Beyoncé’s Athleisure Brand, Ivy Park Is Now Available to the World, Including the Philippines

It came as a surprise to all of us when Beyoncé suddenly revealed her athleisure line Ivy Park earlier this month. Today, the brand is officially available for purchase in several countries, including the Philippines.

Yup, you read that right: Queen Bey has blessed our shores with her athleisure line via shopping website Zalora PH. In a statement, Zalora Group CEO Michele Ferrario expressed his excitement for the venture, saying that they want to “continue our commitment to bring the best global fashion brands to style-minded women across the Southeast Asian region.”

The line consists of tank tops with built-in sports bras, body suits, sweatshirts, and jersey vests fitting for all our workout needs. The price of the clothes also ranges from P1,199 to P5,349, which seems like a hefty price for some. But can you really put a price on something designed by Beyoncé?

 Photo courtesy of Ivy Park’s Instagram

source: preen.inquirer.net

Thanksgiving: Turkey, parades and shopping deals

NEW YORK — Turkey, stuffing and a helium-filled Thomas the Tank Engine were on the menu as friends and families gathered across the United States to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Here's a look at how Americans prepared to celebrate Thanksgiving.

GIANTS IN THE SKY

The nationally televised Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will include six new giant balloons including Thomas the Tank Engine, Paddington bear and the Red Mighty Morphin Power Ranger. The annual event brings out throngs of people along its midtown Manhattan parade route, ending in front of the store's flagship location.

On Wednesday, passers-by on the Upper West Side got a sneak preview, as the giant balloons were inflated with helium in the neighborhood around the American Museum of Natural History.

"It's really cool, they're huge," said San Francisco resident Ella Missan. Daisy Elliot of Boston, who said she's been coming to see the balloons since she was little, agreed. "It's really exciting for me to see the balloons year after year," she said.

The parade's executive producer, Amy Kule, said organizers were glad wintry weather that made sidewalks slick and travel treacherous on Wednesday was expected to be gone by Thursday.

"We're suffering through a little bit of this now but the end result is really going to be a beautiful parade," she said.

• • •

TRAVEL TROUBLES

Rain and snow on Wednesday made getting around on one of the busiest travel days of the year a chaotic experience for some. The sloppy mixture caused hundreds of flights to be grounded in the Northeast.

Some travelers tried to beat the storm by flying out earlier, and airlines tried to be helpful by waiving re-booking fees. But many flights already were filled, leaving travelers with few options.

The roads weren't much better. By midafternoon, the line between rain and snow went along Interstate 95, the major roadway connecting Boston to Washington, and accidents abounded. Snowfall totals were expected to be as much as 6 to 12 inches in the higher elevations west of I-95.

The AAA estimated that 41.3 million travelers would be on the road between Wednesday and Sunday. That's up 4.3 percent from last year.

• • •

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

To the delight of some and consternation of others, it's increasingly become commonplace to see stores open on Thanksgiving, as retailers try to entice shoppers inside and kick off the holiday shopping season a day earlier than the traditional Black Friday. Some of the stores open for at least part of the day on the holiday include Kmart, Target, Sears, Macy's and Wal-Mart. Other stores, like Neiman-Marcus, Nordstrom and Costco, are closed.

source: lassvegassun.com

Amazon to compensate customers for late gifts

NEW YORK – Amazon Thursday said it would give $20 gift cards and pay shipping costs for customers affected by problems at UPS and FedEx that delayed some Christmas package deliveries.




The Amazon pledge came after UPS in particular came under fire for late packages despite vows from retailers to meet a December 25 deadline.

Some customers took to Twitter to voice their displeasure, likening one or both delivery giants to the “Grinch who stole Christmas.”

Amazon pointed the finger squarely at the delivery companies. The online retail giant did not give estimates for the number of affected shoppers.

“Amazon fulfillment centers processed and tendered customer orders to delivery carriers on time for holiday delivery,” said Amazon spokeswoman Mary Osako. “We are reviewing the performance of the delivery carriers.”

Walmart also will provide gift cards to customers who did not receive packages by the promised deadline, the New York Times reported.

Walmart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“UPS experienced heavy holiday volume and is making every effort to get packages to their destination as quickly as possible,” UPS said on its website. “UPS has resumed normally scheduled service on December 26.”

A FedEx spokesperson also reported a “surge” in volume, but said the rise was typical.

“We had minimal service disruptions despite the increase in volumes, and are working directly with customers who may have experienced any delays,” said the FedEx spokesperson.

The delivery woes suggested the retail sector is still adjusting to shifting customer behavior with the rise of online shopping.

Analysts had expected brick and mortar shopping to rise just 3-4 percent in 2013, but online shopping to jump 13-14 percent.

More retailers have promised to execute Christmas-deadline deliveries ordered later and later in the season.

Amazon characterized its overall holiday shopping season as the “best ever” in the company’s history.

Particularly popular was the “Amazon Prime” service, which provides free two-day shipping services and streaming of some television shows and movies for $79 a year.

Amazon said it signed up more than one million customers for its “Prime” service in the third week of December.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Samsung, LG to unveil 105-inch curved TVs

SEOUL, South Korea — Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. said their curved TVs will get bigger and sport the sharpness four times the regular HD television sets.

The world’s two largest TV makers will display ultra-HD TVs with curved screens that measure 105 inches diagonally in Las Vegas next month, they said in separate statements Thursday.

The South Korean TV makers began selling curved TV sets earlier this year made with advanced displays called OLED measuring 55 inches.

The upcoming premium TVs set will be made of LCD panels packing more than 11 million pixels, 5,120 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels high. But not much video content is available for the ultra-HD TV sets.

TV makers hope the launch of the new hardware technology will fuel growth of content. Japan’s Sony Corp., among the industry players betting that the ultra-HD images will become the new standard, is working on both gadgets and movies in ultra-HD, also known in the industry as 4K.

Asian TV makers are trying to excite shoppers with new display technology. But limited video content in ultra-HD resolution and price tags will likely limit appeal. Samsung and LG kept mum on prices.

source: technology.inquirer.net

Amazon unveils futuristic mini-drone delivery plan

WASHINGTON – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed Sunday that his company is looking to the future with plans to use “octocopter” mini-drones to fly small packages to consumers in just 30 minutes.

The US retail giant’s ambitious project still requires additional safety testing and federal approval, but Bezos estimated that Amazon “Prime Air” would be up and running within four to five years.

A demo video posted on the company’s website showed the tiny robotic devices picking up packages in small yellow buckets from Amazon’s fulfillment centers and then whizzing through the air to deliver the items to customers just 30 minutes after they made their purchase on Amazon.com.

“I know this looks like science fiction. It’s not,” Bezos told CBS television’s “60 Minutes” program.

“We can do half-hour delivery… and we can carry objects, we think, up to five pounds (2.3 kilograms), which covers 86 percent of the items that we deliver.”

The mini-drones are powered by electric motors and could cover areas within a 10-mile (16-kilometer) radius of fulfillment centers, thus covering a significant portion of the population in urban areas.

They operate autonomously and drop the items at the target locations thanks to GPS coordinates transmitted to them.

“It’s very green, it’s better than driving trucks around,” said Bezos.

Amazon said the octocopters would be “ready to enter commercial operations as soon as the necessary regulations are in place,” noting that the Federal Aviation Administration was actively working on rules for unmanned aerial vehicles.

It projected a more optimistic timeline than Bezos himself for the project to be activated, saying the FAA’s rules could be in place as early as 2015 and that Amazon Prime Air would be ready at that time.

Bezos hinted that part of the motivation behind the mini-drones was to make sure Amazon remains on the cutting edge of the retail industry.

“Companies have short life spans… And Amazon will be disrupted one day,” he said.

“I would love for it to be after I’m dead.”

source: business.inquirer.net

Southern California malls target Asian shoppers

The arrival of the Lunar New Year this month seems to have sparked an epiphany for area shopping centers: Asian and Asian American consumers have a growing pile of money and want to spend it where they're welcome.

So in the Year of the Snake, malls around the Southland are hustling harder to make themselves more appealing to the demographic.

Desert Hills Premium Outlets, Ontario Mills and the Outlets at Orange are partnering on a "Snaking through Southern California" initiative to lure Chinese shoppers to their malls. Simon Property Group, which owns the centers, says it's attempting to market to Asian consumers with multilingual messaging and Lunar New Year decorations.

Many stores in South Coast Plaza now have Asian employees to cater to the influx of moneyed tourists from China, Japan and South Korea who flock to the upscale mall. The center also has a language-assistance program and maps in Asian languages.

Westfield Santa Anita in Arcadia, a city where more than half the population is Asian/Asian American, is hosting its first-ever Lunar New Year festival Saturday afternoon. Free activities include a lion dance, Chinese calligraphy demonstrations and a Year of the Snake photo booth for families.

The San Gabriel Valley center hung a 120-foot, 600-pound red-and-gold dragon installation above its indoor carousel. Decorators brought in a Chinese pagoda as well as kumquat trees for good luck.

Even after the holiday, Westfield plans to continue tweaking the Santa Anita mall -- currently home to Nordstrom, AMC Theatres, Macy’s and more -- to better suit its Asian American clientele.

This summer, Hai Di Lao, a hot-pot restaurant chain based in China's Sichuan province, is to open its first U.S. location at the center. Beijing-based eatery Meizhou Dongpo is also scheduled to move in, in early 2014.

The mall already offers some store directories in Chinese.

The revamps could have a major economic payoff. Government projections peg 2013 as a record year for Chinese tourism to the United States. A report from Nielsen this past fall showed Asian American buying power surging over $1 trillion within five years, from $718.4 billion in 2012.

source: latimes.com

Consumers feared tough budget

The federal government's persistent warnings of tough measures in the run-up to the May budget may have spooked consumers into saving their cash, rather than spending at the shops, retailers say.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures published on Wednesday showed retail spending dropped by 0.2 per cent in April to a seasonally adjusted $21.2 billion - in defiance of financial market expectations.

The monthly result was a sharp reversal from the 1.1 per cent increase in March.

Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said it was disappointing because the sector was hoping for a boost after the April Easter holidays and the relaxation of trading hours in some states.

'The monthly decline shows consumers might have had more time up their sleeves in April but sadly no cash in their pockets,' he said in a statement.

Spending was particularly weak in household goods and department stores retailing, while there was a marginal rise increase in food and cafe and restaurant sales.

Australian National Retailers Association chief executive Margy Osmond said consumers had heeded government warning of a tough 2012/13 budget and 'shied away from making major purchases'.

Retailers are now hoping May sales will be better after the central bank cut interest rates this month and the budget turned out not as bad as expected.

'We will again be looking for further cash rate cuts so consumers feel safe enough to shop,' Ms Osmond said.

Financial markets are fully expect a 25 basis point cut in the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cash rate to 3.5 per cent when the central bank board meets next Tuesday.

The retail figures coincided with the release of new construction figures for the March quarter, which highlighted the effects of the two-speed economy.

Construction grew by 5.5 per cent to $48.3 billion in the first three months of the year, and were 15 per cent higher from a year ago.

The strength was largely due to a booming engineering sector, which is benefiting from mining related projects.

Engineering work jumped 13.3 per cent in the quarter and a staggering 35.6 per cent over the year.

TD Securities head of Asia-Pacific research Annette Beacher said the strong engineering result increased the likelihood that next week's national economic growth report would be better than expected.

source: skynews.com.au

Araneta Center parade of lights kicks off today

MANILA, Philippines - Christmas continues to shine brightly at the Araneta Center with the launch of the weekly Magical Parade of Lights starting today, Nov. 26.

A spinoff from the electric parade of lights held during the Capiztahan feast in Roxas City, the Magical Parade of Lights features several floats depicting creatures of the sea lit up by thousands of flickering light bulbs in a grand spectacle that will snake through the major streets of the Araneta Center.

This shimmering pageant of lights will beam a Christmas glow around the center and holiday shoppers will be regaled by drumbeaters and street dancing Christmas characters that accompany the visual explosion of electric lights. The Magical Parade of Lights is also reminiscent of the Main Street Electrical Parade, famous for its long run at Disneyland until 1996. Just like its Disney counterpart, the parade features floats covered in thousands of electronically controlled lights blinking in sync to music.

The Magical Parade of Lights is just one part of the menu of Christmas activities lined up at the Araneta Center this season. After last week’s traditional Christmas tree lighting, be serenaded by the different chorale groups as they sing your favorite Christmas carols every day until December 31 at Farmers’ Plaza, Ali Mall, and Gateway Mall. Marvel at the weekly fireworks display. Also, be sure to watch Disney on Ice “Let’s Celebrate” which will be shown from December 25 to January 3 at the SMART Araneta Coliseum. For ticket inquiries, call 911-555The Magical Parade of Lights at the Araneta Center is co-sponsored by the Meralco and the Araneta Group. It is scheduled on Nov. 26, Dec. 3, 10 and 17. Parade starts at 5 p.m. from the giant Christmas tree parking lot.

Source: philstar.com