The world around us

I love looking for great recipes on the net and I recently found a whole treasure trove of them. The site is called Coconut and Lime and it is a simply amazing site since it has these really creative but simple recipes that I feel that I am capable of making. In fact, I have been quite inspired by them and went out to the market and shopped for a few items that I need for making a couple of dishes. Not only is the author Rachel Rappaport a great cook, she also take superb pictures that are posted on her Flickr page of her delightful cooking, so if there was any dithering on whether you want to make it or not, once you see the yummy pics, you’re definitely going to make them! Start your ovens, sharpen those knives and get started cooking!

There are vacations of all kinds, but my favorite kind is to take a place for a longer time and settle in to really be able to relax and enjoy your vacation. Some vacations are so hectic that one ends up requiring another vacation when one returns, so what is the point of such a vacation. I’d much rather take something like these Outer Banks rentals where one can settle in and make full use of being on vacation. My parents are currently on vacation and they’ve done exactly that and by staying in one place for a longer time, they are being able to explore the area at their own pace and really take in the atmosphere and culture of the town. It’s the right way to vacation, I think.

My last read was Kitty Kelley’s The Family, which is about the Bush dynasty. I’m not really that keen on books about politicians and bureaucrats, but I do love biographies and since this was about the entire family, I decided to give it a go. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit and definitely learned a lot. There has been a lot of controversy about the book as is the case with all of Kitty Kelley’s books, but apparently all the facts have been checked and double checked by the lawyers and nothing can be said to be false in the book. Read it and decide for your self.

Summer time is here and with it are the usual host of heat related problems. I love the sound of lawn mowers in the summer, but lately I’m also getting to hear lots of generators thanks to electricity issues. Oh well, that’s not the kind of start I would have wanted for the summer, but that’s how it is. On the flip side, having a generator is a really great option, since there is no way one can manage in this heat, so they can be a good alternative to have. This single piece of machinery has certainly come a long way since it was invented, and I’ve been fascinated by their development over the years.

Retailers, especially luxury retailers are having to change how they do business. It’s no longer unusual to see massive reductions on high end fashion labels like Christian Dior and Christian Lacroix, and Neiman Marcus which has always been rather restrictive with its sales, has cut the prices for brands such as Marc Jacobs, Prada, Manolo Blahnik and Jean Paul Gaultier to half price. Nordstrom started its much awaited semi annual sale earlier this year.

Retailers are also tying up in interesting combinations, with Vera Wang signing a deal with Kohl’s, Ralph Lauren designing a line for J.C. Penney and Normal Kamali teaming up with Wal-Mart. According to Sara Albrecht, the owner of Ultimo a designer boutique on Chicago’s Oak Street, “Before, you would never think of luxury markets being promotional or on sale.” The luxury market has been growing at 10% for the past several years but has now slowed down quite dramatically.

“Price has never been as important to the consumer’s shopping level as it is today no matter what the income level,” said Matt Katz, a New York-based managing director of AlixPartners, a consulting and financial advisory firm. “We’ve studied 5,000 consumers annually for the last 15 years, and for the first time in the history of our study, price is the most important driver for a purchase decision.”

For many new entrepreneurs, there is no better way to get into a business than take out a franchise for a profitable venture. The concept of franchising has really become popular, especially now that companies are expanding on a global scale and cannot actually commit to opening stores across the world themselves. Enter the franchisee, who is able to do exactly that and help in creating a global brand and name foe the company. A franchise is an effective way to start a business that is already known, maybe even famous, and establish your business and build capital. The most popular franchises are for fast food chains like Pizza Hut and KFC, but there are lots of other options as well in insurance, hair salons and much more.

JCPenney is going all out to win over web and other customers. The retailer launched a feature on its website called “Know Before You Go”, where you could get directions to the store, check availability of an items and so on. According to research, it was shown that more than 90% of JCP.com shoppers also shopped at Penney stores and the majority of them researched their purchase online before heading to the stores.

According to Mike Boylson, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Avenue A | Razorfish, “It’s a lot more than an e-commerce site and a place to transact, it will literally become the new face of the brand.” The company has been integrating its 1100 stores, its website JCP.com and its catalog, and is using all kinds of new marketing initiatives to reach its customers, including mobile marketing. The company combined its annual budget for online marketing which was $300 million to its annual budget for online marketing which was $1.1 billion, so that funds can be allocated correctly.

…JCP.com is the fastest-growing channel for the company and attracts the youngest and most affluent consumers. While Penney advertises extensively through newspapers and direct mail, he said consumers between the age of 18 and 35 “simply aren’t consuming that media. When you look at the cost of paper, print and postage versus the digital space, it becomes an economic necessity to transform advertising into digital media.”

Digital marketing includes reaching customers via their mobile phones, another area where Penney is investing more heavily, Boylson said. He pointed out that while only 13% of U.S. consumers now carry mobile phones with Internet access, by 2011 that is expected to increase to 90% of consumers. “It’s becoming a mobile world,” Boylson said. “This is the wave of the future.”

Each week, a new celebrity is lauded for getting back into shape so quickly after having a baby or babies, and the pressure it puts on others is really getting very strong. There are a whole range of tips and tricks to losing weight including things like this weight loss cream which are apparently quite popular. I wonder how long this trend is going to last, since a lot of people are sure to go overboard. It is important to think of the long term health effects when one tried to lose weight fast, so it is essential in doing it the right way. There is nothing wrong in using any of these diet tips and tricks but one use them them correctly.

Online retailers in the home department must work harder than other retailers to get sales, since this is an area that consumers want to be able to touch and feel the item before purchasing. Compare the numbers to books, for which more than half of total sales take place online, while online home improvement retailers see only 5.7% of total sales. According to Christian Friedland, the president of Improvement Direct Inc, there are two main reasons, that consumers want to be able to feel, touch and see the products and that they are worried about getting heavier items delivered, items that require signatures.

To address the desire to touch and feel items, Improvement Direct has created an in-house photo studio that takes images of products from several angles, and then creates Flash-based images that allow site visitors to spin an item to get a complete view of it. Where the e-retailer has created these 360-degree views of products, conversion rates increased by 20%, Friedland said.

Now, this is not something that one thinks of in the normal course, but with the way these new diseases keep coming up, it is important to think of things like child insurance that will cover not only medical costs, but also take car of things like your unpaid bills and so on. In essence it is a good way to start putting aside money for your children and is a great way to give your kids a financial head start. If you start putting aside money early enough, you can even cash it out to use for higher education if you like, and most importantly it is peace of mind knowing that your kids will have something to fall back on if something happens to you. I know it’s not easy thinking of stuff like this, but it is a fact of life.