CPSC Hands Down Record $15.45M Penalty

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced last week that Gree Electric Appliances Inc., Zhuhai, China; Hong Kong Gree Electrical Appliances Sales Co. Ltd., Hong Kong; and Gree USA Sales Ltd., City of Industry, Calif., (Gree) will pay a $15.45 million civil penalty to the government for failure to report defective dehumidifiers. This is a…

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J. America Wholesale Blanks Recapitalizes

J. America Wholesale Blanks, Folwerville, Mich., has partnered with Cleveland-based Blue Point Capital Partners to recapitalize. According to Crain’s Cleveland Business, Blue Point Capital Partners took a majority stake in the company and plans to grow the company’s operations. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “With a broad product range and multiple distribution changes,…

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Check Out the Merch Table

I listen to a lot of music, and I’ve been to more shows than I can count (many of which were in basements and certainly broke fire codes). Because of this, I have my fair share of concert and band tees. Recently, we reported a few stories about music merchandise—a new app lets music fans…

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Does Final Four Merchandise Really Make a Difference?

For No. 10-seeded Syracuse University, getting Final Four merchandise ready has come as somewhat of a surprise, and the sports merchandiser Fanatics had to scramble to get it ready. Other retailers will see drops in sales due to unexpected tournament knockouts…

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Ohio Municipal Court Uses T-shirt as Punishment

Some parents try to think of creative ways to teach their children lessons in discipline, but after a certain age, things like washing out someone’s mouth with soap or putting someone in a “time-out” don’t work. However, one town in Ohio is using a…

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SideStep App Lets Music Fans Skip the Long Merch Lines

People love picking up T-shirts from concerts. Not only is it a way for fans to show how much they love a group or artist, it also is a keepsake that commemorates a fun evening. However, those lines at the merch stand after the show can be heinous. To stop this, an app called SideStep…

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Hershey’s Lets Consumers Trade In Promo Items at SXSW

Festivals are always full of promotional products. Festivalgoers wear promotional sunglasses and T-shirts, drink from branded water bottles, and keep everything else in logoed tote bags. For some, all of that stuff might be too much to handle, so they have to pick and choose what they want. To…

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American Apparel Partners with Postmates for One-hour Delivery

American Apparel, Los Angeles, is bringing new meaning to the phrase “fast fashion” by teaming up with delivery company Postmates to offer delivery to U.S. customers within one hour. According to a press release, the service will be available in 79 of American Apparel’s locations in the U.S., and customers will be able to purchase…

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