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WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — The Food and Drug Administration has added several more brands to its growing list of hand sanitizers that may be potentially toxic.
Six additional brands recently tested positive for methanol, a substance that can be toxic when absorbed through the skin or ingested and can be potentially deadly when ingested, the FDA said. This comes just a few weeks after the FDA warned consumers to avoid hand sanitizers from Mexico-based manufacturer Eskbiochem SA de CV, due to the potential presence of methanol, or wood alcohol, in its products.
The warnings come at a time when hand sanitizer purchases have surged because of the coronavirus pandemic. The FDA said it has seen a "sharp increase in hand sanitizer products that are labeled to contain ethanol (also known as ethyl alcohol) but that have tested positive for methanol contamination."
The FDA warned that young children who accidentally ingest these potentially toxic hand sanitizers and those who may drink it as an alcohol substitute are most at risk of suffering methanol poisoning. The symptoms of substantial methanol exposure includes nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system or death.
The agency said it's aware of adults and children ingesting hand sanitizer products contaminated with methanol recently and suffering blindness, hospitalizations and even death.
The FDA stressed that washing your hands with soap and water is one of the best defenses against coronavirus. But if soap and water isn't available, the CDC recommends using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% ethanol.
Sanitizers containing methanol
The FDA said consumers should not use the following hand sanitizers because tests found the products contained methanol or the products were "purportedly made at the same facility as products in which FDA has tested and confirmed methanol contamination"
- AAA Cosmetica (Mexico): bio aaa Advance Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 76987-402-01)
- AAA Cosmetica (Mexico): LumiSkin Advance Hand Sanitizer 4 oz (NDC: 76987-120-01)
- AAA Cosmetica (Mexico): LumiSkin Advance Hand Sanitizer 16 oz (NDC: 76987-402-02)
- AAA Cosmetica (Mexico): QualitaMed Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 76987-250-01)
- Grupo Insoma, S.A.P.I de CV (Mexico): Hand sanitizer Gel Unscented 70% Alcohol (NDCs: 75744-0200-3, 75744-0200-4, 75744-0201-5, 75744-0202-1, 75744-0250-1, 75744-0250-2, 75744-0500-1, 75744-1000-1, 75744-1000-3, 75744-1001-1)
- Soluciones Cosmeticas SA de CV (Mexico): Soluciones Cosmeticas SA de CV (Mexico) - Bersih Hand Sanitizer Gel Fragrance Free (NDCs: 75165-003-02, 75165-004-01, 75165-005-01, 75165-006-01, 75165-008-01, 75165-250-01, 75165-600-01)
- Soluciones Cosmeticas SA de CV (Mexico) - Antiseptic Alcohol 70% Topical Solution hand sanitizer (No NDC listed)
- Transliquid Technologies (Mexico): Mystic Shield Protection hand sanitizer (NDCs 75477-435-02, 75477-435-10, 75477-435-12, 75477-435-25, 75477-435-50, 75477-534-10)
The FDA said its investigation of methanol in certain hand sanitizers in ongoing
Below are the 9 previous brands the FDA listed as containing methanol from Eskbiochem SA de CV (Mexico):
- All-Clean Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-002-01)
- Esk Biochem Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-007-01)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-008-04)
- Lavar 70 Gel Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-006-01)
- The Good Gel Antibacterial Gel Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-010-10)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-005-03)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 75% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-009-01)
- CleanCare NoGerm Advanced Hand Sanitizer 80% Alcohol (NDC: 74589-003-01)
- Saniderm Advanced Hand Sanitizer (NDC: 74589-001-01)


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Latest tricks - plus seven things you can do to avoid becoming a cell phone scam victim: Internet Scambusters #357
"Smishing" is the term for an already well established cell phone scam -- phishing for personal information using SMS or text messages.
But cell phone identity theft is merely one of a whole host of tricks surfacing on mobile devices, which now number more than 3 billion worldwide.
We take a closer look at smishing and other cell phone scams in this issue -- and offer seven tips on how to avoid them.
And now for the main feature...
New Twists and Terms Add to Growing Cell Phone Scam List
In the year or so since we last featured it, the cell phone scam has become a widespread online and wireless crime. And with around half the world's population now using the devices, it's not hard to see why.
Most of the tricks we highlighted in our earlier issue, The 10 Most Common Cell Phone Scams and How to Avoid Them, are still very active.
There are also several new cell phone scams, while one is becoming so common it has earned itself the dubious distinction of having its own name -- "smishing".
It's easy to guess what "smishing" is all about. It's the use of SMS messages -- texting -- as an aid to identity theft, which is still the number one cell phone scam.
The practice of sending text messages that claim your bank account or credit card has been blocked has been around for years, but obviously it still works well for the mobile phone scam artists, since police in both North America and Europe have reported a rise in incidents.
In one recently reported case, the victim received the following message:
---- Begin cell phone scam text ----
email@example.com() (card blocked) Alert. For more information please call 1-866-942-5647. Thank you.
---- End cell phone scam text ----
A recorded message on that now-disconnected number told the victim someone was misusing her credit card number online, and asked her to key the card number for confirmation, so a new one could be sent.
The particularly sneaky element of this cell phone identity theft attempt is that "ncua" is the National Credit Union Administration, a frontline campaigner against cell phone scams, so the crooks clearly were trying to gain credibility by passing themselves off as the NCUA.
But, of course, the NCUA never, but never, asks people via a text message to key in their credit card numbers.
Sadly, this is not the only identity theft ruse used by the cell phone scam merchants.
For instance, in a case earlier this year, a fraud ring landed $22m of merchandise by using a cell phone industry insider to access users' account details, which were then used to order extra equipment, which was subsequently sold by the thieves.
Nothing you could do about that -- other than taking the usual precautions that you can find at our Identity Theft Information Center.
Malware and Cell Phones
And as they do with PCs, scammers use malware that you might inadvertently download onto your cell (sometimes by visiting infected websites, other times via downloads of ringtones) to harvest and transmit your personal information.
Malware is also the culprit behind a new variation of another cell phone scam term -- "cramming" -- which we featured in a previous issue: Slamming, Cramming and Other Top Scams.
Traditionally, cramming involves both regular and mobile phones and usually shows up as hefty and unexpected charges in your monthly bill.
Often these are racked up either by fooling you into dialing expensive premium line or overseas numbers, or by unwittingly signing you up online for what seems to be a free service but in fact contains a fine-print statement that you agree to pay a regular fee via your phone bill.
That's bad enough. But with malware in play, this mobile phone scam has a wicked, new twist. In this case, the virus you install actually makes those expensive premium line and overseas calls without you even knowing.
Malware has also been used recently in parts of southeast Asia to transfer credits on prepaid phones to other mobiles, without the user knowing.
Other Ways Scammers Use Cell Phones
On the other side of the coin, we're seeing more and more examples of how cell phones are being used as weapons in other scams.
That's because crooks can hide behind the cloak of anonymity that mobile phones provide.
From untraceable numbers in bogus online classified ads through the use of cell phone cameras to take surreptitious security-related or even "peeping Tom" photos, criminals really know how to exploit this technology for their own benefit.
How to Protect Yourself From Cell Phone Scams
So, what can you do to protect yourself against a cell phone scam? Here are our top 7 tips:
- Install anti-virus software. Most of the big Internet security players have mobile versions of their software and most of them offer free trials.
- Scrutinize your bill every month. In particular look out for small payments, which the cell phone scam artist tries to sneak past you.
- Keep your cell phone number confidential when it is linked to your name, sharing it only with friends and relatives. Even think twice before putting it on a business card.
- Don't use it for competition entries or other apparently "free" services. But, if you must do this, make sure you read every line of the fine print.
- Consider using "disposable" or prepaid cell phones, which limit your exposure to running up bills.
- Don't take a cell phone number as proof of someone's identity or, indeed, their honesty. If you can't separately confirm the identity of someone who gives their cell number, don't buy from or sell to them.
- Be vigilant when you see others using cell phones to take photos. If their behavior seems odd or unacceptable, try to memorize a description of them (don't tackle them) and contact the police.
And, of course, take all possible steps to prevent your phone from being stolen from your purse, your pocket, your desk, or wherever -- because that's the quickest route to hefty phone bills (which you may be responsible for) or cell phone identity theft.
And if you're an iPhone user, consider signing up for Apple's MobileMe service, which includes the ability to immediately and remotely erase all the data from your iPhone in the event that it does get stolen. (We've just enabled this feature on our iPhones.)
If you order a new cell phone to be delivered by snail mail or delivery, insist on, and be prepared to pay for, a signature with the carrier on delivery. That way, it won't be left at your front doorstep while you're out.
Used properly and protected effectively, a mobile phone is a fantastic ally, which should be there to help you. After all, you can even read Scambusters on it!
But remember it knows a lot about you, already costs you a fair amount of money -- and that makes it dynamite in the hands of a cell phone scam merchant!
That's all we have for today, but we'll be back next week with another issue. See you then!

domain: news


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Amazon CEO Bezos, Stung by Broad Criticism, Endorses U.S. Company Tax Hike
By David Shepardson
“We help the Biden Administration’s concentrate on making daring investments in American infrastructure,” Bezos mentioned in a weblog publish. “We acknowledge this funding would require concessions from all sides — each on the specifics of what’s included in addition to the way it will get paid for (we’re supportive of an increase within the company tax price).”
The biggest on-line U.S. retailer, which has been broadly criticized lately for paying little or no U.S. federal revenue tax, didn’t endorse elevating charges to a particular determine.
The White Home didn’t instantly remark.
Biden’s infrastructure plan proposes growing the company tax price to twenty-eight% from 21% and would revise the tax code to shut loopholes that enable corporations to maneuver income abroad
Biden mentioned final week Amazon was one in all 91 Fortune 500 corporations that “use varied loopholes the place they pay not a single solitary penny in federal revenue tax,” in sharp distinction to center class households paying over 20% tax charges.
Bezos is stepping down from the CEO function throughout third quarter of 2021.
After paying no federal revenue tax in 2017 or 2018, Amazon reported a $162 million present U.S. federal tax legal responsibility for 2019 and $1.835 billion U.S. federal tax legal responsibility for 2020.
Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, and Republican lawmakers reduce the company price to 21% in 2017 from 35%. Trump repeatedly promised to deal with the nation’s crumbling infrastructure throughout his presidency however by no means delivered on that.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the most important U.S. enterprise group, final month referred to as Biden’s proposed hike in company taxes “dangerously misguided” and warned it could “sluggish the financial restoration and make the U.S. much less aggressive globally.”
In June 2019, Biden named Amazon and mentioned no firm making billions in income ought to pay a decrease tax price than firefighters and lecturers.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Modifying by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)


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Masterfoods to Become Mars Again
New York City, Masterfoods North America dropped its name after five years and is called, once again, Mars. The initial name change to Masterfoods from Mars, Incorporated intended to leverage the company's $18 billion in disparate businesses under a single umbrella brand, AdAge.com reported. Mars changed its corporate name to Masterfoods North America and began centralizing its three top divisions, but now it plans to decentralize its divisions. However, the consumer will probably not notice the move from Masterfoods, except in packaging, AdAge.com said.


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Boone, Massey open joint business
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 25, 2007
JACKSON – People in Jackson who need flowers or who are interested in decorating their homes now have a new place to shop.
In May, Bonnie Boone and Wayne Massey opened a florist and interior decorating shop together and the grand opening and ribbon cutting for the businesses was on July 18.
The B’Hive is Boone’s interior decorating business and Flowers by Wayne is Massey’s florist.
Boone said she used to have an interior decorating business a few years ago, but it closed.
She said one aspect she enjoys about having her own business is that she can make her own hours.
She has been an interior decorator for 20 years.
Massey has been a florist for about 29 years and he had a flower shop in Seaboard for four years before closing that location.
After both of their businesses closed, Massey and Boone started talking about opening a business together.
“The businesses go along well together,” said Massey.
“When people come in, they see both the flowers and the decorations for homes.”
“Wayne is a very creative person,” said Boone.
“I can bounce ideas off of him and we balance each other well.”
“There has been a lot of support here,” said Boone.
“Never underestimate the power of small towns.”
The joint business venture is located at 109 West Jefferson Street and can be contacted by phone at either 534-1600 or 534-1700.


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Dish Network's (DISH) fourth-quarter video subscriber results could look much like AT&T's (T) when it reports early Wednesday, with web streaming customer additions offsetting the loss of satellite TV customers.
In both cases, analysts say the rub is that web TV subscribers are less profitable than traditional TV customers that spend more monthly.
X Dish's profit and revenue is expected to fall from a year ago when it reports. Dish's earnings will fall 21% to 55 cents a share, with revenue slipping 5% to $3.53 billion, analysts estimate.
Dish does not break out financials for its Sling-branded video streaming service. Dish added 28,000 pay-TV subscribers overall in the fourth quarter of 2016. Analysts estimate that Dish will lose 3,000 pay-TV customers in the December 2017 quarter.
AT&T, which acquired satellite TV broadcaster DirecTV for $49 billion in 2015, lost 147,000 satellite TV customers in the fourth quarter. A year earlier it added 235,000 satellite TV subscribers. AT&T also shed 60,000 U-verse landline video customers in the fourth quarter.
IBD'S TAKE: Read IBD's The Big Picture column each day to stay on top of the market direction, a key indicator that lets you know when you can be aggressive and when you should move to the sidelines.
AT&T's DirecTVNow streaming service, however, added 368,000 subscribers during that time. AT&T had nearly 1.2 million subscribers at the end of 2017.
AT&T plans to upgrade DirecTV Now in the spring with internet video storage, 4K quality video, more movie and TV titles, and personalized viewing recommendations.
Leichtman Research Group estimates that Dish's Sling-branded web streaming service has 1.68 million subscribers, including 240,000 added in the September quarter.
Shares in Dish fell 2.5% to close at 44.57 on the stock market today. The satellite TV broadcaster has dropped 31% since Aug. 1. Speculation that Dish could be acquired has cooled though Citigroup upgraded the satellite firm to buy recently saying a deal might still happen.
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Could the new Acura Integra be a swankier version of the Civic Type R?
I’m willing to bet many of you share my memory of the old Acura Integra. That is, a three-door liftback coupe — with the DC2 Type R versions sporting a appropriately massive rear wing. Today, Acura gave us another look at the revived Integra coming next year and…hmm. It wasn’t quite what I expected.
Instead, Acura made clear in their statement that the company’s going way back to the Integra’s original roots. The car helped launch the brand back in 1986, alongside the flagship, mid-size Legend. Back then, the DA-generation car did have a liftback coupe version, but also came as a 4-door sedan or a 5-door liftback. Later DB and DC models came in four-door form too. The coupe was hugely popular in its own right, though, for that mix of sportiness and looks, and I just sort of expected that, for some reason. That said, coupes are also falling out of favor in the public at-large, as Honda dropped the Civic Coupe with this generation.
Nevertheless, Acura is still moving forward with the Integra, and this five-door design does look nice and sleek. Add to that the extra doors help with practicality, and this could be a properly good follow-up to the old car that ceased production in 2001. We’ll have to wait and see on that one, but I’m approaching this reveal with some optimism in the wake of Acura’s recent hits like the RDX and TLX.
What would you like to see?
Beyond these two renderings, Acura hasn’t disclosed any more information just yet. That said, it’s always been a solid bet the car will share its underpinnings with the 11th-generation Honda Civic. Based on that, we could well see a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine with around 200 horsepower make its appearance here.
What’s more, what about an Integra Type S, huh? I doubt Acura will let that dog lie, and if (when?) we do see it, it should pack Civic Type R levels of performance. That means a beefier turbocharged engine with 300-ish horsepower. Here’s to hoping it will bring a manual transmission into the mix.
Is there anything you’re hoping to see on a new Acura Integra? Let us know in the comments. Speaking of sporty Acuras, check out the new TLX Type S on the track below:


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In-N-Out Burger has lots of fans, one of which suggested that the California chain should move into the vacated Griff's space. That led to a discussion of why In-N-Out won't come to Colorado — too far from its distribution centers — which then sparked a debate over whether Colorado wants In-N-Out in the first place. Or more Californians, for that matter. Keep reading for a taste of the debate on the Westword Facebook page:
Lame that there isn't one in Denver, yes. But it's not for dumb reasons. In-N-Out is what it is because of their values and dedication to quality. If they lose that, it becomes just another hamburger chain.
But Sean would say that's already the case:
I lived in Cali and frankly I never cared much for In-N-Out. People act like they are gold hamburgers. Everyone was so big on Krispy Kreme, too, and it's just another doughnut!
They stick to their values of never freezing food and only getting fresh products for their customers. They need to build a distribution center here and then start dominating the hamburger scene in Colorado. The last time I spoke with the GM at the Las Vegas store (busiest INO store in the nation) he said they were 8-10 years away from coming to Colorado. That was 5 years ago...
In-N-Out ain't no big shakes. Denver misses Griff's!!!! I cried when they shut down. F some Cali, In-N-Out!!!!
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Man, I hope they change the rule so I can move to Denver from California! Can't wait to smoke a bunch of legal weed, build a big, cheap box house and clog up your highways going to get my In-N-Out!
If all these jackwads who moved here from Cali want this overrated crap so badly, they can move their happy asses back there.
This is Denver, not LA. You've already brought sky-high rent, terrible traffic, an inability to signal and a host of other crap. You can keep this one there or better yet pack up the Uhaul and head back to the coast where you belong.


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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
As semi-finalists in the Virgin Media Business Pitch to Rich competition, start up bespoke jeweller Rare Pink have created a ring to show that whatever your vision, it can be created through.
By crafting their interpretation of the Virgin Media logo, that includes a staggering 1192 rubies, pink diamonds and white diamonds, this ring shows that almost anything is possible when it comes to bespoke design.
#Voom: Pitch to Rich 2015 is a nationwide competition run by Virgin Media Business to find the country’s most exciting and innovative businesses. Virgin Media Business is offering an unprecedented £1m business accelerator prize fund to support three winning businesses – whether it’s just an idea, a promising start-up or a company with huge growth potential.
The competition is the latest Virgin Media Business initiative to support small, growing UK businesses – the disproportionate drivers of the national economy. This has included the introduction of specifically-designed broadband services and the creation of free expert resources to help entrepreneurs make the most of the opportunities created by the digital world.
Co-founder Nikolay Piriankov says, “The kind of clout that Virgin has as a brand can really help us reach more customers with a product that is full of sentiment, meaning and tells their unique story. Rare Pink is a company that, like Virgin Media Business, focuses on the customer experience and uses innovations like 3D printing to shake up the jewellery industry”.
Vote for us to pitch to Richard Branson himself and so that others can experience the magic of bespoke jewellery.
Remember to verify your vote with the email address you used to make it count.
Voting closes 16th June.
For more information contact:
Phone: 0203 126 4915
02 Jul 2015 12:30
04 Jun 2015 18:45
For more information on JournoLink and how to receive more content like this, please visit https://journolink.com/journalists.


