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Dec 29th Kicks Off 53 Weeks of Retailing in 2012

Using the 4-5-4 calendar is an essential for next year

Today’s retailers strive for consistent year over year planning and reporting.  Since the 1940s, they have been using a 4-5-4 week format to create consistent months and quarters.  Only one problem … this format only accounts for exactly 52 weeks and 364 days.  So, about every 6 years retailers have to add another week to the year.  2012 is one of those retail years with 53 weeks, and New Year’s Day in retail is Dec 29^th!

Adding up “The 12 Days of Christmas” for 2011

Would you pay less if you purchased the gift list online?   

The Twelve Days of Christmas is an old English Christmas carol that enumerates a list of increasingly grand gifts celebrated across a 12 day span for the Holiday.  Each year, companies like PNC Wealth Management do a price index on what it would cost if you purchased the actual gifts mentioned in The Twelve Days of Christmas carol.  The shift to the internet has been getting a lot of press this holiday season … but would you pay less for the 12 Day gift list online in 2011?

Future Retail – Shopping carts spying on you!

Your shopping cart is about to become a data center

No one thinks much about the lowly shopping cart in the store.  It first appeared at a Piggly Wiggly in 1937.  For the last 70 plus years the cart has remained baskets on wheels to help customers gather goods for checkout.  All that will change when your smart cart gets its “new brain”.   The computers being added to new shopping carts will be able to customize offers … and track your every move in store!

Predicting the economy by height of stilettos

IBM research says higher the heel the bigger the fall

Now, here’s a bit of interesting economic research by IBM which identifies a leading economic indicator you may have missed.  IBM Global Business Services has identified an economic predictor based on what fashoenistas are wearing on their feet.  In economic downturns, the heights of heels on women’s shoes go up and stay up.  So, ladies do your part to spur the economy … ditch the stilettos and  go buy some flats.  Seriously, is there any science behind any of this?

PCs Are Dead - Just Ask the Toddler with an iPad

Today kids’ first experience will be on a tablet not a PC

Yes, PCs are still be being sold by the millions.  But, if you want to see the future, just watch a toddler using an iPad.  The interface is instinctive, intuitive, and addictive.  Kids below the age of 2 are flicking and flipping through their parents’ iPads before they can even talk.  And increasingly, parents are buying both tablets and apps just for their kids.  Is the tablet just a new “digital pacifier”, or will it be the future screen of choice for today’s youth literally cutting their teeth on a tablet?