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ALERT! Will we lose our Amazon and other affiliate income? We might. Many already have.
[Originally posted in SquidU]
In several U.S. states, Amazon has shut down its associates program, in response to new laws passed attempting to collect sales tax from affiliate marketers or internet commerce. I’m guessing that the cost of recordkeeping for so many individual accounts and/or paying sales tax on such minute amounts eats too much of the profits to be worth the trouble.
Most recently, Colorado associates got shut down, following Hawaii, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Read that link for more info.
Alarmingly, I’m reading old — or new? — news that New York State has instituted such a law, and the only thing holding it back is an appeal filed by Amazon. Here’s a New York Times editorial about it, expressing the opinion that Amazon should lose.
On the one hand, states have the right to tax sales that go on in their states.
On the other hand, every time Amazon shuts down an affiliate program, it’s not Amazon who gets shafted. it’s us. The affiliate marketers. The folks trying to pay bills. The folks trying to make ends meet.
Any of us could be victims of these new state laws, which could take away our Amazon or other affiliate earnings.
Some of our friends and Squidoo members have already gotten burned by this: they’ve lost their associate accounts because Amazon’s pulled the plug in their states.
And it could happen in New York, where Squidoo is based.
I don’t know what would happen then, but I don’t like the prospect.
That New York Times editorial shows that most people think this is just going to impact Amazon’s bottom line. All they see is big bad Amazon getting a tax break while competing with small businesses. They don’t realize that millions of families and small businesses make money on Amazon through affiliate commissions. I’m sure legislators don’t have a clue.
So I think that we should use some of our marketing and writing skills to write EVERY SINGLE state legislator and congressperson, and tell them the other side of the story, which they’re probably not hearing: yours and mine.
Write your state representative. Write your congressperson. Today.
This is more important for your online livelihood than any Tweet, Facebook status update, blog post or other page you do all this month… maybe all year.
I’m not sure what arguments one can use to counterbalance, “we need the sales tax to pay off our looming debts.” But how about, “Amazon will just shut down their associates program in states where the cost of running it is too costly — they already have in HI, RI and CO — so you’re not going to get that money anyway. But Amazon Associates pay income taxes, so if they get shut down, you LOSE revenue, not to mention killing people’s jobs, income, and buying power.”
Share this post. Spread the word.
I am glad that our state is safe for at least 6 years with our new governor. However, other states need to wake up. These laws not only affect big companies like Amazon, but other very small companies that only have 5 or 6 people running them.
The problem is that sales tax laws are not uniform across all of the states and if companies were required to collect sales tax for every state they shipped to, it would take a massive amount of people to do so because they would have to make sure the correct tax is being collected for every place they shipped to.
I have experienced this a little bit in my own state. Paypal and eBay only allow me to set a fixed state tax amount for the states that I am required to collect tax in. Unfortunately, I am also required to collect county tax which I am unable to do with the tools offered. Since I don’t ship a lot within my state, I have just ate the small county tax every year. If I have shipped more, I would have been in real trouble.
Hmm, I think I’ll do some math and write a hub or lens about it. Maybe both. States need to realize the revenue they’d be losing without this income. Companies aren’t going to conform, they’re just going to cut off the affiliates.
I just sent an email to my congressman urging him not to support any such measure in Florida. Readers can visit House.gov to be directed to their representatives contact info.
Thank you! We’ve got to educate our representatives; it’s not like most of them understand the internet.


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Newly published research shows little interest among consumers for watching television on their mobile phones.
Fewer than one in five of the 1,500 UK consumers questioned in a recent poll said that they wanted to watch TV on their mobile phone, and 70 per cent said that they actively did not want to use their mobile for viewing such content.
Of those that were keen, over half wanted to watch music videos and 40 per cent wanted news and sport.
Consumers are much more enthusiastic about watching TV programmes on their PCs, with 44 per cent indicating an interest.
"Consumers are clearly excited at the prospect of entertainment on new devices," said John Enser, media partner at legal firm Olswang, which commissioned the research.
"But what consumers want varies dramatically from home computers to mobiles, so new innovative services have been forced to cover many bases.
"There can be no 'one size fits all' approach to offering entertainment to users across many different platforms, and this increases the investments demanded of companies moving into these new areas."
The research showed strong demand for digital downloads, and over half of those questioned wanted to watch programmes whenever it suited them.
Fifteen per cent of those questioned were already watching downloaded films, suggesting high levels of piracy since legitimate film downloads are still in their infancy.
But the downloaders are willing to pay once services become available, according to the poll.
Some 43 per cent said they would be happy to subscribe to a service that allowed them to download films and music. The most popular pricing systems included pay-to-view and pay-to-keep.
Kicking Palantir off of AWS is among their demands, too
Rafaela Vasquez was watching The Voice at the time of the crash, new evidence shows
PUBG price slashed on Steam after selling more than 50 million copies - as daily player numbers plunge
Use the same password for every website? It might be time to change them all

domain: news


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3dcart Caters to the Enterprise
3dcart is focusing on the enterprise, as the e-commerce solution provider has unveiled a new tier of Enterprise Agency Services for online merchants
3dcart’s Enterprise Agency Services are managed by a team of industry experts and can be leveraged to help elevate large and growing businesses to the next level. In fact, the agency-level services include packages tailored to meet a merchant’s unique needs and are ideal for businesses whose demands exceed the capabilities of leading e-commerce platforms.
It is important to note that 3dcart offers enterprise agency services for hosting, SEO, social media, design and webmaster services. In addition, merchants leveraging the Enterprise Agency Services will have access to VIP support, services and treatment, as well as a personal team of experts and technical support that is available every day of the year.
“With the quick evolution of e-commerce trends, online merchants are more than ever burdened by a number of factors that affect their short and long-term success,” said 3dcart's COO Jimmy Rodriguez. “Our enterprise Agency Services serve to alleviate the hassle and stress of acquiring the various tools, software and professional services required for success in today’s competitive market, providing merchants with convenient access to all-inclusive services and support for all of their e-commerce needs.”


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Thanksgiving remains in existence to serve the throbbing margins of tech on Black Friday
Consumerism is the gravy.
Thanksgiving, a holiday steeped in racial undertones and brutal colonialism, no longer holds whatever non-smallpox related meaning it may have once wielded. As humans capable of free will, do we need a marked day in order to come together, suffer the insufferable members of our bloodline and give thanks for what exactly? No, the proliferation and continuation of Thanksgiving as a holiday is akin to Columbus Day remaining as such in order to sell discount mattresses. It is simply the harbinger of Black Friday.
The Black Friday (capitalized for effect) phenomenon has expanded from one day of consumers rushing the doors at Walmart to a month-long affair of loud font sales, both in your email and in banner ads across the internet. It no longer serves a business to wait until the moment the turkey begins to cool to open its doors against the throngs of face-blushed customers, eager to save a small percentage on something they do not need. No, Black Friday comes as soon as Halloween ends, dragged like a bag of mud into the season by Christmas Creep.
As we kneel at the dark altar of consumerism we are reminded that it is our one true god. For whatever political meandering continuously threatens to topple our mental states, we always eagerly return to opening our wallets for the latest and greatest technology, suckling on the teet of a good deal, disregarding any differences we may have had before purchasing a new television that we simply do not need. It is a small satisfaction in a world of chaos. This is the time of year when tech companies regain any losses, their Thanksgiving comes after the fiscal period closes.
Which is why Thanksgiving, as vaulted a holiday as it might seem, is nothing more than a moment of respite before we fall into the warm embrace of consumerism. Our fingers itch as they refresh the page for Amazon’s annual Black Friday deals. Our brains become wet with fevered enthusiasm as we patiently scan eBay for secondhand deals. Gamers salivate at the depth of deals offered by Microsoft for the Xbox and we have a side eye to smaller tech companies, also angling for that Black Friday sales traffic.
It is Amazon though, that has rendered Thanksgiving nothing more than a footnote on the path to Black Friday (itself rendering Cyber Monday a non-issue). This is where we start our Black Friday shopping, instead of in a tent outside a Best Buy. While traditional brick-and-mortar attempts to keep up (have you seen the sales on toilet brushes at Bed Bath & Beyond for Odin’s sake), it is our ability to spend money while not moving from our seat that truly heaps glory upon the seven-headed beast that is Black Friday shopping. There is more relief to be found from shopping online than there is from loosening our belt after scooping large, dry chunks of turkey and potatoes into our gullets.
And it is tech, small and large retailers, and manufacturers that truly benefits from the existence of Thanksgiving and by proxy, Black Friday. This is when we purchase our new 8-track stereos, our VCRs and 19-inch televisions. This is when we stock up on peripherals we do not need, this is when we buy all the toasters we can handle. While non-tech items also fall into the Black Friday pit, it is tech we tend to gravitate towards. You’ve never seen a pair of customers fighting over an ottoman like they fight over an OLED 4kUHD television at 40% off.
Yet, as the dust settles sometime in mid-December, as Christmas approaches and the new year seems like the only thing that will save the crushing depression caused by the status of our bank accounts, we have to take a moment to thank consumerism. Because of it, we are constantly presented with new and amazing technology, all fighting for a place on our shelves or in our pockets. So if there is anything to be thankful for in that moment after your racist uncle has finally stopped talking and before the first slice of turkey has slipped past your grinding teeth, it is that we live in a country in which we can get some really good deals on fruit infusion bottles and dental tools on Black Friday.
Where do you stand? Is everything terrible? Let us know in the comments below or continue the conversation on Twitter.
- Here are the best PlayStation deals for Black Friday 2018
- Open those wallets, Xbox goes deep with over 500 Black Friday deals
- Tidal finally lands on Amazon Echo devices through a new Alexa Skill


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Three shifts keep the shop running 24 hours a day. Sunday evening. The company processes tens of millions of pounds of steel a year.Metals processing is a very specialized, very hi tech field. TORONTO A full 10 hours before the Outlet Collection Winnipeg opened its doors for the first time on May 4, a burgeoning crowd of bargain hunters had started to form outside in the overnight chill.The traffic snarl radiated for a kilometre along the roads leading in and out of the mall and the crush of cars had still not abated as the mall prepared to close at 8:55 that night. Ferries officials to send out warnings about crowded streets en route to local ferry terminal, six kilometres away.While sales of apparel have been tepid at conventional retail chains and department stores, the off price category has been booming, with sales soaring nearly twenty per cent in Canada in 2016 and dozens of new stores slated to open in the next few years.For those fretting about the future of bricks and mortar apparel retailing, it still unclear if the off price phenomenon is a saviour or just a symptom of the industry broader long term decline.Either way, it hard to argue with the success the category has enjoyed, particularly in the last two to three years.was always, historically, a group of Canadians who would cross the border to shop at off price stores and outlet malls, said Randy Harris, president of apparel market research firm Trendex International. Market, but in the last few years, developers and many more consumers have cottoned on to the trend.
Value for your money there are companies that are going to charge you quite a lot of money and offer mediocre services. This is will make you not be able to get the best value for your money. We on the other hand are a company that guarantees you nothing but value for your money.
Let’s be honest. When we think of genetic disorders, physical frailty is what comes to mind. When Dana Hoekstra and her husband adopted young Liam, who the doctors labeled as “afflicted with a grave genetic condition”, they were as surprised as you would be when you discover that this “genetic abnormality” put infant Liam on the other side of the diseased physicality bell curve..
Completely different type of personality entered with Mahler, there to speak with Max Kalbeck vivid words of the tall blond bearded Hun, who placed himself wide and calm before the orchestra like an unshakable, solidly walled tower, there was a gifted shape [begabte Gestalt] balancing over the podium, thin, nervous, and with extraordinarily gangly limbs. In fact, a greater contrast was really not possible. There the patriarchal Hans Richter in his stolidity and goodness, and his extremely hearty and collegial solidarity with the orchestra, and here Gustav Mahler, oriented to the new objectivity [neue Sachlichkeit] nervous, hasty, scatty, intellectualish [sic] the music a pure matter of his overbred intellect.


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Aunt Jemima is making her last batch of pancakes.
Quaker Oats said Tuesday that its Aunt Jemima brand pancake mix and syrup will be renamed Pearl Milling Company. Aunt Jemima products will continue to be sold until June, when the packaging will officially change over.
Quaker Oats, a division of PepsiCo Inc., had announced last June that it would retire the Aunt Jemima brand, saying the character’s origins are “based on a racial stereotype.” A former slave, Nancy Green, became the first face of the pancake products in 1890.
Quaker Oats bought the Aunt Jemima brand in 1925 and had updated the logo over the years in an effort to remove the negative stereotypes. But in the cultural reckoning that followed last summer’s Black Lies Matter riots, Quaker decided to change the name altogether. Other brands, like Uncle Ben’s rice, followed… Via – Citizen Free Press


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Online Safety Tips for Floridians During Internet Safety Month
Jun 30, 2021
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—This National Internet Safety Month, Attorney General Ashley Moody is reminding Floridians to be responsible online. The internet continues to be an important part of Floridian’s lives, with even more activity moving online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sadly, identity thieves, fraudsters, sexual predators and human traffickers also use the internet to commit heinous crimes. It is important to regularly review online safety measures to avoid falling prey to any of these devious online schemes.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “In the internet age, we can buy groceries, clothes, or even a new car with a few clicks of the mouse, but we can also unknowingly invite fraudsters, thieves or even sexual predators into our lives. While the internet can be a great tool to improve our everyday lives, we must make sure we are taking measures to increase the safety and security of our finances and our families online.”
Attorney General Moody is encouraging Floridians to stay safe online by following these tips:
- Be mindful when sharing content on the internet because once there, it never goes away;
- Secure accounts by using different passwords and multifactor authentication, if available;
- Monitor your children’s internet use by enabling parental controls, and take the time to share safe online habits;
- Know that WiFi hot spots are usually unsecure and can allow scammers to easily access sensitive information on your device; and
- Never access any important accounts through public computers or electronic devices.
The National Association of Attorneys General has a consumer resource webpage dedicated to internet privacy. To access more useful information from the website, click here.
At the start of 2021, Attorney General Moody released a Consumer Alert about data privacy that offers tips on guarding private information online. To view other recent Consumer Alerts, visit the Attorney General’s Consumer Alert webpage at MyFloridaLegal.com/ConsumerAlert.


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PUBG Mobile, the popular smartphone gaming from Tencent, is getting support for 90fps mode and OnePlus will be the first company to support this on its devices. From August 6th to September 6th, the mode will be exclusively available to the OnePlus smartphones, before making its way to other devices.
Currently, the PUBG Mobile 90fps model is available in most of the market, except for Mainland China, Japan, and Korea. It’s noteworthy that the Chinese version of the game, named “Game for Peace” already supports 90fps gameplay.
The list of supported OnePlus devices for this new 90fps mode on the smartphone include OnePlus 7 Pro, 7T, 7T Pro, 8, and 8 Pro.
Commenting on this development, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said: “OnePlus is very close with our community of tech enthusiasts, so we know that mobile gamers are looking for a more immersive and smoother experience. That’s exactly what we are delivering with this exclusive 90 FPS experience with PUBG MOBILE, one of the world’s most downloaded mobile games. We will continue pushing mobile gaming to new levels through our industry-leading displays, powerful performance, and fast and smooth overall user experience.”
The newly launched mid-range smartphone from the company — OnePlus Nord — is missing from the list even though the device has support for 90Hz refresh rate on its AMOLED display. One possible explanation is that the company is limiting the feature to flagship smartphones only.
However, we expect the company to add support for OnePlus Nord in the coming months. This is an interesting development given that OnePlus was also among the first to get early access to Fortnite at 90fps earlier this year.


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Merseyside auctioneer Sutton Kersh sold more than 60 of the 85 lots offered at its first auction of the year, generating proceeds of around £4.6m.
The sale took place at the Liverpool Marriott Hotel. The first lot of the day was a vacant three-storey commercial property in Birkenhead combining retail and office space, which sold for £132,000.
A residential investment in Liverpool's Georgian Quarter sold for £374,000. The property on Huskisson Street is arranged as five self-contained flats producing annual rental income of £27,000. The guide price was £300,000.
Cathy Holt, joint head of auctions at Sutton Kersh said: "Twenty lots sold prior to the auction which contributed to the strong overall performance and with plenty of post-sale interest in stock still available the figures are likely to increase."
Sutton Kersh is now inviting instructions for its next auction on Thursday 16 April.


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It’s easy to feel like all the big moments the internet has to offer, from the first web browser to the first high-quality consumer smartphone, are behind us. The last year, however, was filled with major developments that show the internet continues to have lots of new innovations to serve up. Here are three of the biggest changes that made the entire internet simply better over the last year.
Everything is Connected
While the Internet of Things has been a marketing term who’s moment had always seemed to be just across the horizon, the last year was when IoT finally started to show up everywhere. Farmers are connecting internet-ready tracking devices to dairy cows! If an industry as old as animal husbandry is getting on board with a trend, you can bet consumers have gotten in on it, too. Residential smart systems broke out big, with customers connecting their thermostats, home theaters and security cameras to everything from their phones to their cars. With an IoT boom taking place across a variety of sectors, prices also came down significantly, leading to a massive feedback loop likely to carry the trend well into the next decade.
Alongside this massive uptick in connected devices has come a treasure trove of data. Analytics platforms exploded in popularity during the last year, with everyone from retailers to helicopter parents getting in on the action. To process all this new information, an entire generation of software has emerged, such as Google BigQuery. Naturally, these solutions are often cloud-based, making them widely accessible and easily scalable.
Big data is also beginning to go much smaller. Insights systems built into common software packages, such as Intuit’s widely used QuickBooks package, are now helping tiny, family-owned businesses run their operations with the lethal efficiency of major multinational corporations. It may not seem like a big deal that the car wash king of your rural county is making more bank, but these developments can make a massive difference in the survival of small businesses that have often been the losers in the internet revolution.
The trends attached to IoT, big data and analytics are now beginning to approach critical mass. By 2020, it’s anticipated there will be more than five internet-connected devices for every person on the planet. This means even more data will be collected, studied and utilized to make the modern world an awesome place to live.
The World Went Mobile
In 2017, the world finally became more dependent on mobile devices than desktops and laptops. The trend so quickly became dominant that Google’s indexing system now prioritizes mobile-ready web pages over more traditional ones in search results. More users than ever before have access to 4G networks, allowing them to be less dependent on access to nearby Wi-Fi hotspots. Interest in rolling out 5G networks has grown, and it’s clear that the future of the internet is going to be vastly more mobile than ever before.
Adaptation to a more mobile world has empowered businesses in a number of ways. CEOs now have access to real-time analytics dashboards from company smartphones. Employees can now whip out their phones during a slow period at work to bang through learning modules. It’s completely normal for a buyer in China to expect immediate inventory updates from retail customers on the other side of the planet because people at both ends are using tablets and smartphones to convey data.
Everyone is International Now
At some point in 2017, it became perfectly normal for people to start discussing TV shows from countries they’d have never dreamed about even two years. Not long ago, the flow of culture was largely one-way, emanating out from Hollywood into the rest of the world. With the exception of Japanese anime and the occasional Italian or French cinematic masterpiece, very little cultural exchange really occurred. Anyone with a Netflix account has seen, and perhaps even participated in, the German television renaissance that’s being fueled by access to major streaming services. Instead of waiting for an Americanized version of a show like House of Cards, viewers are increasingly going straight to the source. It’s suddenly hip for Americans to talk about Korean dramas, Mexican telenovelas and British sitcoms.
This massive flow of cultural exchange facilitated by the internet is seen far outside of the TV world. The internationalization of music is at a level never witnessed before, with people in the global north now listening to the freshest songs coming out of places like Nigeria. Where artists once had to luck into a record label taking an interest in their culture, such as the popularization of reggae by Island Records in the 1970s, now they can get on Spotify and YouTube in less than a day.
It’s hard to discuss any of these three topics without quickly ending up making mention of one of the others. One leads to the other, as evidenced when you realize that, for example, streaming TV services are using big data systems to study the increasingly internationalized audience that’s watching programming on all those interconnected devices. There’s a good chance these compounding effects will reverberate far into the next decade.
The major internet revolution that hit in the last year was the product of a number of technologies coming into full maturity. 4G cell phone networks are now available to much of the world’s population. High-speed internet access is so ubiquitous that people are increasingly upset with anything less than enough bandwidth to stream 4K video to their TV, phone and laptop. IoT monitoring systems have become small and cheap enough that they can be deployed without fear of incurring major costs from losing them. Consumers and businesses are also beginning to awaken to the massive potential the internet offers, and that means even bigger things are likely soon to come.


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Toyota Field to double as a rock ‘n’ roll venue
New complex will fill Verizon amphitheater void
(Page 3 of 4)
Jack Orbin, president of San Antonio-based concert promotion company Stone City Attractions Inc., warned when entertainment company Live Nation shuttered Verizon Wireless Amphitheater that the market would lose a number of shows. He met with Hartman and his architects before work began on Toyota Field, sharing ideas and explaining what it would take for the building to attract some of that lost concert business.
“I believe this can be a very viable venue,” Orbin says. “It can be a big plus for San Antonio.
“Hartman has grand plans for that venue,” he adds. “Certainly, we need it.”
Toyota Field will feature dressing, staging and production areas needed to support touring shows. It will also have a number of amenities Solis believes will attract soccer fans and concertgoers, including a beer garden, lounge area and 16 luxury suites.
The stadium can ultimately be expanded to accommodate 18,500 soccer fans — should San Antonio have an opportunity to move up to the MLS — and an even larger number of concertgoers.
Hartman created a unique operating model for the Scorpions. The franchise shares a portion of its revenues with Morgan’s Wonderland.
The stadium will operate similarly. The special-needs park will also receive a portion of revenues from Toyota Field.
“Toyota Field has been designed as a conduit to help support all of the programs that Morgan’s Wonderland has,” Solis says. “People who come to events at the stadium will know that the money they spend will help support Morgan’s Wonderland.
“I’ve talked to agents and promoters to let them know that this is more than just another stadium,” he adds. “A lot of people are intrigued by that and want to help out.”
W. Scott Bailey covers health care, tourism, sports business, economic development; he also plans and edits some special reports.
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Sales of the forthcoming Apple Watch will be blocked in Switzerland over a patent issue, Swiss television network RTS has revealed. It seems that a patent for a watch bearing the English word “Apple” already exists in Switzerland. However, the block on sales will only last until 5th December, 2015, as that is when the existing patent expires.
The 30-year patent was filed back in 1985 by Leonard Timepieces, long before then-computer manufacturer Apple had even conceived creating a watch.
It seems Apple may have been aware of the patent, since Switzerland was suspiciously absent from Apple’s list of launch countries.
The Apple Watch will be released in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, and Japan on 24th April.


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Tibor Kalman, a graphic designer whose innovative ideas about art and society helped change the way a generation of designers and their clients viewed the world, died Sunday in Puerto Rico. He was 49.
Mr. Kalman, who died in the Hyatt Dorado Hotel near San Juan, had decided to spend his last days in Puerto Rico after losing a four-year battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, said his wife, Maira Kalman.
The founder of M&Co, a revolutionary New York design firm that became a social prod to his major clients as much as a graphics resource, Mr. Kalman also was the former editor-in-chief of Colors magazine, an art director, and a director of music videos and television commercials.
He was the self-styled bad boy of the graphic design profession and a sharp critic of formulaic, or what he pejoratively termed "professional," design.
He wanted designers to take greater responsibility for how their work influenced the surrounding culture. Designer Milton Glaser asserted: "He emerged in such a short amount of time as a major influence on a young generation."
Mr. Kalman, describing himself as more a social activist than a designer, sought to use his work to promote such causes as environmentalism and economic equality.
He opposed products that he considered harmful to the workers who made them, the environment or the consumer, and never hesitated to tell his clients what he thought.
Mr. Kalman was born in Budapest in 1949 and emigrated with his family to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1957 after the unsuccessful Hungarian uprising against the communist regime.


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Pibi PV industry on the downstream impact still further release, the National Development and Reform Commission for the new energy policy, the means Pibi PV industry, there may be new opportunities. Polycrystalline diamond Co., Ltd.,
announcement said the company's photovoltaic industry micron diamond line
project to be completed by September 30, 2013 will be postponed, but will not
change the total investment of the project and the scale of construction. Zhengzhou
Yu diamond Secretary of the Board Zhang Kai told reporters that the project delays because the current situation is not optimistic about the industry of the photovoltaic industry, with the National Development and Reform Commission further clear support for the survival and development of the photovoltaic industry, the photovoltaic industry outlook remains can be expected, so the project although extension, but the scale of investment remains unchanged.
Great Wall Securities Zhengzhou general manager of the sales department Song Guanghui Although the project was postponed, but the total size of no change, Yu diamond prospects remain favorable for the photovoltaic industry;, even to the time the photovoltaic industry, the status quo does not change, Henan diamond will master the More initiative.
Photovoltaic winter as the photovoltaic industry winter continues, the gap between the strength of photovoltaic enterprises gradually highlight the photovoltaic industry M & A window of opportunity opens.
Since the second half of 2011, the PV market is rapidly changing, the first U.S. "double reverse" policy followed by the anti-dumping investigation initiated by the EU for polycrystalline silicon PV solar panel modules and critical components, leading PV manufacturers performance quarter by quarter decline operating pressure suddenly increased.
Several of the largest PV companies in
with the crisis of survival, before large Suntech, LDK are faced with a debt
crisis, the brink of bankruptcy. China
In fact, bankers told reporters in
Province photovoltaic businesses are more concentrated, most PV companies have
part or all production. Pending sales of silicon wafers were piled up in the
warehouse of such enterprises. Luoyang, Henan
In September last year, LDK solar cell and its photovoltaic cutting material suppliers Xindaxin material restructuring agreement signed three solar rooftop power plant of its subsidiary for 1.4 billion transferred to the new Daxin Materials to offset the full amount of debtors models.
As of June 30 last year, LDK solar charge controller owe Xindaxin receivables material has reached 180 million yuan, Xindaxin material and as the first big customer, LDK also supply a new Daxin Materials 2011 24% of all receivables.
The plight of the photovoltaic business, a direct threat to the survival status of upstream companies such as photovoltaic cutting material.
Xindaxin material "committed" before Pingdingshan Shenma marketing and net profit in the first three quarters of 2012 were sharply reduced its revenue 672 254 506.79 yuan, a decrease of 53.88% over the same period last year, operating profits -3617 890.61 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 102.28%. Net profit 30.24 008.38 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 97.86 percent from last year.


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In London, thieves used an Easter holiday weekend to tunnel into a diamond vault, netting $300 million in gems – making it the biggest diamond heist ever. It’s a throwback to James Bond, as clever thieves make spectacular heists, including:
- The Antwerp Diamond Heist of 2003: a $100M weekend vault break-in by a small team who planned the robbery years in advance and stole the security camera footage during the heist.
- The Schiphol Airport Heist of 2005: $118M heist by two workers dressed in KLM uniforms. The robbers penetrated airport security by driving in-and-out in a van they later burned.
- Harry Winston Paris Heist of 2008: Three well-dressed women reveal themselves as men as they steal $100M in jewelry and watches. Two years later, police found some of the gems in a drainpipe.
- The Graff Diamond Theft of 2009: A $65M robbery by two men wearing makeup and prosthetics applied by an unwitting make-up artist. Police later discovered the robber’s identities using a cellphone the thieves accidentally left behind.
- The Cannes Heist of 2013: The massive $136 million theft committed by a lone gunman in less than 120 seconds. The Cannes hotel from which the jewels were stolen was the scene of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 film, To Catch A Thief.
In 2015, a crew of thieves in London used the long, four day Easter holiday weekend to dig through walls, rappel down shafts and break into safe deposit boxes at Hatton Gardens, a famous vault in London’s diamond district. The thieves reportedly got away with $300 million in diamonds and other gems.
Most big diamond heists go unsolved for years, with authorities speculating that they are the work of highly sophisticated global organized crime groups.
Curious about diamonds? Understand more about how they were made, how to spot a fake and how to buy one.


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Sodexo India - a subsidiary of the French facility and food services management company - has turned a Rs 2,000 crore business on its 25th year of existence in the country. In spite of COVID-induced sorption that impacted its operations in 2020, its business has bounced back, a top company official told Business Today.
According to Rohit Bahety, Country President and Chief Financial Officer of the company, after shrinking by 25 per cent in 2020, Sodexo posted Rs 1,750 crore revenue in FY21. “Since then, our business is on rise”, he said. While office operations were severely hit since the first COVID wave hit the country in March, 2020, Sodexo’s higher exposure in managing manufacturing facilities, compared to office management, helped it tide over the crises faster.
Additionally, the company’s interests in sectors like healthcare, project management and facilities management hedged its business against lockdowns. The company ventured into areas like medical equipment servicing in India four years ago. Currently, it is working with nearly 400 government-owned hospitals in West Bengal.
Buoyed by the back-to-office trend and greater awareness among corporates about hygiene and better facilities to retain their workforces, Bahety now expects Sodexo’s India business to surge to Rs 3,500 crore by FY2024-25. According to him, in the last three years, its revenue has grown by 15 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate).
“Further, managing canteens and student residences are a core part of our business. With the educational institutions opening up, we are witnessing massive jump in the number of students, which is expected to boost our business”, he said.
Copyright©2023 Living Media India Limited. For reprint rights: Syndications Today


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The following was published in print and online in the August 2017 edition of Food Logistics Magazine.
Craft Beer on Thin Ice: Cold Chain Opportunities in the US-Mexico Border Region
Mexican craft breweries are expanding, yet the lack of cold chain storage and shipping significantly slows the market beyond local transport.
On a warm sunny day along the coastal city of Ensenada, Mexico, finding a refreshing craft beer can be challenging.
Mexican craft breweries are expanding, yet the lack of cold chain storage and shipping significantly slows the market beyond local transport. Nathaniel Schmidt, owner of Cerveceria Agua Mala outside of Ensenada, has no trouble identifying opportunities for third-party logistics (3PL) providers. “Our biggest hurdles are cold shipping and cold storage,” he says. “These are serious issues. And we are not at a place where we can tell our distributors that they have to do it. It doesn’t exist.”
Pablo Noriega, commercial director of Cerveceria Wendlandt, echoes those concerns.
“In distribution, we are in baby diapers. No one has a distribution center,” he says. “We always have to use an independent distribution company. Some of them are not reliable; some of them don’t know about beers. They are not refrigerated, so it’s difficult.”
In the United States, distributors like Trinity Logistics pride themselves on their alcohol cold chain service, which includes embracing the complexities of the three-tier system, created after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 to limit the power of “tied-houses,” or retailers tied exclusively to a specific brewer. While Anheuser-Busch may not have exclusive retailer rights in the United States, big breweries have market dominance in Mexico, due simply to refrigeration.
According to Schmidt, when he looks to go to a new bar, the first thing they say is, “bring me a refrigerator.” There is no culture of refrigerated transit nor storage for beer in much of Mexico, confirms a 2015 report by the Brewers Association. While importers to Mexico connect cold chain to quality, the cost increase of 25 percent leads importers to often choose international brands without a refrigerated transportation condition. For Mexican retailers used to leaving pallets of big beer brands baking outside in the sun, “it’s a work in progress,” he says, for cervezas artesanales.
Craft breweries looking to increase distribution within Mexico have learned to be wary. With notable exception of top Mexican cold chain suppliers Frialsa and Bajo Cero, when Cerveceria Wendlandt’s Noriega asks, “Do you have controlled temperature?” Ninety-nine percent of them don’t.
The International Trade Administration’s 2016 Top Markets Report cites the potential for 30 percent growth for cold chain service providers in Mexico. Such growth is dependent on upgraded infrastructure in transit, stable government and electricity supply. Until then, Collin Corrigan, of Cerveceria Transpeninsular, emphasizes that Mexican breweries should focus on increasing the local market and a brewery’s own tap room for growth. As for the lack of reefers in Baja? He says, “We send beer in trucks that are ice trucks. Shipping the kegs inside chipped ice, that’s 1940’s bootleg style. It’s awesome.”
Cross-border collaboration helps increase Mexican brewery name recognition stateside. The third-largest acquisition in history of SABMiller by AB InBev in October 2016, makes collaboration between independent craft breweries all the more important.
In his business of distribution class at San Diego State University, Chad Heath, senior director of Stone Distributing, shares how his team looks at a brewery’s ability to scale and grow, and how it will translate and resonate with those outside their home market. Breweries like Wendlandt, which has collaborated with at least three of the breweries in the Stone portfolio, benefit knowing that “this distributor knows about beer, they have a good warehouse, they have a good temperature, and they know what they are doing,” Heath says. All of Stone’s drivers are Cicerone Certified, with a full fleet of bio-diesel powered reefers and 36,000-square-feet of cold storage.
“Here,” Noriega sighs, “they don’t know.”
Jamie Herrera earned her master’s in international management from UC San Diego, and seeks to connect people across cultures through trade and collaboration across borders. Herrera was a recipient of a scholarship from the Pink Boots Society, an international association for women in the beer industry, and recently completed a class on beer distribution.
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Users of budget teeth whitening kits may be left with nothing to smile about, warns a watchdog.
Teeth whitening kits can be a health hazard as some are 300 times over the legal limit for the bleaching agent hydrogen peroxide.
While stars like TV tycoon Simon Cowell and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp have their gnashers professionally fixed for dazzlingly bright smiles, Brits on a budget using products bought online could be putting themselves at risk of harm, an investigation has revealed.
A probe by consumer watchdog Which? found 21 out of 36 teeth whiteners available online exceeded the legal limit of hydrogen peroxide permitted for home use, which can burn gums and cause permanent damage to teeth.
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Levels should be no more than 0.1% but the lab tests found six of the most dangerous whiteners had more than 100 times too much hydrogen peroxide to be legally sold.
Five of these products were from AliExpress including the worst one, a teeth bleaching gel kit sold by Oral Orthodontic Materials store with a worrying 30.7% hydrogen peroxide.
And Crest Whitestrips available through a China-based Wish seller contained 132 times the legal hydrogen peroxide limits.
Five out of nine products tested from eBay broke the law on hydrogen peroxide levels with the worst one containing 7.43% of the chemical.
What is your view? Have your say in the comment section
And five out of 13 teeth whitener kits from Amazon Marketplace had illegal amounts of hydrogen peroxide with up to 7.87%.
However, The Beverly Hills professional 2-in-1 whitening kit from Lloyds Pharmacy and Superdrug had safe levels of the bleaching agent.
Which? is urging those keen to give their teeth a bright white sparkle to contact their dentist or buy a kit from a reputable high street retailer.
It has passed its findings to the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and is calling on the Government to clampdown on shopping sites and make online marketplaces legally responsible for products sold through them.
Sue Davies, head of consumer protection policy at Which?, said: “It’s worrying that our tests have revealed so many of these products sold on online marketplaces – and often hyped on social media – are breaking legal limits for hydrogen peroxide and putting the health of users at risk.
“It’s clear that self-regulation is not working, leaving people exposed to a flood of unsafe products online. It is absolutely crucial that online marketplaces are given greater legal responsibility for the safety of products sold on their sites, so that shoppers are far better protected from dangerous and illegal items.”
All the online sites axed unsafe teeth whitening kits when the watchdog alerted them to the breach of legal limits and said customer safety was taken seriously.
AliExpress added: “We are a third-party marketplace and all merchants selling on AliExpress must comply with our platform rules and policies, as well as comply with all local laws and regulations. We will take action against sellers that are found to be in violation of our terms.”
Amazon said: “We require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws and we monitor the products sold in our stores for product safety concerns. When appropriate, we remove a product from the store, reach out to sellers, manufacturers, and government agencies for additional information, or take other actions.”
An eBay spokesman said: “We have filters in places which automatically block listings which are unsafe or do not comply with our policies. These blocked six million unsafe listings from making it onto site in 2020.”
Wish said following an internal investigation, four listings had been removed from the site.
Procter & Gamble, which owns the Crest brand said the product was not available in the UK or Europe.
It added: “Any European site supplying Crest Whitestrips isn’t supported by us and we will challenge those sites selling outside the territory they were designed for.”


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Tesla’s Strategic Move Aims to Boost Demand as It Continues Aggressive Pursuit of Higher Volume
Tesla’s Price Adjustments in Response to Market Dynamics
Tesla has announced price reductions on select versions of its Model 3 and Model Y in the United States, following its recent third-quarter delivery figures that fell short of market expectations. The adjustments target various models, aiming to make Tesla’s electric vehicles more accessible to consumers.
Model 3 Price Cuts
The starting price for the Model 3 now stands at $38,990, marking a reduction from the previous $40,240. Additionally, the long-range Model 3 has seen its price drop from $47,240 to $45,990. Tesla’s Model 3 Performance version is now priced at $50,990, down from the earlier price of $53,240.
Model Y Price Reduction
Tesla’s Model Y Performance, a popular sports utility vehicle, is now available starting at $52,490, down from its previous price of $54,490.
Background: Tesla’s Ongoing Pricing Strategy
Since late last year, Tesla has been strategically lowering the prices of its vehicles across global markets. This approach aims to stimulate demand, particularly in response to concerns about consumer spending deceleration in key markets such as the United States and China. Furthermore, Tesla faces heightened competition in the electric vehicle sector, prompting strategic pricing adjustments.
Tesla’s Dynamic Pricing Strategy
Tesla frequently adjusts the prices of its vehicles, particularly in its largest markets, such as the United States and China. These price fluctuations are part of Tesla’s agile approach to adapt to evolving market conditions and consumer preferences.
Market Response to Q3 Deliveries and Tesla’s Pursuit of Volume
Tesla’s recent decision to reduce prices comes in the wake of its third-quarter delivery report, which revealed the company’s delivery of 435,059 vehicles, missing analyst expectations and marking a decline from the previous quarter. Tesla attributed this decline to necessary factory upgrades that led to periods of manufacturing site downtime.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has been transparent about the company’s strategic shift towards chasing higher sales volume rather than prioritizing larger profit margins this year. This strategy has notably boosted Tesla’s stock performance, with shares surging by over 100% this year.
Tesla’s Ambitious Delivery Targets
Tesla remains committed to its ambitious goal of delivering 1.8 million vehicles by the end of this year. These price adjustments are part of Tesla’s broader efforts to secure its market position and continue its trajectory as a major player in the electric vehicle industry.
As Tesla adapts to market dynamics, the company aims to find the optimal balance between pricing and volume to maintain its strong market presence and drive growth.


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Hundreds of thousands of unsafe chargers for mobile phones, games consoles and music devices could have made their way into the UK.
Trading standards officers studying dangerous chargers being imported from China say vast numbers are available on the internet and in shops.
Their tests show one brand can overheat or cause electrocution.
One of the chargers concerned has the code marking DE62347066. Others have no code and are called Travel Charger.
The UK appears to be flooded with them
A specific warning has already been issued about chargers for Nintendo DS and DS Lite machines, but which could also be used to charge Gameboy machines.
Trading standards officers are trying to recall the chargers.
But Chris Holden, senior trading standards officer at Buckinghamshire County Council, told the BBC that investigations were shedding light on a much bigger problem.
Some chargers carry a CE safety mark which officers believe to be fake.
"The UK appears to be flooded with them. It probably runs into hundreds of thousands or even millions," Mr Holden said.
Mr Holden said that the chargers were being sold for about £5 on the internet and about £6 in shops. Safe chargers, which have been checked properly, retail for around £15.
Officers have primarily found unsafe chargers for use with games consoles, although others are available to use with music devices and mobile phones.
Wires become detached after being used for a while leading to a risk of electric shocks. The pins do not fit properly into UK sockets causing overheating.
Numerous suppliers were bringing them into the UK, Mr Holden said.
Concerns were raised about the safety of chargers 18 months ago following the death of British boy Connor Dean O'Keeffe.
The seven-year-old was found dead by his mother on the floor of an apartment in Thailand during a holiday after using his games console charger.


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PARIS – Visteon Corp.’s spin-off of its European steering and half-shaft business provides a look at the forces behind the wave of private-equity investment that is reshaping the automotive supply chain.
On May 1, private investors – organized in The Netherlands as Special Situations Venture Partners II L.P. – bought four Visteon Tedrive Holding B.V. plants – three in Europe and one in Brazil.
These include Tedrive Germany GmbH in Dueren, Germany; Tedrive Steering GmbH in Wuelfrath, Germany; Tedrive Poland Sp.zo.o. in Praszka, Poland; and Tedrive Brazil Ltda. in Sao Paulo.
“We have an investment partner familiar with the auto industry and an interest in long-term investment; a partner who knows that creating value takes time. Our timeframe is five to seven or eight years to develop this company.”
SSVP got a business that did $600 million in sales in 2006, with an operating profit of $35 million, for just $90 million in cash and $40 million in liabilities related to pensions.
While it appears to be an exceptionally good deal for Tedrive, there is a downside: a 3-year sales slump.
“This is a non-core operation for us, predominantly high-cost country located, with 2,400 employees, 1,600 of those in Germany,” Visteon’s CEO Michael Johnston told analysts at the time of the sale in May.
The operation faces “substantially declining revenue and profitability as you look out in 2008, 2009, 2010,” he said. “We had not been awarded a couple of follow-on programs, so it was going to substantially decline.”
Competitors such as ZF Friedrichshafen AG, TRW Automotive GmbH and GKN plc have replaced Visteon on some upcoming car programs.
“Our customers did not award Visteon with new business ever since Visteon declared chassis as non-core,” says Tom Schultz, financial director of Tedrive Holding. “If you become a non-core entity under a U.S.-based supplier, you know that the investment money is going to go to core product lines.”
Research and development suffered at Visteon’s chassis technical centers. As a result, Tedrive says its hydraulic power-steering gear is refined, but it is behind competitors in developing electric power steering.
“The market trend is certainly towards electric steering,” says Thomas Schmidt, manager of the steering gear operation in Wulfrath, Germany. “We have also a stake in that. We have developed an e-system that is almost ready to go.”
Competitors such as TRW and JTEKT Corp. already are selling steering systems in which electric motors assist drivers by applying torque to steering columns or pinion gears.
While traditional hydraulic systems constantly drain a little energy from the engine from the belt that powers the steering pump, electric motors draw energy only when required, and they are lighter in weight.
Tedrive has two immediate responses to its situation. For the short term, it will target vehicles that are too heavy to use electric steering and also less-developed markets.
“We have high-end hydraulic steering and high-volume production,” says Schmidt, “and we have some opportunities in the hydraulic market. With the growing car production in east Europe, where the electronic steering is not as advanced, we see opportunities.”
In addition, Tedrive is marketing hydraulic portions of electric-hydraulic hybrid systems that use an electric motor to power the hydraulic pump, a system that heavier cars can use to reduce the energy drain of traditional hydraulic power steering.
For the mid-term, Tedrive wants to beef up its R&D. It is looking at engineering partnerships, as well as some key people.
“We’ve got to invest in people in the R&D side,” says Schultz. “We are in discussions now with people to join the company. We are in a phase where we are changing from a big to a midsize company that is supposed to be flexible and fast. We are examining carefully what we need to fill the gaps that we have.”
Tedrive is not empty of ideas. In 2006, it won an innovation award from the German steel industry for developing a steel tube housing for hydraulic steering systems that cost and weigh less than typical aluminum housings, handle higher pressures and reduce complexity.
The product – now on the road in the Ford Mondeo and S-Max and in some Volvo Cars and Land Rover vehicles – was developed with engineering partner Schmitter Chassis GmbH.
Another quality Tedrive has carried over from Visteon is production efficiency. The Wulfrath factory saw record production of 1.5 million steering gears in 2006 and a record week of 43,000 steering gears since Tedrive took control.
“The steering business is the most stable right now,” says Schultz. “It is a solid running entity, with single digit parts-per-million rates. Half-shafts in Poland is very stable too.”
New ownership has made a difference that already is being felt.
“We at Tedrive experience right now a different attitude from the customer side,” Schultz says. “The customers recognize (our) commitment to invest in process and product innovation. In Europe and South America, customers are approaching us, our people on the sales side and the engineering side.
“After two years of being held back from the customer, we are asking for opportunities; we are penetrating now with our limited resources; and it is paying back with requests for quotes,” he adds. “It is a long way from that to get a purchase order, but customers are enthusiastic. We created a new competitor on the supply side.”
In steering gears, Tedrive faces strong competition from ZF, TRW and J-Tekt, “but we are ready to take that on,” he says. “In half shafts, the competition is (Japan’s) GKN and NTN Corp., and here we see definitely that the customer is looking for a second or third alternative to the major players.”
Tedrive’s longer-term strategy is to enlarge its geographic footprint through additional acquisitions or partnerships in Asia and East Europe and to develop a solid business. While SSVP hasn’t said so, the general plan of private-equity investors is to rebuild a business and then float it on the stock market at a substantial profit.
“It is important that the market knows that there is a new company out there,” says Schultz.


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The announcement that the Teamsters – one of America’s most powerful unions – is going to mount an ambitious campaign to unionize Amazon warehouses across the US presents the e-retailing colossus with a far bigger threat than the recent effort to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Alabama ever did.
In Alabama, Amazon’s fierce anti-union press crushed the organizing drive by a small union, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). And besides, Amazon had a significant home-field advantage in bright red Alabama. For Amazon, the Alabama face-off felt like a one-and-done win.
But the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with 1.3 million members, is a far larger, richer, stronger union, and has a century of experience mobilizing and unionizing warehouse workers. Not only that, the Teamsters will mount drives in many places where unions are popular and powerful and arguably have a home-court advantage – think California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Washington state. In confronting the Teamsters, Amazon will no doubt feel it’s being plunged into a never-ending, head-to-head competition against an Olympic-caliber opponent.
It’s one thing for Amazon to deploy its crack team of anti-union lawyers and consultants to stomp out a union drive at a single warehouse center in Alabama, but it will be quite another thing for Amazon and its anti-union Swat team if the Teamsters mount union drives in 20 or 30 warehouses at once.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Teamsters union is undertaking a national drive against Amazon, the nation’s second largest private-sector employer. Amazon, Teamster officials say, is undermining wages and working conditions in warehousing and trucking, the Teamsters’ two main industries. No surprise that the Teamsters president, James P Hoffa, told his union’s convention on Tuesday that Amazon was “an existential threat to every Teamster out there”.
Asked why the Teamsters are taking on Amazon, Randy Korgan, the union’s national Amazon director, told the Guardian: “It’s a natural. Our union has represented this industry for more than 100 years. We represent hundreds of thousands of workers in this industry.
“Truth be told,” Korgan continued, “Amazon’s impact on this industry is driving wages, working conditions and safety and health conditions downward. You have a lot of UPS, FedEx and US Postal Service drivers doing the delivery portion of this job. These are good-paying middle-class jobs for middle-class families. Amazon’s model is not good for working families, it’s threatening middle-class jobs.” Korgan said Amazon drivers earn about $16 an hour in southern California, while unionized UPS drivers there earn $38 an hour, with $29 an hour above that in health, pension and other benefits.
Labor experts say it makes sense for the Teamsters to target Amazon. “It’s good that the Teamsters are doing this,” said Stewart Acuff, former organizing director for the AFL-CIO, the nation’s main labor federation. “They’re perfectly placed to do this. They’re large, they have major resources, they are committed to organizing and spending the money that’s necessary. Most important, this is their core industry. They have all the interest in the world in battling Amazon.
“They need to do this for their members,” Acuff added. “They also need to do this for their employers so their employers know the Teamsters are willing to spend money to wage war to maintain standards and not let Amazon undercut unionized transportation companies.”
Korgan said the Teamsters would often seek to bypass union elections conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) because many unions see that process as hugely favoring employers, which have access to workers 24 hours a day. That’s one reason the RWDSU lost badly in Alabama, with 1,798 against unionizing to 738 in favor.
“The NLRB strategy is only one of many ways to seek recognition,” Korgan said. One way, Korgan said, would be to seek to pressure Amazon to agree to card check and neutrality (not to oppose unionization). “Those are some of the strategies,” Korgan said. “Everything is on the table.” The Teamsters’ resolution on Amazon also spoke of “shop floor strikes, city-wide strikes and actions in the streets”.
Asked to be more specific about tactics and timing, Korgan said: “Stay tuned.”
Korgan said the Teamsters’ organizing efforts at Amazon would be helped greatly by thousands of Teamster members who volunteer to help – whether by joining a rally outside an Amazon warehouse or by telling Amazon workers of the advantages of unions. “We’re part of the fabric of these communities, we’re not an outside institution,” Korgan said. “We’re not a third party. We’re coaching baseball right next to that individual who works at Amazon. We’re living in the same neighborhoods. Our kids go to the same schools.”
Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center, said some areas hold promise for the Teamsters’ efforts; he pointed to the Inland Empire, an area east of Los Angeles teeming with warehouses.
Wong said the Teamsters might be able to win there because southern California has strong unions and many pro-labor lawmakers, and besides, the head of the Los Angeles County Labor Federation is a prominent Teamster leader. “Anywhere you have a robust labor movement with strong labor-community alliances and elected officials who are willing to speak out and support the right of workers to form unions, that gives you a leg up,” Wong said.
He praised the Teamsters for undertaking its Amazon campaign, but said it won’t be easy. “When you take on a giant corporation that has a strong, anti-union policy, it’s going to be an uphill fight,” Wong said. “It will be a long-term, protracted fight.”
Wong said the Teamsters have a “mixed reputation, given the legacy of the original Jimmy Hoffa”.
But he added: “The Teamsters are known as a fighting union that has successfully raised the wages and working conditions for workers in these industries.”
In other words, the Teamsters have a reputation, a swagger, that still attracts many workers. In recent years, the Teamsters have unionized more than 20,000 school bus drivers and scored numerous victories unionizing warehouses, including at Sysco Foods and US Foods.
In its Amazon campaign, the question will be whether the Teamsters’ reputation as a fierce, fighting union that delivers to workers will succeed in overcoming the fierce, anti-union propaganda campaign that Amazon conducts in its warehouses.


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Kalki Koechlin makes guest appearance at Furla's Milan show
Kalki Koechlin was styled up in all-black ensemble for a guest appearance at the Lights Of Colour - spring/summer 2016 collection showcase of Italian brand Furla.
Amzon starts selling products of labels like Tumi, Furla, Versace to emerge as shoppers’ hotspot
Ecommerce is a big business in the United St...
Paytm plans to launch ecommerce platform for luxury products; ropes in Gucci, Furla and Burberry
Paytm has roped in marquee luxury brands lik...
Big opportunity to co-create in India: Eraldo Poletto, Furla
It has been a very complicated process. We got stuck by all the paper work. I guess it is part of the complexity of doing business in this country.
With demand for online shopping luxury brands like Swarovski, Furla and Armani join e-commerce
Online presence lets luxury brands overcome their poor physical presence, partly due to lack of high streets in Indian cities.
Italian brand Furla to expand its presence in India
Furla's CEO Eraldo Poletto says his high-end accessories brand to go big in the country after getting nod for JV with Genesis.
Eraldo Poletto to launch “affordable luxury” with Furla in India
Eraldo Poletto likes living in the present, though he heads an over 85-year-old family-owned Italian luxury brand. Excited about being among the pioneers to launch “affordable luxury” with Furla in India, the 51-yearold Italian who loves Ganesha, is ready for both the challenge and the opportunity.
Furla seeks FIPB nod for India joint venture with Genesis Luxury Fashion
The joint venture plans to invest about Rs 13 crore in the first four years to open stores in different cities, with Furla bringing in Rs 6.6 crore.
Six days into New Year, Tommy Hilfiger, Furla, Swarovski, others face retail policy knot
UPA govt showcases changes in retail policy as among the key reforms that it has put in place in order to drive overseas investment.


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| Jul 23, 2013
| 5:07 AM
Can this be the Golden Age of the Monkees?
Rock’s original manufactured group outsold the Beatles in 1967, and filled arenas in the 1980s. Reruns of their fondly remembered television show and the run of ridiculously catchy singles that...
| Jul 26, 2013
| 2:41 PM
Most checking accounts pay little or no interest, and fewer and fewer are free.
But at Patapsco Bank in Dundalk, checking customers can earn about 2 percent a year in a free account or choose cash back or even iTunes rewards. And members of Money One...
| Jul 31, 2013
| 7:27 AM
Thirty-two years ago this week, tennis pro Martina Navratilova was outed in a New York Daily News article. Ten years before that, lesbians picketed outside a lesbian-oriented bar whose owner was reportedly hostile to the growing gay liberation movement....
| Aug 2, 2013
| 2:03 PM
Kohl's Department Stores is giving away prizes in a promotion to spur back-to-school spending.
The "Win Great Things Back-to-School Sweepstakes" promotion will run through Sept. 2.
Starting Sunday, shoppers will get one scratch-off game piece for...
| Aug 13, 2013
| 9:30 AM
Update: Quist owner Sarah Prager received a phone call from an Apple representative Tuesday telling her that the use of "bisexual" is no longer flagged in the company's App Store.
"I'm very pleased Apple responded positively," Prager said in a...
| Sep 23, 2013
| 5:04 PM
WellDoc Inc., a Baltimore-based company that makes mobile apps to manage chronic disease, welcomed the Food and Drug Administration's announcement Monday of final rules governing the development of mobile medical apps.
"It does put us at ease that we're...
| May 17, 2013
| 6:25 AM
Risa Binder is having a moment. Not only did the singer-songwriter deliver a recent buzzworthy performance on the popular TV show "CBS This Morning," but the Columbia native is currently recording a CD with Nashville super-producer Luke Wooten and just...
| May 2, 2013
[ SITES ]
Sun smartphone and tablet site
(smartphones and tablets)
Touch.baltimoresun.com, specially designed to be interacted with on touch screens, automatically adjusts its presentation according to your device.
Readers visiting baltimoresun.com on...
| May 6, 2013
| 6:31 AM
Talk about a great story just falling into your lap.
Baltimore filmmaker Ramona Diaz can't help but chuckle while recounting how she first heard about Arnel Pineda, the unlikely successor to Steve Perry as lead singer for Journey and the subject of...
| Jan 8, 2013
| 11:29 AM
As Washington politicians search for budget solutions, imagine if there were a magical revenue source that operated not unlike a national consumption tax that many conservatives prefer and would mitigate global warming to please liberals, all while...
| Sep 5, 2012
| 7:15 AM
Wouldn't it be cool to pose for a picture with the Ravens' Ray Lewis on the 50-yard line of M&T Bank Stadium with Ray Lewis?
How about on the boardwalk of Ocean City or at a table at the Prime Rib over steaks or, hey, why not the privacy of your own...
| Aug 29, 2012
| 11:34 AM
Dan Deacon's live shows have always incorporated the crowd, whether it's a dance battle among fans or a call-and-response chanting session. But now he's taken the crowd interaction a step further with his first app.
Available for iPhone and Android...


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A new approach to detecting unintended changes in GM foods
Does genetic manipulation causes unintended changes in food quality and composition? Are genetically modified (GM) foods less nutritious than their non-GM counterparts, or different in unknown ways?
Despite extensive cultivation and testing of GM foods, those questions still linger in the minds of many consumers. Now a new study in the March 2014 issue of The Plant Genome demonstrates a potentially more powerful approach to answering them.
In the research led by Owen Hoekenga, a Cornell University adjunct assistant professor, scientists used a water-alcohol solvent to extract roughly 1,000 biochemicals, or “metabolites,” from the fruit of tomatoes they’d genetically engineered to delay fruit ripening. They then compared this metabolic profile from the GM fruit to the profile of its non-GM, parent variety.
Many metabolites, including pigments, amino acids, sugars, and various health-promoting compounds, are known to contribute to fruit quality and nutrition. And extracting and analyzing hundreds of them at once gives researchers a snapshot of the fruit’s physiology—known as the “metabolome”—which can be compared against others. In this way, “metabolomic” analysis is very similar to genomics, where geneticists compare DNA sequence data to understand how genetically divergent different organisms are.
When Hoekenga and his colleagues performed their analysis, they did in fact uncover metabolic differences in the GM fruit relative to its parent, although these changes were mostly seen in biochemicals related to fruit ripening, Hoekenga says. “So that’s part of an intended effect.”
But when the scientists compared the metabolome of the GM tomato with those of a wide assortment of garden, heirloom, and other non-GM tomatoes, they found no significant differences overall. In other words, although the GM tomato was distinct from its parent, its metabolic profile still fell within the “normal” range of biochemical diversity exhibited by the larger group of varieties.
The finding suggests little or no accidental biochemical change due to genetic modification in this case, as well as a “useful way to address consumer concerns about unintended effects” in general, Hoekenga says.
He explains that the FDA already requires developers of GM crops to compare a handful of key nutritional compounds in GM varieties relative to their non-GM parents. Part of biotechnology risk assessment, the process is designed to catch instances where genetic manipulation may have affected nutritional quality, for example.
- How much corn can the ethanol industry use?
- Economist: Taxing P could reduce risk of algal blooms
- Commentary: Government wants farmers to quit farming
- What is the relationship between maturity group, yield?
- Commentary: Ambulance-chaser lawyers take on Syngenta
- Berman: Camouflaged activists threaten agriculture


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The global urine flow meters market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.30% during the forecast period.
While people often believed that a home-based job would be quite healthier than doing it from an office, working from home certainly has a few downsides too, especially when it comes to the employee’s overall well-being.
A stroke is also known as a brain attack, occurs when the blood supply to the brain is blocked by a clot or by rupturing of a blood vessel.
Gene amplification technologies involve the use of amplification assays to increase the number of gene sequence copies without improving the proportionality of other genes.
Alcoholic hepatitis is inflammation of the liver, which is caused due to heavy consumption of alcohol.
Hospital furniture is the equipment used by the hospital staff, physicians, and other healthcare professionals to make patients comfortable with their stay at hospitals, specialty clinics, diagnostic centers, and home care settings. As per the latest market research report published by Technavio, the global hospital furniture market size will grow by USD 4.02 billion during 2019-2023.
Open-angle glaucoma is a condition of the eye that leads to progressive atrophy of the optic nerve in the presence of an open angle.
The global fitness and recreational sports centers market includes establishments primarily engaged in operating fitness centers and recreational sports centers featuring activities such as active physical fitness exercises, swimming, skating or racquet sports. As per the latest market research report published by Technavio, the global fitness and recreational sports centers market size will grow by USD 22.91 billion during 2019-2023.
Sterile medical packaging refers to drug, chemical, and device packaging used in the medical and pharmaceutical industry, which has been sterilized and validated using suitable processes to make it free of contaminants such as bacteria and foreign molecules. As per the latest market research report published by Technavio, the market size for sterile medical packaging market in the US will grow by USD 1.44 billion during 2019-2023.


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Some features in Microsoft Xbox One to become 50% faster
Microsoft has confirmed that it will be making some of the features on Xbox One 50 per cent faster – a commitment which Redmond says is part of the New Xbox One Experience update.
To be available to Xbox One owners in November, the new Xbox One Experience update is already being tested by a few Xbox One Preview Program members. According to Xbox engineering boss Mike Ybarra, these changes will make executing tasks quite a bit faster and will include “popular gaming features”.
The precise details of which all features will be sped up haven’t been revealed but Ybarra said that the update will provide a “new level of speed and responsiveness”. The changes have been brought about based on the load time data it has collected from Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles around the world.
As per the information we have come across till date, the new Xbox One Experience will bring with it new user interface (UI); backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 titles as well as new Guide and a new community section. From what Ybarra revealed in the latest latest episode of Major Nelson Radio about the upcoming New Xbox One Experience update, new ‘accessibility’ features will also be included.
Ybarra teased that the update will introduce new “accessibility” features to ensure that the Xbox One can appeal to the widest possible market.
The Xbox engineering head also touched based with Windows 10 and Xbox One and said that porting Microsoft’s latest OS onto Xbox One isn’t a simple task, but did say that teams were also working to bring the best and most efficient features of Windows 10 onto Xbox One and the new version of the OS being built for the console is called OneCore.


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The Guardian’s in-house design team has re-designed and re-named the newspaper’s flagship website, News Unlimited. The name Guardian Unlimited now covers the paper’s core news website and includes the Internet edition of the newspaper, breaking news, Web-exclusive comment and archive material. Meanwhile, Guardian Newspapers has launched a dedicated Observer website, giving the Sunday paper its […]
The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys and design group FLB are cooking up a stink with their new launch, The Magic Muffin. It seems people are jumping to the conclusion that the baked good has hallucinogenic properties. People are either ‘tripping’ over themselves to complain before sampling the muffin, which is baked with ginseng and guarana using […]
London superclub Ministry of Sound continues to diversify its brand with the launch of DJ headphones. Clare Dowdy gets an earful.
Some industry figures believe that consultancy size is influenced by ancestral social groupings.
Event Communications has been appointed to design the permanent exhibitions at the new £6m Royal Artillery Museum in East London. The new venue falls under the auspices of the National Army Museum. The consultancy has worked previously on the Earth Galleries, part of the Natural History Museum. Interiors at the new museum will be designed […]
Ideas that Matter
Rose Design Associates has created the identity and brand strategy for new book publishing group Westzone Publishing.
Health management company Businesshealth launched a new corporate identity yesterday created by Design Alliance. The star reflects both Business-health’s innovative and positive approach to health and represents its uniting of skills, philosophies and expertise.
London interiors group Lumsden Design Partnership is moving into the branding arena with the appointment of Charles Allen to head up a new graphics division. Allen was previously with Tag McLaren Audio, having joined from Fitch, but was made redundant last October (DW 22 October 1999). One of his first projects for LDP is to […]
We were having a discussion in our studio about recognisable branding marks and their relative ease to draw.
Being a Design Week devotee, as are my fellow students, I was interested to read Richard Murray’s article, Educated to be proud (DW 17 March). He obviously sees the importance of design and current lack of emphasis on design degrees in colleges and universities. This also applies to teaching degrees, as design in schools leads […]
WPP Group-owned consultancy Perspectives has been appointed to raise the brand profile of Net Commerce and its dot.com brands. The e-commerce group has two Web brands to be promoted through a marketing campaign which will run until June, as well as on-line promotions. Net Commerce has created a Trust-On-Line marque, designed to accredit member retailers […]


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Did Hotels.com co-founders Bob Diener and Dave Litman do it again with Getaroom? Certainly not on the same scale, but Court Square's acquisition of Getaroom looks like a winner for the duo, who self-funded their latest venture in travel.
The co-founders of Getaroom have sold a majority stake in the business-to-business hotel and vacation rental provider to private equity firm Court Square Capital Partners, whose other holdings include car rental company Auto Europe.
Getaroom President Bob Diener told Skift Tuesday that he and his business partner for the past 35 years, Getaroom CEO Dave Litman, still maintain a substantial minority stake in Getaroom, and sold the larger stake to help the company reach the next level, including accelerating international expansion.
Diener and LItman, former college roommates, co-founded Hotels.com in 1991, and sold a majority stake in that company in 1999 to USA Networks. Diener said he and Litman retain more of a stake in Getarrom after the Court Square deal than they did after initially selling Hotels.com to USA Networks.
Getaroom and New York-based Court Square did not disclose additional terms of the deal. With 300-500 employees, one company-owned call center, and four additional calls centers, Getaroom will do more than $1 billion in gross sales in 2018, Diener said.
He added that Getaroom has been self-funded until now, and has been profitable for the past five or six years.
Dallas-based Getaroom launched in 2009 as a hotel-booking site for consumers, but soon thereafter pivoted into a business-to-business provider of hotels — and lately vacation rentals, too — to affiliates, including online travel agencies, metasearch sites, airlines, destination sites, and membership clubs, for example.
Under the Getaroom business model, it contracts with hotels for published rates, unpublished rates sold through its call centers, and member-only rates for people who belong to membership clubs.
“Nothing has changed in the day-to-day but we now have a faster growth trajectory and we have more resources,” said Diener of the Court Square sale. He said there will be no layoffs, and the Getaroom name stays the same.
Court Square, which specializes in midsize companies, has plenty of travel and international experience, he said. In addition to owning Munich, Germany-based car rental firm Auto Europe, it previously was an owner of global distribution system Worldspan under Court Square’s prior name, Citigroup Venture Capital Equity Partners.
“Our door was banged and knocked on a lot in the last couple of years,” Diener said, but opted to sell now so it could transition to “the next level” because of Court Square’s tech resources, financial stature, and international experience.
Diener said the company offers some 200,000 hotels, and about `10,000 professionally managed vacation rentals. In addition to English, Getaroom has sites in Spanish and German.
The Getaroom-Court Square deal closed August 23, but hasn’t been reported until now.
Houlihan Lokey served as a financial advisor to Getaroom, and Lidji Dorey & Hooper offered legal advice. Dechert LLP served as legal advisor to Court Square.
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Photo credit: The Full Moon Residence at Mira Moon Hotel in Hong Kong. Court Square has acquired Getaroom. Mira Moon Hotel


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We know that consuming too many calories and not exercising can contribute to weight gain, but there are also some surprising architectural and environmental reasons you may be packing on the pounds.
"Here are some waist-expanding phenomena you may never have thought could affect us," Dr. Ellen Kamhi, Ph.D., R.N. tells Newsmax. "This excellent list compiled by TreeHugger.com is an eye opener."
- Cars. The less people walk, bike, or use public transit the more likely they are to be obese. Also, doing your food shopping by car tends to encourage buying in bulk than if you had to carry your bags home.
- Your location. States such as Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee have much higher rates of obesity than others like Colorado and Utah due to diverse lifestyles.
- Living in the suburbs. Folks who live away from urban areas tend to drive everywhere instead of walking.
- Cheap gas. When gas prices plummet, obesity rates rise, according to research by Charles Courtemanche of Washington University in St. Louis.
- Easy access to fast food restaurants. A Canadian study revealed that there is a direct correlation between a city's obesity rates and the number of fast food eateries per capita.
- Endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Bruce Blumberg of the University of California, Irvine says chemicals like the fungicide Tributyltin can disrupt fat-cell activity and may indeed increase the number of fat cells in the body.
- McMansions. Researcher Dean Johnson plotted the amount of square feet in homes and the increase in obesity in the U.S. and found a direct correlation between the two.
- Architecture. Public spaces like shopping malls encourage inactivity and poor eating habits. Tim Townsend, a former city planner, suggests making spaces where climbing stairs is encouraged rather than taking elevators.
- Tight economy. When money is scarce, people tend to stock up on cheap, overly processed foods instead of buying quality foodstuff and organic goods.


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Last month, our CEO Ivan penned an article for Internet Retailing about why it’s so dangerous for today’s retail brands to focus all of their marketing efforts on acquisition and one-off sales, in the blind hope this will keep generating enough revenue to stay afloat.
The crux of the article is this: if tomorrow’s ecommerce marketers want to thrive, they need to ditch these tactics and adopt a more customer-centric approach. And when Ivan says “customer”, he means the individual. Because that’s what your customers are: individuals.
The foundation of Ometria, as a platform, has always been to enable retailers to send meaningful marketing messages that resonate with every single recipient.
We work with retailers that are no longer willing to spend time sending generic, unpersonalised emails to their entire email list —over and over again.
Nice-based cycling apparel brand Café du Cycliste is one of those brands. Here’s a glimpse into their journey with us so far.
Pre-Ometria, Café du Cycliste’s email marketing consisted mainly of sending one-size-fits-all messages to its subscriber base.
But, for a brand offering high-quality, technically brilliant cycling apparel, it wanted an email marketing strategy as sophisticated, impressive and bespoke as the product it was offering—one that could consolidate all of its customer data into one place and use it to personalise correspondence.
… Problem was, the brand was limited by its technology at the time, and was unable to incorporate the behavioural data necessary to create bespoke emails.
Calling upon Ometria’s expertise in retention marketing, the cycle brand was able to set up the following:
1) A programme of advanced automated campaigns across the customer journey, including: a personalised welcome campaign based on the channel the recipient came through, a ‘complete the look’ post-purchase campaign with lifestyle imagery and recommendations based on the individual customer’s taste profile, personalised cart and browse abandonment campaigns and, finally, customer ‘win-back’ campaigns.
The brand’s automation emails have seen a click-to-open rate of 39% & a 3.35% conversion rate.
2) Newsletters personalised with insight from Ometria’s intelligence layer, with content
tailored to the recipient’s gender, location, and whether they’ve recently engaged with
3) Targeted emails to specific customer segments—for example, those who had shopped in its London store—with relevant content.
Since Café du Cycliste started using our platform almost two years ago, it has experienced roughly:
And we’re only just getting started.
The secret to Café du Cycliste’s success is its forward-thinking mindset.
The brand detected early on the need to (a) develop a natural rapport with customers, treating them like individuals instead of numbers, and (b) focus on long-term growth, not short-term wins.
We’re extremely happy that Ometria has helped the team with this so far, and look forward to the exciting journey that still lies ahead.


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New Delhi, Aug 21: Around 96 per cent of consumers are unaware of the existence of direct plans of mutual funds, according to a survey conducted by Paisabazaar.com, a marketplace for lending and investment products. The company arrived at the conclusion after surveying over 25,000 respondents last month.
Direct plans of mutual funds offer comparatively higher returns than regular plans. Moreover, there are no commission or distribution fees on direct plans of mutual funds. To give you an idea, the difference in returns between direct plans of mutual funds and regular plans will be around Rs 68 lakh for a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) of Rs 10,000 for 25 years, at an annualized return of 15 per cent. (Corpus created through direct plans will be Rs 3.97 crore and Rs 3.29 crore through regular plans.) Under Systematic Investment Plans (SIP), you invest a fixed amount at regular intervals to average out your cost in the long run.
Yashish Dahiya, Co-founder & CEO of PolicyBazaar Group said, “While everyone in the industry is aware that direct plans offer better returns than regular plans, there’s hardly been any consumer awareness initiative around it.” PolicyBazaar Group is the parent company of Paisabazaar.com, Policybazaar.com and Docprime.com. Dahiya added, “As a consumer brand, we believe in offering what’s best for our customers, whether it’s free credit score or direct plans of mutual funds. The challenge is to make consumers aware of the distinct advantage direct plans have in the form of higher returns.”
“While a commission of 1%-2% in regular plans may seem insignificant initially, returns from direct plans can easily be 18%-20% higher in the long run,” added Dahiya.


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Germany to hike subsidies to help motorists by electric cars as production of VW's dedicated plug-in vehicles begins - so why is the UK government CUTTING grants?
- German government to increase by half the grants for electric cars
- Improved subsidies for battery electric and hybrid cars to run from 2020 to 2025
- Angela Merkel spoke yesterday at the VW's Zwickau factory as first examples of the new 260-range ID.3 hatchback begins
- UK government reduced the Plug-in Car Grant for vehicle buyers last October
- Subsidy was cut from £4,500 to £3,500 for EVs and removed for hybrids
The German Government will increase by half the grants available to buyers of electric cars over the five years from 2020.
The hike to subsidies is the latest in a series of measures due to be introduced by minister to speed the adoption of low-emissions vehicles.
The news coincides with the beginning of production of Volkswagen's first model from its dedicated electric 'ID' range - the ID.3 family hatchback - in Zwickau this month.
But while motorists in Germany will be receiving more financial support to help them purchase hybrid and electric vehicles, the UK Government last year reduced its own plug-in car incentive - and has hinted since that it might soon be removed entirely.
Tough deal for Britons: Motorists in Germany will receive bigger grants to help them purchase electric cars while the UK government last year reduced its subsidy
Chancellor Angela Merkel's office said officials and industry representatives agreed late Monday to increase by half the existing government incentives for electric vehicles.
Grants for plug-in hybrids will rise from €3,000 (£2,600) to €4,500 (£3,900).
For vehicles priced over €40,000 (£34,500) the subsidy will rise to €5,000 (£4,300).
German news agency dpa also reported that half of the grants, in future amounting to €6,000 (£5,200), will be borne by industry.
The incentive will also be extended from the end of 2020 currently to the end of 2025.
The government hopes such measures will help it to achieve a target of having 10 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2030.
This is part of a wider offensive designed to turn round the German car industry's perceived laggard status in e-mobility compared to its rivals in the United States and China.
Angela Merkel spoke this week Volkswagen's Zwickau factory south of Leipzig, where the German watched the carmaker start mass production of its ID.3 electric car
Merkel said it was politicians' responsibility to 'create a framework where new technological innovations can take hold'
The ID.3 will cost around €30,000 in Germany and is expected to ring in at just under £30,000 in the UK
The news coincided with chancellor Angela Merkel's speech at Volkswagen's Zwickau factory south of Leipzig, where the German watched the carmaker start mass production of its ID.3 electric car.
'We can now say that Zwickau is a pillar of today's German auto industry and of its future,' Merkel said at the launch.
'Our task as politicians is to create a framework where new technological innovations can take hold.'
The battery-electric Golf-sized family hatchback will have a range of 260 miles between charges and cost around €30,000 in Germany. It's expected to ring in at just under £30,000 in the UK.
Industry experts predict it will be the first volume-selling all-electric model in Europe.
The battery-electric Golf-sized family hatchback will have a range of 260 miles between charges
Industry experts predict Volkswagen's initial 'ID' model will be the first volume-selling all-electric model in Europe
Volkswagen ID.3: Will it fit in my garage?
Model: Volkswagen ID.3 1st
Price: from under £30,000
Available from: Middle of 2020
Motor: 150kW electric motor
Maximum range: 261 miles
Top speed: 99mph
Boot capacity: 385 litres
Germany is increasing incentives, but UK government is reducing grants
While Germany hopes grants will boost the uptake of electric vehicles, the UK government has taken a conflicting approach by reducing its own subsidies for low-emission models.
Just a year ago the plug-in grant was reduced from £4,500 to £3,500 for pure electric vehicles. The £2,500 subsidy for plug-in hybrids was abolished entirely.
Ministers have already hinted in July 2018 that the subsidies for electric cars could be reduced.
In the government's 'Road to Zero Strategy' document, it said: 'As the market becomes better established and more competitive, the need for direct government financial support will decrease.
'We therefore expect to deliver a managed exit from the grant in due course and to continue to support the uptake of ultra low emission vehicles through other measures.'
And in interview in September, transport secretary Grant Shapps said the subsidy will 'go eventually' as the government explores terminating the incentive.
His comment was made just weeks after he himself had benefited from the grant, using it to help with the purchase of his new Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle.
Just a year ago the plug-in grant in the UK was reduced from £4,500 to £3,500 for pure electric vehicles. The £2,500 subsidy for plug-in hybrids was abolished entirely
Official government papers in 2018 said plans are being put in place to 'manage an exit from the grant in due course' and 'support the uptake of EVs through other measures'
While the grant looks set to be scrapped, the government has at least looked to boost the infrastructure for plug-in cars.
It will invest a total of £400 million to help bolster the public charging network, with £70 million used to fund the installation of 3,000 rapid chargers over the next five years.
The German government and industry has also also agreed on targets for publicly accessible charge points, aiming to have 50,000 charging stations nationwide by 2022.
Merkel said the government would invest €3.5 billion (£3 billion) to 2035 in building charging stations for electric cars.
On Sunday she had said Germany needed 1 million charging stations by 2030 and urged carmakers and utility companies to play their part in helping to build the necessary infrastructure.
As part of an auto industry push, BMW plans to build 4,000 electric car charging stations, a source familiar with the discussions said on Monday.
In September, at the Frankfurt auto show, Europe's carmakers warned governments that the EU rules could be disastrous for profits and jobs because mainstream customers were not buying electric vehicles.
German carmakers are accelerating plans to launch electric vehicles, under pressure from a European Union mandate to deliver a 37.5 per cent cut in carbon dioxide emissions between 2021 and 2030, on top of a 40 per cent cut in emissions between 2007 and 2021.
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