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Now is the time to rent permission-based B2B email lists, judging by Worldata’s Fall 2018 List Price Index.
“B2B email list rental prices saw a significant drop over the last 12 months,” states Jay Schwedelson, president and CEO of Worldata.
The reason? “Inventory in this category continues to grow at a rapid pace, which is helping to fuel a more competitive pricing environment for marketers,” Schwedelson says. He expects this trend to continue.
Small business email lists suffered the largest percentage decrease at 6.82%.
However, international permission-based email lists saw an increase -- rising from $56/M to $460/M -- and this remains the highest-priced list rental category.
“The International email list rental cost rise can be directly attributed to GDPR going into effect during the past few months,” Schwedelson notes. “The available inventory of compliant data has dropped significantly, which has caused the overall cost to increase substantially.”
The cheapest lists? Permission-based consumer email files, which have an average price of $54/M -- a $3/M decrease from last year at this time. This is the lowest-price list category in the history of the price index.
Despite the B2B falloff, the highest-priced domestic category is large business email lists, which have an average CPM of $190/M, although it fell by $5/M from Fall 2017.


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Acer, the Taiwanese manufacturer, has launched its first Windows Phone 8.1 device. The announcement was made yesterday morning at the Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona. Acer’s smartphone named as Liquid M220 shall be upgradeable to Windows 10 in the future, said Acer. Along with the first Windows Phone 8.1 device, Acer also announced 3 Android smartphones.
Priced at just €79, Liquid M220 is the Windows Phone aimed at capturing budget buyers. Acer looks to start selling the device starting April this year in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The device will sport 2 colors – Mystic Black and Pure White.
Speaking at the launch, Peter Han, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, OEM Division, Microsoft, said,
“With the launch of the Liquid M220, it’s great to see Acer expanding its portfolio of Windows devices to include smartphones. Together we are providing an integrated, cross-device Windows experience to our joint customers.”
Acer Liquid M220 specs
Liquid M220 has attractive features considering it is just an entry level budget smartphone. Below is what the specifications look like,
- 4-inch 233 pixels per inch (PPI) display
- 512MB of RAM
- 5MP auto-focus main and 2MP front cameras
- 2GHz dual-core CPU
- 4GB on board storage with MicroSD card expansion
- 1300mAh battery
- Dual SIM
- Windows 10 ready
- Compatible with Acer’s smart wearables
Acer has confirmed that Liquid M220 will get the Windows 10 OS upgrade as in when the OS gets launched later this year, however with just 512 MB of RAM it remains to be seen how it performance after the upgrade. Even after Microsoft’s assurance users experience may differ for different devices and devices with low-end specifications may not exhibit all the features of Windows 10 OS.
If you are planning to buy Acer’s Liquid Leap and Liquid Leap+ smart active bands then Liquid M220 is the right combination to go with your tracking device helping you stay in touch with deported notifications and music-control.

domain: news


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CALM and decisive leadership, a clear plan for the UK’s future outside the EU and a framework for business and government to work together and deliver that plan are businesses’ immediate priorities as the country navigates its exit from the EU, according to the CBI. Speaking at the London Evening Standard’s inaugural Business Awards, Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI director-general, also said government must confirm that workers from the EU already in the UK can stay.
The fly in the ointment
DURING a visit to a Belgian vinyl manufacturer days after the UK voted to leave the EU, I was drawn to the imagery of how a single fly that lands on the moving sheets of vinyl inside the factory can get stuck on the adhesive, forcing the workers to replace entire sections of vinyl. The cost of one such incident isn’t necessarily going to bankrupt anyone, but tally up several such incidents over a long, hot summer, and the accumulated damage becomes painfully obvious. Read more...
How to avoid contractors who use every trick in the book to reduce and delay payment Whatever the level of your business and whatever your specialisation, I want to encourage you to experience and enjoy a better, more profitable way of working. That means that as a business owner, you don’t just hope to get paid on time, you’re one of the smart ones that actually makes sure payment problems won’t cost you your business. Unscrupulous contractors use every trick in the book to reduce and delay payments...
Don’t panic – I see no immediate impact on the CFA after the Brexit referendum. It’s business as usual. The Flooring Industry Training Association (FITA) hosted another important event in April, when all instructors
attended an intensive day of CPD
with an update provided on the latest
tools, materials and laying techniques...
How adhesives keep it all together
BAL has launched a new formulation of its hygienic waterproof BAL Easypoxy AG epoxy adhesive and grout for walls and floors. Said to be chemical-resistant and solvent free, the formulation provides end-users with an epoxy that is claimed to be easier to mix, apply and clean-off during installations. Read more
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Event: Bollywood celebs Priyanka Chopra, Ayushmann Khurrana, Vidya Malvade, Sophie Choudry, Diana Hayden, Vidyut Jamwal, Shamita Shetty, Mona Singh and others sizzled at the ramp for CPAA charity fashion show. Fashion designer Manish Malhotra was also snapped with Priyanka.
Guest List: Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Malvade, Manish Malhotra, Shamita Shetty, Shazahn Padamsee, Ashish Chowdhry, Samita Bangargi, Diana Hayden, Tanisha Mukherjee, Ayushmann Khurrana, Sophie Chaudhary, Sunita Gowariker, Mona Singh, Aamir Ali, Vidyut Jamwal, Deepshikha, Harsha Bhogle, Smriti Irani
Sizzling HOT Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor was snapped at the airport.
Cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma were snapped at the airport. Also spotted was legendry lyrist Javed Akhtar.
Bollywood celebs Amitabh Bachchan, Sushant Singh Rajput, Karan Johar, Rajkummar Rao, Aditya Roy Kapur, Saif Ali Khan among others were snapped at the airport.
Bollywood actor John Abraham was snapped at the unveiling of 2017 Nissan GT-R.
Bollywood celebs Abhishek Bachchan, Farah Khan, Sajid Khan, Kayoze Irani, Rajkumar Hirani among others were seen at Boman Irani's birthday bash.


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From shore to door: Oyster farmers turn to locals after export market tanks
The Little Shemogue Oyster Company went from sales of 20,000-plus oysters per week to less than 1,000
At this time of the year, Kevin Williams and his father Wayne would normally have eight employees helping them to process and ship thousands of oysters to the eastern United States.
Instead, Kevin says, he and his dad are keeping the Little Shemogue Oyster Company afloat by drumming up business locally. It's a market they had never explored before.
"Basically, sales went from what they were, which was really strong, to zero," said Wayne. "Quite a shock to the system."
Oysters started out as a hobby, but turned into a family business about five years ago. The Williams' have two water leases where oysters are grown, one in Cocagne, the other in Little Shemogue. The company also buys from other farmers and sorts and ships tens of thousands of oysters each week to Boston and New York City.
"My best market is the springtime, all winter you're paddling along waiting for the spring to hit and this year it didn't happen," said Wayne. "So that kind of hurts."
With help from emergency funds and wage subsidies offered by the Federal Government, and people in New Brunswick showing an interest in their oysters, Wayne thinks the company can hang on until next winter.
Part of the community
Between word of mouth and social media ads, Kevin has been delivering hundreds of oysters every week to new customers in Moncton, Shediac and Sackville.
"There's just something special about being part of the community," said Kevin, who hopes to keep his new customers when the export market recovers.
Kevin drops the oyster orders at front doors, rings the bell, then leaves.
He said it's also been helpful that a local restaurant offering weekly food boxes filled with items from different suppliers has often included the local oysters.
"It just means a little bit more to me than just shipping a pound of oysters off to somebody you've never met."
10 years of 'expansion mode'
According to Rachelle Richard-Collette, director of the New Brunswick Mollusk Association, the province normally exports 20 to 30 million oysters a year.
She said it's too soon to know how badly the pandemic will affect the industry, but producers won't have the luxury of waiting to find out before deciding whether to continue.
Oysters grow for four to five years before they're big enough to sell. Richard-Collette said producers have to invest in their oyster farms now or risk ruining their product for years to come.
"They cannot afford not to go to work."
Grown in bags in cold bay waters, oysters are flipped and sorted on a continuous basis to stay healthy and to continue to grow. That takes time and labour.
Richard-Collette said farmers returned to work about three weeks ago when the ice melted, and many need employees to keep up with the demands of their farms.
"This is risky for them in terms of the business," she said. "They're incurring expenses and they don't have the sales right now."
The oyster industry in southeastern New Brunswick was "booming" and has been in expansion mode for the last 10 years, according to Richard-Collette.
So while sales volumes will be lower than previous years, Richard-Collette said if restaurants continue to reopen, a busy fall could bring hope to the industry.
But with 90 per cent of the New Brunswick oysters sold outside the province, how hard the pandemic is hitting other places will determine how quickly the industry will recover.


