uDunkin’ Donuts Running A “Private Test” Of Mobile Ordering With A Delivery Future In Mindr

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  (The site you’re reading this on)

  If the distance between your mouth to the nearest doughnut is just too great for you to achieve on your own, buck up. There could be a reality where Dunkin’ Donuts brings the doughnuts to your door in the very near future, as the company says it could soon be dipping its toes in the delivery realm, as it’s already started a “private test” of mobile ordering.

  Dunkin’ Brands Chairman and CEO Nigel Travis announced the plans for testing mobile ordering during an interview with CNBC’s On The Money (warning: link has video that autoplays).

  “We’re now developing mobile ordering. We’re doing a private test. We’ll move to a more public test later this year,” he said. “We’ll probably launch mobile ordering sometime next year.”

  At this point it seems likely that the system would still require customers to head to their closest Dunkin’ location to pick up their pre-ordered menu items. But delivery is somewhere in the future, somewhere Travis says.

  “The trend in this country is convenience. So I think delivery plays very strongly,” he told CNBC. “I think the next few years you’re going to see us get more and more into delivery.”

  Before that happens, the company has some work to do first, with Travis noting that he slowed the development of mobile ordering to “make sure it’s operationally simple at the store level.”

  Echoing that statement was Scott Hudler, vice president of Global Consumer Engagement for Dunkin’ Donuts who told CNNMoney (warning: link has video that autoplays) in a statement that “delivery is something that we will be evaluating in the future.”

  We’ve made the donuts. Now it’s time to deliver them: Dunkin [CNBC]
  Knock, knock. Dunkin’ Donuts delivery [CNNMoney]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uApple Pay To Include Store Credit, Rewards Cardsr

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• Apple Pay is expanding its usability beyond just your bank-issued debit and credit cards. Today, the company announced that the payment platform will soon include the ability to pay with some store-branded credit cards and for users to access certain store rewards cards.

  The update was announced at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference, where the company said that Kohl’s, JCPenney, and BJ’s will be among the first to have their store-branded cards on Apple Pay after the new iOS 9 rolls out to devices.

  Also allowed will be rewards programs from participating retailers. Apple showed off Walgreens Balance Rewards and Dunkin Donuts’ DD Perks cards, which users will no longer need to carry around in their wallets.

  Speaking of wallets, Apple’s “Passbook” functionality that keeps all these cards in order is going to be renamed “Wallet,” which surely raised more than few eyebrows at Google, operator of the Google Wallet payment platform.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uHairless Cat Missing In Atlanta Airport Found Alive And Safer

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  Rudy’s family (center) and the Delta employee and pet detective who helped find the cat.

  We are delighted to share a story with a happy ending regarding a pet flying in cargo. Specifically, Rudy the hairless cat, who was shipped on Delta Airlines from Seattle to Florida to join his new family. Rudy escaped from his crate somewhere at Delta’s Atlanta hub on Thursday, and was found earlier today.

  The family traveled from Florida to Atlanta to help with the search, and were there to greet Rudy when he was found. After a few days of hiding, though, the cat made his presence known, and airport staff found him. The family reported on their Facebook page:

  He was heard meowing around midnight by some airport employees, a search team then formed and they found Rudy!! Apparently he had traveled from terminal D, all the way to terminal B, approximately a mile, maybe less, from his original point!

  Concourse B is also part of the Deltaplex in the airline’s Atlanta hub. While in the past we’ve pointed out Delta’s bad record with pets, Rudy’s owners thanked the airline for their help in finding their pet, including picking up the tab for the reward, allowing searchers into secure areas, and letting the searchers put up posters.

  It’s not clear what happened to the animal’s crate, but this is what it looked like when employees discovered that the cat was missing.

  

  If you live near a major airport and want to help out, consider following the Where is Jack? Facebook page for news about pets missing in transit. People who live near the airport can help search or distribute flyers, and people who don’t live nearby can even help by spreading the news online or calling local shelters and vets.

  Help us find Rudy [Facebook]
  Airport loses cat on its way to Suncoast woman [WWSB]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uStarbucks Unleashing Six New Frappuccino Flavors Loaded With Sweet Stuffr

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  Left to right: Cotton Candy, Lemon Bar, Caramel Cocoa Cluster, Cinnamon Roll, Cupcake and Red Velvet.

  Can you hear that? That’s the sound of my teeth cringing at the thought of icy cold, sugary drinks assaulting my insides in a frenzy of sweet syrups. Starbucks is on a sugar high, unveiling six new frappuccino flavors debuting this summer in a line it calls “Fan Flavors.”

  Apparently fans are flavored like sugar: Red Velvet Cake, Cotton Candy, Cinnamon Roll, Lemon Bar, Caramel Cocoa Cluster and Cupcake are joining the menu in an effort to compete as the temperature rises.

  A few of those flavors will be familiar to customers with sweet teeth, as they’re actually just new names for old frappuccino orders. For example, the Cotton Candy drink is actually a vanilla bean creme frappuccino with raspberry syrup added, and the Cupcake flavor adds hazelnut syrup to that same base frappuccino.

  For those bravely standing in path of these calorie-bombs intent on ingesting up to 510 calories per grande serving, it’ll cost you $4.75. Customers can then vote online from June 19-30 to choose their favorite newcomer, with the winner selling at a discounted price of $3 for a grande on July 3-6, between certain hours.

  (h/t Chicago Tribune)

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uDoes Booking Direct With The Airline Actually Offer You The Lowest Price?r

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  (Alan Sheffield)

  It’s no secret that some airlines have little love for online travel-booking sites. Southwest only lets travelers book fares directly through the airline and Delta has cut ties with a number of booking/listing sites, including TripAdvisor. The airline industry claims that booking directly will get consumers the lowest prices on airfare, but is that true?

  A rep for Airlines for America, the trade group representing the nation’s largest carriers, recently told the Washington Post’s Wonkblog that, “Airlines want to sell tickets, and they want to do so in the least costly way possible, which is why buying tickets directly from an airline website provides the lowest fare.”

  To put that to the test, we selected a trio of routes around the country and compared the fares listed on each of the airlines’ sites with what came up on booking/comparison sites Priceline.com, Kayak, and TripAdvisor.

  First we looked at booking tickets from Philadelphia to Atlanta. All of the bookings sites had the same range of results, showing the lowest-priced tickets on the major carriers going from $175 to $543, with American Airlines having the cheapest of those fares.

  These numbers were identical to what we found on each of the sites for the individual airlines, so in this case there was no savings advantage in booking directly through the carrier.

  The same was true when we searched for fares from Chicago to Miami. Both the travel aggregating sites and each of the airline sites listed tickets with starting prices of $249 to $520. Once again, AA had the cheapest seats available of all the majors.

  The third time was the charm though, when we looked for tickets from NYC (all airports) to San Francisco. Kayak, et al, matched the airline sites’ rates for Delta and United, but the price listed on AA.com was $571, which is $25 less expensive than the price given on the booking sites.

  And how does Southwest compare? We looked at prices for each of these itineraries on Southwest.com, and the airline’s competitiveness varies wildly, from being near the low end of the range for the PHL-ATL trip ($188) to the high end of the range for NYC-SFO ($731). The Chicago-Miami trip was reasonably competitive at $291, but requires you to fly to Ft. Lauderdale (which may be better for you, depending on where you’re going).

  This is by no means comprehensive, but it does show that you can get less-expensive tickets by booking directly through an airline’s website and that Southwest’s limited booking options doesn’t mean it’s always cheaper.

  Because the booking sites allow you to do an immediate comparison of options, they make a great starting point. Once you’ve got the array of prices available to you, then you can double-check a price or two against the individual airline sites.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uCrate And Barrel Closing NYC Flagship After 20 Years Because The Rent Is Too Darn Highr

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  (Maulleigh)

  Your average New York City citizens aren’t the only ones who might be pushed from their preferred neighborhood amid skyrocketing real estate prices: After 20 years inhabiting its flagship store on Madison Avenue, Crate and Barrel is leaving the building behind to avoid paying higher rent.

  The company confirmed the closure of its Manhattan store this summer after a report from the Wall Street Journal said the furniture and home accessories chain was walking away from the 62,000-square-foot store in Manhattan.

  The lease would have expired in late 2019 or early 2020, the insider told the WSJ, but the company looked around and realized it would behoove it to leave before those higher prices really kicked in, and managed to negotiate an early exit. Rents on the stretch of Madison Avenue where many luxury retailers have set up shop are going up by $1,584 per square foot, an 8% spike from last year and 91.5% more than five years ago, notes the Chicago Tribune.

  There are no plans to open another flagship store, but the retailer’s SoHo location will remain open.

  “This was a difficult decision and we are grateful to our departing associates for their hard work and service,” the company said in a statement. “We remain well positioned to serve the New York market through our SoHo store, as well as stores in the surrounding area and through our Web site.”

  Crate & Barrel to Close Manhattan Flagship Store [Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uGoogle: Calm Down, Artificial Intelligence Research Won’t Lead To Robot Revolutionr

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  (Dan Coulter)

  For those of you eyeing your smart refrigerators and with suspicion and demanding that Siri tell you her plans to precipitate the downfall of humanity, Google wants everyone to take a chill pill. The company’s head of artificial intelligence research is trying to reassure folks that Google’s work in that field won’t lead to the eventual extermination of the human race by robots.

  While Elon Musk and Steve Wozniak might disagree with him, the head of applied Artificial Intelligence at Google DeepMind says anyone seriously bothered by the thought of robots rising up to kill everyone is “preposterous,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

  “Whether it’s Terminator coming to blow us up or mad scientists looking to create quite perverted women robots, this narrative has somehow managed to dominate the entire landscape, which we find really quite remarkable,” said Mustafa Suleyman, speaking at a machine learning event in London.

  He says now that everyone is done going on about AI being “such a failure,” it’s on to people complaining that AI has been such a success.

  One such breakthrough DeepMind is claiming is a computer that could be programmed to teach itself to play Atari games better than most humans. Years into the AI research, DeepMind says its success lies in the fact that the machine could transfer the knowledge it learned from previous games onto the next machine, instead of having humans teach it how to play.

  Suleyman calls this one of the most significant breakthroughs in AI in a long time, prompting that old anxiety we humans have over being replaced by machines. That’s just silly, Suleyman says.

  “On existential risk, our perspective is that it’s become a real distraction from the core ethics and safety issues, and it’s completely overshadowed the debate,” Suleyman said. ”The way we think about AI is that it’s going to be a hugely powerful tool that we control and that we direct, whose capabilities we limit, just as you do with any other tool that we have in the world around us, whether they’re washing machines or tractors. We’re building them to empower humanity and not to destroy us.”

  He points to various advances made in machine learning that can help to potentially solve some big problems we humans have — not enough food, global warming, income inequality — issues that could be overshadowed by “hype” around the threat of AI to humans.

  “The idea that we should spending these moments now talking about consciousness and robot rights is really quite preposterous,” he said.

  Those are just words, Suleyman. Words I can’t wrap around myself for protection when the Terminator drops by my apartment on his way to worldwide domination.

  Google on Artificial-Intelligence Panic: Get a Grip [Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist