According to this article, Black Friday Shoppers are opting out of the usual frenzied shopping day, because stores are diluting its effect with pre-Black Friday deep discounts. Questions: 1. Why did FDR move Thanksgiving? 2. When did Black Friday begin to lose its luster and why? 3. Which of the retailing changes in the article… Read more »
Posts Categorized: All Articles
Less Chemicals and New Recipes
This article discusses moves by Campbell soup to make its soups with more natural ingredients rather than chemical flavoring. Questions: 1. What is the most recent trend in soup sales? 2. What type of acquisitions has Campbell made recently to obtain toeholds in new markets? 3. What type of retooling changes have been made to… Read more »
Asset Forfeiture Followup
During 2014, law enforcement officers took more property from American citizens than burglars did. This was a new record. Questions: 1. What was the source of these data? 2. Why aren’t the asset forfeiture deposit amounts necessarily good indicators of the rise in the use of forfeiture? 3. Why are the net assets of the… Read more »
Amazon goes “brick and mortar”
In an unusual move, Amazon opened a storefront bookstore in Seattle’s University Village mall. Questions: 1. What are the characteristics of the books sold in the “brick and mortar store”? 2. In addition to books, what other products does the store carry? 3. What do you see as the costs and benefits of this new… Read more »
Circumventing the Courts with Nine Words
Banning class action suits have essentially disabled consumer challenges to practices like predatory lending. Additionally, a Wall Street-led coalition of credit card companies and retailers, have also engineered blocks on class action suits. In this article, various companies’ efforts to protect arbitration are discussed. Questions: 1. Why has the “birth of a thousand clauses” taken… Read more »
Bad Legal Advice or Bad Insurance Companies or Bad Laws?
One of my favorite quotes is that from author Wendy Mass: “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” And so it seems that this story may illustrate it well. The article and video discuss the case of Jennifer Connell who sued her nephew, Sean Tarala, for $127,000 over… Read more »
A Solution for Legal Cannabis Cash?
Of the more than 7,600 banks and credit unions in the U.S., only about 220 accept cannabis cash, according to the Department of the Treasury. Questions: 1. If Anthony Rivera Jr. accomplishes his goal, who will be the bankers for legal cannabis cash? In your opinion, is this a good idea? Why or why not?… Read more »
Vintage Frauds
The issue of fake wines started to become headline news a few years ago when the so-called Thomas Jefferson bottles, several old bottles of Bordeaux, claimed to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson were offered by a German wine collector named Hardy Rodenstock. Bill Koch, the brother of the notorious Charles and David Koch, bought four… Read more »
The Hole in the Wall Gang?
In today’s world, the rise in ATM fees is becoming harder and harder to escape. It’s a trend that has taken the nationwide average for using a machine that isn’t in your bank’s network to a record of $4.35 per transaction, as Bankrate’s annual survey of checking account fees recently revealed. Questions: 1. According to… Read more »
Huge Merger
To keep up with the changing technology environment, computer maker Dell will buy the storage provider EMC in a deal worth about $67 billion, the companies announced today, Oct. 12. Questions: 1. What are some of the benefits of the new combined company? 2. How much is Dell going to pay per share of EMC?… Read more »