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Sunday, January 28, 2007

Personal Flower Distribution

Sponsored Article

With Valentine's Day just around the corner its getting close to that time of year when everyone becomes an expert in personal flower distribution.  Flower distribution has been around for thousands of years and started with individuals picking their own flowers from batches of weeds and giving them as gifts.  It has evolved over the centuries and we now rely on outsourced partners to grow, cut, arrange and deliver flowers for us.

Our sponsor FlowerShop.com provides excellent flower delivery capabilities so that you can rest assured that your loved one will get the flowers you ordered.  You will also get a great price and many extra options like the ability to have other unique gifts included in the order.  Their recent press release highlights their abilty to send melt-in-your-mouth brownies and even gourmet nuts and dried fruits and more.

LG and Axiom Telecom announce Middle East Distribution Partnership

LG Electronics has appointed Axiom Telecom as its Middle East Distribution partner.  Axiom is the regions largest mobile phone retailer.  The deal was signed recently in Seoul and calls for Axiom to distribute distribution of mobile handsets, accessories and provide after-sales services.

Axiom has more than 400 outlets across UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Egypt.  They are also partnered with several local telecom providers in the region and have the largest service center.

Tax Gap hits Quarter Trillion - Expect More Audits

Congress is getting more on concerned about the rising tax gap.  The tax gap is the difference between what tax payers owe and what they pay.  They are basically uncollected receivables.

Congress has been stepping up its support of the IRS to go after delinquent payments.  Budgets for audits have risen to almost $50 billion to chase after a tax gap of $290 billion.

Audits frequency is increasing and audits of wealthy tax payers and businesses has more than doubled since 2000.  So this means that the average business tax payer can expect less wheeling and dealing with the IRS on settlements and more audits in the years to come. 

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Simmons Jannace & Stagg Full Service Law Firm

A Word for our Sponsor

When fortune 500 law firms look for a full service law firm they often turn to simmons jannace & stagg.  They started over 10 years ago focusing on litigation and legal liability.  Since then they have grown into a full service firm covering areas from labor law, to securities and banking, municipal law, real estate, zoning and much more.

They represent companies like Kmart and Bank of America and Home Depot, but their recent release indicates that they are just as adept and continuing to handle smaller firms as well.  They strive to listen to their clients and where possible consider those situations where they can find a way to resolve conflicts in nontraditional ways.  This is aided by their goal of establishing and maintaining long standing relationships with all of their clients.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Wal-Mart Agrees to Pay $33.5 million in roll-Backwages

Wal-Mart agreed to pay out $33.5 million in back wages and interest as part of a settlement of a federal lawsuit involving over eighty thousand workers. 

Wal-Mart was accused of failing to pay time-and-a-half rated pay and premium pay to workers, and managers when they worked more than 40 hours per week.  Accusations also claimed that Wal-Mart had violated Fair Labor Standards Act requirements in its calculation of base wages.  There were also over 40 state lawsuits.

Wal-Mart's lawsuit fell under older labor laws but recent changes in policy make the lines of overtime pay requirements very blurry and may trigger more suits against companies for failing to pay overtime for employees that are considered salaried.

 

The Blockbuster Triple Play

Could Blockbuster really pull of a triple play of movie distribution offering movies at its brick-n-mortar stores, for rent via the mail and via download on its websites?

The technology and the business plans have triggered more than one lawsuit, but Blockbuster does have a huge base of stores and brand recognition.  Hollywood and the movie industry could do well to partner with a company that has that kind of brick-n-mortar bandwidth, especially as new digital rights technologies could enable stores to offer burn on demand TV shows and movies for out of print items.

Valentines Day Gifts

Sponsored Article

The Federal Reserve may not make any moves to help us celebrate Valentines Day but Gas prices have sure dropped significantly the last few weeks.  With that little bit of extra money, our readers might want to visit our sponsor Gourmet Gift Baskets.com and see their diverse selection of Valentines Day Gifts.

They have many different gourmet gift baskets that feature individual items or bundles from the finest chocolates to great wines and cheeses, fruits and coffee and much more.  Gift Baskets are very durable and make for good decorations in the office or at home long after their contents have been thoroughly enjoyed, which makes for a great experience and can even make a nice gift for your client's office or your own office for that matter.

Fed Likely to Stay the Course Too

Following the President's example, the Fed Chairman is likely to stay the course and reaffirm its bias towards raising rates.  This means that they will hold interest rates where they are, while maintaining a finger to cover the trigger to raise interest rates.

They cite inflation as a concern as many consumer prices continue to rise, despite recent declines in the price of oil.  Separately, existing home sales continued to crumble.  They year of 2006 ended 8.4% down from the previous year.  Many economists are speculating that sales will rebound late in 2007.

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Ford Posts Record Loss

Ford Mustang Ford posted a record loss this week for the 2006 year.  Their reported loss came in at $12.7 billion.  The fourth quarter of 2006 helped push that number up by $5.8 billion dollars.  This was a record loss for Ford for the year, but no where near record losses as posted by other public companies such as GM or even Time Warner.

Even worse for Ford Stockholders, the company is not expected to break out of the red for another two years, but they do feel that their restructuring plan is on track.

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Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Belisi Brand Designs Clothing Accessories

Sponsored Article

You won't have to worry about Peter Belisi shopping for fabric at Wal-Mart.  He targets high end shoppers looking for fine clothing accessories.  Belisi Brands and designs have become one of our preferred sponsors.  Peter Belisi founded his fashion company and his website beingbelisi.  He started his company started with a tie collection that would not stop.  Peter Belisi worked his way up from a bar tender in Palm Beach to the founder of a fashion and design firm.

According to a recent release his Belisi Brand works to merge the fashion, style, character and presence of Palm Beach living with that of Italian simplicity and beauty in design.  Belisi learned early on that completing a great look requires more than putting a few components together.  Peter found the devil in the details and Belisi manages to push out great looks and styles in his products to savy customers.  His unique styles definitely can work to compliment great clothing.

His website offers up some of his designs and also practical tips for wearing his accessories, from information about handbags to tips on which knot should be utilized with a particular type of shirt.

Wal-Mart gets Picky About Fabrics

Wal-Mart announced that it will no longer sell bolts of fabrics in all of its stores.  Wal-Mart originally catered to rural consumers and this has been a staple product of the company for many years.  However, the fabric department has declined in sales in many stores, proving that even products that are designed to be tailored to fit in a one size fits all store planogram.

Wal-Mart will remove this department from stores where the department has not performed.  This shows Wal-Mart's ability to act on solid business intelligence, but also indicates an interesting move away from a generic bussiness model designed to work everywhere and keep costs low.  It probably shows that there are no sacred cows in Wal-Mart stores and that other non-performing departments in certain regions may be in the cross hairs as well. 

As for all the craft and fabric stores that have survived Wal-Mart to this point, this could provide them with a niche to get their foot back in the door without having to compete with Wal-Mart.

Could Blister Packaging Bring Environmental Fines?

example of blister packed products in cardboard display As more and more retailers demand their own personalize packaging, and more co-branding strategies bundle products together and everyone races to protect smaller products from theft with bulky packages that are more difficult to conceal during shop lifting and pilferage exercises, the pendulum is starting to swing back against blister packaging and other forms of potentially excessive packaging.

Many consumer advocates are starting to complain that all this packaging is bad for the environment.  Blister packages do not recycle well if at all, and they create bulky problems at land fills.  All the extra card board has environmentalists very concerned about the price of packaging in terms of loss of trees.

Plus, many consumers are getting increasingly frustrated with the time required to open an item, and all the extra work required to dispose of the Sam's Club/Costco/BJ's and other club packaging that seems to dominate the bigger is better marketing campaign of clubs and those stores trying to emulate or compete with clubs.

All that extra packaging turns into extra garbage, which creates some very real and dramatic anger by consumers when they are trying to help their children get that Christmas toy out of the box and then again, when they have to haul all those extra pounds of garbage to the curb.

In Great Brittain, there is even talk of turning excessive packaging into be investigate for potential environmental fines to local councils at the request of the Environment Minister.  The United States typically does not respond to the environmental issues directly, but there are many consumers that are getting increasingly annoyed with the hassle of all that trash.

Plus, marketers are starting to emulate the less is better approach made cool by Apple with its iPod packaging.  More and more blister packs are seen as both uncool and often times cheap, decreasing the potential value of the product.  Vendors and Retailers might end up sacrificing margin and curtailing a products life expectancy if its packaged in a blister pack.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Civil Engineering Recruiters

Sponsored Article

For candidates seeking positions in civil engineering it would be very wise to consider CSI.  CSI is probably the only recruiting firm that specializes in recruiting positions for Civil Engineering Jobs.  CSI has recently provided a release that details their approach and qualifications.

CSI is staffed by professional recruiters that solely focus on civil engineering candidates and jobs.  Their president has twenty years of Civil Engineering recruiting experience and their Sales Director has 10 years also making for a combined total of 30 years with just two people on the staff of 14.

They work not to churn through old resumes or offers but instead focus on hot leads by developing relationships with companies and the industry to deliver solid candidates into solid careers building an excellent foundation for repeat business in the future with firms and companies seeking additional candidates later on down the road.

 

Cingular Wireless to be Rebranded as AT&T

After spending one billion dollars last year to rebrand SBC Communications to the AT&T name, Cingular Wireless will also have its name changed to AT&T.

 

SBC had acquired AT&T prior to the first name change and Edward Whitacre JR the Chairman and Chief Executive is confident that the AT&T brand name will deliver.  The company has conducted a great deal of advertising studies that indicate to them that people are looking to put all of their services under one company and for many that one company will now be AT&T.

Despite the fact that many younger consumers prefer the Cingular brand name, the new AT&T company will work to retain younger consumers by appealing to their desires, delivering the products and offerings that they demand such as the Apple iPhone which is set to enter the market next summer in at least an initially exclusive offering with Cingular/AT&T.

Maven Mappers Covers CES

This week I traveled to Las Vegas to cover the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2007).  I will be writing about several of the companies that I encountered at CES that provides both distribution and retail services that my be beneficial to my readers here.

In addition, you may want to catch the articles specifically relating to the actual product offerings from the show at our blog, Maven Mapper's Information.  Maven Mapper's Information is a blog dedicated to covering both consumer electronics, software and practices that can help people advance their lives, improve they efficiency, retain and manage knowledge and systems and more.

We also cover many of trends of the technology industry.  Regardless its a great source of information and analysis on what's going on behind the scenes in tech or what the implications and ramifications of changes in the industry or product offerings might mean to businesses, investors, partners and consumers.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Beyond Blossoms Flowers

Sponsored Article

Beyond Blossoms is an online website offering fantastic flower arrangements baskets and more.  Beyond Blossoms flowers imports great flowers from farms from all around the world. 

They work on marketing and positioning themselves as the Ben & Jerry's of flowers.  They also offering great deals on a dozen roses for less than thirty dollars or providing flowers that are harder to find.  Beyond Blossoms has two founders, Josh Grossman and Gina Maschek. 

Beyond Blossoms recently provided this release on their flowers.  Their site offers a great rewards program.  It allows buyers to earn points from buying flowers.  These points can be redeemed with free flower purchases from their website. 

Unemployment Holds in December

Unemployment held at 4.5% in December as the United States added 167,000 jobs.  Researchers do not yet see a link to a housing and construction slow down impacting unemployment numbers.

This closes out the year with an average unemployment rate of 4.6% down 0.5% from 2005's 5.1 percent rate of unemployment.

The average hourly rate also increased in December up 4.2 percent to $17.04. 

To close out the year the country added 1.8 million jobs in 2006.  Hiring was not focused on any individual sectors even though manufacturing jobs continued to see a decline.  All other job performance sectors seemed very strong with Health Care and Restaurants and Bars seeing 300k plus additions each covering more than one third of the total gains for the year.

Adelphia Exits Bankruptcy to Wind Down

After almost 4 years of bankruptcy, the courts have finally gotten to the bottom of things and will distribute $15 billion in cash and stock to creditors of Adelphia.  This follows the summer sale of most of Adelphia's most important cable assets.

The Adelphia bankruptcy is the 11th largest in US history and replete with owners transactions that resulted in off balance sheet loans that could not be repaid.

John Rigas was convicted of fraud in 2004 following the 2002 notice that the company was going down in financial scandal flames.  Timothy Rigas, the former finance chief, was also convicted but both men are free pending appeal of their sentences.

The wind up of the bankruptcy is likely to trigger a final wind down of the company as well ending a dark era in this company but not the end of corporate malfeasance or off balance sheet activity that proves very difficult even today for investors to stay on  top of as a result of the extra prominent holes in Sorbanes Oxley legislation that has little if any clout against corporations held outside the United States as so many multi national conglomerates are held these days.

Friday, January 05, 2007

DotFlowers Flower Delivery

Sponsored Article

Dot Flowers recently provided a press release that we would like to high light.  DotFlowers.com offers same day flower delivery through local florists in your area.  They also offer gourmet foods and gift baskets at www.dotflowers.com

One of their more interesting capabilities is their field fresh flower delivery to anywhere in the United States.  And don't forget Valentines day is just around the corner,so do consider making that quick bookmark so that you will be able to find it in a hurry when you need it in a few weeks. 

In the meantime, DotFlowers offers some terrific arrangements and gift baskets at excellent prices and leverages their online capability to get great local service to your door step or anywhere as you need it.

Minyard Food Stores closing Texas Distribution Center

Chief Executive Michael Byars Minyard Food Stores is one of North Texas' oldest regional supermarket chains.  They are closing their distribution center located in Coppell and intend to purchase almost all of their products through a cooperative, Associated Wholesale Grocers, according to Chief Executive Michael Byars.

Associated Wholesale Grocers is located in Kansas City Kansas and is the second largest retailer owned cooperative in the United States.

The distribution center closure will put 231 employees out of jobs, but current owners are talking of trying to find someone else to lease the facilities and hire the experienced staff.

 

Wal-Mart Employee Accused of stealing $80k in iPods

Two Wal-Mart Distribution center employee in Loveland, Colorado were accused of stealing 26 cases of ipods valued at $80,000.  The suspect and another person have since turned themselves in and are in the process of attempting to recover the stolen goods. 

They had apparently helped to recover iPods, Game Boy Advanced devices, mini DV camcorders and utility knives. Some of the items were being sold on Ebay.  The two suspect employees have turned themselves in to authorities and a third person may be accused as an accessory to the crime for helping to sell the products online.

 

Epocrates Online

Sponsored Article

Our sponsor Epocrates has released a more enhanced free website.  They offer a drug and formulary reference guide that enables medical professionals to compare generic alternatives and dosages for their patients.  Their new online system also allows doctors and nurses to provide quick print outs with information about the medicine, when to take it, how to take it and what to do in various circumstances, such as in the advent of missing a dosage.

Epocrates has been a service used by doctors for years.  Their PDA database software has allowed doctors to rapidly consult prescription references for various drugs such as Altace from their mobile device.  Now that same database is available online with even more bells and whistles.

Internet Spending up 26% Spending surges over $100 billion

Bloomberg reports that US consumers spent 26% more in 2006 than they did in 2005 in online sales.  Spending a total just over $100 billion for the first time ever.

Christmas sales for November and December jumped up to 31% from 24% and totaled $24.6 billion.  Those numbers tipped the specific totals to $102.1 billion.

December 13th is reported to have been the most lucrative day at $666.9 million.  Sales at stores open at least a year only increased 3.1%, which made the 2006 holiday season sales growth the slowest in 2 years.

 

Chrysler Catching up On Inventory Glut

Chrysler Corporation has been fighting all year to push more than a 100,000 extra cars and trucks through its channels this year.  That's all extra that dealers did not want. Chrysler was forced to offer many incentives to move the products.  They aren't out of the woods yet, but getting but they have made significant progress.

They are also hoping to double their international sales from 200k vehicles up to 400k in vehicles.  The majority of their sales are currently in the Nafta region.  Canada sales were greater than sales in the rest of the world all together excluding the US.

If they could increase sales abroad that could help them diffuse future supply gluts such as those they experienced this summer.

 

Online Stock Options Tool Free Trial

An Article for Our Sponsors

PowerOptions provides online tools and solutions that help options traders maximize the profits on their trades with tools that provide internet-based data that can help traders zero in on the highest possible return on an option.  Plus, their latest press release now indicates that they are offering a 14-day free trial.

Trading stock options is one of the most highly technical investment endeavors that can be undertaken.  Trading options is basically buying a derivative of the value of some underlying asset (or selling the derivative that is).  Performing this transaction successfully requires a significant amount of research and analysis.  Many strategies can be employed for example to insure that an investor can earn money if a stock goes down or if it goes up.  Its not an area for the light hearted or casual investor, and it does require some very good investment analysis tools.

This is not something that you can jump into through some simple stock program.  Investors in stock options need very good information and even better tools to make the right investment calls.  If they don't they can lose a significant amount of money or miss out on earning an even bigger amount of money.

 

The Home Depot CEO to Agrees with Board to Resign

Chairman and CEO of The Home Depot, Robert L. Nardelli, will step down.  He attempted to bring Six Sigma and many other GE styles of leadership to The Home Depot and was blind sided by a wave of changes in the ways that companies are held accountable these days.

Nardelli operated under the principle that if you take care of the numbers everything else will work itself out.  But in an era that has seen Enron come and go and is now rife with stakeholders of every size, shape, stripe and belief, modern day CEO's of public companies, especially high profile companies have to be more like Bill Clinton and still achieve results like Jack Welch.

The Home Depot's stock has not done as well as it could have despite many areas of improvement.  Nardelli's pay was always an area of contention with the board and stock holders.  Its possible that a retail giant just can't support a salary like a multi-national conglomerate such as GE.  Too many CEO's look at the title and expect the world, just for accepting the job and before they have grown the company to a level that even remotely justifies it.  This too proved to be one of the areas that stakeholders complained about and ultimately, it seems that Nardelli got tired of fighting about it too.