6. American Greetings Derails DIC Sale
Cleveland — American Greetings obtained a temporary restraining order blocking the proposed sale of DIC Entertainment to Cookie Jar Entertainment. DIC is licensing and merchandising agent and distributor of Strawberry Shortcake for American Greetings, and American Greetings says the companies' agreement prohibits sale to a competitor without American Greetings’ consent. <<Click to Continue>>

7. Your 2 Cents Worth
Is the gift business full of optimists or are we just too busy to plan ahead? Even in the wake of the current flooding in the Midwest and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, about 42 percent of voters in this week’s poll say their business is not prepared to cope with a natural disaster. A prudent 26 percent say they are ready, and another 21 percent have geared up to handle some problems, but not all. "No" voters might want to get busy changing those numbers, because apparently nature’s wrath isn’t all that uncommon — more than 10 percent of respondents have already had to recover from a natural disaster. And that’s just the ones that are still around to vote: According to the Small Business Administration, up to a quarter of small businesses do not reopen after a major disaster.

Once you've got your plan in place, plan to visit www.giftsanddec.com to vote in this week's poll!

To comment on this week's poll, please email Meredith Schwartz at mschwartz@reedbusiness.com.

Retailers -- How's business?

Gift & Decorative Accessories Retailers,

We are all in the same bind: spiraling gas and food prices, threats of recession and inflation, loss of consumer confidence, decreasing amounts of discretionary spending.

Yes, it all does sound familiar, doesn't it? We have been through this before.

So let's share our experiences and our best practices with each other during these difficult economic times. The results of this survey -- which will remain anonymous -- will be presented at the Chicago summer market and in a future issue of Gifts & Decorative Accessories magazine.

Thank you for sharing. We are all in this together.

To complete the survey, click here

That's all for now. We'll be with you again next week.

Meredith Schwartz , Business Editor

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