Returned merchandise, which retailers have to discount or even dump, end up costing U.S. merchants as much as $20bn a year, and are a "ticking time bomb" that threatens retailers' profitability. To avoid that blowup, merchants are turning to new technologies.

The recent introduction of Apple Pay was widely described as the dawn of a new era for smartphone payments. But within a week, two major pharmacy chains, Rite Aid and CVS, rejected Apple’s version of the future: Both disabled Apple Pay (as well as other tap-to-pay mobile payments systems Google Wallet and Softcard).

If there's one story that's been beaten to death by the media in search of feel-good news from what’s been a pretty tepid economic recovery, it's that of the supposed manufacturing renaissance in the U.S.