Planning for valentines

Valentine's Day is around the corner, so it's about time to decide on sending gifts to loved ones. I found that Dot Flowers offers some really nice gourmet gift baskets, flower arrangements and chocolate's that can be sent on great deals. Flowers can be sent either from their growers farms or from your local florist. I like the fact that they really have a wide variety of products available that can be combined to make a gift really personal and special. Have a look at some of these great ideas for valentines Day gifts. Dot Flowers is known for its customer service, so you don't have to worry about your order at all.

Local retail: HyperCITY Vs Spencer's

Just back from some shopping at HyperCITY in Malad. It is the only hypermarket that is comparable to such stores in the US. They have really got everything correct in the store, from the mix of products, the layout of the store, the prices, the signage (the best of all the retail stores in India), the ease of flow from one department to the next and the wide aisles. We like going there to do all bulk items required for the house every couple of months. The checkout counters are plentiful (there are 24 of them), so you never have to wait more than 5 minutes (when I go which is always in off peak times) and the staff is courteous, helpful and knowledgeable. The fact that parking is free when you spend more than Rs 100 is an added bonus, which Spencer's at Inorbit Mall doesn't do.

HyperCITY wins over Spencer's on pretty much every front. Spencer's is nowhere as well laid out as HyperCITY, nor is it as well stocked. Like most times, I found each and everything on my list at HyperCITY, down to the right brand, right flavor, right size and usually an even better price that I had thought of. At Spencer's, I can usually only find 70% of items on my list and the most irritating part is that they keep changing things around, so you have to wander the aisles, which do not have any signs, find a customer service person who might or might not be able to tell you where to go.

The only thing that I did not like about HyperCITY is that they are not able to keep the smell down in the meat section, so even though I want to buy some stuff there, I just cannot stand the assorted smells of raw fish, meat and chicken assailing my nose.

Reliance Fresh aims for 4 million sq ft of retail space

Reliance Retail's food and grocery format store Reliance Fresh is aiming to reach 4 million sq ft of space by the end of this year. The company had recently acquired the Adani Retail Group which as 54 stores in the state of Gujarat which will soon be rebranded by the company into Reliance Fresh stores.

Over the past 5 to 6 months, Reliance Retail has been aggressive on the acquisition front. Having snapped up the Adani stores, it is also in talks to acquire the Delhi-based co-operative chain Super Bazar and Mumbai-based co-op chain Maratha Stores. Unconfirmed reports say it is also eyeing the south India-based Subhiksha retail chain.

Personlizing a wedding

Planning a wedding is not an easy task, considering just how many things need to be taken care of for the big day. So, where do you go for all your wedding supply needs all in one place? The Knot Wedding Shop has some of the best and most innovative items for weddings, including necessities such as wedding camera and ring pillows to personalized wedding favors, attendant gifts and cake toppers. I find the idea of personalizing items with the bride and groom's names along with the date as a really special way to memorialize the day. The Knot Wedding Shop is a really great place for all your wedding needs, it is also the largest retailer for wedding related supplies on the Internet, stocking over 1,000 interesting and hard to find items.

Kewal Kiran Clothing to open large format stores for its brands

The Kewal Kiran Clothing (KKC) company will be setting up large format stores by the end of 2008. The company is known for manufacturing brands such as Killer, Lawman, Easies and th Integriti brands of garments. Initially, four stores will be opened, of which one store will be located in Kandivili in Mumbai. The company will be investing Rs 5-6 crore in each store. Stores will be approximately 20,000 sq ft in size and will retail both its existing labels as well as new brands that are yet to be launched.

Tata wins bid for Corus

The Eocnomic Times reports that the Tata Group won the bidding for Corus for GBP 6.2 billion (plus adjusted debt of GBP 500 million) to become the fifth largest steel company in the world. The auction was held in London, where Tata's beat the competition from CSN from Brazil to make the winning bid at 608 pence a share in the ninth round of the bidding.

Speaking to ET right after the auction, Anwar Hasan, managing director of Tata Ltd in UK, said that the bidding was tense and at many times hectic, but finally the mood in Camp Tata is "naturally, very happy," at the outcome. The auction, slated to go on for 10 hours, actually lasted about 8 and half to nine hours.

SMEs are more credit worthy than you think

According to a study by Crisil, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) account for the major part of commercial activity in the country, although they have traditionally been seen as not very credit-worthy than large corporations. The Economic Times reports that the study was conducted comparing data from 2,500 large corporates and around 32,000 SMEs in the manufacturing sector.

SMEs compare well with their larger cousins on several debt protection parameters, and are more bankable credits than they are generally perceived to be. Although SMEs do not fare quite as well on the profitability front, possibly on account of the competitive pressures they face, this is offset by much better debt-equity levels.

Additionally, SMEs differ widely from one another in performance and credit quality. Therefore, the performance and credit quality of an individual SME cannot be judged on the basis of conclusions drawn from evaluating the performance and credit quality of SMEs in general. Here entity-specific ratings help lenders better evaluate the credit quality.

Is it over for The Gap?

Some time back I had written about Gap losing its edge, becoming boring and predictable. I wonder if it will be able to gain some of its fans back. I've been shopping at Gap since I was in college and although my tastes have changes since then, unfortunately Gap has essentially remained the same. I mean, just how many classic khakhi's do they want us to own? Sales at The Gap have been dismal, even during the holiday season. I visited several stores in the summer and then again in November and December in the NY area and Toronto, but there was nothing that really made me stop and want to try on.

Reliance Retail opens stores in NCR

Reliance Retail opened 9 stores on Monday, 29th January, 2007 in the National Capital Region (NCR). The Economic Times reports that the company now has a total of 50 Reliance Fresh stores in the nation. While, it opened 9 stores in Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida and Gurgaon, the company has not opened any store in Delhi itself. Sources report that it has delayed opening stores in Delhi due to several regulatory problems that it has faced, along with problems in getting the right locations for its stores. The company plans to open 100 stores in the NCR by April, of which 50 will be in Delhi and the remaining in the surrounding areas.

"There are issues concerning the Delhi Master Plan. The senior executives are also negotiating with the MCD for allotment of land," an RIL source told ET. "We are waiting for the Master Plan tofinalizedised as we only want clean land for our stores," said Reliance Retail CEO (operations & strategy) Raghu Pillai.

Blade Servers from ClearCube

Have you seen ClearCube's blade PC systems? Using the ClearCube technology and a Blade Server, a user has full functionality of a PC without taking up all that space in your already cramped office. In any Intel based computer that is able to deliver full functionality from a single centralized location, this really is the way to go. Using the latest PC components such as Intel Core 2 Duo, Xeon and Pentium 4 processors, the PC blade systems are sure to change the way you work.

Organizing your lists electronically

One of my favorite sources of information on all things technological, Techzoogle reports that a new device called SmartShopper that allows shoppers to recognize names of grocery items by voice, record them electronically and print out a receipt on thermal paper has been awarded the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show's Design and Engineering Award. It was also named as one of the top ten new products at the show. The SmartShopper, designed by Richard Brundisi and Gregory Vittardi, has an LCD screen that categorizes purchases according to categories such as frozen foods, toiletries etc. A total of 2500 grocery items can be saved on the SmartShopper, which can also save errand lists that can be printed out with your grocery list.

Singapore's Singtel interested in Vodafone's 10% stake in Bharti

Some news on the Vodafone-Hutchinson Essar-Bharti Airtel deal. Singapore's largest telecom group, Singtel is reportedly interested in picking up Vodafone's 10% state in Bharti Airtel. If Vodafone wins the $18 billion auction of Hutchinson Essar, it will be offloading its stake in Bharti Airtel.

At present, SingTel owns 30.5% stake in Bharti Airtel. “The initial talks have started. SingTel is keen on it,” a source close to the deal said. The news comes at a time when Vodafone’s chief executive Arun Sarin revealed that he would be making a formal offer for the Hutchison Essar early next month.

Social networking goes mobile

Social networking is now catching on in mobile media too. E-Commerce Times reports a trend that consumers are taking to revolves around accessing social networking sites via cell phones. Sites such as MySpace and Facebook have become the rage with consumers who are now taking the trend to accessing information from these sites on their mobile phones, creating a entirely new opportunity. While some social networking sites on mobile phones are extensions of their online versions, others are specifically for mobile devices. So consumers can now, search for friends, join chat rooms via text messaging. Cell phones with high quality camera's can also upload photos and videos.

The concept of mobile social networking isn't entirely new. Hookt, for example, has its origins in a mobile service launched five years ago by AirG of Canada. It's grown into an international community of 10 million users who access it through 85 different cell companies under assorted brands.

Being serious about payday loans

Organizing one's finances is not always an easy task and there are tons of confusing issues to be dealt with, but thanks to the easy access to payday loans, consumers are able to handle financial crises with greater ease than ever before. While a lot of people downgrade these loans, if you take them seriously and pay them back on time, they will not affect your credit history adversely. One has to be responsible about taking and paying back any loan, and a payday loan is no different. In fact, one must be more careful about any loan that you can get on a short notice and respond to it in a serious manner. Using the internet has also made it so much simpler to get these loans and find out abour rates and penalties.

Making szechwan chicken at home

Have you always wanted to make Chinese food at home, but never manage to get it right? I've been using Sun Bird Seasonings since I was in college to make easy and delicious Chinese food at home and I brought some packets back home with me when I was in the US this summer, along with cans of water chestnuts and bamboo shoots which are not always easily available here. So, tonight we had Hot and Spicy Szechwan Chicken, along with some hakka noodles which we ordered in from Mainland China. As a college student, one tries out lots of easy stuff to cook, but this one was one of my favorite tricks. It turns out so good that unless you know that the seasoning comes from a packet, you would never guess it from eating it. Now, I'm wondering why I didn't bring more packets back with me? Hmmm, think I must start planning my next trip....

Retailing at first hand

One of the 'organized' retail stores near where we live is called Godrej's Nature's Basket. It opened last year here in Lokhandwala and I was eagerly anticipating doing all my shopping there. Unfortunately, it turned out to stock not the entire requirements of what one needs for a monthly grocery. They keep fruits and veggies, as their name suggests, and an odd assortment of imported products such as Kellogg cereals, Prego pasta sauce, Bertolli olive oil etc. They seem to want to focus on offering all organic products but the range is just not complete.

Their fruits and vegetables, especially the veggies, have really been improving lately, to the point that I might now do my weekly veggie shopping there, if my regular veggie chap didn't show or some other reason. What I like is that they now stock items that your (and mine too) veggie vendor will not usually have, like celery, asparagus, chives, basil, mushrooms etc.

What really bugs me about the place is their customer service, which is quite bad. Apart from the fruits and veggie section, there are no customer service people in the store at all, besides those at the cash counters. So, if you can't find something, good luck to you! Once you reach the cash counters, you'll see 95% of the time that their computers are down, so they are making manual bills.

Then, they have a habit of not returning change, which I find extremely irritating. My bill today came to Rs 218.49 and they automatically round it off to Rs 219, which is just plain wrong. Retailers just don't seem to realize how much importance customers now place on getting good customer service. It's not ok just to be 'ok', to be a successfull retailer now, you have to be excellent at least one of the key factors, such as price, variety of products, home delivery, customer service, special offers, etc. I wonder when they will understand.

Could Carrefour be tying up with Anil's ADAG?

Things are really going to get interesting on the retail front. After the Bharti-Wal-Mart tie up, there is talk in the industry that Carrefour is likely to form an agreement with Anil Ambani's Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) to start retail operations in India. The French retailer has been wanting to enter India's retail market and has unsuccessfully held talks with Bharti (which later tied up with Wal-Mart), the Wadias of Bombay Dyeing, Dubai based Landmark Group and the Godrej's as well.

If this deal goes through, then Anil Ambani will be in direct competition with estranged elder brother Mukesh Ambani, who has a head start with his Reliance Retail concept. The company now has 40 food and grocery stores open in three cities: Hyderabad, Jaipur and Chennai. Its B2B format Ranger Farms which functions from 2am to 9am only for wholesalers and other store keepers is also operational.

Testing Cite Bite

I write a lot about retail, new business ideas, technology, trends, and communication, so am constantly reading lots and lots of newspapers, magazines, newsletters on a variety of subjects. Since I am quoting from a source, I like to link directly to the article I am referring to, so as to establish credibility and authenticity. Today I saw another version of linking to an article, a site called Cite Bite, where you can cite specific portions, instead of linking to the entire article, and the link will take you directly to the source with the quoted text highlighted. For example, if I was writing an article on The Gap (one of my old posts), using Cite Bite, it would look like this.

Creating a digital lifestyle at home

Are our lives being overtaken by technology? E-Commerce Times reports that consumers are adding on products and services to their TVs and PCs, creating a digital lifestyle for themselves. Service providers are popping up out of nowhere to offer add on services to compete with each other. Set top boxes, time/place shifters such as TiVo and Slingbox are gaining as consumers want to focus on having all possible options available. A variety of technology, electronic and computer companies are trying to be a part of the growth in the new home market.

"Service providers -- particularly in broadband access and television delivery -- view the deployment of Web-connected home applications as service differentiators and a means to promote customer loyalty," Kurt Scherf, principal analyst and VP at Parks Associates , told the E-Commerce Times.

Are malls returning in fashion?

After being considered a wasted option, the tried and tested format of a mall, might be coming back in with consumers. The Star Tribune of Minneapolis and St. Paul reports that developers in Minneapolis are considering building regional malls in the metro area suburbs such as Rogers, Maple Grove and Chanhassen. Could this be the comeback of the traditional mall? Although nothing is officially decided as yet, developers and city officials are upbeat on new malls coming up in the next five years. If approved, this would be the first new mall to come up in three decades in the area.

Over time, mall developers would want to build projects in the same fast-growing suburbs that have attracted strip centers with big-box chains like Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Another critical factor was the resurgence of department stores, which opened up the possibility that -- once again -- mall developers could find anchor tenants to make their projects feasible.

Even so, some retail experts questioned whether the Twin Cities can support more malls, especially with the Mall of America preparing to double its size. New malls would simply draw business from regional and downtown centers that are struggling to retain tenants, retail consultants said.