Penthouse Slipping Into Something More Comfortable, Going Online-Only

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Months after Playboy made the decision to try to stay in print by ditching the bared flesh that made it famous, its raunchier longtime competitor Penthouse has decided to give up on print and focus on being an online-only publication.

CNBC reports that Penthouse’s parent company announced today that the magazine will soon cease to exist in print and that readers with existing print subscriptions will be transitioned to an online version of the magazine going forward.

“Penthouse Magazine will continue to be published in print during the transition to digital. No specific date to stop print publication of our flagship magazine has been set,” reads a statement from Ezra Shashoua, CFO of FriendFinder Networks, the parent company behind the magazine founded in the 1960s by icon of excess Bob Guccione.

The slick-voiced, and frequently unbuttoned Guccione left the publication in 2003 after the business entered bankruptcy. FriendFinder then purchased Penthouse in 2004. It too, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2013, noting that the magazine hadn’t turned a profit in years.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Domestic Flights Are Late Less Often, Travelers Complaining More Anyway

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Airline performance statistics are out for November 2015, and there’s some promising news: domestic flights arrived at their destinations on time 83.7% of the time. That’s down slightly from October, when the on-time rate reached 87%, but up from a year earlier, when 80.6% of domestic flights reached their destinations on time.

In the on-time rankings, Hawaiian Airlines is the top finisher, with 93.9% of its flights arriving on time. It also flies out of the fewest airports of the major U.S. carriers. Delta Air Lines took the silver medal, and Alaska Airlines came in at #3.

Most people who have complaints about an airline complain directly to that airline, and don’t take their problems to the Department of Transportation. While we don’t know how many people complained to their airlines, we do know that the total fewer than 1,000 people filed complaints with the federal government, which is higher than the same month last year.

Unsurprisingly, Spirit Airlines had the most. Spirit also happened to have the second-lowest on-time rate, 75.3%, coming in ahead of Frontier Airlines with 74% of their flights on time.

Another statistic that’s part of this report is the number of pets that were lost, injured, or killed during a domestic flight. No animals were lost during November 2015, but according to the reports two animals had injuries, and four died.

Air Travel Consumer Report – January 2016

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Update: United Still Looking For iPad They Shipped Back To Customer

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You might remember Denise, who left her iPad behind on a United plane, getting it back after Consumerist intervened and a wonderful United employee helped her. Then she received an interesting e-mail, presumably reading it on her iPad. The airline wanted to send an update about the status of her lost item claim: they were “still searching” for it.

That’s slightly amusing on its own, but the interesting part is that the e-mail didn’t come from United. It came from an outside company called Chargerback, which provides this very specific service to airlines, hotels, and any other place where someone might leave behind an electronic device.

Chargerback takes care of interacting with customers who have lost things, e-mailing them updates, keeping a database of missing items, and providing a pre-printed shipping label to the company that has found the item, accepting a $9.95 payment for the shipment directly from the customer. Businesses that use Chargerback don’t have to pay anything to the company.

This could explain why there was so much of a gap in communication between Denise and the office in the United terminal where her iPad was actually located. Maybe that office never entered her claim in the system, or something else happened to prevent United and Chargerback from matching up the iPad they had sitting around and the iPad that Denise reported missing.

That’s the problem with contracting another company: she could track where in the airport her iPad was, almost down to the office within the United Terminal, but it wasn’t logged in the system, making it still “lost.”

Chargerback [Official Site]

PREVIOUSLY: Update: United Still Looking For iPad They Shipped Back To Customer

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Food Cart That Also Offers Sex Toys Shut Down For Some Reason

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When you’re selling things from a mobile storefront, there are certain rules and regulations that your city will most likely make you abide by. To wit: selling sex toys alongside hot dogs, candy, and other snacks from a food cart just won’t fly in downtown Evansville, IN.

The entrepreneur behind the two-in-one business idea told Fox 19 Now when a reporter came to check out his wares that there’s a very simple reason he decide to peddle sex toys: “Sex sells.”

“We all love it. We love it more than we actually show it,” he opined to the news station. “Is sex selling in Evansville? Yeah! More peace. More kids. More peace. It will settle everybody down.”

Perhaps, but that didn’t prevent the city for shutting it down, citing out-of-date permits. Besides the fact that said permits weren’t valid anymore, they also didn’t indicate that he’d be shilling plastic schlongs and other paraphernalia.

The vendor says he was doing well with his cart before it was shut down. If he updates his permits, he should be allowed to continue running the cart, at least, the food part of his venture.

Food cart selling sex toys in downtown Evansville [Fox 19 Now]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Science Says: You’ll Order More Food & Booze If Your Waiter Isn’t Skinny

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It’s a stereotype of the swanky metropolitan restaurant — only hiring wait staff that looks like they just slinked off the pages of Vogue or the runways of Milan — but the results of a recent study seem to indicate that restaurants could pad their bottom lines by hiring servers with a little more padding.

This is according to research from the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, published late last year in the journal Environment & Behavior.

Researchers looked at nearly 500 diners in 60 different casual restaurants and found that diners with heavier wait staff were four times more likely to order dessert and ordered 17% more booze than diners with slender servers.

The apparent implication is that customers are more likely to be less worried about how much they eat when their server is not a paragon of fitness.

“A fun, happy, heavy waiter, might lead a diner to say ‘What the heck’ and to cut loose a little,” writes lead author Tim Doering.

The researchers also took into account the body mass indexes of the diners in the study and found that having a non-skinny waiter freed up slender diners to let loose for the night.

“A heavy waiter or waitress seems to have an even bigger influence on the skinniest diners,” notes Doering.

For calorie- and cost-conscious consumers, the researchers recommend deciding what you’re going to order before you interact with the waiter or even get to the restaurant. That way, these external factors are not interfering with your purchasing decision.

[via WSJ.com]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Mondelez And Denny’s Both Jumping On The Cage-Free Eggs Bandwagon

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Hardly a week goes by without news of a restaurant chain or major food company announcing they’ll be using only cage-free eggs at some point in the future, and this week is no different: today, both Mondelez — the company behind Cadbury, Oreos and other snacks — and Denny’s have announced they’re joining the pack of big names pledging to take caged hens out of the supply chain.

Mondelez International says it’ll make the transition to using 100% cage-free eggs in the U.S. and Canada by 2020 and in Europe by 2025. The company adds that it’s been working on sustainable sourcing for years, including improving the welfare of egg-laying chickens in its supply chain.

“Meaningful commitments such as these take time, in both planning and implementation, but we’re very pleased to announce this major step forward in our cage-free sourcing,” said Jonathan Horrell, Director of Sustainability.

He says the company wants all eggs to be produced cage-free elsewhere in the world where it has operations, and is working to establish timelines for that to happen “when we have evidence that commercially viable supplies are available,” Horrell said.

Mondelez already uses 100% cage-free eggs in all its European chocolate brands and in its biscuit products sold in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Over in restaurant land, Denny’s announced today that it’ll be only serving cage-free eggs in all U.S. locations by 2026, noting that it cooks more than 400 million eggs each year.

Though other chains have come before it (Subway, Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Panera Bread), the company says it’s the “first within the family dining segment to commit to 100% cage-free eggs.”

“We believe our guests care about how their food is sourced and so do we. For more than 60 years, we have listened to our guests to understand what they care about the most, without sacrificing on quality, taste or value,” said John Miller, Denny’s president and chief executive officer. “The humane treatment of animals remains an important part of our brand’s sourcing strategy, and our commitment to this transition underscores our confidence in the ethical evolution of supplier capabilities.”

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

NBC Exec: Viewers Always Come Back From Binges, Netflix Not A “Consistent” Threat

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There’s obviously some disruption afoot in the TV marketplace of late. Broadcast and cable networks continue to think that they represent TV. Netflix, Amazon, and an up-and-coming generation of cord-cutters seem to disagree. And yet for all money the young whippersnapper businesses seem to get from the young whippersnapper audiences, at least one member of the old guard thinks it’s all so much chaff in the wind.

Alan Wurtzel, who heads up research and media development for NBCU, is still unconcerned about his streaming competition, as Adweek explains.

There’s a big TV hoopla for a couple of weeks every January called the Television Critics Association Press Tour, usually shorthanded to the TCAs. This week, during TCA 2016, Wurtzel took the chance to haul out math to claim that Netflix is not yet any threat to the big behemoths of broadcasting. Except that his numbers may paint a much less rosy picture for the Comcast-owned network than he seems to think.

“The reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated,” Wurtzel told press at the TCAs, adding, “I don’t believe there’s enough stuff on Netflix that is broad enough and consistent enough to affect us in a meaningful way on a consistent basis.”

So what is Wurtzel basing his assessment on?

Netflix is a data-driven business. They know perfectly well exactly who many people are watching what series, when, where, and on what devices. Getting that data if you aren’t inside Netflix, though, is notoriously difficult. While approximate Nielsen numbers for broadcast and cable TV have been publicly available for years, ratings for streaming TV are much harder to come by.

Neilsen itself began collecting streaming ratings privately through audio sampling back in 2014, and a company called Luth Research claimed in 2015 that they, too, had gotten decent Netflix numbers through scraping data from a percentage of viewers using Netflix apps.

The company NBC worked with to get data, Symphony, goes with the same general audio-sampling tactic Neilsen does. Basically, someone who is participating in the sample puts an app on their phone. That phone listens to whatever it hears in the room, and can identify programming from the sound, so it can “hear” if you’re watching Game of Thrones or Modern Family or Jessica Jones.

The app can then report back not just what you’re viewing (as long as you’re not using a headset), but when. That makes it fairly easy to go through the data and identify if you’re viewing content live as it airs or after the fact, and by matching it with knowledge about what services carry which content, to tell up to a point what service you’re using.

Netflix and Amazon originals are, of course, only on Netflix and Amazon respectively, so their sources are easy to identify. According to Wurtzel, the data from Symphony showed that in its first month on Netflix, Jessica Jones averaged 4.8 million viewers in a key demographic, with Master of None drawing 3.9 million and Narcos pulling 3.2 million.

For comparison, in that same key demographic, NBC workhorse Law and Order: SVU brought in about 8 million viewers this week — but their Heroes: Reborn pulled fewer than four million. Netflix’s programming is right in the middle of the pack ratings-wise for broadcast TV programming, and higher than many successful cable shows’ ratings.

