uAnheuser-Busch Adds Golden Road Brewing To Its Overstuffed Roster Of Beersr

4 4 4 9

• 

  Just a week after Anheuser-Busch InBev confirmed it was looking to enter a long-term relationship with rival SABMiller, the company continued to pad its portfolio with the purchase of California craft brewer Golden Road Brewing.

  Anheuser-Busch announced the transaction on Wednesday, noting that it would allow the company – which is behind dozens of brands, including Budweiser, Rolling Rock, and Stella Artois – to increase its stake in the craft beer market – an area its top brand, Budweiser, roundly mocked just months ago.

  While the financial details of the deal weren’t released, the companies say it will enable Golden Road – which produces Point the Way IPA, Wolf Among Weeds IPA, Golden Road Hefeweizen and 329 Days of Sun Lager – to increase its footprint in 2016.

  “Our team worked hard to build Golden Road from the ground up and we are proud of the growth we’ve achieved in such a short time,” Meg Gill, ‎president and co-founder at Golden Road Brewing, said in a statement about the transaction. “California is an exciting and competitive market for beer and I see endless opportunities in partnering with Anheuser-Busch and their incredible distribution network to bring our beers to more people.”

  Golden Road opened for business in 2011 and has become the largest craft brewery in Los Angeles County. The company expects to sell 45,000 barrels of beer in 2015 and can be found in more than 4,000 retail locations, according to a statement.

  “Golden Road’s commitment to making great beer, their pioneering spirit and the passionate beer culture built within the company is what appealed to us,” Andy Goeler, CEO of Craft, Anheuser-Busch, said in a statement. “Their focus on giving back to the community and impact on the Los Angeles craft market in four short years makes Golden Road a strong addition to our craft portfolio.”

  This acquisition is just the latest in the beer giant’s attempt to get drunk on the craft beer business. In 2011, the company bought Goose Island Brewery and has purchased Blue Point Brewery, 10 Barrel Brewery and Elysian Brewery in recent years.

  Still the beverage makers largest purchase could still be in the making. Last week, it announced it had approached SABMiller about a merger that would create one gigantic beer Voltron.

  While AB InBev said the move wasn’t a firm merger offer, the “intention is to work with SABMiller’s Board toward a recommended transaction,” but notes, “There can be no certainty that this approach will result in an offer or agreement.”

  If a merger between the two companies does materialize, it’s likely they would have to sell off some of their U.S. brands in order to receive regulatory approval.

  The two companies are already the world’s first- and second-largest beer makers. If they were to combine without having to shed any of their brands, they would control around 70% of the American beer market, and 30% of the global market.

  [via The Los Angeles Times]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

u“Make VW Pay” Campaign Seeks Rebates For Consumers Tricked Into Buying Recalled Clean Diesel Vehiclesr

4 4 4 9

• 

  While the nearly 500,000 recalled Volkswagen and Audi vehicles may be considered safe to drive, many owners of these cars feel they were tricked into buying them by VW’s “clean diesel” marketing. A new campaign is calling on the carmaker to buy back all of those vehicles — and to refund the owners the full retail price for their cars.

  The U.S. Public Interest Research Group’s “Make VW Pay” campaign aims to hold the car company accountable by getting it to take back all those cars that owners would not have bought if they knew the truth about the vehicles’ emissions system.

  “VW once was a company that brought us iconic cars like the Beetle and the flower-powered microbus, but now VW is just a big cheater,” Ed Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director of U.S. PIRG, said in a statement.

  While VW CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned today claiming he committed “no wrongdoing,” Mierzwinski says that VW should still pay full penalties under law and grant full rebates to the customers it deceived into buying the “pollution-spewing cars that led to massive, undeserved profits.”

  According to the EPA’s recall order, the diesel cars were programmed to sense when emissions were being tested, and to turn on equipment that reduced emissions.

  However, the effectiveness of these vehicles’ pollution emissions control devices is greatly reduced during all normal driving situations, emitting as much as 40 times the allowed amounts of nitrogen oxide.

  Mierzwinski says that U.S. PIRG’s campaign will hold VW accountable “while preventing future corporate lawbreaking that cheats consumers or places health, safety, wallets or the environment at risk.”

  Under the campaign, U.S. PIRG calls for VW to offer to back all “defeat device” diesel cars with full rebates to customers, while also suggesting the EPA seek the maximum penalty of $37,500 per car — around $18 billion in all.

  Additionally, the group urges Congress to put an end to what it calls the auto industry’s “get out of jail free” loophole that makes it harder to prosecute auto executives for intentionally violating the law and putting the public at risk.

  U.S. PIRG also recommends that the Department of Justice refrain from allowing tax write-offs for wrongdoing.

  “GM got off cheap with a $900 million penalty over its ignition switch defect and cover-up that reportedly led to as many as 124 deaths,” concluded Mierzwinski. “Let’s make sure VW pays, that its customers get justice and that corporate crime no longer pays.”

  VW owners who feel they were tricked into buying their car can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, and may want to consider doing the same through their particular state’s attorney general’s office.

  Those who really regret buying their VW and want to be rid of it now are free to try selling their recalled vehicle on the used car market.

  Our colleagues at Consumer Reports point out that the California Air Resources Board will not take action against owners or their cars when it comes time to register or sell their Volkswagen diesel — at least for now.

  CARB spokesperson David Clegern tells the publication that once an official recall is issued, manufacturers have six months to supply the VINs for vehicles not fixed.

  At that point, the names are flagged by DMV, and recalled vehicle owners in California will not be allowed to register their cars until the fix has been performed.

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uJudge Overturns NYC Ban On Foam Containersr

4 4 4 9

• 
  New York City’s ban on plastic foam containers — what you may call styrofoam — didn’t live for long after going into effect this summer: a judge overturned the prohibition on foam takeout containers, coffee cups, egg cartons and other vessels, saying the city hadn’t fully explored cost-effective recycling methods.

  One of former mayor Michael Bloomberg’s brainchildren, the ban was first conceived in 2013 as an environmental initiative and pushed forward by Mayor Bill deBlasio in January this year. The city’s sanitation department determined that the material was non-recyclable, as it mixed in with organic material during the collection process.

  State supreme court judge Margaret Chan put the kibosh on the ban on Monday, reports The Guardian, ruling that sanitation department commissioner Katheryn Garcia didn’t seriously look at all the options, noting that industry estimates showed that 21 companies would buy used foam containers from the city.

  If 40% of NYC’s wasted plastic foam was recycled instead of put in landfills, it’d save $400,000. Even more could be turned into savings if machinery improves, the judge said, adding that Garcia did not “clearly state the basis of her conclusions when the evidence contrary to her findings were clearly before her.”

  A spokeswoman for Mayor de Blasio said that the mayor disagrees with the ruling and will review options to keep the ban in effect.

  “These products cause real environmental harm, and we need to be able to prevent nearly 30,000 tons of expanded polystyrene waste from entering our landfills, streets and waterways,” she said.

  New York City’s ban on foam containers overturned [The Guardian]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uSorry, An Insect Flying Into Your TV Is An Act Of Godr

4 4 4 9

• 
  When a few pixels go out on your 65″ TV that’s still under warranty, the warranty should cover that, right? That was the dispute between Currys, a UK electronics store sort of like Best Buy, their customer, and an alleged insect, now deceased and stuck in the TV’s screen somehow.

  The retailer refused to grant the customer a warranty repair, calling the broken screen an “act of God.” That doesn’t mean that the Almighty flung an insect at the TV set, but only that the event wasn’t the owner’s fault and wasn’t the manufacturer’s fault, and isn’t covered under the warranty.

  The retailer asked £95 for the repair, which is about $144. That’s not an unfair amount, but the customer still thought that it ought to be repaired within the warranty.

  That’s what he was told when he dropped it off, at least. Then there was a call from the store. Instead of telling him to come pick up his freshly repaired TV, he reports that the repair service called him, saying “they wouldn’t repair it and were really vague as to why.”

  Now he is receiving a warranty repair, but it’s not clear whether Currys changed its mind again before or after he took his story to national television news. Either way, he should get a working and bug-free TV set back, and won’t have to pay for a warranty repair on a set that he paid £800 ($1,219) for after last Christmas.

  We are sorry that [the customer’s] experience with us did not reflect our usual high standards.

  We understand LG are now repairing his TV but we will contacting him to offer a future gesture of goodwill and hope he is back enjoying his box soon.

  Currys refuse to repair £800 TV broken by fly because it was an ‘act of God’ [ITV News]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uLegislation Once Again Takes Stab At Allowing Borrowers To Refinance Student Loansr

4 4 4 9

• 

  Lawmakers have renewed their support for students buried under piles of educational debt by — yet again – introducing a bill that would allow borrowers to refinance their student loans.

  The Private Education Loan Modification Act – introduced on Tuesday by North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp – would enable borrowers to refinance private education loan balances at reduced interest rates.

