Good news, all! Retail stores saw their second consecutive month of sales increases in October, which amounted to retail's best overall performance in over a year in this here Great Recession. But for the most part, the stores that saw the increases were places like Costco, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Kohl's, and Ross, which all sell "designer" candles and bath towels for pennies on the dollar. Sak's and Nordstrom's also saw small increases, but chains like Macy's and Neiman Marcus continue to suffer, decreasing 0.8% and 6% respectively. With the dreaded Black Friday clusterfuck nearly upon us, we can only imagine the renewed fervor with which mothers and daughters nationwide will be putting on their running shoes and gobbling up those "doorbusters" mere hours after gobbling down their turkey. Wake us when it's all over. more ›

Now that you can send a million-page document or a full architectural drawing set (well, not quite) via YouSendIt or similar, it seems the bike messenger biz is in steady decline. Maybe it's simply a function of an ailing economy -- just about every architect we know has been furloughed or laid off -- but The Wall where entire prides (or gaggles, or murders) of bike messengers once gathered in downtown SF awaiting their assignments has dwindled to but a few lone wolves. See the photo here from SF Citizen, and this may be old news at this point since there is also this Economist piece on the subject from 2006. But come to think of it, it's been at least four years since we've been nearly run down by a crazed, pierced maniac on a fixie with a paper tube sticking out of his/her messenger bag. more ›