MLB

Written by: David Bell

Many of you know the MLB team the Los Angeles Angels. Well they recently picked up a player from Japan named Shohei Otani. He is a pitcher and outfielder for the Angles.  He previously played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball Pacific League. His income while playing in Japan is much different from the income he will be earning for the Angels. The Angels have been in high demand for pitchers the past couple years and they believe they have found that person. Otani was considering playing for other elite baseball clubs but Nez Balelo, agent of Otani said the Japanese 2016 MVP “felt a true bond with the Angels. He sees this as the best environment to develop and reach the next level and attain his career goals.” The Angels have not won a playoff game since 2009 and Otani wants to be the reason that changes.

Angels fans have been sitting back waiting for this moment for a long time. That time is now and they finally have a season to look forward too. All supporting fans want to be apart of something big when their team accomplishes greatness. With that being said, fans are excited for the upcoming season. Since the ticket sales will be in high demand, the marginal revenue for the franchise will sky rocket. Apparel and souvenir prices will rise creating more profit because everything within the stores will be in such high demand.

Signing a new player that has the potential to bring the franchise back on the map only comes with positives. There is virtually nothing negative about bringing this player onto the team. In the long run, it will generate profit allowing the franchise to be able to grow and expand their name. Also, it will benefit the economy by bringing in millions of dollars to local stores and restaurants. Otani single handedly has the capability of generating so much revenue not only for the Angels franchise, but the whole city of Los Angeles.

Works Cited
“Shohei Ohtani Japanese Leagues Statistics & History.” Baseball-Reference.com, www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=otani-000sho.
“Shohei Otani, a Two-Way Player, Says He Is Ready to Leave Japan for M.L.B.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/sports/baseball/shohei-otani-a-two-way-player-says-he-is-ready-to-leave-japan-for-mlb.html.
writer, greg beacham ap sports. “Japanese Pitcher-Hitter Shohei Ohtani Chooses the LA Angels.” ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/agent-japanese-star-pitcher-hitter-ohtani-join-angels-51676093.

Holiday Flavors

By: Shivangi Zala


Businesses that sell holiday food products are smart in making good revenue. Having holiday food products help the companies earn good amount of income as the food products are limited. Many people wait all year long until fall to have Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, or McDonalds McRibs or even donuts from Dunkin Donuts. Starbucks changes the design of the cups according to the holiday, which also captures many customers attention. According to Forbes, Starbucks revenue increased by 12% during the holiday season. Also in the last 12 months, Starbucks shares have gone up by 46% and have gone down by 1%, while other businesses have gone by 8%. According to Marketplace, Starbucks has sold about 200 million Pumpkin Spice Latte since 2003. Besides Starbucks, Trader Joe's also sells pumpkin spice food products during the fall. Trader Joe’s sells food items such as pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin ale, pumpkin tea, pumpkin cereal, etc. Trader Joe’s has made a lot of money by selling pumpkin food items. Having holiday food items it beneficial for the store because many people are attracted as the food items are rare or nondurable and only come around in November. According to the Christian Science Monitor, McDonald’s net income has increased from $1.22 billion a year to $1.24 billion a year because of the McRib, and the Caramel Mocha drink. The company headquarters saw the revenue increase by 4%. For McRibs from McDonalds, the shares are up to 40% this year according to CNN Money. As you can see in the graph below that Starbucks gets most of its revenue from the beverages. Also you can see in the graph, the revenue for starbucks has increased over 8 years.

The demand for Starbucks has also increased over the years. Many people are addicted to coffee that they have to go to Starbucks in the morning for there coffee. According to Seeking Alpha, Starbucks has increased the prices for their drinks, but consumers have been the same. If any other food company raised their prices for holiday specials then the demand would still be the same. According to BBC News, Starbucks income has increased 16% this year from last year. According to CFO, Dunkin Donuts revenue increased 5.8% during the holidays. As you can see in the graph below Dunkin Donuts revenue has increased over the past years because of the

 

 holiday donut flavors. All of this shows that having holiday flavors of drinks and food items helps the companies increase their revenue and profit. As I mentioned earlier having rare holiday flavors attracts the customers and also holiday flavors are rare, so many people come and buy those flavors mostly everyday before the company stops selling them. If holiday flavors were sold everyday then the company would not be able to make good revenue and profit as the consumers would be tired of seeing or drinking the same beverage all year around. Therefore it is true that companies that sell holiday food items have a better revenue. 

