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On Wednesday, Apple revealed a new OnLive Desktop version to allow users a digital desktop on Windows housed for the iPad. The new version hopes to include Adobe Flash.
The new system is still very buggy. Apple thought to transfer the idea over to mobile platforms but decided it was too much of a hassle.
The OnLive application allow users to access a ‘Flash-equipped browser’ to run on Windows.
This fun new service is accessible to absolutely anyone.
In the long run, this will be seen as a large marketing tool for big business.


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There is a lot of noise in the world about a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. Most of it is just that: noise. The few promising ones go about their business in a quiet way. Look out for quiet, unassuming stocks that go about their business and take everything that is thrown at them in stride.
Cogeco (TSX:CGO) is a player in the communications and media space. It operates under the Cogeco Connexion name in Québec and Ontario. Along the East Coast of the United States, it operates under the Atlantic Broadband brand name.
Q3 didn’t slip away
The company announced its results for the third quarter ending on May 31, 2020, recently. Revenue increased by 1.4% to $626 million compared to the same period in 2019. Adjusted EBITDA was $298.4 million, up by 2.9%. Free cash flow decreased by 15.1% at $119.2 million.
Cogeco’s media business, particularly its radio segment, was hit hard by the pandemic. A large part of its radio advertising revenue comes from the retail industry. Cogeco owns and operates 23 radio stations mainly across Quebec, and since most retail stores in the region were temporarily shut between March to May, “…they significantly reduced or completely stopped their media spending.” The radio business recorded a year-on-year decline of 33% in revenue.
President and CEO of Cogeco Philippe Jetté minced no words when he said, “As for Cogeco Media, we know that the media industry has been particularly hard hit by the effects of this pandemic, and our radio subsidiary is no exception.”
Since June, as the lockdown restrictions are lifted, the retail sector is opening up, and that should bode well for Cogeco. The company has offered a number of relief initiatives to customers including “…temporary discontinuance of late fees and data overage fees.”
However, Cogeco saw a strong increase in the demand for services from Cogeco Connexion and Atlantic Broadband. The company also had a lower level of customer activations and disconnections. This translated into lower operating costs.
The 10 Best Stocks to Buy This MonthClick here to learn more!
What’s next for this TSX stock?
The company’s financial outlook for the fiscal year ending on August 31, 2020, is as below. It expects
- Low-single digit percentage growth in revenue;
- Low-single digit percentage growth in adjusted EBITDA; and
- Mid-single digit percentage growth in free cash flow.
Cogeco expects its advertising revenue to fall some more, as lockdown measures in Montreal only began in June. The company says its advance bookings have improved modestly. However, the company has shied away from giving a forecast for FY 2021.
I wrote about Cogeco in April this year, recommending it as a buy in a recession. Even though the stock is around the same price, my viewpoint hasn’t changed. Cogeco numbers will only improve as restrictions are lifted and life limps back to normal.
Analysts have given the stock a target price of $103, which means it’s trading at a discount of over 20% right now. It’s a good stock to add to your portfolio at this time.
Speaking of Canadian stocks to buy right now...
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Fool contributor Aditya Raghunath has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

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Liquigas Malta offers €200 worth of LPG fuel vouchers for #LPGday
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Liquigas Malta has said that it is celebrating #LPGday by promoting and encouraging car conversions from petrol to LPG through an offer of €200 worth of LPG fuel vouchers for all cars installing a certified LPG conversion kit by the 31st of October 2019.
In a statement today, it explained that that this is over and above the Government incentive scheme of €200 for each conversion.
The day of 7th June has now been selected by the World LPG Association (WLPGA) as the #LPGday – a global online social media event to promote the benefits of LPG worldwide.
As from this year, being #LPGday’s first edition, Liquigas Malta will be joining several countries and companies in marking this global awareness day, annually.
Liquigas said that “both Liquigas and Government incentives will reduce drastically the payback period of the LPG conversion investment by owners and at the same time contribute to lower traffic emissions.”
The LPG vouchers will be granted to car owners and can be used at all authorised AutoLiquigas stations, namely at MIA Station in Gudja, J. Micallef Station in Rabat, Wembley Station in Swieqi, VC Station in Gharghur and Santa Maria Station in Mellieha.
Liquigas Chief Executive Dr Roberto Capelluto explained that, “one can start the conversion process by contacting one of the AutoLiquigas approved installers namely Acheck Ltd of Mosta, Muscat Motors Ltd of Gzira or Michael Debono Ltd of Zebbug, and agree on a date for the conversion.”
Once the car is converted to LPG, the owner gets in contact with Liquigas on tel 2248 6000 and an appointment is set for the conversion verification and vouchers collection.
For this verification, the owner needs to present the converted car with the log book and the conversion certificate issued by the installer.


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What a difference a single year can make in our lives! 2020 has been a reset button for the global population to reboot and redesign the way we think, act and do business. COVID-19 forced us to convert our kitchen counters into office desks, conferencing apps into meeting rooms, and thus embracing the digital wave became the new normal. It’s the year that will be noted in history books, and there’s still the last quarter left to go!
Coronavirus has impacted consumer behaviour radically, leading to hyper-growth in online sales. In the first quarter of 2020, US consumers spent over $146.5 billion online which was 14.5% more for the same period last year. The Forrester report shows online retail growing at 18.5% this year, which means a reach of 20.2% overall penetration is North America.
HOW WILL COVID-19 IMPACT THE HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON 2020?
We all know, even pre-Corona times, Black Friday and the holiday season were the most anticipated shopping periods of the year. Fast forward to the current year 2020, these are the biggest sales events in the history of e-commerce. According to Rakuten Advertising’s report, 70% of consumers won’t be decreasing their spend during the 2020 peak shopping period.
The last quarter of 2020 will be the most important period for retailers than ever before. With 73% of global consumers primarily purchasing online, the biggest buying influencer will be discounts or special deals. Consequently, the key shopping peaks will be Single’s Day and Black Friday, thus an opportunity for brands to make up for lost sales caused by COVID-19.
But are retailers prepared to execute an effective strategy for the mounting demands? Are they equipped to respond to the challenges for the upcoming shopping season?
Such uncertain times mean brands and retailers need to correctly forecast the demand, strategically plan their marketing mix, and efficiently fill orders. We understand that the year-end is going to be most busy, and we would love to help your online store prepare in advance.
THE 4 BIGGEST CHALLENGES FOR RETAILERS FOR HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON 2020
Due to the ongoing global public health crisis, many businesses were forced to shut down their physical stores, start their digital stores, or those with an existing web-shop were required to quickly revamp their strategies to manage the new demands of logistics and online shipping.
“As online sales grow to historic levels, retailers will feel significant pressure on their margins in 2020 because e-commerce logistics costs increase retailers’ costs,” Forrester reported. “As online buying trends remain strong over the next five years, retailers will have to find a balance to help alleviate this pressure on margins.”
High Negative Impact of Online Returns
Anticipatory Delivery Problems
– Salesforce predicted parcels delivered will exceed capacity by 5% globally between the week before Cyber Week and December 26th. This means 700 million gifts at risk of not being delivered before Christmas.
Huge Transportation Costs
– It is said the cost to drop a box at a door will be 10 – 15 times more than what used to be a pallet to a store.7
Impact of Inventory Shortages
– According to Financial Times, in July 2020, 33 of US’s largest listed retailers held $119 billion worth of inventory, 9% less than last year. Low inventory and empty shelves can mean huge financial loss for retailers.
The challenges brought on by the current pandemic will put tremendous pressure on retailers, as they have to completely shift their focus from stores to fulfilment centres to manage the high numbers of online orders.
“THINK BIG, THINK SMART, THINK AHEAD.”
This holiday shopping season, it’s going to be a test for retailers on how they will manage their inventory, deliveries and returns with a strategic e-commerce strategy. As this year is crucial more than ever before, let’s see how retailers will ensure their digital strategies remain agile to embrace the new change as a competitive advantage for better outcomes.
5 TIPS FOR RETAILERS TO PREPARE FOR HOLIDAY SHOPPING SEASON 2020
1. Redefined Online Returns
Holidays are the time for giving gifts and returning that jumper your aunt gave which just does not fit. Ordering gifts online from the comfort of your home has become the new normal. For the upcoming holiday season, an increase in online shpping is anticipated to be matched by high volumes of return.
In the previous years, the problem of increased returns was a less-known devil. However, over the years, the holiday season unmasked the threats of peak in returns not only on the company finances but also on the environment.
“Customers have gotten really accustomed to free returns,”Matt Walaszek, associate director of industrial and logistics research at CBRE, said. “We are really spoiled. And retailers have to figure this out to be able to compete in this marketplace.”
GO GREEN THIS BLACK FRIDAY
Retailers are feeling the pain points and proactively taking steps to ease the pain. They can, in fact, embrace the problem and use it as a competitive advantage in creating a seamless shopping experience for its customers. Huge opportunity remains for possible solutions that can prevent returns by nipping it at the bud.
The future is augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI). Brands like Houzz and IKEA provide 3D tools to shoppers to visually imagine products in their homes to help them buy the right size. In the fashion sector, companies like The Fit are providing an AI tool to online shoppers to secure the right size from the very first purchase, resulting in reduced returns. This can be specially leveraged during the holiday season when customers are buying on discounts or for their holiday outfits.
Incorporating The Fit’s innovative technology into the retailer’s web-shop will not only help the customers but also the brands in better assortment planning. They can gain a deeper understanding of how well their assortments fit their customers and plan and produce better in the long run.
These technologies have huge potential to scale by helping customers to make better-informed decisions. This means addressing the root-cause of huge returns, while the other areas can be seen as future possibilities for improvement.
2. Shopping Cart Abandonment is Preventable
It is really frustrating to create a successful sales funnel and pique consumers’ interest only to lose it at the point of sale. Shopping cart abandonment is one of the retailers worst nightmares.
Recent data from Baymard Institute points out that the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.57% across all industries. This is problematic as it is a major roadblock in creating an optimised e-commerce sales strategy.
There are a number of reasons why online shoppers abandon their shopping carts and some of the common triggers are mentioned below. We will be looking at them and also the ways brands can make the check out process as smooth as possible.
- Extra costs such as shipping, taxes and fees is the top reason for abandonment. Hence it is very important for brands to be transparent about these costs. Let’s keep the surprise elements only to the gifts handed by Santa. Your shopping cart is the place for detailed price information.
- The trouble of “Create an account” at checkout is another major pain point for customers, especially for one-time shoppers, thus resulting in a failed purchase. Giving customers the option of guest checkout is a great way to boost sales.
- Re-entering payment or shipping details is another source for redundancy in the checkout process. An easy way to eliminate this problem is to come up with automated fields with the customer’s billing information for shipping details as well. In most cases, both these categories are the same.
3. Revamp Your Merchandising Strategy
A personalised shopping experience is the key to creating the perfect holiday magic. Customers are kings, and if brands do not take care to uniquely stand out in front of them, they risk losing them to the competition.
For the upcoming holiday season, retailers can analyse the consumer behaviour to come up with targeted content and product recommendations. Shoppers just take 0.05 seconds to form an opinion about your website, and you do not want to bore them with unappealing user experience.
What online merchandising strategies can brands follow to capture consumers attention?
- Clearly feature holiday products and special offers. Consider what special seasonal items will be on sale, and you can use banners or badges to communicate these offers to your customers. You can also organise all the gifts in one place and put them in one special category.
- Make sure your website is holiday-ready. Nothing works better than a well optimised website guiding customers through the smallest of intricacies. This involves displaying shipping and return policies, product recommendations, simplifying the checkout page and 24×7 online customer support.
- A visually appealing search interface. The same keyword strategy you use for search engines can be used for on-site search. This will help to accurately return the products your customers are looking for in the search results on your website. Autocompletion is another great feature to provide a seamless shopping experience. All these forms an important part of Smart Category Navigation and as Klevu puts it goes beyond manual ordering.
4. Clear Plan on Shipping and Fulfilment
Over the past year, it was seen while consumers were purchasing online, they were picking up at their local stores. This buying behaviour was in fact accelerated during the pandemic, when more and more buyers started choosing convenient pickup locations to bypass shipping delays with same day pickup.
Retailers are quickly realising online stores are not the only place where they can spread the Christmas joy. Brands are using other sales destination options to eliminate the pains of shipping and to provide an exceptional shopping experience.
It is predicted that retailers providing store pickup options, either in the form of curb-side, inside, drive-through, will see a 90% increase in sales compared to last year. And retail trends predict 33% of consumers will use buy online pick-up in stores (BPOIS) during the holiday season.
How can brands avoid excess shipping costs and fulfil orders on time?
- Automate the shipping process to have one single dashboard to compare prices, print labels in bulk, manage orders and reconcile shipping bills.
- Outsource shipping and fulfilment with third-party providers (3PL). With a 3PL, you can get good discounts on bulk orders and avail advanced shipping technology.
- Outsource shipping and fulfilment with a drop-shipper. This means products are directly sent from your wholesaler to your customers, resulting in reduced time and money in shipping items.
- Encourage your customers to use fulfilment options. Convince them to opt for BOPIS by communicating early and offering special discounts.
5. Strategic Marketing and Promotions
As the holiday shopping season is approaching, it is no surprise that the ad spend will increase in digital strategies. If the existing trends are any indication, marketers will be required to focus on growth marketing and optimise the strategies in the best way possible to lower the costs.
The focus on optimised and well-targeted marketing message is more crucial than ever. That is why it is important for brands to come up with promotional strategies and market-driven campaigns that target the right audience, at the right time in the right place.
What are the marketing tactics retailers can use to better engage the audience?
- Develop a robust social media marketing strategy. For many e-commerce businesses, the best performing channels will be social, along with live stream, messaging and gaming. These are great places to stand out and have a bit of experimentation.
- Keep a constant stream of content flowing. The trick is to set the right tone for empathy. A heart-warming message never goes missed.
- Send operational update messages. 85% of people find it very apt during the pandemic. A gentle reminder to your customers about their order updates, pickup instructions, and safety measures goes a long way.
- Ramp up your paid search strategies. A paid boost can garner more visits to your website as well as to your physical stores. Brands with an omni-channel approach can witness more traffic across channels, by investing in paid search strategies.
Prepare Your Online Store for a Unique Holiday Season 2020
There is no certain way to know what will the winter shopping months will unfold for the retailers. Based on the trends from the previous years, and predictions for last quarter of 2020, it is evident that the holiday shopping season is going to be unique this year. The best brands can do it to forecast the customer trends and make preparations accordingly.
Are you ready for the upcoming surge in the upcoming holiday season?
Let us know in the comments below what are some of the challenges you are facing.


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Unintended Consequences, Part Nextby Tim Manni
A lot of investors were cheered by the Fed’s decision last week to throw more money at GM so the automaker could offer zero-percent financing to (mostly) creditworthy borrowers. And, indeed, it might seem to be a laudable idea, since the premise behind the bailout was, and is, to get the Detroit Three to move product again.
But The Wall Street Journal points out the problem when one participant is favored over others:
When the Bush Treasury decided to bail out Detroit, GM and Chrysler quickly said yes to the taxpayer cash, but Ford Motor Co. said it didn’t need the money and declined. Ford’s reward for this show of self-reliance? Treasury is now helping GM again by giving it a credit pricing advantage against Ford in the marketplace.
That’s one little-noted result of Treasury’s action earlier this week to rescue GMAC, the GM credit arm that, as it happens, is 51% owned by the Cerberus private-equity shop that also owns Chrysler. With $5 billion in taxpayer cash in its pocket, GMAC quickly decided to offer 0% financing on several of its models. “I think it would be fair to say that without this change … we would not be able to do this today,” explained GM Vice President Mark LaNeve in a conference call with reporters this week. …
The messy little policy issue is that these GM products compete with those sold by Ford, Toyota, Honda and numerous other car makers that won’t benefit from GMAC’s cash infusion. And with the cost of financing often crucial to buyer decisions, the feds have now put the muscle of the state behind one company’s products.
…This is always what happens when politicians decide to muck around in private industry. Even when made with the best intentions, their policy decisions have unintended consequences that help some companies at the expense of others.
That’s true enough, but let’s add a couple of observations. First, Chrysler is owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity investment firm which also has a majority stake in GMAC Financial Services (which is now becoming a bank holding company). Making cars isn’t their primary business. Ford, however, is first and foremost a car company that, well, sells cars, and has been more successful selling its product than the other Detroit automakers. Make of that what you will.
Second, it’s far from clear that GM’s zero-percent financing will do much for business. It didn’t do a lot for them previously, and not moving product is a big reason why GM’s in the taxpayer-bailout boat. Is this a case of throwing more money at an intractable problem?


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Bill Gates, who plans largely to abandon his duties at Microsoft starting this July, is still quite keen on pimping the company's software. As News.com reports, Gates claimed Vista is selling at a "rapid" rate during a speech in Tokyo, Japan.
According to Gates, Microsoft has sold 140 million copies of Windows Vista so far. The Microsoft co-founder stated in January that Vista had sold 100 million copies since its launch 11 months before, so it looks like sales of the operating system haven't waned since last year. With Service Pack 1 out the door, more businesses may make the jump to the new OS, too.
These apparently good sales results might explain why Microsoft decided not to extend Windows XP's general retail presence beyond the June 30 deadline. Makers of low-cost laptops will be able to keep offering the operating system until at least 2010, but folks shopping for regular PCs and notebooks should be stuck with Vista from July 1 onward.
|Fractal's double-wide Node 804 case can swallow a dozen drives||42|
|Friday Night Shortbread||13|
|Friday night topic: Where is that plane?||94|
|WSJ: Microsoft, Google pressure Asus into shelving dual-OS tablet||30|
|Deal of the week: Discounted tablets, wireless keyboards, cheap SSDs, and more||12|
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|The uncompressed audio sounds AMAZING over my $5000 speaker wire. It's truly worth every gigabyte.||+66|


