Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
Shop on Amazon by Taking Pictures of Items with New "Flow" App: Big Deal or Not? Posted: 09 Feb 2014 06:05 PM PST See an item in a grocery store or general merchandise store and want to add it to your shopping cart if Amazon has it cheaper? Amazon's new "Flow" app allows you to do just that. MarketWatch reports You can now shop on Amazon by taking photos. Amazon's app for iPhone this week added "Flow," an image recognition tool designed to allow consumers to add a product to their shopping cart by merely pointing their phone's camera at it.Big Deal or Not? The CEOs of ConsumerWorld and GreatApps panned the idea. To be sure, few care if they can save a dime on a box of cheerios. But saving nearly $20 on Rogaine is very worthwhile. Dworsky says it's not appropriate for big ticket items like TVs. He is not looking far enough ahead. If it isn't appropriate now, it soon will be, perhaps incorporating the barcode features of "Scan-It". Deflationary Pressures It's easy to visualize where this technology is headed: An app where you click on a product and all the places where you can buy it turn up, complete with prices, Amazon, or wherever. The price deflation pressures of such a device are immense. People like bargains, and if they think a store is not offering enough of them, they will shop elsewhere. That's a big deal. And it will further pressure price margins across the board at all box retailers. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
French Airline Pilots Call Month Long Strike in May to Protest Law Prohibiting Pilot Strikes Posted: 09 Feb 2014 10:55 AM PST The French airline union, SNPL, has called for a month-long strike beginning in May. It's main objective is to repeal the Diard Law which limits the right of airline pilots to strike. Via translation from Les Echos: An unprecedented month-long strike is the motto launched today by SNPL, the main union of French airline pilots. SNPL calls for a national strike on May 3 to 30. The union gave a final warning to the government regarding several subjects of discontent, but the main target is the Diard law limiting the right to strike by cabin crew.PATCO Solution The way to deal with this strike is easy. France desperately needs something along the lines of Ronald Reagan's PATCO Play. The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization or PATCO was a United States trade union which operated from 1968 until its decertification in 1981 following a strike which was broken by the Reagan Administration. The 1981 strike and defeat of PATCO has been called "one of the most important events in late twentieth century U.S. labor history.The proper response to any illegal strike in France, the US, or anywhere else, is to fire everyone involved. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
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