When someone approaches you with a deal that seems irresistible, sometimes there’s a good reason why. For example, the person offering you a truckload of televisions for $900 each when they retail for $3,000 may not be a legitimate representative of the electronics department at Sears. [More]
Retail Services
Credit Union Sues Target Over Credit Card Hack
By 2.3.14
A credit union in Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit, one that could potentially include 100 other credit unions as plaintiffs, against Target in an attempt to recoup is losses in the wake of the retailer’s recent massive data breach. [More]
More Than 2 Years Later, Court Finally Signs Off On $8.5 Billion Settlement… Sort Of
By 1.31.14
In June 2011, Bank of America reached an $8.5 billion settlement deal with 22 groups of investors who had been misled into sinking their money into securities that they didn’t know were backed by worthless home mortgages. Today, more than two-and-a-half years later, it appears that this matter may be nearing an end, but maybe not. [More]
Walmart Is Serious About Keeping Its Customers Hydrated
By 1.31.14
The good news is that Walmart has set their prices to encourage customers to buy larger quantities of water. The bad news is that they’re also giving us price incentives to drink more Dr Pepper. Mmm, sugar water. [More]
Walmart Testing Online Grocery Ordering And Pickup In Denver
By 1.31.14
Ordering stuff online for in-store pickup is convenient and saves on delivery fees, but would you do it with groceries? Would you do it with groceries at Walmart? That’s what the mega-retailer hopes to find out by testing “Walmart To Go” service in Colorado. They’ve combined their grocery delivery and in-store pickup business models, which just might be the logical coc [More]
Amazon May Raise Price On Prime By $20 To $40
By 1.31.14
For years, Amazon has been charging an annual fee of $79 for Amazon Prime membership, which includes free two-day shipping on many items and access to a library of streaming movies and TV shows at no extra cost. For people who take advantage of both aspects of the service, it’s a pretty good deal at under $7/month, but is that all about to change? [More]
Sears Messes Up, I Have To Face Life Without A Light-Up Skiing Santa Pig
By 1.30.14
Mike had a simple desire. He wanted a lighted skiing pig Christmas decoration. He wanted several of them, actually. Sears had them available, so he placed an online order, choosing in-store pickup. Sears e-mailed him that his order was ready, and he happily drove 40 miles to Sears in winter weather to pick it up. If you’ve ever placed an online order with Sears, you know what happened next. [More]
Banks Ditched Payday Lending-Like Programs, But What’s Next?
By 1.30.14
Bank may have exited the payday lending business this month, but that doesn’t mean their next foray into small dollar loans will be any less predatory. That’s why the National Consumer Law Center is urging banks to show leadership in developing affordable credit options for consumers. [More]
U.S. Wants To Add $1.23 Billion To Bank Of America’s Tab For Countrywide Scam
By 1.30.14
Back in October, a federal jury found Bank of America liable for a Countrywide Financial program that deliberately sold piles of worthless loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the housing bubble went kaflooey. At the time, prosecutors had only sought $864 million in penalties, but now the Justice Dept. claims that number should be $2.1 billion. [More]
Target Says Hackers Used Stolen Vendor Credentials To Breach System
By 1.30.14
Two months since criminals first began stealing credit and debit card information via Target’s in-store payment system, the retailer is providing the first details on how the breach may have been made possible. [More]
Asking Police If You Can Do Heroin After You’re Arrested For Shoplifting Will Prove Troublesome
By 1.29.14
It’s one thing to get in hot water for shoplifting but you might as well just jump into a lake of boiling water if you follow that by asking police if you can do a little heroin while under arrest. Cops in Minnesota stopped a woman suspected of shoplifting at Walmart and subsequently faced an odd request for someone in handcuffs: Mind if I do some drugs? [More]
Banks Say Target Hack Has Cost Them $153 Million In Replacement Cards
By 1.29.14
It’s not just Target’s sales figures that are feeling the sting of the massive data breach that affected more than 100 million customers at the height of the holiday shopping season. According to a group representing the nation’s retail banks, financial institutions have had to spend more than $153 million to replace credit and debit cards in the last six weeks. [More]
Walmart Customers Charged With Beating Security Guard, Running Off With 55 DVDs
By 1.28.14
On Friday, a Walmart security guard in South Carolina confronted a woman who was pushing a cart filled with DVDs that she hadn’t paid for out the door. That’s his job. Instead of surrendering or simply running off, the two women allegedly started hitting the guard and then ran off. [More]
South Carolina Home Depot Says Its Resident Cat Will Be Allowed To Stay Indefinitely
By 1.27.14
Put your paws together for Depot the Home Depot cat, everyone: Despite the recent news that management was giving her the boot from the South Carolina store where she’d live for 13 years, the store now says she can stay as long as she wants if no one comes forward to adopt her. [More]
CFPB Outlines Common Sense Ways You Can Protect Yourself From Hacks
By 1.27.14
On the heels of yet another announcement of a consumer information hack, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a consumer advisory to help consumers protect themselves and where to get help if they suspect their information has been compromised. [More]
Simplified Shopping: How Costco Tricks You Into Buying More
By 1.27.14
The vast warehouse landscape that is Costco knows how suck you in and how to maximize the amount of goods you purchase on each visit. It’s what makes Costco so successful — a tried and true design focused on simplicity. [More]
Single Bodywash Bottle Trying Not To Be Jealous Of Bottle Couples Selling For Less On Same Shelf
By 1.27.14
Hear those woebegone sighs? They’re the lonely exhalations of a row of “Man-Sized” Old Spice bodywash bottles on the shelf at a Maryland Walmart. See, they’re sad because they know the discerning consumer will skip all 946ml of “Fiji” wash for $7.47 and head straight for the two-bottle value pack with the same amount of product for only $6.97. [More]
Walmart Laying Off 2,300 Sam’s Club Workers
By 1.27.14
In a move intended to thin the herd of too many assistant managers, Walmart announced over the weekend that it will be laying off 2,300 employees of its Sam’s Club warehouse stores, and that about half of those being let go are salaried assistant managers. [More]
