Why you might see a Covid surcharge on your next bill

The next time you visit your favorite restaurant, salon or dentist’s office, there might be a new fee tacked onto the bill: a Covid-19-related surcharge.

As businesses across the country have begun reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, most have had to adapt to sanitizing and other requirements implemented to slow the spread of Covid-19. That could include masks or gloves for staff, or more frequent cleanings.

Per CreditCards.com, a hair salon in Texas is tacking on a $3 sanitation charge and a Florida dentist is charging $10 for personal protective equipment costs.

Original Pancake House locations have implemented a 15 percent service fee that’s separate from any tip, reports the Miami Herald, and San Diego taco shops have had to raise prices amid a meat shortage.

In Chicago, restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You added a 4 percent surcharge for delivery and carry-out orders from its 85 restaurants, reports the Chicago Tribune.

“These fees are a necessary step during a time when unanticipated costs have jeopardized the survival of our business,” R.J. Melman, Lettuce Entertain You president, said in a statement, per the Chicago Tribune, one of those being “the greatest increase in food pricing since 1974.”

Whether in the form of a Covid surcharge or general price increases, paying more for services or experiences could become common as businesses try to recoup some of what was lost during the spring shutdown.

At restaurants, food supply chain issues also could lead to higher prices at restaurants. The cost of more carry-out order packaging or the loss of alcohol sales have taken a toll, too.

After customers complained about a Covid surcharge at a Japanese steakhouse in Missouri, the restaurant took away the charge but said menu prices would soon increase because its suppliers have raised costs, per the Miami Herald.

Goog’s Pub & Grub in Holland, Michigan began adding a $1 Covid charge to each meal last month.

“We’re not doing this to get rich. We just want to see our staff is taken care of, make sure people are fed, make sure our lights are on,” Palmer White, the restaurant’s general manager, told Fox 17.

“I would expect to see this going forward, due to the expenses for sanitizing, PPE and supply chain costs. This is legal, even if it’s upsetting for some customers,” said Adam Itzkowitz, managing partner at Florida firm Itzkowitz Law, per the Miami Herald.

Business owners could find themselves in a tough spot if competitors haven’t taken the same steps. Itzkowitz recommended businesses be transparent about the charges and inform customers of them prior to charging a credit card, per the Miami Herald.

A recent American Express survey found 86 percent of respondents would start shopping elsewhere if a business they patronize began surcharging, per CreditCards.com. Surcharges make 7 out of 10 customers feel as though a merchant doesn’t appreciate their business, that survey found.

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Bartering is Back in Coronavirus Economy

(NewsUSA) – The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, continues to impact the economy in many ways, one of which has been the surge in popularity of the barter economy.

Bartering, the trade system of choice in the Middle Ages, is back with a modern twist. Social networks now feature posts from friends and neighbors looking to swap staples such as eggs, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer. Businesses are getting on board with barter, too.

One business utilizing the concept of bartering in an innovative way is BizX, a Seattle-area company that has reported a notable increase in traffic on its website as more businesses pursue barter options.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately one-third of the global economy was non-cash, according to BizX cofounder and CEO Bob Bagga.

“In today’s economy, right now, the challenge we are running into is people don’t have cash and cash has dried up really quickly,” he explains.

“But they have a lot of stuff, a lot of capacity, so the idea is how do you turn what you have into what you need? That’s where our company can come in to help.”

BizX is a business community including more than 7,000 business owners who buy and sell among themselves using their own barter community currency, BizX dollars, which are equal in value to U.S. dollars. BizX dollars are used to record all transactions, and these transactions are posted to members’ accounts as credits or debits. It’s a win-win situation, the members gain new customers, and they buy what they need without spending cash.

The benefits of BizX are especially relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic, when businesses are adapting their models and forecasts day-to-day and seeking to conserve cash.

When a business joins the BizX network, they will be marketed to thousands of other members who will pay for goods and services in BizX dollars.

It’s not complicated for new members to get moving fast. Business owners can get into the swing easily after a 30-minute phone call with an account manager to identify inventory and discuss how BizX can work for them.

The BizX network is available to businesses of all sizes and types, and the current network includes such diverse clients as Habitat for Humanity, the San Francisco 49ers football team, and Holiday Inn Express, as well as a variety of small business owners, including florists, accountants, lawyers, dentists and many more.

Visit bizx.com for more information about how BizX can help your business weather the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Xerox Escalates HP Takeover Fight With Proposal to Replace Board

(Bloomberg) — Xerox Holdings Corp. said it intends to nominate 11 directors to replace the board of HP Inc. after the personal-computer maker refused to engage in takeover talks, according to a statement Thursday.

The iconic printer maker hasn’t increased its $22-a-share takeover offer after HP rejected its proposal, which it argues undervalues the company. Instead, Xerox will seek to replace HP’s entire board through a proxy fight to push the merger through.

The nominees include former senior executives from dozens of companies including Aetna Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc. and Novartis AG.

“HP shareholders have told us they believe our acquisition proposal will bring tremendous value, which is why we lined up $24 billion in binding financing commitments and a slate of highly qualified director candidates,” said John Visentin, vice chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox.

General Electric Hails Signs of Slow, Steady Growth

Fourth quarter earnings report shows a “strong close to the year” for GE, according to CEO Larry Culp, Jr.

GE reported a total revenue of $95 billion in 2019, compared to 2018’s $97 billion. The results closely matched or slightly exceeded estimates.

That’s consistent with GE’s stated goals. CEO Larry Culp, Jr., in a statement, said GE is strengthening their business and “driving long-term profitable growth.” GE’s corporate plans include the selling or spinning off of less-profitable companies and property, including oil and gas holdings, to reduce the company’s net debt. “We are solidifying our financial position, continuing to strengthen our businesses as improvement efforts build momentum,” said Culp.

Office Depot is closing more stores…

Office Depot is closing 50 stores this year, the company told Business Insider.

The office supplies company is closing stores under both its namesake and OfficeMax banners.

At least nine of the closing stores will shut down permanently on May 18, according to Shera Bishop, a spokeswoman for Office Depot.

She said the closings are part of a three-year plan announced in 2016 to shutter roughly 300 stores.

“Office Depot, Inc. continues to optimize its retail footprint as part of the three-year strategic plan announced in August 2016,” Bishop said. “We will continue to serve our customers at neighboring Office Depot and OfficeMax stores as well as online at officedepot.com.”

Bishop said the following stores would close on May 18:

Office Depot

700 Haddonfield-Berlin Rd Unit 38, Voorhees Township, New Jersey
785 Union Ave, Memphis, Tennessee
7726 Polo Grounds Blvd, Memphis, Tennessee
4297 Guide Meridian, Bellingham, Washington
1535 W Mason St, Green Bay, Wisconsin

OfficeMax

1707 J Street, Sacramento, California
1601 Market Place Drive Great Falls, Montana
2703 County Rd 541 Suite 5, Burlington Township, New Jersey
1629 North Central Avenue, Marshfield, Wisconsin

The South Florida Business Journal first reported the 50 store closures.

Payless Shoes to Shut All U.S. Stores and Wind Down Online Operation

Payless ShoeSource, a once-popular seller of inexpensive women’s footwear and a staple in many suburban shopping malls, is closing all of its American stores. The company said on Saturday that it would begin liquidating all 2,100 of its stores in the United States, including Puerto Rico. Payless is also winding down its online business.

The retailer, which filed for bankruptcy two years ago, had already closed hundreds of stores in recent years as its brand lost luster among women searching for deals on shoes. It is the latest mass-market retailer to vanish from the retail landscape.

The liquidation of Payless, based in Topeka, Kan., is another example of how bankruptcy has helped retailers shed their debt, but it has not helped many of them restructure their businesses and regain sales.

Toys “R” Us and Bon-Ton, a department store chain, liquidated last summer, after failing to come up viable reorganization plans. Sears narrowly escaped liquidation this month after a judge allowed its chairman and largest lender, the hedge fund manager Edward S. Lampert, to buy the company and keep its stores open.

The Payless liquidation comes as more people are opting to shop online rather than in stores, which were at the core of the shoe company’s strategy. But e-commerce explains only part of Payless’s challenges. While Payless struggled to stay relevant with shoppers, other retailers catering to bargain conscious shoppers, like TJ Maxx and Nordstrom Rack, are thriving.

Keeping up with emerging fashion trends and creating attractive stores requires constant investment, which was a challenge for Payless. Some of the company’s stores have also been hurt by their location in struggling suburban malls that are anchored by Sears and J. C. Penney, another listing retailer. As hundreds of those anchor stores have closed, traffic to nearby retailers in the malls has slowed.

A Payless spokeswoman said that liquidation sales would start on Sunday and that the stores would remain open through the end of March, with many open until May.

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SEC sues Elon Musk for his allegedly misleading tweets

Elon Musk has tweeted himself into serious trouble.

The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Tesla’s CEO on Thursday for making “false and misleading” statements to investors. It’s asking a federal judge to prevent Musk from serving as an officer or a director of a public company, among other penalties.

The complaint hinges on a tweet Musk sent on August 7 about taking Tesla private.

“Am considering taking Tesla private at $420,” Musk said. “Funding secured.”

Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018

The SEC said he had not actually secured the funding.

“In truth and in fact, Musk had not even discussed, much less confirmed, key deal terms, including price, with any potential funding source,” the SEC said in its complaint.

That tweet, and subsequent tweets from Musk over the next three hours, caused “significant confusion and disruption in the market for Tesla’s stock,” as well as harm to investors, the SEC said. On the day of Musk’s tweet, Tesla’s stock shot up nearly 9%. It has declined substantially since then.

Tesla’s (TSLA) stock dropped more than 11% in after-hours trading Thursday.

“This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed,” Musk said in a statement. “I have always taken action in the best interests of truth, transparency and investors. Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way.”

It’s Official: Dunkin’ Donuts Is Now Just…Dunkin’

After months of speculation (and a few stores officially opening as such), Dunkin’ Donuts announced on Tuesday its no longer Dunkin’ Donuts. They’re just…Dunkin’.

The “Dounts” drop “officially puts the company on a first-name basis with customers,” a press release explained. “The change will take place in January 2019.” That means that come 2019, all the DD packaging and ads you know and love will just read “Dunkin’.”

Really leaning into the whole “first-name basis” thing was this follow-up tweet from the donut giant: “After 68 years of America running on Dunkin’, we’re moving to a first-name basis. Excited to be #BFFstatus with you all.”

Citigroup to Pay $12 Million Over Accusations It Misled Trading Customers

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that Citigroup had let high-frequency traders have access to a so-called dark pool that was supposed to be shielded from them. Credit Credit Callaghan O’Hare/Bloomberg

Citigroup agreed to pay more than $12 million to settle a regulator’s claims that it misled investors who thought they were paying a premium to keep their trading activity shielded from interference by high-frequency traders, the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced.

In a civil action filed Friday, the S.E.C. said Citigroup had let two high-frequency trading entities have access to a trading venue called Citi Match, which it had billed as a safe space free of rapid-fire, computer-driven traders. The agency said the presence of the high-frequency traders might have translated into higher prices paid by its other customers.

The S.E.C. said Citigroup had failed to tell its customers about the high-frequency traders and, for more than two years, had sometimes routed their trades to venues other than Citi Match without notifying them.

Citigroup didn’t admit or deny wrongdoing as part of the settlement. “We are pleased to have the matter resolved,” a spokeswoman, Danielle Romero-Apsilos, said.

The S.E.C.’s action is the latest in a yearslong effort to force banks to be more straightforward about what happens inside the opaque trading venues they operate, known as dark pools. Citi Match is one such dark pool, designed to insulate big investment managers such as pension funds from activity that erodes their profits.

When these investors need to buy or sell large quantities of a stock, they often seek to hide their intentions from others in the market who could try to drive the price up or down ahead of their trades. In a dark pool, only the buyer and the seller see information about a particular trade. Citigroup advertised Citi Match as a venue offering investors protection and privacy.

“They’re basically saying, ‘There’s no predatory traders in our pool,'” said Dennis Dick, a trader at Bright Trading, a small firm in Las Vegas. Mr. Dick and traders like him have for years called on the S.E.C. to impose stricter regulations on high-frequency traders.

In 2016, the S.E.C. fined Barclays and Credit Suisse for similarly misleading their customers about dark pools.

“We need more disclosures on what’s happening in dark pools, because this just keeps happening again and again,” Mr. Dick said.

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Man buys Slim Jims for his dog, lottery ticket, wins $10M

FORT EDWARD, N.Y. — A New York man will be living large thanks to his decision to buy some Slim Jims for his dog.

New York Lottery officials say Monday that 73-year-old Dale Farrand recently won the $10 million prize on a Cash Spectacular scratch-off ticket.

The Fort Edward man says he bought a $30 ticket at a local Cumberland Farms convenience store while buying Slim Jims snacks for his dog Boots.

He scratched the ticket in his car and realized he was a winner. Farrand says he drove straight home and had his wife check the ticket for him.
Farrand will receive a lump-sum payment of $6.7 million after required withholdings.

He says he’ll use the windfall to pay off his mortgage, make home improvements and help his children and grandchildren.