Blanket term concerning the interactions of business entities conducted for profit.
Questions tagged [commerce]
19 questions
120
votes
4 answers
Does Amazon use Oracle instead of AWS to run their business?
According to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison:
Let me tell you an interesting fact, Amazon does not use AWS to run their business. Amazon runs their entire business on-top of Oracle, on-top of the Oracle database. They have been unable to migrate to AWS…
Christian
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42
votes
2 answers
Only the US, Liberia and Myanmar are “not metric”?
What’s the actual base of the oft-repeated claim that besides the US only Liberia and Myanmar had not officially/fully/completely/… adopted the metric system? For which definition of “not metric” is it or was it true, if any?
Examples
(Emphasis…
Crissov
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41
votes
1 answer
Did removing one olive lead to an airline saving thousands of dollars?
Quite a common story that gets brought up around airports or business meetings when someone wants to provide a famous example of small change for massive savings is the olive story.
Apparently there was an airline that managed to save tens of…
going
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35
votes
1 answer
Did Apple sue New York city over the nickname Big Apple?
An article in The Guardian - Apple's rot starts with its Samsung lawsuit win
Makes the following claim:
Apple is one of the most aggressive intellectual property litigators of all time
... It's sued about the lower case "i"; it's sued about the…
Tom77
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32
votes
1 answer
Are "Hitler" brand ice cream cones sold in India?
A number of recent articles (Daily Mail, Fox News, Hindustan Times) describe ice cream cones being sold in India which are labelled as "Hitler" distinctly on their boxes.
If you think the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has nothing to do with
…
March Ho
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27
votes
1 answer
Is Amazon copying sellers' items and then selling their own versions instead?
This meme is being shared on social media:
Source is the Wall Street Journal:
At its height about a decade ago, Pirate Trading LLC was selling more than $3.5 million a year of
its Ravelli-brand camera tripods—one of its bestselling…
Jerome Viveiros
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24
votes
2 answers
Is Mother's Day an invention of florists?
I've just heard someone claim that Mother's Day was an invention of florists, with the aim of selling more flowers on that day.
Is there any evidence that the flower-selling industry is responsible for creating Mother's day, or at least for pushing…
Mad Scientist
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21
votes
1 answer
Did a 700 percent increase in pencil sales occur in Britain on the back of the Sudoku boom?
A The Independent of London article, The rise and rise of Sudoku, claimed that:
[...] sales of pencils in Britain are reported to have risen 700 per cent on the back of the Sudoku boom.
A 700% increase seems objectively a disproportionate…
Carlo Alterego
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15
votes
2 answers
Were any women involved in the 2008 financial crisis?
In the article titled Men want more testosterone, the world needs less in the Globe and Mail on Sep. 27, 2011, Margaret Wente states:
Perhaps you’ve noticed that not a single woman was involved with the reckless speculation that led to the debacle…
Brian M. Hunt
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12
votes
1 answer
Is Coffee the most traded commodity in the world after Oil?
I have heard the claim that Coffee is the most traded commodity in the world right after Oil. Is there any proof of that?
I have also heard that coffee is the most consumed beverage after water? Any proof of that claim?
John Billon
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11
votes
1 answer
Were modern Japan customs for Valentine's Day and White Day instigated by retailers?
In Japan, women give chocolates to men on Valentine's Day, and men give gifts to women on White Day, which falls on March 14.
There are various claims that Valentine's Day and White Day customs are retailer inventions in Japan and neighbouring…
Andrew Grimm
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10
votes
1 answer
Did a woman find a chicken head in her McNuggets?
A story circulated some time ago, and it occasionally comes back to life within social media, that once a woman found a chicken head inside her child's chicken nuggets at McDonald's.
Did this really happen?
John Demetriou
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10
votes
1 answer
Did Monsanto buy and/or hire Xe/Blackwater/Academi?
I've seen a lot of posts on Facebook lately linking to various blogs and "news" sites mentioning that Monsanto purchased and/or hired Blackwater (aka Xe - search for "Monsanto Blackwater" with your favorite search engine for dozens of sites). As far…
glenneroo
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9
votes
1 answer
Was Colonel Sanders rejected by 1009 restaurants before he started his first franchise?
Some sources claim that Colonel Sanders of KFC was rejected for at least a 1000 times before some restaurant agreed to sell his chicken.
For example, the book Life Lessons for the Teenage Girl claims:
The famous secret chicken recipe of Harland…
JonathanReez
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5
votes
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Are roses popular on Valentine's Day because they are durable to transport?
In Episode #603 of Planet Money, it is claimed that giving roses is a recent phenomenon. They claim roses are popular due to their toughness (and the fact they bloom close to Valentine's Day)
Roses were the perfect choice' pretty much…
user30467