So why is Wurtzel not concerned? Because no one binges forever. (Although you certainly could if you wanted.) He told the crowd that Symphony’s data showed that viewers do indeed watch an entire season of a new show when it’s made available to stream on demand… but when it’s over, they still need new TV from somewhere. And at that point, they apparently turn back to the classics.

By the third week after a major Netflix or Amazon release, Wurtzel said, “people are watching TV the way that God intended. The impact goes away.” Putting two and two together, he concluded: “I don’t believe there’s enough stuff on Netflix that is broad enough and consistent enough to affect us in a meaningful way on a consistent basis.”

Perhaps that’s why Netflix is doubling its volume of original content in 2016?

NBC Says Netflix Doesn’t Yet Pose a ‘Consistent’ Threat to Broadcasters. Here’s Why [Adweek]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Fiat Chrysler Recalling 389K SUVs (Again) To Fix Wiring Issue That Can Lead To Sun Visors Catching Fire

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In May, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into Fiat Chrysler over Jeep and Dodge SUVs that were recalled in July 2014 for a wiring issue that could cause sun visors to burst into flame. NHTSA wanted to see how effective that recall remedy had been, after post-recall reports of problems continued. Chrysler is now recalling almost 389,000 SUVs in the U.S. for a second time for that same issue.

The recall covers Dodge Durangos and Jeep Grand Cherokees from 2011 through 2013 model years. Chrysler says adjustments to the first recall didn’t work, and that problems after the recall only happened in vehicles made before Sept. 2, 2012.

The company says wiring will be secured with a new adhesive, and measures will be taken to prevent wires from coming in contact with abrasive surfaces.

Even if your vehicle wasn’t part of the first round of recalls for the vanity mirror issue, it could still be affected this time. Though the manufacturer hasn’t provided a notification schedule yet to NHTSA, Chrysler will notify owners if their vehicle needs to be repaired.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Big Tobacco Loses Legal Challenge To FDA Report On Menthol Cigarettes

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A federal appeals court has stymied the tobacco industry’s attempt to challenge a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel report on the safety of menthol cigarettes.

Way back in 2009, Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, part of which directs the Food and Drug Administration to create an advisory panel to look into the safety of menthol cigarettes.

Then in early 2011, the panel released its findings, recommending a ban on the minty cigarettes, arguing that their mintier version of smoking makes the habit more appealing to young people.

But several tobacco companies — now all subsidiaries of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, Inc. — contended that the panel was unfairly biased because three of its 12 members had conflicts of interest that the tobacco folks thinks should have prevented them from being involved.

More precisely, these panelists had testified against the tobacco industry in court, and have financial ties to drug companies that make smoking-cessation products.

The menthol makers sued, alleging that the inclusion of these panelists increased the likelihood that the FDA will tighten regulations on menthols, though the agency has yet to issue any final guidance or rules on the matter.

In 2014, a federal district court granted summary judgment in favor of the tobacco companies, ordering the FDA to dissolve the advisory panel and refrain from using its report on menthol cigarettes.

Soon after, several members of the FDA tobacco panel either left or were removed.

But today, a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, overturned that lower court ruling because it found the tobacco companies lacked standing to even bring the case in the first place.

In its opinion [PDF], the appeals panel notes that the cigarette makers must show that the injury they allege is “actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical,” but the injuries alleged by the plaintiffs here are “too remote and uncertain, or, to put the same thing another way, insufficiently imminent.”

While the three advisory panel members may have apparent conflicts of interest, the court found that their inclusion on the committee “by no means rendered the risk of eventual adverse FDA action substantially probable or imminent,” especially since the FDA has not issued any rules based on the panel’s recommendations.

The FDA is not under any obligation to heed an advisory panel. That committee is just one part in the rulemaking process, notes the appeals court.

“If the report influences a proposed rule to plaintiffs’ detriment in the way they anticipate, they will have an opportunity to raise concerns about the report’s scientific claims, including assertions of bias,” reads the opinion, adding that even if the court were to assume that the mere inclusion of these people on the advisory panel materially increased the likelihood of more regulation on menthol cigarettes,”that would still fall short of saying that the selection rendered adoption of a more adverse rule imminent.”

The tobacco companies also alleged they could be injured if these panelists took confidential information gleaned during their time on the committee and supplied it to the plaintiffs’ competition, or later used it in expert testimony against the plaintiffs.

But again, the appeals panel found this all too speculative, noting that the plaintiffs only presented evidence that the “Committee members received such information in the course of their time on the Committee — not that they used it the way plaintiffs fear.”

In fact, contends the court, because such speculative future use of confidential info could put these panelists at risk for civil and criminal penalties, they have every reason to abide by the rules.

The final allegation brought by the tobacco plaintiffs is that the challenged committee members deliberately shaped the advisory panel report to bolster the expert testimony they provide in court cases against big tobacco. The court described this argument as “weak.”

“Although they note hundreds of pending tobacco cases in which the challenged Committee members are identified as prospective witnesses, they have presented no evidence on how many of the cases concern menthol tobacco products,” reads the opinion. “They cite only a handful of mentions of the menthol report in challenged members’ testimony and are only able to point to two cases that involved a menthol smoker… Plaintiffs have also presented no facts supporting their contention that the challenged members shaped the report to support their testimony, or used the report’s concurrence in their views to validate those views.”

The court says that if the tobacco companies want to argue that an advisory panelist is using the panel’s report to bolster his or her expert testimony, they can do so in cross-examination at the individual trials where these experts testify.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

USDA Reports First New Case Of Bird Flu Since June At Commercial Turkey Farm In Indiana

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As U.S. poultry farmers continue to get their flocks back to normal levels and consumers are finally seeing prices dropping after the widespread avian flu outbreak that hit the industry last year, officials with the Department of Agriculture say they’ve found the first case of bird flu since last June.

The USDA says a different strain of bird flu than the one that hit farmers last year has infected a commercial turkey flock in Indiana.

It’s the first highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) case since June. Up until now, bird flu had affected 211 commercial and 21 backyard poultry premises since December 2014.

Officials say the facility in Dubois County, IN has been quarantined, and depopulation of the flock has started in an effort to prevent the flu from spreading. Birds from the turkey flock won’t enter the food system, the USDA said.

So will this new case snowball into an epidemic like last year? Only time will tell, one shell egg and egg product market analyst tells CNBC, saying it’s “too early” to guess how turkey and egg prices might be affected.

“No egg-laying hens have been affected so we have to wait to see what happens,” Brian Moscogiuri from Urner Barry told CNBC.

USDA reports first bird flu case since June, different strain than last year [CNBC.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Unsurprising: $145 Prison Mattress Gets Mediocre Consumer Reports Rating

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Are the low-end mattresses sold in retail stores really “prison mattresses?” That’s what one dealer called them when speaking to one of our bed-testing colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports. That made them wonder: how would an actual mattress made for the prison market do compared to the mattresses that we use here on the outside?

There are important concerns in institutional mattresses that you might not think of. They’re cheap ($145), durable, and have sealed seams instead of sewn so inmates can’t remove the tough thread and use it as a weapon, or open a seam and conceal things they aren’t supposed to have inside the mattress. Derby, the company whose mattress they tested, even makes a model out of clear plastic that prison authorities can see through.

The mattress comes with a built-in pillow, which is a bonus. It resembles a thick gym mat, about five inches thick and filled only with foam. A thinner variation on the same mattress is available as a nap mat for schools and daycare facilities,

As you might expect, it’s very firm, which some people prefer in a mattress. It isn’t very bouncy, which is probably just as well. However, it didn’t do well with all of the standard mattress-testing criteria. It isn’t breathable, which is probably to be expected for a mattress coated in plastic fabric. It also scored only “Fair” in durability, which is a test that simulates eight years of regular use.

We were disappointed to see that the Derby isn’t included on their list of matrress ratings, probably because most people don’t actually want to buy one. Or ever have the opportunity to use one.

Doing Hard Time on Your Mattress? [Consumer Reports]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Here Are The Walmarts That Are Shutting Down, And When They Will Close For Good

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Earlier today, Walmart announced it would be closing 269 stores worldwide, including 154 in the U.S. We now have a state-by-state breakdown of all of the stores to be closed, and when they will close the public.

The full list is below. It covers more than half the states, from Alaska to Rhode Island. Texas is, by far, the state with the most closures.

The majority of the stores listed below are Walmart Express stores, along with a handful of superstores, Neighborhood Markets, and Sam’s Clubs.

The closing dates start as early as Jan. 17 and go until early February, though most of the stores will close for good to the public on Jan. 28.

ALABAMA (ALL CLOSING JAN. 28):
14331 Count Rd. 99, Headland, AL
18 Apple Way, Ashford, AL
952 E. Lawrence Harris Hwy, Slocomb, AL
407 West Washington St., Abbeville, AL
6361 Hwy 72 East Gurley, AL
87395 US Hwy 278, Snead, AL
3530 Cathedral Caverns Hwy, Grant, AL
10188 Hwy 431 South, New Hope, AL
7201 Aaron Aronov Drive, Fairfield, AL

ALASKA (CLOSING FEB. 5):
6525 Glacier Hwy, Juneau, AK

ARKANSAS (CLOSING JAN. 28):
720 N Hwy 71, Mansfield, AR
3500 Mulberry Hwy 64 W, Mulberry, AR
814 W. Main, Charleston, AR
1531 E Hwy 64, Coal Hill, AR
8848 N Hwy 59, Van Buren, AR
5 Hwy 124 West, Damascus, AR
154 E Roller, Decatur, AR
905 S Gentry Blvd, Gentry, AR
800 1st Ave SE, Gravette, AR
881 W Buchanan, Prairie Grove, AR
117 Audubon Drive, Maumelle, AR

CALIFORNIA (CLOSING JAN. 28):
5502 Monterey Hwy, San Jose, CA
151 E 5th St., Long Beach, CA
8400 Edgewater Drive, Oakland, CA
4101 Crenshaw Blcd., Los Angeles, CA
2408 Lincoln Ave., Altadena, CA
6820 Eastern Ave., Bell Gardens, CA
701 W Cesar E Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA
2045 E Highland Ave., San Bernardino, CA
12120 Carson St., Hawaiian Gardens, CA

