Longing to have his own restaurant for years, Philip Ozaki happily left his head chef position at Plan Check Kitchen when Richard Larios and Timothy Cam made him an offer he couldn’t refuse—-shared ownership of Dirt Dog.

On August 1, the three welcomed the opening of Dirt Dog, whose mission is to “provide the best and unique tasting bacon wrapped hot dogs in a community oriented social environment.”

Dirt Dog locates on Figueroa Boulevard, right north to University of Southern California. What Ozaki, Larios and Cam did is simply turning the famous Los Angeles street food into an indoor business.

“It used to be street food. People have it at midnight after partying. But now we are providing the bacon-wrapped hot dogs here all day everyday,” said Philip Ozaki, Head Chef and Chief Operations Officer of Dirt Dog.

Compared to the hot dogs served by street-side vendors, Dirt Dog is using a higher quality of ingredients and coming up with more choices of flavors. It guarantees that its hot dog is made from “100% premium all beef Nathan’s 5/1 dog, wrapped in center cut bacon, topped with grilled onions & red and green bell peppers.”

 

Within the first month, more than six websites have reached out to Dirt Dog and wrote about them, including LA Weekly and Cue The Critic. This Wednesday, Jack F.M. (93.1) will also join Dirt Dog to give free hot dogs.

Bacon-wrapped hot dog has never drawn so much attention before, however, it does not make any difference to the condition of traditional hot dog vendors.

Los Angeles Times published a story suggesting that the weak economy forces more Angelenos become street vendors.

According to the research group, Economic Roundtable, 43 percent of the vendors in Los Angeles prepare and serve food-related products. Their sales can add up to $42 million a year.

Unfortunately, street vending is still fighting for its legal permission to come out of the shadow. 271 citations were issued against sidewalk vending during last fiscal year, however, the number surged to 286 only for the first quarter of 2014.

Officials’ opinion varies on legalizing street vendors or not. The major concerns are the potential costs of the enforcement system, the upcoming costs for maintaining the clean streets where street vendors operate their businesses, and also the potential tax revenue.

Prices of the merchandise sold by street vendors are usually negotiable. Therefore street vendors become the major shopping destination of many low-income families. The Economic Roundtable also suggests that every dollar earned by LA street vendors will finally generates economic impacts of $1.6 on the local economy.

Enjoying the legal permission to make street food, the three owners of Dirt Dog haven’t forgot to repay the community that supported them.  They decide that for each quarter, 10% of their profits will be put into community services.

Similar to investing the community, Ozaki firmly believe that investing the workers in the restaurant is going to reward more than what you expected.

“If you are treating them well, they will treat your customers well. Then more customers will be happy to eat here,” Ozaki said.

When new customers step in Dirt Dog, they will never feel lost in the menu. A waitress is always holding a menu and ready to explain everything on it. Many customers would like to spend several minutes with her before placing the order, and end up having the most satisfactory choice.

On Yelp many reviews mention their superb customer service, one of which even writes: “Customer service at its finest!”

Ozaki, Laoris and Cam are glad to see that their investment is paying back. “It took us 2 months to hire people,” Ozaki said. “We interview 3 or 4 people everyday,” Laoris added.

Finally they hired 15 workers, and offered them salary all above the minimum wage.. When talking about the possible rise of minimum wage from $9 to $15, he admitted that the major cost of Dirt Dog is on labors. The cost on ingredients and marketing only account for about 10% of its whole spending.

“But we are ready to pay them more and we have already paid them more than most of the businesses here,” Ozaki said. He said after the workers in nearby businesses getting to know that they offer a better salary, there are new workers come in everyday to seek their job. And he has already hired more than four workers who used to work for their neighbors in the plaza.

“Even the manager of Five Guys wants to come here,” Ozaki said proudly.

Dirt Dog now opens from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. but in two months, Ozaki said they will start to open at 7 a.m., serving breakfast and getting license to sell liquor for the late night hours.

No matter how the economy changes, the three owners are very ambitious and confident about Dirt Dog’s future.

“We definitely have a backup plan and but for now we are doing alright and the sales is getting better and better,” Ozaki said confidently.

 

 

This past weekend, I drove to the City of Industry to get a hair cut from the same hair stylist that has been cutting my hair since I was 3 months old.

