uJet.com Decides To Drop $50 Annual Membership Feer

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• Only a few months after it launched — and within the three-month free membership window — Jet.com is changing up how it works: the company is ditching the $50 annual membership fee it had charged shoppers for upfront discounts, and will instead stick with offering smaller discounts on large orders.

  That $50 membership fee — which came with three months of free access — was supposed to provide a big chunk of Jet’s revenue and thus, be its main source for profit. In exchange for that fee, members reaped discounts of around 7% on individual products. Shoppers would then unlock additional discounts in the 4-5% range the more products they added to their orders.

  Jet will now rely on shoppers lured in by those “Smart Cart” savings, something company executives think will work. They said the idea of dropping the membership fee came when they realized shoppers were adjusting to “Smart Cart” savings more quickly than they expected, and didn’t really need those upfront discounts to bring them to the site.

  “It turns out 4 to 5 percent is enough of a discount for shoppers,” CEO Marc Lore told Re/code, talking about tests the company ran recently where it raised the prices on some products. “Conversions are incredible, and [they] don’t get that much better as we reduce prices.”

  Many products on Jet will now simply match the lowest price elsewhere, instead of trying to beat it. But Jet is hoping those Smart Cart savings will be enough to set it apart.

  As for customers who already paid $50 and were still in the free three-month period, we’d assume Jet would refund those memberships, and have reached out to the company to confirm that.

  Jet.com Overhauls Business Model, Kills $50 Membership Fee to Broaden Appeal [Re/code]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uWashington Pushes For Pesticide Transparency In Retail Marijuanar

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  For decades, buying pot off the street sometimes meant you had to take the seller’s word about the quality and origin of their product. But with some states legalizing retail marijuana sales in the U.S., there’s an opportunity for consumer safeguards and increased transparency for pot purchasers.

  The Seattle Times reports that, starting this week, marijuana growers and processors in Washington state that meet new state standards [PDF] for things like labeling, safe handling, and pesticide screening, can apply to obtain an “enhanced seal of approval” from the state.

  Washington does already require screening for mold and microbes, but the state isn’t mandating that companies also undertake the often-expensive process of screening for pesticides. Rather, it is hoping that the incentive of carrying that new label will be enough to make it worth their while.

  However, though the rules don’t ban pesticides or require testing, growers are still only allowed to use “approved” pesticides that have been deemed by the state’s department of agriculture as “allowed for use in the production, processing, and handling of mari­juana.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uAT&T Gets The Go-Ahead From FCC To Enable WiFi Calling For iPhonesr

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  After AT&T had to delay enabling WiFi calling on iPhones — a move it was expected to make, but didn’t, with the release of iOS 9 recently — the carrier is finally getting the go-ahead it needed from the Federal Communications Commission to roll out the feature to its customers.

  The phone company was waiting on a waiver from the FCC that would allow it to launch WiFi calling despite the fact that the system doesn’t work reliably with TTY — a teletypewriter for the hearing-impaired. An alternative feature known as RTT (real-time text) that does work with WiFi calling won’t be available until 2016.

  AT&T says while it’s grateful that the FCC decided to grant its request, AT&T senior executive vice president Jim Cicconi added that it’s still weird that rivals Sprint and T-Mobile are allowed to offer WiFi calling without even asking for the waiver, writing on the company site that “we are left scratching our heads as to why the FCC still seems intent on excusing the behavior of T-Mobile and Sprint, who have been offering these services without a waiver for quite some time.”

  Instead of trying to go after Sprint and T-Mobile or opening an investigation and allowing those companies to now apply for waivers, Cicconi says the FCC is basically implying that “that their prior flaunting of FCC rules will be ignored. This is exactly what we meant when our letter spoke of concerns about asymmetric regulation.”

  We still don’t know when AT&T will actually launch WiFi calling, but will update this post when that information becomes public.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uToyota Plans To Have Self-Driving Car For The Masses By 2020r

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  Toyota attempted to break away from the self-driving car fanfare last month by announcing it would instead invest $50 million into creating “life-saving intelligent” vehicles that weren’t necessarily autonomous. Today, the company made it clear that it’s also pursuing the fully driver-less route, revealing plans to release a commercially available self-driving car by 2020.

  The year 2020 is gearing up to be a big one in the self-driving car market with automakers and tech companies like Google, General Motors and Nissan all reportedly planning to have such vehicles available by then, CNET reports.

  As for Toyota, the car company says it has already been testing a self-driving vehicle – dubbed the Mobility Teammate Concept – on one of Tokyo’s busiest expressways.

  The car, a modified Lexus GS, has so far safely and successfully changed lanes and merged into and exited out of highways without the help of a human driver, the company tells CNET.

  “Interactions between drivers and cars should mirror those between close friends who share a common purpose,” the company said in a statement, “sometimes watching over each other and sometimes helping each other out.”

  Toyota’s previously committed to investing $50 million in intelligent vehicles over the course of five years to establish joint research centers at Stanford University in California and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  The initiative’s stated goal was to “improve every-day living through artificial intelligence supported technologies” and develop “life-saving intelligent vehicles and life-improving robots.”

  The car company – which has been building industrial robotic devices for decades – said the investment wasn’t really about self-driving vehicles. Instead, it put the focus on combining the best of the autonomous car with one driven by a real human to improve users’ quality of life.

  At the time, the program aimed to create intelligent vehicles that would “recognize objects around the vehicle in diverse environments, provide elevated judgment of surrounding conditions, and safely collaborate with vehicle occupants, other vehicles, and pedestrians.” And that sounds a lot like an autonomous vehicle to us.

  News of Toyota’s foray into commercially produced autonomous vehicles comes just two weeks after Apple announced it planned to beat everyone to the punch by setting a target ship date for its self-driving in 2019.

  Toyota expects self-driving cars to hit the road by 2020 [CNET]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uPeet’s Coffee & Tea Scoops Up Stumptown Roastersr

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  Two coffee companies are coming together in a caffeinated embrace, pledging to combine their beans and walk off into the sunset together: Peet’s Coffee & Tea has bought high-end coffee brand Stumptown Roasters that has created quite the buzz for itself among dedicated customers.

  Stumptown Coffee, based in Portland, OR, won’t be sold in Peet’s cafes or vice versa, both companies assured customers. In fact, not much will change on the consumer side after the two become one, reports the New York Times.

  “We both fit well under a family of coffee brands run independently and treated as separate businesses but with similar values,” said Joth Ricci, president of Stumptown.

  One thing Peet’s is looking forward to is learning how to hook the popular kids, after Stumptown’s success peddling cold-brewed coffee in retro brown jars and selling a canned version of its popular nitro cold-brewed coffee.

  “In about 2011 or 2012, when Stumptown first produced this stubby bottle that was the first cold-brewed ready-to-drink product, we knew it was onto something,” said Dave Burwick, chief executive of Peet’s.

  Going fancy is all the rage these days: just last year, Starbucks went after the specialty coffee segment by opening up a roastery and cafe in its home town of Seattle, where it offers up a fancier brand called Starbucks Reserve.

  Peet’s majority owner also holds majority stakes in Caribou Coffee Company as well as Jacobs Douwe Egberts, a European coffee operation.

  Peet’s Buys Stumptown Coffee Roasters [New York Times]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uBankrupt American Apparel Turns To Same Hedge Fund That Helped RadioShackr

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  At first glance, American Apparel and RadioShack don’t seem to have much in common: one uses provocative advertisements to sell leggings, T-shirts and other clothing items, while the other focuses more on the sale of wireless and electronic products. Unfortunately, the things the two companies do have in common aren’t so great: both have suffered through years of slumping sales that eventually led them to, separately, file for bankruptcy protection. And that means they could soon share a common hero in hedge fund Standard General. 

  Reuters reports that just two days after American Apparel filed for bankruptcy, the company announced it would start a revamp of its struggling business by giving ownership to Standard General – the same investors that provided RadioShack with hundreds of millions of dollars during its own difficult time. 

  The Los Angeles-based retailer says it will work with bondholders to continue operations, rather than simply auctioning off company assets for a cash infusion.

  “American Apparel is in the early stages of an operating turnaround,” the company’s lawyer told a federal bankruptcy court during a hearing to approve $90 million in financing to pay bills and wages for its 8,500 employees.

  Under the company’s plan with Standard General, it hopes to hire new talent, boost internet sales, rebuild the brand and give a fresh new look to products, Reuters reports.

  American Apparel also plans to continue utilizing its California manufacturing base. A move it says could help get new product to stores before the holiday shopping season.

  The retailer’s turnaround plan is the second in three months. Back in July, the company announced it would close some locations and create a new line of clothing as part of a $30 million cost-cutting turnaround effort.

  American Apparel seeks fashion revival under bankruptcy plan [Reuters]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uVolkswagen Recall Repairs Could Start In January, Might Take All Year To Completer

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  The new head of embattled car manufacturer Volkswagen says the company might not be able to start recalling diesel cars that cheat on emissions tests until January, and that it might take most of 2016 for all repairs to be completed. 

  “If all goes according to plan, we can start the recall in January. All the cars should be fixed by the end of 2016,” said new VW CEO, Matthias Mueller, according to Reuters’ translation of German publication Frankfuter Allgemeine Zeitung.

  The affected vehicles — around 11 million worldwide — were equipped with “defeat device” software that allows the cars to pass emissions tests even though some of these vehicles were releasing up to 40 times the U.S. allowable standard for some toxins.

  Mueller went on to specify that any remedy related to the nearly 500,000 vehicles affected in the U.S. would first have to be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, which first brought VW’s emissions transgression to light.

  In terms of pointing the finger at someone, the Mueller says he believes that only a few employees were involved in the deception, while acknowledging that the company would have to scrutinize all its brands and models in order to recover from the debacle.

  In fact, he says an “evolution” would be needed to get the company back on track, and that it could “shine again” in two to three years, Reuters reports.

  “This crisis gives us an opportunity to overhaul Volkswagen’s structures,” Mueller said. “We want to make the company slimmer, more decentralized and give the brands more responsibility.”

  VW CEO says recall to start in January, be completed end-2016 [Reuters]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist