Dig deep for discounts
So the after-Christmas season is upon us. I, like many, had a few things to return, a few sales to check out and expectations of huge post-holiday discounts.
Friday afternoon, I ventured out to some of the larger retailers such as Walmart and Target. I had returns to make at both and was pleasantly surprised there was no one in the return lines. I expected to have to wait in long lines, herded by store personnel to open return registers, similar to last year. But it is as obvious now as it was a month ago, that consumers were just not spending money this holiday season and therefore now have less to return.
The economy also has another obvious effect. Discounts, on top of discounts. I made today my non-return day and took some time to peruse through my favorite stores to see if the sales were worth the wait. Stores did not disappoint. At Quail Springs Mall, where shoppers came out in droves, there was no mistaking that retailers had intentions of clearing out their merchandise. The biggest discounts hovered around 75% off. Others offered deals like buy 1, get 1 free, 50% off, and 20% off already reduced clearance.
The rub: Shoppers have to be willing to dig deep for merchandise. Shelves were ransacked or bare, clothes were more mixed than matched, and items that were left look a bit … handled. Shoppers looking for Christmas season merchandise may already be too late. Most trees are gone, and ornaments and gift-wrapping will soon be gone for the year.
Overall, sales truly rivaled those of Black Friday, but the treasures just a bit harder to find.
Above: Shoppers kept Quail Springs Mall busy well into Saturday night.
Above: Department stores’ shelves are now bare where seasonal merchandise was stocked and heavily discounted.
-Erica Smith, Copy Editor
Christmas memories
We opened gifts a day early at my mother’s south Oklahoma City home because two of my children are flying out early Christmas morning to visit my sister in California.
Here’s how old I am: When I received flannel pajamas, my first thought was “Sweet!” The most thoughtful gift my wife and I got may have been the package of AA and AAA batteries. It was an altogether lovely Christmas.
And the box of Whoppers was nice, too.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Thunder lose again
The design Web site Brand New has issued its best and worst logos of the year. The Oklahoma City Thunder logo, which was roundly panned by designers at its unveiling earlier this year, collects more disdain. Brand New sums it up thusly:
You can take the Supersonics out of Seattle but you can’t take the lame out of this logo.
Some major company efforts also fell short, according to the Web site. Among them, Xerox, Pepsi, Capital One and Anheuser Busch-InBev.
Best logos included 826 Valenica, SanDisk and Camel cigarettes.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Gov. Brad Henry on Pickens Plan
A few days ago, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett talked to someone from the Pickens Plan Web site about the city’s view of the plan to develop a comprehensive national energy plan. Today, Gov. Brad Henry weighs in.
We are in the process of encouraging, facilitating and incentivising the development of the all-important transmission lines—the grid —to get power from the remote areas of the state into the urban areas that use the power. This is one of the many places where Oklahoma is really exactly in line with the Pickens Plan.
Henry also touts the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center.
(By the way, Gov. Henry, you might want to update that photo gallery on your Web site. Looks like the latest photos, which are of your wife, are at least two years old.)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Breaking the “news” embargo
TechCrunch, one of the leading tech news and information Web sites, is fed up with the way news is distributed by public relations firms representing technology companies. Competition among the legion of sites covering the tech scene is keen, and some reporters “break” news by ignoring embargoes placed on the public release of information. (PR companies regularly issue news with a scheduled release date that all reporters are supposed to comply with.)
However, those embargoes are regularly broken and offenders not only don’t get punished, they frequently are rewarded with increase readership for having “broken” the “news.” Fed up with process, TechCrunch has decided to ignore embargoes.
We’ve never broken an embargo at TechCrunch. Not once. Today that ends. From now our new policy is to break every embargo. We’ll happily agree to whatever you ask of us, and then we’ll just do whatever we feel like right after that. We may break an embargo by one minute or three days. We’ll choose at random.
Some firms will stop talking to us (yeah! less email), but we’ll find other ways to get the news. Others, who haven’t read this post because they don’t read TechCrunch, will be unpleasantly surprised. Maybe if we cause enough pain then PR firms will start to take action against those publications who break the rules.
I’ve never broken an embargo, and I have been burned when competitors did without penalty. I understand the frustration. I’m just not sure I would handle it the same way, although I’ve not found a better method.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Mayor Mick and T. Boone
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett discusses alternative energy and T. Boone Pickens’ plan for boosting wind energy and natural gas at pickensplan.com. In the course of the interview, he drops this little teaser:
This morning I had a long conversation with a company that is involved in providing support and services for the wind industry. I don’t want to disclose who we’re talking to, but their business is definitely expanding. We feel like the manufacturing, the assembly, and the corporate headquarters that these growing companies are going to need could be served here in Oklahoma City right alongside the traditional fossil fuel industries that are also based here.
More here.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Starbucks closings set for Friday
The time has come for several metro-area Starbucks locations to close their doors for good.
Starbucks in July released its plan to close some stores across the U.S.
Regulars of these locations, including two in Edmond, one in Del City and four in Oklahoma City will have to find another shop to satisfy their caffeine fix.
On Friday, four of these stores will shut off their espresso machines and steamers for the last time. These include:
15th and Santa Fe, Edmond
Danforth and Santa Fe, Edmond
NW 122 and Pennsylvania, Oklahoma City
Broadway Extension and Britton Road, Oklahoma City
Is there a silver lining? A barista at one of the Oklahoma City locations said there were some good deals to be had, while other merchandise will be moved to other stores. Just in time for Christmas, customers can get mugs from $5, syrups for $3, Christmas ornaments for $4 and 20% off other selected merchandise. Their Christmas Blend coffee is also on sale.
If you or someone on your gift list is a coffee enthusiast, you may want to check out the deals at your nearest closing Starbucks. But act quickly, they won’t be there after Friday.
Metro-area locations to remain open include:
NW 36 and May Avenue
Reno Avenue and Mickey Mantle
Interstate 40 and MacArthur Boulevard
Northwest Expressway and Independence
Northwest Expressway and MacArthur Boulevard
Northwest Expressway and Rockwell Avenue
NW 63 and Western Avenue
May and Grand avenues
I-240 and S Pennsylvania Avenue
SW 89 and Western Avenue
SE 29 and Air Depot
Memorial Road and Pennsylvania Avenue
Memorial Road and MacArthur Boulevard
Memorial Road and Bryant Avenue, Edmond
15th and Broadway, Edmond
Second and Bauman, Edmond
University of Central Oklahoma
Area Target stores
Penn Square Mall
-Erica Smith, Copy Editor
FOX vs. CNBC
I just received a Christmas card from FOX Business News gigging rival CNBC’s most visible on-air personality, Jim Cramer. The card focuses on a couple of recent proclamations from the former hedge fund manager and current over-the-top market pundit that he probably wishes he could take back. (Sung to the tune of “Mr. Grinch”)
You’re a mean one, Mr. Cramer; You rant and rave every day;
You told us all that Bear was fine, there’s nothing more to say, Mr. Cramer;
Take your money out of the market right now is what you said on Today!You’re a mean one, Mr. Cramer; You put fear in your viewer’s minds;
You said to buy Wachovia, how can you look ‘em in the eye Mr. Cramer;
Can’t believe you told us all to — buy, buy, buy!
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Madoff’s magic
How could an obscure hedge fund manager control — and lose — billions of dollars while attracting almost no attention? As Jeff Matthews writes on his “Jeff Matthews is Not Making This Up” blog, investors wanted to believe in Bernie Madoff’s unbelievable results.
People simply want to believe good stuff, not bad stuff. It’s human nature.
Investors wanted to believe Enron’s numbers were legit. They wanted to believe AIG’s earnings were real. They wanted to believe Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could grow earnings 15% forever. And we don’t mean your average day-trader.
We mean professional investors.
Don Mecoy
Business News
Jingle Bells (and beeps)
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
