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Amazon dump ‘very unBritish’ cruelty
Viva! claim ‘amazing victory’
ANIMAL CHARITY VIVA! has today congratulated Amazon for ending the sale of controversial foie-gras in their British online marketplace.
The retail giant – the world’s largest online marketplace – has now officially prohibited its sale after pressure by the campaigning group who, earlier this year, presented the company with evidence of the abject suffering caused by its production and a petition signed by over 10,000 Amazon customers and Viva! supporters.
Viva!’s campaign followed an investigation in France which showed shockingly intensive force-feeding at a farm that supplied goods sold through the online giant**.
Foie-gras is typically made from force-feeding ducks and geese so much grain that their livers expand up to ten times their natural size. Production of foie-gras is illegal in the UK as it would break existing animal welfare law. Viva! say that British retailers should not be profiting off the back of something that might get them arrested on cruelty grounds if they produced it in the UK themselves and that others should follow Amazon’s lead.
Whilst the group welcomes the move, it says that a consumer boycott is not enough, as recent figures show that Britain now imports more foie-gras than ever before – and, as a country, we now import more from France than Germany, Italy or Holland. The group is also calling on the Government to protect our sovereign welfare laws and exploit loopholes in trade laws to ban its importation.
Justin Kerswell, campaigns manager at Viva!, says: “Foie-gras is mostly produced by imprisoning birds in cages so tiny they can’t move, by forcing a pipe down their throats and force feeding them until their livers swell to ten times their natural size. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to eat it – or be involved in its sale. It is quite simply torture in a tin. There is nothing humane about mechanically inducing disease in a bird.
“This is an incredible victory for Viva!, our supporters and anyone who cares about the welfare of animals. Amazon should be congratulated for taking an ethical lead by delisting foie-gras in the UK, but we hope that ethical stance is expanded worldwide. This is a perfect example that consumer pressure does work, even with corporate giants such as Amazon. We will be extending our campaign to other online retailers, such as Ebay. We must not lose sight of the fact that foie-gras is a peculiarly unBritish cruelty. It would be illegal to produce in Britain and causes untold suffering to millions of birds every year in France and other countries that produce it.
“It also has to beggar the question why does the Government continue to refuse to ban the importation of foie-gras into Britain? It makes a mockery of our sovereign animal welfare laws.”
For more information about Viva!’s campaign against foie-gras, visit www.viva.org.uk/foiegras or call 0117 944 1000.
For more information about this media release, call Justin Kerswell on 0117 944 1000 or email firstname.lastname@example.org.
Notes to Editors
Viva! sent Christopher North, Managing Director of Amazon in the UK, a petition signed by over 10,000 people threatening to withhold custom from Amazon if they continued to sell foie-gras. Thousands more Viva! initiated emails and postcards were sent to the company throughout 2013. Viva! also held an online Day of Action encouraging consumers to contact Amazon en masse on Saturday 9 March, 2013. More details at www.viva.org.uk/amazon
* Previously, on the UK Amazon Marketplace grocery section there were over a hundred products available to buy containing foie-gras. Amazon sold foie-gras themselves and allowed third-part companies to do so, too. Amazon currently prohibit the sale of animal products containing whale or dolphin on their Marketplace. They have now added foie-gras to that list:
“Animal products: Parts or products from whale, dolphin, shark, elephant (including elephant ivory) or from any other regulated endangered plant or animal are prohibited, as are products containing Foie Gras.”
** Viva! is working in association with French group Stop Gavage/L214 to expose the true face of foie-gras production in France – where the vast majority is still produced.
A recent investigation at a farm belonging to a producer (Labeyrie), whose products were on sale on Amazon, showed distressing scenes of ducks being force-fed huge amounts of grain with pneumatic pumps.
These birds are in group cages – which are theoretically a welfare improvement over individual cages used by most foie-gras producers for ducks in France. However, to incapacitate them and prevent them from avoiding being force-fed, an automatic bar pins the ducks to the floor of the cage.
Ducks can bruise easily, and it is feared that this new system will add to the suffering of France’s 38-40 million birds force-fed annually.
Farming minister David Heath has recently suggested consumers boycott foie-gras, 15 December 2012 http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/Somerset-MP-David-Heath-says-avoid-foie-gras/story-17594685-detail/story.html. Viva! has written to David Heath to point out potential loopholes in trade rules which mean Britain could ban the importation of foie-gras.
Foie-gras is typically produced by force feeding ducks or geese such large amounts of food that their livers swell to up to ten times normal size. A pipe is shoved down the bird’s oesophagus and food is pumped into the stomach. The process is repeated two or three times daily for two to three weeks until the birds develop fatty liver disease. Over 97 per cent of birds used in foie-gras production in France are ducks, most of which are tightly caged during force-feeding.
Around 38 million birds are killed for foie-gras each year in France, with around a million dying during the force-feeding process. In France only male ducklings are used – females, who do not put on weight as quickly as males are typically destroyed at a day or two old, often by being dropped into electric mincers. In Spain, some birds raised for foie-gras are killed without stunning as it is believed it makes the foie-gras taste ‘better’. Some foie-gras birds in Hungary raised for foie-gras production suffer painful live plucking of their feathers for the down industry, before being force-fed and slaughtered. Britain is a major importer of foie-gras. More information here: http://viva.org.uk/campaigns/foiegras/factsheet.html
Viva! has printed around half a million anti-foie-gras leaflets in the past five years, which have been distributed across the UK. The group has persuaded supermarket chain Lidl and wholesalers Makro to remove foie-gras from sale. House of Fraser also bowed to public pressure and is now completely foie-gras free while many independent restaurants across the UK have permanently removed the product from sale. In 2004, Viva! successfully campaigned in California for legislation outlawing the production and sale of foie-gras – which came into effect in 2012.


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Citing long-term goals, Amazon, which purchased Whole Foods for $13 billion in 2017, confirmed that some stores will soon be closing as they shift their business plan.
Stores will be closing in these locations:
- Brookline, Massachusetts;
- Montgomery and Mobile, Alabama;
- Tarzana, California;
- The Englewood and DePaul neighborhoods of Chicago, Illinois.
According to multiple reports, some of the stores could be closing as soon as Friday, May 6.
“As we continue to position Whole Foods Market for long-term success, we regularly evaluate the performance and growth potential of each of our stores, and we have made the difficult decision to close six stores,” a Whole Foods spokesperson said in a prepared statement.
“We are supporting impacted Team Members through this transition and expect that all interested, eligible Team Members will find positions at our other locations.”
Despite the closures, Whole Foods will still operate more than 500 markets across the US, with plans to still open dozens of new stores in the coming months.
The complete Bloomberg report can be found here.
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domain: news


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McDonald's faces a class-action lawsuit accusing it of steering Black franchisees toward less-profitable locations.
The suit was filed last week in Illinois on behalf of plaintiffs including brothers James and Darrell Byrd, who allege the burger chain didn't give them the same support and opportunities that White franchisees receive. The brothers are being represented by the same law firm, The Ferraro Law Firm, that currently represents more than 50 Black former McDonald's franchise owners in a similar suit against McDonald's filed in August. There are currently 186 Black-owned-and-operated franchises in the U.S.
James Byrd was forced to sell eight of 10 locations due to underperformance, while Darrell's four locations have been cut down to two, the lawsuit states. These former franchisees "are not bad businesspeople as McDonald's has led them to believe," their lawyers argue in the complaint.
Rather, "They are victims of McDonald's targeted discrimination against Black franchisees, which McDonald's covered up during years of parity deals and false promises," the suit alleges. The plaintiffs are seeking as much as $5 million per store in damages — the same amount as in the August lawsuit — claiming they were sent on "a financial suicide mission."
McDonald's is taking the allegations seriously and has a business interest in making sure all locations are profitable, the fast-food giant said in a statement Monday to CBS MoneyWatch. The company also said it has helped the Byrd brothers even as their locations struggled.
"McDonald's has invested significantly in each of their respective businesses after they ran into business difficulties caused by mismanagement of their organizations," McDonald's said, alluding to the Byrds. "We will defend against this lawsuit while we move forward with our priorities to foster equitable opportunity for franchisees, suppliers and employees."
According to the suit, McDonald's steered Black franchisees to locations in inner-city neighborhoods with low sales and high security and insurance costs. Once Black franchisees owned a store, they were required to rebuild or buy new equipment immediately, at their own expense, while White franchisees were not, the complaint says.
In response to the lawsuit filed by the 52 Black former franchisees in August, McDonald's said it "categorically" denied the allegations, in a statement to CBS News last month. "We are confident that the facts will show how committed we are to the diversity and equal opportunity of the McDonald's System, including across our franchisees, suppliers and employees," the statement said.
McDonald's legal team filed a motion last month to have the case dismissed, calling the plantiffs' argument "self-serving" and "illogical."
McDonald's has a troubled history with Black franchisees. In 1969, activists boycotted four McDonald's in Cleveland until the company sold them to Black owners. In 1983, a Black franchise owner from Los Angeles sued the company for discrimination. McDonald's eventually paid him $4.5 million.
In 1996, McDonald's leadership acknowledged Black franchisees weren't achieving parity with their White counterparts and resolved to make changes, but charges of discrimination have since continued.
Two Black McDonald's executives sued the company in January, claiming it shifted advertising away from Black customers, graded Black-owned stores more harshly than White-owned ones and implemented business plans that had a discriminatory impact on Black franchisees.
McDonald's disputed these allegations, noting that 45% of its corporate officers and all of its field vice presidents are people of color.


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Dell Technologies business units like Pivotal and Boomi are not used much by partners in Canada today, but Andre Valiquette believes customer problems around digital transformation they can solve will drive strong demand and bring partners into their fold.
The major channel news at the just-concluded Dell Technologies World event in Las Vegas was the official rebranding of the partner program, from the Dell EMC Partner Program to the Dell Technologies Partner Program. That rebranding carries with it the full integration of all the Dell Technologies companies within the rebranded program, so that purchases from all the strategically aligned companies will now count for tier credit and MDF. That will be a big deal in Canada, said Andre Valiquette, who was named the new National Director, Channel Sales at Dell EMC Canada in March.
“Collaboration has been a long-used word, but it needs to have more substance to it,” Valiquette said. “Partners want stability and innovation.”
This credit for tier status and MDF in the larger Dell program was first extended to VMware in February, and now encompasses Pivotal, RSA, SecureWorks, Virtustream and Boomi. Collaboration between these units has been central to the value proposition around digital transformation that Dell Technologies has been articulating to partners, but today these kinds of relationships beyond the long-standing one between Dell EMC and VMware tend to be limited in Canada.
CDW Canada is one of Dell Technologies’ most significant partners in Canada, winning the overall 2018 Dell EMC Canada Partner of the Year Award last fall. While their Dell client business is huge – they also won the 2018 award for that – about half their Canadian business is focused on the data centre, and that’s without adding Scalar Decisions into the mix. While that acquisition closed in February, for now, they are being run as separate companies. CDW Canada’s business with the other Dell Technologies companies is limited however.
“Dell EMC is the largest, VMware is a distant second, RSA is third, and we do nothing with the rest,” said Dan Reio, Director, Product & Partner Management & Marketing at CDW Canada, who leads the team responsible for the Dell Technologies relationship.
Valiquette believes that this collaboration will inevitably come, because it is so fundamental to digital transformation.
“Pivotal’s importance is in driving digital transformation – and that’s increasing,” he said. “Pivotal is the catalyst that starts the conversation around digital transformation, and partners are piggybacking off all that drag. There’s such a synergy with that conversation.”
Valiquette stressed that while Pivotal as a brand is still not that well known, what it can do inevitably will increase customer demand for it, and thus partner investment in it.
“We just did an ‘adding data value’ road show where Chad Sakac [the Canada-based technical evangelist for Pivotal] was the keynote speaker, and there was great interest, even though not all customers there worked with Pivotal,” Valiquette said.
Similarly, Boomi, Dell’s cloud integration platform, which is even less well-known than Pivotal, is seeing growing demand for its core functionality.
“While Pivotal provides the application modernization, Boomi is the digital glue,” Valiquette said. “Boomi is the underpinning of digital transformation, the tool that ties it all together. What’s important is not how many partners are working with Boomi today. It’s how many customers want Boomi to help enable digital transformation. When you have the catalyst, you create that compelling event.”
That, Valiquette stressed, is what partners want from Dell Technologies.
“Partners ask us to create the demand so that they can build profitable practices,” he said. “Pivotal and Boomi are both effective tools to create opportunities. It’s all about business outcomes. Those were lower calorie words in the past. But today, it’s all about using a tool like Pivotal to provide insights to their customers. Yesterday I had a partner approach me about a joint initiative with Pivotal. They want to know how to get engaged on the hardware side to complement that.”
In addition to enhancing the partner cutting edge around digital transformation, another top priority for Valiquette is at the other end of Dell Technologies’ business in Canada – the long tail of distribution – which today accounts for about 7000 partners who buy through Ingram Micro and Tech Data in Canada.
“Distribution is more significant in the marketplace in Canada compared to others,” he said. “One of the nuances of Canadian strategy is to let us go to paces we have not sold to. Before this role, I was Dell EMC’s Vice President of Commercial Sales for Canada’s Central East region, and we had the highest channel mix there in Canada, particularly in Atlantic Canada and Quebec. The reach our partners provided in the East region was key to our success in that region. That’s why they increased the scope of my role.”
Valiquette said that while distribution is critical for Dell in Canada, it has not been well developed, nationally, in the past.
“AC Nielsen is a better measure of distribution, and it finds that distribution is 50 per cent greater as a percentage of overall IT market in Canada than it is in the U.S.,” he said. “So it plays a significantly more important role in the marketplace. Our distribution strategy has been more in its infancy, but it needs to evolve. It’s part of my core priorities.
“We have so much upside in distribution,” Valiquette concluded. “That’s where the Canada strategy needs to evolve. You have to be able to mirror the marketplace.”


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Posted Thu Jul 2, 2015 at 09:09 AM PDT by Justin Clark
Hype machine remains in standby.
Everyone pretty much figured that Nintendo's subdued showing at E3 was the result of holding back spoilers for the NX, their still mysterious next-gen console, and it seems like the future might be closer for Nintendo than we think. A source for business site Digitimes is reporting that they've already started sending emissaries to their big manufacturing partners to prep them for production starting in October, with mass production set to go around May or June next year. Which means, yep, right around E3 2016. We're not looking at small numbers here, either, with over 20 million intended for production so far.
If true, then we're looking at the rose-colored twilight days for the poor WiiU. Despite a much stronger performance this year and last, mostly thanks to 'Smash Bros', 'Mario Kart', and 'Splatoon', nobody can deny it's pretty much JUST Nintendo's first party keeping that thing afloat by sheer will, and that's unfortunately not enough to bolster a system that had a hard time of things from minute one. It's still unclear if Nintendo intends to keep the systems going side by side, or if the NX represents a clean slate. Regardless, it's pretty clear, even despite a few major gems still on their way, that Nintendo's gaze has already started to wander.
We'll always have Inkopolis.
The latest news on all things 4K Ultra HD, blu-ray and Gear.


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THE CITY regulator yesterday criticised debt management firms for providing advice of “unacceptably low” quality.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found firms were failing to adequately asses customers’ circumstances, not making clear the type of service they provide, and encouraging vulnerable customers’ to buy products which impeded their ability to repay debts.
In one case, a customer of a debt management firm was recommended a plan that would take 125 years to pay off.
“People who turn to debt management firms do so as a last resort. When they find themselves in this position it is vital that they are able to access suitable advice that allows them to make informed decisions about their future,” said Linda Woodall, acting director of retail supervision at the FCA.
“Debt Management firms play a critical role in the consumer credit market, but far too many are not meeting the standards we expect and we will be looking for significant improvement.”


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In a play to get a labor deal that will set a pattern for union pay and benefits at Detroit’s three carmakers, the United Auto Workers went to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, the poorest of the three and the company whose CEO is a notorious hard-line negotiator.
Historically, the UAW has picked the healthiest of the three companies to negotiate a deal and used that contract to set a pattern of wages and benefits that the other two would closely mimic. So why would UAW President Dennis Williams go the carmaker with the least money to try to hammer out a deal? Such an effort is even more challenging with a savvy negotiator like Sergio Marchionne.
There are many things Williams is trying to accomplish in the new contracts. He wants to secure swift ratifications from all three work groups. He also is seeking raises for senior members and for lower-paid workers. Overall, he’d like to get the three companies on equal footing while perhaps squeezing a bit more from the healthier companies. To get there, he’s taking on the hardest bargaining first.
Getting the toughest talk out of the way first can position the union to get all three deals done the quickest. Talks with FCA promised to be the most contentious, so Williams might want to get that pact done and ratified with his members before moving on to the deeper pockets of General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., where bargaining should be a little easier.
The two larger carmakers also have been more generous in the past, so Williams may not risk much by working out a deal with FCA first, said Art Schwartz, a former GM negotiator and now president of consulting firm Labor and Economics Associates.
“I think he decided this would be the toughest so he might as well get it done first,” Schwartz said in a phone interview. “I didn’t think they would go there first.”
That’s why selecting FCA is a surprise, Schwartz said. The company’s labor costs including benefits are $47 an hour, about $8 an hour less than GM and $10 an hour less than Ford, according to data from the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Setting a pattern with a richer company like GM or Ford could make the other two deals better for workers.
The majority of UAW locals at Fiat Chrysler plants have reached tentative agreements, Norwood Jewell, the vice president in charge of the UAW Chrysler Department, told local leaders in a letter posted Monday on the union’s website. On the national level, he said “there are still many items of importance to be reconciled.” The contract is being extended on an hour by hour basis as bargaining continues.
No More Tiers?
This could be the UAW’s chance to get rid the two-tier wage system. Unions don’t like two-tier wage deals, because the idea of two people doing the same job for different pay violates their core principle of solidarity. But sometimes -- as the UAW did in 2007 -- they agree to them to help companies lower labor costs without sharply cutting pay and benefits for longtime employees. Companies tend to like them, because in addition to the cost savings, the eroded solidarity makes the union weaker.
But Marchionne sounds more like a union boss when he talks about how the two-tier system is “almost offensive.”
The problem is that the union wants to lift everyone up to the top scale, and Marchionne wants to bring everyone down to the lower one. He’s trying to ensure that costs are low enough to survive downturns, while allowing workers to make as much as ever in good times.
FCA has more of the so-called Tier 2 workers, whose hourly pay rate starts at $15.81 and maxes out around $18. Veteran workers make $28 an hour. After the contract expires, FCA is supposed to limit its percentage of entry-level workers to 25 percent.
That limit was suspended during Chrysler’s bankruptcy in 2009. With nearly half its workforce making the second-tier wage, it is doubtful that FCA wants to promote those workers to Tier 1 pay, Schwartz said.
There may be some common ground on pay. When Williams and Marchionne kicked off labor talks with a public handshake in July, the UAW president said he would consider variable pay if it got workers -- especially those in Tier 2 -- to a middle- class income.
It doesn’t matter what kind of deal is reached if it can’t get ratified by the members.
While Williams would like to raise everyone to the top tier of pay, rapid increases in second-tier wages to something close to Tier 1 pay -- perhaps $25 an hour -- could be very popular with those members, said Dziczek. As long as the veteran workers also get a raise, such a deal could easily be ratified because the 45 percent of Chrysler workers who make Tier 2 pay would vote for it, she said.
“Anything that helps the Tier 2 workers will help ratify a deal with Chrysler,” Dziczek said.
Timing is also important when it comes to the union’s internal politics. Fiat Chrysler’s UAW workers tend to get smaller signing bonuses and profit-sharing checks than workers at GM and Ford. If they see a richer deal for workers across town, they might not ratify it. So if Williams gets them to vote on a deal before he reaches agreements with Ford and GM, he might have a better chance to get all three deals done, Schwartz said.
In 2011, FCA paid workers $3,500 to ratify the contract and it narrowly passed with 55 percent of workers voting on favor of it. GM workers got $5,000 and Ford workers were paid $6,000.
“They don’t have to do the same agreement,” Schwartz said. “They can go to company No. 2 and say we want Chrysler plus more.”
It doesn’t take a nationwide strike to bring a company to its knees -- halting supply of one key component can be just as effective. And Fiat Chrysler is vulnerable to just such an attack.
UAW members have authorized a strike against any one of the carmakers, but the UAW has another tool with Fiat Chrysler. The company makes transmissions for all of its vehicles at a cluster of plants in Kokomo and Tipton, Indiana, north of Indianapolis. If one or both of the union locals representing workers there went on strike, such as over local safety issues, they could shut down the entire company quickly because Fiat Chrysler has no other source for transmissions, said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at CAR.
Any strike would be short lived, McAlinden said, but it could still help improve the pay for the entry-level workers, which is the union’s primary goal in this agreement.
“The workers in Kokomo are ready to shut Chrysler down,” McAlinden said.
© Copyright 2023 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.


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Volkswagen’s automotive group had $29.6 billion in net liquidity at the the end of the third fiscal quarter of this year. About $10.8 billion is allocated to protect the company’s credit ratings. That leaves about $19 billion in cash for the company to work with.
There are fines that will be paid in a number of countries, along with goodwill gestures to owners of affected VW vehicles and incentives needed to sell cars from a tainted brand. Then there will the cost of litigation and any judgments or settlements that come out of those lawsuits.
About the same time as Barclays’ announcement, Automotive News and Bloomberg reported Volkswagen AG will be meeting in Wolfsburg this week with representatives of about a dozen banks to secure as much as $21.5 billion in loans by the end of this year. Those meetings aim to shore up the company’s financing and show the credit markets that VW has enough liquid assets to cover emissions-related costs. Read More >


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Drivers at Eddie Stobart’s Doncaster DC have voted for strike action, in response to the operator’s announcement last week that it would be making them redundant. Unite says more than 150 drivers, from a total of 183, voted for strike action at the site that was previously part of Tesco’s distribution network. Harriet Eisner, Unite regional office, said: “Unite is still in talks with Eddie Stobart, but the management remains intransigent that it wants to get rid of the drivers. […]
Union Unite has said that it is looking to work in a “positive and constructive manner” with the management at AM Widdowson & Son after it emerged that a recovery plan at the Leicester haulier would involve 50 redundancies.
Imminent strike action at Menzies Distribution has been suspended after the company made an improved pay offer, Unite said today.
TNT Express UK & Ireland has confirmed around 50% of TNT Fashion Group UK’s dedicated network of distribution sites will be integrated into existing TNT Express sites as part of the DC rationalisation announced in January.


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Threat actors have posted data allegedly stolen from Activision, the maker of the ‘Call of Duty’ videogames, in December 2022.
The attacker posted a dataset on a popular cybercriminal forum, giving away the information for free. The post claims that close to 20,000 records of employee information are included in the database.
The attackers claimed “19,444 unique records of employee info, dumped on December 5, 2022,” adding that the data would be “great for phishing.”
According to the Cybernews research team, the leaked data includes Activision employees’ first and last names, job titles, email addresses, and, in some cases, phone numbers.
On February 20, researchers at VX-Underground announced Activision had suffered a data breach last year and opted to keep the incident away from public scrutiny.
Screenshots of the supposed breach suggest attackers accessed Activision’s corporate Slack environment and game release calendar.
A representative of Activision Blizzard, the parent company, told Cybernews that the security incident occurred on December 4. The representative emphasized that no sensitive data was exposed.
“Our information security team swiftly addressed an SMS phishing attempt and quickly resolved it. Following a thorough investigation, we determined that no sensitive employee data, game code, or player data was accessed,” the company rep told Cybernews.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in cash, reportedly the biggest deal in the tech sector.
The deal would boost Microsoft’s stake in the gaming console market. The company takes up around 30% of the global market with its Xbox gaming machine.
To close the deal with the maker of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Tony Hawk’s, and other popular games, Microsoft first must convince European lawmakers the transfer doesn’t violate EU antitrust laws.
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On the National Consumer Day, the Administrator UT and Governor of Punjab V P Singh Badnore, released the book, The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 along with The Consumer Protection Rules and Regulations 2020, authored by Ajay Jagga, Additional Standing Counsel, UT and Aishwarya Jagga, BA.LLB.
The introduction of the book was given by the author Ajay Jagga, detailing the new law and its new features empowering the consumers.
Satya Pal Jain, Sr. Advocate and Additional Solicitor General of India, gave the opening remarks about the book and congratulated the authors for releasing the book which gives in detail the various facets of the act.
V P Singh Badnore congratulated the authors and conveyed the importance of national consumer day and reiterated that the nation is committed to empowering the consumers, which is the mission of the Prime Minister. He appealed to the people to be aware of the new law through the book and enlighten themselves and society about the consumer rights.
Ajay Jagga, while talking about the book said, “I must complement our parliament and the Government of India for replacing the 33-year-old Consumer Protection Act, 1996 with the golden legislation i.e. Consumer Protection Act, 2019. The overall support of the bill, in the parliament, was for the simple fact that the new act would ease the overall process of consumer grievance redressal. This new law aims to protect the rights of consumers by establishing authorities for timely and effective administration and settlement of consumers’ dispute, setting up of a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class. For the first time in the history of consumer grievance redressal, the law provides for the class action (like PIL). It also provides for meditation and e-filing of cases, which is a revolution and speaks loudly for consumer empowerment. The long-pending issue of jurisdiction is also sorted, as the consumer will be able to file cases in the nearest commission under the jurisdiction of which he resides. The registrations on e-commerce and direct have also been notified.”


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Economic Recovery Bypasses U.S. Foundry Industry:
Foundry Industry Is In A State Of Shock
BY RICHARD McCORMACK
The United States foundry and metal castings industry is literally falling apart. Hundreds of foundries have gone out business in recent years due to unrelenting pressure from cheap imports, the departure of large manufacturers and skyrocketing costs of raw materials. "This industry is in deep trouble," says Charles Kurtti, president of the American Foundry Society.
The foundry industry, regarded as being the world's second oldest industry, forms the basic underpinning of an industrial society. Its products are used to make 90 percent of all manufactured goods.
The nation's economic turnaround is not helping much. Companies that remain in business are busier than they have been in previous years, but much of the additional work is coming from stranded customers of foundries that have gone bankrupt.
"The U.S. foundry industry is at a critical juncture," says a legal filing made by the American Foundry Society to the International Trade Commissions' recently initiated "Section 332" investigation. "The industry has been undergoing a massive restructuring and the pace of closures of production facilities has escalated in recent years."
Two of the nation's largest cast parts makers -- Citation Corp. with 17 foundries and 5,100 employees, and Intermec with 17 foundries and 6,000 employees -- have recently filed for bankruptcy protection. Combined, the two firms generate about $1.5 billion a year in revenues.
Six of the top 10 foundries in the United State have filed for bankruptcy protection over the past three years, according to the American Foundry Society.
About 50 foundries are closing in the United States each year. Over the past 20 years more than 1,000 foundries have disappeared, a contraction of 30 percent to just 2,380 foundries. There are an estimated 12,000 foundries in China.
"Who's going to put money into an industry that's dead," says Ray Stevens, chairman and CEO of Impact Forge.
The majority of the foundries that have closed had been in business for decades and many for even more than a century. They made it through every type of economic cycle, but no more. "The dynamics that have put us here haven't changed at all," says Kurtti. "What bothers me is that this is not a temporary loss or setback."
The foundries that are closed are never expected to be reopened and the accumulated loss of skills and knowledge will be difficult to regain. "When these jobs leave this country, we will never see them come back," says Kurtti.
The situation is "alarming," according to dozens of executives in the industry testifying before the International Trade Commission, the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission and in interviews with Manufacturing & Technology News. These executives are irate about unfair trading practices by China and about the federal government's unwillingness to enforce U.S. trade laws.
"We have existed for 125 years under one set of rules and suddenly we have an entirely different set of rules," Randall Lawton, president of Bay Engineered Castings of De Pere, Wisc., told an Oct. 14 hearing of the International Trade Commission on the competitive conditions of the foundry industry (Investigation No. 332-460). "Little of our accumulated knowledge skills and abilities prepared us for this next era."
Adds Kurtti: "We fear we are on the edge of a tipping point. It is deeply concerning most of us. We can't keep sending our standard of living overseas."
The future for mold making "is pretty bleak in this country because I think the horse is already out of the barn," says David Murphy, director of personnel at Ferriot Inc. in Akron, Ohio. "There's nobody going into the machine trades."
China and its fast-growing economy, is also blamed for the skyrocketing increases in materials prices that have eliminated margins and dried up funding for capital upgrades. Foundries say customers are not willing to pay surcharges for the increased costs of materials.
"Many casting purchasers have a misguided idea that the only real way to cut component cost is to source offshore," says James Mallory, executive director of the Non-Ferrous Founders Society. "They call it cost control. I call it corporate greed."
Foundry industry CEOs are scratching their heads over how China is able to sell products to U.S.-based manufacturing companies at half their price, given that they are not as efficient and have to pay the same amount for raw materials.
"After the Chinese buy the $400-a-ton-scrap, they put it on a boat that costs $50-plus a ton, take it to China, take it off the boat, put it on rail or truck, pay another $10 to $20 a ton to get it to the foundry, melt it into the form of a casting, take it back to the dock, put it in a container at $150 a ton, ship it to Long Beach, get it off the dock, put it on rail, send it through Customs to a warehouse and then deliver the castings to our customers," says Tim Brown, vice president of the Benton Foundry in Pennsylvania.
A customer of Aurora Metals of Montgomery, Ill, mistakenly requested credit on a rejected part made by one of Aurora's competitors in China. "When the amount of credit was requested, we knew exactly the price differential between our price and the Chinese price: 30.1 percent," company president Dave Bumbar told the ITC. "Therefore, we conducted a study to assure ourselves that we truly understood the true cost of producing this impeller. We would need to reduce our price by the entire amount of all our labor, the entire amount of all of our health care costs and the entire amount of our workmen's compensation insurance in order to compete with the price delivered to this country from 7,500 miles away. We are being asked to sacrifice our employees and our futures for the gains of others in the world." Aurora Metals has been in business since 1899.
The industry has been forced out of high volume applications and is now concentrating most of its marketing and sales efforts on small prototype specialty jobs that require more complex molds and castings. But this is not a strategy for success. Having to rely solely on short-run jobs "is tantamount to hopping lily pads," says Murphy, of Ferriot Inc.
Companies that have upgraded their plants to be highly automated don't have enough work to pay off their investment. "So now you have a facility where all of the volume has gone away and you lose contribution margin to absorb your fixed overhead and you're running into all types of problems," says Larry Communale, vice president and general manager of Doncaster Southern Tool. Companies can no longer fund research and development or design improvements.
"We're hoping we're not one of the next guys closing our doors," says Bruce Cain, president of Xcel Mold and Machine of Canton, Ohio. "About six [companies] quit building molds in the Akron area in the last two or three years and you would think that when that happens there's going to be more work. Well, that's not happening. It's going out of the states faster than anything."
The two big companies that recently declared bankruptcy were running at capacity, but "their individual customers refused to pay the materials surcharge," says George Boyd, president and CEO of Goldens' Foundry and Machine of Columbus, Ga. "We went to our customers last year and we told them that we had two choices. We could either close our doors or they could pay the metal surcharge. After a significant struggle, they agreed to pay it because we were being honest. The material issue has elevated our costs by 15 to 20 percent."
The industry wants the International Trade Commission to send its analysts over to China to figure out how Chinese companies can gain such an advantage. The executives say they've all heard stories about how the Chinese government is willing to subsidize foundries by providing them with interest-free loans and free equipment.
"I recently spoke to one of my members who was in China visiting facilities looking at the possibility of establishing a joint venture," says Mallory of the Non-Ferrous Founder's Society. "He went into a state-owned facility and looked around and saw all kinds of brand new equipment and said to the managers of the facility, 'Boy, this is really a very modern and very well-equipped facility.' The Chinese foundry manager said, 'Oh, yes. It's very easy. If we see new equipment we want we tell our government, they give us the money to buy it and we don't even have to pay it back.' Every one of our metal casters would love to have a similar arrangement with the United States government, but we know that's not fair so we won't ask for it."
Such a story is not plausible, retorted William Blackerby, CEO of ASC Industries, a global manufacturer of water pumps whose company has opened two foundries in China. "There are huge capital constraints toward buying capital equipment inside China," he told the ITC hearing. "The local market won't finance it and the government certainly doesn't have the money to buy it for you because they can't even pay you back for your VAT receipts." Most of the foreign-invested companies in China have to borrow money either domestically, in the United States or in international markets. "It's just not readily available," Blackerby said.
Hundreds of executives from foundries and their trade associations have met with U.S. government officials and members of Congress describing unfair trade and business practices and the lack of government enforcement of U.S. trade laws.
"Frustration is the lightest term I would use" to describe meetings held with such officials, said Stevens of Impact Forge of Columbus, Ind., in an interview. "I'm irate. The stupidest thing our government has done is not to recognize the devastating effect that this has had on jobs in the United States and to just sit back and be stonewalled by the Chinese while our balance of trade with China mushrooms. I believe in free trade, but we don't have free trade."
Steven made a presentation to Grant Aldonas, Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade on July 8, 2003, in Columbus, Ohio, during the Commerce Department's cross-country fact finding trip on how to fix manufacturing. Since that time, conditions have changed "only for the worse," says Stevens, and the federal government has done nothing.
"Why should we let all of our trading partners take advantage of the openness of the American market?" he asks. "We are woefully inadequate at responding to a foreign government's actions against our industries. I have worked internationally and have lived overseas and we're the only nation in the world that doesn't understand that manufacturing is the engine the pulls the rest of the economy."
The America Foundry Society has also provided "huge amounts" of information about the declining health of the industry to political people in Washington. "They all say they are listening and have an understanding of where we are headed, but politically, we don't know what the pressures are for them not to act," says society president Kurtti. "But I do know this, if we are not careful, this is the last generation that is going to have a better standard of living than or folks did. Good luck creating wealth in this country through health care and services."
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10 Things To Know About Online-To-Offline Marketing This Week
All the location news this week, from Factual and Facebook's expanded data alliance to the connected car revolution.
GeoMarketing’s Link Picks of the Week:
- Column: Winning the race in connected technology — Wright Lassiter III, The Detroit News
- Microsoft’s weapon in high-stakes cloud-computing battle with Amazon? Freebies— Matt Day, The Seattle Times
- Waze to expand Carpool service across California on June 6 — Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch
- The new normal: Voice search and the future of marketing — Luke Janich, Campaign
- Google Attribution: What search marketers need to know— Ginny Marvin, SearchEngineLand
Top Stories of the Week:
‘The Reddit team cares deeply about finding ways to enhance the creator experience on their platform, and Foursquare’s API is a natural addition, providing key location context when it’s needed,’ says Foursquare’s David Ban.
Voice is starting to supplant text when it comes to mobile search, as accuracy approaches 95 percent, Meeker said in the annual Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers analyst report.
A majority of consumers already perform ‘connected activities’ while driving, like making voice calls through a built-in interface, according to research from Parks Associates.
In addition to accessing more location information across more countries, Facebook can also pull TripAdvisor and Yelp reviews from Factual Crosswalk, says Factual SVP Bill Michels.


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A record number of Americans plan to travel over the Independence Day holiday weekend. With a little advance planning, it can be a cheap road trip.
An estimated 44.2 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home between Friday, June 30 and Tuesday, July 4, according to AAA. Most — 37.5 million — will be driving.
Their first stop: a gas station.
The Friday of Independence Day weekend is the biggest day for buying gas, with spending up 27 percent compared to the daily average in July, according to Bank of America. Average spending per fill up in 2016 was $28. (The bank looked at aggregated data from more than 40 million credit and debit card users over the 2016 holiday.)


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World car News Today #Update!
About 500,000 Kia and Hyundai car models are being recalled due to faulty brake lights. With both being the first and second top automakers from South Korea, it is a bit shocking that they will be slammed with the same problem at the same time with relatively close year models. According to The Detroit News, 390,000 Hyundai Elantras built between 2013 and 2014, and over 134,000 Kia Fortes from 2012 through 2014, have been recalled as the brake lights may not go out when the pedal is released. Because the brake is a very important part of cars and any misconstruing of the signals it sends while a car is in motion could lead to danger not just for the car and its driver but other road users, both automakers had to take quick action in recalling the above affected vehicles.
…2014 Hyundai Elantra
Government documents reveal that the polymer stopper pad between the brake pedal arm and the light switch can deteriorate, thus allowing the switch to stay on even when the pedal isn’t depressed. This fault also means the driver can shift out of park without applying the brakes. To fix the issue, the brake stopper pads will be replaced. Kia’s recall will commence from January 30th 2018 while the one for Hyundai will kick off from February 8th.
…2013 Kia Forte


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Trump Battled the Powell Fed's Rate Hikes, Biden's Betting on Them
U.S. central bankers on Tuesday will open their first meeting of the year already in broad agreement that they need to raise interest rates soon, likely in March, to slow the economy.
They are likely not to hear a peep about it from the White House.
The silence marks a sharp reversal for the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell. His four interest rate hikes in 2018 drew blistering criticism from President Donald Trump, who had just installed Powell atop the Fed and felt they undercut Trump's own efforts to bolster economic growth. Trump waged a public pressure campaign to stop them.
President Joe Biden by contrast has endorsed what the Fed has signaled will be at least three interest rate hikes this year and a rapid shrinking of its nearly $9 trillion balance sheet to further raise borrowing costs. Last week Biden called Powell's retooling of policy "appropriate" and emphasized the decision to do so was up to the Fed.
So why the difference? Contrasting presidential styles aside, it comes down to one thing: inflation.
In Trump's four-year term consumer prices mostly rose around a 2% annual pace and never faster than 3%. In Biden's first year alone they shot up 7% as demand for everything from cars to hamburgers far outpaced the economy's ability to fulfill it.
"Biden understands that the Fed's performance will influence the course of the economy and thus help to shape his and the Democrats' electoral fortunes," said George Washington University's Sarah Binder, author of a 2017 book on Fed governance.
The higher prices are eating in to paychecks and outpacing strong wage growth as businesses try to woo workers after pandemic shutdowns and dislocations.
They are also tanking Biden's approval ratings and have generated comparisons to the 1970s, when President Gerald Ford tried to force businesses into holding the line on prices and his successor Jimmy Carter appointed an inflation hawk - Paul Volcker - to finally end the upward spiral.
So, far from fighting the Fed's pivot to tighter policy, Biden is in fact betting on it.
If things go right, the Fed's raising rates from current near-zero levels will slow demand by making it more expensive to borrow and tempering spending impulses among consumers and businesses.
Powell says the economy is strong enough to handle it and in fact will not be able to grow at its full potential if inflation stays high for too long and gets entrenched in business and household psychology.
He also hopes for help in areas he cannot control - supply chains and the pandemic. If supply chains get untangled, businesses can obtain needed parts and materials more easily, reducing upward price pressure. And if the pandemic eases, more workers who stayed out of the job market because of health concerns or childcare burdens may return, reducing upward wage pressure.
But in backing Powell, Biden also risks a potentially toxic mix - a Fed that is tightening policy just as government aid that bolstered demand last year drops off, and supply chains that remain tangled. Tensions on the Russian-Ukraine border could add to the uncertainty.
And that could mean a scenario where the Fed ends up tightening policy more than the economy can tolerate.
FED CREDIBILITY ON THE LINE
Biden, who renominated Powell for a second term starting next month, is betting that Powell will pull it off, raising rates fast enough keep inflation from getting entrenched but not so fast they bring economic growth to a standstill.
"If there's no 'soft landing,' a recession would put Biden in even greater electoral danger," Binder said.
Meanwhile Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen are trying to resurrect his stalled spending plans aimed at lowering the cost of childcare and enabling more working parents to rejoin the workforce, among other things. They also hope to fix failed supply chains blamed for driving prices higher.
Still, it is not clear that their efforts will pay off, and if the slow rate hikes the Fed has so far signaled will be enough to tamp down inflation.
"If the (Fed) wants to be a more active contributor to bringing down inflation - as opposed to playing a more limited role and mainly waiting for the effects of pandemic supply-demand imbalances and fiscal stimulus to fade - then it will need to do enough to tighten financial conditions materially," Goldman Sachs economists wrote earlier this month.
That, they wrote, could mean four or more rate hikes this year.
There will be two months more of inflation data before the Fed's March meeting, enough to show whether it is cooling on its own as policymakers repeatedly but wrongly forecast it would last year.
If inflation continues to run hot, the Fed may not only need to do more rates hikes, but may need to deliver them earlier, wrote SGH Macro Advisors' Tim Duy.
"This is especially the case given the growing political costs of inflation," said Duy, noting that the political risk is not just for the Biden administration, but also for the Powell Fed.
"Its credibility with the public and on Capitol Hill requires that it meet its mandate" of 2% inflation on average, Duy wrote.


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Microsoft will add a mobile component to its customer relationship management software.
Microsoft said the latest compotent will allow end users to handle CRM workflows right from a Windows-based Pocket PC.
The company's CRM Sales for Outlook software, which will ship this summer, is designed to allow salespeople to do things such as review information before a customer meeting and then capture relevant data to feed back into a company's CRM system during synchronisation.
Microsoft will also deliver more interfaces to enable integration between its CRM suite and its back-end ERP applications, such as Solomon, said Doug Burgum, senior vice president at Microsoft business solutions group, at the Convergence 2004 business applications user show in Orlando.
All the ERP lines Microsoft has acquired, including Great Plains, Navision and Axapta, will be supported through 2013, and Burgum added that the company had "very robust" research and development plans.
Other improvements Microsoft plans for its CRM line over the long term include a campaign management module to automate marketing processes, as well as improvements designed to help workers who do more than field phone calls, said Holly Holt, group product manager for CRM. In addition, there will be tighter integration with the SQL Server 2000 reporting services application.
Microsoft also announced that it has enhanced its Great Plains 8.0 ERP software to have a Microsoft Outlook desktop look and feel and tight integration with Office. Great Plains 8.0 will ship in July.
Marc L Songini writes for Computerworld


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Intesa Sanpaolo adds dynamic discounting service with Kyriba
Intesa Sanpaolo has signed a memorandum of understanding with Kyriba, a global fintech provider of supply chain finance solutions, to create and make available a dynamic discounting service for global businesses. This service enables large buyers with significant excess liquidity to offer suppliers advanced payment of invoices with a discount on the price that has been previously agreed upon. Kyriba’s Dynamic Discounting solution is a web-based software that connects with enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) to automatically update company accounts.
The partnership with Kyriba enables functionality as part of the activities implemented by Intesa Sanpaolo to strengthen its supply chain finance programme. The SCF programme aims to enhance Italian production chains, considered key drivers to help relaunch the Italian economy and catalyse development, employment and investment.
The agreement with Kyriba, which also envisages a partnership in other areas focused on cash and treasury management, was established as a result of the cooperation with the bank'sGlobal Transaction Banking department, which reports to the IMI Corporate & Investment Banking Division led by Mauro Micillo, and the Innovation Head Office Department, within the Chief IT Digital Innovation Officer Area led by Massimo Proverbio.
Coupa reveals business spend sentiment is improving, but remains below trend
Coupa Software has published the findings from its Business Spend Index (BSI), Q4 2020 Outlook. The Coupa BSI analyses billions of dollars of aggregated and anonymised business spend decisions across the firm's platform, often serving as an early indicator of macroeconomic health over the next three to six months. The Q4 Outlook shows that business spend sentiment improved over the prior quarter (up 6%), but overall confidence is still well below trend.
Following a quarter of modest improvement in corporate spending, the Coupa BSI suggests that businesses are continuing to adjust to the new normal and are beginning to return to pre-COVID spending levels, albeit at a slower rate than in the prior quarter. Though still cautious about the global economic outlook, businesses are spending more in areas related to remote work, such as technology, shipping and freight, and contingent workforce support.
Data from the past quarter shows the following year-over-year changes in business spending:
- 97% decrease in business spending on air travel.
- 22% decrease in business spending on office supplies.
- 13.5% increase in business spending on technology, including hardware, software, and services.
- 41% increase in contingent workforce spend.
- 29% increase in business spending for shipping and freight
Spend data indicates that overall, business spend sentiment is continuing to increase from its sharp drop in Q1 but is still below the trend line. In financial services, despite rising default risk, business spend sentiment improved over the past two quarters and looks set to deliver solid growth for the next three to six months.
Cheques to phase out of South Africa's national payment system by year's end
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB), Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) and the Banking Association South Africa (BASA) have jointly announced that the issuing and the acceptance/collection of cheques will cease, effective from 31 December 2020.
This decision was taken due to the numerous challenges associated with the usage of cheques. These challenges include:
- A lengthy processing period.
- Fraud perpetrated through the issuing of cheques.
- Cheques as an expensive payment instrument.
- The restricted acceptance of cheques.
- Declining usage.
- Limited education and protection for the consumer.
- Ageing interbank cheque processing infrastructure.
- Impact of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) outbreak.
Details are outlined in the consultation paper titled ‘The phasing out of cheques in the national payment system’, issued on 2 October 2020. In this regard, South African banks will not accept any cheques for deposit or encashment after 31 December 2020.
Banks are expected to extensively communicate with their clients leading up to and beyond the discontinuation of cheques. Furthermore, to educate their clients on alternative electronic payment methods that may be used. Affected stakeholders are therefore requested not to write/draw or accept cheques after 31 December 2020. They are encouraged to approach their banks to be offered alternative electronic payment methods or to direct any queries they may have related to the process of termination of the usage of cheques.
Veem expands US product offering to simplify domestic business payments
Veem, a provider of online payment solutions for small-to-midsize businesses, has announced the launch of Veem Check. With this product functionality, US-based users can now issue all of their domestic payments - online, cheque, or Instant Deposit - within minutes on Veem.
Veem automates the payment process through its extended suite of domestic payment products. Users can issue payments from a single platform on their desktop or smartphone regardless of their vendor’s account status, which is designed to reduce the time and costs associated with domestic business transactions.
“Small business owners, financial controllers, and accountants are moving away from paper-based payments and manual processes as the pandemic increases the demand for online payment solutions,” said Marwan Forzley, CEO of Veem. “The addition of Veem Check strengthens our domestic payment offering considerably. You can now pay anyone in the US using Veem - even if they don’t have an account with us.”
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Facebook is taking on Zoom in a bid for a larger share of the video conferencing market by launching a new group video chat tool called Messenger Rooms.
The service will launch “over the coming weeks,” Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said in a live stream Friday afternoon.
Video chats are “starting to be a fundamental building block of a private social platform with lots of different use cases,” he added.
Messenger Rooms will function very similarly to group video chat software Zooom — users can join regardless of whether or not they have an account with Facebook or any of its subsidiaries (Instagram and Whatsapp) by opening a public room or clicking a link.
Users can invite their friends to join private video chat rooms in Instagram and Whatsapp in addition to Facebook. There will also be a tray at the top of the Facebook desktop and mobile apps that shows which Messenger Rooms are online and available to join.
The video conferences will be hosted in Messenger, Zuckerberg said, but if users don’t have that app they can join via a computer or mobile browser.
Messenger Rooms are designed to be very easy to join, but they still are somewhat private, said Zuckerberg. “You can make a room open to all of your friends but the room will be shown to the subset of people you interact with in our services or you have shown interest in interacting with over time,” he said.
Facebook is ramping up its efforts to provide several forms of video communication as the world adjusts to an increasingly remote work schedule. Zuckerberg said during the live stream he anticipated “we will be dealing with this for a while” and added that Facebook believes its video tools can serve a variety of uses including business and enterprise communication as well as social calling.
“I think we’re going to start to see this theme of having shared video presence technology, but have the product experience dramatically by how its integrated,” Zuckerberg said of Facebook’s overall video agenda.
The social media giant also operates Portal, a tablet-like piece of hardware made exclusively for video chatting. Since the coronavirus outbreak began, “sales of portal devices have grown by more than (tenfold) and we’re working hard to make more of them,” Zuckerberg said.
Within Facebook’s Whatsapp texting and calling app, the number of calls has doubled since the COVID-19 outbreak began and in some areas have grown tenfold, Zuckerberg noted — and more than 700 million daily active users across the globe are flocking to the Messenger and Whatsapp platforms.
The Facebook events team is focused almost exclusively on aiding users on creating virtual events now that nearly all physical ones are canceled, and Zuckerberg said Instagram is playing a large role in that.
“We are also going to be bringing Instagram Live to desktop web, so you can watch Instagram Live on your computer,” Zuckerberg said, citing the fact that “we are actually using computers and bigger screens more” now that more people are working from home.


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The year 2018 began with great wonders for this wealthy shop owner and two masked men who successfully made away with his prized possession adjudged to be the world’s most expensive vodka bottle valued at a whooping $1.3 million.
According to Sputnik News, the item was stolen from Café 33 bar in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
HJÆLP …har for første gang brug for hjælp …Nogen har i nat været inde “med nøgle” og stjæle min vodka russo Baltique vodka
Som er verden dyreste vodka $ 1,3 mil
Dusør gives til dem der kan hjælpe med at finde dem !! Der findes kun den ene flaske i hele verden … vi har en hel del mere på overvågning , som vi pt ligger hos politiet
Help… have for the first time need help… someone has last night been inside “with key” and steal my vodka russo baltique vodka
Which is the world’s most expensive vodka $ 1,3 mil
Reward is given to those who can help find them!! There is only one bottle in the whole world… we have a lot more on surveillance, which we pt lie with the police
The shop owner reported this jaw-dropping, mysterious disappearance to police after the precious Russo Baltique vodka appeared to have been pilfered. He had a good guess, though.
“I had loaned [the bottle] from Russia from something called the Dartz Factory, which makes the world’s most expensive cars and vodka. It has been part of my collection for six months, but not anymore,” the grieving shop owner told TV2 Lorry.
“They apparently had a key or copied a key, and they rolled up the shutters and unlocked the door, then gone into the bar and broken down the door to the vodka museum in the basement. They then left with only one bottle, even though there are 1,200 bottles they could have taken,” Brian Ingberg told the media outlet.
Police said in a statement that the stolen item counts among Brian Ingberg’s most-prized collection.
The value and price is explained by the fact that three kilograms of gold and the equivalent amount of silver were used to make that one-of-a-kind bottle, which is also reportedly adorned with leather from a 1912 Monte Carlo rally car, police explained.
Fortunately for Brian, the culprits were caught, not by the cops, anyway. They were cited from a CCTV camera located at a strategic point around the location, and their pictures have been shared on social media to assist police with publicity.
A Facebook post shows two masked men in hats stealing the vodka.
Police are working hard to unravel the mystery.


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Since City Walk, the Berkeley Homes development by Forest Hill station, was completed a few years ago the shops beneath have remained stubbornly empty despite their prime location.
A licensing application has now appeared on one of the units for the sale of alcohol as part of, what we understand will be, a general grocery shop (not a mini-version of one of the big four supermarkets). Discussions are also well advanced on the other unit which is likely to become a restaurant.
These shops are in a key location in the town centre and we welcome new businesses opening up in this location.
Post a Comment


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Celebrity marketing news
Unilever has created a documentary-style ad for Comfort fabric conditioner made by Ogilvy & Mather London and Singapore, which features the stories of two different mothers.
Burton's Biscuit Company is backing its Maryland Gooeys range with a £3 million adspend, beginning with a TV ad that breaks today.
Cancer Research UK has released two online films featuring children appearing to smoke, to promote the charity's call for the Government to legislate for unbranded packaging for tobacco products.
Work stories featuring celebrity ads
Vision Express has unveiled a new brand identity in its latest TV ad and its former brand ambassador, the celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, is nowhere to be seen. Dare created the spot, which first aired on 23 February and introduces Vision Express...
Kevin Bacon meets the celebrity chef Jamie Oliver in a new online spot for EE. Poke created the work as part of a digital partnership with YouTube. In the film, EE s brand ambassador Bacon goes head-to-head with Oliver to see who can make the best ...
Beats by Dre has released two TV campaigns promoting its headphones and speakers. The ads first aired during the MTV Video Music Awards at the end of August but will launch in the UK later this year. R/GA created the work through a collaboration ...
Latest jobs Jobs web feed
- Creative Production Controller (Maternity Cover) Asthma UK £34,361 - £36,169, London (Central), London (Greater)
- Commercial Market Analyst UCAS c.£35,000 , Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
- Senior Digital Executive Innesco £20k-26k, London (Greater) / London (Central), London (Greater) / London (City of), London (Greater)
- Senior Product Manager Ball & Hoolahan £50,000 per annum, London (Central), London (Greater) / London (City of), London (Greater)
- Marketing Brand Manager Clipper Ventures Circa £40k - dependent on experience, South East England / South West England / Gosport, Hampshire
- Customer Insight Manager Tottenham Hotspur Between £40,000-£45,000 per annum + benefits (dependant on experience), London (North), London (Greater)


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A $1 million second-tier winning Powerball ticket was sold at a Maryland grocery store.
The FBI is looking for a man in connection with 19 Baltimore area robberies.
A Baltimore County man is recovering after being attacked with a machete.
The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office says at least two people drove a truck into the front of a New Market grocery in an effort to steal an ATM.
Anne Arundel County Police have arrested a Glen Burnie man, who they say stabbed, raped and transported a woman against her will to a nearby grocery store.
A Maryland man faces criminal charges in Warren County, Va., for allegedly selling rotten meat from a supermarket garbage bin.
The Anne Arundel County Fire Department is asking the public to help identify two suspects in an arson at a Food Lion grocery store in Pasadena.
A father has been charged with child neglect after leaving his infant and 5-year-old in a running car while he went grocery shopping.
The Queen Anne’s County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a man they say poured bleach on a grocery store case full of meat.


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A July analysis by supply chain firm Flexport found consumer preference for goods has started to decline. This period of inflation could end by the middle of 2023, Hogan estimates. “We’re seeing prices come down and that will help shorten the inflation cycle,” he says.
Can inflation go down?What happens when inflation gets too high?
If inflation is higher than 2%, the Fed generally will raise the federal funds rates (which leads to increased interest rates) to try to slow the economy’s growth and lower inflation.
Is deflation coming in 2022?
And because of the inflation levels happening now, some economists say we could see deflation come our way in 2022.
Who benefits deflation?
On its face, deflation benefits consumers because they can purchase more goods and services with the same nominal income over time. However, not everyone wins from lower prices and economists are often concerned about the consequences of falling prices on various sectors of the economy, especially in financial matters.
Why do governments want inflation?
To keep inflation low and stable, the Government sets us an inflation target of 2%. This helps everyone plan for the future. If inflation is too high or it moves around a lot, it’s hard for businesses to set the right prices and for people to plan their spending.
Can inflation go down?What are the 3 effects of inflation?
Inflation raises prices, lowering your purchasing power. Inflation also lowers the values of pensions, savings, and Treasury notes. Assets such as real estate and collectibles usually keep up with inflation. Variable interest rates on loans increase during inflation.
How do you eat well during inflation?
Stock up on versatile (and hearty) staple foods Moncel adds that leaning on recipes that allow for such versatility, such as the ones previously mentioned, plus pizzas and stir-fries, will ensure that you don’t have to throw out your meal plan for the week if your grocery store is out of a few ingredients.
Which country has lowest inflation rate?
In 2021, Samoa ranked 1st with a negative inflation rate of about 3.02 percent compared to the previous year.
What is China’s inflation rate?
How long is inflation expected to last?
A recovering job market — employers added a record 6.7 million jobs last year and a healthy average of 457,000 a month so far this year — means that Americans as a whole can afford to keep spending. The Fed foresees inflation staying above its 2% annual target into 2024.
What is the inflation rate in Sweden?
Sweden inflation rate for 2021 was 2.16%, a 1.67% increase from 2020. Sweden inflation rate for 2020 was 0.50%, a 1.29% decline from 2019. Sweden inflation rate for 2019 was 1.78%, a 0.17% decline from 2018.
Why do the rich get richer during inflation?
Because wealth is in essence never destroyed, the decrease in wealth in the masses also means that wealth moves up the food chain. The more people who go broke, the more money moves up. The result is the wealth continues to concentrate in the hands of fewer and fewer people.


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Looking to latch onto young male demographics, most blue-chip sports advertisers have jumped aboard for the three-network platform-NBC, UPN and Viacom's The National Network-offered by the inaugural season of the Xtreme Football League, which starts next month.
The roster of advertisers is a victory for World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, which jointly owns the XFL with NBC. WWFE, which has seen its wrestling telecasts become frequent targets of viewer advocacy groups, is handling national ad sales.
XFL President Basil DeVito said XFL sales have reached a 60% sellout rate on ad inventory for the three network venues.
Among the advertisers are American Honda Motor Co., Anheuser-Busch, AT&T Corp., Burger King Corp., M&M/Mars, Nike, Procter & Gamble Co., the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force.
"To this point, I haven't seen any pressure groups affecting the XFL's ad sales, because [the groups] tend to collect forces around challenging content on a reactive rather than proactive basis," said John Rash, executive director of national ad buying for Campbell Mithun, Minneapolis. Other buyers said some advertisers were willing to take a risk on the XFL by putting "out clauses" in their contracts. Such clauses allow an advertiser to get out of its commitment if, when the league debuts, the advertiser feels content of games is sexual or violent.
"If the XFL sticks with its premise [of] being a much more violent game and having scantily clad cheerleaders talking about off-the-field exploits with players, it could turn off some advertisers," said one ad buyer who requested anonymity.
As an unproven newcomer, XFL is said to be selling packages of three 30-second spots-one spot on each of the three network TV outlets-for some $150,000 (about $50,000 per unit). However, buyers said the nascent league also is looking to sell larger flights to advertisers.
With General Electric Co.'s NBC reportedly committed to matching the $50 million investment WWFE put into the XFL, NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol said he thinks the partners will turn a profit in the league's third year (2003). That's after a combined investment in excess of $100 million for the first two years of games.
Mr. Freeman is senior editor at Electronic Media.


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Above: Sen. Jane Raybould (center) enjoying Sesame Street Place with husband Pepe (right), daughter Clara, son-in-law Micah and granddaughters Leni and Paloma in Chula Vista, California.
Lincoln Sen. Jane Raybould is no stranger to hard work. As the daughter of grocery store owners, her first business experience was selling fireworks at age 8 in the parking lot of Russ’s Market at 17th and Washington streets.
“That was such a great job,” she said. “I got paid in change and fireworks.”
At 14, Raybould started her first job inside the store, where she worked her way up from dishwasher, to donut fryer, to serving at the bakery counter and later becoming a cashier during high school and college.
That work ethic served her well when, after graduating from Lincoln’s Pius X Catholic High School, Raybould went on to attend Creighton University for undergrad and later Georgetown University, where she earned a master’s degree in Soviet economics.
She accepted a position at the International Trade Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce, which dealt with Soviet trade and technology, and a few years later learned about commercial construction and real estate while at the District of Columbia Building Industry Association.
While living in Washington D.C, Raybould married Jose “Pepe” Herrero and the couple had two children, Clara and Gabriel. After spending nearly 20 years on the East Coast, Raybould decided to return to Nebraska to help care for her parents and the family business.
Her father built his first Super Saver store in 1984 and Raybould saw the expanding grocery business as an opportunity to utilize her construction, remodeling and real estate acquisition skills.
Subsequently, her brother, Pat, stepped into the role of CEO of B&R Stores, which now has 33 stores in three states, with Raybould now serving as vice-president and vice-chairperson of the board of directors.
“As a family business, we are truly very fortunate because we love working with each other,” Raybould said. “I learned a lot from dad and it’s a big honor being in his office now.”
The siblings also continue their love of fireworks all these years later.
“We’re just pyromaniacs,” Raybould laughed. “So now we have fireworks stands in almost every single one of our grocery stores.”
Her other love is public service.
The 2008 Democratic presidential caucus in Nebraska sparked Raybould’s interest in personal political involvement and local government elective office.
“I was so excited and energized by all of the neighbors that I saw going to the caucus at Irving Middle School,” she said. “The whole gym was full of people.”
That experience was the catalyst for a successful run for the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners. She also has served on the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce board of directors and as a member of the Lincoln City Council.
“I love public service,” Raybould said. “It fulfills me.”


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About a year and a half after his nervous VGX presentation of his "mid-life crisis," Hello Games founder Sean Murray can finally pen down the number of possible planets in his upcoming video game No Man's Sky: 18 quintillion. That's 18 followed by 18 zeros.
The procedurally generated space exploration game showed promise coming out of the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and Murray's dreamt-up universe looks like something gamers will get to play soon.
"If a new planet was discovered every second after the game comes out," said Murray, "it would take 584 billion years to visit every one just for a second."
There's still no release date set for Hello Games' No Man's Sky, but the indie studio, which has brought out Sony's charitable side, recently announced that the game will launch on PC and PlayStation 4 at the same time. The little studio of 13 employees has wisely kept its timeline for release private and that may be fueling the anticipation for the game.
"When we showed the game off first, we definitely had a lot of hype around it," Murray said. "Hype is different [from] excitement. It's almost scary to a developer. Hype is an unattainable level of excitement. It will always lead to disappointment."
While Murray isn't exactly saying perception of No Man's Sky has changed, it has. The game's endgame was tipped before E3 2015—make it to the center of the universe—but Hello Games has elaborated a bit more on what the entire experience can and will entail.
"We're not trying to recreate our universe but there are black holes, there are dead planets," said Murray. "Sometimes for demos we'll crank up the number of lush planets because we're trying to quickly show people. But actually in our universe, this one ... most things are a little bit barren. Finding life is a big deal, a cool moment, and we want that in our game."
There are mechanisms built into the game to moderate the experience and to nudge players toward the endgame and off some cool planet he or she has decided to colonize. With enough space for every player to name his or her own planet and lifeforms, Hello Games wants to encourage gamers to work together to eventually reach the center of the universe.
"There's a reward for every piece of information that you share, but you've got to judge whether it's as good as keeping it to yourself. You could be the only one to find a certain type of ship," said Murray. "It's an interesting experiment for when the game comes out."
In No Man's Sky, players will encounter good and bad people, hostile and neutral fauna and hospitable and inhospitable planets. With enough room for 18 quintillion planets, No Man's Sky is the world's biggest sandbox and its hype has turned into excitement.
"As a developer it's cool to feel that I don't know everything there is to see," said Murray.


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Jo Swinson, MP for East Dunbartonshire, has praised the Reporter’s decision to reject Tesco Milngavie’s expansion appeal.
Following February’s hearing and inquiry on design, retail and transport aspects of Tesco’s appeal, Trevor Croft, the Scottish Government-appointed Reporter has today sided with community representatives We Like Milngavie, Milngavie Community Council and East Dunbartonshire Council, who refused Tesco’s original application in April 2010, and put a stop to Tesco’s plans.
After hearing evidence about the development in public from Tesco and the objectors about the supermarket’s plans to build a massive two storey store and decked car park, the Reporter today made a decision. His statement highlighted the damaging visual impact the proposed store would have on the surrounding area, particularly on Woodburn Way, as well as a lack of consideration in the plans for the effect on the Gavin’s Mill conservation area.
There has been strong local opposition to Tesco’s plans from the outset, and Jo’s 2009 survey of local residents found that more than half of respondents thought the proposed new store would be unacceptably large and too high.
Commenting, Jo Swinson said:
“I am delighted that Tesco’s plans for a super-sized store in Milngavie have been rejected by the Scottish Government Reporter. From the start I have argued that Tesco needed to carefully consider the community’s concerns, but instead they dismissed them, and refused to engage constructively with local groups about how the store could be modernised without detriment to the area.
“We Like Milngavie, our Community Councillors and the Council presented a strong case at the hearing and inquiry last month, and justice has been done. The Reporter’s findings reflect the high level of local concern about the monstrous scale of the development, particularly regarding the complete domination of historic Gavin’s Mill. This decision is a real victory for the community and the unique town of Milngavie.”


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Find out what the top 10 selling games are in the UK, Japan and the US, plus the GameCentral and readers' top 20s of 2017.
Capcom is promising free new DLC content for Resident Evil 2, including a new mode that sounds like a cross between Raid and The Mercenaries.
Capcom’s remake of their 1998 survival horror classic is one of the best-looking games of the year, but how does it all play out?
The remake comes out this week.
The original game was released in 1998.
The port is expected to release later this year.


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Mobile app industry growing in North Jersey
Ken Landau of Oradell and Clinton Logan of River Vale launched a mobile applications company about six years ago, making software for Palm Pilots.
"Everyone thought the Palm Pilot was here to stay," Landau said.
Then came the iPhone, soon followed by Android-powered devices, and the apps world changed forever.
The duo switched to developing apps strictly for iPhones, "right there in the beginning, when the door opened," Landau said.
They were there at the creation, but they were not alone for long. A million-and-a-half applications later, the apps industry is robust and growing, notably in New Jersey.
Landau and Logan now have six apps for iOS software — their most recent puzzle-like game, Gluey, launched more than a month ago — and they run their business, mobileAge Inc., completely off the sales of their apps, which range from 99 cents to $3.99, Landau said.
And they're being joined by more and more entrepreneurs who are creating apps themselves or working for businesses looking to build their own app.
New Jersey ranks eighth in the nation for app-related jobs, not including start-ups, according to a September report by Millburn-based research firm South Mountain Economics LLC, though many people don't think of the Garden State as a tech haven, said company President Michael Mandel.
But New Jersey is highly educated and home to many communications, pharmaceutical and financial companies, "three industries that invest heavily in apps," Mandel said. New Jersey's proximity to New York City and Philadelphia, which both have growing tech sectors, helps, too.
And it's likely that app job opportunities will continue to grow. In a December survey by Montvale-based Data Inc. of 200 IT professionals, 44 percent reported they plan to invest in mobile apps next year, up from 35 percent invested in 2012.
The salaries are certainly attractive. Average starting salaries for developers are predicted to rise 9 percent nationwide, with compensation ranging from $92,750 to $133,500, according to Tim Mullane, regional vice president for Robert Half Technology, an IT staffing firm with an office in Paramus. Salaries in New Jersey are usually 10 to 15 percent higher, Mullane said.
A big reason companies are placing more importance on mobile apps and the people who make them is the rise in online shopping and handheld device usage, Mullane said.
Usually, mobile app jobs are with big companies looking to build their own apps, Mandel said. But there are also start-ups — like mobileAge — in the state, looking to hit the jackpot by creating the next Instagram.
"You have to build a quality app — it has to be an app that works reliably. That way you get people to talk about it," Landau said. MobileAge's Shanghai Mahjong game — the company's most popular app, Landau said — is rated on average four out of five stars in iTunes, out of more than 6,300 ratings.
Last fall, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority sponsored the state's first tech accelerator, TechLaunch, hosted at Montclair State University, that produced several app companies.
Jeffrey Duperval, a TechLaunch participant and co-founder of the QuickCliqs app that helps people coordinate getting together, has his office in Clifton.
"There's a lot of people with a lot of great experience here that match the people in Silicon Valley and New York," Duperval said.
The state's research universities also are getting involved. Stevens Institute of Technology, Rutgers University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, with Sen. Frank Lautenberg and the Federal Communications Commission, launched a competition last April to find the next "it" app. It ends in June.
But that is becoming an increasingly difficult task as apps near the 1.5 million mark.
"The chances of having another Facebook are very, very small obviously, but you can have successful applications. [There's a] probably 5 to 10 percent chance of getting something substantial out of this [competition]," said Christos Christodoulatos, vice provost for innovation and entrepreneurship at Stevens.
Eighty percent of app developers are not earning enough revenue to have a stand-alone company, according to a May survey of 100 developers by App Promo, a mobile app marketing firm. Fifty-nine percent of developers surveyed don't break even.
Christina Chase, entrepreneur in residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, said failure — in some form — is a part of starting a new venture anywhere.
"But the [community] support around that team, their persistence and their continuing to ask the tough questions is going to really weigh in heavily into their success rate," Chase said.
Getting noticed a challenge
Landau said he and Logan are maintaining their business, but the challenge now is making their apps noticeable in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Another challenge, especially for start-ups, is to do their due diligence and research to make sure the app they are developing is not already on the market.
Brian Lomonico, a William Paterson University junior, decided to enter the app industry as a sophomore, when he noticed that games like Draw Something and Words with Friends, were gaining in popularity. Last May, Zynga, owner of Words with Friends, bought Draw Something owner OMGPOP for $200 million.
After a few months of research and development, Lomonico, 20, of Wayne, and a team of classmates recently launched Liquid Mobile LLC and their first app, Picture It, a game involving both words and picture-drawing between friends.
"I really thought that people had interest in picture and word games, and it hasn't been done yet," he said.
But one challenge Lomonico and his team faces — like many other app builders — is raising the money to pay themselves and financing their development efforts, especially if they do not have the skills to do the work themselves.
"This is a labor of love," said Lomonico.
Most developers need around $250,000 to build an app — typically for operations, marketing, sales, business and product development and, if they're lucky, salaries — but it could be more, said Luis Croussett of Clifton, who with three others launched Flying Kick Inc. and its Zen Menu, a digital menu tablet app for restaurants, through TechLaunch.
Looking to raise $300,000 from investors, Flying Kick cut costs by developing its app for Android tablets, which cost a third of the price of iPad Minis, and by programming themselves, said Croussett, who quit his full-time job as a telecommunications engineer.
By charging restaurants that use Zen Menu a monthly fee per tablet and a one-time installation fee, the company hopes to break even by 2014. If all goes according to plan, they project earning $11.5 million by 2017, according to their TechLaunch business plan.
Finding a revenue stream
Other companies outsource development. Lomonico said he sends some work — such as technical programming — to Romania, where it costs one-fifth of what it does here.
But the main challenge is nailing down a steady revenue stream and building a user base.
Paul Grossinger, vice president of strategy of Clifton-based Pervasive Group Inc., which also completed TechLaunch, plans to convert his company's child-monitoring Android app for parents — MMGuardian — to a subscription model around $2.99 a month.
"Building awareness is definitely something we're working on," Grossinger said.
Grossinger said the company made connections with investors and advisers in New Jersey that may not have been possible in more saturated markets, like New York.
"There's a lot of potential for companies to get together and get off the ground quickly," he said.
Landau, who grew up in Teaneck, is optimistic about the app industry's future as people increasingly rely on mobile devices.
"I think the mobile market is here to stay," he said. "What form going forward is anyone's guess."


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Economists polled by Reuters had expected China's exports to fall by 3% year-on-year and imports to decline by 5.2% in September.
Stocks rallied after Donald Trump said China and the U.S. reached the first phase of a trade deal that delays tariff hikes.
Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is set to outline the government's spending plans for 2020 on Friday.
Some economists say the best way to mitigate climate change is by increasing the price of carbon emissions through taxes.
A handful of ambitious taxpayers managed to sock away the maximum amount to their 401(k). Here's how to work toward that.
U.S. based companies announced 1,160 CEO exits through September, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
"The relative P/E today suggests that small caps should lead large caps over the next decade," says one strategist.
U.S. producer prices unexpectedly fell in September, weighed down by decreases in the costs of goods and services.
Sharp drops in unemployment in the past often have brought commensurate earnings, but not this time around.
The so-called hard data, which refers to concrete numbers about the economy such as unemployment, continues to reflect economic strength.
The main threat to the economy is the Trump administration's trade war, according to a survey of business economists.
Dealing with health issues is a top concern among retirees, yet there are steps you can take to mitigate expenses where Medicare falls short.
The latest omen for the sector came in the government's jobs report, which showed that manufacturing posted net job losses.
The jobless rate for Hispanics hit a record low of 3.9% in September, while African Americans maintained its lowest rate ever, the Labor Department reported.
For prospective medical students, the cost of attendance kicks in well before they even set foot on campus. Aspiring doctors are paying between $5,000 and $10,000 just to apply to school.
CNBC studied the net change in employment by industry for September based on data from the Labor Department.
The U.S. trade deficit widened more than expected thanks in part to a record level of imports of consumer goods. More tariffs loom.
The jobless rate dropped 0.2 percentage points to 3.5%, matching a level it last saw in December 1969.
The report comes amid worries that the U.S. economy faces a recession as global growth slows and tariffs put a dent in business plans to expand.
Credit Suisse said a contraction in industrial production accompanied by healthy economic data elsewhere lands the economy in a middle ground or a "semi recession."


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WILMINGTON, MA – What is going in at the old Sonic location (220 Main Street)? 17 months after the restaurant’s closure, we finally have the answer.
Valerie Gingrich, Wilmington’s Director of Planning & Conversation, has confirmed that NOURIA ENERGY RETAIL, INC. is proposing a CAR WASH for the much-talked-about location.
The project’s engineer Richard L. Williams, P.E., of Williams & Sparages, will be presenting plans to the town’s Community Development Technical Review Team on Monday, July 23 at 9:30am in Room 9 of Town Hall.
The engineer will also be in front of the town’s Planning Board for a public hearing regarding site plan review and a stormwater management permit on Tuesday, August 7 at 8:45pm in Room 9 of Town Hall.
A copy of the plan is on file at the town’s Planning and Conservation Department and may be inspected when Town Hall is open, 8:30am to 4:30pm, Monday through Friday.
“[The proposal] is just a car wash; there will no gas station,” added Gingrich.
According to its website, Nouria Energy Retail Inc. is one of New England’s largest family-owned and operated conventicle fuel operators. Nouria supplies more than 225 gas stations throughout New England operating under the Shell, Irving, Gulf, Sunoco, Valero, private and unbranded brands.
Founded in 1989, the company’s portfolio includes 25 car washes located throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Current Massachusetts locations include Auburn, Bradford, Gardner, Lynn, Oxford, and West Boylston, plus three in Worcester, where its corporate headquarters is located.
Wilmington has an existing car wash — TritonWash Car Wash at 581 Main Street — located 1.2 miles from the site being eyed by Nouria Energy.
This news comes on the heels of the recent announcement that Casa Blanca Mexican Restaurant will be opening, likely in September, at the former Chili’s location at 207 Main Street. In addition, a Sprint Store just celebrated its Grand Opening last weekend at the former Radio Shack location (260 Main Street) inside the Wilmington Plaza.
Like Wilmington Apple on Facebook. Follow Wilmington Apple on Twitter. Follow Wilmington Apple on Instagram. Subscribe to Wilmington Apple’s daily email newsletter HERE. Got a comment, question, photo, press release, or news tip? Email email@example.com.


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ICar or NoCar? Apple Car Project Hit With Layoffs, Future Uncertain
Apple’s self-driving car project seems to have reached the point in a TV show where new actors take on old roles and the script flies out the window.
According to the New York Times, the tech giant’s Project Titan has been hit with a slew of layoffs, leaving several areas of the project boarded up and in the dark.
Is the shadowy Apple car, once the dream of nerds everywhere, powering down?
News of the layoffs, described by an Apple employee as being in the dozens, comes after project leaders seemed to pull a mid-summer U-turn. After Bob Mansfield took the lead on the project back in July, reports arose of a sudden change in direction. The focus of Project Titan reportedly switched from building an autonomous car to developing autonomous car technology.
Sources claim Apple employees were told that the layoffs are part of a “reboot” of the self-driving electric car project.
This, after repeated pushbacks of the release date of a real, physical vehicle, be it prototype or production. Is it time to stop speculating on what form the mysterymobile will take?
Sources claim the company already has several fully autonomous vehicles currently undergoing testing, though it isn’t clear if Apple designed the vehicles — not the autonomous technology — in-house. The testing takes place on closed tracks, which explains the lack of spy photos.
The question plaguing Apple (one mentioned by company sources) is what exactly can the company produce that isn’t already in development by a number of other companies? Several automakers, as well as tech companies like Google and ride-hailing company Uber, have self-driving car projects underway.
More by Steph Willems


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Gain positive coverage around the launch of M&S Food on ocado.com
How we made positive change
With data showing lockdown has left Brits in a meal rut, we shone a light on new and unexpected food partnerships to get shoppers excited about the Ocado M&S range.
We teamed up with flavour expert Niki Segnit to reveal surprising foods that pair with everyday favourites and asked people to share their unusual food combos. Hampers were delivered to media and influencers, and celebrity duo Jessie Ware and her mum Lennie, inspired customers with their own perfectly paired recipes.
national pieces of coverage
pieces of coverage across national and consumer media
Positive social posts from some of the nation’s best-known names and journalists including Harry Wallop, Davina McCall and Katie Piper
A homage to Ocado by renowned commentator Esther Walker in the Daily Telegraph