uHere’s What You Should Be Shopping For In Januaryr

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  The holiday season is over, the sales are on, and smart Consumerists know that now is the time to do some serious shopping. What should you look for on store shelves in the coming months? Let our price-tracking colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports lead the way, straight to the gym sign-up desk and the winter coat aisle of your favorite department store.

  Clothing stores have actually cited the mild weather as the reason why sales are down $185 million from what experts anticipated based on last year’s numbers. That’s why winter clothing is an important item on the list: in some areas of the country, winter weather is just starting.

  Bedding: White sales are one venerable retail tradition that are still with us, though now sheets and towels come in a variety of colors. Don’t depend on thread counts to tell you the quality of a set of sheets: it’s possible to add more “threads” without adding actual softness or durability by simply winding smaller cotton threads together and weaving those into the sheet.

  Fitness machines: You can find good deals on all fitness equipment during New Year’s resolution season, but you’ll find especially good deals on elliptical trainers and treadmills. Shopping online isn’t always such a good idea: the feel of every machine differs, and you should try the exact model you plan to buy in person, even if you ultimately order it online.

  Toys: Of course, you’ll find plenty of toys left over from retailers’ grand stock-up for the holiday season.

  6 Products on Deep Discount in January [Consumer Reports]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uDedicated Cheese Fan Drives 7 Hours To Make First Cut Into 1,000-Pound Provoloner

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  Here at Consumerist, we respect and love cheese, and fans of cheese. So of course, by all the dairy that we hold dear, we couldn’t pass up the chance to call your attention to a story about a man who drove all the way to Canada from Connecticut so he could be the first one to cut into a 1,000-pound hunk of provolone.

  Let’s get the joke out now: yes, he traveled 460 miles to cut the cheese. It wasn’t just about his love of the stuff, however, reports The Wilton Bulletin. As with any cheese tale worth telling, there’s a backstory involved.

  When he was living in Brooklyn during World War II as a 12-year-old, Italian cheese was barred from the country. The man’s family was Italian, and he missed having tasty provolone around. Soon after the war ended, he says he and the other neighborhood kids were playing stickball when they heard a local store had just “got the biggest cheese in the world.”

  They dropped the game to investigate, of course, as when does when there’s huge cheese nearby.

  “Then we saw it,” he told the paper. “It was in a crate — 12 feet long, three feet square; they took it out and put it on a table — a 1,000-pound provolone.”

  Saying it made an “incredible impression” on him after going for so long without it, he felt a surge of nostalgia recently when he came across a story about a super-sized provolone at a New Jersey grocer. The memories came flooding back, and he called the grocer to see if he could visit for the cutting. When that provolone turned out to be only 750 pounds — and not Italian, to boot — he was disappointed.

  So then he Googled “1,000-lb provolone” and got a hit from an Italian food emporium in Ottawa, Canada, which imports a 1,000-pound provolone from northern Italy every year to cut and sell during the season, he had to investigate. And when called the grocer up and explained, he said the grocer was more excited then he was.

  “He told me absolutely to come, that I could make the first cut; he was very enthusiastic,” he told the paper, so he and his son made the trip in late November.

  He was greeted by the hooplah one might expect from the local media for such an occasion, though he says the hype was a but crazy for him. As for cutting the cheese, well, it was surprisingly difficult.

  “It wasn’t easy,” he said. “The cheese was very hard.”

  He did get to taste the first piece, and take some home with him. But lest you think he’s the kind of guy who will drive all that distance just for food, think again.

  “The cheese was great, but I didn’t wait 70 years and drive seven hours to get a piece of cheese,” he said. “I did it to relive a memory.”

  Resident drives to Canada for 1,000-pound cheese [The Wilton Bulletin]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uYahoo Kills Streaming Video Service You Probably Hadn’t Heard Ofr

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• Unless you were, like some of us here at Consumerist HQ, such an ardent fan of Community that you followed the sitcom when it made the leap from network TV to streaming video, you are probably only vaguely aware that something called Yahoo Screen even existed. Well it did. Notice the use of the past tense.

  Mashable has confirmed that the streaming service — which lost millions of dollars on original programming like the revived Community and Sin City Saints (apparently a show about a basketball team) — has gone kaput.

  “At Yahoo, we’re constantly reviewing and iterating on our products as we strive to create the best user experience,” a rep for the company, which is currently looking to sell off its Internet business and live off its investment in alibaba.com. “With that in mind, video content from Yahoo as well as our partners has been transitioned from Yahoo Screen to our Digital Magazine properties so users can discover complementary content in one place.”

  Mashable notes that going to Screen.yahoo.com just redirects to the Yahoo homepage, and that the service’s Twitter now states that “We’re merging content to create a simpler viewing experience!” and tells people to check out the Yahoo Twitter feed instead.

