uKohl’s To Stay Open 170 Hours Straight For Last-Minute Holiday Shoppersr

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  Kohl’s once again wants to make sure you’re able to mark every last item off your holiday shopping list by keeping most of its stores open for more than seven straight days leading up to Christmas. 

  The retailer announced Tuesday that it will one-up its previous efforts to help procrastinators this year, by keeping its doors open for 170 hours — an extra two days longer than last year.

  Customers planning to shop ’til they drop can do so starting at 7 a.m. Dec. 17 until 6 p.m. Dec. 24, Christmas Eve. Kohl’s recommends shoppers check Kohls.com to make sure their preferred store is sticking to those always-open hours.

  “We are opening our doors around-the-clock leading up to Christmas to give customers even more time to get their last-minute gifts,” Michelle Gass, Kohl’s chief merchandise and customer officer, said in a statement.

  This is the third year that Kohl’s has pulled the holiday hours marathon. In addition to extended hours, the company says it will offer last-minute shoppers a plethora of deals and extra savings.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uPepsi Is Planning To Launch An Organic Version Of Gatorade Next Yearr

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  Whenever you take a swig of Gatorade, you’re probably not thinking about the Riptide Rush tree that bore fruit and provided your drink with flavor. But Pepsi wants to change how customers view Gatorade with a flying leap onto the healthy trend bandwagon, by introducing an organic version of the sports beverage next year.

  Yes, really: Al Carey, the CEO of PepsiCo Americas Beverages, said that the company is going to unleash organic Gatorade upon the masses in the near future, reports Business Insider. As for the reason why, one only has to look in the mirror.

  “It’s a consumer interest,” Carey said at Beverage Digest’s Future Smarts conference on Monday. “I think they’re very interested in non-GMO and organic, and to the degree you can make it meaningful to the consumer — do it.”

  Joining Gatorade in the makeover room will be Tropicana, which is set to include a line of non-GMO labeled juices in 2016.

  Pepsi is just the latest brand to pick up what health-conscious consumers are putting down — a slew of food companies and restaurant chains have recently announced changes to their products that are designed to appeal those looking for what they see as natural, healthier choices and flavors, free from GMOs and artificial preservatives: Hershey’s recently promised to ditch artificial flavors in some of its signature items, while Panera, Campbell’s, Schwan, Subway, Aldi, Mondelez and more all removed or have promised to stop using artificial flavors and additives in some of their products in response to consumer demand for less processed foods.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uTarget Temporarily Pulls Swagway “Hoverboards” Over Safety Concernsr

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• Just days after Amazon handed a blow to “hoverboard” manufacturers, pulling the self-balancing scooters (that don’t actually hover) from its marketplace over safety concerns, another major retailer is following suit: Target took down listings for the scooters on Monday. 

  Mashable reports that Target pulled Swagway X1 hoverboards from its website yesterday in the wake of safety concerns related to the device’s potential to catch on fire.

  A spokesperson for Target confirmed it took down the listings to ensure the products had documentation that showed they complied with battery and charger safety standards.

  The company says it plans to re-list the scooters on Tuesday, as Swagway provided the required documentation. The hoverboard manufacturer did not provide comment to Mashable on the products being pulled.

  A search of “hoverboard” on Target’s website on Tuesday morning showed only results for the Razor Hovertrax. A similar search for Swagway came up empty. A link provided by Mashable includes the description for a Swagway scooter in its URL, but the item page lists the item as unavailable.

  Hoverboards, which have been a hot holiday item, have had a less than stellar few weeks. First a family claimed a recently purchased scooter burst into flames while charging, causing significant damage to their home.

  Next, Razor filed a lawsuit against Swagway, accusing the leading hoverboard distributor of patent infringement. And last week, several airlines announced bans on the devices, as the contain lithium batteries.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uPinkberry Bought By Company Behind Cold Stone Creamery, Blimpier

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  For 10 years, Pinkberry has been heaping cereal and candy toppings on to its yogurt-ish frozen desserts, often not far from a Cold Stone Creamery, where employees folded some of those same ingredients into ice cream, possibly while singing a song. Now it looks like the two brands will be under the same corporate umbrella.

  Pinkberry, which operators some 260 stores in 20 countries, announced yesterday that it had been bought by Arizona-based Kahala Brands, which also owns other food court favorites like Blimpie, Tasti D-Lite, Ranch1, and Planet Smoothie, among others. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

  The frozen dessert chain seemingly came out of nowhere during the height of the celebrity-obsessed housing bubble. Much like the recently shuttered Kitson chain of boutique clothing stores, many people learned of Pinkberry by seeing reality stars and TV actors chowing down on the tangy treats.

  But things started to go sour in recent years, most notably after company co-founder Young Lee was arrested in 2012 for assaulting a homeless man. He was later sentenced to seven years behind bars for his crime.

  The post-bubble years have not been kind to the frozen yogurt industry, with some predicting a collapse like the one that befell heavily hyped cupcake chain Crumbs.

  In a statement, Kahala CEO Michael Serruya says the acquisition will “help maximize the brand’s potential for continued evolution and success. It’s an excellent strategic fit for our company and presents an exciting opportunity for future development.”

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uHoliday Travel Predicted To Hit Record High With 100 Million People Planning A Trip This Seasonr

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  Santa Claus isn’t the only one polishing up his ride for the season: more than 100 million travelers are expected to take a trip for the holidays this year, which is a record number for the travel-heavy season. And, of course, it means sharing the roads and skies with more people than usual, which is always fun.

  AAA is projecting year-end holiday travelers to top 100 million for the first time on record, with nearly one in three Americans going somewhere this holiday season. An estimated 100.5 million are going to sojourn farther than 50 miles from home, which is a 1.4% increase over last year and the seventh year in a row that holiday travel has grown.

  If you’re trying to avoid traffic jams and crowds at the airport, the year-end holiday season is defined by AAA as Wednesday, Dec. 23 of this year through Sunday Jan. 3, 2016.

  “The holidays are a time for joining with friends and family, and the record number of people traveling this holiday should make for a joyous travel season,” said Marshall Doney, AAA President and CEO. “Rising incomes and low gas prices are helping to fill stockings this year, and more people than ever will choose to spend those savings on travel this year.”

  Why are we venturing forth in greater numbers than we have in the past? AAA attributes the boost in travel to an ongoing improvement in the labor market, rising incomes and lower prices.

  Though we’ll be taking all kinds of transportation to get to our holiday destinations, more than 90% of travelers (or about 91.3 million people) will drive, a 1.4% increase from last year. Air travel is predicted to go up by 0.7%, with 5.8 million people taking flights to grandma’s house. Another 3.4 million travelers will hop on cruises, trains and buses to get where they most want to be for the holidays.

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uFourth Largest Cigarette Maker Imperial Tobacco Drops “Tobacco” From Its Namer

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• Imperial Tobacco Group, the fourth largest cigarette company in the world, is the latest company to distance itself from its bread and butter by dropping the “tobacco” part of its name. 

  The British company, which recently acquired the Salem, Kool, Winston, blu e-cigarette brands during the Reynolds, Lorillard merger, announced on Tuesday that it would change its name to Imperial Brands, Bloomberg reports.

  The change, which still has to be approved at a February shareholders meeting, was made to better reflect Imperial’s “dynamic, brand-focused business.”

  “Our business is built around great consumer brands,” Imperial said in a statement. “Our growth and specialist brands are the key assets in our portfolio and we continue to focus on building the contribution they make to our volume and revenue development.”

  The company says that the changes will be predominantly focused on its corporate headquarters and website.

  Imperial is the latest tobacco giant to distance itself from cigarettes, albeit in name only. Bloomberg reports that Philip Morris Co. changed its name to Altria Group for similar reasons nearly a decade ago. The Philip Morris name does live on, however, in Philip Morris International. That company, which was spun off from Altria in 2008, is responsible for the non-U.S. sales and marketing of Marlboro and other big-name tobacco brands.

  Cigarette Maker Drops Tobacco From Name, Becomes Imperial Brands [Bloomberg]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uToys ‘R’ Us Tries Bold Experiment In Actually Stocking Toysr

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  Shoppers visit a store called Toys ‘R’ Us because they’re looking for toys, and because they want those toys immediately. Otherwise, wouldn’t they shop online? Yet for the last few years, Toys ‘R’ Us has considered an item “in stock” if they have only three on the shelf, losing out on sales when they didn’t have items that shoppers wanted.

  This holiday season, with a new CEO, they’re reconsidering that strategy, using software to analyze sales and figure out when shelves should be replenished. “If a customer can’t find what they’re looking for at your store 60% of the time, they will shop somewhere else and never come back,” the company’s new head giraffe, David Brandon, told the Wall Street Journal.

  The problem, of course, is that retailers have to strike the right balance between being under-stocked and losing pre-holiday sales, and being over-stocked and spending January marking down toys to get them out the door at a discount. That cuts into profits.

  While Walmart might be right down the strip mall from Toys ‘R’ Us, they have two disadvantages in this game: they tend to stock fewer of some items, and they aren’t always hyper-focused on toys, because they sell everything else.

  Struggling Toys ‘R’ Us Tries Fuller Stores [Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist