Imagine that you were trying on clothes in the dressing room of a store, and you happened to glimpse a security camera pointed right at you. What would you do? When this happened to one shopper at a thrift store in Missouri, she whipped out her own camera and captured its image to show to a local TV station. [More]
Retail Services
Wegmans And Walmart Deploy Target Math To Sell OJ, Mouthwash
By 8.4.14
Buying in bulk to save money seems like a good idea, but in practice it doesn’t work so well. Want proof? Check out these examples of unit prices that go up the more you buy. We call it Target Math, since the phenomenon happens often in Target stores. Not exclusively in Target stores, though, as you will see. [More]
Walmart Website To Get Amazon-Like Overhaul
By 8.4.14
For years, logged-in Amazon users have gone to the e-tailer’s homepage and been greeted with all manner of personalized recommendations based on previous purchases, ratings, and searches. Meanwhile, visitors to Walmart.com got… whatever Walmart wanted to put on its homepage. Now the nation’s largest retailer has hopes to out-Amazon Amazon with the rollout of personalized recommendations. [More]
GameStop Bonus: Trade In Video Game, Get Your Fingerprints Uploaded To National Database For Free
By 8.1.14
Trading in an old video game isn’t that complicated. Once you finally figure out what you did with the box (it’s under the old coffee mug) and get the cat hair off the disc and put the two together, it’s just a matter of bringing it down to your local GameStop and getting your pennies back so you can buy another game. But in one city, GameStop now won’t just collect your old games — they collect your fingerprints along with them, too. [More]
TiVo E-Mails Me Coupon Code, Reserves Right To Remove Discounts After Order
By 7.31.14
When TiVo was offering a great price on their Roamio DVRs, reader Victor thought that his mother-in-law could use one. He thought about it, put one in his virtual cart, and then took some time to decide. Like many retailers will do, TiVo sent him an e-mail with a $50 off coupon to entice him back. How could he resist? He placed the order, and that’s where things started to go wrong. [More]
Why Do Criminals Love This Walmart So Much?
By 7.31.14
The Walmart on State Route 436 in Casselberry, Florida is very popular. Unfortunately, it’s popular with a demographic that retailers don’t want to attract: criminals. Specifically, shoplifters. Some very talented shoplifters, like the man who allegedly removed 18 televisions from the store while dressed as a woman. [More]
Bank Of America Finally Ordered To Pay $1.27B For Countrywide’s “Hustle”
By 7.31.14
It’s been about nine months since a federal jury found Bank of America liable for the “Hustle,” a pre-bubble Countrywide Financial program that removed safeguards to the mortgage underwriting process, resulting in a mountain of toxic, worthless loans. Yesterday, the judge in the case finally decided how much BofA — and the former Countrywide exec in charge of the program — should pay. [More]
Target: You Must Pick One Discount With Your Wii U. Only One
By 7.30.14
Silly Justin: he thought that because Target advertised two different promotions for the Wii U he bought, he would get to take advantage of both of them. Nope. He learned that he could have $25 off or $10 off, but not both. [More]
Wells Fargo Customer Learns $6,700 Lesson: Stop-Payments Don’t Guarantee A Payment Will Be Stopped
By 7.30.14
We’ve told you before about the idiotic loophole in some banks’ stop-payment policies that can allow a supposedly blocked check from being cashed after six months, but here’s a story about a Wells Fargo customer who got written confirmation from Wells Fargo that it had stopped payment on a check that had already been processed. [More]
Police Hunting For Man Who Stole 9 Lawnmowers From Sears… One Mower At A Time
By 7.29.14
When I first heard about a man wanted in Alabama for allegedly stealing nine lawnmowers from a Sears store, I assumed he’d swiped all the mowers at once with the aid of a truck or moving van. But no, this mower thief had the idiotic bravery to steal the nine mowers one at a time… in the backseat of his sedan. [More]
Walmart Sends Me 4 Extra iPods, Doesn’t Want Them Back
By 7.29.14
There are so few honest people in the world that retailers are simply unable to deal with it. That’s the only conclusion we can reach from Jessica’s experience after she ordered one iPod Touch and Walmart sent her five. She was happy to send the extras back, but Walmart didn’t know how to deal with that transaction. [More]
How One Appliance Store Unleashed The Streisand Effect On Itself
By 7.28.14
The New York Times’ “Haggler” column is a standard consumer problem-solving column like many newspapers have, but backed with the brand recognition and vast readership of the NYT. A recent column about a financing dispute between a Texas woman and an appliance store could have just been a mundane account of a dispute over interest payments on a refrigerator, but the company refused to talk to the Times. At all. [More]
Walmart Says Dad Can’t Buy Beer Because He’s Shopping With Teen Daughter
By 7.28.14
Back in college, I’d to the grocery store with friends and we always had to separate the beer from the other items being purchased because anyone chipping in money (yes, this was a time when most people paid by cash or check) had to be of legal drinking age. But if anyone under 21 just happened to be standing in line near the beer, no one cared. This is apparently not the case at Walmart, where a dad was told he couldn’t purchase beer and booze because he was shopping with his teen daughter. [More]
Halloween Creep Strikes Costco With July Costume Displays
By 7.28.14
If you already finished all of your back-to-school shopping back in June when Staples started up its sale campaigns, maybe it’s time to get started on other ridiculously early holiday tasks. For example, it’s almost August: do you have your kids’ Halloween costumes ready? [More]
Amazon Launches Marketplace Selling 3D Products Printed On-Demand
By 7.28.14
Don’t have a 3D printer? Neither does anyone else, seeing as it’s one of those new technologies that hasn’t made the leap to being a product the average person can afford. In the meantime, Amazon has decided to fill that gap by launching an online marketplace offering customizable 3D printed products. [More]
IKEA Workers Tried To Get Birds Drunk So They’d Stop Flying Around Store
By 7.25.14
Calling all avians with a thirst for the hard stuff — workers at an IKEA store in Florida are handing out rum to birds for free. Not because IKEA decided to open a bar for our feathered friends, but to try and get a couple bothersome birds drunk enough on rum that they’d slow down and be easier to catch. [More]
CPSC: Best Buy And Its Closeout Stores Sold Electronics And Furniture After Recall
By 7.25.14
Once an item has been formally recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, it becomes illegal to sell that item. Yet the CPSC reports that Best Buy, Magnolia, Best Buy Private Auction, CowBoom, and TechLiquidators continued to sell products that had already been recalled in 2012 and 2013. [More]
Witnesses Report Drone Allegedly Crashed Into Space Needle, Police Find No Evidence Of Actual Impact
By 7.25.14
Maybe he was just practicing for future drone deliveries? Okay, probably not, but an Amazon employee visiting from out of town allegedly crashed his personal hobby drone into the Space Needle earlier this week. [More]
