archive: bryce.weblogs.com

Google Blogs?

ZDNet: "The company credited with popularising blogging, Pyra Labs, was acquired by Google on Sunday."

News to Me

ZDNet: "The company credited with popularising blogging, Pyra Labs, was acquired by Google on Sunday."

Iraq: Notes from Powell Briefing This Morning

The BBC summarizes the key points of US Secretary of State Colin Powell's briefing to the Security Council on Iraqi non-compliance with UN resolutions. For reference, here is a summary of UN Resolution 1441. It will be interesting to see how the world reacts to this latest evidence. How do you react?

The Rise of John Mayer

It's almost quaint to recall the first time I saw John Mayer in October 2001. It was a small venue. The crowd numbered perhaps 200. That night, Josh and I were mesmerized by his guitar talent. Moira was, well, I'd better let her speak for herself. A few days later, after driving Josh to the airport, I picked up a copy of his debut CD and it quickly became one of my favs.

I have watched with bemusement the rise of John Mayer. He debut CD, " Room for Squares" was a $9.99 new artist promo when I bought it. On a recent trip to Fred Meyers, I noticed it was on sale for $15.99. Today it is the 12th best selling disc at Amazon.com. Over the past year, his music began to be heard frequently on the airwaves. I saw a VH1 feature over the summer. He toured relentlessly. Buzz kept building. Girls fell in love with him. During a concert last spring, "a guy told his girlfriend he knew she wanted to marry John, and that that was okay with him. As long as he got backstage passes." His label, Columbia, established a John Mayer Reps program. Then it launched a paid fan club, Local83. By the fall, at least one fan was giving thanks for John Mayer's "fine fine ass." He toured Europe. Grammy nominations added more buzz. And just this morning I heard that he is now going to be playing at the Grammys. So it really shouldn't surprise me, then, that when I just visited Yahoo! they are prominently featuring John Mayer as their Launch Artist of the Month. Clearly, his career has been launched.

My only question for the powers behind all of this: Why is his forthcoming album, Any Given Thursday, being released on a Tuesday?

Addendum: He is performing in Copenhagen on February 13. To my Danish friends, one word: Go! You will not regret it. (I'll be in LA that night....)

Life is Good.

In case anyone asks, life is good. Make that really good. I'm actually rested for the first time in weeks. (We had a great long weekend in Vancouver, BC with friends).

United 1 and United 2

United Airlines: "We believe that a low-cost carrier, fully integrated into a global hub and spoke network for the first time, will be a critical and dynamic element in United's future strength."

This sounds a lot like CAlite, the failed two-tier strategy Continental Airlines tried in the 1990s. As they say in business school, the vision's not the thing. The devil is in the details. It will be interesting to see how United can execute on this new strategy.

The rise and fall of competition among department stores

Whatever happened to competition? Portland-based department store chain Meier & Frank used to have competition. Then one by one the competition was assimilated, bought out or went bankrupt.

At least there was some consolation in knowing that buying and merchandising decisions were still made locally. Then last August, parent company May Department Stores "consolidated" backoffice functions for its westcoast Robinson's-May and northwest Meier & Frank chains. Bye, bye any local presence beyond the front line retail sales clerks.

Now, it appears that May, which operates 445 department stores around the country under a handful of names, and Federated, which operates 397 department stores, including Bloomingdale's, Macy's, the Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus, Rich's and Stern's, want to merge. This is tantamount to GM and Ford and DaimlerChrysler merging. At least right now there is still an duopoly in department store retailing with May in one corner and Federated/Macy in the other corner. Combine them and we may as well have The Department Store.

Think of all the money that would be saved in eliminating all of these "local" store names. Gone would be the need for branding at all. After all, when you have no competition, what's the point? If there was ever a time for someone to start a new department store chain, this is it. Anyone?