In the 11 December 2018 Trends Journal article, “CENSORSHIP 2019,” we forecast the proliferation of internet censorship across the globe: “Freedom of speech? Freedom of Expression? Forget about it! From the United States to China, from New Zealand to Nepal, Censorship is a megatrend. For well over a year, social media giants and governments have...
Tag: oct 27 2020
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GOING DOWN, GOING BUST, GOING OUT
BUS INDUSTRY FURLOUGHS 80,000 WORKERS. The U.S. motorcoach industry has idled 80 percent of its workforce, or about 80,000 workers, as the pandemic and economic shutdown have slammed the brakes on long-distance bus travel that had been providing about 600 million passenger trips a year, according to the American Bus Association. In an industry that sees...
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GLOBAL ECONOMIC TRENDS
15 PERCENT OF CANADA’S INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES POISED TO FAIL. Canada’s holiday shoppers plan to spend 66 percent of their gift dollars online and at big-box stores, according to a new survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). Many independent retailers are counting on strong holiday sales to lift them beyond the months of...
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CARLSBERG SEES FUTURE BEYOND BEER
Denmark-based Carlsberg, the world’s third-largest brewer, is expanding its offering of non-alcoholic beers, a market now growing by more than 20 percent annually in Europe. The company also plans to offer fermented beverages, a niche between beer and soft drinks. Carlsberg declined to elaborate on the nature of the fermented drinks it might produce. The...
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OIL COMPANIES MERGING AMID INDUSTRY TURMOIL
With oil prices languishing around or below $40 a barrel, smaller oil companies are being subsumed by bigger ones. In September, Devon Energy announced its purchase of WPX Energy for $2.6 billion. This month, Chevron paid $5 billion in stock to acquire Noble Energy and ConocoPhillips is buying Concho Resources for $9.7 billion, the biggest...
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HALF OF CANADIAN RESTAURANTS MAY FAIL BEFORE JANUARY
Without immediate, direct government support, as many as half of all Canadian restaurants might well close permanently by the end of this year, Andrew Oliver, CEO of Oliver & Bonacini Restaurants, told Bloomberg News. Even with government help, 25 percent of the country’s dining establishments may disappear by January, he warned. Patio dining has been...
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CLEANING PRODUCTS SALES SOAR
Procter & Gamble (P&G) and the maker of Lysol reported strong gains in sales in the third quarter. P&G, which makes Mr. Clean and Safeguard anti-bacterial soap, saw its biggest quarterly global sales increase in 15 years. Sales in its home care division, the home of Swiffer and other cleaning products, rose 30 percent. Microban...
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COCA-COLA KILLS 200 BEVERAGE BRANDS
Coca-Cola is ending about half the drink brands in its portfolio, including Dasani, Vitamin Water, and Odwallah. It will focus its resources on core products, such as Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and fast-growing niche brands including AHA caffeinated seltzer and Topo Chico hard seltzer, CEO James Quincey said recently to analysts. Sales of water brands and...
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DARK THEATERS DARKEN MALLS’ FUTURE
As consumers turned to shopping online and major anchor stores such as JCPenny and Macy’s closed, malls pinned their hopes on movie theaters to draw customers to the shops that remain. Ninety of the 240 A-rated U.S. malls have theaters, while 170 of the 700 B-rated centers have them, according to Green Street, a commercial...
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PAYPAL TO DEAL IN CRYPTOCURRENCIES
PayPal and partner Paxos, a financial tech start-up, will be able to buy, hold, and deal in various forms of cryptocurrencies under a “BitLicense” granted to PayPal on 21 October by the New York State Department of Financial Services. The license will allow PayPal to deal in Bitcoin, Etherium, Bitcoin cash, and Litecoin. Until now,...
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