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Given that for a few short years, very prominent executives at the biggest banks in the world were publicly worry that the emerging marketplace and online lenders were amassing in the wings and waiting to eat their lunch, one might expect that recent pyrotechnics in the sector were not a totally unwelcome sight.
No one wants to see investors lose money, and it takes a particularly cold individual to cheer for another person facing jail time, but given the cavalcade of headlines proclaiming the end of days for the big banks, perhaps a little schadenfreude would be unsurprising.
After all, there is nothing quite like hearing a persistent narrative of one's own doom spelled out — over and over and over — or being told that your overlarge, overstuffed and overly extended dinosaur of a business model is about to be subdivided into all its component parts and offered more efficiently by technologists.
We can imagine it would be a little bit satisfying to then watch the world wonder if it is actually a bit harder to subdivide and offer bank-like services without actually being a bank than all those editorials and powerpoint decks made it sound like.
But when we talked to some big bank executives who spend their days and nights tweaking and perfecting their institution's loan offerings for consumers and small businesses, we found a somewhat different story. While both of the two banking execs we spoke to admitted to cracking an amused smile or two during the first few rounds of Lending Club headlines, by the end of the week they were actually a bit more worried than amused.
Lending Club clearly had a lot of issues, and a lot of problems that went a lot too far before anyone really had a clear picture of just how serious the problems were, one exec told us, but apart from that very specific story, the whole meltdown that has followed has left a set of questions that aren’t really well answered when it comes to underwriting consumers and small businesses.
Lending Club did a lot of things wrong specific to it, and online-based lending has a lot of issues with questions hanging around them that need answers. But even from inside the credit and risk shops at big banks, online lenders also clearly got a few things right and pointed out features that need to be part of modern underwriting, no matter what entities end up being the primary drivers of it in the future.
Marketplace Lenders: The Good
What marketplace lenders got right is that presence and paper are a problem when it comes to underwriting. Presence meaning the forced requirement of being in a branch location, and paper being the large and often redundant physical (smudgable, notarized) packet that consumers and small businesses need to be carrying in two for the “traditional underwriting process.”
Worse than being annoying at best, or an actually onerous requirement at worst, the presence and paper also suffer from being out of step with every other part of a customer’s life, including their banking experience. Customers who want to pay bills, manage their accounts or invest money are all ready to go with a website or mobile app, but customers that wanted to arrange the loan were seeing the clock wind back 25 years.
“The marketplace lenders were 100 percent right on that point. It is unreasonable to say when you want a loan, the year is 1996 all of a sudden, the Internet barely exists and it is a three-month process. The idea that because we couldn’t match an instant approval process meant the only other option was something cumbersome incredibly slow, that was wrong. I don’t think there were a lot of people in banking actually advocating that though. Most serious people understood the increased speed requirement, but there weren’t no people thinking that way.”
Both sources however did note that banks did get themselves to get saddled as the standard bearers for slow services and it was unhelpful. The need of a digital makeover for efficiency was never really something up for debate.
Marketplace Lenders: The Disturbing Unknown
But increased speed isn’t the only issue. The push for greater inclusiveness is.
Again, both sources agreed that post Great Recession, online lenders found a grey space in the regulatory process to offer credit to those who were essentially locked out of the mainstream markets. Big banks — faced with increased regulatory scrutiny and the reality that high-risk lending had nearly knocked a staggering number of them right out of existence — were under a lot of pressure to get out of consumer and SMB credit markets, and so they largely did. At the point that consumer and SMB lending became high cost, high risk with low profit margins, it became much less tempting for banks to compete, because there is not really a good way to make money.
And, notably, marketplace lenders aren’t making money on the loans so much as they make money creating the loans, and creating enough of them that they can be packaged into bonds and sold to investors. But the only way it works is if they can create a lot of loans, for those coveted networks effects that former Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche often referred to, and to do that according the banking executives, online lenders all have to make a similar claim.
They are better at assessing risk such that they can make more “good bet” loans of the type that can pay off for investors.
“And the problem is, it isn’t clear if they can do that yet. Does looking at 100,000 data point that scans your entire social media profile and everything you bought on Amazon and factors it in, does that turn up a result that is both a lot more inclusive than what U.S. Bank or Bank of America would have underwritten for anyway - and if it is - do all those extra people that we said were too risky actually turn out to be good bets?”
Only time could ever have told that, because the only way to find out if someone will actually pay on a loan is to see if they actually pay on a loan over time. Or if they default.
But the early data is not entirely inspiring. Most of the major online lenders we cover at PYMNTS have reported higher-than-expected default rates in some of their loans' bonds, and at least once this year so far.
Which means that Lending Club in specific, and online lending in general, are likely facing something of a hard reset button in the coming months as efforts are made to rebuild investor confidence. This brings both good news and bad news.
The good news is they’ve already made their case for faster, and, whatever happens next, it seems the pressure is on to streamline underwriting.
The bad news is more - as in more inclusive - is still up in the air, as it remains to be seen if there is a profitable way to get more good loans in, as opposed to just more.


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Butter consumption climbed to a 44-year high and margarine sales hit a 70-year low. With those two trends in mind, some of world's staunchest margarine proponents are now adding butter to their spreads. Certainly, that embrace of butter has more to do with sales and shoring up the company's bottom line than it has to do with a food-based revelation within the corporate boardroom. Yet, the trend of consumers' new love affair with butter and the about-face in corporate strategy cannot be denied.
The world's largest margarine producer, Unilever, has taken the biggest corporate shift on butter, noted Bloomberg Businessweek in its February 3 issue. As recently as 2010, Paul Polman, Unilever's CEO, still had a full-scale assault on butter, noting it "kills" when talking about butter's effect on the human diet. Just three years later, Unilever's German-based Rama brand added butter to its spread. The same situation took place in Finland. As Businessweek noted, this decision by Unilever occurred after three straight years of declining sales in its spreads.
This is a major change for the company who fought against butter vigorously over the years. The company that sells Country Crock and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter in the U.S. obtains 7 percent of its total sales from margarine, and the company accounts for 30 percent of all spreads sold globally, noted Businessweek.
This embracing of butter is good news for dairy producers. As consumers turn to natural products and away from those with trans fats, margarine continues to reel from a badly damaged reputation. Even though margarine has been reformulated to improve its image, consumers still have a bad taste in their mouth over its previously unhealthy formulation.
To read the entire Bloomberg report, go to: www.businessweek.com.

domain: news


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Report: China Won't Ban Google Android
January 28, 2010 6:28 AM
comment(s) - last by
Even though the Chinese government and Google aren't seeing eye-to-eye, Google's Android system won't be kicked out of China
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced it will allow Google to promote its Android mobile platform in China, despite a current ongoing Internet privacy matter between the U.S. tech company and the restrictive Chinese government.
Google, which opened a headquarters and began promoting in China after Microsoft and Yahoo, said it is still mulling a decision to close down its Chinese Google office and the Google.cn web site.
The Chinese government has rarely denied censoring internet material its citizens receive and share, but fired back and accused the United States
government of Web censorship and subversion
President Barack Obama's administration has had difficulty working with the Chinese government to help promote human rights and Internet freedom -- it's unlikely the matter will be resolved any time soon, political analysts noted, saying both sides still have to engage in more dialogue.
The three major Chinese wireless providers in the country, which are all state-operated, have received permission from the government to promote and sell Android devices.
"As long as it complies with Chinese laws and regulations, and as long as it has good cooperation with operators...
their use of the system won't be limited
," according to the MIIT.
China's stance on Android is extremely important for Google and phone manufacturers that are utilizing the open source mobile platform. For example, Motorola plans to open the SHOP4APPS, a Chinese-based Android app store, which will be available by mid-February.
Sony Ericsson also won't delay the launch of an Android smartphone this spring, despite tensions between the United States, China and Google.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
RE: China will not ban phone, What?
1/31/2010 8:05:46 AM
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handbags: Ed hardy etc $35-68 free shipping
Sunglasses: LV etc $17 free shipping
Belts: BOSS etc $15 free shipping
Caps: red bull etc $12-15 free shipping
Watches:rolex etc $80 free shipping
“We do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone.” -- Steve Jobs
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SACRAMENTO — The state where the iPhone was born came a step closer to a law that might help keep it in your hands.
State Sen. Mark Leno’s Smartphone Theft Prevention Act (Senate Bill 962) passed the state legislature this morning with a 51-18 vote. Now it will move on to the Senate for a vote on amendments.
California won’t be the first state to flip the kill switch – that distinction goes to Minnesota, which heeded the call from consumers in May. If the law passes in the most populous state in the U.S. and the birthplace of the iPhone, it may mark a sea change in similar legislation. California’s law will affect any smartphone manufactured on or after July 1, 2015.
SAN FRANCISCO — Sébastien Leidgens wants to put a new angle on the business card.
His invention, Cubr, is a six-sided die that connects people through private mobile web chat. When a red, blue or green Cubr is tossed your way, you hit the website or download the app, then enter the code to start your instant message convo or share photos with the person who gave you the die. The enterprising Belgian, a former project manager at a digital marketing agency, is taking a gamble on the idea that people are tired of handing out one-dimensional cards.
“It’s a business card for non-business people,” Leidgens says in an English heavily influenced by his native French. “Young people don’t have business cards. This you can use for private situations in everyday life. It’s a lot more fun and outside of the usual public circles.”
SAN FRANCISCO — A parking app that reliably helps find open spots in this congested city was coded on a turn-of-the-century tugboat in Sausalito.
The Terrapin served David LaBua as a coding den for VoicePark, a free app that uses sensors to monitor parking spots. It’s the only one we’ve tested to date that guided us to viable public spots on the busy streets of San Francisco.
“Parking is probably San Francisco’s biggest stressor, and writing about it has been very therapeutic for me,” says LaBua, who holds a master of science in psychology. “I had no intention of getting into the app game, but there was a real need for it.”
Early doodles on the iPad looked a lot like this generation’s Etch-a-Sketch.
But in just a few years, after celebrated artists such as David Hockney have shown their iPad works in galleries, Apple’s revolutionary device has come into its own as a canvas.
The eclectic group of works above are finalists in the second annual Mobile Digital Art Exhibition (aka MDAC Summit 2014), an upcoming art-packed weekend of workshops and a celebration of digital art in Palo Alto, a stone’s throw from Apple headquarters. Take a gander and vote on them by July 31 for the People’s Choice Award.
During his 25-year career as a photographer, Dan Marcolina has captured moments of everyday despair and delight, from beaches and backyards to bus stations and wedding celebrations.
His work exhibits the ease of an inside joke or a knowing wink; the images are visual juxtapositions that live up to a high point of praise from Richard Avedon, who once commented that Marcolina makes images that aren’t “trying to be beautiful.”
This may be the last time you feel good about walking half a mile to get a cronut: a calorie-counting food scale and fitness tracker are on to you.
Smart food scale Prep Pad now synchs with Jawbone Up, keeping track of what you’re eating and how many calories you are burning.
It’s latest buddy system in the quantified self movement, where, as we reported earlier, your car is already conversing with your fitness tracker about how much you should be hoofing it instead of driving. Sales of fitness gadgets like the Jawbone Up, Fitbit and Nike + are over the previous year, leaving us with 19 million trackers and trainers strapped to our wrists.