Vincent Chan, also known as Achan, has been a hair stylist for over 25 years. He learned how to style hair at a beauty school back in his hometown, Hong Kong. He speaks English, Cantonese, as well as Mandarin. This allows him to talk to customers of all different Chinese backgrounds.

I remember as a young child, my mother drove me to Vincent’s home to get a hair cut along with my cousins in his garage on a Saturday evening. This was the only time Vincent was free this weekend between working at the hair salon in Roland Heights and spending time with his family. Throughout the years, Vincent has upgraded from a salon chair in his garage to running his own Hair Salon in the City of Industry. Vincent has established a loyalty with his customers because his hairstyles get better with time. I have noticed throughout the years that his hair cuts may not look the absolute best after you walk out of the salon, however, after you wait a week or two, the hair grows into a natural yet carefully crafted look that I have not found with any other hair stylist.

He does have competition and I will admit that I have even personally gone to another hair cutter once before. However the reason Vincent has stayed in business for so long and attracts so many customers is this ability to plan for how the hair will grow in a couple of weeks.

One time my sister and I chose to try another hair stylist simply because we did not like the previous haircut from Vincent. Initially the new hair stylist gave us both haircuts that we loved as soon as we walked out of the salon, they looked great! However, after a few days we noticed that once our hair started growing, the hair style did not grow in a way that looked flattering and we quickly went back to Vincent after two or three weeks. He instantly noticed told us “You went to another hair cutter huh? I can tell because he’s an amateur and isn’t planning for how your hairstyle will look after your hair grows.” After that instance, I have not questioned Vincent’s skills on styling hair. I have asked to keep it shorter or longer in some areas but just as a general guideline because I trust him. Vincent has established customer base in the densely Chinese populated cities in Orange and LA County. The two cities he currently works out of are Irvine and City of Industry.

When the economy hit, he did feel a hit so he had to drop his prices a bit to accommodate for it. He has worked out of salons that charge him for renting the space as well as just hair cutting for commission. The revenue Vincent generates is contingent upon how much the salon charges him for using the space as well as how much he choses to charge his customers for a haircut. The recession did affect his business but not in the way one would traditionally expect it to. More interestingly, his customers asked if he could drop his price rather than them not showing up at all. The request was being triggered by the Chinese’s culture of upholding positive face or status. Many Chinese wives still went to Vincent to get their hair done extravagantly in order give off a false perception that the recession was not as detrimental to their family as it was to others, when in reality it may have been just as bad if not worse. He told me “I guess its just the Chinese culture of wanting to save face, but hey at least that meant I still had some business”. The frequency of visiting customers did not drop but instead the price he charged did because they asked for discounts.

Vincent’s business is actually relatively casual. There are no set prices. After the hair cut is over, you simply ask him how much you owe him and he gives you a number. My haircuts have ranged from $15-30$. It really just depends on how his family is doing or how the economy is doing. While this does seem quite absurd to some individuals, this is quite typical in Chinese culture, or at least what I’ve experienced in my 20 years of growing up in a Taiwanese family. Because my family has known Vincent for so long and has always gone to see him for our hair styling needs, he has kept the price relatively consistent. The only time prices increased was between the years of 2008-2010 and he admitted that he did charge us slightly extra because he knew we were loyal customers and would not mind pitching in a little more which we did not. However since then, he has not increased the price with us as he does with other customers or new customers. With that being said, because we have established that relationship my family along with myself still tip him rather generously. As a result, Vincent has always welcomed walk-ins for us because of how many years we have been going to him for hair styling.

In the past couple of years he has opened his own hair salon called Achan Salon. Achan is his Chinese name translated to English, personally I recognize him through that name as well. He had to get a loan to buy this salon. He got his loan for a relatively how interest rate however he asked me not to include the name of the bank as well as the interest rate because well it is relatively true stereotype that Chinese people are very careful with their money regardless of how trusted of a customer you may be. I can say that the bank is a widely used bank among the Chinese community in the San Gabriel valley area.