  The Act would establish debt refinancing mechanisms aimed at providing relief for the estimated $150 billion in private student loans that often carry higher interest rates and lack the safeguards provided by federal student loans.

  Under the Act, private student loan borrowers who have debt obligations that represent a disproportionate share of their income would be provided refinancing opportunities.

  The purpose of the bill is to spur economic growth. To do so, the Act would:

  • facilitate greater competition in the private education lending and refinancing markets, particularly those serving underserved and rural locations;
  • address inefficiencies in the private education lending and refinancing markets
  • encourage innovation in the private education refinancing markets; and
  • promote the participation of private capital in the private education refinancing markets.

  “With my bill, I’m trying to make it easier for students to refinance private education loans at today’s low interest rates, so they can pay down their debt and start off on the right foot when they graduate,” Heitkamp says in a statement.

  In recent years legislators have turned their attention to attempting to alleviate student loan burdens for borrowers. Earlier this year, a number of senators banded together to once again introduce the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act that would allow consumers with outstanding student loan debt to refinance at lower interest rates currently being issued on new federal and private student loans.

  A previous version of the bill was introduced by Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in May 2014 and co-sponsored by more than a dozen legislators.

   

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uWant To Buy Your Beef In Bulk But Don’t Have The Freezer Space? Consider The Meat Lockerr

4 4 4 9

• 
  American are used to the concept of buying in bulk now, carting home everything from economy tubs of peanut butter to crates of toilet paper. But although it’d be cheaper per pound to buy, say, half a cow at once instead of different cuts here and there, the problem of buying meat in bulk is that it takes up a whole lot of room in the freezer, space many people just don’t have. That’s where rentable meat lockers come in.

  Although the phrase “meat locker” sounds a bit scary if you’ve watched too many crime TV shows, it’s really just cold storage room, explains NPR’s Morning Edition. Some businesses have started renting out space in those meat lockers to regular people who need some extra storage.

  One new meat locker just opened up in Corning, N.Y., offering large plastic bins for $8 a month or smaller ones for $5, that sit on shelves in the freezer.

  You go in and you say, “Hey, I’m making ribs tonight, how’s about I get into that meat locker?”

  “And what we’ll do is we’ll bring the bin out to you, and you can take out what you want from your bin, and then we put it back in. They’re all labeled,” a staffer at the meat locker explained to one potential customer.

  Like many things in the retail world, what’s old is new again: meat lockers were popular in the 1950s, before home freezers became popular. Though buying meat in bulk might seem old-fashioned or just weird to the modern shopper, the meat locker business has some major appeal to anyone looking to save money.

  One customer who grew up eating in bulk says he figures he’d rather share space than use his own freezer at home.

  “I figure by the time you run a refrigerator and a freezer both, it’s costing you more than $8 a month just to run them,” he explains.

  The group in Corning has spurred interest elsewhere in the area, as it’s leader says it’s now working with several others who want to set up their own meat lockers.

  A Carnivore’s Solution To Space Constraints: The Meat Locker [Morning Edition]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uMacy’s Herald Square Welcomes The Start Of Fall By Putting Up Christmas Decorationsr

4 4 4 9

• 
  Twinkling lights have been hung on boughs of evergreen with care, sparkling ornaments are shining merrily in their Christmas trees and Santa’s sleigh waits, gleaming and ready, behind a velvet rope. All before the first official day of fall, at Macy’s Herald Square in New York City.

  Friend of Consumerist Steve spotted the preparations for the holiday season in full swing at Macy’s flagship store on Tuesday, up on the ninth floor, where he was exchanging some dishes in the home goods and fine China area.

  Though it wasn’t exactly a scene that screamed “open for business,” as workers were going in and out of the area, apparently involved in setting it up, there wasn’t anything keeping shoppers away while the decorating was in progress.

  “No signs or anything, and it wasn’t like you could just go in there and hang out, but it was there, in all its glory,” Steve notes.

  Though September might seem awfully early to get the holiday ball rolling — heck, we haven’t even hit peak Halloween season, much less Thanksgiving — this isn’t the first time Macy’s “Holiday Lane” has taken up residence on the ninth floor months ahead of Christmas: last year Gothamist spoke to a Macy’s rep who explained that the early set-up was “consistent due with set up in previous years due to the extensive product assortment (ornaments, trees, lights, cards, among other items) the department features.”

  And a big part of that decision to start setting up early comes from the size of Macy’s holiday displays, as the company needs a lot time for its “visual and stock teams work to create the holiday experience.”

  We did reach out to Macy’s about this year’s early setup, but have yet to hear back.

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist