Crucifying The E-Cig

wholesale e-cigs 1I am not a smoker – tried it when I was a teenager and just never liked it. I have nothing against smokers, some of my best friends are smokers! Now, let’s get to the politics of smoking.

I live in New York, a city that talks the talk of liberalism and freedom, except when it comes to smoking, big gulp drinks, trans fats and other things deemed not good for us by our elected officials. When smoking cigarettes was banned in restaurants and bars I, along with many smokers thought that it was a good idea. Smoking in enclosed spaces is neither healthy or sanitary. However, the city went as far to ban smoking in outdoor public parks as well as on city sidewalks! That’s a bit crazy. I get it, smoking is unhealthyand the plan is to make it inconvenient so smokers will quit. The city also taxes cigarettes big-time, which makes a pack now around $11-$12 each.

Let’s consider that the tobacco lobbyists are some of the most powerful who influence government leaders. Politicians can’t argue that smoking is good for people so they make a stand and telling people they should quit, put warnings on labels, all the while knowing that it won’t make much of a difference. But they can tell their constituents that they care and they are doing something. Well, if you want to do something, you can ban the sale of cigarettes as a drug, but that’s not going to happen, is it?

So, taking the lead that maybe, just maybe, lawmakers are playing footsie with big tobacco, now comes the e-cigarette.

The e-cigarette comes in a variety of strengths and produces a vapor, believed to be harmlessand is certainly one of the most formidable competitors to big tobacco in the last many decades. Who likes competition? Who likes a smoke-free product that may help cutting down on smoking and lung cancer? Certainly not big tobacco. And what about cities like New York who maybe got a bit of pressure from the lobbyists to rally against the e-cigarette. New York has decided to add e-cigarettes to the smoking ban. What would have been an alternative to cigarettes gets snuffed out with a few signatures!

And much of the stories and arguments that abound are that e-cigarettes are newand studies are inconclusive about their risks and benefits. Let’s make this simple – the benefit? Even if a smoker doesn’t quit smoking by using an e-cig, what benefits do traditional cigarettes give a smoker? And as for the risks, we already know for a fact that traditional cigarettes cause cancer, rotting teeth, wrinkled skin and death in many cases. Let’s go worst case scenarioand e-cigs cause the same maladies. No, instead, the FDA and local cities are “protecting” us by allowing us to buy killer tobacco cigarettes but banning and speculating on the possible dangers of e-cigs.

Really!

What do you think? Share your comments with us.

Trickle This…

trickle down economics 1Many folks continually criticize the GOP for what they call Trickle Down Economics or Reaganomics, still, as bitter and persnickety as these folks get, perhaps they miss the point. You see, if you give money in social programs the businessesand corporations get the money anyway within a few transactions and the poor are left with their hand out for another free fish the next day, still poor.

If you help businesses with incentives to help foster the economy or steer it where you will, it will move slightly in that direction and hopefully those economic gains will propel lower prices and more market entrantsand jobs, thus, more competition and lower prices. Does this really work? No, in the end all you’ve done is create a mechanism for crony capitalism through lobbyists, but if you give money to the poor that doesn’t work either because you make people weak, helpless and reliant on a government that can never really give them all they desire, not to mention that the lobbyists on the left, labor unions for instance also unbalance the fairness of the game and that creates wage inflation.

There was an interesting article recently in Star Dem [star] com which is a Democrat propaganda website which spouts all sorts of socialist blather [in my opinion]. The article was titled; “Trickle-down economics’ is real,” by Frank L. Miller of Denton and published on January 19, 2014, a light news day Sunday of course, as this sort of nonsense probably wouldn’t fly too long during the business week, because those in the know would hammer the article very quickly. Nevertheless the article stated or attempted to purport the following;

“Thomas Sowell had me going there for a minute with the headline, ‘The trickle-down economics lie,’ My first thought was that he was finally acknowledging that this economic theory was a bust. But no, he was actually suggesting that there never was any such thing, not even in J.A. Schumpeter’s 1000-page book. What is ‘trickle-down economics?’ Well, according to Wikipedia, it’s ‘tax breaks and other economic benefits to businessesand upper income levels to benefit poorer members of society by improving the economy as a whole.’ Sound familiar? This is precisely what President George W. Bush did when he granted the tax breaks for the rich, breaks the Republicans were willing to shut down the government to maintain.’

