суббота, 11 июля 2015 г.
пятница, 10 июля 2015 г.
uAll New Albums Will Be Released On Fridays: Did Anyone Even Notice?r
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At some point in the last 25 years or so, you’ve probably anticipated a new album release from a favorite artist and made a special midweek trip to your favorite music store to buy it. This might be an unfamiliar ritual to our younger readers, but was a thing that people did…until this week. Starting today, labels worldwide will all release their new albums on Fridays.
That leads to the inevitable question: will anyone notice? NPR reports that sales of whole albums are down, but people are using paid streaming services to listen to more music. While it’s good to know what day a new release drops on Pandora, Spotify, or Apple Music, that doesn’t really have the same significance of lining up outside of your favorite record store for a new release.
Tuesday releases are a relic of the time when all music came on physical discs and tapes, and the stores had to make sure that they had new releases in stock from their suppliers and ready to go. Other countries had Mondays and Fridays as their release days: Tuesday is just what the industry decided on here in the United States.
The owner of one independent record store pointed out to NPR that Tuesday releases are great for his business: they bring customers in midweek. His store planned concerts, promotions, and their advertising around Tuesday releases. Switching to Fridays means that the store’s traffic pattern will change, and so will its staff schedules and promotional activities.
The consistent worldwide day solves one problem: different release days in different countries make it super-easy for people to make copies and share them online. It’s a little surprising that music labels got around to solving this fifteen-year-old problem now, but at least they did.
Goodbye, Music Tuesday: Starting Today, Albums Come Out On Friday [NPR]
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uUS Airways, American Airlines Set Deadline For Merging Booking Systemsr
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Even though regulators approved the merger of American Airlines and US Airways in late 2013, the two carriers have continued to operate separate websites with separate systems for booking travel. That will soon begin to change, with the merged mega-airline announcing an October deadline for operating as a single carrier.
(meg)
“On Oct. 17, we are going to be one airline for our customers,” announced Maya Leibman, American’s chief information officer, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “There’s nothing for customers to do; they don’t need to call reservations.”
The process will actually begin on July 18, when American’s reservation system will begin handling all reservations for travel scheduled for Oct. 17 or later.
The Inquirer reports that passengers who already have reservations for travel after Oct. 17 will receive an e-mail giving them a heads-up about their rebranded flight.
When the full switch flips in October, US Airways’ website will redirect to AA.com. By then, the airline hopes to have all of US Airways’ gates and related signage updated to American’s designs.
What won’t be completely changed by that point is the paint job on US Airways’ jets. The airline says they won’t finished redoing the entire fleet until some point in 2016.
The good news for frequent US Air flyers is that the merger won’t impact the current departure times and flight schedules.
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uPercentage Of Adults Without Health Insurance Hits New Lowr
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Two years ago, a Gallup survey estimated the percentage of adult Americans without health insurance at more than 17%. Even at the beginning of 2014, as the individual coverage mandate of the Affordable Care Act kicked, nearly 16% of Americans over the age of 18 were uninsured. The latest results from the polling organization currently put that rate at 11.4%, lower than any rate since Gallup began this survey in 2008.
According to the most recent numbers from the quarterly Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index,
uninsured rates have declined across virtually all age, race, and income groups included in the survey. The only demo to remain unchanged were those aged 65 and older, though at only 2% uninsured (since most are covered through Medicare), this age group was already the most-covered.The most significant decline in uninsured rates was seen among those earning less than $36,000/year. In 2013, nearly 31% of these Americans were without coverage. That has since dropped to around 21%.
Hispanics remain the most likely to be insured, with around 29% of respondents saying they still don’t have coverage. However, that’s a noticeable drop from the nearly 39% of Hispanics who said they were uninsured in 2013.
Black Americans similarly went from around 21% uninsured in 2013 to 12% in the latest quarter, only slightly higher than the national average.
Close to 16% of 18-24 year-olds are without insurance, down from 23.5% two years ago. Because so many college-age adults are covered by family insurance plans, the slightly older 26-34 age group is still the least insured, at 20.4%. That rate was higher than 28% in 2013.
The wealthiest Americans join the oldest among those least changed in the last two years. Only 3.6% of those earning more than $90,000/year are without insurance, a slight decline from 5.8% in 2013.
In terms of who’s paying for these policies, a growing number of us are paying for insurance ourselves. The latest survey found that around 21% of Americans were in plans fully paid for by themselves or a family member, up from 17.6% at the end of 2013.
However, the percentage of adults getting coverage through their employer has remained relatively flat, only decreasing slightly from 44.2% in 2013 to 43.4% today.
More adults are covered by Medicaid too, says the survey, with the percentage of adults below the age of 64 receiving Medicaid increasing from 6.9% in 2013 to the current level of 9.5%. As Gallup notes, this is likely due to the expansion of Medicaid to cover a wider range of incomes.
Looking ahead, with the U.S. Supreme Court recently upholding insurance subsidies, Gallup is predicting that there may be further decline in the uninsured rate after the next enrollment period begins in November, but believes the change won’t be as significant as what we’ve seen in the last two years, “as those who remain uninsured are likely the hardest to engage.”
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uJ. Crew Will Launch Its Own Old Navy-ish Discount Brandr
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About twenty years ago, Gap Inc. started an interesting experiment: they opened some outlet-ish stores that sold clothes that might not be out of place in a Gap store, but were lower quality and at lower price points. The brand that I first encountered in a Gap outlet store in 1994 is now very familiar to consumers: Old Navy actually outsells its sibling Gap Inc. brands.
J. Crew isn’t doing so well right now, and one strategy that’s working so far is to pursue customers who are wealthier, which is the reason why its ridiculous Madewell brand exists. For customers who aren’t interested in standard J. Crew product lines or $548 distressed denim overalls, the company plans to open stores called J. Crew Mercantile. The stores will effectively be a J. Crew outlet store in your local strip mall, or maybe an enclosed mall.
Outlets, as you may know, have their own product lines that are on-brand but not the same items for sale in the company’s retail stores. The first Mercantile store will be in Dallas, and will open later this month. The company plans to open more, but isn’t ready to announce where those stores will be or when they will open.
J. Crew Debuts Value-Focused Mercantile Brand to Spark Growth [Bloomberg News]
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uCFPB Releases Educational Guides To Help Non-English Speakers Avoid Scams, Understand Financial Issuesr
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Understanding the world of finance can be difficult for just about anyone in this country, but especially so when the rules of the industry are written in a language that you might not be proficient in. For these consumers, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has created a new set of guides aimed at helping them avoid financial devastation.
According to the CFPB, individuals with limited English proficiency may be more likely to fall prey to frauds and schemes – such as the “Notario” scam – and often face more difficulty in managing their finances on a day-to-day basis.
For this reason, the Bureau developed the Newcomer’s Guides to Managing Money, providing recent immigrants with straightforward information about basic money decisions.
The new guides feature short tips to help people new to the U.S. banking system understand the difference between legitimate financial services and products and those that are only out to pilfer their hard-earned funds.
The Newcomer’s Guides to Managing Money covers four topics: checklists for opening an account [PDF], ways to pay your bills [PDF], ways to receive your money [PDF], and selecting financial products and services [PDF].
Each guide contains information on how individuals can submit a complaint if they run into issue with fraudulent products or services.
For now, the guides come in English and Spanish, but the CFPB anticipates adding additional languages in coming months.
“These guides are part of our commitment to provide people who may be new to the U.S. banking system, including people with limited English proficiency, the information they need to make the best financial decisions for themselves and their families,” the CFPB states.
The newcomer’s guides to managing money [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau]
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uPolice: Taco Bell Customer Upset Over Lack Of WiFi Dumped Water On Teens, Then Pulled A Knifer
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Having iffy WiFi service when you want to be online is surely a frustrating experience. But police say one Taco Bell customer went too far, taking out her anger at the restaurant’s lack of an Internet connection on a group of teens.
(via Fox 23)
Police in Oklahoma say it appears that the woman was initially upset that the Taco Bell’s WiFi wasn’t working, and had complained to the staff about it, reports Fox 23.
The matter didn’t end there, as she next allegedly dumped a cup of water on some teenage boys in the Taco Bell. It’s unclear if there was any previous interaction between the two parties, or if she was just so mad she wanted to let off some steam.
According to police, she then waited outside the restaurant for the boys to leave, and pulled a four-inch knife on them when they did.
The police chief says she confronted them, saying something along the lines of, “If you want some of me, come on.”
Despite that alleged invitation to violence, the woman left the scene without stabbing anyone, and the teens called the police. Law enforcement posted photos of the suspect on Facebook to enlist the aid of the community, and were rewarded with a name. They subsequently arrested the woman, with the knife in question reportedly stuffed in her sock, and booked her on one charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.
Woman pulls knife on teenagers outside Tahlequah Taco Bell [Fox 23]
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