cutting corners – Consumerist

Allegiant Air Pilots Once Again Raise Concerns With Airline’s Safety Practices

Ashlee Kieler — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 17:53:08 +0000

Pilots of Nevada-based budget carrier Allegiant Air are once again expressing their concerns that the airline’s bare minimum approach to maintenance and operations comes at the cost of passenger safety, this time in a letter to the company’s board of directors.

CBS News reports that (warning: link has video that autoplays) the union representing Allegiant pilots sent a letter [PDF] to the company’s board asking it to intervene in what the pilots says are cost cutting measures that put customers at risk when traveling with the airline.

“Allegiant is continuing to cut corners on industry-standard practices, including ignoring FAA recommendations on running important safety programs, using scheduling systems that create pilot fatigue and frustration and spending shareholder dollars on unnecessary legal fees and hours in court,” the letter states.

To illustrate the issues, the union points out that the airline has encountered 38 potentially dangerous incidents including failing engines, pressurization problems, and smoke in the cockpit between January and March of this year.

CBS News reports that passengers of the airline were part of two rather scary experiences just this month.

In one case, a flight had to make an emergency landing at an airport near Tampa. After reports of smoke were made in the cabin, passengers had to evacuate the aircraft using emergency exit slides. A second disturbance occurred in Idaho when passengers stood on the wing of the plane after seeing smoke.

“Allegiant Air is on a dangerous path that has shareholders, pilots and customers concerned,” the letter states. “We hope you will use your leadership to change the direction the company is heading.”

For its part, the airline insists its safety record is among the best in the industry, telling CBS News that the union’s claims are “an effort to manipulate the public” following stalled contract negotiations.

The Federal Aviation Administration says that when a carrier suffers from internal issues – such as labor unrest – the agency will increase oversight. However, the FAA did not address whether or not it found safety issues with regard to Allegiant.

Pilots accuse Allegiant Air of cutting safety along with costs [CBS News]

Has The Grocery Shrink Ray Turned Saltines Round?

Chris Morran — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:30:00 +0000

We don’t eat saltines all that often here at Consumerist HQ, but we are certainly familiar with the classic cracker’s orthogonal form. Well Nabisco is out to shake up the “stuff you crumble into your soup” market by testing a round version of its Premium brand saltine.

The round crackers are just rolling out now through supermarkets in New England, where they’ll undergo a 4-month test.

But while Nabisco says the shape change was to present the Premium in a “relevant and contemporary way,” Consumerist reader Philip pointed us to this portion of this MassLive.com story:

Beyond its size, the new Saltines come in a smaller box (10.5 ounces vs. the traditional 16) with different packaging.

Could this be a matter of Nabisco literally cutting corners? If stores are still charging the same amount for a package that is only 65% of the size, then this is definitely the work of the infamous Grocery Shrink Ray.

We don’t know what the stores are charging for the new-look saltines, but if anyone in New England sees them and wants to help with a price comparison, that would be awesome.

Ryanair's Newest Cost Cutting Idea: Remove Second Pilot

consumerist.com — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:30:00 +0000

Did Ryanair’s publicity-chasing CEO Michael O’Leary read about that American Airlines flight back in June? In a recent interview, he suggested that one way to reduce costs would be to get rid of the second pilot and just make sure every flight has a flight attendant with a pilot’s license.

“Let’s take out the second pilot. Let the bloody computer fly it,” O’Leary told Bloomberg Businessweek, adding that a flight attendant on each flight could be trained to help land a plane if something goes wrong.

“If the pilot has an emergency, he rings the bell, he calls her in,” O’Leary told the magazine. “She could take over.”

“Airline CEO: Nix co-pilot, save money” [CNN]

Shrink Ray Hits JCPenney Clothing Now, Too?

consumerist.com — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:30:39 +0000

Kyle just wrote to us that the 36″ sleeve on a Large Tall sweatshirt from JCPenney has been reduced to 35″. It’s not just a manufacturing accident, because the new length is printed in the retailer’s sizing charts. But Kyle says for years he’s had no problem with JCPenney shirts, and that this all started happening within the past year or so.

Well, the Grocery Shrink Ray has turned its sights onto a target-rich environment: clothing. Recently I discovered JCPenney shrank one of the sizing standards in their Tall sizes.

