Showing posts with label locals have moref fun blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label locals have moref fun blog. Show all posts
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
HUGE LANDS PACKAGE CLEARS CONGRESS, AWAITS OBAMA’S SIGNATURE
Bend, Ore., – the House of Representatives voted today to pass the Omnibus Public Land Management Act. The final vote in the House was 285-140. The bill passed the Senate 77-21 last week. The lands package now goes to President Obama for his signature, possibly as early as next Monday.
The legislation protects two million acres of Wilderness and 1000 miles of rivers, and prohibits new oil and gas development on 1.2 million acres in Wyoming. It also legislatively affirms the 26-million-acre National Landscape Conservation System.
“This is a major conservation victory that preserves wild places throughout the US forever,” said John Sterling, Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance.
Every conservation provision included in the legislation started at the local level where grassroots organizations led the charge to build public support to protect a special landscape or waterway. The Conservation Alliance supported the local organizations that led the efforts behind 12 of the 16 Wilderness provisions included in the package. The Alliance also funded the groups leading the efforts behind protecting the Snake River Headwaters, and closing the Wyoming Range to new oil and gas development.
In total, The Conservation Alliance contributed more than $700,000 to ten different organizations whose good work eventually wound up in the package. The Alliance also worked in close partnership with Outdoor Industry Association to demonstrate that the outdoor industry stood uniformly behind the provisions in this package.
“This is a big victory, and we did everything within the limits of our lean staff capacity and financial resources to ensure it crossed the finish line,” said Sterling.
Click here http://conservationalliance.com/UserFiles/File/OPLMA08.pdf to view a summary of the conservation provisions in the bill.
About the Conservation Alliance:
The Conservation Alliance is an organization of outdoor businesses whose collective contributions support grassroots environmental organizations and their efforts to protect wild places where outdoor enthusiasts recreate. Alliance funds have played a key role in protecting rivers, trails, wildlands and climbing areas.
Membership in the Alliance is open to companies representing all aspects of the outdoor industry, including manufacturers, retailers, publishers, mills and sales representatives. The result is a diverse group of businesses whose livelihood depends on protecting our natural environment.
Since its inception in 1989, the Alliance has contributed more than $7.4 million to grassroots environmental groups. Alliance funding has helped save over 40 million acres of wildlands; 26 dams have either been stopped or removed; and the group helped preserve access to more than 17,000 miles of waterways and several climbing areas. For complete information on the Conservation Alliance, see www.conservationalliance.com
The legislation protects two million acres of Wilderness and 1000 miles of rivers, and prohibits new oil and gas development on 1.2 million acres in Wyoming. It also legislatively affirms the 26-million-acre National Landscape Conservation System.
“This is a major conservation victory that preserves wild places throughout the US forever,” said John Sterling, Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance.
Every conservation provision included in the legislation started at the local level where grassroots organizations led the charge to build public support to protect a special landscape or waterway. The Conservation Alliance supported the local organizations that led the efforts behind 12 of the 16 Wilderness provisions included in the package. The Alliance also funded the groups leading the efforts behind protecting the Snake River Headwaters, and closing the Wyoming Range to new oil and gas development.
In total, The Conservation Alliance contributed more than $700,000 to ten different organizations whose good work eventually wound up in the package. The Alliance also worked in close partnership with Outdoor Industry Association to demonstrate that the outdoor industry stood uniformly behind the provisions in this package.
“This is a big victory, and we did everything within the limits of our lean staff capacity and financial resources to ensure it crossed the finish line,” said Sterling.
Click here http://conservationalliance.com/UserFiles/File/OPLMA08.pdf to view a summary of the conservation provisions in the bill.
About the Conservation Alliance:
The Conservation Alliance is an organization of outdoor businesses whose collective contributions support grassroots environmental organizations and their efforts to protect wild places where outdoor enthusiasts recreate. Alliance funds have played a key role in protecting rivers, trails, wildlands and climbing areas.
Membership in the Alliance is open to companies representing all aspects of the outdoor industry, including manufacturers, retailers, publishers, mills and sales representatives. The result is a diverse group of businesses whose livelihood depends on protecting our natural environment.
Since its inception in 1989, the Alliance has contributed more than $7.4 million to grassroots environmental groups. Alliance funding has helped save over 40 million acres of wildlands; 26 dams have either been stopped or removed; and the group helped preserve access to more than 17,000 miles of waterways and several climbing areas. For complete information on the Conservation Alliance, see www.conservationalliance.com
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Retail versus E-Commerce: Did you hear?... Recent Carnegie Mellon study indicates e-commerce more e-friendly…sort of
In a report that is not necessarily great news for brick-and-mortar retailers, results of a Carnegie Mellon Design Institute study estimates that e-commerce retailers use less energy -- click here to read. Further, the study found that e-commerce retailers could claim a carbon footprint that was a third smaller than their brick-and-mortar brethren.
This is certainly an argument that was made by Nau founders when the company, now owned by Horny Toad, first launched to much fanfare and some raised eyebrows -- click here to read the SNEWS® story, "The time is 'Nau' for new concept in retail." Nau claimed that by building its business on a foundation of stores that had small footprints, and encouraged customers to purchased items on the web or even in the store to have it shipped, the overall environmental impact was less than a traditional brick-and-mortar model. Now, it appears, science is backing up that claim…to a point.
To conduct the study, researchers used a test case of purchasing a flash drive either in a brick-and-mortar store or via the web. Buy.com was the e-commerce site, giving researchers open access to data that might otherwise be considered confidential -- data center info, energy consumption info and delivery details.
To create a comparison, researchers made the assumption that a consumer shopping at a brick-and-mortar store drove approximately 14 miles roundtrip, buying on average three items per trip. By comparison, a UPS or FedEx delivery truck certainly uses a significant amount of fuel and energy, but spreads it out by delivering numerous packages, meaning less energy per package than a traditional shopper.
E-commerce data centers and computers use much less energy compared to a traditional store, giving them a strong edge there, too.
Of course, a shopper that walks, rides a bike or picks up many more packages during a single trip starts to swing the data points in favor of brick-and-mortar stores. Researchers also made it very clear that Buy.com cannot be compared with an e-tailer such as Amazon or Backcountry.com, since it uses a virtual model where it warehouses nothing and instead has products shipped directly to buyers via its distribution partners.
And all those overnight shipping upgrades? Well, that swings the pendulum of energy savings well into the camp of the brick-and-mortar business.
No mention was given to packaging, which in an e-commerce model is an Achilles' heel, generating far more packaging to ship one item than a brick-and-mortar store does by receiving multiple products in one box. --Michael Hodgson
This is certainly an argument that was made by Nau founders when the company, now owned by Horny Toad, first launched to much fanfare and some raised eyebrows -- click here to read the SNEWS® story, "The time is 'Nau' for new concept in retail." Nau claimed that by building its business on a foundation of stores that had small footprints, and encouraged customers to purchased items on the web or even in the store to have it shipped, the overall environmental impact was less than a traditional brick-and-mortar model. Now, it appears, science is backing up that claim…to a point.
To conduct the study, researchers used a test case of purchasing a flash drive either in a brick-and-mortar store or via the web. Buy.com was the e-commerce site, giving researchers open access to data that might otherwise be considered confidential -- data center info, energy consumption info and delivery details.
To create a comparison, researchers made the assumption that a consumer shopping at a brick-and-mortar store drove approximately 14 miles roundtrip, buying on average three items per trip. By comparison, a UPS or FedEx delivery truck certainly uses a significant amount of fuel and energy, but spreads it out by delivering numerous packages, meaning less energy per package than a traditional shopper.
E-commerce data centers and computers use much less energy compared to a traditional store, giving them a strong edge there, too.
Of course, a shopper that walks, rides a bike or picks up many more packages during a single trip starts to swing the data points in favor of brick-and-mortar stores. Researchers also made it very clear that Buy.com cannot be compared with an e-tailer such as Amazon or Backcountry.com, since it uses a virtual model where it warehouses nothing and instead has products shipped directly to buyers via its distribution partners.
And all those overnight shipping upgrades? Well, that swings the pendulum of energy savings well into the camp of the brick-and-mortar business.
No mention was given to packaging, which in an e-commerce model is an Achilles' heel, generating far more packaging to ship one item than a brick-and-mortar store does by receiving multiple products in one box. --Michael Hodgson
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Retail - Despite Economy, Many E-Commerce Initiatives
When it comes to cutting expenses, one area appears off limits for larger retailers – e-commerce. Sports Chalet, Eastern Mountain Sports and Backwoods Equipment Co. (see Q&A with Jennifer Mull) are all moving forward with major e-commerce initiatives this year despite the economy. There is a sense among some that the recession may actually accelerate consumer’s migration online.
It’s easy to see why after reviewing the data. While the recession has slowed online sales growth dramatically from a year ago, sales are still growing. That’s an amazing feat in this economy and a portent of things to come. Consumers are clearly becoming more comfortable buying outdoor apparel, footwear and gear online.
Online sales of outdoor product rose 13% in December, while outdoor specialty sales fell 10%, according to the OIA Retail Sales Topline Report for the month. Research shows shoppers have increasingly identified Internet-only retailers – such as Overstock.com, Zappos.com and Amazon.com – among those who offer the best customer service.
Moreover, the OIA Specialty Retailer Operational Report shows that retailers with more than 10% of total sales online have a higher profit margin (8.2%) than retailers with less or no online sales (4.5%). Online sales comprise 14.2% of sales for stores with less than $1 million in sales compared to 6.2% for stores with more than $2 million.
Yet as recently as 2006, 46% of single store outdoor retailers and 38% with less than $1 million in sales still did not sell online, according to OIA research.
Still, e-commerce is not for everyone. It requires a major commitment on top of your existing brick-and-mortar operations, notes Dawson Wheeler, co-owner of Rock/Creek Outfitters, the Chattanooga, TN, retailer that has sold online for 10 years.
Wheeler said selling online can be a great tool for a successful retailer who is beginning to max out their sales per square foot because of limited market size and local competition.
“But as a life jacket, trying to keep myself afloat I would not look at it for $1 million,” Wheeler said. “It's a completely different business and just because you're a good retailer, does not mean you are a good online retailer. You are talking about a whole new workforce of folks who are far more technical. The day you start out, you are going against backcountry.com, Altrec and others. The competition is intense.”
Wheeler said retailers should expect the cost of launching a viable e-commerce business to equal the cost of opening a new a new brick-and-mortar store.
Online, as in store, retailers must commit to the category, said Dan Mann, founding partner of the retail consulting firm TMG Inc. Mann advises retailers start by offering core product already in their assortment plan, i.e., those items that already have the highest inventory turns at their brick-and-mortar location.
“A lot of people are doing e-commerce, but they are throwing things at the wall and seeing what’s going to stick,” Mann said. “Retailers who take that approach are going to get in over their head. Opening a website is the least of their troubles. Marketing and order fulfillment are your biggest challenges.”
It’s easy to see why after reviewing the data. While the recession has slowed online sales growth dramatically from a year ago, sales are still growing. That’s an amazing feat in this economy and a portent of things to come. Consumers are clearly becoming more comfortable buying outdoor apparel, footwear and gear online.
Online sales of outdoor product rose 13% in December, while outdoor specialty sales fell 10%, according to the OIA Retail Sales Topline Report for the month. Research shows shoppers have increasingly identified Internet-only retailers – such as Overstock.com, Zappos.com and Amazon.com – among those who offer the best customer service.
Moreover, the OIA Specialty Retailer Operational Report shows that retailers with more than 10% of total sales online have a higher profit margin (8.2%) than retailers with less or no online sales (4.5%). Online sales comprise 14.2% of sales for stores with less than $1 million in sales compared to 6.2% for stores with more than $2 million.
Yet as recently as 2006, 46% of single store outdoor retailers and 38% with less than $1 million in sales still did not sell online, according to OIA research.
Still, e-commerce is not for everyone. It requires a major commitment on top of your existing brick-and-mortar operations, notes Dawson Wheeler, co-owner of Rock/Creek Outfitters, the Chattanooga, TN, retailer that has sold online for 10 years.
Wheeler said selling online can be a great tool for a successful retailer who is beginning to max out their sales per square foot because of limited market size and local competition.
“But as a life jacket, trying to keep myself afloat I would not look at it for $1 million,” Wheeler said. “It's a completely different business and just because you're a good retailer, does not mean you are a good online retailer. You are talking about a whole new workforce of folks who are far more technical. The day you start out, you are going against backcountry.com, Altrec and others. The competition is intense.”
Wheeler said retailers should expect the cost of launching a viable e-commerce business to equal the cost of opening a new a new brick-and-mortar store.
Online, as in store, retailers must commit to the category, said Dan Mann, founding partner of the retail consulting firm TMG Inc. Mann advises retailers start by offering core product already in their assortment plan, i.e., those items that already have the highest inventory turns at their brick-and-mortar location.
“A lot of people are doing e-commerce, but they are throwing things at the wall and seeing what’s going to stick,” Mann said. “Retailers who take that approach are going to get in over their head. Opening a website is the least of their troubles. Marketing and order fulfillment are your biggest challenges.”
Friday, January 9, 2009
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
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