Clever! (From the blog Canadian Design Resource, via Draplin)
Mar 092009
Mar 092009
The New York Times takes a look at a burgeoning community in one of the sub-prime-fallen neighbourhoods of Detroit.
So what did $1,900 buy? The run-down bungalow had already been stripped of its appliances and wiring by the city’s voracious scrappers. But for Mitch that only added to its appeal, because he now had the opportunity to renovate it with solar heating, solar electricity and low-cost, high-efficiency appliances.
Buying that first house had a snowball effect. Almost immediately, Mitch and Gina bought two adjacent lots for even less and, with the help of friends and local youngsters, dug in a garden. Then they bought the house next door for $500, reselling it to a pair of local artists for a $50 profit. When they heard about the $100 place down the street, they called their friends Jon and Sarah.
Admittedly, the $100 home needed some work, a hole patched, some windows replaced. But Mitch plans to connect their home to his mini-green grid and a neighborhood is slowly coming together.
Sounds like an interesting place to live, even though the Times notes that “the occasional crack addict still commutes in from the suburbs.”
And, with artists from as far away as Berlin and Amsterdam expressing an interest in moving to Detroit for its “interesting textures” as well as its sheer affordability, you have to think there’s an interesting period ahead for the blighted city.
Paging Dr. Florida. Dr. Richard Florida?
Mar 062009
The plight of vacant big-box stores will come to Brandon about 15 to 20 years after they start hitting the rest of the world. So, in about 15 or 20 years. Tragically, we will be caught completely unawares.
My home town of Brandon is still fixated on what to do to “revive” its ailing downtown, where a mall has been transformed into a sleepy “professional centre.” And, in the one-time suburbs, the “real mall” is rapidly shedding foot traffic. Where’s everyone gone?
To the shiny new “Corral Centre” big-box mall, where pedestrians are treated as an afterthought that was never really thought of at all, and even cars aren’t shunted through the parking lot very efficiently. If there was a Razzies for urban design, well, it might be the only urban design award Brandon would even be up for.
Anyway, a couple of years ago, after the Corral Centre began to take shape, there was a lot of congratulatory back-slapping among Brandon VIPs (Very Inflated Personalities) who spoke of the “retail power centre” as if it were an economic renaissance that meant Brandon had finally come of age.
But I knew, even then, that Brandon only jumps on board a bandwagon when it’s about 90% out of steam. And the big box culture? Call it over:
The format has reached the saturation point, industry experts say. In home improvement renovation alone, there are now nearly 280 superstores, or one for every 26,000 families, according to the latest quarterly report by the online industry trade publication, Hardlines.
Small is back in style.
Partly due to changing demographics and the current economic downturn, but mostly because the market is saturated, many big box retailers are downsizing to smaller formats or opening fewer stores of any size.
There have even been a few store closings, including the announcement last week that six Sam’s Clubs operated by Wal-Mart would close at the end of this month. Last year, Rona closed two of its larger stores because they overlapped nearby stores acquired from a competitor. Last Christmas, Linens ‘n Things went out of business.
Some are encountering political resistance.
“Political resistance” in Brandon is laughable, where the city bent over backwards to encourage the Corral Centre, even at its own expense (see: ongoing reconstruction of 18th Street and its associated bridges).
Unfortunately, the cost is just beginning. Inevitably, when the stores that now fill the Corral Centre decide that those buildings no longer meet their needs, and when their lease is up, they’re gone-gone-gone. And if there’s anything worse for a city than a big-box mall, it’s a vacant big-box mall, which is just about unusable for any other purpose.
You can turn old warehouses into cool condos. You can put a clothing store into a former tobaccanist. But a vacant power centre just sits there. The buildings are too big, and too crappy for any other purpose except low-margin, high-volume retail.
If there’s any doubt, and you’re in Westman, just go check out the former Zellers at 34th and Victoria. Note how it has been turned into a thriving new — wait, what? An ultra-low-end discounter inhabits just a small part of the space?
Now think of that — times 20. That’s the Corral Centre, circa 2025. Tumbleweeds, baby. Tumbleweeds.
Mar 052009
What happens when an embattled guest decides to cancel out on a talk show appearance? They get, well eviscerated. Just ask John McCain how well that went over with David Letterman. It pretty much brought Letterman back from the dead, that’s how well it went! (Didn’t go so well if you were McCain, but …)
Gawker has the story — and a video that I can’t embed — of Rick Santelli appearing on The Daily Show slated for tonight. Whoops, sorry — I mean the video of Santelli cancelling at the last minute:
Santelli had agreed to discuss with Daily Show host Stewart his recent on-air diatribe against homeowner bailouts. His network, CNBC, cancelled, saying it was “time to move on to the next big story.”
The Daily Show wasn’t going to let that happen; it’s entire seven-minute opening block was devoted to an extended, heroic evisceration of the financial network, starting with its many false, optimistic predictions before and during the economic meltdown and continuing through to its softball CEO interviews and general Wall Street cheerleading.
Do whet your appetite here. And do tune in tonight!
Mar 052009
From the New York Times: “Retailers reported terrible February numbers, but Wal-Mart exceeded analysts’ expectations.”
Posted without comment, but feel free to kick off a discussion below!
Mar 032009
Talk about contrarian! I just read an article that fearlessly predicts oil trading at the $300 level within one to three years — “certainly not much more.”
The reporter at the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch says it’s a good opportunity for a portfolio “do-over”:
Many of the solid energy, refining, drilling and exploration companies that performed exceptionally during the last surge in prices likely will do well again.
Also, several of the more established alternative energy plays should rebound along with crude oil, and they’re at just a fraction of their year-ago levels. Investors need to be wary of volatility. But it’s prudent to have some exposure.
Shares of many key oil stocks took a plunge, and now they’re offering some great entry points. A few ways to play the coming rally in oil is to simply buy the December 2009 crude oil call options. If you prefer to play the equity side, Exxon Mobil is a good bet for the majors while Halliburton is one for the drilling side. Many others are attractive.
While I’m not sure I’m going to rush out an invest in oil stocks (I don’t have the cash flow, unfortunately) it’s the other side of the article that I found most interesting. Although there is declining demand for oil, there’s still lots of people burning it — the real reason oil prices have declined is more technical:
It’s called “contango.” Contango occurs when futures prices are higher than current prices. The scenarios are not uncommon, but the recent spread widths are extreme by any measure.For example: the April 2009 crude oil contract is around $38.10 — while the April 2010 crude contract, crude for delivery a year from now, is trading at $50.26. That’s a $12.16 spread.That means major oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and BP can store oil on tankers and then sell the April 2010 contract at $50.26.Even factoring in the cost of storage, they come out better selling forward than selling at current market prices.
Don’t rush out and fill up dozens of jerry cans, hoping to pump it out to suckers in six months from now when gas skyrockets, but it’s an interesting look at the economics of the business that gets away from “the oil companies are screwing us!”
Feb 252009
Photo from a New York Times series examining the true impact of the Chinese Olympics.
China’s Olympics were stunning — a tour de force from start to finish, by every single account that I’ve read. It’s incalculable just how much money they poured into the venues, the accommodations, the atheletes themselves, and spectacle that surrounded the Games. (Some calculations peg it at $43 billion, but I think that’s low. It’s still triple any other host city.)
Now the question is, how much of that was wasted? I’ve read often that Olympic host cities, even if they go into debt over the Games themselves, are left with a net benefit, in terms of actual buildings and athletic facilities that can be put to good use for years to come. I just visited the Stade Olympique in Montreal a couple of years ago — and its subway was top-notch. That’s 33 years on, and still providing benefits.
Calgary is still using its Saddledome and alpine facilities — in fact, they’re renting out some 88 Olympic facilities to the Brits for 2010.
Vancouver hopes to use the athletes village for social housing.
But China might be left with some gigantic white elephants. From the LA Times:
Six months after the Games ended, [Beijing] continues to dazzle by night, with neon and floodlights dancing across the skyline. By day, though, it is obvious that many are “see-through” buildings, to use the term coined during the Texas real estate bust of the 1980s.
… 500 million square feet of commercial real estate has been developed in Beijing since 2006, more than all the office space in Manhattan. And that doesn’t include huge projects developed by the government … 100 million square feet of office space is vacant — a 14-year supply.
Yikes. The “Bird’s Nest” stadium? Empty except for one day this year. A less-than-a-year-old baseball stadium? Up for demolition. The press centre? “Cavernous” and “empty” says the Times:
The makeover of Beijing for the Olympics led to an estimated 1.5 million residents being evicted from their homes, according to the Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions.
In this vibrant capital city of 17 million, there is an insatiable demand for housing, yet prices remain far out of reach of most residents …. Homes are being advertised for more than $1 million in gated communities …. Two- and three-bedroom apartments are offered for $800,000 …
The average salary in Beijing is less than $6,000 a year.
Feb 212009
Look, I like Starbucks and all. They’re a little too popular among the trendy, they have a deserved rap for gentrification, and they’re plenty greenwashed, but they make a good cup of coffee, the atmosphere is nice, and I like that I get greeted by happy-to-be-there employees.
That said, I’m not sure it’s a place that I want to work. But perhaps I’m in the minority?
This columnist says Starbucks is the dream job for plenty of otherwise stressed white-collar workers:
Starbucks was the great American backup plan. The emergency exit. The parachute. You could tell yourself that when you were ready to bolt your job—or your employer kicked you out—you could land softly at Starbucks, padded by the promise of part-time employment, a pleasant workplace, health care and free coffee.
It would be a simpler life. You would serve, you would smile. You would perfect your cappuccino foam. When you got sick—a big piece of the fantasy—you’d be covered. No taking the job home. When you clocked out of work, your mind would clock out too.
Simplicity. Security. A little style. That was the Starbucks dream.
Did anyone really think that? With layoffs mounting, though, and the stock in the toilet, is anyone still thinking that? It’s sure sparked a ton of comments over at the Starbucks Gossip blog!
Feb 052009
So, since we’re in an economic downtown, which might be a recession — or even a depression! — I think we need to revamp some of our interactions. The language has already changed. We’re talking about cutbacks and stimulus, not IPOs and early retirement.
That means it’s likely past time to change our non-verbal means of communication, too. Those facial cues that tell us what a person really means are just as important as what he or she is saying.
In that spirit, I propose a moratorium on the “thumbs up” display — except, perhaps, ironically. But who can afford irony these days?
“Thumbs up” was perfect for the go-go 2000s, but it’s just insensitive now that we’re in a cash crunch. This is no time for the hurly-burly goodtime feels of the Buddy Jesus. It’s time for a more sombre look at like. It’s time for the pout face.
(from Flickr user malisonian)
Technically, I think it’s better if you use a finger to pull down one side of your lower lip, but the expresiveness of a simple pout perfectly sums up today’s economic environment.
Don’t worry about what your mother told you — you won’t trip over it. She probably grew up in a nice decade, when “thumbs up” meant that all was well, and maybe some stranger would pull over his car to give you a ride to Awesome Town. Now, “thumbs up” means you may as well sit on it, since there ain’t any jobs.
A pout face, with it’s extended lower lip, will serve you well in the line for the soup kitchen — it’ll catch the scraps that the other unemployed bankers miss!
Jan 292009
The Baltimore Examiner is folding. This is one of those papers that launched a couple of years ago (30 months, to be precise) with much bally-hoo about free distribution and targeted home delivery. It was well-designed and snappy, but they couldn’t make a go of it.
Gawker has the memo:
However, as successful as we have been in generating strong news content and evolving an innovative distribution system, the “synergistic” revenue that we had counted on, by linking marketing and advertising between the Baltimore Examiner and our Washington newspaper, never reached projected levels. That is, while the Baltimore Examiner attracted some great and loyal advertisers, we were not able to gain the levels of revenue anticipated by linking together the two markets.
Obviously, aside from the economic environment and the troubles facing newspaper generally, the real issue here was that the owners were focused on “synergy.” (They use it elsewhere in the memo, too.) When will corporations learn that buzzwords = death?
For the moment, the other two papers in the Examiner chain (Washington and SanFran) seem safe. I really liked the resurrection of this brand, and I’m sad to see Baltimore go. Further, I also think that free and ad-supported should be a viable business model, particularly if someone figures out enough datamining to make that “targeted home delivery” worthwhile (despite the skin-crawling personal invasiveness of it all).
Jan 282009
Wow, this recession is hitting restaurants hard. Because in some places its legal to pay servers less than minimum wage (on the assumption that tips make up the difference, some restaurants are laying off minimum-wage-earning busboys so they can keep on cheaper servers to clear tables.
Or, so says the Wall Street Journal.
However, the story goes on to note that the current economic downtown may have a shiny side — at least for cutlery manufacturers. The WSJ’s story implies that lazy or rebellious servers are throwing out spoons, leading to restaurant-wide shortages:
With the busboys gone, Ms. Baker noticed something odd: Spoons started disappearing. So many were missing that the restaurant sometimes ran out of clean ones during peak times.
Mr. Harris asked managers at other Bob Evanses and learned it was happening at their locations too. “Was this an act of rebellion because we have to do this now?” he asked. One manager suggested putting magnets inside trash-can lids to capture any spoons.
At Bob Evans Farms Inc. headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, management had to increase the number of new spoons it bought companywide during the first three months after bussers were cut. Mr. Hicks says Bob Evans restaurants historically have gone through more spoons than other utensils, though it isn’t clear why so many vanished with the change. The most likely explanation, employees said, is that servers and dish washers were simply throwing out silverware in their haste to scrape dishes clean; spoons get thrown away more easily than forks or knives because, the theory goes, they are lighter.
Talk about a ridiculous economic indicator. “ZOMG! We’re out of spoons! How will The Tick save us now??!?!”
I do have some sympathy for overworked servers, though. Hey, you try being a waitress!
Jan 192009
Each one of those tiny dots is a brand-new car. Zillions -- literally zillions! -- of unsold cars are piling up in makeshift parking lots around the world. I see bargains in the future. (photo originally credited to David Goddard of Getty, via the Guardian)
Wow. That is a lot of unsold cars.
I read a few months ago that cars were beginning to pile up at Los Angeles ports, but a photo really makes the sheer numbers hit home.
A 10-photo gallery from around the world hits them home even harder. There are some mind-boggling pics there, including the one above.
But that’s not all! Cars need gas, and the oil to make that gasoline is piling up as well: oil prices are so low that some people are actually holding on to their barrels and to their tanker ships and saying, essentially, that they’ll wait and see, betting that the price will go up sooner rather than later.
In fact, so many people are hoarding supplies of oil that the world is running out of places to store it. I’m serious.
But, of course, as soon as the price of oil starts to rebound, all of these hoarders are going to rush to cash in, selling off their supplies, and adding their glut of stored oil to the market — this excess supply is probably going to keep oil prices depressed for a relatively long time.
That’s interesting — but let’s get back to those cars. Unlike oil, which you can just store and store and store, and sell whenever you want, cars depreciate.
Sure, they say that a car loses most of its value the second you drive it off the dealer’s lot, but what if it never gets to a lot in the first place?
What’s going to happen in about nine months, when the 2010 models start arriving in showrooms? How much do you think that still-shiny-new 2009 — or 2008! — will be on sale for then? Right now it’s sitting in limbo — technically it’s still on the balance sheets at sticker price. But there’s no way a car company will be able to sell them at sticker price if they’re last year’s model.
Plus, these are not the super-fuel-efficient awesome cars we’ve been promised are right around the corner — these are the old-model cars, SUVs and the like. Maybe, if gas prices stay down, trucks and SUVs at bargain prices will fly off of dealer lots — but that doesn’t help society at all.
And selling new cars at used-car prices i’s not really going to help the automotive industy, either.
But if you’re in the market for a new car, I’ll bet 2009 is going to be a very cheap year for you.
Jan 192009
Ahhh, newspaper vending boxes. Soon to be a collector's item? (Photo from Flickr user Aaron Landry)
Don’t know how I missed this, late last week: The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, one of the States’ top daily newspapers (in my opinion, but also in terms of circulation (15th largest in America, 10th largest Sunday edition and one of the top-10 American newspaper websites)) is filing for bankruptcy.
Those rosy circulation numbers come from this article, announcing last Thursday that the paper was filing for Chapter 11. The story is impressively detailed, and the numbers it presents give a stark look at the financial reality that the paper was facing.
(I assume that the numbers are based on the bankruptcy filing, and should therefore be pretty accurate.)
Like most newspapers, the Star Tribune has experienced a sharp decline in print advertising. Its earnings before interest, taxes and debt payments were about $26 million in 2008, down from about $59 million in 2007 and $115 million in 2004.
This quickie chart that I whipped up kind of shows the plummeting income that the Strib has had to deal with.
From what I’ve heard on various journalism blogs and networking sites over the past few years, Star-Tribune employees are some of the best-paid in the country, but their salaries still aren’t exactly lavish.
And even those salaries are apparently coming down: the story says that newsroom employees have agreed to a new three-year contract that reduces wage expenses by $2.5 million. And the company has slashed an additional $50 million from the budget through buyouts, attrition and reduced news pages.
In a column from the weekend, my own big boss, the Brandon Sun publisher, says that we’re doing quite a bit better up here:
The Sun has published continuously since 1882 and having just reviewed preliminary year-end financial numbers, I suggest we’ll be around for many years to come.
