More than one thousand online photo-printing services have entered the marketplace in the history of the Web. Only a few remain. The most successful survivor is Shutterfly, founded in 1999. The 16 billion pictures currently sitting on Shutterfly’s servers aren’t your garden-variety snapshots of sandwiches and shoes. The pictures on Shutterfly are treasured images, and destined to decorate photobooks, prints, calendars, wall decals, mugs, greeting cards, and other items. [More]
Online Start-Up Lets You Give Presents From Afar Without Those Pesky Gift Cards
By December 20, 2012
We know there are plenty of you out there who also abhor gift cards — either you forget about them in a drawer or don’t realize there are a ton of hidden fees eating away at your credit — but then again, shopping for loved ones who live far away can be so hard sometimes. A new online start-up called Yiftee thinks it has the solution, even if its choice of name is questionable. [More]
Retail Managers: You’ll Get More Product Info From A Smartphone Than A Sales Associate
By December 19, 2012
Times used to be, you had a question about a product and needed information about it, and you asked the sales associate at the store. But now it’s not just consumers who stay home to online shop who are finding the best information and prices about items they’re shopping for, even retail managers say customers in a store are better off turning to their smartphones to get info, rather than asking a sales associate for help. [More]
Land’s End Can’t Redeem Shop Your Way Rewards, Doesn’t Care
By December 17, 2012
Shop Your Way Rewards are one of the delightful selling points for continuing to shop at companies that are part of Sears Holdings Corporation, such as Sears, Kmart, and Land’s End. Hayden has accumulated a modest balance of these points, and wanted to spend them at Land’s end. The website won’t let him. He reported this problem to Land’s End, and no one at the company seems to care. At all. [More]
At Best Buy You Can Pay $3 More For Someone Else To Open A Product For You
By December 14, 2012
Consumerist reader R. came upon quite a non-deal at his local Best Buy and simply had to snap a photo using our mobile tipster app. Because otherwise how could we believe that Best Buy would display a higher price for an opened item than for a brand new one? Well, actually, we’d believe it anyway but proof is always fun. [More]
Gift-Givers, Beware Of Google’s Short Return Window For Nexus Devices
By December 13, 2012
Are you buying a product from Google’s Nexus line as a gift this holiday season, or for an upcoming special event? It’s too late for reader Joan, but she wants everyone to know that you should probably make your purchase from somewhere with a looser return policy than the Google Play store if your gift-giving occasion is more than two weeks or so away. That’s because you can’t return items more than 15 days after purchase unless they’re defective. [More]
Lidl On The Hook For $260K In Christmas Chicken Dinners After Twitter Campaign Goes Viral
By December 12, 2012
Winner, winner, so very many chicken dinners for Lidl to hand out in Belgium. The discount retailer is on the hook for about $260,000 worth of Christmas chicken dinners, after it offered to trade five four-course meals in exchange for every dedicated hash tag on Twitter. So this is either a resounding success or… or Lidl will not call it anything but a success. [More]
Hasbro Meeting With 13-Year-Old To Hear Her Ideas On “Girly” Easy-Bake Ovens
By December 12, 2012
The New Jersey eighth grader who started a campaign for less girly Easy-Bake Ovens is headed straight to the top! And by that we mean she’s meeting with Hasbro’s Easy-Bake team (that team must have a lot of recipes for tiny cookies) to talk about her ideas concerning their product. [More]
Man With Semiautomatic Rifle Kills 2 And Injures 6 At Mall, Then Kills Himself
By December 12, 2012
On Tuesday afternoon around 3:30 PM, a man opened fire with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle at the Clackamas Town Center mall in Portland, Oregon. According to police, wo people were killed and as many as six injured, at least one of whom is hospitalized and in serious condition. Early reports indicated that the gunman may have been wearing body armor and/or camouflage, and was wearing the hockey mask associated with Jason in the Friday the 13th films. After firing up to 60 rounds, he killed himself. No law enforcement officers fired any shots inside the mall. [More]
Pennsylvania Surplus Store Lets You Buy Back That Shake Weight The TSA Confiscated
By December 11, 2012
You’ve just gone through airport security and you’re feeling bereft, after the Transportation Security Administration confiscated your pocket knife/Shake Weight (yes, really)/Play-Doh or anything that could be used as a weapon. It doesn’t just get dumped in a lost and found bin to collect dust or straight into the pockets of TSA agents, so where does it go? [More]
What Kohl’s Does When It Ships An Extra Item: Charges Me For It, Denies A Refund
By December 7, 2012
Consumerist reader Rebecca sounds like a reasonable person. Sure, she’s jealous of the people (this reader and then this reader, too)who get extra iPads sent to them by Best Buy, but she’s not expecting any kind of freebies from Kohl’s in the same situation with a different product. But instead of even a simple “Thanks for noticing we messed up!” she got punished for trying to do the right thing and return the extra item. [More]
Departing Bed, Bath & Beyond Employee Would Like The Boss To Read The Fine Print
By December 7, 2012
While plenty of you might wish to quit your job in a blaze of invective-filled glory, not everyone has such a dramatic exit strategy. But that doesn’t mean employees like this Bed, Bath & Beyond guy or gal don’t want to make sure everyone knows their true feelings upon leaving a retail job. [More]
Hey, Best Buy Also Sent Me Five iPads When I Only Ordered One!
By December 6, 2012
As our post from last night about Best Buy’s five-for-one iPad deal burned up the Internet, some people wondered whether this had happened to anyone else out there. No, that couldn’t be: this is an expensive mistake. It can’t happen all the time. Then we heard from Nick, who has four spare iPads stashed in his closet, waiting for Best Buy to come back for them. [More]
Zynga Files For Nevada Gambling License So Players Can Gamble Away The Virtual Farm
By December 6, 2012
Thinking of all my hardworking ancestors toiling away on family farms, trying to provide enough food for their sprawling German- and Irish-Catholic families makes me wonder: What would they think of an immensely popular game about farming where players can risk virtual cows for cash? Zynga, the makers of popular online game FarmVille, is taking the next step in gaming by applying for a license to gamble in Nevada. [More]
Restaurant Celebrates Bad Yelp Reviews By Broadcasting Them In The Restrooms
By December 6, 2012
While there are all the horror stories of businesses turning on negative Yelp reviews, there’s at least one restaurant that seems to be taking the bad and turning it into something amusing. When it comes down to it, some of those reviews are downright dramatic, and the gastropub’s owner figured he might as well have with that: His restaurant pipes in audio of voices reading those reviews in the bathrooms. [More]
Starbucks Introduces Limited Amount Of $450 Steel Gift Cards For The Caffeinated 1%
By December 5, 2012
There are people who are willing to plunk down $7 for a cup of coffee every day at Starbucks, or those who carve out decent slice of their budgets to ensure they get a venti latte with all the syrupy extras on a constant basis, so the idea of spending $450 on a shiny new steel Starbucks gift card really isn’t that much of a leap. And it will come with the cachet of being one of only 5,000 in existence. We can just sense the caffeinated drool out there right now. [More]
Study Begs The Question: If You Love Your Phone So Much, Why Don’t Ya Marry It?
By November 30, 2012
We already know there’s a name for that intense anxiety you might feel at being separated from your cellphone (where are my fellow nomophobics at?) but how many of actually admit we love our phones with true, shameless burning affection? A new study from Pew says if you adore your phone but feel a little weird about that, you’re not alone. [More]
If You’re Unhappy & You Know It, Keep An Eye On How You Spend Your Money
By November 29, 2012
Pick your head up out of that pint of Ben & Jerry’s and step away from the online sales you’ve been clicking through to fill that hole in your heart. A new study claims that when you’re down in the dumps, sad or otherwise singing the blues, you’re more prone to make silly decisions about your money. And come on, you don’t really need another pair of black boots. [More]
