Business news 2019

[Rewind]

An additional penny a mile doesn't sound like a big increase but if you drive 100,000,000 miles, that's an extra $1,000,000 (before taxes). Wooh!

Walmart raises pay for truck drivers
CNN Business, Jan 25 2019 1:23 PM

Walmart hopes a pay raise will solve its trucking problem. The company announced this week that its more than 8,000 truck drivers will get around a $1,500-a-year raise. Walmart, the world's largest retailer, hopes higher pay will help it retain those drivers and hire 900 new ones this year.

A shortage of truck drivers nationwide and high turnover rates in the industry have hit Walmart at a bad time. The company faces pressure to deliver goods on time to its 4,700 stores and online distribution centers to compete with rivals like Amazon. Walmart has its own private fleet of 65,000 trailers, one of the largest in the country. Last year, Walmart brought on more than 1,400 new drivers.

Walmart drivers get paid per mile. Pay varies based on their tenure at the company. Beginning in February, Walmart will give a one-cent-per-mile increase in pay. That means drivers will now make about 89 cents per mile on average and $87,500 a year.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/25/busin...pay/index.html

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Many companies are starting to find environmentally-friendly alternatives to the plastic bags that protect electronics and appliances after their manufacture. While we're at it, maybe pharmaceutical companies could stop putting bottles of pain pills and cough syrup inside cardboard boxes, which are totally unnecessary and wasteful.

Samsung is getting rid of plastic packaging for phones, tablets and TVs

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/28/busin...ing/index.html

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DirecTV has been losing hundreds of thousands of satellite television subscribers so they launched a streaming service in 2016 and hundreds of thousands of customers are now flowing away from that service as well. (Yeah, another bad pun. I know.)

Customers are fleeing in droves from AT&T's DirecTV Now streaming service
Streaming services are a hard business, said one analyst: "Unlike pay TV, with live streaming services you can sign up and move from one package to another."

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/bus...droves-n964546

[Rewind]

I wonder if UPS delivery people might also be replaced by robots someday. Does anyone know if robots look good in brown?

UPS says robots will help sort almost 80% of its packages this year
Business Insider, Jan 31 2019

UPS says around 70% of its packages are going through automated facilities. That's up from 50% in 2017. This year, UPS aims to have nearly 80% of packages sorted by robots in those automated facilities.

The shipping giant opened 22 new or retrofitted automated facilities worldwide in 2018, including five new superhubs. Those new technology-enabled facilities boast 25% to 35% higher efficency. An additional 18 automated hubs will open in 2019.

It's part of the company's growing investment in technology and automation. UPS says the investment in technology has helped power UPS shipments during its peak holiday season — it delivered a record number of packages in the 2018 peak season. Throughout Q4, UPS delivered an average of 21 million packages per day.

https://www.businessinsider.com/ups-...ts-sort-2019-1

[Rewind]

I have no idea why Sears, Kmart, Macy's, JC Penney, Bebe, Brookstone, Gymboree, Henri Bendel, Toys Я Us and other major retailers have been closing so many stores or going out of business. Oh wait.....I think I do know why:

Amazon's sales and profit beat estimates, driven by retail and web services

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-...131-story.html

[Rewind]

"Involuntary job cuts" is a euphemism. In the Trumpian language, the proper expression is: "You're fired!"

GM said to be readying 4,000 involuntary job cuts next week

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gm-said...uts-next-week/

[Rewind]

Ben Hammersley, a British technologist and journalist, coined the word "podcast" in 2004 by combining "iPod" and "broadcast." More than 50 million people listen to podcasts, also known as netcasts. Spotify, which has more than 200 million users, has its sights set on those 50 million podcast listeners.

Spotify is in talks to buy Gimlet for more than $200 million. That’s a big deal for the podcasting world.
Spotify wants to break out of the music streaming business. Gimlet, the company behind shows such as Crimetown and Reply All, can help.

https://www.recode.net/2019/2/1/1820...st-acquisition

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In response to the suicide of a 14-year-old girl who had viewed graphic images of self-harm on Instagram, the social media company will start blurring such images but users will still be able to choose to view them. Hey, Instagram, you could always remove those images, y'know. Did you not think of that?

Instagram to hide self-harm images in the wake of rising teen suicides
"Sensitivity screens" which blur images at first glance will aim to protect vulnerable users from seeing images that could lead to self-harm.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...icides-n966781

[Rewind]

Do we need to start a separate thread for all the retailers declaring bankruptcy? Here is the latest one. Charlotte Russe, named after the French dessert, opened its first women's clothing store in 1975 in Carlsbad, California. There are now more than 500 Charlotte Russe stores in the US and Puerto Rico. Most are in malls. Their slogan is "Fashion that's trendy, not spendy." Whoever came up with that slogan should be ashamed of himself.

Charlotte Russe files for bankruptcy, will close 94 stores

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/04/inves...ail/index.html

[Rewind]

Chunky Monkey is a banana/fudge/walnut ice cream made by Ben & Jerry's. The name is a registered trademark. "Chunky" by itself was not a trademark.....until now. Let's hope Campbell's doesn't try to trademark the word "soup."

Campbell's Soup trademarks the word "chunky" after years of pop culture spoofs

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...ofs/ar-BBTd0dC