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Archive for May 2009
May 27, 2009
Tavoris Cloud is an assasin. Not only does NJOY NOW respect and support him, we also are ashamed of Chad Dawson's team for not fighting him in a mandatory title fight. Tavoris may not have the biggest name in boxing, but he has the biggest punches. The article follows.
By Dan Rafael for ESPN.com
Chad Dawson has been down this road before: Should he fight a mandatory bout with little commercial value against a relatively unknown opponent? Or go for the money in a fight against a top opponent that fans and media are pushing for?
Just like he did last summer, Dawson went for choice No. 2.
Rather than be forced to fight obscure mandatory challenger Tavoris Cloud this fall in a bout that HBO, which has Dawson under contract, had no interest in televising, Dawson vacated his IBF light heavyweight belt on Wednesday.
Dawson's move paves the way for his team to finalize negotiations for a fall rematch with former champion Glen Johnson, who dropped a controversial decision to him 13 months ago in one of the best action fights of 2008.
Last summer, Dawson vacated the WBC version of the 175-pound title so he could fight former champion Antonio Tarver for the first time, a match Showtime had designs on for more than a year. Dawson did that rather than go to Romania for a mandatory defense against Adrian Diaconu, an unknown fighter in the United States.
Promoter Gary Shaw, Dawson's promoter, is in Panama City, Panama, at the annual IBF convention this week and delivered the letter to the organization in which Dawson relinquished the title. Dawson would have been stripped of the title had he not vacated it.
"The IBF rejected our request for an exception to making an immediate title defense against mandatory challenger Tavoris Cloud and inasmuch as no major television network was willing to buy the fight, the IBF left us little choice," Shaw said. "I respect the IBF's decision but the fight they were forcing us to do was commercially unviable. On behalf of Chad, we thank the IBF for the opportunity to fight for its title and to defend it. It's an honor Chad will always cherish. Now it's on to bigger and better [fights]."
Dawson (28-0, 17 KOs), coming off a second consecutive victory against Tarver on May 9, still holds another minor belt that he will defend against Johnson, a fight likely to take place in September or November.
"It's a shame that Chad had to give up his title, but bottom line is that we have to go where the money fights are," Mike Criscio, Dawson's manager, told ESPN.com. "We would have liked to have fought Cloud and kept the title. But if Cloud was in front of me right now I would have no idea who he is. If he delivered me a pizza, I wouldn't know who he is. HBO wouldn't buy the fight so we go back to Glen Johnson, which is fine. Chad is disappointed, but at this point it's about the money. He's got a family to support. He would have liked to keep his belt. He would have liked to keep all of his belts, but this is the way it goes.
"People want to see Chad in a rematch with Johnson, not against Cloud. Johnson deserves a rematch and now we're giving it to him."
Cloud (19-0, 18 KOs), 27, is an exciting puncher but has virtually no name recognition. He hasn't fought since stopping former titleholder Julio Gonzalez in the 10th round in his only televised fight last summer on ESPN2.
In order to help build to a potential fight with Dawson, Shaw said he offered Cloud's team a deal under which Cloud would fight on HBO's Dawson-Johnson II televised undercard with the guarantee that if Cloud and Dawson, 26, both won, Dawson's next defense would come against Cloud on HBO, which had approved the plan.
Shaw said Cloud's team turned it down, even though Cloud would have made "way more money" under that plan that he will now by fighting for a vacant belt without HBO's backing.
"The networks aren't interested in Cloud and he would be a step down for Chad at this point in his career," Shaw said. "But we were willing to fight him under that deal. Cloud's people turned it down. To me, Cloud's people are mismanaging his career and not doing what is best for him. He may get a title shot, but so what if he's not making any real money? The exposure and money on HBO two times in a row would be way better for him, so in my mind it wasn't a good business decision for Cloud. Chad will go on with his career."
May 26, 2009
Passive Investment Includes Stake in Preferred Stock, Common Stock and
Support for Facebook's Continued Global Growth
PALO ALTO, Calif., May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Facebook today announced that
Digital Sky Technologies (DST), one of the leading internet investment groups
globally with significant stakes in Eastern European and Russian internet
businesses, has made a $200 million investment in Facebook in exchange for
preferred stock, representing a 1.96 percent equity stake at a $10 billion
valuation.
In addition, DST has indicated that it is planning to offer to purchase
at least $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing common
stockholders that would facilitate liquidity for current and former employees'
vested shares in the company. The details of the plan are expected to be
announced to eligible participants during the summer. Consistent with
Facebook's practice with other recent investors, DST will not be represented
on the Facebook board or hold special observer rights.
"This investment demonstrates Facebook's ongoing success at creating a
global network for people to share and connect," said Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg. "We've worked hard to bring more than 200 million people - 70
percent outside of the U.S. - onto Facebook to share with friends, family and
co-workers. A number of firms approached us, but DST stood out because of the
global perspective they bring - backed up by the impressive growth and
financial achievements of their internet investments. We're looking forward
to working with the DST team."
"Our investment experience in other regions reveals the tremendous value
social networking companies create as they redefine how people communicate and
interact," said Yuri Milner, chief executive of DST. "By every important
metric - user growth and engagement, technological innovation and financial
performance - Facebook is on a similar trajectory, though on a much more
global scale. We're delighted to invest in Facebook, Mark and his management
team as they make the world more open and connected."
Based in London and Moscow, DST is a well-respected investor in a number
of successful internet companies, holding significant interests in Russia and
Eastern Europe, such as Mail.ru, Forticom and vKontakte. DST's main assets
account for over 70 percent of all page views in the Russian-speaking internet
and its social networks are the market leaders in more than 13 countries,
addressing a combined population of more than 350 million.
DST is run by its three partners who have complementary backgrounds in
operations, investments and finance: Yuri Milner, previously CEO of Mail.ru,
the #1 Russian language website; Gregory Finger, previously head of the Moscow
office of NCH, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund; and Alexander Tamas,
previously co-head of internet and software coverage in EMEA for the
Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs. With its advanced understanding
of opportunities in technology and social media, DST is a good fit for
Facebook and an insightful partner that can help unlock additional growth
opportunities.
Facebook is holding a teleconference for the media today at 9:45 a.m.
Pacific Daylight Time. From the U.S., participants should dial (877)
809-9539. Participants outside the U.S. should dial (706) 679-8713. Please
reference conference identification number 11871648 to join the call. A
replay of the teleconference will be available for one week. To access the
replay, U.S. participants should dial (800) 642-1687 and participants outside
the U.S. should dial (706) 645-9291. Please reference conference
identification number 11871648.
About Facebook
Founded in February 2004, Facebook's mission is to give people the power
to share and make the world more open and connected. Anyone can sign up for
Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment.
Facebook is a privately held company and is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.
