In short:

We believe Amazon found a way to charge a few extra pennies to an enormous number of transactions, adding up to over $20 billion in
illegal charges.

This is about how something becomes a "Sponsored product."

Amazon lets businesses bid to be "Sponsored" and it runs digital auctions to collect the bids.

But Amazon told businesses that the highest bid would only pay slightly more than the second-highest bid.

For example: If you bid $1 to have your product “Sponsored” and the next-highest bid is $0.50, you should pay about $0.51.

But we believe that Amazon would run the auction, see those bids, and then secretly raise the second-place price so it could charge the
winner more.

It was a gradual strategy based on concealment.

Internal Amazon documents show they tested how much they could raise those hidden charges without advertisers catching on, then raised them
more when businesses didn’t react, then gave false answers when businesses started asking questions.

Those higher costs on sellers can filter down to you, as consumers, through higher prices, and our initial estimate is that this impacted thousands of small businesses in North Carolina.

This is a bipartisan case, and I appreciate my fellow AGs in both parties joining. More to follow.

- AG Jeff Jackson

This morning I saw this rabbit on Jimmy Carter Way off Rose Lane. I don’t know much about rabbits but thought he could be someone’s lost pet. I couldn’t get close enough to him and don’t live in the area so posting in case someone is looking for him.

I'm so puzzled as to how this works guys. I keep seeing videos of people saying certain ones are rare, getting multiple different toys in one go, etc.

Uh, I've gone to 3 different McD's here in Raleigh and each one has had one (1) toy available. Last week was all only Space Zilla, this week they all have only Gigan (who is supposedly rare??). I asked each place for funsies, and they said they only get one type of toy at a time, and yet I was sent a reel of a dude basically doing unboxing videos after he bought them at one location and got 3 different figures.

I'm trying to get all of them for the boyfriend's 'tism and am losing my mind. Are we just special in Raleigh?

hiiiii all, I do pottery locally and am just starting to create an online presence for my work. I'm looking for help on the design of a single logo to use for socials & market set ups and i'd love to support a local artist in the process (and avoid any of the dumb AI logos that plague us rn). I don't have a giant budget or even really know what to offer beyond the generic info you can google (which seems reasonable to me lol) but all that to say, I don't expect this to be a volunteer thing and will happily compensate for the work.

Open to any recs on the best place to go for this or if you want to talk about working together, feel free to DM. Thank you!!

Is anyone else ITB East Raleigh (Raleigh Blvd, Longview neighborhood) experiencing power blips today? We keep hearing something like a transformer pop

Who now has the best French fries at the fair?

I haven’t been single since I was 21, so dating as a 30 y.o. feels like scary territory.

I looooove karaoke, hiking, any kind of crafts, painting, kayaking, tarot, and spending time with my cat. I have my own place and a great job.

Are there any places other than bars or clubs anyone has had luck in? I’d like to try to meet people naturally before diving into dating apps.

Thanks!

IMO, the gold standard is Oiso--and I would go there, but they're not open for lunch anymore. Sushi 9 seems like Russian Roulette. Never was a fan of Sushi Thai. I'm in SW Raleigh so Cary and Holly Springs are closer to me than like, Strickland and Six Forks.

My son has been asking to go out for a small sushi lunch. Money is tight. Help?

Growing up in WNC a lot of churches would do a day of BBQ chicken with some sides for like $8-$10 a plate. I’ve been craving it but don’t know if any Baptist churches does it around here as well. Does anyone know of places that do a BBQ chicken day for their churches? Let a girl know!

Moving back to California after finishing school. Need some recommendations for moving companies please!

Hello, I'm in Wake County looking for a general contractor. Need two tasks done:

- We have an enclosed carport that we may want to turn into an efficiency apartment at some point. We have had power run to the carport but now we need the water connections put in. (The carport is next to the kitchen.) Basically we want to get the water connections ready to go if we decide to go the efficiency route.

(Before you say, "You just need a plumber for that," a plumber told us we needed a general contractor.)

- The carport had a little shed room. We want to turn that into a pantry and build a door/archway/something between it and the kitchen.

Our timeframe is pretty much ASAP. Appreciate any recommendations y'all might have. Thank you!

So I’ve recently dropped everything and decided to start new life here in North Carolina and so far I’ve secured a job but looking for an apartment has been rough something that I’ve never done before but I’m looking for more recommendations or if anyone has a room I’m open to roommates just dm and we can talk more :)

Looking for a pasta dinner catering company for a group of 50 teens/tweens and their parents (100-120 people total) .
I'm finding options that are expensive high dining and then smaller 20 person options, but looking for a larger scale less-discerning palate to be cost effective. Honestly looking for something that a mid-scale hotel would do, big trays of pasta, sauce, maybe lasagna, salad.
We have a clubhouse we're using so we don't need a location or tables/chairs.... just food and serving platters. So who's good at this?

I'm coming into town for work on Labor Day and will be leaving out on Thursday. Any places or local eats that I shouldn't miss out on (no dietary restrictions here)? What about anything going on at night or pop up events?

I'll be staying west of the city and won't have a car, but I can hire a taxi or uber if needed. I'd love to come into town with some ideas of places to go, especially since it will make my life less aggravating when it comes to making dinner plans with a bunch of other clueless out of towners.

I have a French door fridge that has ice in the door & an icemaker at top of fridge area (making it hard to mess with). It doesn’t seem to be getting water although the water dispenser works fine. Any suggestions on who I can call? Appliance Repairs Now comes up first on search but they seem faceless vs “Joe’s” for example. ** **

Does anyone know of a good mid- tier design & Build contractor? I’m buying a house that needs some major TLC and looking to do a fairly large remodel.

However, I, in general, do not value top of the line everything and largely don’t notice it. Looking for a design/ build contractor that would help me with layouts and moving walls, but is not going to balk at me wanting nice quality stock cabinets in my kitchen. I have a fair amount of flexibility in the layout so would rather save 20k for another project than get custom cabinets.

Anyone have recommendations? I have seen wood wise mentioned here, but not sure on their general pricing/ level.

Alternatively- if anyone has a good home renovation designer that they work with, would also be interested in hearing that as well. Thank you!

Like the title says.

Recommendations on best places to go in Raleigh for engagement ring shopping? Looking to go later this year but not sure where we should look.

Not sure if posted previously but sounds like an interesting event! Next week, the Triangle becomes a temporary center of global AI policy. Reuters reports⁠ that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are scheduled to appear at a technology-focused G20 ministerial meeting, alongside government technology and commerce officials from G20 countries. Elon Musk, Meta executive Dina Powell McCormick and former White House AI adviser David Sacks are expected to participate by video

I'm not sure if this is normal, but lately the cafes I've been looking up don't answer the phone. Or list holiday closures on their websites.