uStarbucks Sales Are Up Because People Are Willing To Spend More On Pricy Menu Itemsr

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  (frankieleon)

  In the bid to part customers with their hard-earned cash, Starbucks is raking in the cash these days partly because people are willing to spend money on new, pricier menu items. As it turns out, hiking the price of a croissant is something we’re willing to deal with.

  The coffee chain reported a higher quarterly profit on Thursday, reports the Associated Press, with a 7% jump in sales at U.S. stores.

  Much of that boost is because people are spending more money every time they walk through those doors for their caffeine fix — things like the “Flat White” espresso drink and Teavana iced teas push sales up because they cost more than other drinks, Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Scott Maw said. The company is also charging more for some baked goods, like croissants that are being made with new recipes.

  Beyond Starbucks, American consumers are buying more grub in general, with a 16% bump in food sales from a year ago. Breakfast sandwich sales alone are up 35%, Starbucks said, with about a third of their orders at stores including a food item.

  And while many consumers are on the lookout for a deal, there are plenty who don’t mind paying more for something they see as a worthy cost.

  “What we’re seeing is a premiumization, a trade-up,” Maw said in an interview.

  Starbucks extracts more money with pricier drinks, food [Associated Press]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uComcast CEO Tries To Cheer Up Employees Following Implosion Of Time Warner Cable Mergerr

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  You have to respect a man who had the foresight to allow his dad to build him a multibillion-dollar cable and Internet empire.

  While the majority of American consumers were opposed to the merger of the nation’s two largest cable/Internet providers, there is a large group of people for whom today’s news may be a big downer: Comcast employees.

  In an effort to cheer up his thousands of Kabletown staffers, CEO and Comcast scion-in-chief Brian Roberts wrote them all a heartwarming message.

  “Throughout the process, we have had an amazing team and great momentum and the company has worked hard to deliver strong results,” reads the letter. “Thank you for all you have done to accomplish that. We can now quickly turn our attention to what’s next for Comcast and continue to do great things for our existing customers. We’ve never been in a better position to do that than the one we are in right now.”

  Of course, that brings up the question: If Comcast has truly “never been in a better position,” then why did it think it needed to spend $45 billion on the one cable company with a worse reputation for customer service?

  “Comcast is such a great company, and within the past year alone, we have seen amazing operational performance, teamwork, creativity and dedication,” continues Roberts, who worked his way to the top of the $150 billion company by being born into the Roberts family. “While today’s announcement may feel disappointing, particularly to our employees who have worked so hard to plan for the integration, we should all be incredibly proud of ourselves.”

  Roberts also has to smooth over things with the thousands of employees who would have been spun off, traded, or lost their jobs because of all the market-shuffling involved in the deal.

  “For those of you who were willing to make moves in support of our new footprint, we thank you,” he writes, with such emotion that you can almost see the tears welling in his eyes. “In addition, we are so glad to be keeping our terrific systems in Heartland, Twin Cities, Tennessee and Alabama now that the related transactions with Charter and formation of GreatLand Connections will no longer occur.”

  Roberts concludes by reminding everyone to shut up and not talk to the media.

  “There will be a lot of press coverage over the next couple of days,” he writes. “Just as we’ve done over the past year, the best thing we can all do is stay focused on our customers and our business.”

  That’s right. Get back to begging customers not to leave, calling employers of complaining customers to get them fired from their jobs, cashing customers’ rent checks, lying to homeowners about their homes having service, lying to customers about data caps, and changing customers names to “A**hole” and “Super Bitch.”

  Below is the full text of the letter, thanks to DSLreports.com.

  We’re writing to you today with an important update on our proposed transaction with Time Warner Cable (TWC). We are terminating our merger agreement with TWC as well as the agreement with Charter Communications.

  While we and TWC believed our combination was a great next step for our companies, we knew from the beginning there would be regulatory hurdles to approval. And even though we were hoping for a different outcome, we have elected to terminate this transaction.

  Throughout the process, we have had an amazing team and great momentum and the company has worked hard to deliver strong results. Thank you for all you have done to accomplish that. We can now quickly turn our attention to what’s next for Comcast and continue to do great things for our existing customers. We’ve never been in a better position to do that than the one we are in right now.

  Comcast is such a great company, and within the past year alone, we have seen amazing operational performance, teamwork, creativity and dedication. While today’s announcement may feel disappointing, particularly to our employees who have worked so hard to plan for the integration, we should all be incredibly proud of ourselves.

