Almost two weeks after cutting driver pay, grocery delivery startup Instacart appears to continue revamping its service in the aim of increasing profitability. To that end the company has fired all of its drivers in the Minneapolis area just six months after opening for business in the city. [More]
Retail Services
Amazon Executive: Actually, We Don’t Have Any Big Corporate Office Supply Contracts Yet
By 3.23.16
Staples and Office Depot want to pledge their future and their fortunes together in corporate matrimony, and the Federal Trade Commission objects to their union. The companies and the Federal Trade Commission are making their cases before a federal judge, and the key question in this merger seems to be whether large corporations plan to buy their office supplies from Amazon in the future. An Amazon executive testified that they haven’t signed any major companies, and aren’t really pursuing big corporate contracts. Yet. [More]
Amazon Sues Executive Leaving To Work For Target Under Non-Compete Agreement
By 3.22.16
Last month, Target announced that they had hired a top executive in supply chain and logistics who was a longtime Amazon employee. He was scheduled to start his new job in Minneapolis next week, but Amazon has filed a lawsuit to prevent him from starting, citing a non-compete contract that he signed in 2012 and confidential information that the executive, Arthur Valdez, shared during his job interview. [More]
Staples, Office Depot, And FTC Make Opening Arguments In Merger Hearing
By 3.21.16
Today was the first day of the federal court hearing where Staples and Office Depot are making their cases about whether a proposed merger of the two companies would be beneficial to or terrible for consumers. Today, both sides made their opening arguments. The FTC is concerned about possible price hikes for consumers, and the two office supply companies are concerned that Amazon is going to crush them. [More]
Amazon Really Does Sell Everything, Opens Cable Store To Resell Comcast
By 3.21.16
Someday, you will be able to buy your house and everything in it from Amazon, much like Sears a century ago. Perhaps to prepare for that day, Amazon is now selling Comcast’s Xfinity bundles in its new Amazon Cable Store, and the store setup implies that they’ll be adding carriers in other areas soon. [More]
Walmart Eye Care Employee Allegedly Sent Illicit Texts To Customers
By 3.21.16
A St. Louis woman who took her glasses in for repairs at an eye care clinic inside a local Walmart got more than she bargained for: pornographic photos of the store’s clerk. [More]
Costumed Easter Bunny Brawls With Customer At NJ Mall
By 3.21.16
I don’t trust costumed animal mascots. Their enormous heads and soulless plastic eyes scare me. An incident at a New Jersey mall over the weekend showed that maybe this mistrust is justified, when a costumed Easter Bunny and a customer physically brawled over child safety issues. [More]
Amazon Officially In the Air Freight Business; Acquires 10% Stake In Cargo Partner
By 3.21.16
Only weeks after making a deal with cargo company Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) to lease a fleet of 20 planes to use for shipping packages, Amazon is now a part owner of the company. [More]
Got An Older Kindle? Update Your Device By March 22 Or It Won’t Connect To The Internet
By 3.21.16
Unless you’re happy reading the material that’s on your older Kindle right now forever and ever, you’ll want to heed Amazon’s advice, and quick: some e-readers will need to be updated by March 22, or they’ll lose the ability to connect to the Internet. [More]
7-Eleven Now Selling A Slurpee-Flavored Donut
By 3.18.16
Perhaps this weekend’s 7-Eleven promotion where you can fill any sufficiently narrow container with Slurpee isn’t of interest to you because you would rather have your Wild Cherry-flavored sweetness in the form of a baked good. The convenience store chain is happy to indulge that very specific preference: they have a limited-time offering of a cherry-iced donut under the Slurpee brand. [More]
Free Shipping Not Actually Zero-Cost Or Zero Effort, And FedEx Wants Retailers To Pay Their Share
By 3.17.16
We’re nearly two decades now into the e-commerce era. Shop everywhere! Shop from your phone. Shop from your tablet. Shop (during your breaks, of course) from your work computer. But all that online shopping shares one thing in common: unless 3D printers become a lot more like Star Trek‘s replicators, and a lot more affordable, all those goods ordered in the cloud have to get to actual consumers on good, old-fashioned planes, trains, and trucks. [More]
Amazon Teams Up With Fitbit, Makes Alexa A Fitness Guru
By 3.17.16
Amazon Echo’s personal assistant, Alexa, can serve as your financial advisor by paying your Capital One bill, your personal chef by ordering Dominos, and now she can act as your personal trainer. The smart speaker now works with health tracking company Fitbit to provide users with details about their daily fitness routine. [More]
Woman Accused Of Shoplifting At Walmart Flashed Security Staff, Then Bit Them
By 3.16.16
A woman who set off the security sensors at the Walmart in Blackman Township, MI in the wee hours of Monday morning wanted to show employees that she had nothing to hide. Police say that’s why she pulled her shirt up and her pants down to show that she had no merchandise concealed under her clothing. However, there was the matter of the cart full of merchandise that she pushed into the foyer. [More]
Offshore Gambling Operation Accused Of Laundering $2M Using Amazon Gift Cards
By 3.15.16
Amazon gift cards aren’t just for buying stuff online anymore: according to a Department of Homeland Security investigator, they’re also the method of choice for an offshore gambling website’s money laundering operation. [More]
Amazon Files Patent For Pay-By-Selfie System
By 3.14.16
MasterCard may have rolled out its new “selfie” verification system last month, but it’s not the only company to take consumers’ love of self portraits and turn it into a way to make money. To that end, Amazon recently filed a patent for a so-called selfie pay system. [More]
Users Complain That This Night Cream Is Giving Them Weird Dreams
By 3.11.16
A night cream is exactly what it sounds like: a cream that you apply to your face overnight to moisturize while you sleep. Yet some users of a night cream from skin care brand Dr. Brandt report that more than wrinkle-softening is happening when they use it: they report incredibly vivid dreams, some of which are scary. [More]
Capital One Will Let Customers Pay Bills, Access Account Info Using Amazon Echo
By 3.11.16
You can ask Alexa to order you a pizza and get more laundry detergent, and soon, Capital One customers who own an Amazon Echo will be able to access their accounts to pay bills and get other information by speaking to their device. [More]
Student Loan Companies Tell Congress: Debt-Collection Robocalls Are In Borrowers’ Best Interest
By 3.10.16
Show me someone who supports robocalls, and I’ll show you someone that has very few friends. Which is why it’s baffling that the Senate has yet to act on a bill introduced last fall that would close a loophole allowing the government to make debt-collection robocalls. But you know who does support robocalls? The student loan companies that are currently trying to convince Congress that these invasive annoyances are really for our benefit. [More]
