Hey, remember six months ago when we told you about Walmart stores nationwide not having enough employees to keep their shelves stocked? Yes, running your store chronically understaffed saves money, but Bloomberg reported that the empty shelves were driving Walmart customers to places where they could actually buy stuff, and same-store sales were falling. Walmart says that it plans to give some workers more hours in order to increase its workforce and maybe increase sales. [More]
Retail Services
Walmart Offers All Of The Hottest Technology From 2006 At Slightly Discounted Prices
By 9.23.13
The retail archaeologists known as the Raiders of the Lost Walmart tirelessly search the world’s retail outlets for the finest and longest-buried antiquities. What ancient wonders did they turn up this week? Why, it’s a cache of seven-year-old digital cameras and ancient MP3 players offered at only slight markdowns. [More]
Walmart Now Offers “Naughty” Costumes For Toddler Girls
By 9.20.13
Every Halloween, we’re at the forefront of showing you who the Costume Industry Gods have decided needs to be “sexy” this year. Little girls as sexy pirate wenches? Dogs as sexy Catholic schoolgirls? This year, Walmart helps you to start your toddler daughter off early with the “Naughty Leopard” costume. [More]
Chase To Pay $389 Million Over Illegal Charges For Credit-Monitoring Services
By 9.19.13
It’s not been a banner week for JPMorgan Chase, which has agreed to pay out nearly a billion dollars to close investigations related to the 2012 “London Whale” trading fiasco, and now is told it must pay out $309 million in refunds and $80 million in penalties over illegal credit card charges for ID and fraud-protection services customers never ordered. [More]
Staples, RadioShack No Longer Want To Be The Places Where You Pick Up Your Amazon Orders
By 9.19.13
For about a year, some Staples and RadioShack stores allowed Amazon to set up lockers inside, giving customers of the online retailer a secure location to which their orders could be delivered. But the two chains are saying the deal didn’t really work out and are ending the arrangement. [More]
The Number Of Nicolas Cage Pillowcases For Sale On The Internet Is Truly Astounding
By 9.19.13 — Updated: 12.13.15
All those nights lying awake, wondering where Nicolas Cage is, what he’s doing, how his dreams are unfolding, and wishing you could be slumbering cheek-to-cheek aren’t hopeless, after all. Because beyond any human reasoning we can summon forth, there are pages and pages of pillowcases featuring the star of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. [More]
What Does It Mean That No One’s Buying $3 Nail Polish?
By 9.18.13 — Updated: 6.16.15
Earlier in the Great Recession, cosmetics company Coty was doing pretty well. The company makes the least expensive cosmetics that you’ll find in a local drug or discount store, brands like Sally Hansen and Rimmel. Even as the global economy fell apart around us, people could still spare a few bucks for nail polish, and the company did relatively well. Now sales are down and retailers aren’t ordering as much. Why is that? [More]
Report: Walmart Selling Beer At Cost In Some Areas
By 9.17.13
Walmart wants to sell you beer. Lots of beer. And in order to get consumers to equate Walmart with beer, the nation’s largest retailer has slashed prices to the bone on some of the best-selling brands of suds. [More]
Just Because A Refrigerator Costs $10,000, That Doesn’t Mean It’s Any Good
By 9.16.13
As consumers, we tend to conflate price and quality. If a car costs ten times more than a basic car, we assume that there must be some wonderful reason. Being really expensive doesn’t mean that something is immune to terribleness. That’s not true, though. For proof, just look at the $10,000 cramped, energy-hogging Fhiaba refrigerator that our lab-coated cousins over at Consumer Reports just tested. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Keeping Your Computer Secure In 2011
By 9.16.13
Kaspersky Internet Security is probably a fine piece of software. It isn’t so fine, though, that people are generally willing to pay $53.00 for what is now a three-year-old version of it. “Cutting edge tech for the low, low clearance price of $53,” writes tipster Ryan. So very true. [More]
Homeless Man Turns In Backpack He Found With $41,900 Inside To Mall Cops
By 9.16.13
Whenever we hear stories of people finding large sums of money out there a few things come to mind: Who are you people, wandering around with such riches? And also, it’s a good thing there are enough nice people in the world to find your stuff and give it back once you’ve inevitably misplaced your treasures. Like a homeless man in Boston who handed over a backpack containing $41,900 he found at a mall. [More]
Trader Joe’s Gets Rid Of Health Insurance Benefit For Part-Timers
By 9.13.13
At first glance, this story has a scary headline: Trader Joe’s is yanking health insurance away from many employees because of Obamacare. That is what’s happening, but leaves out that yes, workers are losing their coverage…because the Affordable Care Act means that adults whose jobs don’t provide health insurance but who are well above the poverty line will have access to reasonably priced insurance through state exchanges. [More]
Does Paramount See ‘Star Trek’ Fans As ATMs With Legs?
By 9.13.13
Earlier this decade, Paramount successfully rebooted the entire “Star Trek” universe as a blockbuster movie franchise. Great news for them, but the release of the second film, “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” on Blu-Ray disc is kind of crappy news for the obsessive fan. That’s because a dedicated special-feature-watcher has to collect at least two different copies of the disc. [More]
On 5-Year Anniversary Of Mortgage Meltdown, Those Responsible Are Doing Just Fine
By 9.13.13
On Sept. 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers became the largest bankruptcy filing in the history of this country. It was the first domino of many to fall, followed by the likes of Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Countrywide, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, and many other banks and investment firms that had bet too much money on the subprime mortgage market, only to have it collapse when people realized many of those bad loans would never be repaid. These events ripped apart the American economy and left people out of work for extended periods of time. But not most of the bankers responsible for the mess. [More]
CEO Equates Bricks-And-Mortar Retail With Sex, Says Neither Are Going Away
By 9.13.13
While some futurists predict an end to bricks-and-mortar retail shopping, with everyone shopping online and getting their purchases delivered (or 3-D printed) to their homes, there are an awful lot of people who still enjoy the experience of going out to the store and getting their shop on. And one retail tech CEO thinks that, like other human desires, the availability of the Internet can’t fully sate this lust for real-world shopping. [More]
Confessions Of A Kmart Service Desk Employee
By 9.13.13 — Updated: 5.30.14
Five years ago, we published a post called “10 Confessions of a Kmart Manager.” Kmart and all of Sears Holdings Corporation aren’t doing so well right now, so maybe the company has tried to make some changes to draw and keep more customers? No, an anonymous front-line Kmart employee tells us. They have not. [More]
Nothing Says Internet Like A Choreographed Dance/Marriage Proposal At Home Depot
By 9.13.13
These days if you want to get engaged and have the burning desire to share your special moment with millions of people on the Internet, you’ve got to pull out all the stops. There must be a choregoraphed dance routine, if not a choreographed singing and dance routine. And it needs to be in a public place where such things don’t usually go down. Like say… Home Depot? Home Depot works. [More]
Best Buy Will Trade You A Free iPhone 5 For Your Old Smartphone
By 9.13.13
Yet another retailer really wants your old phone and is willing to give you something pretty decent in exchange for it. Through Sept. 16, Best Buy is offering a minimum $100 trade-in credit to customers who trade in their old phones and switch to an iPhone 5. [More]