About Digital Sky Technologies
DST was founded in 2005 and is the largest internet investor in the
Russian-speaking and Eastern European markets and one of the leading
investment groups globally to exclusively focus on internet and
internet-related companies. DST is a privately held holding company backed by
leading Russian and Western financial institutions. DST has offices in Moscow
and London.
Facebook(R) is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc. Other names may be
trademarks of their respective owners.
May 26, 2009
Hope you were able to NJOY Memorial Day, and weekend as much as we did. Aside from being grateful that we can now wear white shoes without embarrassing ourselves, we are even more grateful to Vet's for sacrificing for our Country. It may seem like an obvious thank you. We don't call our vet's baby killers, or spit on them. But it still is important that we acknowledge our military soldiers. Even if we do not approve of a war, the individuals that have answered the call to duty are heroes. Never forget the efforts made by the men and women that serve the United States of America. Thank you from myself, and NJOY NOW.
I come from a military family, and served during the Gulf War in the Army, here are a couple of things I think about when I think about being a veteran.
It was about 1980, and I was laying on the couch, watching TV. My dad was sitting in his chair. Knock at the door, my mom answers it, and it is a man. My dad ( my father was also named John Sostak) gets up, it was an old friend of his. They served in the VietNam War together. They hug, then this guy steps back for a second and says "Man Sky High, you got fat." This was so great, I was actually speechless.
You earn your nicknames. For a little while during my military years, I was called Fuel Spill, it didn't stick, but it was because I backed over a fuel pump. Nothing to be proud of. But Sky High? For the next 15 years or so at least once a week, I would throw the Sky High name at the Old Man. "I took the movie back to the video store. There wasn't a late fee, Sky High." This was 100 percent of the time followed by a reply from Dad, which was always "Fuck you." He may not have been so pissed if his nickname was Hammer, or The Answer.
I was in the Army, and primarily served in Germany,1989 to 1992. I was in 3/35th Field Artillery, and was a mechanic. I was a pretty crappy soldier, but to get out of long days at the motor pool, I would compete in soldier of the month contests. I won a bunch of these, not because I was a good soldier, just had a good memory, and wasn't shy speaking in front of the NCO's and CO's that questioned us.
I won the soldier of the quarter, and ended up representing our post, which was Peden Barracks in Werthiem Germany. As a reward, I was given time off, and a trip to Berlin. This was one of the most memorable trips of my life. I have to say one of, because I was married to my wife in Cabo.
It was 1990, and the wall was down. We could now visit Berlin without wearing a uniform. The entire country was going crazy. East Berliners were leaving for the West. East and West Germany merged, and became Germany. This was probably the beginning of the end of the Deutsche Mark, which used to be a big value when exchanged with USD.
The timing of my vacation was unreal. I was in Berlin, and at the wall for the most unbelievable concert ever. Pink Floyd and the Fall of the Wall concert. Sinead O'Connor, Van Morrison, Scorpions, and of course, David Hasselhoff. German's like weird shit.
Great time to give a veteran an NJOY NOW prepaid card.
May 24, 2009
It's Memorial Day weekend, and the weather in Chicago is wonderful. Great time to barbecue, and remind friends and family that we are not completely off the social grid. I had a couple of quick, non business related thoughts that I figured I would post.
1. I watched 2 movies, Doubt with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and The Burning Plain with Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger. I am not going to review either movie but I'd like to state that movies do not need to be depressing and slow to be good, or art. Am I alone in thinking that because I usually do not like movies of critical acclaim, I am not as smart as the film critic and the narcissists that make these obnoxious films?
Can Tarantino start making movies again?
Can Charlize Theron stop trying to be ugly, as if that proves she is a serious artist?
Can we all admit to ourselves that Slum Dog Millionaire was not the best (or even top 10) movie made last year?
Rent Zack & Miri Make a Porno. Seth Rogan and Zack and Miri Make a Porno is great entertainment.
2. Memorial Day Barbecue advice. Drink water. It can be a long day, and we do actually consider Tuesday to be a workday. 10 hours of beer and sun lead to sunburn, and hang overs.
3. Joy and I are on our way to watch the White Sox beat the Pirates at Comiskey Park. My favorite pitcher is going today, Mark Buehrle. We then hope to see the Hawks tie up the series against the Red Wings. That game starts at 2 pm. Great sports day.
4. Both myself, and my wife Joy have nephews who have or are celebrating birthdays this month. Quick reminder, the NJOY NOW card is not an appropriate birthday gift to nephews until they turn 18.
Have a great weekend, and in between beer, baseball, and hockey, visit NJOY NOW, and create a My NJOY profile (you can sign up for FREE, but you can treat yourself and buy full access too). My profile is jgc (click here to see my profile), and I'd love to meet you. We have some very exciting news coming related to My NJOY. Our adult social networking site is going to innovate social media in many ways over the coming months. Join now, so you can witness these developments, while helping us by suggesting and evaluating social media needs for My NJOY. We are committed to My NJOY, and NJOY NOW becoming the adult social network. We will be the solution. NJOY NOW prepaid cards will also be a brand, like Google has become the search engine, and Dick Cheney has become the devil.
May 22, 2009
Reported in Chicago Tribune by Julie Johnsson,Tribune staff reporter, May 11, 2009
Reeling from declines in readership and advertising, Playboy magazine is contemplating "radical changes" that may include cutting its circulation and reducing the frequency with which it is published, Jerome Kern, interim chairman and chief executive of Playboy Enterprises Inc. told analysts Monday.
The troubled publisher has embarked on a series of cost cuts in recent months, including closing its New York offices on May 1. Christie Hefner departed as CEO in January, after two decades as leader of the Chicago-based media firm, and Playboy's board is in the process of finding her replacement.
Next up is a make-over of its flagship publication. Playboy plans to combine its July and August issues into a single edition to reduce printing and distribution costs, and it is looking at trimming its circulation and reducing its advertising rates, officials said.
Playboy is also planning to roll out a redesign in its June edition aimed at bringing a "younger and fresher look to the magazine," Kern said.
Like other print publications, Playboy is struggling to connect with readers and to remain relevant in an increasingly digital world.
It lost about 600,000 readers between 2002 and 2008, finishing with an average total circulation of 2.5 million over the last six months of the year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Playboy magazine's revenues dropped 16 percent, to $13.5 million, during the first quarter, and are expected to plummet 39 percent, year over year, during the second quarter, the company said Monday.
The adult media company reported a first-quarter loss of $13.7 million, or 41 cents per share, including $8.7 million in special charges. That is roughly triple the loss of $4.2 million, or 13 cents per share, it reported during the year-earlier period.
