If there’s one thing alcohol distillers and distributors know about it’s repititive, compulsive behavior (some might say they depend on it). And a new report suggests that Big Booze’s current addiction to discounts and coupons may end up doing long-term damage to the industry.
It was a buyer’s year for fans of alcohol, with many brand-name spirits offering deep discounts in an attempt to lure new customers. And while the reduced prices did move product — total volume of sales was up 1.4% — it did nothing to increase revenue, which remained flat at $18.7 billion.
For example, Diageo PLC, the world’s largest distiller in terms of sales, has been very aggressive in dropping the price on top-selling vodka brand Smirnoff, the net result has been a negative to the company, with net sales down 6%. And while Diageo chief Paul Walsh says they’ve gained market share and visibility with the discounts, he recently told investors that it’s unlikely they’ll be able to increase the price in coming months.
“The major suppliers have conditioned the consumers and retailers that there is going to be major deals,” opines John McDonnell, COO of Patron Spirits International, whose top-shelf Patron tequilas did not drop prices.
The question remains — When prices do eventually go back up, will people still stick to the brands that lured them in with discounts? Or will they simply go for lower priced alternatives?
There are plenty of people selling Belkin F5L008 Mouse Trap mouse pads through Amazon, but if you want the one in gray, you’re going to have to pay a little bit more than you’d expect… like about $9,989 more (plus shipping).
Listing the aforementioned mouse pad for $9,999.00 + $6.49 shipping, an Amazon storefront vendor calling itself The Price Pros has made what we hope is either an amateur’s goof or an attempt to get curious people checking out the not-as-exorbitant prices on the rest of their wares.
Or maybe this is just a really, really cool mouse pad. After all, it is gray.
Considering that laptops are designed to be easily carried and stowed away — and considering just how much important personal and financial information is often stored on them — it’s no surprise that they’re such a target for thieves. But there are some simple things you should do now in case it’s stolen in the future.
Jake Guidry over at Chicagoist recently found himself the victim of laptop larceny and compiled this list of essential tips:
• Have Serial Number and Receipt On File — this will be necessary to prove you are the rightful owner.
• Backup Your Hard Drive — This goes for all computers. Everyone takes for granted just how much they rely on the stored bits and bytes… and just how quickly they can disappear.
• Install Tracking Software — Guidry suggest LoJack, which will help authorities find your computer and (for Mac users) Orbicule, which turns on the iSight camera to record the thieves in action.
And in the sad situation that your laptop is taken, here are some steps you should take to improve your odds of getting it back:
• File A Report With Your Laptop Manufacturer — This could be helpful if some unwitting recipient of your laptop attempts to get it repaired by the manufacturer. It’s worth a shot, right?
• File a Police Report — Make sure you have the serial number so they’ll know they’ve found your computer.
• Call the Pawn Shops — Even if they haven’t bought your stolen computer off the thieves, they might remember someone trying to sell them one.
• Check Online Marketplaces — Ebay and Craigslist are occasionally used to unload stolen goods. And you never know, sometimes you’ll actually find your stuff!
There are obviously many more things we can do to protect our personal property and data. Leave suggestions in the comments!
While Toyota chief Akio Toyoda did his best to withstand over three hours of non-stop questioning in front of the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform yesterday, he didn’t fare as well when he spoke in front of Toyota employees only a short while later.
Toyoda, the grandfather of the car giant’s founder, broke into tears as he spoke before an audience of Toyota dealers and employees at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
“At the hearing, I was not alone. My colleagues in North America and around the world, were there with me,” he said to the supportive crowd.
Toyoda’s extended testimony before the Committee featured several breakdowns in communication between the House members — many of whom had to leave the room at various points to vote on different measures — and Toyoda. Some on the Committee, including Rep. John Mica of Florida and Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington, D.C., seemed to have little patience in either waiting for their questions to be translated to Mr. Toyoda or for his responses to be restated by his translator.
Speaking to the Toyota employees afterward, Toyoda confessed that things could have gone better.
“I believe Toyota has always worked for the benefit of the United States, and tried to convey that from the bottom of my heart,” he explained. “I am not confident that the message was really broadly understood.”
Here’s the latest in the “my phone is better than your phone” war. A new test of upload and download speeds on 3G networks in 13 cities has AT&T coming out on top by a large margin over Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. Someone cue the next round of Luke Wilson commercials…
According to the PCWorld test, the average download speed on AT&T’s 3G network was 1410 kbps, 61% better than #2 finisher Verizon’s 877 kbps. T-Mobile’s uploads were a close third at 868 kbps, with Sprint’s 795 kbps picking up the rear of the pack.
