Black Friday

http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=14973087

Summary

Black Fridays are the busiest days for stores in a America. Many people line up outside the stores hours in advance so they can be the first ones to see the sales on November 27. People take these sales so seriously that a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death. As we are in a recession people begin to buy more of their products online because they can compare prices from other stores more easily. Online sales grew by 13% in 2008 but still only make up 6% of all retail sales in America. Amazons sales rose $5.5 Billion dollars in the third quarter of the year but online sales are still only going to grow to 8% by 2013. As online sales begin to grow Amazon is beginning to sell things like groceries and luxury goods to increase their income. Online retailing has proved that it can also advertise the store because a Macy's spokesman said "that for every dollar a consumer spends online with Macy's it leads to $5.70 in spending at a Macy's store with in 10 days." Retailers are trying to make shopping seem fun because they show pop up stores which show for a short time but then vanish which shows that their is an urgency and that this may only be a one time offer.

Connections

Online retailing has made it a lot easier for people to compare deals with other stores and it also save hours of time but since the consumers have found a better and easier way to buy goods now, they do not have to go to stores any more which is costing the stores tons of money. Since the stores are not getting as much business they are now having to rely on black Fridays to finally begin to earn a profit on the year.

Reflection

I think this is a good and a bad thing. The good thing about online retailing is that it is easy, fast and you can access it any time of the day. Online retailing makes it easy because you can compare prices from different stores faster. Its fast because you don't have to wait in long line ups to purchase your product and online retailing is open all day unlike regular stores which are only open for maybe 10 hours. Online retailing is a bad thing because people need to touch and feel things such as clothing so they can tell if it is the right size for them. Online retailing is a bad thing because if online retailing becomes a big thing that means stores will be losing more profit and it will be harder for the stores to stay open which means their will be less places to shop for consumers.

Shockvertising Blog

http://www.vancouversun.com/Shockvertising+spreads+through+media+clutter/2145422/story.html

Summary

A woman was being stalked for an ad for Toyota. She sued Toyota for $10 million. The stalker said that he had emails and videos. They even used Toyota's car to follow the woman around. Lindsay Meredith from Simon Fraser University said you can be noticed even if you annoy people. Different companies are beginning to use shockvertising to get peoples attention for example a woman breast feeding rotten meat, pigs eating themselves and people peeing in public. Oliver Gleeson said "It's amazing how 10000 people can enjoy an ad but it only takes one person to call the Competition Bureau and make waves."

Connections

This article connects to freedom. The companies have the freedom to do what ever they want even if it means stalking someone and threatening someone. Even if companies are being sued for millions of dollars they still have millions more even in this recession. I think they will keep trying to shockvertise because it does make people remember there ads more easily.

Reflection

I think the woman is right and Toyota is wrong. Toyota should not be doing this even if they think it is a good idea because being stalked is a serious crime and this woman had a right to fear for her life because if this was a real stalker he could of kidnapped her or killed her. For those reasons I do not know why Toyota thought that stalking someone was a good idea on how to promote there car because obviously it was not because now they are getting sued for $10 million.

Flavors Banned From Cigarettes to Deter Youths

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/health/policy/23fda.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Summary

This article is about the Federal Health Officials banning flavored cigarettes to try and stop teens from smoking. Thanks to president Obama he has given authority to the F.D.A to ban any kind of tobacco. They want to take flavored cigarettes off the the market because according to a 2004 study 17 year old smokers smoke more flavored cigarettes then people over 25 years old. Even though they have banned these cigarettes there are some very vague parts because they did not clearly define what a cigarette is. When the tabacco company was asked about whether they would be taking flavored cigars off the market because flavoured cigars are made with tobacco but just without the paper around it they tried to avoid the question.


Connections

I think the producer will be greatly effected by the losing there 3600 teenage smokers that start smoking every day. The consumer may not stop smoking just beacuse they stop selling there favourite cigarettes because once some one is addicted you can not just stop. I think the producer knows that the consumer will keep buying from the retailer because they are addicted. Even if the teenage consumers decide to all stop smoking the producers will still be making multi million dollars from all of there other sales

Reflection

I am very happy with Obama's choice to help teenagers to make the right decision and not smoke at a very young age or at all. Even though this may stop some kids from smoking they will never be able to stop them all. I think just banning the flavoured cigarettes will not stop kids from smoking because they could just stop smoking those and begin to smoke the non flavored ones. I think they should ban all tobacco products which will increase the life span of people.