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The textile industry is bleeding and the current economic slowdown has compounded the woes of scores of textile factory mill owners spread across the country.
India Today visited Rajasthan's Bhilwara, known as the textile hub of the country, to understand what has been plaguing this once flourishing sector of the Indian economy.
The Indian textile industry currently provides direct and indirect employment to more than nine crore people. It also accounts for 2 per cent of the GDP, which is why the slowdown in the industry, leading to a fall in production and job losses has made the situation extremely grim.
"In Bhilwara, the situation of textile is not good. A lot of slowdown is going on. Our production has gone down by 15 to 20 per cent. We often keep holidays on Saturdays and Sundays, do not operate the industry. Conditions are not good," Sanjay Periwal, president of Synthetic Weaving Mills Association, said.
The textile industry has been witnessing its worst phase in the last decade or so.
Consider the data for textile industry in Rajasthan's Bhilwara:
> Fall in Production in last six months: 15 per cent to 20 per cent
> Job losses in Textile industry: 15 per cent to 25 per cent
> As demand has fallen, several factory mill owners have been forced to give Saturdays, Sundays as offs to workers
> Drastic fall in salaries, wages for contractual and non-contractual workers due to lesser working man-hours required
> People being forced to shift out of textile profession, seek menial jobs in order to sustain livelihood
> At least 100 factory mills have either shut shop or taken over by banks due to non-payment of capital loans
> Fall in purchasing power across different economic strata
"Definitely, it has a major impact. The buying capacity of people is not in good conditions. People do not have money to buy cloth. You understand this thing in the manner that a person doing a job for a salary of Rs 20,000 and is given six offs in a month by us, then he is not drawing more than Rs 17,000 to Rs 18,000. In that, he has fixed expenditures. So, he is less interested in buying cloth," Periwal mentioned.
"Secondly, the globalisation situation that is there, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and all these countries are giving better facilities than us. The textile clothing from Bangladesh has begun coming to India in huge quantity. So, this must be stopped," he added.
There are various reasons attributed to the downfall in the fortunes of textile industry, the major ones include: Exorbitant cost of power, huge influx of cheaper products from Bangladesh, China, Indonesia and some other countries.
The economic crisis is directly attributed to:
> Textile industry in Rajasthan has to buy electricity at exorbitant rates of Rs 7.5 to Rs 8 per unit. In comparison electricity is available in Maharashtra at Rs 4, in Punjab at Rs 5, and in Madhya Pradesh at Rs 3.5 per unit. Electricity forms 40 per cent to 50 per cent of production cost in textile industry.
> Influx of cheaper textile products in the market imported from Bangladesh, China, Indonesia where raw material is cheaper and labour available at lower costs.
> Government has not ensured timely payment of Technical Upgradation Fund (TUF) and capital subsidy to textile factory mills.
> Demonetisation and GST have hugely impacted textile industry, marring its growth. Textile industry has not been able to pick itself up since then and is still reeling under their impact.
A job broker Sudip Tahil said, "The situation is turning extremely bad day by day. Our payment is also sinking as factory is shutting down. [If] the party will fail, how will our payment be done?"
"I can tell you about the situation right now. We never even used to have the time to talk during this period. We used to sell 3 to 4 lakh metres of cloth in a month. We had good work of readymade. As compared to 4 lakh, not more than around 1 lakh is getting sold. And even the payment situation in the market is not good," Periwal further said.


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PORTLAND, Ore.—As if the solar panel industry needed more bad news, market watcher Solarbuzz said Monday (Sept. 26) that production cutbacks at leading solar module manufacturers has been insufficient to prevent further inventory buildup, resulting in oversupplies growing into 2012 and likely depressing prices further.
Already casualties of price-erosion include Spectrawatt Inc., a spinoff of Intel Corp., Evergreen Solar Inc. and Solyndra LLC, all of which recently filed for bankruptcy. Many more failures, however, could be imminent through the second half of 2012, when Solarbuzz predicts that demand will finally catch up with supply.
Oversupplies in 2011 have already depressed factory gate prices, which are down 33 percent over 2010, according to the Solarbuzz. The firm estimates that demand in the current quarter is up 20 percent over last year, but just 1 percent over last quarter, portending further market softening that will likely endure through the first half of 2012. Solarbuzz, part of The NPD Group (Port Washington, N.Y.), said European markets have been hardest hit by the slowdown, since most of current growth has been in the U.S. and Chinese markets, with Europe accounting for just 58 percent of global demand compared to 78 percent last year.
Global PV demand falls far short of cell/module inventories which continue to grow due to continued Chinese mass production.
Solarbuzz blames tier-one Chinese manufacturers for the oversupplies, since they have maintained their 2011 shipment guidance volumes despite the global slowdown, resulting in a forecast of 4.4 GWatt of overproduction by the end of the year. These manufacturers were banking on price cuts to stimulate demand in the second half of 2011, but so far that demand has not materialized. And in Europe the situation will only get worse in the fourth quarter of 2011, when crystalline module prices are projected to fall another 18 percent over the current quarter, according to Solarbuzz, which said that gross margins were already down 50 percent in the second quarter of 2011. As a result, Solarbuzz is predicting more consolidations and bankruptcies in 2012.
"Margins are already at a breaking point, thereby increasing the likelihood of more company consolidations and liquidations next year," said Craig Stevens, president of Solarbuzz.
Worse yet is Solarbuzz's prediction that in 2012 Chinese manufacturers are planning to increase production by another 50 percent over 2011, while end-market demand will only increase by 25 percent, further eroding prices and inflating inventories. In its worst-case scenario, manufacturers who refuse to cut back production will cause inventories to soar to 22 GWatt by the end of 2012, instead of cutting back production by 11 GWatt which would be necessary in order to stabilize inventories, according to Solarbuzz.
I am not sure if companies are so generous that they will reduce the prices for environment benefit sake. Most of the companies are in this business just to make profit. May be government can give some tax breaks to these companies so that they can pass on that benefit to the end customer.
I feel this is temporary phenomenon. After Nuclear crisis in Japan demand for renewable energy has gone up. Even countries like France and Germany have decided to move away from nuclear energy. Ultimately this will lead to huge demand for solar modules.
Definitely! I used to work for a PV manufacture and I raised the point at an all hands engineering meeting that our competition was not any one specific company, it was China, more specifically the Bank of China. This was 1.5 years ago and the response I got was a blank look and a retort that it was an unsustainable business model. I replied that it doesn't have to be sustainable, just last long enough to drive the non-subsidized competition into bankruptcy. Again the blank stare and a change of subject. I bailed from that company! People need to understand the rules of the game as they are, not as they wish them to be. Free market in a global environment is wishful/magical thinking. Need to adapt to the current paradigm of a fusion of state sponsored "free market" or perish when your industry comes into the cross hairs. Good luck to those that remain!
The first crunch comes when oversupply forces price drops, which is what we are seeing here. The second one comes when all of the low-hanging fruit is taken in terms of installations. Remember that these things have twenty years or so of (admittedly declining) production. Unless there are significant technology breakthroughs that can increase that obsolescence we won't be seeing the first replacements for a decade or more.
could the low prices be due to dumping by the state-funded Chinese vendors to drive out the VC-funded companies? (such things have happened in the past with memories for example.) Consumers may benefit short term from the lower price, but the prices will go up once the competition is gone. And consumers lose even more longer term as there is no competition to push technology improvements for a competitive edge.

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New York, New York – Reported by Elite Traveler, the private jet lifestyle magazine
Girard-Perregaux is proud to announce the addition of visionary watchmaker, Dominique Loiseau, to its manufacturing team. His latest timepiece, the Loiseau 1f4, is the most complicated automatic watch in the industry with eight patents in its movement. This is an exciting step for the brand, which is bringing Loiseau to create new movements and re-ignite the brand’s innovative watchmaking.
“We are extremely happy to have a man such as Dominique Loiseau on board”, says Michele Sofisti, CEO of Sowind Group (Girard-Perregaux and JeanRichard). “He is a true visionary, a legend within our world, but more importantly, he understands the values Girard-Perregaux stands for: heritage, manufacture and passion”.


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Can you help us beat the burglars? One of our shops has been broken into – the third burglary in two weeks.
We’re beefing up our security as you would expect but we’re asking you to be vigilant.
In the latest break-in overnight on Thursday 19 December, thieves smashed their way in through the front door of our Wellington shop in Market Square and took a small quantity of cash from the safe.
Our Lawley shop was attacked on Monday night and our Shifnal one the Monday before that.
Retail manager Ross Henderson said: “It’s just so disheartening for everyone here, not just those in the shops affected. The cost of putting right the damage they’ve caused – fixing things and missing trading hours – is way more than anything they’re getting away with; it’s just infuriating.
“The shops team, which includes volunteers, work so hard to raise money and are so well supported by everyone with donations and purchases, and all of that is just taken away whenever something like this happens.
“We are there for the community when they need us and I’m hoping they can be there for us in a slightly different way now. I’m asking if they see anything suspicious happening near our shops to report it to the police and if they hear of anything that might help the police investigation to share it with them.
“Market Square is in the middle of town and the way they got in won’t have been quiet.”
Action was also being taken to improve security in a bid to thwart the thieves, he added. “We’re already doing the obvious like keeping to a minimum the amount of cash we hold overnight and we’ll do other things too so it’s just not worth their while taking from us,” said Ross.
Anyone with any information about any of the burglaries is asked to contact the police.


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Lets go Broncos!
Time to believe!
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Gensis Planet
Our White House Bully Problem
For the only Detroit automaker that "didn't take the money" of the federal auto bailouts, Ford Motor Co. keeps paying a price for its comparative success and self-reliant turnaround.
There's no help from American taxpayers to help lighten its debt load, giving crosstown rivals comparatively better credit ratings and a financial edge Ford is working diligently to erase all on its own.
There's no clause barring a strike by hourly workers amid this fall's national contract talks with the United Auto Workers — a by-product of the taxpayer-financed bailout that General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC retain until 2015.
And there's no assurance the Dearborn automaker can use the commercially advantageous fact that it didn't "take the money" proffered by the Obama Treasury Department and use it in TV ads angling to sell cars and trucks. Not if the campaign takes a whack at its Detroit rivals and suggests that Ford no longer supports the Obama administration bailouts it backed in public statements and sworn congressional testimony.
As part of a campaign featuring "real people" explaining their decision to buy the Blue Oval, a guy named "Chris" says he "wasn't going to buy another car that was bailed out by our government," according the text of the ad, launched in early September.
"I was going to buy from a manufacturer that's standing on their own: win, lose, or draw. That's what America is about is taking the chance to succeed and understanding when you fail that you gotta' pick yourself up and go back to work."
That's what some of America is about, evidently. Because Ford pulled the ad after individuals inside the White House questioned whether the copy was publicly denigrating the controversial bailout policy CEO Alan Mulally repeatedly supported in the dark days of late 2008, in early '09 and again when the ad flap arose. And more.
With President Barack Obama tuning his re-election campaign amid dismal economic conditions and simmering antipathy toward his stimulus spending and associated bailouts, the Ford ad carried the makings of a political liability when Team Obama can least afford yet another one. Can't have that.
The ad, pulled in response to White House questions (and, presumably, carping from rival GM), threatened to rekindle the negative (if accurate) association just when the president wants credit for their positive results (GM and Chrysler are moving forward, making money and selling vehicles) and to distance himself from any public downside of his decision.
In other words, where presidential politics and automotive marketing collide — clean, green, politically correct vehicles not included — the president wins and the automaker loses because the benefit of the battle isn't worth the cost of waging it.
"This thing is highly charged," says an industry source familiar with the situation. Ford "never meant it to be an attack on the policy. There was not any pressure to take down the ad."
Maybe not technically. But the nexus of politics and the auto business in today's Washington is bigger, broader and more complex than it arguably has been in who knows how long.
Add a re-election campaign for the president credited (or condemned) with executing the bailout, and it should be no surprise that a White House that insists it doesn't want to "run" the business nonetheless reserves the right to question it, implications be damned.
Whatever the politics, the ad kerfuffle exposes two opposed realities existing simultaneously for Ford:
First, a sizable cadre of current and would-be customers oppose the notion of taxpayer bailouts for automakers, whatever the economic costs to the industrial Midwest and the nation of letting them collapse. Meaning there's an advantage Ford can press to remind folks that it didn't receive direct payouts from Treasury.
Second is that Ford supported the bailouts before Congress, in public statements and still does today, despite the recurring snarkiness you hear around its offices in Dearborn that it "didn't take the money."
No, it didn't. But Ford did seek a line of credit from the feds, borrowed billions under a government program to "retool" its plants and effectively failed first. That's why it recruited a superstar CEO from Boeing Co. and gave him some $23 billion in borrowed money to save the Blue Oval from bankruptcy.
Or it would have taken the money, too.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110927/...#ixzz1ZZyOtEBz
Spin, baby, spin. Throughout his frenetic jobs tour across the West this week, President Obama tried to seize the narrative. Republicans, he told champagne-sipping, tea party-trashing Hollywood moguls and tech titans, are intolerant bigots, know-nothings and thugs. They've made his hair "grayer" and left him "all dinged up."
But who's battering whom? Since Day One, Obama has been the Chicago bully in victim's clothing. The mask is wearing thin.
Your Chicago Way read of the day comes from the Detroit News, where columnist Daniel Howes brings news that a few calls from the White House have led to Ford Motor Company yanking ads that spotlighted its refusal to take government auto bailout money. Nice car company ya got there, fellas. Would be a shame if anything happened to it … (h/t Is This Blog On , Cold Fury ): For the only Detroit automaker that “didn’t take the money” of the federal auto bailouts, Ford Motor Co. keeps paying a price for its comparative success and self-reliant turnaround. There’s no help from American taxpayers to help lighten its debt load, giving crosstown rivals comparatively better credit ratings and a financial edge Ford is working diligently to erase all on its own. There’s no clause barring a strike by hourly workers amid this fall’s national contract talks with the United Auto Workers — a by-product of the taxpayer-financed bailout that General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC retain until 2015. And there’s no assurance the Dearborn automaker can use the commercially advantageous fact that it didn’t “take the money” proffered by the Obama Treasury Department and use it in TV ads angling to sell cars and trucks. Not if the campaign takes a whack at its Detroit rivals and suggests that Ford no longer supports the Obama administration bailouts it backed in public statements and sworn congressional testimony. As part of a campaign featuring “real people” explaining their decision to buy the Blue Oval, a guy named “Chris” says he “wasn’t going to buy another car that was bailed out by our government,” according the text of the ad, launched in early September. “I was going to buy from a manufacturer that’s standing on their own: win, lose, or draw. That’s what America is about is taking the chance to succeed and understanding when you fail that you gotta’ pick yourself up and go back to work.” That’s what some of America is about, evidently. Because Ford pulled the ad after individuals inside the White House questioned whether the copy was publicly denigrating the controversial bailout policy CEO Alan Mulally repeatedly supported in the dark days of late 2008, in early ’09 and again when the ad flap arose. And more. In another typical Chicago-on-the-Potomac coincidence, the Obama campaign’s “Attack Watch” is back up and running on Twitter after a nearly two-week-long hiatus. The subject of the snitch squad’s last attack watch attack? Yep. Critics of the auto bailout. Related: Interview with the guy who starred in the Ford ad… In this case, it was Chris, who explained how he came to star in the commercial and reiterated his support for Ford during an interview this morning on WJR-AM 760. “I still standby what I said, and that is, as Americans, we need to decide if we’re going to be run by a government or if we’re going to be run by free enterprise,” he told host Frank Beckmann. “That’s really the debate that we’re facing today. So I applaud Ford, still, to this day, for having the courage to put that ad on the TV and spur the debate. Here’s Chris’s YouTube response: *** More: A reader on Twitter points to Ford’s response to him on Facebook in which the company claims the ad campaign is still running : Ford Motor Company Jeff we were not coerced into pulling the ad down. The campaign continues to run. We took the ad out of rotation after 4 weeks which is consistent with the typical lifecycle for the campaign. There were conflicting reports that the ad had been yanked from YouTube. It appears that the ad is still there, though. Check this link. Someone’s in a panic over at Ford’s social media department, for sure. The original YouTube ad uploaded weeks ago on the site is not available. See the embed of the original ad from September 16 here at hotair: “Video has been removed by the user.” The one now appearing on the site was re-uploaded on September 23. I think diggrbiii has this right: “Ford pulls TV ad, claims it was just normal scheduling, keeps YouTube version up for plausible deniability.” *** Update: I’ve heard from several readers who’ve contacted Detroit News reporter Dan Howes for comment. I have contacted him directly, too and will update. Here’s what one reader forwarded are saying: From: Wayne A Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 01:56 PM To: Howes, Daniel Subject: Ford ad article FYI Ford says via its FB presence that they have not pulled the ad; that it simply is currently out of rotation. Response: Subject: Re: Ford ad article Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:21:57 -0400 From: Howes, Daniel To: Not true. Just had lunch w/ company VP who confirms my column. Thanks for the note. – DCH Daniel Howes Business Columnist The Detroit News W: +1.313.222.2106 M: +1.313.632.1945 E: email@example.com Sent via BlackBerry Update: Scott Monty is the Ford social media director and writes on Twitter: “We did not pull the ad under pressure.” I have asked him directly: “Did the White House contact Ford to complain about the ads or not?” Waiting for a response… *** Scott Monty’s response: “I have no knowledge of the White House calling. We don’t make advertising decisions based on pressure.” My follow-up: “So can you find out and let us know whether WH called to complain or not? It’s germane.” And: “If you are denying substance of D. Howe’s Detroit News report, are you going to ask paper 4 a retraction?” Seconds later, White House press flack Dan Pfeiffer tweeted : “Lots of bad info/reporting out there today: Report on POTUS and Troy Davis and Detroit News column saying WH pressured Ford are both false.” My follow-up: “So did anyone at the White House contact anyone at Ford to complain about the bailout ad or not?” I think a FOIA request is in order… *** Larry O’Connor interviewed Ford ad star Chris McDaniel. Excerpt: When I asked Mr. McDaniel what he thought about the reports that the White House may have pressured Ford into removing his commercial he said, “I understand the political world Ford lives in. I don’t fault them. But, I’m on the hook with my tax dollars on this Solyndra scandal. It’s exactly the same thing as the GM and Chrysler bailouts. Enough is enough! The only people on the hook in this country are the 50% of American who still pay taxes. And now we have the federal government butting their nose into this TV ad. Another example of them getting involved in things they have no business getting involved in. Where is the free speech of American citizens?” With ideas like that, no wonder the White House got involved.


