Can Math Determine Whether Pizza Hut Or Domino’s Is Better?


While some people swear by certain pizza chains, others see little difference between a pie from Domino’s or one from Pizza Hut. At that point, it probably comes down to which offers a better value. So how to determine which one provides more bang for your buck? Perhaps some basic math will suffice.

That was the idea in the above video from Business Insider, which made some value comparisons between the 14″ pizzas being sold by these two megachains.


Both pizzas are the same size — confirmed with a measuring tape — so what’s the price per square inch?


BI surveyed prices in markets around the country and found that the Pizza Hut 14-incher averages $10.69 for a plain cheese, while Domino’s is slightly higher at an average of $11.44 for the same size. That’s only a difference of half a penny per square inch ($.069 for Pizza Hut; $.074 for Domino’s), but Pizza Hut has the slight edge.


But does one company pack more pizza into your 154 square-inch pie?


After accounting for the weight of the box, the Pizza Hut pie came in at 29.4 ounces, while the Domino’s tipped the scale at 33.8 ounces. That translates to $.36/ounce at the Hut and $.34/ounce from Domino’s. So while you’re paying less per square-inch at Pizza Hut, you’re getting more stuff for your dollar at Domino’s.


Of course, that may vary greatly from eatery to eatery, depending on how generous of skimpy the particular pizza maker might be in the kitchen with things like sauce and cheese. After all, as streamlined as the processes at these two restaurants are, there is still a human element involved.


Another metric considered by BI that might vary from store to store — but is fun to look at regardless — is the pepperoni value of these pizzas.


The average cost of throwing on some pepperoni was very different between the two chains. Pizza Hut only hits you for an additional $.77 while Domino’s charges $1.28.


The Hut pizza also had significantly more pepperoni slices, at 52, compared to 35 from Domino’s. It doesn’t look like BI actually measured the size of the pepperoni slices, but they appear to be similar in the video.


That means you’re paying only $.015 per pepperoni slice on the Pizza Hut pie, but more than double that ($.037/slice) at Domino’s.


In the end, it all comes down to what you prefer. And according to the eight people asked to sample and vote on these two pizzas, the decision was unanimous for Domino’s.




by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Should Amazon Warehouse Workers Be Paid To Wait For Security Checks?

These people are standing in line for iPhones, but many are probably paid. (nikony13)

These people are standing in line for iPhones, but many are probably paid. (nikony13)



It makes sense that people who work in Amazon warehouses have to go through security screenings when they leave work: the job is not very well paid and consists of boxing up an unfathomable variety of items at a fast pace. The Supreme Court will decide whether the workers’ employer––temp agencies that supply the warehouse workforce––should pay them for time waiting in line for screenings.

Bloomberg Businessweek points out that there’s a lot of money at stake here, since the practice of screening employees on their way out the door is becoming more common. The problem isn’t the screening requirement itself, but employees’ time spent waiting in line off the clock. With few screeners available, they wait in line for up to half an hour every day.


Warehouses wouldn’t compensate their workers for up to two and a half extra hours of work every week, of course. They would hire a few more screeners to get workers through the lines faster, but only if the employer had a financial incentive to do so.


At stake is an important Fair Labor Standards Act amendment from the post-World War II era, which spelled out that employer don’t have to pay for all work-related activities. That’s why you don’t get paid for your time spent commuting, for example. However, later Supreme Court cases found that workers do need to be paid if the task they’re performing is “integral and indispensable” to their jobs. For example, time that butchers spend sharpening their knives should be on the clock.


The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in this case next Wednesday and issue an opinion in 2015.


Amazon Warehouse Workers Want to Be Paid for Waiting in Line [Bloomberg Businessweek]




by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Marriott Fined $600K Because It’s Illegal To Block WiFi Hotspots

Employees at Marriott's Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center were using the hotel's WiFi monitoring system to block visitors' access to personal WiFi networks, while charging convention exhibitors up to $1,000 per device for access to the Marriott WiFi network.

Employees at Marriott’s Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center were using the hotel’s WiFi monitoring system to block visitors’ access to personal WiFi networks, while charging convention exhibitors up to $1,000 per device for access to the Marriott WiFi network.



When a major hotel chain makes money by charging a fee for in-room Internet service, it might be tempted to do something that makes it difficult for visitors to use their own WiFi hotspots so that they have little choice but to pay up for the hotel’s Web access. Thing is, that’s against the law.

Section 333 of the Communications Act of 1934 makes it illegal to “willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference” with licensed radio communications.


In 2013, a visitor to Marriott’s Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville claimed that the hotel was “jamming mobile hotspots so that you can’t use them in the convention space.”


The FCC Enforcement Bureau’s investigated this allegation and Marriott ultimately admitted that some of its employees had used containment features of the hotel’s WiFi monitoring system to prevent the use of personal WiFi networks.


“In some cases, employees sent de-authentication packets to the targeted access points, which would dissociate consumers’ devices from their own Wi-Fi hotspot access points and, thus, disrupt consumers’ current Wi-Fi transmissions and prevent future transmissions,” reads a statement from the FCC.


Meanwhile, some exhibitors at the Gaylord conference facility were being charged between $250 to $1,000 per device just to access the hotel’s network.


In addition putting an end to the unlawful blocking of WiFi signals, Marriott must pay a civil penalty of $600,000.


“Consumers who purchase cellular data plans should be able to use them without fear that their personal Internet connection will be blocked by their hotel or conference center,” said Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc. “It is unacceptable for any hotel to intentionally disable personal hotspots while also charging consumers and small businesses high fees to use the hotel’s own Wi-Fi network. This practice puts consumers in the untenable position of either paying twice for the same service or forgoing Internet access altogether.”




by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Facebook Wants To Be Your Source For Healthcare Info


Facebook is already a hotbed for your hypochondriac and conspiracy theorist friends to post poorly sourced or blatantly false medical information — like the bogus “Johns Hopkins Cancer Update” that pops up every few months — but the social network apparently wants to be more actively involved in the collecting and sharing of healthcare information to its users.

According to Reuters, Facebook is working on a family of apps and services that would tap into users’ need to know whether or not that strange bump on their forearm is going to kill them; and if so, how quickly?


One idea is “support communities” where Facebook users with various ailments could chat and share information with each other… on a site that is notorious for its mass collection and monetization of every granular piece of data it can collect about its users. So that’s a good idea.


Facebook may also release “preventative care” apps that presumably help people from doing things that hasten their inevitable death.




by Chris Morran via Consumerist

IKEA Says You Won’t Lose Your Mind Assembling New Furniture That Takes Only 5 Minutes To Put Together


Many an epic ballad chronicling triumph and woe has been sung by IKEA customers struggling to put together a flat-pack bookshelf using only a little silver tool, a mallet, a bag of bits and bobs you’re bound to lose and a set of instructions written in pictograms. There may be some relief in sight (not from the hieroglyphics, those are probably here to stay) if IKEA’s newest furniture line is as easy to assemble as the company says it is.

IKEA just introduced its REGISSÖR line, which will be sold starting later this month and includes a bookshelf, cabinets and a coffee table. Each piece will supposedly only take five minutes to assemble.


What in the what and how in the how, you might be asking yourself and/or the gods of do-it-yourself furniture assembly — can this be possible in this dimension? Dare we hope?


“Featuring special wedge dowels, furniture pieces assembled using this technique require no tools and have no loose pieces; you can put them together using only your hands,” the company says.


In a video from IKEA, the company touts this line’s uniqueness, using only wooden dowels that are already in place on the furniture to slide the pieces into place, resulting in a finished bookshelf that takes one employee only two minutes to put together. Granted, he works for the place, but it does look speedy.


If this method proves popular with customers, IKEA says it will extend the system to certain other lines as well.



(H/T Gizmodo)




by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Which Airlines Have The Most Comfortable Coach Seats?


“Oh, goodie! I get to sit in coach for X amount of hours! I can’t wait to stretch out and relax,” said no one ever before flying, because in economy class, luxurious leg room and a sweet ratio of cushion to rump comfort is not what you’re paying for. That being said, some airlines are better at pleasing our behinds than others, according to a new poll released this week.

Fare-comparison site Airfarewatchdog polled people to find which domestic airline has the most comfortable seats in coach — because of course, business or first-class seats are like treating your bottom to a spa day in the air in comparison, but that’ll cost you — and picked JetBlue as the winner, reports the Chicago Tribune.


JetBlue came in at 21% of respondents saying it has the best coach seats, nabbing the crown from the major airlines that didn’t even come in near the top.


