Walmart Black Friday Protests Hit Major Cities With Calls For '$15 And Full Time'

WASHINGTON -- Dirk Rasmussen had Friday off and could have slept in if he wanted to. Instead, the Maryland resident and Teamster rose early and drove to downtown Washington, eager to join a post-Thanksgiving protest against Walmart.

"Our local [union] president encouraged us to take part," said Rasmussen, 58, who works in a lumber and building-supply warehouse. "I raised eight children on a Teamsters benefit package and Teamsters wage. I'm a firm believer in collective bargaining, and I'm very concerned about the security of this next generation."

Black Friday may be most famous for doorbuster shopping deals, but among progressives it's becoming a regular holiday for labor demonstrations. Friday marked the third consecutive year of scattered but highly visible protests against Walmart. Demonstrators, along with an unknown number of Walmart strikers, are calling for better pay and scheduling practices from the world's largest retailer.

On Thursday and Friday, photos on Twitter tagged with #walmartstrikers showed sizable protests in D.C., Pittsburgh, Northern New Jersey, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Calif., and St. Paul, Minn., among other areas. The protests were led by OUR Walmart, a union-backed worker group, alongside community and labor groups in different cities.

100+ stand in solidarity w #WalmartStrikers on thanksgiving in DC pic.twitter.com/Spqc8rsooQ

-- DC Jobs With Justice (@DCJWJ) November 28, 2014

Dan Schlademan, campaign director of Making Change at Walmart, a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, said on a call with reporters Friday that he expects the number of strikers to be in the hundreds by the end of the day, though the group could not provide a specific number of workers who'd submitted strike notices to their bosses.

"All the signs that we're seeing is that this is going to be the biggest day ever," Schlademan said.

Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Walmart, told HuffPost that the retailer was more concerned with serving its customers than with protests it views as union stunts. According to Buchanan, more than 22 million shoppers came to Walmart stores on Thanksgiving alone this year.

"We're really focused on our customers," Buchanan said. "We've got millions of customers coming in [on Thanksgiving] and Friday, and we're making sure they have a safe and exciting shopping experience."

In D.C., a crowd estimated at 200 to 400 people assembled outside the Walmart store on H Street Northwest, calling on the retailer to commit to "$15 and full time" -- a wage of $15 per hour, the same rate demanded by fast-food strikers, and a full-time schedule for those who want it. One of OUR Walmart's top criticisms of the retailer is that part-time workers don't get enough hours.

The protest was large enough to draw the D.C. police, who stood at the store's doors and dispersed the crowd after about an hour.

Melinda Gaino, an employee at the store, said she would be missing three shifts this week while on strike. Gaino took part in a sit-down strike on Wednesday inside the H Street store, where she and other protesters sat on the floor with tape over their mouths, calling on Walmart to end what they called the silencing of workers.

Gaino, a 45-year-old mother of four, said she joined OUR Walmart in August out of concern with some of the challenges faced by her colleagues. Many workers, she said, don't get enough hours to support their families.

"This has given me more confidence," Gaino, who earns $9.90 per hour, said of going on strike. "I said I've come this far, so I may as well go all in."

Correction: This item originally misstated the number of Walmart shoppers on Thanksgiving.

Nice of @walmart to set up a lovely tableau for #WalmartStrikers! Roll back? Fight back! #BlackFridayWOA pic.twitter.com/XR0y85co5o

-- Jess Banks (@ProfBanks) November 28, 2014

Buick Dealership Offers A Free Car -- And A Lesson In The Derivatives Market

Bill Kay Buick GMC is promising a complete refund to anyone who buys a new car on Friday or Saturday if it snows more than 6 inches on Christmas Day in Chicago.

"No one has ever done this in the car business before," Karl Regalado, Bill Kay's general manager, told The Huffington Post. "It's legit. A lot of people think it's a scam."

It's not a scam; it's a derivatives contract.

(Bill Kay Buick GMC)

For two days only, your new Buick comes with what is essentially a weather derivatives contract. Typically the only people dealing in weather derivatives are investment banks and insurance companies with teams dedicated to betting on things like hurricane and flood risk.

For example, to offset its risk of paying out millions of dollars to homeowners in case of a hurricane, an insurance company will set up a derivatives contract with an investment bank. The bank agrees to pay out some amount of money in case the storm actually does hit. If the storm misses land, the bank wins. If the storm hits, the insurance company loses less.

At Bill Kay Buick GMC, the deal is more simple: If it snows 6 inches or more on Christmas at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, you get your money back. And really, Bill Kay means that quite literally -- 2 inches on Dec. 24 and 5 inches on the 25th without melting won't cut it. A half-foot of snow has to fall from midnight to 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 25. If that doesn't happen, you keep your car for the price you paid. That's risky, so Bill Kay bought insurance from a company called HCC that specializes in financially protecting companies and people from odd things, like the chance that a professional athlete's career will be cut short by injury.

Regardless of what happens, Bill Kay gets some publicity (this post included, you're welcome!). That insurance should have been pretty cheap -- a little more than $10,000 based on my estimate. The fair price to insure the dealership's expected $1 million in sales is less than 1 percent of $1 million, but for the sake of round numbers, let's assume it's $10,000, plus a bit more because the insurance company is being conservative and tacks on a fee. Still, the total cost the dealership paid to the insurance company is probably less than $12,500. That's the equivalent of a 10 percent discount on five $25,000 Buicks.

So Bill Kay's Buick GMC, the only weather-derivatives-dealing car dealership in America, is doing something pretty smart: Offloading its entire refund risk to its insurance company at a price that's cheaper than a run-of-the-mill sale to which no one (myself and the Tribune included) would have paid much attention.

That's because, based on historical data, the chance of Chicago getting 6 inches of snow on Christmas is less than 1 percent. Chicago is a cold, snowy city, but heavy snowfall happens infrequently, as you can see from this chart. Snow days of 3 inches or more are the dark blue lines occurring around 2 percent frequency in December:

The record Christmas Day snowfall in Chicago, according to the state's climatologist, was 2.5 inches in 1965.

According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, from 1981 to 2011, it snowed 5 inches or more in December an average of just 0.3 days. That's just 1 percent of the days. It's not enough snow to trigger the free-car deal, and it includes the entire month of December. The odds of big snow days are the same in January, which is useful. The dealership and its insurer don't need to worry about a more-frequent early January storm happening in late December.

Bill Kay has already seen the deal's payoff. It has "been a great media blitz in the last 24 hours or so," Regalado said. And things will only get better, he says, if they give away cars on Christmas.

"No matter how many cars we sell, whether it's 40, 50, 60 or 70, this is a win, win, win. If it snows 6 inches on Christmas, everyone is going to know who we are."

Here Are The Most Googled Toys In Each State

The must-have holiday gift this year isn't a cutting edge robot or even the latest video game console, it's a Rubik's cube. Well, it is if you live in Colorado, anyway.

A new map made by SumoCoupon, a website that offers discounts at various stores, reveals the gifts that are most popular in each state this holiday season. SumoCoupon came up with the map by analyzing Google search volumes to see which item people were Googling the most in each state. They determined which toys to include using "curated lists of classic and more modern popular toys and games," the company wrote The Huffington Post in an email.

Some of the hottest presents this year had us a little surprised. Everybody knows toys from Disney's "Frozen" are bound to be a hit this year. But it looks like there's still plenty of competition from American classics like baseball gloves and Barbies. Check out which holiday toy is trending in your state.

Thanksgiving Day Deals Trump Black Friday This Year

NEW YORK (AP) — Thanksgiving could be the best day to shop all year.

An analysis of sales data and store circulars by two research firms contradicts conventional wisdom that Black Friday is when shoppers can get the most and biggest sales of the year.

Turns out, shoppers will find more discounted items in stores that are open on Thanksgiving. For example, there are a total of 86 laptops and tablets deeply discounted as door buster deals at Best Buy, Wal-Mart and others on the holiday compared with just nine on Black Friday, according to an analysis of promotions for The Associated Press by researcher MarketTrack.

And on the Web, discounts will be deeper on the holiday. Online prices on Thanksgiving are expected to be about 24 percent cheaper compared with 23 percent on Black Friday and 20 percent on Cyber Monday, according to Adobe, which tracks data on 4,500 retail web sites.

The data is the latest proof that retailers are slowly redefining the Black Friday tradition. It's been the biggest shopping day of the year for years, mostly because it's traditionally when retailers pull out their best sales events. But in the last few years, retailers like the Gap, Target and Toys R Us have started opening their stores and offering holiday discounts on Thanksgiving to better compete with online rivals.

"I was surprised, but it really shifted one day," said Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst at Adobe, which is based in San Jose, California.

Shoppers already are noticing the deals on Thanksgiving. Corey Grassell, 34, of Appleton, Wisconsin, said he plans to shop for deals on Thanksgiving and bypass Black Friday. That's after he grabbed bargains last year on the holiday, including a washer-dryer combination at Sears for about $800, a 50 percent discount.

"I feel guilty for going out on Thanksgiving, but the deals are so much more attractive to me than on Black Friday," he says.

But some industry watchers fear others won't shop on Thanksgiving, choosing to keep the day sacred. Those who wait instead to shop on Black Friday could wind up being disappointed with the leftover deals, they say. In fact, according to Deloitte Research's recent survey of shoppers, about two-thirds say they're not motivated to go out to stores Thanksgiving because it's important to be with family and friends.

"Shoppers could be disappointed and find that the hot items on their list are not in stock on Black Friday because of the early push by retailers," says Traci Gregorski, MarketTrack's vice president of marketing.

She says she's conducting a survey of shoppers after the holiday shopping weekend to see how retailers fared. "We want to get shoppers' perception of these deals," she says.

Most big retailers acknowledge that they're starting to offer deals on Thanksgiving that previously were reserved for Black Friday.

Jeff Haydock, a spokesman at Best Buy, the nation's largest consumer electronics chain, said the best deals become available Thanksgiving when its doors open at 5 p.m. For example, one of Best Buy's Thanksgiving specials is a $899 55-inch LED Smart TV, the lowest price it has ever offered on a Samsung ultra-high definition TV of this size. That will be available on Friday —if supplies last.

"Naturally, more of the deals are being pulled into Thursday because our stores are open," says Haydock.

Brian Hanover, a spokesman at Sears, which is opening at 6 p.m. Thursday, also says Thanksgiving specials spill into Black Friday. But the quantities for the 1,000 door busters are limited. They include Nordic Track treadmills for $699.99, or an $800 discount, and a 36 percent savings on a Whirlpool laundry machine, regularly priced at $549.99.

"It probably behooves the customer to shop earlier on Thanksgiving," he says.

For its part, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, says it's spreading out discounts online and in the store. But Gregorski, of MarketTrack's says its "evident" in Wal-Mart's circular that "the best deals are on Thanksgiving."

To be sure, for its two sales events on Thanksgiving, Wal-Mart devotes 36 pages of its circular to discounted TVs, computers and other items. On Black Friday? Wal-Mart has four pages of deals.

_______________

Follow Anne D'Innocenzio at — https://twitter.com/adinnocenzio

Black Friday Is One Of The Busiest Days For Gun Purchases

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. (AP) — Black Friday isn't just when shoppers rush to stores for holiday sales. It's also one of the busiest days of the year for gun purchases.

In the U.S., there are nine guns for every 10 people. Someone is killed with a firearm every 16 minutes. And every minute, gun shops make about 40 new requests for criminal background checks on people wanting weapons.

On Black Friday, the rush accelerates to nearly two checks a second, testing the limits of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

"We have a perfect storm coming," says Kimberly Del Greco, a manager in the FBI division that helps run the system, known as NICS.

Much of the responsibility for preventing criminals and the mentally ill from buying guns is shouldered by about 500 men and women who run the system from inside the FBI's criminal justice center, a gray office building with concrete walls and mirrored windows just outside Bridgeport, West Virginia.

Granted a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the NICS, The Associated Press was able to see first-hand why 512 gun sales a day effectively beat the system last year.

By federal law, NICS researchers must race against the clock: They have until the end of the third business day following an attempted firearm purchase to determine whether or not a buyer is eligible. After that, buyers can legally get their guns, whether or not the check was completed.

This clock ran out more than 186,000 times last year.

The problem is the data.

States voluntarily submit records, which are often missing information about mental health rulings or criminal convictions, and aren't always rapidly updated to reflect restraining orders or other urgent reasons to deny a sale. It's a particular problem on Black Friday, when so many background checks are done at once.

There are more than 48,000 gun retailers in the U.S., from Wal-Mart stores to local pawn shops. Store clerks can use the FBI's online E-Check System, which federal officials say is more efficient. But nearly half the checks are phoned in. Three call centers — in Kentucky, Texas, and Wheeling, W.Va. — take these calls from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. every day but Christmas.

NICS did about 58,000 checks on a typical day last year. That surged to 145,000 on Black Friday 2013. They're bringing in 100 more workers than usual for the post-Thanksgiving rush this year.

The call centers have no access to privileged information about buyers' backgrounds, and make no decisions. They just type in their name, address, birthdate, Social Security Number and other information into the system. On Black Fridays, the work can be grueling: One woman took a call that lasted four hours when a dealer phoned in the maximum 99 checks.

"Rules had to be stretched," recalled Sam Demarco, her supervisor. "We can't transfer calls. Someone had to sit in her seat for her while she went to the bathroom."

In the years since these background checks were required, about 71 percent have found no red flags and produced instant approvals.

But ten factors can disqualify gun purchasers: a felony conviction, an arrest warrant, a documented drug problem or mental illness, undocumented immigration status, a dishonorable military discharge, a renunciation of U.S. citizenship, a restraining order, a history of domestic violence, or an indictment for any crime punishable by longer than one year of prison time.

Any sign that one of these factors could be in a buyer's background produces a red-flag. FBI researchers then investigate, scouring state records in the federal database and calling state and local authorities for more information.

"It takes a lot of effort ... for an examiner to go out and look at court reports, look at judges' documents, try to find a final disposition so we can get back to a gun dealer on whether they can sell that gun or not," Del Greco says. "And we don't always get back to them."

The researchers must use their skill and judgment, striking a balance between the rights of gun owners and the need to keep would-be killers from getting firearms.

Researcher Valerie Sargo says outstanding warrants often come up when they examine a red flag, and that can help police make arrests.

"It makes you feel good that this person is not supposed to have a firearm and you kept it out of their hands," she says.

It also weighs on them when red flags aren't resolved within three days, which happens about two percent of the time, or 512 checks each day on average. Tacked to a cubicle wall, a sign reads: "Our policy is to ALWAYS blame the computer."

These workers have considerable responsibility, but little independent authority.

"They won't proceed or deny a transaction unless they are ABSOLUTELY certain the information they have is correct and sufficient to sustain that decision," FBI spokesman Stephen G. Fischer told the AP.

FBI contractors and employees oversaw more than 9 million checks in the first full year after the system was established as part of Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act in 1998. By last year, they oversaw more than 21 million. In all, only 1.25 percent of attempted purchases are denied. Denials can be appealed.

People can get guns without background checks in many states by buying weapons at gun shows or from individuals, a loophole the National Rifle Association does not want closed. But even the NRA agrees that the NICS system needs better data.

"Any database is only going to function as well as the information contained within," NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam says.

Del Greco doesn't see the states' data improving soon, which only adds to the immense challenge of getting through huge numbers of requisite checks on Black Friday.

"It's really critical that we have accurate information," Del Greco says. "Sometimes we just don't."

Why You Shouldn't Wait For Cyber Monday To Shop Online

Shoppers who don't want to face the crowded stores on Thanksgiving or Black Friday but still want to get some good deals often shop online on Cyber Monday. But the Monday after Thanksgiving is no longer the best day for online shopping.

Every year, sales start earlier and earlier. Now, many start on Thanksgiving -- both in brick-and-mortar stores and online -- so you're better off shopping earlier to catch the best deals. Here's why:

Most of the good deals start way before Cyber Monday. Amazon started its Black Friday sales a full week before Black Friday (and 10 days before Cyber Monday). Other stores, such as Best Buy, will have special online-only deals on Thanksgiving.

You won't be alone if you start shopping on your phone during Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving is projected to be the biggest mobile shopping day of the year, according to Adobe.

The deals are not as good. Your best bet for online shopping is actually Thanksgiving, according to research by Adobe. Online prices are lowest on Thanksgiving, higher on Black Friday and even higher on Cyber Monday. Now you officially have an excuse to shop on your phone while your family argues.

What you want could be sold out. The things you want to buy are probably available in limited quantities, and a lot of things could be sold out by Monday. Adobe measured how often online shoppers were looking at out-of-stock items and found that Cyber Monday was the top day for people to land on out-of-stock items' pages, suggesting that people were having a hard time buying what they were seeking.

Amazon is taking advantage of this by creating deals that exist only for a limited time or while supplies last.

You're more likely to get your gifts in time for the holidays. As you may recall from last year, UPS had difficulty getting packages to their destinations by Christmas. Amazon ended up offering people $20 gift cards if their gifts were delayed. The earlier you shop, the better the chances are that your items will arrive in time for the holidays.

Used Car Dealership Hit With $8 Million Fine For Allegedly Harassing Customers

Elizabeth Warren's brainchild watchdog agency is cracking down for the first time on a used car dealer that also acted as an auto lender for allegedly harassing customers who were late on their payments.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, conceived by Sen. Warren (D. Mass.) during the financial crisis, fined Phoenix-based DriveTime Automotive Group, Inc., the country's largest "buy here, pay here" lender, $8 million on Wednesday. As part of a settlement agreement, DriveTime and its finance company, DT Acceptance Corporation, said they would change debt collection practices.

"Buy here, pay here" auto companies sell used cars, but consumer advocates say they operate more like subprime lenders. The companies offer low-income customers with poor credit ratings auto loans with interest rates that can top 30 percent, according to a 2011 Los Angeles Times investigation.

DriveTime’s average customer has an annual income of between $37,000 and $50,000, a FICO credit score between 461 and 554 and paid an average of 19 percent in interest on their loan, according to the CFPB. (According to FICO, a credit score of 660 or higher is typically considered "good.")

People who buy cars at these types of dealerships usually return to the lot to make payments, often in cash -- hence the term “buy here, pay here.” The companies also expect some of these buyers to fall behind on their payments, consumer attorneys say, which can benefit the dealer.

“When a customer defaults, the company can repossess the car and resell it again, often numerous times,” said John Van Alst, the director of the National Consumer Law Center’s “Working Cars For Working Families” project, which advocates for policy reform and transparency in used car and car finance markets.

DriveTime would repeatedly call customers who fell behind for payments, according to the CFPB settlement. Where the company fell afoul of the law, CFPB alleged, is when it called people at work, risking them getting fired. One DriveTime customer was called 30 times at work by the company’s collectors, even after the customer had asked them to stop, according to court documents. The CFPB charged that DriveTime management actually encouraged this tactic.

“Consumers who purchase a car at a buy-here, pay-here dealer deserve to be treated fairly,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “DriveTime harassed and harmed countless consumers, many of whom were economically vulnerable.”

“DriveTime strives to comply with all applicable laws and provide exemplary service to our customers,” said company general counsel and Executive Vice President Jon Ehlinger in a prepared statement. “DriveTime had taken and has continued to take steps to enhance its customer experience, and loan servicing activities, including the handling of do not call requests.”

According to the settlement, DriveTime employes 290 collectors in order to secure its owed payments.

The DriveTime agreement marks the CFPB's first action against a “buy here, pay here” company, and signals that the growing federal agency -- newly minted in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law -- is watching the industry, which has ballooned in size in recent years.

The number of cars sold by “buy here, pay here” lots in the U.S. grew from 1.3 million in 2001 to 2.4 million in 2010, according to the 2011 Los Angeles Times investigation. More recent data is hard to come by. “BHPH [buy here, pay here] is a fractured industry with few large or publicly traded participants, making it difficult to estimate transaction volume,” says the website of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

“Buy here, pay here” dealers represent around 10 percent of the overall auto finance market, said Chris Kuklas of the Center For Responsible Lending, research group that fights predatory lending practices. The overall auto finance market is worth $940.9 billion, according to the Federal Reserve.

At DriveTime, where at any given moment about 45 percent of customers were delinquent on their payments, calling people at work wasn’t the only law the company broke, regulators charged.

The settlement also alleges that the company inaccurately reported its customers to credit bureaus, even when DriveTime had “reasonable cause to believe” the information it was reporting was wrong. Regulators charged that when DriveTime repossessed its customers’ cars, it told the three biggest credit bureaus in the country that the repossessions had happened more recently than they actually had.

Having a car repossession listed on your credit report dings your credit score, and can make it more difficult to find a job or be approved for a credit card or mortgage.

DriveTime took steps to improve the way it reported customers to credit bureaus both before and during the CFPB investigation, Ehlinger said. The company is “look[ing] forward” to “improving its customer service and compliance practices” in coming years, he added.

Federal authorities have recently been cracking down on the way lenders sometimes unfairly harm consumers’ credit reports. Over the summer, the CFPB fined an auto lender in Texas $2.75 million for allegedly providing inaccurate information about borrowers to credit agencies for years.

“We’re focusing on accuracy with credit reporting because credit ratings have such an impact on people’s financial well-being,” CFPB spokesman Sam Gilford told The Huffington Post on Wednesday.

Kuklas said that "buy here, pay here" companies fall under the CFPB’s authority because they are more like debt collectors than car dealers. The agency has recently tried to clamp down on the tactics debt collectors use to get people to make payments on delinquent bills.

In August, the CFPB took action against a Georgia debt collection firm that it alleged operated like a “factory” in suing hundreds of thousands of people for old debts, while spending less than a minute reviewing each lawsuit for accuracy.

One out of every three Americans has an unpaid bill “in collections,” according to a July study by the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. Debts in collections can harm your credit score and even lead to your savings and wages getting seized.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that the number of "buy here, pay here" lots grew from 1.3 million in 2000 to 2.4 million in 2009. In reality, the number of cars sold by "buy here, pay here" lots grew from 1.3 million in 2001 to 2.4 million in 2010, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation.

GM Ordered New Switches Months Before It Told Regulators About Issue: WSJ

NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - General Motors Co ordered half a million replacement ignition switches almost two months before it alerted federal safety regulators of the issues that prompted a recall of millions of vehicles, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing email exchanges between the automaker and its supplier Delphi Automotive Plc.

The email exchanges, which took place in mid-December 2013 between a GM contract worker and Delphi, indicate GM placed an "urgent" order for 500,000 replacement switches on Dec. 18, a day after a meeting of senior executives, the newspaper said. GM announced its recall in February 2014. (http://on.wsj.com/142qQhn)

Representatives for GM and Delphi Automotive did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the matter.

"This is simply mind-blowing in its raw evilness," said Bob Hilliard, lead counsel for the personal injury and wrongful death plaintiffs in the Federal Multi District Litigation against General Motors.

"GM should have notified its customers immediately to take all weight off of their keychains. By the time GM actually ordered these parts, it had to have already spent months making the decision to place the order," Hilliard said in a statement.

GM has faced criticism for waiting 11 years to begin recalling millions of cars with ignition-switch problems that have been linked to fatalities. The switch in question can slip out of position, stalling the vehicle and disabling air bags. The defect led to the recall of 2.6 million vehicles earlier this year.

So far, 61 claims have been deemed eligible for compensation, including 30 deaths and 31 injuries.

A federal judge in Manhattan has set Jan. 11, 2016, for the first trial in consolidated litigation against General Motors over a series of safety issues, including a faulty ignition switch. (Reporting by Ashley Lau in New York and Supriya Kurane in Bangalore; Editing by Chris Reese and Gopakumar Warrier)

Abercrombie & Fitch Sales Plummet

NEW YORK (AP) — Abercrombie & Fitch is still having trouble getting teens to buy its clothing.

Sales fell by more than expected in September and October as fewer people headed to the mall and shoppers shunned clothing with the retailer's logo on it. Abercrombie & Fitch also reported weaker sales at its European stores, especially at its Hollister brand.

Shares slid in late morning trading Friday, touching a two-year low.

The New Albany, Ohio-based retailer has been trying to win customers back by removing logos from its clothing. It's also cutting expenses and closing some of its stores.

Abercrombie & Fitch expects adjusted third-quarter earnings of between 40 cents per share and 42 cents per share. Analysts expected 68 cents per share, according to FactSet. The company will report full results on Dec. 3.

Revenue fell 12 percent to $911.4 million in the quarter that ended on Nov. 1, below analysts' estimate of $982.4 million.

Sales at stores open at least a year fell 10 percent in the period — down 7 percent in the U.S. and down 15 percent internationally. The metric is a key indicator of a retailer's health, as it excludes potentially distorting results from stores that recently opened or closed.

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. fell $4.59, or 13 percent, to $30.80 in late morning trading. They bottomed at $30.31 earlier Friday, the lowest point since 2012.

Home Depot: Hackers Stole 53 Million Email Addresses

NEW YORK (AP) — The Home Depot Inc. says hackers stole 53 million email addresses in addition to the payment card data it previously disclosed. It says the hackers accessed its network from a third-party vendor.

The Atlanta retailer disclosed in September one of the largest data breaches, affecting 56 million debit and credit cards between April and September.

Home Depot said Thursday it's warning its customers to be on the lookout for phishing scams.

Hank Greenberg Sued The Government For Bailing Out AIG, And He Actually Might Win

Of all the crazy things people have said about former AIG chief Maurice "Hank" Greenberg's lawsuit against the government, the craziest was that he just might win.

It's sounding less crazy all the time.

The possibility of a Greenberg victory at trial, which began six weeks ago is no longer unthinkable. According to a Bloomberg report, Greenberg has a real shot of winning his argument that the U.S. government bailed out the insurance firm he founded on "unfair" terms. Greenberg and his star lawyer, David Boies, may walk away with a $25 billion judgment in the case.

As Buzzfeed’s Matthew Zeitlin pointed out, $25 billion is twice the value of all housing aid given through TARP, the highly-criticized relief program that was supposed to help out troubled mortgage holders. It’s also equal to the total value of TARP money set aside for housing that remains unspent. The talking points write themselves.

If Greenberg wins, “the howling will start,” says Susan Webber told Bloomberg, who blogs under the pseudonym Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism.

A legal ruling that AIG shareholders were victims of the government bailout that saved those same shareholders' stake in the company from being worth zero would be galling. If Greenberg walks away with billions, the public outrage will hit 11. No one argues that his firm could have survived without government intervention.

Worse still, if Greenberg wins, it seems that he will do so, in part, for a completely pointless reason.

Bloomberg reports that the judge in the case, Thomas Wheeler, “appears intent on writing an opinion that will guide what regulators are permitted to do in the next financial crisis.” Elliott Stein, a legal analyst at Bloomberg, says Wheeler “sees a real absence of established precedent about what the government can do.”

This is a weird thing for a federal judge to think, because the law is now established on this topic. It wasn't at the time of the AIG bailout, which is why Greenberg raises the issue of fairness and Wheeler seems sympathetic to it.

The government's response is, essentially, it was 2008 and we did what we had to.

Whatever you think of these arguments, precedent, in the form of a judicial opinion, is no longer needed.

As The Huffington Post wrote when the trial started, the Dodd-Frank financial reform act is very clear about the structure of future bailouts. It alters the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending powers to prohibit an individual firm from being bailed out. Instead, any extraordinary lending must to made to a broad class of firms. The rate of that lending must be the Fed's discount rate (the rate at which the Fed routinely lends to banks). Under these rules, AIG could not be bailed out in the way it was. Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute wrote in 2012, “Dodd-Frank goes out of its way to pre-commit against further bailouts” aimed at individual companies. If in the next crisis, Dodd-Frank doesn't provide enough authority, Congress can simply pass a bill that provides it.

If Wheeler sides with Greenberg, he will unnecessarily clarify what Congress has already codified, and could supersede if necessary, while recklessly cause public outrage.

Virgin Galactic Says It Will Build Another SpaceShipTwo

Virgin Galactic may be badly bruised, but it's not throwing in the towel. Just days after its SpaceShipTwo spaceplane crashed during a test flight over California's Mojave Desert, the Las Cruces, N.M.-based space tourism company said it would continue building another commercial spaceplane.

On its website, the company called the fatal crash a "tragic setback," adding:

"We are continuing to build the second SpaceShipTwo (serial number two), which is currently about 65 percent complete and we will continue to advance our mission over the coming weeks and months...We owe it to all of those who have risked and given so much to stay the course and deliver on the promise of creating the first commercial spaceline."

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation into the cause of the crash, which killed copilot Michael Alsbury and injured pilot Peter Siebold. Preliminary findings suggest that Alsbury deployed SpaceShipTwo's reentry system prematurely, causing the spaceplane to break apart.

Michael Bloomberg Owns A Lot Of .NYC Domains -- And Some Of Them Are Pretty Amusing

Michael Bloomberg critics may be disappointed to learn that they won't be able to use BloombergFail.nyc to slam the former mayor. That's because Bloomberg owns BloombergFail.nyc and a host of other domain names.

A law firm representing the former three-term New York City mayor bought up hundreds of .nyc domains last month, Domain Name Wire reported Monday.

There are the domain names you'd expect (mayormichaelbloomberg.nyc and bloombergphilanthropy.nyc) and names that heap praise on the former mayor (americalovesbloomberg.nyc and mikekicksbutt.nyc.) But the law firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, also bought up a series of negative domain names, seemingly in an effort to pre-empt Internet trolls and Bloomberg critics from buying the domains themselves.

There are, for example, 13 domain names dealing specifically with Bloomberg's height, including:

• BloombergIsAShortjew.nyc
• BloombergIsTooShort.nyc
• MichaelBloombergIsTooShortToBePresident.nyc
• MikeIsAShortJew.nyc

At least two domain names dealing with Bloomberg essentially having bought a third term as mayor:

• EmperorBloomberg.nyc
• KingBloomberg.nyc

At least four domains containing a certain expletive:

• FuckBloomberg.nyc
• FuckMichaelBloomberg.nyc
• FuckMikeBloomberg.nyc
• FuckMike.nyc

And then a slew of other hilarious domains, including:

• ScrewMikeBloomberg.nyc.
• BloombergIsALoser.nyc
• BloombergIsAnAss.nyc
• BloombergIsAnIdiot.nyc
• BloombergIsAWeiner.nyc
• BloombergIsTooRich.nyc
• BloombergBlows.nyc
• GetALifeMike.nyc
• BloombergMoron.nyc

Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP didn't immediately respond to The Huffington Post's request for comment Tuesday, but a representative for Bloomberg told Business Insider that "this appears to be overly-aggressive legal due diligence, and we're only keeping the straightforward addresses."

You can read the entire, glorious list of Bloomberg domains here.

Bloomberg announced the creation of the .nyc domain last year, when he was still mayor. He said it would allow local businesses and residents to "identify themselves as connected to New York City, one of the world's strongest and most prestigious brands."

Registration for .nyc domains started this summer and is available only to those with a physical address in the five boroughs. You can register your very own domain here.

Note: Some language in this post has been amended.

The Shrimp You Buy May Not Be What You Think It Is

The next time you sit down for some shrimp scampi, beware of a bait-and-switch.

Much of the shrimp sold in grocery stores and restaurants across the U.S. isn't exactly what it says on the package or the menu, a new survey claims. Using DNA testing, the marine conservation group Oceana sampled 143 shrimp products from U.S. stores and restaurants and found that as many as 30 percent misrepresented the crustaceans they contained.

For example, the researchers found that some shrimp labeled as being caught from the Gulf of Mexico were actually whiteleg shrimp raised in farms.

In other cases, one species was substituted for another. Samples sold as royal red shrimp or rock shrimp, two delicacies known for their lobster-like flavor, frequently turned out to be more common species. The researchers found three store-bought bags of alleged shrimp that in fact contained crustaceans that couldn't be genetically identified. One of those bags also contained a banded coral shrimp -- a critter normally sold as an aquarium pet, not as food.

While the researchers' sample was limited to a cross-section of just 111 vendors on the Eastern Seaboard, the Gulf Coast and the Oregon shore, the findings illustrate how difficult it is for seafood lovers to know which creatures they're actually eating. Last year, another Oceana study found that one in three fish sold in markets is mislabeled.

In some cases, shrimp may be misidentified by fishers or factories because different shrimp species are difficult to tell apart by sight, especially once processors have peeled them. In other cases, though, unscrupulous sellers may be slapping marketable labels like "wild" or "Gulf" on cheaper, farmed seafood.

High-end rock shrimp (left) vs. farmed whiteleg shrimp (right).

"This is a big issue, which has economic, sanitary and environmental consequences," said Jorge Barros Velazquez, a food science professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, who was not involved in the Oceana study. In 2007, Velazquez and his colleagues conducted a similar shrimp survey in Spain, and found the same problem: Of the shrimp samples they tested, 25 percent were mislabeled.

Widespread mislabeling presents a problem for seafood lovers who want to buy wild shrimp instead of farmed because it's more environmentally friendly or because they believe it may be healthier. Mislabeling also undermines people who want to support the hard-hit domestic fishing industry of the Gulf Coast region, which is trying to move past the images of oil-soaked shrimp after the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010.

"When somebody else slips something in and calls it a Gulf-branded seafood item, that really hurts the people down there that are trying to make a living and do it honestly," said Kimberly Warner, lead scientist on the Oceana study.

Warner and other advocates want the U.S. government to create programs that would track seafood from catch to sale. A bill called the Safety and Fraud Enforcement for Seafood Act, which would require records to be kept showing where and when seafood was caught, has been introduced in both chambers of Congress, but has not yet passed.

Generally, the Food and Drug Administration has the authority to crack down on fraudulent food sellers. "In the interest of public health, it is vital that both domestically processed and imported seafood are safe, wholesome and properly labeled," FDA spokeswoman Lauren Sucher told The Huffington Post.

However, the agency said it "does not provide speculative or advance information on enforcement actions" with regard to seafood sales.

Foreign shrimp farms, which are often not held to rigorous food standards, have their own problems that shrimp lovers may want to avoid. One grower in Vietnam was found to be using bacteria-laden ice to chill his shrimp, while some farms in Thailand have been linked to slave labor.

Starbucks Plans Delivery After Sales Fall Short

NEW YORK (AP) — After reporting disappointing quarterly sales Thursday, Starbucks said it will offer a delivery option on its mobile app in select areas of the U.S starting next year.

The Seattle-based company declined to provide more details, but has been pushing to get people to use its app as a way to build customer loyalty. It also previously said it plans to let customers across the country place orders ahead of time on their smartphone by next year, an option intended to get people in and out of stores quicker.

"We are playing offense," CEO Howard Schultz said in explaining the various steps the company is taking to adapt to changing customer habits, including their move toward online shopping and away from brick-and-mortar stores.

The delivery plans for the second half of 2015 were announced by Schultz during a conference call Thursday discussing the company's fiscal fourth quarter results. For the period ended Sept. 28, Starbucks reported sales that rose but fell short of Wall Street expectations. Global sales at established locations rose 5 percent, including in the Americas and Asia.

Starbucks Corp. is pushing aggressively into different areas as it faces more competition from fast-food chains serving specialty coffees. To boost sales of food in the afternoon, for instance, it has been revamping its sandwiches and adding new offerings like a grilled cheese sandwich that's warmed up in an oven.

This summer, Starbucks also launched its Fizzio soda drinks in the Sunbelt. But Wells Fargo analysts said in a note this week that their checks at a dozen stores in six states suggested the drinks aren't performing up to expectations so far.

In a phone interview, Chief Operating Officer Troy Alstead said the soda drinks are doing "exactly what we expected it to do," but that a national launch isn't planned for 2015. In a previous interview, Alstead had said he expected the drinks to be in much of the U.S. by the upcoming summer.

Alstead said Starbucks is instead focusing on growing its tea business. He said tea accounted for a "high single digit" percentage of sales last year, and that the company expects it to reach "well into the teens" over time.

For the quarter, Starbuckst earned $587.9 million, or 77 cents per share. Not including one-time item, it earned 74 cents per share, which was in line with Wall Street expectations, according to FactSet.

Revenue came in at $4.18 billion, short of the $4.24 billion analysts expected.

For the current quarter ending in December, Starbucks expects its per-share earnings to range from 79 cents to 81 cents. Analysts expected 83 cents per share. The company expects full-year earnings in the range of $3.08 to $3.13 per share.

Shares of Starbucks were down 4 percent at $74.04.

___

Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

What Your Cell Phone Company Isn't Telling You When You Sign A Contract

When you sign a cell phone contract, you’re not just agreeing to pay thousands of dollars over a few years to AT&T or Verizon. You’re also signing away your right to sue the company or participate in a class action lawsuit against it.

If the cell phone provider systematically overcharges you or doesn't deliver, say, on its promise of "unlimited data," your only remedy -- unless the government steps in -- is forced arbitration, a private negotiation between the company and the customer where a non-judicial party decides your fate. Typically, the process is stacked in favor of the giant corporation.

Forced arbitration clauses have become widespread in recent years and there's one
buried in AT&T’s terms of service. It’s why the Federal Trade Commission, not customers, just sued AT&T for allegedly slowing down Internet speeds on customers' smartphones -- even though customers were complaining about the practice for years.

AT&T isn’t alone: the four other largest cell phone carriers – Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, and Verizon – also have forced arbitration in their terms of service.

The policies are aimed primarily at restricting customers from class action lawsuits, but they also forbid customers from taking cell phone providers to just about any kind of court -- except small claims court, familiar to most Americans as the setting for The People’s Court; hardly the venue for exacting justice against multibillion dollar corporations.

Buried in these contracts from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are clauses that take away your right to sue

T-Mobile is unique in having a forced arbitration opt-out policy, but it must be completed within 30 days of activation to be valid. So before you applaud the company for such a progressive policy, consider the likelihood that someone who just bought a new phone would also have the forethought to consider the best potential legal strategy against the company they bought the phone from. If a customer really envisioned becoming entangled in a legal dispute with a company over a purchase, they wouldn’t probably simply avoid doing business with that company.

Telecom companies are hardly outliers. Banks, retail stores and electronics giants have all found ways to get customers to sign away their right to take a company to court.

Even Cheerios tried to jump on the bandwagon. In April, the General Mills' cereal brand changed its terms of service so that simply liking the cereal on Facebook voided a consumer’s right to sue. But after a New York Times story drew attention to the policy, the company quickly reversed itself.

In 2011, the practice was upheld by the Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote in AT&T vs. Concepcion. The court also upheld the legality of class arbitration waivers. That means that not only can terms of service waive your right to participate in a class action lawsuit, but also your ability to enter arbitration with other consumers. Individual arbitration is the only option.

The legality of these types of class action waivers was broadened even further by the Supreme Court in 2013 to include terms of service between businesses in the case of American Express vs. Italian Colors Restaurant. The court held that American Express could include class action waivers in its terms of service with merchants.

Some customers have tried to find justice against cell providers in small claims court, including one California man who sued and won $850 from AT&T in 2012. The stakes are low, but the companies’ monetary and legal advantage is narrowed. Here’s how Consumerist described the scene: “Since lawyers are not allowed in California small claims courts, AT&T was represented by its area sales manager.”

If you’re looking for a venue outside small claims court to shame companies into changing their policies, a petition may not be your best bet. Change.org has a forced arbitration clause in its terms of service.