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U.S. NEWS A7
Last minute holiday shopper? There’s an app for that
MAE ANDERSON
AP Technology Writer
ATLANTA (AP) — Procras-
tinators, rejoice. This year
there are more apps and
services than ever before
to help last-minute shop-
pers.
Apps like Curbside deliver
orders directly to the trunk
of your car, more retailers
are offering incentives to
buy online and pick up in
store, and Amazon Prime
Now and other same-day
delivery services have vast-
ly expanded this year.
“In some sense, same-day
delivery is going to be-
come the new gift card,”
said Daphne Carmeli, CEO
of Deliv which works with
retailers to offer same-day
delivery. “It used to be ‘uh- seeing about seven times
oh, too late, here comes
the gift card.’ Now you’ve
got two hours before the
cutoff if you want some-
thing from national retail-
ers.”
That’s good news as on-
demand services have
trained people to put off
things until the last min-
ute. This year, 44 percent
of shoppers said they
planned to wait until De-
cember or later to shop for
holiday presents, up from
39 percent five years ago,
US lobster exports to Europe are down for Christmas season
PATRICK WHITTLE
Associated Press
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) —
There will be fewer claws
for Christmas in Europe this
year.
Less of the record lobster
catches that have been
a boon for the American
fishing industry are making
it onto European tables,
where they have long
been a holiday tradition,
from lobster Thermidor in
France to Italy’s La Vigilia, hanging out of their mouth
known in America as the
Feast of the Seven Fishes.
But a strong U.S. dollar and
according to Deloitte.
And as of Dec. 15, an NRF
survey found the average
holiday shopper has com-
pleted 53.5 percent of their
shopping, up from 52.9
percent seen by that time
last year. Only about 10
percent of those surveyed
had finished shopping.
Jaron Waldman, CEO of
Palo Alto based Curbside,
said that demand for the
service, which delivers
packages from stores like
Target and Abercrombie &
Fitch to the trunk of a shop-
per’s car, has skyrocketed.
The service, which serves
the Bay Area and Los An-
geles in California and
New York, New Jersey, Phil-
adelphia and Chicago, is
the orders it did last year.
Target, Best Buy, CVS and
other retailers offer the ser-
vice. “It’s definitely a way
to shop to have the cer-
tainty you’re not going to
miss any kind of shipping
window,” Waldman said.
Target spokesman Eddie
Baeb said the company
has been pleased with re-
sults from Curbside and
expanded the stores that
offer the service from 20 in
San Francisco last year to
120 stores, adding the New
a less-than-festive econo-
my overseas mean a weak
year for American shippers
like Mike Tourkistas.
Tourkistas said lobster’s sta- lobster, known for its big,
tus as a luxury item, cou-
pled with a rising price be-
cause of competition from
Chinese importers and a
weak euro, is motivating
some consumers to stay
away — even if they can
afford it. “Nobody wants to
be seen with a lobster claw
when the economy is really
suffering,” said Tourkistas,
who is based out of Tops-
Thursday 24 December 2015
Amazon Prime employees push carts with bags loaded with goods for delivery to customers at
the company’s urban fulfillment facility, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015 in New York. This holiday season,
Amazon Prime customers, using the Amazon Prime Now app, can choose from thousands of
items including gifts, pantry items, and electronics and get free delivery in less than two hours
through Christmas Eve. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
York, Chicago and Phila- chase of $50 or more when tage of last-minute deals
delphia areas this year. an online order is picked in store too. The app uses
The curbside delivery is up in store via coupon ag- a combination of GPS and
“easier and more conve- gregator RetailMeNot, said WiFi signals to pull deals
nient, knowing how busy Brian Hoyt, RetailMeNot from stores you are in or
people are,” at the last- vice president of commu- nearby when you opt in.
minute, he said. nications. The option lets “More consumers are us-
Other retailers are adding retailers save on expedited ing mobile devices ver-
incentives so more people shipping costs and cuts sus desktop computers to
choose “buy online, pick down time for last-minute shop, and that’s opened
up in store” options. For shoppers, he said. the door to save not just
example, Macy’s offered RetailMeNot’s mobile app online, but in-store as well,”
a $10 e-gift card on a pur- lets shoppers take advan- Hoyt said.q
field, Massachusetts. Can- large amounts of lobster to amount of lobster the U.S.
ada and the U.S. export Europe in the early 1980s is sending to Europe, where
the same species of lobster when airspace became supermarkets rely on the
to Europe — the American available, Tourkistas said, crustaceans to draw shop-
but it has been a popular pers around the holidays.
meaty claws and popu- food item on the conti- Shipments of live and fro-
larity with summer tourists nent for centuries. Lobster zen lobster from the U.S. to
to the northeastern New is popular in stew in Spain, Spain was valued at more
England states. European stuffed in the shell with than $63 million in 2007, but
waters have their own spe- gruyere as lobster Thermi- fell to less than $40 million
cies of lobster, which has dor in France, and with ri- last year. In Italy, where
evolved as a cultural to- sotto in Italy. Some in the lobster is sometimes part
tem for generations in Eu- American lobster industry of the traditional Christmas
rope. Eugene Delacroix’s suspect European business Eve seafood feast, Ameri-
nearly 200-year-old paint- will be off more than 25 per- can lobster imports fell
ing, “Still Life With Lobsters,” cent this year. The recent nearly a fifth to less than
hangs in the Louvre in Paris. trend reflects the deepen- 8.2 million pounds (3.7 mil-
Exporters started shipping ing of a longer slide in the lion kilograms) last year.q