Earlier today, we told you how the original Taco Bell building in Downey, CA, now faces possible demolition after its most recent tenant left the place empty in December. We asked Taco Bell corporate for comment on the story and its response is apparently to start a social media campaign — though we’re not exactly sure to what end. [More]
california
World’s First Taco Bell Building Facing Possible Demolition
By 1.14.15
If you drive past 7112 Firestone Blvd. in Downey you’ll see the shuttered remains of a restaurant called Seafood and Tacos Raul that seems like it may have been trying to ape look of an old-school Taco Bell. What a lot of people don’t know is that this building is the fountainhead from which flowed decades of gorditas, chimichangas, chalupas, and Dorito-shelled tacos — and now it faces an “imminent threat of demolition.” [More]
Foie Gras Is Back On The Menu In California After Judge Blocks 2012 Ban
By 1.8.15
Californians with a hankering for duck liver will soon be reunited after more than two years, as a judge has put the kibosh on the statewide ban on foie gras, saying it was the federal government’s job to regulate poultry products, not the states’ role. [More]
Couple Gets Married In Costco Frozen Food Section
By 12.30.14
While a Costco club membership has to be renewed every year, a couple of Costco fans in California decided to use the warehouse store as the backdrop for a ceremony involving a much longer commitment. [More]
Video Shows 78-Year-Old Walmart Worker Injuring Hip Trying To Check Shoplifter’s Receipt
By 12.23.14
While we certainly understand and appreciate the idea of employing older Americans as greeters at Walmart, we cringe every time we come across a story of another elderly worker injured after being put in the position of trying to prevent shoplifting. [More]
San Francisco, L.A. Sue Uber For Allegedly Misleading Consumers On Drivers’ Safety, Other Issues
By 12.10.14
After hearing several tales of consumers being mistreated or accosted by Uber drivers, one might begin to question the company’s “industry-leading” practices when it comes to screening drivers. It appears two California district attorneys are doing just that by filing a civil suit against the company for a number of issues including allegedly misleading consumers on its background checks for drivers. [More]
Debt Collectors Paying To Use Prosecutors’ Letterheads To Get People To Pay
By 12.3.14
It’s one thing to get a letter from a debt collector that erroneously claims you owe money and have to pay up; it’s another to receive that same notice from your local prosecutor. But what if that latter letter is actually coming from a debt collector who is paying the district attorney’s office for the right to contact certain consumers? [More]
Cops Pose As Pizza Delivery Guys To Arrest Robbers Using Stolen Credit Card
By 11.25.14
Consumerist’s Tip For Criminals #872: If you rob a guy, don’t then use his stolen credit card to have pizza delivered to your home, because the driver dropping off your pie might just be a police officer in disguise. [More]
Of Course There’s An App For Getting Medical Marijuana Delivered To Your Doorstep In L.A.
By 11.14.14
As marijuana becomes legal in a growing list of states, whether recreationally or for medical reasons, it would make sense that consumers living in those areas would turn to technology to get the products they want. After all, who actually calls the delivery place on the phone to get dinner anymore? Calling a cab, how quaint! So to fill that technology need, a California company has set its app up to offer medical marijuana delivery. [More]
California Teen Allegedly Sets Christmas-Themed Stuffed Animals On Fire At Walmart
By 11.5.14
In the past we’ve reported on some very disturbing behavior when it comes to consumers, stuffed animals, and Walmart (remember the humping incident?). The weirdness continued early this morning at a California store when a teen allegedly started a fire with the toys. [More]
Park Rangers: Taking A “Bear Selfie” Is Dangerous And You Should Stop It Right Now
By 10.28.14
No matter how many times you’ve watched The Jungle Book and thought about how great it would be to be friends with Baloo, it’s a movie and forcing a bear to be your friend is not a good idea. Neither is chasing one down in the wild so you can score the perfect selfie. Because, yes, that is now a thing; a very, very dangerous phenomena that rangers have had to warn people to stop doing. [More]
$10K Or $250K — How Much Should Walmart Pay For Wrongly Accusing Man Of Attacking Worker?
By 10.24.14
In Sept. 2007, a man described as being 5’7″ and around 50 years old in California allegedly attacked a Walmart employee who had caught him shoplifting. Two months later, a man in his early 40s and five inches taller than that suspect walked into the Walmart, where he claims he was detained by a manager and publicly accused of being the attacker from the earlier incident. Seven years later, the legal debate is ongoing as to how much, if anything, Walmart should pay this man. [More]
Is Whole Foods Still Overcharging California Customers?
By 10.8.14
Only a few months ago, Whole Foods agreed to pay $800,000 to close a one-year probe by prosecutors in three different Southern California cities into allegations that the pricey supermarket was overcharging customers even more by, among other things, failing to deduct the weight of containers when ringing up charges for self-serve foods. Whole Foods promised to stop the practice and right its wrongs, but one Consumerist reader believes the company isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. [More]
CVS To Pay $225K For Misleading Packaging On Store-Brand Products
By 10.6.14
Isn’t it great when you buy a box that looks like it contains a large jar of face cream only to find out that what’s inside is much smaller than you’d expected? Drugstore megachain CVS recently agreed to pay $225,000 to settle allegations in California that it tweaked its packaging on nearly a dozen store-brand products to trick customers into thinking they were getting more than they really were. [More]
Intruders Massacred 920 Chickens With A Golf Club, No One Knows Why
By 10.2.14
Two weeks ago, an act of vandalism and animal cruelty occurred in a shed housing chickens belonging to meat producer Foster Farms. Someone entered a farm through a hole in the fence and clubbed 920 chickens to death for no clear reason. [More]
Comcast Charged For Unlisted Phone Numbers, Listed Them Anyway
By 10.2.14
When you pay to have your phone number unlisted, you would expect that the company you pay would honor this request. You’d also expect that if that company screwed up and accidentally published half of its unlisted customers’ numbers in the state of California, it might notice. This week, the California Public Utilities Commission is holding a hearing to determine if Comcast violated the law when it screwed up and shared more than 74,000 phone numbers, names, and addresses that were supposed to be unlisted, including info for customers who were victims of domestic violence or hiding from criminals. [More]
California Governor Signs Statewide Ban Of Plastic Bags
By 9.30.14
How many of you, faithful readers, have a closet full of reusable bags that without fail you forget each time you venture to the grocery store? Well if you live in California you might want to put a sticky note on the door reminding you to grab your bags because the state officially became the first in the nation to outlaw single-use plastic bags. [More]
California Governor Vetoes Weak-Kneed Antibiotics Bill
By 9.30.14
Considering that 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used on farm animals, and that most of those drugs are used primarily for growth promotion, you’d think we’d be happy to see a state like California introduce legislation that appears to ban the use of antibiotics to get fatter cows, pigs, and chickens. But it’s what that bill doesn’t do that has us concerned, and why California Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed it. [More]
