Memorial Day is nearly upon us, with its familiar parades, flags, hot dogs and … new vehicle sales? Buying a new ride at the brink of summer is apparently becoming a new holiday tradition. Edmunds.com reported in this press release that in 2010 and 2011 the long weekend accounted for an outsize share of May new [...]
With Memorial Day weekend comes the unofficial start of summer; what better time than to look for some fresh angles on seasonal businesses?
And I think in keeping with recent years’ themes of frugality, staycations and scaled-back leisure budgets, spinning summer angles from the iconic “camping” theme will lead to colorful and substantive business and economy packages.
What does a replica Civil War balloon have to do with business journalism? Well, the plight of this particular replica, which New York’s Genesee County Museum hopes to launch this year as part of commemorative ceremonies, has lit up focus on our national helium shortage. Who knew? But the helium story is real and one [...]
With the Facebook IPO finally behind us, it looks like another Silicon Valley company will be dominating the headlines this week. Unfortunately, instead of instant millionaires, the storyline will feature job seekers if tech giant Hewlett-Packard indeed lays off up to 30,000 workers, as the Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday. If it plays out, [...]
President Obama the other day proposed a new tax credit to reward small businesses that are hiring or giving raises to existing workers. As this New York Times post explains, the company would get 10 percent of any payroll boost back as a credit against taxes, up to $500,000. The news prompted me to wonder about the [...]
A local independent pet store that’s been around for years recently started advertising a courtesy home-delivery service. When I inquired about it, I got the sense that it was an effort to combat competition from online shopping services. That was a light-bulb moment, and indeed in checking Amazon, I found my dogs’ preferred brand for [...]
Remember that scene in “The Firm” where a giddy Tom Cruise, awed by the largesse his new job affords, is told that his employer will take care of his student loans, too? These days, legal and other grads are lucky to get a paycheck let alone plump perks.
You may have seen some of the “Too broke to go bankrupt” stories that ran last week, based on this report by the National Bureau of Economic Research. (The report is available free of charge to journalists, upon request.) The gist is that, according to the report, as many as one million American households may be [...]
I’ve been putting some thought into ideas for localizing the upcoming Facebook IPO, and one idea I like pretty much can span all business beats: Find the up-and-coming business talent and future young billionaires in your region.
