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Tag: america
2009-01-07 00:15:03| USATODAY.com Money - Top Stories
Bank of America Chief Executive and Chairman Kenneth Lewis is recommending that he and his top executives receive no bonuses ...
2009-01-06 18:45:59| Coudal Partners Blended Feed
I hope the allegations of Bill Richardson's corruption don't screw up the awesomeness that is Spaceport America.
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america
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spaceport america
2009-01-04 01:07:50| Guardian Unlimited Business - more business news
On America's "Black Friday", the day after Thanksgiving and normally the busiest shopping day of the year, New York's Fifth Avenue was unusually quiet. So quiet, in fact, that television news reporters were filming outside Saks department store and predicting the end of the world as we know it. A couple of miles away in Valley Stream, Long Island, however, the crowds waiting to get into Wal-Mart at 5am on the same day were so big and so eager that an employee was trampled to death when the doors were opened.The stampeding herd of shoppers was after one of Wal-Mart's so-called "door-buster" deals - a giant flat-screen TV at a bargain basement price, or an Xbox games console at an equally unbelievable discount. Few imagined that shoppers would take the chain at its word and literally break down the door in an effort to get their hands on consumer durables at prices only Wal-Mart has the wherewithal to offer. The post-Thanksgiving scene in Valley Stream was gruesome indeed. But the sheer number of shoppers looking for bargains at this lower end of the high street compared with the growing absence of shoppers at the more up-market end is a growing trend across the Unites States. "The American consumer is survival mode right now," says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz and Associates, a retail consultancy and investment banking concern based in New York. "Americans are $14 trillion in debt with no savings. Unemployment is exploding and is expected to continue to rise. I think we will see 10 per cent unemployment by December 2009. If you include the number of people we expect to be forced out of full-time employment into part-time employment next year, that number could rise to 14 per cent. The negative wealth effect is just huge. Add all that up and you have a historically bad environment for retail."But Wal-Mart, with its "pile it high, sell it cheap" ethos, is managing to capitalise on America's economic collapse. It is the largest food retailer in the US and, because of its size and global reach, has the power to offer the cheapest prices in the market. It is also one of the largest retailers of clothes, electronics and toys, and has a hand in hardware, homewares and just about anything else a family might want to buy in any given week. "When people are falling behind on their loans and watching their retirement accounts and investments lose all their value, they are not going to buy anything but the basics. And Wal-Mart is the cheapest place to buy the basics," Davidowitz says. Other discount chains - such as Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, wholesale club BJ's and drugstore chain CVS - are also doing quite well out of America's consumer downturn. "There is virtually no discretionary spending going on right now," Davidowitz adds. "Look at Macy's. Macy's is doing terrible because it relies 100% on discretionary spending. They are not going to go out of business in the next year but they are probably going to have their worst year on record. Same for Sears, same for Kmart. This is all discretionary spending and Americans are just not going to be able to do that for the foreseeable future." But Macy's, Saks, Sears and the rest of those blighted by the consumer downturn still have to shift the goods on their shelves and so are being forced to slash prices by as much as 75% just to keep up with Wal-Mart and the other discount players. "The American consumer has changed," Davidowitz says, "and the retailers are going to have to change too if they want to stay in business."A look at America's Christmas sales figures shows how Wal-Mart is dominating the retail sector. The company, founded in Arkansas in 1962 by the legendary Sam Walton, was the only American retailer to show a rise in same-store sales in December. Wal-Mart was expected by most analysts to show a rise in such sales of about 2.8% for the month. Compare that with the 6-7% drop expected across the rest of the sector and Wal-Mart's position seems insurmountable.The chain is planning a number of openings next year and is even reported to be in talks with Russian retailers and government entities about expanding there. The rest of the American retail sector, meanwhile, is expected to retract significantly next year: the International Council of Shopping Centers, a US retail industry body, believes more than 148,000 store branches will shut down in 2008, the largest number since 2001, when 151,000 closed.With the recession and the abrupt halt in US consumerism it should come as no surprise that those retailers with publicly traded shares had one of the worst years in history. The S&P 500 Retailing Index lost more than 30% this year. Wal-Mart, which is not a member of the index, closed 2008 up 15% at $56.06. So next time you plan a transatlantic bargain binge don't bank on getting everything in Manhattan: jump on the Long Island Rail Road and see if Wal-Mart has the jeans, trainers and jewellery you are looking for. Chances are they will. Just be careful of the crowds.Wal-MartRetail industryguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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2009-01-02 14:24:00| Gizmodo
Sometimes it's easy to lose perspective amidst marketing. Case in point: Nielsen measured that gamers, on whole, spent 31% of their time on the PS2 in 2008 (more than the Xbox 360 and Wii combined). The other interesting, though not necessarily surprising finding was that the gaming population spends more time playing the 360 than the Wii, despite the 360's lower install base. Microsoft can probably thank Call of Duty 4 for that win (along with similar online titles). One point we're not sure about, however, is whether or not portable systems were included in this list. We're guessing not, as the DS would have probably popped up somewhere. [Kotaku]
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america
combined
xbox
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2009-01-02 09:05:41| Commercial Printing - Topix.net
Two major U.S. banking deals were completed yesterday , enabling the suitors to finalize the deals before 2008 came to a close.
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