Back in 2012, Nintendo published a game called Xenoblade Chronicles. It was only sold at GameStop and directly from Nintendo, and they only published a limited number of copies. It was scarce and hard to get hold of until very recently. It was like someone found a hidden warehouse: every GameStop store in the country suddenly had bushels of copies to sell at $90 each. Where did these games come from? [More]
Retail Services
Customers Accuse GameStop Of Reprinting Wii Game, Flooding Used-Game Market
By 8.13.13 — Updated: 3.16.15
Dead Woman Found In Dillard’s Dressing Room, Store Closes Down
By 8.12.13
When a dead newborn turned up in the rest room of a Kohl’s department store in Kentucky last week, some shoppers were horrified to learn that they were browsing sales right near a possible homicide investigation. Maybe the management of other chains paid attention: a 57-year-old died in the dressing room of a North Carolina Dillard’s store, and management shut the whole store down. [More]
Bank Of America Continues Deducting Fees, Even After Death
By 8.12.13
Perhaps showing its firm belief in the afterlife, Bank of America has continued to charge fees to the bank account of a man it knows died nearly half a year ago. [More]
Man Steals Puppies By Shoving Them Down His Pants
By 8.12.13
Puppies are small, cuddly, and pricey, so why not stuff some down your pants and shoplift them? That was the logic of a man in Florida, who stuffed a dachsund puppy and a pug puppy down his pants on two separate trips to an Orlando pet store. [More]
Amazon Dominates Sears’ Prices In The Bondage Accessories Market
By 8.9.13 — Updated: 8.16.13
Full disclosure: I know nothing about the bondage accessories market — what’s good, what’s bad, what’s very, very bad — but I do know how to spot a low price. And while it’s admirable that Sears is branching out to third-party vendors outside of the tools and home goods sections, if you’re gonna sell a customer a harness, at least try to compete with Amazon’s prices. [More]
Hey, Target: Good Luck Selling 2-Packs For $9.99 When Single Shampoos Cost $4.49 Each
By 8.9.13
There comes a time in life when you just can’t muster the strength or willpower to get your hair wet, slather it in shampoo, and then rinse it out. I know, it’s exhausting to even think about. But because cleanliness is next to studliness/loveliness, there’s a little product called dry shampoo that takes most of that effort out of the equation. Speaking of equations, Target might want to do some of those when pricing its dry shampoo offerings. [More]
Man Drops $900 In Home Depot Parking Lot, Actually Gets It Back
By 8.9.13
Too often we hear about unlucky souls who accidentally drop large amounts of cash, only to have it snatched up by some heartless goon who believes “finders keepers” is the law of the land. So on this lovely Friday afternoon, we bring you a story with a much happier ending. [More]
Walmart Worker Pepper-Sprayed After Asking For Customer’s Receipt
By 8.9.13
We’ve written any number of stories over the years about customers and store employees getting into arguments, even a bit of fisticuffs, over the whole receipt-checking thing, but this may be the first time that we’ve heard of a customer using pepper spray when asked to show his receipt. [More]
Publishers: Proposal To Punish Apple Hurts Us Instead
By 8.8.13
Last week, the Justice Dept. offered its first proposal of how Apple should be punished now that it’s been found to have colluded with publishers to fix e-book prices. Among those suggestions is that Apple cancel its existing pricing arrangement with the publishers in question and that it not enter into similar arrangements for another five years. But publishers claim that this ultimately hurts the content providers and not the retailer. [More]
Buying Something On Amazon’s Site Doesn’t Mean You’re Buying It From Amazon
By 8.8.13
Brian bought a set of Klipsch headphones on Amazon a few months ago, and they broke even though he claims he didn’t damage them in any way. This isn’t an issue of the difference between defects and accidental damage, though. When he tried to make a warranty claim, he learned that there’s a difference between buying something on Amazon and buying something from Amazon. [More]
Walmart To Improve Safety Conditions At 2,800 Stores, Pay $190K Fine For Repeat Violations
By 8.8.13
Walmart says it will ramp up safety conditions at more than 2,800 of its stores scattered across the United States, after inspectors say they found “repeat” and serious” health and safety violations at one store under investigation. The mega chain has also agreed to pay a $190,000 fine under the terms of a deal with the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), because of “unacceptable” safety hazards facing employees a that store. [More]
Police And Walmart Investigate Alleged Homophobic Assault On Toddler Boy In Fabulous Headband
By 8.7.13
It was the kind of galling story that prompts the Internet into action: a toddler boy really, really wanted to wear a hot pink ruffled headband out shopping with his mom. So he did. Then a burly fellow shopper snatched the accessory off his head and called him an anti-gay slur. “You’ll thank me later, little man,” the dude allegedly said. [More]
DOJ Sues Bank of America For Lying About Sketchy Mortgage-Backed Securities
By 8.6.13
Even though Bank of America execs appear to have avoided criminal prosecution for their part in the recent economic collapse, BofA continues to be slapped upside its head with civil suits for its bad behavior. The latest comes from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, which sued BofA and a number of its affiliates, alleging the defendants misled investors by telling them that mortgage-backed securities were A-OK, when in fact they were more toxic than a house full of lead paint and asbestos. [More]
Costco’s Animal Crackers Container Is More Secure Than The Store’s Poisonous Detergent Pods
By 8.6.13
From the moment that Tide and others unleashed brightly colored, shiny, borderline adorable detergent pods on consumers, little kids have been licking, eating, and playing with them, which is a bad thing. And while some manufacturers have already begun shifting away from easy-open clear packaging, Costco puts its Kirkland Signature pods in a container that looks remarkably like the packaging it uses for food products and is easier to open. [More]
DOJ Proposal: Apple Must Let Amazon, Barnes & Noble Sell E-Books Through iOS Apps
By 8.2.13
Though there are Kindle and Nook apps for iPhone and iPad, restrictions put in place by Apple prevent users from actually making e-book purchases via those apps without those companies having to pay a hefty commission to Apple. You can’t even see the prices Amazon and Barnes & Noble charge for e-books, thus making it difficult to comparison shop. But as part of the proposed remedies following Apple’s loss in the recent e-book price-fixing case, the Justice Dept. says consumers should have the option of buying e-books on iOS devices from Apple’s competition. [More]
Fred Meyer Not Sure How Unit Pricing Works
By 8.1.13
Customers at a Fred Meyer store were left scratching their heads as well as clutching their bellies in pain if they happened to notice this really bad deal on Pepto-Bismol at a Fred Meyer store. Tipster Scott took a photo of the items on the shelf. Somehow, buying a two-pack leads to the per-ounce price doubling, even when the price for that package is less than double the price of a single bottle. [More]
Sears Sells Cabinets Full Of Sensitive Employee Info At Office Liquidation Sale, Tells Buyer To Leave Files On Loading Dock
By 8.1.13
For some of us who buy used furniture, there’s always the hope that you’ll uncover a copy of the Colonel’s Secret Recipe, the original Coca-Cola formula, or maybe a print of the director’s cut of Highlander 2: The Quickening. One Chicago man recently purchased some old file cabinets from Sears and discovered something not quite exotic, but very sensitive, when he discovered hundreds of employee records inside. Complicating matters, no one at Sears seemed to care. [More]
Home Depot Sells Woman Imaginary Refrigerator
By 7.31.13 — Updated: 6.26.14
When you hand over $1,400 for a new refrigerator, you sort of expect to get a new refrigerator. Home Depot sold a California woman a fridge in early June, promising delivery in early July. Only the specific appliance that they had sold her wasn’t sitting in a warehouse somewhere, waiting for delivery. It hadn’t even been manufactured yet. Oh. [More]