At his new salon, he is able to hire an assistant that helps with washing the customer’s hair before they get the hair cut. I was originally planning on asking him when I first visited him but kept in mind the Chinese culture of social respect so reframed form asking him when his assistant was there. When I went back home for the weekend, I made a short visit just to ask how much he was paying his assistant. Vincent explained that the assistant is more interested in learning the hair cutting trade than making money which is why he hired him in the first place. Technically, Vincent doesn’t need an assistant, he can wash the hair himself or not wash it at all if they don’t need it, however his assistant came to him and asked if he could simply work for minimum wage to shadow Vincent while he was styling people’s hair. Vincent agreed and is paying his assistant 12$. He started by paying him 8$ an hour because it was before they raised the minimum wage, however the assistant has done good work and Vincent has naturally raised his wage to 11$ in just a couple of month.

Achan, or Vincent Chan has not only survived the economic recession but has thrived and established a loyal customer base ranging from the southern ends of Orange Country to the northern tips of Los Angeles County.

 

I met Allan Allaf at a small auto insurance company located near USC. I introduced myself and somewhat desperately asked if I could meet the owner of the company for my assignment.  By this point, I was already denied four times by other small businesses due to different reasons and was extremely exhausted by the triple-digit weather. I think Allaf saw how desperate I was to get the interview. He told me he was the sales manager at the company but thinks he could offer me some help since he runs a boutique shop in downtown Los Angeles.

The first question that came to my mind was “why is he here if he has his own business?” But I didn’t want to seem too rude. I wanted to hear his story first.

So this is how the story goes. Allaf is the owner of “Treasurer Boutique” located inside the grand Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. His fiancé currently is in charge of running the business. He used to have two more employees but had to let them go in order to cut to the bear essentials due to sluggish economy.  He first jumped into the business with $5,000, which he had paid his friend who used to own the boutique. The rest of the money came from loans, which, he is still paying back little by little. “I come here (insurance company) to work just so that I can sleep better at night.”

When I asked him if his business has been impacted by cyclical or secular shifts, he told me both factors impacted him. Then interestingly enough, he started talking very cynically about the media. “The media is a big problem from all aspects. It wouldn’t shut up about the economy and puts fear in people’s hearts. As a result, consumers become very aware about their money and refrain from spending. As long as the media keep making negative forecasts about the economy, I must keep coming here to work as a sales manager.

Mr. Allaf personally believes there is nothing wrong with the economy whatsoever. This doesn’t mean he didn’t have to change the way he runs the business. He had to stop buying smaller quantity of products from the regular vendor he used to purchase from. He began ordering larger quantity items from wholesaler to get a more discounted rate, which ultimately results in cheaper retail price. Nonetheless, despite the cheaper retail price he has to offer to consumers, there are discounts going on at pretty much all the time going anywhere from 10 to 60 percent and even 70 at times.

Interest rates or access to capital do not play a significant role in his business since people do not have to rely on third party to finance any of the items sold at the Treasurer Boutique nor the customers must be qualified by a third party to buy the products from his shop. Nonetheless, online market is a huge threat to him. “The online market is probably our biggest competitor that affects us the most. Unfortunately, small businesses like mine cannot buy in huge bulks of products as Amazon does to sell at those prices. Plus it is a lot easier to buy stuff from home than actually going into the store to purchase goods,” said Allaf.

Another challenge he faces as a small business owner is the huge amount of tax he must pay. “Small business runners pay more taxes than big corporations. I don’t mean in terms of numbers and figures but in terms of percentage,” said Allaf. Even though he did not see an increase in the fees he needs to pay, people’s spending has dropped by a significant amount. He feels that it’s unfair that only big corporations get the government’s advantage of having their tax cut while small business people are struggling more and more to pay their taxes. He is therefore currently thinking about getting more loans for his business. “It’s hard for us to decide whether people like us should get a loan or not. I think it’s almost impossible for small businesses owners, especially nowadays, to excel without the help of loans.”

Then he added, “we are constantly facing predicament. It’s a matter of whether we should build up slowly or make a fast leap.

Nonetheless, he seemed quite casual about these challenges. He said his business is quite easy to run because it pretty much runs itself. He was also very optimistic about the U.S. economy. “I believe there is nothing wrong with the economy whatsoever. It’s not a factor about the economy, it’s the media play,” explained Allaf.  He gets annoyed of how the press puts false fear in people everyday, which makes people spend only 10 dollars when it is totally fine to spend 20 dollars instead.

“I really hope the media can do their job right. In the end, it is them who makes the difference in the economy.”

