Hamleys sold to French toy company

Groupe Ludendo buy Britain's most famous toy brand, including flagship Regent Street store, for sum in region of £60m.

 

Hamley's, Britain's most famous toy shop, has been sold to a French company for an estimated £60m.
The 250-year old store, which has mesmerised generations of children with its seven storeys of toys and games on Regent Street in London, was taken over by Groupe Ludendo, which operates 300 toy shops across France, Belgium, Switzerland and Spain.

The sale is the latest episode in the store's turbulent recent ownership history after attempts to modernise and reinvent itself. The brand began life in 1760 when William Hamley founded a toy shop called Noah's Ark at 231 High Holborn, London.

Read More - http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/sep/17/hamleys-toys-sold-to-groupe-ludendo?newsfeed=true

Shoppers say online shopping delivery charges are ‘worth paying’

UK shoppers are spending £3.523bn per year, the equivalent of £136 for every household in the UK, on delivery charges for online shopping, but new research says they believe it is a price worth paying.

Research commissioned by Trimble through OnePoll, surveyed 1,000 adults, revealing that rising petrol costs, bagging a bargain and the convenience of shopping from the sofa were among the key reasons that make the average £2.99 delivery charge per order worth the money.

The Trimble research is said to support reports of a growing increase in shopping online, with nearly two-thirds of shoppers saying they buy more online now than they did five years ago and 88.9% agreeing they expect to be spending more or the same online between now and 2017.

Convenience (36%) is cited as the key reason for shopping via the web but crowded high streets and shopping centres (20%) and busy lifestyles (15%) are also driving UK shoppers to abandon the high street.

Controversially, 7.6 million UK adults would go as far as to say that the UK high street is dead and over one-fifth of all respondents would like to do most of their shopping online, if they could.

Perhaps surprisingly, the current economic hard times are playing a part in encouraging consumers to shop online. High petrol prices and hefty car park charges are seeing many shoppers opting to stay at home and order via the web, preferring to pay for home delivery.

Read More - http://www.talkingretail.com/news/industry-news/shoppers-say-online-shopping-delivery-charges-are-%E2%80%98worth-paying%E2%80%99

Olympic athletes swap fitness data for latest gadgets in bid for 2012 edge

Devices record diet, sleep and exercise patterns

The US track cycling team are using glucose monitors, sleep trackers and genetic reports

Data will be used to improve products for the amateur health and fitness market

Olympic athletes are providing fitness data in exchange for high-tech gadgets that record sleep, diet and exercise patterns to help improve their performance.
Health technology companies are using the athletes’ results to develop tracking devices for the burgeoning fitness and weightloss markets.
The track cycling team from the US are testing a sleep monitor, a glucose monitor - which can help diabetics manage blood sugar - and genetic reports on their nutritional needs and muscular capacity.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2177666/London-2012-Olympic-athletes-swap-personal-fitness-data-latest-gadgets-bid-2012-edge.html#ixzz22luVJUkW

Sunny weather boosted May online sales, while Jubilee celebrations could mean a bumper June

May’s sunny spell helped to boost sales both online and off in May, according to the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium, out today.

And early figures from Venda also suggested that the Jubilee weekend saw a strong rise in online and offline retail sales.

The KPMG-BRC Retail Sales Monitor for May 2012 showed internet sales rose by 12.4% last month. That was up on the 10.4% growth recorded in May 2011.

The update also showed that beyond the internet, sales also staged a recovery. Like-for-like UK retail sales values rose by 1.3% last month. In May 2011 like-for-like sales were down by 2.1%, compared to the same month in the previous year. Total UK sales rose by 3.4%, compared to a 0.3% decline in May 2011.

Stephen Robertson, director general of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Online sales have returned to healthier growth after an unusually weak month in April, in part due to the timing of Easter. It’s back in line with the six-month average and higher than the 12-month rolling average.

“The feelgood sunshine boost saw strong sales of summer fashions as well as outdoor leisure and gardening gear. Consumers planning ahead for the Jubilee celebrations and other summer events are also likely to have made earlier purchases online than they would have through traditional channels.

Read more - http://internetretailing.net/2012/06/sunny-weather-boosted-may-online-sales-while-jubilee-celebrations-could-mean-a-bumper-june/

Coffee gadgets ahoy!

