The News Junky's Weblog

Retail Recession How Contract Manufacturers are Dealing

newsjunky — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:40:50 +0000

In the brightly lit streets of downtown Cairo, original Champion, Nike and addidas apparel, priced attractively at less than 10 USD, hang in a string of retail windows. An unforeseen impact of what some are calling a depression and not a recession, is the fallout of Purchase Orders placed by Brands and Licensees with their contract manufacturing facilities. Faced with an unprecedented decline in quantity orders and order cancellations, these manufacturing facilities have no recourse but to liquidate their inventory in their local markets. Most of the contractual agreements between brands and their manufacturers prohibit the manufacturer from selling any excess or damaged inventory to anyone and that the merchandise be destroyed. Naturally these orders are placed by the brands six months in advance and have been already produced by the manufacturer. Unable to compensate the manufacturers for the canceled orders, a trend has emerged – the Brands simply turn a blind eye. The outcome is a plethora of Premium Brand merchandise the likes of Lacoste, Polo, and Boss lining the grey area market in every third world country that caters to retail manufacturing. So what does this all mean? Potential Brand errosion that these brands spend millions protecting and instilling in their target markets. But in this current market inventory movement is the key to survival, sell your inventory at any price to anyone willing to pay that price. At the end of the day the consumer has the upper hand in this game, to you and me that translates to cheaper prices.

Reiki for Dogs

newsjunky — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:12:12 +0000

Reiki (pronounced Ray-key) comes from the Japanese Rei and Ki meaning spiritually guided life energy. Reiki for dogs is a form of spiritual healing that helps harmonize the mind, body, and soul of your pet. It can be used as a treatment for relaxation as well as a tool for releasing negative emotions and limitations.

Reiki for dogs can treat many ailments that may be currently inhibiting your dog, whether noticeable to you or not. It can reduce stress, relieve pain, headaches, stomach upsets, asthma, back problems, sinus, respiratory problems, canine hip dysplasia, anxiety and many more. After performing your first session with your pet, you will see instant results in your dog.

Reiki is performed with a fixed set of hand positions. Each position is formed to create a specific desired energy outcome to ultimately bring your dog into balance. To understand how to use Reiki for your dog it is important to know the different charkas that are connected to the physical organs of the body as well as the aura.

There are seven centers of energy in your pet. Reiki for dogs focuses on changing the energy from one center to another to bring about balance. The hand positions control the Chi and ultimately free your dog’s aura while allowing for a continual energy flow.

The seven centers consist of the Root chakra, Navel chakra, Solar Plexus chakra, Heart chakra, Throat chakra, Third eye, and the Crown chakra. These charkas are specifically connected to different glands in your dog. Reiki will make the glands release hormones directly into the blood stream and control all aspects of your dogs daily activities and healthy thinking.

Freeing the aura is a major part of using Reiki. Before Reiki, your dog’s aura might only extend a few decimeters outside the body. After performing Reiki on your dog its aura will resonate about 2-3 meters. There are several different layers of body in the aura that Reiki will expose for your dog.

Physical Body: the most tangible part of your dog’s body. Here, Reiki will ease some of the most common fears about the physical body-sickness, aging and death.

Etheric Body: connected to the Root chakra, it is made up of a thin invisible layer that is only 2 cm thick that surrounds your dog’s body. This is where the energy is reflected when Reiki gets it flowing from chakra to chakra. Many of your dog’s dreams are found here.

Emotional Body: connected to the Navel chakra it serves as an egg shaped emotion reflector that contains the other two bodies. Emotions like hope, happiness, love, anger, and sorrow are all found here. Reiki for your dog can release these emotions from past problems your dog has suppressed and create an empty canvas for your dog to express freely.

Mental Body: connected to the Solar Plexus chakra, reflects logic, mind, and intelligent thinking. Reiki for dogs helps shape their reality.

Astral Body: the bridge between the spiritual realm and the physical world. Reiki for dogs will help them express unconditional love.

Etheric Template Body: connected to the Throat chakra, this is where your dog has its thought processes. Reiki for your dog will connect its past, and present to its future.

Celestial Body: connected to the third eye chakra, mirrors the subconscious mind. It uses your dog’s intuition to bring about higher feelings. Reiki will allow your pet to have a love that goes beyond individual to universal.

Casual Body: connected to the Crown chakra, is the last body where the initial creative impulses begin. Reiki will have your dog’s soul communicating with its conscious mind and mental body.

Reiki is a gentle but powerful healer. It will balance your dog’s energy, organs, and glands. It has proven to strengthen immune systems, relieve pain, clears toxins, and enhances personal awareness while relaxing your dog.

Acai
Acai Berry
Acai Berry Juice

Dubai Aims for Most Expensive Vacation in the World

newsjunky — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:46:53 +0000

It seems the UAE is in a race to capture all the Guniess World Records. The latest challenge comes from the Emirates Palace Hotel (which was built at an estimated cost of $3 billion USD) touting the world’s most expensive vacation. For the small sum of $1 million dollars, you and a guest can enjoy 7 nights in a 6800 sq ft suite at The Palace Hotel, return first class transportation from anywhere in the world and a chauffeur driven Maybach at your disposal during your entire stay. The package also includes daily spa treatments, deep sea fishing, desert safaris and gifts including Emirates Palace Champagne, the rarest pearls in the world from Robert Wang and a selection of rifles from Holland & Holland Sporting Guns.
So if your at a loss this summer for vacation ideas, why not call your local travel agency for a week of the ultimate luxury money can buy.

GCC Mulls Currency Revaluation

newsjunky — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:25:31 +0000

As the local GCC populace embarks on their summer vacations, they quickly realize they need to pack allot more dirhams, dinars, and riyals for their trip. With the region’s currency firmly pegged to the dollar, they have seen their buying power diminish along with the sinking dollar. Many are asking why their currencies healthy (petrodollar windfalls at work) whilst the US is suffering from a near economic meltdown.
This may soon change however, as GCC governments begin to explore alternatives such as currency revaluation or re-pegging against a basket of currencies. In a recent article published in a local UAE business paper, rumors have began to leak about a possible revaluation of the Dirham by as much as 5% from 3.67 AED to 3.49 AED against the dollar. In Saudi Arabia, the Shura coucil, whose responsibilities include making recommendation to the king regarding socioeconomic matters, have recommended the SAR be revalued against the dollar by 30% prompting the wildest speculation of the local currency market in decades. This week the Kuwaiti government notified banks that they would no longer buy or sell dollars to them to cover interbank currency trades. This in essence stops offshore banks from taking advantage of cheap central bank liquidity. This could be the strongest indication yet that the Gulf is re valuating their currencies.
For the battered dollar this could be another blow but for the locals and even larger expatriot population, this news brings a much needed income boost.

Violence in Gaza Escalates

newsjunky — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:21:49 +0000

It seems Hamas has stepped up its resistance and guerrilla tactics against the Israeli forces. The BBC has reported that Hamas militants made a daring attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing employing a new tactic using cars ladened with explosives, small arms fire and mortars. The attack resulted in 13 Israeli soldiers wounded with no word on their condition. This attack occurred within a week of a ‘sophisticated ambush’ set by Hamas on Nahal OZ Crossing indicating a militant strategy to strike at the Israeli imposed blockade.

A Hamas spokesperson said that the group will continue to challenge the Israeli grip on Gaza by striking at the heart of the blockade while the Israeli response was the standard rhetoric of “Hamas was showing disregard for the welfare of Gaza’s residents by attacking the crossings.” This implies the collective punishment strategy of the Gaza strip will likely continue or get worse fueling the cycle of violence and instigating further attacks on vulnerable soft targets.

Iphone Pwnage Tool Released

newsjunky — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:02:05 +0000

The long awaited Pwnage Tool was finally released promising Iphone hackers the safest method to jailbreak, unlock and install 3rd party applications on the Iphone. Some have touted the new tool as apple proof and compatible with any and all future updates to the Iphone. The tool has been tested on the yet to be released Firmware ver 2.0 with success in unlocking and jailbreaking. The premise behind the technique is to modify the firmware first, and then apply it to the phone, where previous methodology manipulated the firmware on the phone itself causing problems with WIFI, EDGE and YouTube. Since its release (Mac Only), there has been an update with minor ‘corrections’ and bug fixes. So far the feedback from the hacker community has been positive with little if any problems reported while testing. Windows users continue to wait for salvation, as their Mac counterparts enjoy cutting edge Iphone hacking tools.

So the war continues between the underground Iphone community led by DevTeam and the Apple programmers. And if any are wondering what Pwnage really means, its a gamer’s terminology for derived from the word ‘owned’ where many mistakenly hit the letter ‘P’ on their keyboard instead of ‘O’. The word ‘pwned’ has been finally coined as the new standard in Iphone hacking!

The Mac tool is available at http://www.iphone-dev.org

Chinese Products: Expect to Pay More!

newsjunky — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:48:03 +0000

As if the current retail environment wasn’t tough enough with lagging sales and higher markdown rates, now retailers have to contend with lower markups on Chinese goods. Inflation has finally surfed its way to Chinese shores, increasing costs by as much as 30% over last year. These cost increases will eventually worm their way into your pockets as early as Spring 09. As retail inventory levels begin to digest the lower markups, to maintain a healthy gross margin it is inevitable that the price increase will be passed on to the consumer.

Analysts are predicting the perfect storm brewing over ‘the workshop of the world’. Year to date the renminbi has been appreciating at an annualized rate of 16%, raw materials which make up 70% of manufacturers’ costs have been soaring due to shortages of commodities and $100+ oil barrel increases transportation costs and oil related products like plastic. To complete the trifecta, labor laws are undergoing a major makeover in Beijing. The All-China Federation of Trade Unions has launched an aggressive recruiting campaign to help better protect workers and reverse the dwindling supply of young workers as a result of 30 years of the ‘one child’ policy. Once obedient and dependent on their factory jobs, the new generation of Chinese young adults are aware of their rights to health insurance, safe working environment, and vacation days like their American counterparts. Some are abandoning the factory work path all together and exchanging their forefathers blue collar jobs for more education and ultimately management positions.

This may not seem like a significant problem if it wasn’t for our dependence on Chinese manufacturing facilities and a lack of a viable alternative to its significant cost savings. While some may suggest India or Vietnam as an alternative to China, they are both plagued by inadequacies that prevent them from becoming the next China. While Vietnam may have cheap labor, with a population under 85 million, the labor force is finite and production capacities cannot withstand the world demand. Conversely India may have the labor numbers on its side with a population of well over 1.2 billion, it lacks the transportation infrastructure and port efficiencies of China.

Ultimately labels once considered extinct like ‘made in the USA’ may be making a comeback soon. As the wage inequalities of factory workers around the world begins to strike a balance, inevitably wealth redistribution begins to take effect. What does that mean to you and me? Price hikes are not limited to your gas and food budget, they have now infected our electronics and clothes.