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  1. News from Us
  2. News from Members
  3. Events
  4. Press
  5. Dollars & Sense
  6. Profile Stories
  7. Updates
  8. Training Calendar
  9. Training Videos
  10. Jobs
+ Bridge in the News - Bridge in the News

363 Results:

October 4, 2023 Majestic Symbols
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Majestic Symbols
October 4, 2023
While this mother & baby are a North American subspecies of the brown bear, they are more commonly known as grizzly bears. As to the origin of their name, the bears can thank none other than Lewis & Clark whose journals mention a "grisley bear" no doubt referring to these majestic symbols of the wild whose grizzled appearance is caused by the long guard hairs on their backs and shoulders frequently having white tips. The fur of these bears is often dark brown but can vary from ...
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October 4, 2023 A Date With Calendars 📆
How online calendars can help retailers manage and save time.
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A Date With Calendars 📆
How online calendars can help retailers manage and save time.
October 4, 2023
One of the main problems that businesses have is efficient use of time. A retailer (or brand or sales rep) seeks on a daily basis to manage their time and optimize results. (I was reminded of this while reading a The Wall St. Journal article about time management for the family.) Businesses use a variety of tools to manage and save time, including email, texting, and Zoom. 

Shop Local helps businesses in their quest to save time. We offer businesses a variety of services to help ...
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September 26, 2023 Bertil Vallien FOR Kosta Boda
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Bertil Vallien FOR Kosta Boda
September 26, 2023
BERTIL VALLIEN is a gift to glass. The impressive portfolio of this prolific artist is haunting, memorable, and mesmerizing.

His 60-year career, spent advancing the craft of sand-casting, is a study of one man's existential questioning actualized on hypnotic works of art.
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BERTIL VALLIEN IS A 60-YEAR KOSTA BODA ICON, DESIGNING FOR THE BRAND SINCE 1963.

He is one of Sweden's most celebrated glass artists with numerous awards and museums exhibitions around...
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September 25, 2023 Simplicity ⚪️
What universal standards can teach us about simplicity regarding e-commerce platforms.
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Simplicity ⚪️
What universal standards can teach us about simplicity regarding e-commerce platforms.
September 25, 2023
When Apple launched its new iPhones this month, one of its most noteworthy updates was replacing its Lightning charging cable with a USB-C. This was not a voluntary move or extension of Steve Jobs’s love of simplicity. Apple changed it because the European Union required them to, according to Ben Cohen in The Wall St. Journal. Now, just about every mobile phone in the world (forget just little ol’ Europe) will have one charging solution (USB-C).

While this may seem logical, it ...
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September 21, 2023 ALCHEMIST OF JOY
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ALCHEMIST OF JOY
September 21, 2023
Discover the men and women behind Baccarat’s enchanting creations.

« I joined Baccarat by coincidence, or rather by chance. For me, the company is a family affair: my grandfather and my father worked here, and like them, I share this love of our craft and of work well done. From a plan defined by the design office, I assemble all the components of the chandeliers, which arrive in already chiseled and pre-drilled pieces – pendants, octagons, and crystal prisms. Because my ...
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September 19, 2023 Standards Matter
What the retail industry can learn from Google and Amazon teaming up on technology standards.
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Standards Matter
What the retail industry can learn from Google and Amazon teaming up on technology standards.
September 19, 2023
Google, Amazon, and an array of home appliance companies are teaming up to make it easier for you to dim your home’s lights and lock your front doors. They are adopting a standard called Matter that allows devices to communicate and work together, shares The Wall St. Journal. This allows a giant like Amazon, creator of Alexa devices and Ring doorbells, and Tuo, a small home device tech creator, to use the same platform yet keep their internal, proprietary code base. This standard is like a...
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September 7, 2023 Love Those Margins 💖
How premium plan tiers help businesses sell more and increase margins.
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Love Those Margins 💖
How premium plan tiers help businesses sell more and increase margins.
September 7, 2023
Dating apps are launching higher-priced premium tiers, according to last week’s The Wall St. Journal. Hinge offers a new $50/month plan, and Tinder is launching a $500/month plan. The League already offers a $1,000 plan. These pricey plans take the sting out of Bumble’s $60/month plan.

