All posts by Alison Meadows

About Alison Meadows

Alison Meadows has a PHD in Economic Trends in Modern Times and is a known writer who focuses on hedge fund investments. Meadows, her husband, and three kids live in Boston, where she grew up and attended college. Contact Alison at alison[at]businessdistrict.com

Buy Real Estate

Investments, Real Estate, ,

Yes it sounds strange, but perhaps the best investment right now is real estate.  Besides the housing prices being so darn low, housing can offer a great way to have some sense of stability when everything else in the economy seems so out of whack.

Its true housing hasn’t always been a great in terms of get rich quick investments, but long term stability is what the average person should be after and that comes with owning a house.  Houses also can provide passive income through renting rooms, yet most of all houses when valued correctly can offer long term stability when nothing else seems to.

McDonald’s Makes Modifications

Consumerism,

It seems like McDonald’s has finally caved in to pressure.  The word on the street throughout the western world has changed from enjoying every morsel one eats no matter how unhealthy it is, to fighting obesity with every bone in our bodies.  McDonald’s has pretty much had no choice but to chime in and has done so in a very dignified way with its new Happy Meal, due out this coming September.

The portion of French fries will be significantly smaller, but will be supplemented by a quarter cup of apple slices. The apple slice addition has sort of been offered recently.  But it was called Apple Dippers as it came alongside a caramel dip.  The dip will be discarded in the new meal. Still in the Happy Meal will be the choice of cheeseburger, Chicken McNuggets or hamburger but the new meal beverage choice will include fat-free chocolate milk and 1 percent low-fat milk.

By the first quarter of 2012, McDonald’s hopes these happy meals will be available in all its 14,000 restaurants around America.  There are more goals ahead.  According to an article in AdAge, in the next nine years, McDonalds is going to be putting in significantly less sugar, fat and calories via “varied portion sizes and what the company called reformulations.”  Indeed, already the foods offered made from chicken have undergone a 10 percent decrease in sodium and by 2015, the company hopes its sodium in general goes down by 15 percent.

On average, these changes will result in a 20 percent calorie reduction of the chain’s “most popular” Happy Meals.  This is a huge change since Happy Meals comprise 10 percent of all of the chain’s orders.

Post-PC Era

Tech News, ,

Consequences for the Marketing World

If it is indeed true that we are entering the “post-PC era,” according to a recent article in ABC News, then we will be witnessing significant changes in marketing approaches and techniques vis-à-vis computers and other technical products now available.  Apparently though, while this is news now, a bunch of other tekkies were using the term somewhat prematurely for at least ten years; in other words, it wasn’t exactly the case that the PC was in a “post-era” way back when.

Now is the time though.  According to a Forrester Research analyst who has been investigating consumer technology evolution, Sarah Rotman Epps, “this is a time of intense change.  New competition for PC manufacturers makes it just really, really hard to make a profit.”  So, in order to make this profit, manufacturers of PCs are looking at other, new markets.  Sales need to be made, and if it means moving away from the traditional PC, then that is what will be done.

Intel’s Investors’ Conference

Recently, Intel held an investors’ conference.  There, Paul Otellini, CEO of the company, presented a map to everyone which outlined where expansion in the PC market is expected in the near future.  Europe and America weren’t exactly forefront in the picture.  Instead, it was countries like Brazil, China, India and Russia (BRIC countries) along with the Czech Republic, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey and Venezuela.  It is anticipated that all of these countries will go witness a “double-digit percentage growth.”

Marketing Abroad

What does this mean in practice?  According to ABC News, it indicates that “the world’s leading computer chip-maker and its industry allies have no choice but to launch a marketing attack on foreign shores.”  The question on everyone’s lips though still remains, why are sales of PCs diminishing so much in countries like America?  Apparently it is because “the same technological advances that fueled the PC industry’s rise — faster processors and lower costs every couple of years — are now benefiting the devices that are usurping it.”  These days there are smaller gadgets available to do the same things only PCs could do some years ago, so why not purchase those instead?

Google May Buy Groupon

Tech News,

Google is setting its sights on the purchase of Groupon, the New York Times reported today.

Groupon, the increasingly popular e-commerce coupon website, emails about 200 deals daily to its members. The deals are actualized only when a minimum number of people target the same deal, which in turn enables Groupon to negotiate steep group discounts on the relevant item or service.

Google may pay as much as $6 billion for Groupon, according to the New York Times report. But sources informed about the potential agreement advised that the deal is not yet confirmed.

The Thanksgiving Turkey Reflects America’s Economic Troubles

Economy, ,

Charities nationwide are struggling with their annual collections of that symbol of American Thanksgiving: the turkey. Organizations who feed the hungry make a major effort to provide needy families with the ability to celebrate a real Thanksgiving. However, that goal is proving difficult to achieve this year.

“This year has been really tough,” explained Greta Walker, a spokeswoman for the Denver Rescue Mission in Colorado. “We started the drive on November 1 and about 10 days into it, we had zero turkeys. And I started to get really worried.”

There are two factors contributing to this year’s dearth of turkey donations: The first is that turkeys have gone up in price – they cost up to 20% more than last year. The second is that families who normally contribute are themselves struggling just to provide their own families with a holiday dinner. This reflects the vicious circle of an economic recession, which means that at the same time that the number of people needing assistance increases, the number of those with the financial wherewithal to help them goes down. Charities thus end up with more people to feed but less food being donated. As a consequence, many organizations are forced to use money earmarked for other programs for the purchase of Thanksgiving dinner for America’s poor.