Consumerist
competition
Posts Tagged “
Competition
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competition
competition
L.A. County Tells Taco Trucks To Keep Moving
Peter writes to let us know that taco trucks in Los Angeles county now have to move to a new position every hour: "The county of Los Angeles has enacted some new legislation to prevent taco truck owners from staying in one spot, with penalties of a fine of up to $1000 or jail for failures to comply." Why such a weird law? Because area restaurants say they're stealing away customers. If you like your carne asada from the side of a truck, be prepared to start chasing them down as they circle through L.A. county in a weird Mexican-food carousel. More »
rumors
XM-Sirius Merger Will Double Monthly Prices?
What does the XM-Sirius satellite radio merger mean for XM customers? Well, according to one customer service rep, it means mean prices are going to roughly double in May. Here's what she said to one of our tipsters:This is strictly confidential, but all the paperwork is signed and ready to go, and XM has fully acquired Sirius Radio. Come May, there will be a substantial price increase for XM Radio, as it will, in June or so, host all the Sirius channels. It would be best to simply extend your XM plan as we will honor your current contract price per month before we begin hosting the Sirius stations.The tipster said he believed she said the price was going to double. Perhaps the customer service rep just wanted to score a renewal, but if true, it would certainly at least be ironic considering when the DOJ approved the deal was they said, "the evidence did not show that the merger would enable the parties to profitably increase prices to satellite radio customers." However, reader comments on this post and this post over at Orbitcast say this customer service rep is full of pure baloney.
The DOJ has approved a merger between Sirius and XM satellite radio, ruling that there wasn't enough evidence to show that it would result in higher prices for consumers. We'll see. [OrbitCast]
laptops
Intel To Sell Ultra-Cheap Classmate PC To Americans
Great news, America: Intel's ultra-cheap Classmate PC isn't just for impoverished third-world schoolchildren anymore! The chipmaker today announced plans to sell the notebook domestically in the coming months. Intel insists its sub-notebook isn't designed to compete with the non-profit One Laptop Per Child project, which is powered by chips from Intel's rival, AMD, but they have aggressively moved to undercut OLPC wherever possible. The laptop will likely cost Americans less than $500. More »
Yahoo rejects Microsoft's takeover bid for reals for reals. We are safe from the threat of the creation of the world's largest, crappiest, search engine...for now. [AP]
competitive markets
Dreyer Loses Truck Deathmatch To Häagen-Dazs
Jay writes: "I caught these two photos on my way in to work today in San Diego. At first I just thought is was amusing that the Dreyers truck was on its side, it really is the little things in life that make it worth living. Then I saw the Haagen-Dazs ice cream truck nearby, standing in victory. Apparently Haagen-Dazs is no longer satisfied with being the superior ice cream, they must now ram their competition off the road."
You never knew the ice cream bizness was so mad gangsta, did you? This is worse than the time Vanilla Bean took out Heath Bar Crunch. Bigger picture inside...
More »
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 »
travel
JetBlue Wants You, Canada
Increased competition may drive airfares to Canada lower if JetBlue gets it way. The low-cost airline has applied to begin serving our neighbor to the north, says the Globe and Mail.Low-cost U.S. carrier JetBlue Airways Corp. is applying to launch charter and scheduled service between Canada and the United States, a move that is expected to shake up Canadian rivals and reduce transborder fares.More »
broadband
Congress Asks FCC To Accurately Count U.S. Broadband Homes
Congress has added its voice to the growing number of critics who have noted that the FCC is misreporting broadband penetration in the U.S. According to eWeek, last Wednesday a House subcommittee "approved legislation to change the Federal Communications Commission's methodology for determining deployment." The FCC currently counts a single home in a zip code as representative of the full zip code—so one home having broadband access is considered the same as every home in that area having broadband access. By doing this, they inflate the number of homes with broadband access and present a picture of increased "natural" competition in the market, which is then used by telecoms and lobbyists to argue against policy decisions that don't favor existing corporations. More »
travel
Retributive Airlines "Tweak" Each Other, Offer Great Fares To Consumers
Rick Seaney has a great post about the "tweak," a move used by airlines to piss off competitors by offering discount airfares from their rival's hubs. The spurned airline will often retaliate by tweaking the offender back in return. Rick Seany explains: More »
retail
Walmart Instigates Back-To-School Season Price War
Walmart will offer 10 to 50 percent discounts on 16,000 items to boost sales during the lucrative back-to-school season. The cuts are part of Walmart's broader plan to abandon its pursuit of the upscale market, which "confused customers," and return to its core business of undercutting competition and instigating price wars. More »
travel
Online Travel Sites Waive Booking Fees To Compete With Airlines
Several travel sites are scrapping booking fees to keep customers away from individual airline sites. Savvy customers currently research fares with travel sites, and then buy directly from airlines to avoid booking fees."Hotwire.com announced this week that it would drop its $6-a-ticket charge for airline reservations on both its "opaque" reservations (the bargain-priced fares that don't let you know exactly what flight you've booked until after you've paid) and regular bookings through summer. Last week, Priceline.com announced it was suspending booking charges on regular airfares through Labor Day. (The deal excludes its opaque, name-your-own-price fares.) Fees range from $5 a domestic ticket to up to $9.95 for an international reservation.More »
airlines
Open Skies Agreement Means TransAtlantic Airways Cleared For Competition
Transatlantic travelers should be treated to lower costs and increased offerings, thanks to the "Open Skies" agreement signed yesterday between the US and the EU. More »
virgin atlantic
Virgin America's Awesome Plane DOT Won't Let You Ride
netflix
Free Blockbuster Rentals For Netflix Subscribers
Blockbuster will give you a free online rental for each Netflix envelope flap you bring into a store. You must have a Blockbuster membership to qualify. The promotions lasts until Dec. 21. It's an effort to get Netflix subscribers to sign up for Blockbuster's Total Access Online service. More »
wal-mart
Wal-Mart Will Help The Puny Humans Compete
In one of the weirdest business moves we've ever seen, Wal-Mart has decided to award business grants to their own small competitors, even as the company tries to smash them, Incredible Hulk style, into a bloody patina. More »
amazon
