NEW YORK, 7:19 AM, WED JUL 9 | 20 POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS | tips@consumerist.com | RSS
Posts Tagged “

Businesses

laptops

Travelers Leave 12,000 Laptops In Airports Every Week

Absentminded travelers flummoxed by airport security leave 12,000 laptops in airports every single week. Only 30% are ever recovered. More »

Pack A Bag

United To Require Minimum Stays Starting In October

Sorry travelers, as expected, United Airlines will require minimum stays on all flights starting in October. Gone are the halcyon days of jetting away for a business meeting after breakfast with time to spare before returning for dinner. Most United fares will now require a three-night or weekend stay, but it "will depend on the destinations involved, the price of the ticket and the length of the flight." And, yes, you will still be charged $15 to check your first bag. More »

banking

Wachovia Opens Bank Account Without Permission, Starts Charging Fees

John can't understand how Wachovia charged his startup $12 in fees for failing to maintain a minimum balance when his company never opened an account with Wachovia in the first place. Apparently, his former bank manager decamped to Wachovia and, without his permission, opened a new account "to ensure certain money rates," whatever that means. John isn't mad, and the bank manager agreed to close the account, but John is a little worried because a collections agency has started calling and the account now lists $24.05 in fees. More »

Blockbuster has offered to buy Circuit City for a little over $1 billion, with the goal of creating "a chain that could sell portable devices and entertainment for them, much like Apple Inc.'s stores." [Chicago Tribune] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)

coffee

Want A Thriving Coffee Shop? Open Next To A Starbucks

The funny thing about Starbucks is it's helped to create a coffee culture filled with a significant number of people who don't actually like Starbucks—which means that, despite conventional wisdom, it's actually a good thing to be a mom & pop coffee shop with a Starbucks nearby, writes Slate. Instead of stealing your business, you get the spillover from their store. "They'll do all of your marketing for you, and your sales will soar."
More »

lists

The Year's Top Business Screw-Ups

Fortune recently published a list of 2007's 101 Dumbest Moments in Business, and then the Seattle Post-Intelligencer cooked that down to just 9 really good ones. Now we're summarizing the Seattle PI article. (If you'd like to play along, pick just a couple of business blunders from our summary and write them on a sticky note—we'd like to get this down to a six-word fortune cookie by December 31st.) Some of the Seattle PI's picks include the rats at the KFC in NYC, the GHB toy beads, Best Buy's in-store kiosk version of its website with higher prices, Jay-Z's dog-fur coats, and that time when SkyWest wouldn't let that passenger pee, and so he had to go in an air-sickness bag, which led to him being questioned by the police when he finally got off the plane. More »