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The rise of ecommerce has reduced local brick-and-mortar retail sales and the corresponding sales taxes from those transactions — putting states and localities in a revenue bind. A hodgepodge of efforts from the states and, now, the federal government to address the shortfall, and to tax ecommerce sales, is firmly underway.
To explain the status of Internet sales taxes, and the U.S. Congressional efforts at a nationwide solution, we recently spoke with Jonathan Barsade. He’s a sales tax expert, and the founder and CEO of Exactor, a sales-tax management platform.
Practical Ecommerce: What is the status of Internet sales taxes as it applies to ecommerce merchants in the U.S.?
Jonathan Barsade: There’s a lot of confusion in the area of Internet sales. There’s a perception out there that there are no taxes on the Internet. That is incorrect. So one thing to be really clear on is that sales tax do apply to the Internet. There is no law that says that the Internet is a tax-free zone.
The question isn’t so much of one of whether or not taxes apply, but rather enforcement. Can the states enforce their rules?
PEC: With the mishmash of state laws and court cases, what’s an ecommerce merchant supposed to do now, to comply?
Barsade: That’s an interesting question as there are many merchants — even though they might not be required to collect taxes when they’re selling in out of state situations — they still do it because they want to be on top of things. They’re anticipating that there will be a rule and they see no reason not to collect the taxes. What merchants can do today, if they do want to comply, is to use one of the different platforms [such as Exactor and others] that can help them in their compliance efforts. They are not costly. They can calculate the taxes and generate and file their returns.
PEC: Moving on to efforts by the U.S. Congress to pass a bill to make sales taxes uniform nationwide. Last year those efforts failed. The bill was called the Marketplace Fairness Act. It didn’t pass. It passed the Senate. It didn’t pass the House. What’s the status of the MFA this year, of becoming law?
Barsade: Over the last few years the Congress has tried to respond to the situation. Last year the Marketplace Fairness Act passed the Senate with a very large bipartisan majority. In the House there was a bipartisan support, too, but the bill stalled in the judiciary committee.
Essentially what the MFA does is to adopt the principals of the Streamline Sales Tax project, which is an agreement between states to collect sales tax. The purpose of Streamline is to simplify and standardize the rules for interstate sales tax.
The MFA includes a state-funded mechanism for supporting businesses in their sales tax efforts, [to use] certified service providers [such as Exactor and others]. The merchants don’t pay for these providers. This mechanism has been working for over eight years now with very high levels of success and is adopted not only by large business but even for small mom-and-pop businesses.
The MFA was resubmitted in the Senate just two weeks ago. It’s been supported by members of both parties. There are currently two proposed bills in the House. One is very similar to the MFA. The other has been submitted by the opponents of the MFA. Where the two bills differ is more on how they determine where the transaction occurs. Do you use the location of the buyer or that of the seller?
The alternative bill does not include the state-funded compliance system. The prevailing opinion is that a bill will pass this year. It’s unclear which of the two bills it will be. But there is a common notion is that something will happen in 2015.
The president said last year that he supports the MFA.
PEC: So if MFA passes in 2015 in the form that it passed the Senate last year, a merchant would hire one of these certified providers, such as your company. How many of these providers are there?
Barsade: There are six providers today. Streamline will be likely be adding additional providers as the bill passes.
PEC: So, if the bill passes in that form, the merchant can choose the provider. The provider’s platform would integrate with a merchant’s shopping cart to automatically compute and pay the tax. But the state or the local taxing district would pay the provider’s fee for that work, and not the merchant. Is that it?
Barsade: That is correct.
But let me add just one caveat. Merchants are not required to hire a provider. They could do it on their own if they wanted.
PEC: How many taxing districts are there in the U.S.?
Barsade: About 10,000.
PEC: Internet sales tax is often referred to as “Amazon Tax.” What’s Amazon up to with all of this?
Barsade: Amazon is a staunch supporter of the MFA. Twelve years ago, the CEO of Amazon was quoted as saying that Amazon will never pay sales tax. Then fast forward to mid-2007 and 2008, when the economic meltdown occurred. States started looking new sources of revenue. Internet sales taxes was a prime target because it was an unexplored area.
In 2007 or 2008, New York passed what eventually became known as the Amazon Law. What New York said was that even if a company doesn’t have any presence in the state, if they allow residents of New York to advertise on their website, that that will create nexus, [so that the company must collect and remit sales taxes]. It was obviously targeted to Amazon, which at the time objected. Amazon went to court. They appealed. They got all the way to the Supreme Court and they lost. Many other states followed suit and passed very similar laws.
So Amazon has now turned this seemingly obstacle into a market opportunity. In the last few years, it has approached states that passed similar laws and actually offered to build a local distribution center, hiring thousands of local employees. Amazon agreed to start paying sales tax and what they got in return was a deferral on the sales taxes that were due. Amazon is now using these local distribution centers as the basis for their same day delivery initiative.
And so what we’re seeing is that Amazon took the sales tax obstacle, turned it into a market advantage. Today they’ve become very strong supporters of the MFA.
PEC: Tell us a little bit about Exactor, your company, which is one of the six certified service providers in Streamline.
Barsade: We’ve been in production for over eight years. We’ve been certified under Streamline from the first round. We provide end-to-end solutions for sales and use tax compliance. We can connect at any point where a seller needs to calculate taxes. It can be either at the shopping cart, in the accounting program, the ERP system. Our service calculates the taxes automatically and seamlessly without slowing down the transaction or without having to perform any additional functionality. It’s all done for you automatically and will insert the taxes accurately into the shopping cart or the invoice or the purchase order, wherever it is.
PEC: Does Exactor integrate with every cart?
Barsade: We integrate with many carts, especially the most prevalent ones. We also integrate with many accounting programs such as QuickBooks, the Sage family, and the different Microsoft products. For more customized environments, we have the ability to integrate there as well. Our prices start at about $30 a month but it will go up depending upon the level of transactions and the number of returns that need to be filed.
PEC: Anything else?
Barsade: Taxes are a part of our lives and taxation of online transactions is inevitable. Ecommerce today is an integral part of commercial activity. So there’s no reason that the same rules shouldn’t apply. The evidence from the last eight years has shown that merchants will do just fine with this adaptation. Many online businesses already collect taxes and they manage to be viable. We think ecommerce businesses should manage their taxes so that tax management and tax compliance are incidental. It doesn’t take away from their main focus of managing and building up their business.
Online and physical retail should be treated as equals. It’s time that we stop pampering the Internet like some kind of toddler. The Internet is a mature business environment. We should start giving it the respect that it’s due from that aspect.


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On Wednesday, American stock index futures headed south because dismal data out of China affected market sentiment, while traders waited for more developments related to the US-China trade conflict…
American futures inch down on fears of decelerating global growth
On Friday, American futures went down because traders worry about decelerating economic surge in China and in other countries.
As a matter of fact, the S&P 500 futures shrank by 0.86% ending up with 2,622.62. Dow futures went down by 0.85% trading at 24,361. As for the tech heavy Nasdaq 100 futures, they lost 1% reaching 6,682.
In China, retail sales reported their weakest surge for 15 years, driving worries about the world’s number two economy because China is seriously affected by trade clashes with America. Besides this, the Bank of Japan’s Tankan poll published overnight disclosed that Japanese businesses expect conditions to worsen for the next three months.
In addition to this, data from the euro zone disclosed the worst business activity in the private sector for the last four years, pointing to the decelerating surge in the region.
Moreover, General Electric happened to be among the top performers in premarket trading, edging up by up to 1.5%.
Furthermore, Costco went down by 3% having posted gloomy quarterly gains. As for Starbucks, its shares inched down by 3.4% right after it uncovered a partnership with Uber Eats at up to 2,000 of its stores in America.
Aside from that, Tesla went down by 0.7%, while semiconductor company Micron decreased 2.9%, while Facebook headed south by nearly 1.7%. As for Boeing, it tumbled by nearly 2%, while Cisco declined by about 1.8%.
Retail sales are expected to be released at 8:30 AM ET. Industrial output will be available at 9:15 AM ET, while IHS Markit PMI data will be uncovered at 9:45 AM ET.
Gold futures sank by 0.3% trading at $1,242.70 a troy ounce. Crude futures lost 0.3% being worth $52.41 a barrel.
The USD index shot up by 0.4% showing 97.52.
On Wednesday, Italian stocks led losses in the European Union right after the country's deputy prime minister told that Rome considers breaking EU fiscal rules, thus masking early revenue powered by optimism around the US-China trade conflict…
On Tuesday, another US-China tariff conflict escalation put pressure on Asian stocks, although remarks from American leader that he expects trade talks to be successful backed market sentiment…
On Monday, gold declined notwithstanding a lower American currency because data underpinned hopes for a Fed interest rate lift…
On Friday, European stock indices fluctuated at the beginning of the trading session…
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will hold a meeting at 00:00 MT time on August 9.

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City Brewing to make Guinness Blonde American Lager in Latrobe
UPDATED Aug. 13, 2014, with official announcement.
Add Guinness to the beer brands LaCrosse, Wis.-based City Brewing Co. will soon make at the former Rolling Rock brewing facility in Latrobe, joining such local brands as Iron City, Duquesne Pilsner and Stoney's, among others.
International beverage conglomerate Diageo, which owns the Irish beer band, confirmed it has reached a deal with City Brewing to produce a new Guinness Blonde American Lager in Latrobe, which will produce all of the new beer.
Doug Campbell, Guinness brand director, said in an email about the choice of Latrobe: "As Guinness Blonde American is an American lager, we wanted to provide a true American influence within the beer. As Latrobe is one of the most iconic and largest breweries in the U.S., we thought this was the perfect place to do that."
Diageo confirmed the deal after repeated calls this week after the plan has been reported recently in Advertising Age as well as Bloomberg Businessweek. City Brewing, which specializes in making beers and other beverages for other companies, did not respond.
The new beer will begin production this fall. Diageo would not divulge how much of the new beer will be produced.
Expected to be launched in September with the support of a national TV advertising campaign, Guinness Blonde is the company's attempt to appeal to the craft beer segment, with a lager made from yeast imported from Dublin that will be a little on the hoppy side.
The new beer will be the first of a new Discovery Series of beers that work to meet a market thirst for new and different kinds of beers.
Noting the brand's close association with its Irish heritage, Advertising Age reports the new Guinness beer is the first to be produced in the United States. Diageo has Guinness Extra Stout made in Canada and the company's beers are made in 40 countries throughout the world, according to the report.
Tim Schooley covers retail, real estate, construction, hospitality, arts and entertainment, and government. Contact him at firstname.lastname@example.org or 412-208-3826.
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EXCLUSIVE: Newable, the SME financier, plans to raise a £50m management buyout fund to help managers buy out owners who want to exit.
The small business financier wants to begin raising the money within a year.
Succession planning is one of the thorniest problems facing small and medium-sized businesses. Owners want to retire but their management teams do not have the cash to take over their companies.
If the management team does nothing, the business could fall into the hands of unwanted family members or be subject to an unwelcome takeover – leading to the company being subsumed and job losses.
There are 77,000 companies a year in the sub-£10m enterprise-value range that need to sell because either their owners want to retire or for other personal reasons.
Newable has already committed £25m to its Newable Capital initiative, buying five businesses itself as a test, building them up and helping their management take full ownership the businesses over a three to five-year time period.
Chris Manson, chief executive of Newable, said: “We’re specifically looking for businesses that have specialist sector expertise and the ability to export. It’s not a particularly new idea. It’s what 3i set out to do 40 years ago.”
Nick Wright, Newable’s marketing and communications director, said: “These are all solid businesses that we can support in the next stage of their journey.”
It used to be that a management team could organise a management buyout either through borrowing from their high-street bank or through a venture capital trust (VCT).
However, VCT legislation has changed stopping VCTs from investing in management buyouts and banks are not interested in small businesses because the deal costs are uneconomic.
Business participating in the trial scheme so far include an insulation -component manufacturer, a factory machinery-installation company, a medical equipment manufacturer and an aluminum-window-frame manufacturer.
Newable surveyed 263 potential companies before settling on the first five, three of which are about to complete.
Manson said: “We want to be the bridge between where you’ve got management running businesses but not owning them. Otherwise, their only other route is a trade sale, which is often not in the interest of founders and means loss of jobs.
“Private equity is not interested because although these are good solid businesses, they’re not capable of tripling turnover, which is what PE is looking for.
“It’s supporting businesses by putting them in drydock for a few years and refitting them before releasing them down the slipway again.”
Founded in 1982, Newable provides business premises, advice, equity and lending to around 12,000 small and medium-sized businesses every year.
Newable is the rebranded name of Greater London Enterprise, which itself took over the business enterprise assets of the old Greater London Council.
In the year to March 2018, Newable as a company reported operating profit of £9.0m and a net asset value of £56.9m.


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- The bPay system is fantastic news for train users as Transport for London has partnered with Barclays.
- bPay contactless wristbands, fobs and stickers!
Fed-up of queuing while the person in front fumbles with One’s and Two’s? You’re not alone, like most of us and especially those who commute daily spend a large part of our travel experience queuing to purchase tickets while someone is deliberating over their pin number at everyone else’s expense. This is often a sight at most train stations right across the country, day in day out.
You will be happy to know the future of payments is just around the corner, well its actually already being used by thousands of people daily, the new BarclayCard bPay wristband – as well as stickers and key fobs are revolutionising how we make payments. Contactless payments might be something you’re now getting familiar with, the Bypay method works just like that, it allows you to buy goods by simply placing the device against the card reader.
The wristbands, fobs and stickers are usable at more than 300,000 locations across Britain from your local supermarket, pub to purchasing train tickets at the kiosk.
The BarclayCard bPay wristband costs £24.99
The BarclayCard bPay fob costs £19.99
The BarclayCard sticker costs £14.99


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A new accommodation option is tempting city slickers to the NSW Central West in droves.
Wilga Station, just outside of Bathurst, opened for business in November last year, and the luxury rural retreat has already seen a wave of visitors looking to experience what the Central West has to offer.
"We initially forecasted a 40 per cent occupancy rate for the first few months being a new offering in the region, but we're already seeing a 100 per cent occupancy rate," Wilga Station owner Hamish Keith said.
"Most of our visitors are from Sydney and Canberra, however 30 per cent of our bookings to date have been local guests, which was unexpected and most likely due to COVID."
Wilga Station launched with the one-bedroom offering 'The Farmers Hut', an off-grid, intimate cabin with bedroom, bathroom, barbecue and kitchenette facilities, as well as a glass alcove to view the scenic Evans Plains landscape.
Mr Keith said the hut was constructed using repurposed material from the surrounding farm, which has been in his family for three generations.
"The hardwood is around 60 to 70 years old and used to be part of the sheep yards, and the curved, grass roof was designed to enhance the beauty of the rolling hills nearby," he said.
"We have another offering in the works making use of the old shearers hall, a five-bedroom offering which we envision will be ideal for entertainment and events, as well as a way to tell the story of our family."
The venue also focuses on the promotion of regional produce, stocking food and wine from Bathurst, Orange and Mudgee-based producers.
Coming out of COVID-19, Mr Keith said there's real potential for farm stays to grow as a high-demand tourist offering.
"I see this as a secondary business venture for many farms as more visitors start to look for a quality regional getaway," he said.
The venue is situated on the Mid-Western Highway. For more information, visit wilgastation.com.au.


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Brookfield PD: Suspects accused of stealing credit cards, charging more than $8K at Mayfair Mall
BROOKFIELD, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Brookfield police are asking for the public's help in locating two suspects wanted for allegedly stealing victims' credit cards and charging more than $8,000 between them.
Authorities say the thefts occurred at Trader Joe's in Brookfield on Nov. 16. They say following the credit card thefts, the suspects used two victims' credit cards at Apple and Nordstrom at Mayfair Mall.
Police say the charges amounted to approximately $8,200 between the cards.
The suspects are also wanted by Cedarburg and Wauwatosa police.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Brookfield police at 262-787-3702.
To make an anonymous tip, call Waukesha County Crime Stoppers at 1-888-441-5505, or go to www.stopcrimewaukesha.com.


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Mexican soap star villain is arrested for 'shoplifting designer merchandise from a Saks Off 5th store in Texas'
- Danielle Stefani Arellano was arrested Friday after a store security guard in Texas saw her put items into her purse before exchanging other merchandise
- Arellano, who is also known as Daniela Castro in the Latin showbiz industry, never made the attempt to pay for the items at Saks Off 5th store in San Antonio
- The soap star was accompanied by her husband Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Borja, son of former Mexican president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños
- Police officers arrested the Mexican actress and confiscated the items valued between $100 to $750 and returned the merchandise to Saks Off 5th
A Mexican telenovela star was arrested after she was arrested for allegedly shoplifting at a department store in Texas.
Danielle Stefani Arellano, who is also known as Daniela Castro in the Latin acting industry, stuffed a couple of items inside her handbag during her Friday trip to a Saks Off 5th store at a shopping center in San Antonio.
According to a police report, a loss prevention employee saw the famous Mexican actress and singer removed a number of marked down designer items off their hanger and placed them into her purse.
The merchandise was valued between $100 to $750.
Mexican telenovela star Danielle Stefani Arellano was charged with theft Friday after a loss prevention officer saw her put a number of items into her purse at a Saks Off 5th store
Mexican singer and actress Danielle Stefani Arellano was arrested at a Saks Off 5th (pictured above) in San Antonio after she was charged with taking items worth between $100 and $750
However, the 52-year-old actress, never made an attempt to pay for the items while she was exchanging previously purchased merchandise at the cash register.
The Saks Off 5th security officer then confronted Arellano, who was accompanied by her husband Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Borja, son of former Mexican president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños [1964-1970], and led her to the shopping center’s loss prevention office.
Police officers were able to confiscate three pairs of pants, wovens, a sweater, a skirt and sportswear, all which were returned to Saks Off 5th.
Danielle Stefani Arellano, also known as Daniel Castro in the Latin music and acting industry, was arrested and charged shoplifting at a Saks Off 5th store Friday in San Antonio
Danielle Stefani Arellano won the award for best lead actress in 1997 for her role in 'Canaveral de Pasiones' ['Canaveral Passions']
Arellano was arrested and booked on a theft charge. Court records revealed she was released later Friday.
Her last television appearance came when she starred and played the villain role of Roberta in the Spanish-language soap opera ‘Me Declaro Culpable’ [‘I Declare Myself Guilty’], which first aired from November 2017 to January 2018.
Mexican telenovela actress Danielle Stefani Arellano pictured during her villain role in the Spanish-language soap opera ‘Me Declaro Culpable’ [‘I Declare Myself Guilty’]
In 2015, top Mexican soap opera magazine TVyNovelas recognized Arellano with the award for best female antagonist for the role she played as Graciela in 'Lo que la vida me robó' ['What life stole from me'].
The publication also awarded her with best lead actress for her role in 'Canaveral de Pasiones' ['Canaveral Passions'] in 1997.
Arellano has also recorded two albums, 'Desecuentro' ['Disagreement'] in 1998 and 'Junto A Ti' ['Next To You '] in 1999.
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The Organic Herb Trading Company (OHTC) has become UK’s first processor and distributor of FairWild herbs and spices.
From the autumn of 2014 OHTC will hold stocks of FairWild nettle, limeflower and liquorice – all of which are additionally certified organic by the Soil Association.
“We believe that FairWild products will play an increasingly important role within ethical supply chains in the future” commented Eileen Veitch-Clark, who has helped lead the project at OHTC. “Wild-growing plants form part of our tradition and history and in many countries are an important source of income for people who do not own their own land – often some of the poorest and most marginalised of the population. The FairWild certification scheme not only ensures they are paid fairly and treated respectfully; it also guarantees collection of these plants is at a sustainable level, ensuring they will be around for the generations to come.”
OHTC believes that through participation in the FairWild scheme, it will be able to play an important role in pioneering sustainable supply chains for wild-collected ingredients.
OHTC managing director, Jim Twine, told Natural Products: “The Organic Herb Trading Company is really proud of its long standing association with the FairWild Foundation and we are keen to do everything in our powers to help promote the sale of products that meet their standards. Innovative food ingredients that are both FairWild and Soil Association Organic certified are good for the planet and the people that harvest them. And with leading brands like Pukka, Neal’s Yard Remedies and London & Scottish already on board we expect the market to really take off in the years that come. The timing just feels right – especially with the next generation of ethically consumers helping to drive the resurgence in organic sales.”
Picture: FairWild liquorice production


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Partnership creates one-stop shop for contracting opportunities in New Orleans
The Port of New Orleans and the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad have joined SEBconnect, the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center's site designed to help small businesses connect to contracting opportunities.
SEBconnect was launched in 2019 to let small and emerging companies know in real time about available contracting, purchasing and new business opportunities at the convention center. The program has led to more than $43 million in contracts being awarded to local small and emerging businesses.?
SEBconnect offers users simplified technology, delivering better access and availability for opportunities all in a convenient online location, and also makes the certification process easy and transparent by connecting business owners with the right point of contact for certification through the Hudson, State and Local Disadvantaged Business Enterprise and Louisiana Unified Certification Program.
For information, go to sebconnect.com.
Lendmark Financial opens Kenner location
Lendmark Financial Services, a provider of household credit and consumer loans, has opened a new branch in Kenner at 3600 Williams Blvd.
Bill McDonnel will serve as the branch manager.
This is the 15th location in Louisiana for Lendmark.
Woodward Design+Build opens Covington office
Woodward Design+Build, a 100-year-old New Orleans construction company, has opened an office in Covington.
The office in the Northpark Office Park will support Woodward's growing number of northshore employees and clients.
Woodward is working on a $30 million renovation to St. Tammany Parish Hospital.
SCORE to host business startup seminar Tuesday
Louisiana SCORE will hold a free virtual seminar outlining the simple steps for starting a business from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The event covers topics such as the myths and realities of entrepreneurship, components of business ownership, cash management and business plan basics.
To register, go to score.org/batonrougearea.


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The Boat Airdopes 411 ANC Bluetooth headset’s India launch is around the corner, and it will be available via Flipkart. Indian consumer electronics brand, Boat is prepping to unveil a new TWS (true wireless earbuds) in its home country. Furthermore, the upcoming Boat TWS will carry the Airdopes 411 ANC moniker. Moreover, it will boast an impressive array of features such as ANC, Type-C fast charging, and more.
The upcoming TWS from Boat will come with a 10mm driver and deliver a long battery life. Furthermore, the Boat Airdopes 411 TWS will be available in multiple eye-catching color options. These include Grey Hurricane, Blue Thunder, and Black Strom. Also, the TWS has been listed on Flipkart with some key specs and prices. However, this could be a mere placeholder. So, the original asking price of the Boat TWS could reduce after they go official.
To recall, Boat launched the Airdopes 601 ANC TWS for a lowered price of just INR 3,999 earlier this year. Now, they are available for INR 4,999 via Flipkart. This is a notable 50 percent reduction in the earbuds’ original asking price of INR 9,999. Likewise, the Boat Airdopes 411 ANC has been listed on Flipkart carrying a lowered price of just INR 1,999. This is a notable 40 percent discount on their original selling price of INR 4,990.
Boat Airdopes 411 ANC India Launch Imminent
Aside from that, Flipkart will be doling out a myriad of unmissable bank offers to those who purchase the Airdopes 411 ANC Bluetooth headset via its website. As if that weren’t enough, the Boat Airdopes 411 is a feature-laden headset that supports ANC (active noise cancellation) up to 25dB. Moreover, it comes with an ambient mode, which is a transparent mode that enables users to be aware of their surroundings. This work is effective even during music playback.
Furthermore, the Boat Airdopes 411 features a dual-microphone system, each bud housing one for a crystal clear calling experience. Also, they come with ENx technology that makes the overall calling experience even more seamless. On top of that, the earphones support Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless connection with an impressive wireless range of 10 meters. Moreover, they have a 10mm driver for delivering an immersive audio listening experience. They allow users to control multiple tasks via touch and gestures.
For instance, you can use touch controls for adjusting the volume. All you need to do to change the volume is simply tap on either bud. Further, these in-ear style earbuds come with interchangeable tips. The buds have a robust battery that can last up to 17.5 hours on a single charge with ANC turned on. You get up to 4.5 hours of playback. However, you can turn ANC off to get up to 5.5 hours of playback. Similarly, you can extend this duration to 12.5 hours by using the case.
To recall, Boat had launched the Boat Airdopes 161 with a whopping 17 hours of battery life earlier this year. The Boat Airdopes 411 has a Type-C port to enable charging. Other notable features include Instant Wake n Pair which allows you to connect the TWS to your device. Moreover, the earbuds come with an IPX4 rating, Google Assistant & Siri support.


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Death Wish Coffee, an online company that bills its signature product as the world's strongest coffee, is continuing to expand into the retail sector.
The company's Keurig cups will be available at 900 Walmart stores starting June 9, and products are already sold at select Price Chopper, Safeway, Hannaford and Shop Rite locations. According to third quarter projections, Death Wish Coffee items are expected to be stocked in an additional 550 stores ranging from Northern California to New York City and Philadelphia.
The business remains 90 percent e-commerce with online customers providing the baseline for sales, but the company has expanded the wholesale portion because customers often ask where they can find the coffee and K-cups in stores, said owner Mike Brown.
"It's what our customers want," he said. "It's much more convenient to them to find it at a store."
Death Wish is "by far our number one local company" for coffee and has been popular with customers locally and outside the Capital Region, said Mona Golub, a spokeswoman for Price Chopper. In the premium coffee segment, which includes heavyweights like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts, Death Wish products consistently rank in the top five in terms of sales, she said.
At Price Chopper stores, a bag of 10 K-cups costs $15.99 and a 16-ounce bag of ground or whole bean coffee costs $19.99. Golub credits the company's following and unique products for their success.
"They're offering a superior, quality product," she said.
Brown is the former owner of Saratoga Coffee Traders, a coffee shop in downtown Saratoga Springs, and founded Death Wish in 2013 to provide people with coffee that combines strong flavor with high caffeine.
There were several advantages of starting an e-commerce company, as compared to opening a coffee shop or another physical space. At Saratoga Coffee Traders, he needed to meet a specific amount in sales every day to break even.
"I was starting at a negative before I even opened my doors every day," Brown said.
Store hours were also limited, and business is affected by weather and street traffic on a given day. With an online company, people could buy products through the website whenever they wanted and Death Wish could "hit the masses easily and cheaply," he said.
Still, launching an e-commerce business required more technical skills and marketing through social media and other channels and there were more online competitors, he said.
"Our advantage was our consistency," Brown said. "We always posted similar content every day and our customers started to rely on us for that funny coffee meme or as a resource for learning about roasting."
In 2016, the company won a competition for a free $5 million Super Bowl ad paid for by Intuit Quickbooks and catapulted to national prominence when the 30-second ad aired and more than 150,000 people descended on Death Wish's website. Since then, the company has seen the business grow rapidly and expanded to a 15,000-square-foot facility in Round Lake last year to keep up with demand.
People's interest in buying locally sourced products and learning more about coffee has boosted Death Wish's following and success. Freshness is a key factor for customers and something Death Wish prides itself on.
"People want to spend their money in the community and have it stay in the community," Brown said. "It strengthens the economy, and consumers are starting to recognize that."
The company is not planning to open a Death Wish coffee shop in the next one to three years.
"But maybe in the next five to 10 years," Brown added.


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For some time we've been tracking how Verizon has been socking customers with a $1.99 data access fee on many phones -- which was incurred by users even if the phone was off or the battery was dead. Even users who had data access on their phones blocked were socked by the fee -- given that the message sent to users to tell them they couldn't get data consumed 0.06 kilobytes of data
-- resulting in a $1.99 data fee.
The fee was first exposed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer last year
. It only gained the FCC's attention after David Pogue at the NY Times posted a column
featuring a Verizon insider -- who claimed Verizon was aware of the glitch -- but was too in love with the millions in additional revenue it generated to do anything about it.
Last December the news reports caught the FCC's attention, and the agency sent a letter requesting that Verizon explain themselves. Amazingly, despite employee leaks, thousands of impacted customers, multiple press reports, and the fact Verizon was already giving out refunds for the problem to Ohio customers
-- Verizon told the FCC the problem wasn't happening
Usage fees are not charged when a customer simply launches the Internet browser and lands on the Verizon Wireless Mobile Web homepage, which is the default setting.
After Verizon's response, things quieted down and the FCC began a more thorough investigation. Apparently that investigation was about to reveal the fruits of its labor, given that over the weekend, Verizon issued a press statement
acknowledging their over billing was very real. As such, Verizon says they're going to be refunding an estimated 15 million users who have been billed for data for years -- when no data use was happening:
As we reviewed customer accounts, we discovered that over the past several years approximately 15 million customers who did not have data plans were billed for data sessions on their phones that they did not initiate. These customers would normally have been billed at the standard rate of $1.99 per megabyte for any data they chose to access from their phones. The majority of the data sessions involved minor data exchanges caused by software built into their phones; others included accessing certain web links, which should not have incurred charges. We have addressed these issues to avoid unintended data charges in the future.
According to Verizon, "in most cases" the overbilling resulted in charges of $2-$6, but you can assume many customers paid considerably more than that. While it's nice to see Verizon finally pony up to the mistake, the Cleveland Plain Dealer was covering this story in early 2009, meaning it took Verizon more than a year and a half to finally identify and acknowledge a problem that was generating massive
So on to the math. Assuming Verizon is right and it was only fifteen million users, multiply those fifteen million users times $1.99 a month (at least) for the past several years
and you'll get quite an impressive total. The 50 million dollars Verizon is estimating as their payout may be the deal of the century for Verizon.
In an alternate universe where the Times didn't generate publicity and an FCC letter by piggybacking on the work of Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Teresa Dixon Murray -- would Verizon have noticed and corrected a billing problem generating them tens of millions in additional monthly revenue? Did Verizon notice the billing problems and simply decide to not try very hard to resolve them? Update, correction
: We also noticed that the FCC issued a statement
(pdf) noting that they've been investigating Verizon for ten months already. Says the FCC:
"We're gratified to see Verizon agree to finally repay its customers. But questions remain as to why it
took Verizon two years to reimburse its customers and why greater disclosure and other corrective actions did not come much, much sooner. The Enforcement Bureau will continue to explore these issues, including the possibility of additional penalties, to ensure that all companies prioritize the interests of consumers when billing problems occur."


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15 Oct Appraisal Reports Could Be Complimentary from Lenders
Under a new rule, consumers would be informed of their right by creditors to a free appraisal report and home estimate within three days of applying for a loan. Currently, consumers are normally charged for appraisal costs, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently proposed a new rule that would require mortgage lenders to provide free appraisal reports to applicants. The report would offer a deeper look at how the value of the property was determined.
The final rule is expected to take effect in January 2013 and will still allow lenders to charge a reasonable fee to conduct the appraisal and assist them with their lending decision. The change is that they would no longer be able to charge for providing a consumer with a copy of their own report.
Adds CFPB director Richard Cordray, “When looking to buy a home or refinance a mortgage, consumers need the best available facts and data. This rule would guarantee consumers receive important disclosures on how a lender determines the value of the home, making it easier for loan applicants to make informed decisions.”
The hope is that consumers would be given these reports as quickly as possible in order to make a sounder decision. The report would be required irrespective of whether credit was extended, denied, incomplete, or withdrawn no later than three days before closing.
For more information on this topic, please click here.


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Two "pure plays" on the U.S. memory industry are Micron Technology (MU -2.22%) and Western Digital (WDC 0.36%). Memory and storage products have a very, very long runway for growth, as artificial intelligence, 5G, and cloud computing all require massive amounts of storage and memory. In fact, according to hard disk drive manufacturer Seagate (STX), the amount of data created every five hours this year will equal all the data created during the entire year of 2002.
Yet while the growth profile is definitely there, memory manufacturers are also highly cyclical, as the prices of each company's products can fluctuate wildly with supply and demand, like oil or any other commodity. In addition, these companies produce all their own chips, and thus have to own, invest in, and run their own factories, which carry high fixed costs. As such, chipmakers tend to have a boom-and-bust cadence, even though the long-term trend is definitely up.
That has made the stocks of both Western Digital and Micron extremely cheap compared to other tech stocks, even though each company's growth profile is robust. For those looking for a great value stock in the technology space today, which is the better buy?
Spoiler alert: It's Micron
While I normally go through a lengthy description of each company's strengths and weaknesses before coming to a conclusion, let's just say that I think Micron is the superior stock in just about every way. Just about the only advantage Western Digital has is that it pays a dividend, while Micron doesn't. In fact, Western Digital's current 5% dividend yield seems downright enticing. Yet over the long-term, I don't think that 5% yield makes up for Micron's superior characteristics.
A more diversified business with less competition
Numbers aside, it's important to look at the underlying business of any stock you own. Looking at what Micron and Western Digital actually do, Micron appears the better-positioned company.
That's because Micron's business is mostly skewed toward DRAM memory, where it gets 64% of its revenue. The DRAM industry is much more attractive than the NAND flash industry, because there are only three main players, whereas the NAND industry has six competing companies, with a potential seventh on the way. China's Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. just recently announced that it had developed an advanced 128-layer NAND chip, putting on par with the top companies in the industry, if true.
Micron is also one of the NAND players, but NAND is only one third of revenue. In addition, Micron has also developed a new type of memory called 3D Xpoint, a form of non-volatile memory like NAND, but much faster -- though also more expensive. Micron is only one of two companies with 3D Xpoint, which it co-developed with Intel (INTC -1.54%). Though it's still very, very early in its development, 3D Xpoint might eventually eat into NAND's market share in the future -- though NAND flash should also grow strongly in the years ahead.
Meanwhile, Western Digital is purely a storage company, with both NAND flash as well as hard disk drive products. Like DRAM, there are only three large hard disk producers in the world; however, it's an older technology than NAND, even though hard disks still have a place in the future for cheap bulk storage.
All things considered, I prefer Micron's more diverse product portfolio in the less-competitive DRAM space, along with its exposure to NAND, and the upside potential of the newer 3D Xpoint technology.
A better balance sheet
In these trying times, many investors are also worried about a downturn affecting memory pricing. While I happen to think the need for cloud computing, high-speed communications, and other tech products to help the stay-at-home economy function should help put a floor under memory prices, it's definitely a risk for later in the year.
If a downturn should occur, Micron is once again in the better position in terms of its balance sheet. Micron's management wisely used the boom years of 2017-2018 to establish a strong net cash position, as opposed to Western Digital, which is still stuck with a large net debt position.
Cash and investments
Net Debt (Cash)
In Western Digital's case, it also has the added pressure of funding its high dividend, which could get dicey in a market downturn. Western Digital's dividend outstripped its earnings early in 2019, and this could happen again late this year if a downturn arrives for the storage industry.
Meanwhile, Micron's lack of a dividend has allowed it to repurchase a good chunk of its shares in the form of stock buybacks over the past 18 months. Management has set a target of returning at least 50% of free cash flow to shareholders in the form of buybacks, meaning management can be opportunistic and flexible in returning cash to shareholders, depending on business conditions and Micron's stock price. For Foolish long-term investors, repurchases at discounted prices are much more value-enhancing than a taxable dividend, as attractive as that payout might be.
Micron is the better long-term pick
Both Micron and Western Digital have sold off mightily in the COVID-19 downturn, and both look like solid values today, with each trading at around 1.3 times book value.
However, with Micron having the broader portfolio, less competition, and better balance sheet, it's clearly the better pick for me. While both companies could end up being long-term winners from here, Micron seems to possess less risk and better upside, negating the temptation of Western Digital's 5% yield.


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Memories of S.F. for sale
Published 4:00 am, Monday, October 23, 1995
1995-10-23 04:00:00 PDT SAN DIEGO; SAN FRANCISCO -- Yesterday, it was junk collecting dust in city warehouses. Today, it's novelty merchandise expected to add millions of dollars to city coffers.
An old street sign for $19.95. A 1950s coroner's badge for $500. A retired parking meter for $35.
The treasure trove of city surplus, mothballed in warehouses for decades, is on the shelves at the newly opened San Francisco City Store located at Pier 39.
Spearheaded by Supervisor Susan Leal, the store is modeled after a venture in San Diego, where that city has made $30,000 to $50,000 a month selling manhole covers, stop lights and other city paraphernalia.
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"It's taking things that would have been tossed out and making them into cash," said Leal during a visit to the store last week. "My goal was to raise civic pride, make some money and give some people jobs."
Tucked away behind Santa's Workshop and next door to a store that sells hats, The City Store resembles a sports memorabilia store boosting the home team. Only this time, the team is The City itself.
With unfinished plank pine floors and white opened-beamed ceilings, the store looks and feels more like a Banana Republic outlet than a souvenir shop. It was designed by The Gap's in-house architects at no cost to The City.
The store, which marks its official grand opening Friday, mixes the old and new. Unlike the schlock - chocolate pasta, chocolate cable cars, chocolate sea shells, chocolate pennies - peddled at other stores on the tourist-filled pier, the new merchandise actually is tasteful.
T-shirts and sweat shirts are emblazoned with the city seal, the Fire Department's famous crossed axes, the Police Depart- ment's seal or the old Municipal Railway trademark.
Antique desks, for sale (at $350), display hundreds of T-shirts ($24.95) and beer mugs ($8.95). Replicas of favorite street signs, including the coveted Haight and Ashbury signs ($19.95), sit atop an old drafting table. Fire Department sweat shirts ($45.95, or hooded $55.95) are neatly folded on top of a wooden office chair ($40).
Manager Scott Young said the store has already become a hit with memorabilia buffs who come in and share stories of earlier days in San Francisco.
"It seems to attract them," said Young. "Something about the furniture and the stuff that seem to say: "It's OK to share your history.' We had one guy in here who just sat down in the chair and was telling us all kinds of stories."
Old electric typewriter<
Another woman dropped by and, after inspecting an old electric typewriter, discovered it was the very one she had used years ago when she worked as a city secretary.
"She looked it over forever and then she said she was sure it was hers," said Bevrly Liberman, who worked as a vice president for Tiffany's before signing on as a consultant to The City Store. "We said we'd sell it to her for $5, but she didn't want to buy it."
Several of the early customers have been police officers or firefighters from other cities.
"Police officers just love to collect these things from other departments," said Pacheco, who was on his honeymoon with his wife, Joanna. "It's a big thing for collectors."
Despite its moniker, the store is not run by The City. With initial start-up costs funded by a $150,000 grant from the Roberts Foundation, day-to-day operations have been turned over to a nonprofit organization called Golden Gate Community Inc. Among the agency's goals is helping homeless and other economically disadvantaged residents.
All four people hired to work as clerks in the store have been recently homeless and are earning substantially more than minimum wage. Moreover, some of the newer merchandise in the store has been made by people recovering from drug and substance abuse, including some T-shirts and the frames that hold old posters and prints.
Under the contract with The City, all operating costs are covered from the gross receipts. The net profits up to $10,000 a month go to The City, but if the store earns any profit over that, Golden Gate shares in 15 percent of the excess.
Coming soon: cop coffee<
Golden Gate hopes to issue a catalog to San Francisco's 24,000 city employees sometime after Jan. 1.
Young said he hopes to add to the store's inventory: seed mix from Golden Gate Park, tulip bulbs from the Recreation and Park Department, hot sauce from the Fire Department, and a coffee blend from the Police Department.
He also hopes to get his hands on the Candlestick Park signs that used to adorn the stadium, which The City calls 3Com Park.
"There isn't a fan in town who wouldn't want to own one of those," said Young, his eyes lighting up with dollar signs.
Young said other departments will come up with their own ideas.
Eventually, Leal said she would like to see another branch of the store open at the Powell Street cable car turnaround at Market Street, a site more accessible to locals than Pier 39.
"We have a very colorful history and this is an opportunity to put it on display," said Leal, who has her own collection of San Francisco memorabilia in her City Hall office. "This is our No. 1 industry and for The City not to put its history to its advantage is a mistake." <


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WPP's planned acquisition of Grey Global hit a European regulatory hurdle on Tuesday.
According to a Reuters report, files that were submitted to the EU's merger regulator seeking approval for British WPP to buy Grey Global are incomplete, the EU's executive commission said.
The companies now have to re-file a full notification, after which its one-month merger review process will start again, according to the commission. Both agencies plan to continue to cooperate fully with the Commission services.
WPP Group's proposed $1.31 billion purchase, equally divided in cash and shares, would put it on a par with the world's largest advertising company, Omnicom
WPP and Grey's combined 2003 revenues would have been $8.637 billion.


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At WWD’s Digital Forum, Brian Buchwald of Bomoda provided actionable insights into navigating the largely untapped market.
M Gemi cofounder and president Cheryl Kaplan shares lessons learned from e-tail launch.
Pini Yakuel, founder and chief executive officer of Optimove, urges the use of data segmentation.
Knowing what data to use better informs firms on how to meet customer-centric strategy goals.
The digitally native brand has expanded via retail distribution and a chain of color bars.
Caroline Klatt, cofounder and chief executive officer of Headliner Labs, explains how messaging bots can boost sales.
Artificial intelligence yields personalized product recommendations.
Industry execs are set to convene at the annual summit, held on Feb. 7 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, to discuss the topic of harnessing digital.
With her new “hybrid contemporary” lifestyle brand, Azria is shaking things up.
The firm’s chief marketing officer Marissa Tarleton highlighted cost-effective, creative ways to engage mobile customers.
The brand’s around 30,000 consultants both sell products and advocate for personal-care policy reform.
The company cultivates an extremely close connection to its audience through direct communication, surveys and intimate gatherings.
The company’s data scientists are the backbone to its rapid-reaction operations.


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Although emerging markets like China tend to lag developed markets by 18 to 24 months in terms of technology deployment, Chinese organizations should start embracing new concepts like the software-defined data center (SDDC). The SDDC is an evolving architectural and operational philosophy, not a product you can buy with a demonstrable ROI. Chinese organizations can’t risk ignoring SDDC and falling behind global companies — so they need to pay attention to it, for a few reasons:
- China is following a different evolutionary path toward the age of the customer. Chinese manufacturing and distribution once lagged more developed regions, but recently information and communications technology has been accelerating faster in the country than elsewhere. Companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi have started to disrupt more conventional Chinese firms — forcing the latter to develop new business to boost revenue and transfer existing business operations to adapt to new market imperatives such as the mobile mind shift, big data, predictive analytics, and digital disruption. Chinese organizations aren’t just dipping their toes into the age of the customer; they’re jumping in with both feet. These firms’ tech management teams must provide new or optimized infrastructure as pools of virtual and physical resources to meet business units’ requirements for urgency and flexibility.
- Chinese organizations have good fundamental architecture. Forrester believes that many multinational and local firms in China are accelerating their deployment of converged infrastructure (CI). CI is the foundation for SDDCs; Chinese organizations can leverage it to reduce infrastructure complexity, increase flexibility, and edge closer to a more virtualized, automated, and resilient infrastructure. CI users have a ready environment to develop a SDDC; they only need worry about their staff’s skills and capabilities.
Vendors and cloud service providers are also accelerating the move toward maturity in the Chinese market:
- Intel has released a new SDDC processor in China. In September, Intel launched its E5v3 processor family in China. With this release, Intel is focusing on presenting the benefits of the new processor for SDDC and optimizing its capabilities. All of the new processor’s features come together on a platform that’s ready for the move to a SDDC. Sina Weibo noted that the new processor will have positive effects on its data center, such as reducing the number of physical servers, decreasing business latencies, and improving power management.
- Huawei worked with 21vianet to deploy the largest commercial software-defined network (SDN) in China. As the local partner of IBM Cloud Managed Services and Microsoft Azure, 21vianet deployed Huawei’s SDN product in eight major data centers in China and plans to scale up the development to a further 80 data centers. After deployment, SDN’s benefits include reducing the time to get a business online from 10 days to one day and shortening the delivery application cycle from six months to one month.
Chinese I&O pros need to know about the SDDC and assess its impact on their existing infrastructure. Again, SDDC is neither a technology nor a product, it’s a concept — one that you shouldn’t neglect when planning your future technology management.


