Black Friday Deals

Alright, there's a reason the Friday after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year and that's because it's the best time to FIND a deal. Consumers know to expect some whopping price breaks this Friday, so make sure you keep up with the Big Box retailers by creating your own MerchantCircle sale here, promotions here, and coupons here, which can all be found on your listing and through the search engines.

The best thing about it all? It's all free to do! Now that's what I call a deal ;).

Happy Holidays and Happy Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,
Community Relations

Goldman Sachs Sacking Up?

As Goldman Sachs has alloted more than $16.7 billion in bonuses to be paid to their employees this year, it seems their executives are starting to cave under the mounting pressure applied by the government and every day Americans. Goldman Sachs has announced a $500 million plan to join forces with Warren Buffett to provide assistance to 10,000 U.S. small businesses.

The plan will help small businesses in the form of counseling and obtaining funding. $200 million will go to local community colleges and other universities to provide small business owners and entrepreneurs with practical business education and $300 million will go towards community development institutions. It's a good first step for Goldman, which has also had the foresight to apologize for their role in the financial crisis.

"We participated in things that were clearly wrong and we have reason to regret and we apologize for them," said Goldman Sach's Chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein.

Still, $16.7 billion in compensation bonuses accounts for $527,192 for each Goldman employee. Right or wrong, at least Goldman is taking some much needed first steps in helping out our small business owners which provide 2/3 of all NEW jobs in the United States.

You can read more about the plan here.

Sincerely,
Community Relations

Merchant Confidence Index (MCI) Survey Results - Q4 2009

Below are the results for our first Merchant Confidence Index (MCI) survey - designed to track trends in small business sentiment and habits over time. This survey was fielded online between October 29 - November 4 using MerchantCircle's member base. 12,190 total responses came in during this period and there were no incentives offered to complete the 16 question survey.

Read the press release here.















If you'd like a downloadable PDF version of the above slides - click here. We can also get you regional breakdowns on specific states and/or categories. Requests can be emailed at MCI@MerchantCircle.com.

thanks,
Community Relations