Tag Archives: Tampa Bay Times

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HSN featured jewelry company accused of cheating its artisans

bajalia1
Tampa Bay Times, Feb. 5, 2017, A1 

By Justine Griffin

People tuning in to HSN might think they’re supporting a good cause by purchasing a lapis bracelet from Bajalia International Group, an Orlando company that employs female artisans in developing countries like Afghanistan and India.

What shoppers don’t see on their TV screens is the sometimes ruthless business arrangements between Bajalia and its artisans, the company’s history of short-changing its craftswomen or the checkered financial past of the company’s founder and CEO.

On air at HSN, Debbie Farah is portrayed as a savior for women in poor and developing nations who produce the natural gemstone necklaces and beaded bracelets that Farah’s company sells online and on HSN, the popular television retailer based in St. Petersburg.

A follow up story published on March 17, 2017, when HSN dropped Bajalia from its programming. The story was featured on WSTP Ch. 10’s Sunday Conversation.

Read the original investigation here.

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Tampa Bay Times: Tampa International Airport is willing to spend money to make money on international flights

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times. October 14, 2016

airport

Orlando International Airport hasn’t ever had trouble recruiting new flights.

Airliners have been lining up for years to link new cities from around the globe to Disney World, Universal Studios and Central Florida’s other tourism attractions.

But last year, the Orlando airport introduced a financial incentive program meant to help lure new airline business.

The program mimicked what Tampa International Airport instituted more than five years ago, which has helped bring high-profile international flights like nonstop service to Frankfurt, Germany, on Lufthansa and service to Panama City, Panama, on Copa Airlines, to Tampa Bay.

The new incentive program in Orlando ultimately helped the airport draw a nonstop flight to Dubai on international airliner Emirates.

Tampa’s entry into the world of airline incentives didn’t come without controversy: Airport CEO Joe Lopano drew public criticism when he asked for permission to throw money at airlines after he arrived in Tampa in 2011. He eventually got the go-ahead, but it was new terrain for the airport.

Read more in the Tampa Bay Times here.

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Tampa Bay Times: Walmart stores around Tampa Bay found selling expired products, including baby food

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times.

walmart

First came the irritation when Deneen Wyman discovered she had bought expired baby formula at an area Walmart store on Sunday. Then came the added insult when she sought a refund and was sold yet another baby formula that had been outdated since May.

It wasn’t an isolated incident.

Read more in the Tampa Bay Times here.

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And the follow up story: 

Shoppers in St. Petersburg took to Facebook to express their outrage over finding expired baby formula and other goods at a local Walmart three weeks ago. The post quickly went viral.

The Tampa Bay Times wrote a front page story about it and a local television station covered it.

At the time, Walmart said employees were working fast to fix the problem. They pledged to do better.

For the next three weeks, Tampa Bay Times reporters browsed the aisles of Walmart stores around Tampa Bay looking for more expired goods. We continued to find expired baby formula, sour cream, baby food, supplements and prenatal vitamins at Walmart Supercenters and Walmart Neighborhood Market stores in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties despite the media coverage that revealed the problem at local stores. Dozens of Times readers also wrote and called in with stories and photos about buying expired goods from Walmart stores in Brandon, Brooksville, Wimauma, Clearwater, Ruskin, Sebring and elsewhere.

Read more in the Tampa Bay Times here.

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Tampa Bay Times: How do you transform a downtown like Tampa’s that has such little history?

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times. Sept. 23, 2016.

It’s one thing to decide which building goes where when mapping out a new $3 billion district for downtown Tampa. But it’s another challenge entirely to create a sense of place and identity that has been lacking in downtown Tampa for decades when there isn’t much history in that part of town.

hat’s the problem facing James Nozar, the man in charge of Strategic Property Partners’ plan to build a new 53-acre urban core for Tampa from the ground up. As the chief executive of SPP, the real estate firm owned by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment, he’s working with 17 architects, planners and designers to create a unifying theme across the entire district as they build it block by block.

“There’s not a neighborhood or great historic presence to look back to. That’s our biggest challenge,” Nozar said about the greater downtown Tampa area. “So we’ve had to use the unique Tampa climate to influence the sense of place we’re trying to create.”

Read more in the Tampa Bay Times here.

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Tampa Bay Times: When is the next recession going to hit Tampa Bay? Maybe sooner than you think

recession

Another recession is coming, Tampa Bay.

The main questions are: When will it arrive and how severe will it be?

A team of Tampa Bay Times business reporters have talked to dozens of business owners, Realtors, bankers, economists, tourism leaders, retailers and others to gauge the arrival of the next recession. We put together a special section on the topic.

Here are links to the stories I contributed.

A recession could be a bloodbath for restaurants in Tampa Bay 

After the last recession, it took a while before people in Tampa Bay started splurging again on dining out.

Eventually they did. And as the economy recovered, new restaurants began to sprout all over the area, turning Tampa Bay into an exciting new foodie destination.

But a number of those restaurants might not be here for the long haul.

Some analysts say the next restaurant recession is on the horizon. There are too many restaurants to choose from and communities can’t support every new corner cafe and bistro popping up in hot neighborhoods around downtown St. Pete or South Tampa.

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Tourism continues to thrive in Tampa Bay despite Zika and Brexit, but is it recession proof? 

When gas prices go up and wages go down, one of the first things consumers slash from their budgets is a vacation.

But with thousands of new hotel rooms coming online and existing room rates continuing to climb, local tourism boosters in Tampa Bay don’t see any signs of an economic recession in sight.

Pinellas and Hillsborough counties have reported record-shattering bed tax collections for years since the Great Recession and rates are only just starting to reach the peak pre-recession levels seen in 2006 and 2007. Both counties have regularly outpaced the state in tourism growth. And with more than 2,000 new hotel rooms set to open in the next few years, tourism officials don’t see a slowdown in their forecast any time soon, even with some hiccups like Zika and Brexit along the way.