  We still have the Screen iOS app on an iPad here in the Consumerist Cave, so we fired it up (for the first time since we binge-watched all the new Community episodes sometime last year) and found that there is still content on the app:

  

  Yahoo Screen’s failure comes as numerous other major content and telecom companies are branching out into streaming services intended to compete with or complement longstanding market leaders like Netflix and YouTube.

  Streaming video is undoubtedly going to dominate the TV marketplace in the years to come, but the high cost of content acquisition makes it a risky proposition for a company like Yahoo that can’t afford to lose millions while building up an audience base.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uKohl’s Math Means Percentages Don’t Make Any Senser

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• In retail, Target Math is when one of two things happen: an item on sale isn’t actually marked down (sometimes it becomes more expensive) or an item becomes more expensive when you buy it in greater quantities. Maybe we need to start tracking a new variant called Kohl’s Math, where percentage-off signs don’t actually reflect the “sale” price that they’re supposed to.

  Kohl’s, after all, is a store where merchandise is perpetually on sale, and percentages are essential to its business model. A few years ago, a reader wrote in, horrified at a sign informing customers that a sale taking 65% off, then 25% off, since this did not mean that the merchandise was now 85% off.

  

  Reader Matt noticed this sign at Kohl’s, which advertises 50% off a shirt that originally cost $44, making it $19.99. No, that’s not how percentages work unless you’re rounding down to the closest $10, which isn’t a thing that any retailer does.

  Shoppers have accused Kohl’s of posting prices that don’t reflect reality in other, less consumer-friendly ways: customers in California sued the retailer, accusing it of posting “original prices” that no one had ever paid on their merchandise, giving customers a false impression of how much money they saved. Wouldn’t saving 54.5% be better than saving 50%?

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uBar Replies To Customer’s New Year’s Eve Complaint Of Being Ignored While Fellow Patron Has Heart Attackr

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• Often when we hear about a business’ response to a customer complaint spreading furiously on social media, it’s because people are shocked by the company’s response or because someone who works there was perhaps inappropriate in their reply. But when the manager of an Indianapolis bar replied on Facebook to a patron who slammed the establishment for ignoring her party’s questions about the bill to deal with an “overdosed junkie” — in reality, an elderly woman who had a heart attack — the Internet seemed quite pleased.

  Kilroy’s Bar and Grill Downtown has been in the social media spotlight after an angry customer posted a review on Facebook after New Year’s Eve, reports The Indianapolis Star. The women said that she won’t go back “after the way we were treated when we spent $700+ and having our meal ruined by watching a dead person being wheeled out from an overdose,” according to screenshots of the post, which has since been taken down, along with the woman’s Facebook profile.

  She wrote that her group was attempting to talk to manager to clear up their bill, and that the worker screamed and walked away, telling them that “someone dying was was more important then us being there making us feel like your business didn’t matter.”

  “But I guess allowing a Junkie in the building to overdose on your property is more important that paying customers who are spending a lot of money!!” the patron wrote.

  

  Kilroy’s managing partner replied in a post that again, has now been taken down, to address her complaints.

  “The ‘overdosing junkie’ that you speak of was a 70+ year old woman who had a heart attack. Thankfully she was finally revived at the hospital and survived. It sounds like you were very concerned about her so I thought you should know,” he wrote, adding, “But I can completely understand why you think being intoxicated jerks who didn’t understand your bill should take priority over a human life.”

  He added that the party’s server doesn’t curse, thanking them for making her cry on such a busy night.

  “I’m sure she really enjoyed working on New Year’s Eve just to deal with people such as yourself,” Burton added.

  As for the customer’s pledge never to return, he’s cool with that.

  “But honestly, I’m glad to hear you won’t be coming back to Kilroy’s because we wouldn’t want anyone as cold hearted and nasty as you returning,” he wrote.

  The bar’s page has received an outpouring of support from around the world for how the manager handled the complaint, though it’s asked people not to send mean messages to anyone who may have the same name as the complainer. Kilroy’s has also set up a crowdfunding page for the heart attack victim’s medical bills.

  “The lady survived but has a long way to go. Let’s help them out!” Kilroy’s wrote.

  Kilroy’s goes viral after response to angry customer [Indy Star]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uU.S. Files Civil Lawsuit Against Volkswagen Over Emissions Scandalr

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  It may be a new year, but that doesn’t mean Volkswagen can wash its hands of the ongoing diesel emissions scandal affecting 11 million vehicles. Today, the U.S. Dept. of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against the carmaker over its use of “defeat devices” to cheat on emissions tests.

  The complaint [PDF], filed today in a federal court in Michigan, alleges violations of the Clean Air Act for the approximately 500,000 VW “clean diesel” vehicles sold in the U.S. The carmaker could face upwards of billions of dollars in penalties if found liable.