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Having just written the note below for a client, I thought it worth sharing for all. Far too much chatter going on right now within the SEO industry about what’s happened and what may happen after the latest Penguin update. What the Buddha said applies to Google as much as life…’Everything changes.’ Once that is accepted as a given, whatever is happening now – in this case, ‘the end of SEO’ according to some pundits – seems just another passing show. So sit back and enjoy the ride, we’ve got you covered…
(1) Google has released a new algorithm update, nicknamed Penguin within the SEO world. This has wreaked absolute havoc within the industry, to a greater degree even than Panda of last year, and literally ruined many businesses over night. What’s interesting from our perspective is that truly awful sites are now ranking highly in many big niches, whereas established brands with great content and link profiles are finding themselves punished. Similarly, there appears to be very little logic to what Google has done, which marks this quite distinctly from previous updates. Panda, for example, made a lot of sense and appeared to be the result of an intelligent evolution of their ranking system. This is not the case just now and some pundits believe they have very purposefully done something to damage the SEO industry, and throw people back into Pay Per Click. Remember, Google is an ad platform first and foremost and their income comes from advertisers. So the more they can discredit and discourage the SEO industry the better things will be for their turnover.
(2) Unnatural Link Penalties – All of our clients, and most of our colleagues in the industry, have received these. Google has sent out tens of thousands of them, often to sites undeserving. Please ignore the warning, and try not to panic. This current furore will pass. Getting in touch with Google for a reconsideration, or indeed changing up your link velocity and pattern, is a key way to show Google what you’re doing, and in fact to confirm any possible signs of unnatural linking. Carry on as usual, keep building great original content, and engaging with your user base. The dust will settle.
(3) Our Link Building Methodology – The key to successful link building remains now, as it has always been, diversity. These means diversity of link types, diversity of coding platform, diversity of anchor text, diversity of Class C Ip.
In conclusion, rest assured that we as an agency take your business and your rankings very seriously indeed. Please keep the faith that we are working hard to ensure your success and, as an agency, to roll with whatever punches Google sends our way and recover as quickly as possible when necessary. SEO is not a fixed entity but a continually changing knowledgebase and set of best practices. Fluctuation is inevitable and indeed part of the process.
PS, if you’re ready for one hell of a laugh to take your mind off things, check this out:


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Formerly known as the Open Web Awards, the Mashable Awards honor the companies and the individuals who have left their mark on the digital and social media world. There are 26 categories, ranging from Best Mobile Device to Entrepreneur of the Year.
Today, Pixar is known to be more than just a company. It has become an entire culture where creativity, quality, and diversity are known to thrive. It is a brand with an incredible reputation that precedes it. Maybe that is why Disney/Pixar has been nominated for a Mashable Award by the general public in the Must-Follow Brand category! The nominees for the category are:
- Disney Pixar
A few days ago, @DisneyPixar on Twitter got in on the action and shared this with their followers:
We are honored to have been nominated for “Must-Follow Brand” by the @Mashable Awards! Vote for us today! http://on.mash.to/flEBiQ
— Disney•Pixar (@DisneyPixar) December 4, 2010
Is Pixar a brand that you consider to be a must-follow? Then click here to vote for Disney/Pixar in the Must-Follow Brand category. Voting is open through 11:59 PM on Tuesday, December 14.
Winners for the 4th Annual Mashable Awards will be announced at the gala on Thursday, January 6, 2011 at the New York New York Hotel in Las Vegas, which have the more luxury rooms, gardens and even a pool with a hayward pool pump to keep everything clean and perfect.


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Executive Traveler Exclusive
Meatless burgers, bolognese and schnitzels could be on the menu at Qantas lounges and onboard flights by the end of this year, with the airline developing a range of dishes using artificial meat designed to look, smell and taste like the real thing.
“We are planning a lot of menus for the future over the next month, and I think in the next six months we hope to launch some things,” said Qantas chef Neil Perry. Executive Traveler.
“We’ll have a full plant-based dish on each of the menus and we’ve also started looking at plant-based meats like Beyond, Impossible and V2, which is an Australian product.”
American startup Impossible Foods is a hero in the booming “fake meat” industry. Its Impossible Burger has already been rolled out by Air New Zealand, American Airlines – as a vegan alternative to its Flagship Lounge Burger – and Delta Air Lines.
United Airlines is now offering Impossible Meatball Bowls on First Class domestic flights and Impossible Sausage Patties in Polaris Business Class Lounges.
Perry has also partnered with local company V2 Food at her Margaret restaurant in Sydney’s Double Bay to add more plant-based elements to an already sustainability-focused gourmet menu, “and we’re even cooking at home with V2 right now… out of our five family meals a week, we’ll eat at least two that don’t contain meat or fish protein.
Backed by Australia’s CSIRO, V2 has also made inroads into the mainstream, from Hungry Jack’s flame-grilled Rebel Whopper burger to supermarket shelves Woolworths and Coles (alongside rivals Impossible and Beyond Meat).
“We will decide with which company we will choose how it will affect the menus from next year,” says Perry.
But carnivores needn’t panic: That doesn’t mean the end of the business-class steak sandwich or the economical choice of “chicken or beef.”
“I don’t think we’ll ever eliminate meat from our diets and I don’t think we should. In my opinion, it’s just about balancing and changing people’s perception of how much meat they should eat.
Humans are “sort of hardwired to eat meat,” Perry explains, “so getting people to eat more plant-based meats and realize how delicious they are, and that they (satisfy ) in a way that the craving for meat is a way to get that balance… we can give people the pleasure and satisfaction of eating a meat meal.
Perry’s artificial meat menus will build on the airline’s introduction of plant-based meals in all cabins from November 2021, reflecting a growing trend towards healthier lifestyles, especially during long trips abroad where you sit for hours.
This is certainly good news for the legion of vegans and vegetarians who all too often have the celery short when it comes to in-flight meals.
But many flesh eaters are simply becoming more aware and, dare we say, more attentive to their diets – including embracing “Meatless Monday” (created by Paul McCartney in 2009) to help balance the remaining six days of the the week.
Visitors to Qantas airport lounges could be the first to sample the airline’s faux meat menu, as “we have the opportunity in the lounge to be a bit more nimble and bring things in quicker ( than on flights),” says Perry.
“Domestic is faster than international, and salons are faster than both.”
Additional reporting by David Flynn


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U.S. stocks on Thursday notched solid gains, with a late-session flourish deeper into record territory for good measure, one day after President Trump signed the first phase of a U.S.-China trade pact and on the day the Senate ratified a revised trade treaty between the U.S. Mexico and Canada. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
rose 267 points, or 0.9%, to close around 29,298, the S&P 500 index
gained 28 points, or 0.8% to end the session at roughly 3,317 and the Nasdaq Composite index
rallied about 98 points, or 1.1% to close at 9,357. All three benchmarks finished at all-time highs. Investors have cheered the details of the U.S.-China trade pact, which includes promises by the Chinese to buy $200 billion in incremental exports from the U.S., and sentiment was also BUOYED by a new North American trade treaty, formerly known as Nafta, set to reach the president's desk. Economic data were also encouraging, with the government reporting that retail sales rose 0.3% in December, in line with expectations, and new applications for jobless benefits fell by 10,000 to near 50-year lows in the week ended Jan. 11. The Philly Fed manufacturing index also rose above expectations, while a survey of home builders showed confidence in the industry near 20-year highs. In company news, Morgan Stanley
shares rose 7.1% after beating expectations for fourth-quarter earnings and revenue, while shares of Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
tumbled 7.7% as investors balked at a fourth-quarter revenue miss and projections of rising costs in 2020.


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Trip.com leading Chinese language platform Ctrip launched its 2023 Travel Revival A Plan to reunite destinations with Chinese travelers.
Tourism professionals should not hold out false hope for a kill-off of COVID-19 spread. Experts say the virus may affect all countries.
New York – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that its initial assessment of the impact of the Novel Coronavirus 2019 outbreak (COVID-19) shows a potential 13% full-year loss of passenger demand for carriers in the Asia-Pacific region. Considering that growth for the region’s airlines was forecast to be 4.8%, the net impact will be […]
In the midst of what’s become a first-ever, “Infodemic” shouldn’t our leaders be educating travelers about the real dangers of 2019-nCoV?
The National Tourism Organisation of Serbia was awarded a Chinese marketing destinations award the “Chinese Tourists Welcoming Award” at the COTTM travel fair in Beijing.


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Movado Connect Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch looks like a Movado watch
Earlier this month the Movado group announced its commitment to developing a bunch of Android Wear smartwatches, including one that would bear the Movado brand. However, that press release was devoid of any images of the device. Fast forward to today at Baselworld, the world's most important watch trade show, and the company has decided to share a bit more.
Just a bit, though. We have the images you can see above and below, which give us a very good idea of what the Movado Connect smartwatch will look like. On the other hand, absolutely no spec details have been made public.
So all we know about the Connect at the moment is that it runs Android Wear 2.0 and it looks... like a Movado watch. The custom watch faces that will come pre-loaded meven feature the signature single dot in the 12 o'clock position. In fact, the watch face is meant as a tribute of sorts to the Movado Museum Classic - which is probably the collection that served as the design inspiration for the Connect.
The smartwatch will become available in the fall in five different men's styles, starting at $495.
- 25 Mar 2017
I'm pretty sure that smartwatch prices will go only up since they are getting better and market is just developing. And what's most important - Apple is controlling smartwatch market since they sell more smartwatches then others combined. Apple never...
- 24 Mar 2017
wow, can't believe, people are still using this phone..!!
- 24 Mar 2017
And Android Wear is building momentum with the surprising jump on board of the big watch companies. I think that 2017 will be the year when smartwatches will get a bit cheaper and more mainstream because of that(in my opinion, 300$+ is a crazy price ...


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Demonetisation: India Inc urges more public spending to limit GDP fall
"With 86 per cent of the cash out of circulation and replenishment facing difficulties, the Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) in the third quarter is expected to see a sizeable reduction to the extent of at least 35-40 per cent and slightly lower in the fourth quarter," the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India said in a statement here.
"In terms of expenditure, PFCE, popularly known as -- India consumption story -- accounts for close to 60 per cent of the country`s Gross Domestic Product at current prices and 55 per cent at constant prices (base 2011-12)," it said pointing to the enormity of the figures involved in case of the GDP.
The maths of the Assocham estimates point to a contraction of 2.5 per cent of the GDP in the ongoing third quarter, which will become worse for the final quarter of the fiscal.
For the whole fiscal, the contraction in GDP works out to 1.25 per cent, whose impact, however, will be felt in concentrated form over the remaining less than five months of the financial year.
PFCE at current prices for the previous quarter ended September has been estimated at Rs 21.78 lakh crore, registering a growth of 12.4 per cent over the corresponding period of last year.
"When an important component accounting for 60 per cent of the GDP takes a hit to this extent, the overall impact is bound to be significant," Assocham Secretary General D. S. Rawat told IANS.
"We urge that as against Rs 5.15 lakh crore in the second quarter, government expenditure, at market prices, should be jacked up to Rs 7 lakh crore for each of the third and fourth quarter for the sake of growth," he said.
"India`s informal economy has been badly hit by demonetisation, jobs will be hit and we urge the government to minimise the impact," he added.
Assocham suggested that various ministries, which have been earmarked in the annual budget, should exceed their expenditure aggressively towards damage control.
"Government expenditure itself accounts for a good part of the GDP to the extent of 14 per cent," the business chamber said.
Previous article Government clarifies exemption limits for gold seizure (Second Lead)


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A new version of Nokia's mapping service Ovi Maps will include turn-by-turn voice guidance for walking and driving navigation for free, Nokia said on Thursday.
The motoring authority of Victoria, VicRoads, has backed down on a plan to ban the use of mobile global positioning system (GPS) devices in cars.
A year after launching in the U.K., with rollouts elsewhere since, Nokia’s Comes With Music service has amassed just 107,000 subscribers, according to an analyst report.
Finnish phone giant Nokia has announced its e-mail service Ovi Mail has hit the one million accounts in the space of just over six months.
Nokia has opened the Ovi Store, where owners of around 50 different Nokia devices can download applications, games, videos and podcasts.
Nokia has embarked on an aggressive campaign to promote the Ovi online store among software developers in East Africa.
Nokia is expanding the capabilities of its online content-sharing site, Ovi, as it steps up competition with other providers of services that link mobile phones to online services.
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BINGEN, Wash. — At an age when most people are eager to retire, 68-year-old Margie Lemberger cleaned out a chunk of her savings and started a business.
The retired pharmacist outfitted her homespun shop along a quiet stretch of the Columbia River Gorge with a second-hand couch and other thrift store finds. She picked up display cases from an old grocery store.
It’s easy to imagine the store’s shelves lined with homemade pies or curios. Instead, they’re crowded with Super Sour Diesel, Dirty Girl, Cherry OG and dozens of other marijuana strains.
At first, Margie’s Pot Shop, tucked off Washington State Route 14 in Bingen, hummed. Hikers dropped in after a day in the woods. Marijuana smokers from Goldendale and White Salmon in Washington and Hood River in Oregon drove to the outpost marked with a yellow and red sign that Lemberger painted herself.
Washington pot sales: What else is happening?
Weed news and interviews: Get podcasts of The Cannabist Show.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
Watch The Cannabist Show.
Sales grew for most of last year, peaking at an impressive $172,000 for the month of August, reports The Oregonian. That was before Oregon opened its own recreational marijuana market in October. Now anyone 21 and older can walk into any one of the state’s estimated 333 medical marijuana dispensaries that have opted to serve the recreational market to buy pot.
Overnight, Lemberger’s sales went into freefall. Between October and February, they plunged 50 percent. Lemberger brought in a dart board so budtenders could pass the time.
Towns along the Washington border have felt competition from Oregon’s nascent state-regulated marijuana market more keenly than anywhere else. Revenue in those counties has seen a steep drop since last fall, even as overall Washington pot sales continue to climb.
Consider Klickitat County, home to Margie’s Pot Shop and two other cannabis retailers. The county saw cannabis tax revenues drop 47 percent since October, according to an analysis of Washington sales data by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.
In September, marijuana shops in Clark County accounted for 12 percent of all pot sold in Washington — a good share of the sales to Portland’s cannabis enthusiasts. Three months after Oregon began recreational sales, that number dropped to 7 percent, according to the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council’s recent analysis.
“Night and day,” said Lemberger, describing the impact that Oregon’s new market has had on her business.
Economists in both states say they aren’t surprised.
“We see this all the time,” said Josh Lehner, an economist with the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis who in February wrote a blog post he called “Border Effect, Weed Edition.”
Lehner said Washington’s recreational cannabis sales numbers since last year illustrate how pot is the latest “vice” to succumb to the “border effect” between states, a common phenomenon fueled by tax policy, convenience, selection and price.
For instance, Washington imposes a 37 percent state tax on recreational marijuana, compared to 25 percent in Oregon. (Oregon’s rate will drop later this year when recreational sales shift to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. New tax rates will range from 17 to 20 percent.) A gram of cannabis costs more, on average, in Washington than it does in Portland, according to Leafly, a popular strain and dispensary review site. The average price of a gram on Oregon’s recreational market is $13.67, compared with $14.68 in Washington, Leafly says.
A price gap between Oregon and Washington is likely to drive cannabis consumers who live or work along the border in search of the best deal.
Mark Kleiman, a public policy expert whose think tank, BOTEC Analysis Corporation, has served as a consultant to Washington on its cannabis program, said the two states should set similar tax rates to discourage interstate trafficking.
Ultimately, states with the lowest taxes, he said, “will flood the rest of the country” with black market pot.
“This is something that the two governors should be talking about hard,” said Kleiman, a professor at New York University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management.
“It’s crazy to have a big tax differential across a short border.”
The two states already have seen the border effect play out with liquor and cigarettes.
Take cigarettes. Since 2010, Oregon has sold more packs of cigarettes than Washington, even though Oregon is home to fewer people and the two states have similar smoking rates, said Lehner. Between July 2014 and June 2015, state economists say, Oregon sold 20 percent more — about 30 million packs — than Washington.
The likely explanation: Washington’s cigarette taxes add up to $3.03 per pack, compared to $1.32 in Oregon.
Same with alcohol. Washington’s move in 2012 to privatize liquor sales drove up prices there by 15 percent to 20 percent, say economists. Liquor stores along the Oregon side of the border have seen a nearly 40 percent spike in sales since then, according to a recent analysis by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.
It’s too soon to tell how the two states’ regulated cannabis markets will affect each other in the long run, said Steve Lerch, Washington’s chief economist.
Washington’s market has experienced major upheaval in a short span, including the introduction of Oregon’s regulated market, which was untaxed at first. Washington will undergo yet another big shift in July, when its medical and recreational markets will merge.
Despite the fluctuations, Lerch expects Washington’s pot tax revenue to continue to climb to $207 million this year, compared with $110 million the state received last year.
“I still don’t think we have enough information to know how it’s going to shake out in the long term,” he said, “because we keep having things change.”
Oregon’s new market hasn’t walloped all of Washington’s marijuana shops along the border.
On a recent weekday morning, Main Street Marijuana in Vancouver bustled with customers. The shop, owned by two brothers, Ramsey and Adam Hamide, is one of Washington’s top pot sellers.
Adam Hamide said the shop’s foot traffic — about 1,500 to 2,000 customers a day — gives him negotiating power with pot producers to buy larger quantities at lower prices. That translates into cheaper prices for consumers.
He said his shop offers 3.5 grams of marijuana flower, or an eighth of an ounce, for as low as $10. He sells a gram of cannabis extract called “wax” for as low as $20.
“Nobody can match it,” Hamide said. “Nobody in Washington or Oregon.”
Typically, an eighth of pot sells for $20 to $50 in Portland dispensaries. A gram of wax goes for about $20 to $35, Portland shop owners said. Plus, Oregonians can get products in Washington that for now remain off-limits here: marijuana-infused edibles and extracts.
Still, Main Street Marijuana has seen fewer Oregon customers since last fall, Hamide said. Last year, Oregonians made up about half the shop’s business. That’s dropped to about 20 percent, he said.
Monthly sales, which peaked at more than $2 million last September, dropped to $1.3 million in October. Sales figures on 502data.com — a site owned and managed by a Washington marijuana retailer who regularly updates and breaks down the state’s publicly available pot sales data — show that Main Street Marijuana’s sales are down from last year but steadily climbing back up.
(Oregon, by contrast, does not have such detailed publicly available marijuana sales data. The state only began collecting sales taxes on recreational marijuana in January.)
The shop’s prices, said Hamide, have attracted new customers from Clark County and longtime black market consumers.
“Who wouldn’t want a $10 eighth or a $20 gram of wax?” Hamide said. “The black market can’t compete because the (regulated) market has matured.”
Lemberger, for her part, isn’t discouraged by the new market to the south. Instead, she’s considering diversifying. Maybe adding some fishing poles and lures, for instance. She’s also boosted her monthly budget for advertising and is negotiating prices with marijuana producers so she can stay competitive.
Overall, while business has dropped at Margie’s Pot Shop since last fall, February sales improved over the previous month, according to 502data.com. She sold $84,000 worth of pot in February — the most since last November, according to 502data.com.
Worried about the future, Lemberger scaled back her ambition for her shop.
“We just won’t be that big store that makes a lot of money,” she said. “We will just be a local mom-and-pop store.”
Via AP Member Exchange


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Tag: burger king
Burger King offering Whoppers off of LG LCD Menus soon
Burger King are are to do away with paper-pin board menus in favour of snazzy LG HD screens, it has been revealed today. "The screens are cost-effective, and in line with the ongoing refurbishment of our restaurants," Mel Edwards of…
Facebook bans Burger King ad campaign
A week or so ago, Burger King announced an advertising campaign where deleting ten friends would get you a voucher for a free whopper. It spread quite quickly, and 233,906 friends were removed by 82,771 people in less than a week.
Facebook, unsurprisingly, isn’t too happy – it knows its value lies in those friend links. As a result, it’s banned the campaign, citing privacy reasons. Turns out that Facebook isn’t keen on apps notifying users when they’ve been ‘cut’ by another friend. Full statement over the jump.


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ING 2016 underlying net profit EUR 4,976 million; FY 2016 dividend of EUR 0.66 per ordinary shareView full press release
Let our press office team answer your questionsView our media relations contacts
Easy Trading Connect on the verge of digitalising an age-old sector
Commodity trade and finance is still based on the exchange of paper documents. But that’s about to change. Easy Trading Connect is proof that the sector can be digitalised with blockchain technology.
Apple Pay goes Down Under
ING customers in Australia wanted it. ING in Australia has provided it. It’s Apple Pay, Apple's NFC payment system that lets users’ make purchases using an iOS device.
On top of the blockchain
At the world’s biggest blockchain hackathon in the Netherlands last weekend, over 500 people from around the world showed what blockchains can potentially do.