AT&T’s upload time of 773 kbps was also the winner, almost 80% better than Verizon (434 kbps). This time, Sprint’s upload time of 396 kbps was enough to relegate T-Mobile (311 kbps) to the back of the line.
These results a wildly different from PCWorld’s similar test from about a year ago, which had AT&T in third place behind Verizon and Sprint.
Reads the report:
AT&T’s download speeds in New York City were three times faster in our latest tests than in our tests last spring; in San Francisco, the AT&T’s download speeds were 40 percent faster.
Does this change your mind about which cell phone carrier you choose? AT&T customers — have you noticed any marked improvements in the last year?
Following the news earlier this week that a street food vendor in New York City had lost his permit because he left his hot nut cart unattended while he used a nearby restroom, several vendors gathered outside the City’s Dept. of Health offices yesterday in protest.
At the heart of the demonstration is a new DOH regulation that forbids food vendors from leaving their carts unattended “whenever food is maintained on the unit, as a matter of public safety, and food defense; the food must be secured and not in reach of the public.”
To clarify, the DOH regulation does allow the vendor to leave his or her cart, but only if another licensed vendor is there to keep an eye out in their absence.
This is all well and good for vendors who work busy Midtown Manhattan corners where you’ll often find 2-3 different operations going simultaneously. But for vendors working in neighborhoods with less hustle and/or bustle, this regulation poses a predicament: Hire another person to watch your cart or refrain from using the bathroom to relieve yourself or wash your hands.
“We want them to go to the bathroom and wash their hands over the course of the day,” said Dan Cass from the DOH. “Our job is to ensure that the food sold by vendors and restaurant owners and others is safe.”
However, Sean Basinski of the Urban Justice Center’s Street Vendor Project has this to say: “As far as we know, there has never been a case of a vendor’s food being contaminated while they’ve left to go to the toilet. I’m sure if some bad person wanted to poison the people of New York City, there’d be easier ways to do it, like going to a salad bar.”
As some Consumerist readers noted in the original story, this could be a good opportunity for an enterprising type willing to be hired out for short periods throughout the day by several vendors. Kind of like the seat fillers they use at the Oscars!
While the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform was busy raking Toyota’s chief executives over the coals in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Federal agents in Detroit were going all Untouchables-like at the offices of three auto parts suppliers, including one company owned in part by Toyota.
Warrants were executed at the offices of Yazaki North America, Denso International and Tokai Rika.
A rep for the anti-trust division of the U.S. Justice Department, said the investigation involved “the possibility of an anti-competitive cartel” by various suppliers of electronics for vehicles.
And it appears as if this isn’t merely a domestic issue. “We are coordinating with the European Commission and other foreign competition authorities,” said the Justice Dept. rep.
Denso confirmed the FBI visit and that it was in connection with an antitrust investigation. However, they did note that the investigation was not related to the Toyota recall or this week’s Congressional hearings on the recall.
Auto decal makers and window-tinters of the world are in mourning this afternoon, following an announcement from General Motors that — after several months of trying to unload their Hummer brand of gas-guzzlers on the Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Company — they’re stopping production of the controversial phallic stand-ins.
As far back as October, it appeared as if the deal with Sichuan Tengzhong was all but a done deal, but the $150 million deal has fallen through with G.M. only saying that the sale “could not be completed.”
“We have since considered a number of possibilities for Hummer along the way, and we are disappointed that the deal with Tengzhong could not be completed,” John Smith, G.M.’s vice president of corporate planning and alliances, said in a statement. “G.M. will now work closely with Hummer employees, dealers and suppliers to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner.”
G.M. plans to still honor warranties on existing Hummer vehicles (don’t know if that includes the ones that have been turned into stretch limousines), as well as offer service and parts (though you’ll probably need to see a separate mechanic about servicing the hot tub in your Hummer).
This is just the latest shuttered brand for G.M., who is phasing out their Saturn and Pontiac divisions.
I propose that, at midnight ET tonight, all Hummer owners across the country pause their Girls Gone Wild DVDs and join me in a moment of silence for the fallen giant.
