Target's Biggest Competitor?

Target corporation is the second- largest discount store retailer in the U.S after Walmart. It was founded in 1902 and has been showing steady growth across the U.S until few years ago. Due to many competitors and the uncontrollable factors, like U.S economic situation, Target has permanently closed five stores last year and 13 more the year before that. In 2018, Target has a plan to close 12 stores.

Scheduled for closure 

• Minneapolis' Twin Cities metro area (Hastings)
• Fergus Falls in Minnesota
• Harper Woods, Michigan
• Hutchinson, Kansas
• Benton Harbor, Michigan
• Macon, Georgia
• Slidell, Louisiana
• Lauderhill, Florida
• Matteson, Illinois
• Romeoville, Illinois
• Baltimore (West)
• San Antonio (Far East)

Why are these locations closing? Who is their 

biggest threat?

It is neither Walmart nor Costco; they are dollar store chains, like Family Dollar and Dollar General. These dollar store chains provide way cheaper products. compared to Target. Target is in the middle of low quality/low price and high quality/high price. 

Discount sector competition is strong, and these retailers must maintain their competitiveness using creative methods and strategies. Customers' disposable income and finances significantly influence sales, and general economy's overall health often correlates closely with retail sales and profitability for discount retailers like Target. Future growth for these companies depends on their ability to thrive under these competitive conditions.

While Target is shuttering some stores, it will continue with plans to remodel 1,000 of its 1,800 stores by 2020. The renovations will cost about $7 million per store. Since these renovation costs are very high, Target needs to be extra certain about this investment and have to be ready for any possible negative outcomes.

New Favorite Place to Study

Many cafe/bakeries are trying their best to attract students on/off campus because coffee shops have been popular places for college students to study. 

Where is your favorite place to study? Why do you prefer that location?

I believe everyone has at least one place that comes up to his/her mind whether it is a cafe or their own room. Many different factors affect college students choice, including music, temperature, mood, and so on. Some people enjoy relatively loud cafes since it "wakes them up", and others enjoy relatively quiet, cozy cafes since it lets them focus on their studying with comfortable environments.

For me, two most important factors are the level of noises and the layout of the cafe. I cannot study well on a puffy couch or a small bar sitting; I prefer an actual desk with a chair. I personally stay in my room to study for exams, work on my project, and so on. However, I also enjoy working on relatively easy assignment and short essays at a cafe to be refreshed. This week, my friend introduced me to this cafe, called Iron Works Coffee Company. I loved my experience at the Iron Works Coffee Company; they have several desks with a comfortable chairs and their coffee was very unique and rich in taste. They are actually a small cafe attached to the hotel (Graduate Athens) lobby. They have simple, but beautiful interior that gives you the cozy and luxurious feeling at the same time.

 I know many UGA students prefer to study at Tate student center, libraries, Starbucks, and so on. Sometimes you may be tired of studying at Tate Student Center or one of UGA libraries. If you are looking for that refreshment, this place is going to be the answer to your craving.

*I am not affiliated with Iron Works Coffee Company*

Social media reacts to the Vegas shooting

59 people were killed and at least 527 were hurt Sunday night when Stephen Paddock rained gunfire on concertgoers in Las Vegas.

• The victims: At least 59 people were killed and more than 500 hurt.
• The suspect: Stephen Paddock, 64, lived in a retirement community in Mesquite, Nevada. His motive is unknown.
• The location: It happened during a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip. The shooter fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel.

Many security departments in Las Vegas have reacted to this tragic event in several ways. For example, in the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, the Nevada Gaming Control Board will step up its presence in casinos statewide, putting undercover security guards inside them. A.G. Burnett, the chair of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, also said it has a task force tracking information related to shooter Stephen Paddock. The board is working closely with Las Vegas Metro Police and FBI on their investigation.

Many people have been posting and sharing their thoughts and prayers for the victims and families through different social media platforms. President Trump and Obama also joined this relay. In this case, social media platforms have been used for the good cause, to share one's thoughts and prayers for this tragic events. This event once again showed that social media platforms can be an effective way to spread the words and get people's attention. (I,myself, also first heard about this tragic event through Instagram, not CNN.) My prayer goes to all the victims' families and people in Vegas who are currently enduring this tragic event.

Cruise Cancelled 48 hours before the departure...REALLY?

I am an international student from South Korea, and I have been waiting for this moment to take my grandparents on a Bahama cruise and was ready to provide them with the best room, food, and entertainment. Unfortunately, I was too busy and had to take care of my dad after his discharge from the 2-month hospitalization. Therefore, my brother decided to take them all the way down to West Palm Beach, Florida to get on the cruise (Approximately 650 miles away from Athens). It took them about 11 hours to get there with 3 stops( for gas, restroom, meals). When they fianally got there, the port was empty and only few cars were there looking extremely confused. My brother called the customer service center and found out that the trip got cancelled about 48 hours ago via email.

Wait, WHAT?!?! 

