The waiting is the hardest part, or so the Tom Petty song goes. But maybe the waiting doesn’t have to be so hard. That may be a lesson for online retailers from research conducted by Robert Bray, an associate professor of operations management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Dr. Bray discovered keeping customers informed at the end of the delivery process can have more value than at the beginning, with benefits such as mitigating frustration and enhancing...

IT WAS a curious confluence of events that transformed me into a fangirl of the Bauhaus, the German design school that architect Walter Gropius founded in 1919. The first was a 2001 trip to Walden Pond with my now husband. At his beseeching, it included a tour of the Gropius House in Lincoln, Mass., which required visitors to wear surgical booties. Shortly thereafter, I had delivered to my Manhattan office six slavishly rendered miniature ceramics of buildings designed by members of the...

The first thing an owner should do before putting a car away for more than six months is to change the oil and the filter. Mr. Prichinello, who opened the New York City outpost of the London club in 2005, suggests running the car for about an hour to get its juices circulating. “Go get a pizza,” he says. “Then on your way home, fill the tank with gas so there is less opportunity for condensate in the tank.” To prevent the petrol from congealing into the consistency of lacquer, Mr. Prichinello...

At Glossier’s Chicago Pop-Up (114 N. Aberdeen St., West Town, through October 28), larger-than-life artwork melts onto the floor, mirrored plinths surround interactive testing areas, and sound-engineered domes grant cosmetic junkies a transporting shopping experience. This is the second pop-up for the brand that built a loyal following on Instagram with its natural-looking, barely there beauty products. “We want Glossier Chicago to be a destination where you can come, hang out with your...

A Shame to Waste The Environmental Protection Agency estimated in 2015 that nursing homes across the country toss out about 740 tons of medications each year. The way they and others had gotten rid of unwanted pills varied, since the original Controlled Substances Act didn’t address disposal until lawmakers amended it in 2014. Still, rules vary by state, and regulations usually don’t provide a particular method of destruction. “Some states have medical-waste providers where they ship the...