FDA Warns: Don’t Use These Potentially Contaminated Liquid Supplements And Medications

The Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers and medical professionals not to use liquid supplements and medications made by Pharmatech, including some products marketed for use by babies and small children. These products — distributed under multiple brand names, including Rugby, Major, and Leader — may be contaminated with potentially dangerous bacteria.

An FDA recall currently applies only to certain products, but the agency is warning consumers against using any liquid products made by Pharmatech.

What’s happening here?

The Food and Drug Administration received reports of infection with Burkholderia cepacia that were potentially linked to a liquid version of docusate sodium, a stool softener sold under the Colace and Dulcolax brands.

Burkholderia cepacia is a common bacteria that is often antibiotic-resistant and can cause severe infections in people with weak immune systems or who have lung disease. It’s especially dangerous for people with cystic fibrosis.

“B. cepacia poses a serious threat to vulnerable patients, including infants and young children who still have developing immune systems,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement.

The recall

When the infections were first linked to the liquid laxatives, just the liquid docusate sodium products were recalled. The recall later expanded to all liquid medications made by Pharmatech, which are distributed by Leader Brand, Major Pharmaceuticals, and Rugby Laboratories.

The official recall includes the following products:

Leader Brand

• Liquid Multivitamin Supplement for Infants and Toddlers: 50 mL
• Liquid Vitamin D Supplement for Breastfed Infants 400 IU: 50 mL

Major Pharmaceuticals

• Certa-Vite Liquid: 236ML
• Poly-Vita Drops: 50ML
• Poly-Vita Drops W/Iron: 50ML
• Ferrous Drops Iron Supplement: 50ML
• D-Vita Drops: 50ML
• Tri-Vita Drops: 50ML
• Senna Syrup: 237ML

Rugby Laboratories

• C Liquid 500mg: 118ML
• Diocto Liquid 50mg/5ml: 473ML
• Ferrous Sulfate Elixir: 473ML
• Fer Iron Liquid: 50ML
• Senexon Liquid: 237ML
• Diocto Syrup 60MG/15ML: 473ML
• Aller Chlor Syrup: 120ML
• Calcionate Syrup: 16OZ
• Cerovite Liquid: 236ML
• D3 400iu Liquid: 50ML
• Poly-Vitamin Liquid: 50ML
• Tri-Vitamin Liquid: 50ML
• Poly-Vitamin W/Iron Liquid: 50ML

What to do

Patients, pharmacies, and health care providers have been warned not to use any liquid products from Pharmatech. If you have these medications at home, don’t use them: Contact the distributor or the pharmacy where you purchased them for a refund.

If you have questions about the products, call 800-645-2158 for products from Rugby Laboratories and Major Pharmaceuticals, and 800-200-6313 for Leader Brand.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Cheesecake Factory Customers Say They Were Duped Into Leaving Big Tips

Even though we all now have phones with handy calculator apps, some restaurant diners are still confounded by the math when trying to sort out the tip, particularly when splitting the bill. Many restaurants now do the math for you and print a suggested tip on the receipt, but some Cheesecake Factory customers say the popular chain is enriching itself by suggesting misleading tips on split bills.

In a potential class action filed this week in California Superior Court, a customer of The Cheesecake Factory alleges that when the restaurant divvies up a bill for a group of diners, it is deliberately suggesting tips based on the total bill for the full table, rather than each person’s total.

Split Checks, Same Tip

According to the lawsuit [PDF], when a table splits the check at the chain, each patron receives a bill for a portion of the meal. This bill offers a suggested tip area with gratuity recommendations based on 15%, 18%, 20% and 22% of the bill.

However, the suit claims that instead of basing these suggested tips on the customer’s share of the bill, the restaurant allegedly bases these suggestions on the table’s total tab.

So imagine you and two friends run up a total lunch bill of $60 then have it divided three ways by the restaurant, meaning you’d each owe $20 plus tip. You’d expect that the suggested tip amounts on your receipt would range from $3 (15%) to $4.40 (22%). The plaintiffs claim that at Cheesecake Factory, your suggested tips would instead range from $9 (15% of $60) to $13.20 (22% of $60).

The plaintiffs argue that if customers aren’t paying attention and just go with the suggested tip amounts, they could end up paying tips that are 30% or more.

 

Customers expected the company to “deal fairly and honestly” and to perform accurate mathematical calculations, the suit states, noting that customers relied on the “accuracy of the preprinted suggested gratuity amounts on their sales drafts and paid one of those suggested amounts, while intending only to pay half (or less than half) of those amounts.”

A Bill Discrepancy

For instance, the plaintiff in the case says that when she visited a Cheesecake Factory restaurant with friends her share of the bill was $38.50. The suggested gratuity for the tab was listed between $11.50 and $16.94.

These recommendations, the suit states, were based off the bill before it was split, as $11.50 is 30% of the customer’s $38.50 bill, not 15% as the check depicted.

In the end, the customer left a $15.40 tip, which was represented on the bill as being 20% of the tab, when, in fact, it was closer to 40% of the split cost. The guest later realized the issue and complained to the chain, but she says nothing was changed.

The lawsuit alleges that the practice of basing a split bill’s gratuity suggestions on the total tab has been occurring for at least four years at nearly 213 restaurants under the Cheesecake Factory and Grand Lux Cafe names, affecting an estimated 10% of all diners paying by credit card.

According to the complaint, even if the chain never intended to mislead customers, it should still be held accountable to have known about the practices.

The lawsuit seeks to require Cheesecake Factory refund customers for the tip amount made in excess of what the gratuity should have been were it based on the split check’s amount.

A rep for the Cheesecake Factory tells BuzzFeed News that all gratuity amounts listed on checks are suggesting.

“Guests are free to tip as they please,” the rep said. “We believe our guests appreciate service provided by our hardworking staff and tip accordingly.​”​

Consumerist has also reached out to Cheesecake Factory regarding the lawsuit. We’ll update this post if we hear back.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

J.P. O’Reilly’s Burgers Recalled Because They’re Secretly Bacon Cheeseburgers

Many people like bacon and cheese on their burgers, but for whatever reason — allergy, religion, taste — plenty more don’t. And so the company behind the J.P. O’Reilly’s brand is recalling two tons of surprise! bacon cheeseburgers in six states for “misbranding.”

What to look for

The burgers came in a 12-patty “family pack” that weighs 4 pounds. Look for EST. 425B on the USDA mark of inspection, and affected packages have a sell-by date of 01-10-18.

The affected products were sold at ShopRite and PriceRite stores in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. For all of the states except New York and New Jersey, the company has released a list [PDF] of which specific stores the burgers were distributed to.

Here’s what the box looks like:

What to do

The company and the USDA caution customers to return the burgers to the store for a refund, or throw them away. If you have any questions, contact Kenosha Beef International at (732) 515-9314.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

USDA Says Chicago Soda Tax Puts $87M In Federal Food Stamp Funding At Risk

A controversial tax on sweetened beverages in Chicago is putting the entire state of Illinois at risk for losing millions in federal funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly referred to as food stamps), according to a warning sent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to state regulators.

Federal law prohibits states from collecting taxes on any SNAP-eligible grocery items, but Cook County, IL — which includes all of the city of Chicago — recently began adding a $.01 per ounce tax on most sweetened beverages.

Some retailers are able to automatically remove the soda tax on SNAP beverages, but there are plenty of stores in Cook County that don’t have this ability. The Cook County rules allow for these stores to charge the soda tax so long as they offer SNAP customers a way to get an instant refund in the store.

But Illinois Secretary for Human Services James Dimas says the USDA’s Food & Nutrition Service (FNS) agency has determined that this tax workaround is inadequate.

“It is FNS’s strict interpretation that retailers may not charge the tax to SNAP recipients at any time,” wrote Dimas in a memo [PDF] to the Cook County Board of Commissioners. “[P]roviding an immediate subsequent refund at a customer service desk does not cure the problem or the violation of the law.”

In addition to blasting out letters to all Cook County retailers advising them that this tax-then-refund practice is unacceptable, Dimas said the USDA is threatening to “to suspend administrative funds to the State of Illinois unless corrective action is taken.”

USDA’s FNS provided $86.8 million to Illinois in the last fiscal year, noted Dimas. Cook County now has until Aug. 21 to provide a “Corrective Action Plan” for how it plans to resolve this problem.

In a statement to the AP, a Cook County spokesman indicated the Board did not know until this memo that FNS had any issues with regard to the soda tax. The rep told the AP that the County still believes that it is complying with federal law, but that “We do however recognize that USDA’s powers against the state in this regard are substantial and we will work collaboratively with both the state and USDA to address USDA’s concerns.”

