Yesterday marked two soft deadlines for Walmart: the EMV shift at payment terminals and a pre-holiday “line in the sand” that the company’s head of U.S. operations set for the retailer to shape up its stores. That includes making checkout lines shorter and other changes that might seem invisible, but which affect how friendly and easy to use shoppers find their local Wally World. More importantly, he shows up to visit stores unannounced. [More]
Retail Services
Aldi Has Removed Hydrogenated Oils, Artificial Colors, And MSG From Its Stores
By 10.2.15
For restaurants and packaged food brands, the current hot trend is eliminating additives and ingredients that the public has come to see as unhealthy or unnecessary. These include things like trans fats, artificial colors, and artificial flavors. Restaurant chains like Panera and food companies like Campbell Soup have pledged to not sell products with these substances in them, but Aldi is pledging to do so store-wide. [More]
Walmart Employee In Trouble Over Facebook Video Of Shoplifter Scuffle
By 10.2.15
We’ve told you before of Walmart employees who were fired for intervening in violent or potentially dangerous situations at the store, but here’s a story of a Walmart worker who’s in trouble for not stepping in. Of course, it doesn’t help that he posted video of the incident along with his wisecracking running commentary. [More]
Amazon To Prohibit The Sale Of Apple TV, Google Chromecast
By 10.1.15
Amazon appears to be taking a page out of Apple’s playbook by removing competitors’ products from its virtual shelves. The e-commerce giant said today that would prohibit the sale of video-streaming devices from rivals Google and Apple that aren’t compatible with its own Prime video service. [More]
The Narwhal Bacon Box Is Not Clear On The Concept Of ‘Monthly’ Subscription Boxes
By 10.1.15
The appeal of monthly subscription boxes is that, um, you get a subscription box. Monthly. That’s why customers are so disappointed in the Narwhal Bacon Box, which promised to be a monthly box with Reddit-themed content. It hasn’t managed to ship any boxes yet. [More]
Target Charges $1 Extra If You Want Your Applesauce In A Bigger Box
By 9.30.15
Perhaps Target’s goal is to simplify our lives, reducing the number of boxes that we have to carry out of their stores. Probably not, though. There is no logic behind Target math, but at least now they’ll price match to a store with more logical pricing. [More]
Bed Bath & Beyond Is Losing Money On Our Coupon Addiction
By 9.30.15
Do you refuse to buy anything at Bed Bath & Beyond without a coupon? So does everyone else, apparently. While the company is making plenty of sales, they aren’t as profitable as they used to be… something that experts attribute to the chain’s training its customers to always come in clutching a coupon. [More]
Thief Commandeers Forklift In Failed ATM Heist
By 9.30.15
ATMs tend to weigh quite a bit, that may be why would-be thieves often rely on the help of big machinery when attempting to make off with one of the money dispensing apparatuses — or its contents. Once such case occurred early this morning in North Dakota where ne’er-do-well(s) commandeered a forklift and tried to pilfer the contents of a Wells Fargo cash machine. [More]
Target Will Price-Match 29 Competitors’ Websites
By 9.30.15
Beginning tomorrow, October 1, Target will price-match the websites of 29 major retailers in stores and for purchases from their website. These include the usual big names that you might expect, like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, but also some major specialty retailers like Sports Authority and cosmetics retailer Ulta. [More]
Amazon Flex Launches In Seattle, Allows Regular Joes To Earn Money Delivering Prime Now Packages
By 9.29.15
Amazon’s latest attempt to quickly and cheaply deliver packages got underway in Seattle on Tuesday with the launch of the company’s consumer-turned-courier program, Amazon Flex. [More]
USPS Says It Tried To Deliver My Package, But Home Security Video Shows Otherwise
By 9.29.15 — Updated: 5.25.17
UPDATE: Tony says his local postmaster arrived on his doorstep the day after his story was posted on Consumerist, to personally apologize and get more information about his situation. [More]
L.L. Bean’s Duck Boots Already On Backorder Despite 100 Additional Workers Hired To Make Them
By 9.29.15
If you’re looking forward to splashing around this winter in L.L. Bean’s aggressively unglamorous, USA-made duck boots, you’ll need to plan ahead: some styles and sizes are backordered by a month before there’s even a single snowflake in the sky. The duck boot factories are cranking them out as fast as they can, and simply can’t keep up with demand. [More]
Walmart Officially Launching Online Grocery Pickup With Expansion To More Cities
By 9.29.15
After testing the concept for months, Walmart plans to offer more shoppers the opportunity to order their groceries online and pick them up at the store later. [More]
Police: Women Steal TV From Walmart, Change Clothes And Steal Another One
By 9.28.15
Earlier this month, a man masquerading as a Walmart employee walked in the door, grabbed four big screen TVs and simply walked back out the way he came. While that was no doubt a brazen shoplifting incident, two women may have topped him over the weekend: police say the women swiped one TV from a local store, changed their clothing and then stole another TV — from the same store.
[More]
Walmart’s Streaming Video Service VUDU Discounts All Of This Year’s Emmy-Nominated Shows To $.67
By 9.25.15
For folks who might enjoy, say, Game of Thrones and Veep, but not enough to pay for HBO or HBO Now just for those two shows, or someone who wants to watch House of Cards without getting a Netflix subscription, Walmart’s streaming service VUDU might make sense: it charges per episode for TV shows, instead of requiring an upfront subscription fee for access to its libraries. VUDU is now sweetening the deal on some shows, knocking the per-episode price of all 2015 Emmy nominees and winners down to $0.67. [More]
Man Takes $900 Worth Of Drills From Sears, Leaves Making Chicken Noises
By 9.25.15
One way to commit a crime is to create a distraction, and maybe that’s what a man at a Sears store in New Hampshire was trying to do when he allegedly filled a cart with power drills and made chicken noises when employees tried to stop him. He left the cart full of tools behind, but police would like to know his whereabouts. [More]
Ulta Has A Great Return Policy, Except For Keeping My Sales Tax
By 9.24.15
Vee made a small purchase from the cosmetics store Ulta, and needed to return it. That happens. Where things got confusing, though, is that she didn’t receive a refund of the sales tax she had paid. When she questioned this, a store representative’s response was that “the website does not state that we do not give the taxes back when making a return.” What? [More]
