CrossCheck Blog

Doctors and sleep experts agree that adequate sleep is just as important as eating healthy and exercising. We spend up to one-third of our lives asleep, as you certainly explain to customers considering a new bed, but according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services 35% of U.S. adults take less than seven hours of sleep during a typical 24-hour period.

Changing seasons can create new opportunities to increase auto repair sales, and the fall-winter transition may create the most due to the onset of heavy rain and snow. Now that we’re one week into spring, though, auto repair shops still have reasons to expect weather-related repairs to flow in. While we might like to believe that, in the three months since holiday shopping, people saved for the car repair they’ve been putting off, we might be wrong since 62% of Americans cannot afford unexpected expenses.

Each calendar season produces its own challenges for people and accidents they may experience. Summer is known as trauma season, fall is the beginning of the flu outbreak, and winter typically has more snow-sport injuries and automobile accidents from poor road conditions. Then there is seasonal affective disorder (SAD). This type of depression is specifically related to changes in seasons. Symptoms usually start in the fall and continue through the winter months. It affects about 10 million Americans per year, is more common in women and typically affects those living in the northern states.

Spring Equinox, Vernal Equinox – whichever you prefer to call it – this Friday marks the first day of spring. Along with the Fall Equinox, these two days are the only days on the calendar where the sun rises exactly due east and sets due west for everyone on Earth -- except for the North and South poles. This year’s Spring Equinox will actually coincide with a total solar eclipse. But (sorry to burst your excitement bubble), this extraordinary event will not be visible from anywhere in the United States. Only those in the North Atlantic, parts of Greenland, Europe and Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Northwestern Asia will be fortunate to see this spectacle.

College basketball fans rejoice, selection Sunday this weekend kicks off a month’s long celebration of March Madness! Truth be told, it even goes into April.

Let’s flashback for a minute to Q4 of 2014. The car hauler just unloaded the 2015 models from the factory, you washed and waxed, and proudly displayed them on your showroom floor. You advertised on TV and radio announcing the vehicle’s latest features, improved safety handling, and best-in-class customer satisfaction ratings.

For many consumers purchasing furniture requires no small chunk of change, and since people always need beds, recliners, couches, and entertainment centers, you usually have to compete on price and promote interest-free or nothing-down financing.

You became a vet because you love animals. Think back to how you may have started your quest to become a veterinarian: Adopting a pet, volunteering at a shelter, maybe even fund raising, or elevating awareness on how to prevent overpopulation of stray animals (As Bob Barker, and now Drew Carey, has always stated).

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines! The adrenaline rush of stock car racing is back as Daytona International Speedway kicks off the NASCAR season every year. The Daytona 500 (“The Great American Race”) will grace our TV’s Sunday, February 22nd. This also means car brands will be kicking into high gear shelling out millions of dollars partnering with racetracks to promote test drives for the latest models on the showroom floor.