More Walmart ‘rollbacks’ are coming | CNN

February 23, 2022February 21, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Expect to see more bright-red “Rollback” signs at Walmart stores as inflation bites, the company said Thursday.

Rollbacks, or temporary price reductions on an item, are Walmart’s version of a sale. Walmart decides which products to drop prices on based on factors like discounts it receives from suppliers or excess inventory.

Walmart had more products on rollbacks last quarter compared to the previous one — and the company will continue adding them to highlight value prices for shoppers. Why every Costco product is called ‘Kirkland Signature’

“We use rollbacks to communicate not only the reality of prices are coming down at some places, but the emotion or perception we want customers to have about us,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on a post-earnings conference call with analysts.

Putin’s sabre rattling is shaking the cryptocurrency market | Fast Company

February 21, 2022February 20, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Cryptocurrencies around the world are getting pummeled today. A quick glance at CoinDesk’s tracker will show you a wall of red. At the time of this writing, most major cryptocurrencies are down at least 5% or more, including Bitcoin, which is down nearly 7% to $40,443; Ether is down almost 6% to just over $2,900; and Dogecoin and Shiba Inc are down 4.5% and 6.5%, respectively.

So what’s causing this downturn? Unlike recent selloffs, which were largely driven by the threat of increased regulation by the likes of China or the United States, today’s selloff appears to be purely geopolitical. With the threat of Russia going to war over Ukraine, and Russian President Putin announcing he’ll oversee nuclear military drills this weekend, investors are ditching volatile stocks and digital assets in favor of more stable assets like gold.

Didn’t Get Your PPP Loan Fully Forgiven? There’s Still Hope. Let the SBA Know | Inc.com

February 16, 2022February 15, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

For business owners who received only partial forgiveness on their Paycheck Protection Program loans, consider this your stay of execution.

On January 27, 2022, the Small Business Administration, the agency in charge of administering the PPP, quietly issued a procedural notice outlining a new review policy for borrowers who got a partial loan forgiveness decision from their lender, or were instructed to apply for less forgiveness than they wanted.

As of January 27, if you want to appeal a partial forgiveness decision you will have 30 days–from receipt of a lender’s post-remittance notification–to tell the lender. The lender must then file for a loan review on behalf of the borrower within five days. The same process applies to borrowers whose lenders prevented them from applying for full forgiveness.

Texas attorney general files lawsuit against Meta over Facebook’s facial recognition technology | TechCrunch

February 15, 2022February 14, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Meta over Facebook’s facial recognition practices, his office announced on Monday. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which notes that the lawsuit seeks civil penalties in the hundreds of billions of dollars. The lawsuit alleges that the company’s use of facial recognition technology, which it has now discontinued, violated the state’s privacy protections regarding biometric data.

A press release announcing the lawsuit alleges that Facebook has been storing millions of biometric identifiers contained in photos and videos uploaded by users. Attorney General Paxton says that Facebook exploited the personal information of users “to grow its empire and reap historic windfall profits.”

Geomagnetic storm sends 40 SpaceX satellites plummeting to Earth | Live Science

February 10, 2022February 9, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A powerful geomagnetic storm has doomed 40 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX last week, the company has announced.

Elon Musk’s company launched a Falcon 9 rocket bearing the 49 satellites from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday (Feb. 3), but a geomagnetic storm that struck a day later sent the satellites plummeting back toward Earth, where they will burn up in the atmosphere.

“Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday,” SpaceX said in a statement. “Preliminary analysis show[s] the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe mode to begin orbit-raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere.”

Amazon raises US price for Prime as profits jump | BBC News

February 4, 2022February 3, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Amazon is raising the price of its Prime service for US customers after reporting record sales and profits.

The e-commerce giant said it was hiking the price by 17% to $139 for annual membership.

The firm, which cited increased wage and shipping costs, said it had no announcements to make about other countries “at this time”.

It is the first increase since 2018 for Prime, which gives subscribers access to benefits like faster shipping.

Domino’s Response to the Labor Crunch: Pick Up Your Own Damn Pizza | Inc.com

February 4, 2022February 3, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When you can’t fill your open roles, consider paying your customers instead.

That’s the strategy Domino’s is using to compensate for both labor shortages and a decline in sales. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-headquartered pizza chain announced this week that it will offer customers a $3 “tip” to apply to their next order (placed within a week) if they pick up their online orders themselves. The promotion is expected to run through late May.

Starbucks Set to Increase Prices in All Stores, Once Again | Entrepreneur

February 3, 2022February 2, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

There might be some bad news for Starbucks regulars, and they can thank the seemingly never-ending supply chain issues for it.

Starbucks reported that it will be increasing prices in stores later this year thanks to less than stellar Q1 2022 results. Though total revenue topped estimates at about $8.05 billion, earnings did not meet Wall Street’s expectations.

“Our pricing strategy … is driven by several factors such as inflation rates, partner investments, the infrastructure investments that we want to make, and then obviously, the investments we want to make on continuing the innovation pipeline. We do all those things while balancing the premium value for our customers and the experience we want to provide them,” John Culver, group president of North America and COO of Starbucks said on its quarterly earnings call.

Thousands of Planes Are Flying Empty and No One Can Stop Them | WIRED

February 3, 2022February 2, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

IN DECEMBER 2021, 27,591 aircraft took off or landed at Frankfurt airport—890 every day. But this winter, many of them weren’t carrying any passengers at all. Lufthansa, Germany’s national airline, which is based in Frankfurt, has admitted to running 21,000 empty flights this winter, using its own planes and those of its Belgian subsidiary, Brussels Airlines, in an attempt to keep hold of airport slots.

Although anti-air travel campaigners believe ghost flights are a widespread issue that airlines don’t publicly disclose, Lufthansa is so far the only airline to go public about its own figures. In January, climate activist Greta Thunberg tweeted her disbelief over the scale of the issue. Unusually, she was joined by voices within the industry. One of them was Lufthansa’s own chief executive, Carsten Spohr, who said the journeys were “empty, unnecessary flights just to secure our landing and takeoff rights.” But the company argues that it can’t change its approach: Those ghost flights are happening because airlines are required to conduct a certain proportion of their planned flights in order to keep slots at high-trafficked airports

MrBeast goes full Willy Wonka, launches his own Feastables food brand | Fast Company

January 31, 2022January 30, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In just a few short years, 23-year-old Jimmy Donaldson—better known as MrBeast—has built one of the largest audiences on the internet; become the highest-paid YouTube star ever, thanks to his videos generating some 10 billion views; and even convinced 456 people to compete in a precise reimagining of the activities at the heart of Squid Game (minus the bloody death) for $456,000. A year ago, he launched a restaurant concept called MrBeast Burger, using ghost kitchens to scale up very quickly. It sold 1 million burgers in its first three months.

Now, starting today, January 29, he’s also a major packaged-food brand.