HMV’s flagship Robson storefront is closing down. Nicole Dee writes that it will be downsizing to a space 80 to 90 percent smaller, as a result of the increasing digitization of the entertainment industry.

HMV Robson's soon-to-be-vacant space; Photo Credit: punkrawker4783 on Flickr

I agree that it has been quite surprising that HMV on Robson is only now closing down. Perhaps HMV thought that it would be able to keep up sales despite the increasing number of consumers who opt for iTunes rather than CDs. Or it didn’t have the foresight that this would happen, which is hard to believe given that the digital market for music has been long established and is continuing to grow rapidly. Record stores are largely going the route bookstores have been taking. There isn’t anything quite like turning the pages of a book or listening to a CD, but the convenience, usability and the potential of e-readers and Mp3 players have won over consumers.

I visited the HMV store this past weekend, and it was sad to see a downtown fixture closing forever. However, I think we can all agree that record stores, like bookstores, Justin Bieber, and a stable European economy, are soon all going to be a thing of the past.

Kath Eats Real Food (KERF) is a ‘healthy living blog’ written by Kath Younger, a RD, who owns a Great Harvest bakery in Charlotte with her husband. KERF details Younger’s meals, recipes, events, and various other things happening in her life every day.

Great Harvest Charlotte storefront (Photo by Kath Younger)

KERF’s main aim is not promoting the bakery, but it is a major part of Younger’s life. Items (sandwiches, sweets, breads) from the bakery often show up in blog posts. Great Harvest is a bakery that touts its use of healthy, natural ingredients to make baked goods. KERF is a blog that emphasizes eating real, unprocessed foods and living a fulfilling life.

In our last class, while talking about Naked Boxer Briefs, Joel Primus said something along the lines of ‘you’re not selling a product; you’re selling a lifestyle.’ Looking at major companies who have pioneered their fields, it is true. Take Apple, Coke, Lululemon et al. KERF is using the same idea. It may be a stretch to call Younger a pioneer in her field, but it does illustrate the fact that successful entrepreneurs aren’t just selling a product. By ‘advertising’ Great Harvest on her blog, Younger is selling her lifestyle through her bread.

Divine Chocolate Ltd. (Divine) is a British chocolate company created in 1992 that manufactures and sells fair-trade chocolate products. What makes Divine unique from Green & Black’s or Cadbury’s is that it’s not a major corporation; the farmers who produce the cacao own it themselves!

Divine was one of the first fair-trade chocolate bars that could compete with the major brands. Fair-trade was a niche market when Divine was first conceptualized, but the farmers and leaders of Kuapa Kokoo decided that they wanted to reach a larger market. Instead of going through existing middlemen, Kuapa Kokoo decided to form their own manufacturing company. This guaranteed the farmers would be getting a fair share of the profit. Divine carved a new entrepreneurial path, deciding not to be limited by the existing resources that were available to them.

Divine has recognized and exploited opportunities, expanding its product line and creating marketing campaigns that educate people about fair-trade and encourage consumers to support fair-trade companies. It continues to support Kuapa Kokoo, ensuring that the farmers have a say in the direction of the company and continuing to embody the ideals of a social entrepreneur.

If you ate a Hershey’s bar this Halloween, chances are it was made with cacao from a plantation that uses forced and child labour.

He might have made the chocolate in your Halloween treat this year

This might be surprising, since Hershey’s touts its contributions to children’s causes around the world. Hershey’s even mentions ‘commitment… to children’ in its mission statement. It has been proven that identifying suppliers and committing to certified cacao (‘fair-trade’ cacao) is one of the best tools for eliminating forced labour on plantations. However, not only is Hershey’s the biggest chocolate maker that isn’t transparent about its suppliers; Hershey’s doesn’t even have policies to ensure that its cacao isn’t made with ‘forced, trafficked, or child labor’.

Hershey’s isn’t the only example of companies lying or being hypocritical about their sustainability and CSR claims; it’s a practice called ‘green-washing’ that has risen up in the face of renewed calls for better corporate practices. Basically, companies are making false claims in a bid to win market share and consumer sentiment.

Sustainability and CSR is all good and well, but if companies are lying about it and consumer choices are being made on these claims, consumers deserve to know the real dirt and not the green-washed ‘truth’.

As the EU struggles to contain an crisis that threatens to spill over into the global economy, the situation in Asia looks positively rosy. But not as rosy as it seems. Asians have the stereotypical reputation of being thrifty- an image that is not altogether founded on myth.

An inadvertent result of thriftiness - counterfeit products

In China, this attitude has resulted in huge pools of consumer savings that allow state banks to make low-interest loans that have bolstered China’s lightening-fast economic growth. However, this also means that China’s consumer spending is low- 35 percent, compared to 70 percent in the struggling US economy. Interest on savings accounts do not keep up with inflation, and pressures on families push them to keep saving. Without encouraging consumer spending, China’s economic growth will gradually slow to rates comparable to the current US economy’s .

I find this situation very interesting because it’s literally the opposite of what Greece is experiencing- high legacy costs, massive spending and tax evasion have largely pushed the Greek economy over the edge. China’s huge pool of cash would be a godsend. However, it is increasingly becoming a burden, illustrating the old adage ‘too much of a good thing is always a bad thing’.

Loblaws Inc., the Canadian groceries supergiant, has recently opened its first American store of its Joe Fresh line in the most unlikely of commercial avenues: Madison Avenue! Opening its first store in the middle of New York City seems like an extreme gamble, especially in hyper-competitive and uber-expensive Manhattan.

Joe Fresh is a proven Canadian success; will it be the same in the US?

Spanish and Japanese clothiers Zara and Uniqlo are renovating and expanding just a few blocks up from the new Joe Fresh store, and H&M is a fixture on Madison Avenue. Joe Fresh’s target market is already saturated with competitors who have a leg-up in terms of brand recognition. However, Loblaws is counting on Joe Fresh’s low prices and smart designs to make its American foray a success.

Fashion is a fickle business and trends change in the blink of an eye. Like all risky moves, this venture has the possibility to either become a resounding success, or a complete failure. Personally, as a student on a small budget and a penchant for well-made clothing, I am a big fan of Joe Fresh and I think that people who shop at Zara and H&M will have no problem gravitating towards Joe Fresh once they see its designs and prices.

Our recent class on management information systems (MIS) got me to thinking about how MIS (Management Information Systems) and BTM (Business Technology Management) are applied in real life. I work at a car dealership, and there is always a stream of information flowing between the salespeople, the managers, the business office, and the accounting department.

Not the most obvious place to use MIS

For example, sales calls and walk-in customers are recorded on a database that allows the managers to analyze the data and determine how the dealership is faring. Stocked cars are kept track of on another database that records information about the cars that can be accessed by staff when they need information. Customer information is embedded on the same specialized database in an encrypted server.

Our website provides an application that allows customers to build their own cars and send the information in to a salesperson who can order in that car right down to the customer’s exact specifications. MIS and BTM have streamlined the process of buying a car, decreased paperwork and operating costs and increased sales and profit margins, allowing the dealership to grow and provide a better customer experience.

Despite reports of disappointed customers who were hoping for an iPhone 5 instead of an iPhone 4S, they are being snapped up. The iPhone 4S may prove to be Apple’s most successful device to date, with 1.7 million units presold within the first three days of launch. Apple has blown all other smartphone companies out of the water, as illustrated by this graph comparing iPhone to Blackberry shipments, once the top-selling smartphone in the US.

iPhone shipments have completely overtaken Blackberry shipments

Apple certainly isn’t the first company to develop a smartphone. So why is the iPhone so popular? Certainly an iPhone has many perks: ease of use, sleek design, and fast browsing. However, Apple’s point of difference is that it developed a platform that supports a wide variety of applications (apps), as shown by the ridiculous number of videos on the web that feature these apps.

http://youtu.be/rNsrl86inpo

Apps can developed for literally anything, from cooking to shopping to airport check-ins. You name it, there’s an app for that. People are increasingly mobile and use their smartphones and apps to get what they need, whether it be groceries or directions. The future is in apps, and Apple is paving the way.

NOTW's last hurrah to its readers

News of the World was a British tabloid newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. that was shut down over allegations of its journalists hacking into several thousand peoples’ mobile phones in search of gossip. Alleged victims range from high-ranking government officials, to members of the royal family, and even murder victims and families of people who perished in 9/11. The scandal has shaken the powerful News Corp. and raised concerns about its influence over the media and governments of countries in which it owns media outlets.

The main issue in this hacking scandal is the serious lack of respect that News of the World had for people’s privacy in their quest for stories. Privacy concerns have been growing over reports of data breeches, like the one Sony’s PlayStation Network users experienced, and over questions of how much information companies can obtain covertly without notifying users. For example, Google’s Streetview technology doesn’t just take a picture of your house, it also collects information from your wi-fi (like websites you’ve visited and searches you’ve made) and saves it in a database. When it comes to privacy, especially in this ‘information age’, where are the lines drawn?

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