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One+All is providing uniform recycling collection units to its retail customers to support the reuse of school uniform. Made from recycled cardboard, One+All’s customers can receive up to five units free of charge, enabling preloved uniform garments to be collected and distributed to families.
Neil Ward, managing director of One+All, said: “Shockingly, 1.4 million wearable uniform garments are thrown away every year in the UK. By supporting our customers with the collection of unwanted schoolwear, we’re working together to extend its life, reduce waste and help families who might otherwise struggle to afford a uniform.”
Each unit is shipped flat-packed for convenience. Up to five units are being provided free of charge to each customer with more available to buy at cost, and customers can decide where best to locate the units, and what to do with the collected uniform.
Mr Ward added: “We expect some customers will partner with schools on recycling initiatives. Locating the units in schools will highlight the importance of sustainability and reuse to students too. Other customers may choose to locate the units at their shops or at public areas such as libraries.
“This is a vital campaign for providing families with high quality uniforms, helping them to save money, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also helps to protect the environment by encouraging people to re-use their uniforms and not let them end up in waste bins.”


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DETROIT (AP) — Ford is recalling over 108,000 midsize cars in North America to fix a problem that could stop the seat belts from holding people in a crash.
The recall covers certain Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ cars from the 2015 model year. The company says the cars’ front seat belt cables can lose strength due to heat buildup and may not adequately restrain passengers.READ MORE: AAA Reminding Drivers To Safely Secure Holiday Trees This Season
Ford says it’s aware of one injury from the problem.READ MORE: Pittsburgh Weather: Warm And Windy Thursday
Dealers will apply a protective coating to the cables. Owners will be notified starting Sept. 9.MORE NEWS: Federal Galley Restaurant Workers Getting Money Back After Being Illegally Shorted On Tips
(Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Skyforge Journey of the Divine Trailer
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Virginia, Maryland, and Texas Most Favorable States for Black Businesses: Report
A sizeable Black population and local government and private efforts that inspire Black entrepreneurship make the “Mid-Atlantic pocket” a hot spot for those businesses.
Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware were cited as notably advantageous for Black businesses as they respectively landed the No. 1, 2, and 5 spots with the best climate for such firms to flourish.
Those findings came from the Best States For Black Entrepreneurs. In 2022, a study by Merchant Maverick. The firm describes itself as a “comparison site that reviews small business software and services.”
Based on UC Santa Cruz research, the report also showed that Black-owned businesses rose a stunning 38% between February 2020 and August 2021. That growth reportedly occurred amid COVID-19, and societal obstacles came as white and Asian companies dropped by 3% and 2%, respectively.
Still, Black-owned businesses accounted for only 2.3% of the employer businesses in America, based on Merchant Maverick’s research of Census Bureau data. It reported that number was way down from the 14.2% of the population Black Americans comprise. The report added that there is a big disparity gap capital-wise as the Federal Reserve’s 2021 Small Business Credit Survey showed only 13% of Black businesses gained the funding they pursued, compared with 40% of white businesses that achieved it successfully.
Of the states offering the best environment for Black-businesses, Merchant Maverick examined all states on a host of metrics. They included the percent of the workforce employed by Black-owned businesses and the average annual payroll of Black-owned businesses. Other elements, like cost-of-living and unemployment rate, also were analyzed to gain an economic read of each state.
Virginia landed the No.1 spot as its pluses included “Black-run businesses employ 2.18% of the states’ (2nd nationally), and there are 755 Black-owned employer businesses per 1 million people (3rd nationally). Black-owned firms average an annual payroll of $437,000. Virginia was the 4th-best state for Black women-owned businesses, and ranked 10th in our recent best states for women-led startup report.”
Maryland finished second as “Black residents make up 31% of the state’s population, giving it the highest percentage of those residents of any state on the East Coast. It ranks first in percent of the workforce employed by Black-owned businesses (3.49%). Black-owned Maryland businesses too average a very respectable annual payroll of $465,000, the 4th-highest in the nation. The state government offers tools for minority business owners, including funding, small business certifications, and assistance programs.”
Grabbing the No. 3 spot, Texas ranks high for multiple factors. “Black business owners average an annual income of $64,240 (10th overall) and Black-run businesses in the state average an annual payroll of $337,000. And that cash can last longer as Texas has no state income tax. And organizations like the Texas Black Expo and the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce are regarded for aiming to support underserved businesses.”
States respectively rounding out the top 10 were Nevada, Delaware, North Carolina, Ohio, New Mexico, Georgia, and Alabama. Check out the overall report here.


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Epic Games Inc. used Apple Inc.’s private survey of developers to show that the creator of Fortnite isn’t alone when it comes to beating this up Appstore.
An unidentified developer complained that the store “is plagued by outdated, low-quality apps that make it harder for higher-quality apps to get the awareness they need”. Another wrote, “They tend to only use indie apps and apps that spend or make the most of the money.” A third said: “I am satisfied as a consumer. As a developer, it’s a nightmare. “
Epic’s attorney confronted App Store boss Matt Fischer on the fourth day of a federal court case with survey comments about the game maker’s claims Apple operates its marketplace like a monopoly, defrauding developers and consumers alike. Fischer is among several senior Apple executives who testify at the three-week trial.
Apple said the purpose of the survey was to seek constructive criticism to help the iPhone maker improve the store – and Epic chose to pick negative comments. Apple’s attorney declined to read the poll comments in court, but US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers overruled him.
When asked by Apple’s attorney on Thursday, Fischer said his team was working hard to make the App Store “attractive to both customers and developers over whom we have no control.”
On Friday, Epic will call the manager of its own app store to the witness stand to show how its policies differ from Apple’s.
The Oakland, Calif. Trial comes as Apple faces billions of dollars in revenue from global regulators and some app developers who say the standard 30% App Store fee and other policies are unfair and self-conscious -Portion.
The battle with Epic blew up in August when the game maker announced to customers that it would replace Apple’s in-app purchase system with its own to bypass Apple’s commissions through add-ons within Fortnite. Apple then removed the game and blocked access to more than a billion customers.
Apple, which vehemently denies having abused its market power, has called Epic’s legal gambit a “fundamental attack” on a business model that benefits both developers and consumers.


