Eideard

Black Friday sales increased 6.6 percent to the largest amount ever as many U.S. consumers unleashed pent-up demand and bought for themselves.

Shoppers spent $11.4 billion yesterday, ShopperTrak said in a statement today. Foot traffic rose 5.1 percent, according to the Chicago-based research firm…

The brisk turnout came as retailers from Gap to Wal-Mart Stores to Toys “R” Us opened their doors earlier than ever.

Many shoppers were rookies who had never before participated in the busiest shopping day of the year, dubbed Black Friday because many retailers are said to become profitable then. As many as 152 million people were expected to shop at stores and websites on Black Friday, up 10 percent from last year, according to the National Retail Federation…

Black Friday arrived with consumer sentiment at levels previously reached during recessions, as a record share of households said this is a bad time to spend, according to the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index. The measure has reached minus 50 or less in nine of the past 10 weeks, an unprecedented performance in its 26-year history.

Even with low confidence, shoppers paid more for goods and unleashed some pent-up demand, said Craig Johnson, president of consulting firm Customer Growth Partners, which is based in New Canaan, Connecticut…

Chains such as Macy’s, Target Corp. and Kohl’s Corp., which all opened at midnight, may have taken revenue from competitors like J.C. Penney that didn’t open until 4 a.m., according Ken Perkins, president of Swampscott, Massachusetts-based Retail Metrics…

The move to turn Black Friday into more than just one day also grew on the Web as online retailers, such as Amazon.com Inc., began advertising “Black Friday” deals well before yesterday. Online sales gained 39 percent on Thanksgiving and 24 percent on Black Friday, according to IBM’s Coremetrics.

Black Friday may illustrate a gap between what consumers tell pollsters and how they actually behave — a trend that has prevailed for much of this year, said Retail Metrics’ Perkins…“A solid Black Friday suggests the rest of the season should be pretty good,” Perkins said. “Those who have jobs have been willing to spend.”

Americans who have jobs have returned to saving in the course of the year. After a couple decades of relying on plastic to close the gap between the quest-for-scarce-goods and declining real income we reached negative savings numbers at the beginning of the recession. Over the course of this year, that number returned to halfway normal – around 5%.

My hopes – not ideological guesswork – is that folks return to increasing those savings amounts once the holiday season is past. We have a ways to go to return to a more traditional 10%. Meanwhile, China’s new middle class sticks to a savings rate around 40%. They even show up to buy a new car with cash instead of credit! You can guess what Wall Street whizbangs think of that?

Global subsidies for fossil fuel consumption are set to reach $660 billion in 2020 unless reforms are passed to effectively eliminate this form of state aid, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

“Governments and taxpayers spent about half a trillion dollars last year supporting the production and consumption of fossil fuels,” the energy watchdog to 28 industrialized countries said. “In a period of persistently high energy prices, subsidies represent a significant economic liability,” it said in an extract of its annual World Energy Outlook…

“It’s a huge amount of money,” the IEA’s Chief Economist Fatih Birol told reporters at a joint press briefing with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which also presented a report on the issue…

In 2010, Birol had forecast that fossil fuel subsidies would reach $600 billion as early as 2015 without further reforms. He said the slower rate of growth was partly due to efforts in certain major countries including China and India.

“This is thanks to the improvements in India, China, Russia. They have made significant efforts. We have to be fair,” he said, adding that only 8 percent of those subsidies reached the poorest population…

OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria urged developing and rich nations to phase out the subsidies urgently. “As they (nations) look for policy responses to the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes, phasing out subsidies is an obvious way to help governments meet their economic, environmental and social goals,” Gurria said at the press briefing.

Eliminating fossil fuel consumption subsidies by 2020 would cut global energy demand by 4 percent and considerably reduce carbon emissions growth, the IEA said on Tuesday.

Indeed, we might eliminate the subsidies Congress gives to the wealthiest corporations on Earth – stipends to cheapen their cost of doing business. All that achieves, short-or-long-term is bumping up their profits. Nothing dribbles down to consumers. Your tax dollars at work.

NEWS: ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY
By Cliff Edwards

For years, Apple Computer CEO Steven P. Jobs has tried working with retailers to make shopping for Apple’s stylish products as appealing as using them–everything from setting up kiosks to special sections adorned with Apple’s Think Different posters. Still, the computer maker’s share has fallen, and Jobs figures he knows why. “Buying a car is no longer the worst purchasing experience. Buying a computer is now No. 1,” he griped at the MacWorld trade show in January.

Now, he’s taking matters into his own hands. On May 19, Apple will open a swanky new retail store–the first of as many 110 nationwide–at Tyson’s Corner Galleria mall outside Washington. While Apple execs won’t comment on their plans, the idea seems clear: Well-trained Apple salespeople in posh Apple stores can convince would-be buyers of the Mac’s unique advantages, including its well-regarded iMovie software for making home videos and its iTunes program for burning custom CDs…

The way Jobs sees it, the stores look to be a sure thing. But even if they attain a measure of success, few outsiders think new stores, no matter how well-conceived, will get Apple back on the hot-growth path. Jobs’s focus on selling just a few consumer Macs has helped boost profits, but it is keeping Apple from exploring potential new markets. And his perfectionist attention to aesthetics has resulted in beautiful but pricey products with limited appeal outside the faithful: Apple’s market share is a measly 2.8%. “Apple’s problem is it still believes the way to grow is serving caviar in a world that seems pretty content with cheese and crackers,” gripes former Chief Financial Officer Joseph Graziano.

Rather than unveil a Velveeta Mac, Jobs thinks he can do a better job than experienced retailers at moving the beluga. Problem is, the numbers don’t add up…Apple would have to sell $12 million a year per store to pay for the space. Gateway does about $8 million annually at each of its Country Stores. Then there’s the cost of construction, hiring experienced staff. “I give them two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake,” says Goldstein…

Maybe it’s time Steve Jobs stopped thinking quite so differently.

An example why – before making a business decision, equity purchase, or maybe just buying a new TV set – you should consider the opinions of several analysts. Not just one.

Thanks, Charles Jade

Gunther von Hagens, a German anatomist famous for his controversial Body World exhibition displaying plastinated bodies, is now selling human and animal body parts — even as jewelry — online.

The move has provoked strong condemnation from German churches which accuse him of degrading human dignity.

I know, I know. For many churches, nowadays, obedience is of more concern than dignity.

A whole body from www.plastination-products.com costs about 70,000 euros ($97,400), torsos start at 55,644 euros and heads come in at around 22,000 euros each — excluding postage and packaging.

For those on a tighter budget, transparent body slices are available from 115 euros each…

Only “qualified users” who can provide written proof that they intend to use the parts for research, teaching or medical purposes can place an order.

Interested parties who do not fall into this category can buy reproductions of the real body parts — so-called “Anatomy Glass,” which the shop’s website describes as “high resolution acrylic glass prints of the original body slices.”

Jewelry crafted from animal corpses, including necklaces made from horse slices, wristbands made from giraffe tails and earrings made from bull penises, is also available to the general public…

Cripes. Reminds me of a hunter I knew back in the day.

There are 2 vertebrates in North America that have a bone permanently stiffening their penis: bears and raccoons. He would polish the coon variety and sell them as swizzle sticks.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Apple has opened a new retail store in the Lujiazui district of Shanghai, its second such outlet in China

The huge store, set in Shanghai’s wealthy financial district, will sell Chinese gadget fans the latest Apple devices, including iPods, iPhones and iPads.

The Shanghai Apple Store rubs shoulders with a number of other luxury retail brands, including Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

It stands in the shadows of Shanghai’s famous Oriental Pearl Tower, and itself boasts a 40ft high cylindrical installation that houses a glowing Apple logo, and is reminiscent of the famous “glass cube” outside the Apple Store in New York’s Fifth Avenue…

“We are thrilled to open the first of many new stores in China in this incredible location,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of retail, and the mastermind behind Apple’s retail success.

The Shanghai shop is the first of around 25 retail stores that Apple is planning to open across China over the next two years. The company opened its first retail store in Beijing in 2008, just before the Olympic games.

The first 5,000 visitors to the store will receive a commemorative T-shirt to mark the opening. The T-shirt boasts the Apple logo, and a new slogan: “Designed in California, made for China.”

It’s a play on Apple’s traditional product credit of: “Designed in California, made in China.”

Hasn’t been that many years since the first house I worked on that used load-bearing glass for part of its structure. Apple’s store designers and architects have taken the concept to new levels.

I wonder who’s making the glass panels? PPG made the segments for that house I worked on – trucked in on a flatbed trailer all the way from Pittsburgh to Santa Fe.

Investigators for the Department of Justice began asking questions about Apple’s business practices involving digital music at least three weeks ago, multiple music industry sources told CNET.

DOJ investigators have interviewed numerous executives at record companies and digital music stores and according to those with knowledge of the discussions, it is clear that investigators are interested in learning whether Apple has employed anticompetitive tactics.

The sources said that the department’s inquiry is just in a fact-finding stage and that there is nothing to indicate investigators have found any wrongdoing or would file a complaint against Apple…

Apple has a history of throwing its weight around the music sector. Apple’s iTunes accounts for 70 percent of all digital song sales and wields huge power. Apple has often used that clout to dictate terms to suppliers — that is, the major labels.

Here are just a few examples: The major labels wanted variable pricing on songs and albums and for years Apple resisted. In 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the top recording companies were “getting greedy”after music execs considered a music price hike. Last year, Apple finally gave the labels some additional control over song pricing.

The big record companies wanted the ability to sell albums that were unbundled, meaning they wanted Apple to sell hot LPs as a full package and refrain from selling individual songs from these works. Again, on this issue Apple hasn’t given much ground.

To iTunes’ fans, Apple was a freedom fighter. The perception was that Apple was standing up for consumers.

Apple’s refusal to force customers to buy full albums saved them from having to shell out money for songs they didn’t want. To them, Apple’s reluctance to raise the 99 cent song price was another way the company kept music costs down. And the government never made a peep about these practices.

Regardless of papier mache whines like this, the DOJ isn’t about to investigate the MPAA or RIAA. They aren’t even prepared to come down on the side of consumers and protect Fair Use – which has been eroded every year by greedy entertainment giants, pliable bureaucrats and judges.

At the Saks flagship store in Manhattan, a 23-year-old sales clerk was caught recently ringing up $130,000 in false merchandise returns and siphoning the money onto a gift card…

Employee fraud involving gift cards appears to be growing sharply as retailers struggle to contain overall theft, now estimated at $36 billion a year in the industry, or 1.51 percent of retail sales, according to a leading national study. Even as total sales have been falling, employee theft and shoplifting have been rising across the United States, industry experts say, with occasional arrests making headlines.

Many of the gift card crimes are straightforward, frequently involving young sales clerks and smaller amounts than the Saks theft. Among the variations of such crimes, cashiers often do fake refunds of merchandise and then, with the amount refunded, use their registers to electronically fill gift cards, which they take. Or sometimes when shoppers buy gift cards, cashiers give them blank cards and then divert the shoppers’ money onto cards for themselves…

The most common type of employee theft is “sweethearting,” in which cashiers fail to ring up or scan goods that friends or relatives present at the register, Professor Hollinger said. Stealing from the till remains a problem, too. But with gift cards continuing to grow in popularity, they are an increasingly easy target.

Whatever method employees use to steal, their take is more substantial than that of the average shoplifter. Joshua Bamfield’s global study of retail theft found that larcenous employees averaged $1,890 in theft, compared with $438 for shoplifters…

Professor Hollinger says the rate of theft is greatest among retailers with high turnover rates and many part-time workers, who may be less loyal and under more financial pressure than full-time workers.

He also found higher theft among younger workers. “Older workers know they have a lot more to lose — promotional opportunities, health insurance, 401(k)’s and pensions,” Professor Hollinger said.

My experience in traffic management, small parcel manifesting systems plus a bit of retail – leads me to believe that the prospect of a future within a firm makes significant difference to loyalty, standards-based behavior and theft. Someone working in a facility where management reaches out to promote from within, assist in education assistance, provide medical benefits – is a lot less likely to jeopardize an entry-level job that can lead to something better.

There are plenty of good examples – UPS being the strongest in my experience.

India has approved plans for a huge increase in the amount of electricity it generates from solar power.

It aims to boost solar output 1,000-fold over 12 years from its current negligible level. Its 20 gigawatt target would power several big cities.

The government wants to reduce India’s dependence on coal and boost the export industry for solar power equipment…

The $19 billion three-phased plan aims to boost solar power output across the country from close to zero to 20 gigawatts by 2022.

It is hugely ambitious and has been welcomed by the country’s renewable energy suppliers, although some say it is unclear where the money will come from, says the BBC’s technology correspondent Mark Gregory…

India hopes to build a solar power industry that matches early leaders in the sector such as China, Germany and Japan.

The more the merrier. The economies of scale kick in faster with global production.

In a keynote speech at the Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft chief operating officer Kevin Turner told partners that the corporation is planning to open the first of its retail stores next to existing Apple stores…

“As we progress on our retail strategy there will be scenarios where we have stores in proximity to Apple,” a Microsoft spokeswoman told ZDNet. “We are on track to open stores in the Fall timeframe. Beyond that we have no additional details to share.”

It’s unclear whether the Microsoft stores will be selling strictly Microsoft hardware (e.g., the Zune or Xbox 360) and software, or whether it will also be selling products from third-party companies. In the past, Microsoft has said the purpose of the stores was to build the company’s brand name by connecting with customers.

Har! Now that is fracking funny.

I planned on photoshopping something like a mini-WalMart next to an Apple store; but, Wired already got it right.

Bookbarn International stocks 5 million titles in 2nd-hand books
Daylife/Getty Images

Some people are seeking explanations for the global economic crisis. Others want to escape into the fanciful world of vampires. Still others are just looking for a nice plate of comfort food.

Whether they are picking up “La Crise, et Après?” by the French economist Jacques Attali, one of umpteen translations of the American author Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series, or “Jamie’s Ministry of Food,” by the British television chef Jamie Oliver, they are buying books. As the recession leaves other media industries in tatters, the oldest mass medium of all is holding up surprisingly well.

“It’s a happy message,” said André Breedt, research and development analyst at Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks book sales. “People have been reading and they will keep reading, no matter what happens…”

Publishers and analysts offer a variety of reasons why books have done better, at least so far, than many had feared. Compared with a new television or video game console, books are inexpensive. With unemployment on the rise and working hours in decline, people may simply have more time on their hands. After the excesses of recent years, reading is an activity well suited to a more contemplative era.

“Books are a very cheap treat,” said Helen Fraser, managing director of Penguin Books in London. “When you are reading all this dreadful news in the paper, a lovely 500-page novel by Marian Keyes or a classic by Charles Dickens takes you right away from all that.”

But downturns have also created opportunities for publishers. Penguin was founded in 1935, during the Great Depression, by the publisher Allen Lane, who wanted to sell quality books for roughly the price of a pack of cigarettes.

First thing I did after acquiring more spare time when I retired – beside adding a commitment to a second blog – was reserving one day a week as my reading day. It makes nothing but good sense to me.