Banks are happy to jump all over you and ratchet up the fees when you’re late. But when they’re late, not so much. [More]
Retail Services
Target Employees Fight Back Against Store's Plan To Open Thanksgiving Night
By 11.14.11
Because people simply can not wait until after they’ve digested their turkey to cash in on deep discounts, many of the major retail chains are opening earlier than usual on Black Friday this year. This is not sitting well with thousands of Target employees who have signed a petition for the store to at least let them finish their pumpkin pie before having to report to work. [More]
After Last Department Store Leaves, Town Decides To Start Its Own
By 11.14.11
After the last department store in town went bankrupt in 2002, the townsfolk of Saranac Lake, NY, faced the daunting prospect of having to drive 50 miles away just to purchase underwear. Rather than give up or give into complaining, they pulled themselves up by their mud boots and decided to build their own store, and it just opened. [More]
Layaway Can End Up Costing More Than A Credit Card, Senator Schumer Warns
By 11.14.11
Retailers are trying to push layaway this holiday season as a way to buy stuff you don’t immediately have the money for. For people without available credit, this can be a way to eventually get what they can’t afford now. But NY Sen. Chuck Schumer is warning that layaway fees can add up to be a much higher interest rate than any credit card would be allowed to charge. [More]
Toy Makers Expecting Lower Sales From This Meager Christmas Season
By 11.14.11
Santa’s elves will have cold comfort up at the North Pole this year, as one of the biggest toy makers announced a disheartening sales prediction for Christmas sales. [More]
Michigan Lottery Won't Let Anyone Else Play 1111 Today
By 11.11.11
There has been a lot of talk about today being 11-11-11 (or if you’re European, 11-11-11) and how a number of people somehow think that this might be a good number to play in any number of lottery drawings. But the folks at the Michigan Lottery Commission have stopped any more people from selecting these digits because the state wouldn’t be able to pay everyone who picked them. [More]
Cheap Chinese Labor Will Die On Jan 1 With A Minimum Wage Increase
By 11.11.11
Many of the things you buy and own were touched at some point by Chinese hands, and those hands are about to get a little more expensive. The Guangdong province in China, the seat of the country’s manufacturing might, is going to get a 20% minimum wage increase starting January 1st, 2012. [More]
Best Buy Pricematching COD:MW3 At $51.99
By 11.11.11
Anyone who rushed out and bought the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for $59.99 at Best Buy… should rush back in and ask for $8 back. That’s because BestBuy.com dropped the price to $51.99 and Best Buy brick and mortars are supposed to pricematch the online site. [More]
BofA Reaps Fees From Unemployment Benefits Loaded On Debit Cards
By 11.10.11
While Bank of America’s now-abandoned plan to charge debit card users $5 a month has received a halogen spotlight recently, far less attention has been paid to how it collects fees off the unemployed. In some states, unemployment benefits are issued via Bank of America debit cards. States save money by not using paper checks, but the unemployed lose out from all the fees hiding in the cards. [More]
Walmart Will Open At 10pm On Thanksgiving
By 11.10.11
The arms race of hours is on. Determined to top retailers like Target, Macy’s, Kohl’s and Best Buy who are all opening at midnight on Black Friday, Walmart has announced it will be opening at 10 pm on Thanksgiving night. [More]
Sears Is Determined To Not Send Us Any Sheds
By 11.10.11
In the early part of this century, you could buy kits to build an entire house from Sears. It’s probably just as well that they don’t do that anymore–at least, based on the experience Joe’s wife has had trying to get Sears to ever deliver the shed that she paid for. At least she gets the excitement and inconvenience of receiving delivery notices, then not having anyone show up with her shed. [More]
Closed BofA Bank Account Mysteriously Reopened With 1 Penny Balance
By 11.10.11
Chris was one of the many in October who closed their bank accounts with Bank of America, and other similar big retail banks, in protest over planned fees for using their debit card. But last week she found it had been reopened for no apparent reason, with a 1 penny balance out of nowhere. [More]
Behold The Pork Roast Molded In The Shape Of A Tiny Pig
By 11.10.11
Lee found this pig-shaped pork roast at Costco, but doesn’t find it particularly appealing. “I just can’t grill a roast that looks like ‘Babe’,” he writes. It’s like roasting a suckling pig, but without the youth or the internal organs.
This Walmart Holiday Pop-Up Store Sort Of Isn't A Walmart At All
By 11.10.11
Eight months ago, we sarcastically predicted that the Walmart mini-store format, Walmart Express, would catch on and cause ever-tinier Walmarts to branch out and take over global commerce, splintering like enchanted brooms out of Mickey Mouse’s control. That hasn’t happened yet, but reader Ashi spotted something weird in San Diego. It’s a Walmart that isn’t a Walmart: a Walmart.com storefront where customers can go and…order things from Walmart online. [More]
Tablet For Tots, Coca-Cola Monopoly, T-Pain Toy Mic Among Worst Toy Of The Year Nominees
By 11.9.11
While toy makers around the world are hoping they’ll be considered among the best toys of the year, the folks at the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood are calling out a handful of toys as nominees in their worst-of 2011 contest. [More]
Senators Introduce Bill To Compel Amazon & Others To Collect Sales Tax
By 11.9.11
As has been discussed here on numerous occasions, even though Amazon.com didn’t charge you sales tax on that laptop you purchased, you still may owe it (though very few people ever pay). Thus, once again, a bipartisan group of Senators in D.C. have introduced legislation that would require online retailers to collect sales tax. [More]
Can We Spoil Best Buy's Super Bowl Surprise Again This Year?
By 11.9.11
Last year, some suit at Best Buy tried to tantalize shoppers by saying that the company’s super-secret Super Bowl ad would revolutionize retailing. And with the help of some savvy Consumerist readers, we not only spoiled their surprise by revealing the details of its Buy Back program weeks ahead of time, we also rained on their parade by showing you could actually lose money on the deal. Now Best Buy is set to launch something new at the next Super Bowl and being equally cagey about the details. [More]
"Booty Cam" Presents Firm Evidence That Your Butt Looks Big
By 11.9.11
Coming soon to your changing room is a device dubbed the “Booty Cam,” a closed circuit electronic eye that’s strategically set up to give you a live feed of your butt. Developed by the founder of American Rag jeans company, the device is already inside upscale Industrie Denim stores in San Francisco and Scottsdale, with more locations expected to open next year. [More]
