medialifemagazine.com
Planning ahead for an L.L. Bean winter
By Heidi Dawley
Jun 23, 2008 - 1:10:29 AM
Just several days into summer, Americans are already worrying about winter and the much higher fuel bills they will pay, up perhaps 50 percent to 60 percent over last winter.
And that will mean two things if the first energy shock is anything to go by: the sound of hammering and sawing breaking the summer morning silence in neighborhoods across the country and a cozier look for fall fashions.
Down, always fashionable, will be even more so. So will boots, leggings, corduroy and the layered look of sweaters over sweaters.
Also expect to see signs pleading with folks to keep thermostats set at 68 and, please, turn off the lights. ("Last Out, Lights Out: Don't Be Fuelish") McMansions will join SUVs on the list of energy incorrect excesses.
There will be a new moral rectitude: Waste not, want not.
The difference this time, versus the 70s, is that these will be seen as long-term changes with deep lifestyle implications. The first energy crisis was traumatic--service stations had no gas to sell--with the rise of OPEC and the abrupt shutoff of oil from the Mideast. But it was not seen as a long-term crisis, and it was not. Supplies were soon flowing again.
This crisis is for real and for good.
"In the 70s everyone recognized that this was temporary. People are starting to come to grips now with the fact that what we have now is not going to be temporary," says Daniel Howard, chairman of the marketing department at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
And some good will come of it.
“There will be some home improvement spending,” says David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor’s, as people add insulation to their attics, re-caulk windows and install double- or even triple-glazed windows.
“They look at these things if the price of energy is high,” says Neil Saunders, consulting director for Verdict Research, London-based retail analysts. Even though times are hard, consumers will put up the money for the savings it will bring.
There's just one downside, says Saunders. "Potentially a lot of people have already done things to be more efficient at home.”
Perhaps surprisingly, though, for all the worry over global warming, we'll likely not see wide-scale conversion to green energy sources, like solar panels and wind turbines.
“Investment in wood stoves, solar and wind will be only at the margins. The big things will be insulation, windows and getting the kids to close the doors,” says Wyss. “Also people will keep the temperature lower, which means wearing more clothes, which is not a problem.”
The reason for not going green is that these investments are just too big for most people given the current economic state.
“Sales of these products will go up, but the big difficulty is that they are big-scale investments,” says Saunders. “If people don’t have the cash or are feeling squeezed, they will put off the big spending. If they think that the next day they might lose their job, they are unlikely to do it.”
But for those feeling overwhelmed by the gloomy energy situation, it turns out it isn’t as bad as it was in the early 1980s.
If energy costs do in fact rise 50 to 60 percent over last year, their share of household income will rise to about 6.7 percent of income, predicts Wyss. That’s up 2.5 percentage points from 2003. Back in 1980, energy sucked up 8.0 percent of income.
Says Wyss: “This is partially because incomes have gone up, and partially because people have become more efficient in their usage.”
***
Meanwhile, elsewhere in popcult, the new comedy “Get Smart” topped the box offices over the weekend, bringing in $39.2 million, while “Kung Fu Panda” remained No. 2 with $21.7 million in ticket sales.
In DVD rentals for the week ended June 1, according to IMDb.com, “Rambo” was No. 1, while “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” fell out of the top spot to No. 2.
On iTunes this morning, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” was No. 1, while last week’s top single “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay slipped to No. 6.
And in books, “Sail” by James Patterson and Howard Roughan debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times’ hardcover fiction best-sellers list for the week ended June 14, and it also topped USA Today’s book chart for the week ended June 15.
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TOP MOVIES
Weekend Box Office Estimates
Weekend of June 20-22, 2008
|
|
Rank
|
MOVIE
|
Engagements
|
Box office (millions)
|
|
1
|
Get Smart (Warner Bros.)
|
3,911
|
$39.16
|
|
2
|
Kung Fu Panda (
Paramount)
|
4,053
|
$21.70
|
|
3
|
The Incredible Hulk (Universal)
|
3,508
|
$21.56
|
|
4
|
The Love Guru (
Paramount)
|
3,012
|
$14.00
|
|
5
|
The Happening (Fox)
|
2,986
|
$10.00
|
|
6
|
Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (
Paramount)
|
3,171
|
$8.41
|
|
7
|
You Don’t Mess With the Zohan (Sony)
|
3,278
|
$7.20
|
|
8
|
Sex and the City (New Line, Warner Bros.)
|
2,442
|
$6.47
|
|
9
|
Iron Man (
Paramount)
|
1,912
|
$4.00
|
|
10
|
The Strangers (Universal)
|
1,578
|
$1.95
|
|
Source: Yahoo Movies
|
|
IMDb TOP DVD RENTALS
Week ending June 1, 2008
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
|
1
|
Rambo
|
-
|
|
2
|
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
|
1
|
|
3
|
Mad Money
|
2
|
|
4
|
Untraceable
|
3
|
|
5
|
P.S. I Love You
|
5
|
|
6
|
The Great Debaters
|
6
|
|
7
|
Grace is Gone
|
-
|
|
8
|
27 Dresses
|
8
|
|
9
|
Cleaner
|
-
|
|
10
|
First Sunday
|
7
|
|
Source: IMDB
|
|
ITUNES TOP 8 SONG DOWNLOADS
for week ended Monday, June 23, 2008
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
|
1
|
I Kissed a Girl, Katy Perry
|
|
2
|
This Is Me, Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas
|
|
3
|
7 Things, Miley Cyrus
|
|
4
|
Distrubia, Rihanna
|
|
5
|
Play My Music, Jonas Brothers
|
|
6
|
Viva la Vida, Coldplay
|
|
7
|
When I Grow Up, The Pussycat Dolls
|
|
8
|
Gotta Find You, Joe Jonas
|
|
Source: iTunes
|
|
NEW YORK
TIMES BESTSELLING BOOKS
Week ending June 14, 2008
|
|
Fiction (hardback)
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
Weeks on chart
|
|
1
|
Sail by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
|
-
|
1
|
|
2
|
Nothing to Lose by Lee Child
|
1
|
2
|
|
3
|
The Host by Stephanie Meyer
|
2
|
6
|
|
4
|
Plague Ship by Clive Cussler
|
3
|
2
|
|
5
|
Love the One You’re With by Emily Griffin
|
4
|
5
|
|
Nonfiction (hardback)
|
|
1
|
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
|
1
|
2
|
|
2
|
What Happened by Scott McClellan
|
2
|
3
|
|
3
|
Always By My Side by Jim Nantz with Eli Spielman
|
7
|
4
|
|
4
|
The Monster of
Florence by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
|
-
|
1
|
|
5
|
The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
|
3
|
7
|
|
Fiction (paperback)
|
|
1
|
The Shack by William P. Young
|
1
|
4
|
|
2
|
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
|
2
|
41
|
|
3
|
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
|
3
|
41
|
|
4
|
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
|
4
|
24
|
|
5
|
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
|
-
|
40
|
|
Nonfiction (paperback)
|
|
1
|
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
|
1
|
72
|
|
2
|
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
|
2
|
25
|
|
3
|
Wisdom of Our Fathers by Tim Russert
|
-
|
5
|
|
4
|
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
|
3
|
73
|
|
5
|
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
|
4
|
100
|
|
Source: New York Times
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
USA
TODAY BESTSELLING BOOKS
Week ending June 15, 2008
|
|
Rank
|
TITLE
|
Last week
|
|
1
|
Sail by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
|
-
|
|
2
|
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
|
1
|
|
3
|
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow
|
4
|
|
4
|
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
|
3
|
|
5
|
New Moon by Stephanie Meyer
|
2
|
|
6
|
What Happened by Scott McClellan
|
20
|
|
7
|
Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer
|
5
|
|
8
|
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
|
13
|
|
9
|
The Shack by William P. Young
|
9
|
|
10
|
High Noon by Nora Roberts
|
6
|
|
Source:
USA Today
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