Los clientes desean ser queridos #infografia #infographic #marketing

Hola: Una infografía sobre los clientes desean ser queridos. Vía Un saludo



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Cómo gestionar FaceBook al estilo ninja #infografia #infographic #socialmedia

Hola: Una infografía sobre cómo gestionar FaceBook al estilo ninja. Vía Un saludo



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Lo que te diferencia es tu Marca Personal #infografia #infographic #marketing

Hola: Una infografía sobre lo que te diferencia es tu Marca Personal. Vía Un saludo



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Dear Five Guys: Don’t Copy Customer On E-mail Where You Call Him A “Douche”

Have you ever penned a harshly worded e-mail about someone and then panicked for a moment when after you hit “send” out of fear that you may have copied the target of your vitriol on the message? 99.9% of the time, you did not… but when it does happen — and when you represent a major fast food chain — the results make for good Internet.

Consumerist reader John and his co-workers often place group orders for pick-up at their local Five Guys. Recently there was a minor screw-up and the group was charged for fries that were not included. And so John filed a polite complaint online and received a nice e-mail in reply.

The Five Guys employee — a district manager for the local franchisee in Massachusetts — initially offered to issue a credit to the purchaser’s card and to send a gift card as an apology.

But when John wrote back to say that the gift card could not be used to order online, the Five Guys employee accidentally ripped off the veil of politeness when he copied John on an e-mail to another co-worker at the franchisee.

Reads the e-mail from the district manager to his colleague in reference to John’s complaint:

This is from the guy about the online order screwup. This guy is a perfect example of why this world is fucked. What a complete asshole. I’m speechless over this douche. All of this over missing fries. Fuck him and his tool office mates.

We were all set to contact Five Guys HQ on John’s behalf when someone at the corporate office caught wind of his post about the e-mail on Twitter.

“She has given me a couple of proposals to win back my group’s business,” John told Consumerist after speaking with the rep. “I told her I would be touch with all of my co-workers that usually order from them and get back to her with our decision.”

In spite of the nasty e-mail, John says he is willing to give Five Guys another shot.

“I believe in second chances(sometimes),” he writes, “and so far with the Five Guys response, I think they are close to earning that second chance.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Los 5 primeros años de Pinterest #infografia #infographic #socialmedia

Hola: Una infografía sobre los 5 primeros años de Pinterest. Vía Un saludo



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La ruta del email marketing #infografia #infographic #marketing

Hola: Una infografía sobre la ruta del email marketing. Vía Un saludo



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Adquiriendo mi identidad digital #infografia #infographic #internet

Hola: Una infografía sobre: Adquiriendo mi identidad digital. Vía Un saludo



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Ideas para enamorar a tus empleados #infografia #infographic #rrhh

Hola: Una infografía con Ideas para enamorar a tus empleados. Vía Un saludo



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FTD Delivers Valentine’s Day Flowers Dead Or Late, Shrugs

Daniel bought two FTD Groupons, using one to send flowers to his wife and the other to send a bouquet from himself and his sister to their mother. He was able to schedule the deliveries for Valentine’s Day, but actually getting Valentine’s Day delivery…that was another matter.

The local florist called his sister and offered delivery on Monday or Tuesday, but Friday wasn’t possible. Did they offer a refund? More blooms? An apology? Nope. Meanwhile, Daniel received a delivery confirmation e-mail and a phone call from the florist offering delivery on Monday or Tuesday. The flowers were both delivered and not delivered, according to representatives of FTD. How that could that be?

The flowers turned up on Monday, so that was good. FTD referred Daniel to the local florist to complain, and he did. He hasn’t heard back. We contacted FTD too.

Meanwhile, in a much warmer part of the country, reader Captain Pete reports that the flowers he ordered for his wife arrived pretty dead-looking. “The shipper in Texas didn’t notice we were having a heat wave in the middle of February here in New Mexico and my wife’s flowers arrived dead. Perhaps the trip from Elpaso in that toasty hot Fedex truck had something to do with it,” he wrote to Consumerist. Yes, that might have been involved somehow. “Next time I’ll buy some chocolate ice cream at the gas station….and print some pictures from their website and stick those on the carton.” Okay, but make sure you’re running the air conditioning in the car first.

See, that’s why local florists who have seen the current weather forecast are a better choice.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Facebook Buys Popular Messaging Service WhatsApp In $16 Billion Deal

In an end-of-the workday surprise, Facebook just announced that it bought messaging service WhatsApp in a $16 billion deal. For those of you WhatsApp users already freaking out that you’ll be forced to use Facebook messenger, shhh, now. It sounds like everything could be just fine.

At first, of course, because major acquisitions like this have a habit of starting out one way and evolving into something entirely different later (Facebook-owned Instagram now has ads, after all).

Anyway, in the announcement on Facebook’s news page, the company says Whatsapp will “continue to operate independently and retain its brand.” A brand can still be retained but change at the same time, however.

CEO Jan Koum is on his way to the Facebook Board of Directors as a result of the deal, which is made of $4 billion in cash and about $12 billion in restricted stock units that will be divvied up among WhatsApp’s founders and employees and vested over four years.

Then the press release goes on to tout WhatsApp big numbers — 450 million monthly users, 70% of which are active daily — and says that the acquisition is all about bringing “core Internet services efficiently and affordably” to the masses.

“WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “I’ve known Jan for a long time and I’m excited to partner with him and his team to make the world more open and connected.”

Jan Koum, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO, said, “WhatsApp’s extremely high user engagement and rapid growth are driven by the simple, powerful and instantaneous messaging capabilities we provide. We’re excited and honored to partner with Mark and Facebook as we continue to bring our product to more people around the world.”

They then exchanged best friends bracelets and WhatsApp’s 55 employees collectively flipped out that they’re all now super, super rich.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Utah Court Issues Injunction To Stop Aereo Service

After a string of minor victories, Streaming video service Aereo, which is being sued by network broadcasters in numerous courts around the country, was dealt its first legal loss today with a federal court in Utah siding with broadcasters and issuing an injunction against Aereo from operating in the region.

Much like in previous lawsuits, the broadcasters alleged copyright infringement against Aereo, which uses arrays of teensy antennae to capture freely available over-the-air broadcast feeds and then streams them online to paying customers.

The broadcasters say that Aereo is retransmitting broadcast signals without permission or without paying for them. Aereo maintains that, because each individual antenna is dedicated to a single end-user, and because the broadcast feeds can currently be accessed for free by anyone with a standard antenna, its system is nothing more than a higher-tech version of a rooftop antenna.

Earlier courts have come down against issuing an injunction against Aereo, but the broadcasters have continued to file suit in each new federal court district that the service launched in.

Even though all the cases had yet to be heard, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed in January to rule on Aereo’s legality during its spring session.

But that didn’t stop the federal judge in Utah from ruling today that he felt the broadcasters were likely to prevail in their case against Aereo. And so he agreed to the networks’ request for a preliminary injunction that would end the plans of Aereo service in the Salt Lake City and Denver markets, as well as prevent it from launching any service elsewhere in Utah and Colorado, along with New Mexico, Oklahoma, Wyoming, or Montana.

“This is a significant win for both broadcasters and content owners,” says Fox in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.

In an e-mail statement to Consumerist, Chet Kanojia, Founder and CEO of Aereo, writes:

“We are extremely disappointed that the District Court in Utah has chosen to take a different path than every other Court that has reviewed the Aereo technology. Consumers have a fundamental right to watch over the air broadcast television via an antenna and to record copies for their personal use. The Copyright Act provides no justification to curtail that right simply because the consumer is using modern, remotely located equipment.

We are very sorry for the effect on our valued customers in the Tenth Circuit and we will pursue all available remedies to restore their ability to use Aereo.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

10 plugins de WordPress que debes tener #infografia #infographic #socialmedia

Hola: Una infografía con 10 plugins de WordPress que debes tener. Vía Un saludo



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Retrato del viajero global (siempre conectado) #infografia #infographic #tourism

Hola: Una infografía con el retrato del viajero global (siempre conectado). Un saludo



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Consumers Turning To One-Stop-Shop Stores Rather Than Traditional Grocery Stores

(ninjapoodles)

When I was growing up, my mom would do our family’s grocery shopping at several different stores. She’d purchase fresh produce at one, meat at another and non-perishable items like cleaning supplies at another. Today, she only goes to one store. She’s part of a growing trend of consumers frequenting big box stores rather than traditional grocers to mark off items on their grocery list.

Consumers are increasingly turning to big box stores like Walmart and Target, as well as, convenience stores, dollar stores and pharmacy chains to meet their grocery needs, Forbes reports.

A new study by retail design firm King Retail Solutions and the University of Arizona’s Terry J. Lundgren Center for Retailing found that 77% of the 1,200 shoppers surveyed bought groceries from a non-grocer last year. And 94% of those shoppers said they would continue to buy groceries at the same stores in 2014.

Consumers pointed to price and convenience as their top reason to shop at stores like Target and Walmart rather than a traditional supermarket. One Walmart in Denver recently announced it would start letting customers order groceries online then pick them up at the store; what’s more convenient than that?

In fact, Target and Walmart were ranked at the top of the KRS study for most popular places to shop that aren’t traditional grocers. Next in line were pharmacy chains Walgreens and CVS followed by Costco, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, 7-Eleven and Kmart, as well as, local farmers markets and food stalls. It should be noted that the study was conducted prior to the December data breach of millions of Target customers’ personal information.

It’s not just canned, preservative-filled foods shoppers are getting at non-traditional grocers, either. The study found that consumers ranked the fresh prepared meals at Walmart and Target above those available at Safeway, Kroger, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.

The increase in patronage to big box and other nontraditional grocers doesn’t mean the end of traditional grocers. In fact, a separate study by Market Force Information of 6,600 consumers last year found traditional supermarkets topped consumers’ favorite places to shop for groceries.

In that study, consumers ranked Trader Joe’s as their preferred stop for grocery shopping, citing the friendly atmosphere, wide selection and fast checkout. Other traditional grocers that topped the list were Wegman’s, Harris Teeter, Whole Foods Market and Publix.

Only Costco and Target ranked in the top 10 for favorite grocery stores in the Market Force study. Walmart landed near the bottom of consumers’ lists of favorite places to shop because of low-quality produce, unsanitary marketplaces and crowded stores.

No matter where you choose to shop make sure you go prepared with a list and the latest tips and tricks to a better shopping experience, from how to pick the best produce to choosing your shopping cart wisely.

Are Grocery Stores Doomed? Study Shows More Shoppers Buying Food At Target, Walmart, Pharmacies [Forbes]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Panera Expands To Big Cities, Needs To Crank Out Sandwiches Faster

(RetailByRyan95)

There’s good news and bad news about Panera’s recent expansion into bigger cities like New York and Toronto. The good news is that people are visiting the new locations. The bad news is also good news, in a way: they’ve been forced to make improvements to stores in order to sling sandwiches and salads faster and provide a viable alternative to fast food.

It’s the “fast” part of fast-casual that’s important, after all. People have less time to sit around in a vibrant urban area than an exurban strip mall, and they also have a lot more options if they don’t like what you’re serving up or how fast you’re serving it. Since soup-and-sandwich competitor Così might close some stores in major metropolitan areas, that will open up the light lunch market for a new chain. One whose kitchens can crank out an entreé every six seconds, as a Panera can at peak lunch and dinner hours.

Panera Tries to Speed Up for Its Move Into Cities [Bloomberg Businessweek]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

El futuro de la informática (según AMD) #infografia #infographic

Hola: Una infografía sobre el futuro de la informática (según AMD). Vía Un saludo



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¿Estadísticas sobre publicidad digital? #infografia #infographic #marketing

Hola: Una infografía sobre ¿Estadísticas sobre publicidad digital? Vía Un saludo



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Watch This Guy Eat Four Chipotle Burritos In Three Minutes

(Matt Stonie on YouTube)

Before you start to feel like all your eating achievements thus far pale in comparison to the feat mentioned in the headline, know that none of your friends are going to think any less of you just because you can only eat two burritos in 30 minutes before passing out on the floor in a pool of your own regret (I know, it’s your personal best). After all, the guy who ate four Chipotle burritos in only three minutes is a professional.

No, he’s not a guy who’s paid to eat burritos all day — although that’s the dream, huh? — but he is paid to be a competitive eater and is ranked No. 2 in that um, sport. And in competitive eating, you’ve got to be the fastest.

He says as much in the video description (H/T to Reddit for the link) — throwing these burritos down his throat is his way of throwing down the gauntlet to a competitor who had a video where he was “eating Chipotle burritos like a baby, so I felt I needed to show him how to do it right.”

Let’s not forget that he also topped those two chicken and two steak burritos off with a Diet Coke as well. Lunch is served and now I don’t know if I’ll ever be hungry again.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Walmart “Looking At” Support Of Minimum Wage Increase

(SchuminWeb)

With much talk in the news these days about whether or not to raise the minimum wage, the nation’s largest private employer said today that it is considering throwing its support behind a plan to increase pay nationwide to at least $10.10/hour.

Why would the retail behemoth possibly be in favor the additional $2.85/hour? Because it could mean more spending money in the pockets of Walmart shoppers, a rep for the company explained to Bloomberg earlier today.

“That’s something we’re looking at,” explained the rep while maintaining that the company currently has a neutral view on the issue. “Whenever there’s debates, it’s not like we look once and make a decision. We look a few times from other angles.”

If Walmart did throw its weight behind the President’s proposal, it wouldn’t be the first time that Walmart backed a federal minimum wage hike. About 10 years ago, the retailer came out in support of a pay increase that eventually went into effect in 2007.

However, a pro-increase stance from Walmart would be in opposition to that of many other major retailers and the National Retail Foundation, which has said that the additional pay would result in fewer jobs for Americans.

The Walmart news comes on the heels of a Congressional Budget Office report that weighed the pros and cons of the possible wage increase. It could mean improved pay for more than 16 million Americans, but it could also result in the loss of upwards of 500,000 jobs.

But the Walmart rep says the math isn’t so cut and dry, and that consumer behavior isn’t always so predictable. He points to the retailer’s recent swing-and-miss on the issue of food stamps.

Walmart had predicted that cuts to that program in 2013 would have resulted in a sales bump for Walmart as shoppers looked for an affordable place to buy groceries, but that prediction didn’t pan out as expected.

Just last summer, Walmart successfully convinced Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray to veto a city law that would have increased wages for workers at D.C. Walmart stores (and other national big box retailers) to $12.50 an hour.

The rep says the difference between that failed legislation and the possible federal wage hike is that the D.C. law only applied to certain types and sizes of stores, while a general minimum wage increase would apply to workers everywhere, regardless of their employers.

Among large retailers, one of the few to openly support a wage increase is Costco, whose CEO Craig Jelinek said a year ago that “paying employees good wages makes good sense for business.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

¿Libro digital o libro de papel? infografia #infographic #ebook

Hola: Una infografía sobre ¿Libro digital o libro de papel? Vía Un saludo



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Why Even A Net Neutrality Rewrite Wouldn’t Alleviate Slow Netflix Service

(frankieleon)

While today’s announcement from FCC Chair Tom Wheeler that the commission would take another stab at writing net neutrality rules — thus preventing ISPs like Verizon, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable from blocking or throttling access to certain sites for its customers — the re-establishment of the Open Internet guidelines still wouldn’t do much to end some of the current Netflix-related hiccups customers are seeing.

This is because the net neutrality rules only deal with how ISPs handle data during that so-called “last mile” of service directly to the end-user. While the reason many Verizon customers are watching House of Cards in fits and starts (or just giving up on it before Kevin Spacey reveals he’s a Hungarian drug lord with Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in a box) is a bottleneck that happens further up the stream.

As we wrote last summer, many months before a federal appeals court gutted net neutrality, the source of the Verizon/Netflix congestion appeared to be occurring at peering ports, the connection between Netflix’s bandwidth provider and the ISP (in this case, Verizon).

Before Netflix became the largest single source of downstream data in the U.S., it was common practice for peering partners to open and close ports as needed to handle traffic.

Cogent Communications, one of Netflix’s largest bandwidth vendors, said last summer that Verizon had previously opened up new ports to ease or prevent congestion when traffic hit around 50% capacity, but that the telecom giant had recently begun letting some ports reach 100% capacity without acting.

Today’s Wall Street Journal provides even more information about the ongoing standoff, with some sources saying Verizon is balking at upgrading its connections to Netflix’s bandwidth providers while others point a finger at Netflix for trying to unload so much data via the least-expensive (and maybe not the most efficient) way possible.

It basically boils down to the fact that long-held peering practices used to work because the extra ports opened by ISPs to alleviate congestion would ultimately be balanced out by the bandwidth providers who picked up the slack for traffic going in the opposite direction. But with video streaming, the upstream bandwidth needed is a sliver of what’s required for bringing HD movies to consumers’ homes.

Verizon apparently doesn’t see the benefit in doing Cogent and Netflix a favor if it isn’t getting anything in return. Since the old net neutrality rules didn’t require ISPs to go above and beyond existing peering arrangements (and the new rules probably won’t cover the topic either), expect Verizon and other ISPs to continue to allow Netflix traffic to build up until the streaming service either cries “Uncle” and pays for better service or routes their traffic in a more efficient (and probably more costly) manner.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

La revolución industrial y el futuro #infografia #infographic

Hola: Una infografía sobre la revolución industrial y el futuro. Un saludo



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10 puntos de partida para aproximarse al universo de los MOOC #infografia #infographic #education

Hola: Una infografía con 10 puntos de partida para aproximarse al universo de los MOOC. Vía Un saludo



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Long Island Mall Bans Elderly Mall-Walker For 6 Months

The menace of loitering senior citizens in the New York City metropolitan area continues. First, a McDonald’s in Queens kicked out a group of neighborhood seniors who used the restaurant as an all-day coffee house, and politicians brokered a peace. This time, a 73-year-old man who walked laps around a Long Island mall has been banned from the property for trespassing.

Let’s back up a minute. Just being inside the mall before the stores open isn’t trespassing. Mall walkers exist all over the country: they’re mainly senior citizens who walk the climate-controlled, ice-free corridors of their local shopping center for exercise before it opens. This man says that he once had permission from the management to use the restroom before the mall officially opened, but they stopped allowing him to do so.

“This [security guard], I guess he has it in for me for some reason, but he escorted me to the security office and asked me for my license, took my picture and escorted me out,” he explained to News 12. He received a six-month ban from the premises: if he’s seen anywhere on the property, from the Sears to the parking lot to the IHOP, he’s not allowed on the porperty.

