Sometimes you just can’t get through your shopping trip at Target without a little snack, say, a hot dog from the store’s cafe. You might have to settle for something a little different next time hunger strikes while you’re roaming the aisles, as Target announced it’s testing a new – healthier – cafe concept. [More]
Retail Services
Amazon’s Echo Might Be Getting More Useful With SmartThings Integration
By 8.21.15
If telling your web-connected home entertainment speaker to reorder laundry detergent wasn’t enough (when is it?), Amazon is reportedly giving Echo the ability to essentially run your home through a new partnership with SmartThings. [More]
Amazon Bans Ads Using Adobe Flash From Its Sites
By 8.20.15
Amazon sells ad space on its e-commerce site and on other sites that the company owns, accounting for a huge number of pageviews. At the beginning of September, they’ll no longer accept Flash ads on those sites, following a general trend online of distrust of Flash, especially after Yahoo’s ad network was used to potentially deliver malware to users in a Flash ad. [More]
Sears Holdings Reports First Profit Since 2012, Not From Actual Retailing
By 8.20.15
We’ve had a longtime joke here at Consumerist that Sears Holdings isn’t actually a retail company, but an advanced anti-capitalist prank pretending to run a retail company. We expected the company to either turn things around or go out of business. What’s happening instead is something that some retail observers had predicted: the company is profitable for the first time in years, but only because it sold a few hundred million dollars’ worth of stores. [More]
Target CEO: “Unacceptable” That Its Stores Have Empty Shelves
By 8.20.15
Target is trying to compete with Walmart on prices, and with Amazon on both price and delivery times. In all that confusion of fighting battles on different fronts, the retailer has had trouble doing one really important thing: keep its stores’ shelves stocked. And that, says Target CEO Brian Cornell, is not cool. [More]
Angry Sephora Customers Invent Mass Returns As A Form Of Consumer Protest
By 8.19.15
What happens when a retailer encourages customers to buybuybuy in order to rack up rewards points for a special event, and then that event turns out to be a massive disappointment? If you’re the super-loyal, big-spending Sephora customers who tried to take part in the beauty retailer’s recent Epic Rewards promotion, you pack up all of your recent purchases and bring them back to the store. [More]
Target To Test Program That Gives More Specific Delivery Window For Online Orders
By 8.19.15
Back in February, Target upped its shipping game by reducing the amount of money consumers had to spend to qualify for free shipping from $50 to $25. Now the big box retailer is taking its quest to attract more online shoppers a step farther, by testing a system that better pinpoints just when customers can expect deliveries to appear at their doorstep. [More]
Customer Sues Costco, Claims Workers In Shrimp Farms Are Trafficked And Mistreated
By 8.19.15
A woman in California is suing Costco over its shrimp, alleging that the company sells shrimp from Thailand that is raised by workers who have been trafficked and are forced to work without pay. In her complaint, the lead plaintiff says that Costco is misleading its customers about the origins of the shrimp it sells. [More]
Macy’s Hopes Tablets & Dressing Room Deliveries Will Speed Up Your Shopping Time
By 8.19.15
Looking for a new outfit? You’ve got two options: Quickly buy online and hope what you purchase fits (and looks good on you), or go to the store and spend time scouring racks before trying things on to see if they fit and flatter. In an attempt to mesh the convenience of online shopping with the confidence of buying after trying, Macy’s is revamping its dressing rooms for the current generation of shopper.
[More]
Walmart To Keep More Merchandise In Warehouses, Less In Stores
By 8.18.15
Retailers’ goal is to sell to us all “omnichannel,” selling to customers across platforms. When Walmart’s profits fell this quarter, the company promised shareholders a money-saving change that makes them seem cool and omnichannel: they’re keeping more of certain merchandise in distribution and less in stores, saving the expense of shipping and stocking items, and selling them online instead. [More]
Couple Accused Of Pulling “Shoulder Surfing” Scam To Cash $400K In Counterfeit Checks At Walmart
By 8.18.15
Whenever you’re dealing with your private information in a public place, it’s a good idea to use your body/bag/hand as a shield to keep prying eyes from peeking where they shouldn’t. You never know, there could be someone trying to pull a “shoulder surfing” scam, as officials are calling the method employed by a couple of accused scammers who allegedly preyed on folks cashing checks at Walmart. [More]
Costco Pushes Back Relaunch Of Online Photo Services Another Month Following July Hack
By 8.18.15
Fans of Costco’s photo services will likely be waiting another month before they are able to order pictures though its website, as the company that manages the site continues to recover from a July breach. [More]
Target Agrees To Pay Visa $67M Over 2013 Data Breach
By 8.18.15
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly two years since cybercriminals breached Target’s in-store payment network and stole credit card data for millions of customers during the year’s busiest shopping season. Credit card issuers went after the retailer because they had to pay for the huge number of replacement cards that were issued to affected customers. Now it looks like Target and Visa have reached an accord that will put $67 million back in those card issuers’ hands. [More]
Amazon’s Stupid Shipping Gang Sends Giant Off-Balance Box Of Kitty Litter
By 8.17.15
Indira ordered a small box of cat litter, as boxes of cat litter go. The litter was fine, but she was a little concerned about the box that it arrived in. From what we’ve learned, this box was a bad choice both to accommodate the merchandise inside, and for its journey from Indira’s doorstep. [More]
NY Times Claims Amazon Is A Cruel, Soul-Devouring Workplace; Jeff Bezos Disagrees
By 8.17.15
Over the weekend, the New York Times published a lengthy article based on interviews with current and former (mostly former) Amazon employees about the company’s employment practices. They concluded that for most employees, the pace of work and atmosphere were unbearable, allowing employees no personal lives, encouraging snitching and paranoia, and working employees impossibly hard before spitting most of them out a couple of years later. [More]
Sam’s Club Wants To Shed Its Walmart-Like Persona
By 8.17.15
Oftentimes, children of successful, well-known parents struggle to get out from their elder’s shadow. Such is the case for warehouse retailer Sam’s Club, which announced its desire this week to break away from its parent company Walmart. [More]
Target Expands Its Test Of Curbside Pickup To New York And New Jersey
By 8.14.15
Do you enjoy shopping at Target, but dislike getting out of your car? What if you could visit Target without the temptation to pick up random items and end up with a cart full of merchandise when you were only there to pick up one thing? Your salvation may be at hand: Target is expanding curbside pickup. [More]
Toilet Paper Clearance At Target Means You Pay 86¢ More
By 8.14.15
Justin was shopping at his local Target store when he spotted a big pack of toilet paper marked “Clearance.” Hey, great! It’s always really useful when you can find a markdown, even one of 15% like an initial Target clearance markdown, on an important household staple. Then he looked closer. [More]