Revenues for Playboy Enterprises' print and digital groups, which were recently combined, fell 26 percent, to $26.1 million, for the quarter. Playboy's television revenues dropped 20 percent, to $26.2 million, hurt by an increasing shift to on-demand viewing.
While Kern thinks that Playboy can turn around its television business, he's not as optimistic about its print product.
"It is clear that this company cannot continue to sustain significant losses in a business that now comprises less than one-quarter of the company's revenue base," Kern said during the company's quarterly earnings call on Monday.
May 21, 2009
By: Lisa Bertagnoli, originally printed in Crain's Chicago Business February 23, 2009
After hooking a generation of Chicago barflies on its Golden Tee Golf game, Incredible Technologies Inc. is betting it can cast the same spell on gamblers.
With demand for its video games shrinking, the Arlington Heights-based company is pinning its hopes on slot machines. CEO Elaine Hodgson, who co-founded Incredible Technologies in 1985, hopes that with superior graphics and more authentic sounds, her games can crack the $1-billion market for slot machines — and double her company's sales.
It's a risky play. Ms. Hodgson, 53, has invested $7.5 million in the gambling push, a substantial sum for a company with less than $100 million in sales (she won't disclose the exact figure). And it comes as the casino business is slowing like everything else.
"We didn't bet the entire farm, but we did make a big gamble" on slots, she says.
Perhaps making her odds even longer, Ms. Hodgson has decided not to use the Golden Tee brand — or Silver Strike Bowling, Incredible Technologies' other popular bar game — on any of the slot machines. Instead, they feature themes like Cars and Money. She says she wants to work the bugs out of the machines before they're linked to what she calls her "crown jewels."
One gambling expert questions that strategy. "A Golden Tee slot machine might have gotten someone's attention," says Randall Fine, managing director at Fine Point Group Inc., a Las Vegas-based casino and gambling consultancy. "You go and say, 'I did Golden Tee; look how popular that game is. I have a slot version — do you want it?' "
Ms. Hodgson insists she is not counting on an immediate hit in gambling. She's expecting some trial and error. "It's not like we'll come out of the box with the best slot machine ever," she says.
Incredible Technologies has built six prototype machines. In December, it got clearance to make and distribute slot machines in Nevada; Illinois and New Jersey are in the works, Ms. Hodgson says. The six machines are now being certified by a third party, Las Vegas-based Gaming Labs International Inc., and by Nevada's state-run lab, as required by state gambling authorities and the Native American tribes that operate casinos. Nearly a third of the company's investment in gambling has gone toward clearing regulatory hurdles.
Incredible Technologies started the push into casinos three years ago, spurred in part by slowing demand from its core video-game customers — independent bars and restaurants, which have been hurt by non-smoking ordinances and the rise of chains, which tend to line their barrooms with flat-screen televisions instead of video games. "It's been sliding recently," Ms. Hodgson says of her company's biggest market.
Rather than create games and find a third party to manufacture them, as most slot-makers do, Incredible Technologies decided to build the entire slot machine — from cabinet to software — in-house.
Ms. Hodgson says her games will rise above the competition thanks to vibrant graphics — like the three-dimensional fish in its Fish Store game — more realistic sound effects and creative bonus games aimed at holding gamblers' attention. In the Money game, gamblers who advance to the bonus round get a touch-screen "money vault," where, the faster they can touch bills floating on the screen, the more extra winnings they get. "People get frenetic playing it," Ms. Hodgson says.
She plans to be selling these machines, which go for $12,000 to $15,000 apiece, in the second half of this year. Ms. Hodgson believes success in gambling could double sales: Casinos tend to replace 20% of their slots each year.
Still, experts point out that Incredible Technologies is grabbing at a shrinking pie. Casino operators are seeing revenues fall as recession-pinched gamblers cut back. If that continues, they are likely to buy less new equipment. Those concerns have recently punished Waukegan-based WMS Gaming Inc., the world's second-largest maker of slot machines. WMS shares are down 33% this year — although the company expects sales to increase by as much as 12% in 2009.
Slowing orders could lead big manufacturers like WMS to slash prices, further hurting Incredible Technologies' chances, says Steve Gallaway, Denver-based principal at consultancy Gaming Market Advisors LLC.
"Do I think they'll make it in casinos? No, unless they have a great title. And then they'll be bought out by one of the big guys," he says.
Ms. Hodgson is undaunted. She says her self-financed gamble on gambling is built for the long haul and that it doesn't matter if the first foray fails.
"We have the wherewithal to design new games," she says. "We're going to do our best to figure out why and do better next time."
©2009 by Crain Communications Inc.
May 21, 2009
Originally posted in the Chicago Tribune: May 12, 2009
Posted by Ashley Rueff at 6:32 p.m.
SPRINGFIELD—Video poker emerged today as a potential way to pay for long-stalled school construction as lawmakers struggle to pull together a major public works program before their scheduled May 31 adjournment.
The House Executive Committee voted 9-2 to advance a measure one lawmaker estimated could generate between $200 million and $300 million a year through a 25 percent tax on video poker games in bars, truck stops and fraternal and veterans clubs. The lion’s share would go to the school construction fund and the remaining money to local government.
With only a few weeks left in the legislative session, lawmakers are scurrying to find ways to pay for a statewide construction plan. Aides to Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan, both Chicago Democrats, said video poker is one possible funding source. Gov. Pat Quinn, who is pushing for a $26 billion construction program, had no comment on the video poker legislation, a spokeswoman said.
Sponsoring Rep. Frank Mautino (D-Spring Valley) said he’s first concentrating on getting the votes to pass video poker.
There are about 65,000 video poker games throughout Illinois and the legislation would regulate facilities that offer illegal payouts under the table, Mautino said.
Players would be restricted to wagering no more than $2 per bet, and the maximum payout by a machine would be $500. Taverns would be able to house no more than three video poker games while fraternal clubs and truck stops could have five.
One of the two dissenting votes came from Rep. Ed Sullivan (R-Mundelein), who said if the state is going to tax video poker, then the money should be used to repair roads before school construction. The other opponent was Rep. Bob Biggins (R-Elmhurst), who said there’s enough gambling in the state already.
Video poker has been floated in the past at the Capitol, but never gained much steam. Ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich referred to it as the "crack cocaine" of gambling in stating his opposition.
May 18, 2009
"Social media" is transcending this poor economy. Twitter is discussed on CNBC as much as GM. Consumers, companies, and marketers are all talking about social media, social networking and social marketing. NJOY NOW has obviously heard the demand and established My NJOY, the premier adult social networking platform on the web, today.
We have been watching the emergence of social media gurus, social media startups, social media books, and social media firms. It is now common practice among corporations to hire social media strategists, assign community managers, and launch social media campaigns, all designed to tap into the power of social media. This does not make Social media, and adult social networking any less confusing or challenging, quite the opposite. Social media today is a mess: it has become a collection of countless features, tools, and applications fighting for a piece of the pie.
