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How to shut down bad online reviews
Linchi Kwok Travel, Hospitality & Event Management"Our customers are always right." Even if they are wrong, they could still post bad online reviews or share negative word-of-mouth about a business on social media. And because negative reviews have significant impacts on a business's bottom line, customers will always win, no matter how wrong they can be sometimes.
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Metals Thoughts: The heavy load
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesThe pace of headlines not directly related to President Donald Trump seems to be picking up a bit: Fed hikes, inflation vector shift higher, crude volatility, Brexit, whatever cute name Scottish Exit will get this time, Dutch/French elections, just to name the primary ones.
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America’s sleep deficiency: Resolving the nightmare
Bob Kowalski Mental HealthcareRealizing that Americans are suffering from a lack of sleep is no eye-opener. Just look around classrooms, offices, the car next to you in traffic — the yawns and bleary eyes give it away. In a previous article, we discussed the issues that result from sleep deficiency and the research into the problem plaguing America. The path to our long national nightmare has been complicated, but solutions may be available.
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Something is stirring in the belly of the economy
Paul Zukowski Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementThere are a few signs of things taking off in wrong directions in the U.S. economy this month. Then again, some things never change, such as the inability of economists to accurately predict monthly job gains — the Bloomberg survey expected 190,000 in February, while the reality was 235,000.
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Restaurants struggle to remain relevant in fragmented food market
Katina Hernandez Food & BeverageLast year was a rough year for the restaurant business. In 2016, well-known restaurant chains Logan’s Roadhouse, Black-eyed Pea and Johnny Carino's were all forced to file for bankruptcy after experiencing lackluster sales. In fact, 2016 resulted in zero growth for most restaurants, but this downward growth trend is not new. With the economy in its eighth year of recovery, what is keeping Americans from dining out?
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Tenants, beware of landlords with 13-inch rulers
Dale Willerton and Jeff Grandfield RetailMeasure twice so you only pay once. While representing commercial tenants with leasing matters since 1993, we have found that some landlords are overcharging tenants for more square footage than the tenant actually has. As we explain in our book, this is a common discrepancy in the commercial leasing industry. Are you paying for phantom space?
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Metals Thoughts: Light at the end of the tunnel
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesGold prices are off about $25 in the last week and silver off an impressive $1.50. Our gold longer-term models based on rates and currencies still show some further weakness to come, but I think that with the Fed March hike now priced in and some support from moving averages, it’s more of a mixed bag. We’ve been doing some work here at analyzing prior recent low-volatility regimes and their duration/outcomes, which can be seen in Table 1 of this edition of Metals Thoughts.
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3 ways pests can hurt businesses
Doug Haymore Facilities & GroundsIf you’ve ever been inside of a business and saw an insect flying around or a mouse dart across the floor, your thoughts probably turned to what was going on behind the scenes. Simply looking at a pest inside of an otherwise clean business makes you feel as though the place is dirty and that you don’t want to spend time there, especially if it was a restaurant or grocery store. You would probably also tell your friends and family to avoid the business at all costs. This is just one of the ways that a pest infestation can seriously hurt a business.
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America’s sleep deficiency: When you can’t snooze, you lose
Bob Kowalski Mental HealthcareAmericans seem to be closing their eyes to a problem that's growing, despite exhaustive research into the ramifications. It's time to wake up and smell the coffee: We don't get enough sleep. Insufficient sleep has been declared a "public health problem" by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which attributed an increased risk of chronic conditions such as diabetes, depression, cancer and reduced productivity to a shortage of shut-eye.
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Green meets smart: Eco-friendly packaging solutions
Delany Martinez Distribution & WarehousingFrom a manufacturing standpoint, ordering necessary packaging material seems simple enough. At its core, it's merely multiplying anticipated outgoing packages by the Styrofoam peanuts, bubble wrap, air pillows and other void-fillers needed to keep product safe.
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