Well, most of the numbers are in for the Christmas 2013 shopping season. For most, the numbers are disappointing, and for Target…no comment. But online stores don’t seem to have that problem.
Last week, Best Buy was the latest to report declining numbers. According to Shopper Trak, the number of retail traffic in stores has declined for the third year in a row. Some stores opened on Thanksgiving day, but that did little to help. After the Thanksgiving weekend, sales either held? slightly below average or declined drastically. Shopper Trak shows Americans visited five malls in 2007, in ’13, only three. Meanwhile on the online front, sales increases have more than doubled from just a few years earlier. Even Best Buy says their online shopping sales have increased 24% since last year.
It was thought after the Great Recession of the late 200os, people would return to the malls and stores. But many never did. Instead, people are returning to online stores. And the economy isn’t really fully recovered (I wonder if it ever will), but that’s just part of the problem. One woman testified that with three kids, it’s just too chaotic to go. It’s a lot easier to look for that last toy online for your kids than to be fighting over it at the store. Season after season, there are news stories of people getting trampled, fights breaking out, even people getting killed because of insane store shopping. Hmmm…is that one of the reasons store fronts is losing and online fronts are winning?
In 2001, the first iPod was sold. In 2003, Apple first opened the iTunes store. Ever since, it’s been the premier way of getting music. Is that changing?
It turns out 2013 was the first year that digital music sold less than the year before. Digital albums fell only 0.1%, but digital tracks fell 5.7%. In fact, albums sales in general declined in 2013. The only music avenue that saw an increase was the old vinyl record. The top selling songs were Robin Thicke’s?”Blurred Lines” and Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop”. There’s an elephant in the wall executives need to address whether they want to or not: the growing popularity of streaming. ?These subscription services slowly but surely ate up digital music services.
At the risk of giving my?away my age here, I?have a suggestion for all in the music?industry: Start making better music! You know what sorry?shape the music game is in when?Time magazine picks Miley Cyrus as one of the?top 10 Persons of theYear. It seems like every other song is the boom boom of techno/house or some?gangster rapper bragging about his?money, jewelry, women, cars and?guns, or some pop tart?glorifying the party lifestyle. Those things are okay, but not every song all the time!?How about some creativity?and originality? Or how about songs that mean something, like artist used to do back in the 1960s and ’70s?
How do you think the music industry should address the digital music decline?
At one point, parents were worried about their mid to older teenagers getting on Facebook. Now they might be worried about them not logging onto the social media site.
According to one study done in Europe, teens between 15-18 are leaving Facebook by the multitudes. Guess what the reason is? Because their parents and other adults are sending them friend request. One social scientist calls Facebook ‘dead and buried’ as far as this demographic is concerned. The fact that Facebook is getting popular among adult demographics isn’t helping matters. The ‘big brother’ or privacy issue ?and recent bullying tragedies also play a factor.
It’s a age old story. Once something becomes cool with the older folk, it’s popularity with the younger folk go out the window. But I want to address the privacy issue. More teens are becoming aware what they post on Facebook and other social media sites could haunt them for life. There are plenty stories of people getting fired, not being hired, or even getting arrested, for things they say and do online, no matter how funny, sexy or innocent it might seem at the time. I think that’s why many teens are opting not to go on Facebook period. What is the cause of this Facebook slide?
And bitcoin has?found another believer and another user. Now don’t rush over there with your bitcoin just yet.
Online megastore Overstock.com has agreed to accept Bitcoin as currency. They will begin to accept the Internet only currency sometime during the second half of 2014. They are the first major online retailer to make this move. (Really?) Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne says logistics still had to be worked out, but “Bitcoin is good money.” Overstock was launched in the late 1990s. Now, they’re one of the biggest online retailers around today, averaging over a billion dollars in sales a year.
This would be a bigger step up for Bitcoin than for Overstock. But I do think this is an educated risk for the retailer. They’ve seen how the new currency has exploded this past year. They also see how unstable this market could be. But Byrne seems really excited about this new adventure, and I think this relationship will be an adventure. I had a feeling something like this was coming. And if this relationship was successful, will other retail stores and maybe auction sites like EBay accept Bitcoin? If this works, how far can Bitcoin’s future grow?
Next year, 2014, is expected to be the year of the iWatch and Google Glass. Wearable technology is becoming the latest trend. Is it good for us?
Some say yes. If someone would call on our watch, we can just press a button on our wrists. If you want to take a picture, just wink with your Google Glass. As early as 1945, a Life Magazine article predicted wearable technology would one day be a way of life. The article is called, “As We May Think”. Some say wearable technology will help us communicate together face to face. Another argument is that wearable technologies reduce time. For example, Google Glass is designed to take 10 second video clip, photographs and hangouts, and share these experiences with ease.
I am not one of these voices. In fact, I think wearable technology is going to increase our dependance on it. At least with phones and cameras, we have to put a physical effort to answer your phone and take a picture. With this, it’s so attached to you that it becomes a part of you. I doubt it will help us communicate better. Imagine looking at somebody wearing Google Glass. Imagine looking at somebody talking to his own wrist. Sorry if it seems I’m a little old school when it comes to these new things. Maybe they will prove me wrong. Do you think wearable technology will wane or intensify our tech addition?
This week, President Barack Obama will meet with Silicon Valley leaders about many of the hot button tech issues of 2013, like the NSA spy scandals and the Obamacare website fiasco.
These tech giants include Apple CEO Tim Cook, Yahoo President/CEO Marissa Meyer, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and AT&T President/CEO Randall Stevenson. One issue to be tackled is the improvements made to the infamous Obamacare website. It has been riddled with so many mistakes and glitches it has become the punchline in comedian’s jokes. The White House didn’t come out and say the NSA will be discussed but it will be. This meeting comes in the wake of a federal judge calling the surveillance programs ‘likely unconstitutional’. Also, issues like tech job security, job creation and education in the tech field.
I’d really like to be a fly on the wall for this meeting, especially when it comes to the NSA stuff. Many companies are now saying they were coaxed, manipulated, or outright bullied into cooperating with the Feds in these surveillance programs. There was a 60 Minutes article which didn’t make them look too much better. Now Snowden is working some deal with Brazil in exchange for asylum. Come to think of it, these issues aren’t going to be addressed in a day. They’re simply too many issues to be addressed. What about that EBT card glitch back in October? What about the struggle for college graduates in tech fields to find jobs? What about employers firing people and/or denying work simply for the content of social media’s pages? Where would I begin?