It’s not like American suburbia has any shortage of malls, though. The banned walker told Newsday that he simply moved to a shopping center in the town of Massapequa. That mall happens to be owned by the same company, Westfield. Maybe they have a more liberal bathroom policy.

Mall-walker banned from Westfield South Shore Mall in Bay Shore [News 12]

Banned from one mall, West Islip man walks at another [Newsday]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Herramientas que te harán más feliz #internet

Hola: Una presentación con Herramientas que te harán más feliz. Un saludo



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Construir la organización desde el cliente interno: la transformación del talento individual en conocimiento

Hola: Una presentación sobre Construir la organización desde el cliente interno: la transformación del talento individual en conocimiento organizacional . Un saludoArchivado en: Innovación Tagged: Innovación



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Cruise Ship Worker Admits To Assaulting Passenger, Trying To Throw Her Overboard

(Stephan J. Cox)

Shocking news from aboard a Holland America cruise ship, the MS Nieuw Amsterdam, which sailed from Florida earlier this month set for the Caribbean: A ship worker reportedly confessed that he’d raped, beat and strangled a passenger before trying to throw her overboard from her balcony on Feb. 14, federal authorities say.

The alleged reason he gave for his actions? He felt slighted when she responded unfavorably to his knock on the door to deliver breakfast one morning, reports the South Florida Sentinel.

According to the FBI agents’ report after interviewing the 28-year-old worker, he said he was delivering the food to the victim’s stateroom and knocked three times before she said anything. That’s when she allegedly yelled, “Wait a minute, son of a bitch!”

“[The suspect] stated that the passenger’s comment of ‘son of a bitch’ was offensive to himself and his parents. He was angry and upset the rest of the day,” an agent wrote in the report.

He tried to find her later elsewhere on the ship “in order to punch her in the face,” but when he couldn’t, he said he used his master key to get into her room and hide on her balcony where he fell asleep.

The victim told officials that she was attacked with no warning in her room in the middle of the night. She says he raped, beat, punched and strangled her and then tried to throw her from the balcony into the ocean in international waters somewhere off the coast of Roatan, Honduras. He reportedly admitted to doing so.

The worker told agents he fled when he heard knocking at her door and jumped from balcony to balcony to escape, broke into another stateroom and fled to his staff cabin, where he told his roommate to call security because he’d killed a passenger.

He was quickly detained and arrested by the FBI upon the ship’s arrival back in Florida on Sunday on charges of attempted murder and aggravated sexual abuse. He was immediately fired him his job, the cruise line said.

The victim was airlifted to a hospital as soon as the ship docked, and Holland America flew her family in to be with her while she undergoes medical treatment.

“We continue to work closely with authorities to understand how this incident occurred and what additional actions we can take to help ensure that nothing like this ever happens again,” Holland America said in a statement yesterday, calling it a “senseless assault” that shook the company to its core.

Cruise worker admits he raped, tried to throw passenger overboard, feds say [South Florida Sun Sentinel]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

UPS Has A “Circle Of Honor” For Drivers Who Go 25 Years Without An Accident

(frankieleon.)

Considering your average driver — the person who doesn’t spend her entire workday behind the wheel — can barely go a decade without getting into some sort of fender-bender, it’s an accomplishment when people who drive all day, every day in a large brown truck can go decades without a ding on their driving records.

From the Today We Learned file… Today we learned that UPS actually has a “Circle of Honor” recognition for drivers who have managed to not only stay with the company for at least 25 years, but have been behind the wheel without an accident during all that time.

According to UPS, which employs around 100,000 drivers worldwide, it added a whopping 1,519 drivers to the Circle this year alone, bringing the total number of longtime safe-drivers to 7,221.

Between retirement, rising odds of an accident, and people who choose to just not drive for that long, there is a steep drop between the number of UPS drivers with 25 years of accident-free driving and those with at least 35 years. Only 394 Circle of Honor members have earned that distinction.

Given that UPS drivers are primarily male, it’s perhaps not a surprise that only 146 women have been driving for the company long enough to join the Circle.

The party thins out even more when you extend that timeline to 40 years, with only 42 drivers having both stayed with the company and stayed out of an accident.

The most senior Circle member has gone 51 years — and delivered some 5 million packages — without crashing.

The Newark Star-Ledger talked to a New Jersey driver who has gone nearly 44 years on the job sans accident.

“I don’t think I’m any better than anyone else here,” he said. “They’re all good drivers. We’re all taught defensive driving. If you’re not always on the defensive, you’re going to have a problem.”

While we’ve been known to share our readers’ displeasure with UPS (and FedEx, and USPS) drivers who do things like drop-kick packages or leave them in the garbage, it is occasionally good to recognize that there are plenty of dedicated drivers out there who take pride in their jobs… or at the very least don’t get into car accidents on the job.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Scam E-Mail Lying About Friend’s Death Brings World Of Grief

It can be a real shock to hear about the sudden death of someone you know. So shocking that you might let your guard down and immediately seek more information. That’s what some fraudsters are counting on. They send you an e-mail entitled “Passing Of Your Friend” that looks like a legit notice from a funeral home, but is neither.

Also, none of your friends are dead. As far as we know.

What we do know is that according to the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission, the message purports to be from a funeral home sharing details of your friend’s passing. (How the funeral home would get your address isn’t clear–maybe the deceased was still logged into Gmail when they died.)

“It comes up Eubank Funeral Home, that they wanted me to contact them about someone that I knew that passed away,” one scam victim explained to CBS New York. The e-mail invites you to click on a link in order to learn which friend died and the details of any services. That link takes you to a site filled with malware, not a funeral home.

If an e-mail invites you to open a link, don’t do it. If you do receive a death notice via e-mail, check with the funeral home’s website or on the phone directly: most list upcoming services on their sites.

Fake funeral notice can be deadly — for your computer [FTC]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Americans Cling To The Idea Of The USPS’ Existence, But We Can’t Really Explain Why

(frankieleon)

When the United States Postal Service floated the idea of taking away Saturday mail delivery, Americans basically gasped and yowled, “Noo! You can’t!” We love getting mail every day but Sunday, downright adore it, but… why? That’s a lot harder to explain.

A lot like when someone asks you why your favorite chair is your favorite chair, a report from the USPS Office Inspector General says Americans can’t quite say what they’d miss about the mail if it disappeared. It’s not like shredding junk mail is fun for everyone (just kidding, who doesn’t love a good shredder?).

“People seemed to sense that the Postal Service disappearing would be a bad thing, but they had trouble articulating more specifically how this would affect them personally,” the report says, via CNNMoney.

The report was commissioned by the office to ask 101 people in 10 focus groups around the country about what they like and don’t like about their mail service. Those answers came together in a white paper called: “What America Wants and Needs from the Postal Service.”

It kind of sounds like we’re just holding onto the USPS because we’ve known it for so long, a nostalgic desire to see it keep going “because of its importance to the American people.”

There were only two naysayers who were like “shrug,” and said they wouldn’t be “negatively affected” if the USPS were to close down forever in five years. One of those was a 92-year-old woman who visits her local post office daily. She won’t be around, so, no big deal.

“I’ll be dead by then,” she said, according to the report.

While most people want the USPS to stay alive, the more they learned about how the agency works and the financial problems plaguing it, it seems like they became more open to cuts in either mail delivery days or post office hours, if it means the USPS won’t be put down.

And once participants realized that the USPS isn’t a taxpayer funded agency that instead has its own revenue to worry about, people lowered their “service level expectations.”

The USPS is still in the midst of figuring out how to pay the billions it owes in future retiree pension funds and deal with a changing mail landscape, from one of snail mail letters keeping loved ones in touch to simply a funnel for junk mail.

Americans crazy about mail, but can’t say why [CNNMoney]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Google Fiber Looking To Expand To 9 New Markets

The markets in green either currently offer Google Fiber or are in the process of building the network. The markets in red are the possible expansion cities for Google Fiber.

While lawmakers hungry for cable industry dollars have been trying to fight the growth of third-party fiberoptic service providers, the folks at Google continue their slow expansion of Google Fiber service with the news today that the company hopes to bring Fiber to nine new metro areas.

Google launched Fiber in Kansas City and recently began expanding service to customers in Austin, TX, and Provo, Utah. And according to an announcement made earlier today, the company is in discussions to bring the gigabit broadband service to the following areas (cities in parentheses would be included within that metro area, according to Google):

Atlanta (Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, College Park, Decatur, East Point, Hapeville, Sandy Springs, Smyrna)

Phoenix (Scottsdale, Tempe)

San Jose (Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto)

Charlotte

Raleigh-Durham (Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Garner, Morrisville,

Portland (Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, Lake Oswego, Tigard)

Nashville (Davidson)

San Antonio

Salt Lake City

The company cautions that there are possible speedbumps in the way and it may not be able to make deals in each of these markets, or in each city and town within those markets.

“We aim to provide updates by the end of the year about which cities will be getting Google Fiber,” writes Google. “Between now and then, we’ll work closely with each city’s leaders on a joint planning process that will not only map out a Google Fiber network in detail, but also assess what unique local challenges we might face.”

Google claims that even those cities with which it is unable to reach an agreement could ultimately benefit from the review process.

“[C]ities who go through this process with us will be more prepared for us or any provider who wants to build a fiber network,” explains the Internet titan.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

All It Takes To Win $1M Powerball Prize? Playing The Same Numbers For Decades

(Lisa Brewster)

The odds of you or me winning the Powerball are pretty darn slim. But who knew that if you could only have the patience to dedicate yourself entirely to just one set of numbers, and play them constantly over two decades, that you could reap say, a $1 million Powerball prize? Here’s where we point to a guy who did just that.

The Iowa man has stuck with the same set of numbers for two decades, hoping that someday those digits would be lucky and help him win the Powerball jackpot, reports KCCI News 8.

And while he didn’t win the entire $330.8 million jackpot, he did take home a hefty $1 million for matching five of the winning numbers. Not too shabby.

He assigned numbers to the letters of the alphabet and used the corresponding numbers in his last name as his Powerball numbers, the 49-year-old man explained, but had only cashed in about $100 in prize money so far.

He found out he was a winner by using a self-check kiosk to look up his numbers at a convenience store.

“I put the first three (tickets) in and no win,” he said. “Then (the winning) one came up. I just kind of glanced at it. I did tell the guy next to me, ‘I don’t believe this,’”And he leaned over and I did it again and he says, ‘Sign it and get the heck out of here.’”

At odds of 1 in 5,153,632.65 to win even $1 million, it seems his determination to never swerve from those numbers has paid off. As for what he’ll do now, I say keep on plugging those digits in, buddy. They’ve treated you well.

Playing same Powerball numbers for two decades pays off [KCCI News 8]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

How To Not Suck… At Teaching Your Kids About Money

(kevindean)

Even if you have one of those fabled money trees (a distant cousin of a ticket oak) in your yard, there’s going to come a time that you need to teach your children the birds and bees about money.

How to save. Smarter ways to spend. Borrowing. Negotiating. And yes, even when to let them screw it up for the sake of a lesson.

Here are some strategies to help you not suck at teaching your kids about money.

To Allow, or Not to Allow, Allowances?

There’s no real rule on how much, if anything, you should give your child for a weekly allowance. It should depend on your family’s finances. To make the math easy, some parents match the dollars given to their child’s age.

Some suggest giving an allowance that’s not dependent on chores, while others link the payout to completing a to-do list. But realize that giving an allowance that’s not linked to some kind of work or responsibility may send the message that you can get something for nothing — that’s not something I want to teach my kids.

My brood — 15, 12 and 9 (those are their ages; not their names) — have never had allowances. They don’t have a set list of chores, either. Rather, they know that being part of this family means they’re expected to perform certain household duties. And if their parents ask them to do something, saying “no” is not an option. In exchange, we’re willing to give them money for certain purchases. Others they have to save for — we’ll get to that in a moment.

If you do give a weekly allowance, there will come a time when your child asks for a raise — allowance inflation is real — or complains that she doesn’t get as much as her best bud Mary does each week.

While it’s tempting to say no, consider that your kid needs to learn to negotiate for what they want, whether it’s a raise at work, to have control of the television remote or whatever. Explain they won’t always get what they ask for, but encourage them to write up their reasons, or provide evidence, for why they deserve an increased allowance.

The Bucket List

Regardless of whether your children get money from an allowance, as a reward for a good report card, or as a birthday gift, you should instill some rules so they don’t blow it all in one shot.

The easiest way is to use three buckets: “spend later,” “spend soon” and “charity.” You can decide how much goes in each pot, but I’d recommend 45% to spend soon, 45% to spend later and 10% for charity.

The “spend soon” bucket should be one that your child can spend on anything he wants, as soon as he wants, and he shouldn’t need your permission to spend it. (Of course, you should still monitor where the money is going.)

The “spend later” bucket should be longer-term savings for something that’s too expensive for your child to buy right away. It’s something they need to save for over time.

The “charity” bucket will give your child the added lesson that sometimes it is better to give than to receive. You can go over possible charities your child might have interest in, and after a certain amount is accumulated, she can make her donation. While there are charities everywhere you look, consider giving to a local food bank or shelter where your child can see his money at work. Or maybe your child will want to start a charity drive of his own.

Try tools like Three Jars and Bankaroo to help.

A Lesson in Budgets

While splitting up cash into several buckets can help a child with long-term plans, nothing will accomplish this goal better than setting a budget.

A budget will do several things. First, it will help your child plan for spending, but even better, it will show him where his money has gone over time. So when he complains he doesn’t have enough for that new PlayStation game, and you show him he spent $15 on candy in the past month, he may reconsider what he does with money in the future.

If your kid runs out of spendable cash, don’t come to the rescue. Delayed gratification is one of the most important money lessons you can teach.

Try these budget worksheets to help teach your kids about allotting their cash.

Bolster Saving and Start Investing

Even if your child understands he has to save money to afford his long-term wants, you can give some added incentive.

Think matching funds, just like you get for your 401(k) plan. (Read this if you need a primer.)

Perhaps you’ll invest 50 cents for every dollar Junior sets aside in his “spend later” jar. Or maybe you’ll go dollar-for-dollar, or more. Whatever amount you choose to match will motivate your saver to save just a little more.

Our family has put the idea of matching funds on steroids. Several years ago, we opened “The Bank of Mueller.” It offered 10% interest on any deposits every six months. Our kids started stashing away so much money after seeing the power on compound interest that we had to install a cap. Now, the first $1,000 of savings gets 10% interest, and all money after that gets 5%. (Establishing the cap was also a way for us to teach about today’s interest rate climate.)

And yes, even the 9-year-old has reached the 10% interest rate cap — but they all keep saving anyway.

In the beginning, when balances were relatively low, they used to love seeing all their cash at the end of six months. Now they only see it on paper. If we had to withdraw all their money just to show them the green, we’d need to hire an armed guard for the trip home from the bank.

They also keep some money in their bedrooms for their short-term spending.

If you’re not ready to open a family bank, at least teach your kids about compound interest. Try TheMint.org’s compounding calculator for help.

Once your kids start socking it away, you can introduce how the stock market works. Look around the house and pick a few products they like, and start monitoring the stock price of the company that makes the item. You can even have your kids create a mock mutual fund made up of their favorite companies — easy to track on any number of free stock market monitoring sites — and you can compare its performance to an index fund.

Credit

In addition to savings lessons, you can start teaching about spending with credit. You don’t want your kid to grow and up and head off to college without a real understanding of how interest rates are calculated and what late fees can mean.

When you’re shopping with your offspring, use a credit card and explain how it’s an I.O.U., and you will get a monthly bill with all the charges you’ve made.

When the bill comes in, use it as a real life example. Show them how interest is calculated — that you pay a price for borrowing if you don’t pay it off in full. Also show them how long the bill would take to pay off if you only pay the minimum.

Use TheMint.org’s debt calculator as a teaching tool.

And finally, take a listen to what index fund guru Jack Bogle has to say about kids and money.

Have a topic you’d like to see covered in How To Not Suck? Or maybe you’re an expert who would like to share your insight with Consumerist readers? Send us a note at notsuck@consumerist.com.

You can read Karin Price Mueller’s stories for The Star-Ledger at NJ.com, follow her on Facebook, and on Twitter @kpmueller.

PREVIOUSLY ON HOW TO NOT SUCK:

How To Not Suck… At Valentine’s Day Gifts

How To Not Suck… At Merging Your Money When You Marry

How To Not Suck… At Borrowing For College

How To Not Suck… At Saving For College

How To Not Suck… At Pre-Paying For Your Funeral

How To Not Suck… At Making Financial New Year’s Resolutions

How To Not Suck… At Last-Minute Christmas Gifting

How To Not Suck… At Saving For The Holidays

How To Not Suck… At Charitable Giving

How To Not Suck… At Disputing Credit Report Errors

How To Not Suck… At Lowering Your Utility Bills

How To Not Suck… At Home Inspections

How To Not Suck… At Understanding Credit Card Rewards

How To Not Suck… At Getting Ready For Tax Season

How To Not Suck… At Picking A Retirement Plan

How To Not Suck… At Deciding When To DIY

How To Not Suck… At Getting Out Of Debt

How To Not Suck… At First Year College Budgets

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by Karin Price Mueller via Consumerist

Visa, MasterCard Endorsement Of Tap-And-Pay Could Replace Your Wallet With A Smartphone

You might not need your wallet anymore. (thetruthabout)

We use our smartphones for everything, from taking photos and video to mobile banking. So why not replace your wallet with your phone? That’s a change that could be coming sooner rather than later now that MasterCard and Visa have endorsed a new mobile payment technology.

The tap-to-pay technology is already built into KitKat, the latest Android mobile operating system, and an endorsement by two major credit card companies means host card emulation (HCE) could be replacing your wallet soon enough, Re/code reports.

HCE allows payment card information to be stored in the cloud, letting mobile apps access the information without using the secure element hardware embedded in the phone. Previously, mobile carriers have been able to control who gained access to the secure element, thus limiting the apps consumers could use for transactions. With HCE, consumers can bypass restrictions since mobile carriers can’t control the cloud.

MasterCard and Visa’s announcement backing the payment approach opens the door for banks and retailers to build payment features into their mobile apps. Since consumers already trust banking apps to complete transfers and deposits, they will likely be able to convert users to the tap-to-pay method.

Both credit card companies will publish specifications and standards for use of the new system, while continuing to safe-guard consumer information.

Even with Wednesday’s announcement, substantial use of tap-to-pay transactions could be a few years away. Currently, only about 25% of large retailers and 5% of small retailers use the system.

How MasterCard and Visa Just Made Banks the Next Big Players in Mobile Payments [Re/code]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Tinder Fails For Months To Inform Public Of Security Flaw That Reveals Users’ Exact Location

The fun part about popular dating app Tinder is that you can effectively move through a virtual word of potential dates and mates, all from the safety of your own real world location. Except that a new report from security researchers says a flaw in the app exposed users’ exact locations for months — with mileage specific down to 15 decimal places — and that Tinder never told the public about it.

The flaw is now being aired by a security company known as a “white-hat” hacking group, which hunts down problematic code on popular sites, apps and software and then gives companies a chance to fix the issues before going public with it, reports BusinessWeek.

Include Security says it first alerted Tinder to the flaw — which had servers spewing out detailed information that could allow a hacker with any kind of skills to pinpoint someone within 100 feet — all the way back on Oct. 23, 2013. Tinder didn’t issue a peep about it in any meaningful way until Dec. 2, Include says, which is when a Tinder employee asked for more time to fix the problem. The hole was finally patched sometime before Jan. 1, 2014.

With such a breach wide open for anywhere between 40 and 165 days, one might think Tinder would have something to say to its users. Instead, Chief Executive Officer Sean Rad has stayed mum on the issue, and was less than helpful to the researcher who identified the flaw, he says.

“I wouldn’t say they were extremely cooperative,” he says of the patchy correspondence with Rad and Tinder.

You might recall a similar episode back in July, when the app revealed users’ exact latitude and longitude for at least two weeks, a time span Rad called “a few hours” back then.

We’ve reached out to Tinder for comment on the situation and will let you know if we hear back. In the meantime, it sounds like users’ locations are secure, that is, unless there’s something else going on that Tinder will decide not to alert the public about in a timely manner.

Otherwise there will likely be plenty of users swiping Tinder itself to the left, and into the “NOPE” bin.

“We want technology companies to remember that as they’re moving a million miles an hour to innovate, they need to consider security and privacy as part of the value proposition they’re selling their customers,” the Include security reacher adds. “Consumers tend to avoid use of applications, cloud services, or websites that severely encroach on their privacy.”

New Tinder Security Flaw Exposed Users’ Exact Locations for Months [BusinessWeek]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Is Yahoo Triple-Billing You For Your Old Flickr Pro Account?

(frankieleon.)

While Yahoo’s photo sharing site Flickr now offers free users a reasonably hefty 1TB of storage, it didn’t use to be so generous, and the only way around those old limits was to upgrade to a Pro account for $25/year. When Flickr stopped offering the Pro tier last spring, Yahoo grandfathered in existing Pro accounts at the same rate. But if you’re still paying for Flickr Pro, you may want to keep an eye on your bank statement when it comes time to renew your account.

I learned this for myself earlier this week when I noticed three separate charges (one cleared, two pending) to my debit card for $24.95 each, all from Yahoo and all with the same Flickr Pro note attached.

Knowing that my bank would say it couldn’t do anything about disputing pending charges, I contacted Yahoo customer service and patiently waited for nearly 20 minutes as the same ill-looped piece of music repeated itself.

The Yahoo CSR I spoke to told me this “is a known issue” in which sometimes Flickr accounts are sent to customers’ banks multiple times. He explained that the duplicate two charges would likely disappear when the bank went to finish processing them.

But in the meantime, fifty of my dollars were not at my disposal because of a glitch that Yahoo is apparently aware of. Luckily, I’m not in a position where having to wait a couple days for those $50 to be released will hurt me, but there are plenty of people for whom the same can’t be said; whether it’s because they are low on funds or because they try to keep as little as possible in no-interest checking accounts.

And indeed, those bogus charges have since been reversed and I can now get back to counting my money. But the question remains: How many other people are having this same issue?

We’ve reached out to Yahoo’s corporate office to see if it could give us some idea of how widespread this problem is and what’s being done to fix it, but have not heard back. A quick Google search turns up multiple-charge complaints about Flickr Pro accounts back in 2010, with Yahoo saying at the time that the issue had been resolved.

We’d like to know if any of you have had similar problems with Yahoo’s billing for Flickr accounts. If so, shoot us an e-mail at tips@consumerist.com with “FLICKR DOUBLE BILLING” in the subject line.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Pizza Hut Closes Down After Video Shows District Manager Using The Kitchen Sink As A Urinal

(WOWKTV.com)

Food and bathroom behavior just don’t mix — especially at a restaurant that’s serving paying customers. So it’s no wonder video footage of a Pizza Hut employee in West Virginia peeing into the kitchen sink — the same one used to wash utensils and supplies — has prompted health officials to shut down that location to investigate.

In the video, via WOWKTV.com, a man looks like he’s just checking something on a computer and then oh, there he goes, walking over to the deep sink and undoes his pants… and relieves himself. Sigh, gross, and sigh again.

Pizza Hut has confirmed that the fellow shown in the surveillance footage is a Pizza Hut District Manager.

When the news channel contacted the county health department about the video, the city’s sanitarian watched it and then temporarily closed down the restaurant. A sign hanging on the door says it was shut down because of “conditions within the establishment constituting a substantial hazard to the public health.”

“It’s something you hope to never have to deal with but we take it seriously,” the county sanitarian says. “They’re closed until we do a thorough cleaning on the place and have the reassurance there are safeguards in place.”

Safeguards like maybe a big signing reading, “THIS IS NOT A URINAL?” perhaps?

In a written statement Pizza Hut said of the franchise location that it doesn’t like it when people pee in the sink:

“First of all, we are embarrassed by the actions of this individual. Pizza Hut has zero tolerance for violations of our operating standards, and the local owner of the restaurant took immediate action and terminated the employee involved. While the isolated incident occurred during non-business hours and did not involve any food tampering, we follow strict safety and handling procedures and the restaurant has since been closed. We apologize to our customers of Kermit, West Virginia and those in our system who have been let down by this situation.”

*Thanks for the link, Brandon! And by thanks I mean, oh goodness gracious, that’s so gross.

Shocking video leads to local Pizza Hut closing [WOWKTV.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Complete Your Childhood Collection With Really Expensive 19th Century 1-Cent Stamp

This is a really old, really expensive stamp.