Works Cited


* All products require an annual contract.
Prices do not include sales tax
(New York residents only). “Starbucks: Revenue by Product Type 2017 | Statistic.” Statista, www.statista.com/statistics/219513/starbucks-revenue-by-product-type/.


Gensler, Lauren. “Starbucks Revenue Rises 12% During Strong Holiday Season.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 21 Jan. 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2016/01/21/starbucks-first-quarter-earnings/#5a7a852419c6.


Heller, Matthew. “Dunkin' Donuts Franchise Boost Earns Profits.” CFO, 13 Feb. 2017, ww2.cfo.com/financial-performance/2017/02/dunkin-donuts-brands-profit/.


Images, KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty. “Holiday Drinks: A Mix of Science and Clever Marketing.” Marketplace, www.marketplace.org/2014/11/26/business/brought-you/holiday-drinks-mix-science-and-clever-marketing.


“Starbucks Reports Record Annual Profit.” BBC News, BBC, 4 Nov. 2016, www.bbc.com/news/business-37868620.


The return of a cult classic. “The McRib Is Back at McDonald's.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, money.cnn.com/2017/11/02/investing/mcdonalds-mcrib/index.html.


equity, Growth Simple Qualitative Long/short. “Starbucks: Coffee Prices Don't Matter That Much.” Seeking Alpha, 28 June 2016, seekingalpha.com/article/3984994-starbucks-coffee-prices-matter-much.

fan, If you're a. “Why Pumpkin Spice Lattes and McRibs Aren't Sold Year-Round.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, money.cnn.com/2017/11/06/news/companies/psl-mcrib-seasonal-items/index.html?iid=ob_article_footer.

Tesla Bankrupt?

Written by: John Sandlass





Tesla has been a popular investment for many people around the globe due to their innovations in electric cars and other new technology. However, lately, Tesla’s losses have been at an all time high, even though their revenue has increased exponentially throughout their years of existence. Based on numbers posted on November 1st, Tesla announced a 671 million dollar loss in the quarter, even though their revenue was at an all time high of nearly 3 billion in the quarter. Tesla is losing money on every new car that they produce, meaning that their marginal cost is greater than their marginal revenue. According to economics, this means they should shut down, but founder, Elon Musk, has no plans of doing so. Musk blames the lack of production efficiency as the main reason why they are losing money, saying that every single Model 3 that had been delivered so far was created by hand, which is costing way more than they are selling them for, which starts at $35,000. They are extremely backed up as they have tens of thousands of unfilled orders that people are starting to cancel their orders. If they don’t improve their production efficiency, not only will people will continue to cancel their orders, but they will also continue to lose money on every car they create. Nobody is sure how long they will continue losing almost 1 billion dollars per quarter before shutting down, but it is rumored that they only have 3.3 billion dollars of liquid capital remaining in the company, meaning that they will run out of money in the next year if nothing changes. Another reason that they are losing money at such a high rate is the amount of money and time they are putting in research for new car technology. The opportunity cost of this research is putting that time into working on production efficiency in order to be able to produce cars faster and for less money so that their AVC is no longer higher than their Average Price. Even if they spend more time on production paths and less money and time in research, experts predict that they will lose money every quarter until at least 2020, so many are wondering how they can possibly stay in business losing this obscene amount of money 4 times a year($671,000,000).

Works Cited


Assis, Claudia. “Tesla will be a money-Losing business until 2020, analyst says.” MarketWatch, 19 Sept. 2017, www.marketwatch.com/story/tesla-will-be-a-money-losing-business-until-2020-analyst-says-2017-09-19.


Bhuiyan, Johana. “Tesla posted a record quarterly loss as it ramps up production for its first mass market vehicle.” Recode, Recode, 2 Aug. 2017, www.recode.net/2017/8/2/16080552/tesla-q2-2017-earnings-still-losing-money-model-3.


