Archive for the ‘Other Spend’ Category

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Hotel Owners Not Sure About Online Review Sites

Monday, October 25th, 2010

Well, that’s not entirely true. Hoteliers with happy customers are reaping the benefits of increasingly visible recommendations. But not every hotel has happy customers…

  • The popular hotel review resource TripAdvisor.com is facing lawsuits from hotels claiming the site is bad for their businesses.
  • Anyone can post an anonymous review of a hotel on the site. TripAdvisor argues that this makes for the most honest reviews, but opponents say it creates a protected space for libel and defamation. Sites like TripAdvisor are usually exempt from these accusations because they just publish reviews – they don’t write or edit them.
  • TripAdvisor typically doesn’t remove old or inflammatory reviews, but it does allow hotel owners to post responses to negative reviews. In response to the popularity and influence of these review sites, consulting firms have sprung up promising to monitor and control online customer feedback.

Facts & Figures

  • There are 35 million hotel reviews on TripAdvisor.com.
  • TripAdvisor was sued in 2009 over a review that claimed the owner of a hotel restaurant was seen buying drinks for a prostitute.
  • Revinate, a San Francisco image protection firm, charges hotels hundreds of dollars a month to track online reviews.

Best Quote

“We have pretty happy customers, so something like TripAdvisor works in our favor.” – Niki Leondakis, President and CEO of Klimpton Hotels

The Haunted House Gets A Spooky Modern Makeover

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Looking for a thrill this Halloween? There’s a haunted house for everyone, including evangelical Christians. But a new style in New York City is catering to adults… with strong stomachs.

  • Today’s haunted houses are more complicated and sometimes much more shocking than productions of the past. The NYC Halloween Haunted House is only open to audiences 18 and older.
  • It’s more expensive to put on a large production in NYC, but the city has the advantage of a huge community of theater pros. They bring modern and impressive acting, costumes, makeup, and set design to the old haunted house.
  • Many of the new shows use creepy, psychologically troubling plot lines to set up the scares. But in the end, it’s usually all about the man jumping out from behind the curtain. Boo!

Facts & Figures

  • In “NYC Halloween Haunted House,” an actress playing a mental patient removes one of each participants’ shoes.
  • In “Nightmare: Superstitions,” in NYC’s NoHo neighborhood, participants somehow travel through huge rooms and tiny tunnels in the course of their visit.
  • Haunted houses around the country generate hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

In Exhibition Soccer Matches, Everyone Wins

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Practice in new climates isn’t the only reason teams are playing in distant locales.

  • More and more, national soccer teams are playing exhibition games (called “friendlies”) in unusual places, often far from home.
  • The practice is basically a money-maker for everyone: the agents that manage a team’s exhibition games try to maximize profit for the teams, the game broadcasters, and sponsors. They manage to make a pretty neat profit for themselves, too.
  • Teams are sent to play friendly matches wherever they’ll get the biggest audience – live or on television. Brazil recently played a friendly in Derby, England that was viewed live by only 13,088 fans but broadcast to 120 different countries.

Facts & Figures

  • In October, Argentina traveled to a friendly match in Japan, Chile traveled to Oman, and Brazil played Iran in Abu Dhabi.
  • Since June 2007, only one of Brazil’s 18 exhibition games has been played in Brazil.
  • As a result of their deal with sports rights agency Kentaro, the Brazilian soccer federation receives approximately $3 million.

Best Quote

“This is the new landscape of international football. Friendly games used to be a chance to try out new players or different formations. Nowadays they’re about making money, which means going wherever you’ll get the biggest audience.” – Tony Cottee, Football Analyst and Former Player for the England National Team

Monetary Policy is…

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Monetary policy is a plan of action that a Central Bank (like the Federal Reserve) sets in order to keep an economy stable. It’s really important to the overall health of a nation’s finances. The goal is to manage demand by manipulating a company’s money supply and tweaking interest rates.

Central Banks implement monetary policy using a few different methods:

  • Open-Market Operations – Directly buying and selling securities in the open market
  • Reserve Requirements – Setting regulations that dictate the minimum amount of money a bank must hold in reserve to back up its deposits
  • Discount Rate – Changing the rate of interest banks charge other banks to borrow money

DailyCandy Editor Lauren Lumsden On Discovering New And Cool

Monday, October 4th, 2010

It’s not every day you get to interview an editor from your favorite daily mailing list, but we somehow convinced Lauren to chat in front of our camera last week. Check out her interview to learn about the dude-ranch-to-web-editor career track and, of course, Bacon Salt.

>>TILE brings you exclusive interviews from people doing great things in SPEND, GROW, and GIVE. To view more, click on TILEcasts in the TILE Library.

Have a burning question or someone you’d like to see interviewed? Let us know – just Ask TILE!

Jobless Claims And Recovery Concerns Rise

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

As jobless claims rise, Americans are becoming even more concerned about the economic recovery.

  • New unemployment claims rose last week, which may indicate a weak economic recovery.
  • The unemployment rate is expected to climb to 9.6% (up from 9.5% in June).
  • While growth expanded 3.7% in the first quarter of 2010, it fell to a 2.4% annual rate in the second quarter.
  • Generally speaking, consumers have cut spending.

Facts & Figures

  • Claims for state unemployment benefits rose 19,000 (the highest since April).
  • 4-week average of new jobless claims rose 5,250 to 458,500.
  • Jobless claims fell in 2009 but have stalled this year.
  • The number of people on emergency benefits rose 60,993 to 3.31 million in mid July.

Best Quote

“The bottom line is that any recovery in employment is going to be very slow. It’s likely that we’re still 9.5 percent unemployment or awfully close to it by the end of the year.” -Scott Wren, Senior Equity Strategist, Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis

Cool Electronics Move Ahead Of Clothes And Appliances

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Second-quarter reports indicate that Americans have changed their spending priorities from appliances to new and improved electronics.

  • Rather than purchasing appliances and clothing, Americans now tend to put their money toward new electronics and in their savings.
  • Electronics are constantly evolving to become newer, cooler and better–causing an incentive to buy the latest items.
  • Some clothing retailers, such as American Eagle Outfitters and Macy’s, are giving consumers electronic incentives to buy apparel (like giving away smartphones).

Facts & Figures

  • Sales of televisions, computers, video and telephone equipment grew 1.8% in the first six months of 2010.
  • Spending on appliances decreased 3.6% and spending on furniture decreased 11%.
  • The U.S. savings rate increased to 6.4% from May to June.
  • In the first 6 months of 2010, Americans spent $534 billion on durable goods, up 5.9% from last year.

Best Quote

“But who needs to buy more ties? I mean, come on, I have a great computer.” -Spence Witten, 27-year-old consumer

Sales Tax is…

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Sales tax is a set-percentage tax applied to the selling of goods and services. For example, in New York City, the sales tax is 8.875%. So if you buy a chair for $100 in Manhattan, you’ll actually end up paying $108.89 with the sales tax included.

The Secret Behind Ikea

Friday, June 4th, 2010

You know you’ve spent hours wandering its hallowed halls, browsing cheaply-made furniture and believing that its functional European designs will somehow make you a better person. But have you ever wondered how a giant warehouse next to the highway can do that to you?

  • Ikea brought on Kerri Molinaro in 1992, and with her arrival came a brand-new approach to customer appeal. Molinaro brought fashion sense and an eye for merchandising to the efficient furniture store, and changed its image completely.
  • Ikea’s unique business model involves scrimping on production costs and sales staff, and splurging on things like consumer research, product design, and advertising.
  • The store’s layout is not a coincidence, either. Products are displayed alongside one another in beautifully decorated mock-rooms; items cleverly displayed on a wall are easy to find in nearby bins, and, of course, the store is a literal maze, trapping customers who cannot navigate beyond the store’s arrow guidance system.

Facts & Figures

  • More than 50% of Ikea visitors buy something before leaving; in women’s clothing stores this number is closer to 8%
  • Each Ikea store employs approximately 400 people. Of these, 30% are in sales and 70% work in the warehouse or in merchandising.
  • During an average visit, Ikea shoppers spend two hours in the store.

Best Quote

“Often people will never come into contact with staff until the cashier. These products are really selling themselves.” – Kerri Molinaro, President, Ikea Canada

Guns And Coffee Go Together Like Peas And Carrots

Friday, March 12th, 2010

A fast-spreading movement in the pro-gun community has taken the Starbucks coffee contingent by storm.

  • As firearms fanatics and gun-control advocates battle over an issue known as the “open carry” movement (a demonstration by gun owners of carrying their guns in unconcealed holsters in public areas and private businesses where allowed), Starbucks, in full compliance with state open-carry weapons laws, has been caught up in the middle of the raging debate.
  • Starbucks, along with some other establishments, has refused to ban guns, causing uproar in the gun-control community.
  • Some retailers have banned guns from their stores for fear of losing out on potential customers with hoplophobia (fear of firearms).

Facts & Figures

  • The “open carry” movement started gaining momentum in 2004 after pro-gun advocates began researching state laws only to find that many states do not have laws that prohibit carrying unconcealed firearms.
  • In the 43 states where open carry is legal, Starbucks has around 4,970 company-operated stores.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Home Depot Inc., Best Buy Co. and Barnes and Nobles Inc. also allow unconcealed weapons in the respective states that allow such an activity, and have all become “open carry” friendly sites and milieus for informal “open carry” demonstrations.
  • Companies such as Peet’s Coffee & Tea have disallowed carrying unconcealed weapons in their stores, despite the legality of such an action.

Best Quote

“I think the policy shows complete disregard for the safety and sentiments of their workers. The only thing worse than a yuppie upset with how their frappuccino turned out is a yuppie with a gun who’s unhappy with how their frappuccino turned out.” – Erik Forman, a Starbucks barista, union member, and ostensible hoplophobe and sensationalist from Minneapolis

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