August 1999 Edition
DRUGSTORES
Most of the money Canadians spent last year in drugstores was on cosmetics, $275 million worth of them. Headache remedies were next at more than $206 million. Hair colour expenditure was $128 million, disposable diapers, $118 million, shampoo, $112 million deodorant, $94 million and cold remedies $90 million. Antihistamine spending was $73 million and spending on vitamins and cough syrup was $60 million each.
SERVICES
International travel and tourism to the U. S. is America's leading services export, creating a trade surplus of nearly $19 billion and injecting $91 billion in revenue into the U.S. economy in 1998, according to the Commerce Department. More than a million people work in jobs supported by the spending of international visitors. Expenditures by Western European visitors set a record $30.2 billion, with the U.K., France and Italy each setting records for arrivals. Tourism is expected to stage a strong recovery by 2002, with arrivals topping 52 million and expenditures expected to exceed $110 billion.
GM
In line with European labelling requirements, the British government has ordered restaurants and fast-food outlets to tell consumers if their meals contain genetically modified (GM) products. And French retailers claim they have led the way in the drive among European supermarkets to root out GM foods from among their own-brand products.
BANGLADESH
The Soros Fund of New York is loaning $10.6 million to help capitalize a unique venture that will eventually bring reliable, affordable telephone service to virtually all of Bangladesh. It calls for the provision of one phone in each of 50,000 rural villages in the impoverished South Asian nation of 120 million people where landline phone service is virtually non-existent in the rural areas. Small loans will allow individuals, mostly poor women in remote rural villages, to purchase cellular phones. Equipped with the phones, the women will establish small "pay phone" businesses to sell usage to other villagers, thus deriving income to support themselves and payback their loans. Already such pay phones are operational and profitable in more than 300 villages.
SPENDING
Consumers spent more in retail stores on motor vehicles and related products in 1998 than they did on food, clothing and footwear combined. Out of every $100 of retail spending, Canadians purchased $35.00 worth of motor vehicles and related products, compared with $19.44 spent on food and $9.89 on clothing and footwear. The fourth largest category was home furnishings and electronics, which took $7.31 of every $100 spent by consumers. Purchases of prescription and over-the-counter drugs took $3.99, slightly outpacing the $3.83 spent on sporting and leisure goods. Consumers spent $3.22 out of every $100 on alcoholic beverages, compared with $2.37 on tobacco products and supplies. In total, spending in retail stores reached $246.8 billion in 1998, up 3.6% from 1997. Consumers spent about $86.4 billion on motor vehicles and related products, and $59.3 billion on food and beverages.
SIZE
In the 1940s, the average size of a newly built Canadian house was 800 square feet. By the 1990s the average size was 1800 square feet
TECHNOLOGY
Speakers in TV sets and attached to computers may soon become relics of the past. A U.S. company says it has found a way to press any LCD screen or monitor into service as a speaker. The very edge of the glass or plastic screen doubles as the transducer (the device that converts electrical energy to mechanical energy, thus providing sound). The larger the screen, the louder the sound and the better the bass. Time to gestation: 18 months -- but the company has already licensed the technology to 90 companies.
GROWTH
This month, barring construction glitches, McDonald's will reach a milestone no other business in the world has ever achieved: the opening of its 25,000th store.
POLITICALLY CORRECT
Crayola is changing the name of its Indian Red crayon. The company says Indian Red was based on a reddish-brown pigment commonly found in India. But the manufacturer has received complaints from teachers who say students think the color has to do with American Indians. It's not the first change--in 1962, "Flesh" was changed to "Peach" to recognize that all skin tones are not the same.
THE FUTURE
Australian researchers say a powerful computer using atom-sized components could be a reality within a decade. Theoretically, a quantum computer could exceed the combined power of all the world's computers. The design, using existing technology, involves placing phosphorus atoms into extremely pure silicon crystals in a precise pattern. Such a computer could be highly sensitive, especially to errors and could crash easily. But there are worries it could also work too well. Quantum computers would be extraordinarily good at breaking codes, putting the security of credit card transactions, e-mail, government documents and financial records at risk.
PORTS
Shipments to Asia from Canadian ports declined 9.6% to 56.0 million tonnes in 1998. The Asian economic crisis was a major contributor to the decline in foreign-bound cargo from certain ports, particularly Prince Rupert which handled 8.5 million tonnes of freight in 1998, down 32.3% from the year before. Vancouver, again Canada's busiest port in 1998, was less affected by the Asian crisis. It handled 70.7 million tonnes of cargo in 1998, or about one-fifth of the national total. Vancouver may have benefited from the Asian economic crisis. Low Asian exchange rates boosted the demand for Asian imports to North America, increasing Vancouver's inbound international freight, particularly cargo in containers. International shipments which arrived in Canada from foreign ports reached a record 100.5 million tonnes in 1998 (+6.1%), breaking a record set the previous year.
WOMEN
The number of female-owned businesses in the U.S. is on the rise as is their sales figures and employment base. Women now own 9.1 million businesses--38 per cent of all companies in the U.S. These companies employ 27.5 million people and generate more than $3.6 trillion in sales annually. The greatest growth is in "non-traditional" industries. The number of women involved in construction, wholesale trade, transportation, communications, agriculture and manufacturing surged between 1992 and 1999.
SUPERMARKETS
Canadians spent more than $1.5 billion on flavoured soft drinks last year according to a survey by AC Nielson. Milk was next at $1.4 billion followed by $1.1 billion on candy. Frozen dinners and meat pies were worth $805 million and ready-to-serve cereals and packaged bread at $766 and $695 million respectively. The only non-edible items on the list are bathroom tissues at $690 million and laundry detergent at $325 million.
EXERCISE
Walking is the most popular way for Canadians to get some exercise. That's how more than 60 per cent of adults older than 12 get moving. And more than half of all Canadians (52 per cent) participate regularly in some form of activity. The next three most popular activities are home exercise, enjoyed by 25.6 per cent of those surveyed, bicycling (25.2 per cent) and swimming (23 per cent).
MARINE SECTOR
Canada's marine sector is a significant employer. More than 26,000 people work for organizations engaged in water transport or incidental service industries, such as marine cargo handlers, shipping agents and marine pilots. These industries paid about $1.1 billion in wages and salaries in 1998, according to StatCan's survey of employment, payroll and hours. This does not represent the total employment in marine activity as some firms, engaged in industries such as petroleum and forest products, transport or handle their own products via marine transport.
WATER
In arid Las Vegas, authorities are offering residents "cash for grass." People can receive as much as $400 for replacing their lawns with rocks and desert plants.
EXPERTS
An Ohio State University study suggests that experts are wrong a surprisingly large amount of the time and they often deny it. 5,000 predictions were collected from more than 200 experts over the last 12 years. In every scenario in which a prediction could be tested for accuracy, barely half the experts correctly foresaw the events that occurred and only one in four showed a willingness to admit their error.
EGYPT
The Export Development Corp. has established with the United Bank of Egypt a $10 million (U.S.) line of credit for Canadian companies wishing to sell goods and services in Egypt. The credit facility has been structured to finance transactions as small as $50,000, which can support contracts awarded to small and medium sized businesses.
MANUFACTURING
The importance of manufacturing to the U.S. economy continues to decline. In 1960, manufacturing accounted for 47 per cent of corporate profits, 31 per cent of jobs and 27 per cent of GDP. Last year it had only 26 per cent of profits and 15 per cent of jobs. In 1997 it contributed 17 per cent of GDP.
GARDENING
According to the Canadian Nursery Landscaping Association, gardening is the fastest-growing leisure activity in North America. It's also a very large industry. About $355 million in plants and soil at the initial farm stage of the business translated into some $6 billion in sales of plants, gardening products and equipment. The nursery business has been growing Canada-wide at 8 per cent every year for about a decade.
BUSES
Passenger bus traffic in Canada is nowhere near the level of two decades ago. In 1997, more than 13.9 million passenger trips were taken by bus from one city to another, up 13.6% from 1995, yet far off the 30 million trips made in 1981. Scheduled intercity bus travel declined steadily throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, before levelling off. In the mid-1990s, it has, in fact, started to increase as bus companies identify and adapt to changing consumer demands. The largest gains have been made by bus companies that previously had specialized in charter travel.
EXPANSION
While Wal-Mart still garners over 90 per cent of its income from the U.S., in three to five years it expects that foreign stores will account for 30 per cent of its profit growth. The giant discount retailer already has stores in Canada and Mexico, as well as in Brazil, Argentina and China. This year it expects to open more than 90 stores in Germany and to use this base to expand throughout Europe.
VISION
In 1875, the director of the United States Patent Office sent in his resignation and advised that his department should be closed. There was nothing left to invent, he claimed.
GUANO
In the British seaside resort of Hastings, sea gulls have knocked out a collection of 51 solar-powered parking meters by depositing guano on their solar panels. An extra town employee has been hired to clean the panels. The meters are intended to be environmentally friendly, energy-saving and economical.
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