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Touchless order performance has traditionally not been among the highest-profile supply management metrics, but that is changing as companies leverage automation technology to reduce human touches — and the chance for error.
This trend is especially critical in health care, where the best orders are those with the fewest touches possible between a manufacturer or distributor and a hospital loading dock. As such, it’s become more important to measure, which is why the Touchless Orders Index was one of four subindexes unique to the Hospital ISM® Report On Business® when it began data collection in 2018.
While this edition of The Monthly Metric focuses on the that index, it will also examine touchless order performance in general. Though some benchmarks indicate high-performing companies across industry sectors should strive for 90 percent of their orders to be touchless, hospitals have been slower to adapt to such technology, says Nancy LeMaster, MBA, Chair of the Institute for Supply Management® Hospital Business Survey Committee.
“Hospitals can be slow decision-makers with some products and supplies,” she says. “Every nurse thinks she needs to touch every single thing, and if you’ve got 15 hospitals in your system, all 15 will want to try (a product). It can be a cumbersome process, but hospitals have gotten better during the (coronavirus) pandemic. They found they can make quicker decisions.”
Part of those inefficiencies are the nature of health-care work: Hospital supplies aren’t normal widgets — clinical staff must be comfortable using them to treat patients. And COVID-19-induced supply chain issues led to a bevy of shortages and product substitutions, which impacted the Touchless Orders Index.
“It’s a reading that you would expect to get better as supply chain issues improve,” LeMaster says. “As you look at the history of that index, there appears to be some correlation. But it’s a not a direct one, by any means.”
Meaning of the Metric
The Hospital ISM® Report On Business® states the Touchless Orders Index gauges “automated orders from end-to-end” for that which hospitals acquire through a distributor or self-distribute. Such products include nursing supplies like bandages and dressings, plastic items like bedpans, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Many implantable devices and other high-end products are directly from a manufacturer, LeMaster says.
Products in short supply — a recent example is resin — will affect the Touchless Orders Index, she says: “Resins and polypropylene go into the products that go through distributors, so the process takes a hit when there are shortages.” Heavy back orders for a product means humans must get involved, which also impacts the index calculation.
Like all Report On Business® indexes, Touchless Orders measures the rate of change compared to the previous month, with a reading above 50 percent indicating growth and a figure below showing contraction.
The Touchless Orders Index for March registered 49 percent, a fifth consecutive month in contraction territory. With rare exceptions, it has hovered between 48 percent and 52 percent since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. The index’s all-time high is 57.5 percent in May and November 2018; its lowest reading is 40 percent in April 2020.
LeMaster says the Touchless Orders Index is a lagging indicator when viewed in tandem with the Supplier Deliveries Index. ISM’s Hospital PMI® data indicates faster delivery performance in recent months. However, Touchless Orders has been slower to catch up, elevating just 1 percentage point in February and 0.5 percentage points last month.
“It’s been a slow trajectory, but (the index) could be in growth range for April,” she says.
Some Resistance at Hospitals
Another indication of the rising importance of measuring touchless order performance can be found in the annual Metrics of Supply Management survey by CAPS Research, the Tempe, Arizona based organization in strategic partnership with ISM and Arizona State University. Two years ago, the report added two KPIs related to automated orders.
In 2022, CAPS Research found that 61 percent of surveyed companies use automation to process POs, including 85 percent of those in the services sector. However, just 38.2 percent of companies’ POs were processed automatically through automation. LeMaster says a high-performing hospital’s ideal rate is about 60 percent.
What are some of the roadblocks to adoption? Capital investment is key, and the Hospital PMI® data suggests facilities have been eager: The Technology Spend Index (another measurement unique to ISM’s Hospital report) was in expansion territory for 18 consecutive months before falling to 44 percent in March.
Jim Fleming, CPSM, CPSD, who serves as Manager, Product Development and Innovation at ISM, told The Monthly Metric in 2018 that many purchasing employees don’t trust an automated system, preferring to stick to “how we’ve always done it” or simply wanting to keep control. That mindset clearly exists in hospitals, LeMaster says.
“It’s matter of human nature,” she says. “Some hospitals have had instances of people bypassing the system and reverting to manual ordering. The key is getting people to trust the process, educating them and emphasizing that this is the way we are going to do business from now on. It’s definitely a challenge.”
The Benefits of Fewer Order Touches
For years, proponents of automation have conveyed that machines performing routine tasks as POs enable human employees to take on more strategic roles. What that looks like at hospitals, LeMaster says, is procurement employees no longer fixing clerical errors and becoming more analytical.
“It would create an opportunity to look at supply spend per patient for nursing units and see if one unit is performing a lot better than another,” she says. “Maybe there’s a lesson to learn — a more efficient way to inventory supplies or a contracting opportunity to pursue.”
As the pandemic raged, hundreds of labor hours at some facilities were lost due to PO and product substitution drama. But hospitals have made progress, LeMaster says, by streamlining processes and becoming more flexible on product substitutions (which can be made via automation). A Touchless Orders Index that is consistently in expansion territory would be a sign of continuing progress.
“If hospitals can move people into a more strategic focus, they can look for patterns,” she says, “and those often result in areas to save money.”
The May/June issue of Inside Supply Management® will include a feature article on the state of hospital supply chains; the digital edition will be available on May 9. To suggest a metric to be covered, email me at email@example.com.


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The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) recently awarded $400,000 to improve farm operations to a number of participants in its Agricultural Preservation Restriction (APR) program. The APR Improvement Program (AIP) provides business planning and technical assistance to commercial farms containing land already protected through the APR.
AIP specifically targets applicants demonstrating a need for assistance with financial viability, resource conservation, family succession or modernization of infrastructure. The goal of the grant program is to enhance the long term continued use of the agricultural resource.
Country Folks recently spoke with Andrew Orr, owner and operator of Orr’s Family Farm. Located in Westport, MA, Orr’s Family Farm was recently awarded a $40,000 grant through AIP.
Andrew Orr founded a 14-acre farm in 2007. “I had the opportunity to purchase the farm upon graduating from high school,” he said. “The APR program helped make my dream of starting my farming career at the young age of 18 a reality.”
Orr’s Family Farm currently plants on some 35 acres of Westport soil, growing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. The infrastructure consists of an older style farm stand which retails 90% of the produce grown on site.
Over the past 15 years, Orr said the farm has expanded into other areas of business. “We started raising beef several years ago, and we process 100% of our beef at USDA processing facilities,” he said. He raised his first couple of beef steers from calves to market-ready in 18 months and realized how nice it was to sit down with his family and enjoy fresh beef and vegetables that were produced at his farm. All of their livestock is fed only locally grown crops, and they maximize tenderness and food safety by aging the beef only in USDA inspected and certified processing facilities.
“We also branched out into growing heirloom tomatoes in our greenhouse. We start the plants in January for an early harvest in May to get a good jump on the season and have a great tasting product to sell for spring,” he added.
As the name suggests, the team at Orr’s consists of all family. Andrew’s father Mike manages the farm stand and handles deliveries and farm repairs. His mother Joanne harvests cut flowers and greets customers. His grandmother Jean works the farm stand and is their cashier. His wife Meaghanne and three children all help out as well. They can be found at the farm every day planting, picking and washing produce.
Orr’s Family Farm’s operating season is mainly May to December. They open in mid-May for plant sales and beef. They close up shop on Christmas Eve. Their products are mainly sold on site at their farm stand; however, the Orrs do sell a portion to local restaurants, supermarkets, stores and a few other local farms. They also have a website with the possibility of an online store being established in the future.
“Our market radius is as far as 50 miles,” Orr said. “Most customers live within a short distance of the farm and stop by daily for produce. We have sold products wholesale in the past that shipped to Pennsylvania, some 250 miles away.”
He said he applied for the MDAR grant hoping to increase the farm’s sales – and so they could build a storage building at the farm. Their grant award will be used to construct a 42×80 storage building. This new building will be used to store products, supplies, produce and to equipment.
“Our plan for the future is to eventually expand our farm stand,” Orr said. “Building a new structure would allow us to expand our inventory of products and increase our sales.”
For more information visit orrsfarm.com.
by Enrico Villamaino


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Comcast Corp. is working with Twitter Inc. to turn the microblogging service into what the cable TV company’s CEO Brian Roberts calls “an instant online remote control.”
The two companies yesterday said they will enable Twitter users who subscribe to Comcast’s Xfinity TV cable service to buy movie tickets and access TV shows by clicking a See It button that appears in certain tweets on the social network.
The companies say they will launch the See It button next month with shows from Comcast-owned NBCUniversal’s networks, which include NBC, USA, Syfy and Bravo. Comcast and Twitter say that early next year they will add more content from other content distributors. Neither company gave details about the deal’s financial arrangements.
Here’s how the program works: Comcast will include a See It button in tweets about its TV programs and movies. When a consumer clicks the See It button, Twitter will offer several ways for the consumer to access the content. A consumer can buy movie tickets through the Fandango ticket-buying service, tune the user’s TV to the promoted program using his Xfinity set-top box that is linked to his Twitter account, and access the show online and set his DVR to record the show.
“Twitter is where television viewers come to talk about what they’re watching on TV when they’re watching it,” says Dick Costolo, Twitter’s CEO. “Millions of users are exposed to the live conversation that unfolds on Twitter while a show is on the air and now with See It, they’ll be able to tune in directly from a tweet.”
The companies also announced that NBCUniversal will use Twitter’s Amplify program, which allows advertisers to embed ads into real-time video content, to promote its TV programs. The company plans to launch its Amplify efforts with NBC Sports Group targeting soccer fans on Twitter with video highlights from the English professional Premier League. General Electric will sponsor the highlights.
The Twitter partnership with Comcast comes shortly after the microblogging service released details of its revenue, profits and user base in the form of a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in advance of its initial public offering of stock. While Twitter has 218 million active users and growing revenue, it has yet to turn a profit.
According to Internet Retailer’s 2013 Social Media 300, which ranks retailers by the percentage of traffic to their web sites from social networks, the average web site traffic from Twitter for the Top 50 retailers stands at 0.31%.Favorite


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Even while the Google SVP confirmed the existence of the Google Pixel 2, the details about the handsets have just surfaced.
According to reports from Android Police, Google is currently working on two Google Pixel smartphones which are codenamed Walleye and Muskie. After codenaming the first generation handsets as Marlin and Sailfish, Google seems to be continuing with the trend of codenaming the Pixel smartphones after fish.
While there are no details currently available about the Walleye and Muskie smartphones, based on the naming convention we expect Walleye to be the base variant whereas the Muskie, which is a bigger fish, could represent the bigger variant of the Pixel smartphone. We are eagerly waiting for more details about the smartphones.


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Henry Riley 4am - 7am
Prices of British food staples soar by up to 80 per cent including cheese, porridge and white bread - see full list
18 April 2023, 08:11
The price of British food staples, including cheddar cheese, white bread and porridge oats, have soared compared with one year ago, new research shows.
The price of cheddar cheese has seen the largest increase, rising by an average of 28.3 per cent across Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose.
In one case, Dragon Welsh Mature Cheddar (180g) at Asda increased by 80 per cent in the three months to the end of March last year (£1 to £1.80).
Overall, food inflation has continued to increase, rising to 17.2 per cent in March - up from 16.5 per cent in February, according to Which?
The consumer group analysed inflation on more than 26,000 food and drink products at the eight supermarkets.
It also found that the cost of porridge oats increased by 35.5 per cent across all eight supermarkets.
Which items have increased the most?
The worst single example of inflation on porridge oats was at Ocado where Quaker Oat So Simple Protein Porridge Pot Original 49g went from 94p to £1.56 - an increase of 65.5 per cent.
Large 800g loaves of sliced white bread saw an average increase of 22.8 per cent, but The Bakery at Asda Soft White Medium Sliced Bread 800g increased by 67 per cent from 56p to 94p.
Average inflation in white potatoes was around 14%, but a four pack of baking potatoes at Morrisons increased from 40p to 66p - a rise of 63.5 per cent.
Pork sausages increased by an average of 26.8% across the supermarkets, but Asda's Just Essentials budget range of eight sausages increased by 73.5 per cent. Tesco's value Woodside Farms pack increased by 73.3 per cent.
Despite a big spike in a number of branded items, Which?'s research shows that the cheapest products remain the most-affected by inflation.
The figures show it continues to be the cheapest products which are being the hardest hit by inflation in percentage terms.
"Our latest supermarket food and drink tracker paints a bleak picture for the millions of households already skipping meals of how inflation is impacting prices on supermarket shelves, with the poorest once again feeling the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis," Sue Davies, Which? head of food policy, said.
"While the whole food chain affects prices, supermarkets have the power to do more to support people who are struggling, including ensuring everyone has easy access to basic, affordable food ranges at a store near them, particularly in areas where people are most in need.
"Supermarkets must also provide transparent pricing so people can easily work out which products offer the best value."


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Telford market attracts Christmas crowds despite delayed opening
Telford’s traditional European Christmas market is under way, with shoppers turning out to get a first look at the food and drink on offer this year.
Despite a delayed opening due to “extreme” high winds, food vendors at Southwater set out their wares in time to welcome the people of Telford to the square.
Returning favourites selling mulled wine, Dutch cheese and German sausage set up shop alongside newcomers selling traditional burgers and doughnuts.
One of those to take part for the first time this year was Sharon Laurence and family, of Cambridgeshire.
Sharon, who runs a gourmet burger stand, heard of the market through an acquaintance and came to visit Telford to assess the potential.
“We thought it was a lovely little place,” said Sharon. “The people obviously like coming out to it and supporting it so we thought we would give it a go.
“It’s been good today, there has been a lot of positive feedback.
“I think the people of Telford love it, there’s a great atmosphere here.”
The stall is family-run with Sharon’s husband Steve helping out and her daughter and sister arriving this weekend to offer assistance.
Meanwhile, Andrew Lewis of the Park Farm Burger Kitchen was taking part for the second successive year.
Andrew, from Birmingham, said: “We enjoy coming because it’s Telford.
“It is always a good atmosphere, especially on the Friday and Saturday nights with the carollers singing and the lights all on.
“It has been a bit slow today with the weather. But a lot of people remember us from last year and that’s good.
“We will be here for the full four weeks and we’re looking forward to it.”
Jason Young and Gail Price of Telford both visited last year, and on the first day of this year’s market were sampling the mulled wine.
Jason said: “It’s something to get you in a bit of a festive mood, we look forward to it.
“It will be good to come back again to try a few of the different things each time.” Gail said she wants to come back to the market for her birthday in December.
Colleagues Alan Jones, of Shrewsbury, and Sam Bryce, of Telford, came last year and wanted to try it out again.
Dropping by after work, they said there seemed to be fewer stalls than last year, but looked forward to coming back again.The Christmas market runs until December 23.


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Mattel unveils ‘Jersey Shore Family Vacation’ board game
Fans who can’t get enough of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” can now do more than simply watch reruns.
Mattel, in a designed partnership with Viacom Nickelodeon Consumer Products, unveiled its new ‘Jersey Shore Family Vacation’ board game, which engages players with trivia based on iconic moments and sayings from the series.
“At Mattel, we are always looking for culturally relevant trends and fan-favorites, such as Jersey Shore, to inspire our games and bring to life an engaging play experience,” Ray Adler, senior director of global games at Mattel, said. “The game is the perfect gift for any fan this holiday season and is sure to bring laughs, and maybe some drama, just like the show.”
The game, designed for those 18 years old and older, references situations and such phrases from the show as “Ron Ron Juice” and “Sunday Dinner,” with bonus points when the “Gym,” “Tan,” and “Laundry” triumvirate is completed, the company said.
“’Jersey Shore Family Vacation’ hit the cultural zeitgeist again when it returned to MTV, and we worked with Mattel to create a game that captured the iconic moments and big personalities from the show,” Jen Caveza, senior vice president of toys at Viacom Nickelodeon Consumer Products, said. “This game is a great way for fans to play along with the Jersey Shore crew in their own home.”
The “Jersey Shore Family Vacation” board game is currently available on Amazon for the suggested retail price of $19.99.
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Judging from a "hot off the presses" report straight from Apple's supply chain, prospective iPhone 6 buyers might want to line up even earlier this year, as the smartphone is rumored to suffer a production setback. Meanwhile, the company's iWork apps received minor updates Thursday, and venerable financial software Quicken makes a triumphant return to the Mac in today's Morning Report.
Teachers may be only now starting to enjoy summer vacation, but Apple is looking ahead to the new school season this fall with a major update to the iTunes U app that makes it easier to do even more on the iPad.
Amidst rumors Google is about to swallow up voice recognition provider Nuance, Domino's Pizza has teamed up with the current Apple partner to provide a new voice ordering assistant in the latest version of its U.S.-based app, which pretty much brings us full circle back to ordering on the phone, although without any human interaction. That's progress... right?
Apple demonstrated that it's continuing to improve iWork in the wake of the substantial overhaul last year with an update today that adds new features and upgrades the suite's effectiveness when sharing files in real time among large groups of people. In addition, it increased the maximum storage size for files and docs.
Well, Apple's future is getting close to becoming clear as the date for WWDC 2014 has finally been let loose. Looks like some tech journalists are going to be revamping any early summer vacation plans. Meanwhile, it feels like it's been so long since Microsoft had a hit that this week's news of how well Office for iPad did can't help but be a shot in the arm. Plus games, leaks, updates and new stuff all in this week's hottest news.
Following the release of Microsoft's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps for the iPad, Apple is drawing attention to its own office suite with a visual overhaul of the online versions of iWork. The iCloud and Mac versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote all resemble their iOS 7 counterparts after today's update, bringing a common visual aesthetic to the Cupertino company's productivity suite regardless of which platform you prefer.
iWork may not have regained the missing features that so many users miss from the pre-Mavericks version so far, but 9to5 Mac reports that Apple did release a significant update today for iWork for iCloud that allows for real-time collaborative efforts.
When Pages for iOS was released alongside the iPad in 2010, it was a showcase of all that was possible with Apple's revolutionary tablet. A natural extension of the Mac app, it set the tone for multitouch content creation, with powerful page layout and word processing templates plus tools that complemented the ones we used on our MacBooks. With the new version 2.0 release, however, Pages is no longer a companion app. A complete rewrite for iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks has brought parity across all platforms, and you'll find the same templates, menus, and features everywhere you go, with a strong emphasis on collaboration and editing.
It’s the week of updates and shutdowns, of explosions and insomnia. In short, it’s another week of the biggest news stories from the writer of Mac|Life, getting you up to date with everything you ever might have missed that you shouldn’t have. So without further ado….


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Pakistani telecommunications provider Ufone 4G has introduced its latest offering, the Digital Grand Offer. This offering revolutionizes connectivity and brings unparalleled benefits to its valued customers. With a generous 100 GB data limit along with 1000 off-net minutes, Ufone 4G users can now boost their digital experience to new heights. The package also includes unlimited UU/PTCL minutes, so you can make unlimited calls within the network and users can keep in touch with friends and family without limit.
Ufone 4G understands the importance of offering its customers the best value for money. Previously priced at Rs. 1600, the weekly Digital Grand Offer is now available at a discounted price of just Rs. 1400 enabling every Pakistani to embrace the future of connectivity. This new offering brings blazing fast internet speeds to Ufone 4G customers, ensuring an unparalleled online experience.
To take advantage of Ufone 4G’s Digital Grand Offer, subscribers can dial *900# USSD or *8*4# for the store code. The offerings are also available on all digital channels, ensuring effortless accessibility and a smooth browsing experience.
Ufone 4G is committed to providing unparalleled services, enabling customers to fully realize the potential of their digital interactions and stay connected to the rapidly evolving world around them.
See Also: Zong 4G’s Iran Roaming Bundle Makes It Easier For Pilgrims To Stay Connected During Ziyarat


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SAP this week will begin selling two workplace-related augmented reality apps for use with Android Wear smart glasses, including Google Glass, to aid warehouse workers and field service technicians.
Pricing hasn't been announced for the new apps, which are called SAP AR Warehouse Picker and SAP AR Service Technician. They will be sold generally in the Google Play store.
SAP released two separate videos showing how the apps can be used with Vuzix smart glasses to fulfill orders in a warehouse or to assist a field service technician making a repair call in a complex setting. In the second video, a repairman uses his smart glasses to locate a switching room in the basement of a sports stadium by using audible commands and navigation arrows that appear on the lens of the smart glasses (See video).
Both apps took as long as six months to build and have been used successfully in beta testing with various SAP customers.
The apps are primarily designed to improve workplace efficiency and enhance worker safety, since smart glasses keep a worker's hands free to complete tasks.
Beta testers have been most excited about having what's called "over-the-shoulder" instructions for field technicians that can be communicated live and wirelessly via video from a remote expert instructor to the technician doing the actual work, according to SAP. The video instructor can appear in the eyepiece of the smart glasses, along with 3D images of parts and textual instructions, while live audio can be heard in the earpiece.
With smart glasses running the apps, barcodes or other information can be scanned and sent wirelessly so it can be checked against information in databases for fulfilling orders or finishing repairs. Automated voice instructions can tell a warehouse worker which items to pick for an order, and the worker can respond with voice commands when the item has been picked.
"Both apps give mobile users added content and contextual elements to complete their jobs better," said Josh Waddell, vice president of the mobile innovation center at SAP, in an interview.
"Customers are very excited about these apps and we are too," Waddell said. "This is technology on the edge that's been in Gartner's technology 'trough of disillusionment' for years and is now about to emerge."
Specialized apps that run on older operating systems, such as Windows CE, have been around for a decade or longer to help military and other aircraft technicians make complex repairs when aboard planes. The emergence of Android Wear apps that rely on smart glasses is new, Waddell said.
The "over-the-shoulder" coaching capability of the service app is a "killer use case," Waddell said. He said it will be especially useful as a generation of service technicians retires and is replaced by younger workers who can be easily and quickly instructed in the field while doing repair tasks on complex systems of equipment. "This can help companies worried how they are going to train people coming on board," he said.
Waddell said beta testing of the apps was mostly done using the Vusix M100 or Kopin Golden-i smart glasses, but the apps will run on Google Glass and other devices.
As noted by some early Google Glass users, Waddell said some workers felt dizzy or had other mild side effects from using the devices for longer periods. "We worked through some of the user discomfort challenges and monocular vision in general will cause some people issues with dizziness," he said. "Once smart glasses are binocular that will help."
One thing that seems to help reduce discomfort is to have the monocular lens where images and words are displayed worn on a worker's stronger eye, which could be either the left or right.
Getting workers to use smart glasses isn't that difficult since many repair and warehouse jobs already require workers to wear safety glasses, he added.
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.


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We are slowly resuming outside activities as the COVID-19 vaccine makes its way around. Though we may be allowed into some museums masked up, that will not get a ticket to Paris to experience the Louvre. That is why the museum is making its entire art collection available online for free viewing.
That puts 482,000 works of art at your fingertips through the net. The collection gathers work from the Louvre, Musée National Eugène-Delacroix, the Tuileries and Carrousel gardens sculptures, and the Musées Nationaux Récupération. The artworks offered for viewing will allow viewers a look at the works along with thorough research regarding their artist, composition, and more.
To guide viewers through the virtual tour, an interactive map in English, Spanish, French, and Chinese guide them through each virtual room. The Louvre Collections can be accessed through tablet, and computer, but are best set for smartphone access.
Jean-Luc Martinez who is president of the Louvre Museum said in a statement…
“Today, the Louvre is dusting off its treasures, even the least-known. For the first time, anyone can access the entire collection of works from a computer or smartphone for free, whether they are on display in the museum, on loan, even long-term, or in storage.”
This is an amazing breakthrough for art lovers, and those who are just curious about the museum. Visit The Louvre Museum online at their official website.Want to be featured on stupidDOPE? You can schedule a call, hit up LeVar or email us via firstname.lastname@example.org. Make sure you subscribe to our Apple News channel!


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Mobile phone apps are getting used for actually everything… From texting, checking Facebook and electronic mail, to checking the climate, the stock market, gasoline costs, and much, a lot greater.
Popular games like FarmVille and World vist https://catuploads.com/baixar-windows-10/ of Warcraft also use applications.
Smartphone apps have end up the trend due to the fact they’ve greater superior connectivity and abilties than conventional telephones.
There is now a greater demand for smartphones than for another form of mobile telephone, in keeping with Wikipedia.
Almost half of of America makes use of smartphones, in keeping with Huffington Post.
Seventy nine percentage of all cellphone customers reach for their phone within 15 minutes of having out of bed (All Twitter survey).
This percentage climbs to 89% among those between the ages of 18 to 24.
Smartphone customers have a median of 7.4 social/conversation apps on their mobile device.
They see their telephone as an important tool to keep them related.
Other thrilling smartphone person stats:
34 percent publish photographs on Instagram
27percent submit updates on LinkedIn
26 percentage direct message through Twitter
25percent take a look at a Facebook information feed
22percent test a Twitter feed
20percent check an Instagram feed
16percent use textual content messaging
A smartphone is sort of a PC for your pocket.
The common smartphone consumer tests Facebook 14 times a day and spends approximately 1/2 an hour a day on Facebook (Source: A recent examine commissioned by a corporation in Menlo Park, California).
By 2015, it’s miles estimated that mobile Internet usage will surpass laptop utilization.
Considering the countless methods that people now use smartphones, some have as compared the telephone to a Swiss Army Knife.
Since mid-April of 2013, an underdog apps corporation has been paving an untrodden frontier with the intention to quickly be rolling out a newfangled breed of apps, best this time, with an progressive spin.
These packages will encompass gaming apps, social media apps, and more.
Clearly, the enterprise intends to become the head honcho in the application industry, as said in their promotional substances.
A current employer publication states that their intention is to attain 1,000,000 customers before June 15, 2013, with a purpose to be a record.
They are over halfway there as of May 22, 2013, even though none in their sign-americahave visible any of the corporation apps. In truth, the agency is yet to go public.
Q: So why would 1/2 a million humans join an app company with out seeing the apps?
A: It’s the progressive spin, i.E. Combining apps with what the organisation calls “incentivized sharing.” The employer guarantees that their customers may be rewarded through a sharing model just like a community advertising and marketing pay plan. The difference is, the cash rewards will come broadly speaking from the technology of advertising revenues rather than the selling of products.
The business enterprise will music those revenues via an app that has been designed for smartphones.
The apps will most probably also work on desktop computer systems and laptops, like most different apps.
There remains a good deal about this organisation that we do no longer recognize.
Whether or no longer this organisation will live as much as the aforementioned hoopla is but to be found out.
But with over a half of-million sign-americain a month, eyeballs sure are popping!
To analyze more about Rippln, go to [http://RippleWithTom.Com] to watch a 3 minute video.
If you’ve got any problem viewing the video, strive every other browser like Firefox or Google Chrome. Some have complained that they may be having troubles viewing the video with Internet Explorer.


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You’re tired of hearing us whine about the federal prohibition on marijuana, and trust us, we’re tired too. It seems every month or two brings another effort to right the ship in Congress, which then goes by the boards for one reason or another. And the industry as a whole continues to suffer even though cannabis is now legal in some form in all but eight states.
But we think this will get done sooner rather than later, and the reason is the three-word phrase that’s a road map for all things political: Follow the money. We think the lure of potential tax revenues will ultimately make the difference.
According to reports from the Marijuana Policy Project, states where recreational cannabis is legal have generated nearly $8 billion – with a ‘b’ – in tax revenues since 2014. $2.7 billion of that income happened in 2020 alone as the pandemic spiked home use.
The poster child here is California, which by itself saw an increase of more than 60 percent from 2019 to 2020, topping out at more than $1 billion in tax revenue on its own and presumably still growing. Illinois is close behind and could exceed $1 billion this year as marijuana tax revenues have just passed those from alcohol sales. That last bit is old news in Washington State, where cannabis revenues have outpaced alcohol for the past two years even though many more residents consume alcohol.
Consider the unique circumstances of 2020, where the aforementioned spike in cannabis sales went side-by-side with a drastic drop-off in tax revenues from so many other sources. It’s easy to see why state and local governments are eager to keep the pipeline open, and lifting the federal prohibition would almost certainly dial up the volume of cash flowing through that pipeline.
We’ve heard over and over that this time around will be the time that Congress finally gets it right, so there obviously are no guarantees. But representatives nationwide have to be feeling the pressure to ramp up that tax revenue, and that’s why we think this will get done soon.
Brytemap produces a full suite of seed-to-sale software products for growers and dispensaries in the cannabis industry. To learn more, request a demo.


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OCFT stock exploded higher on January 10, 2020, after the company received a host of positive analyst actions.
On January 7, 2020, BofA analyst Emerson Chan initiated coverage of OneConnect with a Buy rating and $18 price target. The analyst expects 57% revenue CAGR in FY19-22 driven by contribution from the Ping An Group, increased number of premium customers on upselling, and rising net expansion rate of premium customers on cross selling, new product launch and growth in Lufax.
KeyBanc analyst Hans Chung initiated coverage of OneConnect with an Overweight rating and $15 price target, stating that he sees an accelerated need for digital transformation in small and medium-sized banks in China and believes the company’s technology advantages and industry expertise could help differentiate it from competition.
Morgan Stanley initiated coverage of OneConnect Financial Technology with an Overweight rating and $16 price target.
Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Liu initiated coverage of OneConnect Financial with a Buy rating and $15.90 price target. The company is is well positioned to capture the technology-as-a-service market opportunity at Chinese financial institutions, Liu tells investors in a research note. The analyst highlights OneConnect’s cloud-native technology platform with full-stack full-scope solutions.
What got these analysts so excited about OCFT stock?
On January 2, 2020, a financing platform for SMEs in China’s Guangdong province was formally launched. The platform is supported by OneConnect (NYSE: OCFT), a leading Chinese fintech company that has just been listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The launch of the platform with blockchain as its key underlying technology marks the deep integration of digital government and fintech, signaling that difficulties in obtaining financing, including the associated high cost and slow pace of completing the process, faced by small and medium-sized businesses can be solved by following the “Guangdong model”.
Guangdong province governor Ma Xingrui, Ping An Group chairman and CEO Ma Mingzhe and OneConnect chairman and CEO Ye Wangchun attended the launch ceremony.
OneConnect leveraged Guangdong’s “digital government” data resources, as well as its own advanced financial technologies in blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data, to build a platform that furnishes financing to SMEs, while resolving the issue of information asymmetry. This was accomplished by providing comprehensive commercial credit profiles for businesses, as well as solutions for supply chain financing, trade financing and intellectual property financing, with the result that financial institutions can strengthen their risk management capabilities and improve the efficiency of their financial services.
The SME financing platform currently has access to data in 213 categories from 26 government departments, collecting information and creating a corporate profile alongside a risk evaluation for more than 11 million companies. In addition, the platform has successfully connected with 129 financial institutions in the province, including ICBC, China Construction Bank and Ping An Bank, in addition to launching 319 financial products.
The prominent technical advantage of the SME platform is the blockchain technology it uses and its information sharing, privacy protection and mutual trust mechanism, which not only assures the accuracy and security of the corporate profile, but also enables financial institutions to acquire company information in accordance with laws and regulations, said by OneConnect CEO Mr. Ye. Blockchain can play a role in solving financing problems for SMEs, whether they are engaged in manufacturing, foreign trade or the more innovative areas of science and technology.
At the event, the Guangdong provincial governor, Mr. Ma, formally inaugurated the “Intelligent Matching” feature of the SME financing platform, witnessing the platform’s accepting and granting of the first online unsecured financing credit based on blockchain technology. Within 10 minutes, Huizhou Shenghua Industry Co., Ltd. received 1.12 million yuan in supply chain financing from ICBC, while Guangdong Sunlux IOT Technology Co., Ltd. obtained 500,000 yuan in foreign trade financing from Ping An Bank, and Corehelm Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. received 200,000 yuan in intellectual property financing from China Construction Bank.
On December 19, 2019, OneConnect announced in Tokyo the official opening of SBI OneConnect Japan, a joint venture with Japanese financial service group SBI Holdings, providing cutting-edge cloud-based and AI technological services to regional banks in Japan to help them to achieve digital transformation. It is reported that in March 2019, this joint venture was incorporated in Japan. This is also the first shot that OneConnect has made to the overseas market after being successfully listed on the NYSE.
“We have the world’s leading technology!” said Ye Wangchun, Chairman and CEO of OneConnect. “OneConnect has proven its influence in the Chinese market. We help banks to improve their income, efficiency and quality of services, and reduce their risks and costs, we can help Japanese financial institutions to achieve the same goal.”
OneConnect has been in overseas markets since 2018. In March 2018, OneConnect officially established its branch in Singapore, as headquarters and R & D center of Southeast Asia. It also opened a subsidiary in Indonesia in December 2018. Currently, OneConnect has operations in 10 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and South Korea.
Ye Wangchun said: “In overseas markets, the main service targets of OneConnect are mainstream local banks and insurance companies. For example, in Europe, OneConnect signed a cooperation agreement with fintech ecosystem software provider Finleap to provide European market Fintech SaaS. In the Middle East, OneConnect set up a base in Abu Dhabi to build up financial technology ecosystem. In Asia, in addition to serving regional banks in Japan by joint venture, OneConnect also developed Cross-border blockchain trading network with Korean companies.”
OneConnect’s partner, SBI Group, is one of the world’s largest integrated online finance groups and one of the largest VC/PE asset management institutions in Asia. Recently, SBI Group also bought equities of some Japanese regional banks. It is believed that the company is constructing an ambitious plan to create a technology-driven bank which will be the “fourth largest bank” in Japan.
The President of SBI Group Yoshitaka Kitao said the joint venture with OneConnect would “become the key to regional revitalization in Japan.”


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I’m not an economist. Neither am I a soothsayer. I avoid making irresponsible predictions. However, a constellation of recent developments in the tech industry leads me to believe that a major sea change is forthcoming, perhaps as early as 2019.
This, however, is not me trying to be merely alarmist. I’m not a doomsday prophet.
News 1: The FAANG and its oversized power in stifling unpopular online speech
FAANG refers to Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google–the five largest multinational digital media corporations. Collectively, these five companies own massive amount of consumer data and wield an oversized power in regulating what gets to be online and what doesn’t.
A few days ago, Tumblr announced a ban on “adult-oriented” contents by its users. For many years, Tumblr has been one of the favorite platforms of self-expression and peer support among the younger LGBTQ+ population. Tumblr (a brand owned by Oath, a subsidiary of Verizon) was forced into this decision because Apple refused to allow Tumblr to publish its app on the iTunes store. Facebook, then followed this week by one-upping Tumblr: now Facebook no longer allows its users to even discuss sexuality. This new “community standards” by Facebook has an adverse impact on sex workers who may be exchanging safety-related information (such as “bad dates”), socially isolated queer youth who are in need of peer support, and even social service organizations whose mission is to advocate for or educate those who are in the margins of society.
This new puritanical initiative by FAANG, while possibly in response to the new U.S. federal law known as FOSTA/SESTA (an amendment to the Communications Decency Act), is also about protecting the advertisers’ and shareholders’ interests before the interests of free speech. Apple and Google, the de facto duopoly of all mobile apps, can now dictate what contents other digital media companies may permit on their platforms.
In addition, FAANG and other digital media companies have been waging a fierce battle against all kinds of alternative media outlets–both conservative and progressive–ostensibly in response to the debacle of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
News 2: Many online media companies are failing
Ten years ago, the news was the (somewhat exaggerated) death of print media. Some newspapers, such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, quit printing and went 100 percent online. Other newspapers simply went out of business. The print media outlets are remarkably resilient. Many weekly and monthly magazines are still in print (alongside paywalled Web sites and digital editions), and since 2016, the New York Times and the Washington Post are gaining more subscribers than ever in recent history. The lasting brand value of prestigious and established publications cannot be downplayed.
On the other hand, the “new” digital media companies are failing. Vice, Vox, Mic, BuzzFeed, and others are either downsizing or looking for buyers. There are layoffs and shutting down of offices like the newspaper companies went through between the Great Recession and the earlier half of this decade.
News 3: Gig economy e-commerce giants are facing challenges
Whether you call it “sharing economy,” “P2P economy,” or “gig economy,” it is the networking platforms and their brands that matter more than those who utilize them as a source of income.
Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, VRBO, Hipcamp–and the granddaddies of P2P economy, eBay and etsy–all build their brands on the back of individual, independent contractors who benefit from the power of a global online network that connects them to customers.
The problems with these companies are manifold: there are always bad actors who exploit the platforms and create scandals; there are many complaints against both sellers and buyers, that the corporate cannot easily control or prevent; then there are nagging questions of business ethics–Does Uber harm the taxicab drivers? Would Airbnb contribute to housing shortage and negatively influence the neighborhoods? Do “gig economy” companies really care about workers’ rights, or are they indifferent to them simply by calling them “independent contractors”?
Uber continues to lose billions of dollars, despite the high brand value and all the investor hypes. Then these companies are also losing the initial freewheeling optimism inherent in the startup culture; legislators and bureaucrats are eager to regulate and tax them to death, and in so doing, changing the very characteristics of such companies that make them innovators and disruptors.
These companies may not survive much longer, especially if another recession hits. Along with it, many people who have come to rely on their platforms for income will have to find alternatives to market themselves, something an average gig economy participant is capable of. They will be left out on the street to rot.
News 4: Start up is no longer cool
Only a few years ago, the ultimate aspiration of many Millennials was to start up a tech business. They would go to many events to pitch their ideas, go on Kickstarters or Indiegogo in search of investors, and there were enough angel investors and venture capitals who were eager to take well-performing startups under their wings.
But it appears that the startup boom is over.
The Wall Street Journal puts it bluntly: young American entrepreneurs are an “endangered species.” The percentage of under-30s who own a business has reached the lowest in a quarter-century, according to WSJ’s own research.
The Atlantic explains it further: most Millennials simply don’t have such a kind of money to fund their own business. Most entrepreneurs self-fund their startup, and the Millennials in general tend to be risk-averse. Despite their interest in coding schools and business schools, they’d rather prefer Corporate America and climbing up its ladder.
What this means
Consolidation is the trend. Digital media contents are published by a smaller and smaller number of corporate media, while those who exist outside the big corporations will continue to face censorship, economic disadvantage, and invisibility. This is a 180-degree shift from the Internet of the 1990s and early 2000s, whose premise was that an average Joe would have the same level playing ground as the big guys. The big corporations, in tandem with the censorship-happy surveillance-regulatory state, can literally block anyone from accessing the market and information by simply creating an online choke point. Censorship, even when done by proxy private corporations in the name of “compliance,” “copyright protection,” or “safety,” is still censorship (notwithstanding the U.S. Constitution not specifically applicable to censorship by private entities as part of a contractual relationship) and is just as toxic and has a chilling effect on free speech and stifles innovation and creativity.
After having exploited everyday people in the post-recession, “jobless recovery” economic paradigm, the gig economy ecosystem is also facing a day of reckoning. They too are becoming too consolidated and too powerful. Gig economy is also facing the prospect of heavy-handed government regulation, which could cripple many small-time operators financially while at the same time leading to an excessive intrusion into their privacy. Inevitably, such measures could lead a large percentage of operators to drop out.
New opportunities ahead?
People are looking for genuine sense of community and human interactions, as well as a platform for self-expression and community-building around their interests, identities, and values.
Even as the major social media giant becoming a quasi public utility (and mass surveillance and mass advertising system), the underlying human needs that made such social media companies grew so fast did not go away.
In addition, despite everything seemingly online and digital these days, most people are looking for organic, in-person experiences. A significant portion of Facebook is being used for organizing events, finding dates, and making real (off-line) friends. Indeed, two of the biggest victims of Facebook’s latest censorship measure are (mostly LGBTQ+ and kink community, as well as sex workers, survivors of abuse, and others) peer support groups on Facebook, as well as so-called “cruising” or dating groups on Facebook.
If I use these news and trends as proverbial tea leaves, I can identify several new opportunities ahead:
- Intentionally close-knit online communities and membership clubs that serve a very specific demographic or interest group, independent of FAANG. Such enterprises must be membership fee based and establish clear anti-censorship and pro-privacy policies (with obvious limitations that are clearly, narrowly, and unequivocally defined).
- Membership- or subscription-based news and opinion service that curates and analyzes the news and information, creating a relief from the incessant wave of information overload and information fatigue. Such services can also encourage a development of well-rounded and deep civic discourse, while protecting customers from the onslaught of demagoguery and fake news.
- Experience-based products and services as an antithesis of “micro-targeted” mass consumerism epitomized by Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Such businesses can capitalize on the sense of wonder, curiosity, and serendipitous discovery, striking a balance between creating an immersive, experiential space and allowing self-led activities for customers to build their own experiences.
There will definitely be a bumpy ride ahead, but it will be a start of the new Web 3.0 era of decentralization. New opportunities will present to entrepreneurs who are paying attention, whether they would choose to continue operating on the incumbent Internet, on a new alternative to the Internet that may come into existence in the future, or entirely off-line in their neighborhoods and local communities.