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Detailed by Google, a bug was found in final testing for an array of Android Wear devices therefore delaying Android Wear 2.0 for all eligable device with the exception of the Fossil Q Founder, Casio Smart Outdoor Watch WSD-F10, and Tag Heuer Connected Watch.
Here’s the statement from Google that was provided.
"We have started rolling out the Android Wear 2.0 update to Fossil Q Founder, Casio Smart Outdoor Watch WSD-F10 and Tag Heuer Connected. For other devices, the update is currently being delayed due to a bug found in final testing. We will push the update to the remaining devices as soon as the issue is resolved."


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By: Arjun Katechia
As the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump has an ambitious agenda for the next few years. One of the more controversial items on this agenda includes the travel ban, an executive order which had been scheduled to take effect on March 16th until it was blocked by a federal judge. The proposed 90-day travel ban orders the blocking of immigrants from six Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Iran, from entering the country. In addition, the ban plans to suspend the US refugee program for 120 days and lowers the refugee cap from 110,000 to 50,000 refugees per year. While intending to protect the United States from “terrorist refugees,” one aspect of the ban that it is often overlooked is the extensive impacts it would have on the US economy. In terms of immediate impacts, the ban would decelerate growth in the tourist sector. In the long run, it would produce an international anti-American sentiment, which will inevitably lower visitation rates for international tourists. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the US tourist industry supported 14 million jobs, providing $1.5 trillion to the economy in 2016. Overall, the tourism and travel sector grew 2.8% last year. This growth is expected to decelerate to 2.3% in 2017. While partly induced by inflation and lower disposable income as the WTTC has stated, this deceleration is also a predicted consequence of the potential travel ban. The national sentiment that is exuded by a ban on immigration is one that signals an isolationist stance on travel and a threatening atmosphere for Muslims. This ban has incited international fear of traveling to the US, especially by immigrants who worry about difficulties and deportation, even if they have proper documentation. Compared to the weeks prior to the scheduled enactment of the order, the demand for flights from
international countries to the US dropped by 17%. Although the ban would be temporary, it would still have immediate and lingering effects on the US’s tourism sector.
Beyond the tourism sector, a xenophobic US would severely harm the advent of new businesses, especially in Silicon Valley. For example, the magazine Inc. reported that 52% of all Silicon Valley companies from 1995-2005 were started by immigrants. Furthermore, by 2012, 43.9% of US engineering and technology startups were founded by immigrants. In blocking immigrants from six countries and heightening the American isolationist stance, the future of Silicon Valley looks drier than ever before as Trump’s travel ban provides immigrants with a clear incentive to not come and start businesses in the United States.
Through this executive order, Trump has made it clear that the US is not the place for economic vitality. Rather, he sends a message that the US is closing its doors to foreign people and foreign ideas, which hold importance to the US tourist industry, Silicon Valley’s continued success, and the greater American economy.


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GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/09 May)– The Department of Agriculture (DA) is pushing for the creation of a single brand for the country’s dairy and dairy products in a bid to enhance their competitiveness in the domestic and international markets.
Jose Reaño, DA undersecretary for livestock, said they are currently working with dairy industry players for the possibility of consolidating the country’s fresh and processed dairy products and eventually market them under a single brand.
He said the National Dairy Authority (NDA) has initially conducted some consultations with dairy farmers’ cooperatives, processors and other related players for the development of the uniform dairy brand.
“This will address the concerns of our dairy producers and processors regarding high logistics costs and at the same time enhance the marketability of our dairy products,” he said at the ongoing three-day 17th National Dairy Congress and Expo here.
Citing their initial studies, he said such move could significantly bring down logistics costs, specifically on the use of dairy containers and in terms of packaging.
Reaño said the consolidation of the dairy produce will eventually maximize the use or operations of local daily processing facilities.
In 2013, data released by the NDA showed that the country’s dairy production reached 19.45 million liters, up by a million liters from 2012.
The net supply, mostly coming from imports, stood at 321.64 million kilograms (kg) last year, which is five percent higher than the previous year’s net supply of 305.80 million kg.
Imports of milk and dairy products increased by one percent or from 305.45 million kg to 309.06 million kg.
NDA said the country’s sufficiency level in terms of local dairy production was only listed at a dismal one percent but it still exported some 6.88 million kg of dairy products last year.
About 76 percent of the dairy exports comprised whole milk powder while the remaining 24 percent were condensed milk and cheese.
Reaño said they adopted the idea of launching the country’s dairy products as a single brand so it can compete with other players in the expanding global markets.
He cited that the competitiveness of local dairy or milk products would mainly depend on how the industry would react to the developments in the markets.
The official said the move would also promote economies of scale within the industry that had been the norm in other dairy producing and exporting countries.
“The more that we consolidate the industry means more efficient and lower cost of operations for our players. That will be a key factor when we expand our markets later on,” he added. (MindaNews)


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In January of this year I proclaimed that Seattle is [white] hot in 2015! and in February 2015 I discussed Factors Driving Up Seattle Apartment Values Persist in 2015. The numbers are in for the first half of 2015 and it is no surprise that 2015 is another banner year for the Pacific Northwest apartment market. Which markets continues to surge?
In the following post we will break down YTD sales metrics and y-o-y changes for the following submarkets:
- Urban King County
- North King County
- South King County
- North Snohomish County
- South Snohomish County
Urban King County
Without a doubt, investment sales in Urban King County have continued their momentum into 2015, and continue to escalate. Average PPU for sales thus far this year have nearly crested $400,000/unit, compared to just over a $300,000/unit average in 2014. PPSF has also risen, averaging $557 NRSF. Amazingly, cap rates have dropped even lower than those reported in 2014 – likely due to both increased competition amongst buyers and a 10 year treasury bond below the 2.5% constant set in 2014.
North King County
North King County has yet to hit the stride it reached by EOY 2014. PPU and PPSF metrics in 2015 remain below 2014 levels, by nearly 20% for both metrics. So far in 2015 the market has only experienced 3 sales, all of smaller, non-institutionally sized assets – likely explaining the drop-off from 2014 pricing levels. Cap rates have ticked down by 30 BP.
East King County
Sales metrics in East King County in 2015 nearly mirror 2014 exactly. Sales on a PPU basis are within 3.6% of 2014 levels and sales on a PPSF basis have increased an average of 3.3% in 2015. Average cap rates are within 10 BP from last year. So far in 2015, 3 of the 4 sales are of properties larger than 150 units, all with pricing greater than $40M.
South King County
Outside of Urban King County, South King County has experienced the greatest number of trades during the first half of 2015, 14 sales versus 9 sales, respectively. Although sales metrics in Urban King County have surged, South King County has held strong, yet without appreciable upward pressure on pricing. Sales on a PPU and PPSF are similar to those experienced in 2014, yet cap rates have compressed by an average of 30 BP.
North Snohomish County
North Snohomish County is another market with slow sales volume YTD and all three sales recorded are of buildings comprised of less than 150 units. So far in 2015, sales on a unit-count basis have yet to hit 250 units! Accordingly, it is not surprising that pricing is similar to 2014 and a touch below on a PPU and PPSF basis. Cap rates in 2015 mirror those from 2014.
South Snohomish County
So far in 2015, sales in South Snohomish County show an escalating market with pricing levels exceeding those reached in 2014. Although gains on a PPU and PPSF basis are moderate, they prove a historical trend of a continually rising market. Only three sales are recorded for the first half of 2015, two of which are of institutionally-sized assets. Cap rates are within 10 BP from 2014 to 2015.
The year is far from over and given the amount of product currently on the market, sales volume is very likely to increase during the second half of 2015, with certain markets set to break historic sales records. Please contact me to discuss your acquisition and disposition strategies for the balance of the year and to formulate a strategy for market-leading returns.


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Hillary Trout has been named president and chief operating officer of Villa San Juliette Vineyard & Winery. She had previously been a certified public accountant at Longcrier & Associates.
The winery, in the Pleasant Valley area of San Miguel north of Paso Robles, was co-founded in 2007 by producers Ken Warwick and Nigel Lythgoe.
Warwick’s credits include “American Idol.” Lythgoe’s credits include the British TV series “Pop Idol” (which led to “American Idol”) and “So You Think You Can Dance.”
The winery produces 35,000 cases a year and has been selling wine wholesale in 35 states under the brands Villa San Juliette and Fat Monk, Trout said in a news release. It plans to open a tasting room within a few weeks, she wrote.


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The Sun Valley Resort and its sister mountain Snowbasin will now be part of Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass program.
The program allows skiers and boarders to buy one pass that gives them access to many resorts across the US and around the world, many under the ownership of Vail.
Sun Valley went out of its way to emphasize that the tie-up is only for passes, and not part of any ownership pact.
“Sun Valley and Snowbasin are 100% independently-owned and operated. They have formed an alliance with Vail Resorts to offer benefits to each other’s season pass holders,” Sun Valley wrote in an FAQ.
In recent years, Vail has rolled up scads of resorts, spending nearly $2 billion in the process.
According to BusinessDen.com, which tracks Vail, it announced a similar Epic Pass deal with Crested Butte in Colorado. It purchased the resort a few months later.
The Holding family, which owns Sun Valley and Snowbasin, have said they plan to keep the resorts in the face of increasing industry consolidation.
Aspen Ski Co. has also been acquiring resorts, and opened a Limelight Hotel in Ketchum in 2016.
The Epic Pass will go on sale in March and be good at Sun Valley starting next ski season.


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Please take time to sign this petition. It is sad to know that most of the Cotton picked in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is the second largest producer of cotton in the world. Too many U.S based companies use the cotton produced in Uzbekistan. We need to do what we can to help stop child exploitation in Uzbekistan.
Despite international condemnation, the government of Uzbekistan is continuing to remove millions of children from schools across the country and forcing them to pick cotton during the current harvest season. Once again, the government is mandating that teachers shut down their classes and force children to meet government-imposed cotton production quotas.
While over 65 of the world’s largest apparel brands and retailers have developed policies related to Uzbek cotton due to the well-documented forced child labor in the country’s cotton fields, two companies have remained silent. In a sad twist of irony, the children’s clothing store Gymboree and Abercrombie and Fitch have refused to support human rights and speak out against forced child labor in the cotton industry.
The forced labor of children will continue in Uzbekistan until companies like Gymboree and Abercrombie and Fitch refuse to support these egregious abuses. Please take action NOW to tell Gymboree and Abercrombie and Fitch to respect international labor rights in their cotton sourcing.
Your messages are making a difference! Abercrombie and Fitch has announced that it is instituting a policy of banning Uzbek cotton from its supply chain. However, the company has not provided additional information about how it ensures that this policy is effectively implemented through all of its suppliers. Let’s keep up the pressure on Gymboree which continues to remain silent on forced, child labor!


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Samsung passes up chance to wrap Times cover for Olympic duration
By John Reynolds, mediaweek.co.uk, Friday, 03 August 2012 11:03AM
The Times has been unable to secure Samsung as the exclusive commercial sponsor for its Olympic commemorative cover wrap for the whole duration of the Games, despite outperforming its rivals and adding 100,000 copies the day after the Opening Ceremony.
The Times has been running a commemorative London 2012 cover wrap since the start of the Games and plans to run it until the end of the Olympics.
It has been sponsored by Samsung so far but the deal will not extend beyond this weekend.
Media agency sources have told Media Week that commercial executives at News International, parent company of The Times, were keen to sell Samsung the cover wrap sponsorship for the entire duration of the Olympics.
But they were unable to strike a deal, forcing News International to look elsewhere for a commercial partner, despite expectations that the title would perform well during the Olympics.
Sources said News International has been unable to find an exclusive single sponsor for the remaining days of Olympic competition.
Once source close to News International said the publisher had secured individual sponsors on different days. It is unclear who these sponsors are.
News International said "All wraps throughout the Olymics have been sold and you can look forward to them being revealed next week."
Newspapers are looking to pump up their commercial revenues during the Olympics.
Adidas, the official sportswear partner of London 2012, is cover wrapping the Metro newspaper for 17 consecutive days during the Olympics, its biggest-ever print campaign.
The £2m deal will see 17 collectable covers featuring Team GB athletes, which have been designed by illustrators and artists.
On the first Saturday of the Olympics, The Times easily outperformed its rivals, adding 100,000 to its average Saturday circulation of 480,132.
Samsung was unavailable for comment.Follow @johnreynolds10
This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk
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- Land Rover to move global ad account into Spark44
- Martin Sorrell talks Maurice Lévy, Tesco, and the global outlook
- Viacom to bring Breaking Bad to Freeview with Spike launch
- WPP's Martin Sorrell reconsiders strength of newspapers
- Group M retains £80m Lloyds media
- Gogglebox stars encourage viewers to vote


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by Amanda Ong
On Dec. 10, 2021, the City of Seattle Office of Economic Development (OED) and then-Mayor Jenny Durkan announced the launch of Seattle Restored — a new program focused on activating vacant commercial storefronts in Downtown Seattle neighborhoods. The program has partnered with the Seattle Good Business Network and Shunpike, as well as other property owners, to provide spaces and support for local artists and entrepreneurs who can then use their designated space for 2 to 4 months, with hopes for eventual longer-term leases and expansion into different neighborhoods.
Continue reading OED’s ‘Seattle Restored’ Program Will Bring BIPOC Artists to Downtown Seattle Storefronts
by Ronnie Estoque
When the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country abruptly in March of last year, many worried what the impact on local small businesses would be.
Small businesses in South Seattle had to adjust and pivot their business models to weather the brunt of the pandemic, and many of them found unwavering support from the local community.
Continue reading Community Rallies Behind Local Business Owners
by Patheresa Wells
Now that we are through the hectic online shopping seasons of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, many find that they are still looking for items to cross off on their shopping lists. And while the issues of inflation and bare shelves might make it harder to find what you need, especially for last-minute shoppers, they also provide a great opportunity to support local small businesses by shopping directly from Black, Indigenous, and BIPOC-owned businesses that could benefit from your hard-earned dollars. Remember, in order to move toward equity, it is paramount that we shift our funds into the hands of those who have been systematically shut out from acquiring wealth. If you are looking for somewhere to start, here is a guide to help you in your quest (but remember to check with sites or stores for shipping deadlines):
Continue reading Buy From Black, Indigenous, and BIPOC Businesses This Holiday Season
by Patranya Bhoolsuwan
(This article originally appeared on International Examiner and has been reprinted under an agreement.)
“We have often looked around and asked, ‘Where are the Black and Brown people working, and where are the Black and Brown clients?’ Because of this, we have been really intentional that our clientele represents who we are.”
This is more than just a business motto for Sonia Lynn-Abenojar and Sergio Max Legon-Talamoni, the cofounders of La Union Studio, an architecture, interior, and design consultancy. The (newly married) husband and wife team have taken their passion for architecture and design, along with their love for the diverse communities of the Pacific Northwest, to create a business that reflects who they are as individuals and entrepreneurs.
Continue reading New BIPOC Business Weaves Diverse Arts, Culture, History Into Design
by Amanda Ong
This Saturday, Nov. 27, is the annual Chinatown-International District (CID) Small Business Saturday Food Walk. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., you can visit a variety of small CID businesses to find offerings from retail to food, with each participating with a selection of treats for only $6. The CID Food Walk features items for dozens of CID businesses — from egg rolls and hum bao at ChuMinh Tofu Vegan Deli to cream puffs at Beard Papa’s and discounted merchandise at the Wing Luke Museum.
The Small Business Saturday Food Walk is an event held by the Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Association (CIDBIA), a nonprofit organization based in the CID that does work in public safety, sanitation, marketing, communications, neighborhood events, and advocacy. It is one of 10 Business Improvement Associations throughout the city. During the event, the CIDBIA will be hosting a table at Hing Hay Park where you can ask questions, find recommendations, and receive a bag of small goodies.
“It’s a really good opportunity to just highlight collectively the entire neighborhood, and call out to all the great things that we have besides just a certain cuisine of food,” said Connie Au-Yeung, communications and marketing manager at CIDBIA, in an interview with the South Seattle Emerald. “There’s drinks, and there’s different pastries and retail items, and a really great variety within Chinatown, Japantown, Little Saigon.”
Continue reading CID Saturday Food Walk Features Small Businesses and Delicious Eats
by Johnny Fikru and Johnny Mao
It is no accident that ChuMinh Tofu still stands tall in a spot that other businesses have long since vacated.
To date, Thanh-Nga “Tanya” Nguyễn and her staff have held down the spot on South Jackson Street for 10 years. Tanya’s journey to ChuMinh has involved a myriad of pathways. Medical school in Vietnam, biochemistry, a mindfulness in Buddhism, a passion for tofu, and a culture of caring — all manifest into the language of love present at ChuMinh to this day: food and mutual aid.
“I met Tanya years ago — I would come to ChuMinh Tofu and buy meals for community meetings. In the era I was raised in, banh mi was part of the diet at community meetings,” said organizer Johnny Fikru. “As I walked inside trying to determine what I wanted to eat, I was struck by the warm presence of Tanya. Anyone that’s ever been lucky enough to feel that energy knows exactly what I’m talking about. It’s an inviting and warm presence. It’s authentic. It’s caring. It is peaceful. I was welcomed in a way that I haven’t felt at a restaurant, and it felt so great.”
Continue reading Love, Mutual Aid, and Humanity at ChuMinh Tofu
by Agueda Pacheco Flores
Alicia Haskins is no doubt applying for a grant from the City’s Small Business Stabilization Fund program.
After visiting small businesses around Rainier Beach, Mayor Jenny Durkan announced the program at a press conference at Rainier Health and Fitness, where she said the fund would focus on businesses owned by women and People of Color “because of the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities.”
Continue reading City Announces $4 Million in Grants for Pandemic-Stressed Small Businesses
by Ronnie Estoque
Last Saturday, Oct. 9, local community members gathered for the Monster Mash Market at the Georgetown Trailer Park Mall on Airport Way South. The all-day event featured over 40 craft vendors and artists selling their own unique sets of work. Several trailers were utilized and decorated as vendor spaces, while others were provided tent spaces to showcase their products to prospective customers. The event also featured live music from bands such as Lo-Liner, and a photobooth area for attendees to take photos with their festive Halloween-inspired costumes.
On Nov. 27, the Georgetown Trailer Park Mall will be hosting the GTPM Holiday Market from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Small, locally owned businesses will also be featured for the event.
Continue reading PHOTO ESSAY: Georgetown Trailer Park Mall Hosts Monster Mash Market
by M. Anthony Davis
The West Hill Community Association has an extensive history of advocacy and community service in the communities of Skyway and Unincorporated King County. Their weekly event, Skyway Outdoor Cinema, which hosts outdoor movies on a 20-foot screen every Friday in August, has been a staple in Skyway every summer since 2003.
Devin Chicras, a West Hill Community Association board member since 2014 (and president of the South Seattle Emerald board), has been actively involved in the Skyway Outdoor Cinema since 2013. At that time, the organization was discussing whether to shut the cinema down due to lack of volunteers and declining community attendance. Knowing how valuable the event was to the community, Chicras stepped up to ensure the outdoor cinema continued.
“Myself and my partner, Mary Goebel, decided that it was something too valuable to the community to just let it just discontinue,” Chicras says. “So we jumped in and, having no real event-planning experience, learned everything from the ground up, from getting vendors to buying AV equipment. We bought all of our own equipment after doing an Indiegogo campaign.”
Continue reading Skyway Outdoor Cinema Adjusts to Bring Community Together


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New Springbok rugby coach Jacques Nienaber is set to lift the lid on his vision for South African rugby over the next few years – and how technology has helped the boks take their game to new heights.
Nienaber will join technology expert Nigel Moulton at a Dell Tech Byte online event on 12 March 2020, where he will talk through how technology improved the boks’ game, and what is next for the world champions.
When the Springboks emerged victorious at the Rugby World Cup in 2019, it was the culmination of years of effort and focus. The team also employed modern sports technologies, such as player performance analytics, to hone a winning team into its best shape.
Nienaber will offer insights into these technologies, and how they align with his vision. He will discuss both the national team, which is sponsored by Dell Technologies, as well as his ambitions for women’s rugby in South Africa.
Attendees interested in the broader impact of technology will hear from Nigel Moulton, Dell Technologies’ global chief technology officer (CTO). He frequently delivers keynote presentations on the impact of digital technology on human futures.
“We designed the Dell Technologies Tech Byte online event to reach a wide audience,” says Jason Jenkinson, country marketing manager at Dell Technologies SA. “Instead of limiting this to a physical showcase, we are creating a unique opportunity to meet the new Springbok rugby coach and learn more about where technology is headed on and off the field.
“Our global CTO will delve into the current state of digital transformation, the connected CEOs who are more in touch with their transformation efforts, and the growing relationship between the CIO and CEO.”
The online live event will be hosted by Dell Technologies South Africa MD Doug Woolley, and MCd by the well-known personality Aki Anastasiou.
“It’s been an amazing journey with the Springbok team so far, and we wanted to share some of that with the rest of the country,” says Jenkinson. “Where is SA rugby going and how is technology helping create more winners? Jacques Nienaber will share his vision for the team and the sport, and connect a few technology dots as well.
“Nigel Moulton will take us deeper into the practical side of the technology revolution, which will interest business leaders and decision-makers. This event is a great opportunity to see just how much technology influences everyone’s success.”
- The Dell Technologies Tech Byte online event will stream live on 12 March 2020. Access is free – viewers can register beforehand on the event website. Book your space now and prepare to discover the future of technology and South African rugby.
* Win an exclusive brunch, served as a snack box wherever you are, as part of the TechByte online event, designed by Dell Technologies to keep you at the forefront of digital transformation. Dell Technologies has given us the opportunity to invite 3 Gadget readers to be VIP virtual guests during the webinar. Retweet with comment/Quote Tweet a simple question we have posted on Twitter, with your answer in the comment, and tag @DellTechZA. The winners will receive a snack box filled with food, snacks and a drink to enjoy while watching the webinar.


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Elon Musk, Tesla Motors’ (TSLA) chief executive, has big hopes for China, a country that should be a natural for his electronic cars. The world’s largest auto market has notoriously awful smog problems, and the Chinese government has made the pollution fight one of its top priorities. Last month, for instance, China’s State Council agreed to exempt electric cars (as well as plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles) from the 10 percent tax normally assessed on new autos. And the government on July 13 said electric cars would make up at least 30 percent of its vehicle purchases by 2016.!
That creates opportunities for Tesla. China is “genuinely committed to electric cars,” Musk said during a call with analysts last month. “It’s not just about favoring local manufacturers.”!
There’s been one problem: While Tesla Motors started Chinese deliveries of the Model S in April, the Palo Alto (Calif.) carmaker was proceeding without certainty that it had rights to its name in the country. A Chinese businessman running a skin-care company had registered the rights before Musk and his team.


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US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — European stocks rose early on Thursday after a drop in coronavirus deaths in Spain and Italy, while optimistic statements from two major low-cost airlines pushed the tourism sector up.
Recent data from two European outbreak epicenters reinforced the hope that the pandemic may be moving into the plateau phase in some countries, with the result that the pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.2% to 10.31 GMT.
British low-cost airline easyJet rallied 8.3% after the company said it hopes to cope with a long suspension of flights thanks to steps taken to maintain its financial position. The travel sector grew 2.6% after this announcement.
A larger rival, Ryanair, told Reuters on Wednesday that it is preparing for a price war, which it expects to win as soon as the restrictions due to the coronavirus are lifted and people start traveling again.
Papers of German online clothing retailer Zalando also rose nearly 6%, as the company said it was optimistic about the second quarter after sales recovered in April.
Contact us: [email protected]


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No Film School was at NAB 2017 and have compiled a playlist of every camera and lens they saw at NAB.
NAB Show is an annual trade show produced by the National Association of Broadcasters. It just wrapped up in Las Vegas and the show's tagline is "Where Content Comes to Life." It is a place where gear from companies around the world are showcased for industry professionals and shows us where the market is heading and what is popular these days among professionals.
It was another underwhelming year at NAB for cameras. Sony has seemingly been the most active in that arena, as it announced its a9 nearly a week before the show started and was on hand to exhibit the camera at the show. Some were hoping to see a new version of the a7 revealed in addition to the new series, but instead, Sony revealed their new UMC-S3C 4K, a tiny 4K camera built for cranes, sliders, crash cams, or when you just need a camera with a small footprint. Mostly, we saw companies less focused on creating new technologies, instead opting to upgrade their previous releases to be the best tools possible for the filmmakers who already own them.
It was a much different story in the lens department, however. Not only did we see a host of new full frame lenses come out from established companies like Leica and Cooke, but we were treated to the emergence of several new (and awesome) lens companies eager to bring some more affordable lenses to the marketplace. As sensors in cameras grow larger and larger, we're going to be seeing full frame lenses become more and more varied and available. This is certainly good news for filmmakers.


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Going once, going twice, sold. To the person in the little box on the screen.
Suffolk County will hold its first virtual property auction Dec. 1 with 159 parcels for sale that the county has reclaimed because of nonpayment of taxes. The properties range from vacant lots that must sell for at least $100 to a 55-acre property in Selden with a starting price of $1 million.
The auction will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., replacing its previous format, which required prospective bidders to scout listings across two days at the Dennison Building in Hauppauge.
The county hopes the virtual format will attract more bidders than past sales. Registration is open at suffolk.ny.realforeclose.com until Nov. 23.
"The virtual property auction is our latest effort to streamline resources and create greater efficiencies, while simultaneously increasing access," County Executive Steve Bellone said in a statement.
The added competition for properties will benefit the county, said Natalie Wright, Suffolk’s commissioner of economic development and planning. The virtual format could make it easier to hold more than one auction a year in the future, which would reduce the county’s cost of maintaining the properties, she said.
"Our goal is to, as quickly as possible, put these properties back into productive reuse and ensure property taxes are being collected to support the tax base," Wright said.
Bidders are encouraged to inspect properties before the auction and to take note of zoning or building restrictions attached to any of the parcels, according to the county’s auction brochure. Some properties have restrictions that require owners to occupy the residences, said Sidney Joyner, the county’s director of real estate.
Properties go to auction after a 36-month period without payment of taxes for one-, two- and three- family residences.
Suffolk County has hired realauction.com to run the event. The company charges winning bidders $300 per transaction to generate revenue and doesn’t charge the county for use of its platform, Joyner said. Winners also face additional taxes and surcharges.
The virtual format might lead to more buyers, but Todd Yovino, who owns Island Advantage Realty in Hauppauge, is skeptical opening up the auction online will produce more tax-paying properties. He thinks the county should have only moved a portion of the properties to the virtual auction to test the concept.
"What happens from my experience is people purchasing items they don’t know anything about," said Yovino, who has experience representing sellers of distressed properties. "When you’re keeping it local, like it was forever, you’re getting the local audience that has a better sense of what’s really up for sale."


