U.S. automakers extend discount wars through March

Credit: Reuters/Gary Cameron

2014 Chevrolet Silverado pick up trucks are pictured in Thurmont, Maryland February 6, 2014.

Some of the heaviest discounts are being offered by Ford and Chevrolet dealers on full-size pickups - $8,000 and more on the 2014 Ford F-150 and $9,000 and more on the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado, according to Internet listings posted Thursday.

But U.S. dealers also are sweetening deals on a wider range of vehicles, from low-priced economy cars such as the Chevrolet Sonic to popular crossovers such as the Ford Escape, fueling fears of an escalating "On Sales war" among the bigger manufacturers.

The latest offers come as the Detroit automakers and a number of their competitors appear to have been slammed by a third straight month of extreme weather in many parts of the United States, causing inventories of unsold vehicles to remain at unseasonably high levels.

"We believe short-term pent-up demand is building, but it's difficult to know when it will be released," said analyst Joseph Spak of RBC Capital Markets. "It could be March or spread out over a few months (and) is also likely dependent on the weather."

Analysts polled by Reuters estimated U.S. vehicle sales in February will be relatively flat from a year ago, at around 1,196,000, representing an annualized rate of 15.4 million. After dismal sales in January, analysts had predicted an uptick in February.

BALANCING ACT

The challenge for GM and Ford has been to maintain a delicate balance between pricing and discounts, one of the key incentives offered by the industry. This task is made a bit easier with big pickups, high-margin vehicles that traditionally provide the lion's share of pretax profit in Detroit.

Automakers were able to maintain record transaction prices in February, with the industry average topping $29,000, according to research firm J.D. Power.

GM, which introduced its redesigned Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups last summer, has seen the biggest gain - around $5,000 per vehicle - in truck prices from a year ago, according to research firm Kelley Blue Book.

Because it has been spending relatively less on incentives this year than Ford, GM's share of full-size truck sales has dropped several points to less than 35 percent.

GM spent an estimated $3,204 per vehicle in incentives in February, compared with $3,305 for Ford, according to research firm TrueCar.

That could change as GM phases out heavy-duty versions of the Silverado and Sierra this spring while building up production of redesigned editions.

Analyst Brian Johnson of Barclays Capital said U.S. vehicle inventories are down slightly from January, but so far the automakers have maintained relatively strong first-quarter production schedules.

"Should inventory levels remain elevated through April, we could see the issue addressed" via higher incentives or production cuts, Johnson said.

FURIOUS DISCOUNTING BY DEALERS

At the retail level, discounting continues at a furious pace, judging from dealer websites reviewed Thursday by Reuters.

Chevrolet dealers were offering promotional deals on a wide range of models as the GM brand wrapped up a nationwide Presidents Day sale and prepared for two new March promotions.

The new promotions are dubbed Chevy Truck Month and Chevy Open House, according to trade publication Automotive News. The March incentive programs are expected to provide discounts of up to $7,000 or more per vehicle, according to a GM source who declined to be named because the programs have not been formally announced.

A number of Chevrolet dealers in the meantime are offering even better deals, many of them over the Internet.

On Thursday, David Stanley Chevrolet in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, advertised a 2014 Silverado for $27,900, or $9,260 off the sticker price.

In Chandler, Arizona, Thoroughbred Chevrolet advertised a 2014 Malibu sedan at $17,395, or $5,860 off sticker, and a 2014 Sonic hatchback for $10,495, or $4,500 off.

Ford has boosted and extended discounts on many of its U.S. models through March 31. The company now is offering rebates of up to $4,000 on the full-size 2014 F-150 pickup and as much as $6,000 on selected models such as the 2014 Focus Electric.

But Ford dealers across the United States continue to advertise even steeper discounts on the Web.

Hall Ford Lincoln in Newport News, Virginia, on Thursday was offering a 2014 Ford Taurus Limited sedan for $34,000, a discount of $6,090 off the suggested retail price, and a 2014 Escape SEL crossover for $29,000, a discount of $5,600.

Brandon Ford in Tampa, Florida offered deep discounts of up to $7,200 on the 2014 F-150 pickup and $8,360 on the heavy-duty F-150.

Will the discount wars continue beyond March? That depends on the weather and on whether a "bounceback" in demand materializes, analysts said. As RBC analyst Spak noted: "Incentives, once introduced, can be hard to pull back."

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Amazon And The BBC Make Ripper Of A Deal

Discount have struck a deal with the BBC to revive the cancelled crime drama Ripper Street. Thanks to Amazon's financial input, the new season will be streamed on Amazon Instant before it airs on the BBC.

The deal shows the power that online streaming companies now have. Being able to create original content and having the financial clout to revive shows that still have a loyal following.

Ripper Street was cancelled last year after two seasons by the BBC who said it "didn't bring the audience we hoped", and stars Matthew Macfadyen and Jerome Flynn as police detectives in the 19th Century at the time the ripper stalked the streets of Whitechapel, East London.

The new season will begin shooting in May and will premiere first on the Amazon Prime Instant on-demand service which will also have the first two seasons available to stream.

The BBC were Cock-a-Hoop with the news, drama boss Ben Stephenson said it was an, "an exceptional opportunity" to bring back the show. He said: "This deal gives fans another series of the show they love at excellent value to the licence fee-payer, ensuring that the BBC can also commission an entirely new, yet-to-be-announced drama series."

Speaking for Amazon, head of Amazon instant video international content acquisition, Jason Ropell said, "We're delighted to have secured not only the highly popular first two seasons of Ripper Street for our Prime Instant Video customers, but we can also confirm today that we will making season three, news that we know will delight the millions of fans of this brilliant British drama."

Best Buy re-opened after store was temporarily closed due to gas leak

JACKSON, MI - Deal Of The Day is open after a gas leak temporarily closed its doors.

Shandra Tollefson, a Best Buy public relations spokesperson, said the store 1014 Jackson Crossing re-opened after being closed for about two hours.

Store employees were notified of an odor of gas outside, and contacted the Jackson Fire Department and Consumers Energy about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25.

The source of the leak was from a gas pipe on the roof of the building, which was heavily covered in snow, said Terry DeDoes, a Consumers Energy spokesman.

DeDoes said heavy snow and ice can create pressure inside pipes, causing a break in the fuel line.

"We recommend people keep meters free of snow and ice," DeDoes said.

When clearing pipes, DeDoes said shovels should not be used, because they can damage pipes.

Valentine’s Day falls worldwide on 14th February

Valentine's Day falls worldwide on 14th February that celebrates the devotion, love and bonding between two spouses or lovers. On this day lovers give cards, chocolates, gifts, red flowers to their beloved or meals are arranged in restaurants. The doves, figure of the winged Cupid and heart shaped images are the symbols of Valentines Day. Many guys express their love on this day.

New York City Ballet Erring on Side of Variety

The installation by the artist JR at the David H. Koch Theater has transformed that building's greatest glory, its tall, spacious first-floor foyer. Unlike the 2013 cartoon tower by the Brooklyn art collective Faile, it doesn't spoil or invade the space; it both deepens and teases it. Go up to the fourth ring, and, from above, it looks like a Baroque ceiling. Virtually life-size images of New York City Ballet dancers are arrayed in rings, whorls and patterns around the floor in various trompe l'oeil effects.

I've heard this installation called pornography. (If so, it's surely an unsuccessful example of that genre.) I think it can certainly be described as kitsch. But it's also imaginative, and, on a fascinatingly large scale, intensely entertaining. And its sense of playfulness is very happy. Finer as art are some (not all) of JR's distressed black-and-white images of dancers in the ground-floor foyers, notably one of Emily Kikta (in the lobby by the left-side elevators), with fabric blowing around her à la Loie Fuller.

On Thursday night, the latest in City Ballet's series of Art Nights, the audience played on that floor, and posed for photographs all around it, like stucco accretions to its design. Disco was played beforehand and in the intermissions and afterward by a D.J. Though his choice of numbers grated beside the music played in the ballets, there need be no quarrel with the principle of occasional party nights of this ilk.

Art Night had a special repertory of five ballets: three - "Kammermusik No. 2," "Concerto Barocco" and "Rubies," all by George Balanchine - from the current repertory (I have already reviewed them), plus two pas de deux to modern music: Christopher Wheeldon's "After the Rain" and Peter Martins's "The Infernal Machine." In the context of ordinary repertory, it would matter more that the leisurely "After the Rain" number is little more than manipulative schmaltz and that the fast-and-furious "Infernal Machine" feels synthetic. What emerged here were their basic virtues of contrasting pace, which extended the evening's range as a primer in modern classical ballet.

It would be good to think some of Thursday's audience returned at once to see the new program that entered the repertory on Friday: a double bill of Jerome Robbins's "Dances at a Gathering" and Balanchine's "Union Jack." Celebrating the two choreographers most crucial to City Ballet history, it was called "Balanchine and Robbins: Masters at Work." (The "at work" tag is redundant; in which of their ballets were they not working?) What's impressive here is the new line taken by each choreographer, after decades of celebrity, and his success in sustaining it at remarkable length.

"Dances at a Gathering" was widely hailed as a masterpiece from its 1969 premiere on. It's set to an assortment of different piano pieces by Chopin (mazurkas, waltzes, études, one scherzo and one nocturne). And its informal manners, loose structure, suggestion of folk community, and changing moods all established a whole new kind of dance theater, with a dreamlike sequence of events that goes way beyond that of earlier ballets such as Michel Fokine's "Les Sylphides" and Balanchine's "Serenade" and "Ivesiana."

The way that Robbins changes the tone between one musical number and another is already amazing; the way he then keeps changing mood and organization within some individual longer numbers is more astonishing yet. In two solos, he strongly suggests that this is a memory ballet - the opening one for a man in brown and one halfway through for a woman in green, both of whom take the stage and seem to be sketching their remembrances of dances past. But all 10 characters, even if their connection to their music is often dreamlike, are marvelously real in behavior.

It's a work that can pall when not danced with a wealth of nuance. Tiler Peck (in pink) and Sara Mearns (in mauve) did much to make Friday's performance eloquent. Ms. Peck's phrasing - with miracles of changing balance in one number - was enthralling; and though Ms. Mearns is not currently in the finest physical condition, the subtlety of dramatic inflection she gives to a gesture, a glance, a step makes her a rare artist. Joaquin De Luz brought a new quiet maturity to the brown role.

Among the other parts, Adrian Danchig-Waring (green) combined crispness and freedom; Brittany Pollack (blue) showed a newly adult quality; and the charm and good manners of Tyler Angle (purple) made an important contribution. Though the persona shown by Megan Fairchild (apricot) remains too lightly adolescent - she seemed the only child onstage - her boldness was welcome. I find Maria Kowroski's physicality wrong for the green solo, despite effective moments.

Though "Union Jack" is seldom singled out as one of Balanchine's most original works, you can't watch it without feeling the risks it takes. No choreographer had a stronger sense of ceremony than Balanchine, but the amount of slow procession and parade here remains breathtaking - and tremendous. The ballet is a salute to Britain, and Balanchine catches several layers of the British persona: reverence and irreverence, the stiff upper lip and the twinkling eye.

Janie Taylor, Ms. Mearns and Teresa Reichlen, leading, first, regiments of kilted guards and naval units also, all have the glamour of old navy black friday 2013-time movie stars. Ms. Mearns, at the head of a thundering all-female dance unit, begins to restore to it the galvanizing dynamic force it lost over 20 years ago (more, please); while Ms. Reichlen, subtly cheeky and elegantly gorgeous at the same time at the head of a line of Wrens, is in full bloom.

Amazon.com to begin collecting sales tax

To the dismay of many online customers, Promotional Codes.com announced it would begin to collect sales tax in North Carolina Feb. 1, an official confirmed Thursday.

This move will make North Carolina the 20th state in the nation to have sales tax collected from an online vendor, said Janie Lyn, an Amazon employee.

But this is not the first time North Carolina has brought Amazon's policies into the public eye.

Mike Meno, spokesman for the North Carolina ACLU, said the organization has challenged the state government's involvement in collecting information from Amazon's online orders.

"Our contention in that case was about the state getting involved and having the customer information turned over to the state," he said. "It's a pretty clear violation of someone's privacy."

Meno said a federal judge found it unconstitutional for the government to link customers to the items they purchased in a 2011 settlement.

But Meno said he did not foresee similar problems occurring with Amazon's latest North Carolina policy.

"Now that this tax issue seems to be settled, the government doesn't seem to be interested in collecting that data," he said.

Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the North Carolina ACLU, said the organization did not take a position on the question of whether sales tax needed to be collected.

"The decision by Amazon to begin collecting sales taxes on the front end of purchases will save customers from having to keep receipts and pay use taxes on the back end, and will negate any interest the state could have in tracking customers' purchases on Amazon.com," she said.

But not everyone is dissatisfied with Amazon's latest move. Some shop owners believe the imposition of a new sales tax could help level the playing field for local brick-and-mortar businesses.

Stacie Smith, manager of Bull's Head Bookshop, said this change could potentially help her business, as well as others in the area and around the state.

But Smith remains skeptical.

"I hope it makes a difference," she said. "But sales tax, to me, has never seemed that high."

Smith said Bull's Head has lost a lot of business to online merchants, but the store still manages to hold on to its loyal customers.

"We get good feedback when they come in," she said. "They appreciate that we're local."

Smith said while Bull's Head cannot match Amazon's prices, the store discounts more books to remain competitive and does not mind taking requests for future book orders.

"Everyone has sort of been trained by Amazon that they should get 40 percent off, so we thought, 'Why not?'" she said.

"I think it's a good thing, I just don't know how good a thing yet."

Linnie Greene, marketing director of Chapel Hill's Flyleaf Books, said she has similar views and thinks the tax is fair.

"I think that they should pay the tax just like the rest of the businesses in North Carolina," she said.

Greene, a self-proclaimed proponent of "mom and pop" businesses, said she was happy with the decision.

But like Smith, Greene said she remains skeptical that the tax will have any dramatic fiscal effect.

"Places like Amazon tend to undercut a smaller business," she said. "If the end-all be-all is that customers want to pay less money, then I don't think we'll ever be able to compete."

Greene said cost will always be the deciding factor of where customers choose to shop.

"I'm sure there are people in Chapel Hill who use the internet for the majority of their shopping," Greene said. "But a lot of people in the area are conscientious about putting money back into the community."

Samantha Bender, a junior at UNC, said she bought an assortment of items from Amazon, from textbooks to Keurig's K-Cups.

"It's so much cheaper than buying them here," she said.

Even with the sales tax, some students said their purchasing habits probably wouldn't change.

Nathan Owens, a freshman and frequent Amazon shopper, said he was not aware of the tax change.

"I don't feel like it's been advertised as much as it should," Bender said. "I'll probably still buy from (Amazon) because it's cheaper."

state@dailytarheel.com

Handmade gifts -- ideas for her include craft supplies

Your Valentine will love any of these thoughtful handmade gifts -- ideas for her include craft supplies, a bottle of wine from a significant year, and her favorite romantic movie. Mix and match our ideas to create the perfect Valentine's Day gift for her or use our ideas for inspiration to make your own unique gift. Send this list to your guy so he'll know exactly what to get you for Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day, the 14th February, is the day we celebrate our feelings of affection for our boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands and wives. It is traditional to do this with a special romantic gift. Looking for a Valentine's Day Gift for him or the perfect token of love for her? Look no further than here! Alternatively browse all of our Valentine's Day gifts listed below to find the perfect present. If you're looking for something slightly more risque', check out our Adult Gifts.
Valentine's Day Gift Ideas

If you're looking for a gift for your Valentine, you've come to the right place. We've gathered up all our top picks for Valentine's Day 2014, from men and women's watches and fragrances, to jewelry, chocolates, clothing and more. Whatever age you're shopping for, we've got Valentine's ideas you'll love. Have a look around and find something special for your Valentine.
Find the Perfect Gift for Your Valentine
Gifts for the Romantic
Gifts for the Romantic
Candles
Jewelry
Flowers
Perfume & Cologne
Romantic Movies & TV
Gifts for the Practical
Gifts for the Practical
Beauty & Grooming
Kitchen & Dining
Office Supplies
Sleepwear & Robes
Watches
Gifts for Kids
Gifts for Kids
Arts & Crafts
Books for Kids
Books for Teens & Young Adults
Clothing
Plush Gifts
Gifts for Anyone
Gifts for Anyone
Kindle Fire HDX
Candy & Chocolate
Collectibles & Fine Art
Digital Deals
Video Games

search result