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Back in May, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce president Todd Maisch guessed that the state would hit $1 billion in retail sales before the end of 2021. Now, figures from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) show that the state has hit the golden milestone two months early.
According to IDFPR, adult-use cannabis businesses have sold $1.12 billion in cannabis so far in 2021. Exactly $123,375,372 of those sales came from October alone, and October was the eighth month that sales figures exceeded $100 million.
These sales figures are pretty staggering, especially considering that the retail market in Illinois has been operating since January 1st, 2020 with a population of less than 13 million.
But Illinois’ sales figures aren’t just good for cannabis companies.
Last year, the state collected $205.4 million in tax revenue. This money has gone towards several good causes, as $31.5 million has gone towards communities affected by the war on drugs, and $3.5 million has gone to street intervention programs aiming to reduce violence. The state will also fund a new initiative that provides legal aid to those convicted of cannabis crimes. Illinois isn’t the only state that’s putting cannabis tax revenue to good use. Schools in Nevada got $159 million from cannabis tax revenue this year and tax revenue provided $40 million+ in funding for schools in Colorado. Other states (like New York) are also expunging records.
Interestingly, Illinois’ cannabis revenue isn’t just coming from citizens. According to IDFPR, $81,212,423 of October’s sales came from state residents while $42,162,949 came from visitors. So many of these visitors come from Wisconsin that Wisconsin’s Governor Tony Evers joked that Illinois Governor J.H Pritzker “thanks me for having Wisconsinites cross the border to buy marijuana.”
If this joke is based on an actual event, there’s a good reason Pritzker is saying “thanks.”
Cannabis has provided a substantial revenue stream for the state government. In fact, between January and March 2021, the state government generated $86,537,000 from cannabis — way more than the $72,281,000 it got from alcohol. And as figures from IDFPR show sales are increasing quickly, tax revenue from cannabis will likely continue to grow.
Again: this could be Australia.
Editor’s note: all figures are in USD.


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Kids in the Middle East love those super-sweet soda and drink beverages. Loaded with sugar, parents should limit intake for new reasons.
With all the food and beverage issues making headlines, like pink slime hamburgers and meat glue worries, there is new bad news on syrupy soft drinks that people order with those “slime burgers” and French Fries would have their share of controversy as well. A couple of years ago, an article posted in Green Prophet reported that long term consumption of soda with high amounts of sugar, contributes to diabetes, heart disease and causes fatty liver as well. New research in finds that one or more of these drinks a day can cause heart disease in later life.
New studies by researchers at Australia’s University of Sydney indicate that children who consume large amounts of sweetened carbonated beverages are more likely to develop heart disease later in life. The researchers found that children who “drank one or more soft drinks each day had narrower arteries in the back part of the eye — a factor associated with increased risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.”
The findings of this study were very similar to an earlier study conducted at Boston University School of Medicine in 2007 which also indicated that even drinking one carbonated beverage a day could result in a condition known as metabolic syndrome that leads to waistline obesity (that apple shape that many overweight people have), high blood pressure, and higher blood sugar levels that can eventually lead to diabetes.
The ready availability of carbonated soft drinks, either out of machines or served to people as part of a fast food restaurant’s “combo meal” results in children and teenagers literally guzzling these drinks on a daily basis. Here in the Middle East, carbonated soft drinks and fruit drinks are found virtually everywhere, and have more than their share if health issues, including a recent recall of a popular soft drink in Dubai from mold.
Trying to convince kids to drink more healthy liquids such as plain water or green tea is an uphill battle, and many kids refuse to drink unless it sweet and fizzy. That’s why so many adds are found on TV to show how fun it is to drink Coke and other soft drinks. As shown on both the U. Of Sydney and Boston U. studies, what can happen to people later in life is definitely no fun.
Read more on health issues based on fast foods and high sugar soft drinks:
Image of Coke in Hebrew and Arabic by Karin Kloosterman


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The first Gateway eMarketplace will be officially launched by mid-November.
SAN DIEGO & LAS VEGAS - Gateway Inc. today announced a strategic alliance
with PurchasePro, an enabler of business-to-business e-commerce for companies
of all sizes, that will allow small- and medium-sized businesses to leverage the Internet to improve business efficiencies.
Together, the companies will develop three global marketplaces that allow clients to buy and sell products and
The companies will also launch a worldwide customer trading initiative, which will include an education program
for small-and medium-sized business members on the use of electronic marketplaces.
"Upon full deployment of our global training program, PurchasePro and Gateway expect to train more than
1,400 businesses per week, resulting in more than 70,000 companies per year," said Dale Boeth, senior vice
president of channel development for PurchasePro. "Educating our end users about the use of e-commerce solutions
allows us to differentiate our company and its products from others in the business-to-business e-commerce industry."
PurchasePro will power Gateway marketplaces for Gateway's small-and medium-sized clients in the United States,
Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions.
The first Gateway eMarketplace is operational and will be officially launched by mid-November, allowing Gateway
clients to interact with PurchasePro's 30,000 businesses and 200 private-labeled marketplaces to sell their products
In addition, Gateway clients will be able to access the global marketplace through an icon that will be featured
on Gateway PCs designed for small- and medium-sized business. Through an embedded demo located on their computer,
end users can instantly become members of the Gateway marketplace powered by PurchasePro.


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INVESTING SHOW: Are Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays and HSBC primed for recovery profits - and will investors ever fall back in love with bank shares?
Britain's big four banks' shares have been in the doldrums for years and sank once more as the coronavirus crisis hit.
Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays and NatWest have all reported that things aren't as bad as first feared, so could investors fall back in love with banks again?
On this episode of the Investing Show, Richard Hunter, of Interactive Investor, and This is Money's Simon Lambert delve into the big name banks, how they differ, and the challenges and opportunities they face.
From British economy bellwether Lloyds, to global mega bank HSBC, are they primed for profit in the recovery or will this be yet another false dawn?
Banks went into the Covid crisis in a considerably better position than through most of the financial crisis hangover and then set aside huge sums to deal with the economic impacts of lockdown.
But with recovery proving stronger-than-expected and the hit from bad loans not as bad as first thought, many of the big banks have released some of their emergency pile and are positioning themselves for growth as economies bounce back.
But the release of money set aside has flattered recent results and for many investors banks have major drawbacks: they have not been forgiven for the financial crisis and memory of their share price crashes lives on, while the big names are seen as utility -type stocks.
Meanwhile, even though higher interest rates and a dose of inflation are generally considered better for bank profits, their share prices have sunk with the wider market as it throws an inflation-fear wobble over the past week.
But does their unloved status make Britain's big banks a value opportunity or a wealth trap for money that could be put to better use elsewhere?
Most watched Money videos
- Ray Massey gets exclusive access to the new green Rolls-Royce Spectre
- 1990's advert for the Vauxhall Cavalier Turbo 4x4
- Renault previews new family car powered by a hydrogen-electric system
- Rustbucket Mercedes-Benz roadster sells at auction for almost £40k
- Ford tests traffic light tech that could change the commute forever
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- Dreams come true at a price. Most expensive cars ever auctioned
- RM Sotheby's has sold a Mercedes for a record £115million
- Watch the BANNED Land Rover ad that 'misrepresented' parking sensors
- Bentley brings the comfort of a limo to their popular SUV


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Wednesday, September 17, 2014
China's outbound investment more than doubled in August to US$12.62 billion, data showed Tuesday, far outstripping foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country, which fell to a four-year low.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
China's industrial production growth slowed sharply in August to its lowest level for more than five years at 6.9 percent, official data showed Saturday, intensifying concerns for the world's second-largest economy.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
China's bank lending nearly doubled in August from the previous month, central bank data showed Friday, rebounding towards what analysts described as a normal level.
Friday, September 12, 2014
An affiliate of German carmaker Volkswagen has been fined more than US$40.5 million for price-fixing in China, authorities said Thursday, the latest company to be punished under a sweeping anti-monopoly crackdown.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
China's premier promised Wednesday to open the world's No. 2 economy wider to foreign companies, promising favorable conditions despite a wave of anti-monopoly investigations that business groups say might be aimed at limiting competition.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
China's trade surplus surged to a record US$49.8 billion in August, figures showed Monday, as imports saw a surprising fall and export growth slowed in a further sign of softness in the world's second-largest economy.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Growth in Chinese manufacturing activity slowed in August, two closely watched surveys showed Monday, losing momentum as a declining property sector and waning stimulus effects weigh on the world's second-largest economy.
China's home prices fell at a slower rate in August than the previous month, an independent survey showed Monday, as more local governments loosened purchasing restrictions to prop up sales.
Foreign nationals who want to buy Alibaba Group shares in the Chinese e-commerce giant's U.S. public offering will need to get comfortable with an unusual business structure.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Esmod Guangzhou, a franchise of French fashion design school Esmod, aims to stress hands-on ability and style creativity in the capital of Guangdong province, which produces more than 20 percent of all the garments made in China.


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Posted Jan 28, 2013By
Kicking off a new year of our monthly roundup of the best photographs of beasts and birds (and one frog).
Each year re-enactors descend on Gettysburg to mark the anniversary of the battle. They shun modern conveniences in
Just a few years ago Gulf Arab women usually only felt comfortable showing off their fashion sense at ladies-only p
Virgil Lovell told his son Carlos at an early age, “If you make good liquor and put it barrels, it would be the s
The Best Baguette of Paris 2013 competition (Grand Prix de la Baguette de la Ville de Paris) took place in Paris Ap
Note to ‘American Idol’ fans who have grown weary of Randy Jackson’s ‘She’s in it to
Photos of designs from the Colombo Fashion Week in Colombo, Sri Lanka the first week of April, 2013.


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Put down your Pumpkin Spice latte and pick up your iPhone, because it’s almost autumn, and any Apple fan worth their AirPods knows that means it’s also upgrade season. Apple is holding a live event on Sept. 12 at 10 a.m. PT. at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, Calif., and speculation is rampant about the next iPhone, whether an updated Apple Watch update is coming, and all other manner of Apple rumors.
One thing’s as certain as a hair joke about Apple’s well-coiffured software engineering chief Craig Federighi: There will be new iPhones announced at the Apple event. But what more? Here’s where you can watch the Apple Event live stream, and what experts are predicting Apple CEO Tim Cook and company will reveal:
Apple iPhone X will get updated
New Apple iPhones are all but guaranteed, but the devil is in the details, and 9to5Mac has done some excellent sleuthing during the past two weeks. Within hours of the Apple event being announced, the news site revealed two new iPhones were to be unveiled. Coming with 5.8- and 6.5-inch OLED displays, the new Apple handsets will reportedly be named iPhone XS.
As for the new iPhones’ storage, speed, color, and other details, there’s remains a lot of guessing, but few guarantees. The new iPhone will likely have a faster chip than iPhone X, possibly a camera spec bump, a bigger battery on the larger handset (and you’ll need more power to drive that bigger 6.5-inch display). IPhone S-models are typically where Apple rewards more patient upgraders with gotta-have features. For instance, digital voice assistant Siri was introduced on the iPhone 4S and Touch ID for unlocking phones using fingerprints to verify identity rolled out on the 5S. Speculation is that Apple may turn on the iPhone’s NFC capabilities so users can bump their phones together to transfer money to each other through Apple Pay. But if I had an Apple Buck for every rumor I’ve heard like this, I’d be a rich man with a dented iPhone.
But if you want a sure bet, here it is: Apple engineers won’t kill the iPhone X’s ugly, camera-and-sensor-packing notch in its otherwise crisp, colorful display—at least not this time around. But, you know the old saying: “There’s an app for that.”
Apple Watch Series 4 will be announced
In addition to breaking the iPhone XS news, 9to5Mac also revealed plans for the Apple Watch Series 4, a big update to the existing models because it is rumored to have a 15% larger screen area, attained by reducing the wearable’s bezel (the dark, non-display area around the screen).
If true, that means there won’t be a round Apple Watch in the foreseeable future, much to the dismay of many holdouts who want a more traditional looking timepiece.
Apple Music will try to drown out the competition
With more than 50 million users (as of May 2018), Apple Music has slowly encroached on Spotify’s turf (and its 75 million users) over the past year. But one of the knocks on Apple’s streaming music service is that it’s not that easy to use, Siri-compatibility aside. Still, it’s worth noting that in recent days Apple has rolled out new features like its Friends Mix music suggestion functionality, as well simply cleaned up its hard-to-flick-through artists pages. These are incremental changes, to be sure, but look for them to make more sense once Apple executives explain the service’s updates, refresh its subscriber numbers, and lay the groundwork for future improvements.
Apple will ‘Air’ out more gear
Announcing a new iPhone is huge news, especially when you consider that in the third quarter, 56% of Apple’s revenue came from iPhone sales. But Apple knows full well that these handsets are portals to other products and services, revenue from which increasingly pads the company’s bottom line. In fact, Apple’s wearables business alone (everything from watch bands to Beats headphones) is equal to that of a Fortune 300 company, according to Cook. Apple’s AirPods, the Tic-Tac box-sized wireless earbuds that iPhone-owners love, are rumored to be next for an upgrade, and revealing it during the iPhone announcement would be the natural time to do it. Among the features allegedly planned is waterproofing, hands-free Siri, and a hearing aid-like listening feature for the hearing impaired, reports CNET.
Earlier this summer, an image leaked of Apple’s iOS 12 beta showing evidence of an AirPod wireless charging case, a potential upgrade that got Apple fans all a-twitter. But in order for that theoretical case to generate any juice, it’d have to be laying atop Apple’s AirPower charging pad, which was announced last year, and still hasn’t been released. That much-awaited product is also a definite maybe for unveiling at the Apple event.
Apple TV will get some shows, at last
This one is less of a guarantee and more of a prediction, but with more deals than a used car lot, Apple simply must announce its content plans for Apple TV—it’s only a matter of time. Still, from deals with Oprah to Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston—as well as scads of other talent—Apple is slowly building the next Netflix, and it’s only getting started. In addition to building a lineup of movies, shows and documentaries, Apple’s subscription video service could lock in users by partnering with other companies, like its deals with Charter Spectrum (to provide its cable boxes) and Verizon (for its 5G wireless television service) suggest. It’s unlikely that those partnerships would be announced during the Apple event, but it is possible. What’s more likely—and needed, frankly—is a look at some of the content the company’s been developing—or at least something to help the world forget about Planet of the Apps.


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The year 2017 had been awful for the athletic apparel and shoe maker Under Armour (UAA) as it struggled to survive the challenging retail environment in the US. The company that is acing its turnaround managed to beat sales estimates during its first quarter.
From start to finish, 2017 was terrible for the retailer. The company’s share during the year fell 50%. Under Armour was mostly criticized for missing on a huge opportunity, as it failed to notice the athletic apparel shift towards more fashionable outfits. This miss in trend was seen as a billion-dollar blunder made by the company as it only led to steeper declines in performance.
This year, so far, Under Armour’s shares went up 25% in the hope that the company will revive its sales. And it looks like the company is picking momentum as the company reported 6% growth in its revenue to $1.18 billion, topping analysts anticipation. This growth was mainly due to improvement in its international sales as well as growth within the apparel segment. Investors seemed pleased as the company shares went up 4% during the pre-market trading.
Under Armour’s target market was also one of its biggest problems, as the retailer lost most of the market share to its competitors Adidas and Nike (NKE). And to reverse the continuous decline in sales, the company even withdrew itself from smaller sports categories and focused mainly on its lucrative products. This helped Under Armour, as it reported just 0.4% drop in its revenue in North America to $867 million. This marks a good improvement, considering the 4.5% decline in North American sales during 4Q 2017.
Despite the growth in revenue, the Baltimore-based company’s net loss widened to $30.2 million, or $0.07 per share. Restructuring charges of $37 million impacted the company’s earnings. Excluding the charges, the company reported earnings of $1 million.
The company reiterates its outlook for the full year 2018. Revenue is expected to be up at a low single-digit percentage. Excluding the impact of the restructuring efforts, adjusted diluted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $0.14 to $0.19.
Broadcom Limited (NASDAQ: AVGO) reported first quarter 2021 earnings results today. Total revenue increased 14% year-over-year to $6.65 billion. GAAP net income was $1.3 billion, or $3.05 per share, compared
Retail giant Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) reported higher earnings and revenues for the second quarter of 2021. Earnings missed analysts’ expectations, while sales beat. Net profit was $951 million
With the corporate world rapidly shifting to cloud-native computing after the virus outbreak changed work culture and the way businesses operate, technology providers are aggressively innovating their offerings. Hewlett Packard


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A retailer has confirmed the existence of the Nikon D700, even though Nikon hasn't announced it yet. The webpage for Digital Depot has posted "Nikon will be announcing the new Nikon D700 on Monday 30th June! Check back soon for details, images and specifications." I wonder if they'll be waiting a little longer than some other retailers for their first box of D700s... [via photography bay]
Kinja is in read-only mode. We are working to restore service.


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Square Enix has reiterated that Final Fantasy XIII won't be coming to Xbox 360 in Asia.
Instead, countries like Singapore, Taiwan, etc, will get it for PlayStation 3 only.
A rep said: "Square Enix has not announced the availability of an Asian version of FFXIII."
The RPG was confirmed on Microsoft's platform for the west via "that gigaton" at E3 2008.
It was thought a year-and-a-half ago that a 360 version of the game was announced for Asia, but it turned out to be a misquotation.
Oh well; there's always importing from the west.


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An Inside Look at the 2015 Chicago Auto Show
Even though most large cities – including Milwaukee – have their own auto shows, two dates on the calendar standout for the automotive industry in this country.
Detroit, because it features splashy premieres of new products; and Chicago, for its sheer size.
Even though Milwaukee’s show starts this Saturday at the Wisconsin Center, if you want to whet your appetite, the Chicago Auto Show runs through Sunday at McCormick Place. And it features some of its own vehicle premieres in what is billed as the nation’s largest car show.
Lake Effect’s Dan Harmon visited the show last week, and met up with our auto contributor, Mark Savage to take a look at and discuss the changes, or lack thereof, on the show floor.
"Its got to be the most boring time to be a car designer because you're not allowed to do anything to the outside of the car that hasn't been done before. You don't see too many people taking real chances unless it's a concept vehicle, or unless it's a racing car," Savage says.
Dan Savage's Savage on Wheels blog has more coverage of the auto show.


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Though the California rain has had an impact, and volume is currently a bit later than last year, Watsonville, CA, based Seven Seas Berry Sales is anticipating that total volume for 2017 will be very similar to 2016.
“To date the bulk of our production has come from our Mexico fields, where volume and quality has been outstanding,” said Marketing Specialist Bre Macomber in early March. “We expect Santa Maria to increase in volume over the next several weeks.”
She added that the later start to the Mexican deal has allowed the firm, which is a division of the Tom Lange Company, to ship a bit longer from Mexico than usual. That is a reality this year that has helped keep berries at retail even as California experienced monsoon-type rain conditions during several different time periods in January and February.
Speaking specifically of the Mid-March to May time frame, Macomber added: “Barring any additional drenching rainfall, Santa Maria’s volume should increase throughout that time period and we should see the start of Watsonville in late April. With Easter falling later in April, we should be well positioned with our Santa Maria and Mexico volume to help our customers take advantage of holiday sales.”
She didn’t discuss specific promotional plans but the firm’s spokesperson said Seven Seas is in close contact with its retail partners throughout the year examining merchandising efforts “to maximize promotional opportunities.”
With berry ground in Mexico, Santa Maria and Watsonville, the firm is well positioned to be in the strawberry deal for as close to 12 months as possible. In early March, with about a week hiatus from storms under its collective belt, volume from California was starting to ramp up. “We are really excited about our California production because with the rain that we have experienced the plants look vigorous and healthy,” Macomber said. “Our production in Mexico is still going strong and we expect that to continue through March or mid-April.”
This year the company has not experienced any changes on its sales staff which is a good thing. “We have a very experienced sales staff in Watsonville that have all be in the strawberry business over 20 years,” she said. “The California strawberry deal is certainly our focus, because of our presence in multiple districts and the overall length of the season.”


text: ByJohn S. McClenahen Two key U.S. economic indicators -- new orders for durables and sales of new single-family homes -- exceeded economists' expectations in June, additional signs that recovery from recession may be gathering momentum. New orders for airplanes, cars, computers, machinery and other durable goods -- things designed to last three years or more -- rose 2.1% in June to $172.5 billion, says the U.S. Commerce Department. Economists generally had expected a 1.4% increase. "After three years of weakness in manufacturing and the loss of more than 2.6 million manufacturing jobs, the sun is breaking through at last," says Jerry J. Jasinowski, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Manufacturers. "The strong increase in durable good orders last month is the best performance in five months and suggests that a pick-up in business investment is in the making." According to the Commerce Department and the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, sales of new one-family houses were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.16 million in June, a bit higher than the consensus forecast of 1.11 million. Last month's figure is 4.7% higher than the revised May rate of 1.108 million and 21% higher than the June 2002 rate of 959,000. Sales of existing homes in June fell below the consensus forecast seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.98 million units. But June's rate of 5.83 million units, down 0.3% from the revised rate of 5.85 million units for May, still was the fourth best monthly showing on record, says the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors (NAR). David Lereah, the group's chief economist, continues to forecast a record rate for existing-home sales this year.


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Jodi Lipe, executive vice president of marketing at POPSUGAR, and David Grant, president of POPSUGAR Studios, discussed how the brand seamlessly combines content and commerce to the delight of their fans.
Lara Peterson, vice president of marketing, healthcare at Kaz, Inc., and Sarah VanHeirseele, vice president of digital at Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide, discussed a fully-integrated campaign for Vicks which featured a hyper-targeted mobile experience to drive moms to retailers to purchase their new thermometer during the lowest flu season on record.
Marah Lidey, digital engagement manager at DoSomething.org, and Sam McKelvie, head of mobile strategy at Mobile Commons, shared how they engage and retain teens as well as measure and expand DoSomething.org’s programs with teens via mobile messaging.
Paul Blakely, CEO of Velocity Worldwide, and his partner at NASCAR, Mike Kusak, showcased how NASCAR is working with Velocity Worldwide on a program taking place at the end of 2013 around NASCAR’s “Champions Week” that links fan engagement with consumer intelligence for NASCAR’s partners.
Kelly Peters, vice president, integrated insights and strategies at Post Foods, and Damon Ragusa, founder and chief strategy officer of ThinkVine, discussed how ThinkVine helped Post Foods to understand, target, reach, and measure relationships with their customers in a data-driven marketplace.
Craig Geller, senior vice president of ad sales at NUVOtv, and Robert Miner, president of Miner & Co. Studio, discussed how to connect with the Modern Latino segment of the Hispanic population.
Danielle Gustafson, director, digital and social media at CIT, discussed how CIT has built a social media program in the U.S. and China, despite the regulations associated with financial services companies.
Turner Roach, marketing manager at Deloitte, discussed how Deloitte Health Care is using social media to grow its presence as a thought leader and engage more with consumers and other stakeholders.
Victor Lee, vice president of digital marketing at Hasbro, discussed how Hasbro used Facebook to reinvigorate a 78-year-old brand.
Michael Muligano, vice president of creative services at Timex Group USA, Inc., discussed how a 15-person team completes over 500 projects a year and saves the company millions of dollars.
Marta Stiglin, principal at Stiglin Consulting and charter member of the IHAF Board of Directors, discussed the state of in-house agencies today and shared a set of imperatives to which all in-house teams should aspire.
Eric Simon, VP solutions architecture at [x+1], Carmine Lengua, manager solutions architecture at [x+1], and Jonathan Margulies, managing director at Winterberry Group, discussed how marketers can use data management platform (DMP) solutions to leverage big data in advertising efforts.
Neil Perry, president of poptent, and Stacy L. Snyder, director, brand experience at Hyatt Master Brand and Hyatt Regency, discussed how marketers can use crowdsourcing to reduce production costs and time to market.
Harold Geller, chief growth officer at Ad-ID LLC, discussed Ad-ID, a standard for coding advertisements, which was mandated by the ANA-4A’s Joint Policy Committee (JPC) during this year’s Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) negotiations.
Douglas Van Praet, executive vice president at Deutsch LA, discussed how marketers can leverage behavioral science to change consumer behavior and increase brand success.
Marissa Barlin, co-director, consumer marketing, strategic alliances at Cotton Incorporated, and Mandi Zansky, associate creative director at Jack Morton Worldwide, discussed Cotton’s 24 Hour Runway Show and the use of bloggers to curate content and build brand momentum.
John Pitts, vice president, marketing director at Doubleday (Random House), and Kevin Weafer, vice president, partner relations at Compass Labs, discussed their recent John Grisham Facebook campaign, which was launched alongside his new book The Racketeer.
Bryan Wiener, chairman and CEO of 360i and chairman of the Digital Board of the 4A’s, discussed three myths that are causing misalignment between clients and agencies around digital services and agency compensation.
Meritxell Guitart, president of Hogarth Americas, Barry Jones, CEO of Hogarth Worldwide, and Crystal Ryu, associate manager of global procurement at Mattel, Inc., discussed Mattel’s journey beyond decoupling, along with some examples of how the brand was able to reach customized solutions to various business problems.
Bill Duggan, group executive vice president at ANA, moderated a panel discussion with participants Eric Fischer, director of media services at LifeLock, George Giassopoulos, procurement director of global marketing and media agencies at Pfizer, and Steve Lightfoot, senior manager of global marketing procurement at the World Federation of Advertisers, on topics related to media procurement.


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Some fly-in fly-out "benchwarmers" are spending two to 12 months at home earning $150,000 a year before being needed on site.
Fairfax Media reports workers known as "benchwarmers" in the mining industry are kept employed when they’re unneeded because finding new workers is so difficult.
FIFObids founder Michael Haywood, who formerly owned two gas and mining services companies, told Fairfax Media the "benchwarmer" practice was costing companies dearly.
"Their main problems were they had so many people on the books, retaining them so they could use them, but they weren’t using them all the time," he said.
Haywood and his business partner Antonluigi Gozzi have created the FIFObids website for employers to shop online for workers.
Fairfax Media reports FIFObids hopes to cut down on companies using benchwarmers by allowing employers to find workers when they’re needed.
Workers sign up to the website free of charge and companies bid for their labour similarly to an online auction.
Workers then choose which offer is most desirable and companies source their desperately needed labour.
Last week Fortescue Metals Group told the Federal Government’s FIFO inquiry it cost $100,000 extra to employ a local Pilbara worker over a FIFO worker.
Image: PerthNow, Lyndon Mechielsen


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YEREVAN, May 5. / ARKA /. Armenia's foreign trade in January- March 2014 saw an increase of 0.6 percent when compared to the same period in 2013 amounting to approximately $1.322.5 billion, according to the latest numbers, released today by the National Statistical Service (NSS).
The exports increased by 1.8 percent to about $348 million, while imports grew by 0.2 percent to $974.5 million. The resulting trade deficit totaled $626.5 million. According to NSS preliminary data, the trade deficit in FOB prices stood at $476.4 million.
Export of mineral products was said to have declined by 4.7 percent from the year earlier to $93 million, export of finished food grew by 5.8 percent to about $73.4 million, export of non-precious metals and items slashed by 13.7 percent to $72.3 million, the export of precious and semiprecious stones, precious metals and articles plunged by 25.3 percent to more than $58 million.
The import of mineral products declined by 11.9 percent to $221.4 million, the import of machinery and equipment grew by 12.9 percent to $112.2 million, the import of land, air and water vehicles rose by 10.9 percent to $90.2 million, the import of precious and semiprecious stones, precious metals and articles jumped by 46.6 percent to $89.6 million, the import of chemical products fell by 3 percent to about $70.7 million, the import of finished food dropped by 16.1 percent to more than $68 9 million. ($1 - 413.59 drams). -0-


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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Kelly Burke, D-Evergreen Park, is sponsoring legislation to repeal the Cook County beverage tax.
“Many people enjoy drinking a cold soda or a glass of orange juice in the morning and I think it’s unfair to tax them on this everyday grocery item,” Burke said. “I believe this tax will do nothing except force more families to do their shopping outside of Cook County and cost our area jobs.”
Earlier this month, the Cook County beverage tax took effect. It taxes all sweetened beverages including even diet sodas, fruit and vegetable juices, certain coffees and teas, flavored waters and sports drinks at the rate of one cent per ounce. Burke believes this is an unfair tax pushed through by Cook County politicians. The county’s tax raises the average cost of a 2-liter soda by 67 percent, and raises the average cost of a bottle of fruit juice or iced tea by 43 percent.
Burke’s House Bill 4083 would eliminate Cook County’s “penny-per-ounce” tax on beverages. Her measure would also prohibit any local government in Illinois from implementing such taxes in the future. Burke is encouraging residents to sign her petition to repeal Cook County’s beverage tax.
“I want to send a loud message to Cook County politicians that middle-class families are fed up with being nickel and dimed everywhere they turn,” Burke said. “I encourage those who want to see the beverage tax eliminated to contact my office and sign my petition in support of outlawing this unfair tax.”
For more information about this issue, or to add your name to a petition for the repeal of the beverage tax, please contact Burke’s constituent office at 708-425-0571 or email firstname.lastname@example.org.


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A BRIDE who didn’t want to spend a fortune on a traditional wedding cake revealed how she saved hundreds by making it herself.
She said her trick cost less than $100 and she didn’t even have to bake.
A bride revealed exactly how she saved hundreds on her wedding cakeCredit: TikTok/kaitlyn.lauren
She said she purchased two cakes from Sam’s Club and then put them togetherCredit: TikTok/kaitlyn.lauren
“If you’re getting married soon, I have a budget-saving hack that helped me save hundreds of dollars on my wedding cake,” a woman who goes by Kaitlyn Lauren said in a video she shared online.
She went on to reveal that she ordered two plain circular cakes with white icing from Sam’s Club for $40 each.
Kaitlyn then stacked them on each other and placed some decorative flowers on them and voilà: her wedding cake was complete.
In the comment section, Kaitlyn added that she then bought 30 Sam’s Club cupcakes and “a couple dozen” doughnuts to serve to guests in addition to the cake.
“We had more than enough dessert!” she exclaimed.
Lauren’s wedding day hack had viewers thrilled, with a person who claimed to be a professional cake decorator writing they approved of the money-saving trick.
“Everyone should have the best option that works for their wedding,” they stated.
“I’m pretty sure when my sister got married they were selling 3 tier cakes and she got two of them and we even had leftovers,” a second approving viewer claimed.
Another bride who claimed she did the same thing wrote: “We did this too!!!
“The cake was good and super affordable compared to even the cheapest quotes we got.”
Similarly, another bride previously revealed she thinks wedding cakes are a waste of money altogether and regrets buying her $1800 one.
“Nobody ate it, including ourselves. Don’t spend money on it.
“Serve a late-night instead that people will actually eat in the last hour when they are tired from dancing,” she recommended.
Dozens of former brides revealed they also went with a store-bought cake to save moneyCredit: TikTok/kaitlyn.lauren
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We're as used to seeing new Toyota cars in the news as we are seeing them on the streets around Van Nuys and here at the Keyes Toyota showroom. Every once in a while, the Toyota Motor Corporation finds new ways to make headlines. Early in 2016, the Toyota Research Institute, a dedicated R&D initiative, drew attention. A new round of articles in recent days says a lot about the company's future.
It's no secret that the traditional ways to keep a car, whether through ownership or through leasing, have declined over the last few years. In fact, John Zimmer, president of the ride-sharing company Lyft, raised eyebrows not too long ago when he predicted that car ownership as we know it would be phased out by 2025. We're not sure to what degree we agree with that, but it doesn't take the foresight of Isaac Asimov to realize that our relationship to cars is evolving in much the same way the vehicles themselves have.
The way the Toyota Motor Corporation is responding to those changes is interesting, not least because they stand not only to respond to the future but to actually shape it in this case. The Toyota-owned Mirai Creation Investment Limited Partnership, which normally invests in research and development, pumped an estimated $10 million into Getaround, an up-and-coming ride-sharing service. The payoff for the investors is that Toyota now has a foothold in the rapidly growing ride-sharing economy.
Toyota cars, like the company that makes them, are steeped in tradition. However, both the cars and the company have evolved with the times, discarding some traditions and inventing others in order to stay relevant. The Toyota RAV4 (which invented the compact crossover) and the Toyota Prius (which made hybrids viable) are results of that approach.
We think it's a sensible approach. After all, when the future is unclear, wouldn't you rather be in the driver's seat instead of waiting to see what's next? With that in mind, see what all those years of research, development, and evolution have led up to. Come to the Keyes Toyota showroom at 5855 Van Nuys Blvd in Van Nuys, CA today for a test drive!


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To help you keep abreast of the busy cycle of news and the latest topics in mobile games, every week we collect the five most read stories on PocketGamer.biz.
Read on and digest …
5. Cut the rope star, Ohm Nom returns in Ohm Nom: Merge
Cut the Rope games have been downloaded a billion times, but now the game is led by action star Om Nom.
The new release of Om Nom: Merge was developed jointly with the British studio Amuzo and the first release from ZeptoLab Green, which is the new business unit for all things Om Nom.
4. Black Desert Mobile receives 4 million pre-registrations pending launch in December
The long-awaited mobile release of the popular MMO Black Desert from Pearl Abyss continues to collect pre-release versions.
The best news, however, is that the wait is not so long; he finally came out on December 11th.
[Insert code] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rrIBXJWOuQ [/ insert code]
3. The Hidden Talents of the June Journey: How to Create Presents with Players
All developers now understand the importance of the community, but few take this knowledge as seriously as the Berlin-based Wooga studio, which – in this guest column – explains how it organized the trip for the 12 most passionate game players.
At the same time, he spent about $ 80,000, receiving more than 4 million social interactions and evaluating about 160,000 installations.
2. NetEase Invests Up To $ 30 Million In Bossa Studios
According to rumors, the Chinese giant NetEase was a leading investor in the London studio Bossa for $ 30 million.
One result will be that Bossa launches Apple Arcade Hogwash in China.
Bossa says she will use the money to “return to her main strengths in order to build the future of the company.”
1. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is already in sharp decline
Five months after launch, everything seems to be terminal for the location-based AR game Wizards Unite.
More than $ 20 million was generated, but half of this happened during the launch week, and downloads fell off a cliff.
[Insert code] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyZpNZbuEF8 [/ insert code]
. [TagsToTranslate] NSW-y9ylxyyfm732gbu0clo83b6rnvxfqqew4dnlsepf1rzxlm97m479djrg2pcuyj4d8fopw0wupcjlokq50csn91yp33w0l4dqjj88w8j8j8n8jw8n8j8n8jw8n8j8n7j8n7j8n7j8n7j8n7j8n7j8n7j8n7j8n8jw8n7


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Point of sale system developer Skeps has raked in $9.5m in Series A funding, with will support its team growth.
Bertelsmann India Investments served as the lead investor for the Series A. Participation also came from previous Skeps backer Accel.
Skeps will use the funds to accelerate its sales, marketing, engineering and product teams. The FinTech is also looking to bolster its merchant and lender client base and deepen its service offerings.
The PayTech company has built a suite of technology solutions for merchants and lenders. Merchants can leverage the technology to provide customers alternative transaction methods, including four instalment payments or longer-term loans.
It claims its technology has helped lenders evaluate more than $1bn worth of loan applications during the past 18 months.
Speaking about the investment, Skeps CEO Tushar Srivastava said, “We are excited to welcome Bertelsmann India Investments to the Skeps family for this latest round.
“With this latest fundraise, Skeps will increase our ability to serve clients by providing them the next generation in POS financing solutions that can be readily deployed on their own merchant site, physical stores, or any partner platform where their customers are shopping.”
Copyright © 2021 FinTech Global


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LulzSec hackers strike Nintendo, FBI affiliate & a security firm
The group has breached servers belonging to Nintendo, non-profit FBI affiliate organization InfraGard, and has been harassing the owner of botnet-tracking security company Unveillance.
“We’re not targeting Nintendo. We like the N64 too much… This is just for lulz,” LulzSec explained on their Twitter feed last week. On Sunday, they added, “…we just got a config file and made it clear that we didn’t mean any harm. Nintendo had already fixed it anyway.”
Nintendo spokesperson Ken Toyoda confirmed that the breach had occurred and denied that any user data had been compromised.
LulzSec then moved on to FBI affiliate InfraGuard’s Atlanta chapter, reportedly in response to the US government’s announcement that they were moving to make hacking equivalent to an act of war. The group got away with less than 200 names and passwords, after defacing the organization’s website. However, that little bit of data was enough to fuel the hacker’s next web mayhem adventure.
“One of them, Karim Hijazi, used his InfraGard password for his personal GMail, and the GMail of the company he owns. ‘Unveillance’, a whitehat company that specializes in data breaches and botnets, was compromised because of Karim’s incompetence,” a LulzSec representative explained. “We stole all of his personal emails and his company emails. We also briefly took over, among other things, their servers and their botnet control panel.”
Hijazi claims that he had been harassed by LulzSec members a few weeks prior to the attack.
“In spite of these threats, I refused to pay off LulzSec or to supply them with access to this sensitive botnet information,” Hijazi said in a statement. “Had we agreed to provide this data to them, LulzSec would have been able to grow the size and scope of their DDoS attack and fraud capabilities. Plain and simple, I refused to comply with their demands. Because of this, they followed through in their threats – and attacked me, my business and my personal reputation.”
Despite all of this high-profile activity, the LulzBoat is still sailing strong. “Nobody arrested, no significant logs leaked, website up, twitter up, Pirate Bay account up, IRC up, Lulz Boat sailing… victory for us,” the group tweeted Monday morning. They are now also keeping a running record of their conquests on their website.
Who will the group hack next? It likely won’t be long until LulzSec strikes again.
1 Comments on LulzSec hackers strike Nintendo, FBI affiliate & a security firm
- Mr. Belvedere
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Guess it wasn't a good idea to invite pro skateboarders Steven Fernandez and Keelan Dadd to appear at a mall clothing store over the weekend.
Teen fans mobbed the mall, the store and the skaters. Police had to shut the whole thing down.
Downey police say they were called to the Stonewood Shopping Center near Downey High School after pandemonium welcomed a 1 p.m. appearance by the two on Saturday.
Video (at the very bottom) shows Fernandez being whisked off to a waiting car as he's mobbed by teens.
Police said in a statement that about 2,000 people formed a line in a mall parking lot while several hundred others were inside the shopping center waiting for the pair. It was too much for the store, Zumies, to handle, they said.
“The clothing store and event staff were overwhelmed,” Downey police said in a statement. The crowds “caused the business to close their doors and cancel the event.”
Not just the one business closed, however. Police say mall management decided to shut the whole shopping center down, at least temporarily.
The Downey Police Department called for reinforcements from surrounding agencies, cops said, and teens and shoppers alike were given the bum's rush.
The mall was back to normal by 4:30 p.m., police said. No injuries were reported.
Fernandez calls himself “just a li'l' Mexican kid from Compton that skateboards and makes da' funny videos.”
A video of him skating from late 2013 said he was 13 at the time, which would make him 14 or 15 now.
Warning: The video, below, might have NSFW content, particularly lyrics and sounds.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.