… so that’s a relief. But I have to think that some serious changes are coming to the newspaper industry, even in a place that’s as demographically behind as Brandon (I only mean that we have an older, more conservative population, so most trends take a while to get here — that should mean we can see them coming and plan for them based on the mistakes and successes of others, but it mostly means that we think they’ll never arrive and still get caught with our pants down).
A reminder: Both Detroit newspapers have cut their home delivery down to just two or three days a week; digest editions will be on sale at newsstands the rest of the days. They’re pointing readers — and advertisers — to their web editions.
As well, cited in the Minneapolis story:
[The Star-Tribune] is the second major newspaper publisher to file for bankruptcy protection. The Tribune Co., publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun among other publications and television stations, filed for bankruptcy in early December, burdened by $13 billion in debt.
…
Hearst Corp., owner of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, last week said it would close the 146-year-old paper if no buyer could be found in the coming months. Shares of (media company) McClatchy Co. … have fallen 98 percent … and the company has been trying to raise money by selling land near the Miami Herald.
Rough times all over. Want to know part of the reason why? Two of the biggest sectors for newspaper advertising are real estate and automotive. You can put those pieces together for yourself.
Jan 162009
I’m not sure what this mother was thinking when she took her kid to American Apparel. Surely she’s aware that their ads are near-pornographic — and in fact are inspired by vintage porn?
But I gotta say she probably didn’t expect to have actual pornography shoved in her face, by merely flipping through a magazine that was on display.
Then again, the magazine was called BUTT. Maybe this mother was just not thinking her actions completely through on that day.
That aside, I also found this in-depth and fascinating tale of a visit to the American Apparel factory recently. Think what you will about their style (wretched), their advertising (nauseating), their founder (creepy) or their attitude (pretentious) but you have to admit that the writer, Kevin Meyer, has a point:
This is a $500 million manufacturer of t-shirts, underwear, and the like. Typically low margin products, the kind of thing that usually comes from Asian and Central American sweatshops.
But not at American Apparel. This company makes over 1 million articles of clothing per week, from their one factory in Los Angeles and they grew 40% this year. They pay their 5,000-person workforce significantly above minimum wage (average is $12-$15 per hour), give them full subsidized benefits (such as high quality health care insurance for $8 per week), and they turn a profit.
This should embarrass the heck out of any executive who thinks he has to outsource in order to find effective labor. Or at least call into question his fundamental competence as a leader. If American Apparel can manufacture low margin clothing efficiently enough to beat the sweatshops (in California no less), then anyone should be able to. If they try hard enough.
Lots more interesting insights from his visit to the factory.
And, if you have been listening to the right kind of news lately, you’ll know that the company’s founder is accused of being essentially really weird and creepy, in a sexual way, and is being sued. Think SNL blew their load on Palin? Check it here (seriously, green manties!) and be sure to watch to the end.
(By the way, the image above, of an American Apparel in Winnipeg, I found by a photographer named Bryan Scott. He’s got a fantastic set of Winnipeg and Manitoba pics up on his website, plus lots of interesting commentary. It’s at winnipeglovehate.com. Check it out!)
Jan 142009
Two interesting observations when I went grocery shopping the other day. When I picked up a new bag of cat food, it seemed smaller. But it was tough to tell, so I put it my cart and went on my merry way. When I got home, though, I noticed that sure enough, I was now buying cat food in 1.5 kg bags instead of the 2 kg bag that was sitting on top of my fridge. Same brand and everything.
“That’s annoying,” I thought. “Now I’ll have to make extra trips to the store, the bags won’t last as long, I’m paying more for packaging, and the price didn’t likely drop any.”
Almost making up for that was the fact that I also picked up a can of Jolly Green Giant Niblets corn. I got the 540 mL can, because the can that was half that size was almost the same price. They were a penny off. I don’t recall the exact amount, but it was something like $2.37 for the small can, $2.38 for twice as much.
That tells me that the corn itself is basically free — you’re paying $2.30 for a can and the convenience of picking it up in a store, not out of a field. Weird.
Want to track those odd price changes? I like the site mouseprint.org, where you can find out gems like:
- Toilet paper has been donwsized from 4.5 inches wide to 4.2 — or even 4.0 inches wide. Sorry fat-bottomed people.
- Peanut butter jars now have a bigger hollowed out portion in the bottom — you get 16.3 oz instead of 18 oz.
- You’re looking at 5 oz of tuna in a can these days, not the old 6 oz.
And don’t even get me started on boxes of cereal! If they get any slimmer, they’ll be like magazines before they’re done.