Is The Chair Your Worst Enemy?

The evidence is in — your chair is your worst enemy. Many office employees sit in a chair for more than 12 hours each day. They get up in the morning, drive to work, sit all day long at their desks, drive home, eat dinner, watch TV and surf the Internet before going to sleep in their comfortable beds. This degree of excess sitting is not what our bodies need. Studies in agricultural communities, where people move naturally, argue that our bodies are made to move all day and only use a chair for a well-deserved rest. People were never designed to be crammed into chairs: sitting all day long is lethal.

Lethal sitting is associated with many chronic disease and conditions — diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease,cancer, and depression, to name only a few. Here are 4 tips for escaping your chair bondage:
 

1. Know what makes you more likely to sit, and plan an alternative.

Where sitting stimuli are likely to appear, make alternative arrangement easily accessible and preferable. That means informing your colleagues and managers that from now on, your Monday morning meetings will be “walk and talk.” It also means putting a sticky note reminder on your phone to notify you that every time you get texts or a call, you will get up and out of your chair. As well, bring the treadmill from the basement and put it in front of the TV.

 

2. Keep track of your progress.

One of the more useful ways to reverse an addiction is to self-monitor. There are a number of devices and apps to assist you with it. Activity tracking apps are free. Unfortunately, Many people get bored with self-monitoring once they see improvement. Our tech specialists suggest that use your self-tracker app or device for a few weeks at time to make sure that you’re on the right path and that you are progressing rather than regressing.

 

3. Train your thought patterns to stop being so hard on yourself.
I have heard this from clients who are overweight, “I feel so bad when I go out,” or, “I feel ugly.” The reality is that this is ALL said by your internal voice. You must stop putting yourself down. If you don’t love yourself, why should anyone else love you? Stick a pitchfork in that negative voice and toss it away. Get up, look at yourself in the mirror (yes, do it), smile and get out there and live life — vibrantly.
 

4. Get social support.
Social support is the final weapon to beating this addiction. I cannot count the number of times by family, friends, colleagues or even strangers have lifted me up. If you are having trouble getting up, look for a friend to help you. If you see someone struggling to get up, help them.

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Why Consumer Spending Dropped During Black Friday

Consumers spending dropped during Black Friday weekend sales in comparison to the numbers that we saw last year. According to the National Retail Federation’s Thanksgiving weekend spending survey 55.1% of holiday shoppers were expected to visit stores or go online to make their purchases, down from 58.7% last year.

The decline can be attributed to an improving economy as well as changing shopping habits. Consumers are no longer relying on deep discounts and early promotions and are instead to make their much needed purchases online. This blog post examines the 4 main reason why Black Friday sales are dropping in detail:

1. Loss of Magic

Officially, Black Friday does not start until after Thanksgiving Day. This year, many retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy started to unveil deep discounts as early as Halloween weekend. This gave shoppers almost a month to shop around and make informed decisions without having to shop on the whim on the official day(s).

2. Loss of Urgency

Since many retailers started early this year, there was no sense of urgency to be the first in line. There were still lines, but the frenzied anticipation of the best deals was not there. And even if consumers did not get what they wanted, they still have between now and January to redeem their gift cards and make their purchases.

3. Shopper Fatigue

Many businesses would beg to disagree on that. The moment that the new iPhone or new iPad comes out, people stand in line for days to get their hands on it. Unfortunately with holiday deals and sales, consumers aren’t noticing any big must-have products that they want like with Apple products. And with the improving economy, most people opt to pay more rather than stand in line in the cold for hours.

4. Online Shopping Boom

The shift from brick and mortar to online shopping increased this year. Target reported that its website saw a 40% increase in sales on Thanksgiving, making its biggest online sales day ever. Wal-Mart said Thanksgiving was its second-highest online day ever, only surpassed by Cyber Monday last year.

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Tim Hortons To Increase Coffee and Breakfast Sandwich Prices

Tim Hortons coffee and breakfast sandwiches are about to get a little more expensive as the North American coffee chain prepares to raise its prices next Wednesday. The price for coffee will jump up by an average of 10 cents. Breakfast sandwich prices will also jump up by 10 cents in all provinces but Ontario to $2.99.

Tim Hortons isn’t the only brand raising its prices due to the coffee Arabica coffee bean price hike last October. Keurig, makers of “k-cup” coffee pods, raised their prices earlier this month by 9% and Starbucks raised the cost of their coffee products over the summer as well.

 

 

 

Why The Price Increase

Brazil is the largest producer of coffee beans in the world and this summer’s drought is wreaking particular havoc on Brazilian coffee growers and as a result world prices as well.

 

How Demographics Affect Pricing

Tim Hortons’ flagship product is coffee. Not only does Tim Hortons own 62% of Canada’s coffee market, but it also has more outlets in Canada than McDonald’s and Starbucks combined. Naturally, a brand with wider market appeal will be less expensive than a brand with less market appeal. Tim Hortons positions itself as the brand for small towns, sports fans, and the working-class Canadians. It is not a brand for middle-class families and business professionals; that market is reserved for Starbucks. It’s also a type of brand that is less likely to pay a premium to boost its image and the consumer experience.

 

How Geography Affects Pricing

Tim Hortons’ first store opened in Ontario and is more dominant in central and eastern Canada. McCafe also entered Canada through Ontario, but has a better foothold in British Columbia and Quebec. Tim Hortons, on the other hand, didn’t enter Quebec until the 1970s. Appealing to Quebec was more of an after-thought. Out West, Starbucks dominates the market with its appeal to the laid-back west-coast culture. So if you’re wondering why the price of Tim Hortons coffee is higher in Quebec and British Columbia than it is in Ontario, geography and market dominance have a lot to do with it. 

 

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