| Overall Holiday Season Retail Grows 3.6%, MasterCard SpendingPulse ...
Data Source: SpendingPulse, MasterCard Advisors. A macro-economic indicator, SpendingPulse reports on national retail sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not represent MasterCard financial performance. SpendingPulse is provided by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide. MasterCard Advisors� SpendingPulse, a macro-economic report tracking retail sales nationally, today provided summary results of the 2007 Holiday shopping season. This year, for the period between Black Friday and December 24, retail grew by a seasonally adjusted 3.6% over the same period in 2006. �Overall, sales came in just above the lower end of the range we were expecting, maintaining the slower, modest growth we�ve been seeing throughout the year,� noted Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis for MasterCard Advisors.
Gold Rush
Small traders clamored to become wholesale importers of cheap goods; on the consumer end, people tried to make money buying and selling just about anything, while larger businessmen clawed for tawkeelaat (agencies) the right to represent a foreign company in Egypt. This fervent, and largely unregulated, economic activity gave rise to a new social class, a nouveau riche that had, through the successful manipulation of a sloppy, nascent market economy, migrated from the lowest socio-economic class up the proverbial social ladder. In the view of the established elite, they brought with them money but none of the cultural tools needed to assimilate into their newfound social status. The films of the 1980s were full of jokes about butchers driving Mercedes and illiterate car dealers buying villas in Zamalek.
Are Designers The Enemy Of Design?
There are mountains of computers and iPods and cell phones and stuff—your old stuff—building up in India and Chinas, leaking toxic chemicals. Greenpeace has launched a Green My Apple campaign. Europe tipped green in the 90s. The U.S. tipped green just last year. I actually think that of all the designers in the US design professions, architects are the greenest. Architects are the leaders in terms of sustainability. Building according to LEED specs is the norm for big corporations. Bank of America is putting up an incredibly green building near Bryant Park. One wonderful green trick— it uses cheap electricity at night to make ice in the basement to cool the skyscraper in the morning. Bring back the ice box. The broad new paradigm for design—the paradigm you will all work within for the rest of your lives—is sustainability.
New products from Scottsdale entrepreneurs
Scottsdale entrepreneurs just keep the new products coming. Here is a sampling of what some of them have been working on recently: Dolls give big, wrap-around hugs Gloria Mecca received the first shipment of her Heavenly Hug dolls from the manufacturer in late December and is selling them on her Web site and at two stores in Scottsdale. Mecca designed the doll to comfort children or anyone who needs a hug from an angel. Made of a soft terrycloth fabric, the washable doll is two feet long and has long arms that can wrap around its owner. .
Reading the runes for Apple
If they do, that's the death of HD-DVD, and finally this format war will be effectively over. And if anyone can market it to consumers as to why they should care, Apple can. Biggest news will be in the iTunes area, with rentals. About time ... Extra bonus points for it to also be a front end for NetFlix, but I'm not holding out too much hope (but it'd honestly make sense for both sides to do that, and the timing of Netflix's announcements in this space make me wonder if there's more to their story than just the Set top box ... we'll see.) I keep thinking there's one new piece of software coming out nobody knows about yet. iTunes/rentals and new MacBooks and the ultra-portable is a pretty good keynote, but I wonder what the "one more thing" is this year ... I wonder if you'll see Apple-branded solutions that tie into Time Machine - RAID disks? SAN? Network server? How about an Airport update to go with 10.5.2 to restore backups to an airport disc? David Sobotta: I think we will see a laptop update from Apple.
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