Orchard Road is World's Top Shopping Street

A trip to Singapore is incomplete if your itinerary does not include a visit to Orchard Road.

The Lion City, even with the new attractions like the themeparks and the two new casinos, the Casino at Resort World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands Casino; the night safari, the various landmarks and attractions, Orchard Road is certainly not to be missed. Christmas decorations along this stretch in Singapore attract throngs of visitors every year.

With the Chinese community gearing up for the upcoming Chinese New Year celebration on Jan 23, I can imagine Singapore would now be bustling with activity and beautifully-decked in Chinese New Year decorations.

Singaporeans would be happy to know that Orchard Road has been named the world's top shopping street beating 29 other premier shopping belts including Paris' Champs Elysees and London's Bond Street.

The verdict comes from a mystery shopping survey conducted by a French marketing consultancy, Presence Mystery Shopping, in which 90 mystery shoppers were sent out to nearly 400 retail outlets in 30 cities around the world.

Four categories were the focus of the survey - cleanliness of the streets, and retail outlets, quality of retail staff, and friendliness of passersby.

Orchard Road scores highly in all the judging categories and garnered a total score of 89 points out of a hundred. Luxembourg's Avenue de la Liberte came in second with 85 points and PC Hoofstraat in Amsterdam, was third with 83 points.


Source: DailyChilli/The Straits Times/ANN

Best iPad Apps of 2011

Shopping these days does not involve just clothes, make-up, sports equipment, furniture. Shopping nowadays include buying of non-tangibles such as iPad apps.

New York Times compiled a list of the Best iPad apps of 2011. Check them out..Best iPad apps of 2011, from the perfect magazine to photo app to Jamie's recipes to music creation, etc..

Image source: NY Times

New York Times Op-Doc: Texting While Walking

By Casey Neistat.
 

It's January, Time for the Annual International Consumer Electronics Show

LINK

Tough to be an Independent Business in a Big-Box Environment

And with the growth of e-commerce, some big-box operations are facing their own challenges.  (Past tense here.)

Independent hardware stores hammered by tough times.  (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/7/2012)

Excerpt:   Beyond such problems, hardware stores as a group have faced increasing competition from big-box home-improvement retailers, a sluggish economy and a difficult environment in which to sell a business rather than liquidating it. 

Combined, those forces have whittled the number of independent hardware stores in the county from about 50 in 1995 to about 25 today. 

 "People are just easily influenced by commercials," said Brian Peterson, manager of one of the longtime survivors, Tippecanoe True Value Hardware, 3955 S. Howell Ave. "They honestly think that low price comes in big boxes, but it's just not true."

Monona Public Library Eliminates Overdue Fines

Monona Library eliminates overdue fines in 2012.  (Monona Herald-Independent, 12/29/2011)

The Monona Public Library will no longer charge overdue fees on materials checked out at the library, beginning on Jan. 2, 2012. The Monona Library Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the change at its December 20 meeting. The Monona Library will be only the second library in the South Central Library System to not charge patrons for overdue materials, joining Middleton's library.

 “We believe that this change will make our library even more popular and more responsive to use by Monona and nearby residents,” states Erick Plumb, library director. "In an increasingly "on-demand" world with numerous choices for consumers, with most of these choices requiring additional service charges, we believe that eliminating late fees makes us more user-friendly to Monona residents, as well as being more equitable to the community in these challenging economic times."

Retired Sheboyban Librarian Publishes Third Book of Memoirs

Van Straten's second book

Retired librarian pens third book of memoirs. (Sheboygan Press, 1/9/2012)

Daniel Glen Van Straten of Sheboygan, a retired library cataloger of the Mead Public Library, has published his third book of memoirs, "On and On: Everlasting Adventures."

Van Straten self-publishes under the name Glen Outlook Publishing.Van Straten publishes his books in print and e-Book formats. He complements his books with numerous pictures and original drawings. The book contains approximately 205 pictures and 37 original drawings.

 His first book was "Schemer: A Boy Grows Up in Wisconsin." His second book, "Boone: The Further Adventures of Schemer," is about falling in love, getting married, going back to college to earn a master's degree in library science, having kids, living in Sheboygan, travels, camping, hunting, scouting, gardening and more.

The third book covers the 1970s through 2010. He already has a fourth book in mind, about his work in a public library.