Businesses accommodate the super-sized generation
Americans are living large. Extra large. As in XXXXL large. As in baby-powdered-thighs large. As in wheezing, heaving, bust-the-car-suspension large. Overweight has become the new normal, and society is straining to accommodate our ever-expanding waistlines. We plant plush bottoms on wider seats in theaters and toilet stalls, drape ourselves in plus-sized clothing, even go to our eternal rest in broader coffins. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and a third, some 72 million people, are considered obese. From 1980 to 2008, obesity rates doubled for adults and tripled for children, with 17 percent, or 9 million children over 6, classified as obese. Businesses, eyes on the bottom line, are adapting to the physical requirements of the heftier among us. Revolving doors, for example, have widened from 10 feet to 12 feet in recent years. Scales, which seldom went over 300 pounds, now go up to 400 or 500 pounds. Here are a few other areas in which the super-sized generation is changing our culture. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Property insurers seeking major rate increases
More than half a million Florida homeowners could see their home insurance rates rise in the coming year following a wave of rate-increase requests from insurers. In little more than a month's time, more than a dozen insurers have asked state regulators to approve new rates that will force some customers to pay 70 percent more to in
Community Portrait
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No clear link between tax cuts, job creation in Florida
As the state's sputtering economy struggles to put nearly 1 million job seekers to work, Florida's favorable tax climate has taken center stage. Business boosters long have boasted about Florida's lack of a personal income tax, and Gov. Rick Scott has proposed eliminating the corporate income tax as part of his promise to create 700,000 jobs. But it's unclear whether low state taxes lead to economic prosperity. Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey are among the states with both higher tax burdens than Florida and lower unemployment rates. And such high-tax states as California, New York and Massachusetts are home to far more corporate headquarters and fast-growing start-ups than low-tax Florida. [Source: Palm Beach Post]
An eye on preparing for hurricanes
Ryder System has its own hurricane tracking software and subscribes to a communication system that sends word out to employees worldwide. Crowley Maritime has a backup yard for its shipping containers in Gulfport, Miss., and has developed new steps to secure its terminals when a storm approaches. And Pollo Tropical has switched this year from walkie-talkies to texting emergency messages to senior managers who need to mobilize teams to address a disaster. "As the forecasting becomes more sophisticated, so too have the tools we use,'' said Kim Miller, vice president of marketing for Pollo Tropical. Hurricane preparedness has become a science for companies throughout South Florida — and even more importantly, for those that have multiple operations or facilities in vulnerable areas throughout the hurricane zone.. [Source: Miami Herald]
Related:
» How businesses can prepare for storm season
Solar energy is a natural for the Sunshine State, right?
In a place known as the Sunshine State, it would seem solar electricity would be natural.
But when it comes to tapping the sun, Progress Energy, the state's second-largest utility and the Tampa Bay area's major energy supplier, is barely on the grid.
The utility says it wants solar as part of its energy plan, but for now, large-scale solar remains out of reach — it's just too expensive.
"We do see very positive signs in regard to cost and technology," said Scott Sutton, a spokesman for Progress Energy. "One of the biggest obstacles to solar is that it is much more expensive."
Germany and Switzerland drew worldwide attention last month when they announced after the meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan that they plan to phase out nuclear power and focus on solar.
If Germany can do it, why not Florida?
[Source: St. Petersburg Times]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Law may lower shoe prices
Most shoe stores boast they have the best prices around.
But if federal lawmakers pass what's known as the Affordable Footwear Act, those prices may be even lower.
The act would eliminate tariffs on many types of foreign-made, low-cost shoes -- the bulk of what most people buy -- which often can add several dollars per pair at the register. The measure is hoofing its way through the U.S. Senate.
"I'm a big lover of shoes," said 17-year-old Myriesha Bell of Melbourne, shopping last week at a local Payless Shoe Source, "so I'm in support of anything that lowers their cost. I probably buy 10 pairs of shoes a year."
› How augmented reality can engage your customers
Are you using augmented reality, or AR as it's known in the tech world, to engage your customers? AR isn't just the latest marketing catchphrase. It's actually been around since the early '90s and is being used by major brands like Nestle, Muscle Milk and Benetton to interact with customers around the world. These brands have designed AR marketing campaigns that direct users to take something from the real-world and experience it online.
For example, in 2010, Muscle Milk used AR in a marketing campaign with basketball great Shaquille O'Neal. When consumers purchased certain bottles of Muscle Milk imprinted with a code or "marker" and held it up to a webcam, it triggered an experience where the bottle came to life. Consumers were greeted by O'Neal popping out of the cap right in front of their eyes. After O'Neal delivered his Muscle Milk message, he jumped right back into the cap and off the screen.
› Pleasing with Sarasota architecture
Architect Tim Seibert could have left town or stayed mired in the 1950s when the curtain fell on the Sarasota school of architecture in the mid-1960s. Instead, he did what he always tried to do: please the client.
While the community rejected the spare modernist lines for which the Sarasota school was known, Seibert kept them when he built a house in 1967 house on Whitfield Avenue. But unlike the flat-roofed houses of architect Paul Rudolph, who had already moved away years earlier, this house, for Mr. and Mrs. Fredrick Bechtel, had a roof that sloped from a central courtyard downward to the exterior walls.
"She was a rather conservative lady and it upset her to have a flat roof, so I made her a pitched roof," said Seibert, who is now retired and living in Boca Grande.
"I think one of the things architects forget about is, 'Why don't you be nice to your clients?' Some of them are really wonderful people."
» Design Destination: Sarasota's '50s Architecture
» Icon: Gene Leedy
› Draper Lab expanding at USF
Skeptics wondering what the fuss is all about when Tampa Bay fights to recruit top-tier biotech and engineering firms might find some comfort in touring the still young Draper Bioengineering Center at the University of South Florida. After all, for years we've heard all the noise about "biotech" as a primo 21st century industry. And we've witnessed the sometimes desperate (and often expensive) desire by Florida to woo all kinds of scientific and innovative industries. The hope is they can, over time, help diversify Florida's economy with better-paying jobs and globally help rebrand the Sunshine State as a place that conjures up images beyond beaches, theme parks and retirement communities.
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› Developer Pat Neal made the best of the real estate bust
Pat Neal is an oddity among Florida developers: He still builds and sells lots of new homes. The financial crisis that shattered many of his competitors only slowed Neal. His edge? He paid cash for land before the boom drove up prices. "I didn't owe anybody any money," said Neal, whose Neal Communities builds mostly in the Lakewood Ranch area east of Interstate 75 in Manatee and Sarasota counties. "I don't like to take on debt and work hard to buy at the right price."
Neal Communities' housing starts peaked in 2005 at 386, fell to 121 in 2007 and should hit 397 this year. Neal expects to exceed 500 in 2012.
» Southwest Fla.: How Bad Is It?
› JaxPort CEO builds support for jump to major cargo port
Paul Anderson had a clear directive from the Jacksonville Port Authority's board when it hired him in January as chief executive officer.
Go get the money.
JaxPort is trying to make the jump from a mid-sized cargo port to one of the nation's biggest, a transformation that would require hundreds of million of dollars for infrastructure upgrades.
» Northeast Florida Economic Yearbook
» Jacksonville Community Portrait
» Fla. Ports Racing to Handle Giant Cargo Ships
» Jaxport Has Banner Year in 2010
› Risky business: Knowing when to control growth
Many researchers cite risk tolerance as a key component of entrepreneurship, with the founder's willingness to take on risk often setting the upper limits to the vision and scope of the business. The entrepreneur must decide to control growth even when faced with big opportunities or to let it ride and take a chance, which could lead to the end of the firm. Take the cases of two firms as an example of the impact of risk tolerance on growth and success.
Two sets of brothers, both Cuban immigrants, started distribution companies in Miami in the early 1980s with similar product offerings. All four men had a lot in common — the founders had the same level of education and experience prior to opening their respective companies. Both companies started small, and were primarily bootstrapped. Their warehouses were only a few miles from each other. Fast forward 20-some years later, Company A reported revenues of around $6 million a year and Company B reported more than $600 million a year. Then, within eighteen months, Company B had declared bankruptcy while Company A has continued to grow 7 percent year after year. So, how and where did these two firms diverge so dramatically?
› No need to panic about groups' tax exemptions
Almost 14,000 Florida nonprofits lost their tax-exempt status last week because the IRS has no idea who they are or what — if anything — they are doing. Their status was revoked if they failed to file tax returns for the years 2007, 2008 or 2009.
People who donate to charities have no call to panic.
Most of these organizations were small and have long ceased to exist. If mistake or oversight did put an ongoing charity on the list, it can pay $100, fill out paperwork and retrieve its tax exemption. And any donations to these groups made through last week are still tax deductible.
› Security at Florida ports may be jeopardized after repeal of law
Florida's seaports move cruise ship passengers by the boatload and tons of cargo every day largely without incident, but some say security will soon be less assured.
The Legislature, with the support of Gov. Rick Scott, repealed an 11-year-old law that required state criminal background checks for maritime workers, unannounced port inspections and the deployment of law enforcement officers. "We have lessened the security in Florida ports,'' said Bill Janes, a former director of one of the state agencies that oversaw port security, the governor's Office of Drug Control. "I think the state is taking a huge step backwards.''
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› As rents soar, 'affordable' housing is anything but
When Stephanie's Urquiaga's rent shot up $30, she sat down at her kitchen table, crunched the numbers, and figured out what she would have to do to stave off eviction.
She would make one less trip to the grocery store each month, leaving an empty refrigerator and near-empty stomach in the final days before her monthly disability check arrived.
Urquiaga, 54, now spends more than half of her income on rent at Biscayne Court, a taxpayer -funded affordable housing facility in Liberty City built in 2009 to help poor seniors avoid the very eat-vs.-pay-my-rent predicament she now finds herself in.
While the federal government stipulates that affordable housing apartments are supposed to cost residents no more than 30 percent of their income, state and federal rules allow annual rent increases, such as those imposed by Miami developer Biscayne Housing Group this year.