Business

UPDATED 1/11/21 How desperate are you for whiter teeth? According to CBS, one man in Exton, Pennsylvania needed teeth whitening strips so badly that he stole nearly $1,000 in teeth whitening strips from a local Target. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rMKWytvqew Investigators say that the suspect, who was captured on video surveillance but has not yet been identified, entered the store and dumped multiple boxes of Crest White Strips into a trash bag. Retailing from $20 up to $40, whitening strips are often a popular shoplifting target because they are easy to conceal and carry away, easy to resell online for close to the typical asking price, and they are not behind a counter like other small, more expensive items. And of course, some crooks with coffee stained teeth might ...

Many businesses are jumping on the "Go Green" band wagon these days -- and for good reason. Having products made out of more recyclable materials doesn't just safe the company time, energy, and money, but it also saves the customer some serious cash as well. Hewlett Packard (HP) recently announced late last month that now more than 75% of its ink cartridges and 24% of HP LaserJet toner cartridges are made with recycled plastic. Since 1991, HP has recycled more than 250 million of their print cartridges since the implementation of the HP Planet Partners program. This increased recyclable percentage marks a 50% increase in the use of recyclable plastic for the products, ultimately cutting down on manufacturing waste. There are already a number of different printing technologies out the...

Despite the continuous expansion of the manufacturing industry in the United States, the pace for that growth slowed during the month of May, according to measures of order and production. The Institute for Supply Management, which assesses the expansion of manufacturing, says that the industry is increasing but only at a modest pace. The ISM said on June 2 that its manufacturing index fell from 54.9 in April to 53.2 in May for the United States. While any reading above 50 indicates expansion, the index has not been that low since February of this year. Manufacturers are paying higher prices for raw materials right now, as well, which could affect inflation if companies pass on these costs. ISM also said that factories added fewer jobs during the month of May. However, despite the...

On June 5, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed a bill into law that would change the state's definition of an optometrist by allowing these types of eye doctors to perform certain types of eye-related surgery. The bill passed the Louisiana State Senate on May 21 in a 25-12 vote, and the Louisiana House on May 5 in a 66-30 vote. The passing of Louisiana's House Bill 1065, sponsored by Rep. Rogers Pope (R-Denham Springs), makes Louisiana the third state in the country after Oklahoma and Kentucky to allow optometrists to perform these procedures. The bill stipulates that the types of surgery allowed cannot involve needles, and they also cannot be the kinds of surgery that would require incisions or stitches. The new law allows the state's optometrists who want the authorization for s...

On Monday, June 2, Sbarro, the pizza chain known as a mall food court staple, exited bankruptcy with new owners, less debt and a plan to rebrand its business, according to a forbes.com article. The news comes less than three months after Sbarro filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in less than three years, according to Forbes. In February of this year, Sbarro announced it would close 155 of the 400 restaurants it owns across North America. It still owns more than 800 locations around the world and about 600 more locations owned by franchisees, which have been unaffected by the bankruptcies. To help rebrand its image of selling reheated pizza, Sbarro intends to shift its offerings toward its fast-casual Pizza Cucinova restaurant,which cooks personal, made-to-order pi...

A personal shopping and same day delivery courier service from eBay might be facing serious troubles, according to anonymous sources,after reports surfaced speculating that the company might shut down their eBay Now program. In 2012, eBay launched the same day delivery service to compete with other local delivery companies in large cities, but now the high costs and workforce issues might put a stop to eBay Now in the future.At the end of April, eBay fired its team of "valets" and began using third party courier services instead. Yet the service is still costing the company a lot in resources, and it may have lost some or all of its pricing deal with retail giant Best Buy, a lucrative source for the company's program. Although eBay announced plans to expand their eBay Now services to Lo...

The reign of energy-efficient coil light bulbs is effectively over, and popular LED (light-emitting diode) lights may be replaced much sooner than anticipated. "OLED (organic light-emitting diode) lighting replaces the small, bright dots of LEDs with sheets of light that aren't so piercingly bright," CNET explains. "That means they can illuminate subjects directly without reflectors, diffusers, and other apparatus needed to spread light and protect eyes from glare." Products using OLED lighting are already in the works. Car manufacturers, specifically Jaguar Land Rover, will release new models with OLED displays. Similarly, Apple's iWatch, "poised to hit the consumer space in 2014," will consist of a "flexible plastic OLED screen," according to +Plastic Electronics. Researchers belie...

If you've always wanted to play around with the same animation software that created some of the world's most beloved animated films, this is your lucky day. 3D computer animation studio Pixar has made available a version of its state-of-the-art RenderMan visual effects software to the public for free. Aspiring computer animators can now use the tools that created films like Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. to create their own masterpieces at no cost. It originally cost $500 to purchase and use RenderMan, according to geek.com. There are a few rules for acquiring RenderMan, the studio's in-house version of 3D rendering software, according to the Huffington Post: for example, you can only use the software for free only if it's for non-commercial purposes. Pixar explained its reasoni...

Could better Point of Sale (POS) technology help your restaurant stay on top of employee theft? According to a new survey, it could be. Previously, National Restaurant Association research has indicated that restaurants and other food service operators experience unusually high levels of internal employee theft. According to a paper titled "Cleaning House: The Impact of Information Technology Monitoring on Employee Theft and Productivity" published by professors at MIT, Brigham Young University, and Washington University, POS technology could potentially solve this industry-wide problem. Their study, using restaurant guard technology that monitors employee interactions with POS systems, found that not only were losses reversed, but restaurants actually experienced greater profit beyond...