Just the words “dollar store” evoke images of aisle upon aisle of discount merchandise — housewares, light bulbs, bright green flip flops — but if Dollar General has anything to do with it, those words will also make you think of buying groceries. [More]
Retail Services
How Many Minutes Should Store Employees Get To Clean Up Baby Vomit?
By 5.1.12
If you’re walking down the aisle of a grocery store and a customer only a few feet in front of you accidentally drops a glass jar on the floor, you would have a hard time blaming the store if you got nicked by a piece of glass. But what if that shattered jar had been there for an hour? Thirty minutes? Ten minutes? This is the question that will soon face a jury in a slip-and-fall lawsuit against Target. [More]
Survey Says Millennials Ditch Brand Loyalty In Search For Lowest Price
By 5.1.12
Who has time to keep up with which brands are the coolest when you’re trying to make ends meet? That’s how millennial shoppers — those between the ages of 18 and 34 — are feeling, according to a new survey. Doesn’t matter what the name on the styrofoam cup of high-sodium soup says, as long as it’s cheap and edible. [More]
Social Gifting App Bills Itself As The Anti-Groupon To Gain Fans
By 4.30.12
In an attempt to harness the backlash against daily deal sites like Groupon, new so-called “social gifting” companies are trying to garner fans with a different kind of mobile merchandising. Instead of giving yourself the gift of a deal, apps like Wrapp allow users to give e-gift cards to popular retailers. [More]
Sam's Club Absolutely Must See Your ID For One-Day Pass; Can't Say Why
By 4.30.12
Claudia is a Costco member, but when Sam’s Club advertised a one-day shopping pass in her local paper, she went to see what Sam’s had to offer. What the ad didn’t mention was that a photo ID would be needed to get the pass from the store’s customer service desk. Which is interesting, since you can actually print a pass from the Sam’s Club web site, presumably without holding your driver’s license up to the screen. [More]
How Gamestop Lost My Business Over Twenty Bucks
By 4.30.12
The game Brett wanted for his computer is compatible with both Windows and MacOS, in theory. He went to GameStop to buy a physical copy, and learned that he had to buy it as a download instead. They sold him a download code and he went home to get his new game. That’s when he learned that GameStop’s Impulse download platform might sell Mac-compatible games, but the program itself is Windows-only. Brett wants to warn other gamers…and to vent. [More]
Amazon To Start Collecting Sales Tax In Texas
By 4.28.12
Starting in July, shoppers in Texas will no longer have to go through the hassle of calculating and paying all that sales tax that Amazon hasn’t been collecting on their purchases. On Friday, the Lone Star State joined a growing group of states reaching accords with the online giant about making sure those taxes get collected at the time of purchase. [More]
Amazon Marks My Order As Fraudulent But Doesn't Reverse Charge Or Stop Shipment
By 4.27.12
Consumerist reader Paul works in the Internet retail business, and as such, knows how easily an order can get tangled up if the shipping and billing addresses don’t match. So after he’d moved, he made sure to change the address on his credit card before ordering an item on Amazon. Even that didn’t save him from the headache that followed. [More]
Hero Or Scoundrel? 92-Year-Old Pirates DVDs To Send To Troops Stationed Overseas
By 4.27.12
Making a copy of a new DVD to send to a loved one stationed overseas with the armed forces is something many people would consider just fine. Making thousands of copies of that same DVD for sale on street corners would likely earn some frowns from the public. But what about someone — especially an adorable nonagenarian World War II vet — who makes thousands of copies for the sole purpose of entertaining the troops? [More]
Walmart's New "Pay With Cash" Online Option Still Means A Trip To The Store
By 4.26.12
What bribery scandal? It’s business as usual at Walmart, as the company gets around to rolling out its new “Pay With Cash” option for shopping online, which works a lot like ordering takeout — you select what you want on Walmart.com, then head to a bricks-and-mortar store to pick your stuff up and pay cash. [More]
Which Baseball Stadiums Have The Priciest Beer?
By 4.26.12
Detroit may have some of the nation’s least-expensive real estate, but baseball fans in the Motor City are paying the highest prices in the U.S. (and Toronto) when they buy a beer at a Detroit Tigers game. [More]
Citibank Doesn't Want Your Gross Punctuation Marks
By 4.26.12
Sandra wanted to contact Citibank about a fee, and figured that contacting them using secure account e-mail from within their site was a good way to do it. When she tried to send the message, the system rejected it, telling her to remove any special characters. “What special characters?” she asked. Turns out the e-mail form didn’t like quotation marks. At least it wasn’t apostrophes? [More]
Illinois Judge: Law Requiring Amazon To Collect Sales Tax Is Unconstitutional
By 4.26.12
Last year, Illinois joined the ranks of states passing laws requiring Amazon and other online-only retailers to collect sales tax on purchases by that state’s residents. Yesterday afternoon, a judge in Cook County, IL, surprised a lot of people by ruling this law violates the U.S. Constitution. [More]
Have You Found An ATM With Minimum Deposits?
By 4.26.12
When Paul’s wife brought a small check to deposit at a Chase bank ATM, she didn’t expect to have the machine spit it back out. Deposits, you see, have a $15 minimum. Wait, isn’t that the point of using an ATM to deposit checks – not having to waste a teller’s time on an $8 transaction? [More]
Shareholder Sues Walmart Board Over Mexico Bribery Allegations
By 4.25.12
The fallout continues over WalmartMexicoGate, a term I just made up right now that will likely never be used again. A shareholder in the nation’s largest retailer has filed a lawsuit against the company’s board of directors over the bad press tied to allegations that Walmart spent millions of dollars bribing folks in Mexico. [More]
Lucky Woman Defies Odds, Wins $1 Million Powerball Lottery Twice In One Day
By 4.25.12
Try as you might, you can’t seem to win one dang lottery, much less win two in one day. Sure, life isn’t fair — unless you’re the woman who happened to have two Powerball tickets with winning numbers on the same day. Share the wealth, lady! [More]
Hasbro Uses Fan's Love To Get His Address & Send Creepsters After Him
By 4.25.12
Hasbro really knows how to take intense love and devotion to its products and turn it into a creepy, weird stalkerish situation, and fast. A man named Martyn in Australia was so into Nerf guns that he had a blog devoted to the subject so he and other fans could geek out over the toys. All fine and dandy until he posted a review of a gun that wasn’t released yet. [More]
Report: Walmart Lobbied Aggressively Against Anti-Bribery Laws They May Have Violated
By 4.25.12
As every action Walmart has taken over the last few years is being picked apart in the aftermath of the New York Times story that alleges they used bribes to expand in Mexico and then covered up those bribes, lots of little interesting side stories are popping up. For example, a new report says Walmart was involved in lobbying aggressively against the very anti-bribery laws they are being investigated for violating. [More]
