ETD: 794 Retailing in Ireland; Why People Buy Nominee for Book
of the Month; Web Address Sales Hit Record High
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Tue Jun 22 10:58:22 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0794 June 22, 2004
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] Retailing in Ireland
[3] Why People Buy Nominee for Fast Company's Book of the Month choice
for July!
[4] Web Address Sales Hit Record High
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
We're back from Ireland. It was a wonderful trip. I highly recommend
Ireland, even if, like me, you don't drink <g>. Great weather and very
nice people.
Today list member Pam Danziger needs some help. Her book "Why People Buy
Things They Don't Need: Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior" has
been nominated for Book of the Month, and she needs your support. Pam is a
frequent contributor to ETD, so let's come out and help.
We have some more information on Web Address sales. Personally, I tried
registering 30+ names last night and they were all taken, and available for
sale. So squatting is still an industry.
Tell us about your business which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?"
site. http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a
form there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed
this idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't
know anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] Retailing in Ireland
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We enjoyed our retail experience in Ireland. They seem to be more
civilized. They close the stores at 6:00 PM every evening, except for
Thursday, Friday and Saturday when they open until 9. In one town, they
had a theater (where we saw an excellent step dance play "To Dance To The
Moon") which was open on the nights the stores weren't. Imagine a theater
closed on Friday and Saturday!
While Dublin was a big city, we found the shopping there to be lacking. It
seemed to be better in the suburbs. Forget about malls. They don't exist.
The most popular item is Guinness beer, which is said to be an acquired
taste, and designed to improve your virility. One architect of long ago
had 22 children with one wife (he drank Guinness every day). Ireland seems
to be known for drinking and Leprechauns (which may be as a result of
drinking). All the chachkas seem to focus on drinking. It's a shame, as I
believe it belittles the Irish, much as Polish jokes used to belittle the
Polish.
I was expecting to see a lot more Irish linen, but apparently that industry
has been hit by offshore manufacturing.
Waterford Crystal (and the sister company Wedgwood China) is big, but it
has declined over the years from approximately 3,000 employed to now
1,100. They have a team of four involved in the process (hand blowing,
shaping, cutting and finishing), and they can make 400 pieces an hour. And
they are paid on a piece work basis - if the goods get rejected, they don't
get paid. It takes 10 years for a master craftsman to learn his trade. As
an incentive to buy, retailers who sell Waterford offer free shipping if
you buy more than E200 (Euros).
A new crystal factory opened - Tiperary - which is supposed to be better
than Waterford.
Irish wools were popular at many shops as was Irish tweed (I brought three
jackets).
Blarney Woolen Mills is probably the closest thing to a junior department
store in Ireland. Three floors of goods - clothing, gift items, crystal,
music and household goods. Great selection, and they offer deals on
shipping to the U.S.
Their economy greatly improved when they became part of the E.U. They were
a receiving country, which meant the richer countries contributed to
improvements in Ireland. Now that Eastern Europe countries are joining,
Ireland is not too happy, as the now become a giver, rather than receiver.
What surprised me most (pleasantly) was how easy it was to get through
customs. You went through US customs in Shannon, completed the form, got
it stamped and you were then passed through in NY.
It was a nice trip, and I highly recommend it to all. Obviously, we didn't
go there just for shopping. It was an added benefit.
George
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[3] Why People Buy Nominee for Fast Company's Book of the Month choice
for July!
==================================================================
Fast Company Magazine has nominated Why People Buy Things They Don't Need:
Understanding and Predicting Consumer Behavior as July's selection for book
of the month. I'd like to ask a personal favor: if you like the book,
please take just a few seconds in your busy schedule to click on the link
below and vote for Why People Buy Things They Don't Need. (It's at the
bottom of the page).
http://www.fastcompany.com/bookclub
For those of you not familiar with Fast Company's books column, every month
the editor selects books that readers of the magazine can choose to vote on
for a future "Reader's Choice" book. Readers can read more about the book,
including an excerpt, online at:
http://www.fastcompany.com/bookclub
Readers vote online for the book they like best.
The winner, the Reader's Choice book, is then featured in an upcoming issue
with a review and discussion questions, essentially resulting in two months
worth of coverage in this well-read business magazine!
I'd like to encourage you to take a look at the selections for July and
consider voting for Why People Buy Things They Don't Need.
Only one vote per ISP address, so you will probably have to vote from a
computer outside of work! Thanks for your support!
Thank you.
Pam Danziger
Unity Marketing Online
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[4] Web Address Sales Hit Record High
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> The number of domain-name registrations has grown in nearly every year that
> the Internet has existed. The most recent exception was in the first
> quarter of 2002 when new sales fell to approximately 3.8 million from 4.1
> million in the first quarter of 2001.
> The growing demand for domain names was fueled in part by the new
> availability of Internet addresses that use Arabic, Chinese and Russian
> characters, said Raynor Dahlquist, VeriSign's acting vice president for
> naming and directory services.
I remember the Florida land speculation boom of the 50's. My father was
interested in it; but after a two week vacation to check Florida out, he
didn't bite. Some twenty or thirty years later, I had a project in
Florida. Land values were recovering as people were moving there to
retire, with businesses starting up and forming communities.
The dot-com boom follows the same pattern. Speculators bid the
"properties" up out of sight. When economic reality became apparent to
them (i.e. there's no larger fool to sell to, so you really do have to make
it pay...), everything collapsed.
Now, real businesses are finding that the web has genuine use. That use
may not be worth a fortune; but it is worth something.
Having a large database of what people are interested on the web, I'm
working on several deals to create portals for some of the speculators for
a cut of the profits.
That's fine for other countries... but like traffic on our highways, the
web is mostly regional. It isn't the web as much as the people using it --
few people really know more than one or two languages; and the limits of
the keyboard further restricts that. How many Americans know how to type
an n with a ninia? how many will ever want to?
Meanwhile, I resent the several hundred German spams I got today. These
idiots don't seem to care that I don't understand their language. So
what's going to happen when we get a few billion Chinese on the net, and
they start spamming us in Chinese?
-javilk-
Today's Photo: http://www.mall-net.com/today/
------------------- IMAGINEERING --------------------
--------------- Every click, a vote. ----------------
----- Do people vote for, or against your pages? ----
-- What people want: http://www.SitePsych.com/free --
-----------------------------------------------------
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
There still seems to be an issue trying to register domain names. We tried
30+ names last night and they were all taken, and available for sale. So
squatting is still an industry.
George
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