Have you transitioned from your “what the hell it’s the holidays” pattern to your “oh my god what have I done to my body” pattern yet?
You know who had a bad day yesterday? Retail. Well, so, OK, traditional retail’s had a bad “since the internet,” but Macy’s announced it will be closing 68 U.S. stores, including three Bay area locations, and Sears says more of its stores will also be axed, along with what looks like most of the remaining Bay area Kmart stores (which Sears owns). “What about the jobs?” types someone into a Facebook post, just after ordering something big from Amazon and just before heading out to pick up something small from Walmart.
Speaking of how blaming the internet for everything is a really tired excuse for adapting poorly to change, embattled regulatory scapegoat Uber is partnering with actually, actively bad company AT&T to offer free rides during the National College Football Whatever this weekend. Waiting forever in traffic, or waiting half-forever on your Uber and then waiting half-forever in traffic: freedom of choice in action. Either way, at least you’ll have plenty of time to eat up some cellphone data, so everybody wins.
A Tampa convenience store clerk was arrested for a scratch-off lottery ticket scam after the clerk basically cashed in more big-prize tickets than it’s statistically possible for one human to win. What are the odds?
And finally, Polk County has a dozen fire trucks from the same manufacturer that all need the same unexpected heavy-duty repair, to the tune of $300K. The county thinks the manufacturer is at least partly responsible, but the manufacturer refuses to foot the bill. Basically, Polk County, please don’t burn your piles of improperly discarded Christmas trees yet, OK?
This article appears in Jan 5-12, 2017.
