Black Friday Shopping Mayhem Roundup
For some reason, Walmart and Toys R Us stores were the focal points of this year's Black Friday mayhem nationwide. Perhaps because the chains offer both toys for children and toys for adults--electronic ones, at least. Fights and other oddities broke out here and there nationwide. However, shoppers and store employees survived the day with no deaths, major injuries, or significant property damage. More »
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AOL Rearranges Deck Chairs, Introduces New Logo
Close to severing ties with Time Warner and fresh off announcing that they plan to cull almost a third of their work force by the end of the year, AOL has debuted--why not?--a new logo and branding campaign. The new logo has a variety of backgrounds, but always the new name in a sans-serif font: "Aol." Yes, with the period. More »
How Clean Are Netflix DVDs?
Netflix DVDs and their envelopes pass from hand to hand, and from home to home, with all sorts of interesting opportunities for contamination. What sorts of bacteria are on them? A Texas local news team set out to find out and discovered...well, not much of anything likely to kill you. Sorry to disappoint. More »
Arby's Coupon Promotion Wastes Trees, Mystifies Customers
Mike received this coupon sheet when buying a $5.01 combo at Arby's. We get it, Arby's, the combo is such a good deal that you don't need a coupon. You've made your point. We don't need thousands of useless coupon sheets that will go straight into the trash around to make the point for you. Thanks, commenters--evidently, this is the tray liner, so not so much a waste of paper. But a 1 cent coupon is still inherently silly. More »
Black Friday Sales Figures Almost Didn't Suck
Overall, Black Friday retail sales weren't too bad, as shoppers sought deals on all sorts of products, focusing on computers (especially netbooks, if Consumerist readers are any indication), flat-panel televisions, and Snuggies. Sales were up slightly over last year nationwide, especially in the western United States, and online sales were up 35% over Black Friday 2008. More »
Prepare Your Delta Air Lines EECB For Takeoff
After reading Martin's unaccompanied minor air travel horror story yesterday, Aaron sent us this updated list of Delta Air Lines executive contact information from Elliott.org. More »
Free Shipping From QPB: Just Pay Shipping And Handling
Jon received this e-mail from the book club QPB. It promises free shipping, and a free travel set, if he pays shipping and handling. That shipping is on the travel set, we presume, but no one can really be sure. More »
BlueHippo Files Chapter 11 After Bank Accounts Frozen
It appears that when the FTC filed a contempt charge against scamtastic consumer electronics purveyor Bluehippo, the company's bank took notice and froze their accounts. Now Bluehippo has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, claiming that they can't repay their creditors, what with the frozen bank accounts and all. This will not end well. More »
Best Buy Holds Discounted Netbook, Delights Customer
A story about a great customer service experience at Best Buy? On Black Friday? It doesn't seem possible. And yet, it happened to Brian and Briana when they shopped the early sale for Silver Reward Zone members. More »
Delta Air Lines: You Need To Pay A Fee To Pay This Fee
Martin's 5-year-old stepdaughter has had a very eventful holiday week. So has her family. Flying as an unaccompanied minor, she had to miss her original flight on AirTran and her family booked another at the last minute. The first reasonably priced flight available was on NWA/Delta, but her parents tell us that communication between different departments seems to have shut down--resulting in fees, hours of delays, and the child ultimately missing her flight because the airline didn't mark down that the unaccompanied minor fee had already been paid. More »
Buy A Mattress, Get A Free Video Camera
A few weeks ago, Macy's ran this somewhat mystifying promotion. Simple enough: Buy a mattress, get a free video camera via mail-in rebate.
It's interesting to see a department store modern enough to openly market to aspiring amateur porn stars. More »
Duck Tape Determined To Make Up For Defective Roll
"Above and Beyond" stories can come from the most mundane sources. Such as this e-mail that reader MJ sent in praise of the customer service for Duck Tape brand duct tape. More »
Macy's Cheerfully Helps Customers Get Parking Tickets
(Photo: andyjakeman)
The employees at the Macy's in Washington, DC, sure were helpful earlier today! They showed customers where they could park for up to two hours while they shopped. Unfortunately, it turns out Macy's employees are not well-versed on parking rules in DC, and the manager there doesn't really think it's Macy's problem. More »
Fry's Sells Magical Disappearing HDTVs To Customers
The Fry's store in Renton, Washington, just played a mean trick on at least half a dozen customers. This morning, Jeff successfully navigated through the crowd outside, the crowds inside, and no less than five different lines in order to purchase a 52" TV. Everything went remarkably smoothly. Well, until the very end. More »
Consumerist Friday Flickr Finds
(Photo: digitizedchaos)
Here are nine wonderful photos readers added to The Consumerist Flickr Pool this week, picked for neatness and usability in a Consumerist post. Also, be sure to check out our new Photo Gallery to see the latest additions all week long! More »
Walmart Shuts Down For 3 Hours After Shoppers Go Crazy
(Photo: MPD01605)
The Los Angeles Times says that a Walmart in Upland, California had to kick everyone out and shut down for 3 hours this morning, because shoppers lost their damned minds. More »
Busting Myths About Black Friday And Cyber Monday
Black Friday isn't really the top holiday shopping day of the season--the last Saturday before Christmas is. Today, we have Cyber Monday, when turkey-bloated office workers purportedly return to work and spend the day looking for deals online. But is Cyber Monday really the biggest online shopping day of the year? Well, no. Focus put some numbers together to clear up misconceptions about Americans' online holiday shopping patterns. More »
Police Called To Quell Fight Over Toy Hamsters
People in Indiana really want those trendy little robot hamsters that are the designated fad toy of 2009. Police were called to two Toys R Us stores, one in Indianapolis and one in Greenwood, on Friday after fights broke out among toy shoppers. More »
