Federated to consolidate May credit centers

Best of luck to those of you working at the Credit Center. Still no word on the fate of the Lorain Data Center...

AP Wire | 10/25/2005 | Federated to consolidate May credit centers: "Federated to consolidate May credit centers

Associated Press

CINCINNATI - Federated Department Stores Inc. said Tuesday it plans to consolidate credit centers acquired in its merger with May Department Stores Co. into its main credit services division in southwest Ohio.

Federated, which operates Macy's and Bloomingdale's, plans to close a Lorain division that employs 760 workers and a Parma center that employs 35. A center in Houston, which employs 380, also is slated to close.

Up to 300 jobs will be added at the main credit services center north of Cincinnati, which now employs about 2,000 workers.

The company said the change will help with its goal of saving $175 million next year and $450 million in 2007 as a result of the $11.9 billion merger, which was completed in August.

Executives working at the centers to be closed will be asked to express interest in relocating to facilities with positions available, the company said. Federated has promised it will not cut any May Co. jobs before March 1 next year.

May Co.'s Earth City credit center in St. Louis will remain open.

Federated sold its credit card business and May's credit arm to Citigroup earlier this year for after-tax proceeds of $4.9 billion, but the customer service functions, such as processing new accounts and handling customer questions, remain under Federated's control.

Federated, with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, now has 244,000 employees and stores in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.

Federated shares rose 38 cents to close at $61.63 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares have traded from $46.60 to $78.05 in the past 52 weeks."

McDonalds promo

I've been collecting the Best Buy Bucks from the McDonalds promotion and decided to read through the fine print to see just what the odds of winning some of the "big ticket" prizes are.

Bottom line appears to be that besides Best Buy Bucks and free McDonalds, you'd be better off playing the lottery.

I found one little gem of a statistic in the fine print that I think you'll find amusing:

The odds of collecting all 4 railroads (Reading Railroad #5023, Pennsylvania Railroad #5024, B&O Railroad #5025, Short Line #5026) in order to win the Dodge Viper, valued at $100,000, is a staggering 1 in 17,836,429,305!

Now, according to the US Census Bureau, the world population is only 6,473,841,545.

This is probably explained by the fact that they make sure that one rare piece is at a McDonalds in Guam and the other rare Railroad piece is located in Saskatchewan...but come on! 1 in 17 BILLION???? Geesh...the odds of winning the Mega Millions Lottery jackpot is only 1 in 175,711,536.

The Vibe GT has been laid to rest. Meet my new wheels.

gotta love the leaper