uBidding Opens Tomorrow For A Chance To Stay In The Cleveland House From ‘A Christmas Story’r

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• If you’ve always dreamed of walking in the pink-bunny-suit clad footsteps of Ralphie from A Christmas Story, now is your chance — well, rather, tomorrow is your chance: that’s when bidding opens for a chance to stay for a weekend at the Cleveland home featured in the 1983 movie.

  Starting Dec. 1 at 5:30, fans of the movie can place their bids for the opportunity to stay at the house for two days and two nights with three guests, an experience that’s only available for one winner every year.

  It’s a “VIP experience,” according to the charitable foundation that runs the auction every year, with $800 of themed gifts up for grabs, including a Major Award Leg Lamp, tickets to Great Lakes Science Center, some kind of BB gun involvement (careful, lest you shoot your eye out), decoder pins, “and much more,” says the A Christmas Story House Foundation on the auction’s website.

  All proceeds from the auction will go toward maintaining and restoring the historic neighborhood around the landmark house. The foundation provides grants to qualified residents for home restoration projects.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uAmazon Prime May Soon Be Portal For Other Streaming Video Servicesr

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• After a few years of deconstructing video entertainment into dozens of individual streaming sites, we’re beginning to see a trend toward re-bundling of those services. Hulu sells access to Showtime, Sling TV offers streaming HBO, and now a new report claims that Amazon Prime will soon be offering one-stop shopping for other streaming video companies.

  This is according to Bloomberg, which reports that Amazon is looking to start offering these third party services as soon as next month.

  Amazon Prime already includes access to a limited library of HBO content at no extra cost, though it’s only a fraction of what you’d find on HBO Go or HBO Now. The company’s Fire streaming devices for TVs have apps for competing services like Netflix, Starz, and Hulu, but most of these subscriptions have to be purchased through a cable company or directly from the streaming sites.

  Bloomberg reports that the change to Amazon would bring unspecified streaming content under the Prime umbrella for subscribers. The idea appears to be similar to how Showtime content is included as just another category in the Hulu interface, rather than a separate app.

  For the streamers, Amazon Prime brings some 40 million subscribers to the table. It also offers the ability to handle billing and customer service — two areas that content companies have been reluctant to get into.

  [via DSLreports.com]

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uAnonymous Donors Leave $500,000 Check In Minnesota Salvation Army Kettler

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  Anonymous donors in Minnesota’s Twin Cities were certainly in the giving mood over the weekend, slipping a $500,000 check into a Salvation Army kettle. Unsurprisingly, it’s snagged the record for the area’s biggest kettle donation to date.

  The charitable organization said that the donation made at a grocery store on Saturday handily beats the previous record for a single kettle donation, which was $25,000, reports The Minneapolis Star Tribune. Usually, a kettle brings in about $30 in an hour.

  “Yes, we believe the check is definitely good,” a Salvation Army spokeswoman told the paper on Monday. “We have been in touch with the donors, but they want to remain anonymous. This couple has supported the Army before with large checks in kettles, but never anything close to this level.”

  The couple behind the donation said the act of generosity was their way of saying thank you, and was made to encourage others to do the same. On a smaller scale, perhaps.

  “You get to a point in life where it’s time to take care of others, the way you were taken care of,” the donors said in a statement issued through the charity.

  Couple slip $500,000 check into Salvation Army kettle in Rosemount [The Minneapolis Star Tribune]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uTarget Website Crashes, Spoiling Shoppers’ Cyber Mondayr

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• Savvy holiday shoppers who didn’t want to fight the crowds on Black Friday may still be battling congested online traffic in order to obtain the plethora of Cyber Monday deals today. That’s especially true if you’re trying to score some goodies from Target, as the retailer’s website crashed this morning. 

  The Washington Post reports that at about 10:20 a.m. ET today, Target’s homepage, and the pages for many of its products, stopped shoppers in their online tracks with the explanation that “high traffic’s causing delays.”

  Target tells the Post that it is working to restore full functionality to the website. Until then, however, the company will regulate the flow of traffic on its site.

  By noon ET Monday, some shoppers were able to access the site. However, our attempts to reach the Target.com homepage from computers in Pennsylvania and New York both turned up “Access Denied” error messages.

  

  The retailer’s online woes are likely a result of its Cyber Week promotion which offers 15% off “virtually everything online.”

  “Both traffic and order volumes are exceeding Target’s Thursday Black Friday event, which was our biggest day ever for online sales,” the company said in a statement Monday. “To help manage the volume, we have been metering traffic to the site.”

  This, of course, isn’t Target’s first run-in with heavy traffic wreaking havoc on its website. Over the summer, the retailer’s site crashed during the debut of its limited-time collaborative Lilly Pulitzer line.

  The company said at the time that the site didn’t technically “crash,” but that Target did make the strategic decision to limit some customers’ access to certain parts of Target.com. The site was also made inaccessible for several minutes to avoid a crash.

  In 2011, the company suffered a months-long glitchy mess with Target.com. The most high-profile problem occurred in mid-September when the rush to purchase items from the new Missoni for Target line crashed the site. Problems continued after that, including further crashes, missing items and mysterious debit card charges… and re-charges… and re-charges.

  Target’s Web site is experiencing delays on Cyber Monday [The Washington Post]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uSouth Dakota Ghost Town Is Still On The Market, Could Be Yours For A Mere $250,000r

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  If you’re in the market for a new home, you could surely find something for $250,000 — heck, why settle for looking for a house when you could just buy an entire ghost town? An abandoned South Dakota town that was on the market for $400,000 back in 2014 is still up for grabs, and now at a bargain price.

  Swett, S.D. is still on the market after 16 months, reports The Rapid City Journal. The unincorporated hamlet about two hours from Rapid City comes with a bar (currently closed), a single house, workshop, three trailers and 6.16 acres of land.

  The real estate agent in charge of the listing says she fielded an avalanche of phone calls and emails from people interested in buying the town when the news first hit, many of them with quite… unique plans for the property.

  She tells the Rapid City Journal that the weirdest idea came “from a guy out of Nebraska who wanted to bring in 2,000 women from Russia, and 600 men who were felons, and he was going to build acrylic houses and run cameras 24 hours a day,” she said. “I told him he needed to call the state because I couldn’t deal with the permits for anything like that.”

  Three written offers fell through for various reasons, but the agent says she’s still getting phone calls, and is surprised that the town hasn’t sold yet. The bank has now cleaned up the land, hauling away three decaying mobile homes and other paraphernalia, and has deeply discounted the price in the hopes of finally finding a buyer.

  “They even installed shiny new town signs for Swett,” the agent said. “The old ones had bullet holes in them.”

  FOR SALE: An entire South Dakota town [The Rapid City Journal]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uStudy: Airlines Padded Flight Schedules To Improve On-Time Performance Statsr

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  So many things can delay a flight — weather, traffic, minor technical glitches to name just a few — and yet nearly three-quarters of all flights arrived at their destination on schedule last year. A new study suggests that this achievement might not just be the result of increased efficiency, but of padded schedules.

  OAG Aviation Worldwide, a British company that collects and analyzes travel data, found that since 1996 many airlines have increased the block of time set aside for flights, the Los Angeles Times reports. 

  For example, the company examined 1,400 flights scheduled between Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport and found that the allotted time for the trips increased 8% on average from 1996 to 2015.

  According to the study, none of the flights in 1996 took longer than 90 minutes, while those scheduled nearly 20 years later had flight times between 91 and 110 minutes.

  OAG suggests that increased travel time was tacked on by airlines seeking to post better on-time rates to attract customers.

  “At airports which are congested, airlines need to keep schedules realistic so their timetables are reliable,” the study said.

  A spokesperson for an airline trade group, Airlines For America, tells the L.A. Times that the notion is simply wrong.

  “We have the same goals as our customers, which is to get them, their luggage and packages to their destination safely and on time,” the spokesperson said.

  Are airlines padding flight times to improve on-time performance? [The Los Angeles Times]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uNYC’s Salt Warning Labels Set To Debut At Chain Restaurants This Weekr

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  Menus at New York City’s chain eateries will be getting a makeover this week, as the city’s rule requiring warning labels for particularly salty menu items goes into effect.

  The rule is the first of its kind, and will mean that chain restaurants have to include a salt-shaker emblem on any offering that contains more than the recommended daily limit of 2,300 milligrams — around a teaspoon — of sodium. Here’s the warning label:

  

  This is the latest move in NYC’s nutritional mission, in an effort to get residents to cut down on salt. Health experts say most people consume too much sodium — on average, about 3,400 mg per day — which could lead to high blood pressure and heart problems.

  Many folks might not realize how much salt they’re eating, health advocates say: for example, Applebee’s Chicken Fajitas Rollup clocks in at 3,600 mg of sodium; Chili’s Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad has 3,470 mg and Olive Garden’s Tour of Italy entrée packs in 3,830 mg of salt per serving.

  “With the high sodium warning label, New Yorkers will have easily accessible information that can affect their health,” city Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said in September, when the Board of Health approved the new warning.

  Some restaurateurs are against the salt labels, saying that new federal menu labeling guidelines will be taking effect in 2016, which could require them to revamp their menus twice.

  “This is just the latest in a long litany of superfluous hoops that restaurants here in New York must jump through. Every one of these cumbersome new laws makes it tougher and tougher for restaurants to find success,” Melissa Fleischut, President and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Association, said when the salt initiative passed in September.

  Though restaurants are supposed to comply as of Tuesday, NYC won’t begin collecting fines until March 1.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist