You’re never too old for LEGOs! But it is possible to take those beloved brightly colored building blocks to a bad place where you’re resorting to crime in the pursuit of said toy. Millionaire tech executive Thomas Langenbach has been arrested for allegedly creating bar codes and using them to buy LEGOs at Target for his own special discounted price, and then selling them. [More]
Retail Services
Target Feels Need To Brag About Selling Gift Cards At Face Value
By 5.23.12
Hey, who doesn’t love gift cards? Target sells a few as impulse items at the checkout, and Reader Cheryl noticed something curious. The gift cards had the same “as advertised” tag that sale flyer items at Target get, but they weren’t on sale. They were being sold at face value. As gift cards generally are. [More]
The Threat Of Unplanned Parenthood Is One Way To Sell Condoms
By 5.22.12
No need to resort to flashy gimmicks or big marketing campaigns — if you want to sell condoms, just present an easy juxtaposition with a meaning that can’t be missed. A gas station is doing just that with a handmade sign showcasing two of its products. [More]
Interim Best Buy CEO Admits Company Isn't The Greatest At Shilling Electronics Anymore
By 5.22.12
Best Buy hasn’t been enjoying much success lately: Its CEO departed amidst allegations he had an inappropriate relationship with a female employee, prompting the exit of Chairman Richard Schulze for not handling that situation well. And oh yeah, it’s not selling as much stuff as it used to. Interim Chief Executive Mike Mikan isn’t parsing any words on that front. [More]
No More Gucci Knockoffs From Guess: Luxury Designer Wins $4.6 Million in Lawsuit
By 5.22.12
No more knockoffs for you, Guess-wearing Gucci aficionados: The battle of the designer G’s has come to an end that will mean some fans of the cheaper Guess goods won’t be able to buy certain products anymore. That’s because a judge ruled that Guess was infringing on some of Gucci’s trademark designs, and awarded Gucci just $4.6 million in the process as well. [More]
Sears Finds New And Exciting Ways To Not Deliver Me A Working Dishwasher
By 5.22.12
Years ago, in a time so foreign and distant that many of us can barely remember it, Sears was the place to go if you wanted to buy a quality appliance. That’s not the case anymore. Evidently now it’s the place to go if you want to buy a non-operational appliance and take a bunch of unnecessary days off work. Tomorrow morning, Jesse will be waiting for a technician to come by and (most likely) not get his new dishwasher to work. The second, replacement dishwasher that Sears brought after the first one didn’t work either. [More]
Shareholders To Weigh In On Whether Kraft's Mondelez Is Too Silly Of A Name
By 5.21.12
The collective “who now what’s that huh?” uttered when Kraft announced it was naming its spin-off snack business “Mondelez” — a combination of Latin words for “world” and “delicious” — and resulting jokes will no doubt factor in to a shareholder meeting that will decide whether the name is officially approved or not. [More]
Geek Squad Wants You To Write Down Your Password On This Sheet Because That's A Horrible Idea
By 5.21.12
We haven’t bought a new PC at Best Buy, well… probably since we investigated that whole optimized laptop thing a couple years back. So we haven’t seen the above sheet that not only allows you to choose from a variety of useless Geek Squad services, but also asks for your e-mail address and password. [More]
Amazon Figures Out How To Funnel California Sales Tax Back Into Its Own Pockets
By 5.21.12
Amazon has been battling against having to pay state sales tax for awhile, and now it seems to have dreamed up the perfect scheme: It’ll pay sales taxes in California starting next fall, but by setting up shop in two cities, it’ll manage to funnel that money right back into its own pockets. [More]
Who Has Enough Cash Floating Around To Pay $1 Million For A Parking Spot?
By 5.21.12
Circling the block repeatedly hunting for a free parking spot is for peons, apparently. If you really want to be burning cash, what you need is a parking spot that comes with a hefty price tag. Say, $1 million for an indoor spot in New York City? That sounds about right, if you’ve already got a bank vault full of gold to swim in. [More]
If The Bank Hands You A Counterfeit Bill, You're Probably Stuck With It
By 5.21.12
While financial institutions often go through various security checks to make sure that the $50 and $100 bills you hand to them are genuine, most consumers will accept these same bills from banks without giving a thought to whether or not they are bogus. Problem is, if you end up with counterfeit cash, you are most likely screwed. [More]
The "Alcohol-Free" Part Of A Daiquiri Order For 4-Year-Olds Is The Key Phrase
By 5.21.12
We’ve seen it too many times by now — ordering kids a beverage that in no way should include alcohol and then, woopsies, there’s booze in a 4-year-old’s cup. In this case, two boys, both 4, reportedly got alcoholic strawberry daiquiris, sending one of the kids to the hospital. [More]
Bank Of America Apparently Doesn't Want Credit Card Customers Who Pay Their Cards Off
By 5.18.12
Contrary to any ads touting financial responsibility, banks don’t really make much money on people who pay attention to their money, and they may just kick you to the curb when they realize you won’t be a huge source of fees and interest for them. [More]
Do-Gooder Buys Out A Closing Kmart To Donate $200K Worth Of Items To Charity
By 5.18.12
A Kentucky man was scoping out a Kmart set to close for good, trying to snag himself some good deals on the discounted items for his own business. But while he was at the register, a thought struck him — where does all the rest of this stuff go after the store is shut down? So he signed up to buy out the store and give items to the less fortunate. [More]
Community Not About To Let Walmart Sneak Into Spot Zoned For Residential Use
By 5.18.12
In the case of an Arkansas town situated near the Bentonville headquarters of Walmart, proximity has not made many hearts grow fonder. Citizens packed a recent meeting in Bella Vista to make themselves heard on the issue of rezoning a spot so a Walmart Neighborhood Market could ostensibly move in. [More]
Target's Price-Match Policy Not Suited To Paperless World
By 5.17.12
Brick-and-mortar stores that match competitors’ prices generally don’t match prices from online merchants. They also won’t match the websites of their competitors down the street, or price-match their own websites. All of that is reasonable and well within their rights. But what happens in a paperless world, where the only evidence a customer has of that sale price is a circular delivered electronically? Reader Span_Wolf receives an electronic copy of the Best Buy circular every week. Getting a paper copy would require a trip to Best Buy or purchasing a Sunday newspaper. But this isn’t sufficient proof of the lower price for Target. [More]
Apparently This Woman Doesn't Find Clothing Necessary For Running Errands
By 5.16.12
Ever get that feeling like you knew you forgot something before leaving the house, but just can’t figure out what it was? That could maybe kind of perhaps explain why a woman recently visited a few stores in upstate New York recently, totally and completely naked. Or hey, could be she just decided it was a nude kind of day. [More]
Walmart Customer Goes In For Oil Change, Drives Away With 'Satanic Symbols' On Car
By 5.16.12
This could be the auto service equivalent of rude receipt messages. A woman in Texas says that a recent trip to Walmart for an oil change resulted in devilish markings being left behind on the underside of her vehicle. [More]
