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	<title>Business &#38; MoneyCategory: Retail &#124; Business &#38; Money &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Business &#38; MoneyCategory: Retail &#124; Business &#38; Money &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>For JC Penney, the Right Direction May Be … Reverse</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/17/for-jc-penney-the-right-direction-may-be-reverse/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/17/for-jc-penney-the-right-direction-may-be-reverse/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Apple Store]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coupons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[discounts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fake prices]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[J.C. Penney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JC Penney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JCP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[logos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mike Ullman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ron Johnson]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=80187</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[JC Penney has its old CEO, Mike Ullman, in charge of the company again. Abundant sales and coupons have returned, as have brands that disappeared for a spell. In many ways, the JC Penney of old is back. Whether this is a good thing for the company remains to be seen. About month ago, within days of Ron Johnson being fired as CEO and Mike Ullman retaking his former position at the helm of JC Penney, Ullman quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying that there were no plans to bring back the old JC Penney. &#8220;I wouldn’t recommend that we go back to the way J.C. Penney was when I left,” he said. “Things change.” Still, JC Penney has essentially done a huge about-face in recent weeks, and it&#8217;s understandable why: The short-lived Johnson era, with its no-coupons stand and new focus on hip boutique brands, alienated customers and damaged sales badly. For the three-month span ending May 4, JC Penney reportedly lost $289 million, with sales decreasing 16.4% compared to a year ago &#8212; which was itself an awful period for the retailer. To bring back customers, JC Penney has been bringing back its traditional, pre-Johnson pricing and discount strategies. This week, jcpenney.com was littered with old-school discounts—for instance, 50% to 60% off patio furniture, and 30% to 40% off clothing with the St. John&#8217;s Bay label, the retailer&#8217;s exclusive brand that disappeared during the Johnson era and was brought back in March. (MORE: Splurge Surge! Luxury Spending on the Rise) Of course, there are those who view such discounts are straight-up frauds, based on artificially inflated list prices. Johnson himself would be in this camp. In January 2012, Johnson, the retail superstar who had helped turn Target and the Apple Store into huge success stories, promised to get rid of such &#8220;fake&#8221; prices and summarily slashed original prices by 40% or more. Shoppers weren&#8217;t crazy about the newly cheap list prices—because their arrival prompted the end of sales and coupons—and so in recent weeks the retailer has<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=80187&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retail</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/retail-big-companies/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>The Hot New Online Retail Strategy: Pushing More In-Store Purchases</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/14/the-hot-new-online-retail-strategy-pushing-more-in-store-purchases/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/14/the-hot-new-online-retail-strategy-pushing-more-in-store-purchases/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 13:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[E-commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apparel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Banana Republic]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cartwheel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clothes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drugstores]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gap]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Impulse Buy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[impulse purchase]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[in-store pickup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[in-store reservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online shopping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rite Aid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Target]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79879</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You&#8217;d think that when retailers enhance their online shopping options, the goal would be increased online sales. Not so with Target, Gap and Rite Aid — which are adding new online tools with the hopes of boosting in-store sales. During the recent winter-holiday shopping season, retailers like Kohl&#8217;s, JCPenney and Sears were actively blurring the lines of online/off-line shopping with a mix of promotions — some meant to entice in-store shoppers to visit the store website, others intended to attract Web shoppers into physical stores. The offers represent the latest example of how we are living in an omnichannel &#8220;bricks and clicks&#8221; retail world, where shoppers are comfortable hunting for deals and making purchases in virtually every manner possible — and where retailers are therefore trying to reach shoppers everywhere they&#8217;re willing to spend. Even so, while retailers aren&#8217;t going to turn away online sales, it&#8217;s clear that they prefer shoppers to be walking among the aisles of tempting merchandise inside physical stores. Why? It&#8217;s assumed that consumers who make the effort to visit real-life stores are more serious about their intent to spend. The online experience is perfectly suited for quick, easy browsing. But all too often, the browsing doesn&#8217;t translate into actual purchases — hence the better-than-average chance of so-called shopping-cart abandonment. There are plenty of looky-loos in real-world stores as well, but the need for immediate gratification, and the way that holding an item, seeing it in person, or trying it on can push a shopper over the edge with desire, means that the in-store shopper is generally quicker to pull the trigger on purchases than his online counterpart. (MORE: Is Retail Therapy for Real? 5 Ways Shopping Is Actually Good for You) There&#8217;s also the impulse-purchase factor: consumers are more likely to make unplanned purchases in actual stores. According to a survey conducted last year by Dimensional Research and Wanderful Media, 65% of consumers who use their mobile devices to shop had made an impulse purchase online during the previous month, compared with 74% who had made<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79879&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Future of Retail</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/future-of-retail/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Forget &#8216;Buy American&#8217;? U.S. Retailers Push an &#8216;Imports Work&#8217; Campaign</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/13/forget-buy-american-u-s-retailers-push-an-imports-work-campaign/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/13/forget-buy-american-u-s-retailers-push-an-imports-work-campaign/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 13:00:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Emerging Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Manufacturing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apparel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Buy American]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[china]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[imports]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Made In America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Made in China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Made in the USA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National Retail Federation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[socks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TAP America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tariffs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trade Partnership Worldwide]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79685</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Wanna support American workers? Buy imports. So says a new report, which claims that a cheap, robust imports marketplace not only helps American workers and families, but local farmers, manufacturers, and small businesses as well. You may not have noticed, but last week was promoted as something called &#8220;Imports Work Week.&#8221; The celebrate the importance of imports in the U.S., a group of business associations led by the National Retail Federation (NRF) has released a study showing the many ways that imports benefit American consumers and businesses alike. Cheaper prices are the most obvious benefit. &#8220;In the past decade, the price of television sets sold in the United States has dropped 87 percent. Computers have gone down 75 percent, toys 43 percent and dishes and flatware by a third,&#8221; the NRF&#8217;s Jon Gold explains in a blog post. &#8220;Why? The answer is easy – imports.&#8221; (MORE: Bangladesh Factory Collapse: Is There Blood on Your Shirt?) But the benefits don&#8217;t stop there, according to the study, which runs down how imports also help farmers, mom-and-pop businesses, working-class Americans, and even U.S. manufacturers. Here are a few of the groups that should love what imports do for them, per the report: • Imports improve American families’ standard of living. They help families make ends meet by ensuring a wide selection of budget-friendly goods, like electronics we use to communicate and many clothes and shoes we wear, and improve the year-round supply of such staples as fresh fruits and vegetables. • Imports support more than 16 million American jobs. A large number of these import-related jobs are union jobs, held by minorities and women, and are located across the United States. • More than half the firms involved in direct importing are small businesses, employing fewer than 50 workers. • American manufacturers and farmers rely on imports including raw materials and intermediate goods to lower their production costs and stay competitive in domestic and international markets. Factories and farms purchase more than 60 percent of U.S. imports. (MORE: Patriotic Consumer&#8217;s Dilemma: Hard to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79685&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Economy &amp; Policy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/108000176-e1368115358271.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Detail of Made in China label on shirt</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Video: Sorry eBay &#8212; Turns Out Some Small Businesses Support the Marketplace Fairness Act</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/09/video-sorry-ebay-turns-out-some-small-businesses-support-the-marketplace-fairness-act/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/09/video-sorry-ebay-turns-out-some-small-businesses-support-the-marketplace-fairness-act/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 20:30:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[E-commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tax Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War for the Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eBay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Internet sales tax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[loophole]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Main Street]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketplace Fairness Act]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online sales tax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online shopping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales tax]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79702</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Online giant eBay is leading the charge against legislation that would require sales tax to be collected on Internet sales. The mandate would be an unfair burden on small businesses, eBay says. And yet who are among the bill&#8217;s strongest supporters? Yep, small businesses. For years, online sellers have benefitted from what brick-and-mortar retailers call the &#8220;internet sales tax loophole.&#8221; For the most part, e-retailers are only required to charge customers sales tax if the vendor has a physical presence in the state where the purchase is being made. Consumers are supposed to pay the appropriate sales tax when they file their annual federal and state income taxes, but almost no one does. The situation gives e-commerce businesses an obvious pricing advantage over brick-and-mortar stores and online retailers with a physical presence in the state, which must always tack on sales tax. The Marketplace Fairness Act, which passed in the U.S. Senate and is now being considered in the House, would close this loophole. The legislation would allow states to require out-of-state vendors to collect sales taxes just like the physical stores at the customer&#8217;s location. (MORE: 5 Ways to Save Money Shopping Online, Regardless of New Internet Sales Tax Legislation) Amazon, the world&#8217;s largest e-retailer, has voiced support for online sales tax collection initiatives in recent years. The only big company that&#8217;s actively fighting the legislation today is eBay. Company CEO John Donahoe was quoted on NPR this week arguing that the law would hurt small businesses: If it&#8217;s allowed to play out things will still sell in eBay marketplace, but it will be larger and larger sellers that are doing the selling and the small guy will, over time, slowly be squeezed out. Currently, the Marketplace Fairness Act would exempt retailers with less than $1 million in annual revenues. Instead, eBay wants the exemption pushed to the $10 million revenue mark, which Donahoe pointed to as one of the criteria used in Obamacare to define a small business. &#8220;All we&#8217;re saying is an exemption at $10 million &#8211;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79702&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>E-commerce</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/e-commerce-companies-industries/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Don&#8217;t Disappoint Mom: How to Ensure a Better-Than-Average Mother&#8217;s Day Gift</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/09/dont-disappoint-mom-how-to-ensure-a-better-than-average-mothers-day-gift/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/09/dont-disappoint-mom-how-to-ensure-a-better-than-average-mothers-day-gift/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 09:45:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Odd Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coupons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[good]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mother's Day]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National Restaurant Association]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[National Retail Federation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Offers.com]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PriceGrabber]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[restaurants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[takeout]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79548</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Finding the perfect Mother&#8217;s Day gift can be a difficult, if not impossible, task. At least it&#8217;s fairly simple to figure out how treat your mother better than the average son or daughter this Sunday. Do you have an above-average mom? Then she deserves an above-average Mother&#8217;s Day. There is no shortage of consumer survey data out there concerning projected Mother&#8217;s Day spending this year. After an examination the numbers, we present five strategies to employ so that you can at least make the case you&#8217;ve gone over and above the average, mathematically speaking, to honor your mother. Spend More Than $168.94 According to the National Retail Federation, consumers will spend an average of $168.94 on moms this Mother&#8217;s Day, an all-time high, up 11% from last year&#8217;s average of $152.52. These figures don&#8217;t necessarily represent spending on a single gift; instead, the average is the total amount the individual consumer spends on Mother&#8217;s Day—including restaurant meals, and gifts for one&#8217;s mother, as well as wives, mother-in-laws, and such. Among the hottest gifts this year is a category not usually associated with Mother&#8217;s Day: electronics. The NRF anticipates American consumers will drop a record-high $2.3 billion on electronics, up from $1.6 billion in 2012. Spend More Than $40 If the NRF&#8217;s figure seems a bit too steep, consider the survey data from Offers.com. In its poll, 52% of respondents said that they would be spending $40 or under on a Mother&#8217;s Day gift. Go over that mark and you&#8217;re good. (MORE: The Passive-Aggressive, Total Cheap-o Gift Guide for Mother&#8217;s Day) Buy Something That&#8217;s (Yikes) Not on Sale In a PriceGrabber poll, 55% of online shoppers said that free shipping would help entice them to buy a produce for service for Mother&#8217;s day, while 44% indicated a price cut would do the trick. Just 23% of shoppers said that retailer tactics would not influence their Mother&#8217;s Day buying decisions in any way—presumably because they&#8217;ve already made up their minds about the perfect gift for mom, and a 10% off promotional code<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79548&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/sb10068078a-001.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Stack of presents</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Bait and Switch: Beware Low-Price Guarantees</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/04/the-bait-and-switch-behind-low-price-guarantees/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/04/the-bait-and-switch-behind-low-price-guarantees/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 May 2013 14:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[E-commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Best Buy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fine print]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online shopping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[price matching]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[price matching guarantee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[price-matching policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[showrooming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Target]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toys R Us]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Walmart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78968</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Retailers love that price-matching guarantees attract shoppers. At the same time, they hate it when customers actually try to take advantage of these policies. Walmart has had a price-matching guarantee for years, and Target and Best Buy have recently introduced their own policies on a full-time basis — which even include matching prices with online competitors like Amazon. In some ways, it seems inevitable that stores would get on board with price matching. The rise of &#8220;showrooming&#8221; and increased transparency in the marketplace all but forces retailers to either match prices of competing stores and websites or risk losing sales to them. And yet, even as pricing is becoming more transparent, the price-matching policies employed by some retailers remain something of a mystery to shoppers. Bloomberg News recently rounded up many of the gripes consumers have regarding the price-matching policies of national retailers such as Walmart and Toys &#8220;R&#8221; Us. Mostly, the complaints center on how confusing and frustrating the policies can be, especially because the decisions inside stores to allow or shoot down price-match requests can seem arbitrary. “Shoppers can get confused,” Robin Sherk, a Kantar Retail analyst, told Bloomberg concerning Walmart locations. “They go to different stores and there are different policies — even in the same store, if you go to different cashiers.” (MORE: Does Kmart&#8217;s Hilarious New Ad Acknowledge That Kmart Stores Are Hopeless?) Part of the reason shoppers will find varying policies is that it&#8217;s “up to the local managers what matching they will do,” one pharmacist who has worked at several Walmarts explained. Another reason could be that the policies themselves are complicated enough to not only confound shoppers, but store employees as well. The fine print of Target&#8217;s &#8220;low-price promise&#8221; is nearly 1,000 words long and includes more than a dozen exclusions like &#8220;prices advertised only as a percent off or dollar off.&#8221; The Toys &#8220;R&#8221; Us Price Match Guarantee, which the National Advertising Division recently recommended be changed or discontinued because it was misleading, states that stores will match prices listed at toysrus.com<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78968&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retail</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/retail-big-companies/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Bangladesh Factory Collapse: Is There Blood on Your Shirt?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/02/bangladesh-factory-collapse-is-there-blood-on-your-shirt/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/02/bangladesh-factory-collapse-is-there-blood-on-your-shirt/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 15:17:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Victor Luckerson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79054</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The cheap clothes that Americans buy from retailers every day actually come at a very high price. That cost came into stark relief last week when Rana Plaza, a building housing several garment factories, collapsed in Savar, Bangladesh, killing at least 386 workers and injuring many more. With bodies still being pulled from the wreckage, the accident is already “one of the worst industrial accidents in world history,” according to Scott Nova, the executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium. The workers who died were producing clothing for American and European consumers and earning only $38 a month, according to the Associated Press. Now the clothing brands and retailers that profited from the cheap labor at Rana Plaza are struggling to wash the blood from their hands, while other brands rethink their role in Bangladesh as a whole. Earlier this week, officials from Walmart, Gap, and about two dozen other retailers and apparel companies met in Germany to begin developing a plan to increase safety across Bangladesh&#8217;s garment factories, according to The New York Times. Today Disney, whose goods have been tied to accidents in Bangladesh in the past, announced that it will halt all production of branded merchandise in the country by March 31, 2014, according to the Times. As the death toll mounts in Bangladesh factory accidents, western companies are feeling more pressure to change their practices. Here’s a list, drawn from both TIME reporting and other confirmed media reports, of companies that have past or present ties to devastating accidents at Bangladesh facilities: (MORE: Fast, Cheap, Dead: Shopping and the Bangladesh Factory Collapse) Walmart The world’s largest retail giant was listed as a buyer on the website of Ether Tex, one of the garment factories destroyed in the accident. Walmart says they had no authorized production in the facility and will take “appropriate action” if they discover unauthorized production was happening in the factory. In a Reuters report, Ether Tex’s chairman initially said it had been doing sub-contracting work to supply Walmart at the time of the accident,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79054&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retail</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/retail-big-companies/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/40c4f40351434bf8e04405d4231aaecd?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">vluck2012</media:title>
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		<title>JC Penney Reintroduces Fake Prices (and Lots of Coupons Too, Of Course)</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/02/jc-penney-reintroduces-fake-prices-and-lots-of-coupons-too-of-course/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/02/jc-penney-reintroduces-fake-prices-and-lots-of-coupons-too-of-course/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 09:45:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Odd Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology of Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[anchoring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coupons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[discounts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[J.C. Penney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JC Penney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JCP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jcpenney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online coupons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[price anchoring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[promo codes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ron Johnson]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=79069</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In early 2012, JC Penney promised the end of &#8220;fake prices&#8221;—ones that were inflated just so that shoppers could be tricked into thinking the inevitable discounts represented amazing deals. Well, it&#8217;s already time to welcome back discounts and inflated prices alike. Among other reasons, JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson lost his job recently because customers seemed to hate the no-coupons, no-discounting &#8220;fair and square&#8221; pricing that was a core part of the retailer&#8217;s dramatic 2012 makeover. In a new ad, JC Penney is apologizing for the changes made under Johnson. &#8220;It&#8217;s no secret. Recently, JC Penney changed,&#8221; the ad&#8217;s voice-over states. &#8220;Some changes you liked and some you didn’t, but what matters from mistakes is what we learn. We learned a very simple thing, to listen to you.&#8221; &#8220;Come back to JCPenney,&#8221; the ad implores customers &#8212; especially the ones who were turned off by Johnson&#8217;s initiatives, one assumes. Nothing is specifically mentioned regarding pricing, coupons, or sales. And yet the ad, and JC Penney&#8217;s overall effort to woo back customers, has a lot to do with pricing, coupons, and sales. Soon after Johnson stepped down as JC Penney CEO, analysts began anticipating the return of &#8220;sales galore&#8221; as a magnet to win over alienated shoppers. Indeed, at first glance, it appears as if the sales are back in a big way. A recent JC Penney brochure lists dozens and dozens of items on sale for Mother&#8217;s Day, and an online-only coupon (promo code: DEAL4ME) offered shoppers 15% off on purchases of $100 or less, and 20% off orders over $100 made by May 2. (MORE: The 5 Big Mistakes That Led to Ron Johnson&#8217;s Ouster at JC Penney) But JC Penney&#8217;s changes of late aren&#8217;t limited to an uptick in sales and coupons. As Reuters reported in late March, even before Johnson was fired, the retailer had quietly started raising its &#8220;everyday&#8221; prices—mainly so that stores could regularly put them on sale and hope that more shoppers bite. &#8220;Under the strategy, an Arizona crewneck T-shirt that had an &#8216;everyday&#8217;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=79069&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/jc-penney-new-branding1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/jc-penney-new-branding1.