Megan Geuss - Nov 1, 2017 11:40 pm UTC. “Sales up, revenue up, but still losing money: A Tesla story.” Ars Technica, 1 Nov. 2017, arstechnica.com/cars/2017/11/sales-up-revenue-up-but-still-losing-money-a-tesla-story/.

What Has Caused Bitcoin’s Price To Skyrocket?

What Has Caused Bitcoin’s Price To Skyrocket?

How Does Bitcoin Work?

Bitcoin is a person-to-person digital cryptocurrency that operates without the involvement of your usual financial establishments (meaning there are no banks involved). Bitcoin provides a direct digital alternative to our typical physical currencies and commodities (such as euros and dollars or gold and silver). Bitcoin transactions take place online directly between the buyer and seller, with each Bitcoin having its own unique encryption. Transactions are recorded on a decentralized public ledger available for network users to verify valid transactions. Special users on the network called “miners” oversee this verification process. The way in which the total number of bitcoins continue to grow is after verifying a block of transactions, miners are paid with the newly generated bitcoins and the transactions are processed and approved.

Economics Behind Bitcoins Spike In Value

In the last year the value of a single Bitcoin has risen by more than 400%, this massive increase has granted Bitcoins investors large economic gains. So why is this? The main rationale would be that there is a great demand for Bitcoins and a limited supply. As more individuals want to exchange other currencies for Bitcoin, it’s value increases. Bitcoin has a fixed supply with roughly 1800 coins created per day in the form of block rewards. Many believe Bitcoin to be a smart investment in the current market, resulting in consumers purchasing Bitcoins and holding onto them thereby decreasing the amount of Bitcoins in circulation.The available supply decreases thereby increasing demand. As the demand increases and if supply stays the same or decreases the value increases (standard economics). The value that one receives from exchanging it determines the actual utility of the Bitcoin. As more and more retailers, organizations, and individuals accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, it’s utility will increase thus increasing demand, causing the value of Bitcoin to increase in turn. The biggest factor that really has really allowed the value of Bitcoin to skyrocket is decentralization. Bitcoin is a completely decentralized system. This means that there is no overseeing, or central, organization that can influence the currency directly (and no that doesn’t mean you can associate Bitcoin with a monopoly). In our current system, a government backs a traditional currency such as the U.S. Dollar. The U.S. Treasury decides when to print more money and the Federal Reserve controls the supply. Although this system provides security for the dollar, it allows these organizations to have nearly complete control over the dollars value. If the government decides to increase the supply of money for any reason, when more money is printed, the value of the dollar decreases and can cause inflation. The inflation results in the  same amount of dollars acquiring the consumer fewer goods than before. There is no organization that can determine the amount of currency in circulation within a decentralized system such as Bitcoins. There is no central bank to have any sort of control over the money supply. Instead, it’s scarcity, utility, supply, and demand that dictate the value of an individual Bitcoin.

Works Cited

Bitcoin - Open Source P2P Money, bitcoin.org/en/.

“Bitcoin Breaks $5,000 in Latest Price Frenzy.” Fortune, fortune.com/2017/09/02/bitcoin-price-breaks-5000/.

Coindesk. “Bitcoin Price Index - Real-Time Bitcoin Price Charts.” CoinDesk, www.coindesk.com/price/.

Mining?, What is Bitcoin. “Everything You Need to Know about Bitcoin Mining.” Everything You Need to Know about Bitcoin Mining, www.bitcoinmining.com/.

“What Is Bitcoin?” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, money.cnn.com/infographic/technology/what-is-bitcoin/.

A Supreme Amount Of Profit

A Supreme Amount Of Profit

By: Ben Miller

The hype is incredibly real for the streetwear band of Supreme, now more than ever before. Supreme which sells graphic t-shirts to hyped-up teenagers along with other apparel and accessories, now is worth over a billion dollars according to the Wall Street Journal. If that’s not impressive enough, they’ve managed to do it in roughly 23 years, upon their opening in 1994 and not only that, but they have simply 11 store locations and a single exclusive online shop. Along with that, Supreme has managed to put together collaborations with other exclusive brands such as Louis Vuitton and Nike, with some of their pieces re-selling for as much as $75,000. Supreme has managed to completely revolutionize the entire streetwear industry, while still managing to maintain the exclusiveness of their products.