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Target October sales figure rises
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Discount retailer Target Corp. said Thursday a key revenue measure rose 2.4 percent in October, as customers spent more on food and health and beauty items, but the number of people buying items was even with a year ago.
Analysts expected a bigger 3.3 percent increase for the four weeks through Oct. 27, according to Thomson Reuters, but CEO Gregg Steinhafel was optimistic about the all-important upcoming holiday season. Retailers can make up to 40 percent of the year's revenue from holiday shopping.
"As we enter the fourth quarter we feel very good about our holiday season merchandising and marketing plans and our ability to deliver outstanding value for our guests while generating strong financial performance for our shareholders," Steinhafel said in a statement.
To lure shoppers, Target is offering a 5 percent discount for customers that have a Target Redcard and says it will match prices from brick-and-mortar competitors.
The Minneapolis company expects the revenue figure to rise by a low-single-digit percentage in November. Revenue in stores open at least one year is a key gauge of a retailer's health, because it excludes results from stores recently opened or closed, which can skew business trends.
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Recipe for Success
Industry Information | 10.21.2011
Here is a very interesting article written by Rona Gindin of Winter Park Magazine. Rona interviewed Ken Hoffman of IRHC Group, asking his expertise as to why Winter Park’s once vibrant downtown area, was no longer a guaranteed success for restaurants.
After more than a quarter-century of running Café de France on the southern end of Park Avenue, Dominique and German Gutierrez did something they would have pooh-poohed even a year ago: They had a neon sign installed on the door of their restaurant. “It makes me feel cheap,” admits Dominique, who has owned the French cafe with her husband since 1982. The storefronts flanking Café de France are empty, though, so the couple felt they needed the bright light to call attention to their business on a block of darkness after sunset. “I tell my customers that the day they see the sign down they’ll know Café de France is doing OK, ” the proprietor chuckles.
Attracting diners on Park Avenue is no laughing matter, of course, and it’s scary to see a restaurant that has been an anchor for 28 years taking measures to survive that the owners find distasteful. The nation’s economic downturn is an obvious reason for the Avenue’s restaurants to resort to all kinds of tricks to keep customer counts up, but in some ways, the struggle is same old, same old.
A walk north from Rollins College to the resale shop past Canton Avenue reveals a lot of longtimers, from Park Plaza Gardens with its 30-year pedigree to familiar names such as Briarpatch Restaurant, Brandywine’s Delicatessen, 310 Park South and Pannullo’s Italian Restaurant. Then there are some spots that have been any number of dining establishments over the decades, with new owners trying out the space and failing repeatedly – even when the area’s economy was robust.
Making the Cut
Is the problem just that a location is bad, or is there more to it? And why do the longtimers hold out through rotating chefs and, in some cases, menu focuses and managers?
“Winter Park residents don’t want to become emotionally involved in a place with a revolving door,” theorizes Aaron Allen, whose restaurant consulting company, The Allen Group, is based in Central Florida. “They’re like jilted lovers. They don’t want to return until they know a place will be around for a while.”
“Most of the time the problem is not location,” agrees Ken Hoffman, senior partner of the Orlando-based International Restaurant and Hospitality Consulting Group. “Winter Park is extremely local driven, and restaurants have a bigger hurdle to overcome if many restaurants have been in the same spot before. To draw area residents in, the owners have to put back into the community – get involved in local museums or boys and girls clubs, for example, so they become a neighbor and a friend.” By contrast, the Park Avenue anchors can, to some degree, live off nostalgia, he says. “People have fond memories of coming in 10 years ago with their parents or dining there with a special aunt and uncle, and they get credit for that,” he observes.
Not surprisingly, nostalgia isn’t enough, emphasizes Dori DeBord, economic development and community redevelopment area coordinator for the city of Winter Park. “A restaurant like Park Plaza Gardens has a sense of history, yet it has changed and shifted and moved with the times, trending its menu to be kind of hip,” she points out.
Location, Location, Location
Still, location is a factor. Dominique Gutierrez knows she would get more foot traffic if she had retail neighbors instead of deserted doorways, and if major Park Avenue events stretched to the southern end of the street.
And J. Michael, general manager of Park Plaza Gardens, does not discount the benefit of having sidewalk seating near several popular stores. “Park Plaza Gardens isn’t just a hole in the wall. People have to literally walk through our restaurant when they’re shopping on the Avenue,” he notes.
By contrast, he points to a restaurant space within one of the Avenue’s hidden courtyards. “God bless their hearts,” he says, “I love that little courtyard, but who knows they’re there?”
He was referring to The Bistro on Park Avenue, located in the Hidden Gardens on North Park Avenue. Owner Randy Parsons went into the beautiful yet tucked-away space two years ago aware of two reasons his business might thrive there: Bistro already had a following from its two years on the other side of Park Avenue, and many residents have fond memories of their experiences when his new space was Maison de Crepes from 1974 to 2000. “A lot of people had their first date here, or were proposed to here, so I thought I could rekindle that and generate the same kinds of things,” he says.
Strong operations – consistently well-prepared, nicely flavored food and consistently polished service – are the most vital elements to a restaurant’s success, everyone interviewed agreed. “Plenty of my clients in B and C locations are busy because people will find them if they’re good,” says consultant Hoffman. “If you’re not good, then you need a great location.”
What’s “good”? “You really have to work at it,” says JoAnne McMahon, who has owned 310 Park South for 11 years and recently expanded the dining room. “I’m here 14 hours a day, every day.” Her initial success was partly because the restaurant filled a niche, she points out. At the time of 310’s opening, no place on that part of the Avenue was family-friendly with children’s menu items or even highchairs. As for longevity, she credits treating her staff with respect. “I’m not an easy person, but I’m a fair person, and I treat my employees as well as I possibly can. Some have been with me for over 10 years.” She points out that longtime servers help business because waiters and waitresses know regular customers by name and remember what they like to eat and drink, “and everyone loves to be remembered.”
Café de France nurtures the same kind of fidelity. Either Dominique or German is nearly always on the premises, and they feel as if their regular guests are friends more than customers. “I also take good care of my staff,” Dominique emphasizes. “Guests don’t like it much when there’s change, and when the servers are the same and guests are recognized, they come back.”
The Bloom’s Still on at Park Plaza Gardens
They say a woman earns her wrinkles. With Park Plaza Gardens, it seems Winter Park’s grande dame has weathered quite the life herself – yet what we see today is a restaurant that’s blossoming, not blemished.
Park Plaza Gardens is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, selling original menu items such as Shrimp Newburg in casserole at the 1980 price of $13.25. Its history actually began earlier, under other names in different forms. The Hamilton Hotel first opened in 1922 and had an eatery called the Hamilton Grill, located where Park Plaza Gardens’ bar area is now. When Park Plaza Hotel current owners John and Sissie Spang took over in the mid-1970s, they renovated the space and opened a restaurant called The Palms, which encompassed both the current bar and dining areas. John Spang bricked the ground behind the former Hamilton Grill – it had been dirt – and a wall, and covered the space with awnings. “We had no roof,” he recalls. “It was open-air.”
A Restaurant in Transition
In 1980, the Spangs decided to lease the food service operation to Clement J. Ford Jr., who built the current main dining room with its signature transparent ceiling. He named it Park Plaza Gardens and the moniker has remained unchanged even though ownership and chefs rotated over the years.
Orlando Sentinel archives are filled with articles about Park Plaza Gardens, and they are not only reviews, promotions and wedding announcements. In 1993, former chef Philippe M. Gehin wrote a letter to the editor following a mixed review letting the community know that he was not the chef whose food was said to be inconsistent. “Since my departure from Park Plaza Gardens some two months ago, the decline in culinary standards has been demonstrable,” he wrote. In 1998, the Sentinel let readers know that “Park Plaza Gardens has a new manager, though the legal fight over the restaurant continues.”
Things have clearly settled down.
Ten years ago Mary Demetree bought Park Plaza Gardens and has been at the restaurant’s helm the entire decade. Embracing the past, in 1999 – shortly after the purchase – the restaurant began a yearlong 20th-anniversary celebration by inviting former chefs to host monthly dinners. It was called the Alumni Chef series. Today, J. Michael is the general manager. In the kitchen, executive chef John Tan dishes out creative interpretations of American, European and Asian dishes; he has been there for nine years. Guests settle into the garden-like dining room’s 110 seats for meals and frequent the bar area’s 90 high-tops and sidewalk seats for casual fare – and some of the Avenue’s best people watching.
Demetree seems set on continuing to serve Central Floridians, and even indicates that she hopes to expand the space at some point. “We look forward to serving the community for another 30 years,” she says. “This is a meeting place for Winter Park residents” – and not just for business folks and ladies who lunch, she emphasizes. “This is not just a special occasion restaurant. It’s a place for everyone to have dinner.”
Demetree especially enjoys the community events, such as the 2010 Winter Park Sidewalk Arts Festival, during which Park Avenue is closed to cars. “It becomes like a European plaza where people can walk, shop and dine at all the restaurants in that quadrant with no cars. People had a blast. We would so like to see more of that in the future.”
Meanwhile, she takes her meals at the corner booth that was long the catbird seat of founder Clement J. Ford Jr. She sits near a plaque dedicated to her former friend. It says, “He never tattered, this man of flair; a man that mattered, a man who cared.” It seems Demetree carries that same passion.
Identify and Solve Problems
Doved Sexter and wife Tammy bought Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine in September 2009 and had to overcome potential customers’ unfamiliarity with the food of Turkey and had to focus on extraordinary customer service. “We’re smack dab near Central Park and get a lot of foot traffic,” Sexter says, “and our food is clearly out of the ordinary and high quality,” he says. Sexter has been tapping into what he learned as a 20-year Darden Restaurants employee to “raise the service game.” Among his tactics: holding regular server meetings, being “candid with our serving staff” that those not adept at customer service will be fired, hiring “mystery shoppers” to rate their experiences, and encouraging guests to share their opinions. “We ask guests about our service, and we try to stay open-minded to their answers,” Sexter says. “We’ve taken their feedback and changed a lot of that up to match the environment.” For example, Bosphorous now has a host or hostess and a bartender (harried servers performed both duties in the past); has the restrooms thoroughly cleaned daily; changed the type of soap in the restrooms; improved the wine list; and revamped the menu so it’s easier for Americans to understand.
Hoffman would applaud Sexter’s changes. “If you’re struggling, you have to look internally, inside your four walls, to see what the issues are,” he insists. That kind of self-improvement is most vital within a restaurant’s first 90 days. “If you don’t deliver a wow experience that’s worth what guests are paying, they will not be back,” he says. “And it doesn’t cost a lot of money to wow your guests and make them feel like they’re in the most special place in the world.”
Potential customers need to know Winter Park has a new restaurant worth trying. The Bosphorous team gets the word out in part the old-fashioned way, even if their restaurant isn’t new, only new to them: When someone stops to look at the menu that’s posted outside, an owner or host will meander out with a nicely decorated tray and offer samples of spicy and non-spicy chicken and lamb items. “We explain that Turkish cuisine has no exotic sauces or flavors, that its bases are familiar items like garlic and parsley and tomato,” Sextet says.
Brandywine’s: 38 Years and Counting
Brandywine’s Delicatessen may well be Park Avenue’s longest-running restaurant, but its beginning was rocky. New Jersey imports Jack and Joan Frankenberger began their venture as a delicatessen selling homemade items such as corned beef, she-crab soup and peanut butter by the pound, with only four tables for on-site dining. They even located the business near St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church because New Jersey delis “located across from a church just pack it in on Sunday,” says Johnny Frankenberger, one of their seven children. Johnny now runs Brandywine’s with his wife, Kathleen. His sister, Karen Jones, begins cooking at 5 a.m. daily.
Within a year of its 1972 opening, “the pink deli” (it was painted by 1984 but retains its moniker among old-timers) revamped and became a place to stop in for a sandwich or salad. “We don’t open a can,” boasts Johnny Frankenberger, who said that recipes for staples such as potato salad and cole slaw have remained unchanged over the decades. “We roast our turkey on the premises. Go into another deli that says it serves oven-roasted turkey. Ask to see their oven!” Roast beef and ham also spend time in the Brandywine’s oven, and soups are made from scratch, using a stock that begins with the leftover turkey bones.
Turkey breast – by the pound and in sandwiches – is by far the biggest seller. The Mixed Delight is also a keeper: It’s a platter of egg salad and tuna salad finger sandwiches, fresh fruit, and date nut bread with cream cheese. Dated, but delightful.
How did such a simple concept last for 38 years? “In many places, a truck pulls up to deliver the food, and the restaurant sells the same thing the person down the street is selling. We give people a reason to come to our restaurant.”
Oh, there’s also the friendliness factor. Frankenberger says: “We pretty much know almost everyone who comes in.”
Spread the Word
With the advent of social media, Park Avenue restaurants have a new way of getting the word out. “If someone is sitting in Luma on Park and sends out a tweet about it, that might go to her 800 followers, and some may retweet it and her post might be seen by 2,000 people,” says Hoffman. “Where else can you get that kind of public relations?”
This change in the word-of-mouth landscape is rapid-fire, adds Allen. “It took radio 30 years to get a market audience. It took TV 13 years. It took Facebook two years to get an audience of 50 million,” he says. This kind of exposure can be a positive for restaurants – or a nose dive. “It used to be that if you’re upset at a restaurant you’d tell 10 people over a few weeks,” he says. “Now you might tweet from the table and reach thousands of people. The stakes have been raised so much now that information is moving faster.”
Park Plaza Gardens may be one of the Avenue’s longtime anchors, but that does not stop the restaurant from being on top of up-to-date marketing techniques. On any given day, Facebook and Twitter followers will see posts urging them to stop in for a drink or a meal. “Green Beer flowing all day … stop by!” it posted on St. Patrick’s Day. “Come by PPG for our special Art Fest Menu!!” it urged during the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival. “We have lots of meatless options for Friday Night! Reserve your table now!” it tweeted. “Maine lobster tail for $16.50 and other “original” menu features during the month of March!” it let followers know.
Restaurant owners would be foolish not to take advantage of the social media, Hoffman insists because it’s inexpensive and it’s effective. Those unable to navigate and follow through with online efforts themselves can hire a college intern, who can work for academic credits instead of money, he suggests.
Old-fashioned marketing ideas are still effective too, of course, such as Park Plaza Gardens’ offering items from its original menu at their 30-years-ago prices. Eateries located near one another can do joint marketing, Hoffman suggests, and building relationships with people never get old. “Host a buffet for members of local businesses or the chamber of commerce,” Hoffman recommends. “Host a social mixer for free. If your concept is higher end, invite a women’s book club to meet at your place every month. Bounce back money for the books or buy them their next book. If you think outside the box, you’ll find so many of these kinds of ways to reach out.”
Play to Your Strength
Restaurants should honor their strengths rather than copycat one another, adds Allen. “If everyone on the soccer field is running for the ball at the same time, they’ll find little success. If they all stay in their positions, they’ll touch the ball more.”
In the end, making a Park Avenue restaurant the one that survives, rather than the one that’s yet another in a succession of tenants in a given space, takes deep pockets, solid operations, savvy marketing and, perhaps, luck. “Restaurant start-ups are hard,” says Dori DeBord. “They’re labor intensive, they have overhead, they need investment capital for equipment and renovation. That can be tough.”
Luckily for residents, DeBord adds, the dining selection is already varied. “You can find anything you want to eat in Winter Park. You just have to come down and decide what you’re hungry for.”


