Monthly Archives: October 2013

Lululemon’s design strategy revolves around serving products for guests that size in between 2 and 12. Obviously, this doesn’t suit everyone. The retailer, famous for its $98 yoga pants, admitted that plus-size consumer is not one of their targets at the moment. Lululemon is conscious that the size range will limit their type of customers.

Facebook commenters accused Lululemon of shunning plus-size and discriminating against plus-size consumers. It should be considered that in order to become a more profitable company, Lululemon has to start focusing on producing plus-sizes. Many people start to exercise when they age and start gaining weight as their metabolism change. The retailer’s main products are for yoga, and many women as they age, fight stress and chronic conditions by doing yoga. Not only people start gaining weight but also heart diseases and blood pressure tend to become worse. Lululemon can be a victim of unsuitable reputation that might, in a future, even if they start offering plus sizes, not get profit from a certain target segment because of the customers’ view of the retailer as a discriminatory company.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/02/lululemon-plus-size-clothing_n_3696690.html

AMAZON, which became America’s biggest Internet retailer, used to go against collecting sales tax from its customers. On May 6th the Senate anticipated to approve a bill involving Internet wholesalers to collect sales tax due in other states. Politicians noticed that current law gives Amazon an unfair advantage. State governments reckon that tax avoidance by online retailers costs them approximately $11 billion a year.

Best Buy said its sales rose by 4-6% in states where Amazon started to collect tax. Smaller retailers, such as Blue Nile and EBay stated that having to collect tax could greatly harm their businesses.

Technology has created a broader way of thinking than taxation has embraced. If the Marketplace Fairness Act passes, online retailers’ profit will be affected as it would mean an increase in cost for their customers. Forcing retailers to collect tax from customers will make it harder for small businesses to grow into bigger businesses. Small businesses already find it hard to comply with America’s myriad local rules.

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21577071-online-retailers-may-soon-have-collect-sales-tax-amazon-oddly-gloating-tax

No, it doesn’t deal with any murder intended case. It is about China and its stereotype of producing fake and cheap products. A woman was sitting in front of her computer drying her hair when unexpectedly, the chair exploded. Thick iron springs and scattered screws were sent to her lower body. The woman’s intestines and vagina were pierced by a steel rod.  Apparently, there has already been several similar cases such as in 2008 when a chair exploded and hit the ceiling and in 2009 when a exploding chair killed a 14-year old boy.

Chinese manufacturers lower their cost by filling the chairs with pressured air, which was likely the cause of the explosion. It is almost impossible to control the massive amount of suppliers’ quality at the time of production. Yet, the government can implement strategies to supervise the suppliers. Sudden human protection teams can pop up to strictly check the processes taken to produce a certain a product. If the supplier fails to pass certain requirements, the company should be fine in the first warning and in the second, it should be shut down. The Chinese government has to create a sense of fear in the suppliers.

http://business.asiaone.com/news/woman-badly-injured-exploding-computer-chair

Europe is well known for having a massive population of smokers. Anti-tobacco laws are going to be taken in order to put young people off smoking. Euro MPs have banned cigarette flavorings and packs of 10 cigarettes because they are considered popular among young smokers. Fourteen EU states already have packs of 20 as a minimum while UK and Italy still have packs of 10 as a minimum. Annually, almost 700,000 Europeans lives are taken away due to smoking-related illnesses.

Prohibition is not the best solution. Banned products will definitely be available in the black market. The strategies are meant to make cigarettes less appealing. Real smokers don’t really mind about packaging and if the desired flavor is unavailable, they will stick to another flavor. Most people have smoking as a necessity, as something part of their daily lives.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24439474

Most of the 400,000 Pentagon staff sent home within the US government shutdown have been ordered to return to work even as the impasse over the federal budget between Republicans and Democrats entered its sixth day on October 7, 2013. The shutdown has left federal employees on unpaid leave. Both sides have now voted to approve back-pay for the 800,000 federal workers sent home without salaries but there is still no sign of any measure to raise the nation’s $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Congress must act by October 17 in order to avoid a debt default by the US government. United States’ economy will crash because they will run out of cash on that day for the first time in US history.

The two parties, Republicans and Democrats, have come together to take away the people’s liberties. It is almost evident that the USA’s democracy is turning into an anarchy. It’s a way for the government to steal the wealth of the country. As a consequence, China’s interests and the global economy will be severely hurt as well.

http://www.businessworld.in/news/economy/us/pentagon-to-return-to-work-us-shutdown-drags-on/1104226/page-1.html