The world economy may be improving, but most ordinary Americans will still be unable to afford the gifts featured this year by swanky US retailer Neiman Marcus in its annual Christmas Book.
The spectacular offerings include a US$12 million LearJet 60 and a set of "His and Hers Robots." This US$400,000 duo are adult-sized state-of the-art machines that, according to the Texas-based retailer, will not only do housework, but more importantly for owners who can probably afford an entire crew of maids, the robots "will be the life of any party."
More "modest" gifts offered for the people who have everything include a special limited edition BMW 645Ci Coupe for "just" US$75,170, or a grand-scale piece of custom-created environmental art for your ranch or country house for 160,000 dollars and up. Slightly more modest, but infinitely more eccentric is an individually-fitted mermaid suit for US$10,000.
With choices like these it can be hard to find the right gift. Perhaps that's whyet this year. The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) estimates that adult consumers will buy an average of six electronic gifts this Christmas.
Over recent years the DVD player has reigned supreme as the most popular tech gift, but with most American families already owning disc players, many other gadgets will also mysteriously appear under Christmas trees around the country.
Digital music players like Apple's iPod will be huge, especially since most can now be easily used with legal music download sites, while plasma and LCD screen televisions will be flying off the shelves.
With good desktop and laptop computers now available for well under 1,000 dollars, they are the most popular gift choice for US teens, whose other top choices according to the CEA are game consoles and cellphones.
In Los Angeles, local papers are predicting that Botox treatments will be popular.
But the craze for the wrinkle-elimination facial injections has yet to spread across the country and there are few must-have fashion or lifestyle items like the Pashmima shawls of last year or the patriotic themed gifts that dominated 2001.
Maybe that's why there is only one present sure to satisfy both time-challenged buyers and choosy recipients: the practical but decidedly unromantic gift card, which allows the recipient to purchase whatever they want up to the denominated value.
According to the National Retail Federation about half of Americans say they'd rather choose their own presents.
Many will get their wish this year with US$18 billion worth of cards expected to be bought before Christmas Day.
The cards will be loaded with an average of US$34 spending money each and the total market is about 10 percent of all retail holiday sales.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last