All they send out was a letter from the CEO, saying that they had to do this last minute decision because they got a request from FEMA(Federal Emergency Management Agency) to support their relief and recovery efforts in the U.S Virgin Islands. They have agreed to deploy their ship to St. Croix to serve as a base to feed and house the National Guard and first responders for the next 90 days. This is ridiculous. No one would be against helping and supporting the recovery efforts, but why do customers have to suffer? Our official sail date was September 24th, 2017 and I called in several times to ask if they will be operating regularly after Hurricane Irma.

They are offering a full refund option and if you do want to cruise at some point within 1 year period, you will get a $100 on-board credit. My grandparents came from South Korea to get on this cruise, who is going to pay for the air and the time/cost they had to sacrifice. This trip was planned about 4 months ago, and they just cancelled and neglected all the efforts we have made by a single click with a mouse to send out the mass email, titled "A letter from our CEO". 

I was very disappointed at the level of their handling the uncontrollable factors and customer service. I won't share the name of this cruise, but they could have done a better job of letting customers know in advance. I highly recommend them to use social media platforms to reach out to customers because the letter from their CEO was in a "Junk Mail" folder for many customers. 

Social media and advertising in 2017

Social media has had a great impact on all of us. Social media started out as a method for people to connect with each other. At this point, social media has become much more.

The impact can be bigger with the mixture of traditional marketing and social media marketing. Marketers are using traditional forms of marketing (radio, television, newspaper, etc) as well as using the Internet/social media to reach out to loyal customers and future customers.

As the number of people who regularly use many different social media platforms, the importance of the social media marketing has been growing. It i also one of the easiest and cheapest ways to raise awareness and build brand reputation.

Now, which social media platform is the most effective? Where should you invest our advertising money? Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat are the top 6 popular social media platform with a large number of active users. According to the BigCommerce, Facebook is the best social media platform to invest your money. With more than 2 billion users,  Facebook hosts over a quarter of the world’s population, providing advertisers with an unparalleled opportunity to reach virtually anyone and everyone.

Many firms and businesses are highly interested in advertising through one of the social media platforms. It is going to be interesting to watch how social media platforms will attract business and firms in order to increase the advertising revenue because each platform has the unique style and message.

Social media being a stress reliever?

As all of you may know, hurricane Irma has been a main topic past few days. Many 

people had to evacuate and damages are quite serious in many places like Florida.

It was not as bad in Athens, but many people had to stay in the dark due to the all-day power outage. It was very stressful because power outage does not usually stay this long, especially with this amount of rain. Georgia power might have reacted slowly to Athens power outage because there were so many more serious cases. 

Many schools, including the University Of Georgia, has been closed for both Monday and Tuesday. Many students and even instructors have been struggling getting access to course materials, emails, and etc. Most of UGA classes have the first exam this week and it has been a disaster for students since most of them have the course materials online. I personally have 3 exams this week and it really has been a pain to study in the dark, without any internet connection. What I found interesting is that people, mostly students, are using social media platforms to communicate with others, to release stress, and even to share their studying tips. This shows that many social media platforms have been one of the main methods of contacting others in emergencies. 

UGA has not announced their plan for Wednesday yet, but many people are expecting a normal operation; Hope this recovery process does not take too long to affect course plans.

  

Korean College Life?

Welcome back everyone!

As I promised, We will be talking about Korean College Life for next two weeks.

First, let's start off with some background of Korean SAT.

In Korea, getting into a college or a university is a big deal. Unlike here in the U.S, you only get to take SAT once before you apply to college. Official SAT date is set by the government, and it starts and ends at the same time nationwide. Due to this reason, police department must make sure that they have all the traffic control.

When you go in to the college, there are various unique traditions for each college or university. For example, there might be an initiation event where you have to memorize all the names of senior students in the act of respecting them or drinking event where you have to finish the whole bottle within certain time before leaving the event. Sometimes, these bad traditions have caused some deaths and it has been a big issue in Korea.

 

I think this is enough for some depressing facts. We will be looking into the bright side next week. Hope you have a great week!

Introduction

Hi! Welcome to my blog!

My name is Simon Kye and I am a senior at the University of Georgia. I have spent half of my life in the United States and my other half in South Korea. I would be able to talk about many difference topics including, cultural differences and comparison of Korean and U.S college life. To start us off, how much do you know about Korea? I mean South Korea (pretty sure we all know those issues in North Korea). South Korea has been listed one of the most growing countries in the world. Nowadays, there are many Korean brands including Samsung in the United States.

Korean dishes are also very popular in the United States. Have you heard of Bul-go-gi (Korean marinated beef) and/or Kimchi? Korean food has lots and lots of side dishes called, Ban-chan. Some of you may be familiar with Korean BBQ restaurants with their unlimited meat choices.

If you are not a big fan of Korean food, how about some famous Korean actors and athletes? I am pretty sure you would know Glenn from the Walking Dead. 

His legal name is Steven Yeun and he was born in Seoul, Korea.

But this is only a beginning! There are tons of things that I want to share with you guys about Korea. Next week, we are going to compare and contrast U.S and Korean college life. (Yes, that includes parties too). Thank you for your time.

See you next week :)