For most people, the Halloween season is about creepy costumes and candy rather than shopping. But even though the retail sales of All Hallow’s Eve can’t compare to the December holidays, Americans still manage to spend a scary sum of money at the end of October. The National Retail Federation estimates that this year consumers will spend as much as $8.4 billion preparing for Halloween, amounting to an average of $82.93 per shopper.
Costumes account for $3.1 billion of this Continue reading
Israeli entrepreneur Yekutiel Sherman had a great idea for a product: a selfie stick that folded seamlessly into the back of a smartphone’s case. He spent a year carefully designing his idea, producing prototypes and securing small investments from family and friends. By December 2015 Sherman launched a Kickstarter campaign in order to finish funding the item, now called Stikbox. But while the project immediately attracted investors, his popular crowdfunding campaign also caught the attention of Chinese bootleg manufacturers. Within Continue reading
The remote region of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, Canada, is not known for its bustling population. Just 130,000 people live on the 4,000 square-mile island, with 1,000 others leaving each year for the past two decades. As the population steadily drops, many Cape Breton natives have worried about the future of the island’s tight knit communities. Among these concerned citizens was Jim and Ferne Austin, local entrepreneurs who operated the Farmer’s Daughter Country Market in sleepy Whycocomagh, Nova Scotia, Continue reading
According to a study conducted by the Manufacturing Institute, over the next decade American workers will miss out on two million industrial jobs due to lack of training. For years the Obama administration has tried to close this growing skills gap by promoting German-style apprenticeships that provide on-the-job education for young workers. In Germany roughly half of all high school graduates opt for these intense training programs, not least of all because they are virtually guaranteed employment at the end. Continue reading
If you’re in need of cash in a pinch, you’d better hope that your bank has an ATM located nearby. For the 10th consecutive year, the fees charged by banks for usage of ATMs by non-customers has risen to a record average of $4.57. That number is actually the combination of two separate fees: one charged by ATM owners for non-customers and another by the account holder’s bank for withdrawing out-of-network. In 1998 the combination of these charges amounted to Continue reading
As of this writing, Hurricane Matthew is currently roaring up the Carolina coast. (Hopefully anyone from the area reading this post is doing so in a safe, relatively dry place.) Federal and state officials flooded social media and television urging residents to evacuate the area before the cyclone hit land. Nevertheless, some people ignored their warnings and stayed put. In most cases, the diner chain Waffle House would be among these stubborn stragglers. The company has an official policy in Continue reading
For those who have spent years ordering items from online retailers like Amazon, setting foot inside a store can sometimes seem like taking a trip back in time. But while the shift away from brick-and-mortar locations has utterly changed industries like music and clothing, grocery stores have remained largely the same since the dawn of the digital revolution. After all, most people still prefer to examine food in person before they buy it.
But that hasn’t stopped a collection Continue reading
In the 2000s, clothing brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and Aeropostale were kings of the mall. These retailers rose to prominence by making preppy clothes with large logos that broadcast a certain prestige to the world. After all, teenage customers wanted to make sure everyone knew that they shopped at cool stores. Companies made this message easy to receive by placing an enormous emphasis on branding, thus making the logo even more important than the design of their Continue reading
With the fall semester now in full swing, the easygoing feeling of summer vacation is becoming an increasingly distant memory. Then again, that’s only for the lucky Americans who actually get to take a vacation during the warm months of the year. For the rest, either they don’t receive adequate time off or simply refuse to take advantage of it. In fact, as much as 55 percent of American workers don’t use all of their paid vacation days out of Continue reading