Discover® Card released the findings of its second annual Thanksgiving Survey that asks consumers how they plan to spend the holiday. Despite the state of the economy, seven out of 10 respondents, or 70 percent, said they will not cut down on Thanksgiving travel this year.
In 1995, when The Harris Poll® began measuring online activity, less than 18 million adults used the Internet in their homes, offices, schools, libraries or other locations. Now, thirteen years, later, fully 184 million adults are online.
The Internet will be a key tool for saving money this holiday shopping season, according to US online females surveyed in October 2008 by SheSpeaks. More than two-thirds of respondents said they would try to use more coupons and coupon codes this year, and nearly as many said they would spend more time online looking for bargains.
Increasing oil price and growing concerns over energy security are helping accelerate the development and commercialization of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Federal and local governments have been proactively funding fuel cell technology and in the medium term, there would be rigorous developments in fuel cell technology, standardization of production and storage of hydrogen, and ramping up of the mammoth task of building hydrogen infrastructure.
The nation's mayors reiterated their call for a Main Street Stimulus package in the lame-duck Congress by releasing the first in a series of reports that inventories each city's "ready-to-go" infrastructure projects - projects that could be started and completed in calendar year 2009 - if emergency federal funding were made available. Information on these projects has been submitted to the U.S. Conference of Mayors from 153 cities of all sizes in all regions of the country. In this first release, cities have identified a total of 4,591 infrastructure projects costing a total of $24.4 billion that would create more than a quarter of a million jobs.
While the nation's current economic downturn is leading to strong sales increases for store brand products, Brian Sharoff, President of the Private Label Manufacturers Association, warned that the industry must be careful to maintain high quality standards in order to insure than the gains are long-lasting.
The U.S. Import Price Index fell for the third consecutive month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported, decreasing 4.7 percent in October and 10.6 percent over the past three months. Export prices declined 1.9 percent in October, the third consecutive monthly decrease.
By nearly two-to-one, Americans across all segments of the population believe the U.S. government should provide loans to American automakers, according to a poll released by Peter D. Hart Research Associates.
The Deloitte Research Leading Index of Consumer Spending fell into negative territory in October, primarily due to substantial increases in unemployment claims and continued softness in the housing market. The Index attempts to track consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending.
Online consumers intend to spend less in stores this holiday season than last year, The Conference Board and TNS report, but slightly more online. Consumers will be expecting free shipping and deals not available in stores when they shop online.