After a year of testing in-flight WiFi on several of their planes, Alaska Airlines announced today that it has partnered with Internet provider Gogo to hook up their entire fleet. So now you’ll be able to update your Tumblr page while jetting off to your crab-fishing gig in the Bering Sea.
“With more than 730 systems already flying, [Gogo parent company] Aircell has a proven track record of deploying affordable inflight Wi-Fi services to airline customers,” Alaska Airlines VP Steve Jarvis said about their decision to go-go with Gogo, who have already put their gear on planes for Virgin America, AirTran and others. “Their reliable, lower-cost equipment can be installed quickly, allowing Alaska Airlines to introduce Gogo service to our customers as soon as possible.”
But you’ll want to check before booking your flight. Alaska is just now beginning testing of the Gogo equipment on its Boeing 737-800 planes. Once they’ve gotten the FAA to certify all is okay, they’ll resume installing the equipment on the whole fleet.
According to a press release from Aircell, the rate for passengers wishing to use the service will start at $4.95, but will depend upon length of flight and type of WiFi device being used.
Every time the topic of national health care comes up, the prophets of doom put on their black cloaks and start their chants of “Big Brother,” “socialism” and “move to Finland,” painting a picture of a bleak, Orwellian future where baritone-voiced Death Panels decide your fate on a punch card that then gets sent through a pneumatic tube to the waiting Euthanasia Agent. But our smarter, better-looking kin over at Consumer Reports claim it’s not all that bleak.
They point out that none of the proposed plans create any new government programs, meaning you’ll get your health coverage from exactly the same sources they do today.
All that’s being proposed is a “mixture of new public and private financing to help make private coverage affordable to the tens of millions who can’t pay for it today, and introduce important new consumer protections.”
Additionally, the government would provide new tax credits to help middle and lower income families purchase private insurance if they don’t have access to coverage from their employers.
If you are tempted to point to this as a government takeover of health care, be careful! You should know that employer provided coverage—the type of coverage most of us have—already enjoys a large government subsidy in the form of being excluded from taxable income.
In summation, Consumer Reports believes that the National Health Care Plan is merely an expansion of a system that is already in place that will open the door to adequate medical care for millions of currently uninsured and under-insured people.
After hearing Tuesday’s news that — only a year after an unprecedented federal bailout of the banking industry — Wall Street banks had rewarded their executives with over $20 billion in bonuses in 2009, we did a quick look around to see what else is worth that much cheddar.
Among other things, $20 billion is…
• The size of Jamaica’s annual Gross Domestic Product
• Greater than the combined annual revenue of the NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA
• Enough to make someone the 7th wealthiest person on the planet
It’s bad enough that so many of the people at the Department of Motor Vehicles treat you like so much gum stuck to the bottom of their shoe, now comes a report that a handful of DMV employees have been getting rich selling fake ID — not to minors trying to score beer or get into R-rated movies — to convicted felons, sex offenders and just about anyone who could come up with the cash.
“The fraud ring’s client base was essentially a rap sheet,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said about the rogue’s gallery of no-goodniks and ruffians that paid anywhere from $7,000 to $10,000 for their fraudulent IDs, which also included birth certificates, work papers and Social Security Cards. “The integrity of any security system, no matter how elaborate or expensive, is only as good as the integrity of the people who carry it out.”
It’s estimated that the group raked in around $1 million from the operation, which had around 200 clients, including one man featured on America’s Most Wanted and… oh yeah, an undercover police officer posing as a man in need of documents that would help him circumvent the No-Fly list.
In addition to a bit of schadenfreude, we’re also enjoying the code name for the sting: Operation Two-Face!
You’re stuck in a almost-vacant airport overnight during a blizzard — What are you going to do to entertain yourself? The answer was simple for one young potential victim of boredom… Turn the empty gate into her own personal playground and capture it all on video.
Writes the filmmaker:
My adventures in the Pittsburgh International Airport during the worst snow storm of the century. After arriving late for a flight at 7:40 PM to LGA I decided to stick around my gate until my flight at 5:40 and had a BLAST!
She probably broke a few dozen homeland security regulations, but we don’t care right now, A) Because we only wish we’d thought of this the last time we were stuck at the airport, and B) It’s damn funny.
We can’t decide which we like more: The dance routine on the people mover or the failed attempt at luging down the ramp on a food tray.
During today’s House Committee on Energy & Commerce hearing on the Toyota recall debacle, Congress heard from Rhonda Smith, a former Lexus owner who detailed her 2006 brush with death — and the even more horrid tale of her repeated attempts to get either Toyota or NHTSA to listen to her. Perhaps most chilling, Rhonda even tried to put the car in neutral while hurtling down the road, but not even that could stop the “possessed” Lexus.
While driving her car near her home in Tennessee in 2006, Rhonda’s Lexus ES350 began to accelerate quickly and without warning.
“I put the car into all available gears, including neutral,” she recalled about her fruitless attempt to slow the car down. Ms. Smith says she even put the car into reverse, in which position the gearshift remained as the car quickly reached a speed of 100mph.
After putting both feet on the brake and employing the emergency brake to no avail, Ms. Smith began to think that her only choice was to run her car into the guardrail, if only to save the other drivers on the highway.
Fearing death, she called husband. “I knew he could not help me, but I wanted to hear his voice one more time,” she recalled. “After six miles later, God intervened,” and the car began to slow on it own, though the engine continued to rev itself in cycles. When the vehicle had finally slowed to around 35 mph, she was able to stop the engine.
Upon her husband’s arrival on the scene, they looked at the accelerator and found nothing amiss about it or the floor mats. They did however make a note that the car’s radio was still operating.
As he helped the tow truck driver with the Lexus, Ms. Smith’s husband switched the car into neutral, causing it to lurch forward suddenly.
When the contacted Toyota about the incident, the car company said they would investigate immediately.
That never happened.
Instead, after repeated calls by Ms. Smith, they were sent a 5-sentence letter by Toyota that included the statement:
“When properly maintained, the brakes will always override the accelerator,” implying that the cause of her sudden acceleration was a problem of poorly maintained brakes.
As Ms. Smith said before Congress today, “Shame on you Toyota for being so greedy… And shame on you NHTSA.”
Here’s a partial transcript:
I merged over into the second lane. Not going into passing gear. At this time, I lost all control of the acceleration of the vehicle. The car goes into passing gear and the cruise light comes on at this time. I’m thinking that maybe the cruise is what caused the car to keep accelerating, as my foot is not on the gas pedal.
I take off the cruise control, but the car continues to accelerate. To make a long story short, I put the car into all available gears including neutral, but then I put it in reverse and it remains in reverse as the car speeds to over 100 mph down the interstate.
I place both feet on the brake after I firmly engage the emergency brake and nothing slows the car.
I figure the car is going to go its maximum speed and I was going to have to put the car into the upcoming guard rail in order to prevent killing anyone else, and I prayed for god to help me.
I called my husband on the blue tooth phone system.
I knew … [pauses to keep from crying] I’m sorry.
I knew he could not help me but I wanted to hear his voice one more time.
After 6 miles God intervened as the car came very slowly to a stop. I pulled it to the left median. With the car stopped and both feet still on the brake, the motor still revved up and down. At 35 mph it would not shut off. Finally, at 33 mph, I was able to turn the engine off.
After my husband arrived, he found nothing unusual about the accelerator or the floor mats, but the strange thing was that the dash lights and the radio were still on.
After the wrecker arrived, we gave the vehicle fob to the wrecker driver. When he hooked the car and prepared to winch it on to the back, he asked my husband to put the car in neutral so he could start the winch.
The driver was standing 20 to 25 feet away at the controls. Without thinking, my husband sat down in the car without the key fob and was able to shift the car into neutral, which he shouldn’t have been able to do. When he did that the car actually tried to start itself.
In these tough times, it’s easy to forget about the struggling bankers out there as you dodge their SUVs on your walk to the unemployment office. So it’s a good thing they have someone looking out for their financial interests — themselves.
According to the NY State Comptroller, Wall Street doled out a total of $20.3 billion in bonuses in 2009, with the bonuses averaging $123,850. Additionally, employee compensation is up 31% at three top banks: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.
A lot of this is fueled by the federal money that helped these firms get back on their feet very, very fast,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said about Wall Street’s speedy return to profitability.
Some, however, don’t think the bonus tea party will last too long as the boon from the bailout money fades.
Writes the Atlantic’s Daniel Indiviglio:
We might even manage to get a little bit of financial regulation, which I desperately hope will include higher capital requirements and more reasonable leverage limits. If that happens, then we may not see a repeat performance of profit growth on Wall Street once the legislation takes effect. But those bankers and traders do have an uncanny talent for extracting profit no matter what the obstacle, so they could very well manage to find ways to escape much of the regulatory effort that would otherwise limit their profits.
What do you think? Would it not be better to re-invest that $20 billion in long-term growth, instead of as bonuses?
A full day before he’s scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to answer questions about the massive recall of 8.5 million Toyotas, the car giant’s President and CEO Akio Toyoda has released the text of his prepared statement. And amid all the “Sorry about that, but we’re workin’ on it,” stuff you’d expect, comes an interesting bit of tid — Toyoda claims that he does some of the testing himself.
Toward the end of the three-page statement comes this:
I myself am a trained test driver. As a professional, I am able to check on problems in a car, and can understand how severe the safety concern is in a car. I drove the vehicles in the accelerator pedal recall as well as the Prius, comparing the vehicles before and after the remedy in various environmental settings. I believe that only by examining the problems on-site, can one make decisions from the customer perspective. One cannot rely on reports or data in a meeting room.
Is anyone else reminded of The Simpsons episode where nuclear power plant owner Mr. Burns is forced to dine on Blinky, the 3-eyed, irradiated fish?
It’s a problem that’s common to men and women who drive trucks, make deliveries or work outdoors — When do you go to the bathroom? Well, a law recently passed in New York City gives street vendors an easy answer: Never. Just ask Mohammed Shirajul Islam, a 10-year veteran of the business who is now without a permit because he dared to answer nature’s call.
According to a new regulation from the city’s Department of Health, vendors are prohibited “from leaving mobile vending food units unattended whenever food is maintained on the unit, as a matter of public safety, and food defense; the food must be secured and not in reach of the public.”
So last week, when Mohammed took a quick break to use the facilities at a local store, he returned to find his cart permit-less.
“When got back to my cart, the permit had been scratched away,” he explains. “Now I have to wait until they give me a new permit, and that could take a month. I can’t sleep. Street vending is how I provide for my family.”
While a DOH rep pointed out that Mohammed could always hire a second person to help him run the cart (because that’s financially feasible, right?), Ali Issa, director of organizing at the Street Vendor Project, called the DOH’s policy cruel.
“Vendors already have a hard time finding appropriate bathroom facilities during their long hours on the street,” said Issa in a statement. “This will just make things worse.”
Want to update your Facebook status? There’s an app for that. Looking to placate your baby with a dancing Teddy bear? There’s an app for that too. And believe it or not, there are some iPhone apps that will actually help you save a few bucks.
Over at CNN Money, they’ve rounded a handful of quality apps for these savings-friendly times.
1. MasterCard’s ATM Hunter:
This free app IDs ATMs in your hood by bank and surcharge.
2. Redlaser:
For $1.99, turn your iPhone into a barcode scanner and find the best price on products while you shop.
3. Realtor.com:
Another freebie, this app shows you a sortable list of available properties in your immediate area.
4. iXpenseIt
It might have an awkward name, but this app (available in free and $4.99 versions) helps you keep track of all your receipts (even the racist ones!)
What other apps have you found that have helped you save money or trim your budget? Let us know in the comments or e-mail me directly with your suggestions.
An African-American man in Missouri is considering legal action against Pizza Hut after having his name replaced on a receipt with the words “BIGBLACK.”
“At first I thought maybe this was some type of promotional,” the customer explained. “This had to be the name of a pizza that I didn’t know.”
But he continued to be dogged by suspicion, so he compared it to a receipt from another area Pizza Hut and, “Lo and behold, the same spot where the name would go is where the racist remark went from the Pizza Hut on Lindell.”
And then there’s the matter of timing — The incident occurred on Martin Luther King Day. “To be an African-American male and have that type of injustice done to you, especially by a Caucasian, on Martin Luther King holiday, it just threw me so hard,” explained the disgruntled customer.
After voicing his displeasure to Pizza Hut, the customer was offered two $50 gift cards and a letter of apology from Hut headquarters.
“We have taken corrective action, including an employee training at this restaurant, to make sure our policies are adhered to,” said Chris Fuller, Pizza Hut spokesman. Hut policy dictates that only name, address or phone number can be used to identify customers.
However, the customer still feels a personal slight and is considering legal action.
“It’s good that they did manage to step up and do something, but still they have not addressed [my] problem,” the customer, who says he was the only one in that Pizza Hut at the time of his purchase, explained. “First you’ve got to deal with [me] then you deal with everyone else.”
As for the gift cards he received, the customer says he has donated them to a local homeless shelter.
