Author: Meg Marco

The WSJ reports that for the first time, tickets to a movie have reached the $20 threshold. People are apparently paying $20 per adult ticket to see the IMAX version of “Shrek Forever After.”

The theaters showing $20 movies include “the AMC theater in Manhattan’s Kips Bay neighborhood, AMC Loews 34, AMC Loews Lincoln Square and AMC Empire 42nd Street.”

It’s only been a few weeks since the last price increase — when theater operators hiked ticket prices as much as 26% in late March.

There is, of course, some concern that the $20 mark is a price point that psychologically, consumers will find hard to overcome — but there does appear to be a large appetite for 3D and IMAX movies.

The WSJ says that overall box office revenues are up 6% for the year, despite the fact that attendance is down slightly.

Movie Tickets Reach the $20 Mark [WSJ]

As we all know, merchants are generally not supposed to mandate minimum credit card purchases. It’s a violation of the merchant agreements they sign with the credit card companies. (For more info, check out this article.) The proposed finance bill, however, may legitimize those handwritten signs if it ends up passing.

The NYT says that current Senate version of the bill will allow such minimums as long as there is no discrimination between which type of card the customer is using. A Bank of America card, for example, could not have a $10 minimum while an Amex had none.

On the other had, offering discounts to certain preferred card holders would be allowed. So you could get a $1 discount for having a MasterCard while people with Visa were stuck paying full price.

The provision is part of a larger reworking of the way merchant fees are handled. The credit card companies are against it, because it would require banks to lower fees for merchants who use debit cards. The banks currently use those fees to pay for things like rewards programs and free checking accounts — products that are attractive to consumers and easy to market.

“This is an incredible con job,” MasterCard’s general counsel, Noah J. Hanft, told the NYT. “Under the guise of helping small business, this is just a shrewd and cynical effort that ultimately harms consumers.”

How the Finance Bill Affects Consumers [NYT]

BuzzFeed has compiled 16 photographs of things they only sell at Chinese Walmart. We have chosen three of our favorites.

1. Crocodiles

4. Orange Juice And Cooking Oil Bundles

14. Great Value Brand Hot And Spicy Beef Granules

Chinese Walmart seems cooler than our Walmart. Don’t you think?

16 Items They Only Sell At Chinese Walmarts [BuzzFeed]

Ok, we’re sure it isn’t technically the weirdest one ever, but the abruptness with which the weirdness takes over at the end of the ad is noteworthy.

Everything seemed normal until I got to the end [Reddit]
$850 Looking for new Roommate [Craigslist]

Wonder why Sarah Jessica Parker’s character in Sex And The City 2 is using a HP laptop? HP paid for it. Why are they drinking Skyy vodka? Well, that’s the films “official vodka.” According to the NYP, “every aspect of Carrie’s life is reduced to a vignette that can be monetized.”

According to the article everything from the dress she wears on the poster (from her Halston Heritage brand, $325, available at net-a-porter.com) to the drink she sips while going to the gym, (Lipton Sparkling Green Tea, official sponsor,) is making money for someone, often Sarah Jessica Parker.

From the NYP:

The actress is using the film as an opportunity to pimp out the Halston Heritage brand, for which she was named “chief creative officer” in January. She cannily made sure that the white Halston Heritage dress she’s wearing in the movie’s other poster became available on net-a-porter.com as soon as the image was released. So if you have $325, you can dress just like Carrie — and conveniently funnel money back to SJP’s coffers. Five of the 41 looks worn by Parker in the film are also by the label’s Heritage line.

The switch to HP seems to be causing the most stir, as the character was apparently something of a Mac aficionado up until the sponsorship checks started rolling in to Warner Bros.

And now for your viewing pleasure, here’s Ms. Parker’s new HP commercial:

Ca$h & Carrie [NYP]

The Mortgage Bankers Association says that if you just missed a morgage payment, you’re not alone — 10% of homeowners just did the same thing.

Despite that somber-sounding news, the association’s chief economist, Jay Brinkmann, says that the foreclosure crisis does not appear to be getting worse. The trouble is that it’s not exactly improving either.

“I don’t see signs now that it’s getting worse, but it’s going to take a while,” he said. “A bad situation that’s not getting worse is still bad.”

Most troubling is the fact that the crises has moved from bad mortgages to a crisis of unemployment and reduced income. Borrowers with good credit who took out fixed-rate loans are now the fastest growing group of foreclosures, says USAToday:

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, are the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, lax lending standards were the culprit. But homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are now the fastest growing group of foreclosures.

Those borrowers made up nearly 37% of new foreclosures in the first quarter of the year, up from 29% a year earlier.

10% of homeowners missed a mortgage payment in Q1 [USAToday]

A woman in Florida got her driver’s license in the mail only to find that she apparently lived on “Eat Ass” street. Her entire street address is printed as “Eat Ass Englewood, FL 34223,” thus raising the question of how exactly they mailed the license to her.

The DMV told the local NBC station:

“The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has numerous safeguards in place when customers conduct business with us to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information provided to us. We have opened an investigation into this matter to determine who and how this misinformation was provided. Using false information related to a Florida driver license or ID card is a crime, and subject to applicable penalties of law. We have already reissued the customer’s drivers license at no cost.”

Mysterious.

Woman’s new driver’s license reads “Eat @%$” [2News] (Thanks, Ryan!)

Reader G sends in a screen shot of a chat he had with a Verizon rep who elegantly expressed her own frustration with Verizon’s website. Hooray for her.

Reader IfThenElvis has submitted, for your approval, this photo of Best Buy asking you to let them install a PS3 game.

Discuss.

Is “bioch” a bad word? New Jersey thinks so. They’re trying to take away one resident’s fabulous bioch vanity plates because they are “objectionable.” She’s upset because people like the plates and think they are funny.

“They say, we knew you were here, we saw your car,” said the plate owner. “People know me by the plates.”

It’s not offensive,” she said. “It’s not even a real word.”

From NJ.com:

“The commission, in processing your request, erred and assigned a combination which is considered objectionable,” wrote Dodie Burrell, a supervisor in the Special Plate Unit, in a May 5 letter to Romano. “The commission has no alternative but to immediately recall the license plate ‘bioch.’”

Now she has no choice but to turn in the plates or New Jersey will not renew her registration.

Manville woman must forfeit her ‘Bioch’ license plates after complaint of profanity [NJ]

If you’d like to stare, horrified at the fact that you have just ordered a lunch of 1,213 calories, Burgerville is your new favorite burger joint.

The chain, located in Washington and Oregon, has set up the registers to print a customized calorie count of your order on our receipt– and will even suggest ways you could have ordered fewer calories. (For example: “If you are trying to eat healthier, try ‘holding the chipotle mayo’ on your sandwich and save 180 calories and 18g of fat.”)

From their press release:

“We want our guests to know exactly what they are getting when they order from us,” said Jeff Harvey, Burgerville president and CEO. “That way guests can take control of their food choices and make sure that they feel satisfied and empowered when they eat at Burgerville. The Nutricate program offers a very clear view into how each meal fits into our overall eating habits.”

The WSJ notes that according to the chain’s menu, their hypothetical order: a pepper bacon cheeseburger (including the mayo), regular fries and regular Coke set them back 1,213 calories. Yum.

Here’s Your Burger and Your Change, and By the Way, That’s 1,213 Calories [WSJ Health Blog]

An Olsen twin was flying from JFK to to Los Angeles when the United Airlines plane she was traveling in caught on fire and had to land in DC.

EW says an electrical fire caused a crack in the planes windshield. The Washington Post says that the fire was small and there were no injuries, but that the runway was closed for about 40 minutes while the plane was inspected.

No guitars were harmed.

Plane with fire in cockpit sent to Dulles [WaPo]

Ashley Olsen Safe After Flight Makes Emergency Landing [Eonline]

For those of you who don’t follow various internetty things, Foursquare is a location-sharing social media service where you can compete with others to be declared “mayor” of various locations. In an effort to make this actually have a point, Foursquare has teamed up with Starbucks to offer discounts to the Mayors of individual Starbucks locations.

The deal is $1 off a Frappuccino, any size, any flavor.

Says Mashable:

Tristan Walker, who heads up business development at Foursquare (Foursquare), tells us that the Starbucks special is a one-time mayor deal that runs through June 28, but he’s optimistic that Starbucks will continue to experiment with mayor rewards on an ongoing basis. “Starbucks is particularly innovative as it relates loyalty and social media,” Walker noted, “so we continue to be super excited to explore this intersection with them.”

Mayors of Starbucks Now Get Discounts Nationwide with Foursquare [Mashable]

There appears to be a crisis of robot morale going on at Dell. They just aren’t bothering to personalize the emails and chats anymore.

Maybe the robots and the humans have had some sort of falling out and the robots have taken over.

Behold this evidence, sent by reader Christopher.

Reader Colin has run into something we’ve seen many times before. Best Buy sold him what we call a “Box of Crap,” in this case, an XBox that someone else had swapped out with their modded, broken one. Best Buy’s policy is to refuse a return if the serial number on the Xbox doesn’t match the one on the receipt, so unless you actually open the box and check out the item before you leave the store — get ready for a battle.

We wish Colin had read this post before he stopped at Best Buy, but oh well. Here’s the EECB he sent to Best Buy:

Dear Best Buy Executives,

I would like to start by thanking you for taking the time to read my email and for helping me resolve my situation. I do not take writing you lightly as I am sure you have many other important responsibilities. I have tried to resolve my issue through normal Best Buy customer service channels and have been unable to obtain the resolution that I seek. Being unable to resolve the situation normally, I have no other option than to ask for your help personally.

I purchased an Xbox 360 from the Best Buy store in Chicago on Wednesday, April 28th. Upon returning home and plugging in the unit, I was surprised to find a disc already in the drive. It was horribly scratched. I attempted to play other discs on the unit with no success. Deciding that the unit was faulty, I went to return the unit the next day.

When I entered the store, I went to the customer service desk and left the box with my non-functioning unit at the counter with the Customer Service agent as they told me to go get a new unit off the shelf. When I returned, the CSR was opening the box and said that the unit I was returning did not have a serial number and that they couldn’t exchange it. I asked to speak with the manager and was referred to a man I assume was the manager of the CSR area and he told me the same thing.

I returned to the store this morning and asked to speak with the store manager. I ended up speaking with a gentleman named [redacted]. and told him the whole story. He again repeated the policy that he couldn’t help me because there was no serial number on the unit I was attempting to exchange. I explained to him that I did not remove the serial number and had no idea how it was removed. He had employees review security tapes to see if it had been tampered with while I was away getting the new unit, but he informed me that they saw nothing.

Since he was unable to help me, I returned home and called the 1-888-BestBuy number and was connected with a CSR agent by the name of [redacted], whose Agent ID is [redacted]. He looked up my case as I had called Thursday night as well and then I told him my story. He contacted the GM of the store who related my conversation with [redacted] to him and informed me he could not override their decision. [The CSR] then connected me with [another CSR] who assured me that it was impossible that I found a disc in the unit upon purchase and that he could not help me because of the lack of serial number.

I did some research and found a second serial number under the dashboard of the Xbox 360 unit. The serial # does not match that of the serial recorded at the POS. Also, the tamper-sticker on the unit is torn. It seems that this unit was opened and returned before being sold as new on the shelf. I returned to the store and showed this serial number to [the employee at the store] and he said he would look through the receipts and get back to me but since the serial # did not match that of the unit at POS, he couldn’t help me unless the second serial number appeared in his store receipts. At this point several weeks have gone by and I have had no contact from [the employee]. even though I have left several messages for him.

So that is why I am here writing you. At this point, I have a non-functioning Xbox that I paid $270 for, including the extended warranty. I do not know what happened to the serial number. I did not remove it. I am not trying to do a bait and switch, I am an honest person. I can appreciate the serial number policy in terms of reducing fraud, but I have been burned by buying a product that was obviously used and now I’m out of the purchase price and unable to exchange this item through no fault of my own.

I ask that you please look into my situation and fix this problem. I am only asking that I receive value for the money I have already paid. I would gladly accept a functioning Xbox 360 or a full refund for my purchase.

Again, I thank you for taking the time to read my letter and address the issue I have written about. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at xxx-xxx-xxxx or at this e-mail address.

Colin, we hope you didn’t pay cash for the Box of Crap. We’ve found that readers who have had this problem with Best Buy have the best result when they call their credit card company or bank and report it as fraud. You can also file a police report, report Best Buy to your attorney general, or consider filing a small claims lawsuit.

Take photos of the item and document everything. For more detailed advice, check out this post.

For the rest of you, open everything you buy at Best Buy while still inside the store.

We don’t have a whole lot to say about this other than we’re really happy it exists. Also, we wanted to post a picture of Indiana Jones, so there you have it. Mission accomplished.

UPDATE: There are TV commercials.

[Harrison Ford Mercury]

The fish and shrimp might escape the oil, but what will happen to the oysters? Marketplace talks to Sal Sunseri, the owner of P&J Oysters in New Orleans, a company that’s been around since 1876 and is the number one oyster supplier to New Orleans restaurants. The question: What’s going to happen to the oysters if the spill gets worse?

Vigeland: Can you talk us through, geographically, where are the oyster beds in relation to where this oil slick is headed?

Sunseri: Approximately 50 miles away. So we still prayfully have a lot of work to be done by the oil companies. Hopefully they’ll take our offers because shrimpers, oyster farmers and other boats are offering their services to help with the spill, help skim, whatever it takes to not allow this to enter our estuaries.

Vigeland: What happens to you if it does?

Sunseri: We’ll be devastated. No telling how long it would take for this type of spill to be cleansed again.

Oh noooooo! Mr. Suseri concluded the interview by asking the listeners to pray for the oyster farmers and shrimpers of the gulf coast. God save the delicious oysters!

We wish we had a boat and could help. Hang in there, oyster farmers.

The oil spill’s impact on oyster industry [Marketplace]

The overall unemployment rate in the EU is about 10%, but Spain is being especially hard hit by the economy and has reached 20%. Ouch.

The BBC says:

Spain’s unemployment rate has hit 20% for the first time in nearly 13 years, official figures have shown.

There were 4,612,700 people unemployed in the country at the end of March, the national statistics agency INE said.

Spain’s jobless rate has risen sharply during the economic downturn and is the highest in the eurozone.

S&P has downgraded Spain’s government debt based on its bleak economic outlook.

According to WIkipedia other countries with around 20% unemployment include Bosnia and Herzegovinia, Gabon, and East Timor.

Spain unemployment rate hits 20% [BBC]

It’s official, Apple is shutting down Lala.com, a streaming service where users could pay for the rights to steam songs or buy and download them. After May 31, 2010, however, the web music will stop streaming and customers will be given iTunes credit.

CNet says Apple bought Lala for the streaming technology and the move is no surprise:

Apple’s decision to close Lala isn’t much of a surprise as Lala never found much of a foothold as a standalone music service. The real prize for Apple was the company’s streaming technology. Shortly after the Apple’s December acquisition of Lala, sources told CNET that Lala’s engineers and leaders would help spearhead a cloud-based streaming service.

Reader A. is really disappointed:

Apple bought lala.com as you had previously reported but now they’re going to destroy it along with all the songs I had streaming with the service! It was such a good service too, even my mom bought songs and she never uses those content distribution services. They’re offering me itunes credit, but the two services are not comparable. The reason why I bought lala songs was for their diverse artist base which itunes does not quite match.

Apple says bye-bye to Lala [CNet]

Reader Allnitecp says:

I saw this at Target, and knew I had to send it in.

Its funny that when they run out of bathroom scales they think that a mirror is a good substitute….

I got a good chuckle out of it.

And when they run out of mirrors do they suggest “that one pair of jeans you bought right after you had swine flu?”