The first rule of toy marketing: if you want to sell something to girls, make it pink! And in the case of the Fisher-Price TRIO building blocks set on Amazon, make the girls’ product cost $8.50 more than the “standard” product, for no clear reason. Even though it contains fewer blocks. [More]
Retail Services
10 Stores With Cheap Generic Drugs
By 7.20.10
Cheap generic drugs are good for when you’re between jobs, between insurance, or if you’ve just got a prescription drug plan that is costing you too much money. You might find, as Wise Bread did, that a generic version of your medication actually causes fewer side effects in addition to being more cost-effective. [More]
Perdue Recalls 90,000 Pounds Of Chicken Nuggets From Walmart Stores
By 7.20.10
The USDA and Perdue have issued a recall for more than 90,000 pounds of Great Value frozen chicken nuggets — all of it shipped to Walmart stores — because there is a possibility that the food could contain “foreign materials.” [More]
Homegrown Currencies Are Popular Right Now, But Do They Work?
By 7.20.10
Remember the Downtown Dollars that Ardmore, PA sold to its citizens this year? Sara Lepro at American Banker looked at that and other “homegrown currency” experiments happening across the country, which are intended to stimulate the local economy and take advantage of “a growing ‘localism’ movement.” [More]
Amazon Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Hardcovers
By 7.20.10
Hardcover books have a lot going against them — they’re expensive, often unwieldy, easily damaged. And now Amazon.com, which first made its name by selling books at deep discounts online, says it sells significantly more titles for its Kindle e-reader than it does in hardcover. [More]
Watch Out For Amazon Scam Making The Rounds
By 7.20.10
The BBB says people are reporting seeing a new phishing scam going around that masquerades as an Amazon order alert. It arrives as a confirmation email with a product description, price, and Amazon logo. Naturally, if you click the provided account link to cancel the order or see whether you were actually charged for the item, the login screen you’ll be taken to won’t be Amazon. [More]
Target Sells Shirt Featuring Leaning Tower Of… Roma?
By 7.19.10
A month ago, Target had huevos on its face after failing European history by selling a shirt featuring the flag associated with (still dead) Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Well, now Target is in danger of failing Architectural History and Common Sense 101 with a shirt that manages to lift up the Leaning Tower of Pisa and transplant it to Rome. [More]
Bid On 'Lost' Props So You Can Make A Series Finale Worth Watching
By 7.19.10
I, like many people who spent too many hours attempting to solve the 6-season puzzle that was Lost, was more than a tad bit disappointed in the show’s final episode. But now we all have the chance to recreate our own versions of how the finale should have gone — and do it with actual props from the show. [More]
Screw The Heat; Sears Wants To Sell You Christmas Crap Now
By 7.19.10
While we were surprised last week that Macy’s is already hyping up Santa’s impending arrival, they’ve got nothing on Sears, which has already gotten up full Christmas-themed displays, just in time for Labor Day. [More]
Does "One Coupon Per Customer" Apply To Couples Making Individual Purchases?
By 7.19.10
Liz is wondering what’s going on at her local Hobby Lobby. She’s a professional doll maker and she buys a lot of supplies from the craft store chain every month. So far, she and her husband have been able to use the company’s in-store coupons for separate purchases even if they stand together in line at the register, but it looks like her Hobby Lobby may be cracking down on that. Should it? [More]
Don't Nail Perkin's Waitresses, Lose Golf Skill And Expect Your Video Game To Sell
By 7.19.10
Tiger Woods is not Tommy Vercetti, and thus his whoring and reckless driving escapades do not translate to video game sales. [More]
A Look Back At Online Shopping As Amazon Turns 15
By 7.18.10
It seems like only yesterday Amazon.com was a cute little online baby, shipping out books from a garage and saying the darndest things, and now it’s a 15-year-old teenager that sometimes sasses back and gets sent to its room. Time takes a look back at the online retail giant as it turned 15 on Friday, and the history of shopping the interwebs. [More]
Move To These Towns To Earn Big Money, Live The Good Life
By 7.18.10
Beyond the obvious big cities where the rich and famous drive around in flashy cars and flaunt designer dresses and amazing homes, there are other towns across America where top-earning residents are living the good life. From north to south, sea to shining see, let’s take a look at a few of these little gems and start planning where we’ll move. [More]
Marilyn Monroe's Last Home Up For Sale
By 7.17.10
Got an extra $3.6 million laying around? For that chunk of cash you could purchase a piece of one of Holllywood’s most legendary tragedies: The Brentwood, Calif. home Marilyn Monroe died in is up for sale. [More]
The Children's Place Doesn't Understand How Parents Shop For Children's Clothes
By 7.16.10
Kim tells Consumerist that she was dismayed to learn that The Children’s Place has started limiting how many returns customers can make, scanning driver’s licenses to track repeat returners. She wonders, have company executives tried to corral multiple preschoolers into trying on stacks of clothing in a store fitting room? [More]
Seattle Bar Owner Will Buy You A Steak Dinner If You Quit Chase
By 7.15.10
Don’t like Chase? You’re not alone. If you haven’t already dropped the bank but are willing to let them go, you might be on your way to a free steak dinner. [More]
No, Amazon, I Will Not Pay For Repairs To My Defective Kindle
By 7.15.10
Michael tells Consumerist that he’s disappointed in his Amazon Kindle, but really disappointed in Amazon and their lack of support for his problems with the device. The company admitted that his Kindle malfunctioned because of a product defect…but want Michael to pay the $89 fee for having his Kindle serviced out of warranty anyway. He’s not really interested, since he could buy a new Kindle for almost twice that. [More]
Kmart Wants To Tape Your Video Game Reviews To Display Cases
By 7.15.10
Non-gamers who cruise video game aisles looking for gifts are bewildered at the strange sights from the lineup of game boxes. Kmart is asking gamers to help out those customers by submitting user reviews that they’ll post near games in the store. [More]