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J.D. Power Survey Finds Quality Control Has Fallen Into the Abyss
J.D. Power has released its Initial Quality Study for 2023 and the big takeaway seems to be that the automotive industry continues to fumble. While manufacturers are bending over backward to implement novel technologies and features, last year’s survey revealed that customers felt vehicular quality reached its lowest level in more than three decades.
It’s even worse this year.
Looking at the survey, new-vehicle owners reported 192 problems per 100 vehicles on average. That’s up from 180 a year earlier and 162 in 2021, when quality assurance really started taking a nosedive.
While new-vehicle quality improved for 12 of the 33 brands ranked in the study, some of the names at the top of the list were a big surprise. Numerous Stellantis brands accrued far fewer complaints than other marquees, including Alfa Romeo, and was followed by a slew of nameplates owned by General Motors.
Other names that managed to beat the industry average you might not have expected to see included Mini, Nissan, and all of the Korean brands. Even stranger was that Toyota failed to beat the industry average — coming in right behind Mitsubishi, which has been working to improve its quality control for years.
Interestingly, a lot of the brands we’ve associated with sub-par reliability in recent years improved their performance for 2023. But the general trend was still that the automotive industry seems to be having serious trouble building automobiles without issues. Your author has been warning everyone in the market for a new vehicle to be exceptionally careful. Pricing still seems a little high and loans are becoming harder to manage with annual percentage rates going up. But quality control seems to have absolutely plummeted in recent years.
Going into the pandemic, there was a minor scandal involving Japanese automakers that were cutting corners on inspection protocols. However, things didn’t seem to be much better anywhere else on the planet and the whole thing went from bad to worse the second the pandemic started. As luck would have it, piecemeal manufacturing done as components trickle in from suppliers trying to contend with skeleton crews and massive amounts of downtime wasn’t a great way to bolster vehicle quality.
With everyone preoccupied with ever-changing health protocols and supply chains that had been upended by government-backed restrictions, there really wasn’t a lot of room to ensure automobiles were being made properly. Though there are certainly other factors to consider.
Many brands have begun shifting away from tried-and-true physical hardware to embrace electronic everything. Drive-by-wire has become the status quo, physical buttons are being supplanted by touch screens, and some bad software can make all of the above inoperable. Some of that is due to growing pains. Newer technologies often take some time to become as reliable as what came before. But the industry is also trying to produce vehicles more cheaply as it embraces technologies and features that are still relatively novel.
Volkswagen may offer classic designs and automobiles that seem to punch well above their price point. But leaning into touch controls has arguably made its interiors a lot less enjoyable and the company already had a bad reputation for wonky electronics. The situation has stymied the launch of numerous VW products and made plenty of people I know second guess buying from the brand.
Meanwhile, Dodge, Ram, and Alfa Romeo topped J.D. Power's 2023 U.S. Initial Quality Study. While Alfa releases a lot of desirable automobiles, its questionable reliability has been a meme for decades. But we know why Dodge is getting praised. The brand has basically been building the same vehicles since 2011 (upgrading them along the way) and has gotten pretty good at it.
By contrast, all-electric brands ended up at the bottom of the Initial Quality Study. Tesla and Polestar saw more complaints than any other brand by a fairly wide margin. Rivian and Lucid also performed terribly. But J.D. Power said their sample size was too small to be considered official.
The reason for the EV disparity came down to there being too much new technology going into the vehicles. Though that is hardly an issue limited to vehicles wholly dependent upon battery power, as all manufacturers seem to be chasing the trend. The phenomenon even managed to bump Toyota off its pedestal. Famous for building dependable automobiles, Toyota has started to embrace a lot of the stuff that’s been causing all manufacturers problems.
J.D. Power’s position is that cars boasting the latest technologies are becoming too complex. Having more features means there are more things to go wrong. But the same is true for adopting the freshest tech. Newer powertrains focused on efficiency tend to be smaller than what came before and often incorporate forced induction or hybridization. That adds strain and complexity issues engineering needs more time to remedy.
But it’s not just powertrains. Consider modern infotainment systems. Older cars might see their controls for the radio or HVAC system acting up. But many modern vehicles run the risk of becoming totally useless whenever the infotainment system becomes unresponsive. These units also offer a slew of new features older systems lacked — all of which could go wrong.
“The automotive industry is facing a wide range of quality problems, a phenomenon not seen in the 37-year history of the [Initial Quality Study],” said Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at J.D. Power. "The industry is at a major crossroad and the path each manufacturer chooses is paramount for its future. From persistent problems carrying over from years past to an increase in new types of problems, today’s new vehicles are more complex—offering new and exciting technology—but not always satisfying owners.”
The group’s study was conducted from February through May and is based on survey data compiled from 93,380 buyers and lessees of new 2023 model-year vehicles.
While we’re less inclined to worry about exactly where each brand ranked, as the real difference often comes down to specific models, you’re welcome to pursue J.D. Power’s list (above). Though it’s perhaps more useful to take a gander at which features proved to be the most troublesome and garnered the most amount of complaints from consumers.
The outlet claimed that trick door handles are causing a lot of frustration. This is an aspect of the vehicle you’re required to interface with every time you use it. But recessed handles that pop out need to function perfectly every time. The same is true for vehicles that unlock themselves whenever a driver approaches.
Survey respondents likewise had bad things to say about driver assistance features. Problems associated with lane departure warning/lane keeping assistance and forward collision warning/automatic emergency braking turned out to be particularly troublesome by being the most widely noted and seeing their complaint frequency rise against 2022.
Still, we can’t really peg any singular feature as the one that’s creating the most strife. The entire industry is suffering from a lapse in quality and it needs to be addressed immediately.
[Image: Volvo Cars; J.D. Power]
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- SCE to AUX A question nobody asks is how Tesla sells so many EVs without charge-at-home incentives.Here are some options for you:[list][*]Tesla drivers don't charge at home; they just squat at Superchargers.[/*][*]Tesla drivers are rich, so they just pay for a $2000 charger installation with the loose change in their pocket.[/*][*]Tesla drivers don't actually drive their cars much; they plug into 110V and only manage about 32 miles/day.[/*][/list]
- SCE to AUX "Despite the EV segment having enjoyed steady growth over the past several years, sales volumes have remained flatter through 2023."Not so. How can EV sales be increasing and flatter at the same time?https://insideevs.com/news/667516/us-electric-car-sales-2023q1/Tesla and H/K/G are all up for EV sales, as are several other brands.
- ToolGuy Here is an interesting graphic, if you're into that sort of thing.
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- Namesakeone Actually, per the IIHS ratings, "Acceptable" is second best, not second worst. The ratings are "Good," "Acceptable," "Marginal" and "Poor."


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TransCab taxi bursts into flames along Woodlands Road
Published on Mar 25, 2014 8:50 PM
A TransCab taxi burst into flames along Woodlands Road near the Junction 10 shopping mall on Tuesday afternoon, causing a traffic snarl.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it received a call at 3.20pm, and responded to the incident with a fire engine, a Red Rhino, and two fire bikes.
The blaze was extinguished within 20 minutes with a water jet, and no injuries were reported, said an SCDF spokesman.
General manager of TransCab, Ms Jasmine Tan, told The Straits Times that the taxi was registered in November 2011, and that the driver had been driving the same taxi since he joined the company in August 2012. She added that the company will be investigating the matter.
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The effects of Covid-19 and uncertainty over Brexit are not the only challenges UK businesses now face; they should also be gearing up for the “Great British Switch Off”.
According to a new report from Zen Internet, one in four businesses are oblivious to impending changes to the telecoms network in the UK. If unprepared for these changes, firms risk losing key avenues of communication.
Copper stop-sell, projected to be in full effect by 2023, may put businesses in a communications crisis, as a range of Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) voice and broadband products will no longer be available.
This process kicked off in December 2020, paving the way for the switch to full fibre digital networks.
By 2023, 13% of businesses expect their contract renewal/termination with their traditional third-party telephone operator to be over three years away, while 8% report they have no intention to renew.
As soon as stop-sell takes effect, businesses may be forced to spend more on legacy communications systems.
“A look through history suggests that businesses have illustrated a pragmatic approach when it comes to adopting new communications tools,” said Paul Stobart, CEO of Zen Internet.
“However, there is a growing risk that many will be caught short by structural changes to the UK telecoms network which loom on the horizon. Keeping company technology up to date should be a continuous, evolutionary process, but the clock is ticking for those businesses still reliant on outdated communications tools such as traditional telephony.”


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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Warner Bros. is on the trail with the Oscar campaign for Christopher Nolan's final entry in his Dark Knight Trilogy saga, The Dark Knight Rises, by releasing a couple of promotional stuff to promote their chances in next year's Academy Awards. To that end, they've released a new iBook App that shows a couple of info notes on the movie, TV Spots, and a Behind-The-Scenes Trailer video. Apple users can pick it up over at iTunes to check it out, or visit the source post at Batman-News for more details.
The Dark Knight Rises is now available in home media.


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Companies got just £21million relief from business rates this year as councils are urged to do more to help ailing high streets
- Councils are not using their powers to slash business rates and help local shops
- Short-term focus on raking money in could destroy town centres, critics warn
- Department stores hit with average increase of 27 per cent in the past two years
Councils are failing to use their powers to cut business rates and help struggling local shops survive.
Local authorities can reduce rates if it is felt necessary to rejuvenate town centres, using rules under the 2011 Localism Act.
But analysis by the Altus Group consultancy reveals that this almost never happens. There were only £21million of reductions in this financial year – or 0.08 per cent of the predicted total £24.8billlion rates bill in England.
Although business rates are set by an independent government body, half the tax raised goes to councils.
There are fears town centres will fail if councils do not start using their powers to cut business rates
Critics warned that their short-term focus on raking in money could end up destroying town centres weighed down by huge tax burdens.
The 50 per cent of rates that councils keep is meant to come with a more responsible attitude to businesses, with authorities cutting taxes where necessary to help firms.
But instead of going down, rates are constantly ratcheted up. Department stores have been hit with an average increase of nearly £151,000, or 27 per cent, in the past two years, while small shops have seen average rates climb 9 per cent to £9,623.
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Sam Dumitriu, of the Adam Smith Institute, a think-tank, said: ‘Councils would rather prioritise their chief executives’ salaries over lessening the burden on businesses. There needs to be quite radical reform of rates to support businesses.’
Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ‘Local authorities must get to grips with the dire situation currently sweeping the high street and start backing hard-working retailers being hit hard by crippling rates bills.’
Robert Hayton, head of business rates at Altus, said: ‘Despite the ongoing crisis engulfing our high streets, this year councils in England are planning just £21million in additional help.
Council have been found to be not intervening in failing businesses as fears continue for town centres
‘Given the stream of collapses across the retail and hospitality sectors since the turn of the year – and with many others teetering on the brink – councils could take decisive action now.’
The Daily Mail’s Save Our High Streets campaign is calling for business rates to be reformed, car parking charges to be slashed and huge foreign technology companies such as Amazon to be fairly taxed.
Around 50,000 retail staff have lost their jobs this year and almost 61,000 stores closed between 2012 and 2017 as internet retailers ruthlessly out-compete traditional bricks and mortar companies.
The Local Government Association, which represents councils, said: ‘Councils do what they can to help small businesses and local economies.
‘This is increasingly difficult, with local government in England facing an overall funding gap that will reach almost £8billion by 2025 and growing demand for services.’
Source: Read Full Article


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Josh Ong is the US Editor at The Next Web. He previously worked as TNW's China Editor and LA Reporter. Follow him on Twitter or email him a Josh Ong is the US Editor at The Next Web. He previously worked as TNW's China Editor and LA Reporter. Follow him on Twitter or email him at [email protected].
Apple’s request for an injunction against eight of Samsung’s smartphones has been pushed back from an original date of September 20 to December 6, Reuters reports. The September 20 meeting has instead been repurposed to decide whether to remove the sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
According to the report, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh decided on the extra time because of the size of Apple’s request. Apple filed its request on Monday, seeking bans on several models of the Galaxy S and Galaxy S2, as well as the Droid Charge and the Galaxy Prevail.
Last week, a jury awarded $1.05 billion in damages to Apple after finding Samsung guilty of infringement. The ruling was a massive victory for Apple, which was not found to have infringed any of its competitor’s patents.
Samsung did, however, pick up a minor win, as its Galaxy Tab 10.1 did not infringe a design patent asserted against the device for a preliminary injunction. As such, Samsung has appealed to have the ban removed.
In a memo to employees, Apple CEO Tim Cook called its lawsuit against Samsung a matter of “values” and noted that evidence showed its rival’s copying had actually gone farther than originally suspected. In its defense, Samsung published an internal memo saying that it, unlike Apple, is prioritizing innovation over litigation.
Google has even weighed in, declaring that the most of the patents involved in the case don’t relate to the “core” Android operating system. “We work with our partners to give consumers innovative and affordable products, and we don’t want anything to limit that,” the company said.
For more on Apple v. Samsung check out:
Samsung’s legal team in hot water for publicly releasing inadmissible evidence from Apple patent trial
Day 1: Leaky evidence, secret prototypes and kitchen tables
Day 2: Schiller, Forstall testify on creation, sales and hardships of iPhone project
Day 4 preview: The iPhone and iPad may feel obvious, but they weren’t inevitable
Apple’s argument that Samsung copied its software designs, summed up by a single yellow flower
Apple v. Samsung closing arguments: ‘Make your own phones’ v. ‘Apple is trying to mislead you’
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