Written by Jeremy Martin on July 4, 2011.
A third of independent UK High Street shops are now cafes, pubs, restaurants, and takeaways, according to new research.
The study, conducted by insurer Simply Business, based on quotes requested by 75,198 businesses between 2008 and 2010 provides a really interesting insight into which types of shops are becoming more popular and which are in decline as UK independent High Street retailers face stiff competition from large chains, supermarkets and shopping malls.
Whilst cafes, pubs, restaurants and takeaways are showing growth, the number of independent clothes shops has declined, making up only five per cent of high street businesses in 2010, compared to six per cent two years ago. These results suggest that independent fashion retailers are struggling to compete with the big high street chains and the increasing number of shopping malls, such as Westfield in London and the Bullring development in Birmingham.
Likewise, independent newsagents are struggling, with the proportion of shops having halved between 2008 and 2010.
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Written by Michael Harris on July 3, 2011.
One way Delta has been doing that is by partnering with a master sommelier to select wines.
Andrea Robinson, one of only 17 women in North America granted the title by The Court of Master Sommeliers, has been the brains behind Delta’s wine selections since 2007.
She notes that serving wine at 30,000 feet presents some particular challenges.
“When you are at altitude, your sense of smell and taste are significantly attenuated,” Robinson said.
Robinson, who is also an author and has hosted television shows on wine, works to find the best wines to pair with the menus planned by Delta’s celebrity chef Michelle Bernstein for passengers in BusinessElite class. Delta rotates BusinessElite wine selections quarterly.
Aside from choosing wines, Robinson also partners with Delta for appearances at events such as May’s inaugural Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, where Delta was a sponsor. She has also hosted wine culture seminars for Delta flight attendants with training on things such as how to recommend wines.
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Written by Michael Harris on July 2, 2011.
Retail sales volumes.
Maybe the Australian Bureau of Statistics is trying to tell us something. In reporting its monthly retail sales numbers, it gives precedence to the trend series despite just about everyone else concentrating on the more volatile seasonally adjusted numbers that make for better headlines.
And the trend series has been remarkably consistent. Retail sales in current prices up 0.3 per cent in May, just as they were in April, just as they were in March.
The seasonally adjusted figures by comparison show today’s announcement of a surprise 0.6 per cent fall in May after a rise of 1.2 per cent in April and a fall of 0.4 per cent in March.
For anxious retailers, counting each day’s takings and comparing it with the fixed costs of their high rents with automatic CPI escalation clauses (or worse), plus wondering about what percentage of the growth in sales is going to online shopping, the story is more a week-by-week drama, but the disinterested macro-economic picture takes a big step back from that and finds something calmer.
Perhaps the biggest surprise about today’s figures was that it was a surprise to the surveyed economic tipsters who predicted a rise of 0.3 per cent.
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Written by Michael Harris on July 2, 2011.
The Sandy Springs company will pay to retrofit its planes with full-face oxygen masks with integrated smoke goggles over the next two years. In April, UPS announced it would add Emergency Vision Assurance Systems to planes, devices that allow pilots to see their flight path and instruments through a smoky cockpit.
The masks and EVAS systems are in direct response to the plane crash last fall. While the cause of a fire on the plane has not yet been determined, a preliminary report from the United Arab Emirates’ General Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that smoke in the cockpit made it more difficult for the pilots to see their flight instruments. A UPS task force has been suggesting ways to improve flight safety, with a particular focus on in-flight fires.
The new one-piece masks can be put on in three seconds and fit crew members who wear glasses better than the separate oxygen masks and smoke goggles that pilots currently use.
The devices will give pilots the time they need to manage an aircraft in smoke, said Brian Gaudet, public affairs director for the 2,800-member Independent Pilots Association.
“This is a really big deal,” he said.
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Written by Jeremy Martin on July 2, 2011.
The chief information officer of the United States government, Vivek Kundra, is to step down later this year to become an academic.
He will divide his time between two departments of Harvard university, the Shorenstein Centre on the Press, Politics and Public Policy and the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society.
Formerly chief technology office of the District of Columbia (DC) and a technology advisor to President Barack Obama, Kundra became the first ever government-wide CIO in 2008.
Kundra lead the US government’s pioneering open data initiatives, and in 2009 oversaw the launch of data.gov, the web based public sector data repository that inspired similar efforts by governments around the world, including data.gov.uk.
Open data initiatives in the US suffered a recent blow, however, after a recent bill slashed funding for e-government projects from an expected $35 million to just $8 million. “While we believe that we can make progress on several important initiatives, several projects will experience a sharp decline given the limited amount of funding,” Kundra wrote in response to the cuts.
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Written by Jeremy Martin on July 1, 2011.
A consortium of companies lead by Apple that includes Microsoft and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has agreed to pay $4.5 billion for patents belonging to Nortel, the Canadian telecommunications equipment maker that went bust in 2009.
The $4.5 billion bid trumped an earlier $900 million offer from web giant Google. “This outcome is disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition,” Google told the Bloomberg news agency.
The 6,000 patents relate to technologies including smartphones, the web and microprocessors. “The portfolio touches nearly every aspect of telecommunications and additional markets as well, including Internet search and social networking,” said Nortel in a statement.
Meanwhile, Canada’s other troubled telecommunications company Research in Motion has responded to a supposed ‘open letter’ to senior management, purportedly written by a “high level employee”.
The letter, published by mobile blog Boy Genius Report, offered RIM executives guidance on how to turn the business around. The
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Written by Michael Harris on July 1, 2011.
A punter leaves a Lotto shop after buying a tiny chance at winning big. Photo: Jim Rice
Quick, phone the Reserve Bank inflation really is out of control. Never mind bananas and electricity bills, inflation is hitting hard right at the core of the Australian character – the desire to lose money, alias our love of the punt. (Or some might call it our national stupidity indicator.)
As many a desperate dreamer has discovered over the past week, the price of an Oz Lotto or Powerball flutter has soared. The cabal of six state lottery outfits that control these two revenue raisers reached the hard decision that they would put up the price of losing.
A single Oz Lotto game purchased from NSW Lotteries (actually Tattersalls following last years $1 billion privatisation) now costs $1.25, a jump of 13.6 per cent from the previous $1.10. A full card of 24 games costs $27.85, a hike of $2.55, or 10.1 per cent.
The philosophical question to ask here is whether such a bald-faced cash grab can be recorded in the national accounts as a productivity bonus.
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