Business news in brief
By The Associated Press
Target launches new paid membership program
NEW YORK | Target, looking for ways to reverse a sales malaise, is getting into Amazon territory: the paid membership game.
The Minneapolis discounter said Tuesday the new paid program, called Target Circle 360, will offer unlimited free same-day delivery in as little as an hour for orders over $35 and free two-day shipping. It will launch with a special offer for new members for $49 per year from April 7 through May 18. After that ends, it will cost $99 per year. But Target Circle credit card holders can sign up for the lower price anytime.
The current Target Circle program has more than 100 million members who shop and spend more than five times more than non-members, the company said.
Delta Airlines is hiking checked-baggage fees 17%
SAN FRANCISCO | In case you needed yet another incentive to cram all your travel items into a carry-on, Delta Airlines has just boosted the cost of your first checked bag by 17%. The increases adds $5 to the previous, and not-exactly-insignificant, $30 fee for domestic flights.
Delta is the third major U.S. carrier to hike bag fees in the past several weeks, following similar increases that American Airlines and United Airlines announced in February, three days apart. Smaller carriers Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airways hiked baggage fees earlier this year.
Major U.S. carriers often copy one another’s pricing changes, behavior analysts sometimes refer to as herd instinct.
U.S. sanctions spyware company, executives
WASHINGTON | The Treasury Department announced Tuesday it has sanctioned two people and a Greece-based commercial spyware company headed by a former Israeli military officer that developed, operated and distributed technology used to target U.S. government officials, journalists and policy experts.
The sanctions target Intellexa Consortium, which the U.S. says has sold and distributed commercial spyware and surveillance tools for targeted and mass surveillance campaigns. Other entities associated with Intellexa — including North Macedonia-based Cytrox AD, Hungary-based Cytrox Holdings ZRT and Ireland-based Thalestris Limited — were sanctioned for their parts in developing and distributing a package of tools known as Predator.
—From AP reports