It’s the Dodo bird of the stamp world, the rarest of the rare, and a collector’s dream. Hopefully, you’ve been saving up your pennies, or billions of them, because this stamp will blow your current collection out of the water when it hits the auction block in New York this summer.

The 1-cent postage stamp from a 19th century British colony in South America is expected to sell for between $10 million and $20 million at Sotheby’s on June 17, the Associated Press reports.

The One-Cent Magenta has a storied past, including breaking the auction record for a single stamp three times. It’s also the only major stamp missing from the British Royal Family’s private Royal Philatelic Collection.

Marked with a three-masted ship printed in black on magenta paper, the stamp is thought to be the only survivor of a small batch commissioned in British Guiana when a shipment of stamps was delayed from London.

The stamp was first owned by a Scottish boy in South America in the late 1870s. The boy sold the stamp to a local collector, who in turn sold it to a dealer in Liverpool. When the man died his collection was bequeathed to the Postmuseum in Berlin. Following World War I, the stamp was auctioned by France for $35,000, setting the first record for a single stamp.

Another auction record was set in 1970 when the stamp was purchased for $280,000 by an investment consortium. In 1980, the stamp was sold to John E. du Pont for $935,000. du Pont’s estate is currently selling the stamp. A portion of the funds from the auction will go to the Eurasian Pacific Wildlife Conservation Foundation.

Rare stamp could bring millions at NYC auction [Boston.com]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

FCC Chair Announces Vague Plan To Try To Fix Net Neutrality

Last month, a federal appeals court struck down the core components of the FCC’s net neutrality rules, effectively opening the door for Internet service providers to block, throttle, or charge exorbitant fees to bandwidth-heavy content companies (Netflix, we’re all looking at you). The court had ruled that the FCC had never properly classified ISPs in a way that would allow the neutrality rules to apply. Today, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler unveiled a general outline for his plan to get those guidelines back in place.

Wheeler says the FCC will not appeal the court’s ruling in the lawsuit brought by Verizon that resulted in the gutting of net neutrality. Instead, he is proposing new rules “that will meet the court’s test for preventing improper blocking of and discrimination among Internet traffic, ensuring genuine transparency in how Internet Service Providers manage traffic, and enhancing competition.”

At issue in the court’s ruling was the FCC’s outdated classification of broadband Internet service. Once upon a time, the Commission needed to decide whether broadband constituted infrastructure or content. Had it been considered infrastructure, it would be subject to the non-discrimination regulations that apply to common carriers, like landline telephone service. But because ISPs were classified as information-providing services, they are not subject to those rules.

With the goal of fixing this glaring oversight, Wheeler said he will propose new rules that would reinstate bans on blocking Internet traffic to customers or discriminating against content providers. His plan leaves open the option of reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service.

Wheeler also wants to make sure the commission is enforcing the transparency rule — one of the few net neutrality aspects that survived the appeals court — which requires that ISPs disclose how they manage traffic.

“Preserving the Internet as an open platform for innovation and expression while providing certainty and predictability in the marketplace is an important responsibility of this agency,” writes Wheeler.

At least one commissioner disagrees.

In a statement responding to Wheeler’s announcement, FCC commissioner Ajit Pai said that the Chair’s plan “reminds me of the movie Groundhog Day… I am skeptical that this effort will end any differently from the last.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Kellogg Commits To Only Buying Environmentally Friendly Palm Oil

(Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie)

In the future when you bite into a Pop-Tart or an Eggo Waffle, know that the palm oil in those items didn’t add to the destruction of the rain forest. Kellogg Co. has promised to only buy palm oil from companies that are friendly to the environment.

This pledge is a response to pressure from environmental groups that have been pushing big names in the food industry to stop using palm oil from plantations that destroy rainforests in Southeast Asian countries, especially in Indonesia, reports the Associated Press.

As we’ve all been learning since grade school, there are many endangered species living in the rain forests — in these, there’s the orangutan and Sumatran tiger — and cultivating palm oil is a big threat to those animals. More than 30,000 square miles of Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests have been destroyed in the pursuit of palm oil, say leaders of a campaign against such a practice.

Kellogg has promised to require its suppliers to trace their palm oil back to those plantations that have been verified independently as complying with the law and meeting standards for protecting the environment and human rights. Processors and growers will also be held accountable under the policy, says Kellogg’s chief sustainability officer.

“We must ensure they are all producing palm oil in a way that’s environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable,” she said.

Palm oil shows up in small amounts in products like Pop-Tarts, cookies and waffles, but most cereals don’t have it, she added.

Environmental groups are all about this policy change, which requires compliance or substantial progress by Dec. 31, 2015. Thus far it’s one of the toughest policies out there, joining other food companies like the Girl Scouts and Burger King.

“Kellogg is sending a strong message to palm oil producers that traceable, deforestation-free and exploitation-free palm oil are core conditions for global market access,” said the campaign director for a group called Catapult.

Kellogg to use environmentally friendly palm oil [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Krispy Kreme Puts Coffee Inside Donuts, Glass Bottles

Krispy Kreme wants to caffeinate America. They’re best known for their light, fluffy, sugary donuts, but apparently they serve coffee too. The company has plans to inject that coffee in two new and exciting places: the beverage shelves of selected Walmart stores, and inside the chain’s own donuts.

When we say inside the donuts, we mean inside. The glazed donut with coffee included has “mocha drizzle” and “coffee Kreme” on the outside, but the filled yeast donut has a mocha filling along with its sugary, coffee-infused exterior.

The bottled coffee, meant to compete with Starbucks’ bottled Frappuccino line of highly highly portable chilled espresso drinks, will only be available in about 900 Walmart stores, presumably in areas where Krispy Kreme does business. (They also sell bulk coffee in the South, but only at Walmart’s Sam’s Club warehouse chain.) The bottles are 9.5 ounces, exactly the same as the Starbucks products. They come in mocha and “original glazed,” which we can only hope is a bottle of sugar syrup with some incidental coffee flavoring.

New Krispy Kreme Coffee-Flavored Doughnuts: A Hint of Coffee in Every Bite [Press Release]

Krispy Kreme expands retail reach with Walmart iced coffee deal [Business Journals]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist