jikCaché To Liquidate, Close All Remaining Storesde

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If you have a gift card sitting around for women’s clothing retailer Caché, it’s time to dig it out of the depths of your purse and use it. The company wasn’t able to find a buyer to keep some version of its business alive into the future, and going-out-of-business sales began over the weekend.

Cache originally focused on selling formal dresses to young women, but a recent expansion of its number of stores and the merchandise that it carries ultimately doomed the chain. Its expansion to 300 stores was poorly timed, and its expansion into more casual clothing didn’t suit the brand or go over well. The company hasn’t turned a profit since 2011. When intially filing for bankruptcy protection last month, chairman and CEO Jay Margolis said that the company was filing “with the goal of securing Cache’s future.” No buyers were interested in that future, apparently, and the 153 stores that remain open will close by May 31.

Liquidation sales have already begun, and stores will accept Cache gift cards until April 5. Use up your gift cards when you hear that a retailer might be in trouble: otherwise, you might end up losing the money altogether, or picking through the dregs at a liquidation sale.

Cache Gift Cards Expire Early Next Month [Wall Street Journal] (via Chain Store Age)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikTown Opens Washington State’s First Government-Run Recreational Marijuana Shopde

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(DEARTH !)

The times are certainly changing in Washington State, where it recently became legal to buy and use recreational marijuana. Joining bake sales and other fundraisers as ways to give back to the community, a small town in Washington has opened the state’s first recreational marijuana store that’s run by the local government.

North Bonneville in southern Washington is home to about 1,000 people and now it’s also home to a brand new pot shop, reports Reuters. All the money it makes from a range of marijuana products will be going back to the local community, city officials say.

“It’s a really great solution for these small, rural communities that need to raise a little bit of revenue,” said the general manager of the new store. “I think it’s a really viable option for other towns and cities like this,” she said.

The State Liquor Control Board regulates all retail marijuana stores in Washington, levying heavy taxes and keeping a close eye on how businesses run their operations.

The town started working on the retail outlet in 2013, creating a public development authority to make sure all the correct permits were in place and to help raise private money to cover the cost of construction.

Visitors are drawn to the area for things like hiking, camping and windsurfing, and so the hope is that those tourists and more will travel to the town to grab some pot for their trip.

“We hope to get a lot of folks from all over the place coming into the store and stopping by to visit,” the store’s manager says.

Small Washington town becomes first to open government-run pot shop [Reuters]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jikWalmart Displeased With Walmart.Horse, Wants It Taken Downde

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The above screengrab incorporates the entire editorial content of Walmart.horse, a Tumblr account that the retailer demands be taken down.

If you’re looking for the Walmart website, your instinct would be to simply go to Walmart.com, or maybe Walmart.net, or even Walmart.org… all of which go to the same place. There is currently no reason whatsoever to type the URL Walmart.horse into your web browser, but if you go there, you get pretty much exactly what you’d expect — a picture of a horse and a Walmart store.

Walmart is not amused at the use of its name on this site and has sent a cease-and-desist notice to its creator, Jeph Jacques, creator of the Questionable Content comic.

In the C&D notice — signed “Sincerely, Walmart Brand Protection” — the country’s biggest retailer points out that it owns the Walmart and Wal-Mart trademarks and that Jacques didn’t get the company’s permission to use that trademark on Walmart.horse.

“The Domain Name incorporates the well known Walmart mark in its entirety, and, by its very composition, suggests Walmart’’s sponsorship or endorsement of your website and correspondingly, your activities,” reads the notice, which alleges trademark infringement and dilution “because it weakens the ability of the Walmart mark and domain name to identify a single source, namely Walmart.”

As is boilerplate for such claims, Walmart contends that the use of the tradement “misleads consumers into believing that some association exists between Walmart and you, which tarnishes the goodwill and reputation of Walmart’s products, services, and trademarks.”

The company is giving him 14 days to stop using the domain name in any way, but Jacques believes he’s within his rights to use the Walmart name because his site is too ridiculous to be confused with something operated by the retailer.

“I would argue that Walmart.horse is an obvious parody and therefore falls under fair use,” he writes. “Publicly available images of a horse, a Walmart store, and comical music make it clear that the site is meant to be a joke.”

He offers to include a disclaimer on the site and consider adding any new animals to the page that Walmart recommends.

In an e-mail to Ars Technica, Jacques describes the site as a “piece of postmodern Dadaism—nonsense-art using found objects, in this case publicly available images and the name of an megacorporation,” and explains that he intended to provoke the exact sort of response he’s received from Walmart. In his view, Walmart is contributing to the parodic nature of the Walmart.horse concept by demanding that it be taken down.

“Claiming that walmart.horse defames the Walmart brand somehow is the highest possible satire, and the fact that this accusation came from Walmart itself is a most delicious piece of irony,” he writes.

Let’s just hope that the fecal matter industrial complex doesn’t take Walmart’s no-fun approach to trademakrs and demand a similar takedown of poop.bike, which is regular reading in the Consumerist cave.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikZambia Will Soon Be The Home Of The Whopperde

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(Mike Mozart)

Burger King has spent this decade changing up its business model and potentially the way the entire fast food business works. Part of their bold strategy has been rapid international expansion with the help of their franchisees. What’s the next big growth market for the chain? Africa.

Africa? Yep. Sub-Saharan Africa is a hot growth market for all sorts of globalized businesses, from fast-food chains to Walmart. The middle class in that part of the world is growing, and apparently with greater income comes a greater taste for cheeseburgers.

Since new management took over in 2010, Burger King has undergone a massive international expansion in partnership with franchisees. They opened their first restaurant in South Africa in 2013, and there are now 60 outlets in that country. While there are restaurants in the northern part of the continent in Egypt and Morocco, Sub-Sahran Africa is currently Whopper-free. That’s going to change this year: the chain’s franchisee in South Africa has the rights to open restaurants in other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and they plan to begin that expansion this year.

