The interviews addressed buying attitudes

OBJECTIVE: Compulsive buying (uncontrolled urges to buy, with resulting significant adverse consequences) has been estimated to affect from 1. 8% to 16% of the adult U. S. population. To the authors’ knowledge, no study has used a large general population sample to estimate its prevalence. METHOD: The authors conducted a random sample, national household telephone survey in the spring and summer of 2004 and interviewed 2,513 adults.The interviews addressed buying attitudes and behaviors, their consequences, and the respondents’ financial and demographic data. The authors used a clinically validated screening instrument, the Compulsive Buying Scale, to classify respondents as either compulsive buyers or not. RESULTS: The rate of response was 56. 3%, which compares favorably with rates in federal national health surveys. The cooperation rate was 97. 6%. Respondents included a higher percentage of women and people ages 55 and older than the U.S. adult population. The estim ated point prevalence of compulsive buying among respondents was 5. 8% (by gender: 6. 0% for women, 5. 5% for men). The gender-adjusted prevalence rate was 5. 8%. Compared with other respondents, compulsive buyers were younger, and a greater proportion reported incomes under $50,000. They exhibited more maladaptive responses on most consumer behavior measures and were more than four times less likely to pay off credit card balances in full.CONCLUSIONS:A study using clinically valid interviews is needed to evaluate these results. The emotional and functional toll of compulsive buying and the frequency of comorbid psychiatric disorders suggest that studies of treatments and social interventions are warranted Source: American Journal of Psychiatry: http://ajp. psychiatryonline. org/cgi/content/abstract/163/10/1806

7 Eleven Target Market

7 Eleven Target Market This investigation of the small business, 7-Eleven chain store, was conducted over two month period from July, with many sources of information, such as the actual stores and the information from internet. The 7-Eleven chain store was established as an ice house in Dallas, Texas in 1927, and it is one of the world’s largest operator, franchisor and licensor of convenience stores. This article seeks to explore a comprehensive description and understanding about 7-Eleven and try to find out the secret of success, as well as giving some suggestions. The 7-eleven chain store was started out in 1927 and was introduced to Australia in 1977. An ice dock employee in the Southland Ice Company began to offer milk, bread and eggs on Sundays and evenings when grocery stores were closed. This new business idea produced satisfied customers and then the chain store was established. In November 2005, 7-Eleven, Inc. became an indirect subsidiary of Seven & I Holdings Company, a Japan-based or ganization. Their prime function is to consistently serve the changing needs of customers for their convenience. The store can always adapt quickly to meet the customer’s changing needs. It is the most obvious feature that makes it different from other convenience stores. With the newest products and services applying in the store, and the newest ways of business operation, the store can be operated more efficiently than others. For short, the perpetual improvement made the store keeping ahead in so many brands of chain stores. As a convenience store, 7-Eleven mainly faces three types of competitors. The first on is supermarkets, such as Wal-Mart. Second, small shops (probably not has a brand). Third, other brands of convenience stores, such as Lawson (founded in 1975 in Japan). The targeted customer is young single working people, usually un-married, as a result, the location of 7-Eleven always near office buildings, shopping malls, parking lots, subway station, et al. Besid es the traveler is also its main customer. In Australia, â€Å"stores in suburban areas often operate as petrol stations† (wikipedia.org, 2010). 7-eleven, Inc. is the word’s largest convenience retail chain. The company operates franchises and licenses more than 7,100 stores in the U.S. and 7-Eleven licensees and affiliates operate approximately 31,400 7-Eleven and other convenience stores in countries including Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, China, Australia, et al (7-eleven.com, 2010). The main distribution of 7-eleven around the word can be seem in the table bellow fig.1 Fig.1 the main distribution of 7-Eleven around the word Territory First Store Opened Number of Locations United States 1968 584 Canada + 1969 457 Mexico 1971 1,180 Japan 1971 12,753 Australia 1977 397 Sweden 1978 191 Taiwan 1980 4,735 China (Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou & Macau) 1981, 1992, 1996, and 2005, respectively 1,680 Singapore 1983 493 Philippines 1984 469 Malaysia 1984 1,115 Norway 1986 177 South Korea 1989 2,282 Thailand 1989 5,409 Denmark 1993 126 Beijing, PRC 2004 93 Shanghai, PRC 2009 20 Indonesia 2009 5 Rsource: http://corp.7-eleven.com/AboutUs/InternationalLicensing/tabid/115/Default.aspx (4) Suppliers It can be seen from the table bellow that the most commodity of 7-Eleven is food, in which the processed food account most. As a result, the main supplier of 7-Eleven is food maker, especially who produce the processed food. The non-food products suppliers is various, such the provider of a variety of prepaid card.

You must propose a change for a real companynot a government entity Essay

You must propose a change for a real companynot a government entity. Propose a service, an idea, or a product (do not write a sales letter). You MAY write ab - Essay Example Due to the high influx of Hispanics living in USA and constant arrivals there is a need to reach them as customers. To reach them, the solution is to offer its employees a holistic approach of classes in Spanish, culture sensitivity, the differences and similarities that exist within the Hispanic community, history, traditions, and customs. It will also make the transition of obtaining positive results from international business transactions with Spanish speaking countries. Although, Hispanics come from different countries they may not be aware of the differences and the similarities. The non-Hispanics are not aware of what these differences and similarities may be. This leads to misunderstandings while communicating with their customers in the USA and while placing international calls to the Spanish speaking countries and performing business transactions. AT&T will be at an advantage point if you take the initiative to offer this holistic approach of teaching Spanish at your location while at the same time your personnel will be able to relate to the Hispanic community and Spanish speaking countries, and learn about its idiosyncrasies. It is not only important to learn a language. Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Chevrolet-NOVA were all fiasco transactions when they were accomplishing their business transactions in Thailand, Africa, and Venezuela. This was due to, in: Coca-Cola ´s case by a translation that did not take into consideration the cultural aspects; Nestle ´s case by not taking into consideration the environment and customs; and, Chevrolet-NOVA ´s case for not understanding the implications of the word NOVA (No Va, will not work) in Spanish. These transactions flopped. AT&T does not have to go through these motions. By contracting our language school to deliver this holistic proactive class will not only help travelers and non travelers in delivering successful business accounts (for your international expansion of the business)

The comparison of juvenile and young adult sentencing outcomes in Essay

The comparison of juvenile and young adult sentencing outcomes in criminal court - Essay Example a harder time than adults in courts of law, both in terms of influencing additional factors and effecting their eventual outcome, defies conventional theory. Kurlychek, however, fails to present an analysis that enables the study to be applied universally. When demographics are taken into consideration, â€Å"The Juvenile Penalty† presents a study that is far from authoritative. The data for the paper was culled from Pennsylvania’s Commission on Sentencing and focuses on the 33,962 young adults, between ages 18 to 25, and 1,042 juveniles that were processed in Pennsylvania’s adult criminal justice system over a 3 year period from 1997 to 1999. Not only is there the possibility that Pennsylvania might be a unique case in terms of how adults and juveniles offenders are viewed, the article mentions that the majority of juvenile offenders are black and male but fails to take into consideration the role that of racial demographics. Both the sex and race of the offenders and persecutors may play a role in the differing treatment between young adults and juveniles. Additionally, Kurlychek decided to begin investigating cases in 1997, when the treatment of juveniles in Pennsylvania law courts changed significantly. Additi onally, if the short three period, in which the cases occurred, was lengthened, the paper’s argument would be greatly strengthened. Thus, this paper needs to evaluate a larger study group to make its argument an effective one. Nevertheless, â€Å"juvenile† status, while never explicitly dealt with in the court room, appears to play a significant role in determining the outcomes of some offenders. â€Å"The Juvenile Penalty† fails, however, to make a universal argument because it focuses upon a small and specific number of cases. Thus, the paper’s underlying assumptions that juveniles receive harsher treatment than young adults may be accurate but requires additional studies to be proven

Separation of Retail and Investment Banking Operations Essay

Separation of Retail and Investment Banking Operations - Essay Example The need to separate the two operations is the central focus of this paper, presenting arguments for and against the move in detail. Arguments in support of separation of retail and investment banking operations Financial crisis is not a new phenomenon for the banking sector in U.K and beyond. From time to time, economic hardships that have resulted in financial crisis have been observed around the world. Year 2008 global financial crisis adversely affected financial systems in various economies. This necessitated the need to manage risks in the financial sector, which is primarily dominated by banks. Following this and other affecting factors, regulation, control and reforming the banking sector is essential. Separation of retail and investment banking operations is a positive move to take in the context of the above pursuit. That is, regulation, control and reforming financial services providers. Separating retail and investment banks would mean that the each of the two becomes a s tandalone legal entity. It is important to note that retail banks handle short term and long term payments, accept deposits and offer credit services by lending funds (De Jonghe, 2010, p. 387). On the other hand, investment banks primarily deal with financial instruments. In this regard, they are also referred to as casino banks. With the separation, it would mean that adverse effects experienced by either of the banks would hardly affect the other. That is to say that if the investment banking operations experience huge losses, the resultant negative effects would hardly affect retail banking operations especially deposits. Splitting the retail and investment banking operations is an activity that would bring forth intensive regulatory frameworks in a bid to achieve the desired outcome. The regulatory frame work adopted would be one that addresses each of the two banks as a unit independent of the other. In the situation of financial hardships, the retail banking sector would recei ve the attention of both the government and the taxpayers. The investment banking sector on the other hand would be accounted for by shareholders and investors in the same context. As a result, the adverse effects of financial crisis can neither be transferred to the retail bankers nor the government when the investment banking sector is affected. Investment banks engage in highly risky financial instruments (Upper, 2007, p.64). Tax revenues are normally used to back banking operations with or without operational risks. However, separating retail and investment banking operations would ensure that the taxpayers’ money only backs retail banking operations. The involvement of investment banks in risky financial instruments and related activities would therefore not constitute any financial burden to the taxpayers. Over and above the alleviation of financial burdens to taxpayers in times of financial crisis, individual customers to both retail and investment banks would be at an advantage. In absence of the separation, deposits in retail banks are highly influenced by investment activities. This is more so if different parts of the same bank handles both retail and investment banking operations. With the separation, the opposite of this scenario is true. However, lending risks are inevitable, but they are relatively easy to address (Modigliani and Miller, 1958, p.261–

USA Cost Accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

USA Cost Accounting - Essay Example Though Obama promised change, Government spending has continued unabated and even the risk of default on debt obligations in the beginning of August 2010 did nothing to dampen the Government’s appetite for spending. Although there was an impasse between those who supported Obama and those who didn’t, in the end common sense meant that the debt ceiling had to be increased for America to avoid default. Notwithstanding the exhortations of the public to stop Government spending, to tighten the belts and purses of the Government agencies and politicians and to stop the war on terror that has resulted in overspending with little results, the inefficiencies, the bumbling and the ineptitude of the Government prevail. Obama-care has been opposed not because it is wrong, but because it would result in just more inefficiency. The government is butting into the realm of the private sector, the same mistake that was made by giving too much responsibility to Fannie Mae and Freddie Ma c, the controllers of the home mortgage industry and the housing sector. In such a scenario, cost allocations, revenue and expense targets and continued management reporting can make a world of difference in gauging the efficiencies of Government organizations and agencies. In this assignment, we are going to look at how cost is allocated in Government departments and private agencies and discuss the need and importance of the same. Discussion Let us start with the US Army Corp of Engineers. Even though they are a branch of the US Federal Government, yet they are concerned about cost allocation. The mission of this institution is to provide important and critical public engineering services and to strengthen the security of the USA in times of both war and peace, to energize and motivate the economy, and to reduce risks posed by and as a result of natural and man-made disasters. While we often think of the US Army Corps of Engineers to be a part of the US Army and therefore subject to Government funding, the truth is that it is funded by the taxpayers. No wonder it is worried about its funding and cost allocations. Even the Federal Government has rules and regulations for cost sharing and allocations, and the US Army Corps of Engineers has to abide by them. This means that the feasibility for all proposals and activities planned by the US Army Corps of Engineers has to be discussed and the need and cost of the projects debated before permission to proceed is granted. But the primary purpose of all cost allocations is to ensure their recovery or reimbursement by the powers that be, or to arrive at a basis for sharing of common costs between different arms and agencies of the Government. Both drawdown and flow augmentation methods are considered here (www.nww.usace.army.mil). The drawdown method presupposes that there would be a depletion of natural resources during the project, while the flow augmentation presupposes that there would be an apportionment of stor age among already identified purposes. It has been a policy of the US Army Corps of Engineers not to ask for a reallocation of costs unless a major change or overhaul of present facilities is planned to be implemented. Let us now move on to how the City Government plans its cost allocations and revenues. For instance, a perusal of accounting records for the City of Seattle Government Department lists a series of costs and associated cost drivers for allocating these costs. Most of these allocations have been made on the basis of common sense and practical wisdom- although I am sure some have been uniform throughout the history of modern Government. A further look at most of

Sex Education Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Sex Education - Assignment Example As the essay declares  the information that is supposed to be presented within the scopes of sex educational process must contain the following items: sexual development and reproduction, means of contraception and other information about birth control, relationship dynamics and norms, and different kinds of sexuality.  It is difficult to say which aspect of sex education is the most needed for nowadays society, as all of them concern the most problematic personal issues that appear among people of all countries.This paper stresses that  it is important to say that sex education plays crucial role for the society in general, because it has the goal to reduce the rates of early pregnancies which may lead to increase in the quantity of abandoned children, and also it prevents expansion of such dangerous sexually transmitted diseases like AIDS and HIV.  Being aware of the possible outcomes of unprotected sex makes young people more attentive concerning their sexual relations; mo reover, apart from becoming conscious of the means of contraception, they may even refuse having early sex and be more careful in relationships in general.  The point is that, according to some psychological researches, the roots of understanding of the concept of sexuality and formation of sexual identity happens in childhood, when a person observes one’s environment and comes up to certain understanding of sex.