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">JC-Penney-New-Branding</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>The Splurge Surge: Luxury Spending on the Rise</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/05/01/the-splurge-surge-luxury-spending-on-the-rise/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/05/01/the-splurge-surge-luxury-spending-on-the-rise/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 09:00:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Autos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economic Indicators]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Executive Pay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Odd Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[affluence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[American Express]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[baby products]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bentley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Harley-Davidson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[luxury]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[luxury car]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[luxury spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[motorcycle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rich]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[splurge]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wealth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78871</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Wealthy Americans don&#8217;t really think that good times are here again for the economy. But they&#8217;re going on shopping sprees anyway, with increasing sales seen for luxury hotel stays, high-end automobiles, and more. The 2013 Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America, conducted by American Express Publishing and the Harrison Group, asked 1,416 Americans in the 10% income bracket about their spending habits and lifestyle decisions, as well as their thoughts on the state of the economy. Of those surveyed, the vast majority (76%) believe that the recession hasn&#8217;t actually ended. “Despite the clear consensus from economists that the recession is over, affluent and wealthy consumers do not believe that a real national recovery — neither economic nor emotional — has occurred,” Jim Taylor, vice-chairman of the Harrison Group, observed in a press release. Regardless, the well-off say they expect to pick up spending this year in key discretionary (read: splurge-y) categories such as travel, electronics, jewelry, and automobiles. Compared to the first quarter of 2012, there has been a notable rise in wealthy Americans expected to spend more on luxury hotels and resorts (up 17%), home entertainment and electronics (up 17%), watches (up 10%) , and automobiles (up 18%). (MORE: A Nation of Renters: Should We Be Worried That Fewer Americans Own Homes?) The two survey results may seem at odds: If this group is of the belief that the economy remains shaky, why the eagerness to splurge? Are they simply trying to do their share to spread some money around and help economic recovery? The recently released Pew Research Center report may offer some explanation. The study showed that from 2009 to 2011, the mean net worth of households in the top 7% rose by 28%, while everyone else collectively saw their wealth drop by 4% over this same time span. So it makes perfect sense for the wealthiest households to be unimpressed with the economic recovery as a whole, and yet to personally be game to increase discretionary spending. While the poor (and the middle-class) have gotten<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78871&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Economy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/economy-policy/economy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/2776941.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/2776941.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/2776941.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">People a window display at the Bergdorf Goodman in New York City.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Here Come Gun-Focused Retail Super Centers</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/30/here-come-gun-focused-retail-super-centers/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/30/here-come-gun-focused-retail-super-centers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:00:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Odd Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Adam Lanza]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Best Buy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[big box retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cabela's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[firearms]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gander Mountain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gun control]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gun sales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[guns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Michigan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Minnesota]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Newtown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ohio]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sandy Hook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[super center]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78778</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Picture a sprawling 30,000-square-foot Best Buy store—only instead of electronic gadgets and games, every aisle inside the big-box center is devoted to firearms, bullets, and &#8220;tactical gear.&#8221; This is the hot retail concept spreading throughout the Midwest. Minnesota-based outdoors retailer Gander Mountain is expanding a new concept it first introduced in Wisconsin in 2011: the big-box store devoted almost exclusively to guns and ammo. Three such stores are set to open this month, in Ohio, Michigan, and Minnesota. Don&#8217;t come looking for camping gear, mountain bikes, rugged footwear, or other outdoor store standards at these locations. Gander Mountain describes the firearms super center model as &#8220;a new concept which will provide a specialty retail outlet focused specifically on fulfilling the needs of firearms enthusiasts, featuring thousands of new and used firearms of all kinds, and the industry&#8217;s best selection of firearms accessories, specialty apparel, ammunition and security.&#8221; For Gander Mountain, the model helps it compete better with ultra-big-box retailers like Cabela&#8217;s, which is known to operate stores with upwards of 88,000 square feet of space mostly devoted to hunting supplies. The increase in gun sales is the main reason that gun super centers have great growth potential. “Taking a whole store and devoting it to guns is fairly radical but, from a business standpoint, it makes sense,” retail analyst Chris Boring, principal at Boulevard Strategies, told the Columbus Dispatch. “Cabela’s is well known for its hunting and fishing equipment. So it’s a response to that — and it’s also a response to the overwhelming demand for more guns everywhere. I think it’s wise for them to take advantage of unique market conditions.” (MORE: Oof! Airline Fees Rise Yet Again: At Least $200 to Change a Flight) The first Gander Mountain Firearms Super Center in Ohio opened in February in Reynoldsburg, a suburb just east of Columbus. In a phone interview, Boring said that Gander Mountain&#8217;s gun-focused retail centers will attract some sales away from gun shows and smaller gun stores, but the real competition is Cabela&#8217;s, with its huge &#8220;destination&#8221;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78778&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retail</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/retail-big-companies/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Staying Aloft as the Cupcake Bubble Deflates</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/27/staying-aloft-as-the-cupcake-bubble-deflates/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/27/staying-aloft-as-the-cupcake-bubble-deflates/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sarah Max</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Entrepreneurship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Small Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Start-Ups]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work/Life Balance]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78424</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Before there seemed to be a Magnolia Bakery-inspired cupcake shop on every corner – or cupcake-themed reality shows on cable – Susan Sarich noticed that there weren&#8217;t many places to buy made-from-scratch baked goods. “Most people were getting their cakes and cookies from grocery stores,” says Sarich, who was previously director of catering for the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. “They were looking at the labels and wondering why there were 65 ingredients when there should only be five.” After spending more than a year developing a business plan and researching real estate in the Los Angeles area, Sarich and her partner, Houston Striggow, opened their first SusieCakes in Brentwood in 2006. The old-fashioned bakery was inspired by Sarich’s grandmothers, both avid bakers whose recipes for such goodies as Whoopie Pies and Vanilla Butter Cream frosting she inherited on 4&#215;6 index cards. (MORE: A Nation of Renters: Should We Be Worried That Fewer Americans Own Homes?) Today SusieCakes has eight locations in California and is working with a financial partner to expand into three to five more locations in the next 18 months. Sarich, who doesn&#8217;t franchise, says she plans to gradually build the brand nationally. “I see it becoming the neighborhood bakery in a lot of places,” she says. It might seem like a sugar-coated view, given that many experts are warning that Americans have had their fill of cupcakes, both from local shops and national chains. In June 2011 Crumbs Bake Shop went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker CRMB. After briefly trading for more than $13 a share, the stock crumbled into the low single digits. A couple of weeks ago the stock took another big dive after the company said sales this year would be 22% lower than projected, and was recently trading around $1.40 a share – less than the price of one of its mini cupcakes. The Wall Street Journal met the news with this headline: &#8220;Forget Gold, the Gourmet-Cupcake Market Is Crashing.&#8221; SusieCakes does sell its share of cupcakes, but Sarich doesn&#8217;t worry about if and when the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78424&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Entrepreneurship</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/small-business/entrepreneurship-small-business/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/gedc0021.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/gedc0021.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/gedc0021.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">GE DIGITAL CAMERA</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/3db8cd804a921bfa6f8a0ab92abe8cb6?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">sarahmaxtime</media:title>
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		<title>Efficiency Backlash: Businesses Find Too Much Downsizing Can Hurt the Bottom Line</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/23/overdoing-efficiency-when-businesses-discover-they-cant-keep-downsizing-the-workforce/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/23/overdoing-efficiency-when-businesses-discover-they-cant-keep-downsizing-the-workforce/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:45:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Careers & Workplace]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Job Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Management & Leadership]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work/Life Balance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Costco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Darden]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[darden restaurants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dining Out]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[efficiency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fast food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JC Penney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[McDonalds]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MIT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[red lobster]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[restaurants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trader Joe's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wages]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[waiters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Walmart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78213</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One national restaurant chain realizes that overburdening its employees hurts sales, as well as the company brand. Will more businesses follow its lead? In the business world, efficiency is king. The corporate quest to cut salaries and get more out of employees, thereby maximizing profits, is never-ending. At some point, however, increasing the workload on employees backfires. The burden becomes too much for workers to bear, and when employees are overwhelmed and can&#8217;t keep up with their duties, it&#8217;s just plain bad for business. Last week, Red Lobster basically admitted that it had crossed the line with the introduction of a policy aimed at increasing efficiency and lowering restaurant costs. In July 2012, the restaurant chain, owned by Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, eliminated the busboy position, demoted many waiters to lower-paid status as &#8220;service assistants&#8221; and forced the remaining full-fledged servers to increase the number of tables they handled from three to four. At the time, Red Lobster said the changes were being made after testing showed that diners and restaurant employees alike approved of the new policies. An Orlando Sentinel story published at the time of the switch offered some other perspectives: &#8216;We&#8217;re going to be completely worn out,&#8217; said Bob Meehan, a longtime server at Red Lobster in Lake Worth. &#8216;It&#8217;s definitely going to hurt service.&#8217; Chris Muller, dean of Boston University&#8217;s hospitality school, said worker morale will likely suffer. &#8216;If you don&#8217;t like the people you&#8217;re working with and for &#8230; it&#8217;s going to show,&#8217; he said. (MORE: Why Restaurants Have Been Holding Back on Hiking Menu Prices) Lo and behold, it appears as if Red Lobster is now acknowledging that these critics may have been on to something. Less than a year after the four-table policy was launched, the company announced it is reversing the decision, and waitstaff will go back to serving three tables at a time. A Red Lobster spokesperson told the Orlando Sentinel that while some customers liked the four-table policy, once it was introduced around the country, &#8220;far more folks told us that<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78213&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retail</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/retail-big-companies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/152362094-copy.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/152362094-copy.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Pedestrians walk by a Red Lobster restaurant in Times Square in New York City on Sept. 19, 2012.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Social Media Manipulation? When &#8220;Indie&#8221; Bloggers and Businesses Get Cozy</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/22/social-media-manipulation-when-indie-bloggers-and-businesses-get-cozy/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/22/social-media-manipulation-when-indie-bloggers-and-businesses-get-cozy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bloggers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blogging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blogs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chipotle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[endorsements]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Inner Circle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Neiman Marcus collection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Target]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Target Inner Circle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[twitter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78055</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Brands have sought to partner with influential bloggers for nearly as long as there have been blogs, with ads, sponsored posts, and more. Lately, however, a new relationship between brands and popular social media practioners is emerging: It&#8217;s not a traditional endorsement deal, and yet an &#8220;independent&#8221; endorsement for the brand is all but guaranteed. So how exactly does that work? Well, for the companies involved, there is a simple two-step approach to establishing such relationships: 1) Locate people who love your brand and hold influence in the social media world; and 2) give these people even more reason to love your brand, so that they&#8217;ll use their influence to somehow help promote that brand. Chipotle is following such a strategy by giving free burritos for life to pro athletes. Free burrito cards aren&#8217;t being handed out willy-nilly to every well-known athlete, of course. Instead, the criterion is pretty obvious: The freebies are given to athletes who have already stated publicly (via Twitter, most likely) that they love Chipotle. [CLARIFICATION: A firm representing Chipotle reached out and clarified that these cards don't guarantee free burritos for life. Instead, cardholders get one free burrito per day for one year, with the opportunity to renew when the 12-month period is over.] The fast-casual chain is banking on the strong likelihood that if these athletes are munching on its burritos for free regularly, they&#8217;ll plug the brand occasionally. The athletes aren&#8217;t official spokespeople and aren&#8217;t featured in company ads. But in essence, they are endorsing Chipotle, and they&#8217;re being &#8220;paid&#8221; for their endorsement in the form of free burritos. (MORE: Stealth Celebrity Endorsement: No Money Changing Hands, Just Free Burritos) Popular bloggers, on the other hand, often agree to relationships with brands that might include official sponsorships, invitations to focus groups on products in the works, or special perks such as freebies or sneak peeks at merchandise before it&#8217;s in stores. In 2009, the FTC released guidelines that require full disclosure of &#8220;material connections&#8221;—sponsorships, free products and perks, and any money changing hands<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78055&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/24006341.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/24006341.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Target Corp. Reported A 4 percent increase in second-quarter profits</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Does Kmart&#8217;s Hilarious New Ad Acknowledge That Kmart Stores Are Hopeless?</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/19/does-kmarts-hilarious-new-ad-acknowledge-that-kmart-stores-are-hopeless/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/19/does-kmarts-hilarious-new-ad-acknowledge-that-kmart-stores-are-hopeless/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:45:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Josh Sanburn</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Advertising]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[E-commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[free shipping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kmart]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[layaway]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[same-day shipping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sears]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shipping]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Target]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Walmart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78046</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In just over a week, Kmart&#8217;s 30-second &#8220;Ship My Pants&#8221; spot &#8212; go ahead, say it quickly &#8212; has received close to 13 million views online. The viral hit should give the struggling retailer some much-needed buzz. It might also call attention to why some shoppers stopped going to Kmart. Let&#8217;s be honest: Kmart isn’t cool. In the pantheon of big-box general merchandise retailers, Walmart is the 600-pound gorilla, inexorable in its pursuit of efficiency and cheap prices. Target is sort of the hip one. And Kmart, well, it&#8217;s just kind of there, right? If you associate the Kmart brand with anything these days, it&#8217;s a kind of Martha Stewart-flavored aspirational respectability, or perhaps layaway, or bankruptcy court. That’s why the retailer’s irreverent “Ship My Pants” ad, released last week, is so surprising. Not because of the faux-scatological content per se &#8212; though that did raise a few eyebrows &#8211; but because this somewhat edgy and definitely funny ad came from such a tired snooze of a retail brand. (MORE: How Far Can the Mighty Apple Fall?) The commercial highlights the store’s Ship to Home service, which Kmart launched a year ago, offering customers free delivery on any item they can’t find in stores. Andrew Stein, Kmart&#8217;s vice president and chief marketing officer, says the company wasn&#8217;t trying to make a viral ad. The goal was to just create a funny, compelling commercial that promoted the service. About a month ago, the “Ship My Pants” ad ran in a town hall meeting of Kmart employees. Stein says everyone loved it. “The outpouring of affection, the goodwill and the laughter that we got internally told us we really had something here,” he says. The video had been uploaded to Stein’s personal YouTube page, and the only way to view it was through the specific url, which was getting passed around from employee to employee following the town hall. The next morning, Stein discovered the video had been viewed 2,500 times on his page. Since then, it’s had about 13 million views on YouTube and has<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78046&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Retail</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/retail-big-companies/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/kmart.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/kmart.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Kmart</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/d88247e41871fc555c4a2747167091d2?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">jsanburn</media:title>
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		<title>2013 Boston Marathon Paraphernalia Already Up for Sale on eBay</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/18/2013-boston-marathon-paraphernalia-already-up-for-sale-on-ebay/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/18/2013-boston-marathon-paraphernalia-already-up-for-sale-on-ebay/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:43:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Giving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Scams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boston]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boston Marathon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[charity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eBay]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[online auctions]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[terrorism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=78039</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You just knew this would happen. In the days after Monday&#8217;s tragedy at the Boston Marathon, all sorts of marathon-related medals, jackets, keychains, bottle openers, and other gear has shown up for sale on eBay. The Boston Globe reported that as of Wednesday afternoon, there were five active auctions for 2013 Boston Marathon medals at eBay, with bids ranging from $114 to $306. More medals have since surfaced on the site. At least one has already sold for $400, and several others have been bid up over $350. Dan Ashworth, the president of the company that manufactures the medals, told the Globe that he&#8217;s &#8220;disgusted&#8221; with the auctions, especially because the medals being sold may have been stolen in the chaotic aftermath of Monday&#8217;s tragic bombings. “It’s just disgusting,” he said. “Everyone was evacuated so the medals were probably just left there for anyone to take.” It&#8217;s hard to tell if items being sold online are, in fact, stolen property. It&#8217;s also difficult to verify the claims of some—but not all—sellers, who state in their listings that at least a portion of the proceeds will go to worthwhile charities, such as One Fund Boston. (MORE: Boston Marathon Bombings: How to Help &#8212; and Avoid Scams) What does seem apparent is that after the attack, interest in Boston Marathon-related merchandise has soared. A recent search on eBay for &#8220;New York Marathon&#8221; and &#8220;New York City Marathon&#8221; returned 57 and 77 results, respectively. A search for &#8220;Boston Marathon,&#8221; on the other hand, turned up nearly 1,500 items. Keychains, jackets, T-shirts, medals, bracelets, collector pins, posters, and more from the marathon this year and in previous years have all been posted this week for auction or at &#8220;Buy It Now&#8221; prices. Many of the items make no mention of charities in their listings. One of the more curious items popping up in a few eBay auctions is a Samuel Adams 26.2 Boston Brew bottle opener. Samuel Adams has offered the special brew, created in honor of the marathon, for several weeks now exclusively<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=78039&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Giving</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/economics-policy/giving/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Tale of Two Supermarkets: Why Fresh &amp; Easy Flopped and Fairway Flies High</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/18/tale-of-two-supermarkets-why-fresh-easy-flopped-and-fairway-flies-high/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/18/tale-of-two-supermarkets-why-fresh-easy-flopped-and-fairway-flies-high/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:45:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food and Beverage Industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Investing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aldi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arizona]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[california]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fairway]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fairway Market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fresh & Easy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[groceries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grocery store]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[las vegas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nevada]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[supermarket]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tesco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trader Joe's]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Whole Foods]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77975</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This week, the death of one high-profile grocery chain, and the ascendancy of another, tells us a lot about what Americans want in a supermarket—and what we&#8217;re just not buying. On Wednesday, Fairway, the beloved New York-centric supermarket chain, went public, and shares of the company quickly shot up 39%. Born as a produce stand on Manhattan&#8217;s Upper West Side, Fairway now has a dozen locations, and it plans on opening as many as 300 stores around the country. Also on Wednesday, news spread that Fresh &#38; Easy, the supermarket brand launched in the U.S. five years ago by Tesco, Britain&#8217;s biggest grocery company, was officially a failure. Tesco announced it would cut its losses on Fresh &#38; Easy, taking a write-off of roughly $1.8 billion. The 200 existing Fresh &#38; Easy stores, all in the American West, are up for sale. Most would agree with Philip Lempert, editor of Supermarket Guru, who said in a phone interview, &#8220;Tesco is one of the smartest retailers on the planet. They&#8217;re not a dumb company at all.&#8221; And yet, as Burt Flickinger III of the retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group put it in a Los Angeles Times article, &#8220;Tesco&#8217;s failure will rank as one of the biggest among food retailers in modern supermarket history.&#8221; (MORE: The 5 Big Mistakes That Led to Ron Johnson&#8217;s Ouster at JC Penney) What happened? And what has Fairway done differently that has it headed in exactly the opposite direction of Fresh &#38; Easy? While both are in the same business, Lempert said, &#8220;They really represent the two extremes of what&#8217;s going on in grocery retail.&#8221; Here are a few of areas where the differences are readily apparent. Understanding Customers &#38; Locations The first Fresh &#38; Easy opened in the U.S. in 2007. Tesco originally planned on having 200 stores by the end of 2009, and upwards of 400 locations by early 2013. Instead, by the fall of 2010, when the total stood at 168 U.S. locations, the company announced it was &#8220;mothballing&#8221; 13 stores, including<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77975&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Food and Beverage Industry</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/food-and-beverage-industry/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/166829339.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/166829339.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/166829339.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Fairway Group Jumps in Trading After Pricing IPO Above Range</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f8de938518e7b986d552694ed99aa54d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Attention JC Penney Shoppers, Look Out for the Return of &#8216;Sales Galore&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/16/attention-jc-penney-shoppers-look-out-for-the-return-of-sales-galore/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/16/attention-jc-penney-shoppers-look-out-for-the-return-of-sales-galore/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:45:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Brad Tuttle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Apple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Future of Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Odd Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology of Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coupons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[deals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[discounting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[J.C. Penney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JC Penney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[JCP]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jcpenney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[markdowns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mike Ullman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ron Johnson]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sales]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77832</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After months of abysmal sales tallies, the Ron Johnson era is over at JC Penney. Now that Johnson&#8217;s &#8220;fair and square&#8221; no-coupons pricing policies have proved to be a failure, the department store will have to try something else to win back customers and stop the bleeding. But what? Mike Ullman, who was replaced as CEO when Johnson took over at JC Penney in 2011, and who began serving again as top executive when Johnson was pushed out, told the Wall Street Journal that he wasn&#8217;t planning on reverting to the old business model. &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t recommend that we go back to the way J.C. Penney was when I left,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Things change.&#8221; And yet, in some ways the department store is clearly trying to resemble the JC Penney of old. Management has already announced that newspaper ads will feature coupons once again. Johnson seemed to find coupon usage distasteful and silly, likening it to a drug that consumers needed to be weaned off. A little over a year after JC Penney went &#8220;drug-free,&#8221; so to speak, coupons are back. (MORE: The 5 Big Mistakes That Led to Ron Johnson&#8217;s Ouster at JC Penney) Some retail experts think that the return of coupons is just the tip of the iceberg. John Sculley, former CEO of Apple, said on Bloomberg TV that it was absolutely essential for JC Penney to &#8220;get the cash flow of those old customers back into the store. And how did they do it before?&#8221; Sculley asked, before answering his own question. &#8220;They did it with sales.&#8221; A new study indicates that JC Penney&#8217;s shoppers are older, poorer, and more price-sensitive than the average customer at, say, Target or Macy&#8217;s. It&#8217;s assumed that an announcement of major markdowns is the quickest (and perhaps only) strategy to bring these customers back to JC Penney. Martin Sneider, a retail professor at Washington University, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he anticipates a flood of deals and discounts, at least in the short run while JC Penney is desperate<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77832&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Smart Spending</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/saving-spending/smart-spending/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/jc-penney-new-branding1.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">JC-Penney-New-Branding</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">bradtuttle</media:title>
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		<title>Is Retail Therapy for Real? 5 Ways Shopping Is Actually Good for You</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/16/is-retail-therapy-for-real-5-ways-shopping-is-actually-good-for-you/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/16/is-retail-therapy-for-real-5-ways-shopping-is-actually-good-for-you/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Apr 2013 09:45:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kit Yarrow</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Odd Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Personal Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Psychology of Money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving & Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Smart Spending]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alcohol]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[psyhology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[retail therapy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[therapy]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77697</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You know the phrase, “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping”? There just may be some wisdom in that. A survey conducted by TNS Global on behalf of Ebates.com found that more than half of Americans (52%, including 64% of women and 40% of men) admit to engaging in “retail therapy”—the act of shopping and spending to improve one&#8217;s mood. This echoes a previous study, published in the Journal of Psychology and Marketing, that revealed 62% of shoppers had purchased something to cheer themselves up, and another 28% had purchased as a form of celebration. But beyond the quick rush provided by making a purchase, is &#8220;retail therapy&#8221; actually therapeutic? Renowned San Francisco therapist Peggy Wynne, who is known to personally appreciate the mood-boosting quality of a great pair of shoes, says that it can be. “We all enjoy a little retail therapy now and then,&#8221; she told me. &#8220;In small, manageable doses it can soothe the soul. Shopping isn’t a problem when it’s done in moderation, just like moderate use of alcohol.” Of course, it&#8217;s possible to overdo consumption, in terms of drinking or shopping, or any number of other things for that matter. In fact, the warning signs that habitual shopping has become a problem have a lot of overlap with the classic tell-tale indications that you&#8217;re abusing alcohol. Wynne says that lying or hiding purchases from loved ones, feeling guilt or shame about shopping, missing work or other obligations to go shopping, and feeling that shopping is no longer fun but a necessity are all signs that your shopping habit has gotten out of hand. (MORE: Why We&#8217;re So Irrational When It Comes to Tax Refunds) I wouldn&#8217;t exactly use the word “therapy” to describe the effects of shopping. And everyone can agree that &#8220;stuff&#8221; won&#8217;t make you happy in the long run. Still, based on the research and countless interviews with consumers I&#8217;ve conducted over the years, I can point to five genuinely therapeutic benefits of shopping—provided, again, that it&#8217;s done in moderation. Easing<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77697&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Psychology of Money</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/personal-finance-2/economics-policy/psychology-of-money/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/107428671-e13446287357841.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Woman carrying shopping bags</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">TIME.com</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>How Walmart Plans to Bring Back &#8216;Made in America&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/12/how-walmart-plans-to-bring-back-made-in-america/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/12/how-walmart-plans-to-bring-back-made-in-america/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:58:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bill Saporito</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Companies & Industries]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Walmart]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77656</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Walmart doesn’t make anything. But the giant retailer could play a part in the manufacturing rebound that is taking place in the U.S. with its promise to buy $50 billion more U.S. made goods over the next decade for its Walmart and Sam’s Club stores. It’s a bit ironic, given Walmart&#8217;s vast global sourcing organization. But the same forces that are making the U.S. a more hospitable place for manufacturing —higher shipping costs and wage rates overseas among them—have prompted the company to reevaluate its sourcing on a variety of products. “This is a commitment around manufacturing and more economic renewal.  We see it as a critical issue for us in the American economy,” says Duncan Mac Naughton chief merchandising and marketing officer for Walmart U.S. What Walmart sees is a way to lower costs while smoothing its supply cycle by looking more broadly at its distribution system. Although the company may be able to buy an item cheaper from China, the price it pays per piece doesn’t always reflect what it spends to get the product to the shelves.  “When we buy from overseas, we may buy more than we need to fill the container,” says Mac Naughton. “We’re looking at carrying costs through the system in addition to landed costs.” (Walmart has recently been criticized for being out of stock on items, due to a lack of store employees, but the company says its in-stock position is at record levels and that it hasn’t cut employee hours.) (COVER STORY: Made in the USA) Walmart is also hitting some unexpected supply snags as local demand increases in the developing countries where it buys goods. Recently, it found itself short of memory foam for mattress toppers and had to add a U.S. supplier, Sleep Studio, to augment its foreign source. That need to increase capacity can only increase as the middle class grows in India, China and elsewhere. The company will still likely rely on foreign suppliers for those products, such as cut-and-sew garments, that have a very high labor input.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77656&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Walmart</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/companies-industries/walmart/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/walmart.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">US-BANGLADESH-TEXTILE-FACTORY</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">bilsap</media:title>
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		<title>The Real Significance of the Bitcoin Boom (and Bust)</title>
		<link>http://business.time.com/2013/04/12/the-real-significance-of-the-bitcoin-boom-and-bust/</link>
		<comments>http://business.time.com/2013/04/12/the-real-significance-of-the-bitcoin-boom-and-bust/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Apr 2013 09:45:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Sivy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Banking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Currency]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[E-commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economy & Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Federal Reserve]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Privacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Financial Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Government]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Information Technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Retail]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saving]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Technology & Media]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Economy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wall Street & Markets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wealth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World Finance]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://business.time.com/?p=77371</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The volatile rise-and-fall of Bitcoin has prompted lots of stories explaining why the online virtual currency is a classic bubble. Many compare it to tulip mania in 17th century Holland, where prices of rare tulip bulbs soared to absurd heights and then crashed, ruining the speculative investors who had bought them. But the Bitcoin phenomenon is more than a bubble. It says something important about the current and future state of the global economy. The scale of the recent boom-and-bust has been staggering indeed. At the start of the year, a Bitcoin was worth $13.51. Earlier this week, it traded as high as $266. And on Thursday, it plummeted to less than $100, as one of the exchanges where Bitcoins are traded closed temporarily. This would be comparable to the exchange rate for the British pound soaring from $1.62 (where it was on Jan. 1) to $31.90 and then falling back to $12. Such monumental appreciation and volatility are clearly the result of speculation — people buying the online currency just because they think its value will rise, not because they want to use it to purchase goods and services. But Bitcoins’ gains are not the result of speculation alone. They partly reflect the fact that the Bitcoin system is much better designed than previous online currencies. And more significantly, the run-up also reflects anxiety about the safety of the global banking system and the stability of major international currencies. (MORE: No Money, No Problems: Canada Considers Completely Digital Currency) The technicalities of the Bitcoin system are complex, but to make this online currency more successful than previous versions, the designers overcame two key challenges. First, to prevent counterfeiting, they attached a history of transactions to each currency unit — but allowed users to keep their transactions nearly anonymous. Counterfeiting is hard because fake Bitcoins would need an authenticated history to pass muster. Second, they strictly controlled the supply of Bitcoins outstanding — thereby saving it from the disastrous fate of, for example, the paper currency known as assignats that were issued during<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=business.time.com&#038;blog=31173800&#038;post=77371&#038;subd=timebusinessblog&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>World Finance</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://business.time.com/category/world-finance/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timebusinessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/biz-bitcoin-130412.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Bitcoin Value Soars And Drops</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">michaelsivy</media:title>
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