Burger King isn’t alone: Yum Brands, parent company of Pizza Hut and KFC, is taking the lead in expanding in Africa, with new restaurants planned in Angola and Zambia later this year.

Whopper Meals for Zambia by Year-End as Burger King Expands [Bloomberg Business]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

jikToday’s HBO Now Announcement Shows Why Net Neutrality Is So Importantde

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Apple CEO Tim Cook presents HBO Now at today’s press conference to launch the Apple Watch.

This afternoon, HBO announced the details of its HBO Now streaming service that will finally allow consumers without cable TV to access the premium pay-TV network without having to be burdened with a cable bill for channels they don’t watch. But the fact that HBO has opted to go with Apple as its launch partners and not Comcast or any of the major pay-TV carriers is a reminder of just how important net neutrality is.

For months, HBO had been giving every indication that HBO Now would be sold through pay-TV providers. In Nov. 2014, HBO CEO Richard Plepler said there was “gold in the hills” for cable companies in a standalone HBO streaming service. These companies control broadband access for most consumers so they could make money by selling subscriptions to it.

But then the network decided to go with Apple, which is not an ISP for its launch partner. That makes some sense for both parties — it gives HBO immediate access to millions of iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs (along with PC users) and some time to hammer out the details of making HBO Now work on the wide variety of Android devices. And Apple only stands to make money from the deal, as it doesn’t have pay-TV subscribers to lose.

So how does this all tie into neutrality?

HBO didn’t just cut out — at least initially — the pay-TV companies that stand to lose subscribers who’ve only been holding on to basic cable packages for the sake of maintaining HBO access. Those same pay-TV providers control the pipes through which HBO Now will stream.

Without net neutrality, ISPs like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, Charter, Cablevision, and others could choose to block subscribers’ access to any content these companies choose to block. To a slightly less-evil degree, they could slow down HBO Now to the point where it’s not a good substitute for the HD picture you get through cable.

(NOTE: Under the conditions of its 2011 merger with NBC, Comcast is still currently bound by the 2010 net neutrality rules, which are effectively no different than the ones recently voted on by the FCC. That merger condition expires in 2018; hopefully the new neutrality rules will still be in place.)

In theory, an ISP could throttle HBO Now while still allowing HBO Go to get through at full speed, effectively saying that the only way to get a decent HBO streaming service is if you have a cable package.

And since many consumers have little to no choice about their home broadband provider, they can’t just say “I’ll get my Internet access elsewhere.”

Thankfully, the recently agreed-upon neutrality rules prohibit ISPs from blocking and throttling, meaning that HBO Now should be treated the same as HBO Go, YouTube, Netflix or that video your friend sent you of his baby throwing a cup of applesauce at a clown’s face.

Without these rules, it would be a futile effort to launch a service that gives millions of consumers a reason to ditch their cable bills but which still relies on those same companies to deliver that service.

The cable companies will undoubtedly come around to seeing that there is money to be made by selling these streaming services as add-ons to broadband packages. Until then, be thankful that they won’t be allowed to put up an electronic blockade to keep the competition out.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

jikCourt Awards $95K To Ferrari Owner Whose Car Was Seized, Auctioned Off After DWI Arrestde

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(stellarviewer)

There must be something in the air today, as luxury cars are making news headlines left and right: Joining the mysterious, abandoned Lamborghini in the news spotlight is the owner of a Ferrari who successfully sued after police seized and auctioned off his car after a DWI arrest in 2009.

A New York man who coincidentally shares his name with the luxury sports car manufacturer was pulled over for speeding and suspicion of driving while intoxicated back in 2009, reports the New York Post.

Police impounded the 2003 Ferrari Modena, and kept it, despite the owner’s fight to get his car returned. A a Suffolk County judicial officer ruled in favor of the police, according to court papers, saying they had probable cause to keep the Ferrari.

Forfeiture proceedings followed, and the man had to surrender the title to the car in 2012 as part of a settlement. The vehicle was later auctioned off for an undisclosed sum by the county.

He then took his case to federal court, claiming the car was worth $110,000 and the county had no right to sell his property. A judge agreed, and a jury has now awarded him $95,000.

“I’m very happy that it’s done with,” the man told the NYP. ‘The government taking people’s property isn’t right.”

Broker named Ferrari awarded $95K after cops ‘stole’ his Ferrari [New York Post]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

jik‘HBO Now’ To Cost $15, Will Launch As Apple Exclusivede

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After months of speculation regarding price and availability, HBO has finally confirmed the important details about its standalone streaming service HBO Now. The good news is that it will cost the predicted $15/month. The not as good news is that Apple will be the exclusive device launch partner of the service when it kicks off in April.

HBO is still not giving a specific launch date for HBO Now, though it’s predicted to kick off before the April 12 season premiere of Game of Thrones.

When it launches, iOS users can subscribe to the $14.99/month offering through iTunes. There will be a 30-day free trial period for new subscribers, says the premium TV network.

Though only iOS devices — including both iPhones and iPads — will carry the service for mobile users, HBO Now will be available for streaming to your computer, so Android users will not be forced to switch phones.

The company says it is still in talks to provide HBO Now through other outlets. It has long been predicted that HBO will allow pay-TV providers — who stand to lose significant numbers of subscribers if HBO Now is successful — to bill for the service. That may still happen, but not until after launch.

“HBO NOW is the next phase of innovation at HBO,” said Richard Plepler, Chairman and CEO, HBO. “With this new partnership, a natural evolution for the network, we have access to millions of Apple customers who are used to getting their favorite apps immediately. Now, they can do the same with an HBO subscription.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist