Federal regulators won’t investigate a Walmart television advertisement two months after an ad review board found the retailer might have misled TV viewers about recent changes in pay for Walmart workers. [More]
Retail Services
Regulators Won’t Investigate Claims That Walmart’s “Raise In Pay” Commercial Is Misleading
By 9.22.15
Amazon Chops $32 Off Amazon Prime Membership Price In One-Day Sale For New Subscribers
By 9.22.15
Amazon is in a pretty good mood after snagging five Emmys for its original series, Transparent, and to celebrate, it’s giving new subscribers to its Prime service $32 off the usual price. [More]
Elderly Shopper Punched In The Face Over Nutella Samples At Costco
By 9.22.15
One would think combining free sample day and Nutella would create the ideal shopping experience. That certainly wasn’t the case at a California Costco where an elderly shopper was punched in the face was punched in the face in the name of free chocolate hazelnut spread. [More]
Starbucks Introduces Pumpkin Spice Bottled Frappuccinos As Costco Exclusive
By 9.21.15
I live in a rather deprived part of the Northeast: I can only reach a Costco store by driving more than two hours in any direction. (Except north. That’s Canada.) Today, we learned about a Costco-exclusive product that leaves me wondering whether I’m extra-deprived or better off. Starbucks is selling bulk packs of its bottled Frappuccinos in pumpkin spice flavor, but they’ll only be available at Costco. [More]
Here’s A Fun Customer Service Idea: Text Walmart For Help From Within Walmart
By 9.21.15
We’ve often said that it’s not really a good idea to post on social media or e-mail a company while you are physically standing in their store or restaurant, and talking to a person is a better alternative. Here’s a possible exception to that from the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon: a text-messaging service that uses a combination of bots and customer service chat reps to let you text for help from within Walmart. [More]
This Walmart Is Apparently Stuck In 2011
By 9.21.15
Reader Knah is one of the bravest explorers who form the Raiders of the Lost Walmart: retail archaeologists who comb the nation’s big-box stores for retail antiquities that have somehow stayed on the shelves even though they’re now obsolete, sometimes comically so. Here are his three latest finds: all of which are out of date, if not useless, yet are locked up in security equipment. Why? [More]
Walmart In Courtroom Battle With Texas Over “Irrational” Liquor Law
By 9.18.15
Having spent a large part of my life in a state where getting wine or booze meant going to a state-operated “wine and spirits shoppe,” it doesn’t seem all that awful that Walmart and other publicly trade companies are barred from selling hard liquor in the state of Texas. But for the nation’s biggest retailer, that law makes no sense — and it’s in the middle of a legal battle with the Lone Star state for the right to dispense spirits. [More]
Some Best Buy Stores Now Taking Apple, Android Pay
By 9.18.15
Best Buy continued its love affair with Apple this week, as several locations of the electronics retailer started accepting the tech company’s mobile payment system. Alert consumers began noticing a few days ago that some Best Buy locations now allowed customers to pay with both Apple Pay and Android Pay, just a month after the retailer’s exclusive agreement with MCX – a consortium creating payment platform CurrentC – ended. The retailer announced back in April that it would start offering Apple’s payment option at some point in 2015, but failed to elaborate on a timeline. [Apple Insider] [More]
GameStop Ditches Digital Downloads In Console Bundles
By 9.18.15
With consumers abandoning their stacks of CDs, DVDs and video games in favor of digital downloads that can easily be viewer or played for any number of devices, GameStop’s latest attempt to keep its bread-and-butter — the sale of trade-ins — goes against the no-disc trend: only selling game console bundles that include physical discs. [More]
Filene’s Basement Rises From Retail Graveyard As Zombie Brand
By 9.17.15
When a company declares bankruptcy and goes out of business, sometimes its brands don’t settle into a dignified death. Sometimes they’re resurrected days or decades later, roaming the earth as zombie retailers. The latest brand to be raised from the dead is off-price retailer Filene’s basement, which closed in 2011. The brand’s owners have been waiting for the right time to reopen, and closeout retailers are super-hot right now. [More]
Amazon Selling New 7″ Fire Tablets In A $250 Six-Pack
By 9.17.15
Would you pay $50 for a 7″ Amazon Fire? If not, Amazon thinks you might be down to pay $41 for one if its new tablets — if you’ve got six people you want to give one to. The company is announcing a new lineup of Fire tablets today, including six-packs of the 7″ tablets — which usually go for $49.99 each — for $250. Just to compare, that’s six tablets for half the price of a 32GB iPad mini. [More]
Woman Takes Out Newspaper Ad To Find Fellow Walmart Shoppers She Credits With Saving Her Life
By 9.16.15
If you recently performed CPR on a woman who suffered a seizure and collapsed in the frozen food aisle at a Colorado Walmart, the person you helped is trying to find you and offer her thanks. She’s taken out an ad in her local newspaper in an attempt to thank whoever saved her life. [More]
When Attempting To Shoplift From Walmart, Be Careful To Not Stab Yourself
By 9.16.15
As always, we do not in any way condone shoplifting. Not just because it drives up retail prices for the rest of us, or causes stores to resort to overzealous security measures, or because it wastes the time and resources of police who probably have more important crimes to investigate. It can also land you in the hospital with a self-inflicted shoplifting-related wound. [More]
Target’s Health Kick: Replacing Candy Bars With Granola Bars At The Register, Giving Employees Fitbits
By 9.16.15
With more than a dozen Target stores gearing up to test a healthier cafe concept – switching out hotdogs and nachos for salads and green juices – the retailer appears to be trying to keep the wellness momentum going by making several other changes: giving employees fitness trackers and swapping the candy bars lining the register with more wholesome snacks. [More]
Target To Face Class-Action Lawsuit From Banks Over Data Breach
By 9.16.15
A month after Target agreed to pay financial institutions that issue Visa-branded credit cards $67 million related to its massive 2013 data breach, a federal judge gave the go-ahead for other banks to pursue a class-action lawsuit against the retailer. [More]
Verizon, AT&T To Open 250 “Experience Stores” Inside Best Buy Locations
By 9.15.15
Could Best Buy be the new one-stop shop for all your mobile service needs? That seems to be goal of the electronics retailer as it continues the expansion of its store-within-a-store concept by adding dedicated Verizon and AT&T showcases in its U.S. stores.
[More]
Target Partners With Instacart To Test Grocery Delivery Service In Minneapolis
By 9.15.15
Just a month after Target made it clear grocery delivery was in its not-too-distant future, the retailer has kicked off a test of the service in its hometown of Minneapolis via online grocery delivery company Instacart. [More]
10-Year-Old MP3 Players Fail To Fly Off Walmart Shelves At $80
By 9.14.15
When will the MobiBLU, the world’s smallest full-featured MP3 player in 2005, finally sell out? Maybe never. The devices are doomed to roam Walmart aisles for years to come, reminding everyone that Walmart once had its own music downloads store, and that for some reason the retailer’s much-praised inventory control systems can’t understand how to get rid of decade-old gadgets. [More]