  Over the past year, a lot of planning and preparation has been accomplished, and many of you were already looking ahead to support our post-close organizational structure. That structure was contingent upon the close of the TWC transaction. For those of you who were willing to make moves in support of our new footprint, we thank you. In addition, we are so glad to be keeping our terrific systems in Heartland, Twin Cities, Tennessee and Alabama now that the related transactions with Charter and formation of GreatLand Connections will no longer occur.

  There will be a lot of press coverage over the next couple of days. Just as we’ve done over the past year, the best thing we can all do is stay focused on our customers and our business.

  Thanks for everything you do.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uDiet Pepsi Switches From Aspartame To Sucraloser

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  (JY O’Reilly)

  As consumers slowly lose interest in diet beverages and in sodas overall, PepsiCo is out to follow changes in consumers’ sweetener tastes. One change is that people just aren’t into aspartame as much as they used to be, due to a combination of flavor and health concerns. As the quest for a palatable non-calorie sweetener continues, Pepsi is replacing aspartame wtih sucralose in their diet beverages.

  This causes problems for people who are sensitive to Splenda: many diet drink buyers complain that it causes gastrointestinal distress, for example. “Diet cola drinkers in the U.S. told us they wanted aspartame-free Diet Pepsi and we’re delivering,” a company representative explained to CNBC. Soft drink companies have been experimenting mostly with sucralose and stevia, including slipping small amounts of both of those theoretically more “natural” sweeteners in regular sodas in order to cut calories per servicing.

  It used to be that Coca-Cola was the top-selling soft drink in the United States, and Diet Coke came in second. Now regular Pepsi is the top seller, as consumers have apparently decided that we would rather avoid soft drinks entirely rather than buy diet drinks to avoid calories.

  Pepsi to ditch aspartame in Diet Pepsi [CNBC]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uIt’s A Comcastrophe: A Look Back At How Comcast Failed To Buy Time Warner Cable For $45Br

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  (Knight725)

  We were skeptical from the start, but obviously someone at Comcast believed that the company would eventually be allowed to acquire Time Warner Cable for the massive sum of $45 billion. Yet this morning the nation’s largest pay-TV and Internet provider walked away from the mega-merger that would have given it unprecedented market share in both of these industries and control over cable and broadband service for the two largest cities in the U.S. So how did we get here?

  Let’s take a look back at the timeline for this multibillion-dollar Comcastrophe:

  • Nov. 13: We hear the first whispers of a merger between Time Warner Cable and other companies, including Charter and Comcast.

  • Dec. 2013: When a hookup between Comcast and TWC still only a rumor, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai expresses skepticism that such a huge acquisition would ultimately be approved by the current Commission.

  • Jan. 13, 2014: Before Comcast publicly proposed to Time Warner Cable, TWC had to give a less-attractive suitor the boot, rejecting a $37.3 billion offer from the backers of Charter Communications. Little did Charter know that Comcast had been quietly wooing new TWC CEO Rob Marcus the whole time.

  • Feb. 13, 2014: Comcast officially confirmed its plan to acquire TWC, claiming it would bring better customer service (it couldn’t get worse), more innovation and savings (for the company; not customers). The company was already sniffing out antitrust concerns, hinting that it would consider divesting some of its 20+ million customers in order to make the deal more palatable.

  • Feb. 23, 2014: After months of decreasing download speeds for its subscribers as Comcast allowed data to bottleneck, Netflix announces that it has made a deal with Comcast to pay for better and more direct access to Comcast end users. The announcement has the effect of making Comcast look like a passive-aggressive bully and raised questions about the company’s alleged support of net neutrality. This is not what Comcast needs when trying to impress regulators.

  • March 7, 2014: Wherein we debunk Comcast’s repeated claims that there is a “highly competitive and dynamic marketplace” for cable and broadband.

  • March 20, 2014: An SEC filing about the merger reveals that new TWC CEO Rob Marcus could rake in as much as $79.9 million just for sitting back and letting his company be acquired. Not bad for only a few months on the job.

  • March 26, 2014: The first group with a direct financial interest in the merger — the Writers Guild of America — comes out publicly in opposition to the deal.

  • March 29, 2014: Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is the subject of a New York Times love letter in which he laments that the non-competitive structure of the cable industry has resulted in his company being shut out of the NYC market. Roberts glosses over the part about how his company has benefited from these regional exclusivity deals and would not have become the nation’s largest pay-TV provider without them.

  • April 8, 2014: Comcast officially files merger paperwork with the FCC. In the documents it claims that, in spite of evidence to the contrary, there is plenty of broadband competition out there because people can get data over their phones.

  • April 28, 2014: The threesome of Comcast, TWC, and Charter announce their plans to swap franchises in a handful of markets and for about 4 million current Comcast/TWC customers to be spun off into a new company that would be controlled, in part, by Charter.

  • May 15, 2014: Comcast Exec VP David Cohen, the mouthpiece of the merger, says that the company expects to have data caps — sorry, data thresholds — in place across its entire footprint within five years.

  • June 19, 2014: A national survey from our colleagues at Consumer Reports finds that the majority of Americans oppose the merger.

  • July 9, 2014: Dish calls on the FCC to block the merger, saying that there are no conditions that could make it acceptable for the two companies to combine.

  • Aug. 22, 2014: We get our first glimpse at the extensive information requests being made by the FCC about this merger. The breadth and scope of these requests are the first real signs that the Commission will not be rubber-stamping this acquisition.

  • Aug. 29, 2014: While regulators in D.C. had the ultimate say on the merger, state-level regulators were also involved, especially in California and New York, where millions of people in those states’ two largest markets would be changed over from TWC to Comcast. This story represented the first rumblings that the New York Public Service Commission might push back against Comcast’s entry into the NYC market.

  • Sept. 3, 2014: The 4 million Comcast/TWC customers who were to be handed off to a new spun-off company learn that company’s name: GreatLand Connections.

  • Sept. 8, 2014: Fearing backlash from Comcast and its NBC Universal properties, many media companies were reluctant to publicly express concerns about the merger. But Discovery chose to put its name on its filing in opposition to the deal.

  • Sept. 24, 2014: Comcast says that opposition to the merger is just “extortion;” merger opponents suggest the company look up the definition of this word in the dictionary.

  • Oct. 20, 2014: Reports indicate that Dept. of Justice antitrust lawyers are digging “deep in the weeds” in their review of the merger, once again indicating that this will not be a cake walk for Comcast.

  • Oct. 24, 2014: Various antitrust experts from around the country bring their concerns about the merger to the FCC.

  • Dec. 11, 2014: Pennsylvania’s two U.S. Senators, Pat Toomey and Bob Casey, send a joint letter to FCC Chair Tom Wheeler asking him to hurry up and approve this awesome merger already… without mentioning that the two lawmakers had received a combined $184,000 in contributions from Comcast in their most recent election cycles.

  • Dec. 30, 2014: A year-end review of national customer service and satisfaction surveys shows that Comcast and TWC are at the bottom in nearly every single category.

  • Jan. 26, 2015: It’s revealed that a number of letters sent to the FCC by local politicians in support of the Comcast merger were actually written (or at least initially drafted) by Comcast.

  • Feb. 16, 2015: The California Public Utility Commission recommends a number of conditions for allowing TWC to swap franchises with Comcast and Charter, but Comcast pushes back on anything having to do with improving its heavily criticized Internet Essentials program for low-income households.

  • Feb. 17, 2015: Formerly positive analysts downgrade the odds of a successful Comcast/TWC merger, giving it only a 60% chance of approval.

  • April 6, 2015: A report shows that much of the public support for the Comcast merger came from groups that received money from Comcast.

  • April 10, 2015: California Public Utility Commissioner Mike Florio proposes that the state block TWC from transferring its franchises over to Comcast.

  • April 17, 2015: The first reports that antitrust lawyers at the DOJ were leaning toward blocking the merger. To do so, the DOJ would have needed to sue Comcast in federal court.

  • April 21, 2015: Six U.S. Senators, including Al Franken (Minnesota) and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), write to FCC Chair Wheeler and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, asking them to put an end to the merger.

  • April 22, 2015: The Wall Street Journal reports that the FCC is going to recommend that the merger go before an administrative law judge — a sign of almost certain doom for any acquisition.

  • April 23, 2015: Multiple reports claim that, after meetings with both the DOJ and FCC, Comcast will back out of the deal.

  • April 24, 2015: The end of the road. Comcast confirms it is canceling the merger plans.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uMattel Discontinuing SeaWorld Trainer Barbie And All SeaWorld-Branded Merchandiser

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• Barbie won’t be training whales at SeaWorld anymore, as reportedly Mattel confirmed that it’s ceasing production of all SeaWorld-branded merchandise, which includes its SeaWorld Trainer Barbies.

  “We’re not making the dolls anymore,” a Mattel spokesman told the New York Post, saying the decision stemmed partly from concerns from environmentalists like the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has been campaigning against the dolls since at least 2012.

  According to the Mattel site, the Barbie wearing a purple-and-pink sparkly wetsuit that came with a baby Shamu was first released in 2009.

  SeaWorld has faced increasing criticism since the release of the documentary Blackfish, chronicling alleged mistreatment of orca whales by the park as well as accusing it of violating Occupational Safe and Health Administration laws.

  Blackfish‘s narrative focused on the death of SeaWorld Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was killed in front of park visitors when an orca named Tilikum pulled her into the water and kept her under it during a performance. The documentary created quite a public relations headache for the marine park, landing it in Consumerist’s Worst Company In America contest for the first time in 2014.

  Since then, SeaWorld took its trainers out of the water after dropping its appeal of those OSHA violations, and pledged to double the size of the orca environment and spend $10 million on marine research.

  Consumerist reached out to Mattel for comment and we’ll let you know when we hear back.

  ‘SeaWorld’ Barbie sleeps with the fishes [New York Post]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uFailure To Be Undeniably Hot No Longer An Impediment To Getting A Job At Abercrombie & Fitchr

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  (NYC♥NYC)

  In a further attempt to shed its image as a place where rippling six-packs and bronzed bodies go to commune with the hot powers that be, Abercrombie & Fitch is doing away with its policy on having only super hot sales associates in its stores, opening up its doors to anyone with a dream of selling khaki cargo shorts and pre-ripped jeans.

  After doing away with hard-bodied hunks in its ads in February, today marks the first day of a new era at Abercrombie, ushered in by the exit of former CEO Michael “We Only Sell Clothes For Cool Kids” Jeffries in December: As of today, you won’t have to be super hot to work at an Abercrombie store, as the company retires the “appearance and sense of style” hiring rule, reports Bloomberg News.

  “We’ve put the customer at the center of the business,” said Christos Angelides, president of the company’s Abercrombie brand, who is one of the internal candidates up for the CEO job, along with Fran Horowitz, the head of the Hollister brand.

  A change in dress code and attractiveness rules is part of the plan to appeal to more shoppers, instead of having everyone just look how Jeffries wanted them to.

  This means French-tip manicures, eyeliner, certain hair-styling products, mustaches and other things employees used to be prohibited from using. Sales clerks are now brand representatives and not model, in an attempt to have the focus on selling clothes to customers and not swanning around being vain.

  Bye-Bye, Beefcake: Abercrombie’s Hot Salesclerk Policy Is Over [Bloomberg]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uIt’s True: The Comcast/Time Warner Cable Merger Is Officially Deadr

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• As it was predicted yesterday, so it has come to pass: after 15 months of trying to get it approved, and opposition not only from consumers, consumer advocates, and lawmakers but also from regulators, Comcast is giving up on its dreams of acquiring Time Warner Cable and walking away entirely from the merger.

  In a statement, Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts accepted defeat, saying, “Today, we move on.  Of course, we would have liked to bring our great products to new cities, but we structured this deal so that if the government didn’t agree, we could walk away.”

  That proved to be a prescient move for the cable behemoth, as regulators did indeed decide that the deal would make Comcast too big and give them too much leverage in an already uncompetitive market.

  Roberts also thanked Comcast and Time Warner Cable employees for their hard work on the ultimately-failed merger, and added, “I couldn’t be more proud of this company and I am truly excited for what’s next.”

  Rumors swirled earlier this week that Comcast might walk away from the acquisition after sources inside both the Justice Department and the FCC told press that Comcast’s case wasn’t looking good. An objection from either agency would have been enough to stop the merger, as we explained yesterday. That both agencies objected, and could not agree with Comcast on conditions that would make the merger acceptable, means that Comcast would have had to spend an extraordinary amount of time and money publicly airing its dirty laundry to try to convince them otherwise — and would probably still have failed.

  Consumers, content companies, and what few competitors exist are now spared from Comcast getting even larger. But Time Warner Cable remains an attractive acquisition target: Charter try again to purchase some or all of the cable company, which still has attractive footholds in New York and L.A. And Comcast won’t want to sit idle; they’ve got $45 billion burning a hole in their pocket and will want to spend it on something.

  But for now, for today at least, Comcast and TWC can now join AT&T and T-Mobile in the “too bad, so sad” failed-merger afterparty room while the rest of us take a quick sigh of relief.

  
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by Kate Cox via Consumerist