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Planning on getting an electric vehicle soon? If you live in Ontario, taking a longer road trip through the province got a lot easier this month.
EV owners travelling on major highways will soon be able to charge their vehicles at an additional 69 charge ports planned for Ontario’s ONroute network. The fast-chargers, installed by The Ivy Charging Network, jointly run by Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation, will be available at 20 stations by the end of 2022, and an additional three by the following year.
“Our new Ivy ONroute locations will end range anxiety for EV drivers travelling on Ontario’s busiest routes with a trusted and reliable charging network that will get them where they need to go,” stated Matt Vines, Ivy Charging Network co-president, in a press release.
More public chargers will definitely make it easier for EV owners to get around, and perhaps entice more EV-curious drivers to give some serious thought to going electric. But just how extensive is Canada’s public charging infrastructure?
The good news is that it’s been growing by leaps and bounds in recent years. As of December 7th, there were around 15,000 public charging stations Canada-wide, scattered across 6,578 locations with at least one charger available. The number of locations is up eight per cent from February of this year.
Province by province, Quebec has the single largest number of public charging locations, at 2,988 or 45 per cent of the total. Next is Ontario at 1,722 (26 per cent), and B.C. at 1,168 (17 per cent). Each of the other provinces has considerably fewer, from 250 in Alberta down to a mere 44 in Newfoundland.
However, a completely lopsided picture emerges when you consider how many public charge stations there are per person in each province.
In that regard, Prince Edward Island leads the pack, with one public station per 2,934 people, narrowly edging out Quebec at one per 2,879, and considerably more common than third-place B.C., with one station per 4,464.
Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, comes in at one charging station per 8,610 people, meaning there are more people per charging station than the national average, which sits at around one per 5,794.
The Prairie provinces are laggards in this realm, occupying the bottom three spots. Manitoba comes in dead last, with one station per 26,610 people — five times more than the national average. In real terms, the province’s 52 stations are fewer than tiny Prince Edward Island’s 56, and not too much ahead of Newfoundland’s total of 44 stations.
HOW MANY PUBLIC CHARGERS DO WE NEED? THAT MAY BE THE WRONG QUESTION
Prof. Olivier Trescases, the Director of the University of Toronto’s Electric Vehicle Research Centre, told The Weather Network that Canada lags behind Europe in terms of public EV charging infrastructure. He described the issue as something of a ‘chicken and the egg’ problem: the private sector is reluctant to deploy fast charger stations before demand reaches a certain level, while on the demand side, many consumers delay their jump to the EV realm over concerns of lack of charging stations.
Trescases noted that more investment in fast-charging infrastructure is needed along with grid upgrades. But consumer hesitancy, he said, is much more related to the sheer cost of EVs, and the lack of options to choose from.
“The EV naysayers have gone gradually more quiet when it comes to Tesla and their extreme performance, but these are not budget-friendly mass-market vehicles by any stretch,” Trescases said. “If you look at the typical vehicle that many Canadians are gravitating towards today — a hatchback/crossover with room for four, decent cargo space ... maybe even some towing capacity, enough range for the occasional road trip — your EV options are extremely limited below, say, $45,000. By ‘limited’, I mean there are maybe 1-2 options today, that’s it.”
Trescases did, however, predict that the number of available options was on the verge of ‘exploding’ — and when it comes to mass charging, focussing on the number of public chargers may be less important than public buy-in on slow home charging options.
“A nice thought exercise is to imagine that your conventional car’s gas tank was cut in half (or in three in the winter), but you had a small gas pump at your house so that you could comfortably re-fill every night, without a mask, without standing in the cold, without even pulling out your credit card — and gasoline at home would be, say, a third to half of the cost of what you’re used to paying now,” he suggested. “Under that scenario, most people would realize that the needed density of EV stations is nowhere near what we’re used to for gasoline — and of course transporting electricity is far easier than gasoline.”
As such, Trescases said the number of public chargers that would be needed in an electric future would likely be fewer than most people imagine, provided they are used intelligently. In fact, he himself would not advise anyone to buy an EV today without easy access to overnight charging.
Other measures to entice more people to EV ownership, Trescases said, could include subsidies, which he said are effective in the short-term, as well as EV-friendly policies similar to what Norway enacted, such as eliminating taxes and registration fees, reduced insurance, free parking, and others — something critics have said are very expensive, paid for by oil revenues, and not suitable for other countries.
“The harder but necessary road towards mass EV adoption is core technology improvements that either drive down the cost of vehicles and/or charging infrastructure or add value to EV ecosystem to displace the status quo,” Trescases said, adding U of T’s EV Research Centre is working on many such approaches, in collaboration with automakers and their suppliers.
He added: “Lastly, we desperately need more sophisticated business models that leverage the many advantages of EVs, like reduced maintenance costs … reduced operating costs (electricity is much cheaper than gasoline) and, of course, reduced societal cost to bring down the sticker price of EVs."


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January 04, 2021
SEEDS students are more than entrepreneurs - they are innovators, problem-solvers and leaders of the future. Thus, when tasked with starting a business venture, they are constantly thinking of ways to improve opportunities for not only themselves and their families, but the world around them. For SEEDS student Ivan, it was important to come up with a product that would use the resources around him.
The goal of his small business, Tiestos Perzonalizados, is to recycle materials into pots and other household items so that they can be reused, rather than wasted. The idea came to him in the classroom, when he and his friends were brainstorming more effective ways to recycle. What was once an idea shared among friends, is now a thriving business, thanks to the skills learned in the SEEDS classroom.
But Iván learned more than entrepreneurship in the SEEDS classroom. He learned how to express himself, and now he can speak in front of a camera without being so nervous!
According to Iván himself:
“I love the opportunity to belong to SEEDS. They gave me the opportunity to be an entrepreneur, and now I love being an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur feels really different than being an ordinary kid - you have more responsibilities and you have people to count on like my classmate.”
Iván is one of the most recent SEEDS program graduates from Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. SEEDS is a STEAM-based entrepreneurship education program for youth in Puerto Rico. SEEDS allows students to tackle real-world business problems and engage in a mentorship program with leaders in business from on and off the island.
Your #CaféAmaLove purchase and generosity allows for more women and youth like Iván and Karializ across Puerto Rico to launch their businesses with the support of mentors, business leaders, and their peers.
May 18, 2023
May 05, 2023


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London's IKEA "plan-and-order point” will be making the move from the north-end to the south-end next month.
The Swedish furniture retailer announced on Wednesday it will be relocating to a new and improved space at the Wonderland Power Centre at 3120 Wonderland Rd. South on March 6. The planning boutique was originally housed in Masonville Place. It opened in the north-end mall as a design studio in 2021 before being rebranded as a "plan-and-order point".
"IKEA Canada launched the design studio concept in Southwestern Ontario as a short-term concept to support customers with personalized design and planning services," said IKEA spokesperson Meghan Hogan. "Our ambition was to test and evaluate the concept, and determine whether to scale up or move on. We’ve seen a positive response from customers for the service provided at the current London location and are excited to be scaling up with the opening of a new, bigger plan-and-order point location.
Hogan added that the final day for the Masonville store will be Saturday.
"We look forward to welcoming London customers to the new and improved space at the Wonderland Power Centre on March 6," said Hogan.
Unlike the full IKEA warehouses most people are familiar with, plan-and-order points are much smaller. They offer walk-in and appointment-based planning services where customers can sit down with an IKEA expert to plan complex purchases like kitchen or bedroom storage projects. Products are not available for immediate takeaway from the smaller stores. Instead, customers can order desired items to be delivered to their homes or to a local IKEA pick-up location.
In addition to the relocated London location, IKEA is opening plan-and-order points in Lachenaie, Quebec on March 20 and in Barrie this summer. That will give the company a total of eight such stores in Canada.
"Our recent IKEA Life at Home report has shown that up to 50 per cent of Canadians are looking to either move or renovate their homes in the next two years, and we want to support them by providing affordable and inspiring home furnishing solutions that meet the evolving needs of their homes,” said Inna Romagnoli, IKEA Canada's manager of country business development and transformation. “We’re excited to bring an elevated planning experience to our London... neighbours and help them take the guesswork out of planning the space of their dreams.”
IKEA previously had a pick-up location on Wonderland Road South. It was closed in January 2020, just months before it cancelled plans to open a full-sized warehouse in the city.


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Shoppers at Central England Co-op stores in Derby can now purchase a dual-purpose compostable carrier bag for their groceries
Shoppers visiting Central England Co-op stores in the Derby area are being offered an environmentally-friendly compostable carrier bag to help support efforts to reduce single-use plastic.
The 6p green carrier bag is a compostable and biodegradable plastic bag that can hold shoppers’ groceries; however, it can also be reused as food waste caddy liner as it is suitable for home and municipal composting.
The bags are now available to customers visiting 19 Central England Co-op stores served by Derby City Council, which recently started accepting the dual-purpose bag into its waste collections.
Hannah Gallimore, Corporate Responsibility Manager at Central England Co-op, said: “We are delighted that Derby City Council is accepting the green, compostable carrier bags into its waste collections. We worked closely with the Authority to ensure the bags are on sale in the correct locations to correspond with the council’s recycling remit.
“The launch of the compostable bags follows the phasing out of all single-use carrier bags in our food stores earlier this year and compliments the 10p recyclable bag for life already available to customers.
“The green carrier bags are slightly smaller than a conventional supermarket carrier to ensure it fits kitchen caddies properly, but the material is strong and the bag features long carry/tie handles to make emptying the caddy easy.
“Having a second use for the bags reduces the possibility of the bags becoming an item of litter, but if they are discarded, they will biodegrade in the environment relatively quickly.
“As a responsible business, we are committed to minimising our impact on the environment, so are therefore delighted to extend the launch of these green carrier bags into our Derby stores.”
Central England Co-operative recently made the decision to phase single-use plastic bags out of circulation across its 244 food stores to save 12 million pieces of single-use plastic per year.
Notes to editors
About Central England Co-operative
Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK.
It is a modern, forward-looking organisation employing over 8,000 staff, with the Society’s principal areas of activity being food, funeral services, travel shops, and property investment.
Central England Co-operative has over 400 trading outlets across 16 counties including; West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. The Society has an ambitious food store development programme for 2019.
Central England Co-operative is proud of its reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility. It is a member of Business in the Community, the membership organisation that stands for responsible business, and has also won many business awards for excellence. The Society supports a number of charities including Dementia UK and invests a percentage of its trading profit into local communities.
Becoming a member of Central England Co-operative offers a whole host of benefits ranging from collecting points every time you spend in store to earn a share of the profits, access to members activities and community initiatives including the Community Dividend Fund, which hands out grants of up to £5,000 to charities and good causes across the Society’s trading estate.
Find out how to become a Central England Co-operative member by calling 0800 0501 601, emailing email@example.com or visiting https://www.members.coop
For more information visit www.centralengland.coop, follow Central England Co-operative on Twitter: @mycoopfood, and on Facebook: facebook.com/centralenglandcooperative
Rob Smyth and James Brindle at Central England Co-operative on 01543 421390
Email – firstname.lastname@example.org


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Brian McCarthy from LA Claims His Daughter Received Waffle Maker from Amazon That Had Old Waffle Remains in It
An online shopping service is in hot water over a used waffle maker that was delivered to a family in Los Angeles.
On Twitter, one Brian McCarthy claimed that his daughter received a waffle maker from Amazon that had old waffle remains in it.
He shared a photo of the said waffle maker and wrote the caption: “Wow, my mom sent my daughter a new waffle maker from @amazon and they sent us a used one with the FOOD STILL IN IT. Disgusting!”
McCarthy later shared with a person who left a comment that Amazon already called him to apologize. Amazon’s customer service personnel also responded on Twitter, writing: “We're sorry to see the condition this item arrived in. It's certainly not the experience we strive for!”
They asked McCarthy to have his mom provide all the order details so that a staff member can take a closer look at the situation.
In a statement to TODAY, a spokesperson for Amazon assured that they work hard to provide a great experience to their customers, and they regret that the particular situation with the waffle maker did not live up to the company’s high standards.
A HUMAN ERROR
The statement added that the item was sold as used but that it should not have been sold at all. Citing human error, the spokesperson said that the item was not properly inspected after it was returned by another customer.
A representative from Select Brands, the manufacturer of the Babycakes waffle maker that McCarthy's mother bought, also apologized via Twitter but assured that they maintain strong quality control processes.
The representative added that their company only ship first-hand goods and do not resell returned or used ones. They also explained that once the product is shipped from their facility, they cannot control anymore how other companies monitor the product.
ANOTHER RELATED COMPLAINT
It’s not the first time someone shared a negative situation involving the delivery service. A woman named Jade Elliott shared how an Amazon parcel ended up in her toilet.
Elliott ordered a Braun Thermoscan online after one of her children got sick. While out viewing Christmas lights, the 26-year-old Jade received a message that her package had been delivered at home.
Once she arrived home, Jade found a note that said her package got delivered through a window. Walking around the house, she checked all the windows and surroundings, but couldn’t find the parcel.
To her surprise, the package was delivered through the open frosted window in the bathroom and fell inside the toilet.
Amazon has made changes to improve their services. For one, they are holding third-party sellers more responsible for the safety aspect containing the packages they store in Amazon warehouses.
Amazon announced that third-party resellers would be charged with new penalty fees for packages not complying with its safety requirements.


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- Zara is rolling out a ship-from-store service to 2,000 of its stores.
- If an item is out of stock online but available in a store nearby, customers will be able to order it from there and have it shipped directly.
- This new system allows the company to have a better handle on inventory levels.
Zara is making its stores count in the race online.
The Inditex-owned chain is rolling out a new system to ship online orders directly from certain stores, The Wall Street Journal reported.
If an item is out of stock online but available in a store nearby, customers will be able to order it from there and have it shipped directly.
According to the Journal, this new system will be launched by the end of the year in 2,000 stores around the world, including in the United States.
"This is something very, very strategic for us, this idea of full integration between store and online stockrooms," Inditex chairman and CEO Pablo Isla told analysts in June.
The benefits of this new system are expected to be threefold: Customers are more likely to receive items more quickly if they live closer to the store, stores can stay relevant in the era of online shopping, and Zara can better manage its inventory levels.
These quicker delivery options will be critical for Zara in staving off its competition such as fast-fashion retailer Asos or, more recently, Amazon, which is digging its heels further into the apparel market and offering speedy shipping times.
But perhaps most crucially, it allows Zara to keep a handle on its inventory levels, which is one of the biggest issues plaguing the retail sector.
The constant pressure for newness, driven by online rivals such as Asos and Boohoo rolling out thousands of new items every week, has meant that brick-and-mortar retailers are forced to keep up or risk falling out of fashion. In some cases, it's left them drowning in inventory.
H&M is an extreme example of this. The company has a mountain of nearly $4 billion in unsold clothes, which are either new items on the way to stores or those hanging on clearance racks.
By combining the inventory between its physical and online stores, Zara is able to meet demand with supply across both platforms at the same time, and not risk having lots of stock left over in either one.


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McDonald’s Corp. is moving ahead with plans to simplify its menu and revamp prices as it tries to turn around its struggling U.S. operations.
The company MCD, -0.73% plans to display only the top-selling items from its drive-through business on the outside menu boards as a way to speed up orders, executives told U.S. franchisees during a webcast on Monday, according to people familiar with the matter.
In an effort to appeal to a broader range of customers, executives said, McDonald’s also will beef up midpriced menu items with products that cost between $1.50 and $3, more than those on the Dollar Menu but less than the more premium-priced products.
The company plans to add a McChicken sandwich with leaf lettuce and tomato, as well as a double burger with leaf lettuce and tomato for around $1.50, up from the current range of $1.19 to $1.39, these people said.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!


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Google is giving you a chance to highlight what makes your business stand above the competition with the new AdWords Callout Extensions. With Callouts, you can create an additional line of descriptive text underneath your existing ad. You can create up to four unique Callouts per ad with each one being 25 characters or less.
This gives you the ability to add callouts to existing campaigns, edit on the fly, and even schedule them to run only for a short period of time. That means you can be very specific with discounts, special events, giveaways and anything else that has an expiration date—I think this is a pretty exciting change and a great opportunity for marketers.
I’m going to stop right here with a disclaimer. I’m a huge believer in the adage that you get what you pay for. And when it comes to search engine marketing, we always recommend clients work with a pro instead of trying to DIY. It’s complex and nuanced and well worth the investment when you’re working with an SEO pro who can deliver results that maximize your AdWords spend. Go the DIY route at your own risk.
According to Ian Kar of Bank Innovations, Apple has negotiated some pretty incredible discounts on the card transaction fees for its soon-to-launch payment platform. This isn’t surprising at all. With competition from Square and PayPal and Google and others, Apple has a clear motivation to try and do everything possible to make their payment platform attractive to users.
According to Kar, Apple has inked deals with American Express, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Capital One, and Bank of America. The new Apple payment platform will receive what’s known as “card present” transaction rates, which is the same rate that is charged when a customer swipes a card at physical retail store. This is a deviation, as processing costs are normally higher with online transactions because they pose a greater fraud risk.
It’s reported that the reason for the favorable rate was due to the fact that Apple was able to convince card giants that its platform is secure. GPS location data coming from a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip and the iPhone’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor will go a long way to protect the banks from significant fraud risks.
A big deal for sure, but to put it in perspective, the only retailer with a similar rate deal to the one Apple is receiving is Walmart.
In a recent speech, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler pointed to a lack of competition in the broadband Internet market, especially in terms of truly fast connections.
Broadband is currently defined by the FCC as a connection of at least 4 Mbps. That’s too slow, according to Wheeler, who said that his agency is looking to increase that definition to a minimum of 10 Mpbs. Wheeler also stated that 10 Mbps “doesn’t fully capture the increasing demand for better wired broadband,” given that consumers increasingly use a number of devices at home that can “overwhelm” a connection of that speed.
Wheeler calls 25 Mbps connections “table stakes” in the current day. While more than 90 percent of Americans have access to at least one 4 Mbps provider, the percentage drops as the speeds rise: at the 25 Mbps speed, around one in five Americans lack access to that level of service.
Wheeler made the competition argument explicitly. From his prepared remarks:
The simple lesson of history is that competition drives deployment and network innovation. That was true yesterday and it will be true tomorrow. Our challenge is to keep that competition alive and growing. […]
In fact, AT&T has announced plans to deploy gigabit fiber to 21 major metropolitan markets. Many of these are in same markets where Google has announced plans to lay fiber.
A year ago, Cox Cable said it wouldn’t be upgrading to gigabit networks because it would cost billions. Now it says it will, starting with communities where Google and CenturyLink are deploying fiber.
Fast wireless service–in today’s world is table stakes. It’s as simple as that.
Facebook has been pleading with users to double check their sharing settings for awhile, but now it’s planning to just get up in your face and demand you review them. Soon, a “Privacy Checkup” notification will prompt users to review their sharing, app and profile settings with a short, simple checklist. Good.
The checklist, announced a few months ago, but only starting to rollout now, runs down a simple list of basics: who you share your posts with, what apps have permission to post on your behalf and who can see your profile data. Of the three, the middle option is probably the most useful – how many apps have you authorized to use Facebook and then simply forgotten about? You can check out Facebook’s official announcement at the source link here for more detail.
In an attempt to continue to woo agencies and brands to spend money on the platform, Twitter goes the route of launching an agency-specific training program. Launching this past week, Twitter Flight School is a hub that will teach agencies how to develop successful campaigns for their clients. This new resource will focus on helping agencies maximize the impact of their content on Twitter, as well as promote messages at the right time to their target audience.
Laura Desmond, global chief executive of SMG, said: “For marketers who want to reach consumers during today’s biggest live, public and conversational moments, there’s no better place than Twitter. Flight School has given us added expertise to leverage Twitter’s real-time marketing platform to create impactful campaigns for our clients in the evolving digital media landscape.”
Probably not a bad idea for agencies (or brand teams) to check this out. If you do and/or if you participate, I’d love to hear from you on what the takeaway was.
Prior to 2011, if you wanted to share a photo on Twitter, you needed to use a third party app and the app you were likely to use was Twitpic.
For awhile, Twitpic really did change the way we saw the world, but then Twitter added the ability to share photos without a third party app and everything changed again. Which, of course, is the norm in today’s ever-evolving world.
This week, Twitpic founder Noah Everett announced that he was being forced to pull the plug on his dream project. For the past five years, Everett has been trying to get a trademark. He was at the ‘published for opposition’ stage when Twitter decided it was time to oppose.
There are many companies who created identities that evolve around Twitter, using some form of the word as part of their company name. I’d say that’s probably never a good idea, and this situation pretty much makes that case. While I hate to see Twitpic go, the reality is that the concept around which the company was created is obsolete now.
Everybody wants to be in the search business, and Twitter is no exception. At a conference this past week in New York City, Twitter’s CFO Anthony Noto alluded to the possibility that Twitter may be rolling out a new, more filtered newsfeed, according to a The Wall Street Journal story.
“If you think about our search capabilities, we have a great data set of topical information about topical tweets,” Noto said. “The hierarchy within search really has to lend itself to that taxonomy.” Well, that’s a mouthful.
That requires “an algorithm that delivers the depth and breadth of the content we have on a specific topic and then eventually as it relates to people,” he continued.
Noto said that Daniel Graf, Twitter’s new head of product, is making search capability improvements one of his top priorities for 2015.
Another Twitter change coming down the pike will directly impact the newsfeed by looking into switching up the order in which tweets appear. Noto remarked that, “Putting [timely and relevant tweets] in front of the person at that moment in time is a way to organize that content better.”
Pay special attention here, because when everybody wants to be in the search business, everybody also wants to be in the business of making money from search—and from brands who want their content to appear higher in search.
I think it’s inevitable that before long we’ll see Twitter moving beyond just Promoted Tweets and into an algorithm that, much like Google and Facebook, is built to make money from people who want to invest in better performance in search. What do you think?
This was absolutely my favorite video on the Internet this week. Jay Smooth is the host of NY’s longest running hip-hop radio show, WBAI’s Underground Railroad. He’s also the founder of HipHopMusic.com, one of the first hip-hop websites. With the news of the week being the celebrity photo hacking and all the conversations about that, many of which were taking a small view of the incident instead of looking at the bigger picture as it relates to women’s rights and privacy, this was a breath of fresh air. Jay’s take on this is direct and to the point, and the more talking we do about the ridiculous double standard that exists today for woman with regard to both their rights and their privacy, the better. Nobody says it better than Jay did right here.


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Thursday, July 1, 1999 Published at 18:11 GMT 19:11 UK
Star Wars fakes seized
Midnight - and tickets go on sale in London
Police and trading standards officers in London have seized their first pirate copies of the new Star Wars film - as the first tickets for The Phantom Menace's UK release go on sale to fans.
Havering Council in east London said it had joined police to confiscate a number of copies in a raid in Romford.
The raid also seized computer equipment such as monitors and CD writers - used to copy discs - and hundreds of computer games. The haul is valued at around £250,000.
The seizure comes amid fears that illegal copies of The Phantom Menace are flooding into the UK from the Far East, where they are reportedly selling for around £1.
Meanwhile, more than 100,000 tickets for the new film have already been sold as sci-fi fans stayed up all night to book tickets for The Phantom Menace.
Cinemas reported "unprecedented" demand from Star Wars fans, in person and by phone, to see the film which makes its debut in the early hours of 15 July.
Tickets went on sale just after midnight on Thursday - and the film now looks certain to smash British box office records.
Screens around the country are aiming to run round-the-clock, back-to-back showings to cope with the interest.
Some fans were reported to have bought blocks of 50 tickets at a time as whole days completely sold out.
Janet Smith, UCI's head of marketing, said: "All our cinemas have been anticipating massive demand for this huge film but the response has been unprecedented."
Massive queues were reported at UCI cinema complexes in Dudley, Poole and Swansea, with fans of the sci-fi trilogy lining up from midday on Wednesday.
In London, 1,000 people queued on Wednesday night outside the Odeon in Leicester Square - the site of the British premiere of the first Star Wars film in 1977.
"There has been a phenomenal demand, I'm sure it's going to break all the records," said a spokesman for Odeon Cinemas.
The chain has had to take on extra phone operators to deal with fans swamping the lines.
When the blockbuster was released in the US last month, many fans camped out for weeks to pick up advance tickets.
The Phantom Menace, which looks at the early years of characters who went on to become household names in the Star Wars trilogy, has already smashed previous box office records in the US and is expected to become the biggest selling movie of all time.
TV and Radio


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The Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) reports that there has been a steady increase in the demand for both luxury cruises and river boat cruising. Advantages of both types of cruises include: smaller boats (much less waiting in line), more personalized service and easier access to city centers.
According to Travel Mole, the growth of the luxury cruise and river cruise markets has a lot to do with the changing demographics of passengers. “While the primary market for luxury and river cruises is and will continue to be the experienced traveler, the lines report increased numbers of younger guests, in one case a drop in the median passenger age from 60 to 45 in the last ten years.”
As luxury and river cruises have become more popular – a wide variety of destinations have been added, including smaller ports in the Caribbean, Europe and countries like Indonesia, Cambodia, Japan and India. However, tour operators report that Europe (more specifically, the Mediterranean) remain the most common luxury cruise and river cruise destinations.
But as people continue to flock to luxury cruises and river cruises, areas in the Baltic, Russia, Central Europe, South America, the Middle East, the Holy Land and Asia are quickly increasing in popularity and seeing a steady growth.
A few of us at Tripsidoo will be jetting off on our own river cruise in the coming weeks – so we’ll let you know what we thought of our first luxury river cruise experience.


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Although legislation passed last year in California calls for the state to establish a Fast Food Council and set standards for the industry, a referendum blocking the law is expected to appear on ballots next year before it goes into effect.
California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber announced Tuesday that the referendum had been signed by the requisite number of qualified electors.
She explained that the 2022 FAST Act law authorized the creation of the Fast Food Council upon submission of 10,000 fast-food worker signatures. This council would then set standards for minimum wage at fast food restaurants with 100 or more locations nationwide. For 2023, the minimum wage would be up to $22 per hour.
Also included in the legislation is a prohibition of retaliation against fast food workers for making certain complaints.
Per the legislation, the fast food sector “has been rife with abuse, low pay, few benefits, and minimal job security,” for years. In California, it said workers in the industry have been “subject to high rates of employment violations, including wage theft, sexual harassment and discrimination, as well as heightened health and safety risks.”
“If the required number of registered voters sign this petition and it is timely filed, a 2022 law will not take effect unless approved at the next statewide general or special election after November 8, 2022,” said Weber of the referendum.
According to Save Local Restaurants coalition, an organization that worked to gather signatures for the referendum, it will appear on November 2024 ballots.
“Voters will now have the opportunity to protect Californians and local business owners from the damaging impacts of the FAST Act before it goes into effect,” said the group in a Wednesday announcement.
CNN Business reported that Chipotle, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, In-N-Out Burger and KFC-owner Yum! Brands each donated $1 million to Save Local Restaurants, citing the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
In a statement, the coalition said that it views the FAST Act as legislation that “singles out the quick service restaurant industry by establishing an unelected council to control labor policy,” and added that the law could trigger a “sharp increase in food costs and push many Californians, particularly in disenfranchised communities,” out of jobs.
A study from University of California Riverside said that increases in worker compensation would “inevitably translate into higher food prices, fewer of these restaurants, and less employment,” in fast food.
“During the highest inflation in more than four decades, consumers want to know that the restaurant meals they need in their busy lives will continue to be affordable, and that the jobs their communities rely on will still be there,” said the Save Local Restaurants coalition.
It quoted International Franchise Association President and CEO Matt Haller, who said “the FAST Act was a solution in search of a problem that didn’t exist. Fortunately, now more than one million Californians have spoken out to prevent this misguided policy from driving food prices higher and destroying local businesses and the jobs they create.”
On the other hand, Service Employees International Union argued in a Thursday tweet that the “Fast Food Council, which #AB257 would create, is essential to giving fast-food workers a seat at the table so we can speak up to corporations who operate on greed and bullying.”
A 2020 report from the Economic Policy Institute think tank found that “consistent positive wage growth” had only occurred in the last 10 of the previous 40 years and a gap between the highest 95th percentile of earners and others continued to grow. It also said “wage growth at the bottom was strongest in states with minimum wage increases in 2019.”


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Reliance Retail, the retail arm of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) – operating businesses across diverse sectors such as retail, energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources and telecommunications – announced the launch of its online fashion portal Ajio.com at the recently concluded Lakme Fashion Week in the Indian state of Mumbai.
A preview of Ajio.com’s collection was organised as part of an exciting campaign ‘Doubt is Out’ with five show stoppers including Bollywood yesteryear actress Helen, transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, comedian Bharti Singh and Suman Sharma, the first woman to fly the fighter plane MIG-35.
The launch took place in the presence of Isha Ambani, director on the board of Reliance Retail, who has been closely associated with the online fashion venture since its conceptualisation.
Ajio.com will offer the largest collection of private labels for women online. Aiming predominately at the aimed at 18-34-year olds, around 60% of the merchandise it sells include national and international brands and Indie (ethnic fusion) wear, which will be exclusively available on the portal.
Since the last one year Reliance Retail has been dabbling in several online businesses such as piloting www.reliancefreshdirect.com, an online groceries delivery platform in Mumbai. On the cards is also an online electronics platform that will be launched later this year.
Throughout the month of January, Dubai Shopping Festival will help parents keepJanuary 19, 2022 | By RetailME Bureau
Al Seef is a charming attraction which blends the old and newJanuary 14, 2022 | By Zubina Ahmed
It is the final week of the 27th edition of the Dubai
Foodlink Global Restaurants & Catering Services, the F&B services enterprise in India
‘Tis the time to be jolly! The festive season is back. Celebrate
“It sounds like this, Luh Pan Koh-ti-dyan and means ‘the daily bread’,
The long weekend might be over but the Etisalat Beach Canteen 2021
UAE gears up to celebrate this year’s National Day celebrations in the
UAE-based Etisalat Group has signed an agreement with elGrocer, a leading online
Amazon.ae announced that the 11.11 sale is back once again this year
Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society’s COOP City store is now open in Lake
Union Coop, a consumer cooperative in the UAE, revealed that 78% of
Union Coop has opened its 23rd branch within the UAE in Jumeirah
Nando’s has revealed their revamped Sheikh Zayed Road outlet where newcomers and
Retailers in the Middle East are making strides in their multichannel offerings,
Gulf Marketing Group (GMG) is gearing up for a continued surge in
Blush & Bloom, an online maternity boutique that provides maternity, nursing, and
Abu-Dhabi based Rizek, the first app for on-demand home services in the
It is impossible for any retailer to survive without e-commerce capabilities, according
The unprecedented challenges of 2020 made way for the untapped opportunities that
GCC-based noon.com, the homegrown digital marketplace, announced its biggest ever Yellow Friday Sale
A new UAE e-commerce platform, Flip19.com, goes live in Dubai. The site
British quality grocery retailer Waitrose & Partners launched its first e-commerce platform
The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed online shopping behaviours, according to a
Swedish fashion retailer H&M Group adopts an integrated approach to grow, amid


text: BY MALLORY SIMON (CNN) -- Can Hewlett-Packard's motion-tracking webcams see black people? It's a question posed on a now-viral YouTube video and the company says it's looking into it. In the video, two co-workers take turns in front of the camera -- the webcam appears to follow Wanda Zamen [WHITE] as she sways in front of the screen and stays still as Desi Cryer[BLACK] moves about. FULL ARTICLE: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/22/hp.webcams/index.html The article also contains a link to the original YouTube video and a link to the repeated experiment by Consumer Reports. Why would anyone by a camera device(especially a webcam!!) that they could not use in standard lighting conditions? How come they didn't find out about this during testing? Are they looking for a "whites only" device?


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Movistar Team announces a new alliance that will mark its style and commitment to sustainability for the next three years. BORN, the Spanish sustainable sports fashion brand, has signed on as an official sponsor and will be responsible for designing the lifestyle clothing collection that will dress the 'blue' team during this period.
Andrea and Luis Roca, the founders of BORN and passionate cyclists, expressed their enthusiasm for entering the international peloton through this partnership with the leading Spanish team. "It is a milestone in BORN's history, transmitting our values of healthy living through our garments," they said.
The official presentation of the lifestyle clothing collection designed by BORN for Movistar Team will take place on December 21 at Telefónica's headquarters in Madrid, during the team's launch event for the 2024 season.
"This collaboration with BORN represents a crucial step in Movistar Team's strategy to partner with leading brands and their commitment to sustainability. From this agreement, Movistar Team's image will be modern and attractive wherever it represents us," said Juan Pablo Molinero, CMO of Movistar Team.
"It is a misunderstanding that that ticket has already been awarded to Mathieu" - Mathieu van der Poel still has work ahead to participate in MTB Olympic Games race
"A cyclocross season is not ideal preparation for a road season" - Experts look to explain Wout van Aert and Tom Pidcock's reduced winter calendar
Article written by Juan Larra.


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Lloyd Rosen, a retail, wholesaling and brokerage sales veteran, has left retirement and now heads sales for a Miami-based grower-shipper of Central American specialty and ethnic-oriented produce.
Wholesalers and retailers are capitalizing on the booming Hispanic population in Texas.
Drawing from his background as an electrical engineer, Steve Fambro, founder and chief executive officer of Oceanside, Calif.-based Famgro Farms, has tried to eliminate as much variability in leafy green production as possible.
SAN FRANCISCO — VegiWorks Inc. has come a long way since the days nearly two decades ago when Paulo Ho and his brothers did business out of a pick-up truck.
Kazuo Ikeda, president of Ikeda Bros. and a cofounder of the Pismo Oceano Vegetable Exchange, died Feb. 11 in Arroyo Grande, Calif., at 94.More Packer Stories for Asian Vegetables
Market Scope - Asian vegetables — F.o.b.s as of April 21
CENTRAL COAST, CALIF. — Shipments (4-4-4) — Movement expected about the same. Trading moderate. Prices higher. Bok choy WGA crates mostly $13.25-14.45, 30-pound cartons mostly $10.11-11.25. Quality generally good.
- C.H. Robinson sliced apples use regional sourcing
- Pom Wonderful, FTC argue label language in appeals court
- California expects minimal losses despite drought
- Ontario produce marketer closes after 85 years
- UPDATED: Fruit, vegetable prices on the rise with drought
- Salinas Valley back in the black; prices, demand up


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Speaking at the Develop Conference 2009, Tahir Basheer, a partner at media lawyers Sheridans, has warned that those allowing for user generated content must remain vigilant to avoid prosecution.
"UGC providers must remain vigilant, particularly if there are any unmodified UGC postings," said Basheer, in a panel titled ‘User generated content – The legal consequences’, which looked at the complex issues that surround the increasing value of virtual goods and consumer created creations.
"If you moderate your UGC before posting it, perhaps for a quality control perspective, the trouble is that if there is a legal issue and you have vetted it, you are involved in proceeding," added Basheer. “Therefore, you should certainly think about outsourcing some of that vetting.
"You should also consider not taking ownership of the content, and negotiate with rights holders on rights clearance issues. It’s also best to limit the length of any uploaded video and music to just excerpts, and of course restricting users to streaming really helps."


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Blog: Drinks tax moves up the agenda
Chris Mercer | 28 October 2011
The idea of a sin tax on unhealthy food and drink is gaining credence as Governments seek to plug revenue holes any way that they can.
Within the last month, France's Parliament has voted to introduce a special levy on added sugar soft drinks, as well as a lesser levy on soft drinks containing sweeteners. In Denmark, meanwhile, the Government there has said it will introduce a tax on fatty foods, thought to be the first targeted 'fat tax' anywhere in the world.
It is a scenario that alcohol producers are already well aware of. The European Commission and the World Health Organisation have both endorsed duty tax rises on alcohol as one of several means of persuading people to stop drinking to excess.
The health debate around alcohol, fatty foods and added-sugar soft drinks has been raging for some time. But, are we witnessing a change in governmental thinking?
It's hard to judge, because individual governments have their own agendas and ideological positions. In the UK, for example, ministers of the Coalition Government, elected last year, have been clear that they are not seeking to change consumer behaviour via regulation. This, however, has not stopped the UK Treasury from increasing duty tax on beer, wine and spirits.
There are signs that the effects of so-called lifestyle diseases are being taken more seriously, as witnessed last month by the United Nations holding its first General Assembly meeting on non-communicable diseases.
Over the next 20 years, non-communicable diseases will cost the global economy more than $30tn, or 48% global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010, UN delegates were informed by the director-general of the World Health Organisation, Dr Margaret Chan.
At the same time, many national and state economies are under intense pressure to increase revenue and cut debt. The logical conclusion is that sections of government health departments that are in favour of taxes are perhaps finding more friends in government finance departments. More sin taxes, then, could well be on their way.
Could it happen? According to this report, a section of the beer community wants to ditch the word craft. They prefer instead the term “Indie” for brewers they believe follow the enlightened path of t...
The global elite were in Switzerland last week for the World Economic Forum in Davos, the annual corporate huddle for the rich and powerful. The CEO of The Coca-Cola Co, Muhtar Kent, was there too, de...
With The Coca-Cola Co stealing yesterday's limelight with its new united marketing strategy for brand Coke yesterday, a Forbes interview with PepsiCo North America Beverages' new CMO, Seth Kaufman, sl...
It is a bold attempt to regain a measure of control in the ever-spiraling debate about sugar. But will The Coca-Cola Co's new marketing strategy - which for the first time ties all of the Coke family ...
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The banking chief argued that the currency was worse than the tulip bulb craze of the 17th century and that someone was going to get killed over it. It won't end well. Dimon said he would fire any trader that transacted bitcoin for being stupid.
As well as being the preferred currency of traders selling illegal goods and services on the dark web, hackers behind ransomware attacks such as May's global WannaCry outbreak typically demand payment in Bitcoins. "It will blow up".
"I'd fire them in a second", he told the conference. "Two, it's stupid. And both are risky", said Dimon. This is not advice of what to do.
However, the banker revealed that his daughter had bought bitcoin: "It went up and she thinks she's a genius now". I'm not sure if I would go so far as to call Bitcoin an outright fraud, but the hype has got me extremely wary.
Manchester United v FC Basel
Basel are making their eighth Champions League appearance, that's six more than any other Swiss club (Grasshopper, 2). I feel weaker without Fellaini in my squad. "If his conditions are improved, he will be selected, I need him".
When asked to comment on Bitcoin's rising value, the businessman said that despite the cryptocurrency's growth, "it will eventually blow up".
Dimon said he wasn't going to short the currency because it's so hard to predict when it will drop.
At the time of writing, the price of a single bitcoin is approximately £2,994 ($4,000) however that number fluctuates on a daily basis. While the price has been gradually falling since then, the trajectory it has been on this year is nearly continuously in the upwards direction.
LocalBitcoins.com is a peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange, a site where you can list your own bitcoins for sale or buy bitcoins directly from other users.
This comes from Jamie Dimon, who was speaking at a banking conference in NY.
Digital currencies, also known as cryptocurrencies, have no material form and global currency regulation does not now apply to them.


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The opening date for a new Ikea store in Sheffield has now been revealed.
The 35,000 sq m blue behemoth has quickly risen from the old Tinsley Wire site near Meadowhall since the start of the year. It has a crèche, restaurant, bistro and car park with 1,380 free spaces.
And its doors will finally open to the public for the first time at 10am on Thursday, September 28.
“We know that anticipation for Ikea's arrival in Sheffield has been high and we are incredibly excited to be opening our doors to this wonderful city," said store manager Garry Deakin.
"I am particularly looking forward to working with all our new co-workers, and introducing them to our diverse and welcoming culture.
"We are committed to being a good neighbour and will continue to take an active role in the local community, while ensuring we provide the unique shopping experience and home furnishings expertise that our customers have come to expect.”


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Callaway Golf suspended its earnings guidance for the remainder of 2004, reporting that it no longer expects to reach its projected revenues for either the third quarter or the full year.
The Carlsbad, Calif., equipment maker announced that some equipment launches, which had been scheduled for later this year, might be delayed until 2005, contributing to the lower-than-expected sales. William C. Baker, Callaway’s chairman and interim chief executive officer, said in a Sept. 14 statement that delaying product introductions will “permit a more powerful launch, with better developed marketing plans and stronger inventories.”
Baker, however, also indicated high retail inventories were a factor in the decision to postpone some introductions. The company cut prices on its metalwoods and 2-Ball putters in July, spurring sales of existing inventory. But Baker said that free product given to retailers who have had to cut prices, along with severe weather in parts of the country, “may negatively impact the clearing of inventory at retail.”
Callaway reported that it does not expect to reach its previously announced sales target of at least $975 million for 2004. This is the second time in the past three months that Callaway has announced that it would not hit revenue targets. In June, Callaway lowered its annual guidance as much as $75 million, citing weak reorders, difficulties at its Top-Flite Golf unit and weak sales in Japan.
Baker was appointed CEO on Aug. 2, following the forced resignation of Ron Drapeau. The company noted that while Baker is “interim” CEO, his “term in the office has not been specified by the board, and no search process for a different CEO has been commenced, nor is one planned for the immediate future.”
Wall Street analysts interpreted that statement differently, ranging from speculation that the company either is being positioned for a sale or that Baker hopes to become the permanent CEO.


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Sustainability KPIs Trending Upward
Outside of certain industries such as high tech and retail, procurement organizations haven’t universally defined and adopted sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs), according to research by EcoVadis and A.T. Kearney.
Spend Matter reports on the study and says it also finds companies in supplier management are more concerned with “results-driven” KPIs (for example, using results of supplier assessments in general activities) than “process-oriented” ones (such as percentage of suppliers evaluated/audited). This suggests that organizations may not be equipped to hold themselves to a specific measurement standard, the post says.
The report finds KPI metrics are on the upswing, however. In 2009, 24 percent of respondents said they did not use formal sustainability KPIs. By 2013, this number was down to 11 percent.
In an efforts to make it easier for companies in the supply chains of large purchasing corporations to report their carbon and climate change information, EcoVadis and the Carbon Disclosure Project formed a partnership in 2012. The partnership allows responding companies to minimize their reporting by automatically transferring the information in their CDP response to EcoVadis’ system.
Earlier this year EcoVadis and BSR’s Clean Cargo Working Group (CCWG) teamed up to standardize environmental reporting requests for the sea freight supply chain.
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Emirates Islamic announces special promotions
July 07, 2015
Emirates Islamic, one of the leading Islamic financial institutions in the UAE, has announced a range of promotions during the holiday season. The special offers will provide new and existing customers the opportunity to win Umrah packages, benefit from special rates on auto finance and currency exchange, easy payment plan on travel-related spends, in addition to winning a Nissan Patrol for spends on the Emirates Islamic Union Coop Tamayaz Card.
"This year, we have created a suite of offers keeping in mind the specific requirements of customers during Ramadan and the subsequent holiday season", said Faisal Aqil, Deputy CEO, Consumer Wealth Management, Emirates Islamic. "We have gained a reputation for offering phenomenal value and unmatched benefits through our award winning products, and we are certain our promotions will be welcomed by existing and new customers."
The bank is offering customers the opportunity to win 10 Umrah packages, where each package is for two persons and includes return air tickets, five star hotel accommodation and visa. The campaign is open to existing and new savings accounts customers - Kunooz, Super Savings, E Savings, Child Savings and Investment Savings account - with each incremental average balance of AED 5,000 between June and August 2015, receiving one entry into the draw. In addition, customers opening a new savings account will receive a complimentary entry for each new account. The campaign is also open to salary transfer customers availing a finance facility or a credit card, offering them one complimentary entry into the draw for each new product.
Customers looking to purchase a car this season can take the opportunity to avail an Auto Finance from Emirates Islamic at profit rates starting from 1.99 per cent per annum. For faster processing of applications and early delivery, the bank will have kiosks located at major car dealerships across the UAE.
For those traveling over the summer period, Emirates Islamic has introduced a special travel promotion, valid up to July 31, 2015, to offer increased payment flexibility. Customers using an Emirates Islamic Credit Card to purchase air tickets or make hotel bookings anywhere in the world can enjoy an easy payment plan. Payments can be made in equal instalments in three or six months at no extra cost. Moreover, the bank has also introduced a currency exchange promotion for customers traveling during the season, offering competitive rates via Emirates Islamic branches on the Saudi riyal and Euro, in addition to a featured currency each week.
Finally, customers using their Emirates Islamic Union Coop Tamayaz Card for purchases at Union Coop and other outlets have a chance to win a Nissan Patrol 4x4 vehicle, with every spend of AED 100 providing one entry into the draw.


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The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has settled a case over alleged privacy violations by an online marketing firm accused of tracking user browsing patterns on 45,000 websites.
The commission said that it had agreed to a deal with Epic Marketplace which will prevent the company from eavesdropping on user history.
According to the FTC, the company had used "history sniffing" practices to collect information on user history and track browsing activity. The company had used the tracking cookies to gather information on users from some 45,000 sites.
In addition to abandoning the use of tracking cookies, the firm will be forced to delete any data is has collected on users from the practice. Going forward, Epic will face a fine of up to $16,000 for each violation of the settlement.
"Consumers searching the internet shouldn’t have to worry about whether someone is going to go sniffing through the sensitive, personal details of their browsing history without their knowledge,” said Jon Leibowitz, FTC chairman.
"This type of unscrupulous behaviour undermines consumers' confidence, and we won’t tolerate it."
The FTC has stepped up pressure on marketers who use tracking techniques to illegally gather data on users. Earlier this year the commission agreed to a $22.5m fine against Google over its practice of tracking user activity on Apple's Safari browser.
In March, the commission said that it would be launching a workshop to help companies avoid unintentionally violating user privacy laws.
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Meteor showers as a service will be visible for about 100 kilometres in all directions
Saturn's rings only formed in the past 100 million years, suggests analysis of Cassini space probe data
New findings contradict conventional belief that Saturn's rings were formed along with the planet about 4.5 billion years ago


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This Friday, Showmax celebrates its first year anniversary. Showmax is Naspers’ answer to Netflix. By its statistics, it has had an impressive and busy year.
The South African based Video on demand service has clocked up to 10 million views, which is equivalent to 700 years’ worth of TV shows and movies.
According to ShowMax chief product officer Barron Ernst “My intention isn’t to boast, because we’ve got loads more to do, but dispassionately I’d say we’ve achieved a fair amount in that time.”
He added that enabling content downloads, setting up data usage caps, putting together a cash voucher system and implementing multiple user profiles were some of the tougher technical challenges they had solved, with additional tweaks and upgrades taking place on an almost daily basis.
“On top of that, since the launch we’ve added support for AirPlay, Apple TV, Chromecast, the DStv Explora, and more smart TVs,” he said.
Fin24 has reported on a spike in streaming content usage after the launch of services like ShowMax and Netflix.
Showmax states that the peak viewing time is between 18:00 and 23:00, with the absolute peak at around 20:00 and the service is most used on Sundays.
Ernst said a recent survey of just over 1 000 respondents found that internet cost is the main reason holding people back from subscribing.
“Only 15% of people find normal TV easier to use. Somewhat surprisingly, only 9% said that they don’t subscribe because they can pirate the content illegally,” he said.
“Perhaps unsurprisingly, the cost and availability of decent internet connectivity is the biggest hurdle, but we believe there are elegant solutions, some of which we’ve already deployed and some of which are still in the works,” Ernst said.
286 total views, 20 views today
The post Naspers VOD, ShowMax, clocks up to 10 million views as it turns one appeared first on Innovation Village.


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HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) -- Federal assistance is available for damaged businesses in Connecticut's four shoreline counties: Fairfield, New Haven, Middlesex and New London.
The Governor says hundreds of businesses have applied, but many others are yet to sign up.
The Governor is planning an outreach with the small business administration and all the local chambers of commerce to help with applications.
As of Thursday, 6,000 Connecticut home owners have filed for federal help with repairs from Hurricane Sandy, but businesses are also eligible. So far only 900 have registered, but Governor Malloy says his administration is quite sure there are a lot more, and that there is help for more than just property damage. Economic losses can also be covered.
"Businesses of all sizes, and private, not for profit organizations, may apply," said Malloy. "So private organizations, and not for profit organizations, may apply for physical disaster loan of up to $2 million to repair or replace damaged real estate, equipment, inventory and fixtures."
You can get more information from this
special website set up by the state government.
Copyright 2014 WTNH TV. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Kongregate, a leading developer of mobile games and creator of the web-based gaming portal Kongregate.com, has announced that it has appointed Max Murphy as new CTO, Michelle Shaw as new CBOO, and Patrick Moran as new CPO.
These appointments come as the company accelerates its fast-growing blockchain gaming division focused on developing fun and innovative games on the chain. Additionally, the company plans to continue to invest in its highly successful first-party mobile gaming unit, whose flagship title Animation Throwdown recently celebrated reaching $100 million in lifetime revenue.
Kongregate grows Leadership Team for future growth in Blockchain Gaming and Mobile Games platforms
Joining Markus Lipp, Kongregate’s CEO, are Max Murphy, chief technology officer (CTO), Michelle Shaw, chief blockchain operations officer (CBOO) and Patrick Moran, chief product officer (CPO). These C-suite appointments have been completed as Kongregate is looking towards future growth for its blockchain gaming and mobile games platforms.
- Max Murphy, CTO: Max Murphy joined Kongregate in 2014 leading DevOps, and has since held multiple senior management roles across engineering, and most recently serving as senior vice president of engineering. Today, as CTO, he oversees all technology functions and engineering resources for Kongregate’s blockchain gaming platform. Prior to Kongregate, he served in the office of the CTO for Elemental(Now AWS Elemental), as well as held senior consultancy roles at Burnside Digital and ELC.
- Michelle Shaw, CBOO: A veteran interactive entertainment executive with more than 15 years of experience, Michelle joined Kongregate in 2016, overseeing marketing and user acquisition initiatives, and most recently serving as senior vice president of marketing. As CBOO, she leads day-to-day administrative and business functions for the company’s growing blockchain gaming platform. Previously, Michelle led marketing initiatives at Gameloft, Wikia, and IDG Entertainment.
- Patrick Moran, CPO: With a career spanning more than 20 years in video games, Patrick Moran joined Kongregate in 2019 as general manager of the company’s legacy games publishing business, before becoming vice president of games. As CPO, he today leads strategic direction and execution for Kongregate’s mobile games first-party business. Prior to Kongregate, Patrick held senior management roles at Amazon, MobilityWare, Disney Interactive Studios and Bioware, among others.
The team will continue to recruit world-class talents from the global market to build a truly international first-class content creation team going ahead in the future.
What are your thoughts as Kongregate appoints Max Murphy as new CTO, Michelle Shaw as new CBOO and Patrick Moran as new CPO? Let us know in the comments below.


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- Jan 17, 2010
- Reaction score
Has anyone done much research on the JooJoo tablet? Engadget posted an update this morning:
Fusion Garage CEO Chandra Rathakrishnan says that orders for the device actually went up following Apple's iPad announcement, although he unsurprisingly didn't reveal any actual numbers. Chandra did drop a few other interesting details, however, including word that the company with soon announce a partnership with a "major mobile phone player" that has a "significant" market share in Southeast Asia, and who will also supposedly take care of the manufacturing cost of the Joojoo. That's on top of an announcement of a new round of funding, which apparently totals somewhere south of $10 million. Still no word of a firm ship date for the device, of course, which still stands at the same 8-10 weeks that it did more than a month ago.


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Arena site could bag a new Aldi as part of redevelopment plans
A new Aldi store is part of a plan to build a new arena and shopping centre on a popular entertainment site.
The supermarket, fresh events venue and retail park is proposed for land now home to Rainton Meadows Arena in Houghton.
The plans are being drafted up by Roseberry Leisure, which owns the plot, and is teaming up with Real Estate Development Partnerships Ltd (RED Partnerships) to work on the scheme.
The project’s leaders say the new stores would “significantly improve shopping choice for local people”.
They say the plans are still at an early stage and will launch a consultation on... read more
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The AAC audio format is officially the new gold standard.
Chairman Ajit Pai says internet service providers like AT&T and Verzion should be free to police themselves.
Free subscribers may not be able to stream albums from artists on labels like Sub Pop, Domino, Warp, and Merge until two weeks after release.
Instead, internet services providers will simply have to “verbally agree” to a free and open internet.
For only $5 a week.
Initially premiered via Facebook Live.
Under the terms of the deal, TIDAL and its artists “will make exclusive content that will only be available to current and new Sprint customers.”
Ajit Pai has promised to take a “weed whacker” to government regulations implemented under President Obama.
New line of MacBooks boasts only Thunderbolt and USB-C ports.
Amazon Music Unlimited boasts unique price points, spoken lyric searches, and more.
A tongue-in-cheek viral video has caused a few folks to destroy their brand new phone.
This fully operational battle station speaker is one in a million.


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Colman C. Johnson and his wife, Jean Conrad Johnson, came to Cambridge 28 years ago from a farm in southern Vermont to find an easier way to make a living.
For most of those years, the Johnsons successfully ran a used book store on Church Street, The Book Case, which grew in volume as they bought almost any book people brought them. Today, Colman Johnson says, there are so many books in his store that he's lost count. "It's probably over one million, but we don't know exactly," he said.
Unfortunately, however, this story does not have a happy ending. The Johnsons are trying to unload their books at a 25 percent discount as they prepare to close up shop and move back to Vermont in the next few weeks or months. The Johnson family can no longer afford to stay in business.
"We can't sell enough at enough to pay for the rent that it takes to keep us in business," Colman Johnson said. "It's basically the cost of doing business in this area."
Kristin S. Demong, the president of Harvard Real Estate, which owns the building, disagrees that businesses in this area are experiencing more difficulties than those in others.
Demong, who called the Square "recession proof," said, "I think it's fair to say that Harvard Square is a terrific place to do business."
But The Book Case is not the first store in the area to go out of business. The Cambridge Book-smith, Emack and Bolio's Ice Cream, Pizzeria Regina, Luscious Licks and J.F. Olsson and Co. have all closed in
Reading International, another specialty book store just down the street from The Book Case, closed a couple of weeks ago. Linda Waterman, a customer of The Book Case who has lived in the Square over 20 years, said the curse isn't limited to Church Street. "The Square is changing. It's losing a lot of its character," she said.
Harvard's Demong agreed that the specific businesses in the Square are changing. "We have a very dynamic tenant base. We're constantly trying to expand space for existing tenants and contract others," she said.
But Demong said that she is concerned that the character of the Square be preserved and that her firm actively seeks retailers who will bring diversity to the Square. "We have to make sure that we complement what's already here rather than try to clone it."
Demong said it is too early for her to say who will be renting out the space. She said she is confident Harvard will attract a "merchant that will add value to the Square."
As for merchants Colman and Jean Conrad Johnson, however, they will have to search for an easier way of living outside of Harvard Square


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And one more thing — when the alleged bubble bursts, and all those startups on short-term WeWork memberships go bust, WeWork will be saddled with long-term leases and forced to give away whatever premium it had hoped to charge. That, critics argue, isn’t anything close to a $10 billion company.
But it turns out this is not the case, a WeWork spokesperson tells us. Only a tiny fraction of WeWork clients are other tech startups:
Venture capital backed companies only make up mid-single digit of total population of our WeWork member companies. The membership is very diversified across multiple industries and our fastest growing segment is larger, more mature companies who have joined for the value proposition of more affordable space, community, network, and flexibility — as well as services (healthcare, payment processing, etc.).
This is interesting news, because we now know that WeWork is not dependent on tech VC funding. And the WSJ said the company was profitable, which also bodes well.