While many large retailers, allow customers to place orders online and then come pick them up at the store, Walmart is planning to test out a new depot format where customers don’t do any shopping, but only pick up groceries they has pre-ordered on Walmart’s website. [More]
Retail Services
Target Is Refrigerating Their Doritos For Some Reason
By 5.5.14
Steve was shopping at Target when he noticed something that stopped him cold. The Doritos were refrigerated, in a case alongside cheese and fresh ground meat.
Is this yet another strange new variety of Doritos, or a strange new habit of Target’s? [More]
Amazon Now Lets You Use Hashtags To Shop On Twitter
By 5.5.14
Because you should apparently never take your eyes off of Twitter, lest you miss the same updates and photos that your friends are also sharing simultaneously on Facebook, Instagram, and whatever else the kids today are all hopped up on, Amazon has launched a new service that lets you add items directly to your Amazon shopping cart with the use of a hashtag. [More]
Target CEO Clocks Out In Wake Of Data Breach
By 5.5.14
After 35 years at the company — the last six of them as CEO — Target’s top exec Gregg Steinhafel has stepped down less than half a year after the retailer was the site of a massive data breach that compromised credit card and personal information for more than 100 million customers at the height of the holiday shopping season. [More]
All Squash Weighs Four Ounces At Stop & Shop, Regardless Of Size
By 5.2.14
We all learned in elementary school that an object’s mass and its size are different things. A pound of cotton candy is much larger than a pound of, say, raisins, because raisins are so much denser. Yet this package of squash that reader Adam spotted at Stop & Shop would have us believe that some of the same vegetable are twice as dense as others. [More]
Amazon Stupid Shipping Gang Ships Cat Toy Inside Second Cat Toy
By 5.2.14
We can’t imagine how difficult it must be to box up packages in an online fulfillment warehouse, working with time constraints to find the best container for an unfathomable variety of products. Yet sometimes the packaging choices themselves are unfathomable, and that’s when we point out that the Stupid Shipping Gang has been at work. Stephen sent along this photo of his cat toy packaged in a comically oversized box. [More]
Which Credit Cards Have The Most Restrictions On Rewards?
By 5.1.14
While many banks have nixed rewards programs for debit cards, credit card issuers still push these extras — things like cash-back, airline miles, and points that can be redeemed for purchases — as a way to attract new customers and retain existing cardholders. But when it comes time to earn or use those rewards, some cards are more friendly than others. [More]
Walmart Wants To Cut 25% More Water From Laundry Detergents
By 4.30.14
While incorrect or misleading directions really don’t help, studies and real-life experience show that people tend to pour laundry detergent with a heavy hand. That’s why a new eco-friendly initiative from Walmart seems like a good thing, but will be really beneficial to detergent-makers. [More]
GE And Midea Recall Fire-Prone Dehumidifiers Sold At Walmart
By 4.30.14
Were you relieved to learn that your GE-branded dehumidifier wasn’t part of the massive recall of fire-prone units made by Gree Electrics? Yeah, about that. You’re going to have to check that model number again, because 15,000 dehumidifiers from a different manufacturer have been recalled because they might overheat and cause fires, too. [More]
Which Cities Spend The Most Money On Pampering Pets?
By 4.30.14
So you think you love your little fluffy wuffy snorgly borgly honeypie Fido, do you? You tuck him in with his special blanket every night, feed him his fancy food and generally fawn over your pet — but how does your city stack up when it comes to spending cash on pets? [More]
7 Items You’ll Find The Best Prices On During May
By 4.30.14
Our price-tracking colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports keep track of when the best discounts appear on a variety of items. As we get ready to flip over the calendar page to celebrate May, what will you be able to find the best deals on in the coming month? [More]
Looking For New Auto Insurance? Walmart Offers A One-Stop-Shop For That Now, Too
By 4.30.14
Here’s our idea of what a typically Walmart shopping list looks like: bread, butter, milk, eggs, toothpaste, shampoo, and auto insurance. That is not a typo, Walmart has officially entered every facet of our lives with the launch of their new auto insurance comparison service. [More]
GameStop Will Close Around 125 Stores, Open Up To 400. Wait, What?
By 4.29.14
You might associate GameStop with video game consoles and software for your computer, but the chain is looking ahead. They’re looking toward a future where everyone plays games on the mobile phones in their pockets…and, more importantly, needs somewhere to buy those phones. That means closing around 125 GameStop stores, and adding new shops in other brands that the company owns: Spring Mobile, Simply Mac, and authorized sellers of Cricket Wireless. [More]
Can’t Decide Which Smartwatch To Buy? No Worries, Amazon’s Here To Help
By 4.29.14
Wearables are all the rage. But are you too indecisive to actually choose which product best suits your needs, or lack the time to research the hundreds of different options available? Fear no more, technology-hungry consumer, because your knight in shining armor has arrived: Amazon. [More]
Coach Responds To Falling Profits By Offering Pricier Handbags
By 4.29.14 — Updated: 1.31.17
There’s a limited number of women who are interested in spending between $200 and $400 for a purse, and that market is becoming more crowded. What’s a company like Coach to do in the face of falling sales and falling profits? Sell more expensive bags targeted at more affluent customers, of course. [More]
Target Tries Making Up For Data Breach By Issuing Secure Chip-And-Pin Cards Next Year
By 4.29.14
In the wake of the massive theft of customer data, Target is revamping its store-branded credit and debit cards with chip-and-pin technology that will make them more secure for in-person transactions, but still leave the door open to some fraudulent use. [More]
Amazon’s Phone To Reportedly Offer Mysterious “Prime Data”
By 4.25.14
Because there isn’t a business Amazon doesn’t want to involve itself in, and because it loves throwing the term Prime around, a new report claims the online retailer’s upcoming smartphone will offer “Prime Data,” though what exactly that means is a source of speculation. [More]
Bank Of America Could End Investigations Into Its Troubled Mortgage Investments For $20B
By 4.25.14
There’s another new chapter being written in the ongoing saga known as the financial crisis. The Justice Department is aiming to make a deal, in the area of $20 billion, with Bank of America for the company’s part in selling troubled mortgage investments. But resolution doesn’t look to be happening anytime soon. [More]
