Did you ever wonder why so many retailers have chip-readable machines for credit cards, but tell you to swipe your card anyway? This article explains this frustrating issue for retailers. Questions: 1. Merchants have spent incredible amounts of money to get new chip-reading machines, so what is the reason for not using them? 2. Since… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Uncategorized
Sick Leave? How does it hurt business?
Many people go to work even when they are sick. But should this happen in the restaurant industry? As Chipotle found out outbreaks of norovirus, E. coli and salmonella can devastate business. This article discusses the lack of sick leave in the restaurant business and how food workers are the source of about 70% of… Read more »
A New Concept
Because of a scramble to locate baby food at night, Robert Ilijason decided to open Sweden’s first unstaffed convenience store. The 39-year old IT specialist now owns a 24-hour convenience store that has no cashier. Questions: 1. How do the customers pay for their purchases? 2. How is the store monitored? What types of controls… Read more »
Investigating Integrity
A U.S. watchdog agency is preparing to investigate the Federal Reserve and other regulators in order to determine whether they are too lenient on the banks they are meant to police. Questions: 1. What is the strategy to be used in this investigation? 2. Explain the “revolving door” concept that the article mentions. 3. What… Read more »
I’ll have a Double Irish, Dutch Sandwich to go please
In a remarkable tax maneuver, Google moved 10.7 billion euros (or $12 billion) through the Netherlands to Bermuda in 2014. As a result of this structuring, Google will earn most of its foreign income tax-free. Questions: 1. What is this tax strategy called and why? Why Bermuda? 2. Why has corporate tax avoidance risen to… Read more »
End Arbitration?
As this blog has noted, arbitration clauses have proliferated in all types of contracts over the last few years for transactions related to cellphone service, credit cards, student loans, etc. Now a pivotal case regarding a nursing home death is putting arbitration to the test for its lack of transparency and applicability to elder abuse… Read more »
Lock Down that Debit Card
Have you ever lost or misplaced your debit card? Now some banks are offering a simple app for your cellphone that will allow you to protect bank accounts quickly while you figures out whether you lost or misplaced your card. Questions: 1. How does Bank of America’s version of the debit card lock work? 2…. Read more »
Walmart Adds to the Woes of Small Town America
WalMart recently made the decision to close over a hundred stores at once in rural towns across America. In many cases, competitors were forced out of business by the WalMart stores, so now these rural towns are left without grocery stores or shopping options that are many miles away. Questions: 1. According to the article,… Read more »
Be sure to remember your server!
According to the Washington Post, after a change in tax rules last year, the auto-gratuity added to the bill of large parties at restaurants is on its way out. Questions: 1. What is the new rule that the Internal Revenue Service imposed on restaurants that led to this change? 2. How does this change lead… Read more »
Arbitration Lurks in the Fine Print
In this article, the New York Times found that arbitration rules tend to favor businesses, and judges and juries have been replaced by arbitrators who commonly consider the companies to be their clients. According to the authors, this has created an alternative justice system with conflicts of interest. Questions: 1. What types of claims are… Read more »