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Metals Thoughts: A perfect 10
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesTrumpflation — or whatever you want to call it — has basically been priced into markets for perfect execution. The dollar remains incredibly strong against pretty much any cross, up 5 percent in the broad indices and as much as up 16 percent against what had been the darling of the year, JPY.
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Increase sales this holiday by recovering abandoned purchases
Emma Fitzpatrick MarketingAh, the holiday season. The lights are aglow on both the Christmas tree and the laptop. This holiday season, U.S. consumers are expected to spend as much as $117 billion shopping online, according to the National Retail Federation. That's an increase of up to 10 percent from last year.
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8 lease warnings for commercial tenants
Dale Willerton and Jeff Grandfield RetailOpening a business and leasing space from a landlord may feel like a marriage, but it's not. Commercial tenants need to get that notion out of their heads. With commercial leasing, a commercial landlord will have many different partners — even several hundred or thousands of tenants — and many different motivations for the relationship. The tenant, on the other hand, has only one landlord and one motivation for leasing space — as a means to an end to do business.
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Have I delivered excellent customer service?
Anne Rose RetailCall a company's customer service department about a problem or issue, and invariably the service rep ends the call with the all-too-familiar question, "Have I delivered excellent customer service?" What exactly is the point of such a question? Understandably, the companies want to know how their customers perceive their brand's willingness to address and resolve problems. They want to foster customer satisfaction and loyalty, and they want to leave customers with the perception that the company cares about them.
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How will the rise of Black Friday in Canada affect Boxing Day?
Katherine Radin RetailIn years past, holiday shopping for Canadians meant going to the local mall or store a few weeks before Christmas, picking out an item for an intended recipient and making a purchase — likely at full price. In recent years, however, this has changed. The spread of American "shopping holidays" such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday to the north have offered Canadians a chance to save in the weeks leading up to the holidays. This year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday broke several records, and shoppers are completing their holiday shopping at discounted rates.
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A record-setting number of consumers ‘shop small’ this year
Katina Hernandez RetailIt looks like Small Business Saturday is here to stay. The annual shopping holiday that encourages consumers to "shop small" at local businesses on the Saturday after Thanksgiving achieved record numbers this year. Created in 2010 by American Express as a grassroots movement to help small businesses increase sales during the holidays, this year's event broke all previous records. An estimated 2.1 million businesses and 112 million shoppers participated on Saturday, Nov. 26.
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Metals Thoughts: 1 hike to rule them all
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesWe seem to have settled in just a bit over the last couple of weeks, and while the downtrend since the U.S. election is still in place, we have had a few days respite from the selloff and seem ready to challenge the downtrend to the upside.
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Use landscaping to cut down commercial energy consumption
Doug Haymore Facilities & GroundsYou've done all the right things — you turn down the thermostat after hours, you've replaced your light bulbs with LEDs, and you even ensure your computers hibernate quickly when not in use — but you're running out of ways to cut down on your energy usage. While all of those internal ideas are a step in the right direction, it can be helpful to look outside for even more ideas.
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Police beef up security during the holidays
Bambi Majumdar Law Enforcement, Defense & Security'Tis the season to be merry — except maybe for the men in blue. While we all rejoice and relax, the holiday season is a time for extra caution and additional responsibility for police departments around the country. There are more DUI cases at this time of the year than any other, more cases of robbery and theft, and unfortunately even terror threats —like the ISIS threat to the Macy's Thanksgiving parade this year. Jammed-up traffic among the shopping and festivities, visiting families and travel itineraries all contribute to a law enforcement headache.
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Metals Thoughts: Midnight diplomacy edition
Brad Yates Natural ResourcesThe USD is taking a slight breather from its one-way appreciation trade, and that has given metals an opportunity to form something of a base in the last couple of sessions. The ETF selling continues at a pretty steady pace and has done nothing but liquidate since early November.
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