• Kay, Zales, and Marketing Diamonds to the Middle-Class Man
  The headline promises a bit more information than the article delivers, but this is an otherwise unknown look at how Signet (owns Zales, Peoples, other jewellers) runs its business.

  While Light told investors Signet was optimizing its e-comm experience, the company sees its sites as primarily as destinations for education and first impressions. Physical stores “will always be the most important element” of its strategy because, as Signet sees it, brick-and-mortar far outweighs digital in jewelry sales, even among young consumers.

  “What we find is the millennials who might buy from us online, they actually ship to a store to go see it, actively touch it,” says Zales CEO George Murray. “They’re not just buying everything online through mobile, no human contact, social media activity that’s going on. It is a very, very physical world.”

• Amor Prohibido
  20 years after the death of Selena, a look at how her legacy is being preserved in her home town.

  When Fiesta de la Flor, the two-day Selena-themed festival held on April 17 and 18, was announced back in January, the Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau made it very, very clear that it had the approval of the family. The constant reminder, repeated by city officials in press releases and interviews, seemed like a nervous tic, like someone walking through a tough neighborhood invoking the name of the local mafia don. In the end, Mr. Quintanilla did nothing to prevent my access to the event. At the Fiesta itself I overheard a friendly official working a security line for Chris Perez, who was sitting for photos, assure a fan from New Jersey that the event was Quintanilla-blessed. The Jersey girl hadn’t even broached the subject.

• Learning to Speak Lingerie
  This is an interesting article that links together Chinese people, Egypt and lingerie – three things that don’t belong together. Basically there are a couple of people who are making money by selling lingerie in conservative Egypt cities. That’s the teaser, but it later delves into societal reasons as to why Chinese people are making money and why Egyptians are not, which is arguably a more compelling read.

  While Lin and Chen were building their small lingerie empire, they noticed that there was a lot of garbage sitting in open piles around Asyut. They were not the first people to make this observation. But they were the first to respond by importing a polyethylene-terephthalate bottle-flake washing production line, which is manufactured in Jiangsu province, and which allows an entrepreneur to grind up plastic bottles, wash and dry the regrind at high temperatures, and sell it as recycled material.

  “I saw that it was just lying around, so I decided that I could recycle it and make money,” Lin told me. He and his wife had no experience in the industry, but in 2007 they established the first plastic-bottle recycling facility in Upper Egypt. Their plant is in a small industrial zone in the desert west of Asyut, where it currently employs thirty people and grinds up about four tons of plastic every day. Lin and Chen sell the processed material to Chinese people in Cairo, who use it to manufacture thread. This thread is then sold to entrepreneurs in the Egyptian garment industry, including a number of Chinese. It’s possible that a bottle tossed onto the side of the road in Asyut will pass through three stages of Chinese processing before returning to town in the form of lingerie, also to be sold by Chinese.

• Dinner and Deception
  I enjoy reading about waiters and their work (one of my favourite blogs used to be The Big, Weird Business of Prom
  The business of prom dresses is apparently really big, even bigger than some retail chains! This is not a great article for indepth knowledge, but it shares a few nuggets.

  Families with a total household income above $50,000 will spend an average of $799 on prom, and that number increases as income decreases. Families with a total household income below $50,000 spend $1,109, and families with a total household income below $25,000 will spend $1,393. The poorer you are, the more likely you are to pony up for a fancy gown. The cost varies by region as well. Northeastern families spend the most ($1,169), while Midwestern families spend the least ($733). In most circumstances, a significant fraction of a teenage girl’s prom budget is likely dedicated to her dress.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: chinese, pocket