca and senior vice president Ben McDonald, who advised on the Oaks hotel deal, said many generations of families have exited the hospitality industry to capitalize on “voracious demand” for the sector.
“Transaction activity in the asset class is at a two-decade high nationwide, which is unsurprising given the superior weight given to hotel revenue and the very limited number of assets per capita that will ever be available for acquisition — we’re seeing unprecedented consolidation,” Musca said.
McDonald added, “The opportunity to acquire hotel properties that monopolize strong retail locations deserve ‘unicorn’ status and are likely to be held from generation to generation by new buyers.”
“The sector enjoys an inherent advantage in the relative affordability it can offer at a time of general price increases for food and beverage options.”
MA financial fund manager Daniel Hargraves
“We don’t see that changing any time soon if the supply of assets continues to decrease.”
HTL Property national director Dan Dragicervich and managing director Andrew Jolliffe, who sold the Strathfield and Hollywood hotels, said they saw renewed market interest in cross-generational hospitality assets, which also hold the possibility of further improvement; such as significant levers for residential development or other alternative uses.
“Therefore, there was considerable market appeal for an asset that embodied virtually all of the fundamentals that astute participants in the asset class were so quick to seek,” Dragicevich said.
Poker machine revenue is also important to shoppers and has kept the value of some pubs high, but is generally overshadowed by revenue from food and drink sales.
Pub operators are reluctant to comment on the proposed changes to gambling legislation until after the NSW general election on March 25.
In general, pub brokers said the auction of machine entitlements in early 2022 was instrumental in setting a new bounty that now ranges from $625,000 to $675,000 after averaging under $300,000 in 2020.
But a big deal from MA Financial started the trend that poker machines weren’t the main attraction. The fund bought the Beach Hotel in Byron Bay in November 2019 for $100 million, then an industry record, from John “Strop” Cornell — who paid just $9 million for the site in 1990.
But there are no poker machines in the pub and the new owners firmly believe it will stay that way.
MA Financial Fund manager Daniel Hargraves said the outlook for the pub sector is positive, particularly for those making a difference and with strong community involvement.
“The sector enjoys an inherent advantage in the relative affordability it can offer in times of general price increases for food and beverage options,” said Hargraves.
“This should translate into continued demand and a new flow of customers looking to enjoy their local facility, ensuring revenue remains relatively resilient as they have in previous economic downturns.”
He said the local hotel’s simplicity as a reliable, relatively inexpensive and high-quality form of entertainment provides a viable option for people to continue to interact with one another – “as they have for over 100 years”.
Vanessa Rader, Ray White’s head of research, said late 2022 sales for NSW had eclipsed the full calendar year 2021. She said after many generations of assets came to market after enduring the most difficult trading period for many owners and operators, “we are seeing new highs being made as low interest rates and a growing pool of buyers quickly focused on the asset class.” .
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers important stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinions. Sign up to receive it every weekday morning.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/pub-deals-being-inked-as-long-term-owners-call-last-drinks-20230223-p5cmyx.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_business Pub deals are signed while longtime owners call the last drinks