Month: July 2015

Economists have been calling it the Costco version of Amazon, targeting the budget-conscious consumers who typically shop at discount stores without sacrificing the convenience that e-commerce businesses, like Amazon, provide. But will startup company Jet.com be able to live up to its hype and actually become viable competition for corporate giants like Wal-Mart, Target, and even Costco itself? Jet.com finally opened its virtual doors at the end of July after “months of testing and tweaking,” according to Newsday. It isn’t so much about the products that Jet is offering, nor is it about providing customers with simple browsing and fast shipping. Instead, Jet’s business model is what has industry experts talking; the e-commerce merchant has combined a subscription service similar to Amazo...

According to a letter from FedEx to federal regulators, the shipping giant is no longer willing to transport packages containing research specimens of bioterror pathogens. FedEx communications director Melissa Charbonneau said in a recent statement that the decision came in response to concerns over the military's recent shipments of anthrax. Now, the company is no longer planning to resume shipments of "select agents," the federal government's term for 65 different types of viruses, bacteria, and toxins highly regulated because of their bioterror potential. In addition to anthrax, Ebola, and the pathogens causing plague and botulism are also considered special agents. FedEx's refusal to ship special agents concerns major laboratory officials, who say that they primarily used FedEx to sh...

The student loan debt crisis has hit its peak, according to many economists and education officials, and it almost seems like the crisis can't get any worse. Except that a business called Student Financial Aid Services, which "helps" people apply for financial aid for higher education, has apparently been taking money out of the accounts of its clients without their consent. According to the Washington Post, the company has taken out at least $5.2 million from the accounts of 100,000 people. After the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) accused the company of this practice, it didn't take long for the Sacramento-based service to deny the allegations yet agree to refund the money to "settle the charges." According to the Huffington Post, the federal government is not afraid to shut ...

Cleaning carpets isn't that hard when you consider the fact that 99% of all stains can be removed by one cleaning agent or another if they're taken care of in a few days. However, keeping carpets clean costs enough time and money for Olive Garden to scale back on its cleanliness. According to BloombergBusiness, Olive Garden's parent company, Darden Restaurants, has dispatched operations teams to the restaurants to pull "every single invoice" in an effort to find ways to trim about $100 million a year in expenses. Through this investigation, the teams have found that many locations are washing their carpets twice a month, which CEO Gene Lee thinks is far too often. The crazy part is, he's not entirely wrong. There are over 800 Olive Gardens. Paying a service to come in and wash each restaur...

More than two-thirds of home renovation businesses are seeing revenues and profits equal or greater to pre-recessional levels, according to a new analysis, and about one-fifth of firms are reporting that their revenues and profits are significantly higher. Online home design platform Houzz released on July 22 its Q2 2015 Houzz Renovation Barometer, which measures how confident home renovation professionals are regarding the strength of the industry. “A large majority of home renovation firms on Houzz report a return to pre-recession revenues and profits, irrespective of industry segment or firm size,” said Nino Sitchinava, Houzz principal economist, in a news release. The latest edition of the study also found that there have been very slight year-over-year gains and quite strong quarte...