Now then, Trickle Down economics is a derogatory term used by donkey-driven democrat political operatives, just as they used the “Bush Doctrine” of preemption as if he thought of it, when in reality it came from the early 1700s from Karl von Clausewitz in his treaties “On War” which is still used by military strategies to this day and even Sun Tzu had spoke in similar terms in his writing “The Art of War” and this just goes to show how the Democrats rip off the narrative and splatter the news and Internet with seventh grade level debating points, serving them up to the mindless masses to try to convert the people to their viewpoint and maintain synergy amongst their brainwashed followers.

We’d love to hear your opinion and feedback.

Small Businessman’s Response to State of the Union

state of the union 1Allow me to spend a few minutes sharing some of my thoughts about the recent State-of-the-Union address by President Obama. Regardless of who you or I voted for, we are still Americans and want the best for all our fellow citizens. Unfortunately, the last few years have been everything but the best for our “folks” as Obama likes to call them.

While I am a realist and understand that the government and President cannot cure all the ailments of the country, there are some worries that perhaps they are making things worse. The healthcare debacle has been discussed over and over. The people who like it are the people who benefited by it – others, not so much. As a small business owner I have seen our rates raised almost 25%, not exactly what was promised. Plus some of the doctors have been dropped from our insurer, or have dropped the insurers. Anyway, I think it’s safe to say, politics aside that the notion of affordable healthcare is a good one, but the realities turned out differently.

Then we have the topic that drives me crazy. President Obama explaining that we need to “re-educate” the working class for the “new” jobs that we are missing out on here in the United States.

Let’s address this from the top. We know many well educated college graduates who were top of their classes over the last several years when they graduated. Now they are top of the unemployment lists. So, the well education are amongst the least employed right now. For whatever reasons you want to blame, whether it be health insurance changes, minimum wage arguments, etc. we have a wealth of highly educated young people who cannot find jobs. And we have employers who take advantage of that by offering unpaid internships and low wages to them. Check out Craigslist under help wanted and see how many ads are for unpaid internships. Yea, and the chance of turning that unpaid position into a paid one… you figure the odds.

So, we need to re-educate Americans for the new manufacturing jobs that President Obama refers to. MANUFACTURING?! Really! So our well educated, well versed young “folks” should be trained to work the factory line. Let’s face it, manufacturing these days consists of cell phones, some auto work and other traditionally robotic and limited motor skill jobs. Yes, I can see how Americans will pour into the Apple factories to put together the new iPhones. Move over Foxconn (Apple’s China factory), where workers just got a raise (because of media pressure) to $350 a MONTH!

Oh yes, manufacturing will come back to the USA. Let is not forget that it left because outsourcing was so much cheaper and Americans did not want to work for pocket change. But our President is going to bring back the factory jobs to America. And our college graduates can line up for those jobs – maybe Obama’s new $10.10 minimum wage will kick in and they’ll make the big bucks. College loans be damned, our new work force will work 80 hours a week at the factory to make a dent in paying back their loans.

These are the same Americans that Obama things will work for $10 an hour in a factory producing products, like the iPhone that sells for $600 – equivalent to almost two weeks of USA min. wage (under his new $10.10). Good luck with that!

Then there are the “shovel ready” jobs that the President has promised since he ran for election the first time. I love this group of jobs – as I have NEVER in my life ever met anyone who actually worked on a road or bridge. But maybe that’s just me and your neighbors have a shed full of those shovels at-the-ready and go out every morning digging the roads or welding a bridge.

So, with all the rhetoric of the State-of-the-Union I am afraid that the speech gave us nothing new and less to be hopeful for. The thought of bringing factory jobs back to American is great, IF they pay the wages Americans need to survive on, but they won’t. And the flipside is that cost of goods will raise, thus affecting retail sales, etc.

I don’t know about you but I’m heading over to the hardware store to pick up a few shovels so I will be ready when I get Obama’s letter to report for my shovel ready job. Maybe I’ll get to work on the George Washington bridge here in NY, if Gov. Christie hasn’t shut it down for the day!

What’s your opinion? Share it with us…

Showrooming – the saga continues

showroomingMany of our readers know the term “showrooming” but in case you are not familiar I will explain. Showrooming refers to shoppers who go to a store to seeand then go online to buy it somewhere else, cheaper.

This has been a real problem for many retailers, especially the electronics giant Best Buy whose sales were certainly effected by this act. Of course it is completely within the law to window shop and as retailers we realize that we cannot control the shoppers. I think it’s tacky when the shopper starts scanning product bar codes to use an APP on their phone to locate the product closeby at another store at a lower price.

Everything can’t always be cheaper! That’s just a fact of life. It costs money to run a store and shoppers will soon lose their window shopping when more and more stores close up because of no shopper loyalty or willingness to pay a dollar more to support your local businesses.

Many retailers have tried to fight the showrooming by switching to their own bar codes but found that APP’s also worked with product names and model numbers. So much for that. Then retailers like Best Buy became more proactive with their shoppers – using their sales force to engage shoppers on the sales floor. Not so easy to take snapshots of bar codes with a sales associate standing next to you. Also, the sales associates were able to discuss the product and in many cases offering a price guarantee.

The price guarantee and trolling the sales floor worked for the electronics giant – BUT, and this is a big  but….the store’s margins diminished and they turned in a not so rosy profit picture after the holiday season.

So, in essence you can tackle the showrooming by being proactive on the sales floor and offering price matches but it will effect your bottom line. How long can you go seems to be the new wave of retailing. Thank you internet!

Ideas? Opinions? Share with us.

Barney’s NY – Racial Profiling?

JZ IMAGEWell, the newspapers love good stories and this last week it had a field day here in New York City. It appears that a young African American shopper was buying an expensive belt at Barney’s New York store and was stopped by two plainclothes policemen who questioned him about the purchase. I will spare you the details as I am sure you are up to speed on the idiocy of their interrogation.

Here is the problem that I am having. Barney’s is a retailer who services tens of thousands of customers annually. This incident, and one other that was just reported after the “victim” discovered you can actually sueand make bank for this, seem to be somewhat isolated incidents. I do not imagine that Barney’s has a discriminatory policy against minorities as several of their brands they sell are fashioned for urban youths.

Could this possibly have been extremely poor judgement by the cashier at the store, or the NYPD (they have at times shown lapses in judgement)? I am surprised that the store let the story get away from them by not addressing it immediately. How about some press showing that you are firing the employee (if it were their fault), or questioning the police. But instead Barney’s let the media go into a frenzy, which will probably result in major reputation damage ruining decades of retailing success.

Let’s go even one step further! Now the call is for Jay Z to pull his products from the store! And the poor (not in the cash sense) guy is getting blasted as the bad guy for not lashing out against Barney’s. This is the ultimate in misdirected anger, and of course where there is misdirected anger there is Al Sharpton.

I am certain that Jay Z is not the only African American designer with products in Barney’sand the onus is not on him to police the apparent one, possibly two, poor judgements against shoppers – which we still do not know was because of the clerk or the police department. I agree that IF Barney’s has a discriminatory policy against any race or religion they would deserve the wrath of Sharpton and his crusaders, but I believe this is far from the case here.

As retailers, we can all learn a valuable lesson from this episode. Firstand foremost don’t discriminate and more importantly react quickly when an employee or an outside entity does something to damage your reputation and your business. By Barney’s not hitting this problem on the head immediately it has spun into a media nightmare for them, and one that will not go away easily. All it would have taken is for this mega corporation to get in front of the story, which they did not.

What do you think?

Economic Woes Continue – Antacid Sales Skyrocket!

Well, there is no doubt that the recent economic woes caused by the Government shut down and idiocy on  Capital Hill have created anxiety for small retailers and merchandise suppliers, I found the following interesting news worth sharing with you.

The latest issue of MMR ran a large article on drugs and their increases in the industry. Loand behold one of the largest growth markets has been the Antacid market which has grown to over $93 million in sales with some brands showing as much as a 74% increase in growth!

Could this be related to the economy? Like a bad sit-com where the boss is swigging Pepto at his desk, there could certainly be a correlation to these numbers and reality. Let’s look further – the personal adult market has decreased over 6% but sleeping aids are up over 28%. Do the math. The country’s population is suffering from indigestion, having less sexual activity and having trouble sleeping!

Thank you, Mr. President and all our favorite Congresspeople. The takeaway from this article is that your store should be stocking up on Tums and Gas X to keep your cash registers ringing.

Just some things to consider from the leading magazine for Retailers Forum. Thanks for reading and hopefully you’ve enjoyed this little insight.

Smartphones Gaining Retail Dominance

An interesting new study has been released that shows consumers are using their smartphonesand tablets as shopping tools at a higher rate than reported previously. Over 55% of all retail-related internet time is starting on a smartphone or tablet as opposed to a desktop computer system.

Interestingly though, consumers were less likely to complete a shopping transaction on their smartphones and completed those transactions while on their desktops. Clothing and accessories were the category leaders for online shopping.

The motivation for the use of mobile devices has been shoppers who are “show-rooming,” looking for cheaper prices while inside the store! Almost 2/3rd’s of the users were visiting the stores website or APP while they were inside the store, to see if there were online discounts, etc. They went online in hopes of finding a better deal.

Another interesting fact was that men outpace women in making mobile purchases using their smartphones, indicating that they may be more trustful of using mobile devices to transmit credit card data, etc.

Welcome to retailing in the 21st century. Highly competitive in every way with margins cut to the quick for the retailer. Good times!  Retailers Forum magazine and website welcomes your comments and opinions. Feel free to comment on this article and others.

How Is Your Store Doing?

Link

Well, we are getting set for the last quarter and that is the time that all retailers look forward to, as they do a bulk of their business at this time. The reports in the news and trades show that the economy has improved somewhat and that consumers have been going through spending spurts.

The holiday season has always been successful for retailers, regardless of the economic climate. While the large mega-stores get upset by not posting gains, the small independent retailer is happy to clear their shelves and move inventory for the last quarter. All that the retailer wants to see is profits at the end of the year and this is the time that with proper marketing  he will be able to see that!

Your merchandise mix is extremely important to your sales success. Having the right blend of merchandise at the right prices is going to dictate how you do this season. Many retailers have been using our wholesale merchandise magazine, Retailers Forum, to find merchandise, as well as visiting all the popular trade shows.

Now is the time of the year to start your holiday marketing programs and promotions. The more you promote your store the more sales you will have. Make sure you take full advantage of the inexpensive social marketing that you can be doing for your business. This is a good time to update your customers mailing list info, email addresses, twitter accounts or whatever to get the word out…. We’re here and ready for business!

Showrooming – A New Twist!

window-shopping1Well, just when I thought I’d seen it all with regards to “showrooming” — you know what that is – when shoppers come into your store to view the goods and make the purchase elsewhere.

Many of the larger retailers have started changing the SKU numbers so that shoppers cannot easily search online for the items, but we all know that a good description will turn up the item online. So, what to do? Some retailers trail behind the shoppers interacting with them and in my opinion that makes for an unpleasant shopping experience for many of them. Aside from getting into the shoppers face when they jot down the item there really hasn’t been a good solution.

Today I read the ultimate solution – and it really is a crazy idea that only seems to have been tried overseas. Pay to browse!

At the Vera Wang bridal boutique in Shanghai, customers must pay 3000 yuan (approx. $480 US) for a 90 minute time slot to browse and try on dresses. There is also a food store in Australia that charges customers $5 for coming in to browse.

Could you imagine your store implementing this policy? Seems that these fees are quite drastic and not really the answer to keeping brick and mortar stores around. Educating the consumers is key here — they need to understand that if they like their local neighborhood or chain stores to go shopping in – they need to do just that — SHOP!

Showrooming — How Is Your Store Dealing With This Problem?

SHOWROOMING is a relatively new term in the retailing industry. Time was when a showroom was the area where you went to see the merchand then whipped out your wallet and bought it.

Today you go to the showroom (a store) and view the merchandise but then whip out your smart phone, scan the bar code on the product and then go to the closest store selling it cheaper to buy it.

This has become a huge issue for many retailers, large and small. Best Buy is consistently used as a showroom for internet shoppers who seem to not get the buying experience of “feeling and touching” the merchandise when they go to the online stores. So, instead, they head over to local stores to “sample” the merchandise nd then if they like it they purchase online or scan the barcode to find it cheaper in the neighborhood. And, many times they are saving only a few dollars, but are ruining the core business of the stores they do this at.

To combat showrooming many retailers have been asking their suppliers to use special proprietary bar codes that are inter-store only. In other words a Best Buy’s items may be bar coded with their own sku’s – making it impossible to shop the same item out of the store using the bar code. Of course, this only slows down the perpetrator, as let’s face it all you need to do is type in the name of the item into Google and you’re off to the races.

Is the customer always right? If you see someone scanning codes at your store would you stop them? Would you say something? All of these shoppers love the idea of having their local hometown stores along Main Street, but at the end of the day they want cheaper prices. Just another dagger in the independent store owner’s heart.

Is your store having any issues with this problem, and if so, how are you combating it. Share this with our readers.