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Restaurants come back from pandemic as Americans spend more than ever eating out.
How can you tell the pandemic is nearly over? Americans are spending more than ever at restaurants.
Sales at bars and restaurants surged in May for the third month in a row to push total receipts to an all-time high of $67.3 billion, new government figures show. Americans are going out to eat again spending at restaurants hits record high in May as pandemic fadesSource
: U.S. Census Bureau via St. Louis FedNote: Seasonally adjusted.RECESSION
The industry’s recovery from a near-death experience is set to accelerate, too. Restaurant reservations exceeded precrisis levels for the first time in May, research from OpenTable shows.
And that’s likely to become the norm during the summer. Americans saved a lot of money during the pandemic and they’re flush with cash from federal stimulus payments. Surveys show more consumers plan to dine out in the months ahead as life returns to normal.
OpenTable, for its part, said its research suggests as many as one in four restaurants shuttered over the past year.
The devastation forced virtually every restaurant to slash payrolls, leaving many former restaurant workers on unemployment benefits or prodding them to find other jobs.
Now getting all those employees back could become another major headache. Even with sales surging, restaurants employ 1.48 million fewer people now than they did before the viral outbreak, government labor statistics show.
Many restaurant owners say they can’t find enough people to cook food or wait on customers. Some are increasing pay to try to lure them back, but others have had to scale back service for want of enough workers.
If there’s a silver lining, the crisis forced restaurants to learn how to get by with thinner staffs by adopting new practices or technologies to produce and deliver food.
As of May, restaurants employed 10.8 million people, down from 12.3 million before the pandemic. It could take awhile before employment reaches that level again.


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ChoicesUK stores sold to Blockbuster
Blockbuster takes on a number of ChoicesUK stores, but many remain unsold
A ‘significant number’ of ChoicesUK’s retail stores have been sold by
administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers, however, dozens still require a
The Blockbuster Group has bought 59 ChoicesUK retail stores from
administrators, securing 450 jobs.
But administrators are looking for buyers for a further 80 stores.
‘Our priority now is to focus all our efforts on achieving a sale of all or
part of the remainder of the store portfolio,’ said joint administrator Nick
The purchased stores will be rebranded as Blockbuster.

domain: news


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Kim Kardashian has been working in the entertainment industry for a long time and all the companies she has started have helped her increase her net worth, but is she a billionaire?
Recently, it was revealed that Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, no longer holds a billionaire status. While his net worth has suffered a hard hit, it is not the same case with his ex-wife.
Kim has been working on several things at a time and there is no doubt that all her hard work has been paying off.
Is Kim Kardashian a billionaire?
Yes, Kim is a billionaire with a net worth of $1.8 billion, as per Forbes. The beauty mogul rose to fame when her reality show Keeping Up With The Kardashians first aired.
Since then, her career has taken a lot of twists and turns but Kim has managed to find her way. A major portion of her net worth comes from KKW Beauty, her cosmetics line that she rebranded as SKKN by Kim.
The reality star changed the packaging and logo and has been promoting the product on her website. The other source of her income is her shapewear line, Skims.
Not to forget, she has also ventured into other businesses such as Skky Partners Private Equity, Kimoji, and more.
A look at how it all started
Prior to making a name of her own, Kim used to work as Paris Hilton’s assistant. She had been photographed with her on a number of occasions.
She eventually got a big break of her own once people started seeing the real her when E! aired the reality show based on her family.
In no time, all the family members were able to gain a lot of followers online and have gone on to start several businesses of their own.
She has collaborated with big brands
With fame, Kim got the chance to collaborate with several brands such as FENDI, Balenciaga, Apple, and more.
Not to forget, Kim makes use of social media platforms for collaborations as well and over the years fans have gotten to see many new products.
WATCH THE KARDASHIANS SEASON 2 ON HULU/DISNEY PLUS EVERY THURSDAY
AND GET FREAKY WITH US ON INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, TWITTER AND TIKTOK


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Earnings reports from Symantec, CommVault and Quantum last week provided a good snapshot of the overall enterprise backup industry. Symantec NetBackup and CommVault Simpana increased sales in double digits over the previous year and in the opening quarter of this year. But that doesn't mean all backup is booming. Symantec's Backup Exec small- and medium-sized business (SMB) product continues to stumble and Quantum got stung by a deep tape decline.
The sharp increase of enterprise backup software revenue comes after large storage vendors reported tepid growth -- or none at all. EMC's overall revenue increased only 6%, and its core storage business grew 3% in the first quarter of 2013; Hitachi Data Systems revenue increased 1%; and IBM storage revenues fell 10%.
Symantec's storage and server business -- most of that NetBackup -- made up more than one-third of the vendor's $314 million in income last quarter. Symantec reported revenue of $1.748 billion for the quarter, up 4% from the previous year.
Symantec backup revenue grew 7% and NetBackup grew more than 10%, while Backup Exec declined.
Symantec executives said NetBackup's growth is due largely to its built-in appliance model. Symantec offers customers the option of buying NetBackup software on a disk appliance with deduplication, eliminating the need to buy a separate media server and disk target.
Symantec CEO Stephen Bennett, who took over in July 2012, said NetBackup is one of the key products in the company's long-term strategy, as it tries to pare down the 150 or so point solutions it now sells.
Bennett said NetBackup is Symantec's highest revenue application and was one of its fastest growing over the past year. "We're going to double down on some great point solutions that are leaders like NetBackup," Bennett said on the earnings call.
Backup Exec is another story. While Symantec did not specifically break out its revenue, it obviously fell as it continues to suffer the backlash of a poorly received early-2012 redesign. Symantec is still scrambling to add popular features that it removed, and is behind the schedule it promised unhappy customers last year.
"Backup Exec has been something of a challenge," Symantec Chief Financial Officer James Beer said.
To try and solve the problem, Bennett said Symantec has put management of Backup Exec under the same team that managed NetBackup.
"We've made a lot of changes in the team that stubbed its toe on the release of Backup Exec," he said. "So I think we're going to see real progress, but we did dig ourselves [in] a hole."
CommVault's revenue grew even more impressively than Symantec's. Its $138 million in revenue last quarter increased 21% from the previous year.
CommVault CEO Bob Hammer said the new Simpana 10 release is pushing CommVault into larger enterprise deals driven by its protection of virtual machines, source-side deduplication and snapshot-based data protection.
Unlike Symantec, CommVault resists packaging its software on its own appliances. It does have hardware OEM partners that package Simpana, however.
CommVault is pulling back from its biggest hardware partner, Dell. That's largely because Dell has acquired its own backup software over the past year or so, adding AppAssure SMB backup and Quest's vRanger and NetVault enterprise applications. Dell is also in the process of going private, which is taking longer than originally expected.
CommVault's sales through Dell were about the same last quarter as they were a year ago, and CommVault executives on the earnings call said they are adding other distribution partners to pick up the slack.
"We do not operate on hope," Hammer said when asked about his company's relationship with Dell. "We operate on plans we can execute and there's a lot of uncertainty at Dell. So we're taking direct action to move most of our enterprise revenue at Dell to other distribution partners. You can't work with a partner when there's that much uncertainty sitting out there."
Quantum: Tape is a drag
Quantum reported $140 million in revenue for last quarter -- down 13% from the previous year -- and lost $14.5 million. Most of the declines came from tape, although its DXi disk backup platform also declined 4%. StorNext archiving revenue grew 9% over last year.
Last quarter ended Quantum's fiscal year; its revenue for the year dropped 10% to $588 million and it lost $52 million.
A year ago, Quantum CEO Jon Gacek predicted his company was on the verge of turning things around. But Quantum's revenues actually fell during the year and the company had to lay off 10% of its workforce.
"It was a tough year in storage overall and very tough for tape," Gacek said last week.
Gacek said he still has high hopes for the DXi platform, StorNext appliances and the vendor's new Lattus object-storage products. But most of Quantum's revenue comes from tape, and he is not sure if that business will bounce back.
"I don't want to plan on it," he said when asked if he expected tape to rebound. "It's hard to know if it's an anomaly or a new level set. But I can always build more tape libraries if it does come back. We're not pulling back on tape per se; we just have to be smart about it.
"If it bounced back, we'd be ridiculously profitable."
Guide to enterprise data backup software
Backup software for enterprise has evolved


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Societe Generale profits hit by unrest in Africa
Unrest in Africa and the Middle East have weighed on earnings at Societe Generale, France's second-biggest bank.
SocGen reported lower-than-expected first quarter results, including a 61% fall in international retail earnings.
The European bank, among the most exposed to the regions, temporarily closed operations in Egypt, Tunisia and Ivory Coast because of the unrest.
First quarter profit fell 13.8% to 916m euros ($1.4bn; £823m), sending SocGen shares down 3% at the start of trade.
Revenues were slightly higher at 6.62bn euros but were still below analysts' expectations of 6.73bn euros.
On Wednesday, SocGen's bigger rival BNP Paribas beat first-quarter forecasts with a net profit of 2.62bn euros.
SocGen said that demand for mortgages and loans in France had boosted profits at its domestic retail arm.
"It's a really mixed bag. There were good results in French retail and corporate and investment banking, but that could not offset the weakness in international retail banking, which was more pronounced than expected," said WestLB analyst Christoph Bossmann.


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Huawei Mate X: Quick look
Gadgets Now Updated: 07 Mar, 2019, 10:40AM IST
Huawei, as widely speculated, introduced its Mate X smartphone -- its first-ever foldable handset at the recently concluded MWC 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. Huawei Mate X comes just days after the unveiling of Samsung's foldable smartphone. We take a quick look.