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(CNN) – If caffeine is what you need to get going, Pepsi has got you covered.
Listen to this, Pepsi’s new drink has twice as much caffeine as a regular soda.
It’s called “Pepsi Cafe.”
The drink is a coffee infused cola…it also comes in vanilla.
It’ll hit stores in the U.S. in April.
Pepsi representatives say cola sales have been flat for the last two decades.
They also said consumers are looking for drinks that are functional…meaning they provide some nutritional benefits or energy.
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Copyright © 2020 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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What’s taking place
Apple’s subsequent iPhone launch is probably going in a single month, making it a robust time to suggest a new iPhone buy.
Why it issues
Clients that may wait a few weeks can profit from both gaining access to the subsequent iPhone or from reductions which can be probably coming to present iPhone fashions.
Apple normally publicizes new iPhones in September and releases them shortly thereafter.
September is true across the nook, which probably means so is Apple’s. Most often, Apple sometimes publicizes its new wave of iPhone fashions in September and releases them shortly thereafter. However even for those who do not care about having the most recent iPhone, there are good causes to be affected person earlier than splurging on an or .
Apple’s iPhone 14 might be launching quickly
If Apple maintains its present sample, it’ll probably announce thewithin the first half of September alongside and launch it within the second half. For instance, Apple debuted the iPhone 13 on Sept. 14 earlier than making it available in shops on Sept. 24. Timing was related for the , and earlier fashions.
That mentioned, there have been some exceptions. Theand launched in October 2020, whereas the 12 Mini and 12 Professional Max turned accessible in November that very same 12 months. The additionally launched in November 2017.
As for what to anticipate from the iPhone 14, rumors point out the Professional mannequin might have an upgraded notch-free look. Apple can be rumored to launch of the usual iPhone 14.and a new
Learn a extra in-depth evaluation of once we suppose the iPhone 14 will launch based mostly on Apple’s historical past.
Older iPhones would possibly get cheaper
Do not care about having the most recent iPhone? You ought to nonetheless wait. Apple normally reduces the costs of earlier iPhone fashions when introducing new fashions, identical to it did with. The 64GB iPhone 12, for instance, acquired a value lower to $700 from $800 after the iPhone 13 was introduced. The iPhone 11, in the meantime, dropped to $500 in 2021.
This 12 months’s iPhone launch may very well be even higher for many who would quite lower your expenses on an older mannequin. If Apple follows 2021’s sample, it’ll probably hold theand 12 Mini in its lineup and drop the Mini’s value to $500. That is vital, as a result of it will make the iPhone 12 Mini one of many least expensive 5G iPhones accessible. Sure, the is cheaper at $430 and in addition helps 5G. Nevertheless, it additionally comes with a a lot smaller display than Apple’s different telephones, solely has one fundamental digital camera (most new telephones have two) and lacks Face ID.
Whereas 5G is not a necessity, it is a good thought to ensure your subsequent cellphone has 5G for those who plan on protecting it for the subsequent three years as these networks proceed to develop. You can learn extra about whether or not it is OK to purchase a non-5G cellphone in 2022.
If you actually need an iPhone proper now
Not everyone seems to be in a place to attend. If you actually need a new iPhone proper now and need to save a couple of dollars, take into account shopping for refurbished fashions on its web site that include a one-year guarantee. Apple says these previously-owned units are inspected, cleaned and embrace the choice to increase customer support with an AppleCare plan.. Apple presents
You may also verify for refurbished fashions on web sites like Gazelle and Amazon, which may have their very own disclosures on gadget situation and phrases for guarantee size.
When you’re having a laborious time determining which iPhone is best for you, try our information.


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Backbase, the global leader in Engagement Banking, announced the appointment of Mark Appel as Chief Marketing Officer today. Appel will lead Backbase’s marketing organization, bringing over 30 years of experience with technology and growth companies such as Apple, Twinfield (acquired by Wolters Kluwer), Exact Software, and most recently, CM.com.
As Chief Marketing Officer of CM.com, Appel nearly quadrupled revenue over a little less than three years, while growing the marketing team from 10 to 80 people. In his prior role at Exact, Appel oversaw the transition to SaaS and grew the business tenfold during his 8-year tenure. As CMO of Backbase, Appel will be responsible for supporting the continued growth that has seen Backbase eclipse €200 million in revenue and be named to the 2022 CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list.
Appel’s appointment adds to the depth of Backbase’s leadership team, following the recent addition of Markwin Geneste as Chief Commercial Officer and Roland Booijen as General Manager of Ecosystems, in 2022. These additions, along with Motive Partners joining as an investor in June, continue the pace of professionalization as Backbase grows and matures.


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Almost three months after the Supreme Court issued an order to ban liquor shops near highways, the Chandigarh administration has issued notification to convert the major state and national highways into district roads with immediate affect
Almost three months after the Supreme Court issued an order to ban liquor shops near highways, the Chandigarh administration has issued notification to convert the major state and national highways into district roads with immediate affect, a report by the ‘India TV’ has said. With this, liquor shops near highways will continue to operate.
Last December, the apex court had ordered removal of liquor shops on national and state highways. The apex court ruled that licenses for liquor shops cannot be granted for highways. The SC further ruled that the existing licenses for the liquor shops along the highways were not to be renewed.
The Supreme Court was reportedly hearing petitions that challenged the High Court verdicts which had ruled that the liquor shops should be located at a certain distance from national and state highways, in a manner that they were neither visible or accessible to the commuters. SC had earlier indicated that it might be ordering the closing down of all liquor shops along the highways for the safety of the commuters, which according to the apex court’s opinion distracted them and resulted in accidents.
The order by the top court says that liquor shops must be at least 500 metres away from these highways. It also ordered the liquor banners and ads to be removed. According to reports, these orders are to be implemented by the Chief Secretary and police chiefs of various states. Earlier on December 7, the SC had said that revenue generation could not be held as a valid reason for granting licenses to liquor shops along highways.
You may also like to watch this video
The apex court had observed that the authorities must adopt a positive attitude to get rid of the drunken driving and the fatalities due to it. The Supreme Court had also severely criticised the Centre not doing anything concrete to deal with the menace. The SC had said that the centre had been saying for the last 10 years that liquor shops on highways must be removed but hasn’t done anything significant and thus had necessitated the stepping in of the top court.


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In what could be a smart move to both lock in a game developer and spur more development on Windows Mobile (yes, we still talk about it), Microsoft is commissioning Touch Dimensions, a recent gaming startup from Singapore.
Known for creating "natural" interfaces for gaming and having knack for those sweet little simple games that people on mobile phones often prefer, Touch Dimensions has been tasked with bringing roughly twenty games to the Windows phone marketplace and they all will be free for the consumer.
These casual games will range from "...a digital sketchpad to a Whack-A-Mole-type game that lets you smack mosquitoes to oblivion".
Want to see what they are capable of? Touch Dimensions already have two games available: "Autumn Dynasty" and "Totem Star Lite"/Totem Star Christmas". And we'll keep you posted on when these inspired freebies start popping up!
[Today Online via WMPoweruser]


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PLAN BRINGS MORE VIBRANCY BACK TO MAIN STREETS ALLOWING MORE SIDEWALK SPACE FOR PATIOS
TORONTO, ON., June 4, 2020 — Today, Mayor John Tory announced the launch of CaféTO, a quick-start program intended to make it easier for restaurant and bar owners to open patios, to expand them, and to access additional space for physical distancing and for that matter revenue generation during the summer months ahead.
The City says the program will provide more outdoor dining areas by identifying space in the public right-of-way and expediting the current application and permitting process for sidewalk cafés and parklets.
Villages like Port Credit in Mississauga, which is a designated tourist area have been expanding patios across sidewalks for years, creating larger spaces for dining by extending temporary public boardwalks into curb lanes to enable pedestrians to safely navigate around the patios.
“We are doing everything we can to help residents and businesses get through this terrible time,” said Mayor John Tory. “CaféTO is one more example of a quick-start program that will bring vibrancy back to our main streets and help our hospitality industry and all those who rely on it. I am so proud of the work that has been done with wartime speed in the last few weeks by so many City divisions. They have responded to my commitment to help this entire industry – to give businesses the best conditions to be back in business and to stay in business as we reopen, and to keep thousands of Toronto residents employed in the process.”
Right now, restaurants and bars along with their patios remain closed due to provincial orders and public health recommendations. City staff are getting ready now so that we can act quickly to help restaurants and bars.
Significant work has already taken place including:
- Creating a cross-divisional action team to oversee the program quickly and efficiently.
- Conducting a review of a number of current requirements and determining how the City can better support businesses, including waiving patio fees which would otherwise be levied on expanded space so as to help struggling businesses.
- Undertaking planning for reallocation of curb lanes for patios to maximize space and further help the industry.
- Consulting with BIAs and other key stakeholders including TABIA and restaurant industry associations to help coordinate this important economic rescue initiative. They will be key to ensuring restaurants in appropriate locations across the city can sign up quickly for expanded space.
- Establishing the essential café placements guidelines that will ensure these patios can be operational as soon as possible after they are permitted.
A key feature of CaféTO will be to allow businesses to establish options for café configurations within the right-of-way and in accordance with public health guidelines. This may potentially include waiving regular permit and application fees in order to install the cafes.
The City says it plans to provide local restaurant/bar owners with a set of guidelines for the installation of a temporary sidewalk café or curb lane café. A registration process for businesses to sign up for CaféTO will be communicated to business owners when finalized. The City says it will also work with business owners to understand enforcement, accessibility and cleaning requirements, and how to maintain physical distancing, within the space, to keep customers and employees safe.
More information will be available next week on toronto.ca/cafeto.


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We’re delighted to announce that this year’s Campaign Tech Awards has named Projjol Banerjea, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder at Zeotap, as ‘Tech Pioneer of the Year’.
The award celebrates the individuals, in brands, agencies or tech partners, that are leading the charge and creating great work, using smart technology, that delights and engages consumers and re-imagines the world. Projjol was awarded the title in a category that also included nominees from Starcom and Index Exchange.
Projjol’s recognition at the Campaign Tech Awards comes soon after Zeotap announced its latest growth milestones, including 126% ARR growth and several key new executive appointments. Projjol and his team also this month launched a powerful new machine-learning feature, Predictive Audiences, to the Zeotap Customer Data Platform.
In addition to his work at Zeotap, the award organisers recognised his work as an international entrepreneur, startup advisor and angel investor. Projjol is a member of the Global Chief Data Officer Council, the India Advisory Board of I-COM and StartingBloc (an international fellowship of emerging leaders who share a keen interest in social innovation).
Projjol is also Co-Founder and Board Director of innovative Indian femcare company Nua, an initiative that is rethinking the way Indian women think about their feminine needs. Nua aspires to be India’s leading femcare brand by building a femtech company that truly cares for every woman’s needs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2174&v=a5zY43UH1iQ&feature=emb_logo
Congratulations to Projjol and all the other winners and nominees at this year’s Campaign Tech Awards – find out more about the awards and this year’s winners here.


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Let China sleep, for when she awakes, she will shake the world. -Napoleon
And indeed she has! Whether it is a change in the country's leadership, the $1.5 billion war-chest that Baidu, a home-grown tech behemoth is expected to unleash for mergers and acquisitions overseas or even the latest Bond flick that features Shanghai & Macau China is now more in focus than ever before.
Big, crowded, complex
My colleague Arun wrote about app discovery, independent app stores and the need to localize in an earlier post. One of the aspects he highlighted was the presence of numerous independent app stores like Appchina, Gfan among others that are preferred for Android app distribution considering Google Play is almost non-existent in the country. Such is the lure for apps and the possibilities the ecosystem offers that even an e-commerce site like 360 Buy with its $400 Mn Series D funding has launched an app store! Competition is tough; both for app stores as well as for app developers. But then competition is a way of life in China. When I enrolled for conversational Mandarin classes earlier this year, my teacher was an 18 year-old Chinese student studying in India. A national-level swimming-champion, he asked us to guess how many national-level champions China had an astonishing 10,000 plus! If you extrapolate that statistic and apply it to the app-ecosystem you begin to realize how big, how crowded it can get. Surely, if app developers can survive and thrive in a market as nuanced as China, they can make it on the global arena.
A country with 1 billion mobile phones, projected to have 192 million mobile game players by end of 2012 would surely be big enough to make money from, right? Not really. For a country that is second only to US for app downloads, China is 8th in terms of revenue generated from apps. App piracy is a big concern; there are instances where an app developer is not even aware of his apps being listed on local app-stores. A clear cause for revenue leak, piracy continues to make China a difficult market to make money from. Some believe that piracy is just one reason; other reasons are more cultural given how price-sensitive users tend to be here. For most app developers, revenue mostly comes in from global markets, contribution from China being as little as 1.5% on average for top 10 developers. And then there are other issues that arise out of hyper-competition. China has more than 70 ad networks. In a desperate bid to survive, many bleed because they payout more than they should. In worse cases, some resort to opaque billing practices leaving developers with little or no money and a worrisome trust deficit.
InMobi - Handholding, sharing insights and building trust
InMobi's foray into China has been as much about learning as it has been about unlearning. Relationships with developers like Radical have for example, been rich in many ways. From being able to assist them in customized technical solutions to increase revenue to signaling what apps from their portfolio were outperforming others, we've been able to don a partner-hat which has been mutually beneficial. Elex-Tech has apps spanning Games, Personalization and Utility among other categories. They are happy with InMobi's proactive effort at maximizing revenue for them. A big part of this is again based on drawing their attention to insights and keeping communication channels open. For Ruixin working with InMobi has resulted in an eCPM jump of 50%. A big reason for this has been ad delivery that is extremely targeted to Ruixin's user profile. They are quite appreciative of InMobi's ad quality. Obviously buoyed by the initial success, they are hungry for more! Above all, trust and transparency have helped InMobi cement these relationships.
The road ahead
By no means is China at its full potential yet, in fact the journey is just starting to get really interesting. To go by the sheer scale of numbers and estimate massive revenue opportunities blindly in this market would tantamount to naivety. Or would it? But there certainly is some way to go before those massive dollar numbers start manifesting in the app business too. Luckily for app developers in China, given the global nature of the app-business, teaming up with an overseas partner is proving to be a popular way to establish a foothold globally. The reverse is also true. US gaming developer Kabam for instance sourced talent from China for its popular iOS app Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North" which was developed in Beijing. The beauty of competition and the passion to build businesses the right way is that they inevitably lead to innovative, resourceful solutions. Throw in rapid changes in the fray like the market dominated by Android (68% market-share) witnessing soaring iPad sales and you get new opportunity areas hitherto non-existent. We at InMobi are looking forward to the rest of this China-story unfold. We think it will be one hell of ride!


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The good news for Ohio, according to a recent report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, is that Columbus remains one of the strongest economies not only in the state but in the entire Midwest. Cincinnati also is expected to see continued job growth, the report said.
The outlook for the rest of the Buckeye State wasn’t as rosy. Aside from Columbus and Cincinnati, only three other metropolitan areas in the state — Akron, Canton and Toledo — have recovered all the jobs lost in the previous decade’s recession.
“Columbus has proven to be nearly recession proof,” said Alex DiNovo, vice president of sales and marketing for DNO Produce, Columbus. “Columbus has a lot of government work and a lot of service jobs. Ohio State is the huge foundation the city is built on. It drives a lot of people and business to the area.”
Columbus is less reliant on manufacturing than many other Rust Belt cities. According to the Conference of Mayors report, cities such as Dayton and Youngstown have lost roughly half their manufacturing jobs in the past 30 years.
The news isn’t all bad for produce distributors in the state. A January survey of restaurant owners by the Ohio Restaurant Association found that same-store sales increased 3% in 2016, and operators expected same-store sales to increase 4% in 2017.
“We are 95% foodservice, and we see new restaurants opening every week,” said Jamie Sanfillipo, partner and sales manager of Sanfillipo Produce Co. Inc., Columbus. “Columbus has become a real food city over the past three years, and it is an exciting time.”
Tom Sirna, president of Sirna & Sons Produce, Ravenna, said the booming restaurant scene isn’t limited to Columbus.
“We see a tremendous amount of new independent restaurants opening in all of our distribution areas,” said Sirna, whose company covers the entire state. “The wood-fired oven pizza business is booming across northeast Ohio. Barbecue continues to be increasingly popular. Café bakeries are trending up around here along with more options for weekend brunch.”
Ohio is home to retail giant Kroger, and Giant Eagle is based in neighboring Pennsylvania. Add an ever-expanding influx of big box stores, and significant retail business is hard to come by for most produce distributors, Sanfillipo said.
“The only retail business we do is with the new smaller ethnic stores — Mexican, Nepalese, African, Indian and Asian,” Sanfillipo said. “We have increased our product line to fit the needs of this emerging market by over 200 new items.”
Arena Produce Co., Columbus, does fill-in business with retail chains and supplies them with locally grown produce, owner Tony Arena said.
“We’ve had a couple of pretty good years,” Arena said. “Business is on the upswing.”
Service is key, Arena said, whose company started offering retailers in a 50-mile radius seven-days-a-week delivery a few years ago.
“The philosophy is they want it, and they want it now,” he said. “We take care of people’s needs. If you are moving in from 100 miles away, that’s hard to do.”


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Australia’s largest marketplace for university students, QPay, has teamed up with neobank Volt to enhance and streamline its range of student services and provide integrated payment and savings capabilities, in a partnership that will kick off in the second half of 2021.
The partnership was signed as QPay is currently in the midst of closing a Series A equity crowdfunding round via Birchal to expand and grow its services on campuses internationally.
QPay is backed by Australian VC firms, Blackbird Ventures and Steve Baxter’s TLI investments.
Why is QPay allying with Volt?
QPay is experiencing rapid growth fuelled by the inherently social aspects of the platform. It’s currently on track to achieve $2.1 million in revenue by the end of 2021, which represents a five fold increase from the previous year.
The QPay app is currently used by 1 in 4 (400,000) students across Australia, transacting more than $30 million on the platform. This includes purchasing items on campus such as society event ticketing, memberships, merchandise, textbooks, and retail deals.
Both QPay and Volt share a common goal of teaching financial literacy through spending wisely and saving often, and by promoting positive financial habits.
Stakeholder comments on the Qpay, Volt alliance
Zak Bouguettaya, QPay CEO and co-founder said, “QPay’s mission is to provide a one-stop financial hub for students through the provision of tools that allow them to make better decisions, and powered by a sophisticated recommendation engine.”
“This new partnership will come at a critical time in the financial lives of our student customers, who are highly engaged and a powerful force to be reckoned with.”
“We currently have the ears of 1 in 4 students across Australia at a point when they are open to new experiences and not necessarily rusted on to one of the big four banks just yet.”
Muhammad Satti, CFO of QPay said, “It’s shocking that 48% of Aussies live paycheck to paycheck, and people under the age of 25 are the most financially stressed in history.”
“QPay’s debit card uses a proprietary AI system that gives a student actionable insights on every purchase and a goal to save, based on their particular spending habits.”
“For example, it rewards users for maintaining a high bank balance, with QPay points that can be redeemed for cool stuff around campus.”
“It dovetails with our AI-powered loyalty scheme and encourages students to keep track of their spend and rewards, which makes them more mindful of each purchase – a great life lesson.”
Steve Weston, Volt Bank CEO said, “We are excited to be partnering with QPay to provide great financial products and services to the domestic student market in the later half of the year.”
“We believe QPay and Volt are culturally and strategically aligned, and look forward to developing this relationship further over the coming years.”


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Some 250 speakers have been lined up for the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC), and many familiar names--as well as some not quite as well known--are rounding out the bill.
"The speakers at GDC are one of the many reasons game industry insiders consider this the once a year must-attend event,'' said Jennifer Pahlka, the event's director. "These pioneers are pushing the envelope with graphics, audio, content, speed and sheer creativity and will lead game development into the 21st Century.''
Among those who will share their insights with their industry peers are Brian Hook of Id Software, Louis Castle of Westwood Studios, and Brian Fargo of Interplay.
Formerly known as the Computer Game Developers Conference, this upcoming event will be the thirteenth of its kind. It will be held at the San Jose Convention Center, March 15th-19th. More information is available on the www.gdconf.com.


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Asus is Taiwan-based company is targeting shipments of 35 million to 45 million per year.This figure is two fold of what the company sold in 2016. In a report from Digitimes, which cites a Chinese journal characterized Apple Daily, Asus is interesting in twofold it’s smartphone business by 2020. In the next three years, Asus is targeted that with at least 40 million smartphone shipments under its belt, it can estimated for minimum of 3 percent of the total global smartphone consignment.
In 2016 the success of the company’s ZenFone 3 smartphone lineup ( ZenFone AR, ZenFone 3 Zoom and Pegasus 3S) was shipped nearly 20 million.Company’s CEO Jerry Shen announced that they planing to reveal successor of ZenFone 3 in the second quarter of 2017.He hoped good fr the ZenFone 4 series better than ZenFone 3.
Future planes for ZenFone :
Consumer Electronic Show (CES 2017) has been boosted three ZenFone and copmany is focused on the sales of these three phones.The trio handset has been targeted by company are ZenFone AR ,ZenFone 3 Zoom and third is Pegasus 3S.If these three would perform as per the Asus expectation it hoped highly that company would be able to achieve it’s target sale for 2017.
The ZenFone Ar is high end version with Google Daydream and tango ,paltforms for AR and VR.While ZenFone 3 Zoom has dual rear camera set up with optical zoom capability.The third phone Pagasus 3s is not as compatible like it’s sister products.But Asus is hopeful for this like other phones.
Asus ha not shared any plane to achieve the target of 40 million unit sale, company reportedly kept the planes secrete. While Asus has a good market share in Asia and the company has targeted to achieve good customer count in US.This is the dire need of company to set good market position in US to sale 40 million units in 2017.There is also another option for the company is set the retailer services to target market and sale in low cost.


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The MasterFoods brand has launched an aggressive mobile marketing promo in the U.S.
Starburst launched an aggressive U.S.-based mobile marketing promo on Friday as part of a new integrated campaign.
Grey Interactive and mobile marketing partner ipsh! are behind the cross-carrier effort, which follows a relaunch of the MasterFoods candy brand. The new identity promises "More Juice. More Burst."
Last week, MasterFoods began distributing the first of 100 million Starburst packs with unique wrapper codes that will eventually reach store shelves. Consumers can enter to win prizes by texting their unique numbers to the short code "JUICY." One pack design shows a teen holding out his phone and offers the copy, "Text. You Could Win Juicy Prizes." Smaller type below it says, "Look under wrapper. Text game code to JUICY (58429) or log on to starburst.com."
"Starburst is the most progressive brand for mobile marketing," said Nihal Mehta, ipsh! founder and president. "This is the largest cross-carrier mobile campaign for a consumer packaged goods [brand] in the U.S. to date."
Sweepstake giveaways include a 42-inch flat-screen TV, portable audio centers, and music downloads. The promotion continues through September.
Grey Interactive has handled Web and interactive advertising for Starburst since the late '90s. Last year, the MasterFoods brand gave its offline business to TBWA\Chiat\Day, but Grey Interactive retained some digital assignments.
Twitter Canada MD Kirstine Stewart to Keynote Toronto
ClickZ Live Toronto (May 14-16) is a new event addressing the rapidly changing landscape that digital marketers face. The agenda focuses on customer engagement and attaining maximum ROI through online marketing efforts across paid, owned & earned media. Register now and save!
Until March 2012, Zach Rodgers was managing editor of ClickZ's award-winning coverage of news and trends in digital marketing. He reported on the rise of web companies, data markets, ad technologies, and government Internet policy, among other subjects.
Marketing Apps for Landing Pages White Paper
Marketing apps can elevate a formulaic landing page into a highly interactive user experience. Learn how to turn your static content into exciting marketing apps.
Redefining 'Mobile-Only' Users: Millions Selectively Avoid the Desktop
A new breed of selective mobile-only consumers has emerged. What are the demos of these users and how and where can marketers reach them?
March 19, 2014


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Diet Coke prepares 30th anniversary campaign
Diet Coke is putting its 30th birthday at the centre of its UK marketing plans for 2013, as the brand looks to engage with its core female target audience in the aftermath of the Olympic Games.
The brand, which was launched in the UK in 1983, will continue to target female consumers through activity based on the ‘empowerment of women’.
Zoe Howorth, market activation director for Coca-Cola Great Britain, said: ‘Women are always at the heart of our Diet Coke plans and we are currently looking at how we continue to celebrate the role of women and our Diet Coke-drinkers in 2013.’
Fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier is Diet Coke’s creative director and has contributed to design and advertising activity. It has not been confirmed whether the partnership with Gaultier will continue next year.
In the US, where the drink launched in 1982, celebrations have already started. Experiential activity involves guerrilla gangs of brand ambassadors throwing 30-second street parties for Diet Coke drinkers.Follow @loullamae_es
This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk
- Exhibition Designers WRG Live Competitive salary and benefits package dependant upon experience, Manchester, Greater Manchester
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- New Business Director - Superb Agency Fill Recruitment Ltd £negotiable, Central London
- Digital Media Consultant Silverdrum £25,000 - £35,000 depending on experience + uncapped commission, London (Greater)
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- Game Of Thrones actress stars in online Karen Millen campaign
- Guinness Africa launches 'made of black' campaign with Kanye West ad
- Twitter launches learning hub for agencies
- Uncle Ben's launches YouTube cooking show


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Let’s check out some recent news regarding all things Facebook, Google Ads and Reddit’s new website design that promises an opportunity for more native advertisements.
Facebook and Instagram are both introducing new tools connected to the company’s recent commitment to the time well spent movement. Both apps will soon be rolling out an activity dashboard where users can track the amount of time they spend on both Facebook and Instagram, along with two additional features to help monitor app usage. The crux for marketers is how the time well spent movement will impact their advertising strategy. Obviously, any features or design implementations aiming to limit user activity will cause consumers to spend less time on their mobile devices and apps. But there’s an argument to be made that the shorter time periods users spend looking at the phones may result in more engaged user sessions. Marketers may need to refine ad campaign to capture user attention.
After coming out of the gate first with app install ads in 2012, Facebook recently has lagged behind Google and others in developing ad products and features specifically for app marketers. The announcements Friday prioritize long-term value over sheer download volume, putting it on a more equal footing with competitors. Playable ads- the ads users can demo from within the ad- are now available globally in the Facebook News Feed. Advertisers can set these ads up in the Facebook UI after selecting the app install campaign objective. Advertisers can also use one of Facebook’s developer partners to help create and manage playable ads.
When Google Ads uses the world “simplify,” waves of concern ripple through the paid search community that the opposite will be true, controls will be lost and campaign performance will be affected negatively. The latest torment is coming from Google’s move to “simplify” targeting controls in display campaigns. “Starting in September 2018, Google is simplifying targeting and exclusion controls for Google Display Network ads on mobile devices to make it easier to reach the growing base of mobile users. Because of these changes, you may see a significant increase in mobile apps or mobile web traffic (depending on your current settings).”
Last year, Reddit announced it was undertaking its first major redesign in more than a decade. According to the company’s CEO and co-founder, Steve Huffman, there were a variety of goals attached to the project, but one of the largest was to decrease the bounce rate of first-time visitors and lift the amount of time everyone spent on the website. After more than a year and a half of research, testing and user input, Reddit began rolling out its new site on April of this year. Jandali says that Reddit approached the redesign with a distinct focus on the users’ experience and the health of Reddit’s communities – and that the company knew this focus would extend to its advertisers. The VP of brand partnerships says Reddit’s Card View format offers more opportunities for native advertising and an optimal layout for the sites recently launched native video ads, an ad unit that is already delivering strong performance results for one of Reddit’s advertisers.


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Adobe launches the Digital Experience platform with confidence in Azure
Adobe has officially launched an experience platform based on Microsoft Azure’s Australian data center infrastructure.
Both companies in Australia and New Zealand expect to experience much faster and more reliable services and provide users with a much more intense experience with it. Australian businesses benefit from services supported by the experience platform, such as Adobe Experience Manager as a cloud service and the Adobe Customer Data Platform (CDP).
Real-time Customer Data Platform (CDP)
According to Adobe, Microsoft Azure’s on-premises data centers enable companies in Australia and New Zealand to keep critical customer information ashore.
Suzanne Steele, Managing Director of Adobe Australia and New Zealand, said: “Since the launch of Adobe Experience Cloud almost three years ago, local banks, telecommunications companies, airlines, most other major brands have used Adobe as a Gold standard. Marketing Technology”
“We expect it to continue to be the case in the future, and we are investing in both local support and technological innovation.”
Adobe praises the new data center as “simplifying data governance” and merging data from isolated applications and departments to derive useful results. However, we apply data usage policies to give customers access to a framework that helps them use their data properly to meet the obligations, obligations, and limitations associated with different datasets.
Adobe Findearly Adopters for Cloud Experience Platforms
Adobe said the Tabcorp platform is an early deployment of local data centers that use the Adobe Experience platform to increase the impact and efficiency of customer communication.
The Australia-based Microsoft Azure data center must provide services that are essential to preparing the service. Brands can also manage important information about their customers, such as personally identifiable information. For many organizations, this is a very necessary function with specific data protection and data sovereignty compliance.
Suzanne Steele’s chief executive in Adobe Australia and New Zealand says investing in Adobe data centers is just one part of a major investment in the region.
“This end-to-end integration enables brands to integrate data governance and customer experience, making them the industry’s first product. The open architecture of the Adobe Experience Platform also makes it easy for IT teams to add their own data governance to meet all compliance requirements.
Adobe supports local talent
We also invest heavily in local teams and offices. The third double-digit increase in personnel was achieved in the year-on-year changeover.
Adobe has doubled the number of seats available at its Sydney offices, combined with a shift to a more agile workplace. Adobe plans to move its Melbourne office to a new, much larger space by the end of the year.
“Business in Australia and New Zealand is an innovative and progressive mindset.” They understand that to achieve more business value, they need to deliver a personalized experience on a large scale and are willing to invest to achieve this.”
“Since the launch of Adobe Experience Cloud nearly three years ago, most of our major brands have adopted Adobe as the gold standard for marketing technology. We expect it to continue to do so in the future, and we are investing in both local support and technological innovation.”


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Toyota has issued a sales stop on some of its most popular vehicles after a defect was discovered across four models in its range.
Toyota has today confirmed that the Camry, Corolla Hatch, RAV4 Hybrid and the Prius have all been temporarily withdrawn from sale. As far as the company's premium brand goes, the Lexus ES and UX have also been put under a sales stop.
It is understood the problem relates to a braking issue currently being investigated by Toyota in Australia, with the company in the process of determining what models, and how many of each, might be affected. The company has yet to reveal the specifics of the problem, nor how long it might take to rectify.
In the meantime, Toyota has pulled the shutter down on a number of its best-selling vehicles, just as the EOFY sales period heats up. It is understood cars are currently being checked and then released one at a time.
"Toyota Australia has put a selected number of vehicles on a temporary sales stop, as a precautionary measure, to ensure consistency of manufacturing amongst those vehicles," a company statement reads.
"A pre-delivery inspection will be conducted prior to sale to avoid any inconvenience to customers."
Does this news make you reconsider buying a Toyota? let us know in the comments.


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A month has gone in 2017 and so much has been going around globally. It's a rough time but if we stand united, we can rise above.
In this issue, we do just that by shining a light on what unites us rather than what divides us. This month we speak to MOGA Scarves, a Melbourne based label that made waves when they sent one of their scarves to Australia's One Nation Senator, Pauline Hanson, who has been noted for her hateful rhetoric on her campaign trail. We also look into h
A brand new year...a brand new issue. And we're starting this new year with a bang! Catch our exclusive interview with Yuna in the new January 2017 issue. We speak to her on her collaboration with Lisn Up Clothing to raise money and awareness for the refugee crisis. Fashion with the cause - just the kind we like. Click the cover below to read (and download) the issue. Happy New Year, ladies! #newyear #fashion #modestfashion #yuna #lisnupclothing #refugeecrisis #gayamagazine #
Three years ago if you mentioned “modest fashion” you’d be met with a puzzled look. It wasn’t really the in-thing. Yet, it is something we Muslim women deal with every day. Longer sleeves, longer hemlines, hijab, that was modest fashion. But to the rest of the world, it was somewhat oppressive or here in humid Singapore, we’d be met with the question “Do you not feel hot with all those layers?” We would laugh then. But now turn every corner or better yet, swipe across Instagr
The world is changing - weather is getting erratic, politics are running like a reality show, currency is taking a dip and the global population is making a turn - towards Islam. From media to marketing, Islam or Muslims are the in thing - sometimes good, sometimes bad. As we all know, the fastest growing religion in the world is Islam, the most unrepresented and misunderstood religion is also Islam. That is the sad reality. But it doesn’t have to be that way and many of us -
Noor Tagouri in Playboy. Photo from Instagram @ntagouri. The online Muslim chatter are abuzz in the wake of Noor Tagouri's interview with Playboy. When it first came out, we were delighted. The choice of media didn't really concern us. In fact, it didn't even shock us. We were just delighted that a mainstream media interviewed the well respected Noor Tagouri, an American-Muslim hijabi journalist. We have always admired her and this interview in Playboy didn't even make us go
Three years ago, when we started GAYA, the modest fashion industry was still in its infancy. Yes there were several Muslim/Modest fashion designers, labels and bloggers but the understanding of modest fashion was mainly confined within our own Muslim community. The term "modest fashion" hadn't penetrated the mainstream market. Perhaps (and not surprisingly) it was seen as "Islamic" and only targeted to hijabis. And obviously this didn't sit well with many in mainstream fashio


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The Douala International Terminal at the Douala Port has acquired 8 new tractors designed to help improve handling at the Autonomous Port of Douala. To promote the competitiveness of the port of Douala, the French company that manufactured the eight tractors has also been accorded the right to carry out maintenance work on the gantry cranes and gantries park.
This new deal has eventually made Cameroon a province in the French republic. Cameroon Concord gathered that the cost of these acquisitions amounted to 810 million FCFA. It is vital to include in this report that the port of Douala has presented in recent months, a high concentration of containers.


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West Hollywood’s long-coveted Bottega Louie won’t be opening any time soon. That’s per Wehoville, who announced yesterday that not only has the company postponed its planned December 19 opening, it has reportedly laid off almost all of its 250 employees just two weeks before Christmas.
Plans for a new Bottega Louie on Santa Monica Boulevard have been in the works since at least 2016, though a variety of delays and construction hurdles have kept the property from opening over the years. The last firm update had the company throwing open the doors to the 8,900 square foot all-day facility as soon as next week, but now it’s looking like a March 2020 opening at the earliest.
Per Wehoville who cites at least one unnamed employee, ownership at Bottega Louie has terminated more than 200 jobs, with some folks still needing to pick up their final printed paychecks from their training days. And, naturally, it’s all happening just before the holidays. Staff members have reportedly been told that they can reapply for their positions in a few months, but with no guarantee of future employment.
Eater has repeatedly reached out to Bottega Louie, but with little to no interaction. Once complete, the project is said to span some 200 seats with both indoor and outdoor seating, breakfast through dinner service, and a full bar, marketplace, and baking area.
As for whether or not March 2020 becomes the true opening date, that is still very much in flux. Meanwhile, the Downtown Los Angeles flagship of Bottega Louie remains a financial beast, earning millions of dollars per year as one of the country’s most profitable standalone restaurants.
Bottega Louie. 8936 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.


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Terlato Striking Gold With The Federalist, Seven Daughters Wine BrandsAugust 3, 2016
At the end of 2015, Terlato Wine Group ended its relationship with its top brand, Santa Margherita, which had pioneered the Pinot Grigio category in the U.S. more than three decades earlier. To fill the void, Terlato launched its own Pinot Grigio import and further expanded its wine portfolio with two rapidly growing brands, The Federalist and Seven Daughters, at the $15 to $20 price point. Lake-Bluff, Illinois-based Terlato has also diversified further into spirits and food. As a result, revenues are up 27% midway through 2016, and annual sales are now approaching $500 million. CEO Bill Terlato met recently with SND’s Lee Murphy to discuss progress.
SND: The play “Hamilton” is breaking records on Broadway. Is it benefiting The Federalist?
Terlato: We introduced The Federalist four years ago with a Dry Creek Zinfandel, with Hamilton on the label. Back then, of course, the musical wasn’t around. We just thought Hamilton was an interesting historical character. That first Federalist wine retailed at $39, and it sold well. But we realized that if we could get other Federalist wines under $20, the brand could really resonate. The idea was to target millennial males in the same way that our Seven Daughters label has targeted millennial females. So we introduced more wines to The Federalist line, including a Zinfandel with George Washington on the label and a Cabernet Sauvignon with Benjamin Franklin, both with fruit sourced mostly from Lodi or Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma. We also got creative with our pricing. Most of the wines are now at $17.76 at retail and $14.92 on promotion. This fall, we’ll be adding a new Zinfandel aged in Bourbon barrels. It will be priced a bit higher, at around $23.
SND: So has the musical played a role at all?
Terlato: It’s hard to tell. The brand was growing significantly before “Hamilton” came to Broadway. It’s actually available at the theater during intermission. The play certainly has heightened awareness of the man and the entire Federalist period. We’ve been promoting it further with special sales during holidays like the Fourth of July and Presidents’ Day. The Federalist is now the fastest-growing of all wines with $1 million or more in sales, according to Nielsen. Two years ago we sold 8,000 cases. Last year volume hit 100,000 cases and this year it’s on track to reach 250,000 cases. For the 2016 harvest, we’ve secured enough fruit to produce 425,000 cases. We’re considering some new line extensions—a Merlot and a Sauvignon Blanc are both possible. We think The Federalist can become a million-case brand.
SND: Seven Daughters, also in that price range, is growing fast as well.
Terlato: Seven Daughters sold 175,000 cases last year and is growing at 20% annually, which means it should reach 210,000 cases or more this year. Moscato is the big driver there. It’s produced in Italy and has become a big seller in restaurants. We’ve recently extended Seven Daughters with the launch of 250-ml. cans at $14.99 a four-pack. Portability and convenience is important in bringing more wine to picnics and ballgames. We want Seven Daughters to be sold in major league baseball stadiums, to be sipped with a straw. We produced 40,000 cases in cans and thought it would last all through this year, but it sold out in the first month of summer. We’ve got to make more. Seven Daughters appears headed toward the 500,000-case mark before long.
SND: So it appears that Seven Daughters and The Federalist are replacing the 600,000 cases you lost with the departure of Santa Margherita.
Terlato: In retrospect, Santa Margherita’s departure was a good thing for our company. It took a lot of time and energy to keep growing that brand, and in the process we weren’t fully developing other parts of our business.


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According to DownDetector.com, there are more than 2,500 users who have reported an issue with Facebook.
Facebook has not said what is causing the issues or when users can expect the problems to be fixed. "If Twitter has a meltdown and crashes, where do we go???"
Quantum Break To Get Xbox One X Enhancement
The Xbox One X is offered as a special edition for the first buyers. (It debuts initially on Xbox One on August 29). This continues Paradox' console push after the release of Cities Skylines for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 .
Guardiola happy with early Man City deals
Manchester City have also been linked with a move for Barcelona's Lionel Messi , who is out of contract next summer. City themselves have used a 3-5-2 so far this season in a win against Brighton and a draw against Everton .
Apple to build $1.3 billion data center in Iowa
IEDA director Debi Durham believes the 50 jobs created by Apple are just a small piece of the project's benefit to the state. The city of Waukee approved multi-year property tax abatements and infrastructure improvements totaling $194 million.
Reasons Why You Won't Get Android 8 Oreo On Your Smartphone
Android Oreo comes with a raft of internal improvements, created to boost the performance of existing Google-backed devices. The smartphone will go on sale in India on September 4 via Amazon India, and run on Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box.
Michael Owen reacts to Chelsea's 2-1 win over Tottenham
Kane's August duck continues - he's never scored in the Premier League in August - but really, it should have ended on Sunday. The greater worry for Spurs is a certain bluntness as their only goal came from a Michy Batshuayi own goal .
Jerry Lewis, Legendary Comedian And actor, Dies At 91
In 2016, he returned to the silver screen with Max Rose in a drama about an aging jazz pianist dealing with his wife's infidelity. It's a wonderful place to be". "Jerry has 2 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. one for TV and another for film".
Taylor Swift's social media accounts go dark
Others wondered if she had been hacked, while some thought the country-turned-pop star might be planning an image makeover. Another fan wrote: "1) EITHER TAYLOR SWIFT IS FUCKING COMING OR 2) TAYLOR SWIFT IS DELETING ALL OF HER SOCIAL MEDIA".
BMW Z4 Concept Photos Leaked
Speaking of which, the production auto is rumored to arrive early next year - perhaps at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show in March. The next generation BMW Z4 will come with a range of four-cylinder and six-cylinder variants.
Elvis Presley's beloved grand piano up for auction
The auction has been organised for charity which enables sellers to list items to benefit non-profit organisations. Graceland officials tell me they expect about 100,000 people here for Elvis week this year, the largest one ever.


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The Force is strong at Southeastern Grocers
The galaxy won’t feel so far away this holiday season for Southeastern Grocers customers.
The retailer is launching a new promotion with Star Wars collectibles at all BI-LO and Winn-Dixie stores on Nov. 24.
The 72 exclusive Cosmic Shell toys will feature Star Wars characters designed for kids and fans to collect and trade. Customers will receive a free pack of two Cosmic Shells with every $20 qualifying purchase or with purchase of 5 participating items from Nov. 24 through Jan. 16. Additionally, customers will have the opportunity to purchase a Cosmic Shell Collector’s Album and Virtual Reality goggles in stores for $3.99, while supplies last.
“We are always looking for ways to provide our customers with great value and an enjoyable shopping experience. With the Cosmic Shells, we have an opportunity to create an out-of-this-galaxy shopping experience for our customers and their families that extends beyond the grocery store," said Scott Morris, Executive Vice President of Merchandising for Southeastern Grocers. “Family members of all ages will not only enjoy collecting Cosmic Shells this holiday season but will also engage with Stormtroopers, Tie Fighters and more, all of which will be found in our stores by simply downloading the app."
BI-LO and Winn-Dixie customers can download the VRgogglesBiLo and VRgogglesWinnDixie app to stand side-by-side with augmented reality Stormtroopers and other Star Wars characters in stores. Plus, customers can pretend to fly a Millennium Falcon, and more, through the use of Virtual Reality Goggles.
On Friday, Nov. 24 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. families are invited to take photos with real Star Wars Stormtroopers, have their faces painted, enjoy music, delicious samples and win prizes at various stores.
Throughout this campaign, customers can look for signs throughout the store promoting the program and participating items that will provide free packs of Star Wars toys.
Southeastern Grocers operates stores throughout the seven southeastern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina.


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JJB Sports' plan to shut 72 stores leaves High Street reeling as City warns 40,000 jobs could be axed
JJB Sports revealed another major blow to the High Street today after it said it was shutting 72 stores with the loss of around 800 jobs.
Details of the planned closures comes after it was revealed that more than up to 40,000 City jobs could be axed as banks and stockbrokers deal with one of the worst financial crises in decades.
It is twice the figure first feared and amounts to one in ten jobs in London's financial district.
Wigan-based JJB, which has more than 400 outlets, began implementing its closure plan earlier this year after a business review by new management.
Loss: The sports chain is to close 72 stores and lose 800 jobs by the end of the month
It said the stores in question were unlikely to make any "significant contribution" to group profits and that many were already close to newer and larger stores in its estate.
The sites will shut by the end of this month.
Despite the news from JJB and the City new Government unemployment figures released today showed that there was a record number of people in work.
Official figures showed that the employment level was 29.5 million in the three months to February, the best since records began in 1971, while unemployment fell by 39,000 to 1.6 million.
City cuts: 40,000 jobs could go in the banking and finance industry
JJB said 1,200 jobs will be affected overall, but 400 of the positions will be deployed elsewhere in the business.
Seven of the sites are due to re-badged as Original Shoe Company, a retailer acquired by JJB earlier this year.
The moves were announced as JJB said adjusted profits fell 28% to £33.8 million in the year to January 27.
A £25 million hit relating to the cost of closing the stores meant bottom-line profits fell 72 per cent to £10.8 million.
JJB joined other retailers today in warning that it did not expect any respite from the difficult economic conditions in the short term.
It said total revenues for JJB stores and fitness clubs for the seven weeks to March 16 were 3.5 per cent lower than the same period last year, while margins also came under pressure as a result of the competitive trading conditions.
JJB's fortunes have been impacted by its exposure to the replica kit market and the failure of any of the home nations to qualify for this summer's Euro 2008 football tournament.
The company has looked to offset its reliance on replica kits by increasing the proportion of "own brand products" in its stores, adding to existing examples such as Olympus, Patrick and Lotto.
As part of its business review, it has increased the frequency of deliveries to its stores, introduced a store staff incentive scheme and opened a training academy in Wigan.
The company has also committed to open more combined fitness clubs and superstores, a format which has so far proved successful.
The changes are being overseen by Chris Ronnie, who became chief executive in the summer after founder David Whelan left the business and sold his family's holding to a joint venture formed by Icelandic financial group Exista.
Mr Ronnie previously worked for Umbro and Sports World owner Sports Direct.
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The new COVID-19 app and website provide the latest information and guidance from the CDC for users across the US
Prime Video is the first streaming service to implement HDR10+, now available on the entire Samsung 2017 UHD TV lineup.
Following a successful European media launch, Kia turned to HARMAN to help drum up the excitement for the all-new Stinger GT Sport Sedan powered by Harman Kardon.
The Most Popular Mac Now Has Up to 2x Faster Performance, the New Magic Keyboard and Twice the Storage
If we get official statements from all the major OEMs that they are not in the practice of slowing...
Samsung Electronics is the driving force behind the technology securing the way we shop, the way we communicate, even the way we travel to different countries.
Experience a Cleaner, More Comfortable Indoor Environment with LG PuriCare and DUALCOOL ThinQ™ Stand Inverter Air Conditioner in the Home.
DeShawn Shead lives for the moments he can cause a fumble, take the ball away from a quarterback or make an interception.
At RSNA 2017, the annual event from the Radiological Society of North America, attendees were intrigued by the new digital x-ray from Samsung.


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More jobs will be cut at Yahoo Inc as the company is now keeping to the cost saving course. Yahoo announced its plans to further cut is global workforce by 5% and the first quarter results. The Internet company showed weak performance in both display ads and search ads. But the revenue decrease was compensated by better cost control.
"People were really looking at the profit structure of the business and for things not to be falling apart," said Kaufman Brothers analyst Jason Avilio.
Apart from this announcement the company also notified its employees in the internal memo on Tuesday that it will implement a mandatory shutdown of operations during the holiday week of December 25, 2009 through January 1, 2010.
Excluding traffic acquisition costs (TAC), Yahoo's revenue was $1.16 billion against analysts’ expectations of $1.2 billion. A net profit in the first quarter stood for $118 million, or 8 cents a share as compared with down from $537 million, or 37 cents a share in the previous year.


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Valve has issued forth two big announcements today. The first confirms that the Steam UI beta which has been running for the last two months is finally ready for release and will roll out to all users on Monday, 26th April. The second reveals the release date for the long-awaited Left 4 Dead 2
DLC, The Passing
- that will be available on PC and Xbox 360 on Thursday, AKA Tomorrow.
First, the beta. The new Steam UI is mainly a cosmetic update to the now aged look of Valve's digital distribution platform, but it'll also bring with it a lot of new functions too - syndicated news feeds and customisable games libraries to name a few.
Most importantly, the underlying technology that runs Steam has been significantly upgraded and the platform will no longer rely on Internet Explorer so heavily, thanks to a new WebKit-based rendering engine.
Valve has been keen to stress though that the previously announced Mac version of Steam
is separate to the UI update, so Apple users will have to wait a little bit longer for that.
Meanwhile, Valve has also announced an April 22nd release for Left 4 Dead 2
DLC The Passing
, which acts as a bridge between Left 4 Dead
and Left 4 Dead 2
As well as a new campaign, The Passing
will include weekly game 'mutations' which will develop new modes and objectives for players. Some of the mutations Valve has hinted at include 'Realism Versus Mode' and 'Chainsaw Massacre'. Sounds fun.
will cost nothing for PC users, but Xbox 360 gamers will have to pay 560 MS Points to download the new add-on.
You can read more about Valve's latest zombie shooter in our Left 4 Dead 2 review
, or our thoughts on the new Steam UI in our beta impressions
article. Either way, let us know your thoughts in the forums


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According to a story by The Hollywood Reporter, media giant Time Warner is planning to launch an subscription-based streaming service that will serve as an online expansion to the television-exclusive Boomerang network currently offered by the company.
For $5 per month (or $40 per year), the upcoming service will allow users to stream classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon shows like Scooby-Doo, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and Tom & Jerry. In addition to those beloved shows, the service will also feature original Looney Tunes programming courtesy of Warner Bros. Altogether, the service will house an instant-access library of over 5,000 classic titles.
In addition to this throwback programming, the Boomerang service will also feature original animated content created exclusively for the network. Boomerang's original content will include a new animated series, titled Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, and will also feature a reboot of Wacky Races. Additionally, sources are indicating that the online network will also stream brand new episodes of Scooby-Doo, Tom & Jerry, and Looney Tunes.
"Boomerang is a beloved brand that has always had multi-generational appeal and some of the greatest animated shows ever created," explained Christina Miller, current president of Boomerang, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim. "Our ongoing partnership with Warner Bros. around this new premium service continues our strategy of making sure our fans are engaged with fresh and fun content whenever and wherever they want it."
The new streaming service is sure to please both past and present fans of Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. entertainment, and Time Warner is smart to continue to capitalize on this growing trend. Boomerang is just the latest addition to other stand-alone streaming services owned by Time Warner brands such as HBO Now and FilmStruck.
The new Boomerang streaming service is being powered by the same technology as the Warner Bros. owned DramaFever, which offers Korean-made dramas and other international entertainment. The upcoming Boomerang service will be available both online and on iOS and Android devices at launch, though no official release date has been announced.
Are you excited for the ability to access and stream thousands of classic cartoons? Will you be subscribing to this upcoming service? Let us know in the comments below.


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They’re some of the most popular smartphones around the world, but if you use an iPhone, you may have experienced issues this week.
Several iPhone users have reported that their smartphone keeps signing them out of their Outlook app, following the latest iOS update.
Taking to Twitter, one user said: “Ever since updating iOS on my iPhone. My outlook/hotmail keeps making me resign in on my phone.”
Another said: “Microsoft do you have an ongoing issue with Hotmail accounts? Cos everyday this week I’ve been asked on my iPhone to re insert my password to the account for it to be able to work. Frustrating is a definitely the most appropriate word for how I’m feeling right now.”
And one wrote: “Why has every single one of my Hotmail or Outlook accounts kept asking for the password on my iPhone for the past few days... and now won’t let me enter the passwords and says my account can’t be accessed??!”
Mirror Online has also experienced the issue this week.
The issue appears to be with Outlook itself, rather than with Apple.
Yesterday, Microsoft tweeted: “We're investigating an issue in which users may be receiving errors when attempting to access http://Outlook.com.”
Microsoft claims that the issue has now been resolved, although the reason for the problem remains unclear.
It said: “Since our last update, our monitoring continues to show the service is stable with the majority of users having access to Outlook.com. As we continue to have a small number of users still reporting issues and our investigation into root cause is ongoing, we will keep this notification active.”
Mirror Online has contacted Apple for comment.


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Fate/Grand Order VR feat. Mash Kyrielight Game Launches for Free on December 6
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The "Fate VR drama" project will allow players to enter the world of Fate/Grand Order and meet with the Servant Mash Kyrielight.
Aniplex released the Fate/Grand Order smartphone game in Japan in summer 2015. The game received an English release in the United States and Canada on June 25.


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India’s decision on 5G companies should be independent: Huawei India CEO
We are very open to having local manufacturing, not only 2G, 3G, but also 4G, says Huawei India CEO Jay Chen.
You were recently given 5G spectrum to showcase your use case at the recent India Mobile Congress. What is the status for Huawei at the 5G trials and deployment?
The Indian government, companies and customers all have their full confidence in Huawei. Similarly, we are also confident with regards to our prospects in India. We understand that the Indian government will make its independent and level-playing field decision beneficial to India at the right time.
Have you received any communication from the Indian government on 5G participation?
We have given a commitment that we will do long term investments in this market. We will be fully compliant with all rules and regulation. It is not about 5G or 4G, but to the entire market and the government. We have our longterm strategy for this market.
How has the business been for Huawei in India this year so far?
This is a very challenging year for the industry. Not only for Huawei, but almost all OEMs (original equipment makers), with telcos facing a very big challenge. This year, I see a decline in the capex of the operators. But after the industry comes back on the right track, the capex will come back. We are waiting for the situation to turn positive. The minister has already given the message that very soon, we will have some reforms.
Can you throw some light on Huawei’s India manufacturing plans? You had recently shut local manufacturing, and are now relying only on imports.
We are very open to having local manufacturing, not only 2G, 3G, but also 4G. We are also open to that. We are studying the new policy.


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IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Brandman University today announced plans to provide pathways to computing technology and information technology college degrees for all U.S. Walmart associates through its partnership with Guild Education that works with Walmart to administer the program. Today’s action coincides with Walmart’s earlier announcement that the retailer is expanding the number of colleges and debt-free degree options through Live Better U. Brandman remains the only California-based institution among the expanded six nonprofit universities.
“I commend Walmart for their efforts to connect more than a million associates to U.S. universities that are purposefully designed to help working adults achieve college degrees that accelerate upward mobility,” said Brandman University Chancellor Gary Brahm. “Selecting the right college is daunting. There are tremendous differences in completion rates and the quality of the degrees that are conferred, especially among online colleges. Both Walmart and Guild Education are diligent in understanding these important distinctions. I look forward to serving even more Walmart associates with new opportunities to grow and advance in their careers.”
In 2018, Brandman was one of three universities chosen by Walmart, in partnership with Guild Education, to offer an associate or bachelor’s degree in supply chain management and a bachelor’s degree in business. Identifying universities known for helping working adults succeed is important for the employer and the student. First-generation students and individuals who enter the workforce immediately after high school, and who desire to attend college years later, have limited access to information and support systems that help navigate the college selection and admissions process. This lack of support often leads to poor choices, high debt, and no college degree.
Since the partnership was announced, more than 7,500 Walmart associates from all 50 states have been accepted into at least one of the programs at the three original university partners, Brandman, Bellevue and the University of Florida as of May 2019.
According to Walmart, 35,000 people are working in U.S. stores in roles that did not exist two years ago. For Brandman’s technology degrees, industry-recognized certifications provide stackable credentials toward a degree. For example, as a student moves through the Bachelor of Science Information Technology degree, they will earn various IT industry recognized certifications. If the student has already obtained any of these certifications prior to admission or outside of Brandman during enrollment in the degree program, the student will receive transfer credit and competency equivalent credit toward degree completion. Brandman has also evaluated Walmart’s on-the-job training through its Academy program and provides transfer credit toward degree completion.
Live Better U is part of Walmart’s efforts to ensure associates have educational opportunities to stay in front of changes in the workplace. According to a Pew Research Center survey, a majority of U.S. workers say that new skills and training are essential to career success.
Public statements provided by Walmart and Guild Education:
“Walmart values learning in all forms, and we are committed to creating a workforce of lifelong learners and instilling in them excitement for retail and a passion for serving customers,” said Greg Foran, president and CEO of Walmart U.S. “Access to higher education is one way to grow your career. So, in addition to providing people with an entry to the workforce and access to our on-the-job training, I’m proud Walmart also offers our associates programs like Live Better U to help them achieve their educational goals.”
“Since launching with Guild a year ago, thousands of Walmart associates have now headed back to school debt-free, collectively saving tens of millions of dollars in student debt,” said Rachel Carlson, CEO of Guild Education. "Walmart is on track to leading the nation's largest education benefits program, with programs that set their employees up for success."
- 1.5 million associates are working in stores in thousands of U.S. communities. (p.85)
- 35,000 people are working in U.S. Walmart stores in roles that didn’t exist two years ago. (p.45)
- For many entry-level hourly positions, Walmart does not require degrees and has “banned the box” to lower barriers to entering the workforce. Through Walmart Academy and Live Better U associates are able to increase their skills, knowledge and social mobility. (p.47)
- 75% of Walmart U.S. store operation management team members started as hourly employees (p.47).
About Brandman University: Brandman University is a private, nonprofit institution accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission. As part of the Chapman University System, Brandman blends a legacy of academic excellence with innovative curriculum and strong support services designed to help working students succeed in spite of busy schedules. Brandman serves about 25,000 students seeking licenses, credentials or degrees, of which 13,000 are on a college degree path. Programs are offered via Brandman’s fully online college, and through hybrid learning at 25 campuses spread throughout California and Washington. Brandman is the sole California provider of Competency-Based-Education through Brandman MyPath.


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We’re shaking up a storm at Ginett with our bar team carefully curating new cocktails for our menu. We’ve put together 7 new innovative cocktails that will be rolled out from 1 September onwards. The tempting line-up of drinks includes a trip down memory lane with Kaya Crackers, inspired by the traditional local snack, and a spicy jalapeño and tequila concoction, perfect for those who like it hot. Each creation was contributed by a different bartender based on their personal favorite flavors and aromas, offering a varied menu designed to cater to all taste buds.
To celebrate the launch of the new menu, exclusively for the full month of September, Ginett will be pouring these new cocktails for just $15 ++ per drink (usual price $18++).
Find out more here.