COLORADO (CLOSING DATES VARY):
8196 West Bowles Ave., Littleton, CO (Jan. 17)
2253 S Monaco Pkwy., Denver, CO (Jan. 28)

CONNECTICUT (CLOSING JAN. 28):
333 N Main St., West Hartford, CT

FLORIDA (CLOSING JAN. 28):
1113 S.R. 20, Interlachen, FL
1209 East Wade St., Trenton, FL
15726 SE Hwy 19 Cross City, FL

GEORGIA (CLOSING JAN. 28):
560 S. Broad St., Ellaville, GA
1041 S US Hwy 1, Alma, GA
155 West Washington Ave., Ashburn, GA
398 Barrow Ave SW, Pelham, GA
907 Marianna Hwy, Donalsonville, GA
290 Albany Ave. West, Pearson, GA
142 S. Valdosta Road, Lakeland, GA

ILLINOIS (CLOSING JAN. 17):
3636 N Broadway St., Chicago, IL
225 W Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL

KANSAS (CLOSING JAN. 28):
900 East Ross Ave., Clearwater, KS
505 Housatonic St., Burlington, KS
705 N High School Ave., Columbus, KS
1105 East 15th St., Ellsworth, KS
120 West Rosewood St., Rose Hill, KS
605 Orchard Drive, Hillsboro, KS
601 N West St. STE 100, Wichita, KS
9831 E Harry St., Wichita, KS
4794 E 13th, Wichita, KS

LOUISIANA (CLOSING JAN. 28):
1445 Old Highway 13, Mamou, LA
1506 Main St., Colfax, LA
620 North Hwy 26, Lake Arthur, LA
501 West Hwy 90, Iowa, LA
9181 Hwy 67, Clinton, LA
920 Avenue G, Kentwood, LA
1495 Obrie St., Zwolle, LA
515 3rd St., Independence, LA

MARYLAND (CLOSING JAN. 17):
2701 Port Covington Drive, Baltimore, MD

MASSACHUSSETTS (SAM’S CLUB ONLY; CLOSING JAN. 28):
941 Grinnell St., Fall River, MA
1110 Fall River Ave., Seekonk, MA

MICHIGAN (CLOSING JAN. 28):
10400 Highland Rd., Hartland, MI
SAM’S CLUB:
495 Summit Drive, Waterford, MI

MISSOURI (CLOSING JAN. 28):
224 E Hwy 76, Anderson, MO
508 N Cliffside Dr., Noel, MO
33597 State Hwy 112, Seligman, MO
414 N Elm, Clever, MO

MISSISSIPPI (CLOSING JAN. 28):
410 2nd St., Belmont, MS
2795 Hwy 371 N, Mantachie, MS
420 E Lee St., Sardis, MS
28191 Hwy 15, Walnut, MS
519 W Veterans Ave., Derma, MS
7104 Will Robbins Hwy, Nettleton, MS

NORTH CAROLINA (CLOSING JAN. 28):
509 Dr. Donnie H. Jones Blvd W, Princeton, NC
511 N Mckinley St., Coats, NC
6043 US Hwy 301 S, Four Oaks, NC
112 N Main St., Broadway, NC
908 E. 4th Ave., Red Springs, NC
7670 Clinton Rd., Stedman, NC
1400 B Broad St., Oriental, NC
702 S. Wall St., Benson, NC
945 Monroe St., Carthage, NC
303 S. Goldsboro St., Pikeville, NC
632 W Swannanoa Ave., Liberty, NC
139 N Hwy 49, Richfield, NC
1593 NC Hwy 86 N, Yanceyville, NC
905 SE 2nd St., Snow Hill, NC
182 NC 102 W, Ayden, NC
189 Hickory Tree Rd., Midway, NC
1010 Martin Luther King Pkwy., Durham, NC

NEVADA (CLOSING JAN. 17):
4350 N Nellis Blvd., Las Vegas, NV

OHIO (CLOSING JAN. 28):
22209 Rockside Rd., Bedford, OH

OKLAHOMA (CLOSING JAN. 28):
124 E. Columbia St., Okemah, OK
19250 E Hwy 66, Luther, OK
2310 West Main, Prague, OK
1600 West Hwy 66, Stroud, OK
2324 Seran Drive, Wewoka, OK
812 N Clarence Nash Blvd., Watonga, OK

OREGON (CLOSING DATES VARY):
8235 SW Apple Way, Portland, OR (Jan. 17)
17711 Jean Way, Lake Oswego, OR (Jan. 28)

RHODE ISLAND (SAM’S CLUB ONLY; CLOSING JAN. 28):
25 Pace Blvd., Warwick, RI

SOUTH CAROLINA (CLOSING DATES VARY):
9032 Hwy 14, Gray Court, SC (Jan. 28)
7013 S Pine St., Pacolet, SC (Jan. 17)
721 US Hwy 321 BYP S Unit, Winnsboro, SC (Jan. 28)

TENNESSEE (CLOSING JAN. 28):
Nashville Hwy, Chapel Hill, TN
523 N Military St., Loretto, TN
400 North Main St., Cornersville, TN
934 Hwy 79, Dover, TN
1220 Gallatin Ave., Nashville, TN

TEXAS (CLOSING JAN. 28, except where noted):
721 Dale Evans Drive, Italy, TX
221 S State Hwy 274, Kemp, TX
504 W Pine St., Edgewood, TX
301 Hwy 69 S, Whitewright, TX
122 Commercial Ave., Anson, TX
1003 Telephone Cir., Merkel, TX
5 N 14th St., Haskell, TX
1010 N Main St., Winters, TX
501 N Main, Godley, TX
416 N Third St., Grandview, TX
420 S US 69, Leonard, TX
428 N Dallas St., Palmer, TX
440 E Pine St., Frankston, TX
1787 US Hwy 259 S, Diana, TX
1005 Texas Avenue E, Waskom, TX
870 Taylor St., Hughes Springs, TX
914 North Main St., Lone Star, TX
504 WL Doc Dodson, Naples, TX
12522 Fm 1840, Dekalb, TX
114 Redwater Boulevard West, Maud, TX
14091 FM 490, Raymondville, TX
7480 Padre Island Hwy, Brownsville, TX
8201 N FM 620, Austin, TX
7075 FM 1960 Rd W, Houston, TX
2218 Greenville Ave., Dallas (Greenville), TX
2740 Gessner Rd., Houston, TX
2201 West Southlake Blvd., Southlake, TX
1901 S. Texas Ave., Bryan, TX
4268 Legacy Drive, Frisco, TX (Jan. 17)

WEST VIRGINIA (CLOSING JAN. 28):
61 Plaza Drive, Kimball, WV

WISCONSIN (CLOSING JAN. 28):
5825 W Hope Ave., Milwaukee, WI
3850 N 124th St., Wauwatosa, WI
N88W15559 Main St., Menomonee Falls, WI
S14W22605 Coral Drive, Waukesha, WI

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

American Apparel Rejects Takeover Bid From Former CEO Dov Charney & Pals

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Dashing former CEO and founder Dov Charney’s dreams (for now), American Apparel’s board of directors has rejected the $300 million takeover bid he put on the table earlier this week with the help of financial backers.

Bloomberg reports that the company is open to a revised offer from the funds backing Charney and his friends at Hagan Capital Group and Silver Creek Capital Partners.

The clock is ticking: A proposed plan backed by American Apparel’s lenders to get the company out of bankruptcy would give ownership to bondholders in exchange for a reduction in debt, and will go in front of a judge Jan. 20.

Charney and his backers will have to sweeten the pot if they want to get the company, or convince the judge to toss the competing proposal.

While American Apparel has yet to confirm or deny Bloomberg’s report, sources at the company tell Consumerist that it is accurate.

American Apparel Said to Reject Charney-Led Takeover Bid [Bloomberg]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

ID Thieves Also Use Call Centers To Outsource Their Scams

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We all know that a lot of businesses outsource customer service work to call centers around the world. But what you may not know is that there are also call centers that specialize — and openly advertise — their services in aiding ID theft and other cyber fraud.

KrebsOnSecurity.com recently took a look at how openly some of these call centers operate, and what
services they provide.

It’s a pretty basic idea. You’ve acquired stolen information, like credit card numbers, but in order to use that purloined data to make an online purchase, you may need to verify over the phone that you are the actual cardholder. Even if you have enough info to pass that verification, you might not speak the same language as the person you’re pretending to be. And so, you hire one of these call centers to do the speaking for you.

For example, one call center offers male and female callers in your choice of seven different languages — English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, and Polish. Each call in English will run you $10; calls in the other languages are $12 a pop.

And this isn’t some sort of thing where you have to know a guy who knows a lady whose cousin is a con artist. The call center has online ads depicting the above information, complete with a colorful illustration of President Obama chatting on the phone with a scantily clad blonde woman.

Customers of these sorts of call centers can often go online, enter the info needed for the call, and then track to see the status of the scam.

Krebs has the example of someone who used a stolen American Express card number to purchase a $250 remote control car. The scammer filled in all the relevant data — card number, name, address, shipping address — then the call was placed, and the order fulfilled.

These call centers demonstrate the lengths to which scammers and ID thieves will go, how the fraud industry evolves to elude anti-fraud practices, and how there are entire industries springing up to support criminal enterprises.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Amazon Doesn’t Just Want To Send You Stuff, It Wants To Handle Shipping Too

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Amazon is sitting pretty right now with all the business it does as an online purveyor of merchandise, but it’s not content to just sit on its throne of branded boxes, it wants to be the one shipping those items to customers as well. The company just got approval to expand into ocean shipping, giving it more control over items that ship from Chinese factories to U.S. shoppers.

The company’s China arm has registered as an ocean freight forwarder, according to the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission and reported by Reuters, which will help the company cut costs in its own retail business, as well as possibly providing third-party logistics services to other industries.

It won’t be operating its own ships, but will subcontract that work out.

“It has more and more control over the supply chain of their business and it gives them the ability to squeeze (costs) even further,” Satish Jindel, a logistics consultant and president of SJ Consulting Group told Reuters.

This is just one more step Amazon is taking to get into the shipping game: it’s negotiating a deal to lease 20 jets for air-delivery service in the U.S., it bought truck trailers to help it ship more items, and last year, the company started a program that uses on-demand drivers to deliver packages.

Amazon expands logistics reach with move into ocean shipping [Reuters]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

GE Selling Its Appliance Business To China’s Haier For $5.4 Billion

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A month after giving up on the idea of selling its appliance business to Electrolux, GE has found a new buyer willing to pay big bucks for the company’s slate of washers, dryers, and fridges. This time, it’s the China-based Haier Group, which will pay $5.4 billion to take over this portion of GE’s business.

You may not know the Haier name, with the company only recently beginning to make inroads into the U.S. market, but the Qingdao-headquartered company is one of the larger global players in the home appliance or “white goods” field. Here in the states, Haier has so far made a small name for itself as a manufacturer of lower-cost appliances, some of which have not been received all too well by customers.

GE has been looking to unload its appliances on someone for quite some time. Its $3.3 billion deal with Electrolux — originally announced in 2014 — fell apart in late 2015 after antitrust regulators grew concerned about Electrolux gaining too much market share.

Because Haier barely has a foothold in the U.S. market, the sale seems unlikely to raise the same red flags — or at least as many of them — that scuttled the earlier deal.

GE is positioning the sale as a way for its brands to not only continue to exist, but to reach new markets.

“We are pleased to be selling our Appliances business to Haier, which is committed to growing the business globally,” said GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt in a statement. “Haier has a stated focus to grow in the U.S., build their manufacturing presence here, and to invest further in the business.”

According to GE, the appliance division will remain in Louisville, and Haier has committed to continue using the “GE Appliances” brand, rather than changing everything over to its own name.

Haier will also acquire GE Appliances’ 48.4% stake in Mexico-baased appliance company Mabe. This means that the sale will require regulatory approval in the U.S., China, Mexico, and Argentina, reports Reuters.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

U.S. Retail Spending Growth Slows Down: Americans Possibly Have Enough Stuff

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While our economy is supposedly expanding and consumers have more money in our pockets thanks to lower gas prices, new data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that that we’re not spending that money in retail stores, online or in real life. If we’re not out hitting the malls, where’s all that money going?

The country’s economy is so massive that tiny shifts make a huge difference. Retail and food spending in December of 2015 added up to $448.1 billion, or the equivalent of just under 300 Powerball jackpots. While December sales are up slightly (2.2%) from December 2014, Americans spent slightly less than in November of 2015. In news that will not surprise any readers of this site, “nonstore retail,” which includes e-commerce, had the largest increase at 7.1%.

Other surveys have showed that Americans aren’t spending all of the money we’re saving due to lower fuel prices: credit card data from Chase showed that we’re spending more on restaurant meals and on services, not necessarily on stuff.

In general, our spending (adjusted for inflation) has been increasing every year since the recession officially ended in 2009. The small expansion in 2015 signals that the economy is doing well, but that growth has slowed down.

ADVANCE MONTHLY SALES FOR RETAIL AND FOOD SERVICES [Census Bureau]
Retail Sales in U.S. Decrease to End Weakest Year Since 2009 [Bloomberg News]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

IRS: You’ll Have Until April 18 To File Your Taxes This Year

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Already stressing over doing your income taxes? You’ll have a few more days of breathing room before they’re due this year: the Internal Revenue Service has set a filing deadline of April 18.

Filing season opens Jan. 19, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said Thursday, adding that taxpayers will have a better customer service experience this season with an additional 1,000 representatives on hand to ease waiting times on information lines.

The $290 million approved by Congress last month to beef up taxpayer services will help with issues like hang-ups, which was a major problem last year — fewer than half of all calls were connected to a staff person. There’s also help available online, Koskinen notes.

“Using our website, IRS.gov, remains the best and quickest way for people to get information,” he said.

The reason the deadline has been pushed three days later than usual is that April 15 is Emancipation Day, which is a public holiday in Washington, D.C. If you live in Maine or Massachusetts, you’ll have an additional day because of Patriot’s Day.

Again, be wary of the myriad tax scams that pop up every year around this time, Koskinen warned. The IRS will never call taxpayers to obtain personal or financial information. It issues letters when it needs something.

“The IRS will not make angry calls to demand immediate payment, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed out a bill,” Koskinen told reporters, via the Associated Press. “We won’t ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone. We also will never threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have someone arrested for not paying.”

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Walmart Closing 154 Stores In U.S., Ending “Walmart Express” Experiment

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Walmart’s five-year dalliance with trying to go small through new “Walmart Express” stores is apparently over. This morning, the company announced that it will shutter 154 locations in the U.S., including all 102 Express locations, in an effort to focus on its larger outlets.

The U.S. closings are part of a larger array of store closures. Worldwide, Walmart says it will close a total of 269 stores. These represent only a small portion of the company’s more than 11,000 current locations, but could have real impact for people — shoppers and employees — in the affected markets.

Think about this: While the closing stores only represent less than 1% of Walmart’s total retail footprint, some 16,000 workers (10,000 of them in the U.S.) will be out of a job. That gives you an idea of just how many people Walmart employs.

The company says affected workers will receive 60 days’ pay. Some will additionally receive severance, though Walmart did not provide the eligibility requirements. The retail giant claims it will try to place laid-off associates with jobs at other stores nearby, and that these workers will be given priority for open positions.

Lest you think Walmart is trying to shrink its overall bricks-and-mortar footprint, CEO Doug McMillon says the company still intends to open more than 300 new stores worldwide over the coming year. Here in the U.S., that will include at least 50 Supercenters, 85 Neighborhood Markets and upwards of 10 new Sam’s Clubs.

Walmart will be releasing a list of the stores to be closed later today. We will update this post when we’ve received that information.

“We conducted a thorough review of our stores and clubs worldwide that took into account a number of factors, including financial performance as well as strategic alignment with long-term plans,” says McMillon about how stores were selected.

Regarding the choice to shutter the Express stores, which have only been around since 2011, McMillon explains that “we have learned a lot from this pilot, including a deeper understanding of the everyday needs of our customers,” but that the company has decided it can “better serve our customers by focusing on Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets and by investing in e-commerce and services like Pickup.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Hyatt Confirms 250 Hotels Were Infected With Malware Last Year, Possibly Exposing Customer Payment Data

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After announcing late last year that a slew of its hotels had been infected by malware, Hyatt has now identified the 250 properties that were affected — roughly 40% of its businesses in operation. Customers staying at those hotels who paid with a debit or credit card may have had their payment data and other information exposed to hackers, the chain said.

Hyatt doesn’t know how many customers were affected yet, but said that the malware was at work between July and December 2015 within payment-processing systems at its restaurants, spas, front desks, and other areas in its hotels.

Information that possibly was accessed by hackers includes cardholder names, card numbers, and expiration dates, Hyatt said. The malware was found at brands like Park Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, and Andaz, with about 100 U.S. hotels included in the list. The rest were abroad in cities like London, Paris, and Shanghai.

“Protecting customer information is critically important to Hyatt, and we take the security of customer data very seriously,” said Chuck Floyd, global president of operations for Hyatt. “We have been working tirelessly to complete our investigation, and we now have more complete information that we want to share so that customers can take steps to protect themselves. Additionally, we want to assure customers that we took steps to strengthen the security of our systems in order to help prevent this from happening in the future.”

The chain is encouraging customers to review their payment card account statements closely and to report any unauthorized charges to their card issuer immediately. Customers can visit http://ift.tt/1khOX3c for more information, or call 1-877-218-3036 (U.S. and Canada) and +1-814-201-3665 (International) from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST.

Hyatt has plenty of company in the malware-infected waters: in November, Hilton reported a credit card breach in many of its stores and restaurants, while Starwood reported that payment systems at 54 of its locations had been struck by malicious software.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

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Here are six of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Enthralling Televised Car Chase Followed Tractor-Trailer Full Of Cabbage And Lettuce

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Last week, people near Dallas had the rare and terrifying treat of having a car chase right in town, which of course was televised. Today, they learned the truth about that car chase: the 18-wheeler, the rampage of which was carried live on TV, has actually carrying a load of lettuce and cabbage.

Is this an upcoming, rather crunchy epoisode of a travel-relatedd reality show? You know, the kind of program that my mother nmight consider sharing if the people on it just didn’t swear too much? Nope. The original driver of hte 18-wheeler was the victim of experienced cargo thieves, who steal trucks and drive off in the night, able to drive off with just about anything and resell it.

Dallas-Fort Worth is a hot area for cargo thefts right now: that’s when a shoplifter simply drives away with the item in turn instead of driving well above the speeed limit, as the dogs in the original story did.

Vegetables–cabbage and lettuce, in this case–can be resold, at least, and other items from trucks stolen in the area have also turned up for sale online. The problem is that thieves may not be as conscientious as experienced drivers at making sure that the temperatures in their trucks are going to stay.

How can you protect yourself, other than not leaving any 18-wheelers you own running with the keys in the ignition, and not buying vegetables from some guy or gal’s truck unless they’re an established farmer’s market vendor who you know.

I-Team Sources: 18-Wheeler Pursuit Is Part Of A Bigger Crime [CBS DFW]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Amazon Invites Berkeley Students In To Pick Up Packages, Maybe Try A Fire Tablet

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A new college semester will begin soon, and UC Berkeley has a new January transfer: Amazon is opening yet another staffed pickup point on a college campus. The facilities are meant to promote the Amazon brand and alleviate the strain on campus mail services that are flooded with Amazon packages, and there’s something interesting in the Berkeley version: students can sample Kindle devices at an in-store counter.

The new pickup location is called “Amazon@ASUC Student Union,” because when you add the @ symbol to something, that automatically makes it hip and relevant. People who want to use the center as a pickup point can simply add it as a delivery address to their Amazon account, then pick their package up when convenient.

The Amazon store that’s not a store has a counter for pickups, and it has actual merchandise. It’s not clear whether you can buy devices from the company’s Kindle family while inside the store, but you can play with e-readers, Fire tablets, and the Fire TV inside the center.

Same-day pickup will be available for users who belong to Amazon Student or Prime. It’s not clear whether community members who aren’t affiliated with the college will have access to the building to use the center, or whether it’s limited to students, faculty, and staff only.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist