Global Economy

The question is to find all pros and cons of virtual and traditional types of retailing. The main disadvantage of virtual retailing is in the quantity of its potential buyers. Nobody will deny that the customer profile is limited. To be a customer of virtual shop you need the Internet, TV shopping channels or mail-order catalogues. But this market is full of opportunities because everyday thousands of people open comfort and convenience of virtual shopping.

Besides if you are the owner of a virtual retail outlet you have not to find place or build your shop (as we know it is really difficult and expensive) and you have not to pay rent monthly and to recruit additional personnel.

And as for traditional shopping, people will never refuse the opportunity to see and to touch the things they want to buy.

This way I can’t give an exact answer to this question, because it depends on kind of goods I will sell. For example, if I sell compact discs or books, it will be reasonably to open the Internet shop, but as for food-stuffs and clothes it will be reasonably to open a traditional retail outlet.

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At the beginning I would like to say that every serious company has own code of practice, or in other words a set of rules for customer care. To my mind it is very important to have a good customer care for any business. Because if the company has good customer care, its clients come back and purchase new goods again. Therefore the company’s profits will be constantly growing. And as a result it will be more competitive. It seems to me that these conditions are guarantee of success.

A good example of such companies is IKEA Business and British Airways. As for the IKEA Business Company it offers a full range of services for customers. Firstly, its good-trained staff can help with everything from individual workstations to planning a complete office. Secondly, its customers can purchase what they want from the special Business catalogue, or from the complete range in the store. As for British Airways company its employees, who make customers unhappy, must apologize in person. The company has a number of items; they are given to customers who are dissatisfied with their service, such as toys, chocolates, calculators and so on.

The world of work is vast and constantly changing. Nine-to-five job is becoming less and less popular. Thus instead of working full-time regular hours a lot of employees prefer to work part-time or to share a job with someone else, which is called job-sharing. There is one more flexible arrangement. People with flexible working hours are free, within limits, to work when they want, as long as they do a minimum number of hours. This is known as flextime.

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Не works best who knows his trade

A lot of people live outside a city center and travel to work there everyday. They are called commuters and their activity is known as commuting. One more form of working is telecommuting. Telecommuting is a term for work that can be done at a distance, usually with the use of information and communications technologies. There are several forms of telecommuting: working from home using computers, term-time only contracts, videoconferencing and teleconferencing. The main benefit of the growth of telecommuting is an improved lifestyle for all people. Local employers report that they are exploring the use of telecommuting for five main reasons: to reduce costs, to provide uninterrupted thinking time, and to comply with environmental regulations. Telecommuting is more productive, gives more leisure time, more education, less pollution, and a healthier and wealthier society. It’s a fact that all the hours saved from repetitive commuting are equivalent to 30 working days per annum. In addition, telecommuting can allow you to fit more staff into the same space. International evidence shows that more flexible working arrangements lead to higher productivity. But telecommuting also benefits employees. But there are several reasons why telecommuting hasn’t become the major tendency. Managers are often nervous when they leave their staff out of sight of the office. For the telecommuters working from home might bring unforeseen hazards. Moreover, some workers don’t want to lose the isolation they get while commuting.

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Money is a good servant but a bad master

Many people use the term career to mean the job, occupation, or vocation a person has. However, a career involves much more. A career is work-related activities that develop throughout a lifetime. It includes the job or a series of jobs a person has until retirement. It also involves the way a person’s work roles affect other life roles.

Almost every adult has a career of some kind. Most people build a career to help them satisfy certain goals. Such goals might include earning a living or helping others. Most people are happiest in jobs that fit them.

Many much about working conditions, special abilities required, probable earning, job security, chances for advancement.

Working conditions mean the environment in which a particular job is performed. A work environment might be indoors and outdoors or involve extreme heat or cold. Some jobs involve high levels of dust or noise, physical hazards or mental stress. Some occupations call for more intelligence, artistic talent or other abilities that people possess. In exploring an occupation you will want to know how much money you can expect to earn. For many people job security is an important requirement in selecting an occupation. Choosing the job you should examine possible patterns of promotion, known as career ladders. In some occupations, workers are promoted to higher positions based on their ability and experience.

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The work shows the workman

While collecting the information for this topic I’ve found some theories of the Dollar Sign $ Origins.  

As we know, the symbol of dollar is more recent than the name. And there are some theories about the origin of the dollar.

$ 1___The United States Abbreviation Theory

One of the most popular theories is that the dollar sign is derived from the initials of the United States. If you write a capital “U” on a capital “S” then drop the lower part of the “U”, you will get the dollar symbol with two strokes.

$ 2___The Peso Abbreviation

More widely accepted theory nowadays is that the sign comes from the Spanish peso.

One version of this theory is that the standard abbreviation of “peso” was simply “P”, but the plural form was a large “P” with a small “s” above it. This was simplified by leaving only the upward stroke of the “P”.

But if the peso abbreviation theory is the correct one why is the US dollar sign sometimes written with two vertical strokes?  I don’t know the answer for this question.

$ 3____The Shilling Abbreviation Theory

There is a view that the dollar symbol derives from the abbreviation for the shilling, which was used in Britain. A stroke through a letter was sometimes used to indicate that the letter was an abbreviation. The classic example of this is the British pound symbol £ the capital L with a stroke. The pound symbol is derived from the Latin word libra.

$ 4____The Slavery Theory

Some scientists suppose that the dollar symbol, $, is derived from the words for “slave” and “nail” in Spanish. The shackles worn by slaves could be locked by a nail which was passed through the rings or loops. The Spanish word for slave is esclavo and for “nail” is clavo. You can see it on the blackboard “S-clavo = esclavo”.

As for me, I think that the first theory is the best one. And which of these ones do you like?

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Money is a good servant but a bad master

Today I’d like to present you some general facts about the first American currency and the dollar itself:

The colonists in America used whatever foreign coins they could obtain. At various times in different colonies paper money was issued and it was one of the causes of the American Revolution. The rebels financed their war of independence largely by printing paper money notes that were called Continentals (you can see them on the pictures below). By the end of the war they became practically worthless because of hyperinflation.

In 1792 the newly independent United States chose the dollar, subdivided into 100 cents, as the unit of American currency.

Foreign coins were supposed to lose their status as legal tender within 3 years of the US coins coming into circulation.

Some more old dollars:

Colonial Currency, Georgia, $4, 1776

Colonial Currency, Pennsylvania, 4 pounds, 1777

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Не that has no money needs no purse

To be continued…

It is so difficult to study at the University, especially if you want to study well. It’s spring now and you want to relax somewhere outdoors, but… Business before pleasure

It was hard to get used to my student live at first, but I am an experienced student now and know some ways of making my live easier. For example, I use shortenings while writing different summaries and scripts. In this way I can save my time, because time is money, as you know. By the way I always use «$» instead of the word «money». I think that some of you do the same. But what do you know about this sign and American dollars? I’d like to share my knowledge with you

The word dollar is much older than the American unit of currency. It comes form the word “thaler”, the name given to coins first minted in Joachimsthal in Bohemia (modern Czech Republic).

Those coins circulated widely in Britain’s North American colonies because of a shortage of official British coins. That is why, after the United States gained its independence the new nation chose “dollar” as the name of its currency instead of keeping the pound.

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To be continued…