Supreme has a provocative business model for the kind of market in which their in, but it prives to be extremely successful for them due highly to the fact that the demand for their products is through the roof. Supreme drops new products every Thursday at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time within the weeks on their 2 specific seasons throughout the year, (Fall Winter, Summer Spring), which makes their products extremely exclusive. The demand as stated before is incredibly high and is so high in fact that their products have proven to be price inelastic, all selling out within just minutes, meaning that no matter how much Supreme retails their products, their consumers will always purchase it. For example to show the absolutely un-real hype, Supreme dropped a pair of chopsticks with their box logo on it, and it sold  out in nearly 30 seconds, leading to an incredible amount of profit off just one basic item.

With this said, in my opinion based off the facts, Supreme is in a position to only move up in value as a company, with the hype dieing out nowhere in site. The company recently sold a 50% stake in their business to the Carlyle Group for a whopping 500 millions dollars. This investment from the Carlyle Group shows alone that Supreme is promised for explosive group, a big firm like this doesn’t play games with potential profiting companies. The brand has never showed signs of doubt when it comes to the hype outside of the United States as well. According to executives at the company it takes simply one trip to the store in Soho, China to see that the supply completely outweighs the demand, thus working to create a prestigious label to anything the brand sells. Supreme also has very little competitors, as their products are viewed as a much more exclusive apparel brand than the majority of the stream-line brands such as Adidas, Gap, Polo, Tommy Hilfiger, and etc. This also provides Supreme with the opportunity to not have to differentiate their products as much as some of these other brands have to, and gives Supreme no price competition in consideration with other streetwear brands. Supreme is simply on track to becoming the new Louis Vitton, Michael Cors, Nike, and etc, with the hype backing the streetwear company seeming endless, and with it dominating a market that never seems to die out.

Works Cited

Cowen, Trace. “Supreme Just Became a Billion-Dollar Streetwear Brand.” Complex, Complex, 9 Oct. 2017, www.complex.com/style/2017/10/supreme-worth-billion-dollars.

Gorsler, Fabian. “Supreme Just Got Valuated to $1 Billion by The Carlyle Group.” Highsnobiety, Highsnobiety, 10 Oct. 2017, www.highsnobiety.com/2017/10/09/supreme-stocks-billion-carlyle-group/.

Safdar, Khadeeja. “Why Streetwear Brand Supreme Is Worth $1 Billion and Abercrombie Isn't.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 18 Oct. 2017, www.wsj.com/articles/why-streetwear-brand-supreme-is-worth-1-billion-and-abercrombie-isnt-1508331601.

“This Is Supreme Economics Broken Down and How to Retire off Reselling.” HYPEBEAST, hypebeast.com/2017/6/supreme-resell-economics-million-dollars.

Wolf, Cam. “Supreme Is Now a Billion-Dollar Streetwear Brand.” GQ, GQ, 9 Oct. 2017, www.gq.com/story/supreme-billion-dollar-valuation.

Price War: Walmart vs. Amazon

Janie Xue

For years, Walmart has been unrivaled in its large basket of goods and its “Everyday Low Prices”. However, in the recent boom of online shopping, Walmart has fallen behind Amazon in sales. This has resulted in Walmart rigorously investing in their online operations and slashing their prices year-round in order to compete, with Amazon following suit. As both of these giant retail corporations rush to expand and serve as price leaders, prices may fall to dangerously low levels.

Amazon is well-known to be willing to damage profits for the sake of more sales at low prices, and Walmart now appears to be doing to the same. Last year, Walmart spent $1 billion in efforts to cut prices online, leading to a 50% growth in online sales. By November 2017, Walmart’s online prices were only 3% higher than Amazon’s, compared to the 5-12% difference in previous years. The graph from Reuter’s below displays Walmart’s prices for specific categories compared to Amazon’s in this past year.  

While Walmart is doing better now thanks to its aggressive cuts, over time it may be difficult to keep prices consistently lower due to Amazon’ seniority in online retail and its advanced algorithm for price matching. To combat this disadvantage and differentiate itself, Walmart has recently placed a focus on increasing the convenience of shopping with free two-day shipping over $35 and in-store pickup. Furthermore, in 2016 Walmart bought startup company Jet for $3 billion in order to get a jump-start on its ecommerce customer base and gain a better understanding of the technology needed to run an online business. More recently, Walmart has entered a partnership with Google to increase online sales.

With online retail profits already “notoriously thin” (Forbes), this price competition does not bode well for other businesses. For Amazon and Walmart, it is clear that the quantity effect dominates the price effect; both corporations earn more total revenue by decreasing price and increasing sales. However, some companies may be unable to sacrifice their profits in such a way. Traditional stores have begun to suffer; stocks for JCPenney and Sears, for example, have already dropped 60%. Thus, the age of big retail online will likely cause a decline for businesses who are unable to create an online presence, differentiate themselves, or catch-up in the race for the lowest price.

For more examples of how retailers are trying to compete with Amazon, check out this short clip from Fox Business.

Works Cited

Bose, Nandita. “Exclusive: Cyber Monday Showdown - Wal-Mart Closes in on Amazon in Online Price War.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 27 Nov. 2017, www.reuters.com/article/us-walmart-onlineprices-amazon-excluisve/exclusive-cyber-monday-showdown-wal-mart-closes-in-on-amazon-in-online-price-war-idUSKBN1DR0I6.

Rogowsky, Mark. “Giants May Be Toppled As Amazon, Walmart War For Your Wallet.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 31 Mar. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/markrogowsky/2017/03/31/giants-may-be-toppled-as-amazon-walmart-war-for-your-wallet/#668134ac6fe0.

Udland, Myles. “One Chart Shows Why Walmart Just Spent $3 Billion to Take on Amazon.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 8 Aug. 2016, www.businessinsider.com/walmart-vs-amazon-market-cap-2016-8.

Versaw, Rob. “The Ultimate Retail Matchup: Amazon Vs. Walmart.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 6 Oct. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/09/15/the-ultimate-retail-matchup-amazon-vs-walmart/#4b74c4c227db.

Walmart's shares have soared 40% to a near record high of $100 thanks to robust growth in its online commerce operations. “Amazon vs. Walmart: The Rest of Retail Fights for Crumbs.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 27 Nov. 2017, www.money.cnn.com/2017/11/27/investing/cyber-monday-online-retail-stocks-amazon-walmart/index.html.

The Holiday Season

The Holiday Season

Zach roelandts

Christmas is among us and is coming fast. About 9 out of 10 americans celebrate christmas every year. Christmas isn’t about gifts it's about being with your family, is what your supposed to say, but without gifts it wouldn’t feel like christmas. Christmas is great for our economy because it boosts businesses and increases sales, because people spend all their money buying gifts for their families. A average person in america will spend around 700 dollars on gifts alone every year. That generates around 465 BILLION dollars every year. That’s just on christmas gifts, there are other things that people buy during christmas. Like lights, decorations, eggnog, fruitcakes, and ugly sweaters. Christmas account for half of some companies and shops revenue. If you took away the month of november and december companies would be in a permanent depression.

But because we have christmas, sales have been rising every year by billions. To put this into perspective the U.S. citizens spend a combined amount of 455 billion more dollars on gifts than the total amount of money spent during halloween. Which is a total of 9 billion. But with this increase of demand comes and increase of labor.

During christmas business retailers hired 50 thousand temporary workers for companies all over the U.S. So not only does it bring in money, it increases the economy by creating thousands of jobs.  Retail companies are also hiring people during the holidays. They have created around 140 thousand temporary jobs that are expected to last though january. By the end of this season christmas is expected to create 627 thousand totaljobs.

Looking at these charts, christmas has a huge economic impact on not only america but the whole world. If christmas wasn’t ever a holiday, or became popular. Then a lot of our sales and a good portion of our jobs would have never been there.

Citations

“Economics of Christmas.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 4 Dec. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_Christmas.

Stribling, Richard. “Economic Impact of Holiday Season.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 8 Dec. 2011, www.businessinsider.com/economic-impact-of-holiday-season-2011-12.

Thompson, Derek. “Is Christmas Bad for the Economy?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 7 Dec. 2011, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/is-christmas-bad-for-the-economy/249618/.

Lipka, Michael. “5 Facts about Christmas in America.” Pew Research Center, 21 Dec. 2015, www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/12/21/5-facts-about-christmas-in-america/.

The Christmas Creep

Maddie Heimsch

Economics A4

The “Christmas Creep”

With over 1,800 Target stores in the US, it is an understatement to say that the discount store turned corporate giant is major in sales throughout the nation. Selling clothing, home decor, electronics, groceries, sporting goods, movies and books, and office supplies (just to name a few), while including pharmacies, photo counters, and Starbucks coffee stands, Americans find it hard to resist the superstore that seems to carry just about anything. And just like any major company, Target does its best to keep customers returning to their stores. One of the most effective ways to do this is to play on seasonal demands: placing emphasis on back to school supplies in August, bathing suits as spring break approaches, and of course, Christmas merchandise during the holiday season. However, as most have noticed in today’s commercialized Christmas celebrations, businesses have begun to sell Christmas merchandise at seemingly outrageous times. In efforts to outsell competitors, the “Christmas Creep” is a marketing term regarding the sales of holiday-themed items months in advance, and most agree that it must stop. While the holiday season is enjoyable, customers argue that we should slow down and enjoy Halloween and Thanksgiving before rushing into December. This year, Target has taken a stand against the Christmas Creep, and it is evident that it would be in other companies’ best interest to follow.

Although some argue that Target is underutilizing their resources in avoiding Christmas items as early as possible, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Essentially, the Christmas Creep is a marketing strategy- stores want to get their holiday decorations out the earliest so customers will have no choice but to shop from them. However, this is a strategy that customers hate. 71% of Americans agree that the Christmas Creep is annoying- at best (theweek.com). And Target is smart for listening. Rick Gomez, the company’s chief marketing officer, reminded us why the Target corporation truly believes that this is a step in the right direction. “They want us to pause,” he says about the store’s shoppers, “...to be really intentional and recognize Thanksgiving. What they don’t want us to do is go right into Christmas. So, we are going to respect that.” Retailers around the globe make their sales by catering to the wants and needs of their shoppers. However, no one seems to listen when customers vocalize their annoyances with stores’ attempted strategies. This is where Target is separating itself, and the positive externality of their decision is that customers around the nation will appreciate their efforts, making themselves a favorite in the retail world.

Going hand in hand with Target making an effort to listen to its customers, the store isn’t halting Christmas sales altogether. For those few shoppers who actually act on the Christmas Creep, buying their holiday supplies as early as September, Target is hearing them too. Their anti-Christmas Creep statement is mainly regarding their advertisements placed online, on TV, and at the front of their stores. Instead of bombarding shoppers with holiday sales at the front door during the fall months, Target will place their discounted Christmas items at the back of the store-- there for shoppers who want them, but out of the way of shoppers who want to slow down and delay their Christmas shopping until early December. “This offers customers the ability to get into the Christmas spirit when it suits them,” James Shepard, visual merchandise manager insists. Although the change might seem minor, it is a step in the right direction, away from the Christmas Creep, while still pleasing a wide variety of customers nationwide.

Lastly, the opportunity cost of competitor retailers of selling Christmas items so early is that they aren’t making profit on items for other holidays, like Halloween and Thanksgiving. Most retail competitors are attempting to make all their sales on Christmas items this time of year, with 98% of malls in the US sporting red and green decor by the first week of November, long before Thanksgiving even begins (theweek.com). However, Target is making it known to consumers that they are the place to go for purchasing Halloween and Thanksgiving items and getting a break from the Christmas madness. Because of this, the 71% of consumers that don’t participate in the Christmas Creep are drawn to Target rather than its holiday-crazed competitors selling wreaths and jingle bells in September. So, contrary to popular belief, Target’s strategies are helping the company far more than harming it.

Overall, other major retailers would be smart to follow in the Target corporation’s footsteps, for the 71% of us that can’t stand Christmas in September. Steve Cooper said it best: “In late October and early November, give the Christmas decorations a rest. Let the aromatic wafts of pumpkin-spiced lattes ease the seasonal transition before dumping fake snow all over the countertops,” (Forbes). As the holiday season seems to grow longer and longer each year, even Christmas lovers admit that we need to fight off the Christmas Creep.

