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February 08, 2012

Amazon to open real-world store this year: report

Amazon doesn’t need any PR bumps, but let’s give it one anyway, shall we?

A_com_logo_RGBMy favourite Amazon story goes like this: one weeknight in 2010, I caught a late-night showing of The Social Network. Certainly, it was the year’s best movie, and so inspired was I that I came home and said, Hey, I oughtta read the book that was made from.

So sometime after midnight, well into the a.m., I placed an order for Ben Mezrich’s “The Accidental Billionaires.” Before the end of the next work day, it was at my door.

I’m not a paid Amazon advocate, just a fan of its convenience. So why, then, would a service as punctual as the web retailer actually open its own bricks-and-mortar store?

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May 20, 2011

The continually changing face of retail

With daily deals delivered via Twitter feeds and mobile-friendly sale sites, retailing is expanding in directions it would have been difficult to predict even five years ago, says consumer savings expert Andrea Woroch.

Retyail While consumers have always looked out for special offers and discounts, new technologies and services mean that 2011 will see even more new ways to help rid yourself of those pesky dollars. 

Among several trends that are quickly changing the way consumers shop, Woroch offers a few highlights ....

1. Daily Deals
With the explosion of limited-time daily deals via group-buying and flash-sale sites like Gilt Group and  Jetsetter.com, other retailers will soon be piling in. Target and Overstock, for instance, already offer Deal-of-the-Day sales with more to come, Woroch predicts.

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April 28, 2011

Is the chequebook quickly being consigned to history?

More and more, banking and personal financial transactions are moving farther from brick, mortar and piles of paper, and closer to being totally digital.

Cheque Everyday brings a new financial app or program focused on engaging consumers electronically, often through their mobile phones.

Starting next month, anyone applying for U.S. government benefits or pensions will automatically receive their payments electronically, while those already receiving paper cheques will need to switch to direct deposit by 2013.

And the state of Georgia is mailing debit cards instead to tax-refund cheques to select residents under a pilot program.

This is all bad news if you’re the company that prints those paper cheques, however. So, it’s not that surprising that Deluxe Corp, one of the largest cheque manufacturers in North America, is fighting back.

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March 30, 2011

Filing your taxes online? What program will you choose?

As the filing deadline approaches, most of us are thinking about getting our taxes done quickly and, increasingly, that means going online. 

Tax Not that there are a lot of early adapters when it comes time to settle up.

In fact, only about 56% of tax returns were filed online last year. That leaves close to half of the population either using pen and paper, or the automated telephone method, Telefile.

The CRA would rather you file online than mail in your return because it saves them a fortune in data processing fees. And, if you’re expecting a refund, it will certainly speeds things up.

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March 29, 2011

Banks chasing small change to boost market share

Nearly everyone has spare change piling up in a jar or piggy bank, or lurking beneath the couch cushions. Now two major banks are starting to fight over those pennies in an effort to get you to switch accounts.

Coin Following the Toronto-Dominion Bank’s installation of automated coin-counting machines at 13 of its Ontario branches, Bank of Montreal is following suit, unveiling a plan to introduce dozens of the machines in new and renovated branches across Canada.

It’s not a new idea, of course. Lots of TD’s U.S. branches have “Penny Arcade” machines located inside bank branches.

The machines are the legacy of TD’s acquisition of Commerce Bancorp, which actually introduced them more than 10 years ago. The machines are quite popular and TD is hoping to replicate that success north of the border.

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March 24, 2011

More players roll out mobile and e-mail payment systems

When it comes to paying and getting paid, cash is no longer king.

Cash More and more Canadians are adopting a digital currency, using a computer or mobile phone to pay for tickets or parking as well as person-to-person transactions like splitting a restaurant bill or sharing costs, says PayPal, the leading online payment service. 

And business is booming.

The majority of us (62 per cent) are regularly transferring money online using our computer – whether it’s through PayPal, newcomers like Popmoney and Venmo, or through our bank account using the Interac network.

According to PayPal’s research, 33 per cent of those who also put their mobile phone to use this way say their use has increased steadily in recent years, and 20 per cent say, if they could, they would use it to pay for everyday purchases like their morning coffee or lunch.

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January 13, 2011

Operators getting really serious about bandwidth caps


The bandwidth wars are starting to pick up again. Major cable operators are really cracking down on heavy users, either by throttling speed or adding surcharges.

Band Usage-based pricing forces power users to track their monthly activity more closely, often resulting in their upping their level of service, and subsequently their bill.

What’s worse, a recent ruling by the CRTC now means that smaller, independent ISPs —who provide service atop Bell’s and Rogers’ networks — will soon by expected to enforce the same bandwidth caps on their services.

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November 11, 2010

Designing the grocery store of the future

Small is the next big thing in grocery stores, the Globe and Mail reports.

Grocers are shrinking the size of their locations, putting aside giant suburban supermarkets in favour of downtown locations a third of their size.

They’re also dedicating even more space to prepared food, largely in response to how the buying habits of today’s working women have changed, according to Paco Underhill, a consumer researcher and the author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping and What Women Want: The Global Market Turns Female Friendly.

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October 04, 2010

Hello, hello? Turning the tables on telemarketers

I’m pretty sure there’s a special corner of hell reserved for telemarketers.

Thanks to computerized dialers, cheap long distance rates and even cheaper third-world call centres, Canadians are getting more and more intrusive calls than ever before.

If eerie silence follows your greeting, it’s likely the caller is using “predictive dialing” technology, in which a computer dials multiple phone numbers over a short period in order to get a hit.

When you answer, you’re supposed to be quickly transferred to an available rep, but if all of them are occupied with other calls, you hear nothing – your first clue. Your last chance will be the annoying buzz of disembodied voices that precedes some garbled version of your name.

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July 15, 2010

US government attacks downloaders, sinks movie pirating sites

Looking to save some money at the movies?

While taking in a matinee, subscribing to Netflix and swapping DVDs among friends are all smart ways to save money on films, being frugal to the point of breaking the law is another thing altogether.

Illegal downloading seems to be commonplace these days and isn't taken very seriously, but all that may be changing.

Last week, U.S. Homeland Security agents shut down several popular websites devoted to online video streaming. While shuttering these sites will hardly make a dent in the number of sites offering the same service, it’s clear that US officials are getting serious when it comes to cracking down on pirating.

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April 28, 2010

Is there a future in green jobs?

Green jobs are becoming important because of growing recognition that our planet is threatened with disastrous climate change brought on by greenhouse gases. What’s at issue now is not whether we will confront this threat but how. Uncertainty about which green technologies will become most widespread is causing uncertainty about the outlook for green jobs.

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Gordon PowersGordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...

Jason BucklandJason Buckland

The modern-day MC Hammer of money, Jason can often be seen spending cash that isn’t his with the efficiency of a Wilt Chamberlain first date. After cutting his teeth as a reporter for the Toronto Sun, he joined the MSN Money team with...