There’s nothing that can ruin a great tourism experience quite like the intense need to go to the bathroom. That’s why officials in some U.S. cities are trying to figure out how to provide more public restrooms: If tourists have a place to go when they need to, they may be more likely to visit — and spend money — in those cities. [More]
Food & Personal Care
There’s A New Chocolate Color For The First Time In 80 Years
By 9.5.17
For the last 80 years, chocolate lovers have only had three types to choose from: dark, milk, and white (which some may argue isn’t really chocolate). But now there’s a new option heading for shelves — “ruby.” [More]
Bar Shuts Down After Employees, Customers Learn Owner Donated To Former KKK Leader David Duke
By 9.5.17
A Minneapolis bar has gone from local hotspot to closed-for-business after employees, patrons, and entertainers learned that the club’s owner recently donated to the political campaign for a former head of the Ku Klux Klan. [More]
Panera Worker Fired For Calling Customer A “Stupid B***h” On Receipt
By 9.1.17
Of all the phrases one might expect to find on a receipt — “Have a nice day!” “Come again!” — an insulting message is the last thing any customer wants to read. But a Panera Bread worker is now out of a job, after a customer said there was a strongly-worded note left on her receipt. [More]
Chinese KFC Lets Customers Pay By Smiling At A Screen
By 9.1.17
You can use your face to check bags for a flight or board an airplane, and now at one KFC in China, you can pay for your food by smiling at a screen. [More]
The Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte Doesn’t Really Come Back Earlier Every Year
By 9.1.17
If you’re like approximately one-third of the Consumerist staff in the office today, you can’t wait for the return of pumpkin spice lattes to Starbucks and other coffee places. If so, you’ll be delighted to hear that the beverage unofficially appears in Starbucks stores for the season today, as pumpkin spice everything sprouts in stores across the country. [More]
Over 17 Tons Of Chicken Sausage Recalled For Undeclared Allergens
By 9.1.17
When sitting down to eat a chicken sausage, you should be confident that there’s no meat, spice, or other substance in there that isn’t marked on the label. That’s not the case for two products distributed recently: Thin & Trim and Trader Joe’s chicken sausages have dairy and soy, respectively, in the sausages that aren’t declared on the label. [More]
Pizza Hut Workers Use Kayaks To Deliver Food To Hurricane Harvey Victims
By 8.31.17
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, flood waters have wreaked havoc on much of southeastern Texas. So when a Pizza Hut manager heard there were families trapped in their homes without food, she decided that if she couldn’t get to them by land, she’d send pizza over the water — by kayak. [More]
Organic Doritos Are A Thing, But Would Whole Foods Sell Them?
By 8.30.17
PepsiCo, the snack corporation that has brought us simple culinary delights such as Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and Doritos Locos Tacos flavored Doritos, has a new product line geared to current consumers’ tastes. The Simply line consists of “natural” versions of 11 of the company’s main chip brands, including Lay’s, Cheetos, Doritos, and Tostitos. [More]
What’s In That Smell? P&G Will List All Fragrance Ingredients Online
By 8.30.17
If you’ve ever looked at the list of ingredients on a can of air freshener and wondered what, exactly, is involved in that “sea breeze” scent, you’ll have some more answers soon: Procter & Gamble is joining other companies in the push for transparency with a promise that eventually all of its smelliest home and personal care offerings will detail exactly what substances make up “fragrance.” [More]
465K People Need A Pacemaker Security Update To Protect Their Hearts From Hacking
By 8.30.17
If you need more evidence that we are living in an increasingly internet-connected world, look no further than a recent software update aimed at making sure 465,000 people with pacemakers don’t have hearts that are vulnerable to hackers. [More]
Whole Foods Meat Guys Sculpt Amazon Logos Out Of Ground Beef
By 8.30.17
What’s that old saying, again? “When you love someone, say it with meat”? That’s how employees at one Los Angeles Whole Foods welcomed their new e-commerce overlords, sculpting Amazon and Prime logos out of ground beef in the display case. [More]
Burger King Giving Free Whoppers To Customers Who Admit To Being Fired
By 8.29.17
Getting fired from a job is rarely something you want to declare publicly. But what if it gets you a free Whopper at Burger King?
[More]
In-N-Out Goes To War With Smashburger Over ‘Triple Double’ Cheeseburgers
By 8.29.17
Two fast food chains with dedicated fanbases are set to square off in a courtroom over Smashburger’s new Triple Double cheeseburger, which In-N-Out Burger claims is illegally trying to copy its famous Double-Double and Triple-Triple sandwiches. [More]
Domino’s Self-Driving Delivery Cars Means Having To Retrieve Pizza Yourself
By 8.29.17
Maybe you’re not ready to hop into a driverless taxi cab, but what about having your pizza delivered by a self-driving car? [More]
Mall Giant Sues Starbucks To Stop Planned Shutdown Of All Teavana Stores
By 8.28.17
Starbucks recently announced it would shut down all 379 locations of its boutique Teavana tea shops. Tea drinkers weren’t the only ones annoyed by the news. A huge shopping mall landlord whose properties currently house 1-in-5 Teavana stores is suing mad, taking Starbucks to court to halt the shutdown. [More]
Target Goes After Costco, Trader Joe’s With New $5 Wines
By 8.28.17
All around the country, thrifty wine drinkers pop into their local Trader Joe’s for a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck wine, or pack up their massive Costco trolley with some Kirkland Signature vino. But Chuck and Kirk have a new competitor for that discount drink dollar: Target, which has just unveiled its own line of $5 wines. [More]
Whole Foods Stores Start Week With Lower Prices, Echo Speakers Next To Vegetables
By 8.28.17
It’s the beginning of a new week for most of us, but the beginning of a new era for Whole Foods and Amazon. The grocery store’s acquisition by the Everything Store closes this week, and the companies have already kicked off their in-store relationship with Echo speakers in the produce section and lower prices on selected items around the store. [More]