Works Cited

Arkin, Daniel. “Target Is Taking on 'Christmas Creep,' Just in Time for Thanksgiving.”NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 24 Oct. 2017, www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/target-taking-christmas-creep-just-time-thanksgiving-n813756.

“Christmas Creep.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Nov. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_creep.

Rayasam, Renuka. “Capital - This Is Why Christmas Creep Makes Us Cringe.” BBC, BBC, 5 Oct. 2016, www.bbc.com/capital/story/20160929-this-is-why-christmas-creep-makes-us-cringe.

“Target Corporation.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Nov. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_Corporation#Store_formats.

“Target Has a Plan for Fighting 'Christmas Creep'.” Fortune, fortune.com/2017/10/23/target-christmas-holiday-shopping-deals/.

The Costly Backwash of Kneeling

The costly backlash of kneeling

By: Lauren Benkowski

The national anthem has always been a tradition and always will be to stand before the starting of every game to show respect for those who have served for us. However, a former quarterback of San Francisco 49ers, and now a free agent, Colin Kaepernick changed the mind of his and others on the meaning of the flag, all because of police brutality against African Americans. One action that made a culture war outburst that is now hurting the NFL immensely. Resulting in bringing politics to the NFL, it has reduced revenue in the restaurant industry in and around the stadium, merchandise stores, hotels and the tickets sales in the cities of where the stadiums stands. After, Donald Trump tweeted out, “If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our flag and country, you will see change take place fast. Fire or Suspend!”, people took this into consideration and stopped showing at their teams games.

Recently, Papa Johns, the official pizza company of the NFL, excluded their commercials from all NFL games on TV and lost monumental profit because since they promote the NFL, many fans thought that they were also promoting the kneeling which caused the demand in pizzas to decline and the supply to be even lower. Darren Rovell stated, “Papa John’s stock was down 8.5 percent”. That goes a long way when your considered the most recognized sponsor associated with the NFL for two years running. It’s a lose-lose situation when you don’t feature your product on a very popular channel and loose money but also, if you did feature it and people think your promoting the kneeling, they still won’t buy your product. Since the supply and demand took a poll, you won’t need as many employees to make the pizzas and even deliver them which creates a domino effect that affects other companies when one can’t afford any products because they are unemployed. Because Papa Johns took a course of action by taking their commercials off, their opportunity cost is that now people won’t think that they are supporting the kneeling as much. However, now that they aren’t receiving the demand they usually do, other pizza companies like: Pizza Hut, Little Caesar, Papa Murphy's, Dominos etc. will have a incline of demand which will also create business competition. The marginal cost of other pizza companies is going up because of the decline of Papa John’s product.

The NFL rating as a whole shows how much people have boycotted from watching any games from it decreasing five percent and going from 15.87 million viewers last season to 15.1 million viewers this season. According to Nielsen Data, “NBC is down 4%, CBS is down 6%, ABC is down 11% and Fox’s prime time viewership dropped 20% through the first month of new TV season”. With the decline of rating on each network, the network could lower the contract the NFL financially. For example, if a network contact was 5 billion dollars and it lowered to 4.5 billion this could affect the players in the long run when their contracts are up because of the NFL’s salary cap.

And this is what happens when politics come into play. A never ending heartbreak.

Works Cited

Davis, Julie Hirschfeld. “Trump Calls for Boycott If N.F.L. Doesn’t Crack Down on Anthem Protests.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/us/politics/trump-calls-for-boycott-if-nfl-doesnt-crack-down-on-anthem-protests.html.

“Here's New Another Perspective on the NFL Ratings Drop.” SI.com, www.si.com/extra-mustard/2017/10/27/nfl-2017-ratings-national-anthem-protests.

“Papa John's Blames NFL Protests for Declining Sales.” PEOPLE.com, people.com/food/papa-johns-nfl-protest-low-sales/.

Rovell, Darren. “Papa John's Says Anthem Protests Are Hurting Deal with NFL.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 1 Nov. 2017, www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/21250448/nfl-sponsor-papa-john-not-happy-anthem-protests.