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LIHU‘E — Entrepreneurs of locally-produced goods who want to see their items on Walmart shelves have an opportunity during Walmart’s Seventh annual Open Call for U.S.-manufactured Products.
The first step toward this realization is the application process for the Open Call, when Walmart invites entrepreneurs to apply for the opportunity to meet with Walmart buyers on Oct. 1 via virtual-pitch meetings.
Application forms and additional information for registering are available at Walmart-jump.com. The application deadline is August 10.
The Open Call for U.S.-manufactured Products launches Walmart’s celebration of October as U.S. Manufacturing Month.
The sessions will include similar programming as in previous Open Call meetings where, in addition to one-on-on pitch meetings with Walmart buyers, participants will have an opportunity to hear directly from Walmart executives and learn from company leaders during smaller breakout sessions designed to inform, empower and encourage hopeful suppliers.
“During this year of unprecedented challenges for U.S. businesses, Walmart remains committed to sourcing products made, grown or assembled in the United States,” said Laura Phillips, Walmart senior vice president for global sourcing and U.S. manufacturing.
“By investing in products that support American jobs, we are able to bring new, exciting products to our customers, support new jobs in our local communities and invest in small business across the country,” said Phillips
Participants in this year’s Open Call could secure deals ranging from a handful of stores in local markets to supplying hundreds of stores, Sam’s Clubs, and also on Walmart.com.
“Walmart’s annual Open Call event gives us a unique opportunity to identify new suppliers who can meet our customers’ needs with unique and innovative products manufactured or produced in the United States,” Phillips said.
“For the first time, this year’s Open Call event will be virtual, enabling even broader participation from potential new suppliers. We know how important this opportunity is for many small businesses, especially this year, and we are looking forward to seeing the new-product submissions and meeting potential new suppliers.”
Walmart, in January 2013, announced its commitment to help boost job-creation and U.S. manufacturing through buying an additional $250 billion in products supporting American jobs by 2023. The Open Call is one way in which the company continues to invest in this commitment.
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or firstname.lastname@example.org.


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The U.S. Postal Service and Amazon have a special relationship. In 2013, for instance, the USPS agreed to offer Sunday delivery of Amazon packages.
But shipping industry watcher and money manager Josh Sandbulte thinks there’s an ugly underside to the USPS-Amazon collaboration. Sandbulte, writing in the Wall Street Journal last week, argued that the USPS effectively subsidizes the price of shipping Amazon’s packages.
According the Sandbulte, Congress has barred USPS from setting its parcel prices below its costs, to keep it from unfairly undercutting competitors like FedEx and UPS. But the formula for calculating those costs, set in 2006, hasn’t kept pace as packages have come to make up a higher and higher percentage of USPS volume. The law set the share of infrastructure costs associated with packages at 5.5%, but boxes now make up around 25% of Postal Service revenue.
Sandbulte cites an April analysis by Citigroup that put a price tag on the resulting distortion. If package delivery bore its fair share of Postal Service system costs, each box would cost $1.46 more to deliver. That “subsidy” is systemwide, and the USPS has courted other large e-commerce companies.
But Amazon’s size means that it benefits disproportionately, and ships around 40% of its deliveries with USPS. In Sandbulte’s view, this means the Postal Service is “picking winners and losers in the retail world.”
But Sandbulte’s investment firm holds FedEx stock, meaning he has a direct interest in critiquing the USPS, and his analysis is debatable on several points. He disingenuously describes the pricing situation as “a gift card from Uncle Sam,” which implies there’s tax money involved. But the USPS doesn’t receive tax revenues.

domain: news


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Since the beginning of the year, Daimler Truck has been detached from Mercedes-Benz and is now its own listed company. Like the former car sister, the truck and bus manufacturers are also pushing ahead with the electrification of...
By Green Bookmark, 14 February, 2022
The first Mercedes-Benz electric truck is just around the corner, as the German brand has scheduled its world debut in late June, making it the world's first electric heavy truck in mass production.
With this launch, Mercedes-...
By Spare Wheel, 1 July, 2021


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The free trade agreement between Vietnam and the European Union is expected to open many doors for Vietnamese seafood to enter the EU, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Chairman of the Eurasian Economic Commission’s Board Viktor Borisovich Khristenko, on March 28, officially launched negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
While both sides agree an FTA would on the whole be mutually beneficial, negotiations will likely be complicated by the potential socio-economic impacts a pact would have on Vietnam’s fragile transitional economy.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung wants to speed up negotiations on the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the EU.
Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang voiced hope for a swift conclusion of negotiations with South Korea on forging a bilateral free trade deal but noted that an agreement should take each other’s interests into consideration.
On November 27, a conference relating to the ongoing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea was held in Ho Chi Minh City.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov Wednesday urged to speed up Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations with Vietnam.
Vietnamese and Russian officials have said they will push harder for a free trade agreement as the countries aim to more than double their trade value in the next three years.
The first negotiations on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement between Viet Nam and the European Union are scheduled to open this month.
The first round of free trade agreement talks between Vietnam and Korea kicked off on Monday in Seoul. During the talks that will continue until Tuesday, the two countries will discuss how to proceed with the negotiations.
Seoul’s foreign ministry expects the bilateral trade pact to enhance an existing free trade agreement with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations that took effect in 2007.
Korea and Vietnam have agreed to start formal talks toward a free trade agreement. Seoul and Hanoi already have a preliminary FTA, because Korea signed a trade pact with ASEAN. But Korea’s key exports — cars, components and IT products — are not included in the pact with ASEAN, so Seoul is now seeking separate FTAs with each ASEAN member country.
Top Vietnamese and Russian leaders have agreed to accelerate negotiations and the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the customs alliance of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
Vietnam’s Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang and the EU’s Trade Commissioner Karel De Gutch officially began negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the EU in Brussels, Belgium, on June 26.
Progress in free-trade talks between the European Union and Vietnam may trigger a resurgence of investment in the Southeast Asian nation from companies within the 27-nation bloc, the EU’s top representative in Vietnam said.
The European Council finally gave the green light on May 31 for the European Commission to start negotiations with Vietnam on a free trade agreement.
Japan has agreed to accept nurses and caregivers from Vietnam under a bilateral economic partnership agreement on condition that they pass a Japanese language test, officials said.
Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Nguyen Quoc Cuong underscored Vietnam’s determination to speed up the negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement at a dialogue between ambassadors of the TPP member countries and the US New Democrat Coalition, in the US on March 28.
The EU hope negotiations for an FTA with Vietnam will be announced at the EU-ASEAN business summit taking place in Phnom Penh on April 1
The EU and the Vietnamese government have held a series of seminars on the Free Trade Agreement at working level and are now going to hold more at ministerial level.
Vietnam has agreed to kick off the negotiation for FTA with the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in 2012


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Samsung Electronics has reported Q1 earnings in line with its guidance: as predicted, the company made an operating profit of 9.9 trillion won (about $8.7 billion), its second biggest quarter ever and its highest ever figure for the January to March period. Revenue was 50.55 trillion won, or about $44.7 billion.
Samsung says that the record-breaking profit was down to strong sales in its components businesses: mostly displays and memory. Although the Galaxy S8 wasn’t released in this three-month period, Samsung’s unit that develops processors and image sensors also improved its earnings, likely because of ramping up production in anticipation of the latest flagship launch.
But Samsung’s key mobile business saw revenue slide due to a decline in flagship product sales. That’s not altogether surprising considering the demise of the Galaxy Note 7, and it’s natural that demand would be lower for the Galaxy S7 range right before the launch of the S8. Samsung also lowered the price of the S7, further contributing to the decrease in revenue.
Samsung confirmed that a new flagship phone will be coming in the second half of the year, though it’s unclear whether it’ll adopt the tainted Note brand. If nothing else, the mobile business shouldn’t have much trouble posting better numbers this time next year.


text: Asia Television (ATV) is close to finalising an advertising-revenue-sharing agreement with the Guangdong government, even if profits earned in the province cannot be repatriated to Hong Kong, according to industry sources. Profits from the joint venture with Guangdong Television Broadcasting Development Centre could be ploughed back into joint production of television and commercials. The source said: 'The new commercials and programmes will be sold to TV channels on the mainland. It will help ATV develop in China, especially in Guangdong, and not just be limited to Hong Kong. The details will be finalised in one or two months.' ATV's Guangdong partner is ultimately controlled by the government-controlled Guangdong Administration of Radio, Film and Television. Market watchers said the much-awaited operating model would set a precedent for TVB, which has a 30 per cent-plus viewer rating in Guangdong but has yet to receive permission to broadcast officially in the region. A similar joint venture was established between Phoenix Satellite Television and Guangdong earlier this year. The new company, Guangdong International Media, is the exclusive advertising agent for Phoenix's Chinese and InfoNews channels in Guangdong. Phoenix TV said it had a 70:30 split of the TV revenue with Guangdong. Chief executive Liu Changle said it was given such a large portion of the joint venture's advertising sales because its Putonghua channels had a viewer rating of just 2 per cent in the Cantonese-speaking province. Local cable operators did not get much money from editing out the broadcaster's advertisements and replacing them with their own. ATV's Cantonese channel, which received landing rights last year to air in Guangdong, has a viewer rating of 18 per cent. The Guangdong operators were reluctant to share any advertising revenue unless they benefited more. 'The future joint venture can, of course, share the revenue from current ad-splicing,' said another source close to the deal. 'But the terms and sharing portions are yet to be finalised.' According to ATV, it shows a total of 750 hours of TV episodes annually, of which 250 hours are self-developed. Each hourly production costs about HK$400,000. In other words, it spends at least HK$100 million a year on production of TV series. 'Our current production is only enough for one daily slot,' an ATV spokesman said. 'We need to acquire content for another 500 hours.' Analysts said the new venture might finance ATV's operating costs and the broadcaster would be less reliant on buying overseas programmes. But Mona Chung of Core Pacific-Yamaichi added: 'If they cannot bring the money back to Hong Kong, the revenue will only appear on the books. Although the mainland advertising market is very prosperous, it doesn't help the company's bottom line.'


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Procter & Gamble exceeds expectations
The consumer goods group Procter & Gamble has once again made a final spurt at the end of the financial year. The company performed better than analysts expected in the fourth quarter (ending June). Revenues rose by 7 per cent to 18.9 billion US dollars, as the company announced in Cincinnati on Friday. The company also benefited from favorable currency effects. Organically, the increase was 4 per cent. All segments contributed to the growth, especially cosmetics and health.
However, higher raw material costs harmed the gross profit margin, which declined in the final quarter. At the bottom line, Procter & Gamble earned 4 per cent more with 2.9 billion dollars. For the new financial year, the group expects organic sales to rise 2 to 4 per cent, from 76.1 billion in 2020/21, with adjusted earnings per share up 3 to 6 per cent from 5.66 dollars. Higher costs for raw materials and logistics will slow growth. Procter & Gamble put the charges at around 1.9 billion dollars after tax. In terms of earnings per share, the company expects a charge of 0.70 dollars.
As the US company announced, David Taylor will step down from his CEO post. His successor will be the current COO and former CFO, Jon Moeller. Taylor, however, will remain on board as Executive Chairman.
The leadership change comes at a delicate time for Procter & Gamble. While the corona crisis ensured that demand for household products increased last year, the impact of the pandemic is weighing on the company. On the other hand, the impact of the pandemic is straining supply chains and driving higher costs in a sector that operates on thin profit margins.
Taylor said the group’s decision to appoint Moeller to the chief executive post, which the board had been considering for years, showed the company’s recent success. He said the board had also considered external candidates.
“The strategy we have worked before the pandemic, it worked during the pandemic, and it will work after the pandemic,” he said. P&G shares rose 2.03 per cent to $142.31 on the NYSE.
Hapag-Lloyd increases earnings six-fold
Hapag-Lloyd is benefiting from booming world trade. In the first half of the year, the Hamburg-based shipping line increased its operating earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) almost six-fold to 3.5 billion US dollars. Hapag-Lloyd, therefore, raised its forecast for the full year: The Hamburg-based company is now targeting an Ebit in a range of 7.5 to 9.5 billion dollars. The economic recovery in many regions of the world following the Corona recession is reflected in global trade in goods.
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The Hapag-Lloyd share rose by 3.7 per cent to EUR 182 in Frankfurt DAX trading.
US construction equipment maker Caterpillar tripled its net profit in the second quarter, beating expectations. Net income rose to $1.41 billion, or $2.56 per share, compared with $458 million, or 84 cents per share, in the same period last year. Excluding special items, adjusted earnings per share rose to $2.60 from $1.27, beating analysts’ expectations of $2.41 in the Factset consensus. Total revenue grew 28.9 per cent to $12.89 billion. Analysts had expected 12.51 billion dollars.
Caterpillar’s construction revenue improved 40 per cent to $5.66 billion in the business segments but missed market expectations of $5.77 billion. In energy and transportation, revenue rose 20 per cent to $4.98 billion, beating expectations of $4.42 billion; and commodity industry revenue rose 41 per cent to billions of dollars.
“We are encouraged by higher sales and earnings in all regions and our three main segments, reflecting continued improvement in our end markets,” CEO Jim Umpleby said. The company did not provide guidance for the entire year in its earnings release.
NYSE-listed Caterpillar shares slid 2.67 per cent to $206.89. Caterpillar’s stock has slid 6.8 per cent in the past three months through Thursday, compared with a 3.6 per cent gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Billions in profits from Exxon and Chevron
The two oil multinationals Chevron and ExxonMobil, are raking in billions in profits again. The largest US oil company, ExxonMobil, managed its highest quarterly profit in one and a half years after heavy losses in the Corona crisis. Thanks to the oil price recovery, the company earned 4.7 billion dollars on the bottom line in the three months to the end of June.
Exxon’s competitor Chevron also posted a high profit in the second quarter for the first time in over one and a half years. The second-largest US oil company earned 3.1 billion dollars on the bottom line. A year ago, Chevron had suffered a quarterly loss of 8.3 billion dollars due to high charges from the pandemic. Nevertheless, the shares of Exxon and Chevron fell today.
Steff has been actively researching the financial services, trading and Forex industries for several years.
While putting numerous brokers and providers to the test, he understood that the markets and offers can be very different, complex and often confusing. This lead him to do exhaustive research and provide the best information for the average Joe trader.


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Just 27% of investors bother to voteJune 12, 2014: 8:30 AM ET
If retail investors received a "participation" grade, they'd definitely be flunking.
A key benefit of owning shares in a company -- besides the gains or losses as the stock moves -- is the ability to vote in corporate elections. Shareholders get a voice in many key decisions, including the approval of members on the company's board of directors.
It's a lot of power, but average Joe's who own stock rarely bother to exercise it.
A paltry 27% of retail investor shares were voted during the fall 2013 proxy election season. That's even worse than the turnout in U.S. political elections -- 57.5% of eligible U.S. citizens participated in the 2012 presidential election.
"The retail shareholder base is largely not engaged," said Chuck Callan, chief regulatory officer at Broadridge Financial Solutions (BR), which processes and distributes proxy materials to investors.
The poor turnout among mom and pop investors means their voices are being drowned out by large institutions on hot-button issues like executive compensation, the environment, social responsibility, political spending disclosure and board composition.
Not even the advancement of e-voting or the drama surrounding shareholder activism has been able to entice retail investors to vote their shares.
According to Broadridge, retail investors voted 27% of their shares during last fall's "mini" proxy season, down from 29% the year before.
By comparison, pension and mutual funds -- a group known as institutional investors -- voted a whopping 85% of the shares they own, up from 80% in the fall of 2012. That could partially be due to the fact that many institutional investors must report to clients whether they vote.
Callan blamed a 2007 Securities and Exchange Commission rule for hurting voter turnout. The so-called "e-proxy" or "notice and access" rule allows companies to send out a one-page notice informing investors that proxy materials are available electronically instead of shipping them a full package.
While companies save on postage and printing costs, Callan said the response rate for this type of notice stands at a pathetic 5%, compared with more than 30% voting when they are mailed ballots.
The diminished retail participation comes even as investors overall turn up the heat on corporate boards.
About 69% of directors received support from at least 90% of investors in the fall, down from 72% the year before, Broadridge said. Large-cap directors saw this closely-watched support level drop to 86% from 95%.


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The demise of FTX continues to send shockwaves through the industry, serving as a wake-up warning to regulators and politicians alike. Those who oppose crypto have discovered a fresh cause to continue their opposition to this revolutionary technology. Those who support it, on the other hand, are doubting their decisions after losing billions of dollars in this disastrous incident.
The majority of FTX’s influence has been felt by customers in the West, but this hasn’t stopped other countries from reconsidering their attitude to crypto-regulation. Singapore is now looking to tighten restrictions that will essentially limit cryptocurrency trade and speculation.
Controversial stance against crypto reinforced by FTX’s collapse
Lawrence Wong, the Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and Minister of Finance, has taken cognizance of the turmoil caused by FTX’s fraudulent business activities. In an interview with Bloomberg, Wong cited this unfortunate event as part of the reason for reinforcing the island nation’s strong position against retail investors speculating and trading cryptocurrencies. He said,
“And we’ve said this for a long time, even when people criticized us for saying that, which was that we need to take a strong stance against crypto speculation and trading, especially by retail investors.”
Minister Wong clarified that Singapore is open for digital and digital asset innovation, but crypto-speculation is where the country draws the line. The minister agreed on the potential of blockchain technology in revolutionising cross-border payments, financial, and capital markets etc. However, exposing retail investors to crypto-speculation has been deemed risky for a while now.
Minister Wong revealed that Singapore has been looking to tighten the regulatory rules around crypto-trading and retail access to this market before the FTX saga unfolded. A consultation paper is in the works for the same. It will review regulations and rules for this industry.
Singapore Government lost $275 million in FTX
Between October 2021 and January 2022, Singapore-based Temasek Holdings Limited invested $210 million in FTX International and $65 million in FTX U.S for stakes of 1% and 1.5%, respectively.
On 17 November, Temasek, a state-backed investment agency, revealed that it would mark down this $275 million investment into FTX to 0.


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The telecommunications industry will be undergoing some new transitions this year, most notably due to the rollout of fifth generation (5G) technology. Global telecom revenue is forecasted to grow up to three percent through 2019.
Last year, several major deals took place, some in part due to the threat that digital streaming services and changes in the media industry pose to telecom giants. Comcast outbid Fox for a $39 billion acquisition of Sky, and AT&T picked up Time-Warner for $85.4 billion. Other deals of note were the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, and AT&T’s acquisition of Otter Media. For 2019, the telecom sector is forecast to see plenty of M&A activity due to enticing opportunities for investors due to new technologies.
The Era of 5G
The advent of 5G technology is going to enable faster Internet speeds and create a wealth of possibilities. With 3G technology came new opportunities through the enabled use of GPS. Current 4G technology is able to reach speeds of up to 100 mbps and allows us to consume data at higher rates. The new 5G technology is expected to reach speeds of up to 10,000 mbps. This impressive difference in speed is why it is such a game changer for the telecom industry, and a slew of other industries, such as media, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, retail, and utilities, just to name a few.
It is anticipated that the first 5G-compatible smartphones to be released sometime this year, with second-generation chipsets coming later in the year. The first commercial networks to be launched are expected to be in China, South Korea, Japan, and the United States. American-based Verizon is already offering its 5G Home broadband service in select regions.
The Evolution of Blockchain
Blockchain has typically been associated with cryptocurrency because that is what it was originally designed to support. That perception is rapidly changing as companies discover different ways that it can be beneficial.
In the simplest of terms, blockchain is a virtual ledger that records data securely and transparently. This is because all network participants must agree on transactions before they can be recorded, and data cannot be altered or deleted, reducing the risk of fraud. Transactions are encrypted and linked to any previous transactions. This method eliminates paper-heavy record-keeping systems and third-party intermediaries, and allows for the faster, easier updating of transactions. Additionally, the transactions recorded in the “blocks” are stored in millions of computers that are part of the “chain.” This decentralization means that data cannot be lost, and it can always be recovered.
Blockchain has the potential to transform the telecom industry in various capacities. This includes prevention of fraud, reduction in costs, management of user identities, enhanced communications, and improved mobile payment.
The Power of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is making its mark on an array of industries, but it is particularly transformative in telecom. By using AI to analyze enormous amounts of data, communications service providers are improving operations and customer experiences.
- Self-optimizing networks (SONs) allow network quality to be optimized based on traffic reporting by region and time zone.
- Virtual assistants are being used to reduce business expenses by automating services and one-on-one conversations.
- Predictive maintenance is enabling telecoms to use data to proactively fix problems with equipment before they arise.
- Cognitive technologies such as robotic process automation are saving companies money by streamlining tedious processes and freeing up staff to focus on higher value tasks.
Time to Make a Move?
Contact us if you are interested pursuing a growth strategy or an exit plan. No matter what sector you work or invest in, Benchmark International can help you take your aspirations to the next level.
Americas: Sam Smoot at +1 (813) 898 2350 / Smoot@BenchmarkCorporate.com
Europe: Carl Settle at +44 (0)161 359 4400 / Settle@BenchmarkCorporate.com
Africa: Anthony McCardle at +2721 300 2055 / McCardle@BenchmarkCorporate.com
ABOUT BENCHMARK INTERNATIONAL
Benchmark International’s global offices provide business owners in the middle market and lower middle market with creative, value-maximizing solutions for growing and exiting their businesses. To date, Benchmark International has handled engagements in excess of $6B across various industries worldwide. With decades of global M&A experience, Benchmark International’s deal teams, working from 12 offices across the world, have assisted hundreds of owners with achieving their personal objectives and ensuring the continued growth of their businesses.


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Monday, May 6, 2013
If you're in the London area you may know them as Tokyo Fixed, though the shop is about to change gears and become Kinoko Cycles, a custom road specialty shop. The new shop will open on May 16th, and the fellas are kicking it off by displaying a brand new Gravel Royale. Here's a quick look at the frame.
Posted by Indy Fab at 4:57 PM


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The sight of crisp white cartons of East Coast Organic Milk lining grocery store shelves is fulfilling a long-held dream for a handful of local organic farmers.
“It has felt like a long, long pregnancy,”
“This has been a dream in excess of seven years. … There are a lot of ups and downs with developing a new business but we finally got to the point where our milk is on the market and ready for purchase.”
The official product launch last week celebrated the first time Nova Scotia-produced, certified, organic, one per cent, two per cent and whole milk graced provincial store shelves. Before that, most organic milk products for sale locally originated in Ontario.
To make this possible, provincial regulations were tweaked to recognize organic milk as part of the Dairy Industry Act. The change means the introduction of other in-demand organic milk products like blend cream, skim milk, chocolate milk and yogurt, will be expedited, Mackenzie said.
“We’ll take our time and as demand and market share grows, we’ll be able to grow our selection of products available as well as our sizing, like adding one litre options,” she said.
The group aims to introduce blend cream to the market in the new year.
The co-operative, comprised of four dairy producers, a retired dairy farmer and
The for-profit co-op includes farms in Inverness and Pictou counties. Of those, two farms —
Milk is considered organic based on a set of nationally regulated practices and principles that include the way cows are raised and treated, what they are fed and the products farmers use on their fields.
Because of the expenses associated with organic certification — organic feed for example is double the cost of regular feed — the price of the final product, at $7.97 for two litres, is higher than other options.
“A lot of the price has to do with the fact that we’re competing against much larger companies,” MacKenzie said.
“It will take time to be more competitive in price but we also feel it’s worth the cost as we’re offering a local and organic product, and that’s important to a lot of people who support local and who want to support the farmers.”
Meantime, a local value chain with enough room for the brand to continue to grow, gets the milk from farm to table.
East Coast Organic Milk is currently on store shelves at 17 Sobeys locations throughout the province, used in drinks and for sale at Just Us! Coffee locations as well as


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KARACHI: The rate of cotton remained stable in local markets during the last week. In the local cotton market, trading volume is increasing due to the increase in the supply of Phutti as well as due to the interest of textile and cotton sector in buying.
After the start of new cotton season from July 1, the Spot Rate Committee of Karachi Cotton Association has issued spot rate as well as started registering deals of new cotton crop. Although, the arrival of new season cotton has started from June and up till now it is for the first time that 100,000 bales of cotton were prepared in the month of June and PCGA will include this in their report as the new crop.
The representative of Naseem Usman and Sons visited many areas of Sindh and termed the sowing and ginning process satisfactory in their survey. In some areas, the height of cotton plants is relatively small, but the fruit is satisfactory. If there is adequate rainfall, these plants will be stronger and their height will be increased.
Water shortage is reported in Sindh province due to which cotton crop is being affected. At present, about 35 to 40 ginning factories are running partially in Sindh.
While in Punjab, cotton is being produced mostly from Phutti of Sindh and to some extent from Phutti of Punjab. Up till now the quality of cotton is satisfactory in Sindh and Punjab.
However, different views were coming regarding sowing area of cotton in Sindh and Punjab. Federal Agriculture Committee has allocated 17 lac acres for sowing of cotton in Sindh while it has allocated 40 lac acres of area in Punjab for cotton sowing. Over all sowing area was 2.32 million hectare.
According to the sources sowing was completed on 13 lac to 14 lac acres in Sindh while in Punjab sowing was completed on 32 lac to 34 lac hectare which is over all approximately 1.9 million hectare.
FCA has estimated that in 2021-22 one crore five lac bales will be produced in the country but according to the estimates of the people relating to cotton business, if the weather conditions remain favourable, eighty lac bales will be produced.
Moreover, instead of giving incentives for increasing the cotton crop in the budget of 2021-22, government has increased the rate of sales tax due to which all the stake holders were not happy with the government.
Ten percent sales tax was imposed on cotton. It was increased to 17 percent in the budget while there was no tax on cotton seed oil before.
Chairman Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association Dr Jassu Mal Limani strongly condemned the imposition of sales tax on cotton and cotton seed oil. He said if the government had not withdrawn the sales tax they will shut down their factories as a protest. He said earlier finance minister and ministers had assured that sales tax will be withdrawn but after that finance minister categorically said either sales tax will reduced or withdrawn.
Dr Jassu Mal said finance minister has stabbed in the back of whole cotton sector. One office bearer said government has put the last nail in the coffin of cotton sector.
The rate of cotton in Sindh is in between Rs 12800 to Rs 13000 per maund. The rate of Phutti is between Rs 5600 to Rs 6000 per 40 kg. The rate of Banola is in between Rs 1900 to Rs 2000 per maund.
The rate of cotton in Punjab is in between Rs 13500 to Rs 13600 per maund while the rate of Phutti is in Rs 5600 to Rs 6400 per 40 Kg. The rate of Banola is in between Rs 2000 to Rs 2100 per maund.
The Spot Rate Committee of the Karachi Cotton Association increased the spot rate by Rs 300 per maund and closed it at Rs 12900 per maund. Chairman Karachi Cotton Brokers Forum Naseem Usman told that mixed trend was seen in international cotton markets. The Rate of Promise (Waday Ka Bhao) of New York Cotton after fluctuation closed at 87 US cents. According to the weekly export report of USDA, exports decreased by 37 percent. Reports are circulating that cotton crop is affected in many areas of USA.
The cotton production area decreased a little bit however experts were of the view that rates of cotton remained stable. The effects of COVID 19 were decreasing in many areas of the world and business activities are increasing due to which it is expected that demand of cotton may increase.
The rate of cotton in Brazil and Central Asian states remained stable while in India the rate increased after fluctuation.
MNA Sheikh Fayyaz Uddin said while speaking on the floor of the House that agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan but the present government had done nothing for agriculture.
According to the target this year, we had to cultivate cotton on 2.2 million hectares, but unfortunately we have been able to cultivate on 1.9 million hectare.
The main reason for this decline is that government is ignoring the cotton crop and the other big reason is increasing influence of sugar mafia due to which the cotton cultivating area is decreasing.
Sixty percent of Pakistan's exports are textile based and the raw material of textile is cotton.
This year due to extreme decline in cotton production we have to import 50 lac bales of cotton of worth millions of dollars.
Government's lack of interest in the cotton crop can be evident from the fact that last year Rs 300 billion was earmarked for agricultural development and government had not allocated not a single penny for increasing the cotton production.
Moreover, that year when cotton crop was attacked by white flies, government had allocated Rs 5 billion to save crop from the attack of White Flies.
What could be more unfortunate for us that government to allocate five billion rupees and we could not spent a single penny.
The cotton crop lasts for 6 months after which wheat is cultivated. Last year the government had fixed the rate of wheat at Rs 1400 per maund but it is unfortunate that administration took wheat from the farmers' houses by force and later farmers bought the same wheat at Rs 2200 per maund.
In the year Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came into power, our agriculture growth rate was 3.8 percent which was negative 5 percent last year and this year according to the government claims it is 2 percent.
Moreover, federal government has released Rs 8 billion under the draw back of local taxes and levies (DLTL) claims of industries to help overcome cash constraints.
Unlike previous governments over the last thirteen years, the current PTI government has paid largest amount to exporters under DLTL. Sources said the present government has set a record by releasing a total of Rs. 46.7 billion under DLTL to exporters of textile in three years.
While, during PPP's five-year rule, a total of Rs 24.91 billion was released to exporters under DLTL. Similarly, during the five-year rule of PML-N a total of Rs 32.818 billion were released to exporters under DLTL.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021


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Shelley Zalis is fond of an aphorism. One of her favourites is uttered by Sarah Jessica Parker in the 2011 movie I Don’t Know How She Does It. “She says, ‘Trying to be a man is a waste of a woman.’ That’s a very important statement. We need the masculine, we need the feminine, that’s what makes the world go round,” Zalis asserts.
A business leader with a career in advertising research and the founder of The Female Quotient, an organisation committed to promoting gender parity, Zalis is speaking over the phone from Davos, Switzerland, where she is hosting the Equality Lounge. A pop-up which initially launched in 2012 as the Girls’ Lounge, it comprises a hang-out space at conferences and corporate events for businesswomen who want to network and chill with like-minded female thinkers – or, in some cases, just any other woman at all. It has since connected over 50,000 individuals.
When we speak, Zalis is about to chair a panel brought together by Sung-Joo Kim, the founder and chairwoman of MCM, on the topic of female leadership in fashion and sustainability. With a line-up including British Vogue’s publishing director, Vanessa Kingori; MCM’s corporate sustainability leader and chief digital & innovation officer, Jeehae Kim; Boston Consulting Group senior partner Miki Tsusaka; and the CEO, impact advisory and finance at Credit Suisse, Marisa Drew, she’s excited to expand upon how women are leading the sustainability drive across the industry.


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The first beer sample tastes like SpaghettiOs. Which is bad — but not as horrid as the one that smells like sweaty socks. Or the one that has not-so-subtle notes of baby vomit — an aroma that comes from butyric acid, which can form if bacteria infect the beer during a brew.
This last sample may be the most difficult for the eight Avery Brewing employees who are gathered in the company's barrel-aging room this morning to learn about off flavors and aromas from microbiologist and Avery sensory expert Melissa Antone.
"I hate beer now," jokes one of the students, holding the glass up — but away from his nose — and tentatively sniffing the air in between. "I'm quitting."
"It can be a rough way to start the day," says another. "My palate is destroyed. It's gone."
But hopefully not forgotten.
The samplers, who range from a packaging specialist to tap-room workers to a chemist, are being trained to recognize when — and why — a beer doesn't taste the way it should. Understanding this will help them explain the same thing to Avery's customers, further their own education in craft beer and assist Avery, already one of the most respected breweries in the country, in keeping its standards high. The training is part of a major new sensory initiative at the Boulder brewery, a component of its overall quality-assurance program. It's also an ambitious effort, rare at a beer maker of Avery's relatively small size. (The company produces about 50,000 barrels of beer per year — but still doesn't crack the list of the five largest breweries in Colorado.)
Over the past year, however, Avery's owner, Adam Avery, has spent tens of thousands of dollars to train his staff, buy software and supplies, and create a lab that supports this initiative. Over the next two years, he'll earmark even more to bring the program up to the same standards as those at craft breweries ten times Avery's size, such as New Belgium and Sierra Nevada.
"Making beer is easy. But making great beer and making it consistently is tough," Adam says. "But that is why I am in this. That is the only reason. I want to try to attain perfection, or as near to perfection as we can. It freaks people out when I say this, but we need to be emulating the huge breweries, the big three. You might not think much of their beer from a qualitative standpoint, but with their exactness, they are the best breweries in the world."
The effort intensified in January, when Avery spent $15,000 to bring in Bill Simpson, a world-renowned beverage-quality specialist in the United Kingdom who has been helping train palates, including those employed by the big three. Simpson spent a week in Boulder, schooling fifteen Avery department heads on flavor profiles and flaws.
In September, Antone, who was promoted to her current position last December, converted a former break room into a sensory lab where these fifteen department heads now regularly sample beers blindly and write down notes about what they are tasting. The goal is to marry that human component to the scientific data that scientists in Avery's quality-assurance lab already collect with their high-tech instruments — and to use all of that feedback to brew consistent, delicious beer, day after day after day.
If Avery can focus on quality and consistency — and help all of the other small breweries that are just getting started do something similar — the effort will ensure that craft beer continues to gain market share and continues to convert drinkers of those mass-produced beers.
And at Avery, that means employees need to recognize what baby vomit smells like.
Of course, not all of the beers that Antone has lined up in the barrel room and spiked with various flavor compounds are that rotten. Some merely taste like library books or buttered popcorn. And some of these "off" flavors and aromas would go well in certain beers — certain other beers. A taste of cloves, for instance, which can be the result of phenols created by yeast, is "wonderful in German wheat beers," she says. "But if you're tasting it in our IPA, then we have a major problem."
Oddly, not everyone can detect the nuances of baby vomit.
"If you ever own your own brewery, don't taste alone. There's the possibility that you are genetically blind to some of these," Antone advises. "That's why a panel is so much more powerful than an individual. But if you are blind to one, don't blame yourself. Blame your parents."**********
Adam Avery can blame his dad for encouraging his interest in beer.
"The summer that I put together the business plan for the brewery, I had taken the LSATs and been accepted to law school at the University of Denver," says Adam, 47, who was raised in Illinois and attended Regis University.
But his passions lay elsewhere — in rock climbing and in homebrewing. So when two friends who'd already gone to law school warned Adam that the legal profession might not be the right choice for him, he came up with another career path. "I talked to my dad and to another guy, and $90,000 later, we were in business," Adam remembers. That was in 1993, and twenty years later, Avery is still located in the same office park where it was founded — and still makes two of the three beers that Adam originally created: Ellie's Brown Ale and Out of Bounds Stout. (A third, Redpoint Amber Ale, is no longer in production.)
Avery didn't make a profit for the first ten years, growing slowly, if at all, but Adam planted the seeds for his success — and reputation — early by delving into some big, bold beer styles that most breweries weren't touching at the time, including its barley wine, Hog Heaven; its Belgian quadrupel, the Reverend; and Salvation, a Belgian golden ale.
Over the past five years, Avery has become best known for these specialty, barrel-aged and high-alcohol beers — creations that attract a cult following not just in Colorado, but with beer lovers across the country, who scour liquor stores and bars for brews like Maharaja, a double IPA that is both powerful and intricately delicate; Mephistopheles, an imperial stout that weighs in at around 16 percent ABV; and the Barrel Series of super-limited, one-off sour and wild ales.
And the company's growth — from twenty employees in 2010 to 91 today — has allowed it to plan for a new, $27 million, 68,000-square-foot campus in north Boulder. The project, which was announced in 2011, has been delayed by financial and bureaucratic factors, but it is now on track to break ground by the end of the year and could open in late 2014 or early 2015.
But specialty beers account for just a small percentage of Avery's output. The vast majority is its lineup of year-round "core" beers — two of which, White Rascal and Avery IPA, make up a whopping 60 percent of the brewery's annual production.
They're not Avery's sexiest beers, but that doesn't matter: Every Avery batch has to be perfect — or close to it — every time. If the batch doesn't have certain characteristics, what the brewery calls "specifications," then it doesn't leave the building. In 2012, Avery dumped 7 percent of all the beer it made because it didn't taste the way the brewery wanted it to taste, says Avery national marketing director Darin McGregor.
Determining whether the beer meets the specifications is a job that falls to Rob Christiansen. He heads up the quality-assurance department, which has a $300,000-plus annual budget and includes five people in addition to Christiansen: two biologists, a chemist, Antone and a yeast specialist and propagator. It's a huge staff for a brewery of Avery's size.
A molecular biologist by training, Christiansen has been at Avery for nearly eight years, and he cares a lot about the way his beer tastes and looks. He once found a shelf full of Avery anniversary beers going back seven years in a liquor store in Houston. Most were beers that weren't supposed to be aged. So he bought them all and dumped them. "That's just not how you want people to be experiencing your beer," he says.
Last year, Avery's brain trust started talking more and more about introducing a sensory panel to complement the technology they were already using. Technology like a cellometer, which counts the yeast cells and measures their health; a spectrophotometer, which uses light absorption to test for chemicals that produce off flavors, not to mention the bitterness of hops; and other meters that test for whether oxygen or CO2 has dissolved into the beer.
"But sensory panels are very expensive to set up," Christiansen says. There's the cost of the training and taking people out of their normal jobs to do the tasting, as well as purchasing the necessary supplies, like the flavor capsules that Antone drops into pitchers of beer during her sessions. "But we were always talking about it and about what we would be able to do when we had one," he continues, "and so finally we felt like it was ridiculous to wait any longer."
The sensory lab has now become one of the most important tools in the quality-assurance program. "You can have a whole bunch of things in a lab that tell you what's in the beer, but if it doesn't taste good, none of those things matter," Christiansen says. "That's where sensory comes in. That's the human part of the equation."**********
The former break room in Avery's dry-storage area, where it keeps specialty malts, bottles, labels and other supplies, is divided by a wall. On one side, Antone keeps a refrigerator with a variety of Avery and non-Avery beers along with the sensory kits and other equipment. On the other are three divided cubbies, each equipped with a seat, a pen and a flavor chart. In between are three tiny doors that Antone can open in order to slide beers through to the other side.
It may not look like much, but today is the debut of this room — Avery's new sensory lab — and Antone is excited. "We've been working on it for a while," she says. "We are trying to get the guys to taste these beers in as controlled a setting as possible."
A biology major at the University of Delaware, Antone got her start in the beer industry as a bar manager for Iron Hill Brewery, where she worked for five years. She moved to Boulder in 2011 with the goal of going to veterinary school and took a job working in the tap room at Avery. But in December of that year, a biology job opened up in the quality-assurance lab. Antone asked for it and was hired. "And that was it," she says. "I love this stuff. When I go to a beer festival, I always ask people, what's the worst beer you've had here — because that's the one I want to try."
A few months later, Antone, who is 26, was asked to lead the creation of the sensory department, and she now spends three days a week running it and two days in the lab.
On her sensory days, she asks some of the fifteen trained tasters to come in for twenty minutes. Each is asked to analyze a couple of beers by appearance, color, aroma, taste, flavor, mouthfeel and overall impression. And they're expected to be specific, identifying the flaw they are tasting right down to the chemical compound. As in, that beer tastes like pumpkin guts, so it must have acetaldehyde in it, a chemical that can come from dying yeast. Or, this beer smells like pickles, which could come from the acetic acid in a bacteria called acetobacter.
Today the tasters are being tested on two styles — though they don't know what Antone is looking for. The first test is to ensure that this year's first batch of Old Jubilation, a winter seasonal, meets the brewery's specs. The second is to be certain that two recent batches of IPA are "true-to-brand," meaning that the tasters recognize them as Avery's. To make sure the tasters are on point, Antone has spiked a third batch of IPA with dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, and added it to the tasting.
"I try to throw them off so they never know what to expect when they sit down," Antone says, adding that the brain can be tricked by a lot of factors, including something as simple as the level that the cups are filled to as well as comments from other tasters in the room.
Antone designed her sensory lab based on others she has seen, specifically the one that New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins has been running since 1999 — and which has become a model for other craft breweries all over the country. That program was created by Lauren Salazar, who only recently handed over control of the lab to two full-time sensory specialists so she could take on some other responsibilities at the brewery. "We opened up the books and let [Antone] see exactly what we do," Salazar says.
New Belgium's program includes 85 trained tasters across all of its departments, each of whom spends fifteen minutes in the sensory lab at least twice a week. Altogether, about thirty people come to a tasting panel every day; they help the brewery to do shelf-life studies, to evaluate new beers and to check every single batch that New Belgium brews. (Avery is not yet at this point, but Antone hopes to get there by the time the new facility is finished.)
The New Belgium tasters record their notes in a software program that analyzes whether the beers are measuring up and, if not, identifies where they fail. "You can point right to the problem and say, oh, that yeast was pitched too early or the mash was boiled too long," Salazar explains. The process, which is all done blindly, takes the emotion and the ego out of brewing, and also removes any guilt over financial consequences if a batch of beer has to be dumped. It also ensures that any flaws are discovered — and not just the ones that a particular brewer, even the head brewer, is attuned to. "That way, our brewmaster, Peter Bouckaert, is just one point of data among thirty," she says. "He just becomes one dot that comes up on the graph."
In order to remain on the tasting panel, New Belgium employees have to show up a certain number of times and be repeatedly validated on dozens of flavor attributes, since (as Antone points out in her classes) not everyone can taste every flavor characteristic.
"If you don't get tested on an attribute, how do you know if you can taste it? It's like being colorblind. Unless someone tells you that your clothes don't match, you don't know," Salazar says. "No one person is a great taster. It takes a panel to make that evaluation."**********
Well, almost no one.
Bill Simpson has trained thousands of palates all over the world. He trained Salazar back in 1999 and Antone in 2013. In between, he's taught thousands of other brewery employees, especially those at the multinational beer makers and the larger U.S. craft brewers.
"I took his class and it changed my life. I will never forget it," Salazar says. "I train the same way he did. He is a really inspirational leader."
Simpson, the executive director at Cara Technology Limited, arrived in Boulder last January because Avery "wanted to become more professional about their tasting program," he explains. "They wanted to gain a lot of skill within the brewery and then be able to gradually spread that throughout the rest of the company."
Over the next week, they covered 29 flavors in 25 sessions — usually starting at mid-day so the students could get some of their regular jobs done first. "It sounds like a lot of fun, but it's demanding, and once they start to concentrate, you can hear a pin drop," Simpson says.
They concentrated, and learned. By the end of the week, Avery's fifteen tasters had correctly identified flavors 90 percent of the time, with the top score at 96 percent and the lowest at 87. "That's remarkable," Simpson says. "In other groups, that low score would have been the top."
In another remarkable feat, all of the tasters were consistently able to correctly identify a beer that wasn't Avery's, even when Simpson mixed two of them together.
"If there is someone at a company who is very dominant and who always knows what is right, then no one else has any accountability," Simpson notes. But Avery is very different. "Usually only one in five people have the aptitude to train at a high level, but all of the people who came in were comfortably within that group. They blasted away the one-in-five part, and I think that is because their recruitment polices are very much based in beer culture. If you're not interested in beer, they are saying, then why are you even coming to work for us?"**********
It's a culture that comes from the top.
From the beginning, Adam Avery has focused on pushing the boundaries of beer, brewing the beer he likes to drink — which makes for a wide and varied lineup — and making flavor and quality his priorities.
Is it more difficult to brew so many beers? "Yes, but it's fun," he says. "There are more moving parts and more opportunities to fuck up. You have to be on your game every single day, but that's what makes it so fun. We've created a culture here where we are not just a factory producing one style of beer all the time. It keeps people excited."
Adam knows what he likes when he tastes it — at the moment, he's got a lot of duganA IPA and Old Jubilation in his own fridge — but he isn't on the sensory panel.
"As far as detecting flavors and defects, I've been doing it a long time and I'm pretty good at it. Luckily for us, we have people who are much better tasters and smellers," he says. "That's why we took fifteen people out of their roles at the brewery for a week and trained them. It's the best money we've spent. I don't think anyone in the country is spending the kind of money that we are on it, based on the cost per size. I've never seen a 50,000-barrel brewery that has five, six full-time employees in quality assurance and the kind of equipment we have. Our lab runs our brewery, and I think that's what sets us apart."
But Avery is lucky to have that kind of money, he adds: "Unfortunately, for a lot of new and growing breweries, it would be money off the bottom line."
And that's one of the biggest dangers facing the craft-brewing industry. "All the old-school farts, our biggest concern is quality," Adam says. "A lot of people are reticent to talk about it because we don't want to look like assholes or 'the establishment.' But we need to talk about it, and we aren't acting like the establishment, because we want to help everyone else. If someone has an issue, we can help them find out what that issue is — same with New Belgium and a lot of others. They are opening their labs to these new guys because we all have been through it. We all made bad beers. You can't start a brewery on $90,000 and say you made perfect beer every time.
"Everything is going so well for the craft industry now," he adds. "We are an established industry that has seen phenomenal, steady, viable growth for the past ten years. And our plan is to help as many breweries as possible make great beer, because it is to all of our advantage."


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Soon, families and friends across the country will gather to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday together. From backyard barbecues to cookouts and pool parties, fireworks will play a role in the festivities. As any product liability lawyer can tell you, these products come with an element of risk — the U.S. Consumer Safety Commission (CPSC) recently spoke out to remind consumers to practice proper firework safety.
Firework Injury Trends
Fireworks are always dangerous, no matter how big or small. We advise that you never underestimate the power of these products — the Fourth of July holiday is one of the few times people are allowed to play with fire each year, leading to disastrous consequences for those who are not careful.
In 2021, the CPSC estimated nearly 11,500 emergency room-treated injuries involved dangerous fireworks. Of this, 8,500 occurred during the 1-month period between June 18 and July 18. Most of these injuries were burns to body parts such as the head, hands and eyes.
This data shows a significant upward trend in firework safety practices. Between 2006 and 2021, injuries with fireworks climbed nearly 25% in the U.S. Alex Hoehn-Saric, CPSC chair, cautioned the public against handling them at home.
“It’s imperative that consumers know the risks involved in using fireworks, so injuries and tragedies can be prevented,” Hoehn-Saric said. “The safest way to enjoy fireworks is to watch professional displays. CPSC’s Office of Compliance and Field Operations continues to work closely with other federal agencies to prevent the sale of illegal consumer fireworks.”
Firework Safety Tips
Even if you legally purchase them in your state, dangerous fireworks are extremely common. The safest way to enjoy fireworks is to leave it to the professionals. Our product liability lawyers recommend consumers who decide to purchase these products consult the following firework safety steps:
- Check fact sheets to ensure consumer fireworks are legal in your area before buying or using them.
- Never use or make professional-grade fireworks.
- Do not buy or use fireworks packaged in brown paper. This packaging is often a sign the fireworks were made for professional displays — not for consumer use.
- Never allow young children to play with or ignite dangerous fireworks, including sparklers. Sparklers burn at about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to melt some metals.
- Never place any part of your body directly over a fireworks device when lighting the fuse. Our product liability lawyers advise that participants move to a safe distance immediately after lighting fireworks.
- Never point or throw fireworks at another person or occupied area.
- In the interest of firework safety, be sure to light one at a time, then move away from them quickly.
- Keep a bucket of water or a garden hose handy in case of fire or other mishap.
- Never try to relight or handle malfunctioning fireworks. Instead, we recommend you soak them with water and throw them away.
- After each firework has completed burning, douse the spent device with plenty of water from a bucket or hose before discarding the device to prevent a trash fire.
When handling dangerous fireworks, our product liability attorneys will always recommend being safe to avoid a trip to the emergency room. For more information on firework safety, visit the CPSC’s fireworks safety education center and check their fireworks recall list.
Contact Our Product Liability Lawyers
Casey, Devoti & Brockland is a St. Louis-based law firm focused on serving personal injury victims. Since 1983, our attorneys have helped injured people navigate the road to recovery through the legal system — securing compensation for medical bills, lost wages and beyond.
Matt Casey, Matt Devoti and Anne Brockland have decades of trial experience handling personal injury lawsuits, from auto collisions and product defects to medical malpractice and wrongful death. Together, we proudly serve clients throughout metropolitan St. Louis, southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois.
Our product liability lawyers deliver the perfect balance of aggressive legal representation, compassion and personal service. If you or a loved one have received an injury due to improper firework safety, dangerous fireworks or other acts of negligence, contact our firm today for a free consultation.


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Cities can improve day-to-day life by freeing street vendors
By Sal Rodriguez | January 19, 2024
As long as there have been street vendors, city bureaucrats have tried to stop them.
Whether for protectionist reasons protecting brick-and-mortar businesses from competition or in response to exaggerated health concerns, such rules are often arbitrary and designed to limit entrepreneurship.
Richard Little Wright, in his 1927 book “Hawkers and Walkers in Early America,” describes city ordinances cracking down on such vendors in the earliest days of America.
“In New York City, as early as 1691, a city ordinance forbade hucksters selling their wares until the market had been open for two hours,” he wrote. “In 1707 all street hawking was forbidden, on penalty of twenty shillings for each offense, half of which fine went to the informer, and half to the city poor.”
Marblehead, Massachusetts, had similar restrictions barring street vendors from operating so long as established markets were open. “The trade of the established market found unfair competition coming from itinerant hucksters,” notes Wright.
Here on the West Coast, historians have traced City Hall-imposed restrictions and hostilities toward street vendors in Los Angeles to more than a century ago.
Back in the late 1800s, as explained by food writer Farley Elliot in his 2015 book “Los Angeles Street Food: A History from Tamaleros to Taco Trucks,” Chinese and Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles trying to earn a living were readily able to find paying customers for the low-cost, tasty meals they were offering but routinely ran into limits imposed by city government.
In the 1890s, Los Angeles city officials first tried limiting where Mexican tamaleros could operate. “By the turn of the century, the city had agreed instead to force tamale cart owners to pay for operating licenses as a way to weed them out, but it only helped to de-stigmatize the market for tamales without slowing it down,” explains Elliot. While the times have certainly changed, the sort of restrictions on street vendors have proved enduring, with cities today still imposing similar restrictions.
Street vending today
Across the street from where I live, most days of the week, there’s a woman from Mexico selling aguas frescas (fruit drinks) and tejuino (a fermented drink). Her set-up isn’t very complicated. She pulls up with a small stand, keeps her beverages in large containers and has simple plastic cups to serve her tasty offerings. She’s there a few hours per day and after selling what she has, she heads home.
Within short drives in any direction, there are many others like her, usually from Mexico or Central America. Salvadorans selling pupusas and other foods from El Salvador, Mexicans selling tacos, tortas, tlayudas. Some sell simple hot dogs or burgers.
It’s simple, it’s cheap and it’s usually pretty good. For the small-scale vendors, street vending gives them a low-cost way to get into business to make a living for themselves. Usually from immigrant backgrounds, they often don’t have the money it takes to open a brick-and-mortar business and maybe never will. For customers, what they offer is an affordable and convenient way of getting something to eat or drink.
And yet, these setups have long been and continue to be the source of legal conflict. One of the reasons I’m able to more readily access the services of street vendors is thanks to a state law decriminalizing them in California in 2018. The law gives cities some latitude to implement regulations, within limits, to protect public health and safety.
How California cities have gone about that has been wide-ranging.
In Los Angeles, it wasn’t until 2020 that the city issued its first permit under the new legal regime. Despite a brief reprieve during the coronavirus pandemic, Los Angeles’ permits for street vendors are notably pricy, at $541. Coupled with a regulatory system described as a “dizzying process” to comply with, many vendors have chosen to continue doing business in violation of city rules.
The city has also established “no vending zones” for all street vendors in or around popular areas, including the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Violations are punishable with costly fines.
In the city of Redlands, Calif., vendors are required to obtain a business license and general liability insurance. According to the Redlands Daily Facts, the city’s regulations allow vendors “to operate within 200 feet of farmer’s markets, on business-area sidewalks if they comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, allow vendors to sell a minimum of 100 feet from schools and let them use small shade structures.” Violations of the city’s rules are first met with a warning, then escalating fines.
In nearby Fontana, the city is requiring vendors to obtain a business permit, a health permit and abide by rules including restrictions on where street vendors can do business. Fontana has most recently been in the news for its aggressive stance on permitting, with a recently approved ordinance allowing the city to seize the carts used by vendors if they don’t have a license. The city is also committing up to $600,000 in enforcement aimed at rooting out vendors doing business without city approval.
These sorts of policies are commonplace across the country, with some cities going even further.
In Phoenix, street vendors have to get a $150 license from the city, get a background check and get police approval. They are also banned from operating in certain parts of the city, and could face misdemeanor penalties for violations of city rules. People without legal immigration status are barred from vending under the city’s rules.
Salt Lake City outlines multiple steps vendors must take if they want to comply with city rules. Multiple permits must be obtained, along with site plans and detailed cart dimensions. The process could take months. While the city notes it’s legal to engage in street vending from 6 am through midnight, the city also imposes arbitrary restrictions on where vendors can operate. They are banned, for example, from operating within 100 feet of businesses selling similar things.
What should be done?
To the extent that City Hall is going to regulate street vending, such rules should be limited in their aims and directed at mitigating actual harms to public safety. Rules should be crafted in such a way to encourage, not discourage, compliance.
Sweeping bans like those in Los Angeles outright banning vendors from operating in commercial and tourist zones or even just within x-hundred feet of other businesses are often designed to protect brick-and-mortar businesses in the area rather than addressing actual harms or risks.
Excessive regulations like criminal background checks should likewise be eliminated, as should excessive punishments. Rather than prioritizing the punishing of unlicensed vendors, finite public resources are better devoted toward education and encouraging compliance with city rules.
And finally, city permitting processes should be simplified as much as possible. Throwing up too many hurdles, from superfluous requirements to costly paperwork, will only result in many vendors choosing not to comply.
Sal Rodriguez is opinion editor for the Southern California News Group and a senior fellow with the Pacific Research Institute. He is the author of Dynamism or Decay? Getting City Hall Out of the Way, published by the Pacific Research Institute.


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The tiny processor will be designed to use less power and provide better performance than today’s chips. IBM says it offers a 40 percent performance boost and 20 percent power reduction over 45 nanometer chips. The latest Intel Atom processors happen to be based on a 45 nanometer process.
The new chips could be available in the second half of 2010. IBM has already sent out technology evaluation kits to early access partners and other companies that could develop machines around the 28 nanometer chip.


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THE LOS ANGELES sky was grey, but on the terrace of the Bonaventure Hotel the prevailing color was pink as the Financial Times kicked off its West Coast printing operation and news bureau.
The champagne was pink, as was the press kit, and the London-based newspaper's managing director, John Makinson, wore a pink shirt ? all to match the Financial Times' well-known, salmon-colored pages.
Included in the festivities was a 100-foot-tall balloon ? also pink ? adorned with the paper's logo and tethered to a pillar.
Makinson, once a Financial Times reporter, said that printing in Los Angeles was the "next essential step for the Financial Times in fulfilling management's goal of becoming the world's leading financial newspaper."
He added that West Coast printing will allow for distribution to hundreds of retail sites not previously served and will facilitate airline delivery to such cities as San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Denver, Albuquerque, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, Mexico City and to Hawaii and Alaska.
"The economy of California and the West Coast is very important to the global economy, particularly because of the entertainment industry and the fact that virtually everything new in multimedia is coming out of California," Makinson said.
He added that the company also is opening an advertising office in Los Angeles.
The new print site, Southwest Offset Printing in Gardena, is the newspaper's seventh. Initially, it was announced, the Los Angeles print run will be about 14,000 copies daily, double the number that have been flown in daily from the East Coast.
International editor Peter Martin said the Los Angeles news bureau will be staffed by Christopher Parkes, who is being transferred from Singapore. He previously was bureau chief in Bonn and Frankfurt.
Martin said that earlier this year the Financial Times was given a "comprehensive overhaul that included a broader scope of page-one world news briefs and a table of leading financial indicators, which are now regionalized according to print sites. There also are specialized international news pages headed Management, Business and the Environment, Technology and The Arts.
Founded in 1888, the Financial Times is owned by Pearson PLC, the British company whose interests include the Economist, Thames TV, Penguin Books, and Westminster Press, a group of U.K. regional newspapers.
?(A 10-story-high pink balloon helps the Financial Times promote its new West Coast print site.)[Photo & Caption]
By: M.L. Stein North American operations balanced as part of global distribution plan sp.


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If you happened to be walking or going for rainy-weather drives in the Sapperton area in the past few days, you might have caught a glimpse of a small peach-coloured trailer.
Next time you're there, it might be worth your while to stop and visit.
The trailer, the Little Miss Coffee Company, is New Westminster’s newest mobile café, and it has everything from coffees and teas to freshly baked banana breads.
Burnaby-based owner Michelle Lougheed, who has worked in cafes since she was 19 — starting with a seven-year stint as a Starbucks barista. Realizing her love for more aesthetically pleasing small-cafe environments, she began managing small coffee shops, moving from Victoria to Penticton .
After having her daughter, she said, she decided to begin her own small venture to have more flexibility. The Little Miss Coffee company — a name inspired by her daughter, she said — was born.
“Having a coffee shop is always something that I wanted to do,” Lougheed said. “The smaller trailer seemed like kind of a neat option as opposed to brick-and-mortar cafes. So I thought I'd give it a go.”
Plans for the mobile cafe were in the works for about a year, she said. Though she'd made up her mind last fall to go into business for herself, getting the trailer built, obtaining permits and reworking electrical and plumbing all took about a year, she said.
The mobile cafe is a one-woman business, owned and managed by Lougheed. However, the best-selling freshly baked delicacies are supplied by a baker friend, Connie Wan. She sources all her coffee from Oughtred Coffee & Tea in Delta, and all the tea comes from Granville Island Tea Company.
"I tend to move around quite a lot," Lougheed said. "So having a brick-and-mortar cafe seemed a bit too permanent for my liking, as well as, cost-wise, it was a lot more cost effective than having a whole building.
"And I kind of like the idea of being able to take it to events or go to a different city if I want to move ... and I like that it's something different."
Lougheed has been finding new spots for her cafe since she opened late last month. The first two days her cafe found a home at Columbia and Braid, then she parked by the Royal Columbian hospital on Thursday, andthe next day was in business opposite the Legion.
The mobile will be open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays, weather permitting.
Although Lougheed might expand her operations to Port Coquitlam in the next couple years, for now, she intends on sticking around New West.
For the location, visit her Instagram page, where it will be updated every morning.


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In Europe, aside from its familiar range of cars for carrying people that are definitely more well-known, PSA Peugeot Citroen also has a successful commercial vehicles division with a range of its own. These PSA vans and light trucks are prevalent on European roads, where they are appreciated for being hardy and affordable vehicles powered by efficient diesel engines.
However, it seems that the French may be able to expand their van-selling horizons, through their GM connection, into the US where the vehicles would get a local badge (we say GMC, but it could just as easily be Chevrolet) and be sold through existing dealers.
A Reuters report says that the implications of the decision are currently being weighed, but since the two auto-making giants are already working together on “developing small cars and minivans,” and GM owns 7 percent of PSA, it is plausible.
Adding to the plausibility of this to actually take place are Peugeot’s serious financial problems in its core markets, which are definitely forcing officials to think outside the box, in order to at least try to become profitable. Besides, Peugeot doesn’t mind passing its commercial vehicles on to other automaker which will rebadge and sell it as their own – Toyota, for instance, recently announced their new ProAce van, which is actually the exact same vehicle sold by Peugeot, Citroen and Fiat.
By Andrei Nedelea


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Indian government is leveraging the substantial potential of the food processing
sector, placing significant emphasis on the comprehensive advancement of all sub-segments throughout the entire value chain, spanning from farm gates to retail outlets. This initiative underscores the government’s commitment to nurturing startups and fostering innovation within the food processing industry by initiating
the annual tradition, to mark the debut of Start-up Forum For Aspiring Leaders and Mentors (SUFALAM).
The objective of the conclave is to facilitate collaboration, knowledge exchange, and the advancement of food processing startups, which is imperative for fostering growth and innovation within the food processing
industry. This extensive initiative seeks to bring together a wide spectrum of stakeholders from both the established food processing sector and the burgeoning startup ecosystem.
The overarching aim is to cultivate a
holistic environment that encourages collaborative efforts, mentorship opportunities, and the sharing ofresources. To achieve these goals, MoFPI has organized a two-day event on 13th and 14th of February, 2024.
The Ministry and NIFTEM-K are putting forth a diverse range of activities for the two-day event. These include two engaging pitching sessions, three knowledge sessions, two panel discussions. The event envisages participation of 100 Start-ups, Food companies like Nestle, ITC, Dabur, Buhler, Waycool, Marico, TCPL, and
a few more, besides representation from a few banks. The participants will also include Academicians, students, Researchers and members from Industry Associations. In addition to this, around 30 Start-ups and
12 PM-FME beneficiaries will be showcasing their innovative products, technologies during the event.
Recognizing the pivotal role of startups in catalysing innovation and growth, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India, is strategically directing efforts to position India as a global food hub.
Focused on fostering entrepreneurship, the ministry is channelling investments into key areas of the food processing sector, with a special emphasis on startups. These initiatives encompass various aspects such as
backward linkages, food processing transformation equipment, research and development related to processing, cold chain storage solutions, and form an integral part of the comprehensive strategy aimed at bolstering the entire food processing value chain, including logistic and retail chains. Throughout this two-day event, the focus will be on to delve into the immense potential residing within the sector and reflect upon the indispensable role that startups play in driving its growth and transformation.
MoFPI is also organising the next edition of World Food India, 2024 from 19th of September to 22nd of September, 2024. SUFALAM will provide an opportunity to contemplate the symbiotic relationship between startups and the dynamic evolution of the food processing industry while WFI, 2024 will link them to the large canvas of the sector.


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by Karl Denninger
The economy is booming under President Biden’s leadership. The economy has gained more than three million jobs since the President took office—the most jobs created in the first five months of any presidency in modern history. Today, the President is building on this economic momentum by signing an Executive Order to promote competition in the American economy, which will lower prices for families, increase wages for workers, and promote innovation and even faster economic growth.
More than 100 years ago Congress got tired of the monopolist games in various industries and passed a series of laws, with the first being The Sherman Act. When firms danced around the edges (gee, you think that sort of thing is new?) it was rapidly followed by Clayton and Robinson-Patman. You can find them in 15 USC Chapter 1 and, I remind you once again (for the 100th time, more or less, over the last 13 or so years of this column) Sherman and Clayton are not civil penalties either: They contain federal felony, 10-years in the slam-slam penalties for each person involved. There is no corporate shield behind which one can hide in that regard.


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Salesforce.com is acquiring Buddy Media, a developer of social media marketing software, in a move that continues its expansion into cloud-based marketing applications.
Salesforce.com is paying approximately $689 million in cash and Salesforce.com equity to buy New York-based Buddy Media, Salesforce.com disclosed early Monday.
Founded in 2007, Buddy Media offers a platform that businesses use to manage social media marketing programs. The software helps marketers publish content, place and optimize social media advertising, and measure the effectiveness of social media marketing programs, according to Salesforce.com
The Buddy Media acquisition complements Salesforce.com's March 2011 buyout of Radian6, a supplier of technology for monitoring social networks and capturing data from them. Both companies fit into the Salesforce.com vision of the "social enterprise" -- the increased use of social media technologies by businesses for external marketing and customer communications, and for delivering information to employees internally.
"Salesforce.com now has the No. 1 players in social listening and marketing -- Radian6 and Buddy Media," said Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, in a statement. "With [chief marketing officers] surpassing CIOs in [spending] on technology within the next five years, our marketing cloud leadership will allow us to capitalize on this massive opportunity."
Salesforce.com will combine Buddy Media with Radian6 to create what it called the "first comprehensive marketing cloud" system to help businesses "listen, engage, gain insight, publish, advertise and measure social marketing programs."
Earlier this year, in another move that furthered the company's social enterprise strategy, Salesforce.com acquired Rypple, a developer of human capital management applications that leverage social media for recruiting employees, building teams and managing their performance.
Buddy Media has about 1,000 customers including Ford, Hewlett-Packard, L'Oreal and Mattel, as well as major marketing agencies such as Interpublic Group and Omnicon.
Salesforce.com is paying approximately $467 million in cash, $184 million in Salesforce.com common stock and $38 million in vested stock options and restricted stock to acquire Buddy Media, according to the company. The two companies expect to complete the acquisition during Salesforce.com's fiscal third quarter ending Oct. 31.


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Like most high school girls heading to prom, Hope Henry was excited.
Until she went shopping for a prom dress, that is.
Turns out that Henry, a junior at Gordon Lee High School, couldn't find one she liked. In fact, she found only a few that were available in her size. Henry, who wears a size 18, learned that prom dresses in plus sizes are hard to come by - especially ones that offer a flattering and trendy style.
"Shopping for a prom dress was a pain in the butt," says the 17-year-old Henry, who lives in Rossville.
"My mom and I went to the big department stores - the same stores where she had found her own prom dresses when she was in high school," she says.
They went to J.C. Penney and Sears, as well as Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls and other stores. "Not only did they not have a selection of plus-size dresses (size 14 was the largest, she says), they didn't have more than six or seven prom dresses total, and they were not at all attractive.
"I find it so frustrating. If I go to the popular 'teen' stores like Rue 21, Forever 21, Aeropostale, Hollister, for example, I wouldn't be able to buy one piece of clothing," she says. "The extra-large size is like a medium. They size really small, and it makes me feel bigger than I actually am. Eventually I just give up. Finding new clothes that people at school think are cool is hard. The fashion world says you've got to be small and you've got to be pretty to be cool."
Kim Goins of Chattanooga, who co-founded Rescue Prom, an organization originally started to help girls whose families were affected by the devastating tornadoes in the spring of 2011, says plus-size prom dresses were hard to come by even back then. For the next two years, the organization continued to distribute the dresses to girls whose families couldn't afford to purchase them.
Goins, 51, a graduate of Dade County High School, in Trenton, Ga., an area hit hard by the tornadoes, wanted to help teens in her hometown and surrounding areas to find dresses to wear to the prom. But, despite the incredible feedback and around 4,000 dresses donated to the organization from across the country, they were mostly sizes 14 and under.
"After size 14, it was very slim pickings," Goins says. "Sizes 18 or larger were almost impossible to find."
Similarly, Operation Prom, an organization that also donates free prom dresses to girls in need in seven states - including Tennessee, according to its website - has also had difficulties getting plus-size dresses. Noel D'Allacco, founder of Operation Prom, told The Associated Press that the decade-old project received about 7,000 gently used dresses and new ones from corporate partners last year, but only about 700 were size 18 and up. The shortage of donated plus-size garments forced her to buy some.
"We are going crazy trying to get plus-size dresses," D'Allacco, who lives in Bronxville, N.Y., told the AP. "We have this problem, unfortunately, every year. A lot of times we get plus-size donations and they're not appropriate for a 17-year-old. They're for your grandmother to wear. It's difficult."
A 2012 study released by The NPD Group, a leading market research company, shows that two-thirds of females ages 13 and over in America say they wear clothing that is "special sized." One-third of these females classify themselves as plus-size females. Sixty-three percent of plus-size women report that shopping for plus-sized clothing is more stressful than shopping for regular clothing.
"The issues that plus-size women face in store translate into the biggest opportunity for brands and retailers to grow their businesses today," Marshal Cohen, NPD Group chief industry analyst, told the AP. "There are so many consumers who wear at least one item that is plus size, and yet the market is dramatically undeserved."
Henry, who says she's fluctuates between sizes 18 and 20, was about to give up when she decided to wear a hand-me-down gown.
"I ended up getting a gown from a cousin," Henry says. "She's older than me and she hadn't worn it in three years, but it still stylish. It's a rich red, has a corset-style (lace-up) back that makes it easier to adjust to my body.
"My cousin and I are slightly different in size but she's taller. And it's even harder for plus-size girls to find dresses that fit because designers think that, if you're bigger around, you're also taller. And that's not true."
Contact Karen Nazor Hill at email@example.com or 423-757-6396.


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BMW India opened a new and exclusive showroom for MINI cars in Hyderabad earlier today. Located opposite R.T.A, Khairtabad, Mini Hyderabad will display MINI Hatch, MINI Convertible and MINI Countryman. The new Mini dealership is opened by KUN Exclusive and it will be headed by Mr. Gautham Gudigopuram, Director, KUN Exclusive.
BMW says that the new KUN Exclusive dealership in Hyderabad is,”uniquely designed to replicate the modern city feel in an indulging, inviting and interactive format representing the iconic MINI Lifestyle.” The display area of the new showroom has the capacity to showcase 4 MINI cars. It also features MINI Lounge, MINI Lifestyle Collection and MINI Accessories.
Mr. Philipp von Sahr, President, BMW Group India said, “There is no other more exciting car brand in the world as MINI. With the launch of KUN Exclusive in the historic city of Hyderabad, we are happy to accelerate MINI’s momentum in India. MINI has established itself as a unique brand, associated with tradition and irresistible charm. With MINI, it is possible to build upon its heritage while at the same time, the brand is so youthful and contemporary that customers soon become part of a vivacious, unique MINI community.”
Mr. Gautham Gudigopuram, Director, KUN Exclusive said, “KUN Exclusive has been working with BMW Group India since 2007. Adding another chapter to this extremely successful and exciting association, we are thrilled to bring the MINI to Hyderabad and become part of its India journey. We expect an enthusiastic response for the charismatic and exciting MINI from the customers in Andhra Pradesh and the rest of the region.”
For their customers, MINI already has their own financial services which will allow attractive finance and insurance options. Apart from this, MINI Smile, a value added package for MINI cars will also be offered to customers over and above their basic motor insurance.


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Apple suffered a widespread outage to its app and music download services, costing the company $2 million per hour.
Showing results 1 to 20 of 311
The tech giant must cough up roughly half a billion after being found guilty of using Smartflash patents without permission.
Apple has escaped a potential $1bn damages bill after a jury decided an iTunes update that kept rivals' music off its iPod was a genuine product improvement.
For the second straight year, the company will give out the cards instead of discounting its products. All iPads will come with a $50 card, and all iMac and MacBook purchases will include a $100 card.
iTunes U has been updated with new tools to help teachers create lessons on the iPad.
Many weeks using the Nokia 1020 as my primary phone revealed it to be both a strong iPhone competitor and an example of why Microsoft has struggled to build a mobile juggernaut. Its superb camera will bring many users, but how does it stack up as a primary phone?
Apple has some big product promises to live up if iTunes head Eddy Cue is telling the truth.
Nokia has been a leader in smartphone imaging for a long time and their PureView cameras are the best in the industry. A lead engineer announced his departure from Microsoft to help a competitor improve their cameras.
Every inch the premium high-end smartphone, the Xperia Z2 delivers excellent performance, screen quality and camera resolution without compromising battery life. However, the abundance of third-party apps may confuse some users, and we noticed that the handset sometimes runs hot.
25 vulnerabilities are addressed in the new version 11.1.4. 24 of them affect only the Windows version of iTunes.
Apple's push to bring educational tools and content to the masses continues this week with word that its iBooks Textbooks and iTunes U Course Manager will now be available in more than 50 countries throughout Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Having apps auto update in the background is great, but if that results in data loss then you're about to enter a world of hurt, and your iCloud or iTunes backup is going to be of little help.
I've been spending more and more time with my new Android phone, it's becoming clear that Apple is woefully behind in one key aspect: the App Store.
Owners of high-end Lumia devices who want the latest camera apps can begin installing them from today with the latest Amber update, but some won't get Amber until the end of September.
There is a lot of anticipation for Nokia new Lumia devices with the Smart Camera app, but you can find the same functionality and much more in the current HTC One smartphone as well.
Apple didn't give it much time during the WWDC keynote, but Apple's iTunes Radio service is a pretty big deal. Here's why Apple decided to use the radio station model (ala Pandora) instead of the catalog model (ala Spotify).
Apple is going to improve the camera and photo experience with iOS 7, including new image filters and viewing tools. The HTC One already has these capabilities and a whole lot more.
Apple finally lifts the lid on iTunes Radio at its WWDC 2013 keynote, an ad-supported service that will battle with Pandora and Spotify in the streaming music space.
Remember Lala, the innovative music service that made a splash in 2009? After Apple bought the company, Lala's services vanished. Now, a candid (maybe too candid) report from an insider explains why Apple was willing to pay $160 million to make this "clear and present danger" to iTunes go away.
Apple is notoriously stingy with discounts and they're generally few and far between. Best Buy is offering $100 iTunes gift cards for $80 for Black Friday which is easily one of the best Apple discounts around.


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Tourists Spent $35 Billion in Ohio in 2017
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Tourists spent an estimated $35 billion in Ohio last year, generating an estimated $44 billion in sales, TourismOhio reported Wednesday.
Direct visitor spending was up an estimated $1 billion from 2016 and generated $1 billion more in sales from 2016, according to data released yesterday by the state tourism promotion agency. The data indicates the state’s tourism industry grew for the eighth consecutive year.
“Tourism continues to create jobs and help drive the economies of Ohio communities,” said David Goodman, director of the Ohio Development Services Agency.
Tourism Economics conducted research for the study on behalf of TourismOhio, which uses the data to track industry performance and monitor visitor trends. TourismOhio is releasing the data in conjunction with Ohio Tourism Day 2018 yesterday.
“Our Ohio. Find It Here. brand encourages visitors to make emotional connections with family and friends while exploring the state,” said Matt MacLaren, director of TourismOhio. “We are seeing more people take advantage of Ohio’s distinct experiences and spending more when they visit. TourismOhio will continue to work with our industry partners to complement their marketing efforts and amplify the Ohio. Find It Here. brand.”
In addition to an increase in visitor spending, the tourism industry added 1,000 tourism-related jobs last year for a total of 428,000 jobs supported by tourism, up from 427,000 in 2016.
The number of tourism visits to and within Ohio increased from 212 million in 2016 to 219 million visits in 2017. Of those 219 million visits last year, 43 million were overnight trips, which spend on average more than three times the amount spent by day trip visitors ($111 for day trips versus $365 for overnight trips), according to reasearch.
Copyright 2022 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.


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We were not paid to write this story. The products and services mentioned below were selected independent of sales and advertising.
It's always a great idea to keep an eye out for the birthdays of fast food companies.
To celebrate, they often give out free or discounted items from their menu that you just can't say no to.
It's a once-a-year opportunity that millions of people across the country take advantage of.
Krispy Kreme, America's favorite donut company, is celebrating its 81st anniversary, and we're as excited as they are!
On Twitter, the company announced that on Friday, July 27, customers can buy an Original Glazed Dozen for only $1.
We're celebrating our birthday Friday, July 27, but WE have a gift for YOU! According to @SHAQ, 12 + 1 = 24. Get an Original Glazed Dozen for $1 when you buy any dozen at regular price at participating shops. #KrispyKremeBirthday #ShaqMath pic.twitter.com/EN1kMuCULn— Krispy Kreme (@krispykreme) July 23, 2018
This deal is only available on that one day! But there is a catch.
You have to buy any dozen donuts at regular price to be qualified for the promotion.
Still a good bargain if you ask me! But that's not all...
Krispy Kreme is launching a brand new donut for this special occasion, called the Glazed Confetti Donut.
This donut consists of vanilla birthday cake-flavored dough with confetti sprinkles, then glazed with Krispy Kreme's Original Glaze. And to top it all off, the donut will have colorful sprinkles.
"One of our favorite times during the year is when we get to celebrate our birthday with our fans," said Mike Tattersfield, Chief Executive Officer of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. "In addition to offering a delicious dollar deal on an extra dozen of our Original Glazed® Doughnuts, we've "˜birthday-ed' up our awesome Original Glazed® Doughnut, creating a whole new experience."
The Glazed Confetti will only be available for one week only, until August 2 (at participating stores).
Don't forget to mark July 27 on your calendar! Who will you share these delicious treats with?
[H/T: Fox 5]


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Boutique bowling operator All Star Leisure is to open two more bowling alleys with upmarket American diners. All Star Lanes opened in Bloomsbury, last year, headed up by Charles and Adam Breeden of The Lonsdale restaurant in Notting Hill and co-owner Mark von Westenholz Construction has started on a site in Whiteleys of Bayswater, which is set to open in May. Meanwhile, they are at "an advanced stage of lease negotiations"
for a third venture in the Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, east London, which the owners hope will open in October.
The menus at both will be similar in style to the original site, which serves Louisiana Crab Cakes, Connoisseurs Macaroni and Cheese and Double Chocolate Brownie of Mandarin Orange Sorbet. "We want it to be consistent," said von Westenholz, adding, "There'll be about 100 covers in Whiteleys but 120 in the Truman Brewery and because that'll be on the ground floor and will be more open-plan, we hope more people will come to eat there, not necessarily just because they're bowling."
The development of the sites will cost about £5million, after which the company plans to open further sites in Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh from 2008.