Next up was Alaska Airlines (17%), Hawaiian Airlines (14%) and Frontier (13%).


Falling toward the bottom were the rest of the U.S. carriers, who all came in with only single-digit percentages. In order from meh to lowest ranked: Allegiant, Southwest, AirTran, Delta, United, Spirit, American and US Airways.


As one would guess, leg room is a big factor — JetBlue has 33 inches of pitch in its cabins, which is the space between the rows, while 31 inches is the norm for many airlines flying Boeing 737s.


“Apparently, even 1 or 2 inches makes all the difference,” George Hobica, president of Airfarewatchdog said. “JetBlue is famous for giving passengers more legroom than any other domestic airline in all economy class seats, so it’s no surprise that consumers recognize them as having the most comfortable seating.”


Spirit Airlines fared surprisingly well, he added, by not coming in dead last with only 28 inches of pitch.


Other airlines are cutting down on space by slimming the size of their seats with reduced padding, which sure, doesn’t shrink leg room, but is nonetheless not necessarily a boon for your bum.


Poll: JetBlue, Alaska Air have most comfortable seats [Chicago Tribune]




by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.












Our Flickr Pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Want to see your pictures on our site? Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.




by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

GM Recalls Yet Another Half-Million Cars Over Increased Crash Risks


It’s the track on infinite repeat this year, it seems: General Motors has issued a recall of 524,000 vehicles for safety reasons. The two separate recall actions have nothing to do with ignition switches, at least, but both — on Cadillac and Saab SUVs and Chevy Spark cars — are hazards that increase the risk of a dangerous crash.

Reuters reports on the two latest recalls from the carmaker. One affects about 430,000 2010-2015 Cadillac SRX and the 2011-2012 Saab 9-4X SUVs.


On those SUVs, the rear toe assembly has a loose joint and can develop worn threads that cause the car to “wander at highway speeds” and potentially separate, increasing the risk of a crash. GM has indicated that they are aware of three crashes and two injuries (but no fatalities) that have happened as a result of this issue.


Of course, as we’ve learned this year, there can be a wide gulf between what GM is aware of and what others report.


The other recall is on almost 94,000 2013-2015 Chevrolet Sparks. Those cars have a hood latch defect that increases the risk of the hood just popping itself open while you’re driving the car which, again, increases the risk of a crash.


The two newest recalls bring GM’s total 2014 recalls to a hefty 71, affecting almost 30 million vehicles worldwide. (For comparison, in each of the past five years GM has sold between 2 and 3 million cars in the United States.)


The highest-profile is the ignition switch recall that is confirmed to have killed at least 23 people and that revealed significant problems in the safety oversight process both at GM and with federal regulators.


GM recalls 524,384 cars and SUVs globally in two actions [Reuters]




by Kate Cox via Consumerist

“Molesting A Vending Machine” Is Not What It Sounds Like


Sure, everyone giggled when they saw the headline that a man in Florida was arrested for “molesting [a] vending machine.” While you may have pictured a humiliated man caught performing unspeakable acts with a coin return slot, the real world is out to ruin the strange places where our imaginations go.

The real crime was more violent than that. Police say that a man was caught on surveillance video using a sledgehammer and an ax to force a vending machine open at a car wash in Daytona Beach. We assume that he was after money, because nobody brings a sledgehammer to harvest some free air fresheners. Police used evidence from that incident to arrest a man who was already a suspect in similar crimes against car wash vending machines. He has now been charged with felony criminal mischief and molesting a vending machine, and remains a suspect in the other car wash crimes.


The words in laws don’t always mean the same thing as in everyday life: people in Florida can also be charged with “shooting or throwing a missile into a vehicle,” which simply means throwing a thing into someone’s car. Any thing. Not a piece of artillery.


We generally use the word “molest” in the context of sex crimes against minors, but that isn’t what it means here. “Molest” simply means to interfere with the normal operation of the machine by damaging it or reaching inside to steal things. Here’s the actual statute:



Whoever maliciously or mischievously molests, opens, breaks, injures, damages, or inserts any part of her or his body or any instrument into any coin-operated vending machine or parking meter of another, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.



Okay, the “inserts any part of her or his body” part could get interesting, but in this case, “molesting” a vending machine just means tampering with it in some way.


Volusia man charged with molesting vending machine [News 13]




by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Classroom en píldoras: lista de reproducción creada por Raúl Luna





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