Small Business
Texting teens have created a world of their own, one in which there’s little time to think
If you’ve suspected lately that your family’s mobile-phone bill is driven entirely by your 15-year-old, you are probably right. A recent Nielsen report shows that children ages 13 to 17 average an astonishing 3,417 text messages a month — some 45 percent of all text messages. This breaks down to seven texts “every waking hour,” or roughly one every eight and a half minutes.
But those who look at this data and worry that young people are over-texting may be asking the wrong question. The more pertinent concern may be not the amount but the function. Many observers argue that the social world of teenagers and even young adults is nowadays largely constituted by text messaging.
Maybe so. Certainly a principal reason cited by many teens for their use of texting is that it is fun.
Slower gains in worker output could lead to hiring
WASHINGTON – U.S. companies will have to keep hiring steadily to meet their customers’ rising demand. That’s the message that emerged Wednesday from a report that employers are finding it harder to squeeze more output from their existing staff.
Worker productivity rose at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the October-December quarter, the Labor Department said. While that’s a slight upward revision from last month’s preliminary estimate, it’s half the pace from the July-September quarter.
Productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, grew last year at the slowest pace in nearly a quarter of a century.
A slowdown is bad for corporate profits. But it can be a good sign for future hiring.
Cotton prices down, but clothing costs won’t be
“I don’t think anybody is looking in a meaningful way to be lowering the prices,” Carter’s chairman and CEO Michael Casey said in a company conference call.
The children’s clothing company was able to pass on some of the cost increases to shoppers, but the difficult economy kept them from raising prices more, Casey said. Still, the price of clothes won’t fluctuate down, as Carter’s expects fuel prices and the cost to employ workers to continue to rise. It also hopes to improve the amount of money it makes on each article of clothing sold.
Carter’s sales grew 21 percent in 2011 and baby clothing and playwear orders for next fall are strong. Girls’ playwear, which had struggled, is improving, but sleepwear continues to be down.
Carter’s online sales grew to more than $70 million, far greater than the company expected.
4WD and a sixth sense: Safety at next level in Grand Cherokee
After driving 400 miles on a crowded interstate highway, I’ve been thinking about changing lanes in an SUV. There’s more to it than you might realize.
Thanks to the amazing array of sensors that are available on a top-of-the-line luxury vehicle, today’s well-heeled driver can discover where his own senses end and danger begins.
Motoring round-trip on Texas’ ever-congested strip of Interstate 35 between Austin and Dallas, I had a chance to discover the capability of the electronics on the Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland Summit, a loaded 4×4 that retails for $42,995.
As an all-purpose, go-anywhere, do-anything sport utility, the Grand Cherokee is riding high, with a wealth of awards and a 51 percent sales increase in 2011 nationally and a 226 percent increase in Texas alone.
Citibank says frequent flier miles are taxable
NEW YORK ? Frequent flier miles aren?t so enticing when they?re taxable.
That may be the sentiment among Citibank customers who are receiving 1099 tax forms from the bank to report their frequent flier miles. The forms were sent to customers who were given American Airline miles for opening a checking or savings account last year.
That?s causing confusion ? and possible concern ? among those who never before reported their frequent flier miles and other credit card rewards as income.
Here?s what?s behind the seeming discrepancy:
The Confusion
Credit card rewards ? including frequent flier miles and cash back ? are not taxable because they?re treated as rebates on spending, according to the Tax Institute at H&R Block.
However, a reward given for opening a checking or savings account is not considered a rebate since you don?t spend any money to receive it.
Starbucks to sell beer, wine in some metro Atlanta stores
The company said Monday it plans to begin serving beer and wine at four to six metro Atlanta locations later this year. The specific stores and when the products would be available have not been released.
The broadened menu, which also will include small plate dinners, is the Seattle-based retailer’s response to customers who have said they want the chain to offer more food and beverage choices in the evenings. The selected wines and beers will reflect customer tastes and preferences in each locality and will be refined over time, the company said.
“As our customers transition from work to home, many are looking for a warm and inviting place to unwind and connect with the people they care about,” Clarice Turner, senior vice president of operations in the United States, said in the announcement.
The expanded offerings began in 2010 in Seattle and have grown to five stores in the Washington city and one in Portland. The
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