Year: 2007

Categories
Business Life

How Much Have I Changed in 6 Years?

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Last Updated on January 7, 2007 by stlplace

I have started working for about 6 years. Although I worked for the same employer and stayed in the same city, I can tell some of my changes in all these years.

First is hobbies. I used to be crazy about the cars. I can tell the most cars’ make and model on the street, except some classic models in 50s and 60s. I spent a lot of time on the web reading all the reviews, checking out cars in the dealers’ parking lot. And once I even bought and returned a car. We all know returning things to stores is relatively easy in the States, but returning cars is not, and I highly recommend readers not do that. This hobby faded away since I bought my condo, and I started looking more carefully about my personal finance situation. I think I still like the new car smell, but if I have to take a loan with interest to buy it, I won’t.

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Categories
Business Technology

Don’t Count eBay and Yahoo out

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Last Updated on January 7, 2007 by stlplace

Google is doing everything to become the king of the Internet. The holiday promotion of Google Check out is targeted towards eBay’s Paypal; in the search market it’s continuing gaining market share from Yahoo, although I still like Yahoo Mail better than GMail 🙂

eBay is not standing still, it’s raising the listing fees. As a seller on eBay I certainlly don’t like them raising fees. But if I am eBay share holder, I will love it 🙂 Seriously, in today’s world, raising fees without losing customer is always a good sign of competitive edge. Not many companies, online or offline, can do that easily because customers are expecting more while paying less. Remember the Oracle’s 50% off Linux support (vs. Redhat)?   

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Categories
Business Stocks

Heelys and Crocs Report Week Ending 06Jan07

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Last Updated on January 9, 2007 by stlplace

Well, Heelys (HLYS) the stock did not do much lately. But I am still doing my reality check, in the stores and on eBay. This week I am adding Crocs (CROX) because I bought some shares last December and plan to hold it for a while.

It appears my local Sports Authority(s) have sold most of Heelys, two (out of three stores) don’t have many in the shelf. On the other hand, those two stores moved Heelys back to the original “skate department”, vs. the main aisle. The other store still put it in main aisle (side by side with a knockoff product). The eBay sales are OK. Another interesting point is a “Heelys” search on flickr yields 102 results; it seems people are opening Xmas gifts now 🙂

Crocs are red hot this holiday season, despite it’s winter. I guess part of the reason is we got a relatively mild winter; and more importantly the company made a few smart decisions, such as co-branding with colleges, and opening the Kiosk in the malls (without any discount), etc. I think this is a safe bet compared to Heelys. Here are the numbers on eBay. This is mostly for fun, don’t take this too seriously.

            Heelys Crocs

01Jan07 1059  2121
02Jan07 1050  1856
03Jan07 1092  1803
04Jan07  971  1423
05Jan07  964  1415
06Jan07  961  1398 

(Update 09Jan): saw this post on Yahoo Message Board, it talked about the sales in Asia. Very postive.

Categories
Life Stocks

Affordable Luxury in the United States

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Last Updated on January 7, 2007 by stlplace

I first heard about this “affordable luxury” term when I bought my Nissan Altima GLE, with sun roof and leather seat, about 6 years ago. The Nissan salesman told me Altima is an “affordable luxury” car. By that he meant the car has the features I mentioned above, plus alloy wheel (looking good), and the price is affordable (MSRP $22015, I got it for $18789 after $1400 rebate).

In recent years I feel this affordable luxury concept has penetrated the consumer markets very well. Here are just a list of things I think can be applied this flag (I may update this list from time to time).

Youth Apparel: Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, Aéropostale, and Urban Outfitters. To be honest, I can not tell too much difference among the “A” stores, but Urban is more for college kids because I felt back to fraternity once I visited store.

IMG_4203

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Categories
Saint Louis Stocks

Bought A Little Panera Bread PNRA

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Last Updated on January 6, 2007 by stlplace

I bought a little Panera Bread PNRA shares today. I have watched the stock for more than 6 months. This noon I went to the store at St. Charles Rock road as usual, and I saw the biggest crowd. After I ordered food, I can see and hear the associate calling the customer name (when food is ready) about every 20 to 30 seconds. It took me about 15 minutes to get my food, probablly a record for me. But I am not complaining here; I always see a large crowd during lunch hour there and today’s wait helped me make the decision to buy some stocks. I noticed this place is more popular than my old favorite lunch place  Fazoli’s and there is reasons behind that: better food; people always want to be in the “crowded restaurant”, whether in China or the United States.   

Here is a good introduction of Panera Bread.

Panera Bread Co. St. Louis

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Categories
China Technology

The Status of Internet Development in China

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Last Updated on January 5, 2007 by stlplace

Keso (Hong Bo), an outspoken blogger in China, summerized his views about the Internet in China in his blog. While I don’t 100% agree with his view, I think some of his points are well said. I am thinking current stock market in China kind reflect this “make quick money” theme.

By the way, Keso has some cool pictures on flickr.  

Categories
Business

Minimum Wage, Executive Pay and Jim Cramer

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Last Updated on January 4, 2007 by stlplace

This morning on my way to work, I saw some workers are on strike again at the Hilton’s construction site across street. I guess they are unionized workers fighting for the wage or benifits. Strike is nothing new to me, I remember during the UPS strike shortly after I came to the States in Fall 1997, the customers firmed long lines at Post Office. Couple years ago there was a big strike among Grocery Store workers, and I tried not to cross the picket line at the Shop N Save near my apartment: I bought grocery at Sams Club or the Chinese grocery store. 

Today is a good day for many workers actually, because the  pro-labor Democratic Party took the control of Congress, and there will a raise of miminum wage from $5.15  to $7.15 in 2 years. President Bush promised he will sign it. On the other hand, yesterday there was some news on Home Depot, the No. 2 retailer in the US. CEO Bob Nardelli was fired, or put it more politely, he resigned with $210 million severance pay. Obviously the Home Depot shareholders cried foul on his pay because the stock did not do well under Bob’s tenure. But what can they do? The pay was predetermined before he got hired.

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Categories
Business

Amazon is Going After Shoes and Bags

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Last Updated on January 4, 2007 by stlplace

Amazon have already sold those in its main web site. The only thing new here is they are going to launch a new site for this. The site is called endless. I don’t know too much about bags but I know the footwear sales through the web is increasing. As a testimony I bought two pairs of shoes through zappos last year. I am not worried about zappos, but I think traditional brick and mortar discount stores such as DSW will feel the pressure. Since I owned some footwear stocks, I checked out footwear stores from time to time. It seems to me consumers will be the ultimate winners here 🙂

zappos logo shoes online web

Categories
Technology

A Little Tip on Yahoo Mail and GMail

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Last Updated on January 4, 2007 by stlplace

All right, I received this tip from a credit card company, and I think it’s a good one. Sometimes Yahoo Mail will mistakenly put the monthly billing email from someone into junk mail folder. To ensure delivery, add the sender’s email address to your address book, that way it will always put email to your inbox.

Well, until spammers find a way to hack your address book 🙂

Categories
China Stocks

Symbols of US Chinese ADRs Traded in HKSE

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Last Updated on January 4, 2007 by stlplace

The following is an incomplete list of the Chinese blue chip (or red chips) companies traded both in NYSE and HKSE (Hongkong Stock Exchange). Some thinly traded stocks such as China Eastern Airlines (CEA) are not included.  

NYSE HK         Full Name 

ACH  2600.HK  Aluminum China

CEO  0883.HK  China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC)

CHA  0728.HK  China Telecom

CHL  0941.HK  China Mobile

CHU  0762.HK  China Unicom

LFC  2628.HK   China Life Insurance

PTR  0857.HK   China Petro

SMI  0981.HK    Semiconductor Manufacturing Intl

SNP  0386.HK   China Petro and Chemical

For more infomation, check out Yahoo Finance HK. Also I did not listed the number of HK shares each US ADR worth, it would be nice if someone compile a list of that 🙂