What is needed, and how do we add value to Internet business and entertainment through social networking? NJOY NOW has an adult social network that try's to eliminate the clutter, while adding value to a subscription membership for premium content. This platform has the missing social marketing ingredient, the revenue stream that is not advertising based. NJOY NOW is unlike any other social media company, as we are revenue based adult social networking, with real value for all users.
Facebook, a once groundbreaking college social networking online community, is now a community of survey's and third-party applications. Twitter users now have a dozen or so additional applications they can use to overcome Twitter's ever-present shortcomings. People spread themselves across a number of tools and maintain different networks on each (large portions of which they don't even know), making it nearly impossible to decide what to share and with whom.
Users, marketers, and companies face an incredible amount of noise, too. For every new application that relies on a network, another crops up that helps users manage it. While "eyeballs" used to be the coveted metric, both ad publishers and investors now realize that having smaller well-targeted niches can lead to much better returns than marketing to one large undifferentiated mass of users. The aggregated traffic we used to boast about has proven to be difficult to monetize. Now we must narrowcast, and use the valuable data we are collecting to add value to the users that populate our networks.
Meaning and connection -- two key anchors of all things social media -- are corroding by the day as people's ability to organize their experiences and find the relevance of their networks declines. Social media, in essence, is bumping up against its own ceiling, no longer able to serve the needs of those living within its walls; and for these reasons, social media as we know it is changing course. Emotional attachment will continue to be harder to establish as the web becomes more crowded, and competitive. The pie is large, but their are literally millions of users trying to consume this pie. Adult social networking is the slice of the Internet social media pie that NJOY NOW has been developed for.
I would like to invite you to create a My NJOY profile. Just Click Here. Choose "Free Access" on this sign up page, and you can become a part of the My NJOY community. If you have a crard, you can also attach it to your profile for access to our hot adult entertainment.
May 18, 2009
No Rush to Rebrand 'Run'
Couche-Tard won't force On the Run franchisees to rebrand to Circle K
By Steve Holtz for CSP, March 15th 2009
LAVAL, Quebec -- Two weeks after Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced its purchase of the On the Run franchise from ExxonMobil, the company insists it does not intend to force On the Run franchisees to rebrand their sites to Circle K—at least not yet. "We don't have any plans on a short-term basis to force people to move from On the Run to [Couche-Tard brand] Circle K," Couche-Tard's vice president and CFO Raymond Pare told CSP Daily News this week.
Could that change in the near future? Maybe, Pare said.
"That's a question we're working on. We've already started discussion," he said. "The first step is to work with the franchisees in order to determine what will be the next step. This is not a decision that will be made in [the Couche-Tard] office [alone]; it is a decision that we will make together. And it will be what makes sense and what will create more value for the franchisees and us overall."
That doesn't prevent a franchisee who is interested in rebranding from making the move, however.
"If a franchisee at a certain point believes that Circle K would be better for them, it will be his choice, and we will work with them," Pare said. "For sure we don't have any plans on a short-term basis to force people to move from On the Run to Circle K. It's a business relationship we need to establish with these people•. We're not coming in and forcing anybody [to rebrand]."
Couche-Tard announced its deal April 29 to acquire from Exxon Mobil Corp. the On the Run convenience-store franchise system. Couche-Tard will take control of the franchise agreements for approximately 450 On the Run stores currently operated by ExxonMobil-branded fuel dealers and distributors. The price of the deal, which is expected to close in late May, was not disclosed. Pare also would not say how many years remain on the average franchisee's contract.
He did say Couch-Tard CEO Alain Bouchard spent three days in early May visiting with On the Run franchisees to deliver Couche-Tard's message that "We want to work together," and the listen to the franchisees' concerns.
"We opened the discussion with them last week and it seems that our idea of a network that shares with our [Circle K] franchisees [is accepted]," he said. "We'll work together to establish a next step. There's no action planned or specific plans."
May 15, 2009
The New York Association of Convenience Stores just held it's annual trade show Wednesday and Thursday in Albany New York. This is a great organization that does a wonderful job supporting East Coast c-stores and gas stations.
NJOY NOW is preparing for the Tr-State area, and we look forward to establishing distribution for this enormous market. We have a dynamic product that store owners welcome.
If you are in Massachusetts, we have a new franchise distributor, so Boston, you have NJOY. Vanessa will be making NJOY NOW cards available, and we are looking forward to becoming a relevant product in the New England area.
New England has an interesting history which will help NJOY NOW. White Hen Pantry was a Chicago area convenience store franchise. White Hen operated about 50 franchise convenience stores in New England. All of these stores were purchased by 7-Eleven, and most have been converted to 7-Eleven franchise convenience stores.
As our software integration is completed with 7-Eleven, we will have more availability through this acquisition, and these store conversions.
You can see a small video of us working the 7-Eleven FOAC show here.
We are also very plugged in to the On the Run acquisition by Couche-Tard. As companies merge, we must be prepared for the changes, like new gift card terminals, that affect our relationships with the corporations, and the products and brands we promote and represent. As an prepaid adult entertainment card, we must have a dynamic back end so that our prepaid cards can be activated on these terminals.
May 14, 2009
Miss California USA has been allowed to retain her crown, despite controversy over nude photos, and her association with a conservative anti-gay marriage advocacy group. The Donald has spoken. Donald is a member of My NJOY, click here to check out his page and photo albums.
Carrie Prejean's comments about her opposition to same-sex marriage ignited a media firestorm after Perez Hilton, one of the celebrity judges suggested her response may have cost her the Miss USA title; she finished as first runner up.
The nude photos of this very attractive, very annoying woman has led to a review of her state title. "We've reviewed the pictures carefully," Trump said. "We've made a determination that the pictures taken were acceptable. Some were risque, but we are in the 21st century."
Trump also defended the answer Carrie Prejean gave at the Miss USA pageant. She was asked her view of marriage. Prejean responded, clumsily, that she believes marriage is between a man and a woman.
I'm blogging on this for a few reasons.
1. NJOY NOW will pay Carrie Prejean $1,000,000 for a nude, softcore, erotic video and interview. The video will be worth the pain of the interview.
2. Carrie Prejean is clearly an annoying, attractive woman, but Perez Hilton is an asshole. Can the gay mafia and media relax for a minute? It is not wrong to have differing opinions. Our country was founded on these principles. Men have died in defense of our right to free speech. NJOY NOW is not insensitive to anyone's rights, including people we do not agree with, like Carrie Prejean. NJOY NOW is actually pro-gay, but we cannot expect everyone to have the same opinion, and we prefer honesty over bullshit.
3. Donald Trump is very fucking obnoxious.
4. Beauty pageants are great. NJOY NOW loves hot, dumb women. Check the news section of the site. Big Brain will get up some Beauty pageant photo's up shortly.
Update: The photos can be seen on the NJOY NOW site here.
May 13, 2009
In light of Playboy's financial challenges as they face delisting by the NYSE, we thought this would be a good time to reprint an article from Forbes magazine describing Marc Bell's rebuilding of Penthouse. We are confident that although Playboy may not have hit rock bottom, they will survive. The "bunny" brand is still relevent. This is when Playboy Enterprises reshape the management, and become a lean mean Internet money making machine. NJOY NOW.
Playboy is challenged as a public company. What would make Penthouse any different?
Dirk Smillie 03.13.08, 6:00 PM ET
Forbes Magazine dated April 07, 2008
Former Penthouse editor Mark Healy recalls a heated conversation last spring with his then boss, Penthouse Media Group Chief Executive Marc Bell, who was angry about a magazine item that tweaked a celebrity. "What's this damned Howard Stern story doing in here?!" fumed Bell. Healy considered the piece innocuous. Bell thought it was inflammatory enough to anger Stern, who frequently hosts Penthouse Pets on his radio show. Healy later quit because of Bell's meddling.
Bell, 40, has given Penthouse, for decades one of the most explicit men's magazines, a "softer focus," as he puts it. The cover shot is more conservative than most images in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue. Bell has spent $8 million on the redo after buying Penthouse and related properties out of bankruptcy for $52 million four years ago. The gussying up is mainly for Wall Street. Bell hopes Penthouse Media Group will raise $250 million in stock in an initial offering, perhaps in the summer.
There's a lot of airbrushing under way. Penthouse is the tame front for a racy collection of 27 social-networking Web sites that Bell and Daniel Staton, company chairman, bought late last year for $500 million in cash and stock. The sites, previously owned by a Palo Alto, Calif. company that carried the plain-brown-wrapper name Various, turned Penthouse Media Group into the world's largest adult entertainment company.
The biggest site by far is the very X-rated AdultFriendFinder. With 22 million active members, the site is a Match.com for people who want to find bedmates. There's nothing subtle here, especially in the photography members send in. Special-interest groups include folks who like orgies in central New York state and some people interested in Buffalo sex, apparently a reference to the city, not the animal. There are listings from around the world. Kazakhstan has 2,644 swingers.
Fees from 1.2 million paying members of this site, who shell out an average $25 a month for full access, brought in $285 million last year, or 85% of the total from all the social networking sites Penthouse Media Group acquired. Last month AdultFriendFinder got 8 million unique visitors, who lingered an average 16 minutes on the site, says Nielsen Online. Playboy.com attracted only 1.3 million unique visitors, who dropped by for just more than 5 minutes.
Penthouse Media Group's recently acquired sites, which also include Passion.com and BigChurch.com, a site for Christians who want prayer mates, have a total of 45 million active members. Bell plans to use the money from a stock offering to make more acquisitions and to pay off part of the company's $400 million in debt. With Staton, he owns 60% of Penthouse Media Group.
Penthouse, the magazine, with only 12 pages of ads in the 150-page March issue, will never be a powerhouse alone. But will Penthouse Media Group, as a public entity, excite investors? Playboy Enterprises, nyse: PLA is struggling. At $8 its stock (today Playboy is trading at $2.66 per shar, 5-13-2009, 10:50 am cst), adjusted for all capital changes, is trading for less than half its price when it went public 37 years ago.
But Bell is full of ideas for brand extensions of the sort that never worked too well for Playboy. He plans to sell X-rated mobile applications for cell phones that will allow users, who pay up to $10 a month, to watch videoclips of Penthouse Pets. The company has a line of 20 Penthouse-branded accessories (like a French maid's outfit) that will be sold through the magazine, as well as Penthouse.com and a few boutiques. Visitors to Penthouse's Web site, which is more salacious than the magazine, can pay $20 a month to watch streaming videos with titles that include Cheek Freaks 4. Bell recently signed a deal with New Frontier Media, nasdaq: NOOF to make Penthouse Video On Demand available on tv in 59 million homes.
Bell plans to let Penthouse magazine, its Web outlets and other ventures market one another. Penthouse Pets make guest appearances in nine Penthouse Executive Clubs, which bring in $4 million in licensing fees a year. Ads in Penthouse magazine tout AdultFriendFinder. Members of that site will soon be able to subscribe to an online version of the magazine, which will be delivered as a pdf file, for $1 a month. All the cross-fertilization is exciting to some. "This is fabulous for business," says Edward Norwick, restaurant manager of the Penthouse Executive Club in Manhattan, as scantily clad women gyrate on a stage nearby.
Things certainly look more promising than they did when Bell and Staton bought the magazine in 2004. Penthouse made Bob Guccione, who created the magazine in 1965, a rich man for a while. Around 1990, when the magazine's circulation peaked at 5 million, Guccione lived in a 27-room midtown Manhattan mansion that was filled with valuable art and pretty women. When called upon for business meetings, Guccione often arrived with his shirt unbuttoned to the waist and, occasionally, wearing a necklace adorned with a miniature replica of his genitals, plated in gold. But Guccione, 77, lost millions of dollars in ventures that included a casino. As more men started turning to the Web for porn in the late 1990s, Guccione made the magazine raunchier, alienating advertisers and readers. By 2003 Guccione's Penthouse was losing $6 million a year and its circulation was only 320,000. Unable to keep up payments to his lender, Guccione abandoned his Manhattan lair--later bought by Wall Street financier Philip Falcone for $49 million--and lost his magazine. He now lives in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., in a house once owned by his late first wife. "We are fixing problems from the past," says Bell. "These are things Guccione should have done 20 years ago."
Bell never expected to find himself in the sex business. But don't call it "porn," a four-letter word to him. "We can't be seen as guys sitting around with gold pinky rings," he snaps.
Bell clearly gets his kicks from more mainstream pursuits. Previously he built Web-hosting giant Globix in the late 1990s. When the tech bubble burst, Bell watched Globix, which once had a bigger market cap than Apple, nasdaq: AAPL , sink into bankruptcy. By luck or smarts, he had sold a third of his stake in the company for $130 million before the crash. Since then Bell and Staton have raised some $1 billion to buy stakes in 450 companies. They also dabble in real estate and the theater. They co-produced with others the Tony Award-winning Broadway hits Hairspray and The Producers.
At Penthouse Media Group there are more business publications than girlie magazines in Bell's office, where six computer screens track the performance of the companies in which Bell and Staton own stakes. Next to each listing is a colored bar showing each stock's up-to-the-minute price. Soon, Bell hopes, Penthouse Media Group will have a place on the screen and its bar will glow green. "Sex," he says, smiling, "is recession-proof."
May 12, 2009
Canadian c-store's are cutting edge, and NJOY NOW loves them for it. Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. has been under scrutiny for some amazing and disturbing commercials they have put online. Couche-Tard is the corporate parent of Circle K, Mac's, Beckers and of course Couche-Tard. Couche-Tard has just acquired the ExxonMobil On the Run convenience store franchises.
Couche-Tard may be under fire, but they remain comfortable with an Internet advertising campaign featuring a clown being hacked to pieces, spurting balloons and confetti. Another ad has the multi-colored clown being put into a wood chipper and coming out the other end in the form of balloons and confetti. The two online ads are promoting the 10th anniversary of Sloche, Couche-Tard's slushy drink, reported the Canadian Press. Sloche is like a 7-Eleven Slurpee, or Slush Puppy, or Freezie.
These ads are disturbing, and great. Links below to YouTube to check them out.
See the Couche-Tard clown getting hacked to pieces by a fat woman with a meat cleaver.
Watch a couple of guys run a clown through a wood chipper.
Company spokesperson Jacinthe Harnois said the campaign is aimed at teenagers and that the ads are appearing only on the Internet because that's where it's easiest to reach them. "They really like our campaigns, so I don't care if older people don't like them," Jacinthe Harris. It is refreshing to here a spokesperson be blunt. She just doesn't give a fuck about some whining clowns, or a few squeeky wheels. NJOY NOW is very sensitive to clowns, but we do welcome the cutting edge advertising campaign introduced by Couche-Tard.
Giovanni Iuliani, a retired clown known as "Patapouf," called for a protest and called the campaign "disgusting" and "in very bad taste." He told the news agency, "Why do they use my profession? We don't want to look like insane people."
Couche-Tards unofficial response to Mr. Iuliani is "whatever."
May 11, 2009
NEW YORK – Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are engaging coffee consumers, reports DMNews.com.
With the national launch of McDonald’s McCafé coffee offer, interest is brewing among customers through Twitter and a new Web site with shareable videos via Facebook and Reddit, for example – new media marketing strategies that has other coffee chains looking into “some form of social media as well.”
“We're having a lot of fun online, and there's a great dedicated area for McCafé on the McDonald's Web site with some really quirky fun things,” Sofia Therios, director of marketing for McDonald's USA, told the news source. “It's been our mentality that slow and steady wins the race with social media…We really aggressively started looking at social media for the whole McDonald's brand late last year and wanted to make sure we had the right resources to engage our customers in ways that are relevant,” she said.
Therios commented that McDonald’s is expecting McCafé appeal to come from its existing customer base. For more targeted marketing efforts, subsites at the company’s Web site reach out to different demographics, such as African American, Hispanic and Asian customers. “McDonald's is also sending targeted e-mail blasts in English and Spanish to McDonald's customers who are already signed up to receive messages and promotions,” writes the news source.
Other coffee chains such as Starbucks have taken a “more subtle” social media approach. Its recent marketing campaign, which focuses on “story telling,” kicked off with a blog by Terry Davenport, senior vice president of marketing, and a YouTube.com video by Starbucks President, CEO and Chairman Howard Schultz. Starbucks also communicates to customers through its Facebook page, which has more than 1.5 million “friends.”
Meanwhile, smaller locations such as Bruegger’s Bakery have been “more hesitant” to get on board with social media in favor of direct mail and in-store marketing. “We're not trying to change what we do or respond to these ‘coffee wars' in any way,” Marketing Director Tom Piper told the news source, adding, “I am very confident that you will see more social media experiments from us: Facebook, Twitter, mobile and probably some online ad placements, but we're not walking away from traditional vehicles.”
May 08, 2009
NJOY NOW is going to pioneer here. We are infatuated with the Lingerie Football League, and we're looking forward to the inaugural 2009 season. Shocked? You shouldn't be. Athletic hot ladies playing a game that is normally played by men is HOT. Can we bet on this game? Probably not in 2009, but maybe 2010?
The girls will be playing 7 on 7, on a 50 yard indoor field. Our team (notice I'm already "owning" this?) is Chicago Bliss, coached by Dennis "Silky D" McKinnon. Dennis McKinnon is a WORLD CHAMPION. The romance is beyond the ladies, the league is being managed by World Champions.
The 1985 Bears are undeniably the greatest football team in the history of football. Dennis McKinnon was not only a member, he contributed. We all remember his kick return in 1986 against the Giants for a touchdown. Silky D was/is fast. I just saw him at the 7-Eleven trade show, and he is still crazy fast. Dennis looks great. He appears to have no body fat, and could definitely beat everyone in the 7-Eleven room in a foot-race.
We know that Silky D is a real American hero, and athlete. Is the league real? It may start slow, but sexy women sell. Can they have true fans? I think so, but the owners need to recognize the market inertia. Pro Wrestling and MMA took years to become popular, and this may too. It won't take as long as men in trunks fighting or flexing, but it will take time. It will also require more effort for loyalty, as ladies don't have the sticky/staying power of Hulk Hogan, Iron Shiek, Vince McMahon, or even Dana White for that matter.
In the meantime, I am excited that Friday nights this winter may have ladies pushing each other on TV, while we are NJOY'ing happy hour at PJ Clarke's here in Chicago. This is a great addition to the shitty fall and winter schedule of Chicago sports and stuff to do. NJOY NOW will be reporting on every team in this league, all season. Now if we can convince a bookmaker to handicap these games, we can really have reasons to watch.
GO CHICAGO BLISS!
May 08, 2009
We were very fortunate to be invited to the 7-Eleven FOAC trade show this week. Yesterday was a wonderful day. 7_Eleven hosted the best vendors show we have attended. The show had 100 booths, and every one was taken, and vendors that wanted to be there had to be turned away because the venue at the DuPage Convention Center was large enough to accommodate the demand.
7-Eleven CEO, Joe DePinto was in attendance, and he gave a very positive keynote address. Not only is NJOY NOW cards on the radar, but other new prepaid products, as well as private label products are coming. The largest franchisor in the world is 7-Eleven, and they do not stand still.
We had 7-Eleven store owners visit us from all over the country. NJOY NOW cards are an exciting new product that convenience store customers will be happy to have available. At home entertainment will not be slowed by a poor economy. In reality, it will increase. In fact, Activision has reported quarter one earnings of $981 million, triple same quarter 2008.
We had a lot of traffic at our booth, and couldn't speak with everyone. We did give out a lot of cards, and have a lot of store owners that want to carry our product. Faruk Fatehali, owner of the 7-Eleven at 3700 N. Broadway won an NJOY NOW iPod.
NJOY NOW is looking forward to the upcoming 7-Eleven Charity Golf Outing, at Pheasant run. The event will be raising money for Chicldren's Memorial Hospital, which holds a special spot in the heart of NJOY NOW, as the GM's wife works there. 7-Eleven has a donated a unit to Children's Memorial.
We are still sorting through all the information we collected. Feedback has been great, and store sales are improving. Together with partnerships like this we can begin to project achievable goals for quarter 4 2009, and 2010. Stay tuned.
To see pictures from the show, visit my NJOY NOW profile. Video will be coming next week. Hope everyone has a great weekend.
May 06, 2009
CHICAGO, May 5 (UPI) -- TV personality, author and autism activist Jenny McCarthy has signed a multiyear deal with Oprah Winfrey's Harpo production company.
The Chicago Sun-Times said the agreement is to develop various projects, including a syndicated talk show for which McCarthy would be host.
McCarthy, a Chicago native, already is a frequent guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and author of an anti-sugar blog at oprah.com called "Give It Up for Summer."
Chicago, May 5 (NJOY NOW) -- Jenny McCarthy is a Chicago native. A South Sider. She is an awesome example of how looks, brains, an open mind and a great sense of humor create a real brand. Jenny was a product of Playboy, and an original centerfold. A beauty in a Mother McAuley HS sweater. Congratulations Jenny. We hope you make Oprah style money in your new gig, gorgeous.
May 06, 2009
Great news ahead for online poker players in the United States. Legislation is being considered that would allow us to legally pay and play online poker. Barney Frank is behind this bill,and it can be a financial windfall for our government. NJOY NOW is 100 percent in favor of this legalization of games that are fun, and made for adults.
Click here to see the latest news on Bloomberg.
Sometimes we as Americans try to hard to protect ourselves, from ourselves. Poker and gambling can be fun, but like anything, if abused, it can hurt people. The same can be said for McDonald's, Sports, Red Bull, Religion, Medical Marijuana, Lindsey Lohan, Lindsey Lohan's mom Dina, Dog's, Car's, Wall Street, Dick Cheney, etc. You see, I can go on forever, and sometimes we do. We can make our society so insulated that we aren't allowed to breathe, but what have we accomplished? Are we trying to protect everyone, from everything, at the cost of freedom, liberty, and lives that are fun and fulfilling?
Can't we just NJOY our personal, guilty pleasures? Let's have fun, and also let's commit to helping people and charitable causes. Let's live!
May 05, 2009
Reprinted from: http://www.csnews.com/ May 5th, 2009
By Barbara Grondin Francella
NEW YORK -- Branded and private-label prepaid card transactions are expected to hit $178 billion by next year, up from $113 billion in 2007, according to a study by Aite Group LLC.
7-Eleven Inc., a retail pioneer in the prepaid category, transformed its stores into prepaid destinations, especially for wireless products, and successfully broadened its offer to include a large variety of cards for communication, entertainment and everyday purchases.
"There are more than 80 million unbanked or financially underserved customers in the United States who need these cash-based products to receive services similar to the banked customer," said Brian Haynes, the 7,800-store, Dallas-based chain's category manager for prepaid, in an interview with CSNews Online.
At 1,617 Speedway SuperAmerica stores, prepaid products also are treated as a core category. "We want someone to find a wide selection of great products—an easy one-stop shop," said Tom Lefevers, director of merchandising for the Enon, Ohio-based retailer.
In addition to direct sales to its customers, Speedway SuperAmerica LLC uses prepaid cards promotionally, as part of its Speedy Rewards loyalty program—accumulated points can be used to acquire gift cards—and as a fundraising tool.
The Speedway SuperAmerica Children's Miracle Network card allows customers to contribute to the charity. For every $25 Speedway SuperAmerica gift card purchased, $1 goes to Children's Miracle Network. This year's goal: $4 million.
Other charitable organizations that purchase at least $500 worth of Speedway SuperAmerica prepaid fuel or gift cards are offered a 5 percent discount. After selling the cards at face value, the organization earns the 5 percent difference.
"It’s a way to use these cards to be involved in our community," said Lefevers. "These cards become more than just a product on the shelf."
Here's what Haynes, Lefevers and other industry players have to say about what's hot and what's cooling off in the prepaid category:
Online entertainment cards, including those used to access online gaming, virtual worlds and social networks, are gaining attention. "These categories are showing strong user growth, and with a young demographic that may not have access to credit, there's a demand for prepaid," said Mike Skinner, general manager, Coinstar E-Payment Services, based in Bellevue, Wash.
Sales of gaming cards have grown more than 200 percent year over year, according to Thomas Solomon, vice president, sales, grocery and convenience for InComm, the Atlanta-based prepaid product provider. "A growing number of metropolitan areas are building momentum in the online gaming arena," he said. "This is particularly true on the West Coast. That being said, you can't just throw gaming cards on the shelf and expect great things to happen. You need to have a solid marketing and promotional plan."
7-Eleven's Haynes has seen an upswing in sales of I-Tunes and gaming cards; Xbox and Nexon cards are 7-Eleven's most popular gaming offers. "Kids won't or can't ask their parents for their credit card to pay for games online," he said. "These cards allow customers to come in, pay cash and be on their way to spend them online."
Still, gaming cards "require customer awareness to take off," Speedway SuperAmerica's Lefevers warned.
One new entrant to the prepaid field: adult entertainment websites. Companies such as Njoy Now are offering prepaid cards that access portals to adult Web sites. Njoy cards are sold through 4,000 outlets, including c-stores, gas stations, newsstands and other retail sites.
"These cards act as a filter and makes going to these sites safer because people will not be handing over their credit card numbers and customers have to be over 18 to purchase them," said John Sostak, president JGC Inc. & Njoy Now, adding, "one out of three adults with a home computer look at adult entertainment on it."
C-store operators would earn 30 to 40 percent of the value of the card.
The biggest challenge Sostak and similar suppliers face: C-store operators who do not want to sell adult products. "We wouldn’t sell that type of card," said Speedway SuperAmerica's LaFevers said, echoing other retailers who have worked hard to clean up the industry's image.
Mike Zielinski, president of Royal Buying Group, which represents 6,000 c-stores and petroleum marketers, said the cards would be a difficult sell for the suppliers, but he can see why some retailers would be interested in them. "There is a demand for that product and every retailer is looking for more sales," he said, "but they need to consider who their customers are and what pushback they'd get from shoppers who would take offense.
"If a retailer did offer them and were rigorously checking IDs before selling them, they could gain respect in the neighborhood for selling adult products only to adults. But where do you cross the line? Some companies think Playboy and Penthouse are pornographic, others consider those magazines as 'adult sophisticates' but would not sell Hustler."
Reloadable debit card sales have grown at rates of more than 100 percent annually, as they become mainstream; consumers are looking for more ways to control costs and budget more effectively, Skinner added.
Solomon agreed: "We are seeing these cards starting to stick among people who have chosen not to or are unable to have a traditional banking relationship. For convenience, a large number of individuals have their paychecks deposited to them."
Consumers typically pay for the reloadable card, pay to reload it and may pay a monthly fee to keep the card activated. "Even though there are fees associated with the reloadable cards, it is still a less expensive option than how some are doing their banking today," Solomon noted.
7-Eleven's Haynes sees reloadable debit cards as "a big opportunity for us in the near future."
Mobile commerce cards are coming soon. "Customers will load value on their cards through their cell phones and transfer money between these cards," Zielinski said.
Soon to be tested in c-stores, First Data Corp.'s GO-tag is a unique payment card that also comes with a "sticker" that may be affixed to a wireless phone or iPod. Customers may use either the card or the tag to access a reloadable account, using it as a contactless prepaid card, explained Don Morea, senior vice president of mobile solutions for First Data Corp.
A closed-loop prepaid version could be branded by the retailer and used in conjunction with a loyalty program. An open-loop version, carrying a major brand such as Visa, should be unveiled soon.
"Retailers would ring up fees from the initial activation at the point of sale, as well as reloads," Morea said. "The cards would carry predetermined values for the initial load or be totally flexible for any denomination the customer wants to buy."
Customers will register the card/tag's account via a Web site—which can be retailer-branded—and set up automatic reloads from a credit card for a minimum balance. "We think this will encourage shopper frequency and spending, because the customer will always have funds with them," Morea said.
Closed-loop, third-party retailer cards, such as gas cards or retail cards, "have faced challenges because of the concern among consumers that retailers will go out of business," Solomon said.
The category is still growing, Zielinski said, but because the cards have saturated most markets, the percentage increase in sales won't be as dramatic as in previous years. "But they are still the most significant prepaid item out there," he said. "Much of their popularity depends on the price of gasoline. They were used a great deal as corporate incentives last year, when the price of gasoline was $4. Now, there isn't as much interest in using them that way."
But discounter and mass merchandiser cards, such as Walmart, are selling well now, he added, because "people are looking for a value."
Both 7-Eleven and Speedway SuperAmerica report sales of closed-loop cards are easing. "We have to be careful not to offer certain regional retailers, which may be popular, but aren't found in all of our markets," Lefevers noted, adding he relies on its vendor partner and category managers for insight into the best matches for its stores' demographics.
But open-loop gift cards—those fixed-value cards branded Visa, MasterCard or American Express, for example—are selling well at c-store operators and across other channels. Often purchased as a universal gift card "some are being used as bill-pay cards," InComm's Solomon noted, adding a recent addition is a Verizon-branded card.
Domestic long distance cards are "stalling out," Solomon said, with SSA's LaFevers and others agreeing. "There is less need for these cards as people go to wireless phones and there are fewer payphones," according Royal Buying Group's Zielinski.
But international long distance cards and international bill pay cards are two products expected to see sales jumps, Zielinski said.
International long distance has great potential, depending on the market, agreed InComm's Solomon. "They may not be a big piece of the prepaid category, but they have made an impact with the retailers we've worked with."
Cards targeting specific countries, such as Mexico or countries in Africa, do well in markets with significant immigrant populations from those areas. "We do a lot of research into where calls are going," Solomon said. 'If a group of people are buying generic long distance cards, but there is a large population calling Venezuela, we come out with a Venezuela card."
Sales of Wireless phone cards could get a boost from consumers who are budgeting their spending. "Also, we're seeing wireless services being added to loyalty cards, whereby frequent shoppers are provided free minutes," Solomon noted. "Sometimes shoppers think prepaid cards are the same at whatever store you visit, and that is not always the case."
While many elements of the prepaid category are growing, retailers need to understand this category requires commitment on their behalf, Coinstar's Skinner said. "It's not like selling a candy bar. There should be a close partnership between the retailer and the aggregator that brings focus and ongoing attention to the product mix, marketing, display compliance and employee training. The commitment to ongoing employee training for prepaid is critical."
May 01, 2009
With the acquisition of 43 ExxonMobil On the Run stores in the Greater Phoenix market, coupled with the assumption of franchise contracts covering some 450 On the Run stores, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., North America's second largest c-store chain, has further strengthened its positioning in the convenience store market. This acquisition of On the Run, by the owner of Circle K reminds me of the White Hen Pantry acquisition by 7-Eleven a few years ago.
White Hen Pantry operated about 250 stores, all franchise owned and in Chicago and Boston. 7-Eleven acquired WHP Holdings in 2006. Today most Chicagoland White Hen's have been converted to 7-Eleven's. A few White Hen's remain, but will be converted as leases expire. This was a bold move by 7-Eleven, and it has made 7-Eleven the convenience store in Chicago.
Ask a Chicago resident to name a convenience store, they will more then likely name 7-Eleven, and could probably give you an exact store location which they visit regularly. I shop at the 7-Eleven on Taylor Street, just east of Ashland. It is a converted White Hen Pantry. This was a crafty move by 7-Eleven, as they bought the only other significant c-store brand in the Chicago market, and now dominate this enormous market.
Couche-Tard operates over 5,000 stores, and most of these are company owned. They have a significant franchising division as well. Couche-Tard is a Canadian company which acquired Circle K in 2003, and they are headquartered in the province of Quebec. Though they tried to bring Mac's to the US, the 2003 acquisition of Circle K was done for the specific purpose of owning and operating a recognizable brand. Canadians are familiar with Couche-Tard, Mac's and Becker's.
Couche-Tard has been growing through acquisition,and if the chain they acquire has a significant market presence, they have enhanced the chain, rather then convert it. Is this done from necessity, as Couche-Tard is a French Canadian company? Maybe. Regardless, they have done a wonderful job of analyzing the market needs prior to making changes that could create a negative impact on store sales or customer retention.
It makes sense that these 43 Phoenix On the Run locations will be rebranded as Circle K's, and it should happen pretty quickly. Phoenix is the original headquarters of Circle K. The other 400+ On the Run's are primarily found East, which is not as significant a market for the Circle K convenience chain as the West, South, and Southwest. Strategically, are they going to start acquiring or building out stores, and brand them Circle K, or will they operate On the Run as an East Coast c-store chain? Will On the Run franchise owners prefer to be Circle K franchisees?
We have seen Circle K start to move into the Midwest, and we have a few here in the Chicagoland area. With the 7-Eleven acquisition of White Hen, our city has become a 7-Eleven town, and effectively removed any established acquisition target's from our market. Couche-Tard understands how to operate locally relevant store brands. I don't think it is a certainty that these East Coast On the Run's will be converted to Circle K c-stores. It will be interesting to see what happens.
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