Wild Rumpus Is An Award Winning Children s Bookstore

Wild Rumpus is an award-winning children’s bookstore in the Linden Hills neighborhood of South Minneapolis. Wild Rumpus offers its customers a shopping experience that is unique and near unmatchable. As kids wander the store, browsing countless books of all shapes and sizes, they may encounter one or more of the store’s twelve pet animals. Cats, birds, and even a chinchilla roam throughout the store to give youngsters from all over the Twin Cities metro a fun and unique experience that will have them begging their parents to bring them back. The versatile bookstore also hosts book clubs, organizes field trips, and many more fun activities for people of all ages. Wild Rumpus’ core strength of maintaining a one-of-a-kind and immersive†¦show more content†¦The distinctive interior design within the store instills a â€Å"book-brought-to-life† impression that pulls you in as you walk further into the store. According to Collette Morgan, one of the Wi ld Rumpus owners, the goal of the design was to provide a space that did not condescend to kids by using primary colors and overly-childish decor, but rather to create an experience comfortable for the â€Å"littlest through the biggest. This atmosphere is even further enhanced by perhaps the most singularly distinguishing feature of this children’s bookstore; the menagerie of animals dwelling between the shelves. The bookstore industry in the US is comprised of a mix of a few large chain bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and many smaller, private and/or family owned businesses. As far as market size goes, the bookstore industry accumulated approximately $14 billion in annual revenue last year, according to IBIS. The overall industry has been experiencing a decline over the last decade, largely as a consequence of the growing trend of e-commerce, and is expected to continue this trend. Many bookstores have tried to capitalize on the new trend by offering e-readers and e-books. Although there are a few large chain bookstores, such as Barnes and Noble, Wild Rumpus competes more heavily with smaller, more local bookstores. Since they specialize in children’s books, their competitors are also more narrowly

Essay about Role of Computer in Parametric Design

With the technological revolution, the telecommunications and information technologies opened the gate to rapid and unprecedented changes on society’s daily life which made computers significantly accepted. In architecture realm, it has become an important instrument in both design process and in the everyday operation of buildings and the city. After all, the current revolution is not just about the computer as a tool, but about its role in architecture design. Nowadays, the world is experiencing variety of new built environment with sophisticated forms as a result of this technological movement. Also, with the interaction between the computational development in architecture and the contemporary of spatial design intelligence, some new†¦show more content†¦In this stage it is important to introduce the definition of parametric design â€Å"It is a methodology of using advanced visualization technology and mathematical algorithms to optimize structure and material f orm to advance resource efficiency and innovative solutions within the area of built environment† . In other words, parametric design is a process of finding suitable parameters for a design problem and setting up a predicted computed model which can be used to explore the possible solutions. Therefore, it helps architects to generate precise forms instead of very complex and sophisticated relations between elements and subsystems (Schumacher, 2008) . This means that parametric design aims to produce simple forms which are less complicated and related somehow to the form abstraction. In terms of physical models, the parametric design now acts as an important tool to test and improve designing concepts instead of the convention models. In the past, physical models act as main complementary tools and are made by hand which would cost money and time. Victor Gane, (2004) states that using physical models in finding the architectural solutions would be less feasible and has a mode st contribution to the contemporary discourse of parametric design. This is the way digital tools play a vital role when designing parametrically. However, it is possible to design parametrically by using the convention physical mode and experiments, forShow MoreRelatedChapter Three : Parametric Urban Design Essay1100 Words   |  5 Pages3 Chapter Three: Parametric urban design 3.1 Introduction As the research demonstrate in the previous section that the relationship between the indicators of quality of life and the contemporary design approaches has a interacted results, as the previous matrix in chapter two Table ‎2 11 demonstrate the multiple principles that emerged due to the combination between quality of life and the urban design. In order to implement these principles in the design process, the research have to find up newRead MoreWhat Are The Effects Of Building Envelope Elements On Indoor Environments?739 Words   |  3 PagesIn addition to other climatic and physical factors, indoor thermal comfort in hot-arid climates significantly depends on the reduction of the intensity of solar irradiance received by roofs. 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Business Economics Business Economic Decisions

Question: Define the Business Economics for Business Economic Decisions. Answer: Introduction Economic models help us to better understand the how the different entities in the economy interact with each other and how they make their economic decisions. In any country economic issues occupy an important place in the lives of people. The governments follow policies that lead to the creation of more assets and employment. Moreover it creates more revenues by taxing different industries like tobacco industry. The government is also a consumer in some cases and would follow pragmatic economic policies in making purchases like defence equipment. 1: An economic model establishes a quantitative or logical relationship between two or more variables with the objective of explaining complex economic processes. In any economy scarce resources are used for production of goods and services (Baumol, and Blinder, 2012). There is interaction between the producers, consumers and government. This gives rise to many economic situations and models use mathematical techniques to explain such situations. Economic models are developed by collecting and analyzing data to discover patterns and understand in a better way how things happen in the economy. Thus economic models are of immense use as economies of the world have become very dynamic and unpredictable and important economic decisions have to be taken by governments, firms and consumers (Gans, Mankiw and King, 2011). Economic models are based on certain assumptions. The law of demand is a very important and popular economic model. According to this model, other things remaining the same as the price of a commodity rises, its demand would fall. On the other hand if the price falls the demand of the commodity would rise. This model is validated by the economic data collected over the years. Thus it is not enough to just generate an economic model, it has to be proved to be correct. The law of demand predicts the behavior of the consumers (Baumol and Blinder, 2012). There are many uses of economic models which are useful in academics for explaining complex economic situations to students. Further these models are useful in making economic policies, allocation of resources by firms and providing justification by government for adopting a particular economic policy. But it has to be understood that construction of economic models that can explain or predict economic behavior or developments is not an easy task. A large amount of data has to be collected which is accurate. Further advanced skills are required to analyze this data and arrive at correct conclusions. Generation of such models requires mostly quantitative and in certain cases qualitative analysis of data. The developments in the economic world are very complex and intricate. There are many forces interacting with each other in the market and different combinations can give rise to developments which are not sometimes explained or predicted by the existing economic models (Gans, Mankiw and King, 2011). These models have their limitations also because they are based on certain assumptions and approximations. But still the existing economic models have a very important role to play and the economists must continue to make efforts to develop better economic models that help different ent ities to understand how the economic forces work so that better economic decisions can be made which would benefit the society as a whole. 2: In Australia there are people who buy housing properties by taking loans and give them on rent. In many cases the interest paid on such loan in a year and other costs incurred on the housing property like maintenance charges are less than the rent received on that property in that year. This is a situation of negative gearing. In this case the owner of the housing property is making a net loss on the property for those years. Still people invest in such housing properties as the owner of the property expects capital gains in future by selling the property. The government of Australia, allows deduction of net loss on such properties incurred by owners every year from their incomes for the purpose of calculation of their income tax. Thus they have to pay lesser taxes. The idea is to ultimate promote employment by creating more demand for housing property. But this is criticized also as it reduces governments income. Moreover it is argued that it is only the big investors in the housing sector who benefit from this scheme and youngsters and first time buyers of housing property are driven out of the market due to high prices of property created by the speculation practices of big investors. Labour party of Australia has proposed to reduce this tax relief given to the property buyers by changing the negative gearing policy. If there is complete removal of this negative gearing, then it would have effect on the demand for housing property in Australia. In this case the law of demand and supply would apply (Besanko and Braeutigam, 2010). As the tax relief provided in the situation of negative gearing is removed, the demand for housing property would go down. The situation is shown in the diagram given below: Figure 1 : Effect of removal of negative gearing on demand for housing property It becomes clear from the above diagram that the price of the housing property is shown on the X axis and the quantity of housing property is shown on the Y Axis. D2 D3 is the demand curve showing the aggregate demand for housing property in Australia. SS1 is the supply curve showing the aggregate supply of housing property in Australia. In this case P1 is the equilibrium price. As there is a change in one of the factors other than price, that is, the taxation policy of the government, the demand curve shifts to the left and DD1 is the new demand curve. P is the new equilibrium price for housing property. It is estimated if the Labour Party proposal to remove negative gearing to a certain extent are implemented, then, growth in housing prices would slow down to an increase of 2.6% (Smh.com.au, 2016). Earlier in the Mckell Institutes forecast it was predicted that housing prices would grow by 3.9% under old rules of negative gearing, over the next 10 years (Switzer.com.au, 2016). Further a research by SQM shows Australian house prices would fall by a combined 4% over 2018, 2019 and 2020 (Domain.com.au, 2016). 3. The Australian government charges excise tax of $ 0.53733 per stick of cigarette (www.ato.gov.au, 2016). So the excise tax that the government would charge on a packet of 20 Cigarettes is 0 .53733 * 20 = 10. 74 dollars. In case the government of Australia increases the goods and services taxes to be paid by the sellers of tobacco products, it would lead to an increase in the prices of these products charged by the sellers from the consumers. This would lead to decrease in demand for tobacco products as shown in the figure given below: Figure 2 : Decrease in demand for tobacco products as taxes are increased In the figure given above DD1 is the demand curve. As the price of tobacco product is increased from B to A, its quantity demanded decreases from P to Q. In Australia if an entity produces or stores tobacco products then it must have an excise license and has to pay excise duty. Further if the business entity imports tobacco, then it has to pay custom duty. In August 1998, the Australian Government announced a 'per stick' tobacco excise system to replace the existing weight based system. The federal excise on tobacco was changed from bi-annual indexation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to bi-annual indexation based on average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE) in 2014. The excise rates on tobacco products charged by the Australian government are as follows: (www.ato.gov.au, 2016). Product Rate from 1 March 2016 Tobacco, Cigars, Cigarettes and Snuff In stick form not exceeding in weight .8 grams per stick actual tobacco content $0.53733per stick Other $ 671.68 per kilogram of tobacco content A goods and services tax is a tax levied by the federal government of Australia at the rate of 10% on the supply of many goods and services by entities which have been registered for the tax. Such tax is also to be paid on the sale of tobacco products in Australia. A business entity would include the goods and services tax in the sale price it charges for the product being sold by it. So ultimately the burden of the goods and services tax is passed on to the consumer. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) was introduced in Australia on 1st July 2000. Further if an individual imports tobacco products into Australia, then it has to pay custom duty. Price elasticity of demand measures the effect of a change in the price of a product on the quantity demanded of the product by the consumers (Besanko and Braeutigam , 2010). The price elasticity of demand is calculated by dividing percentage change in quantity demanded with percentage change made in the price of the product. Price elasticity of demand can be highly elastic or even inelastic. In case of price elasticity being highly elastic the proportionate change in quantity demanded of a product would be higher than the proportionate change in its price. In case of inelasticity, there would be no change in quantity demanded of a product in response to a change in its price. In Australia the number of people who smoke has been decreasing also due to the rising prices of tobacco products in the country. Thus the price elasticity of demand for tobacco products in Australia is significant. The producers of tobacco products have to be cautious when they decide to increase the prices of their products as this would lead to much lesser total revenues for them in future. The producers need to have specific information regarding the price elasticity of demand for their products if they want to forecast their total revenues and also set prices of their products. If the price elasticity of demand for a product is high, there would be a greater degree of change in total revenues of a firm if price is changed. In Australia the rising prices of tobacco products from local manufacturers has led to more illegal smuggling of these products from Asian countries which cost significantly less. The producers of tobacco products in Australia can reduce the price elasticity of demand for their products by through different measures like effective advertising and promoting brand loyalty among the consumers. They can make better products. 4: The Australian government has decided to give the contract for building twelve submarines to a French company. There were other firms also from different countries which had applied to the Australian government for the contract (Abc.net.au, 2016). There existed competition among the different manufacturers of the submarines and there are obviously other countries in the world which purchase such nuclear submarines. Thus there are a number of buyers and sellers of submarines in the world market. Moreover there is sufficient amount of product differentiation in this industry. This is a situation of monopolistic competition between the firms (Yourarticlelibrary.com, 2016). The Australian government wanted to take full advantage of this competition by buying submarines from only one of these firms. As one single contract for twelve submarines is a more lucrative and bigger contract, this would have meant that the companies were more willing to bring their price down to win the contract. Moreover they were more willing to make non price concessions in the form of the technology transfer, making the submarines in Australia employing Australian labour, etc. A manufacturing firm would enjoy economies of scale as it produces more and its operations become larger. There are internal and external economies of scale. The Australian government is in the process of developing infrastructure for shipbuilding in the country. Already things have been put in motion to manufacture frigates and patrol vessels in the area. As the French firm would make the nuclear submarines in Australia, the shipbuilding industry in Australia would develop and firms would enjoy many external economies of scale like improvement in transport and communication facilities, availability of specific machinery required for shipbuilding, technicians, etc (economicsonline.co.uk, 2016). Moreover by giving the contract of making all the twelve submarines to one company, the Australian government has provided the company an opportunity to enjoy economies of scale like using the same administrative staff for a bigger project, making bulk purchases and spreading its other costs over a bigger project with more returns for the company. All these factors must have been noticed by the French company and also other defence manufacturers. The figure given below shows how the average costs of a firm decline over a period of time as it enjoys economies of scale. But after a certain point there are also diseconomies of scale due to more complexity in operations. Source: Economicsonline.co.uk Figure 3 : Effect of economies and diseconomies of scale One another reason for the decision of the Australian government to award the contract for all the twelve submarines to French company only would be the security reason. If submarines were purchased from more companies then sensitive information relating to defence would have to be shared with more entities. Moreover by involving one company the work on the project would be faster and costs of coordination would be less even during the implementation. Conclusion The merit of an economic model also lies in the fact that how easy it is easy to understand and how far reaching are the implications of its predictions. It should provide a solution to existing problems. A producer has to be aware that there are different forces that exist in the market and these are capable of affecting the firms efforts to make more profits or rein in production costs. The economic policies of a country also sometimes change with the change in political power. References Abc.net.au, (2016). Australian Submarines To Be Built In Adelaide After French Company DCNS Wins $ 50B Contract. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-26/pm-announces-france-has-won-submarine-contract/7357462 (Accessed: 20 August 2016). Baumol, W. and Blinder, A. (2012). Microeconomics. 12th (edn.) United States Of America: South Western Cengage Learning. Besanko, D. and Braeutigam, R. (2010). Microeconomics. 4th (edn.) United States Of America: John Wiley And Sons. Domain.com.au, (2016). Federal Election 2016: House Prices To Fall, Rents To Rise Under Labour Negative Gearing Policy. Available at: https://www.domain.com.au/news/federal-election-2016-house-prices-to-fall-rents-to-rise-under-labor-negative-gearing-policy-20160621-gpoae4/ (Accessed: 19 August 2016). economicsonline.co.uk, (2016) Available at: https://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Business_economics/Economies_of_scale.html (Accessed: 20 August 2016). Gans, J. , Mankiw, G. and King, S. (2011). Principles Of Microeconomics. United Kingdom: Cengage Learning. Smh.com.au, (2016). Election 2016: House Price Growth To Slow Under Labours Negative Gearing Policy, Says Labour Think Tank. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/election-2016-house-price-growth-to-slow-under-labors-negative-gearing-policy-labor-think-tank--20160526-gp4krp.html (Accessed: 19 August 2016). Switzer.com.au, (2016). Will Labours Negative Gearing Changes Crush House Prices. Available at: https://www.switzer.com.au/the-experts/peter-switzer-expert/will-labors-negative-gearing-changes-crush-house-prices/ - (Accessed: 19 August 2016). www.ato.gov.au, (2016). Excise Rates For Tobacco: Australian Government. Available at: https://www.ato.gov.au/business/excise-and-excise-equivalent-goods/tobacco-excise/excise-rates-for-tobacco/ (Accessed: 20 August 2016). Yourarticlelibrary.com, (2016). Seven Most Important Features of Monopolistic Competition. Available at: https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/economics/7-most-important-features-of-monopolistic-competition/9154/ (Accessed: 20 August 2016).