uOffice Depot, Staples One Step Closer To Walking Down The Office Supply-Wedding Aisler

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  (Mike Mozart)
  (frankieleon)

  Back in February Staples presented Office Depot with a freshly sharpened bouquet of pencils (really, $6.3 billion) as a token of its desire to live as one for the rest of their office supply days. Now, three moths later, Office Depot has accepted the proposal.

  The Associated Press reports that Office Depot shareholders “overwhelmingly” voted in favor of the $6.3 billion acquisition proposition from Staples.

  The company said that 99.5% of the votes cast during a recent meeting were in favor of combining the No. 1 and No. 2 office supply chains.

  Staples and Office Depot began “advanced talks” for a merger in early February after receiving significant pressure from shared investor Starboard Value in December.

  Starboard Value, the company that roundly mocked Olive Garden and then seized seats on its board of directors just months ago, publicly pushed for a union between the two chains saying a merger would deliver more than $2 billion in cost savings and help the retailers to better compete with larger chains and online companies.

  The investment firm, which has a stake in both companies, increased the pressure for a merger by sending a letter to Staples CEO Ronald Sargent demanding that the company engage advisers to begin work on a deal.

  While a combined Staples, Office Depot retailer could help the companies fend off competition from online retailers and big-box stores, any pending marriage would face serious antitrust scrutiny.

  That added probe by regulators would likely center on the fact that Staples and Office Depot are the biggest remaining retailers of core office supplies.

  Office Depot previously purchased the other top office supply store, Office Max, in 2013 for $967 million. That deal was given the go-ahead after regulators deemed there was plenty of competition in the office supply industry.

  This wouldn’t be the first go-around for a union between the two retailers, 17 years ago regulators objected to Staple’s attempt to buy Office Depot.

  Office Depot shareholders approve sale to Staples [The Associated Press]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uIMAX Demands Website Retract Story That Has Virtually Nothing To Do With IMAXr

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  (Chris Metcalf)

  The folks at IMAX need to learn when to take a compliment. When someone name-drops your brand as an aspirational standard, you should smile and appreciate the respect. What you shouldn’t do is demand that a news website retract an entire story just because someone mentions your brand.

  But according to Ars Technica, that’s exactly what happened to them a few days after writing this story about Valve’s virtual reality platform.

  In that article, a video game designer used the IMAX brand as a reference when talking about virtual reality.

  Said the designer in that original story, “The jump between a regular game and playing a room scale VR experience is X times 100. It’s like saying, ‘I have an IMAX theater in my house.'”

  It’s the kind of comparison you hear people toss off every day in news stories — “They’re the McDonald’s of auto dealerships;” “It’s like having an Uber for babysitters;” “It’s the Consumerist.com of erotic massage parlors” — without anyone batting an eye.

  But IMAX batted. And this wasn’t just some automated trademark-monitoring bot that spits out cease-and-desist letters at the mere mention of the word IMAX. It was a letter from the company’s Chief Administrative Officer, complete with a hare-brained explanation for why a retraction is necessary.

  “We believe that your incorrect reference to IMAX when describing this product is misleading to readers as we do not believe that it is possible for a virtual reality system to replicate the experience of an IMAX theatre,” reads the letter, which calls for a retraction and for Ars to cease using this quote in future related stories.

  But as Ars Technica Joe Mullin points out, IMAX’s trademark infringement argument point is moot. Aside from the fact that the original article doesn’t make this statement as fact — and that it’s not the article’s author but an interviewee who made the supposedly infringing statement — the existence of a trademark doesn’t prevent a journalist from using that trademark in a comparison.

  Now, if Valve were going around making the claim — especially in ads or marketing materials — that its Steam VR platform was “like having an IMAX theater in your house,” then IMAX might have a valid trademark dilution concern, as it could be seen to imply a connection between the two companies that isn’t there. But a news story that quotes a game designer who is just using the comparison to illustrate his opinion appears to fall far short of this threshold.

  If a trademark owner could make successful infringement claims on every use of a brand that it disagrees with, then most news stories on Consumerist and every other news site would be restricted to either positive puff pieces or edited to read, “Passengers on an airline that we can’t name had to make an emergency landing at an airport somewhere and then complained about the bed bugs at the hotel whose name we can’t write without fear of a trademark complaint.”

  Dear IMAX: Just because you don’t like a comparison doesn’t mean someone can’t make it.

  Thanks to Michael for the tip!

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uNew Yorkers Will Soon Be Able To Dine With Their Dogs At Restaurants With Outdoor Areasr

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• 

  (mytoenailcameoff)

  It’s one thing to have your furry best friend underneath the table waiting for scraps to inevitably fall, but once you try to take a dog to a restaurant at meal time, it’s not always acceptable or even legal to have your pet accompany you as your dinner date. In New York, however, canines will soon be welcome with their owners at restaurants with outside space.

  The state Senate passed legislation that amends the state health law to allow diners to have their pet pups with them in outdoor dining areas, reports The Journal News, and it’s now heading to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for review.

  The “Dining with Dogs” bill doesn’t mean that anyone can bring a dog to any restaurant that happens to have a patio. Rather, it would allow customers to have their canine buds on the leash with them at any restaurant that wants to provide the service, as long as that establishment can ensure that the dogs won’t contaminate food, utensils or equipment. Any restaurant can choose to ban dogs as well.

  Many restaurants already allow dogs, making them popular spots especially on sunny summer weekends when relaxing on the deck with your human is a dog’s favorite activity.

  “We have no issues, we’re dog-friendly here,” says one such restaurant owner. “Generally, the rules for dogs are the same for people or kids: If any of those living creatures are being uncooperative or difficult, we speak to them.”

  Restaurant employees going in for a pat on a particularly cute pooch would be prohibited from doing so under the new law, however, as staffers won’t be allowed to have direct contact with dogs while on duty. Restaurants that want to allow pets will also have to have a separate outdoor entrance, so as not to parade dogs through the main space to get outside.

  California just passed a similar measure, joining states like Florida that also allow dogs at restaurants under state health law. It’s up to each state to draft its own state health code, though many simply abide by the Food and Drug Administration’s rule banning pets from retail establishments where food is served.

  Dining out with your dog just got easier [The Journal News]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uThere’s Still $43 Million In Outstanding RadioShack Gift Cards, And Texas Wants To Rescue Itr

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  (Phillip Pessar)

  When a retailer looks like it might be in danger of going out of business, we warn gift card holders to use their cards soon, before the company declares bankruptcy and the cards lose their value. Not everyone has the good sense to read Consumerist, though, and that’s why the Texas Attorney General wants the smoldering remains of RadioShack to put aside some money for gift card holders.

  The AG in Texas, RadioShack’s home state, estimates that the balance of outstanding RadioShack gift cards is $43 million. (Apparently, even people holding gift cards no longer shopped at RadioShack. The state argues that gift cards don’t come with a disclaimer that they will self-destruct if the retailer goes out of business, and marketing materials also don’t tell customers this.

  RadioShack’s policy and practice provided in relevant part that these gift cards did not expire. Both prepetition and postpetition, via telephone and via their website, Defendants represented to consumers that the gift cards do not expire.

  By “prepetition and postpetition,” the AG’s office means before and after the Shack filed for bankruptcy protection. Staff members in the AG’s office called up RadioShack customer service to ask about the status of their gift cards on March 2, well after the bankruptcy, and customer service representatives informed them that gift cards never expire. The gift cards would actually lose their entire value on March 31.

  They also aren’t buying RadioShack’s claim that they have no contact information for any gift card holders:

  Texas respectfully contends that such an assertion must be viewed with some skepticism in light of the fact that the Defendants maintain extensive data regarding their customers’ purchases. The Defendants likely know the names, mailing addresses, and email addresses of at least some of the purchasers if not the holders.

  It’s that extensive purchase data that led to the previous dispute between the entity that used to be RadioShack and its home state’s attorney general: the company still had extensive data abut its customers and their purchases, which was going to be sold as part of the bankruptcy auction. The state objected, because customers weren’t told when handing over their contact information that it would be sold.

  What Texas is asking is that claims for unredeemed RadioShack gift cards be given priority over lenders when the company finally liquidates. Since RadioShack knows what the outstanding gift card balance is, whatever the unclaimed balance is should be turned over to state attorneys general to be held with unclaimed funds, in case consumers find an unredeemed gift card in a junk drawer five years from now.

  Texas AG Sues RadioShack Over Unused Gift Cards [Wall Street Journal]
  THE STATE OF TEXAS’S COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY RELIEF [U.S. Bankruptcy Court] (PDF)

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uConsumerist Friday Flickr Findsr

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• Here are nine of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

  

  (Corey Templeton)

  

  (Xavier J. Peg ☠)

  

  (Great Beyond)

  

  (Todd)

  

  (Todd)

  

  (Karen Chappell)

  

  (Ann Fisher)

  

  (吉姆 Jim Hofman)

  

  (Xavier J. Peg ☠)

  Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uWalmart Tries Moving Greeters Back To The Entrancer

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  (frankieleon)

  A few years ago, Walmart tried an experiment with their staff greeters who stood at the doorway of every store: they moved them away from the front door. Sure, they would still greet people who they encountered, but their jobs also involved directing customers to an open register, or performing tasks inside the store at a time when Walmarts were catastrophically short-staffed. Now Walmart is testing the idea of maybe reversing that decision.

  The Wall Street Journal reports that in a few hundred stores, the retailer is experimenting with moving greeters back to the door. They’re also experimenting with a new job title that serves as a loss-prevention buddy to the greeter, if there is one. The asset protection customer specialists, or APCS, will wear yellow vests so they stand out from other employees, and will have the task of pre-scanning merchandise for returns before customers can proceed to the customer service desk.

  While it may have seemed wasteful to post someone to stand at the door while stores were understocked and short-handed, the greeter position may have been a better theft deterrent than upper management thought.

  “[P]eople started walking out the door with cartloads of stuff” after greeters were removed from their postings at the doors, one overnight stocker told the Wall Street Journal.

  Wal-Mart Ushers ‘Greeters’ Back to the Front [Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uSpirit Confirms Delays & Cancellations Are Due To Weather, Not Striker

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  (So Cal Metro)

  Earlier today we heard from several Spirit Airlines passengers who had been stranded at airports, sometimes for several days this week, for what they thought was an unofficial pilot strike. After hearing back from Spirit, the company has confirmed there is no strike.

  Paul Berry, a spokesman for the airline, tells Consumerist that delays and cancellations of flight are “100% due to weather,” but that currently “about 85% of the network is up and running smoothly.”

  The company says adverse weather that began snarling the airline’s flights on Sunday in Chicago continued when Tropical Storm Bill began drenching Texas on Monda,y and continues to cause aftershocks today.

  Berry says the weather-related cancellations and delays created a domino effect in which the airline had difficulty getting pilots and crew members from one destination to their next scheduled flight.

  “We deal with bad weather all the time, this time it hurt us,” he said. “We’ve just had a handful of flights that it’s been very difficult to get crews to flights.”

  In some cases, Berry says part of the aircraft’s crew may have been ready for the flight. At that point, the airline would delay trips to wait for additional crew members. If those employees were caught in other areas, the flight would be canceled with an announcement that there wasn’t enough crew.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist