Some homeowners who were wrongly denied mortgage assistance from Wells Fargo will soon receive the help they needed years ago after a federal judge ruled this week that the bank’s denial of modifications were in breach of a 2010 settlement involving adjustable-payment mortgages. [More]
Retail Services
Walmart Raises Suspicions After Closing 5 Stores In Same Day For “Plumbing” Problems
By 4.16.15
There are thousands of Walmarts in the U.S., so the fact that five of them were temporarily shut down all on the same day, all for the same reason, and all for the same estimated amount of time, may be statistically insignificant. But some workers and city officials are raising questions about what’s actually behind these six-month shutterings. [More]
Long-Time Walmart Employee Charged With Stealing $240K From Store Over Two-Year Period
By 4.16.15
Occasionally, Consumerist reports on some less than perfect Walmart employees: the man arrested for stealing cash from a customer and food from the company’s deli, or the woman who allegedly stole $10,000 in cash and gift cards while working as a cashier. While those incidents are indeed bad, they pale in comparison to a long-time employee of the nation’s largest retailer who allegedly stole nearly $250,000 from her employer. [More]
Sears Pension Fund Requires Cash Infusions From Sears
By 4.15.15
Sears really didn’t need any more problems, financial or otherwise. Yet the company does have a problem that doesn’t involve its loss of $1.7 billion last year, run-down stores, fleeing customers, and alleged problems with suppliers? The company’s employee pension plan also isn’t doing very well, which has been another drain on the company’s finances. [More]
GameStop Wants You To Trade In All Those Dusty, “Retro” Consoles, Games & Accessories
By 4.15.15
Nostalgia is all well and good, but it won’t change that dust-coated Nintendo you’ve had sitting around into anything useful. GameStop, on the other hand, says it wants to do just that with the pilot of a new “retro” consoles, games and accessories trade-in program in two cities starting April 25. [More]
NY AG Probing Gap, Target & 11 Other Retailers For Possibly Illegal On-Call Scheduling Practices
By 4.13.15
Over the past several years, companies that employ hourly workers in New York have come under scrutiny for a variety of practices, including not providing reimbursement for uniforms to requiring some work be performed off the clock. Today, the state attorney general’s office began scrutinizing another practice by major retailers: the use of on-call scheduling. [More]
Sears Teams Up With Simon Property Group To Generate $114M In Revenue
By 4.13.15
As Sears continues to shake out all its piggy banks and check under every single couch cushion it has for spare change, the retailer chain is also looking to outside sources to help it raise some revenue. The company has teamed up with mall king Simon Property Group to create a new company that will bring in $114 million extra for Sears, money it sorely needs. [More]
Feds Give Amazon Approval (Again) To Finally Test Delivery Drones In U.S.
By 4.10.15
It’s finally time for Amazon to take its delivery drones to the sky for testing with the government’s approval: While the Federal Aviation Administration already granted the company permission to test a PrimeAir prototype last month, Amazon had complained that the time the feds took to sign off on the testing rendered the earlier design obsolete. [More]
Home Depot’s ‘Spring Black Friday’ Stupidity Is Back
By 4.10.15
Retailers really love the concept of “Black Friday.” They love it so much that they’re trying to expand it in all directions. Instead of the day after Thanksgiving and the kickoff to the Christmas shopping season, Black Friday is now a year-round event that is an inclusive alternative to “Christmas in July.” Now it’s a spring event, too. [More]
Amazon Files First Lawsuit To Block Companies From Selling Fraudulent Positive Reviews
By 4.9.15
For the first time in the 20 years that Amazon has allowed users to review products, the company is taking legal action against businesses it claims sells fake reviews to third-party sellers. [More]
Amazon’s Echo Speaker Gets More Connected, Can Control Hue Lights, WeMo Switches
By 4.8.15
Amazon introduced its Echo web-connected speaker thingy back in Nov. 2014 with the promise of a device that would not only play music but allow you to do voice-controlled information searches and set reminders. An update to the $200 Echo will now let users operate certain “smart” lightbulbs and electric switches. [More]
Oyster, The ‘Netflix For Books’, Aims To Take On Amazon With Launch Of E-Book Store
By 4.8.15
When Oyster launched in 2013, it claimed to be the e-book version of Netflix, offering customers an all-you-can-read lending library of around 100,000 books for a monthly subscription of $9.95. A year and a half later, the company seems to have realized that a buffet of sometimes unheard of books isn’t exactly what consumers are looking for. So in an attempt to bring the latest and greatest titles to readers, the company now plans to secure its foothold in the e-book market with the launch of a retail component aimed to compete with Amazon, Apple and other online booksellers. [More]
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Walmart Joins List Of Retailers Removing All Blue Bell Ice Cream Products From Shelves
By 4.7.15
Yesterday, we reported that three major retailers removed Blue Bell Creameries products from shelves out of an abundance of caution following a link between the products and an outbreak of listeriosis. Now, the largest retailer in the country – Walmart – is following suit. [More]
Star Wars Films To Finally Become Digital Downloads
By 4.7.15
While almost every important movie has long been made available as a digital download by now, the six films in the Star Wars saga have not (legally) been obtainable this way. But that will finally change starting Friday when all of the movies will be released online at the same time. [More]
Report: The Next Apple TV Won’t Allow For 4K Video Streaming
By 4.6.15
Just because something is new, doesn’t necessarily always mean it’ll have the newest technology — perhaps because it’s because that technology still needs to prove itself or there’s really not a need for it yet. That appears to be the reason behind Apple’s reported decision not to have its new Apple TV support 4K streaming video. [More]
Amazon Prime Members Less Likely To Visit Target.com, Walmart.com When Shopping Online
By 4.6.15
In recent months big box retailers like Walmart and Target have attempted to thwart Amazon’s growing influence over consumers with a variety of new policies such as reducing the minimum purchase required for free shipping and allowing price-matching with the online retailer (although, that effort didn’t’ last long). But, according to a new report, those measure might amount to “too little, too late” when it comes to Amazon Prime shoppers. [More]
Walmart Will Reportedly Only Sell UFC Champion’s Book Online Because Of Violence
By 4.6.15
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but that seems to be exactly what Walmart is doing when it comes to the soon-to-be released memoir from UFC women’s bantamweight champion and Olympic medalist Ronda Rousey. [More]
FCC Proposes Treating Online TV Like Cable TV; Amazon Objects If It’ll Stop You From Binge-Watching ‘The Wire’
By 4.6.15
There’s another internet-related firestorm a-brewing at the FCC. This one is not as broad or as contentious as the now infamous net neutrality ruling, but it is bringing all the big players out to have their say. And what, you might ask, has everyone worked up? It’s the big bandwidth bugaboo of the twenty-teens: online video. [More]