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The late night host becomes a volunteer pitchman for Tesla.
On the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert was known for his “product placement” appeals for Doritos and other products. Now on his new CBS show “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” the late night host is making a pitch for one product he really loves.
Colbert drives a Tesla Model S, and according to Bloomberg, he spent several minutes on a recent show talking up the car’s latest features. With the most recent of Tesla’s wireless upgrades, Colbert noted that his car could now drive on its own.
A thirty-second ad on Colbert’s CBS show costs companies nearly $40,000. But Tesla does not buy television or radio ads, or do nay traditional media marketing, so celebrity endorsements are among the company’s most valuable marketing tools. The savings from avoiding paid media also frees funds for Tesla to devote to engineering and product development.
Colbert is just the latest celebrity to ring the praises of their Teslas. Others include actress Alyssa Milano, director Jon Favreau and Teller (of Penn and Teller fame). Oprah has also shared pictures of her Tesla with her millions of social media followers.
Tesla can use the celebrity love these days. The company’s Model S was recently downgraded by Consumer Reports, due to complaints about reliability, and the company’s stock is down for the year.


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See olopa motor for Dubai….God Help Us, supercar collector and former Kogi Senator Dino Melaye “shocked” after seeing cars in Dubai Police fleet.
What comes to most peoples minds when they hear “Dubai Police” is the Force’s collection of expensive luxury supercars? Yes, and even Dino Melaye known for having one of the best car collection in Nigeria was shocked when he came across some of the rides in Dubai Police car collection.
In a short clip posted on Instagram, Dino Melaye can be heard saying “See Olopa Motor For Dubai….God Help Us… while checking out the cars in Dubai Police fleet.
Some of the eye-turning patrol supercars in the clip includes (from right to left) Audi R8, a 630 hp Mercedes-AMG GT63s and a Ferrari FF grand tourer.
Dubai Police Force no doubt boasts the fastest and most expensive patrol cars on the planet. Cars in his fleet also includes the Rolls-Royce Wraith, Bugatti Veyron and the limited edition Aston Martin One-77.
Others includes the Bentley Continental GT and the McLaren MP4-12C — I mean collection of expensive cars that is enough to turn anyone green with envy.
The oil-rich Police department recently added what it called the most advanced police car in the world as well as a flying Hoverbike to its incredible fleet.


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Over the years, social media has transformed the way people interact, learn, educate, date, and live. Though it’s debatable whether this transformation has brought society closer together or further apart, it’s clear that the evolution of social media is never-ending and always-changing.
Social media has changed the way different industries reach their target audience. Regarding advertisements, social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat have taken “celebrity endorsements” to a new level. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian, DJ Khaled, Selena Gomez, and others have promoted different products throughout their preferred platform; the question is, do they actually practice what they preach?
We’d like to believe that our favorite celebrity is telling us to use something that worked so well for them because they’ve tried the product, and it really worked so well for them. Unfortunately, this idea has become so problematic for consumers that the Federal Trade Commission has recently set forth clear instructions, pertaining to social media “ads.”
Previously, it was unclear if an individual was suggesting an amazing product to their followers, or if they were advertising a product thats only use was financial, as seen in the picture of Khloe Kardashian below.
Now, the FTC requires that social media advertisements can’t be so vague and deceitful. It must be clear that the person is “advertising” a product and it’s not an honest review or suggesting for a “friend.” #Ad is now added to the post in a clear, unhidden, and detectable way, so followers are clear that the individual is being paid to promote an item and they are being compensated for their corporation, as seen below.
In the end, I guess it’s up to the individual to decide whether a product is worth purchasing based on someone else’s experience, but at least now it’s a little easier to tell whether or not there was ever an honest “experience” to relate to.


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February auto sales increase an unimpressive 5%
By David Kiley, USA TODAY
February sales of new vehicles were up a lackluster 5% from a year ago, despite record discounting and comparison with a period dominated by consumer jitters over war with Iraq.
General Motors' (GM) sales were up 5.6%, and Chrysler's (DCX) were up 1.2%. But those sales came at a high price. GM's incentive spending is up 11% from a year ago, vs. 48% for Chrysler. Ford Motor's (F) sales were down 2.5%, and its incentive spending was up 22%. The industry is spending 22% more on discounts than a year ago, according to CNW Marketing Research.
|February sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 16.4 million, compared with 15.6 million last year. Sales change: |
|General Motors || |
|Ford Motor || |
|DaimlerChrysler || |
|Toyota || |
|Honda || |
|Nissan || |
|Hyundai || |
|Mitsubishi || |
|Mazda || |
|Volkswagen || |
|BMW || |
|Source: Autodata |
Mark Fields, head of Ford's Premium Auto Group, blames weak sales, in part, on a steady flow of bad news about the economic recovery and reports that too few jobs are being created.
But Chrysler sales chief Gary Dilts notes that sales in the last 10 days of the month caught fire. He's hopeful that momentum portends a brisk selling month in March.
"Tax refunds and getting past some bad weather all helped," Dilts says.
The trend of Asian carmakers gaining market share at the expense of U.S. automakers continued in February.
Nissan sales were up 46% last month and are up 35% this year, helped by all-new car and truck models such as the Titan pickup. Toyota was up 17.7%; Honda, 7.1%; and Mazda, 18.4%.
U.S. automakers have lost 1.4 points of market share this year, sinking to 59%, while Asian brands have gained 2.3 points to 34.8%, according to Autodata. Europeans have lost almost 1 point of market share to 6.1%.
Market leader GM has pulled out the stops in the past 60 days, unleashing a program of cheap lease offers on most of its vehicles, on top of rebates, zero-percent financing deals and a promotion to give away 1,000 cars to consumers who visited showrooms. But results were tepid.
GM's sales are up 4% on the year, with trucks up 10% and passenger cars down 3%.
"Passenger cars is a tough business right now, but we have to continue to do well in the hot truck and luxury car segments," says GM's sales analysis chief Paul Ballew.
Pickups and SUVs have grabbed 55% of sales this year, up from 51% a year ago.
Europeans, beset by a rising euro, have had to deeply cut incentives over the past few months to preserve profit. And that's costing them customers.
Volkswagen is down 30% this year, while BMW is down 10%. Audi is off 18%. Volvo is the exception, up 14%, and Mercedes is off just 1%, helped by increasing deals while rivals cut back. Porsche sales are up 71% this year, boosted by its first SUV, the Cayenne.
Consumers have become numbed by the usual zero-percent finance deals and $1,500 to $3,500 rebates and are probably waiting for a new burst of advertised deals. Kelley Blue Book, which tracks new and used car prices and values, says 67% of consumers considering a new vehicle will time their purchases to incentive offerings.
With sales dragging a bit, better discounts are likely for spring. "Manufacturers have been looking for ways to reduce incentives, but doing so could have a significant (negative) effect on overall sales," says Charlie Vogelheim of Kelley Blue Book.
Contributing: Noelle Knox


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Common man will soon be able to use digital money Retail trial will also start this month
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the pilot project of digital currency on Tuesday i.e. 1 November 2022. On the first day, Rs 275 crore was traded in Government Securities
in the secondary market. Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Wednesday that the retail trial of Digital Rupees will also start from this month. Let us tell you,
at present, the wholesale trial is going on. What is Digital Rupee?
Right now we use notes and coins of Rs 100, 200 issued by Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Its digital
form will be called Digital Rupee. In technical language, it can also be called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). That is, the electronic form of rupees, which we will use
without touching (contactless transactions). Let us tell you, the government had announced this in the budget of 2022. The company will buy back its shares at the rate of ₹ 850
per share, record date announced
What did the RBI governor say about inflation?
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has defended the
Reserve Bank's way of handling the inflation situation. Speaking at the annual FIBAC conference of bankers here on Wednesday, Das said that taking drastic measures ahead of time
would have cost the economy and citizens a heavy price. Admitting that the inflation target has been missed, Das said the RBI decided to support the economy by not increasing
interest rates aggressively due to the rise in inflation. "We have prevented the economy from being affected completely by not raising interest rates aggressively and refrained
from taking drastic measures prematurely," he said. Shaktikanta Das said that the economy and the people would have to pay a heavy price for taking a quick or aggressive stance, he
said, adding that the monetary policy committee (MPC), which sets the interest rate, is meeting on Thursday to prepare an answer to the government. The RBI governor also defended
the RBI's move not to make public the letter to the government. (with agency input)


text: New submitter thule writes "A story at Gigaom talks about how Level 3 is trying to pull peering into the net neutrality issue. Regulating peering could hamper how the Internet is interconnected, potentially turning it into a bureaucratic mess. Should peering be regulated?" Reader raque points out that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is banging the net neutrality drum, too: "Some major ISPs, like Cablevision, already practice strong net neutrality and for their broadband subscribers, the quality of Netflix and other streaming services is outstanding. But on other big ISPs, due to a lack of sufficient interconnectivity, Netflix performance has been constrained, subjecting consumers who pay a lot of money for high-speed Internet to high buffering rates, long wait times and poor video quality. ... Once Netflix agrees to pay the ISP interconnection fees, however, sufficient capacity is made available and high quality service for consumers is restored. If this kind of leverage is effective against Netflix, which is pretty large, imagine the plight of smaller services today and in the future. Roughly the same arbitrary tax is demanded from the intermediaries such as Cogent and Level 3, who supply millions of websites with connectivity, leading to a poor consumer experience."