Why are companies offering such plans? Because even if Tinder only gets 10% of users, that's millions. Plus, the profit and margins are likely higher for customers using these plans. A normal ...
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September 3, 2023 Jugaad’a Do What Jugaad’a Do 🚀
How limited resources can motivate teams to accomplish goals and breed solutions.
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Jugaad’a Do What Jugaad’a Do 🚀
How limited resources can motivate teams to accomplish goals and breed solutions.
September 3, 2023
India last month joined three other countries in the exclusive club that has put a craft on the moon. What’s unique about India’s accomplishment is that it did this at a fraction of what the U.S. spends on space exploration, shares Ben Cohen in The Wall St. Journal. While the U.S.’s NASA program has a $24b budget, India’s ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) budget is just $1.3b. India, which started its space program in 1963, is able to do more with less because of ...
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August 3, 2023 ALCHEMIST OF JOY
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ALCHEMIST OF JOY
August 3, 2023
Discover the men and women behind Baccarat’s enchanting creations.

« The challenge of the glassmaker’s trade consists in keeping a close eye on the temperature of the material. Whether the crystal is picked with a ferret or a cane to collect the right amount of material, or to shape it, everything depends on a few degrees: if the crystal cools down too much, it breaks; if it is too hot, it cannot be worked with. You must forge your mind, because it’s a very demanding ...
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August 1, 2023 Hollywood Gets “Amazoned” 🤖
How technology hurts the entertainment industry just like Amazon hurts the retail industry.
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Hollywood Gets “Amazoned” 🤖
How technology hurts the entertainment industry just like Amazon hurts the retail industry.
August 1, 2023
Over the last three decades, Hollywood and many that rely on the entertainment industry have embraced ordering goods over Amazon.com.  Recap: Amazon is a technology company that often cuts costs by replacing humans with code and robots and bypasses local red tape like, um, taxes and labor rules.  Hollywood writers, producers, and ticket goers embraced a technology company that made their lives easier but often at the cost of others (aka retail workers). 

Today, technology is ...
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July 25, 2023 Orrefors @ 125
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Orrefors @ 125
July 25, 2023
EMON MAASHO, CEO AND PRESIDENT OF ORREFORS, NORTH AMERICA, is representative of the exciting trajectory in this 125-year operation. The über-exec joined the New Wave Group in 2013, a time when Orrefors and Kosta Boda (OKB) were underperforming assets in the portfolio. "Our crystal brands are national treasures and a part of Swedish history," Maasho affirms. And he wanted a front row seat in their revitalization. Maasho was placed in charge of the new hotel and restaurant division ...
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July 25, 2023 This and That
This and That
July 25, 2023
I have a stack of virtual news clippings that either struck my fancy, taught me something new, or just made me shake my head in bemusement. On their own, they may not be enough for me to make a point, but together they have a thought-provoking synergy (and I'm sure I'll figure out what that is by the end of this column).

Our industry has been negatively affected by the loss of American manufacturing after we entered a long stretch of automation and outsourcing in the late 1970s; every ...
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July 22, 2023 Pass the Apps 🍡
What Threads can teach us about leveraging our existing network when launching a new service.
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Pass the Apps 🍡
What Threads can teach us about leveraging our existing network when launching a new service.
July 22, 2023
Threads, a new Twitter-like service from Meta, the owner of Instagram, launched this month and almost immediately attracted 40m active daily users. The service’s growth has since stalled and now has just over 10m daily users, but that is still commendable. The Wall Street Journal shared that this impressive launch was largely possible because Meta used its built-in network of one billion Instagram users. This user base helped it overcome the “cold start” problem of acquiring ...
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July 18, 2023 NEW IN · VERMONT COLLECTION
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NEW IN · VERMONT COLLECTION
July 18, 2023
Reminiscent of ancient techniques done by artisans, soft spirals dance from the center and result in a blend of formal modernity with elegant forms.