Carol He is a 32-year-old Chinese female, who has been living in America for 25 years. She is the boss of a “fashion company.” After deducting all costs, including wages, production cost, operation cost and all the other necessary spendings, the “company” makes about $150,000 net profit every month – and mounting. There’re 12 people in her “company” now, including her. You may be wondering: how can such a small company earn so much? Well, what I haven’t told you is, Carol’s “fashion company” sells faked luxuries. From my interview with Carol, I knew that if we only consider about profitability, this is indeed a great business.

Carol started selling faked goods 8 years ago. Back in 2006, she just graduated from university and found her first job in an airline company. When working there, she happened to get to know a Chinese handbag factory manager, Wang, who told Carol that his factory manufactures faked Chanel Classic Flap handbags, and that they’re exactly the same as the authentic ones, but with a much lower price. Carol told her friend. Her friend bought one and said to Carol that she walked in the Chanel store with the counterfeit, and no one recognized it. Since then, more and more people asked Carol for pictures of the bags by email or cell phone. Carol then created an account on MySpace to upload photos of newly manufactured handbags. People ordered by commenting or sending messages to her. By the end of 2007, Carol was able to sell about 10 bags every week, and earned around $3,000 monthly. At that time, the price of medium Chanel Classic Flap in lambskin was $2150, and the faked one was $300.

At first, Carol sold counterfeits just to make some extra money. “However,” she said, “soon I had a feeling that I was the only one in this business, and people were all asking me for bags.” According to her, most of her customers were Asians at the very beginning. But in the first half year in 2008, the number of people contacting her suddenly increased dramatically. In August 2008, she sold 128 Chanel Classic Flap handbags in different sizes and colors to customers all around the U.S., and her customers expanded from only Asian to Hispanic, Caucasian, Africa American, etc.

I asked her if she think the boost in her business has something to do with the Great Recession in 2008, she smiled and said:” Well, I don’t know much about economy, but thank god recessions never happened to me.” Carol decided to focus on the business and quitted her job at the end of 2008. The faked Chanel sold so well that she had to quit her job to take care of the business – she even hired an assistant to help her with customer service.

Though the Great Recession didn’t impact Carol’s business directly, there was indeed a huge change – which she didn’t realize till now – that was emerging in 2008. “I remember it was in that year that a large number of competitors began to appear in the U.S. and China out of a sudden, to the extent that in 2009, the U.S. Customs had been very strict about import packages from China for quite a while, even non-business ones” – and that was when Carol officially started her “company.”

Carol went back to China in August 2009, and stayed there for six months. During that time, she realized that there was much more demand for faked luxuries in China than in America. “There were so many people, they had so much money, yet they didn’t know where to spend.” At that time, Chinese economy was developing rapidly and led to dramatic rise in the population of millionaires. Luxury brands noticed the potential in China and were all trying to take a place in the market. Together with the emergence of various kinds of social media, such as Weibo – the Chinese Twitter – people got to know more brands. More importantly, they had the ability to make a purchase.

The number of luxury products is always limited – the more “luxurious” it is, the more limited it will be. Therefore, even if people have the money to buy a product, they’re not necessarily getting it. “So I wondered, what if I can sell various brands’ counterfeits that are identical as the authentic ones? Besides, the number of people who can’t afford to buy luxuries but still want one is always larger than that of people who can arbitrarily buy whatever they like.” Therefore, Carol met Wang again in China, and negotiated with him about expanding their production from only Chanel flap bags to all famous international boutique brands, such as Hermes, Christian Dior, Bottega Venetta, Celine, and so on. Carol buys authentic products from stores in America and sends them back to China, and Wang’s factory will take care of disassembling and dissecting them, in order to make identical counterfeits.

Carol decided to change the way she sells as well. She still took care of the American market, but she became a supplier in China. As I’ve mentioned, there’re 11 people working for her directly. One of them is in Los Angeles helping Carol. Four are in charge of recruiting “sales associates (SAs)” in China – these “SAs” do not work for Carol; they simply purchase from her and sell in their ways. These four people in Carol’s group are responsible for communicating with SAs and making orders. Each of the four people has a staff who takes care of sending products to SAs.  Of the rest 2 people, one bookkeeper, and one who transports goods from Wang’s factory to Carol’s warehouses in China.

