Electronics retailers in the U. S. are gearing up for a new eco-friendly electronics recycling reprogram, in an attempt to boost lagging sales and do their part for the environment at the same time.
So-called “big box” retailers, such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart have announced plans to incorporate a recycling program, allowing consumers to return old cell phones, MP3 players, computer hardware and nearly any other type of electronic gadget to receive store credit in the form of a consumer gift card. The amount of credit received will be based on the type of device returned and its condition.
Conveniently, consumers may return any electronic item, regardless of where they purchased it originally. The electronics recycling firm EcoNEW will handle collections and provide the in-store credit gift cards.
With the growing amounts of electronic “junk” clogging up our attics, garages and landfills, eco-friendly programs like those recently announced by Best Buy and Wal-Mart are likely to become more and more popular among retail electronics stores.
Other companies are offering a type of guaranteed buyback program, which is similar to the extended warranties already offered by some electronics retailers. The buyback program is in essence a type of consumer insurance against future upgrades that may render the electronics product out of date.
TechForward is one company handling guaranteed buyback programs for retailers. Their program boasts a respectable 12% conversion rate, and nearly 70% of the items covered under their buyback plan are eventually returned for a predetermined fee or store credit.
The US in general has been gradually shifting toward more ecological awareness over the last few years, and this trend is expected to continue after the 2008 presidential election. While George W. Bush has not been exactly friendly to environmental causes, all three of the remaining candidates for president, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, all agree that global warming is a real phenomena, and that the United States should take more decisive action to protect the environment.
Along with this political change in policy — regardless of which candidate is actually elected president — is sure to come a cultural change toward greater ecological awareness. This cultural shift bodes well for companies promoting consumer recycling. And with Americans now buying and discarding electronic gadgets at an increasing rate, it makes good financial and ecological sense to provide incentives to recycle our discarded electronic “toys” for cash, instead of letting them continue to pileup in our closets and attics.
So far, American consumers seem receptive to the idea of recycling their aging electronics. It’s funny how many people will suddenly become “environmentalists” when they find out how much money they can save by trading in old electronic items.
Related Business Directory Categories:
Every so often a funny story comes along about something odd being auctioned off on eBay for an enormous amount of money. After the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, for example, everything from foul balls to ticket stubs were being auctioned off on the Web’s largest auction site, and often commanding ridiculously high bids.
But that’s nothing compared to the latest eBay sensation. A Frosted Flake (as in Frosted Flakes breakfast cereal) in the shape of the state of Illinois is currently accepting bids on eBay, and in fact, a kind of bidding war has broken out over the misshapen serial flake.
By late Monday, the single Frosted Flake boasted 46 bids on eBay, with the current highest bidder at $1,175. The bidding for the flake began on Friday, and a feeding frenzy quickly began among collectors looking to acquire the oddly shaped flake.
Right about now, you’re probably asking yourself why in the world would anyone pay nearly $1200 for a single frosted Flake, no matter what it was shaped like? And while it is true that a picture of the flake reveals that it has an uncanny resemblance to the state of Illinois, the flake’s owner, an eBay seller from Chesapeake, Virginia, is as dumbfounded as the rest of us as to the enormous popularity of the breakfast cereal oddity.
Could this be a modern example of the pet rock? No one is entirely certain, but at the current rate of bidding, the single flake is likely to end up selling for close to $2000, if not more. One interesting question is, who exactly is bidding over $1000 to buy a single Frosted Flake? Because eBay protect the privacy of its bidders, we may never know for certain what kind of person would invest so much money for a seemingly worthless object, or what they expect to get out of it, investment wise.
But perhaps that is the entire point of eBay. Users can auction virtually anything, no matter how seemingly worthless it may be, and occasionally find an untapped market willing to pay big bucks for it.
Of course the Illinois-shaped Frosted Flake is not the strangest thing ever auctioned off on eBay — not by a longshot. Users have auctioned off everything from dryer lint to used bandages on eBay, occasionally attracting higher bids than you might expect for the seemingly uninteresting — and in some cases disgusting — objects.
We will see how the state-shaped Frosted Flake does in the next few days. One thing is for certain though; if this thing garners more than $2000 at auction, I’m going to start checking my frosted flakes very carefully before pouring any milk on them.
Related Business Directory Categories:
The mega-popular online classifieds site, Craigslist.org has been found not liable for discriminatory content placed in classified ads on the site by users. Last Friday, a federal appeals court reaffirmed a previous ruling finding Craigslist not guilty of discrimination. The judges agreed that Craigslist.org merely provided an open forum where ads could be posted, and could not be held personally responsible for the illegal content contained in the ads.
The case was brought in February of 2006 by the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The plaintiffs in the action had argued that Craigslist had violated the fair housing act because some users of the site had placed classified ads with a illegal terms such as “no children” and “no minorities.”
The plaintiffs also pointed out that many users were more subtle in their discrimination, and instead of specifically rejecting certain groups of people, would go to great lengths to emphasize that the property in question was next door to a Catholic church, for example.
According to section 230 (communications decency act, 1996), a web site which is classified as a “interactive computer service” has immunity from being prosecuted because of illegal content contributed by the web sites members or users. In the case of the Craigslist lawsuit, a federal judge had already ruled on the case back in November, 2006. But the prosecutors decided to appeal that decision, and this latest ruling reinforces the concept that web sites can not be held responsible for illegal content posted by users.
Where this ruling gets tricky is in the area of online file sharing, which depending on which legal scholar you speak to, may or may not fall outside of section 230. But the judges in the Craigslist ruling concluded that although the site does provide the opportunity for users to post illegal content, they cannot realistically be held responsible for the legality of every ad or posting to the site.
This latest ruling simply reinforces the concept of a free and democratic Internet, where no single web site or service provider can be charged for the actions of that sites contributing users. In the era of social networking, YouTube, and Web 2.0 user content-driven sites, this is great news. In fact, without this legal precedent, web sites such as MySpace or Facebook would constantly be at risk of prosecution because of the actions and contributions of their users. This would, no doubt, put an end to social networking sites online as we know them.
But even though the court reconfirmed Craigslist’s immunity to the charges, the court left the door open for the prosecution of individual users of the site, which means that people who place discriminatory ads for housing, etc. can still be singled out and charged with violating the communications decency act. Sounds fair to me.
Related Business Directory Categories:
Despite the problems in the housing market and the weakness of the US dollar against foreign currencies, retail sales in the US continue to be vigorous, especially in the lower end of the marketplace. The Financial Times web site is reporting that Wal-Mart, the largest retail outlet in the world, saw an increase in sales of 2.6% in February, well above the company’s own forecasts, and more than double the prediction of Wall Street analysts.
One of Wal-Mart’s closest rivals, Target also saw increased sales in February, though at a much lower rate — less than 1%. Other discount retail outlets continue to beat market expectations as well. Family Dollar posted earnings well above market predictions, with a 1.5% increase in February sales.
Economists suggest that the sluggish economy may actually be good for lower-priced retailers such as Wal-Mart. And while this alone is not exactly cause for celebration on Wall Street, it is a sign that the US economy may be more resilient than the TV pundits would have us believe.
But while the discount outlets continue to be profitable, some high-end specialty stores are seeing a slowdown in sales. Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus are among the luxury department store brands showing flat sales so far in 2008, and Nordstrom has reported its third consecutive month of lower-than-expected sales figures.
This suggests that as the economy has become sluggish, consumers are becoming increasingly price conscious in their purchasing decisions. The low and medium segments of the retail marketplace seems to be the most profitable at the moment, but even some high-end luxury stores are thriving.
Online sales, for example, continue to be brisk in many areas, with companies such as Overstock.com beating market expectations so far in 2008. Expensive items, such as diamonds and jewelry also continued to sell briskly, though many retailers have cut prices to appeal to bargain hungry shoppers.
Times of recession often cause consumers to hold onto their money, and avoid spending any more than necessary on retail items. But that doesn’t mean that Americans are only buying necessities right now. Wal-Mart is reporting that sales in their entertainment division have been better than expected in 2008. The company has also seen gains in their health and grocery departments.
While many are convinced that the US is now in the midst of a recession, there is also reason to be optimistic; the restaurant and entertainment industries continue to be profitable, and even box office receipts at cinemas and theaters are up significantly over the same quarter last year. These figures suggest that the US economy may rebound much quicker than some “gloom and doom” analyst have predicted.
Related Business Directory Categories:
Comments