redneck-home-improvement

Check out cost cuts at Tiffany.
 
it is (was?) a recession and people aren’t buying as much expensive jewelry. Sales at Tiffany fell 16 percent in the latest quarter.
 
But even though profit also fell almost 30 percent, Tiffany shares still rose.
 
Cost cuts helped Tiffany beat analyst expectations. The company said SG&A expenses fell 14 percent. It’s also slowing its pace of store openings because of the recession.
 
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s?” Right now, it might be an Egg McMuffin and coffee from the deli on the corner.
 
Also in the basket:
 
Consumer spending lifted by “cash-for-clunkers”
 
L’Oreal H1 beats forecasts, ready to make purchase

(Photo: Reuters)

          

• New Loan Funded — Try this one more time, group leader, wantabe borrower — $19,500 at 14.34% — AA Credit — DTI 59% A new loan funded (Try this one more time, group leader, wantabe borrower  – $19,500 at 14.34%).  I participated via my standing order RL Overlooked.  The borrower had AA credit, a 59% DTI, and is a homeowner.  This was a non autofunding loan.  As a reminder my standing orders (and manual bids) only......
• TransUnion Reveals National Credit Card Debt on the Rise TransUnion.com, one of the three major credit bureaus, released the results of an analysis study of the trends in credit card lending specifically for the third quarter of 2008, revealing that credit card debt is on the rise. The report is one part of an ongoing series of quarterly consumer......
• IRS Increases the Amount you can Save in a Qualified Account for 2009 I was on the IRS' website today for a different research project (something associated with 403(b)s and the final reguations which become effective Jan 1, 2009 - if there is any interest in this info let me know and I"ll do a post) and I came along some great useful......
• Recession On The Horizon? Despite what Bush & Bernanke say to reassure us that the economy is doing well, I don't believe it is. Here are some news stories that support this belief.The first is from Newsweek.Because home sales and moves stimulate purchases of appliances, electronics and furniture, the giant chains that catered to......
• Is Nine the Perfect Number? I’m considering the cliché, ‘A Stitch in Time Saves Nine for my next book. The first thing I discovered about nine was a mathematical mindbender......

If you are one of those people who comes across a toy store and buys something on impulse, you are probably in the minority.

Seven out of ten toy purchases were planned, and the top decision made by consumers was where to shop, according to a “Toy Purchase Decisions” report by market research firm NPD Group. The survey was conducted online with 2,344 participants.

Even the most indulgent parents have pared back on buying toys for their kids in the economic slump, making careful plans and seeking low prices on the items they buy.

Their thrift has resulted in tough sales conditions for toy makers and retailers alike, who are now resetting their strategy as the 2009 holiday season nears.

The survey showed that more than 75 percent of toy buyers knew which store they wanted to target while 90 percent of these people ended up buying at that same store, according to their plan.

And shoppers seem to be intent on sticking to their plan. Only 40 percent of these consumers said they would go to a different store if they didn’t find what they wanted at the original shop, according to the survey.

But unplanned purchases do happen and nearly two-thirds of consumers were influenced by factors such as specific toy being requested by a child, attractive packaging and product display.  That is, of course, other than how important price is — two categories with the most unplanned purchases have the lowest average retail prices, the survey showed.

(Photo/Reuters)

          

• Florida Rent To Own Home Opportunities Benefit Buyers & Sellers, Despite "Expert" Confusion! Florida rent-to-own opportunities offer BUYERS and SELLERS the opportunity to get what each wants without genuflecting to the banks! [/caption] That's right, I said it. Just because prices are 50% of what they were in 2006, who knows where the bottom is. Who knows if the house you buy today......
• Fun with Science: Make your own Tornado This is a great activity to show weather systems or simply for a little play time. I actually have a Toysmith Cyclone Tube to use for this activity and you can usually pick these up at any science, or toy store. You can also purchase them at a teacher supply......
• October Best Bargains Are you looking for some good buys this month? I’m always hoping to find a good price on one of the items that’s already on my shopping list, so I look around at a lot of different places. I check them all: discount stores, shopping centers, and websites. This October,......
• Checklist: Calculating the Total Cost of an IP Phone System Checklist: Calculating the Total Cost of an IP Phone System TCO involves everything from network preparation to maintenance to bandwidth costs. by Robert Poe | January 20, 2009    Knowing what you're going to have to spend on a new IP phone system requires more than looking up the price of......
• Vintage Wedding Dress Antiques -> Textiles, Linens -> Lace, Crochet, Doilies Many people today want to wear a vintage wedding dress when they get married. Vintage clothing in general has become hugely popular. You can purchase actually vintage clothing in various states of wear, vintage fabric which to make clothing from, or reproduction......

Sears, the low-priced retailer known for its selection of Craftsman tools and kitchen appliances, is jumping on the beauty bandwagon.

The retailer is debuting beauty departments  — called Sears Beauty — in 13 mall locations in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.

Sears Beauty will sell cosmetics, skin care, bath and body products, and fragrances by brands like L’Oreal, Maybelline, and CoverGirl. The offering, Sears says, is designed to help shoppers “achieve their ideal beauty results.”

Sears isn’t alone in wanting to help shoppers put their best face forward. JC Penney has installed Sephora locations inside many of its department stores, while Wal-Mart has reached a deal to sell an exclusive line of Hard Candy makeup in its discount stores.

Retailers look at cosmetics as a way to drive consumers into their stores more frequently, because shoppers typically need to purchase a new lipstick or restock their favorite body wash more often than they need to buy a new suit or replace their ride-on lawn mower.

To mark the opening of the beauty departments, Sears is offering a free cosmetic bag and brush set with any $25 cosmetics, fragrance or bath purchase, and a $10 Sears reward card with any $50 cosmetics, fragrance, or bath purchase.

(Photo: Reuters)

          

• Deals may soon be harder to find at Wal-Mart This article on MSN regarding Wal-Mart's plans to measure customer traffic is market analysis on steroids.  From what I gather the system will track shoppers' movements using IR and associate those movements with sales data.  Presumably this will allow the stores to tweak the product placement, display, and prominence of......
• How To Buy A Foreclosure. Thinking now may be a good time to start shopping for foreclosures? You may be right - but you also may want to be careful. While there are houses going for pennies on the dollar in some towns and cities (like the sub-$1,000 houses in Detroit seen on the news......
• It’s Not Your Father’s Fragrance Any Longer There is a debate among the young folks and the old folks regarding which scent might be the most traditional and best for attracting the opposite sex. As a young child, I myself would sneak into my parents bathroom and splash a few drops of ‘Old Spice’ onto my neck......
• Making money with an eBay Store, Part 2: What is it and do I need one? (This post is part of a series on Making Money with an eBay Store. The Introduction and table of contents to the series is here.) In the Introduction I mentioned some of the fruits of starting a side business, especially the feeling of empowerment over one's financial life that it......
• Save Time, Money and Space in Over 80 Ways If you're looking for handy gadgets, tools and various items that can save you time, money or space (or all three!) this list of more than 80 top products is just what you need. Everyone's got saving money on their minds these days. Some of us are always looking to......

The indicators are there: people are saving more and they’re spending less.  The era of the savvy(er) shopper has officially arrived. But how long will it last?

Family financial guru Ellie Kay has been talking about smart shopping for years, publishing numerous books and maintaining a blog about how to shop smart. With the back-to-school shopping season running up against the recession, she’s been hearing a lot from her readers about how they’ve changed their buying habits.

“It’s not enough to run a sale, there has to be something extra that retailers are putting out there for the consumer to want to spend back-to-school dollars in their store,” she said. “That includes sales plus store coupons, or free gifts, or if they’re shopping online, they want free online shipping.”

Kay said it’s also not enough for retailers to have a value message anymore. With consumers surfing coupon websites like fatwallet.com and doubling up on store coupons, she said retailers have to work extra hard to get consumer’s attention.

“I do see the trend shifting to implement the use of social media sites–the use of tweeting and Facebook and soforth,” she said, pointing to consumer’s reactions to viral media campaigns such as Starbuck’s free pastry and free ice cream giveaways through Facebook. “When there’s a really good deal out there that’s working that people are going to want to take advantage of, they’re going to start chatting about it.”

Indeed, the co-founder of RetailMeNot.com told Reuters that online coupons are taking on a life of their own as they get re-posted on blogs or on Facebook, while the CEO of Savings.com said retailers are already looking for ways to offer creative online deals for the upcoming Christmas shopping season.

Kay said the recession is leaving a lasting impression on consumers.

“I think a lot of them are going to smarten up, and be mindful that when they saw their college funds go away, they’re going to be very careful the next time around,” she said. “I think there will be good things that come out of this, especially to those who are hit hard by it.”

That goes for future generations of shoppers as well.

“It’s an incredible teaching opportunity for children to help them realize that what’s really important in life is not how many toys they have,” she said. “That’s a way to teach a generation that’s always had what they want how to live on a budget.”

(Additional reporting by Nicole Maestri)

(Photo: Reuters)

          

• First time I want to buy stock? I have deposited a little amount and the broker is giving some credit for me to do trading. However I am trying to do day trading (like 1 or 2 or 3 trades a day) but I find it very difficult to choose what stock to buy, I tried to......
• How do I get started buying stocks online? I want to buy stocks online, but before that I have a lot of questions: 1.) I have about 0, can I just buy 5-10 shares. Some websites have like a minimum that is just to expensive for m. 2.)With online stock buying, do you get a stock certificate from......
• Love Webkinz? Where To Get WebKinz Pets At 40% off Webkinz Pets are a big hit here in our household. In case you don't know, Webkinz pets are stuffed animals that come with a code so you can play on the Webkinz virtual site. They are very popular with kids. The stuffed animals typically run anywhere from $7 or $8......
• Player Profile for Patty Sheehan Patty Sheehan was born on October 27 in 1956 in Middlebury, Vermont, and is an American professional golfer who became a member of the Women's PGA Tour (LPGA) in 1980 and went on to win six different major championships with a total of thirty five LPGA Tour victories in all.......
• Bank of America Announces Free Online Trading According to Bloomberg.com"Bank of America Corp., seeking to attract new clients, offered free online stock trades to customers with accounts of at least $25,000, sending shares of discount brokers lower.The second-largest U.S. bank said customers in New York, Boston and other cities in the northeast U.S. will get 30 free......

Check out a study  that calls sales tax holidays poor tax policy.

With a number of states wrapping up back-to-school sales tax holidays, the Tax Foundation, which describes itself as a nonpartisan organization that monitors fiscal policy at the federal, state and local levels, called such exemptions “nothing more than political gimmicks that do little to help consumers.”

The Tax Foundation said such ”holidays,” which the group said amount to a 4 to 7 percent price reduction for consumers for only a brief period, simply favor certain industries over others and increase tax code complexity. In some cases, some retailers simply raise prices during a “holiday,” effectively absorbing the benefit, the group said.

“If a state must offer a ‘holiday’ from its tax system, it’s a sign that the state’s tax system is uncompetitive – something that must be addressed with permanent reform,” Tax Foundation staff economist Mark Robyn said in a statement.

“In order to provide lasting relief to consumers, policymakers should cut the sales tax rate year-round, while broadening the sales tax base to include all goods and services would ensure that government would be able to raise necessary revenue in the least economically distortionary way,” said Robyn, one of the report’s authors.

In citing how the states pick winners with the tax holidays, the Tax Foundation cited Virginia’s hurricane-preparedness sales tax holiday, which applied to cell phone chargers but not laptop chargers and duct tape but not masking or electrical tape.

States have resorted to such tax breaks as a way to boost consumer outlays at a time when the recession has led to a clampdown on their spending.

While there are signs that recession is easing — new jobless claims fell – consumers are still wary. Global Hunter Securities expects holiday retail sales from November 2009 through January 2010 will finish in the range of up 1 percent to down 1 percent compared with a 7.6 percent decline the year before.

Also in the basket:

American Eagle quarterly profit plunges

Diageo cuts target as sees recovery only by 2010

Fred’s Q2 profit matches Wall Street

‘Clunkers’ Sequel Rattles Appliance Producers (Wall Street Journal)

Coconut Water Bubbles (Wall Street Journal)

(Reuters photo)

          

• Strawberry Farms Golf Course, Irvine, CA Strawberry Farms Golf Course is located in: Irvine, CA Phone: (949) 551-1811 Website: http://www.strawberryfarmsgolf.com/contact/ About the Course: Strawberry Farms is a delightful course located in Irvine, CA. It’s not terribly difficult for novices to master, but experienced players should still be able to enjoy their round here. They have a......
• Knees knocking in the UK as budget day approaches You may love him or you may hate him, but one thing is for sure, not many UK citizens would like to be in Alistair Darling's shoes on Wednesday when he makes his eagerly awaited budget speech. Chancellor Darling is expected to announce spending cuts of around some £15billion of......
• The Future of Estate Tax Rates and Exemptions The time for change in federal estate tax laws is rapidly approaching. The size of the estate tax exemption may be a hot topic of discussion in Congress. This is an issue of importance to baby boomers who may be dealing with the estates of older relatives or updating an......
• Tax Rebate Checks Coming? The latest news on the economy is bad. Apparently, the housing debacle, years of negative savings rates, and a credit crunch thanks to our insatiable appetite for something bigger and better was too much for the bull market. This economic "perfect storm" has effectively wiped out gains earned since March......
• Jobless rate falls to 9.7 percent in January [/caption] The unemployment rate in the U.S. unexpectedly dropped to 9.7 percent in January, indicating the labor market may be poised to climb out of its deepest slump since World War II. More than half a million Americans found work, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington, helping push......