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  Geebo 9:04 am on October 25, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Amazon ( 112 ), retail ( 49 ), Target ( 6 ), Whole Foods ( 7 )   

  Are big retailers trying to squeeze out Whole Foods? 

  

  According to a report from Reuters, Amazon is facing an uphill battle when it comes to not only opening new Whole Foods locations, but also what they can provide in existing locations. Many big box retailers such as Target and Best Buy have leasing agreements with their stores’ property owners that can limit what other stores can do.

  For example, Many Target stores have a clause in their leasing agreements that prevents nearby stores from providing lockers where they can pick up online orders. That was one of the main reasons as to why Amazon bought Whole Foods in the first place. Some Best Buys have clauses that prohibit electronics from being sold on less than 250 square feet of floor space. This could inhibit Whole Foods from selling Amazon’s Echoes and Kindles. Bed Bath and Beyond also has a clause that prevents some nearby stores from selling linens and other housewares. Many of the stores’ spokespeople say this is a common business practice when it comes to multi-store properties.

  However, Amazon should never be counted out. Considering they took a simple book selling website and it turned it into the world’s largest online retailer they’ve face hurdles like this before and have always come out on top.

   

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  Geebo 10:00 am on October 24, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Christmas ( 15 ), retail ( 49 ), Target ( 6 )   

  Target to put the brakes on Christmas 

  

  It happens every year around this time. It’s not even Halloween yet and Christmas commercials are already starting to invade the airwaves. A number of retailers tend to bypass Thanksgiving altogether and go straight for Christmas as soon as the leaves change color. Then we hear consumers say en masse that it’s too soon for Christmas marketing. Well, one retailer has said it’s listening to its customers and is cutting back on Christmas.

  Target has announced that they are actually going to focus on Thanksgiving in their stores and delay the Christmas rush. The retail chain says they’ll be focusing on Thanksgiving meal preparation and entertaining during the Thanksgiving season. That’s not to say that Target is throwing in the towel when it comes to Christmas as they plan on increasing their marketing budget as Christmas approaches.

  It’s refreshing to see a retail chain listening to its customers. This has the potential to sway some customers away from Walmart. While it probably won’t make that much of a dent in Walmart’s customer base it’s nice to have the option to shop in a store in October and November and not be assaulted prematurely by the juggernaut of Christmas marketing.

   
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  Geebo 9:16 am on October 23, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: BBC ( 2 ), craigslist ( 129 ), UK ( 10 )   

  BBC: Craigslist complicit in crime 

  

  It’s no secret in America that craigslist is the home of a number of illegal activities on its website every day. The problem is that craigslist doesn’t do anything about it and it’s almost deemed as just a part of doing business on craigslist. Outside of when craigslist still had its adult services section, rarely has a media outlet taken craigslist to task for allowing criminal activity to continually occur. However, in the UK, the vaunted BBC has decided to bring this particular problem to light.

  In a BBC expose that is set to air soon, one of their reporters took it upon himself to show just how widespread criminal activity is on craigslist in the British Isles. The reporter found everything from high-end cocaine, to stolen passports, to people who were willing to let criminals launder money in their bank account. The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners said that legislation should be put in place to prevent these activities from taking place on craigslit, while a UK cybersecurity expert said that craigslist could easily implement measures to prevent crimes like this.

  Now if crime is so widespread on craigslist in the UK, it’s more than likely occurring one hundred fold in the US. Instead of just a few voices shouting into the wind about the dangers of craigslist, we need the major news outlets to continue investigating craigslist instead of just patting themselves on the back because the adult services section closed.

   
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  Geebo 9:34 am on October 20, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Amazon ( 112 ), Lord & Taylor, walmart ( 25 )   

  Walmart said to be making move to create online mall 

  

  It seems that a week can’t go by without Amazon and Walmart taking steps to encroach on each other’s territory. Yesterday we posted about how Amazon was now partnering with Kohl’s to accept amazon returns. Now, it’s been reported by the Wall Street Journal that Walmart is in talks with high-end department store Lord & Taylor to sell their products on Walmart’s website.

  According to most reports, this partnership has the potential to be beneficial to all parties involved. While Lord & Taylor has seen a decline in foot traffic to their stores an online presence with America;s largest retailer could really help them out. Conversely, this adds some prestige to Walmart’s online offerings as it has somewhat of a stigma for being only for lower-income customers.

  This latest partnership is said to being contemplated by Walmart in order to develop an online mall where many different types of retailers are represented, much like Amazon.com. Yet while the two retail giants war, consumers are the victims left in its wake as we inch ever so closer to a retail duopoly in this country. Fewer choices are never a good thing.

   
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  Geebo 8:59 am on October 19, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Amazon ( 112 ), Kohl's, retail ( 49 )   

  Kohl’s to start accepting Amazon returns 

  

  We’re not saying Amazon is The Borg, but assimilation is not out of the question.

  Have you ever purchased something from Amazon and it turned out not to be exactly what you wanted. Maybe it’s the wrong size or the wrong color or something else entirely. In order to return the merchandise, you have to print out a mailing label, wrap it back up and then send it back to Amazon and hope it doesn’t get lost in transit. Now, you may not have to deal with that hassle as retail outlet Kohl’s is now accepting Amazon returns in certain locations.

  As of yesterday, Kohl’s stores in Chicago and Los Angeles started accepting Amazon returns. This goes along with a display of Amazon products for sale such as the ubiquitous Amazon Echo. Kohl’s is hoping that the traffic from Amazon return customers will translate into additional sales for Kohl’s.

  Let’s be real though. This appears a lot like Amazon reaching its many arms into another area of the brick and mortar retail space much along the lines of their purchase of Whole Foods. While Kohl’s may see this as an opportunity to increase sales, Amazon probably sees this as another domino falling in their quest to retail domination.

   
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  Geebo 9:28 am on October 18, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Clark County, nevada ( 2 ), pet adoption ( 9 ), Puppy Mills ( 15 )   

  Nevada county trying to crack down on puppy mills 

  

  Previously, we’ve discussed many times in the why Geebo does not accept listings for pet. Geebo CEO Greg Collier has gone on record to state that he didn’t want Geebo to be an avenue for puppy mills. The ASPCA defines a puppy mill as “a large-scale commercial dog breeding operation where profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs.” Now, a county in Nevada is trying to put a stop to these cruel operations.

  Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, is trying to introduce legislation designed to curtail illegal breeders and puppy mills within their county. You would think that this would be met with universal approval, but nothing is ever that simple. You’d be surprised how many people want a certain breed of no dog no matter how that dog was bred and pet stores claim that this will limit them on where they can purchase their animals from. Opponents to the legislation also derided shelters and rescue groups claiming those animals can’t be trusted.

  Shelter and rescue pets get an unfair stigma because a number of people think that they all have behavior problems. In reality a puppy mill dog is more likely to have behavior problems as they’re often inbred to the point where it can cause mental and physical defects that often result in behavioral issues.

  Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani also had a word of advice for people looking to buy a puppy online.

  “There are some other things that we need to work on,” Giunchigliani said. “What we want is to educate people to never buy animals off of Craigslist. They are almost always coming from a puppy mill in another state.”

  If you’re really looking to buy a purebred dog, always make sure that the breeder is licensed and check out the facilities to make sure they’re not abusing their animals. Also please consider adopting a dog from a rescue group or shelter and possibly even adopt an older dog as they often have a hard time finding new homes.

   
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  Geebo 8:58 am on October 17, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: counterfeit goods ( 14 ), designer goods ( 2 ), eBay ( 16 ), eBay Authenticate, retail ( 49 )   

  eBay cracks down on high end counterfeits 

  

  If you’re an aficionado of designer accessories made by the likes of Louis Vuitton and Gucci, but are looking to buy them at a discount then you probably know the hazards of trying to avoid the counterfeits. Designer knock-offs have always been a blight upon the fashion industry and have been linked to everything from organized crime, to human trafficking and even terrorism by some reports. You almost have to act like an FBI investigator to try to authenticate any designer goods being sold online. However, you may not have to do that for long as eBay claims they’ve got your back.

  The online retail pioneer has just launched a program they call eBay Authenticate. For a fee, eBay will have a professional authenticator review the physical receipt of the item in question before allowing it to be sold to a buyer. This service is said to be specifically for the brands of Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Chanel, Gucci, Céline, Fendi, Christian Dior, Prada, Goyard, Balenciaga, Valentino, and Burberry. eBay says they expect to have more brands included in the program in 2018.

  So if this program is a success for eBay is stopping counterfeit sales, where will counterfeiters go to peddle their wares? I think we all know the answer to that. I won’t mention them by name, but it will probably be a certain classifieds site that does not care enough for their customers to moderate their own ads. In case you need another hint, their name rhymes with draigslist.

   
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  Geebo 8:59 am on October 16, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: hacking ( 32 ), KRACK, security ( 46 )   

  Exploit makes all Wi-Fi vulnerable. Is it time to panic? 

  

  A leading security expert recently discovered an exploit in the algorithm that keeps most Wi-Fi devices secure. The exploit, named KRACK, allows a bad actor to hijack your Wi-Fi and tunnel in to any of your Wi-Fi enabled devices. This means that your private information could be compromised or any sort of malware could be injected into your devices. Here’s all the guts of how the exploit works.

  This makes any Wi-Fi enabled device vulnerable. That means it can effect phones, tablets, PCs, whether they run Windows, Android, iOS, MacOS and even Linux. So what can you do? Unfortunately, mostly wait. This exploit is so new that most distributors have not pushed any updates yet to fix the exploit. That’s not even taking into consideration that a lot of distributors, especially router manufacturers, never even update the firmware of their devices. The same goes for a lot of Android phone manufacturers too. You can use a virtual private network (VPN) to be more secure, however, they can be costly and some VPN providers can be shady themselves. For PCs and laptops you can go back to using your ethernet cables.

  If any good news can come from this exploit it’s that someone has to be within distance of your Wi-Fi source to be able to launch an attack. So if you’re at home, someone would have to be in range of your home router to try to hijack your signal. Businesses will be more vulnerable as a hacker will have better access to try to hijack that signal. Hopefully, manufacturers, distributors and providers will realize just how massive this vulnerability is and will issue patches as soon as possible. If you have additional questions and concerns you can go to krackattacks.com.

   
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  Geebo 9:01 am on October 13, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: counterfeit money ( 9 ), Scams ( 1,610 )   

  Beware of counterfeit bills when making a classifieds transaction 

  

  This is a scam that has been going on since the advent of online classifieds and is still going on to this day, counterfeit money. Unfortunately, it’s not just something you see happen on TV or movies. You could take all the right precautions by going to a police station to make your transaction and bringing a friend with you and still get ripped off if you’re not careful.

  Thankfully, there are many ways you can check to see if a bill is counterfeit. One of the best ways is to purchase an anti-counterfeit pen. Anyone can purchase one of these pens that when you mark a counterfeit bill with it a black mark will show up. Also don’t forget about the security measures put in place in legitimate bills such as the security stripe you can see when you hold the bill up to the light, or the red and blue fibers that can be seen in genuine US currency if you use a magnifying glass.

  Back in the early days of online classifieds there used to be the adage of “local only and cash only”. Thanks to counterfeiters you can’t even trust that adage anymore. If you find yourself a victim of a counterfeiter, call police. Do not try to pass off the money yourself as that could lead to serious jail time. Then, not only will you be out your money and your merchandise, but you’ll also be out a substantial part of your life.

   
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  Geebo 9:21 am on October 12, 2017 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: new york ( 16 ), rental scam ( 91 ), Scams ( 1,610 )   

  Rental scammer goes the extra mile in fleecing victims 

  

  By now, we should all know how the craigslist rental scam works. A scam artist will copy a real estate ad from a legitimate realtor then paste it into craigslist but lowering the rental price to lower than market value. The ‘renter’ will then ask for the money to be wired to them and won’t let you inspect the interior of the home. Here’s a video about how the scam normally works.

  One family from Upstate New York found themselves victims of the rental scam, but their scammer used a completely different scam. According to the family, the scam artist represented himself as a real estate agent. He allegedly showed the family the inside of the home and even had them sign a lease before taking their money. It wasn’t until some time later when the bank knocked on the family’s door asking them why they were living in the home. The scammer was said to have had multiple victims, however, performing such an elaborate scam left him a large target for police who had no trouble in apprehending him.

  Again though, the same caveats apply to this rental scam as they do the others. Do your homework. Check the county appraiser’s website to find out who is actually renting the home if it’s even for rent. And as always the age-old adage applies, if it seems to good to be true it probably is.