If you haven’t tasted a Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale, you’re missing out on a “fresh, balanced and lively” drink that’s “almost Pilsner-like,” says a panel of beer experts in the New York Times. The Flying Dog took top honors in a taste test of 20 American pale ales, followed by Long Trail, Stoudts, Sly Fox, and Otter Creek. If you can’t remember these smaller labels this weekend on your way to the cookout, you can always stick with Sam Adams pale ale, which placed seventh. [More]
Retail Services
If You're Looking For An Outdated, Barely Usable MP3 Player, Walmart's Got You Covered
By 6.28.10
Sean discovered this forgotten relic of the MP3 player evolution on clearance at his local Walmart. He may have slipped through some sort of flux capacitor-facilitated wormhole that took him into a bygone era. At least that’s what we’re hoping. [More]
Even Wells Fargo CEO Powerless To Reduce Your Punitive APR
By 6.28.10
The APR on Kevin’s Wells Fargo credit card got jacked up from 9.6% to almost 23%. He owes $16,000. At 9.6, he could afford to make double the monthly payments, but now he’s paying $300+ a month in finance charges alone. He’s begged up and down the hierarchy, from the CEO to any exec or VP he could reach, to please reduce his APR so he can carry this debt. Nope. The numbers have spoken. The odds are calculated. Your risk has been assessed, and the verdict has been issued: you lose. [More]
Tell Walmart You're Gay And You May Be Forced To Wear A Yellow Vest Of Shame
By 6.27.10
A temporary Walmart worker is accusing his former supervisors of forcing him to wear a yellow vest after learning of his sexual orientation. The worker, 18-year-old Fernando Gallardo, was quick to compare the retail behemoth to the Nazis in a complaint filed with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission. [More]
Man Sentenced To Life In Prison For Shoplifting
By 6.27.10
A man in Mississippi is heading up the river for the rest of his life after he was caught heisting some stuff from a Kohl’s store and then led police on a car chase. Oh, and also because he’d been convicted 10 previous times. [More]
Convicts Don't Like People Who Try To Sell Babies At Walmart
By 6.27.10
It looks like the man who attempted to sell his baby daughter outside a California Walmart for $25 last week hasn’t exactly found a forgiving audience behind bars. [More]
Wait On Line To Show Your Costco Receipt Or You Will Be Assaulted
By 6.26.10
Let’s say you’re in a rush after buying a fan at Costco. You look past the line packed with people and carts and spy a lone employee standing by the exit. Do you walk over and show your receipt? What’s the worst that could happen? Let’s ask Reader Shay. [More]
Walmart Defeats Chicago, Plans To Open Up To 21 Stores
By 6.26.10
Like a big city pimp waiting to pick you up off the ground when times get tough, Walmart was able to establish its first stores in Chicago through guile, perseverance, and a few meaningless reassurances. Smaller stores! $0.50 pay raise! Union-built! These are the meager concessions that led Chicago to sell-out their local retailers. [More]
Reporter Caught Shoplifting Says She Was On The Job
By 6.25.10
A TV traffic reporter in Connecticut was snagged walking out of a Sears carrying several items she allegedly didn’t pay for. But, says the journalist, everything should be cool, because it was all part of a story she was working on. [More]
Do Not Try To Sell Your Baby For $25 In Front Of Walmart
By 6.25.10
Aspiring entrepreneurs, keep in mind: Walmart doesn’t want you selling anything in front of their stores. And they really, really don’t want you to sell your own children out front at cut-rate prices. Police in Salinas, Calif. say a couple were trying to do just that: sell their 6-month-old infant to a stranger for less than the price of a case of diapers. [More]
Petsmart Manager Not Too Concerned About This Parakeet Corpse In Bird Habitat Door
By 6.25.10
Jack is an animal lover and a mechanic. He writes that when he went to fix a habitat door at a local Petsmart store, he found a dead parakeet trapped inside a hollow part of the door. It wasn’t the dead bird that bothered him the most, though: it was the manager’s total lack of concern about the situation. He was upset enough to e-mail Consumerist. (Warning: post contains non-graphic dead pet photo.) [More]
The $33,000 Mattress
By 6.24.10
How much would you pay to sleep on the Porsche of mattresses? How about $33,000? That’s how much E.S. Kluft & Co.’s king-size Palais Royale mattress and box spring will run you. It contains 19.5 inches of of luxury fabric and materials, including: [More]
Is It Too Early For Back-To-School Sales?
By 6.24.10 — Updated: 7.8.13
Public school students in Union City, NJ, just wrapped up classes earlier this week. So Consumerist reader Juhgail was caught off guard when she popped into a Staples to pick up some supplies and came upon an entire rack of back-to-school items. [More]
Netflix Is Fine With No Saturday Mail Delivery; Amazon, Not So Much
By 6.24.10
When we first wrote about the US Postal Service’s plan to put an end to Saturday deliveries, only 35% of the 7,000 readers polled thought it would be a hassle to their way of life. However, many commenters wanted to know what this would mean for deliveries of their precious Netflix DVDs. Yesterday, they got their answer. [More]
Buy A Cheap Blu-Ray Player, Get A Box Of Useless Remotes Instead
By 6.24.10
If you pick up an electronics box and notice that it has been resealed and is suspiciously…. rattley….you might want to just leave it on the shelf, no matter how good a deal it might be. Unless you need some random remote controls, cables, and manuals to other devices. At least, that’s the lesson we’re taking away from William’s e-mail about what he found inside a Blu-Ray player box at his local Walmart. [More]
Up-To-The-Minute Coupon Codes For Hot Sales
By 6.23.10
The deal aficionados on the FatWallet message boards have various discussion threads devoted to providing the most current coupons for a slew of stores. Rather then dig for them, here’s a master list of their official store coupons and clearance threads. Members routinely get rid of dead coupons and post new ones, so this is definitely one to bookmark: [More]
Clusterfracas of Stove Delivery Incompetence Loses Best Buy a Customer
By 6.23.10
Add “delivering a stove” to the list of things Best Buy is not very good at. Heather bought one from them, then was subjected to various delays and bogus fees, and now has to wait for Best Buy to “trick” its system into giving her a refund for a fee she should never have been charged in the first place. Here is the email she sent CEO of Best Buy, Brian Dunn, explaining the series of events leading up to her decision to never shop at Best Buy again: [More]
Bank Of America Says I Stole $11,000 From Myself, Gambled It Away
By 6.23.10
Reader M. has a sad and frightening cautionary tale for us all. He’s unemployed, and his debit card was stolen. Now he’s been accused of stealing more than $11,000 from himself and gambling it away at casinos. Bank of America has finished its investigation, and concluded that M. is responsible for the withdrawals, and now must pay back the $11,000 he didn’t spend. At the 20% APR charged for cash advances, naturally. [More]