The clever gadget geeks among us are endlessly coming up with easier and more convenient ways for us to order and drink our coffee, tailoring the experience and the format of the coffee exactly to our requirements.
One of the new gadgets to hit the news headlines is the TextSpresso.
What is it?

This is a coffee machine which has a special function – you can operate it and send coffee orders to it, by sending an SMS.
That’s to say, you can text this new type of coffee machine and tell it what to do, what sort of coffee you want, to your own specification.

Read More - http://www.worldcoffeenews.com/3138/coffee-gadgets-ahoy/

Solar storm could disrupt gadgets Thursday

Earth’s magnetic field is about to be shaken like a snow globe by the largest solar storm in five years. 

Earth’s magnetic field is about to be shaken like a snow globe by the largest solar storm in five years.
After hurtling through space for a day and a half, a massive cloud of charged particles is due to arrive early Thursday and could disrupt utility grids, airline flights, satellite networks and GPS services, especially in northern areas. But the same blast could also paint colorful auroras farther from the poles than normal.

Scientists say the storm, which started with a massive solar flare earlier in the week, is growing as it races outward from the sun, expanding like a giant soap bubble. When it strikes early Thursday, the particles will be moving at 4 million mph.

“It’s hitting us right in the nose,” said Joe Kunches, a scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colo.

Astronomers say the sun has been relatively quiet for some time. And this storm, while strong, may seem fiercer because Earth has been lulled by several years of weak solar activity.

Read more - http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/article/id/156167/group/News/

Ticket to Ride

Some people claim that board games are old-fashioned. Or that you can’t beat video games. Those people have never played Ticket to Ride.
Ticket to Ride is one of the finest family games available today. Created by Alan Moon and published by Days of Wonder, Ticket to Ride eschews many of the conventions of the modern board game – no dice, no money, no moving your token around a board trying to ‘beat’ your opponents.
Instead, Ticket to Ride relies less on luck than on using imagination and strategy to create a game that is as addicting as it is enjoyable.
Ticket to Ride is set in 1900, and each player is given the task of creating various railway lines around the United States. The point of the game is to build the largest and longest lines linking your designated cities. It may sound simple – and it is – but it it devilishly fun. Each player is tasked with completing their own railway lines, but must also make sure other players don’t grab key lines in the process. In the end, points are tallied to declare a winner.

Read more - http://pursuitist.com/family/ticket-to-ride/

13 Gadgets We Love on Valentine’s Day

Never assume inveterate hardware nerds don’t have feelings. We Gadget Lab editors, reporters and photographers are actually creatures of great emotional depth and complexity. In fact, almost to a person, we’re all in committed, loving relationships -- and most of our partners aren’t even tech geeks.

Yes, we’re full of love. Most of our adoration is reserved for Valentine’s sweethearts, but we wouldn’t be good at our jobs if we didn’t reserve a bit of fetishistic hardware worship for our favorite gear as well.

Read More - http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/02/14-valentines-gadgets/

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Nostalgia: Board Games

CLUEDO is one of the most popular board games in the world, selling millions in over 40 countries and spawning a film, stage play and TV series.
And yet, its creator remains a much bigger mystery than the game is to solve.
Unlike his multi-millionaire contemporaries who invented Monopoly and Scrabble, Anthony Pratt, from Kings Heath, died without fame or fortune in 1994.
His idea was to create a board game came about during the war when he was missing being able to socialise.

Read More - http://www.sundaymercury.net/lifestyle-news/nostalgia-history-midlands/2012/01/08/nostalgia-board-games-66331-30077548/

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Sonos: The Gadget I Can’t Live Without

This has been a big month for Sonos. After six years of quietly transforming the way people enjoy, share and rediscover their music collections, they’ve finally passed a major milestone. As they put it – they’re now playing music in a million rooms around the world.
OK, so compared with Apple’s terrifying expansion and gradual domination of humanity’s gadget obsession, a million units is pretty small potatoes. But Sonos has never seemed to be about scoring record sales or laying waste to the home stereo market – they just enjoy making great products that people love. They’re the gadget equivalent of the small family-run restaurant that you have to book two weeks in advance. The kind that turns down the offer of larger premises because they worry that they wouldn’t be able to offer the same level of service if they had three times as many covers.

Read More - http://www.sabotagetimes.com/camouflage/the-gadget-i-cant-live-without/

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