The question of SNAP customers and soda tax has similarly been a concern in Philadelphia, which also launched its own per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages this year.

The Philadelphia tax is charged at the wholesale distributor level, with retailers left to decide for themselves whether to increase the price they charge to consumers. With regard to SNAP, critics of the Philadelphia tax argue that these retail cost increases are effectively guaranteeing that SNAP customers pay the distributors’ tax. Given that SNAP funding comes from taxpayers and is intended to supplement the food-buying power of low-income American’s shopping dollars, tax opponents say Philadelphia is, in effect, shifting federal money into the city tax coffers while reducing the value of SNAP benefits.

We’ve reached out to both USDA and the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services to find out if FNS had sent a similar warning with regard to the Philadelphia tax. We will update you if we hear back.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Joe’s Crab Shack Restaurants Abruptly Close With No Warning To Employees

Joe’s Crab Shack and its sibling restaurant chain, Brick House Tavern, will soon have a new owner pending approval by the bankruptcy court. Yet it’s celebrating in a surprising way: The chain is abruptly closing locations scattered across the country, sending employees home during their shifts.

A brief history of Joe’s and Brick House ownership

The winner of the bankruptcy auction and likely new owner will be Landry’s, a hospitality company that owns restaurant chains like Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Morton’s The Steakhouse, and Rainforest Café.

Back in 2006, Landry’s sold Joe’s Crab Shack and Brick House Tavern to a private equity firm for $192 million. That company took the chains public as Ignite Restaurant Group. Now the company will come full circle, and Landry’s will pay $57 million for the two chains. The Houston Chronicle reports that Landry’s had been trying to acquire the company before the bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, at the restaurants

Employees in Hampton, VA, say that they showed up to work on Tuesday, and found that the restaurant’s doors were chained shut. They weren’t warned in advance about a possible closure.

One employee told a reporter that he immediately began to look for other jobs after hearing the news.

“To hear that we shut down, no warning, no nothing…[I] pulled out my computer and immediately started applying,” he told WVEC-TV.

Employees in Omaha, NE, told KMTV-TV that they were also sent home abruptly on Tuesday and told that the restaurant had closed.

A restaurant in Amherst, NY, also closed recently, according to the Buffalo News, but we don’t know what day it closed.

The location at the Monmouth Mall in New Jersey (warning: auto-play video at that link) closed abruptly at the end of July.

No Brick House Tavern closings have been reported. (If you see anything in local news or in your travels this weekend about Brick House or Joe’s closures, let us know!)

The abrupt closings may be connected to lease terminations, since landlords have the right to terminate each location’s lease as part of bankruptcy proceedings. The Monmouth Mall location’s lease was terminated in May and will end in September.

Consumerist contacted a media representative for Ignite Restaurant Group, since the new owner hasn’t officially been decided yet, pending approval by the court at a hearing on Aug. 17. We haven’t heard anything back, but wesde will update this post when we do.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Verizon’s Streaming Service May Be Delayed For Lack Of Content

Verizon recently hinted that it would dive into the streaming video fray with a new service that could launch as soon as this summer. But Big V’s entry into this business may be delayed, as the company has reportedly had trouble landing content deals.

Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reports that Verizon has run into issues negotiating deals that would put many popular networks on its service.

The issues, sources suggest, are related to changes within Verizon’s executive video team and a lack of specifics for the service, including pricing and development technology.

The unnamed streaming live-TV service is expected to offer dozens of channels, such as CBS and ESPN, and would work on computers, mobile devices, and through connected TV platforms. It is also reported to operate independently of Verizon’s Go90 streaming product and its Fios service.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam dropped hints about the company’s eventual streaming TV product back in March, when he suggested the service would become available once Verizon completed its purchase of Yahoo’s internet business.

However, sources now tell Bloomberg that because of the negotiation issues, the service debut has been pushed back to the fall.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Did Nintendo Rip Off Controller Design For Switch?

The Nintendo Switch has been a solid success, selling nearly five million units since its March 2017 release, but one company claims that Nintendo’s hybrid handheld/console gaming device is illegally infringing on its patents.

California-based Gamevice, which makes gaming accessories for smartphones and tablets, sued Nintendo [PDF] this week in federal court, alleging that the Switch’s Joy-Con controller is a little too similar to a Gamevice patent.

Gamevice’s controllers are designed to attach to a smartphone or tablet so they can play mobile games without having to use the touch screen to control the action.

Gamevice was founded as Wikipad in 2008, the lawsuit notes, and its first product was a “full function, Android-based tablet computer that included a detachable game controller.”

From there, it released its namesake device — which works with both Apple and Samsung devices — in 2015, filing for patent protection that same year. However, a source close to the company notes that the patent in this lawsuit was not used in either the Wikipad nor Gamevice.

Nintendo then announced its Switch console in Oct. 2016, which allows players to either play video games on a TV or slide the removable controllers onto a the device for mobile use. Since the consoles went on sale in March 2017, Nintendo has sold 4.7 million units, according to its earnings reports.

Gamevice claims that Nintendo has “directly infringed and are currently directly infringing” on its patent by “making, using, selling, offering for sale, and/or importing into the United States, without authority, products and equipment that embody one or more claims” of the patent, including but not limited to the Nintendo Switch.

In one example noted in the lawsuit, Gamevice says its patent is for “a computing device, the computing device providing a plurality of sides, each of the plurality of sides are disposed between an electronic display screen of the computing device and a back of the computing device.”

The Nintendo Switch, the lawsuit points out, includes “a computing device in the form of an electronic tablet having a plurality of sides disposed between a screen and a back of the computing device.”

Gamevice claims that Nintendo’s alleged infringement “has caused, and is continuing to cause, damage and irreparable injury to Gamevice, and Gamevice will continue to suffer damage and irreparable injury unless and until that infringement is enjoined by this Court.”

The company is seeking an injunction to stop Nintendo from selling the Switch console, as well as damages. Gamevice declined to comment to Consumerist.

We’ve reached out to Nintendo and will update this post if we hear back.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Will The Total Solar Eclipse Affect Solar Power?

You’re ready for the eclipse on Aug. 21, with your non-counterfeit viewing glasses and travel plans set. Yet here’s something that you may not have thought of: How will a total or even a partial solar eclipse affect homes and workplaces that use solar power?

Sure, solar power systems spend time in the dark on a daily basis, but the eclipse is a one-time event, not something that happens every day and is built into the system. Yet the National Resources Defense Council reassures everyone that we don’t have to worry about systems failing or homes going dark while the sun ducks behind the moon for a bit.

That’s because the operators of our electric grid have known about the coming eclipse for a long time, and are prepared to deploy power from other sources — renewable and non-renewable alike — to fill the shortfall.

If solar power and the solar eclipse becomes an issue anywhere, it will be North Carolina, where the eclipse will hit during the evening just as people start to come home and switch on their lights.

California, a state full of both sunshine and solar panels, could be affected quite a bit too, even if it won’t experience a total eclipse. There’s actually a statewide campaign encouraging people and businesses to turn off lights, appliances, and gadgets during the eclipse so less non-renewable power from natural gas has to be used.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Wells Fargo Accused Of Overcharging Small Businesses

The scandals and accusations continue to mount for Wells Fargo. This time, the banking giant is being accused of overcharging small businesses to process credit card transactions.

In a potential class action filed earlier this month in a New York federal court, a restaurant owner from Pennsylvania and a North Carolina tour company allege that Wells Fargo’s Merchant Business Services operates an “overbilling scheme” that charged excessive and undisclosed credit card processing fees, along with “massive early termination fees” the merchants tried to end their relationships with the bank.

According to the lawsuit [PDF], Wells misled prospective customers about the fees they would be charged for the card-processing service.

The suit claims that Wells’ 63-page Merchant Processing Application allegedly included “voluminous legalese that could not possibly be read in its entirety or understood by merchant customers” and included “absurd provisions” in the fine print that allowed the bank to charge merchants whatever it wanted in terms of fees.

For example, the suit claims that the Program Guide included language that dictated Wells Fargo could “increase our fees and add new fees for services for any other reason at any time, by notifying you thirty days prior to the effective date of any such change or addition.”

“Boiled down to its core, this provision purports to give Merchant Services unlimited discretion to charge whatever it wants even if such fees and rates are vastly different and higher than those that are clearly set forth in the application,” the suit states.

Because of this provision, Wells Fargo was able to charge companies for a range of fees that had not previously been disclosed, included minimum transactions fees and early termination penalties, the plaintiffs contend.

Queen City Tours & Minimum Fees

In the case of Queen City Tours, which began using Wells’ payment processing service in Oct. 2015, the bank allegedly failed to honor the fee structure it had promised the North Carolina tour company.

The suit claims that Queen City Tours negotiated a contract with no monthly minimum charges, as the business operates on a seasonal basis and had few sales during certain months of the year.

The company’s contract notes this as: “monthly minimum processing fee: $0.00 per month.”

Despite this, in each month when Queen City had no transaction activity, Wells Fargo assessed a minimum fee. This charge began at $35, but was lowered to $20 after Queen City complained.

Additionally, Queen City claims that Wells charged it a “statement billing fee” of $10/month. Wells’ contract notes that this fee can be waived if the client elects to access the monthly statement online. Queen City contends that it promptly requested electronic statements. While the business began receiving electronic statements, on numerous occasions it was assessed the $10 statement billing fee, the suit alleges.

Patti’s Pita & Back Billing

In the case of Pennsylvania-based Patti’s Pitas, the restaurant claims that Wells Fargo charged it with “exponentially more fees” that were not outlined in the fee schedule or program guide. These fees, the suit notes, often totaled hundred of dollars each month.

In one instance, Patti’s Pitas claims that Wells Fargo used a “back-billing” system to charge the company fees for transactions that had taken place the prior month. This, the suit claims, was done with the intention to “confound and confuse merchants.”

“In this way, it is very difficult for merchants to determine how much they are actually being charged for Defendant’s services,” the lawsuit states, noting that in any given month Patti’s was charged 30 or more “bill-back” fees totaling more than $100.

“This outlier program is designed to deceive customers and keep them silent as to improper fees,” the suit states.

Patti’s stopped using Wells Fargo’s services when it went out of business in May 2017. Despite this, the company continued to receive bills and fees for the now-unused service.

The restaurant owner claims that he was told by a Wells Fargo rep that the term of his contract was for three years and that he could not quit, despite no longer having a business.

The lawsuit contends that Patti’s was never informed of the three-year term. After informing Wells Fargo of this, the company waived its $500 early termination fee.

“Most of Defendant’s customers are not so fortunate, rather they are put to a Hobson’s Choice – pay the early termination fee (usually $500) or accept the overbilling for three years,” the suit states.

Such was the case for Queen City Tours. That company claims that after “wasting dozens of hours on the phone” with Wells Fargo, it decided to end its relationship. However, after being informed of the $500 termination penalty, Queen City says it resigned itself to paying the improper monthly minimum fee of $20 until its contract ended.

The lawsuit claims that the fees assessed to Queen City and Patti’s Pitas were improper and unauthorized. As such, Wells Fargo “has improperly deprived Plaintiffs and those similarly situated of significant funds, causing ascertainable monetary losses and damages.”

With the lawsuit, the businesses seek the return of all improper fees and unspecified damages.

Consumerist has reached out to Wells Fargo for comment on the lawsuit, we’ll update this post if we hear back.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Facebook Now Helps Advertisers Target People Who Visited Their Real-World Stores

Most of us are no longer surprised to see that our online ads are sometimes directly related to websites we’ve recently visited. An even more invasive practice would be for you to go online and be bombarded with ads for a bricks-and-mortar store you just shopped at. Nevertheless, Facebook is now letting online advertisers target users based on their offline movements.

Facebook already allowed advertisers to target incredibly narrow segments of the platform’s two billion global users; an advertiser could winnow its audience down to just one person if it’s patient enough. But advertisers naturally want to strike a balance: cast as wide a net as possible among people who are likely to respond to the ad. And who better to be likely to buy your stuff than someone who’s already got a proven history of physically visiting your stores?

How does it work?

A screenshot provided to Marketing Land shows a new option under the tool that allows advertisers to create a custom audience:

In addition to importing a customer file (i.e. uploading a database of members in your loyalty program) or selecting based off of people who have visited or ordered from your website, a new feature, “Store Visits,” now appears.

Marketing Land suggests one scenario where advertisers might use the feature: Let’s say you visit a department store — your basic Kohl’s, JC Penney, and so on — during the back-to-school shopping season.

That store wants to target its back-to-school parent-shoppers with specific ads for the holiday season, and get them back through the doors to buy presents and holiday outfits. So it runs a set of targeted ad campaigns.

One runs to women ages 30-50 who shopped at the store during back-to-school and have children in, let’s say, preschool or elementary school. That ad pushes certain kinds of toys and outfits.

Another runs to women ages 30 to 50 who shopped at the store during back-to-school and have children in high school or college. That ad may push gift cards, or accessories, instead of children’s toys. Either way, the store can try to reach all of its potential customers right where they, specifically, are.

The option is still in testing and not very widespread yet, Marketing Land notes — the site became aware of it from a screenshot one advertiser tweeted.

A spokesperson for Facebook told Marketing Land, “We’re always exploring new ways to help marketers drive offline value from their ads, but have nothing new to announce at this time.”

Can I opt out?

Unfortunately, there is no way to currently opt out of just this specific setting, but you do have some control over how narrowly Facebook advertisers can target you, and through using other settings you can basically opt out of this kind of targeting (and almost every other kind, too).

For starters, if Facebook doesn’t know where you are or have been, then it can’t tell advertisers you’ve been in their stores. You can change the permissions Facebook has to access and use your location data in the app’s settings.

The relevant screen looks like this on Android:

And like this on iOS:

 

You can also go to your Facebook ads preferences page and see — or make changes to — what Facebook determines your interests and demographic subgroups are.

Under the “your information” setting of your ad preferences, you can also set whether or not Facebook is allowed to target you based on key demographic information that you supplied or it guessed. That includes things you probably put in your profile, like your relationship status, your employer, and your education. It also includes more granular categories Facebook puts together on its own, like, “Anniversary in 61-90 days” or “Close friends of expats with a birthday in 7-30 days.”

(Both of those examples are real.)

That said, your online and offline presences are continuing to be merged anyway, whether you want them to or not. Stores and entire malls use location beacons to see where you’re shopping and beam deals at you, and all of that gets matched to your phone number. And an organization that wants to can link all that with your credit card spending — to say nothing of the role that loyalty programs and dedicated retailer apps play in all this.

About the only way to avoid all of it completely is to turn off your phone before you go anywhere and pay cash for all purchases — a pair of conditions fewer of us every year are likely to meet.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

JCPenney’s Turnaround Has Gone 360 Degrees

JCPenney has tried so many turnarounds during this decade, it’s difficult to remember which direction the classic American department store brand is even supposed to be facing. As of now, it’s not headed in the direction of profitability, or paying down its debts.

The news is bad, but not all bad

Sales at comparable stores, an important figure when a retailer is on a store-closing spree as JCPenney has been, are down this quarter again. At the halfway mark for 2017, the company has a net loss of $242 million, since liquidating stores means a cash infusion, but much lower margins and profits.

Like anyone having a rough decade or two, the company has had to borrow a lot: It has close to $4 billion of long-term debt, and continuing to lose money won’t help it pay that debt down. Investors see this as a really bad sign, and the company’s stock has reached an all-time low.

Store closing sales brought some shoppers back to visit, and JCPenney even pushed back the final closing dates for some locations because there were shoppers showing up for once.

Net sales across the whole chain are up, but store-closing sales and higher costs for merchandise meant that the retailer still wasn’t profitable during this period.

Look, they’re trying

The retailer has announced a lot of initiatives meant to find new markets and boost profits this year, which include:

• Adding mini-stores for toys, which will be conveniently close to the existing Disney mini-stores.

• Putting Nike mini-stores inside 600 locations.

• Expanding the number of stores that sell appliances, and adding more brands to its assortment.

• Opening or expanding more than 100 Sephora mini-stores.

• Selling linens to hotels, hiring an outside sales staff to be competitive with existing vendors in that business.

• Revamping its rewards program, hoping to bring the customers that it has back more often.

Awaiting a Christmas miracle

Based on the company’s strengths so far this year, the back-to-school and holiday season may improve the chain’s fortunes in the second half of the year.

In general, people are still coming to JCPenney, but they aren’t as interested in buying clothes there. Clothes for kids and plus-size women are exceptions and doing quite well, but overall the company is trying to rely less on apparel, and take advantage of the slow-motion demise of competitor Sears instead.

“While broader retail remains challenged, we are encouraged by the improved performance in our total apparel business, including a significant acceleration in kids’ apparel,” CEO Marvin Ellison said in a statement.

The new toy mini-stores may also help heading into the holiday season, if they’re able to either offer something unique or compete effectively with Walmart and Toys ‘R’ Us.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Italy Is Europe’s Ice Cream Champ, Producing 6.8B Scoops Of Gelato In 2016

Hear that sound? It’s everyone in Italy, screaming for ice cream. Because if there’s one country that loves creamy frozen treats, it’s the home of gelato: Italy produced more ice cream last year than any other country in Europe.

That’s “amore”

Italy was responsible for 19% all the ice cream made in Europe last year, producing 157 million gallons of the stuff, reports Bloomberg. That’s about 6.8 billion scoops. Germany came in second with approximately 135 million gallons.

RELATED: What’s The Difference Between Ice Cream, Frozen Custard, And Gelato?

It makes sense that Italy needs to make a lot of ice cream: Its residents eat an average of 100 scoops of ice cream ever year, served at any of the 19,000 or so gelaterias in the country.

Those shops do brisk business, selling $1.6 billion worth of gelato every year.

“We can sell up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds) a day on the busiest summer days,” the founder of one chain tells Bloomberg.

A great gelato

While you can find gelato on supermarket shelves in the U.S., “authentic” gelato — which is usually creamier and more spreadable, because it has less air whipped into it than ice cream — is produced fresh almost every day in relatively small quantities, and is sold directly to the public in a large number of flavors.

According to Luciano Ferrari, senior instructor and technical director at the Carpigiano Gelato University in Bologna, Italy, a great gelato meets three criteria.

“A not-so-great gelato is missing at least one,” he explained to Consumerist.

1. Taste shall be natural, clean, intense, lasting and not end up leaving just sweetness in your mouth.

2. Structure must be creamy and spreadable. This means gelato should never be too hard nor too soft.

3. Texture — the feel of consistency during consumption — shall be smooth and fine.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Even Though They’re Breaking Up, Netflix Still Wants To Share Disney’s Marvel & Star Wars Movies

Like a couple that decides to go its separate way but where they both want to keep the dog, Netflix says it is talking to Disney about holding on to its deal to continue streaming Marvel and Star Wars movies after the two part ways at the end of 2018.

For those who missed this seismic event in the streaming sphere, earlier this week Disney announced it was ending its deal with Netflix that gave the streaming platform exclusive-ish access to new content from the global entertainment giant. At the same time, Disney announced that it will eventually be launching its own subscription streaming service.

The Disney/Netflix arrangement includes titles from Disney’s namesake flagship studio, along with the wildly successful Marvel movies and shows, and new Star Wars titles. When Disney announced the breakup, the implication was that it was taking this full library away from Netflix, but the company only explicitly mentioned upcoming Disney and Pixar movies that would be affected by the change.

Disney subsequently clarified that its planned streaming service would not include the Marvel and Star Wars films, but that the company hadn’t decided on exactly what it was going to do with them.

Now Netflix content honcho Ted Sarandos tells Reuters that Netflix is having “active discussions” (as opposed to passive chit-chat?) with Disney, looking to retain its access to the Marvel and Star Wars titles. Both of these brands have a number of titles slated to come out in 2019 and beyond that would be affected.

Sarandos tells Reuters that he doesn’t see Disney’s eventual streaming service as a direct competitor, but as something that could be “complementary” to Netflix. After all, while Disney might be the biggest name in animation, it’s far from the only one, so a Disney-only streaming library won’t help when your kids demand you put on Minions 7: The Minioning.

Only a day before the Disney announcement, Netflix revealed that it was purchasing Millarworld, the comics book company behind a handful of hit series, like Kick-Ass and Kingsmen. When the Disney break-up was announced, some industry onlookers concluded that the Millarworld acquisition was a hedge against the eventual loss of Marvel.

Sarandos didn’t explicitly confirm that theory, but he did acknowledge that these ever-shifting, non-permanent deals with Disney and others are one of the reasons that Netflix has spent billions in recent years producing its own shows and movies.

“That’s why we got into the originals business five years ago,” said Sarandos to Reuters, “anticipating it may be not as easy a conversation with studios and networks” to license their content.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Food Scientist Envisions A Future Where “Super Nutritious Pizza” Exists

Sure, you may try to claim that “pizza is a vegetable” or that it’s healthy because you put some broccoli on top. Yes, we’re just fooling ourselves — but if one food scientist has his way, we could all be eating truly nutritious pizza in the future.

Over at Abbott Laboratories — the company behind products like Ensure meal replacement shakes and baby formula — the company’s director of user experience and research and development is working on “therapeutic nutrition,” reports Business Insider.

What does that mean, exactly? It’s any kind of food people eat for medical reasons, like if they’re lacking certain nutrients. And if you could get health benefits from “super nutritious pizza” instead of traditional offerings like kale or a protein shake, that could encourage people to eat healthier, says Dan Schmitz of Abbott.

“Flavor always wins,” he told BI.

It’s not easy to pack a lot of nutrients into food and have it taste good, however which is why most therapeutic food comes in the form of shakes and energy bars, and not pizza.

Schmitz’s team is trying to tackle this problem and find ways to encourage people eat to healthier food, by making nutrient-rich items that actually taste good.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Applebee’s Closing More Than 100 Locations, IHOP To Shutter 25 Restaurants

There could soon be fewer places to grab an app or order a stack of pancakes: Dine Equity, the company behind Applebee’s and IHOP, will close up to 160 locations of the chain restaurants this year in an attempt to trim costs and boost sales.

Dine Equity announced the closures Thursday evening during its second quarter earning call, revamping previously modest closure plans for the chains.

At Applebee’s the company said it would close between 105 and 135 restaurants across the country. That figure is up from the estimated 40 to 60 locations previously slated for closure in 2017.

As for IHOP, Dine Equity announced that it would close between 20 and 25 locations, up from the 18 previously scheduled to shutter.

Aggressive Closures

“We are long overdue in rationalizing the size of our system and closing poorly performing restaurants,” Richard Dahl, interim CEO and chairman for Dine Equity, said during the call.

The company says that the “aggressive” closures are part of its plan to simplify operations, while elevating the guest experience.

Applebee’s president John Cywinski said that the closures relate to two types of restaurants. First, those that are older and located where high traffic is no longer present. The second group consists of restaurants that are underperforming, or “brand-damaging.”

“In either case, these restaurants need to close and perhaps should have closed long ago,” he notes. “We’ve had too much restaurant variability across our system, as well as a rather high percentage of guests not satisfied with their experience.”

By closing the restaurants, Dahl said Dine Equity is “investing in the empowerment of our brands.”

While closing 160 or so locations of the two chains might seem like a lot, it’s just a drop in the bucket for Dine Equity, which currently operates more than 3,700 restaurants, including 1,811 Applebee’s and 1,646 IHOP locations.

A list of closing restaurants has not yet been released. Dine Equity notes that closures will be determined based on franchisee profitability, operational results, and meeting brand quality standards.

Consumerist has reached out to Dine Equity for more information on a timeline for the closures and details on which locations will be affected. We’ll update this post if we hear back.

Declining Sales, New Leader

As for Dine Equity’s financial results, the company reported net income of $20.9 million for the second quarter of 2017, a drop from $26.4 million one year ago.

At Applebee’s, comparable same-restaurant sales declined 6.2% for the second quarter, while IHOP saw sales decline 2.6% during the same time. For all of 2107, Applebee’s sales declined 7%, while IHOP’s declined 2.1% overall.

In other Dine Equity news, the company announced Thursday a new CEO: Stephen Joyce, the former CEO of Choice Hotels, will take the helm at the company after Julia Stewart resigned in February.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Amazon Considering Ready-To-Eat Meal Delivery That Doesn’t Require Refrigeration

Although the idea of ready-to-eat-meals may sound more like military rations than your average dinner at home, Amazon is reportedly talking about delivering dishes that are already prepared and don’t need to be refrigerated as part of its push into the grocery business.

According to Reuters, Amazon has been chatting with startup firm 915 Labs, which is marketing a technology called microwave assisted thermal sterilization (MATS). The process — developed by researchers at Washington State University — involves putting sealed packages of food in pressurized water and then heating them with a microwave for several minutes.

This means that unlike a meal kit service — which Amazon is already offering in Seattle — dishes like beef stew and vegetable frittata could be consumed as soon as they’re out of the package, or stored in the pantry for up to a year. No preparation necessary.

915 Labs claims that the dishes keep their natural flavor and texture, in comparison to other processing methods that involve cooking meals in pressure cookers for up to an hour.

If Amazon decides to go ahead with such a service — possibly as early as next year — storage and shipping would be easy, since the meals don’t need to be refrigerated, and thus they could be a cheaper option for customers than takeout.

Amazon declined to comment to Reuters.

All I want to know is if scientists have come up with a RTE pizza yet.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds

Here are six of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist