uElon Musk: Tesla Will Be Taking Orders For The Cheaper Model 3 By Marchr

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  (Courtesy of Consumer Reports)

  Have a hankering for a Tesla electric car but don’t have anywhere in the neighborhood of $127,000? If you don’t need insanity mode or the other high-priced options included in the Model S P85D or even the regular Model S at around $69,000, Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he’s got a deal for you — well, in March, that is, when the company starts taking preorders for its cheaper Model 3 car.

  As he often does with company news, Musk made the Model 3 announcement on Twitter, saying the Model 3, a smaller and lower-cost sedan at $35,000, will be available for preorders in March. It’ll be a while before customers can get their hands on the steering wheel however, as Tesla still needs to finish its $5 billion Gigafactory outside of Reno to make a cheaper lithium-ion battery to put into the vehicles.

  @elonmusk $35k price, unveil in March, preorders start then.

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2015

  This isn’t a huge surprise, as Musk told Tesla shareholders [PDF] in a second-quarter letter in August that the company was planning to reveal the Model 3 design in early 2016, with deliveries following by late 2017.

  We’ve also known the $35,000 price tag and name since July 2014: originally, Musk had plans to call its $35,000 car the Model E, but that idea was scrapped after Ford got involved.

  “We had the model S for sedan and X for crossover SUV, then a friend asked what we were going to call the third car,” Musk said in an interview last summer when revealing the price. “So I said we had the model S and X, we might as well have the E… We were going to call it model E for a while and then Ford sued us saying it wanted to use the Model E – I thought this is crazy, Ford’s trying to kill sex!”

  Musk also dropped some more news on customers and the general public yesterday, revealing for the first time that deliveries of the Model X sports utility vehicles will begin Sept. 29.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

u90,000 Pounds Of Johnsonville Grillers Recalled Because Pieces Of Metal In Your Pork Can Ruin The Barbecuer

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  Johnsonville recalled nearly 90,000 pounds of Cheddar Cheese and Bacon flavored grillers over possible metal fragments.

  If your Labor Day plans included throwing a few pre-made pork burgers on the grill you might want to check your brand of choice. That’s because, just in time for the holiday weekend, Johnsonville announced a recall of pork patties that may contain decidedly untasty metal fragments.

  The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced the recall of approximately 89,235 pounds of frozen Cheddar Cheese & Bacon Grillers under the Johnsonville brand.

  Kenosha Beef International and Johnsonville became aware of the issue after receiving several consumer complaints that small pieces of metal were being found in the pork products.

  “Although there have been just a handful of incidents reported to us, no injuries have occurred and we believe the risk to be minimal, we take no chances when it comes to protecting our consumers’ health and safety,” Johnsonville says on its website. “Because there’s the potential of this affected product being in the market, the voluntary recall was initiated.”

  The cheddar cheese and bacon flavored frozen patties were sold in 24-ounce cartons and 13.5-pound cases at retail stores in Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Texas and Wisconsin.

  The products can be identified by an establishment number “EST. 425B” and a “BEST FLAVOR BY” date of “12/29/15” on the end flap of the package.

  If you no longer have the carton and just the heat-sealed plastic bag containing the Grillers, you will see both these same numbers printed on the outside of the bag, but in a different format: 425B BFB122915.

  Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uThinkGeek Will Open First Real-Life Store On September 25r

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  (Mikey)

  Earlier this summer, GameStop acquired ThinkGeek in a $140 million transaction that observers thought might put great geeky collectibles inside GameStop stores. While the two companies have done that, there’s another phase to their plan: later this month, the first offline ThinkGeek store will open on September 25 at the Florida Mall in Orlando.

  It’s not clear why they chose Orlando: neither company is based in Florida. The store is described as a “concept store,” which may or may not lead to even more ThinkGeek stores spreading worldwide, in addition to the geeky-collectible merchandise that GameStop stores already stock. Brands mentioned in the press release are Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Nintendo, Marvel, and Minecraft, and the store will offer “collectibles, gadgets, and apparel.”

  “We are combining the power of the ThinkGeek brand with the retail expertise of GameStop to deliver a new store concept that will amaze and appeal to a broad range of customers from collectors to pop culture fans,” GameStop’s president of U.S. stores said in a statement in the announcement of this new team effort.

  ThinkGeek has been an online retailer since 1999, but this will be its first real-life retail venture. GameStop is best known for its stores under that name, but also operates mobile phone stores that are resellers of AT&T Wireless and of Apple products.

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uHealth Group Challenges E-Cig Makers After Tests Find High Levels Of Toxic Chemicals In Most Productsr

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  (Mike Mozart)

  A health watchdog group took legal action against some of the country’s largest e-cigarette manufacturers for failing to properly warn consumers about the risk of such products after tests show that most produce high levels of toxic chemicals.

  The Center for Environmental Health conducted tests of 97 e-cigarettes and other “vaping” products from two dozen makers including Imperial Tobacco’s Vuse brand, NJoy, and RJ Reynolds’ blu brand for the report [PDF] titled “A Smoking Gun: Cancer Causing Chemicals in E-cigarettes.”

  The report – which the group claims is the first-ever large sampling of actual e-cigarettes and vaping products tested simulating real-world use – found that 50 out of the 97 e-cigarettes tested pose a serious cancer risk.

  The products used in the tests were purchased at easily accessible businesses such as 7-Eleven, Rite Aid, online retailers, and vape stores in the Bay Area.

  According to the report, 90% of the companies had at least one product that produced high levels of formaldehyde or acetaldehydeone or both, representing a violation of California safety standards.

  

  The two chemicals have been found to cause cancer and are also linked to genetic damage, birth defects and reduced fertility.

  “The testing showed that 21 products produced a level of one of the chemicals at more than ten times the state safety standard, and seven products produced one of the chemicals at more than 100 times the safety level,” said CEH in a press release on Wednesday.

  

  Most e-cigarettes and vaping products included high levels of toxic chemicals. [Click to Enlarge]

  While some consumers believe that nicotine-free e-cigarettes are safe, the CEH testing found high levels of the chemicals even in several of these varieties.

  For example, the report found one nicotine-free product produced acetaldehyde at more than 13 times the state legal safety threshold and formaldehyde at more than 74 times the threshold.

  “Anyone who thinks that vaping is harmless needs to know that our testing unequivocally shows that it’s not safe to vape,” said Michael Green, Executive Director of CEH. “This is especially troubling given the reckless marketing practices of the e-cigarette industry, which targets teens and young people, and deceives the public with unfounded health and safety claims.”

  In its legal claims [PDF], the group alleges that e-cigarette manufacturers are breaking California’s consumer protection laws.

  “Our legal action aims to force the industry to comply with the law and create pressure to end their most abusive practices,” Green says.

  According to the legal actions, the companies can resolve the issues if they agree to a binding agreement that recall products already sold, provide clear and reasonable warnings for products sold in the future, and pay an appropriate civil penalty based on violations.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uGeneral Mills Selling Off Green Giant, Le Sueur Vegetable Brands In $765M Dealr

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  (jaycoxfilm)

  General Mills has had enough frozen and canned vegetables, it seems, as the company announced it’s selling off its Green Giant and Le Sueur brands for $765 million in cash. It’s been trying to move away from packaged food as consumers’ tastes have changed, and this appears to be one more way it’s shedding its old image as it looks for a new approach to selling food.

  The new owner is B&G Foods, a company that owns brands like Molly McButter cheese flavoring and Pirate’s Booty, though General Mills said it will still operate Green Giant in Europe and other export markets under license from B&G, reports the Wall Street Journal.

  With all the cash it’s getting in the deal, General Mills says it’s planning on funding share buybacks and reducing its debt. The company has been struggling to keep customers as tastes move away from packaged food like Hamburger Helper and toward foods with healthy, fresh ingredients. As it tries to play catch-up, General Mills has had to cut jobs and close down plants.

  And though one might think parting with a brand that’s so familiar to shoppers would be a bad move — who doesn’t know the Jolly Green Giant? — General Mills said once it redirected resources away from supporting the brand, it reviewed the business and decided it just wasn’t as valuable as it once was.

  The deal benefits B&G by giving it a stake in the frozen-food market, which it didn’t have previously.

  General Mills to Sell Green Giant, Le Sueur for $765 Million [Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uMysteriously Closed Walmarts Will Reopen In October Or November As Plannedr

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  (Mike Mozart)
  

  You may remember that this past spring, Walmart abruptly closed five stores in four different states to repair mysterious plumbing problems, leaving employees to find new jobs or maybe transfer to other nearby Walmarts. The closing was only ever meant to be temporary, though, and the stores have started to hire new and returning employees to staff the stores.

  The closing of five stores at once for the same ostensible reason was so unusual that conspiracy theories circulated: some were government-related and some were related to Walmart union-busting. Skeptics pointed out that Walmart hadn’t even filed for work permits for the theoretical plumbing work, and that it was extremely unlikely that five stores in different parts of the country had the same urgent plumbing problem at the same time, requiring the stores to close with only a few hours’ notice.

  The store closures affected 2,200 people, some of whom followed their customers to other nearby Walmarts during the shutdown. Now the company is inviting these workers to return to the stores when they reopen, which a spokesman said will happen in late October or early November. The work isn’t done yet: “While we continue to conduct plumbing repairs and store upgrades, our goal is to begin serving customers by late October or early November,” a Walmart spokesperson told Reuters.

  The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is behind OUR Walmart, an organization that isn’t a union but has been helping Walmart’s “associates” to organize and ask for better treatment and pay. The union filed a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board about the closings, noting that one of the stores that closed, in Pico Rivera, California, was a center of OUR Walmart organizing. They speculate that the store was closed as a pretense to shut down workers’ organizing efforts, and other stores that had no union-ish activity were also closed, as “cover.”

  Wal-Mart to reopen five U.S. stores at center of union complaint [Reuters]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uWhy Don’t Device Manufacturers Just Start Leasing Phones To Consumers?r

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  (William Hook)

  When phone carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile are happy to rent phones to customers, and Apple is the one phone manufacturer with its own network of stores to sell phones directly to consumers, what’s there to stop Apple from just leasing phones to customers directly? Even carriers would like this idea better, since they could sell iPhone leases instead of needing to buy them from Apple first. Everyone wins… but would consumers like this idea?

  This isn’t something that Apple is planning, as far as we know, but is just a proposal from an equities research company thinking ahead to the future of the wireless industry and of how mobile device manufacturers could maximize

  Now all of the major U.S. carriers prefer selling devices for a flat price or financing them over contracts with device subsidies, and some no longer offer contracts at all. Device leasing is an alternative that carriers could offer to customers scared of the real sticker price on a smartphone, and the best part is that customers bring them back, creating a better supply of used devices that haven’t been used for a full two-year upgrade cycle.

  Think of phones like cars: when you’re done paying off a car, you might want to keep it as long as possible to enjoy life without a car payment. People are behaving the same way with phones once they finally pay them off after 12, 18, or 24-month terms. Putting customers on leases would force them to upgrade more often. That would be great for carriers and phone manufacturers, but not necessarily for customers.

  Smartphone leasing; the preferred model of US carriers, and a win for AAPL too [Macquarie Research]
  Apple Could Lease IPhones to Help Spur Upgrades: Macquarie [Bloomberg]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist