In an effort to show employees – and the rest of the world – that it cares, Walmart says it plans to address worker concerns by relaxing its dress code and making stores warmer. [More]
Retail Services
Walmart’s Key To Happy Employees: Relaxing The Dress Code, Making Sure Stores Aren’t Freezing
By 6.3.15
Don’t Leave A Message: JPMorgan Chase Scraps Voicemail For 65% Of Workers
By 6.3.15
When looking to trim billions of dollars from the budget, companies often look at eliminating wasteful spending, reducing workforce and automating some services. While those are all efforts undertaken by JPMorgan Chase, the financial institution also found a surprising amount of savings by cutting the cord on employees’ voicemail. [More]
Man Arrested For Allegedly “Corrupting” Wells Fargo Employees In Scheme To Access Customer Accounts
By 6.3.15
As a bank customer, you generally have an expectation that employees of said bank won’t share your personal or account information with someone that isn’t, in fact, you. But what happens when a person calls the bank claiming to be an account holder in the midst of an emergency and in need of quick cash? Federal prosecutors say that was the basis for a recent bank fraud scheme targeting Wells Fargo customers and employees. [More]
Alibaba Will Expedite Counterfeit Takedowns For Some Name Brands
By 6.2.15
In the months since Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba began trading shares in its Cayman Islands-based holding corporation on the New York Stock Exchange, entities ranging from the Chinese government to the owner of Gucci have accused the company of knowingly profiting from counterfeit branded goods. Alibaba has promised to improve its capacity to ferret out fakes, and now says that it will take down some brands’ items more quickly. [More]
Customer Finds Black Widow Spider In Grapes Bought At Target
By 6.2.15
It seems like it was just last week that we last heard about a grocery customer bringing home a venomous black widow spider on a bunch of grapes…because it was. Last week, a woman in Vermont was hospitalized after a black widow spider hiding in the grapes bit her. This weekend, a man in Illinois found one in the grapes that he purchased at Target, and headed right back to the store to return the fruit. And the spider. [More]
Amazon Introduces Free Shipping On Some Small Items For All Customers
By 6.2.15
While we’ve gotten used to Amazon rolling out new features for its customers, often local delivery or free shipping is only extended to Prime subscribers who pay a yearly fee for such things. But Amazon says everyone can get free shipping on some small items, Prime member or no — with no minimum order required. [More]
Petco Responds To Grooming Death Accusation, Says Drying Cages Aren’t Heated
By 6.2.15
Otherwise healthy two-year-old dogs generally don’t drop dead with elevated body temperatures, and that’s what happened to the beloved Golden Retriever of a woman in Virginia while the animal was at Petco for a routine bath and grooming. The dog’s owner claims that a store employee left her pet for too long in a heated dryer cage, but Petco now says that they don’t heat dryer cages for safety reasons. [More]
Class Action Suit Against Hollister For Canceling Promo Gift Cards Goes Forward
By 6.2.15
While class action lawsuits can be a useful method of consumer justice, they are not a swift one. Take a class action against the clothing store Hollister, which is owned by Abercrombie & Fitch: a customer accuses the store of making promotional gift cards expire even though there was no expiration date printed on the cards. It was just certified as a class action last month, and the promotion in question happened in 2009. [More]
GameStop, Not Hot Topic, To Acquire ThinkGeek For $140 Million
By 6.2.15
Remember the long, long-ago of, er, just last week when we thought Hot Topic was planning to buy the parent company of online specialty retailer ThinkGeek? Well, now they’re not. A mysterious new suitor showed up just a few days later, and it appears they have the better bid. And so, Geeknet today announced that their brief fling with Hot Topic is over, and they will be joining up with GameStop instead. [More]
Walmart Raising Hourly Wages For 100,000 Specialty Department Employees
By 6.2.15
Four months after Walmart began raising wages for around 40% of its workers, the nation’s largest retailer is announcing another round of pay increases affecting around 100,000 additional employees. [More]
Reader Notices Target Math, Gets $4.99 Off Price Of Lamp
By 6.2.15
Target is a discount store, but also a strange and mystical place where Doritos are refrigerated, sale items are simultaneously 50% off and free, and customers are notified when something isn’t on sale. As a Consumerist reader, Erin knew to look out for Target’s strange version of reality, and was able to get an item for the lower shelf tag price rather than the higher “sale” price. [More]
New Plenti Rewards Card Not As Rewarding As It Looks
By 6.1.15
I carry a lot of store loyalty cards around. I have a separate wallet for them. I have five different cards just for different pet stores. “Another loyalty card” is not something that America seems to need. Yet last month, American Express introduced a loyalty program called Plenti, which promises to let you accumulate points on purchases at different retailers and other businesses. The problem is that the rewards aren’t as flexible as the card’s ad campaigns imply. [More]
Sears Shareholders Sue, Claim CEO Is Stripping Company For Parts
By 6.1.15
For many years here at Consumerist, we developed a theory that the venerable department store Sears was secretly a vast anti-capitalist prank, which actively avoided selling merchandise. Its goal was something else: perhaps waiting for the retail real estate market to turn around and cash in the land and buildings that it owns. A group of Sears Holdings shareholders are starting to think the same thing, and they’ve filed a lawsuit against the company and its manifesto-writing CEO, Eddie Lampert. [More]
Consumers Can’t Void Second Mortgage In Bankruptcy, SCOTUS Rules
By 6.1.15
Consumers taking out a second mortgage will now have to consider the fact that if they encounter financial difficulties and file for bankruptcy, they won’t be able to strip off the additional loan obligation. [More]
Supreme Court: Job Applicants Don’t Have To Explain That Their Garb Is Religious
By 6.1.15
Back in February, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of a 17-year-old who applied to work for the children’s clothing store under the Abercrombie & Fitch brand. She was apparently beautiful enough to work there, but always wore a black scarf on her head. Did she wear it for religious reasons, which would mean that it couldn’t be a factor in hiring decisions? She didn’t say, so Abercrombie didn’t hire her. That case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued an opinion today. [More]
Owner Accuses Petco Groomer Of Leaving Dog To Die Of Heat Stroke
By 6.1.15
Most dogs are not fond of blow dryers, which is why pet groomers use a quiet, hands-off method to dry them off after a bath. Drying cages are simply cages that blow hot air onto the animal inside. Users are not, however, supposed to put a dog inside and then leave the shop, and that’s what a Virginia dog owner accuses her local Petco of doing. [More]
Costco Misses Out On $40M/Year Because Of $5 Rotisserie Chickens, And It’s Okay With That
By 5.29.15
When you buy a jug of mayonnaise or a mammoth pack of toilet paper rolls at Costco, you understand that you’re saving by buying in bulk. But then there are the $4.99 rotisserie chickens that you don’t have to buy by the dozen to get that low price. In fact, Costco is the one getting the short end of that deal, missing out on millions a year by keeping the price low. [More]
Amazon Brand Coffee And Cereal May Soon Be Coming To An Internet Near You
By 5.29.15
Amazon really, really wants to be your everything store. They do tech, they do digital goods, they do groceries, they even do same-day delivery. So perhaps it seems inevitable that they’re no longer just interested in selling other people’s stuff, but coming up with their own house brand for everyday items too. [More]
