Page 25 - Aruba Today

BUSINESS A25
STREET BRIEFS
Amazon brings
the hooch in NYC
in 60 minutes
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon.
com is getting into the holi-
day spirit, adding booze to
its one-hour delivery ser-
vice in Manhattan. Until
now it was only Seattle, the
company’s hometown,
which could imbibe within
60 minutes via Amazon.
The company would not
say Thursday if it was ex-
panding that convenience
elsewhere. The one-hour
delivery costs $7.99, but it’s ville, Arkansas area, where
free to members of Ama-
zon’s $99 annual Prime
loyalty program who can
handle a two-hour wait.
Beer, wine and spirits de-
livered in Manhattan will
come from the food mar-
ket Eataly. Alcohol is one of
4,000 new items the online
retailer just added its Prime
Now delivery, in addition
to toys, electronics, wrap-
ping paper and baking
supplies. There are already
more than a million things
that can be delivered by
Amazon in 20 U.S. metro-
politan areas.q
US Fed approves
Bank of America
capital base plan out with Samsung Pay.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Federal Reserve has ap-
proved Bank of America
Corp.’s revised plan for
building a sturdy capi-
tal base, saying the bank
has made progress in fill-
ing gaps in its plan. The
Fed announced Thursday
that it wasn’t objecting to
the new plan filed by the
second-largest U.S. bank.
Bank of America passed its
annual stress test in March.
But the Fed gave the bank
only conditional approval
to raise dividends and buy
back shares, because of
what the regulators saw as
weaknesses in its capital
plan dealing with risks and
possible losses. At the same
time, the bank was allowed
to increase dividends and
repurchase shares. But it
had to submit a new plan
showing how it is building a
strong financial foundation
to withstand a major eco-
nomic downturn. q
Wal-Mart to launch own mobile pay system
A. D’INNOCENZIO
AP Retail Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The
mobile payment wars are
heating up.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the
world’s largest retailer, said
it’s launching its own mo-
bile payment system that
will allow shoppers to pay
with any major credit or
debit card or its own store
gift card through its exist-
ing smartphone app at the
cash register.
It started testing the new
payment feature Thursday
at its stores in the Benton-
the retailer is based. It plans ers on a conference call
to launch the payment sys-
tem called Walmart Pay in
all 4,500-plus U.S. stores in
early next year.
It’s part of Wal-Mart’s over-
all mobile strategy to mak-
ing shopping easier and
faster, but the launch is the
latest salvo in the battle for
mobile payments that’s in
the early stages. Wal-Mart
has moved into the field as
Apple’s one-year-old tap-
and-pay system is being
expanded to other mer-
chants like Best Buy and
KFC and several months
after Google launched the
Android Pay mobile wallet
app and Samsung came
They’re all trying to get a
piece of what could be
a very lucrative business,
but none of them have
cracked the market so far.
The move signals that
Walmart believes it’s best
to build its own system to
better serve its customers,
even as it backs a retail
industrywide mobile pay-
Michigan maker of Jiffy Mix planning $35M expansion
CHELSEA, Mich. (AP) — The
Michigan-based maker of
Jiffy Mix baking mixes plans
a $35 million expansion as
part of an effort to diversify
the business.
Chelsea Milling Co. plans a
new mixing tower that will
eventually be attached
to a new packaging plant
and support building, The
Ann Arbor News reported.
The company plans to
keep making boxes of mix
for retail sale while boost-
ing institutional and food-
service sales.
Friday 11 December 2015

ment program that is in test could have their online or- a blow to Merchant Cus-
phase. ders ready for pickup. tomer Exchange, or MCX,
“We are creating a seam- Wal-Mart executives said set up a few years ago by
less shopping experience that after evaluating vari- a consortium of retailers
A worker pushes shopping carts in front of a Wal-Mart store in La Habra, Calif. The world’s largest
retailer, said it’s testing its own mobile payment system that will allow shoppers to pay with any
major credit or debit card or its own store gift card through its app at the cash register. It will start
testing the new payment system Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015 at its stores in the Bentonville, Ark. area,
where the retailer is based. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
that includes payment,” ous mobile options, they and restaurants to create
Neil Ashe, president and found that they had dif- an industrywide mobile
CEO of Wal-Mart’s global ferent constraints, working payment system. Wal-Mart
eCommerce, told report- only on certain devices has been a key player. But
or payment types. Apple Wal-Mart executives told
on Wednesday. “It’s fast. Pay requires iPhones. But reporters they remain ex-
It’s simple, and it’s a secure Google’s own tap-and- cited about the MCX pilot
way for customers to use pay services, Android program for the payment
their smartphone.” Pay and Samsung’s Sam- system called “CurrentC.”
Twenty-two million custom- sung Pay require Android A pilot test is being con-
ers use the Wal-Mart app phones. However, Ashe ducted in Columbus, Ohio,
each month, and more and Daniel Eckert, Wal- and it involves Wal-Mart
than half of Wal-Mart’s on- Mart’s senior vice president and 10 other retailers.
line orders are now coming of services, told reporters Nevertheless, Eckert noted,
from a mobile device. This the system is designed to “We are listening to the
holiday season, Wal-Mart integrate with other pay- needs of the customer. We
added new features like ment applications like Ap- are looking at innovating
allowing online shoppers ple Pay — if the retailer de- the checkout experience
to check in once they get cides to include them. and using payment to do
to the parking lot so they Wal-Mart’s move could be that.”q

Howdy Holmes, the fourth- on brand recognition. Un- fewer employees.
generation owner of Chel- der the plans, the compa- The company’s workforce
sea Milling, said the ex- ny will make and sell more likely will decline from
pansion comes as more 50-pound sacks of mixes. about 315 employees to
people are eating away In addition to mixing ingre- about 240, Holmes said,
from home. “More peo- dients, Jiffy creates its own but that will be done with-
ple want to go out to eat, packaging in-house and out layoffs. He said about
they’re eating in restau- mills its own flour. half of the company’s
rants, in their cars, and as The new mixing tower will workers are approaching
things change we need allow Jiffy to increase pro- retirement age, so when
to reinvent ourselves,” Hol- duction from 120 million they leave old jobs won’t
mes said. Jiffy pulls in more pounds per month to more be filled.
than $130 million annu- than 350 million pounds “We could have done this
ally in total revenue and per month. The new equip- and forced people out of
doesn’t advertise, prefer- ment will be more auto- their jobs, but that’s not
ring to develop relation- mated, Holmes said, allow- how we wanted to do it,”
ships with retailers and rely ing more production with Holmes said.q