The Power of Retail

The joy of vacationing is to travel to new places, but it is also to go back to familiar and well loved places. I find it very calming and relaxing to go back to a place that I have been to before, since there is none of that rush around to go see as many things as possible, but instead is a nice relaxed time. I think something like a fractional ownership would be a really great option for me, so that I could go back to the same place and really create my own sense of home and belonging there. It’s important to have such a place to rejuvenate and refresh while on vacation and I really am quite taken with the amazing natural beauty of the area. Looking forward to doing some more research on this.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Walmart and JCPenney’s new lines of furniture, Canopy and Linden Street are not well known or branded products, but they are all the same targeting the customers who shop at branded stores such as Pottery Barn and Ikea. Walmart mailed its shoppers a catalog of 33 pages detailing its line of products of the Canopy line, which also has it’s own website at www.canopyliving.com. As a competitive move, all items that are shipped to Walmart stores will have free shipping. With this new brand, the company is hoping to create a different feel and look for its customers. The Walmart name or brand does not appear on the website unless you really go and dig for it, which is an intended move.

JCPenney on the other hand, created its new brand Linden Street, as it realized that its customers were going in for the simpler designs in furniture, bedding and window dressings. Consumers were more interested in everyday furniture, that focused on function and form first and only then fashion, but nothing that was too ornate.

Even before the housing downturn put home furnishings retailers in a spiral, Americans were migrating to a more casual style and lower prices for furniture. Penney’s and Wal-Mart’s moves signal a recognition that the furniture industry has to “find ways to attract a new generation,” said Jerry Epperson, a longtime furniture analyst for investment banking firm Mann, Armistead & Epperson.

“They aren’t going to do it selling $5,000 to $10,000 dining room and bedroom suites,” he said. “Younger people are buying items, not suites, and they want them to be practical and functional.” Smaller living spaces, younger households and the desire for everything to be both functional and fashionable have led consumers to ready-to-assemble furniture and modestly priced pieces that will move from first apartment to family room.

Popularity: 25% [?]

One of the most fun things that one can buy in the summer are nice summer sandals. Nothing quite like declaring summer, but showing off your tippy toes, isn’t it? I try to buy a couple of new sandals each season, so that I get my shoe buying fix and update my wardrobe. Lately, I’ve been rather impressed with Ecco shoes, a brand that I’ve never worn before. Their products are really great quality and have a nice understated elegance to them, nothing too flashy or crass at all. Agreed, they are known more for their comfort than their styles or fashion forwardness, but they are great shoes for anyone who has to spend a lot of time on their feet.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Summer is never complete with all the accessories, such as a new bikini, a great tan, beach worthy reading and your latest and newest diet pills. Shocking? Well, no need to be, this is the way that the trends are going and most young girls rely on some form of diet pills or the other to have that bikini ready body. The pressures of looking good have got so enormous that natural methods are never as effective. Well, actually they are effective, but just not in the time frame that most young people are looking for a change. And so it comes down to faster and more effective treatments like these. There could be side effects, so it is best to do your own checking and get a health check before you start on any new diet or exercise plan.

Popularity: 25% [?]

There are a lot of reasons to go on a diet and the biggest and most popular ones are usually to do with the summer season and looking good in a bikini. That’s the number one reason that people go on a diet as it starts getting warmer. There are a lot of new products on the market that promise you the perfect weight loss plan and one of the ones that has been getting a lot of notice is Phentermine. As with any weight loss plan or diet or pill, it is essential to do all the necessary background checks before you start off on it. Meeting with a doctor is always a good idea since you will be better placed to know how your body will respond to stress and strain. So, be smart and lose weight with caution.

Popularity: 25% [?]

There are two types of people, those who dive head first into planning their funeral and those who avoid it like the plague. The fact of the matter is that no matter which way of thinking you have, it is important to plan for the future, whether you do it yourself or get someone to take care of it for you. Getting funeral insurance is actually not morbid at all, but it definitively is being organized and planning well into the future. What ever you decided to do, you have to remember that someone or the other will have to take care of the arrangements, so why not you. This way you can organize it the way you want to at least.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Tesco is said to be redoing its Fresh & Easy design format to create a warmer image for it’s new stores in the US. The existing 61 stores which have a very basic and functional look and layout will be given a more colorful look and signage. The changes have been made due to a customer survey conducted in the stores. According to Lucy Neville-Rolfe, corporate and legal affairs director for Tesco, consumers reactions have been “very strong” regarding changing the look of the stores. She added that, “We’ve been working on brighter stores, better ranging, signage – the sort of things we always do when we move into a new market.”

Tesco first opened its Fresh & Easy format in Novemnber 2007, stopping in April 2008 to get feedback from customers about the stores. The stores will still have their clean look, but the design has been changed slightly. Tesco will also be adding 250 products from its own in-house label, including items such as juices and ready made meals.

“Tesco took a break in order to tweak a few things,” said Planet Retail grocery research manager Natalie Berg. “The concept is hugely innovative, but, as other supermarkets in the US are full of signage and promotions, the Fresh & Easy stores can look a little stark in comparison.”

Popularity: 55% [?]

Staples recently announced that it will be offering a small selection of DVD movie rentals starting in June at its US stores. According to the Staples sspokeswoman, “A new in-store ‘no-return’ DVD rental service, called Flexplay, will let customers rent the latest movie titles without having to return them to the store.” The system is perfect for business travelers as well as small business owners. The Flexplay system will let you view a fresh selection of movies anytime and anywhere. The original DVD gets erased 48 hours after opening it and can be recycled with other plastics.

According to its website, Flexplay Technologies Inc. of Atlanta is a developer and a supplier of limited-life optical media technology; Flexplay time-limited DVDs offer unlimited, perfect quality DVD playback in any standard DVD player, but only within a pre-set viewing window that begins when the use opens the sealed Flexplay DVD package.

Popularity: 58% [?]

The great thing about new technology is not only that it is constantly upgrading itself, but also that you can make changes to it as you go along. Say that you bought the state of the art computer a few years ago, but you’re now running short of memory but don’t want to have to buy a whole new system. All it takes is to buy memory and add it to your existing one and you’re done. As someone who works on the Internet and the computer all the time, I find that something like this really comes in handy. I have a lot of documents stored on my computer, that I need to keep for a long time, even though I really do not need to access it on a daily basis, and this has been the perfect solution for me.

Popularity: 57% [?]

I’m looking for a new phone, a new cell phone to be specific. Ideally, I would like to have email, a GPS system, music and photo storage etc on the phone, and I’m hoping to get one just like that in my price range. Having a GPS is really important since I travel quite a bit and it really comes in handy. Even locally, one will use it quite often, since we’re still new to a lot of areas of town and would really like to explore more of the area. The kind of technologies that are now available is quite amazing and one must take advantage of using them in our daily lives, since that is really that they are made for, to make our lives simpler. Besides giving directions, a good GPS also keeps track of altitude, distance traveled, time taken and so on, which are all great tools when one is traveling.

Popularity: 38% [?]