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The Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) says the Buy Malawi Strategy (BMS) has not produced the desirable results because government has not made enough effort to involve various firms.
Speaking in Mzuzu on Wednesday during a business captains meeting, MCCCI president Prince Kapondamgaga said even the private sector, with MCCCI as the steering committee, has not shown enough interest in participating in the strategy.
He said: “The Buy Malawi Strategy has not produced the desirable success to government, the private sector and consumers who are the three key stakeholders targeted in the strategy.
“Although the private sector is at the helm of the strategy, there has not been enough effort by government to bring firms in.”
On her part, deputy director of trade in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism Charity Msonzo said the initiative is supposed to be private sector driven with government as an initiator to level the field for all firms to operate.
“In this spirit, therefore, to ensure sustainability of the BMS, businesses are expected to register at a minimal fee but with clear benefits which include the use of the gazetted BMS logo and marketing opportunities for registered products,” she said.
Msonzo said sales volumes can only increase if the country has a ready market for the local products.
But participants at the meeting observed that local products are shunned on the market because of poor packaging.
Mzuzu-based mushroom producers, Tisange Association vice-chairperson Clement Gondwe, said packaging materials are not readily available in the city which costs them a lot to order from Lilongwe or Blantyre; consequently, affecting prices of the products.
“Government needs to help us access packaging materials in all corners of the country if prices of local products are to be favourable,” he said.
BMS is a result of a 2009 presidential directive for a programme aimed at driving consumption of locally produced goods.


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President Trump’s announcement on March 22 that he aspires to reduce the United States trade deficit with China by $50 billion with new tariffs has been met with much speculation on the expected impact. This announcement follows another report earlier this month that the U.S. will be adding a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminum imports.
Beijing quickly responded with a tariff on U.S. imports worth $3 billion. Despite this deliberate retaliation, it seems as if the biggest changes are yet to come. The resounding question is: what happens next?
Results from these tariff escalations and changes in international trade could include:
Many commonly-used, highly-consumed products could see an increase in price. Beer, cars, baseball bats, and even a can of Campbell’s soup are all at risk of mild to moderate price inflation. Because of this potential increase on consumer-goods, some are calling the new tariffs a ‘tax on American families’.
Manufacturers & Factories
The intent of these steel/aluminum tariffs is to breathe life back into two American industries that have been struggling, as well as raise costs on imported products so that American products become more competitive. However, some fear that there won’t actually be an increased demand on American-made steel/aluminum products, and instead the tariffs will make raw materials more expensive for manufacturers such as Ford, General Motors, and Boeing. This might hurt factory jobs, and some of these manufacturers and workers fear for their job security.
Many people are holding their breath regarding Chinese electronics. Some experts contend that if China retaliates they would target consumer electronics, which would hurt Apple, and/or semiconductors, which would hurt U.S. companies like Qualcomm and Intel.
The stock market has also felt repercussions. On the day of President Trump’s announcement, the Dow dropped by 500 points in the first hour. The Dow has since recovered, but with many stockholders still spooked by the tariffs, the stock market continues to remain vulnerable during this time of ambiguity.
The one thing we know for sure is it’s not over yet. President Trump made it clear that this is “the first of many” actions he has planned targeting Chinese trade, and Beijing countered this by saying “it is impolite not to reciprocate.” In fact, Beijing has already named this a “fight to the end.”
Additionally, experts are anticipating a second hit from China to come soon considering their first tariff on U.S. imports is a response to the tariff President Trump set earlier in March on steel and aluminum, not the new $50 billion announcement he made on March 22.
Ideally these implications don’t result in a full-blown trade war, however the possibility is definitely there. A trade war could have massive economic impacts on the U.S. and China, and it could also hurt global trade and put pressure on vulnerable economies.
Only time will tell, and we aim to keep our customers apprised with the latest logistics and supply chain news and trends. We will continue to release updates on any changes and how they might affect your success.


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Rumors started circulating last week that Amazon was exploring a free, ad-supported tier of its streaming music service. Turns out there was something to those rumblings. Today, the commerce giant announced that Alexa device owners in the US will be able to listen to top playlists and stations on Amazon Music at no additional charge, even if they are not Amazon Prime subscribers. Of course, this news also comes on the same day that Amazon's frenemies over at Google launched ad-supported free YouTube Music streaming on Google Home smart devices.
Listeners will be able to ask Alexa to play music by creating stations based in a song, artist, era or genre. The voice assistant will also be able to queue up popular global playlists on Amazon Music, including selections like Country Heat and Fuego Latino. The free tier of Amazon music will have a limited library of music, similar to the two million songs that Amazon Prime subscribers get access to for free. Amazon Music Unlimited, the company's paid premium tier, includes access to more than 50 million songs.
The decision to launch an ad-supported offering for Alexa devices only appears to be Amazon's attempt to leverage the popularity of its smart speakers. While Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music work with the voice assistant, Amazon's own streaming service is a more natural fit -- especially if there's no additional cost. Amazon reported earlier this year that it has sold over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices so far, and a recent study from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners found Echo devices account for 70 percent of all smart speakers in the US.


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- Amazon contract drivers are hanging smartphones in trees outside Whole Foods stores and delivery stations to more quickly grab new online orders, according to a new Bloomberg report.
- Doing so allows them to beat out competing drivers and have a leg up in snagging more orders, thereby making more money.
- It’s one of the latest examples of how competition has grown among workers in the gig economy, which has been hit hard by a downturn in business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Amazon did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Amazon drivers are hanging phones from trees outside Chicago Amazon delivery stations and Whole Foods stores so that they will have first dibs on accepting new orders, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
The outlet viewed footage of drivers syncing their phones up to the devices that are suspended in trees and then parking nearby to wait. Amazon’s system chooses drivers based on who is closest to the pickup location — meaning drivers with access to phones even slightly closer to the stores and delivery stations have a leg up on accepting orders before competing drivers.
There is a coordinated group of drivers that uses the process, Bloomberg reported. By using multiple smartphones suspended in trees that alert multiple drivers, they make it more difficult for Amazon to discover their system.
The report is an example of the increasing level of competition in the gig economy as workers face a steep drop in business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drivers with the ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft have found themselves with less work and, in turn, have sought out other gig options, including picking up Amazon orders, to earn more money, further intensifying the competition, according to the report.
Drivers who are not involved with the procedure have convened in online chat rooms to decipher how other drivers are beating them to orders so quickly, Bloomberg said. Some have taken their complaints to Amazon, and Bloomberg viewed an internal email in which the company said it would investigate but not be able to share its conclusion with the drivers.
“Amazon knows about it but does nothing,” one driver told Bloomberg.
In an email to Business Insider, an Amazon spokesperson said, “Instant Offers are another way for delivery partners to be their own boss and work on their own schedule,” referring to the company’s fast-delivery options.
“This story isn’t an accurate description of how they work, and waiting in the parking lot or using the store Wi-Fi is not an effective way to increase one’s chances of seeing an instant offer,” the spokesperson added.
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NVIDIA PhysX, the most popular physics simulation engine on the planet, is going open source. We’re doing this because physics simulation — long key to immersive games and entertainment — turns out to be more important than we ever thought.
Amazon knows exactly how many seconds you pace around their site while shopping for running shoes. But brick-and-mortar retailers stumble when it comes to measuring foot traffic. Motionloft promises to put them in step.
Two students, separated by different cultures and thousands of miles, share a common language. They speak robot. Doctoral candidate Raffaello Bonghi splits his time between Italy and France. Ryan Beethe is an undergrad in Colorado.


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Ukraine has expanded the variety of cryptocurrencies it’s accepting for donations towards its navy as Russia’s invasion continues.
On Wednesday, Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister of Ukraine, stated individuals can ship dogecoin as a donation. Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency which initially began off as a joke and has been talked up by Tesla founder Elon Musk.
It’s typically dubbed a “memecoin,” referring to fashionable web jokes.
“Now even meme can support our army and save lives from Russian invaders,” Fedorov tweeted.
On Tuesday, Fedorov tweeted a couple of venture referred to as Support For Ukraine. It’s a collaboration between the Ukrainian authorities, Everstake and a cryptocurrency blockchain platform referred to as Solana.
Individuals can now donate solana cryptocurrency in addition to any other digital tokens primarily based upon Solana.
Ukraine can be accepting non-fungible tokens or NFTs as donations too. These are distinctive belongings akin to a chunk of digital artwork saved utilizing blockchain know-how to confirm and monitor every NFT.
In the meantime, cryptocurrency trade Uniswap has constructed a perform that enables individuals to transform any Ethereum-based digital currencies into ether and ship it to the Ukrainian authorities. Ethereum is a blockchain platform that builders can construct apps on high of.
Fedorov additionally stated that Gavin Wooden, the co-founder of a blockchain platform referred to as Polkadot, despatched $5 million price of the DOT cryptocurrency to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian authorities has raised $35 million, by way of greater than 35,000 cryptoasset donations because the begin of the Russian invasion, in line with Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm.
On Feb. 26, Ukraine started accepting cryptocurrencies for donations and commenced with bitcoin, ether and a stablecoin referred to as tether. Stablecoins are digital currencies tied to real-world belongings akin to fiat forex.
Now Ukraine is stepping up the variety of cryptocurrencies that it’s going to settle for for donations. It comes as navy consultants count on Russia’s assaults to extend in ferocity and destructiveness.
Whereas cryptocurrency donations are including some cash to Ukraine’s resistance effort, the nation has raised extra by way of battle bonds, which have introduced in about 8.14 billion Ukrainian hryvnia ($270 million).
On Wednesday, an official Ukraine authorities account tweeted that an “airdrop” is confirmed and would happen on Thursday. An airdrop is often when a person or entity offers away cryptocurrency for free. However particulars had been scarce and it is unclear what digital forex can be given away and to whom.
Cryptocurrencies have turn out to be a distinguished characteristic of the battle between Russia and Ukraine. There was hypothesis that Russians might use cryptocurrencies to get their cash in another country to evade sanctions, although consultants stated this could possibly be extraordinarily troublesome.
Final week, Fedorov referred to as on main cryptocurrency exchanges to dam the accounts of Russian customers. Binance, the world’s largest trade, stated it might block addresses of any customers that had been sanctioned, however not accounts of all Russians.


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Atlanta (WAOK) — Former Atlanta Public School Teacher Rashella Reed, 41, was sentenced on Wednesday to 14 years in prison for her role in the trafficking of over $8 million in governmental benefits by United States District Judge William T. Moore Jr. in Savannah, Georgia.
Thirteen others who were accused and charged in the scheme have already entered guilty pleas. Attorney for Reed, Donald Johnstono, believes that the sentence given to his client by Judge Moore is beyond excessive, given that the two women who he says were the masterminds behind the fraudulent scheme were given less that five years due to their willingness to cooperate with prosecutors and the guilty pleas that they entered. Johnstono maintains that Reed believed that she was one of many participants of a legal and legitimate investment.
Federal prosecutors say that the money laundering plot involved up to 13 grocery stores from across the state of Georgia. The grocery stores were used as fronts in order to launder money from the government that was supposed to be dispersed to the poor through government programs such as WIC and SNAP. According to prosecutors, Reed and the other participants utilized the fronts to buy SNAP benefits and WIC vouchers and paid the supposed recipients of the benefits between 10 cents and 60 cents on the dollar, while keeping the rest of the money for themselves.
Reed was found to have invested money into the Baby Spot store in Decatur and even drew a monthly check from the store, according Johnstono, and was unaware that she was involved in any illegal activity.
Written by Sherman H. Smith Jr (WAOK/Intern)


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On this sunny spring day in Montclair, Diamond Cycle is gearing up for bike riding weather.
“I really love bicycles, and getting people on bicycles, especially children. It’s a big part of why I do this,” said owner Craig Cornell.
There’s been a bicycle store on Bloomfield Avenue for more than a century. Cornell took over the business in the late 80s and watched the downtown district boom around him.
“It’s a drastic difference now compared to when I started in 1988,” he said. “The scene here now is just way busier, especially in the evenings. There’s a lot of great restaurants around so we get a lot more flow of people coming through. More people coming to Montclair for a destination and we’re getting a lot of business from that.”
And that means the efforts of the Montclair Center are making a difference. The Center runs the BID, or Business Improvement District. The BID helps existing business owners and recruits new ones to Montclair.
“We want to increase economic value for the area, and the way we increase economic value is we make sure that the businesses are supported and feel comfortable in what they’re doing, and we promote for them,” said Israel Cronk, who became executive director for the Montclair Center BID two years ago. “Making Montclair amazing is the end-all and be-all of all of our decisions,” he said. “Our tag line says it all: Where the city meets the suburbs. And so you get all of the convenience and the excitement of the city in the safety of a community.”
And in this community, there’s always something going on. All of these events help make the downtown area the heart of Montclair and it’s brought outside recognition, including the prestigious national Great American Main Street Award in 2015.
A stroll through the downtown district reminds you of the good old days, with mom and pop stores on every block and lots of friendly faces. But Montclair didn’t always have this “Mayberry RFD” kind of vibe.
“Montclair downtown wasn’t a place you hung around after 5 o’clock. It just wasn’t,” Cronk said.
Cronk says during the 1990s, the one-mile stretch of downtown Montclair had a vacancy rate of 50 percent. That led merchants and property owners to come together to form the Montclair Center Corporation in 2002 as they sought to make downtown safe and more attractive.
“That was like the first order of business. Clean the streets. Clean them, clean them, clean them,” Cronk said.
Fast forward to 2018, thanks to the BID and an improving economy, the downtown vacancy rate is about 5 percent. Montclair Center now boasts 324 retailers and restaurants, which pay an assessment to support the BID’s initiatives.
The downtown revitalization is also attracting millions of dollars of investments from private developers, who continue to transform Montclair while preserving its past.
“All we do is repurpose buildings that have existed. We protect their beautiful exteriors because of their architectural detail, and they we modernize the interior for what a professional needs today,” said Bob Silver, co-founder and CEO of the The Bravitas Group.
Silver decided to redevelop properties in Montclair after leaving a career on Wall Street. It was a smart bet.
“We have no vacancies right now in all of our properties. I think there’s been a migration out of New York. People don’t have to schlep to New York anymore, so they’re willing to build their businesses in suburbia. And if you have to be in suburbia, Montclair is a pretty cool place,” Silver said.
Melissa Adler thought so, too. The transplanted New Yorker brought a bit of hipster style to Montclair’s youngest residents when she opened children’s clothing store Dirt & Noise on Church Street.
“I moved to Montclair nine years ago from the city,” Adler said. “I have two boys and as they were growing and everything, I figured we needed a cool kids clothing store, so it seemed like the right thing. I’ve been here four years and it’s been great.”
Adler has been luckier than others.
“Everyone wants the name ‘Montclair’ on their address,” Cronk explained. “So our vacancy rate has gone down, but it doesn’t mean that businesses stay here for a long time. There’s quite a bit of churn and that’s kind of the reality of running a downtown.”
Before running the BID, Cronk ran Bangz, a hair salon that his father opened in a former Masonic Temple. He knows firsthand how hard it is to run a business, especially in an era when the overall retail industry faces challenges from competitors like Amazon. But Cronk hopes he’s giving businesses the tools they need to succeed.
“Even though we can’t make cash registers ring and actually put people inside of these vacancies, our vision and our mission is to create an environment where we can at least create opportunities for people to take advantage of,” Cronk said.
And that’s why the developers keep coming, and new businesses, like Dody’s Dresses, continue to pop up.
Duha Khaddash went from selling designer dresses from around the world online to selling them in her recently opened boutique on South Fullerton Avenue, in a town she visited often.
“I thought Montclair was a beautiful place, nice community,” Khaddash said. “On Jan. 2, after the new year, we opened. So far it’s good. It’s a little bit slow, but always we have hope it will work out.”
“New York has the slogan ‘you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,’ Montclair kind of has that on a softer level. So it’s not the easiest place to open up a business, but when you have it right, you’re going to absolutely explode,” said Cronk.
Or at least stick around for a very long time, like the bike shop on Bloomfield Avenue. Cornell says he’d like to be in business for a few more decades, at least.
The Montclair Center BID will do its best to make that happen for Montclair’s business owners and for an entire community that rediscovered, remade and embraced its downtown.