5 Business Stories

1. http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061122/OSH06/611220386/1190/OSHopinion

The author challenges Oshkosh citizens to keep their spending in the city of Oshkosh for the holiday season. He/she explains why companies ask for your zip code when you buy things. It is to gague whether or not money is flowing in from a different city, so that the company can decide if they should build a store in a certain place. If we dont travel to other cities to buy from Best Buy or other stores like that, they may be more inclined to set up a store in the Oshkosh area (I thought the opposite, I thought if we bought more from a store, then they would want to move up here to make it more accesible to us).

2. http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061122/OSH06/611220386/1190/OSHopinion

the story is about the San Antonio area post-Thanksgiving Day sales. The story goes very little into the money, but reflects how satisfied the customers are at the stores they visited. The people rave about the amazing deals they got and how happy they were that they showed up early to the stores. It also paints a picture of the chaos that comes with the sales on Black Friday at the retail stores. the writer got a lot of good information and a lot of good quotes on the story.

3. http://www.thenorthwestern.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061125/OSH03/611250353/1128/OSHnews

This is a similar story to the San Antonio one. The only major difference is this story is about local Oshkosh businessess on Black Friday. I think it was creative for the writer to have the lead being a man is hunting, but not for an animal. It was unique, but still a little cheesy and left a bad taste in my mouth. But,hey, he tried. It gave a local look at the line of 150 people outside of target before it opened at 6 am and other stories showing the shoppers' devotion to getting a good deal. One line that sticks out for me is a quote from a guy who said the crowds are getting meaner, not larger. That was agood quote to put it, I think it added a good dimension to the story, and got me to forget about the whole hunting lead.

4. http://www.postcrescent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061125/APC0101/611250464/1979

This story is about how Appleton business owners are pleased with the turnout on Black Friday. The writer adds an interesting element which I have never heard before. Black friday isnt the biggest day of the year in terms of sales, it is only in traffic. The biggest day of the year in sales for retailers is the Saturday before Christmas. Black Friday is such a big deal for the businessess, however, because they get a chance to showcase some of their new products that people will be shopping for throughout the year. The second part of the story is just the run-of-the-mill how crazy it is shopping on Black Friday.

5. http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061204005434&newsLang=en

this article goes over how electronics are the hot thing to get this holiday season. electronic sales are up over 11 percent from last year. This story doesnt really have a human side, just reports on what items were hot and what sold how much. LCD tvs and plasma TVs were the hot item of the year. They produced the best sales of any other electronic, as a whole.

I am doing a story on local retail sales, possibly comparing a larger company like a place in the outlet mall compared to a ma and pop store. Either that or I will focus on Oshkosh retail sales as a whole.