Coloradans a willing vending test market
Colorado is emerging as a popular spot to test-market vending machines.
Sony Electronics Inc. has chosen the FlatIron Crossing mall in Broomfield as one of three test sites for a robotic kiosk that vends digital cameras, MP3 players, gaming devices and other consumer electronics and accessories.
Safeway is testing similar machines – called Zoom Shops – in about a dozen of its Colorado stores, and the state was one of the first spots where McDonald’s tried out its RedBox DVD rental machines. Marketers have said the state is a great place to test such systems because residents tend to be more receptive to new technology.
The Sony machine has been set up outside the Nordstrom store at FlatIron Crossing. Additionally, Macy’s executives have said they will have Zoom Shop in the company’s Cherry Creek and Park Meadows stores when they open this fall.
Ford SUV pitch takes wrong turn in Denver
The mighty Ford Motor Co. public relations machine doesn’t miss very often, but it missed big during a Denver visit last week.
Ford was showing off its Escape SUV, hybrid version, to an audience at the Denver City and County Building, including an appearance by Mayor John Hickenlooper.
Hickenlooper is an energy-efficiency advocate and a big hybrid enthusiast. He, or his police bodyguard, formerly drove a Toyota Prius, then switched a couple of years ago to the larger Escape hybrid.
This last fact was unknown to Ford regional executive Tony Reinhart, who made several comments about the Escape’s superiority to “other hybrids,” including the Prius that he thought Hickenlooper was still using.
That prompted a series a quizzical looks among the mayor’s staff and a whispered correction to Reinhart from Beth Conover, director of Denver’s Sustainable Development Initiative.
Reinhart’s red-faced response: “Mayor, we loved you before, and we love you even more now.”
United Way to dial up help via cellphones
United Way is going wireless, with a new fundraising campaign coming to cellphones in August to be powered by Denver-based Mobile Accord.
United eWay, as it’s called, will advertise to the more than 200 million cellphone users across the country to volunteer for disaster relief. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Cellphone users can agree to help by typing the text message “JOIN” back to a special phone number at United Way. The organization will later solicit donations, which cellphone users can make through their phone bills.
Financial advisers see “Bernanke Correction”
Albert Woodward, chairman of Greenwood Village-based Woodward Wealth Management, said financial advisers in the U.S. and across the globe have created a tongue-in-cheek name for Wall Street’s recent downturn: the “Bernanke Correction.”
In May, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve since February, left investors in a lurch when CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo relayed comments Bernanke made during a black-tie dinner. Bartiromo reported that Bernanke told her investors had misinterpreted his prior testimony to Congress that the Fed was ready to stop raising interest rates. The U.S. central bank last week upped interest rates a quarter-percentage point, the 17th consecutive increase.
Bernanke later called his remarks to Bartiromo a “lapse of judgment.”
“In the future, my communications with the public and with the markets will be entirely through regular and formal channels,” Bernanke said during a congressional hearing.
Woodward said Bernanke’s behavior “exacerbated the market’s correction.”
“We are all referring to it as the ‘Bernanke Correction,”‘ said Woodward, talking about his conversations with other money managers.
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
