Saturday, October 4, 2008

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Cranes…office furnishings?

by Cinda Baxter on October 4, 2008

in Crane’s, Retail, Vendors

A friend emailed an article about Crane & Co. that appeared in this month’s issue of Inc. Magazine. Pretty interesting read. Makes that rumor about Taylor Corp wanting to buy Crane’s social paper division seem a whole lot more credible, which scares the willies out of most retailers (to put it mildly…and politely). To download the 2-page pdf, click here.

You can also read the article online, although it’s a bit hard on the eyes due to some bizarre formatting snafu on the Inc. site.

Thanks to Gregg at VendorTech for sending this over.

Editor’s note:
Just got a call from Cliff Allen, Director of Sales at Crane & Co.

According to him, the rumor about Crane’s and Taylor Corp are “…not true. Crane’s could have sold this division a couple of times to fund [upcoming technology] for the currency division. Instead, [they] opted to work with capital investment groups,” keeping the company in tact. “The Crane family has a firm commitment to this industry,” added Allen. Bodes well for you stationery retailers out there.

Thanks for the follow-up, Cliff. Much appreciated. -— CB

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No…not you.

by Cinda Baxter on October 4, 2008

in Economy, Independent Retailers, politics

For those whose hearts came to a full stop during the VP debates Thursday night-—

Palin: “But when you talk about Barack’s plan to tax increase affecting only those making $250,000 a year or more, you’re forgetting millions of small businesses that are going to fit into that category. So they’re going to be the ones paying higher taxes thus resulting in fewer jobs being created and less productivity.”

Reality check time.

According to the non-partisan group, FactChecker.org:

“…it’s simply untrue that “millions” of small business owners will pay higher federal income taxes under Obama’s proposal. According to an analysis by the independent Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, several hundred thousand small business owners, at most, would have incomes high enough to be affected by the higher rates on income, capital gains and dividends that Obama proposes.”

”Several hundred thousand” is, according to most experts, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.4% of all small business owners in the U.S.

Jump start your heart. You’re still on safe ground.

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