Meet the Vermont collection. View Post
June 30, 2023 Dr. Fill 👨🏻‍⚕️
How pre-populating information saves clients time and speeds them along a process.
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Dr. Fill 👨🏻‍⚕️
How pre-populating information saves clients time and speeds them along a process.
June 30, 2023
Each April, I scramble to send my tax information to my accountant so I can file my taxes before April 15. Since my friends confide that they do the same, there are likely millions of people like us racing to prepare our taxes. What if there was a way to avoid this painful rush—and even the cost of it? The WSJ shares that Japan, New Zealand, and much of Europe get such relief. The countries prepare tax returns for their citizens using existing data, and the citizen just needs to review it,...
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June 30, 2023 Mission: Statements 🧨
What we can learn about a company through its mission statement.
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Mission: Statements 🧨
What we can learn about a company through its mission statement.
June 30, 2023
This past week, I read a mission statement from The Knot's corporate website (https://www.theknotww.com/). The statement included a paragraph and five principles. The paragraph describes what the parent company does. The statement says:

"We help couples around the world navigate and enjoy life’s biggest moments together. As a global company, our industry-leading websites, top-ranked mobile apps, and trusted resources provide the most sought-after information, connections, and ...
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June 19, 2023 Stores are important, confess Nike and brands
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Stores are important, confess Nike and brands
June 19, 2023
Here at Shop Local, we’ve seen brands try to cut out indie stores.  We’ve seen big-name companies close accounts in good standing and raise minimum annual purchase amounts in the toughest of times in order to cut out indie stores.  Well, now some of these brands are back with hat in hand.

Excerpt:
“The miscalculation was the rising expense of acquiring customers online, they said. A flood of startups all buying Facebook ads and other digital ...
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June 2, 2023 Acquisition
How we can acquire new prospects by leveraging our existing network of customers.
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Acquisition
How we can acquire new prospects by leveraging our existing network of customers.
June 2, 2023
In Andrew Chen’s book The Cold Start Problem, he breaks the network effect into three parts: engagement, acquisition, and economize. At Shop Local, we rely on the network effect and its three parts. I feel that we’re succeeding in terms of engagement but need improvement in acquisition. 

Engagement
We use the 64,000 products in our Syncing service to engage 1,200 our retail clients. We email them new intros, price updates, archived items for these synced products. Once they ...
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May 17, 2023 ALCHEMIST OF JOY
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ALCHEMIST OF JOY
May 17, 2023
Discover the women and men behind Baccarat’s enchanting creations.

« Being a cutter is a demanding job that requires having a real knack for it. In my spare time, I practice by drawing and painting in oil or acrylic. And I, who came here and joined the robotics core, would encourage anyone who wants to delve into cutting, to persevere.

As for me, I have never given up on my convictions or my desires, and I simply cannot see myself working anywhere else but at Baccarat. Even ...
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May 15, 2023 We Got Sole 🩴
What Crocs can teach us about gaining new customers and keeping them happy.
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We Got Sole 🩴
What Crocs can teach us about gaining new customers and keeping them happy.
May 15, 2023
About 15 years ago, I bought a pair of Crocs sandals in Myrtle Beach, SC. Not only were they hot pink, but the insole was traffic cone orange. My buddies hated them, but oddly others loved them. The sandals were affordable (maybe $20), comfortable, and a conversation starter.

According to last week’s The New York Times' profile on Crocs, I’m one of tens of millions of happy Crocs owners. This happiness is profitable:
  • Crocs’ sales have almost doubled since 2019.
...
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Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants in Pennsylvania Get Google Sales Leads 🔍
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Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants Get Sales Leads in Mississippi
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Shop Local Merchants Are 60% of Google Page 1 Results in South Carolina
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Shop Local Merchants Are 50% of Google Page 1 Results in Georgia
Shop Local Merchants Are 50% of Google Page 1 Results in Georgia
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Shop Local Helps Indie Merchants Get More Sales Leads than Big-Box Stores Using Google
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