Last week, Amazon bought iRobot, the company that makes Roomba, the robot vacuum cleaner, for $1.7b. Why? Yes, their 'Rosie from the Jetsons' has AI and is in your home (which is where Amazon wants to be), but the reason Amazon wants it is because customers want it. Which leads us to ask: Why do customers want Roomba? Because it does something that humans find annoying and hate doing: cleaning. Roomba has spotted the value that robots bring to the world and it's not simply being ...
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An East Village Artist’s Death Prompts a Reflection on the State of Indie Retailers Today
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While thumbing through the Times, I noticed a smiling young woman’s picture in the obituaries. In the black and white photograph, she's standing on a fire escape with a historic building and a bridge in the distance. I was initially attracted to Ronni Solbert’s 1959 picture, yet I was even more drawn in by what I noticed next to her photo: a children&...
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In this e-commerce age, a store being found on page 1 of Google is very important. Online advertising has become much more expensive recently, making being found even more important. Being found in Google saves the store on costly advertising.
Sometimes a potential client asks me if their store uses Bridge Store software, will their store rank higher in Google? The answer: Yes. In this example, we Googled "gift registry texas." We see that Bridge retailers claimed ...
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Amazon issued a press release stating that it is fighting with 10,000 Facebook groups that sell fake Amazon reviews. It’s ironic, since Amazon has been a chief promoter of the avenue allowing this behavior: Section 230. Section 230 allows tech platforms to host and indirectly promote just about any type of bad behavior, including illegal behavior (fake review services and yes, human trafficking, murder-for-hire, etc.) and then say it’s just a community space and belatedly remove the ...
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Retail Dive reports on Amazon's lazy claims that it cares about stopping counterfeits. Counterfeiters on Amazon may steal a brand's product design, name, and product pictures. When a brand reports this to Amazon, Amazon often does: nothing.
This is an issue for American brands. For example:
A brands creates a product. The brand pays for research and development.
Brand may pay to have it made in America.
Brand takes professional pictures of the finished product.
Excerpts:
- A report produced by groups seeking to block it pointed out that the number of Amazon facilities in New Jersey grew to 49 from one between 2013 and 2020, helping to nearly triple the number of warehouse workers in the state, to about 70,000.
- The Port Authority revealed the proposed lease with Amazon in August, the day its board voted to authorize the deal.
- Under the proposed deal, Amazon tentatively committed to investing $125 million in renovating two buildings ...
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While eating a slice of coal-fired pizza at Arturo’s in Soho yesterday, and getting an occasional whiff of Houston Street garbage, I had to admit: I was at a loss for insight to share with my coworkers this week. Each week, I send out a motivational message to my team that precedes a summary of what they accomplished. We call this report the Brick report. This would be my seventy-second Brick introduction: What else could I say--and would they miss it if there was not an introduction...
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In a 2007 article in The New Yorker, Atul Gawande, a surgeon and an author, advocatedthat more hospitals use checklists. He cited many medical studies showing how checklists save lives (and money). Implementing one checklist, a hospital "…prevented forty-three infections and eight deaths, and saved two million dollars in costs." The startling part: the list was only five steps long! In other words, people don’t consistently follow...
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142 of our retailers are using a sales program called Bridge. A store uses Bridge to more easily sell our products. I think Bridge would be a good fit for your business, too. I’m writing to invite you to join us on Bridge.
Bonus: Join us on Bridge by next Friday, May 6th, and Skyros Designs will give you a $200 shopping credit with us.
Retailers that use Bridge report selling 18% more. In fact, our best ...
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We are pleased to participate in a promotion with Casafina Living. Please find the letter that Matt Hullfish, National Sales Director, shared with his retailers below.
Thank you,
Jason
..............
Dear Friends and Family of Casafina,
272 of our retailers are using a sales program called Bridge. A store uses Bridge to more easily sell our products. I think Bridge would be a good fit for your business, too. I’m writing to invite you to join us on Bridge.
...
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Designed in homage to the arches that adorn Venice’s most iconic bridge, this unique glassware, finished by hand, requires a multi-step process that is executed by artisans. No two are exactly alike, and subtle nuances in depth of color and cutwork are to be expected and embraced.
Sir/Madam Rialto Glassware comes in four distinct shapes and fourteen signature colors. Shapes include: the Old Fashioned is ideal for a cocktail, while the Coupe serves up everything from champagne to sorbet, ...
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Some people like to sit on the sofa and eat Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. I roll my eyes at this because I’m very different: I like to read the Wall St. Journal’s Christopher Mims …while eating an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s on the sofa. This past weekend, Mr. Mims suggested companies may be reassessing where they source products, some even considering more domestic production. The motivation for this started a few years ago with the U.S.-China trade war, ...
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I think that Zola, an online provider of gift registries, may be harming local stores. Zola allows brides to pick things from any site, such as an indie store’s gift registry. Zola may then encourage the registrant to bypass that local store and use those gift funds with Zola. This is an issue because Zola has handled more than 650,000 registries, and its revenue is estimated to be $130m. Millions of dollars may have been diverted away from indie, brick-and-mortar stores to Zola&rsquo...
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In today’s Times, we learn that Amazon is raising and lowering the prices of items millions of times a day. We also learn that it has displayed different prices for the same item based on who you are. Imagine going in to a store and the paper towels are $3 for the person next to you but $4 for you.
I can attest to Amazon changing prices multiple times a day because Amazon crawls my retailers’ websites multiple times a day. It’s as if they have spies coming in our...
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In the movie 'We’re the Millers,' a character played by Jason Sudeikis interviews a teen boy wooing Sudeikis’ teenage daughter. Sudeikis interviews the boy about his interests and compatibility with his daughter. (Watch the scene here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjkLKKgOMRY .) The boy’s neck tattoo reads “No Ragrets.” When Sudeikis inquires about this tattoo, the boy confidently claims that he has no regrets, to which Sudeikis asks, "Not even&...
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