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Starting this week and lasting until the 2nd of April, 2014, Google is hosting a Pokemon Google Maps challenge. In this challenge, users must locate and collection hundreds of Pokemon with augmented reality through Google Maps on their Android-equipped smartphone. It is, unfortunately, an elaborate April Fools Joke.
This bit will be released formally again tomorrow – today’s the day before April 1st, after all. Today you’ll see a limited amount of information on the challenge as it’s set out by Google Maps on YouTube. Holster your excitement, ladies and gentlemen, what you’re about to see isn’t entirely truthful.
This push may also be for general users to happen upon the Google Jobs portal. Over at google.com/about/careers/ you’ll find jobs that actually exist. We’re expecting that Pokemon Master will be added to the ranks sooner than later.
For those of you wishing to have a peek at the Pokemon Challenge in Google Maps, you have only to hit the Search bit in the app (on Android or in iOS) and find “Press Start”. This is a reflection of how you’d begin playing Pokemon on a Gameboy or any number of more recent systems line the Nintendo 3DS.
If you live in Southern California near Google, you’ll have Pokemon to find. If you live anywhere else, you may be out of luck!
NOTE: Just in case you were wondering, the fellow posting the Google news release about this project is Tatsuo Nomura, who last posted to Google+ about his work with a Google frontpage April Fool’s joke last year. So shed your tears now.


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Tyrone food company expands after securing Tesco listing
A Co Tyrone food company has undertaken an expansion project after securing a significant new listing with Tesco.
Cloughbane Farm Shop, based outside Pomeroy, has just extended its cook room to enable it to produce more ready meal dinners.
The expansion comes after Cloughbane secured a listing with Tesco Northern Ireland for a raft of new products. The products are roast chicken, roast beef, turkey and ham and roast gammon ready meal dinners along with lasagne plus individual and family chicken and broccoli bakes and cottage pies.
The company’s Managing Director, Lorna Robinson, explained: “The extension to the cook room facilities has increased the overall size of our main factory building by more than 30%. This extension was built solely for ready meal dinners which are available within Tesco NI stores.”
Cloughbane, which won five UK Great Taste Awards this year, handcrafts all its products – and it uses the finest local ingredients. All meat is sourced within a 50-mile radius of the company’s farm, and pork and poultry products are UK or Irish farmed.
The company, which employs 40 and has been in business for 11 years, first started to supply Tesco in Northern Ireland back in December 2012. The leading retailer initially stocked four of its products, but now the product count has grown to 11.
Lorna Robinson said: “This listing has significantly increased our business with Tesco and we will continue to work closely with the excellent Tesco buying team to give the customer what they want.”
The deal with Tesco has also prompted a rebrand of Cloughbane’s products and in addition the new products are available in cartons after the company purchased a cartoning machine as part of the expansion project.
The MD added: “This is the first major rebrand the company has undertaken for a number of years and we are extremely pleased to be launching it within Tesco in Northern Ireland.”
Richard Robinson, who runs the business with his mum Lorna, created the new branding, which reflects his passion for his farming roots and a flair for design.
“The packaging clearly shows the products are made on the farm with much care. Our customers are already telling us they love the bold red colour on the packaging which makes it stand out from the crowd,” he explained.
Sandra Weir from Tesco NI said: “Cloughbane’s products are simply superb and our customers love them. The feedback on the new products has been excellent.”
Tesco spends nearly £600million on Northern Ireland products each year, it has more than 90 local suppliers and it stocks more than 1,200 local products.


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The price of shares in FTSE 100 supermarket chain Tesco (LON:TSCO) rose by 1.50% to 229.80p (as of 14:05 BST) after it reported a 7.9% improvement in first quarter sales. Online sales were strong and the company has significantly ramped up capacity during the UK lockdown, with convenience outlets also seeing substantial growth.
CEO Dave Lewis commented: “Through a very challenging period for everyone, Tesco colleagues have gone above and beyond, and I’m extremely proud of what they’ve achieved. Their selfless efforts, combined with our embedded strategic advantages in stores and online, have helped to ensure that everyone can get the food they need in a safe environment.
“In just five weeks, we doubled our online capacity to help support our most vulnerable customers and transformed our stores with extensive social distancing measures so that everyone who was able to shop in store could do so safely.
“The costs of doing this have been significant and only partly offset by business rates relief and increased volume. We see the balance as an investment in supporting our customers at a time when they need it most“.


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Not Fully Baked: Diablo III Officially ‘Delayed’ Until Early 2012
By Matt Peckham
PCWorldSep 23, 2011 8:16 am PDT
Was Diablo III ever officially on track for a late 2011 release? Not really. All we thought we knew came pretty much from a leaked release schedule that put developer Blizzard’s tertiary dark fantasy-themed hack-and-slash somewhere in 2011’s fourth quarter.
That’s why I’ve put “delayed” in single scare quotes up top. Blizzard, like id Software, hates to be pinned down, and who can blame them? I suppose we ought to be grateful that we now know, for sure, that Diablo III won’t happen this year. Or to use Blizzard’s terms, Diablo III’s launch window “will be moving into early 2012.”
“With every game we make, the temptation is always very strong to launch as soon as possible,” wrote Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime in a statement. “However, we didn’t put so many years of work into Diablo III to release a game that was almost ready.”
The good news? “The beta test is going very well,” says Morhaime, adding that the company plans to “[make] the most of the extra time we’re taking…”
Put another way: extended beta period! (Or, put more cynically, Blizzard just realized by way of the beta’s opening days—it launched on September 20—that the game’s not ready for primetime.)
Whatever the case, Blizzard says it may use the extra time to add more testers than it had planned to. If you still want a shot, Blizzard says active Battle.net members should make sure to “opt in” there. Blizzard says to expect “additional testing phases” to come along at some point, too.


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Chinese ports feel the pinch
The news that Maersk Line is to end services to and from ten Chinese ports from September in a cost cutting exercise could be construed as an unhappy symptom of China's growth slow down.
In its latest trading update, the shipping giant reported an 89% slide in quarterly profit and a 16% decline in revenue, despite still making a profit. Its 2% annualised return on invested capital during the last quarter was just one-fifth of its target.
“We frequently review the ports/terminals that we service in China, including the inland ports where we provide transport solutions through the Connecting Carrier Agreement. We focus on the ports where we can offer the most benefits that create growth, better service and opportunities for our customers,” it said in a statement.
The trouble is that the shipping sector is beset by overcapacity and deflating costs, which means severe belt tightening across the industry.
Ocean carriers have also accelerated the shift towards more direct calls at the expense of transshipment because it is too expensive. Instead, feeder ports are being added to mainline services to save on feeder costs
So in light of this tricky environment, Maersk's only real option has been to slash spending.
And the news is not good for Chinese ports, of which Maersk has a presence in 41 locations across the country, certainly not when it comes to exports anyway.
A new report from Moody’s Investors Service has highlighted that port operators in China are facing headwinds from slower economic growth and weaker throughput outlook.
It warned that export-oriented ports such as Shanghai and Shenzhen will be particularly affected by slowing container throughput amid muted export growth in China with overcapacity in the liner industry exacerbating the pressure on the operators' margins.
Because shipping lines are also facing significant pressure on freight rates, this is expected to make it increasingly difficult for port operators to negotiate higher container handling chargers.
Moody's notes headroom is narrowing in the ratings of the port operators, which it says will likely prompt them to preserve cash flow through stringent cost controls and discipline in overseas expansion.
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It’s Time to Sell These 2 Well-Known Stocks
The U.S. consumer has been in a funk for several years now. European consumers feel even more pinched. Even the go-go economies of China and Brazil are seeing the signs of weakening consumer sentiment. Still, credit card giants Visa (NYSE: V) and MasterCard (NYSE: MA) have managed to whistle past the graveyard. They’ve seen their shares soar ever-higher, becoming a “must-own” stock for many mutual funds and hedge funds.
#-ad_banner-#But if you’ve been on the winning end of the credit card trade, then you need to get out –now. These stocks suddenly look tired and their next move may be down, according to one Wall Street analyst. After digging through these company’s fundamentals, I think you’ll be hearing about more downgrades in the coming weeks and months.
“We’re not banks”
Perhaps the greatest attribute of these stocks is that they carry almost none of the risk other financial-service providers bring. They don’t own stocks and bonds, they don’t underwrite equity and fixed-income offerings, and they don’t hold loans that might go into default. Visa and MasterCard simply take a slice of every financial transaction. And with the world slowly migrating to a “cash-free” environment, these companies have been able to boost sales at a 10%-plus annual clip during the past eight years. In fact, they’ve never had a down year in terms of revenue growth. And investors have responded in kind.
As the charts below show, these credit card issuers have been steadily rising in value, even as the broader market has gyrated up and down in the last six quarters.
These two firms now sport a collective $135 billion in market value, which is up more than 50% in the past year alone. Yet UBS Analyst John Williams spots trouble ahead. He says the troubled global economy is about to negatively affect credit-card transaction volumes, right at a time when these two firms’ organic expansion plans have maxed out. “Investors are not prepared or positioned for a slowdown in the businesses,” he says.
Part of his concern stems from U.S. consumer spending, which accounts for 52% of Visa’s revenue and 38% of Visa’s. Recent economic reports point to a fresh slowdown in consumer spending as we head toward the all-important back-to-school season. In the quarter ended March, Visa noted a 4% increase in year-over-year transaction volume growth. By May, that figure had slipped to 2%. Don’t be surprised if it turns flat or negative this summer.
Payment-processing firm First Data, which tracks card usage on a monthly basis, recently noted that transaction volume growth slipped from May to June. “Stubbornly high unemployment and economic anxiety took a toll on sales as consumers pulled back on spending. Despite a sustained decline in fuel prices, consumers have not translated those savings into spending elsewhere,” the company reported.
What are they worth?
To get a sense of how these stocks should be valued, you can look at their projected earnings growth rates and their current price-to-earnings ratios. Both stocks trade for around 16-17 times projected 2013 consensus EPS (earnings per share) estimates. (These forward multiples had been in the 10-12 range before the stocks took off during the last six quarters). Williams slightly lowered his 2013 EPS assumptions to the point that each of these stocks now trades for around 15 times his projected 2013 profits.
Trouble is, it’s hard to square his very modest EPS reductions with his assessment that growth is set to slow sharply. But that’s how Wall Street works. Analysts tend to trim forecasts only modestly at first, and then proceed to make cut after cut. A meta-analysis of this analyst’s actions implies that he — and his peers — will likely start to steadily trim their profit view for these stocks.
On July 9, Williams gave a “sell” rating on these stocks, and his price targets represent only 5% downside. Yet price targets are irrelevant. Instead, investors trade on trends, and in this case, the trend looks to be off-putting. “We believe both companies’ exposure to a slowing consumer-spending backdrop makes a slowdown in key metrics simply unavoidable.” That’s a reason to sell for any major institution that has been loading up on this stock. And it’s that move to profit-taking that can take these stocks well below Williams’ price targets of $113 for Visa and $403 for MasterCard.
The credit card penalty
I’ve been thinking about these stocks recently for an entirely different reason. In the past few weeks and months, a number of gas stations in my area have started to charge 10 cents more per gallon to use credit cards. As a result, I’m now paying for fill-ups with cash. I wonder how many other consumers are doing the same. I’ve also had a few other retailers offer me modest discounts if I pay in cash, as they too are balking at high credit-card fees. This kind of action is just now showing up in the broader card-usage data, as this The Wall Street Journal article describes. We may be hearing more and more about this in coming months.
Risks to Consider: As an upside risk, both of these firms are set to go to trial in September in response to charges that they conspired to raise fees for merchants in a collusive manner. Investors are currently anticipating $7 billion to $10 billion in damages and near-term caps on the fees they can charge, but a more favorable settlement could boost these stocks temporarily.
Action to Take –> It’s a bit early to see these stocks as solid short candidates. They appear to have decent — albeit not significant — downside. In this vulnerable market, however, investors should see stocks such as these, which have posted major gains and appear to be at risk of falling EPS estimates, as great candidates for profit-taking.


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Photo: Getty Images / Simon Watts
Yesterday, NBC Sports president Mark Lazarus announced the ratings boost for “strong performances” by the US allowed the company to break even on what they thought would be a huge loss.
The real winner for NBC were advertising sales totaling to near $1.25 billion–almost a 50 per cent raise from 2008’s Beijing games.
The 2010 Vancouver Olympics cost the company $223 million.
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Orlando Sentinel, December 29, 2005
OLD-SCHOOL COOL Members of the iPod generation are being led back to Zeppelin and turning on to AC/DC
Hope I die before I get old
Anyone who chanted that line along with The Who in the 1960s -- and is still around -- might have a new philosophy now. They might be watching the cholesterol and the receding hairline, planning retirement -- or taking Viagra.
Fortunately, many of their kids (or -- gasp! -- grandkids) are singing that old song again, sparking a rock revival that turns the generation gap on its head. If kids and parents had agreed so much on music in the 1960s, the original Woodstock might have featured swing bands instead of Santana and Jimi Hendrix.
"The older music is just more appealing to me," says Kyle Bellar, 12, who recently performed solo guitar renditions of Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Eric Clapton songs for a talent show at Windy Ridge School in Orlando. He found the old music on the Internet and on the albums owned by his parents, Rex and Susan Bellar.
Favorites include Led Zeppelin's debut and the Beatles' "White Album," as well as material from ELO and some blues. His wish list ignores new groups such as the White Stripes in favor of stuff that's almost four decades old.
"I don't have Led Zeppelin 4," he says, "and I hear that's the best one."
Bellar wants to start a garage band, which puts him a step behind Eric Pait, a classmate who plays trumpet with Bellar in the school band. Pait, who favors Grateful Dead T-shirts as a fashion statement, also plays bass with four other friends in the budding ensemble The Drive.
His favorite band? AC/DC.
"I just think the music and lyric choices are better," Pait, 13, says of classic rock. "I also like it because the majority of the songs are the roots for what's being done now. It's like going back to the history of the music, to where it started."
History you can dance to
That sense of history is right on the money, says E Street Band guitarist Little Steven Van Zandt, who receives a lot of e-mails from teens about his syndicated radio show Little Steven's Underground Garage.
Underground Garage, which airs at 10 p.m. Sundays on 96.5 FM (WHTQ) in Orlando, mines the clanging sounds of the Kingsmen and the Troggs and bookends the oldies with like-spirited newbies such as the Hives and the Vines.
"We go back through all 50 years of rock 'n' roll and we've found that young kids respond now very much in the way we did," says Van Zandt, 55, who traces his love of rock 'n' roll to Meet the Beatles.
Now, he's spreading the gospel to young and old alike on 136 stations that reach 200 U.S. markets. There's also a network on Sirius Satellite Radio and plans for a TV spinoff. On Christmas Day, the show will debut on the BBC in England.
Many fans are discovering the music for the first time, he says. He considers it an important cultural milestone.
"It's called the Renaissance," Van Zandt says of 1950s and 1960s rock. "It's our Renaissance, and it will be studied for hundreds of years.
"It'll be studied until they invent new instruments. Those who aspire to greatness will compare themselves and be inspired by that greatness.
"Cool is forever."
Back to the basics
Marketing possibilities abound. Stores such as Target, Hot Topic and J.C. Penney are finding an appetite among young shoppers for vintage T-shirts featuring everyone from Zeppelin to Bob Marley and Johnny Cash.
Online retailer Wolfgang's Vault (wolfgangsvault.com) even sells the real thing: vintage T-shirts made in the 1960s for acts such as the Grateful Dead and others.
At prices that can hover above $50, the T-shirts are as much collectibles as fashion accessories. It also should be noted that a large T-shirt in 1965 wasn't designed for the expanding American waistline of the 21st century.
"The college market and high-school market are good ones for us," says company vice president Matt Lundberg. "When they think about these bands, it's not just the band, it's the period, the time they were in. Rightly or wrongly, when they look at the '60s, they think it was less commercial and not all about the money."
There's also an element of style behind the popularity of the company's vintage merchandise, which includes coffee mugs and other band giveaways. The best-selling T-shirt is a bright green one with homemade-looking block letters spelling "Jefferson Airplane Loves You."
Lundberg says that many of the popular old bands share a similar characteristic, one that flies in the face of digital recording studios, sampling on rap records and the big production of American Idol.
"The music was raw," he says. "If you look at these groups, they are all pretty basic rock bands with two guitars, bass and drums. That's real basic, and I think kids really like that music."
Two guitars, bass and drums
Not coincidentally, that's also the lineup of Pait's garage band, which already has put together versions of "Smoke on the Water" and "Hell's Bells" in only a few months of rehearsals. Don't expect any current hits to creep into the mix.
"They are just hard-core classics," Pait says of the band's set list. "We've really gotten into the old stuff."
Jim Abbott can be reached at email@example.com or 407-420-6213.
By Jim Abbott
Back to Vault News


text: There have been many concerns in recent years over the safety of sunscreens. There are many safe sunscreens and all are not the same. Before we get into the details, let’s look at the recent issue of “contamination” with benzene. This has been found in at least 78 products made by Neutragena, Aveeno, Coppertone, and others. The products that we sell in our office are all Benzene free and the “contaminated” products have been removed from shelves in stores.


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U.S. consumer prices signal jump in inflation
WASHINGTON -- Higher food and gas costs pushed up U.S. consumer prices in April by the most in 10 months, evidence that inflation is ticking up from very low levels.
The consumer price index rose 0.3 percent in April after a 0.2 percent gain in March, the Labor Department said Thursday. Over the past 12 months, prices have increased 2 percent, the largest gain since July and matching the Federal Reserve's inflation target.
Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices rose 0.2 percent in April and have risen 1.8 percent in the past 12 months.
Bad weather hurts Wal-Mart in 1st quarter
NEW YORK -- Wal-Mart's first-quarter net income fell 5 percent as bad winter weather and financial struggles kept customers from spending at the world's largest retailer.
The company's shares fell 2 percent as Wal-Mart reported results that missed Wall Street's expectations for the third time in five quarters and gave a weak second-quarter earnings forecast.
The results underscore the big challenges facing Wal-Mart's new CEO, Doug McMillon, who took over the top role on Feb. 1. The retailer is considered an economic bellwether.
H&M recalls girls' leggings over safety
WASHINGTON -- H&M is recalling about 65,000 pairs of leggings for girls because a metal part on the belt can detach, which could pose a choking risk to young children.
The retailer has received one report of a choking incident in the United Kingdom but no reports of injury or other incidents in the U.S.
Consumers can get a $20 gift card by returning the leggings.
-- from wire reports


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California-based non-profit AIDS Healthcare Foundation paid $2.2 million in late August for a prominent corner parcel in Downtown Orlando, and plans to introduce its affiliate retail store with a low-cost pharmacy and blood testing service.
Located at 1349 N. Mills Ave., the 0.57-acre vacant lot lies on the southeast corner with Virginia Drive, across from The Fresh Market-anchored Mills Park retail center.
The foundation has a chain of thrift stores named Out of the Closet that are well established in South Florida, which include a pharmacy and testing center for free or low-cost testing of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.
"We recently opened one in St. Petersburg, and have a prototype design for the building that we've used on one site in Fort Lauderdale," president Michael Weinstein told GrowthSpotter. "We think Mills Avenue is an up-and-coming area, like to have corner lot locations and thought we could easily adapt our design for this property."
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation also recently inaugurated its first low-cost clinic in Central Florida near this site at 1702 N. Mills Ave., opening it in partnership with Dr. Edwin DeJesus and the Orlando Immunology Center.
The foundation is now working with its in-house architect to adapt the store plans from Fort Lauderdale to submit to the city of Orlando for review, and has yet to hire a local civil engineer, Weinstein said.
The non-profit's goal is to break ground in the fourth quarter, he added, pending permit approvals. Total projected investment is currently $4.5 million, no construction loan will be needed, and bids will be sought from local general contractors in the coming weeks, Weinstein said.
The property was sold by an affiliate of Bank of the Ozarks, which took it on as surplus land in July 2016 when it acquired C1 Bank. C1 had previously paid $1.75 million for the lot in December 2015 with plans for a new branch.
Jorge Rodriguez, managing director with Colliers International in Orlando, began marketing the property in mid-May for Bank of the Ozarks and had three prospective buyers lined up over the next two months, all within range of one another on price and timing.
One developer's offer was chosen and a contract was negotiated, but within days of closing the AIDS Healthcare Foundation jumped in with an offer of full price, quick closing and immediate hard deposit.
"I've been doing this 14 years, and in my career have probably been involved in only five deals like this where a buyer is committed enough to pay full asking price, put hard money Day 1, and have a 15-day due diligence period and 10-day close," Rodriguez said.
"We understood there was another prospective buyer and found an all-cash deal would make us more attractive," Weinstein added.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation works closely with Orlando group Impulse, an organization for young gay men that promotes healthy lifestyles. It also sponsored a float in last year's Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, that honored victims and survivors of the Pulse nightclub shooting.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at email@example.com, (407) 420-5685 or @bobmoser333. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.


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While companies are investing in new supply chain automation initiatives, they are framing much of that around risk management.
Craig Guillot, Writer, Financial Management Magazine, on Feb 16, 2021 11:13:30 AM
Supply Chain Dive, on Jul 14, 2020 9:54:42 AM
International Business Times, on Jul 14, 2020 9:36:32 AM
Link to International Business Times article here.
ISM's Inside Supply Management, on Jun 30, 2020 1:02:58 PM
During the recover phase, organizations should take the opportunity to think differently about their assumptions and consider how automation and technology can increase their visibility, Steven Bowen says.
View the ISM Inside Supply Management Weekly article here.
Steven Bowen, Chairman & CEO, Maine Pointe, on Jun 30, 2020 12:29:35 PM
The question should not be how to return to pre-pandemic conditions, but whether those conditions were really serving the company well in the first place. Maine Pointe CEO Steven Bowen publishes his sixth article in Chief Executive Magazine.
Brendan Murray, Bloomberg Trade and Supply Chain Writer, on Jun 17, 2020 10:11:25 AM
The article references the white paper written by MSU Professor Steven Melnyk and Maine Pointe CMO Simon Knowles, suggesting that companies will need to address the weak links in their supply chains immediately, identify problems and fix them, and invest for future growth. The article also presents Maine Pointe’s “stabilize, recover, rebalance” strategy.
View the Bloomberg article here.
Supply Chain Management Review, on Jun 10, 2020 1:41:51 PM
View the article in Supply Chain Management Review quoting CEO Steve Bowen here.
CFO Dive, on Jun 5, 2020 10:02:40 AM
"The most successful CFOs no longer operate in a vacuum," Maine Pointe's Steven Bowen said. "They work with other c-level executives to go beyond traditional reporting. Supply chain management affects cash flow, growth and, ultimately, shareholder value."
View the article published in CFO Dive here.
Steven Bowen, Chairman & CEO, Maine Pointe, on Apr 20, 2020 7:07:17 AM
View the Forbes article here.
With supply chains coming under greater scrutiny, transforming the supply chain into a tool for creating shareholder value is an art form that extends its scope and transforms it digitally. The presence of a hyperconnected global supply chain – along with unexpected risks like the global pandemic – have pushed the CFO’s office into a much more strategic role.
TD Ameritrade Network, on Apr 2, 2020 4:16:42 PM
View the "Market on Close" news segment here.
Maine Pointe CEO Steve Bowen, appeared this week on TD Ameritrade Network live broadcast, suggesting we are now in a historic moment in the world of business as the current pandemic adds to the challenges we were already seeing as a result of trade wars and tariffs. Steve lays out a strategy to help companies survive.


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A Byton M-Byte electrical sports activities utility car (SUV) is displayed on the CES 2020 occasion in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020.
Bridget Bennett | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
GUANGZHOU, China — Apple iPhone maker Foxconn has signed a take care of Chinese language electrical carmaker Byton to assist produce its first car.
The transfer marks an enormous push by Foxconn into auto manufacturing because it tries to diversify its enterprise past simply assembling shopper electrical merchandise.
Foxconn, which trades as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. in Taiwan, noticed its shares soar over 4% on Tuesday after they closed over 8% increased on Monday.
Byton, Foxconn and Nanjing Improvement Zone signed a strategic cooperation framework settlement on Monday to collectively produce Byton’s M-Byte SUV by the primary quarter of 2022.
Foxconn will present its experience in superior manufacturing expertise, operational administration expertise and can share industrial assets, in keeping with a press release from the businesses.
The settlement may present a lifeline for Byton which first revealed the M-Byte in 2018 however has since struggled to ramp up manufacturing. The Nanjing, China-based firm needed to droop manufacturing in July and endure a reorganization after the coronavirus pandemic damage the enterprise.
For Foxconn, the deal is a technique to diversify its enterprise. Final 12 months, Foxconn launched a set of instruments that might enable an organization to design massive components of an electrical automotive that might be manufactured by the Taiwanese agency. These instruments embrace a chassis in addition to software program for the car.
Foxconn has already been supplying automakers together with Tesla with particular parts.
China’s electrical car market continues to indicate robust progress. Electrical automotive start-ups Nio, Li Auto and Xpeng every introduced in the previous few days that deliveries surged in 2020 to close out the year with new monthly highs.


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Beijing: Tech big Apple has surpassed smartphone model Vivo to emerge as the biggest smartphone vendor in China in October 2021, says a report.
In keeping with market analysis agency Counterpoint, pushed by the iPhone 13 collection, Apple’s gross sales grew 46 per cent MoM, the very best amongst all main OEMs within the nation.
“Ever since Huawei’s decline, the highest place in China has been altering palms. OPPO turned primary in January 2021 whereas Vivo attained the highest place in March 2021,” Tarun Pathak, Analysis Director, Counterpoint, stated in a press release.
“The market dynamics modified once more in October with Apple turning into the brand new one OEM for the primary since December 2015,” Pathak added.
“Huawei has been resilient within the premium section in China, however this appears to be altering now. Apple, with its sturdy model fairness, is gaining the utmost from the hole left by Huawei within the premium section,” Pathak stated.
“Apple might have gained extra if it weren’t for the shortages, particularly for the Professional variations. However nonetheless, Apple is managing its provide chain higher than different OEMs,” he added.


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Michael Tercha, Chicago Tribune
February 7, 2013
The #50 Target Chip Ganassi Dallara car driven by Dario Franchitti, winner of the 2012 Indianapolis 500, is on display at the Honda booth at the 105th Chicago Auto Show at McCormick Place.
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There’s an unassuming factory in Langley, B.C., where thousands of tonnes of premium protein are being produced every year using neither land nor water.
Welcome to the world’s largest insect farm — and the future of food. Or, at least, the future of feed.
And that future is coming to Alberta next year, when Enterra Feed Corporation starts building an 180,000-square-foot production facility in Balzac, just north of Calgary.
“We have limited resources and a growing population, so when we think about the future of food, we’re looking at insects,” said Victoria Leung, the company’s manager of marketing and operations.
“Right now, over two billion people around the world already eat insects as part of their regular diet. In North America, that trend hasn’t really caught on quite yet, so we’re targeting the feed industry.”
The insect ingredient market has exploded since Enterra began producing and processing black soldier fly larvae as a protein source four years ago. The global insect ingredient sector is expected to top out at over $1 billion in revenues a year by 2022, and insect meal could replace up to 300 million tonnes of other animal feeds.
And with good reason — as livestock producers face the prospect of producing more food with less land and water, they’ll need to get creative to increase their production.
Insect-based feed seems to fit the bill.
Black soldier fly larvae (Enterra’s preferred species, though there are others) can be produced in the billions in a relatively small square footage using food waste from the produce supply chain. But more importantly, they’re highly digestible, palatable, and rich in protein — three key feed attributes.
In a 2014 study by the Food and Agriculture Organization, researchers found that between 25 and 100 per cent of soymeal or fishmeal in the diets of chicken, pigs, and certain species of fish could be replaced with insect meal with no adverse effects.
“Feed manufacturers are looking for sustainable alternatives and ingredients that are in tune with what livestock would eat in the wild. Insects are a natural fit,” said Leung.
Despite the many benefits of insects as a feed source, regulatory hurdles have slowed the growth of the industry, and right now, Enterra is one of only a few companies that are mass producing insects for the feed industry.
“There are a few other players out there who are also trying to produce insects on a large scale, but supply right now in the industry is constrained because we are relatively new,” said Leung.
“It’s going to take some time for us to gain scale.”
That scale-up will start next year for Enterra, with the construction of the $30-million facility in Balzac. Two similar facilities will follow — Vancouver in 2020 and Ohio the following year. Once completed, they will produce commercial-level quantities of premium protein for the aquaculture, pet food, and livestock industries across North America.
“The demand is gigantic. We’re really seeing the market take off with our insect products being a novel protein source,” said Leung. “The feed industry is massive, and if we do see the trend for human food take off in the insect space, that’s something we’ll be targeting as well.
“The possibilities are endless. We’re just getting started.”


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One was launched seven years ago, bringing targeted TV ads to individual households before the practice was even known as “addressable”.
The other appeared in 2016, tying together four suites for buying ads across devices.
Now Comcast is merging NBCUniversal’s Audience Studio with Sky’s AdSmart, after the owner acquired the European pay-TV company last year.
What is AdSmart?
Sky launched AdSmart in 2013, storing ads on satellite subscribers’ set-top boxes for subsequent targeted playback. It has since spearheaded the UK’s addressable TV revolution, which, despite the existence of several broadcasting networks, is still largely confined to Sky’s AdSmart, and is a European leader in addressable technology.
Sky has served billions of impressions this way using 1,200 customer categories (many of them for newcomers to TV advertising), and later added a cross-platform ad sequencing platform called Sky AdVance and an analytics offering, too.
What is Audience Studio?
NBCU launched Audience Studio as a data management platform under Denise Colella three years ago, tying together its Audience Targeting Platform (for targeting linear TV viewers), NBCUx (for digital media targeting), NBCU+ (for using Comcast set-top box data) and Social Synch (for extending out through social networks).
What is happening?
Comcast will now badge both offerings as “AdSmart” – specifically, “AdSmart from NBCUniversal” and “AdSmart from Sky”.
That is the starting point. Over time, the pair will aim to learn from each other’s capabilities (Sky’s talent in advanced addressable, NBCU’s in linear optimization), applying them in their respective territories.
An NBC spokesperson tells Beet.TV: “Sky and NBCU’s teams will both gain insight into each other’s advanced advertising capabilities. The long-term goal is that over time, each team will look at how to apply the learnings and solutions from the other to their own markets.”
It’s not yet clear how fully that means a merger for the products.
What is the impact?
Such synergies were always likely as a key component of Comcast’s much-heralded Sky acquisition.
Comcast hopes the closer alignment will help large global brands more easily target and optimize ad campaigns on a more worldwide basis.
“The world is getting smaller, and the opportunity for international marketers to make an impact with consumers is getting bigger,” says NBCU’s advertising chairman Linda Yaccarino in a statement.
All told, the combined product feature set includes:
- Optimization of linear TV ad campaigns againstusing consumer data segments and set-top box data from Comcast and Sky, totalling 50 million households.
- Addressable TV ad placements.
- Digital targeting.
- Commercial break targeting using AI piloted by NBC to better describe contextual moments in shows, using closed-captioning data
video description and scripts of shows.


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This week in Cancun politicians from around the world are discussing a scheme to protect the world's forests. Called REDD+, it is being hailed as a way to save the world's forests and relies upon developed nations to give funds to developing countries to stop deforestation. It is well known the important role forests play in protecting our environment. But REDD+ puts the focus of responsibility on developing countries, with developed countries focused on giving money. There is another side to this coin.
Around the world consumers use goods that come from forests everyday - wood, soya, palm oil and beef - to name a few. High consumer demand for these products means forests are worth more dead than alive. Developed nations need to think far more carefully about the effect their consumption has on the world's forests.
Consumers and retailers have a responsibility to make sure that products from forests are sustainable and that demand for sustainable forest products supports developing countries to protect forests. Many people think about buying fair-trade coffee or recycled paper, but few consumers are aware of whether the furniture they buy is made from legally-sourced timber. In the UK alone £700m a year is spent by UK shoppers on products made from illegally sourced wood. This illegal trade is a major cause of deforestation and undermines efforts to protect forests. It is estimated that one in ten of the products purchased in UK supermarkets contains palm oil - including many processed foods and cosmetics. Demand for palm oil means that natural forests are being replaced with oil palm plantations to make shampoo or chocolate bars.
Biofuels, which are increasingly used to fuel our cars, also present a real danger. Current government criteria don't account for all the negative consequences biofuel production has on forests. In fact when indirect land use change is taken into account, Europe's use of biofuels will emit an extra 27 to 56 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year and result in forest area the size of Ireland being wiped out.
Legislation can do a lot to solve these problems. This year the European Union banned illegal timber from being placed on the EU market. It is a big step forward and over the next few years businesses need to implement this legislation and ensure that it achieves its aim of excluding illegal timber from our shops. More can still be done. Strict sustainability criteria, which include social factors relevant to the timber's environmental sustainability, should be applied to all products originating from forests. These criteria can require that cultivation of the product did not result in deforestation - either directly or indirectly - and that products from forests brought into the EU must be harvested from forests that meet comprehensive criteria for sustainable forest management, including respect for the forest tenure rights of forest communities.
Strict sustainability criteria on products would reassure consumers about the impacts of their purchases and would also drive innovation as industry seeks out new ways to ensure goods do not undermine on our environmental, economic or social ambitions.
REDD+ should not be a get-out clause for people in developed countries to avoid tough choices about our own consumption habits. If we as consumers value forests, we need to reflect that in what we buy and sell, and take action at home to promote market-wide sustainability criteria. That would be a true REDD plus approach.
Janet Meissner Pritchard is an experienced public interest lawyer who leads ClientEarth's Climate & Forests legal team. ClientEarth is a non-profit environmental law organisation based in London, Brussels, Paris and Warsaw.


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Qualcomm gets permission to sell 4G chips to Huawei
American semiconductor companies had been banned from selling their products to the Chinese firm
In September, all American semiconductor companies were banned from selling their products to Huawei. Moreover, the US Commerce Department announced that it would be expanding restrictions aimed at preventing Huawei from obtaining semiconductors without a special license, including foreign-made chips manufactured using US software or technology.
However, it seems as if the San Diego-based Qualcomm has been granted an exception to the rule.
A Qualcomm spokeswoman told Reuters that the company had “received a license for a number of products, which includes some 4G products”, but declined to comment on the specific 4G products Qualcomm would be allowed to sell to Huawei.
The spokeswoman also told the publication that Qualcomm has other license applications pending with the US government.
The news comes months after The Wall Street Journal reported that the American chipmaker had asked the Trump administration to ease the restrictions on the sale of components to Huawei and allow it to sell chips to the company for use in its 5G phones.
Although the decision might be seen as a gracious move from the Trump administration, it is unlikely to be of much help to Huawei if it only involves 4G products, especially due to the mass shift to 5G infrastructure and accompanying devices.
Although Qualcomm is the largest mobile phone chip supplier globally, Huawei was not its biggest customer, using Qualcomm chips only in cheaper device models.
This was largely due to Huawei’s ability to assemble its own semiconductors for its flagship handsets. However, this was halted in September, when the Trump administration imposed trade restrictions which blocked Huawei’s access to chip design software and fabrication tools sourced from US manufacturers.
On 10 August, the Chinese tech giant confirmed that the US sanctions would seriously affect the production of its most advanced smartphone chips, forcing it to run out of its high-end Kirin 9000 chipset in mid-September. At the time, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business unit Richard Yu said that “this year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips”.
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On August 25th the Gloucester Township Planning Board approved a new Lidl Grocery store which is planned for the Black Horse Pike in the Blackwood section of town. Earlier that same day the Lidl Corporate site published a press release of “Plans to add 50 new stores by end of next year. $500 million investment”, and Gloucester Township/Blackwood is listed.
We were the first to report on this store plans on August 14th. The location is the large empty lot on the Black Horse Pike, where Lakeland/Davistown Road intersect.
As reported previously, this is the third time that Lidl has appeared for approval of a store in Gloucester Township, which could easily cast some doubt on the follow-through of this location… but there is a twist this time.
Lidl published a news release on August 25th
Lidl (US) Unveils Plans To Add 50 New Stores And 2,000 New Jobs By End Of Next Year. Driven By Growing Base of Enthusiastic Shoppers, America’s Fastest Growing Retailer Will Invest More Than $500 Million In 50% Growth Spurt
The press release includes the list of cities where stores are planned, and within the list is:
Gloucester Township, NJ Blackwood
I think most readers will take a “I’ll believe it when I see” opinion… but this is a strong vote of confidence that the store is going to be developed, and gets developed fast.
Other positive factors; they recently opened a new Cherry Hill store (in their new slightly smaller footprint), and the Glassboro construction looks almost complete (well I need to stop over and check out the latest progress!). It seems like things are back into full-steam-ahead mode for Lidl USA.
Interestingly… Lidl won approval for a Somerdale location earlier in the year, and that did not make the list of 50 stores in 18 months.
Lidl Growth: Start, Stop, Start
Lidl came to the US a few years ago with a strong fanfare and did open an area location in Vineland New Jersey, but a series of approvals and purchases did not pan out into stores being built.
In Mantua (2017) they went as far as paying $3.25 million for 5 acres of land on Woodbury-Glassboro Rd… and then decided not to build.
But that was under the original US plan with a larger store footprint. It seems things changed since the first round of US stores were built. The Cherry Hill store survived the transition as Lidl had chosen to go back to the planning board and get re-approved for the slightly smaller stores they seem to have moved to in the US.
And yes I would bet they get a tax break. It’s a core piece of the Gloucester Township development strategy, and the Lidl property sits in a redevelopment zone. A typical plan is 5 years… say 0%, 30%, 50%, 70%, 90%… then 100% of the full tax/PILOT amount. I know people go nuts over this, but right now the Premium Outlets are paying over a million dollars a year in taxes/PILOT.
I don’t know all of the factors in developing a large commercial project, but Gloucester Township seems to have streamlined things. An entire 90+ store shopping center went from announcement to opening in like a year. The Dave & Busters, outside of Covid pause, also popped up in less than a year. Over in Cross-Keys the new Urban Air building went up quickly also. Let’s hope the same for LIDL!
Black H0rse Pike and the Commercial District
The Black Horse Pike runs from Camden to Atlantic City, and traces its roots back to the 1700s as being a main road across Southern New Jersey. Towns and Commercial districts grew along it’s entire length. But post-war road construction of the 42 Freeway (1959) and the Atlantic City Expressway (1965) moved significant amounts of traffic off of the entire length of the Black Horse Pike.
People always say “less traffic is great!”, but in the case of the Black Horse Pike, it caused downturns for many of the commercial districts and towns. Redevelopment efforts are a constant thing along the entire length.
A quick google search sees mentions in Mays Landing, Regional Camden County, Egg Harbor, Runnemede, Camden, and in Gloucester Township there is the “Villages of Gloucester Township Rehabilitation Plan”. The focus to build up the economic prospects of the Black Horse Pike even spurred a full report by the Delaware Valley Planning Commission (PDF)
Which brings us to Blackwood, Gloucester Township.
With the opening of the Gloucester Premium Outlets several years ago, everyone who saw the future success… saw the potential of what it could do for the surrounding area. We are seeing that with the Dave & Busters location (opening soon, hopefully!), the recent Dollar General store, a new Dunkin Donuts (and the remodeling of the shopping center)…
And while the Dave & Busters is a very big deal (drawing in visitors and shoppers from a wider area)… a new grocery store is a big deal on it’s own level. New grocery stores are just tough to come by.
And in my opinion.. the Lidl store doesnt even get to planning, if not for the Outlets being a block away.
Oh and also down the road a ways towards Skeeters, a large housing development was approved. And another was recently approved on the other side of 42 across from the outlets (I plan to post on that soon)… So new residents, with multiple shopping options, and a new grocery store? That’s a great catalyst to for a rebirth.
Yes there is still much work to be done on the Blackwood section of the Black Horse Pike.. but if the Lidl grocery store gets built.. and quickly (as I suspect), we can only expect more progress to take place in Blackwood.
And it’s not all about big stores in big boxes. Shana’s Wild Fig is enjoying success in a repurposed “old Blackwood” storefront. The Holy Tomato is a beloved mainstay on the Pike… and there are many other smaller and older buildings which with new stores drawing people to the Black Horse Pike, should also be primed for new life.
I read almost all of the comments. “When are the gonna do something about the Black Horse Pike?”. “Oh a Dollar General? is that the big rebirth?”. “They are tearing down that entire block”.
Well seems Blackwood is getting a grocery store. On top of a major outlet mall. And an major entertainment venue. These are big things. These are rare.
Let’s just hope the growth continues.
Cue the “but what about the traffic” comments!


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Taking your startup public isn’t a requirement to building a billion-dollar business— maybe ever.
Shutterstock CEO Jon Oringer and Squarespace CEO Anthony Casalena, who each started their companies with about $30,000, shared some of what they’ve learned with an audience of young entrepreneurs at Forbes’ 30 Under Summit on Monday in Detroit. IPOs were one area where the two weren’t entirely in agreement, at least in terms of timing.
“If you’re able to do it, eventually it’s going to happen. If you’re successful, you’re going to be out, but it’s an intimidating process,” Oringer said. “I was sitting there in 2012 saying, ‘It would be nice to have that kind of instrument for my employees. It would be good to have kind of transparency for the enterprise customers that we are trying to build the business into.’ And we just kind of went for it.”
Seven years later, his view is a bit more mixed.
“It is not the most fun thing to be public, but it gives you a lot of optionality as to how you’re going to build a business for the better. There have been moments where I wish I could go back, but it is what it is,” he said. “I say do it as soon as possible.”
Shutterstock shares rose 4.8% to $38.08 in New York Stock Exchange trading on Monday, boosting its market cap to $1.34 billion. Shares are up 72% from their debut date in 2012, but half of what they were at their 2014 peak.
Squarespace, privately valued at more than $1 billion and a member of the Forbes Cloud 100, hasn’t gone down that path yet, and Casalena isn’t sure it needs to anytime soon.
“We’re at a size where we could be public, with about half a billion in revenue this year, a little bit over 1,000 employees and profitable these days,” he said. “For us, because there isn’t an immediate need to raise more capital for the business . . . just making sure that we do that at the right time where we really feel like our business model is going to be valuable. And we’ve got some control over our growth rate and profit margin.”
Should the stars align, “hopefully we’ll be in charge of a public company, but otherwise, there’s no rush to raise capital or anything like that.”
On the marketing front, both CEOs said their companies are benefiting from social media and personality-driven promotion.
“People have always followed and cared about certain kinds of personalities, whether a personality is a radio host, whether that person is a TV host or they’re on YouTube, they have their own podcast, their Instagram,” said Casalena, whose company is particularly reliant on podcaster marketing. “We’ve always partnered with people we felt were aligned with the brand and who authentically liked our product and we thought could help promote it.”
Shutterstock sparked its own social media influencer excitement this year by using stock video and photographic imagery to recreate a multimillion-dollar video that promoted the disastrous Fyre Festival, Oringer said. Led mainly by Instagram influencers, the company’s $3,000 video quickly went viral.
“We weren’t really trying to do anything that dramatic, but this thing spread virally in an amazing way. We kind of realized at that moment that marketing is completely different and the people that were promoting this thing, the influencers that you’re talking about, are kind of helping us propagate this message,” he said. “It was a wake-up call.”


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Pucker up! Just in time for Easter, YumEarth is stocking store shelves with a delicious candy that kids will love. Yes, it’s candy… but if you’re going to treat your kids, YumEarth candy
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VIDEO: 6 year-old inventors charm President Obama with their LEGO robot at the White House science fair
While making his rounds at the annual White House Science Fair, President Obama ran into just about the cutest group of young inventors ever, and luckily, it was caught on tape. Five adorable
In some ways, it’s easier than ever for U.S. schools to serve local food. Once upon a time, tight distributor contracts and lack of federal support made it challenging for a school to source local foods
We’re disappointed that big news in France hasn’t made its way to the top of U.S. headlines: the French National Assembly recently passed a law that will help to limit young children’s
LEGO is now offering beauty advice to young girls, and attempting to teach them about getting the “right” haircut for the shape of their face. How did “a toy for a girl, a toy for a boy” become
If your little one is obsessed with the idea of receiving a sweet Easter animal this spring, make sure you give him or her one of these realistic Hansa stuffed toys instead of a real live Easter animal.
Promoting the importance of early learning through play is one of the LEGO company’s tenets, and The LEGO Foundation just stepped up their philanthropic game with an $8.2 million dollar pledge to
These cuddly bunny pals from Apple Park are made from 100% organic cotton and organic cotton fiber filling, and any child would be delighted to find one in his/her Easter basket. Super soft and cozy, this
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The number of shop thefts committed against retailers over the last year has risen to nearly one million, new survey findings have revealed.
The Association of Convenience Stores’ (ACS) 2018 Crime Report has revealed there were over 950,000 incidents of theft estimated over the last year, doubling from 575,000 in the previous year.
The top three reasons reported by retailers as to why people steal from their stores being opportunism, motivation by drugs or alcohol addiction and organized groups of criminals.
There were also an estimated 13,437 incidents of violence reported over the last year, the report found, although it is likely that many more have gone unreported.
Commenting on the report, ACS chief executive, James Lowman, said: “Retailers and their staff are on the front line in stores, enforcing the law and protecting their businesses from theft and other crimes.
“While convenience stores are community hubs and are a safe place to work, and run a business, unfortunately sometimes violence and abuse against retailers and their staff does occur.”
ACS research shows a reported 72 per cent of corner shop staff have experienced verbal abuse within the last year and 39 per cent of violent incidents resulted in injury.
There were a reported 3,690 incidents of theft where a weapon was used – in 64 per cent of these cases the offender used a knife.
Other weapon choices consisted of axes, screwdrivers, hammers and real or imitation firearms.
Dealing with shop thieves ranked as the number one trigger for violence and verbal abuse in convenience stores.
“Retailers and their staff are facing violence and abuse on a regular basis for enforcing the law, whether it be through challenging shop thieves, refusing sale of the age restricted products like tobacco or alcohol, or refusing to serve people that are intoxicated,” Lowman said.
“Retailers need a consistent response from the police to ensure that when a crime is committed against a retailer it is taken seriously by the police and the courts.”
The financial costs of retail crime for local shops is considerable, equivalent to a 7p crime tax per transaction.
Crimes against convenience stores costs an overall 193m to the sector, averaging at £3,873 per store.
Lowman added: “The figures in our Crime Report provide an important insight into what retailers face when dealing with crime, but we expect the true impact to be much larger as a lack of faith in the consistency of police response has led to many incidents going unreported.”
The ACS has published an animated video to help local shopkeepers manage respond to violence and abuse.
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Home sales in York County were up 7 percent through June compared to the halfway point in 2011, the Realtors Association of York and Adams Counties said today.
The association reported 1,794 sales during the first six months of the year. The median sale price was $140,000, which was level with 2011.
“We are halfway through 2012 and are seeing small steps of economic improvement and remain optimistic through the end of 2012,” said John LeCates, the association’s president.
For the month alone, June sales were up 11 percent compared with the same year-ago month, the association said. A total of 383 homes were sold in York County.
The median sale price in June was $151,000, or 3 percent higher than June 2011.
Northern York County School District saw the biggest percentage gain in June with 16 sales compared with just three in June 2011, the association said. West Shore School District was second with 21 sales, compared with 10 last year.
Southern York County School District posted the biggest percentage gain in median sale price. For the month, the sale price was $244,500, which was up 31 percent from June 2011. York City School District was second at $27,500, a boost from $23,000.
Through the first six months, Northern has seen the biggest jump in sales at 66 percent, the association said.
Southern and Dover Area school districts posted the biggest gains in median sale price at 6 percent each. The sale price in Southern was $144,500 through June; in Dover it was $195,470.


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Photo Credit: YouTube
The force is strong with Volkswagen this year. The company has some big shoes (well, little Darth Vader ones) to step into after last year's adorable Star Wars-themed Super Bowl ad became the most-shared commercial of 2011. Turns out the company is sticking with the working formula, and has released another Star Wars-themed advertisement to stoke anticipation for the reveal of their big ad on game day (which is Feb. 6). Called "The Bark Side," the teaser features a medley of dogs barking Darth Vader's theme, "The Imperial March." It's the same song that was used for last year's ad, although that one was the orchestral version. Watch the new (ridiculously cute) video below!
Five lucky pups even got to dress up for the video. Chewbarka (yes, we just came up with that on the spot) is definitely our favorite, but the C-3PO, Darth Vader and Ewok ones are also forces to be reckoned with. We won't ruin the final surprise appearance for you, as that little Greyhound definitely has the best entrance.
Based on this clip, it seems safe to assume that Volkswagen is going to be doing another Star Wars-themed ad for the Super Bowl, which airs Feb. 5. But will it be a longer version of this commercial, or is this just a teaser for a new "The Force"-style ad to come? Only time will tell. Until then, we'll just watch this video 1,037 times.
(And, for good measure, check out VW's 2011 Super Bowl ad below.)