  “The United States will pursue all appropriate remedies against Volkswagen to redress the violations of our nation’s clean air laws,” Assistant Attorney General John Cruden, head of the departments environment and natural resources division, said.

  The Dept. of Justice, which was rumored to be considering filing a criminal complaint against the company in September, can still pursue criminal charges against VW, a DOJ official tells Reuters.

  In September, the Environmental Protection Agency, along with the California Air Resources Board, issued a notice of compliance to VW after determining that nearly 500,000 diesel 4-cylinder model year 2009 to 2015 Volkswagen and Audi vehicles contained a “sophisticated software algorithm,” programmed to detect when the car is undergoing official emissions testing, and to only turn on full emissions control systems – the temperature conditioning mode – during that testing.

  However, the effectiveness of these vehicles’ pollution emissions control devices is greatly reduced during all normal driving situations.

  “This results in cars that meet emissions standards in the laboratory or testing station, but during normal operation, emit nitrogen oxides, or NOx, at up to 40 times the standard,” the notice states.

  Under the Clean Air Act, vehicle manufacturers are required to certify to the EPA that their products will meet applicable federal emission standards to control air pollution, and every vehicle sold in the U.S. must be covered by an EPA-issued certificate of conformity.

  Motor vehicles – such as the Volkswagen models in question – equipped with defeat devices, which reduce the effectiveness of the emission control system during normal driving conditions, cannot be certified.

  Days later, VW admitted that nearly 11 million vehicles contained the devices worldwide, and issued a stop sale on the affected cars.

  From there things have only gotten worse for VW. Consumers and other groups have filed lawsuit against the company, and investigators have found additional defeat devices on other VW, Audi, and Porsche models.

  U.S. files civil suit against Volkswagen for environment violations [Reuters]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uWarner Bros. Trying To Block Devices That Get Around 4K Video Copyright Protectionr

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  A week ago, Warner Bros. home video folks announced they would be catering to the growing number of 4K TV owners by releasing 35 recent titles — including Mad Max: Fury Road and The LEGO Movie — on ultra-HD BluRay discs. Two days later, the entertainment giant was in court, suing to stop a company from selling devices that would let users get around the digital copyright protections on these, and other, 4K titles.

  For more than a decade, many content companies have been using technology known as High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), developed and managed by an Intel subsidiary called Digital Content Protection. It’s become the industry standard, with most major studios requiring that manufacturers are HDCP compliant.

  HDCP is intended to prevent wannabe content pirates from making perfect digital copies of protected video and audio files. So if you run an HDMI cable from a 4K BluRay player to some device that isn’t HDCP compatible, it shouldn’t play. We saw this a few years back with some people whose older TVs were unable to watch HBO because they either weren’t HDCP compliant or their version of the tech was out of date.

  The latest version of HDCP (v 2.2) includes encryption for 4K video, and it had been relatively successful in preventing pirated 4K movies and TV shows from hitting file-sharing sites, until recently, when a number of ultra-HD titles stolen from Netflix and Amazon streams began appearing online.

  Last week, both Warner Bros. and Intel’s Digital Content Protection (DCP) filed a lawsuit [PDF] against China-based LegendSky, the makers of a line of products called HDFury, which claim to allow users to get around HDCP 2.2.

  Warner Bros. says this circumventing of HDCP enables users to “access copyrighted works, make and/or distribute copies of copyrighted works, create derivative works of copyrighted works, or publicly perform copyrighted works, all without the permission of the copyright owner.”

  Meanwhile, DCP, which licenses the HDCP technology to some 550 different manufacturers, stands to lose business with the availability of devices that render HDCP meaningless.

  Moreover, the complaint contends that HDFury devices could have a chilling effect on the entire 4K/UHD market.

  “Digital Content owners will be discouraged from creating and distributing UHD content, Digital Device makers will be discouraged from manufacturing and selling devices that display UHD content, and consumers will be deprived of the benefits of UHD,” argue the plaintiffs.

  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) includes provisions that effectively outlaws all but a small handful of reasons for circumventing copyright protections.

  The lawsuit points to a note on the HDFury website where company seems to acknowledge that its products can be used to violate the law.

  “To the letter of the law (the DMCA that is), a black box that removes the HDCP encryption to allow you to use a monitor that does not support HDCP is illegal,” read a statement on the company’s site, per the complaint.

  “LegendSky knew or should have known the purpose and use of the HDFury Devices it offered to the public,” say the plaintiffs, who contend that LegendSky willfully sold illegal HDCP “strippers” for the company’s “own commercial advantage or financial gain.”

  The plaintiff companies say they have sent cease-and-desist demands to LegendSky, but to no avail. They are now asking for the court to issue an injunction that would prevent the company from “importing, manufacturing, offering to the public, providing, using, or otherwise trafficking in” HDCP-circumventing devices.

  [via TorrentFreak]

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist