When Apple Pay launched last fall, Best Buy was among the most high-profile retailers who refused to accept the new mobile payment platform because of its allegiance to the in-development CurrentC, a competing service from a Walmart-led coalition of retailers. But with CurrentC’s rollout still lingering in the vague future, Best Buy has decided it’s time to give Apple Pay a shot. [More]
Retail Services
SEC Reportedly Investigating Bank Of America Over Customer-Protection Rule Violations
By 4.28.15
Financial institutions are required under federal law to follow an array of rules that aim to protect consumers’ accounts. Bank of America may not have followed one of those rules over the course of several years, and now reportedly faces an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. [More]
With Target Math, The Price Increases When The Sign Gets Bigger
By 4.28.15
Target is a popular and successful retail chain, which has somehow managed to spread nationwide and woo customers in spite of its poor grasp of math. Here’s yet another example of Target Math, a special way of calculating sale prices and promotions that isn’t unique to Target, but for some reason turns up on their shelves very, very often. [More]
Amazon Launches New Marketplace To Sell Specialized Supplies To Businesses
By 4.28.15
Amazon is gunning for businesses – connecting them with sellers of everything from lab equipment to food service supplies. The online retail giant launched its latest marketplace Tuesday, aiming to provide businesses with the same shopping service the company offers everyday customers. [More]
Police Seek Man Who Ran Out Of Kohl’s Store With Sneakers Stuffed Down Pants
By 4.27.15
Here at Consumerist, we’re fascinated with the various things that shoplifters have removed from stores by shoving them down their pants. We’ve seen people accused of using this method to steal meat, seafood, puppies, more meat, more seafood, and a chainsaw. Police in New Jersey seek a man who shoved three pair of women’s sneakers down his pants at a Kohl’s store. [NJ.com] [More]
Failure To Be Undeniably Hot No Longer An Impediment To Getting A Job At Abercrombie & Fitch
By 4.24.15
In a further attempt to shed its image as a place where rippling six-packs and bronzed bodies go to commune with the hot powers that be, Abercrombie & Fitch is doing away with its policy on having only super hot sales associates in its stores, opening up its doors to anyone with a dream of selling khaki cargo shorts and pre-ripped jeans. [More]
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Recalls All Products, Closes Scoop Shops Over Possible Listeria Contamination
By 4.23.15
For the second time this week, an ice cream maker has issued a voluntary recall of all products for fear they may be contaminated with listeria bacteria. While the first recall centered on major manufacturer Blue Bell Creameries, the most recent belongs to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, which sells desserts at its own boutique stores and retail stores such as Whole Foods. [More]
Which Beauty Subscription Boxes Are Actually Worth The Monthly Fee?
By 4.23.15 — Updated: 5.23.17
Monthly subscription boxes are currently a hot category in retail: vendors exist that can send you curated selections of everything from pet treats to razors to healthy snacks to butt wipes. One popular subcategory of these boxes are beauty sample boxes, which send you trial-size versions of beauty products to enjoy, and perhaps buy full-sized versions later on. Beauty brands and consumers both love these boxes…but which ones offer the best value for your subscription fee? [More]
Tesla Testing Soon-To-Be-Launched Batteries At Several Walmart Stores
By 4.23.15
With Tesla’s “major new product line” announcement scheduled to take place next week, new reports have surfaced that support the idea the company’s much-hyped unveiling is for a new line of batteries to power homes and businesses. One in particular points out the company’s new energy source is already at work powering several Walmart stores. [More]
Sears Announces Final Two Stores They’ll Be Sharing With Primark
By 4.22.15
Last year, as part of their “taking on roommates” strategy of keeping their doors open, Sears announced that they were leasing parts of seven stores to Primark, a clothing retailer out of Ireland. Sears has finally named all seven of the stores where Primark will be moving in. All seven are in the Northeast. [More]
Amazon & DHL Testing Delivery To Customers’ Car Trunks
By 4.22.15
It’s not uncommon for consumers to shuttle around packages and shopping bags in the trunks of their cars. While most people put those items there themselves, Amazon wants to take that task off the hands of a very exclusive group of Prime members. [More]
First Amazon Customer Spent $27.95 And Got A Building Named After Him
By 4.22.15
Being the first to try something new cost one guy just $27.95 and got him not only the book he ordered but his name on a building. The first non-company Amazon.com customer spent less than $30 on April 3, 1995 on Fluid Concepts And Creative Analogies: Computer Models Of The Fundamental Mechanisms Of Thought by Douglas Hofstadter, and now his moniker is splashed on the edifice of one of the company’s buildings in Seattle. [More]
Amazon Launches Hotel Booking Business With Local Getaways In Mind
By 4.21.15
For those looking to escape the daily grind but perhaps still stick close to home, Amazon is launching a new hotel booking service called Destinations, which seeks to pair locals up with a getaway nearby at select hotels. [More]
Home Depot Expands Spring Black Friday To Spring Cyber Week
By 4.20.15
For a store that sells supplies for improving homes and planting gardens, it’s true that spring is kind of like Christmas. That’s why it makes sense that Home Depot is expanding their “Spring Black Friday” event out to a Spring Cyber Week. However, while it makes sense, it’s still stupid. [More]
Here Are The Most Ridiculously Long Binge-Watches Available For Anyone With 200+ Hours To Kill
By 4.20.15
If you’re like us, you like your TV. Sure you do! But let’s say you’ve been busy: you’re all caught up on the big prestige dramas. There are no secrets or spoilers left for you in Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, or Orphan Black. There’s a TV-shaped void in your life to fill, and endless reruns on cable just aren’t cutting it. You need something that can really occupy your time. Not just a few hours, but days. Weeks. You have months to kill, and you need something to binge-watch right now. And lots of it. [More]
Target.com Still Can’t Handle Heavy Traffic, Crashes During Lilly Pulitzer Launch
By 4.20.15
When Target relaunched its website in 2011, it was a disaster, unable to keep up with the level of demand — especially for limited-time offerings involved big-name designers. Nearly four years later, one would assume that Target had learned from its initial shortcomings, but Target.com crashed again over the weekend as customers rushed to score Lilly Pulitzer products. [More]
Amazon Shuts Down Service That Let Users Test Apps Before Buying Them Because No One Was Really Using It
By 4.17.15
If you haven’t used — much less heard of — Amazon’s TestDrive service, designed to let customers check out how an app works before buying it, you’re not alone. The company says it’s shutting the program down due to “a significant decline” in usage, among other factors. [More]
Chinese Luxury Car Buyers Shop The Very Unglamorous Gray Market
By 4.17.15
Here at Consumerist, we’re fascinated with the global gray market: the system of parallel imports that gives us Omega watches from Paraguay at Costco and a pirate Trader Joe’s store in Canada. There are even bigger things that trade on the gray market, though: in Shanghai, there’s a place where luxury car buyers can save money by purchasing cars that haven’t been imported through official channels. [More]