“We have 2 major problems now,” Carol said, “The first is that we’re short of staff.” Each SA recruiters now has to take care of more than 30 SAs, which is too many for them. Therefore, Carol might nominate one SA recruiter as the team leader, and he will be in charge of keeping necessary staff on his team. “The second one is more crucial – competitors are getting stronger.” Carol told me she didn’t feel any pressure competing with others even just a year before. But now, some “companies” are targeting higher quality, some lower price, while Carol’s marketing strategy has no obvious feature except for the mature distribution system. “Since I have a relatively large business in this field, I’m wondering segmenting the SA recruiters into different lines. For example, some recruits SAs whose customers are looking for better styles, others can be about lower price, rare products, etc.” Carol is also considering creating a new line exclusively for Hermes, since it’s the most profitable products that many people – from normal consumers to resellers who claim to sell authentic goods – are looking for.

Speaking of Hermes, Carol laughed and said, “If I know anything about economy, it should be that scarcity prints money, and Hermes is the best example.”

 

 

$6 Dollar Standoff

As a 20 year old college student I’ve just started my journey into the working world. On top of being a student, I work part time in the music industry. Like most industries, you start at the very bottom and that comes with a cents on the dollar paycheck known as minimum wage. My own minimum wage paychecks, however, weren’t my first experience with the low dollar amount. Growing up I watched my father start a company that employed many minimum wage workers. Coming from a upper class family, I have never had to put a value to my time, and money has never been something that was a daily worry. While I was living comfortably though, many people that worked for my family’s business were living pay check to pay check. Starting my first job made me look at that business from a different perspective. My job made me ask, was I only worth $9? This new evaluation of myself made me take a second look at what minimum wage meant and the difficulties it presents.

 

This debate is very relevant to me, as the minimum wage increase has both positive and negative effects on my life. On one side, my check could definitely use the boost as just the commute to work itself eats up a third of the money. If I needed to solely live off my pay check it would be nearly impossible, especially in LA. On the other side, however, business owners like my father see the minimum wage increase as a threat to their company. With the city of Los Angeles looking to increase the wage to $15 it’s not just a dollar here and there, but a substantial new cost a company must undertake. With a personal interest in myself, and a deep interest in the success of my family business, this issue has become one to make me think deeper into why the minimum wage exists.

The most obvious claim is that we must value our workers more than the national average wage of $7.25. Many recent strikes have workers demanding wages that support their families, something more than a “starvation wage.” I can resonate with their frustration and the disappointment when opening the checks in the mail. If I was in a minimum wage situation indefinitely and it was my only source of income, I would need more money, but there is a lot more to this issue.

In small businesses that employ minimum wage workers, the wage allows them to be successful through competitive prices for their customers. Raising that wage by $6 more means huge new costs that must be shifted somewhere. I discussed this issue with my father who blatantly put it, there’s only two places for the new costs to come from, raise prices or cut jobs. In this situation companies will be forced to raise prices by potentially 50% to 60% just to compensate. The other option, firing workers, from my father’s perspective means the first to go will be those with the fewest skills, the current workers at or near minimum wage. Wages are set by supply and demand for labor. Using a minimum wage artificially influences that balance. So now you will have minimum wage workers making more money, but they have to spend more to live because they purchase goods and services from places that use minimum wage labor. The LA Times put the numbers into perspective “overall unemployment at the height of the Depression was about 25%. Especially for low-skill workers and for young workers, the two groups of workers who will be disproportionately hit by a minimum-wage increase, ours is a labor market in crisis.” The minimum wage is a struggle for business across the board as low production costs are top priority, and affordable labor is a necessity for operations.

The minimum wage increase doesn’t just effect the bottom line workers pay in a company it also affects company moral. As a minimum wage worker I do feel less valued than other employees because I make the least amount possible. While many people think raising the minimum wage would help workers feel more valued, it in fact has the opposite effect. There is a negative psychological effect with raising the minimum wage. When people earn raises and their pay goes up from the minimum wage, they feel good that they are now more valued. I myself would love to be able to say that I make more than base pay. When the wage goes up and workers are again making just minimum wage then they aren’t happy, and they want even more. Why should someone that has taken 10 years to earn $15 now be happy that someone brand new to the company at an entry level will make just as much as them. They will want a $6/ hr raise too. So the domino effect happens and it destroys companies and workers moral. Raising the minimum wage affects salaried managers as well. To be salary you must make at least double the minimum wage, so when the minimum goes up not all managers are making enough and now they are reclassified as hourly workers. This lowers their moral as they are no longer in this higher category of management. This just happened at our family business when the minimum wage increased from $8 to $9 as a lot of the front line managers were making $16 to $17.

This debate certainly isn’t easily answered as it is a complex issue with two very different sides. The minimum wage increase is a perfect case of putting oneself in the others shoes, it is a debate with each side having very little experience with the others circumstances. This lack of understanding is what has created a standoff in Los Angeles over $6. My unique situation has allowed me to gain some insight into the differing perspectives and see why each side is willing to battle so hard.

During times of recession Americans are less than keen on going shopping—no surprise here. Even when the economy is booming, most Americans never weigh the costs and benefits of buying alligator skin boots, belts or bags, wallets or watches. No matte

r how well the economy is doing, $2000 for Gucci alligator skin loafers or $100,000 for an alligator skin Birkin bag by Hermes, one of the most prominent players in exotic tannery business, never seems worthwhile. Apparently during recessions the wealthiest Americans are hit hard too—right in their $11,000 Burberry alligator skin wallets; but that’s just fine by the alligator population.

As it turns out, sales of alligator skin goods plummet during recessions. Economists first noticed this trend during America’s most recent financial crisis in 2009. There is little available data concerning alligator populations in the US, though experts generally believe that the total population has steadily increased since the 1970’s. Louisiana is home to one of the largest alligator populations in America, and the industry makes a somewhat significant contribution the state’s economy. Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries website has an entire menu section dedicated to its “Alligator Program” that’s separate from information about other wildlife. Maintaining a healthy commercial farming population requires alligator farmers to rent helicopters to scout nesting areas, wade into marshes to collect the eggs (and potentially confront angry female alligators), and invest considerable time and energy into raising them in captivity. Bottom line: if hides aren’t selling farmers are losing a lot of money.

During the Great Recession many, if not all, of the state’s alligator farms experienced serious liquidity issues and worried about their business’s solvency going forward because the prices tanneries and high-end fashion houses were willing to pay for hides dropped so quickly. This industry was affected so severely that Louisiana’s Alligator Management Program report since 2008 lists an asterisk next to the revenue data from that year stating, “Worldwide economic recession caused alligator hide demand to decrease dramatically.”

From 2002-2007 the total revenue from alligator hides increased sharply, reaching a peak value near $55 million. Total revenues decreased dramatically in 2008, rebounded slightly in 2009, and then dropped again in 2010; revenue fell to a fifth of what it was in 2007. These drops in revenue directly correspond to decreases in GDP the both Louisiana and the United States experienced in 2009.

This correlation exists for earlier recessions as well. Commercial alligator farming was prohibited from 1965-1972 in an effort to protect the alligator population, so Louisiana only has data available beginning in the early 1970’s.  Quadrupling oil prices, high unemployment and a high inflation rate contributed to significant stagnation in the the U.S. economy from 1973-1975; alligator hide revenues in Louisiana also decreased by about 58% during this time. Revenues rose dramatically again in 1976, corresponding to an increase in GDP for both Louisiana and the U.S. The disparity was extreme: in 1975 revenues from farm alligator hide harvests totaled $3,597, compared to $34,259 in total revenue in 1976.

Alligator skin revenues in Louisiana dropped significantly again from 1981 to 1982, corresponding to another global economic slump in the early 1980s. When the stock market crashed in 1987 and the business cycle dipped from 1990-91, alligator hide revenues were along for the ride, stagnating from 1989 to 1990 and then decreasing sharply until 1992. Finally, total revenues decreased again from 2000 to 2001, which corresponds to a decrease in Louisiana’s GDP from 1999 to 2000, the burst of the dot.com bubble in 2000, and the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Revenue from alligator hides in Louisiana is currently on the rise again, at a time when IPO valuations and the S&P 500 are reaching record highs.

 

It seems somewhat counterintuitive that a decrease in revenues from a luxury good would correlate so well with economic downturns. Only the wealthiest portion of the population can afford goods made from alligator hides, and people typically assume that they are insulated from economic recession or hardship. Yet, this niche luxury goods industry experiences significant declines during periods of economic recession. While it’s no great tragedy that someone won’t be able to purchase exorbitantly-priced shoes, it is perhaps comforting to note that recessions and financial crises force every man to tighten his belt, whether it’s made from alligator leather or elastic.

Economy is interesting because it even affects what people wear. The most well-known fashion related economic indicator of all time is the Hemline Indicator, an idea that women’s hemlines are influenced by the macroeconomic performance. In other words, the shorter the skirt gets, the better the economy looks.

South Korea is currently struggling with economic recession. Its economy suffered its worst growth in more than a year during the second quarter of this year. The cloudy outlook for the economy in South Korea is therefore affecting latest fashion trends—people are going back to the basics.

According to the data analysis that has been conducted by istyle24, one of the biggest online fashion retail store in South Korea, there was a huge rise in demand for basic fashion items. Comparing to last year, there was a 139% rise in classic tees, 78% rise in plaid/checkered shirts, and 54% rise in polos for men’s fashion items. Accordingly, the shop has also seen a 30% hike in basic tops and 42% rise in tanks in women’s items.

Moreover, the analysis also stated that there was a much higher demand in the market for white, black and gray color fashion items regardless of gender. Comparing to last year, fancier color such as pink, blue and orange items showed a 19% decline while there was a 21% growth in the market for achromatic color clothes.

This interesting trend in the fashion market can be explained in a few ways. First of all, the price. Obviously people are having less money to spend on clothes and other luxury items due to economic recession.  Thus people are turning to something they can easily afford such as classic tees and basic tanks that are relatively cheap comparing to other kind of clothes. For instance, you can get a men’s v-neck tee that is as cheap as $3.80 at Forever 21.

Another big reason for growth in demand for basic style clothing is that they have high applicability. Consumers who now have less money to spend are not willing to take risks in buying clothes. In other words, people want to buy items that they know they will put on for sure instead of having to waste money on something that will be kept in their wardrobes forever. People in South Korea are basically taking advantage of inexpensive classic fashion items that can be easily matched with anything.

Whether it is the hemline or the t-shirts or whatever the fashion item may be, one thing we can know for sure is that economic recession makes people look less fancy.

 

 

History tells us that recessions and Hollywood is like Oreo and milk – the perfect combination. Why? The above graph shows yearly changes in Gross Domestic Production (GDP) compared to the previous year and the number of movie tickets sold in the U.S in recent years. We can easily tell that, in most cases, consumers’ desire for movies is negatively correlated with the general economic environment. Namely, when people are “rich,” they’re more likely to splash out in town; while “they lose where they are, they go into the movie,” said Jeanine Basinger, a film historian and chairwoman of the film studies department at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.

Surely there’re exceptions, but Box Office doesn’t depend solely on GDP. Factors like the annual movie market situation and the quality of movies cannot be ignored. In 2008, the Great Recession began. However, from the first graph at the beginning, it seems that people didn’t go to theatres much at that time – but did they? According to Box Office Mojo, the number of movie tickets sold in 2008 was $1341.3 million, which was the lowest since 1996. But if we take a close look at statistics from the highest grossing movies in 2001 to 2013, American’s spending on The Dark Knight, the top box-office movie in 2008, has taken up 53.2% of the global market, which was the highest since 2001 – even Avatar was defeated! Perhaps the general movie quality  in 2008 was just so-so, and that was the reason why people wouldn’t watch more movies. However, no matter what reason it was, we can see that in most of the time, recessions give Hollywood kisses and hugs.

Some might argue that they watch fewer movies now than they did before recessions. Indeed, a poll conducted by Harris Interactive shows that 55% of people go to movie theaters much fewer than before. But another factor that affects box-office should be taken into consideration as well – the changes in ways of how people consume movies. At early times, people could only enjoy movies at cinemas. Then, Digital Video Disk (DVD) was invented – people could buy or rent movies to watch at home. Now, there’s Netflix!

Netflix, Inc. is one of the top providers of on-demand Internet streaming media. It offers Hollywood another way to take a place in consumers’ life. Just take a look at how fast it’s been growing. Netflix’s revenue in 2013 was $4374.56 million, which was 28 times that in 2002. Up to the end of 2013, the number of subscribers of Netflix has reached 31.7 million. But it doesn’t stop there. Netflix has topped Q2 domestic subscriber growth targets in 2014 by 9.6%, and added another 570,000 U.S. streaming customers to the company – and counting.

“Many feel like recession still hasn’t ended,” this is the headline of a news report written by John W. Schoen on January 1, 2014 in USA Today. However, it seems that people’s passion for movies doesn’t fade even so. Maybe for a large number of people, going into “another world” by watching movies, or an inexpensive night at home with couple of drinks can be an escape, a solution or some kind of comfort against influences they get from the not-so-promising economy. Perhaps we can say that Hollywood is shelter for people to hide in, especially when they’re suffering from gloomy economic environment.

A good measure of how the economy is doing, or an economic indicator, is what people do in their free time. For this blog post I chose the topic of video games, specifically E3. E3 is one of the biggest video game conferences in the United States where huge companies like Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony make announcements about their new gaming systems.  In today’s economy, video games make money at a much quicker rate movies do. “Grant Theft Auto V, by Rockstar Games  make $800 million in its first 24 hours,” quoted by Anya Kamenetz, a blog post writer from Fast Company. Many people assume Hollywood is the biggest entertainment industry in terms of making money for California. However, video games are the silent winner that many people overlook.

In 2012, Activision, the major video game company that created Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, revealed that it had hit $1 billion dollars in sales in just 15 days. The top grossing movie of all time, “Avatar, took two days longer to earn the same amount” (Kamenetz).

This graph shows the sales of video games from 2012 compared to the 2013. Looking closely one can see that at their peaks in December, sales from 2012 to 2013 have grown from $3.21 billion to $3.28 billion. Holiday season is the time when children know they can ask for the biggest present from the parents, so naturally the sales of video games in December greatly exceed the sale of video games any other time. If you look again at the graph, the points in the year of 2013 are slightly higher than the points from 2012, a clear economic indicator that the U.S. economy is steadily growing.

A convention that happens every year in the heart of Los Angeles is E3, home to one of the biggest video game, tech, and gadget shows. Polygon, one of the leading American websites online that informs its viewers about video game’s news, culture, and reviews, reported that some 48,000 people attended E3 this year, that’s 1.5% more people within the Los Angeles Conference Center than there was last year, a clear economic indicator that Los Angeles is not doing too bad for itself. Measuring an increase in video game purchases from year to year could be a good economic indicator; however having individuals wait hours in line just to go to a convention to hear when exactly the video games will come out e should reveal that the economy is doing well enough for individuals to sacrifice work time to attend this event.

More simply, people not only have the free time to play video games, but they also have the free time to spend money on tickets to the event. If the economy was not doing so well, individuals  Video gaming is one of the biggest chunks of entertainment-related sales, so naturally using it as an economic indicate whether our economy is progressing or regressing.

 

Nick Wu

 

More than 500,000 NGOs have registered over the past 25 years, a figure that some think will double over the next couple of years, as rules are relaxed. Many of these, admittedly, are quasi-state bodies, like an official youth foundation, or businesses in disguise, like private schools, but a growing number are the real deal. And a further 1.5m-odd NGOs operate without being registered, including some that the party suspects of being too independent or confrontational, according to Economist.

The essay from Economist reminds me of my recent experience about charity and NGO in China. I have never connected with any NGO in China before. However, in the past four months, I participated in an everyday philanthropy campaign for helping collect free lunch for poor kids in China villages from the beginning till now, launching online this Saturday (May 10th). We corporate with a Chinese NGO named “Free Lunch”, which especially helps with collecting money from companies and buying food for the kids who couldn’t eat hot meal for lunch. Our campaign is trying to ask young people overseas contribute simple actions (social media likes/shares, taking a photo/video) in exchange for free lunch (donated by companies) for starving kids in China. We named it “One Way“.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMm2GQVsGmw

It’s not easy to communicate with a NGO group in China well, actually it became one of our biggest troubles. More people enter into NGO and help with charity should be a good thing. However, we haven’t set up a standard or rules for everyone to operate the group smoothly.

” Working with a Chinese NGO requires being flexible and adapting to sudden personnel or regulatory changes,” according to China Development Brief The report shows that we still not in a stable situation or circumstance for the development of NGO in China. I hope we could have more regulations in the near future and make it easier for young people who want to contribute to Chinese charity.