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(Nazra Z.)

Holiday time is shopping time in America, and millions of families turn to Amazon to get their gifts. But last year, Santa’s sleigh had some trouble getting where it needed to be on time: last-minute buying, bad weather, and snafus at UPS and FedEx meant plenty of presents were still in transit when kids went looking under the tree in the morning. Some Christmas delivery miracles occurred, but Amazon still had to issue plenty of apologies, refunds, discounts, and Prime extensions. But Amazon is determined not to see a repeat in 2014, if their year of planning and building pans out.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports on the extensive planning that’s been going on at Amazon in order to make sure every customer gets their packages of holiday cheer on time. Even Amazon, as large and diverse a company as they are, can’t do much about winter storms or natural disasters — but they can build flexibility and redundancy to deal with pretty much everything else.

And that’s what they’ve been doing, as they open new facilities around the country and the world. In addition to 38 new fulfillment centers (i.e. giant warehouses full of stuff) Amazon has open around the country, they’ve opened 15 “sortation centers” to go with.

These smaller (but still huge) facilities exist for, well, sorting. Instead of having every package go straight to a shipping partner, like UPS, FedEx, or the Postal Service, Amazon instead sorts them by ZIP code first. That allows them flexibility if something goes awry. For example, if UPS were to experience major delays in one region, Amazon would know which packages to hand over to another shipper instead.

The online retailing behemoth is also exploring alternatives that don’t involve the big shipping companies at all, BusinessWeek adds. In a handful of cities, particularly Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, Amazon’s been experimenting with their own delivery fleet. Forget the man in brown: your Amazon package arrives at your door in an Amazon truck with an Amazon driver.

The CEO of the company that did the research analysis explained to BusinessWeek that last year, “UPS was a single point of failure. Amazon was so married to them. Now if they get into a situation where five days into the holidays and UPS says ‘no mas,’” the sortation system gives them flexibility to work with the situation.

Amazon also tries to avoid bottlenecks with the big three shipping organizations by working with a number of smaller, regional delivery and courier services, especially near warehouses. (Yours truly sees the LaserShip van drop off a dozen Amazon boxes to neighbors nearly every morning.) These companies are also not flawless, but still provide flexible options that Amazon can choose to use or not to use depending on the circumstance.

Of course, these new warehouses are not evenly dotted around the country. Residents of the rural west are mostly out of luck, but Amazon shoppers in the major cities of the West Coast, up and down the Mississipi, and especially in the Northeast Corridor are fairly likely to live near one. But there’s always something: even living next door to an Amazon facility won’t spare you from some deepy questionable packaging.

Amazon’s Grand Plan to Avoid Holiday Delivery Snafus Again [Bloomberg Businessweek]

morez срочный автовыкуп by Kate Cox via Consumerist

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(Ryan)

Generally when you think of a group of customers getting sick while visiting a restaurant, your mind automatically goes to the food. But that’s not always the case, as evidenced by a recent pepper spray incident at a Sarasota Panera.

WTSP-TV reports that four people were taken to the hospital for respiratory illness after someone set off a can of pepper spray inside a local Panera restaurant.

Police officials say a 16-year-old boy came forward and admitted to spraying the substance. He allegedly told officers that he didn’t know what it was or that it would spread throughout the restaurant.

Investigators tell WTSP that the incident appears to have been an accident.

Pepper spray sickens Sarasota Panera diners [WTSP-TV]

morez срочный автовыкуп by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

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Earlier this month, cereal giant General Mills announced that it would purchase Annie’s Homegrown, an organic foods company best known for its boxed macaroni and cheese and bunny-shaped crackers and cookies. The Annie’s board approved the sale, but many organic food fans feel betrayed. Almost 13,000 people have signed a petition urging General Mills to keep Annie’s exactly as it is.

At the time the acquisition was announced, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal pointed out that General Mills’ overall business was growing 1% per year, while sales in its “Small Planet Foods” organic cereals and snacks division grew 6%. General Mills already owns other prominent organic food brands, and Annie’s fits into that portfolio nicely. Yet customers worry that the new owners will change the brand’s standards.

General Mills’ stated position on GMO labeling is that they will label their products if there’s a uniform national label requirement, but they oppose state labeling initiatives. The company’s campaigning against GMO labeling on a state-by-state basis has earned them the wrath of people who want to limit their exposure to genetically modified food.

The company insists that nothing will change.

We @annieshomegrown are not changing. We believe in GMO labeling and will support in action & $$. Period. Watch us

— John Foraker (@AnniesCEO) September 12, 2014

Of course, the CEO of Annie’s would say that even if the new parent company had nefarious plans, but the truth is that organic food is a growing part of the market, and the brand’s loyal customers and credibility are exactly why General Mills paid so much for the company.

Can General Mills overcome the Annie’s acquisition backlash? [Bakery and Snacks]

morez срочный автовыкуп by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

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As you might have heard, a fire — apparently set by a disgruntled employee — at an Illinois air traffic control center early this morning has resulted in more than 1,300 flights being canceled in and out of Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports. If you want to get a sense of how badly this screwed up everyone’s day, this short video will do that for you.

The above clip, captures just those people waiting in the customer service line to rebook for one airline at one terminal at O’Hare this morning. It doesn’t include all the people trying to rebook travel over the phone or online, or who just gave up and went back home or to a hotel.

And things had to be even worse at Midway, where more than 70% of outbound flights were canceled today. Since Southwest uses Midway as a major hub, it canceled all flights in and out of that airport today, and had to cancel more than 400 flights nationwide as a result.

The Chicago Tribune reports that flights are slowly resuming, and at a reduced rate, but the FlightAware.com Misery Map is still decidedly red for the Windy City area right now:

(via FlightAware.com)

morez срочный автовыкуп by Chris Morran via Consumerist

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Because he’s already made more money than some small nations, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is free to experiment with new ways of distributing his music. It wasn’t that long ago that the band tried a pay-what-you-want model with its In Rainbows album. And today, Yorke announced the release of his first solo album in nearly a decade as a bundle via BitTorrent.

Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes is a collection of eight songs and a video for which Yorke is charging the relatively low price of six dollars. He’s also giving away one song, “Brain in a Bottle,” for free as a teaser.

But it’s not really the dollar value that makes the release newsworthy. It’s the use of a BitTorrent bundle to deliver the music.

Basically, after the first group of customers buys and downloads the album, they will then begin seeding the files so that future buyers will be getting their downloads from those original downloaders, and then sharing again with subsequent buyers. It effectively decentralizes the downloading process and reduces costs for the artist.

In this case, BitTorrent says that 90% of the $6 price goes to Yorke; significantly more than he would have received if he’d had to rely on a digital distributor or host and manage the downloads on his own.

“If it works well, it could be an effective way of handing some control of Internet commerce back to the people who are creating the work,” explains Yorke in a statement, “enabling those people who make either music, video or any other kind of digital content to sell it themselves.”

One issue that Yorke probably won’t face, but could cause trouble for smaller artists who try this format is having their work disappear from torrents.

If at some point people stop seeding the files, then people who want to buy the music may be out of luck. It’s akin to the old retail problem of CDs, tapes, and albums going out of print; something that isn’t supposed to happen in the digital age.

morez срочный автовыкуп by Chris Morran via Consumerist

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(Alberto Cueto)

The mere 10 minutes I’ve spent inside an Anthropologie store was enough to last me multiple years. But consumers who can’t get enough of the shabby-chic chain might welcome with open arms the thought of spending three hours browsing. Well, your wish may soon be coming true if the chain’s owners get their way.

Bloomberg reports that Urban Outfitters Inc. plans to create an atmosphere inside Anthropologie stores where customers can hang out for hours at a time – because everyone wants to chill in a place where everything you see is for sale and sales clerks ask you if you need help every five minutes.

The plan includes opening 25 to 50 new Anthropologie stores, some of which will be three times larger than current locations. Those super-sized stores will expand offerings of home goods, wedding items, beauty products and intimate apparel in an effort to entice customers to stay a lot longer.

Additionally, the stores will champion a more social component by offering dining and salon services.

Focus groups that tested a prototype of the new-format stores indicated the plan works, with customers staying for two to three hours compared with the current average stay of an hour.

Bloomberg reports that the new, larger stores won’t be an addition to the company’s already 178 locations, they will simply replace existing ones.

Officials with Anthropologie say the new focus of bigger is better is in line with their target customers.

“She wants more — more products, more of the world-class experience we’ve introduced,” David McCreight, CEO for the chain, said in a statement. “Just like Apple and their new iPhone, we truly believe bigger is indeed better, and in our case, necessary to expand our reach.”

Urban Outfitters to Supersize Anthropologie Stores [Bloomberg]

morez срочный автовыкуп by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

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Walmart recently began touting its “Savings Catcher” program, which allows shoppers to scan in their receipts and have Walmart determine if the customer could have paid less elsewhere. If so, the difference goes on a gift card (that can only be used at Walmart, of course). But should you trust putting your price-matching in Walmart’s hands?

We haven’t had a chance to test the service yet, but the folks at WFMY-TV in North Carolina tried it out, with mixed results.

The reporters first made a list of 15 items that they knew in advance were on sale at other stores in the area. Since Walmart doesn’t provide a list of exactly which stores are used for price-matching, they stuck to major chains like Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Big Lots, Target, Family Dollar, and Walgreens.

Then they went shopping at Walmart, found all 15 items, for which they paid $36.24. Meanwhile, the total they would have paid if they’d bought each item at its cheaper price at the various other stores was $30.39, a difference of $5.85.

So back at home, they went to Walmart’s Savings Catcher site and entered the receipt number. A few days later — the process takes upwards of 72 hours — they found that most of their items had resulted in refund, but not everything.

In all, 11 of the 15 items turned up on Savings Catcher for less than they paid at Walmart. One item was even found at a significantly lower price than what had been expected, so that was a plus.

But then there were the remaining items that didn’t turn up lower prices. Savings Catcher claimed it couldn’t find a lower price on one of the four items, and it simply couldn’t identify the three others.

When it was all said and done, the service found $4.83 in savings, but left $1.02 unaccounted for. And this was just for a relatively small transaction of $36. A larger order may have resulted in even more items that didn’t turn up savings at competing stores.

Based on just this one test, it seems like Savings Catcher might be something worth trying. After all, you’ve already spent the money; why not see if you can get any of it back. And if you do shop regularly at Walmart, then the restriction of getting your refund on a Walmart gift card is probably not going to annoy you too much.

That said, in addition the 2-3 day wait time to get results from Savings Catcher, there are numerous restrictions on which products are eligible (it appears to be limited to grocery and health/beauty items) and limits on how long you can wait (receipts older than 7 days are ineligible).

If anyone has been trying Savings Catcher and wants to share their feedback, let us know at tips@consumerist.com.

morez срочный автовыкуп by Chris Morran via Consumerist