Over the past year or so I’ve noticed the sleeves of some of my shirts and such were a little short, by an inch or so. I attributed it to being married to someone who’s 14″ shorter than me and who hasn’t ever had to be paranoid about sleeve shrinkage when doing laundry. But recently I ordered a Large Tall microfleece sweatshirt from JCPenney.com, and tried it on right out of the shipping envelope—and the sleeves were at least an inch too short for my 36″ arms.

So for the first time in I-don’t-know-how-long, I looked up JCPenney’s sizing charts, and discovered Large Tall is a 35″ sleeve length. For as long as I have shopped JCPenney’s Tall sizes it has been 36″, and Large Tall is a 36″ sleeve at every other tall-size retailer I’ve checked (Land’s End, L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, Rochester Big & Tall, Westport Big & Tall, Casual Male Big & Tall, Sears…). But sometime in the past year or two JCPenney changed the sizing standards and didn’t bother to tell their customers they were doing so.

Yes, yes: the Extra Large Tall has a 36″ sleeve, but then the body of the shirt or sweater or whatever would reach to the middle of my thighs— a bad enough look on teenage girls in the 1980s; a frightening look on a 45-year-old man today. I’m a proportionally-shaped 6′ 4″ man; I don’t need Big & Tall, I need Tall, and I need it realistically-sized, not built for someone who’s 300 pounds or with stunted arms or legs.

I wrote a letter to Steven Lawrence, Exec. VP of Men’s Clothing (among other titles) for JCPenney, asking for the company to change their sizing back to what it was and would be happy to share any reply I get with Consumerist.com.

Has anyone else noticed a measurable change in clothing sizing?

Kodak Demonstrates Its Awesome Camera Technology With Stock Photo

consumerist.com — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:41:44 +0000

It’s common practice for companies to license stock photography to use in promotional materials, but one of our readers thinks it’s somewhat strange that a camera company would go this route, when the one thing you’re trying to sell to consumers is the ability to capture great images.

Our reader Phil writes,

Now I’m not acting surprised that a company uses stock photo that another company has used, or even that a company is using a “simulated picture” on their display (though there’s no indication of that in the fine print on their site).

But it’s a freakin’ vertically integrated CAMERA company. Their whole company is about how they can help create great pictures. And then they buy this stock photo, which, presumably cost them about $20 to use on their site because they didn’t even bother to buy the exclusive rights to the photo (which any Fortune 2000 company would absolutely do when launching a new product). If you’re a CAMERA COMPANY, and you can’t get some in-house resources to do a photoshoot for some reason… you cover that trail up!

There’s no outrage here, just bemusement.

Official Kodak store page

Oddly familiar iStockPhoto page

Fisher Price Includes Batteries, But Not Ones That Work

consumerist.com — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:53:25 +0000

Dana is annoyed that the Fisher Price toy she bought for her baby promised her that batteries were included. They were in the box all right, but they were dead. In fact the manual Fisher Price enclosed with the toy suggests you immediately replace the included batteries with new ones.

Yesterday, I bought a Fisher-Price toy for my baby (specifically, the ‘Laugh and Learn Fun with Friends Musical Table’) at Babies r Us. The box clearly says ‘Batteries Included’, with a picture of a battery in case there is any doubt. I checked this in the store because I knew we were low on batteries at home and didn’t know if I needed to buy more right then and there. I get the toy home, open the box, and the toy doesn’t work at all. When I open the manual, it says ‘For best performance, we recommend replacing the batteries that came with this toy with three, new alkaline “AA” batteries’. So Fisher Price sold this toy with DEAD batteries, and tells you in the manual (not the outside package) that you’ll need to replace them.

The only way this might make some sense is if the toy had been out on display and people were playing with it in the store, draining the batteries there. But it wasn’t out on display or easily accessible, it was under a large stack of similar toys and I had to dig it out.

Anyway, I found this super misleading and really hope it isn’t a trend because I was planning on buying a lot of Fisher Price stuff over the next couple years.

Walgreens Launches Innovative Showroom Store, Where You Can Look But Not Buy

consumerist.com — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:13:15 +0000

The thing about locking up all of your merchandise behind glass is your customers can’t actually buy it. Well, they can if you have employees who give a damn about helping a customer. This Walgreens in Brooklyn does not have those kind of employees.

John writes:

[Yesterday] I went to the Walgreens in Brooklyn to buy eye drops. They were locked behind a panel. I asked a worker to get me the eyedrops. He pressed a call button and walked away without saying anything.

An automated announcement was made over the loudspeaker asking for help. No one came. The announcement kept repeating. I waited 15 minutes. No one came.

I went to the register. The cashier was busy texting on her cellphone. I asked to speak to the manager. She told me to wait.

After waiting 10 minutes for the manager, I asked the cashier what the manager’s name was. It was [redacted]. I walked around the entire store calling out her name. I asked everyone in the pharmacy dept, the security guard, etc.

I walked around for 5 minutes calling out her name before she finally came up from downstairs.

I told her that locking merchandise up and not having anyone around with the key prevents shoppers from buying anything. I told her that Walgreens is understaffed. The workers are poorly trained, unfriendly and unhelpful. I told her that no one on the staff was doing any visible work and a paying customer had to resort to walking around the store calling out the manager’s name.

She was not particularly helpful and did not apologize.

John adds, “I will never shop at Walgreens again for the remainder of my life.”

Verizon Buries Bags Of Rocks In Woman's Yard

consumerist.com — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:42:54 +0000

A woman in Albany, NY was gardening in her front yard and uncovered a white plastic bag filled with rocks. Then she found more, over a dozen in all, which turned out to have been placed there by Verizon workers who had removed an old utility pole last month and had run out of sand.

A Verizon spokesman told the Times Union paper that the crew should have emptied the stones from the bags first, and probably shouldn’t have used them at all unless the ground was very wet. Another Verizon rep came out to the property and emptied the bags himself, then said he’d send out a crew to properly fill the hole and repair the damaged lawn.

“No stone unturned in the case of buried bags” [Times Union]

Asphalt Has Become So Expensive That Some States Are Going Back To Gravel

consumerist.com — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:26:05 +0000

Kiplinger says that in the near future, if you’re driving down a rural or less-traveled road, you might find yourself driving on gravel. Road asphalt has doubled in price over the past three years and shows no signs of coming back down, so some states–Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Vermont, and Pennsylvania to begin with–are looking for ways to cut corners. Gravel costs $20 a ton compared to asphalt’s current $400/ton price.

“States Will Use Gravel for Roads Less Traveled” [Kiplinger]

Maybe People Are Stealing From Your Drugstore Because You Only Have One Employee

consumerist.com — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:41:11 +0000

I’ve stopped shopping at the two large drugstores in my neighborhood because they’ve put all the antiperspirant behind plastic flaps, like bagels at a supermarket. When you lift the flap to grab a Right Guard or Speed Stick, an alarm goes off that makes it clear to everyone in the store that you’re a potential criminal with stinky pits. My guess has been that this embarrassing anti-theft deterrent is needed because there’s almost no staff at either store anymore, and a new retail survey and a couple of loss prevention experts seem to back that up.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association just released a new survey on retail crime trends, and they report that 78% of retailers have seen an increase in amateur and opportunistic shoplifting. (I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the report–you can download it here (PDF) and judge for yourself.) The study doesn’t give reasons why crime has gone up, but a VP at a loss prevention firm told RetailWire that during the same period, retailers were cutting staff levels.

Derek Rodner, VP, product strategy at the retail loss prevention firm Agilence, Inc., told RetailWire, “The economic downturn in 2009 created a perfect storm for retail theft. Retailers significantly scaled back expenditures and capital projects in all areas, most significantly loss prevention. In addition, many retailers cut their LP staff up to 50 percent. At the same time, more people were losing jobs and otherwise honest folks were forced to resort to theft just to get by. These two factors combined to cause a dramatic increase in shrink. Retailers are now redoubling their efforts to combat this trend and are being forced into updating their legacy technologies and procedures to adapt to the changing dynamics.”

Another loss prevention company executive said it’s not just a problem with loss prevention staff:

The real problem has been the actual reduction of sales staff in the store. We have literally tens of thousands of stores in the U.S. opening each day with only one staff member on duty. Here lies the real opportunity for [organized retail crime] thieves and I assure you this is where they go.

Which leads us to drugstores empty of shoppers and staff, where a hidden speaker goes off whenever you try to buy a stick of deodorant.

“Staffing Levels Playing Into Retail Crime” [RetailWire] (registration required)
“Leading Retailers Report Continued Growth In Retail Crime” [RILA]