LilBob

The Future of U.S. Consumer Spending: It's a Generational Thing

I agree with you wholeheartedly that one needs to examine one's primary demographic group and aim advertising and product lines accordingly, but I question your list of businesses as you appear to have half of the list spot on and the other half dead wrong.

4 of the 8 businesses you mention are purveyors of goods and or services that are either of poor quality, or in outrageously competitive markets. Aeropostale doesn't have a chance in an age when more consumers are looking for the "Made in America" tag and quality of products is a growing issue. Chipotle Mexican Grill-that's just a big loser right there, the food in their stores is just plain awful (and I do know food, I was a prep cook in some pretty nice restaurants during my college years). Boston Beer Company-a lot of people do like Sam Addams but there's tremendous competition in Micro-Brews and Sam Addams has lost some of it's microbrew credibility by becoming too omnipresent. Pac Sun-they had stores in the malls near where I live, both of those stores are closed now. The items they carried were very highly priced, and suited to the fashion sense of a suburbanite hip-hop fan with significantly less than average intelligence.

After trashing half of your list I'll do a mitzvah by naming a sector to watch: craft goods suppliers. Gen-Y-for some strange reason I don't really understand-seems to be full of young people who love to do crafts: knitting, scrap-booking, watercolors, etc. Stores like Michael's and Joann Fabrics are likely to enjoy growing sales as the buying power of Gen-Y increases.

Apple Earnings Show Unparalleled Pricing Power

I recently completed my A-Plus training and repair computers as a little independent side business. I honestly feel that much of Apple's success is a reflection of just how bad the Vista operating system really is. Microsoft also appears to be cutting off their nose to spite their face as reportedly it will be relatively difficult to install Windows 7 over the XP operating system-requiring a clean install and reformatting of the hard drive rather than just popping in an upgrade disk.

We really haven't seen any of the larger PC or software companies make moves that would constitute an all out "price war" for desktop computers. Some PC retailers-such as TigerDirect.com-are selling refurbished PCs and there are quite a few computer techs who pride themselves on their ability to produce or maintain high-performance computers cheaply. I'm still confident that the first company that does take a real "price war" approach to computers will decimate the competition.

The World's 10 Most Influential and Innovative Companies

This article should have included the prefix: "Looking backward, the ten most influential companies of last year." With the consumer based economy grinding to a halt and an inevitable shift toward a value-based economy on the horizon many of these companies are bound for hard times. I disagree that Apple is the top dog in the business world now, they are a marketer of gadgets for self-absorbed elitists; and that's just the start of the list. The only one on this list that I mostly agree with is Monsanto, and even that pick may see declining sales in the next year with grain prices falling and interest in ethanol production declining.