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[email protected] The Daily News of TV Sales Tuesday, May 4, 2021 Copyright 2020. CHIP CRISIS: RENTAL COMPANIES BUYING USED CARS AUTO CRUNCH TO BOOST RATES, HURT RENTERS ADVERTISER NEWS The semiconductor shortage has slashed vehicle production Kroger has launched a pilot to deliver online grocery orders so much that rental-car companies can’t get the new cars — to nearly any location — by autonomous drones. Under they need, so they have resorted to buying used vehicles at a partnership with Drone Express, a division of TELEGRID auction. Technologies, Kroger will be able to deliver products not Bloomberg reports that this is uncharted territory for the just to a street address but also on the spot, such as bringing likes of Hertz and Enterprise, which have made their profits picnic supplies to a park, sunscreen to the beach or con- by purchasing new vehicles cheaply in bulk, renting them diments to a backyard cookout, the grocer said yesterday. out for as much as a year and selling them at auction. In The technology from Drone Express enables package de- the past, they have bought some used cars to shore up an livery to the location of a smartphone, allowing customers occasional unforeseen burst in demand, but rarely for the to order via a mobile device and receive their goods where mainstays of their fleets. they are... Tiffany & Co. has created its first engagement “You would never go into auction to buy routine sedans and ring line for men and named it after the luxury jewelry re- SUVs,” said Maryann Keller, an independent consultant tailer’s founder, Charles Lewis Tiffany.