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Shares in Britain's largest investment trust have fallen sharply to a rare discount to the value of the stocks it holds, presenting a buying opportunity for long-term investors, according to experts.
More than £1bn has been wiped off the value of the FTSE 100-listed trust in the last two days as the shares tumbled 10.9pc. At yesterday's £12.03 closing price, the stock is now at a 5.1pc discount to the value of its assets, a rarity for shares in the top-performing trust.
Investors have sold off the shares on fears over a rise in inflation, which would hurt the high-growth companies like ecommerce giants Amazon and Alibaba and electric car maker Tesla that Scottish Mortgage backs.
Higher inflation eats into the value of the future profits offered by "growth" companies, while having less of an impact on "value" stocks, which tend to be bought based on the value of their profits today.
There is an emerging consensus that the American government's $1.8 trillion (£1.3 trillion) stimulus plan, coupled with pent-up consumer spending power ready to be unleashed when Covid-19 restrictions end, will lead to an upsurge in the pace of price rises.
But the rare discount on shares in Scottish Mortgage, which has more than doubled investors' money over the last year and returned 481pc over the last five, represented a chance to buy more, according to Nick Wood of wealth manager Quilter.
"Investors should consider this a buying opportunity given the long-term track record the team has exhibited, as well as the quality of the portfolio," he said.
Ben Yearsley of Shore Financial Planning added for long-term investors, buying the shares at a discount was the right approach. "It is an anomaly and probably won’t last long," he said.
Shares in the trust have tended to trade at a premium to the value of its assets and its largest discount over the last 12 months, of 14.6pc as stock markets tumbled last March, was quickly recovered.
Simon Elliott, of stockbroker Winterflood, said the trust's board had always been quick to act when the shares fell to a discount. "Its board has always been quick to buy back shares to close any discount, so it may not last long,” he said.
Jason Hollands, of fund shop Bestinvest, said investors who bought into Scottish Mortgage's long-term, growth-oriented investment approach should use the opportunity to buy more shares.
"If you are ready to back the managers over a long period then today could be a good time to buy shares," he said.
"The risk is that we now see a big move into ‘cheap’ value shares, but no-one know for certain if that will happen."
Mr Yearsley also acknowledged that risk. "Technology firms such as Amazon and Alphabet will remain great companies, but their prices could be too high in a world where returns from safe government bonds keep rising," he said.
Shares in other investment trusts run by Scottish Mortgage manager Baillie Gifford, which share its growth-focused approach, were also hit hard yesterday.
Baillie Gifford US Growth fell 7.1pc, Pacific Horizon was down 8.3pc and Edinburgh Worldwide lost 6pc.


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International beauty players keen to take advantage of engaged and sophisticated consumer
Korean beauty will continue its march on the global beauty industry in 2019 as more international and domestic brands flood the market.
According to Mintel. K-beauty exports have grown from $1bn to $2.64bn, with a South Korean per capita spend of $45, well ahead of UK and US consumers ($43 and $37 respectively).
Homegrown k-beauty brands are also now facing greater competition from global luxury players who have identified key opportunities in the region and are targeting consumers with new beauty launches.


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More than 8,000 Registered for Corvette Caravan
Talk about missing a hell of a party. As of August 27, nearly 8,000 Corvettes had registered for the huge gathering at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY.
For this week’s Corvette question, we’d like to know what’s the fastest you’ve been caught doing in your car?
It appears that Corvettes at Carlisle just keeps getting better.
If you’ve ever read anything I’ve written about these kinds of Corvette custom jobs, then you pretty much know where this piece is going.
The National Corvette Museum is putting the final touches on the $17-million Motorsports Park, which is scheduled to hold its grand opening on August 28.


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Equifax also is offering a free year of credit protection service through this site.
Adding to the frustration was the news that three Equifax senior executives, including its chief financial officer, sold $1.8 million worth of company stock just days after the company discovered the breach but weeks before it was made public. Consumers could start cutting back on credit card purchases or choosing not to save their card numbers and other personal data on retailer websites or in digital wallets. When people enter their last name and part of their Social Security number on the site to see whether they were affected, some are being told: "Based on the information provided, we believe that your personal information may have been impacted by this incident".
Clark said a credit freeze is the only answer in this case. Equifax also declined to respond to comment regarding the lawsuit. You can stagger these as well, so for example, you may request your Experianreport four months after you request your TransUnion report to continually monitor them. The only other entities that are allowed to see your credit report at this point are government agencies carrying out a search warrant or subpoena, and yourself, if you're trying to access the free credit report that is entitled to you once per year per credit bureau.
"In an attempt to increase profits, Equifax negligently failed to maintain adequate technological safeguards to protect Ms. McHill and Mr. Reinhard's information from unauthorized access by hackers", the complaint stated.
Equifax has developed a comprehensive portfolio of services to support consumers determine if their data has been affected.
They could claim that Equifax's stock price was inflated because the company, executives and directors defrauded them about Equifax's ability to protect data, and should not have waited until September 7 to disclose a hacking uncovered on July 29. Its stock price fell as much as 17.8 percent on Friday, wiping out more than $3 billion of market value.
While a chunk of the U.S. population now risk their SSNs ending up in the hands of identity thieves and, perhaps, the dark web, the breach can be yet again an eye opener to consumers across the globe, including India. Some credit card information was also put at risk.
Equifax's ham-handed response is reviving calls to weed out mandatory arbitration from the finance industry.
According to a study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, only about 16 people per year win in arbitration against companies.
"Over a third of Montanans, a lot of them adults, have been affected by this very significant data breach", Mattioli said.
During the interview, Mund was asked about the USA withdrawal from the Paris accord on climate change. Previously She is the Noty Dakota's Outstanding Teen in 2010, Quality Of Life Award 1st runner up.
Instead, Bethel got a running start towards the end zone as he happily picked off the pass to give Arizona an early 7-0 lead. His first touchdown, a 10-yarder, displayed the 6-foot-4, 213-pound receiver's catch radius and leaping ability.
He noted that Qatar had been presented with a list of 13 demands by the other countries and was willing to discuss them. Trump chose Saudi Arabia for his first overseas visit as president in May, two weeks before the Gulf crisis erupted.
Anderson has been claimed as one of the game's best servers now , and he leads the men's field in the most number of aces served. And now I am in the semi-finals of the US Open , and I think it is as important as if Rafa arrives to the semi-finals.
Jenkins came on to Wonder Woman as a replacement for director Michelle McLaren , who left the project over creative differences. In June, Variety reported that Jenkins was working with DC's Geoff Johns to develop a script for the sequel.
The building was still in tact despite the crane's failure. "The luffing crane can not rotate like a weather vane", Whiteman said. He said videos of the collapse posted on social media showed a luffing crane, which lacks a horizontal arm and does not spin.
Egypt accuses Hasm of being a militant wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group it outlawed in 2013. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief media.
The demand contradicted the stance of their host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has dismissed sanctions as a solution. It believes the system's radar could be used to look deeply into its territory and will upset the regional security balance.
New Xiaomi Mi Notebook Pro Starts at Only $850
The mid-range option drops the RAM to 8GB, while the entry-level Mi Notebook Pro also drops the processor down to a Core i5 8250U. The notebook's so-called "cooling design " is also pleasing to look at, with the device being extremely symmetrical and elegant.
Fitzpatrick beats Hend in thrilling Switzerland playoff
Hend led by three shots going into round four and had an eight-foot putt to win on the second playoff hole, but he missed. Hend birdied the par-3 13th hole minutes before fading light forced the players off a second time.


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The company is currently in very early phases of designing and engineering an all-new platform for the next-generation GT-R. They are still deciding the scale of electrification though. Nissan Design boss Alfonso Albaisa said that it “has to be its own special car”. Albaisa added that it will be “the fastest super sports car in the world” and retain a visual identity which is unique.
The new GT-R is still several years from production readiness and is likely to arrive early in the next decade. Albaisa said, “Whether we go to a lot of electrification or none at all, we can achieve a lot, power-wise,” he said. “But we are definitely making a new ‘platform’ and our goal is clear: GT-R has to be the quickest car of its kind. It has to ‘own’ the track. And it has to play the advanced technology game; but that doesn’t mean it has to be electric.”
“We simply have to reflect people’s dreams; and I think people dream that the next GT-R will be the hottest super sports car in the world. It’s an animal; it has to be imposing and excessive. Not in terms of its wings, but rather its visual mass, its presence and its audacity.” he added. “It doesn’t care what every other supercar in the world is doing; it simply says, ‘I’m a GT-R, I’m a brick, catch me.’ It’s the world’s fastest brick, really. And when I review sketches for the new car, I say that a lot: 'Less wing, more brick.'”


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Helping Hands and Amadeus Board games club are organizing a board games tournament at the Mercure Hotel on Thursday 17th October at 18h.
You will compete individually on different board games.
The winners will get awesome prizes: Amazon vouchers, board games, …
The price includes one drink in addition to the right to participate to the tournament.
Don’t forget that the entrance fee is tax deductible!
Ticket sale is now closed: you can purchase your ticket directly at the hotel Mercure.


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A diet which reduces or even excludes meat and animal produce in favour of vegetables, fruit and grains could halve people’s chances of becoming obese, according to new research.
A study carried out in Spain describes the benefits of what researchers call a “pro-vegetarian” diet which does not exclude meat and dairy products but reduces them. It has also been called a “flexitarian” diet – basically vegetarian, with meat and fish consumed occasionally.
Some 16,000 university graduates were tracked from 1999 for 10 years, by which time 584 were obese, according to findings presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Porto, Portugal.
At the beginning of the study, participants completed detailed food questionnaires which were scored to establish how pro-vegetarian their diet was. They got more points for eating from seven plant food groups – vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, olive oil, legumes (such as peas, beans, and lentils) and potatoes.
Points were then deducted for foods from five animal groups – animal fats, dairy, eggs, fish and other seafood, and meat.
The researchers compared the 20% whose diet included the most animal products with the 20% who ate the least. They found that those whose diet was the most vegetarian were 43% less likely to become obese.
Although fish was included in the animal foods group, the results showed that there was very little difference in the amount of fish that any of the participants ate, so had little impact on obesity rates.
But there was a significant difference in the amount of meat eaten – those who ate most consumed about 200g a day (roughly the weight of a small chicken breast or a seven ounce steak), while those who ate least consumed 142g. There was an even larger difference in the consumption of vegetables – 348g in the meat-eating group and 731g for those whose diet was the most vegetarian. The same applied to fruit consumption – 191g versus 531g.
“Our recommendation is to eat less meat,” said Prof Maira Bes-Rastrollo, one of the authors. “Don’t increase the consumption of animal foods. Prefer plant-based foods to animal foods.”
The study’s weakness is that it is observational – it did not recruit people eating a mainly vegetarian diet in order to compare them with a group of meat eaters, nor did it attempt to change the behaviour of participants.
The pro-vegetarian diet in the study is very similar to the Mediterranean diet. Gaynor Bussell, a dietician and member of the British Dietetic Association said: “We have known for a while that a healthy plant-based diet is associated with less obesity and this new evidence confirms this.
“Other factors could be accounting for the lower obesity in this group; I would also add that although scored negatively, foods such as fish, some meat and dairy are not associated with obesity but it is about the overall balance of the diet. The Mediterranean diet with its reliance on fruit, veg, nuts, beans and little meat is probably an ideal mix and is also associated with lower obesity rates.”
Sarah Toule from the World Cancer Research Fund said: “A mainly plant-based diet not only helps reduce obesity risk, but our own evidence shows it helps reduce your cancer risk too.
“Eating more portions of vegetables and fruit, cooking from scratch and including a wide variety of colours on your plate are all good ways to improve your diet.”


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What you need to know:
- Kenya shut down bars on March 25 and in July banned restaurants from selling alcohol to contain the virus.
- Alcohol sales have plummeted as businesses continue to reel from the directive.
- Mr Kenyatta last month set the stage for reopening of bars and night clubs.
Prolonged closure of bars and night clubs has forced the Treasury to cut its excise tax projections by Sh45.8 billion, giving the government a fresh revenue collection headache three months since the start of the financial year.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani has lowered the excise duty target — the bulk of which come from sale of alcohol and cigarettes — to Sh195.6 billion from the Sh241.4 billion set in June despite a scheduled raise on the tax from October 1.
The Treasury has linked the cut to the effects of Covid-19 restrictions, including closure of bars and curbs on mass gathering. More than 30 products attract excise duty, including bottled water, fuel and juices. But alcohol and cigarettes, largely sold in bars and restaurants, account for more than 75 percent of the tax collection.
Kenya shut down bars on March 25 and in July banned restaurants from selling alcohol to contain the virus, which had infected 36,205 people and killed 624 as of Monday.
Alcohol sales have plummeted as businesses continue to reel from the directive that only allows for take-away services, prompting firms like East Africa Breweries Limited (EABL) to announce a 39 percent drop in net profit to Sh7 billion for the year ended June 2020.
The Treasury had hoped bars would resume operations by September when Kenya was expected to have kept the coronavirus under firm control.
The taxman collects Sh253 per litre of spirit, Sh189 for a litre wine and Sh110.62 for a litre beer, while a stick of a cigarette with filter attracts Sh3.16 duty.
Mr Yatani has cut total tax collection forecast for this financial year ending June 2021 by Sh91.2 billion to Sh1.42 trillion compared with his earlier estimates of Sh1.51 trillion in June.
“The revenue projections for FY 2020/21 have been revised taking into account the revenue performance by end August 2020 and the prolonged effects of Covid-19 pandemic on economic activities and the measures put in place to curb its spread,” the Cabinet Secretary says in the draft Budget Review and Outlook Paper (BROP).
Read more here


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These three Stocks Could be Huge Winners From Another Round of Stimulus Check The U.S. government is negotiating another multi-trillion dollar economic help package. These stocks are actually positioned to benefit from it. However do not forgot Western Union.
Over the past several days, political leadership in Washington, D.C., appears to have been trapped in a quagmire as talks with regards to a possible second round of stimulus can’t get beyond speaking. But, there are indications that the present icy partisan bickering might be thawing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin (who is actually that represent President Donald Trump inside the discussions) have reportedly manufactured several improvement on stimulus negotiations, and the economic relief package being negotiated appears to be for somewhere between $1.8 trillion as well as $2.2 trillion. Whatever is actually agreed to will likely include an additional issuance of $1,200 stimulus inspections for qualifying Americans and will likely be the centerpiece of every price.
If the 2 sides can hammer out there an arrangement, these checks may just unleash a brand new wave of paying by U.S. consumers. Let us have a look at three stocks that are actually well positioned to reap the benefits of another round of stimulus examinations.
There is little uncertainty which Walmart (NYSE:WMT) became a big beneficiary of the earliest round of stimulus examinations. Spending at the lower price retailer surged in the lots of time and months following the signing on the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act at the end of March. Many Americans were already shopping at the discount retailer, hence it is not surprising that a chunk of people stimulus checks would wind up in Walmart’s funds registers.
Of the conference call within May to talk about first-quarter earnings results, the topic of stimulus came set up on 12 separate events. CEO Doug McMillon stated the company saw increases throughout a variety of retail categories, including apparel, televisions, online games, sports equipment, and also toys, noting that discretionary spending “really popped to the conclusion of the quarter.” In addition, he stated that gross sales reaccelerated in mid-April, “as government stimulus money reached consumers.”
In the six months ended July thirty one, Walmart’s net sales climbed more than 7 % season over season, while comp product sales within the U.S. in the course of the second and first quarters increased 10 % and 9.3 % respectively. This was driven in part by e commerce sales that soared seventy four % in the very first quarter, followed by a ninety seven % year-over-year surge in the next quarter.
Given the stunning performance of its so much this year, it’s not hard to find out that Walmart would again be a massive winner from another round of stimulus inspections.
Parents showing their young daughter how to paint a wall using a roller.
The blend of stay-at-home orders and remote labor has kept individuals sequestered in the homes of theirs like never before. Many folks were forced to reimagine the living spaces of theirs as home offices, restaurants, movie theaters, and gyms , a phenomenon that was no uncertainty accelerated by the earliest round of stimulus payments.
Furthermore, the amount of time and money spent on entertainment, moving, and dining out is severely curtailed in recent weeks. This simple fact of life throughout the pandemic has caused a reallocation of those funds, with a lot of buyers “nesting,” or perhaps shelling out the money to improve life at home. Arguably very few organizations are actually positioned with the intersection of those two trends better than do merchant Lowe’s (NYSE:LOW).
As the pandemic pulled on, consumer behavior shifted, having an escalating focus on home improvements, renovations, remodeling, repairs, and maintenance and away from the aforementioned areas of discretionary spending.
There’s very little question customers have turned to Lowe’s to upgrade their living spaces, as evidenced with the company’s current results. For the quarter concluded July 31, the company reported net sales that grew 30 %, while comparable-store product sales jumped 35 %. That translated into diluted earnings a share that increased by seventy five % year over year. The results were supplied with a substantial boost by e commerce sales which soared 135 %.
The pandemic is actually ongoing, without end in sight. With this as a backdrop, consumers will more than likely continue spending heavily to improve the quality of theirs of lifestyle at home, of course, if Washington unleashes another round of stimulus checks, Lowe’s will undoubtedly be a single of the distinct winners.
Couple lying on floor in your own home shopping online with bank card.
While handling at the world’s largest online retailer was much more reticent to discuss how the government stimulus impacted the organization, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) was certainly a beneficiary of the earliest round of relief inspections. although in addition, it benefitted from the widespread stay-at-home orders that blanketed the nation. Shoppers frequently turned to e commerce, mainly avoiding stores that are crowded for anxiety about contracting the virus.
Information produced by the U.S. Department of Commerce illustrates the magnitude of the change. During the second quarter, internet sales increased by at least forty four % season over year — even as complete retail sales declined by 3 % during the very same period. The spike in e-commerce sales grew to sixteen % of complete retail, up from just 10 % in the year ago period.
For the second quarter, Amazon’s net product sales jumped 40 % season over year, while its net income increased by an eye-popping ninety seven % — even with the company invested an incremental $4 billion on COVID related expenditures.
Amazon accounts for about forty % of the internet retail in the U.S., according to eMarketer, hence it is not a stretch to think the organization would get a disproportionate share of the next round of stimulus inspections.
The chart informs the tale It’s essential to recognize that while there could shortly be an additional economic help deal, the partisan gridlock that pervades Washington, D.C., might carry on for the foreseeable long term, casting doubt on whether an additional round of stimulus checks will ultimately materialize.
That said, provided the amazing fiscal results generated by each of those retailers and the overriding trends driving them, investors will likely take advantage of these stocks whether there’s an additional round of economic incentive payments or perhaps not.
Where you can commit $1,000 right now Prior to deciding to consider Wal Mart Stores, Inc., you will want to listen to this.
Investing legends and Motley Fool Co founders David and Tom Gardner simply revealed what they feel are actually the 10 most effective stock futures for investors to get right now… and Wal Mart Stores, Inc. wasn’t one of them.
The internet investing service they have run for nearly 2 decades, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has beaten the stock market by more than 4X.* And at this moment, they assume there are ten stocks which are better buys.