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Neil Redmond The Associated PressBags containing layaway items sit in storage at Kmart in Conover, N.C., until the purchases arecompleted. It is unheard of for layaway rooms to be so packed at back-to-school time.

Layaway back in vogue

LARRYSTEVENLONDREC SU NDIALOGUE

Census isa crucialtool formarketing

Stock Exchange Highlfghts giNYSE 1 f Amex f NI2scla3 I SOFTWARE TURNED ,,MYrn_COMPUTER. BUT

MY PRODUCTIVITY ; IT KEEPS CRASHING

Al2 TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2009DAILYNEWS.COM

Orange County manufacturer offood and nutritional supplements,for $10 million cash.

Herbalife employs about 1,200people at its facilities in Los Ange-les, Van Nuys, Carson and Torrance.

Oil pricesperk upon hints ofrecoveryBy John PorrettoThe Associated Press

Oil prices approached $75 abarrel Monday for the first timein 10 months amid growing opti-mism that the world's economiesare on the mend.

Benchmark crude for Octoberdelivery rose 48 cents to settle at$74.37 a barrel on the New YorkMercantile Exchange. Oil lasttopped $75 in October and onMonday, prices came within19 cents of that mark.

Natural gas reboundedstrongly from new seven-yearlows Monday, yet still tradedbelow $3 per 1,000 cubic feetbecause of a huge glut and verylittle demand from major indus-trial customers.

Expectations that demand forenergy will grow, at least for oiland gasoline, were spurred Fri-day by Federal Reserve ChairmanBen Bernanke, who said the U.S.economy is reviving. Bemanke'sremarks and signs of improve-ment in the U.S. housing marketsent stock markets higher, andthat carried over into the newweek.

Even before Bernanke spoke,however, prices already hadbegun to rise on a large and unex-pected drawdown in U.S. oil sup-plies. One factor that might bekeeping crude below $75 is thepossibility that last week's stor-age report was an aberration,given that demand for nowremains weak.

Equity and energy marketshave been rising and falling intandem for weeks.

Asian and European marketsclimbed Monday, and the DowJones industrial average rosemoderately in afternoon trading.

"No doubt about it, we'reriding the wave of a strong stockmarket," said Jim Ritterbusch,president of energy consultancyRitterbusch and Associates."These bullish financial develop-ments have forced a huge amountof passive capital into commodi-ties, especially the oil space."

In a report Monday, trader andanalyst Stephen Schork said onceoil gets to $75, "there is not a hellof a lot to prevent it from going to$80 or $85.'

Natural gas is another story.Prices are at seven-year lows andsupplies continue to grow.

"Demand prospects are theworst they have been in recentmemory,' said PFGBest Researchanalyst Phil Flynn.

It has been a very moderatesummer and meteorologists areforecasting the same through thefall. That could drive natural gasprices down even further if peo-ple don't need as much heat fortheir homes.

From News Services

Herbalife Ltd., a global nutritionand direct-selling company,announced Monday that it hadclosed its deal to buy buy certainassets of Micelle Laboratories, an

Hold it!Major retailers that offerlayaway at some or all oftheir stores:

Kmart

SearsT.J. Mass

Marshalls

Burlington Coat Factory

Wal-Mart (jewelry only)

cash, are relying on Kmart's lay-away program to pay for all of theirkids' school needs, said Tom Mello,a spokesman for Kmart's parent

By The Associated Press

Shares of Ireland's WarnerChilcott Plc skyrocketed Mondayon news of its bid to morph from asmall, specialty pharmaceuticalcompany to a global player by buy-ing Procter & Gamble Co.'s prescrip-tion drug business for $3.1 billion.

The maker of women's healthand dermatology products will geta portfolio with $2.3 billion inannual sales, including blockbusterosteoporosis drug Actonel, and tri-ple its revenue in a rare dealfinanced entirely by bank debt.

"It gives them immediate scale.It gives them an R&D franchise,too," said analyst Les Funtleyder atMiller Tabak & Co.

The deal brings Warner Chilcottan unspecified number of Procterand Gamble's prescription drugs indevelopment, manufacturing facili-ties in Puerto Rico and Germany, atrained sales force of roughly 1,200and a research and developmentteam nearly as big.

"Our acquisition of the Procter &Gamble pharmaceutical business isa transformational event for

Sears Holdings Corp. Layawayallows shoppers to pay over time,interest-free, and pick up their mer-chandise when it's paid in full.

Burlington Coat Factory Ware-house Corp. said its layaway busi-ness is stronger than a year ago.And e-Layaway.com, which offersonline layaway services for about1,000 merchants, has seen its busi-ness double from the same time lastyear.

Layaway has its roots in the GreatDepression. It became passe in thepast two decades with the rise ofcredit cards. But the recession andfinancial crisis have caused banksto raise rates, pare credit limits andclose accounts. For some consum-ers, layaway is the best option tobudget for purchases.

Warner Chilcott." Roger Boisson-neault, president and chief execu-tive, told analysts.

In New York trading Mondayafternoon, Warner Chilcott sharessurged $5.14, or 32 percent, to$21.20, while Procter & Gambleshares fell 40 cents to $53.18.

Actonel alone will bring nearly$1 billion in annual sales, morethan Warner Chilcott's total 2008revenue of $939 million.

The company also gets a colitisdrug called Asacol with about $600million in annual sales, a patentthrough 2014 and an extendedrelease version just launching, plusDidronel for Paget's disease andother bone disorders and Enablesfor overactive bladder. The deal isexpected to close by year-end.

Warner Chilcott executives weresomewhat tight-lipped about thepipeline of experimental drugs theyare getting, but said it includes anantibiotic, a heart rhythm drug andIntrinsa, a testosterone patch forwomen with low sexual desire. ButIntrinsa has been rejected so far bythe U.S. Food and DrugAdministra-tion.

t's countdown time to Cen-sus Day, April 1, 2010. Thecensus is a count of every

individual living in the U.S.,every 10 years, as mandated bythe U.S. Constitution.

The upcoming census is agreat opportunity to retool foryour "real" customers based ondemographics, psychographicsor what lifestyle activities doyour customers do, plus wherethey live, work and shop.

Because consumers aren't a"one-size-fits-all" commodity,they are as complex and multi-faceted as the census can ascer-tain.

Census data is also used tomap congressional districts, tomake decisions about whatcommunity services to provide,and to distribute $300 billion infederal funds to local, state andtribal governments.

If you are a small business orwork for a larger one, you needto know who your target marketor audience is.

This info consists of a set ofbuyers who share commonneeds or characteristics that thecompany decides to serve.

Sophisticated marketing plan-ning includes customer service,hiring the right people to serve,making right pricing and financ-ing available, answering tele-phone inquires and all of theways to secure sales.

If you don't want to wait for2010 census data, conduct yourown survey.

I recommend business ownersconduct a survey, rediscoveringwho comes into your store, thehours you are there and whenonly your employees are there.

Do you need an extra personwho is bilingual or trilingual?Not all of your customers liveand work in your community;many may come from 50-plusmiles away.

Many speak more than onelanguage. One of my recentstudents speaks six languages.This person has a tremendousasset to apply to his career.

Participation in the census isrequired by law. It takes lessthan 10 minutes to complete.Federal law protects the per-sonal information you share.When it comes to marketingtools, the census really counts.It is important to all of us.

Larry Steven tundra is a marketingconsultant who teaches marketing,advertising, and media classes at CalState University, Northridge.

Mac softwareon sale FridayFrom News Services

Apple Inc.'s latest operat-ing system software, SnowLeopard, will go on sale thisFriday.

The Mac OS X version 10.6software will debut at Apple'sretail stores and authorizedresellers nationwide. Apple'sonline store is now takingpre-orders.

Apple said Snow Leopard is• half the size of the previousversion, freeing up to 7 giga-bytes of storage space wheninstalled. It requires a mini-mum of 1 gigabyte of RAMand runs on Macs using anIntel processor.

PURCHASE: As credittightens, consumers turnto old buying method.

By The Associated Press

To gauge consumers' strain, lookno further than the rows and rowsof plastic bags awaiting layaway pay-ments at Kmart. They are filled withback-to-school basics — not justT-shirts and jeans but notebooks,magic markers and pencils.

It is unheard of for layawayrooms to be so packed atback-to-school time and for thepackages to include relatively cheapschool supplies. .

A record number of shoppers,shut off from credit and short on

Herbalife closes deal with Micelle

Warner Chilcott's stock upon news of deal with P&G

DO YOU HAVE ANY Stocks of Local Interest"rroASSIGNMENTS Name Ex Div na PE Lest Cysts