Losing Its COOL at the Mall

This article was published on the New York Times website on April 22, 2009.  The article is about teenagers' spending habits, and how they are rapidly changing.  Studies have shown a direct correlation between the struggling economy and teenagers' shopping.  One teen in the article says that labels are not as big of a deal at school anymore, and that many teenagers are shopping at bargain or discount stores.  The article states that because of this, many malls are suffering.  The once "cool" Abercrombie and Fitch is seeing a huge decline in sales, because as one teen said "This stuff is too expensive".   Many people think that the recession is actually a good thing for these teenagers, and that their spending habits will be shaped by the fact that they are growing up during an economic recession.  I think that this is true, and I hope that in the future these kids will be more responsible than their elders have been with money.  If people can learn early enough in life how to manage and spend their money, we can hopefully avoid such major economic crises in the future.

Trust Me. You'll Look Cool in This.

The article I read was published on the New York Times website on April 8, 2009.  It is about the new Topshop store in Manhattan.  I thought that the this article was very interesting.  The main focus on the article is the style advisors that work for the company to help young women experiment with fashion.  The reporter interviewed one stylist that was flown over from the flagship store in England.  It was interesting to me to read about these people that have a job that I would one day love to have.  The article also related the Topshop concept to the ever changing ways of young 20 somethings.  The stores sell super trendy clothing and accessories, things that one wouldn't want to wear in a month.  This concept may be new to those not familiar with such rapidly changing things such as Facebook page updates, and iPods, says the article.

Russia to Ban Hunting of Baby Seals

This article was published on the New York Times website on March 18, 2009.  The article is about the ban of hunting baby seals by Russia, which is one of the world's largest hunting grounds for seal fur.  The article also discusses the European Union's consideration of banning all seal products, similar to the one the U.S. adopted years ago.  The ban that is coming just weeks before hunting season begins could save as many as 35,000 seal pups.  I thought this article was really interesting because I had no idea how hugely certain economies are affected by the selling of fur.  It is going to be very interesting to see what happens to these countries, such as Russia, due to the banning of hunting baby seals.