Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince

My favourite dialog – “Once again I must ask too much of you, Harry”
I watched Harry Potter and Half blood prince last week with my colleagues. One of my friend was very annoyed with the film as he has not seen the previous series and was not able to understand haha…it was fun to see him getting irritated.. the movie was good as usual but what I found was that the climax in this series as compared to it previous series was quite less but it definitely increased my excitement to watch next series as I think that it would be full of climax…would like to talk about the overall story:
This was Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts with the arrival of a new teacher, Horace Slughorn, the teacher turns to be more useful to Harry. Harry during his class got the book which used to belong to the mysterious Half-Blood Prince. Harry finds some text written along the margins of the pages, which gave Harry advice on how to make the potion correctly. On the other hand, Harry started the private lessons with Dumbledore, during which Harry got to know some secrets of Voldemort's past, with the hope that, these secrets will help him find a way to defeat him. Harry also assumed that the Voldemort is making his way through Draco Malfoy and quickly finds out what he was up to...
I would like to recommend this movie and will give it eight points out of ten :)

What’s the next step of retailing…?

During my visit to a Big Bazaar departmental store last week, I got a feel of a vegetable market where vendors try to sell vegetables by yelling the cost of their product… the same was the condition here where the sales person was selling the groceries by ringing a bell and bellowing the lowest price and discounts. I was stunned and it made me to think, is this of the trend coming up in Indian retail? Or is this a consequence of competition where retailers have to yell and shout about the discounts they offer? On the other hand, is it a strategy to attract their target segment? When it comes to organized retail, which accounts for hardly four per cent of the total retail market and is pegged to grow to $64 billion by 2015, is trying a variety of methods ranging from discount stores to supermarket to hypermarkets to specialty chains, and most players appear to be gravitating towards the hypermarket format. Can you imagine the intensity of competition five years down the line?

The major players like Pantaloon to RPG to Piramals or the Tatas are working to exploit this model, which is perceived by consumers as more value enhancing. However, in the long run, the strategy most likely to succeed is a more balanced multi-format strategy that will help the retailers adapt to the different shopping patterns that exist within the country and even within regions. Here again, merely copying global trends will not help. On the other hand, a research found that single-format players generated higher shareholder value than multi-format ones. Some feel a combination of cash-and-carry and neighborhood stores, as in a hub-and-spokes model can be a good bet. As of now, India needs a lot of room for experimentation on part of the retailers. Currently, there are no cut-and-dried solutions when it comes to fixing on the right retail format.
Finally, with the flush of the retail boom, the elimination of traditional intermediaries are bringing windfall gains (as well bringing much-needed relief to the producers), and few years down the line, even this source is going to dry out as competition intensifies and margins come under pressure. What would set the survivors apart from those who are forced to sell out (or go belly-up) will be differentiators like location, value-added services (convenience), private labels and customer loyalty programmes, other than price. Going further in the last, the retailer-manufacturer tie-ups, state-of-the-art supply chain infrastructure, global sourcing and scale will be a key factor. If experience in other markets is anything to go by, will be an ability to read shifting trends…and then again what next?