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By Sherry Sah
Even during a pandemic, hair distributors have learned to stay resilient to stay in business. May 20, 2020, seemed like a nightmare for Asha Cavelle, owner of Asha Cavelle’s Showroom, located in Manchester, Conn. Cavelle’s business sells custom hair extensions, wigs, serums, and offers individual client consultations.
“The personal hair consultation is what I enjoy, so a client will book a private meeting where I can have them try on different hairpieces and actually touch the hair before buying it,” Cavelle said. “I also educated my clients about their hair and what products they should use.”
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), social distancing plays a big role in containing the disease. People are supposed to stay six feet apart. “I did not want any of my clients getting sick or even getting me sick, so I decided that the best thing that I can do right now is move everything online,” she said.
Cavelle talks about how COVID-19 affects her hair distribution business.
Sales from Asha Cavelle have dropped dramatically because social distancing has prevented customers from shopping in her showroom. She recently moved her business online, switched her business name to AshPosh Hair Company and expanded her offerings to include other products such as soap and body fragrances.
Benny Mena, longtime customer of Asha Cavelle’s Showroom, said that she is satisfied with the new fragrance online but is sad that Asha Cavelle had a delay on orders.
“Asha Cavelle has been my only vendor that I have gone to. I do not buy from other hair vendors. It was amazing to actually have that one on one with her as well,” said Mena.
Customers have been satisfied with the new fragrances, but they are upset with the delays from vendors. Like many American hair vendors, Cavelle is suffering losses because of shipping restrictions. “I started my Asha Cavelle ShowRoom in October 2016, I would have never thought in a million years that we would ever be closing all the clients that I have built.” Asha added.
Because Cavelle’s vendors are in China where COVID-19 originated, the U.S. government has halted her shipments from there.
“At the time, so many people had just ordered from us, and we had to delay our orders,”said Cavelle. “We contacted our vendors from China, and they kept giving us the runaround. It was already difficult enough that we had to move everything online, but now there have been delays with our orders.”
Some businesses are being affected by COVID-19, may have filed bankruptcy, laid off their employees and have closed down their shops. The ecomony has slowed down and put businesses at a disadvantage. This has left millions of people without jobs
In addition, Cavelle said many customers are scared to buy hair because the hair comes from China. “I had a customer tell me, if our vendors are from China, she does not want to buy the hair from us.” she said. “I can understand where people are coming from without knowing too much about the virus, but for people not to buy anything from China is absurd.”
Despite all the new changes, business owners say they are trying their best to keep their clients safe.
“I do not want any of my clients to become sick,” said Mena. “So, this was a very difficult idea because I did not want to lose my relationship with my clients. But, I know in my heart that I have made the right decision of closing my business down.”
Even with new changes, customers are understanding of what will need to happen. “I mean I truly understand Asha Posh for their reasons on closing down because they want to run a professional business,” said Mena. “They do not want anything to happen to their clients.”
COVID-19 also has many clients super nervous on the distribution when coming from different countries or states. “I am not even going to lie, I was a little nervous about ordering my wig from AshaPosh because most hair vendors do receive their hair from China, or if the hair has stopped in a different state with a high COVID case,” said Benny.
Despite that all businesses owners have to make a choice whether or not to take a risk and keep going or make a decision to close their shop to practice the social distance rule and move everything online. “All and all AshaPosh made a wonderful decision in closing down their business for now. I like how they truly care about their customers, like myself. I can not wait until all of this blows over so we can get back to our normal lives,” said Mena.
Nobody knows when this virus will truly be over and when things can fully get back to normal. But social distancing has been difficult for business owners, such as Sandra Oppong, the second CEO of AshaPosh. “I was so sad when our business closed down. We literally made friends around the world,” Oppong said.
“I miss connecting with my customers, but I feel like we made a wonderful decision on closing our showroom,” she said. “During this time, we will have more and better ideas for our Showroom once it reopens.”
Despite the sadness of people around the world that businesses are being impacted. People are taking the time to think about new ways to make their businesses stronger. “Now we have all the time in the world to go over business ideas and to make AshaPosh more impactful,” said Oppong. “Many things will change for the better. We will not keep a negative attitude at all. When life gives you lemons, we make lemonade,”
COVID-19 is a virus that tests businesses to stay open or to close. Either decision can impact their business or hurt their business.
“We are doing everything possible to keep our business running.” said Oppong.


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EXCITEMENT is building about where prices may head in the upcoming Naracoorte first-cross ewe and ewe lambs sales, following the $516 top paid for 1.5-year-olds at Bendigo's annual sale in Vic on Friday.
But despite expectations being high, agents remained cautiously optimistic as prices that high weren't necessarily viable.
"But they're also paying $7000 an acre for country, so who knows?" PPHS director Richard Harvie said.
"It will be a reasonable sale without being too crazy.
"The difference this year is we still had lambs topping $270 at our prime sale on Tuesday, but were mainly between $190-$220, and yes, while the mutton job is a bit tougher now, it wasn't hard earlier to get $170-$230 for old ewes.
"Off the back of what Bendigo did, I believe we have the odd pen of sheep that may make $500, but the majority will be more around the $400-$460 mark, with a few lines under the $400s."
This year, about 55,000 first-cross ewes will be offered at Naracoorte, starting with the 1.5-year-olds on Thursday, November 11, at 12.30pm, while next Thursday, November 18, has the ewe lamb portion up for sale from 12.30pm.
RELATED READING: Coolawang ewes set national record at Naracoorte
PPHS have the largest offering - more than 26,000 head across the two days - which Mr Harvie says is either on par or slightly better quality than last year's sale.
He expects most of them to be sold within a 150-kilometre radius of Naracoorte, where there is "plenty of grass about".
He didn't expect border closures to have an effect.
"After dealing with that issue last year, those wanting to come over would have gotten their cross-border passes sorted already," he said.
"If not, they have AuctionsPlus available to them."
I expect the sale to be similar, if not slightly better, than last year.- WILL NOLAN
Southern Australian Livestock's livestock manager Will Nolan said expectations were high for the sales, "but we also have to be realistic".
"I expect the sale to be similar, if not slightly better, than last year," he said.
"If we can get anywhere near $500 for ewes, that would be sensational, but vendors also have to be wary that the price level needs to be viable.
"Those prices can't be consistent as people need to buy ewes that are in their price bracket, which will also make a return down the track."
Mr Nolan said the ewes were presenting as good as they had in the past.
"The yarding is certainly good and of a high standard," he said.
"Most have come through a dry start, and wet, cold winter, but the past six weeks have been pretty friendly."
He expects most of the ewes would be sold locally, particularly the 1.5yo, with some to across the border and into the Fleurieu Peninsula.
NARACOORTE vendor Simon Formby said he would be "surprised" if today's sale didn't top the new national record set in Vic on Friday, as the quality of ewes on offer in the South East was always outstanding.
And the sale being interfaced with AuctionsPlus only adds to his optimism, he said.
The Formby family, which includes Mr Formby's wife Nicole, daughters Stephanie and Vanessa and father Tim Formby, are offering 456 head of Lines Gum Hill Merino/Inverbrackie Border Leicester-blood May 2020-drop ewes in the 1.5-year-old ewe sale at Naracoorte.
Simon says their quality is high, despite the late season.
"I rotated them through the paddocks with the best feed to keep them up to a standard as that's how we normally roll," he said.
"We also sow a few paddocks for feed (clover and rye) and that helps to supplement if feed get short."
RELATED READING: Bendigo crossbred ewes to $516
The Formbys run 1100 Merino ewes on 'Rushmore Run' at Strathalbyn, specialising in producing first-cross ewes for the annual Naracoorte sale, where they have been a vendor for nearly a decade.
"We used to sell at the Strathalbyn sale before that ceased," he said.
"I had always been interested in selling at Naracoorte, but never knew if our ewes would stack up or would be sought after.
"But our first-cross ewes do well there, and it has given us the confidence that our breeding and genetics is on the right track."
Last year, Rushmore Run, through Nutrien, sold 100 1.5yo ewes at $430 to Elders Mount Pleasant.
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It’s fete accompli – cheers!
A LOCALLY-BREWED real ale, especially created to support this year’s Hythe Venetian Fete, is to be officially tasted by town dignitaries before it goes on sale on pubs across south east Kent.
Brand-named Fete Accompli and made from a secret recipe by Daryl Stanford, of the Hopfuzz Brewery, West Hythe, the new brew will be ceremonially launched at the Potting Shed real ale bar in Hythe High Street, on Monday, July 27. Official tasters will be town mayor Cllr Michael Lyons, John Schoner, chairman of the Venetian Fete Society, and Bob Martin, chairman of Kent Campaign for Real Ale.
Fete vice-chairman Ken Crowe said that thousands of especially-designed Fete Accompli beer mats would be distributed in coming weeks. “Displayed on pub counters in Shepway and farther afield, they will not only give Hythe’s fantastic water carnival a tremendous boost but also raise awareness of Hopfuzz Brewery, started only four years ago and now producing a range of house and specialty beers made from natural products.
“The idea of the joint promotion came from Potting Shed owner Peter Dorman, and Hopfuzz master brewer Daryl Stanford has responded brilliantly by creating Fete Accompli”.
The Venetian Fete, organised by the not-for-profit Hythe Venetian Fete Society, takes place on Wednesday, August 19. For ticket information and prices, seating plan, parking arrangements and latest programme news, etc, visit www.hythe-venetianfete.com


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Canalys estimates that some 33,000 3D printers were shipped worldwide in the third quarter of 2014, representing quarter-on-quarter growth of 4%.
According to the analyst firm, revenue from printers, materials and services grew 9% on the back of strengthening global demand.
In terms of printer shipments, the consumer sector experienced large sequential growth for yet another quarter, up 16% worldwide.
“These results are extremely encouraging for the future of the 3D printing industry,” says Joe Kempton, Research Analyst, Canalys.
“Most of the major 3D printing companies had positive growth rates and will be looking to reinvest their profits to fuel further growth.”
The consumer market is growing fastest, as 3D printer prices have continued to fall and the technology has rapidly improved.
As a result, Canalys estimates that 73% of 3D printers shipped in Q3 2014 were priced, pre-tax, at under US$10,000.
“The rise in cheaper, consumer-oriented products is further proof that the consumer side of the industry has serious potential, and we expect similar growth rates in the future,” Kempton adds.
“Shipments of Stratasys’ consumer-oriented MakerBot printers have increased dramatically on the same period a year ago.”
Subsequently, Kempton believes this has had a “huge impact” on the market, with Stratasys starting to establish itself as the leading consumer 3D printer vendor.


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New report examines the impacts of COVID-19 control measures on food safety in East Africa
Following the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), measures to contain its spread have affected several aspects of the food value chain, including safety. Although COVID-19 is not transmitted through food, poor hygiene and sanitation can enhance its spread.
Scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently led a study to examine the impacts of COVID-19 mitigation measures on food safety in East Africa.
Data were collected in November and December 2020 through telephone and online interviews with 25 food safety experts based in East Africa who had previously worked with ILRI scientists on food safety projects.
The study found that the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent control measures, including restriction of movement and dusk-to-dawn curfews, disrupted various food supply chains.
In East Africa, the livestock value chain was most affected, with supplies of meat, dairy and poultry products being disrupted. Also affected were supply chains for fruits, vegetables and fish. The cereals value chain was perceived to be the least affected.
With regard to regulation, market surveillance programs for food safety were disrupted. In addition, concerns were noted on the safety of bulk-purchased food, for example, the risk of aflatoxins or the expiry of food products.
In general, the study observed that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted food systems in East Africa in terms of access to and safety of food products.
The authors therefore recommend that interventions to address future pandemics consider the possible negative impacts of disease mitigation measures; a One Health approach would facilitate this.
Mutua, F., Kang’ethe, E. and Grace, D. 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for food safety in East Africa. ILRI Discussion Paper 40. Nairobi, Kenya: ILRI.


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Giannis Antetokounmpo lands the cover of NBA 2K19
2K has announced the cover athlete for NBA 2K19. Giannis Antetokounmpo, also known as the “Greek Freak” will be featured on the standard primary packaging image.
Antetokounmpo is from the Milwaukee Bucks and is a two-time NBA All-Star. He was the first player in NBA history to finish a regular season ranked in the top 20 in total points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks.
NBA 2K19 launches September 11. 2K will also be selling the NBA 2K19 20th Anniversary Edition four days earlier, which has LeBron James on the cover.
We have a video promoting Antetokounmpo as the main cover athlete for NBA 2K19 below.


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Ford announced today that the all-new 2013 Ford Fusion and redesigned Flex will come standard with SYNC, the Detroit-based auto maker's multi-media player.
Read This Article
For many luxury automakers, leasing vehicles to its customers is how the majority of business is conducted.
Trivia: Your average rental car agency has between 100 and 150 cars in its fleet at any time.
We're not seeing too much relief at the gas pumps this summer, but that has nothing to do with the cost of oil this year.


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E-cigarette use may decrease the variety of cigarettes smoked, however smoking just one to 4 cigarettes day by day significantly increases the risk of heart problems in comparison with not smoking. The extent to which reducing cigarette smoking with vaping results in quitting is unknown. Randomized managed trials have not shown that vaping is efficient for quitting smoking. A 2016 meta-analysis based on 20 totally different studies discovered that smokers who used e-cigarettes had been 28% much less more likely to quit than those who had not tried e-cigarettes.
Around half of e-cigarette firm websites have a minimal age discover that prohibited underage individuals from getting into. The revised EU Tobacco Products Directive came into effect in May 2016, offering stricter rules for e-cigarettes. It limits e-cigarette advertising in print, on television and radio, along with decreasing the extent of nicotine in liquids and reducing the flavors used. It requires the purchaser for e-cigarettes to be no less than 18 and doesn’t allow buying them for anyone lower than 18 years of age.
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E-cigarette advertisements are also in magazines, newspapers, online, and in retail shops. Between 2010 and 2014, e-cigarettes have been second solely to cigarettes as the highest advertised product in magazines. As cigarette companies have acquired the most important e-cigarette manufacturers, they currently benefit from a twin market of smokers and e-cigarette users whereas simultaneously presenting themselves as agents of harm discount. This raises considerations in regards to the appropriateness of endorsing a product that immediately profits the tobacco industry. There is no proof that the cigarette brands are selling e-cigarettes as part of a plan to section out traditional cigarettes, despite some stating to want to cooperate in “harm reduction”. E-cigarette promoting for utilizing e-cigarettes as a quitting software have been seen in the US, UK, and China, which have not been supported by regulatory bodies.
In 2019, a vaping trade group launched a report stating that a possible US ban podsmall on e-cigarettes flavors can probably effect larger than a hundred and fifty,000 jobs across the US. While advertising of tobacco products is banned in most international locations, television and radio e-cigarette promoting in a number of countries may be not directly encouraging conventional cigarette use.
The up to date Tobacco Products Directive has been disputed by tobacco lobbyists whose businesses might be impacted by these revisions. As of 8 August 2016, the US FDA prolonged its regulatory power to incorporate e-cigarettes, e-liquid and all associated merchandise. Under this ruling the FDA will consider certain issues, including ingredients, product features and well being dangers, as well their enchantment to minors and non-users. A picture ID is now required to purchase e-cigarettes, and their sale in all-ages merchandising machines just isn’t permitted in the US. E-cigarette and tobacco companies have recruited lobbyists in an effort to prevent the US FDA from evaluating e-cigarette merchandise or banning existing products already on the market. Studies pertaining to their potential impact on smoking discount are very restricted.
“We noticed the market’s sudden recognition that the cigarette business seems to be in serious trouble, disrupted by the rise of vaping,” Mad Money’s Jim Cramer said April 2018. “Over the course of three brief days, the tobacco shares have been bent, they had been spindled and so they were mutilated by the conclusion that electronic cigarettes have become a serious risk to the old-school cigarette makers,” he added.
- Some have advocated bans on e-cigarette gross sales and others have instructed that e-cigarettes may be regulated as tobacco merchandise however with much less nicotine content or be regulated as a medicinal product.
- A 2016 World Health Organization report discovered that the scientific proof for the effectiveness of vaping for quitting smoking is “scant and of low certainty”.
- Some healthcare groups and coverage makers have hesitated to suggest e-cigarettes for quitting smoking, due to limited proof of effectiveness and security.
In the US, six large e-cigarette businesses spent $59.3 million on selling e-cigarettes in 2013. In the US and Canada, over $2 million is spent yearly on selling e-cigarettes online. E-cigarette websites often made unscientific health statements in 2012. The ease to get past the age verification system at e-cigarette firm web sites allows underage individuals to entry and be uncovered to advertising.


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Hong Kong retail is on track to match or even exceed its record 2013 sales within the next five years, according to a senior PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) consultant.
In an interview with HKTDC’s online magazine Hong Kong Means Business, Michael Cheng, the Asia Pacific & Hong Kong/China consumer markets leader with the international accounting and consulting firm, said last year’s 2.2 per cent rise in retail sales was driven by record high stock and real estate markets which buoyed consumer sentiment. Rebounding visitor numbers from the mainland were also a major contributing factor.
He is bullish about the market during the next few years, citing low unemployment and a recent weakening of the US dollar against major currencies.
“PwC expects that Hong Kong’s retail sector should be recovering well in the medium term and exceed the all-time high of 2013 within the next five years,” he said.
A further positive omen was that December’s sales were up 5.8 per cent on the previous year to HK$44.8 billion, representing the strongest month since 2013.
Official retail sales figures for January are scheduled to be released late tomorrow, (Friday), and there have already been positive reports about February, which included Lunar New Year. Beauty products retailer Sa Sa International has reported a 16 per cent lift in sales over the February 16-22 holiday period and immigration officials say visitor numbers from the mainland rose 14.5 per cent.
But Cheng cautions retailers not to take the reversal of fortunes for granted.
“For Hong Kong and even global retailers to win over the longer term, they need to be a game changer within their industry. Retailers need to transform themselves: from being disrupted to being a disruptor. Embracing technology and data in order to provide unique customer experiences through diversified platforms and logistics networks are the keys to success.”
He says the territory’s advantage as a retail hub is that it still enjoys the position as the world’s freest economy, providing high-quality and trustworthy goods, under a well-established legal system that provides confidence and excellent consumer experience.
“This encourages legal imports and reduces the attractiveness of purchases made through irregular channels, thus bringing long-term benefits to both Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland retail sectors, as well as to promote consumption upgrade in the mainland.”
Cheng predicts a solid year for luxury goods and watch and jewellery retailers after a 5.2 per cent improvement last year.
“Despite some store consolidation and a retreat from main street locations, luxury goods, especially jewellery and watches, was one of the best-performing sectors in 2017. This luxury category is expected to further recover this year, contributing to a further improvement in overall retail sales in Hong Kong this year and onwards.
And he is unconcerned about the Chinese government’s recent culling of import tariffs on 187 categories of imported consumer goods, including wines and spirits, food and pharmaceuticals.
“While PwC believes this policy will strengthen domestic consumption in China, it also argues that it will have only a modest effect on Hong Kong retail.”


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[Learn Extra: Deal makers braced for the AT&T-Time Warner ruling.]
What was the choose’s resolution?
The takeover can proceed with out any situations, Richard J. Leon, a United States District Courtroom choose, dominated. AT&T and Time Warner can now push on with the deal, which they purpose to shut later this month.
The choice is predicted to be taken as a inexperienced gentle for extra takeovers. For instance, Comcast is predicted to make a bid for many of 21st Century Fox’s tv belongings — organising a bidding conflict in opposition to the Walt Disney Firm.
It’s potential that the Justice Department will enchantment the ruling, although, so issues could not finish right here.
What was the response?
AT&T mentioned in an announcement that it hoped to shut the merger “on or before June 20 so we can begin to give consumers video entertainment that is more affordable, mobile, and innovative.”
The Justice Department mentioned it might think about its choices.
Shares of different corporations concerned in mergers rose after the ruling. T-Cellular which is looking for to merge with rival mobile-service supplier Dash rose about 1.5 % in after-hours buying and selling. Dash gained 1 %.
CVS and Aetna additionally rose, whereas Categorical Scripts, which is being acquired by insurer Cigna, added about 5 %. Cigna additionally rose.
Why was this case so intently watched?
A key argument in opposition to the federal government’s case was that the deal is a so-called vertical merger, which implies that the 2 corporations don’t produce competing merchandise: One makes media content material, and the opposite distributes it. Some massive takeovers recently have had comparable profiles — the acquisition of the insurer Aetna by the pharmacy chain CVS, and Amazon’s buy of Complete Meals — they usually sometimes make it previous regulators.
Prior to now, regulators have as an alternative centered on preserving one firm, or a small group of corporations, from proudly owning an excessive amount of of anyone particular business. It comes up when corporations purchase their rivals — what’s referred to as horizontal integration.
For instance, in 2016, a federal choose blocked the merger of Staples and Workplace Depot after the Federal Commerce Fee argued that the mix would depart Individuals with just one dominant retailer centered on pens, paper clips and Submit-it notes.
What makes the AT&T resolution noteworthy is that the deal was challenged regardless that it doesn’t share all of the traits of horizontal integration.
“Vertical mergers do not fit the traditional horizontal-merger analytical framework used by the U.S. regulatory authorities,” R. Mark McCareins, a professor on the Kellogg College of Administration at Northwestern College, wrote in a web-based dialogue about vertical mergers. It means the commerce fee and the Department of Justice “are faced with pounding a square peg into a round hole.”
[Learn extra: The Time Warner case was not AT&T’s first tangle with U.S. antitrust legislation.]
How else may Choose Leon have dominated?
Choose Leon may have blocked the deal.
Doing so may need inspired the Justice Department to behave extra aggressively when taking a look at offers sooner or later, and likewise may have prompted a rethink by corporations with comparable offers within the works.
He may have authorised it however connected situations.
The purpose of the situations may broadly have been to maintain AT&T from utilizing its management of suppliers like HBO or CNN as a weapon to extend prices for its rivals. The Justice Department argued that AT&T may cost rivals a excessive worth for, say, HBO to make AT&T’s personal product extra aggressive.
One approach to tackle this might have been to nominate a 3rd social gathering to supervise disagreements between AT&T and the cable corporations that need to license Time Warner content material. The federal government didn’t like that method.
Another choice was to demand that AT&T and Time Warner dump some plum belongings. AT&T and Time Warner didn’t like this method, so was anticipated to enchantment any such resolution.
Didn’t this get political at one level?
Yup. Time Warner owns CNN, which President Trump has publicly and repeatedly attacked as pretend information.
“AT&T is buying Time Warner, and thus CNN,” he mentioned at a marketing campaign rally when the deal was introduced. He mentioned it was “a deal we will not approve in my administration.”
The federal government had mentioned that Mr. Trump didn’t talk with antitrust officers on the deal and that their resolution to oppose the merger had not been ordered by the White Home. In the course of the trial, Choose Leon rejected lots of AT&T’s efforts to introduce proof about political interference into the case.
An earlier model of this text misstated the construction of a merger between T-Cellular and Dash. T-Cellular will purchase its rival mobile-service supplier Dash, not the opposite approach round.


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The country’s largest food festival has walked back its plan to require that guests show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to attend.
The organizers of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival changed the language in their COVID-19 guidelines this week to say that guests, staff and Florida International students working the May festival need only fill out a digital health screening, attesting they have one or the other.
The change came after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order April 2 barring any business that accepts public dollars from requiring proof of vaccinations from guests. FIU’s hospitality school is a beneficiary of the festival.
The festival, which expects to draw 20,000 people to South Florida from May 20-23, had started selling tickets March 22 with the requirement that guests show a negative coronavirus test less than 3 days old or proof of vaccination before attending any event. A festival spokesman said the original language also stated they could fill out an online health screening, swearing to either. After the governor’s order and meeting with its legal team, festival organizers eliminated the option to show proof.
DeSantis’ order undermined the South Beach festival’s original plan as it seeks to put on the country’s first major food festival since the coronavirus outbreak more than a year ago. The governor said asking for proof of vaccinations would “reduce individual freedom.” His order does not prevent businesses such as restaurants and retail stores from using other screening protocols recommended by state and federal offices.
Immediately after the governor’s executive order, festival founder Lee Schrager told the Miami Herald he still felt the festival was on solid ground by requiring proof of a negative COVID-19 test or, alternatively, vaccination proof. But the festival’s lawyers started reviewing its ticket policy.
The festival, which normally draws more than 60,000 guests to South Florida, still has plans to limit coronavirus exposure.
It will operate at less than half capacity at all of its events — slashing its total attendance to about a third. It has cut its events from 110 to 68 and Schrager had said the event expects to lose $700,000 this year.
The event still will enforce a series of protocols including symptom and temperature checks. It will require guests to wear masks whenever they are not eating. And it will provide masks if the one a guest brings does not meet its standard. The full guidelines are available at sobewff.org/covid-guidelines.


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Murdoch under pressure to raise his bid for Sky following offer that values the UK-based broadcaster at £18.5bn
21st Century Fox launched a £10.75 a share bid for the 61% of Sky it does not already own
Rupert Murdoch is under mounting pressure to raise his bid for Sky following an offer that values the UK-based broadcaster at £18.5billion.
American media giant 21st Century Fox, which is controlled by Murdoch, has launched a £10.75 a share bid for the 61 per cent of Sky it does not already own.
But the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) – which represents 71 council funds and controls around 2 per cent of Sky – has joined the chorus of investors angling for more.
Fellow investors such as Standard Life Investments and Jupiter Asset Management have also questioned the offer price.
There are concerns over the role of Murdoch's son James, who is chairman of Sky and chief executive of 21st Century Fox.
The LAPFF said any tie-up between Sky and Fox should be based on 'an appropriate premium as well as safeguards for future probity given past track records of the businesses controlled by the Murdoch family'.
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News and Tech Blog
Stay tuned for the latest news about trade fairs, product releases, technical blog, and other announcements.
Spin Digital at the HiPEAC Conference – Manchester
Spin Digital will be part of the HiPEAC conference that will take place in Manchester, UK from January 22-24 2018 at the Manchester Central Convention Center.
Spin Digital at IBC 2017 – Amsterdam
Spin Digital Video Technologies GmbH (Spin Digital) will present at IBC 2017 a new generation of its advanced HEVC/H.265 software solution for ultra-high definition video: 4K, 8K, and beyond. A demonstration will be presented from September 15-19 at …
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3 Mins Read
Reports of global sportswear behemoth Adidas and sustainable shoe company Allbirds working together to develop a near-zero carbon footprint shoe dominated last year and now the wait is over, as the sportswear giant and the sustainable fashion upstart have partnered on a running sports shoe dubbed Futurecraft.Footprint, which boasts a carbon footprint of 2.94kg CO2, which they claim is the lowest carbon footprint ever recorded for a shoe.
The footwear industry alone emits 700 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, and the Adidas X Allbirds’ collaboration is an effort to bring this number way down and create environmentally shoes that are better for the planet as well as for the people.
For 12-months, the duo worked to change their manufacturing and supply chain techniques to create a low carbon footprint shoe and decided to transform its Tier 1 factories’ energy into using renewables, neutralized its shipping emissions and used less air in its packaging leading to overall less weight.
The result is the unveiling of the Futurecraft.Footprint with a carbon footprint of 2.94kg CO2e that is calculated analyzing the total amount of GHGs utilised in producing the shoe.
When compared to a traditional running shoe that produces about 12.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions as calculated by Allbirds along with another MIT study that found that a “typical pair of running shoes” produce “30 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions,” the shoe from this collaboration can be considered as the ‘world’s lowest ever carbon footprint’ shoe with Adidas going one step forward and stating that the new pair has 63% fewer emissions than its own Adizero RC3 sneaker.
Based on Adidas’ proprietary performance cushioning tech like its Lightstrike midsole, the shoe is made of a compound that utilizes Allbirds’ sugarcane-based SweetFoam lending a low-carbon natural component to the footwear. In addition, the upper material is created with 70% recycled polyester and 30% natural Tencel, a material developed out of wood pulp that provides a lightweight upper built for high performance.
In a press release, executive board member of global brands at Adidas, Brian Grevy, said: “By truly co-creating and providing each other with open access to knowledge and resources — such as Allbirds’ knowledge of carbon calculation and experience with natural materials, and Adidas’ capabilities in manufacturing and performance footwear — this is a call to action for other brands, and a milestone in the sports industry achieving carbon neutrality.”
By truly co-creating and providing each other with open access to knowledge and resources, this is a call to action for other brands, and a milestone in the sports industry achieving carbon neutralityBrian Grevy, executive board member of global brands, Adidas
According to Adidas, an initial launch will see 100 pairs be dropped by way of raffles for its Creators Club members, with a larger release slated later this year of 10,000 pairs with a much widespread release expected to start by spring 2022.
The Futurecraft.Footprint is a part of Adidas’s own Futurecraft line that employs alternative innovations and technologies that change the way sportswear has been produced and consumed with other projects like one that combines 3D printing with robotic automation, and another which is a recyclable Loop initiative.
In other news, Allbirds recently open-sourced its version of a carbon footprint calculator that can be found at FreeTheFootprint.com for the entire fashion industry in an effort to reduce the overall carbon footprint it produces and even encouraged the sector to use carbon footprint labels for its products.
In addition, it has joined forces with Clean Agency, an environmental consultancy company to calculate the environmental impact of each of its products from the raw materials used to the end of life with consumers able to access all this data online promoting transparency and sustainability in the fashion industry.
Lead image courtesy of Adidas.