Charlie and Maria Cardoso managed to do something few homeowners can: They own their vacation home in Florida outright, with no mortgage. But that didn’t stop Bank of America from kicking out a tenant who was renting the house, tossing out the Cardosos’ possessions, and, yes, foreclosing on the debt-free home. [More]
Retail Services
"Stop Shopping Its Sick! Barf!"
By 1.21.10
There is an abandoned building in Brooklyn that periodically sports a new piece of anti-capitalist graffiti. The latest, descending to self-parody, says “Stop shopping its sick! Barf!” I laugh when I see it. [More]
Sorry We Missed The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Snuggie
By 1.21.10
We work hard to bring our readers all Snuggie-related news, and were remiss in not reporting on an exciting product from Hot Topic before it finally disappeared from the market. Shortly before the holidays, Hot Topic introduced the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Snuggie Funky Cozy. They sold out. For obvious reasons. [More]
Artist Transforms Target Shopping Cart Into Furniture
By 1.21.10
I haven’t been to Target in a while, but it looks like they’re starting to upgrade their shopping carts. Maybe they should convert the old ones to stylish chairs and lamps, the way this artist did, and sell them. [More]
Think Carefully Before Buying Diapers At Target
By 1.20.10
Reader Sarah was shopping for some diapers when she noticed something strange about Target’s pricing. Yes, the well-documented insanity continues in the diaper aisle… [More]
Kmart Worker Killed By Shoplifters
By 1.20.10
A Detroit Kmart loss prevention officer was killed by a pair of shoplifters. He tried to stop them but they ran over him with their SUV. He became tangled in the truck somehow and was dragged at least 100 feet before he was dislodged when the truck deliberately hit a pole. They were both charged with unarmed robbery and homicide. The plunder the five finger discount duo killed to keep? $400 in CDs. [More]
Best Buy Employee Told Me To Shut Up When I Said I Didn't Have To Show Receipt
By 1.20.10
Beth didn’t feel like showing her receipt to a New Jersey Best Buy employee who approached her as she left the store on Black Friday. [More]
Walmart Manager Takes Customer's DVD Away Because He Won't Show Receipt
By 1.19.10
Yep, it’s another Walmart receipt checker story! At the end of it, the OP asks, “What should I do?” And I sigh. I really don’t know. Don’t shop at Walmart anymore? Try to encourage your friends to not give their business to any company that acts in such a hostile way to honest, albeit uncooperative, customers? Spend a ton of money on a lawsuit that Walmart will use its very deep pockets to fight? [More]
Another Reason To Avoid Giant Megapixel Point-And-Shoot Cameras
By 1.19.10
By now you hopefully know that more megapixels don’t necessarily make a better camera. For one thing, you can almost double the megapixels of a camera while only gaining about a 40% increase in resolution. For another thing, it takes a lot more than just sheer number of pixels to produce a decent image. Nevertheless, point-and-shoot cameras with ginormous megapixel stats (now topping 12 MP) continue to hit the market. But Ross at Petavoxel says there’s another reason to avoid huge MP point-and-shoot cameras: something called the Airy disk. [More]
Geek Squad: Best Buy Software Installer Is Ugly, Nags Customers
By 1.19.10
Now that Best Buy’s shiny new Software Installer is showing up on PCs sold by the retailer, we’re starting to see more reviews of the tool, including this one, from Geek Squad Agent Matt Van Dusen, who declares that the software has a “horrible” user interface and “suffers from too many of the same problems many of the trials preinstalled on computers today.” Van Dusen’s verdict: “If this was being offered by any company other than the one we work for, it would be at the very least disabled, and most likely uninstalled from each computer during the optimization.” [More]
Citi: We Lost $7.6 B, But On The Bright Side, We Fired 100,000 People
By 1.19.10
Citi CEO Vikram Pandit is reassuring investors today after his firm lost $7.6 billion in 2009 by telling them to look on the bright side — at least they fired 100,000 people. [More]
Never Chill Your Hands With Beer Or Soda Again
By 1.18.10
Do you ever find yourself holding on to a soda or beer can, regretting how your hand feels cold and your body heat warms up the drink? Me either. But now there’s a product that has come to the rescue, saving you from having to hold on to beverage cans with your hands. Like an animal. [More]
Alleged Shoplifter Dies After Encounter With Walmart Security
By 1.18.10
A South Carolina woman died shortly after a run-in with Walmart loss prevention. Was the asthma sufferer’s death a coincidence, caused by the stress of being caught by security, or something even more sinister than that? Test results and a review of surveillance footage should clarify the situation somewhat in a few months. [More]
Goodreads: A Better Alternative To Amazon's User Reviews
By 1.18.10
Amazon’s user reviews for books are problematic because they serve more than one master. They’re meant to help inform consumers, sure, but they’re also meant to drive sales, and sometimes they’re even used by angry consumers as a form of protest. If you’re looking for more honest feedback on books, try Goodreads. [More]
Why Does The Word "Baby" Make The Same Product More Expensive?
By 1.17.10
Gail has an interesting question. She would like to know why the “baby” version of her son’s eczema cream costs $.50 more than the adult formula, even though the products’ packaging and contents are seemingly identical. [More]
Geek Squad Finally Replaces My Linux-Infested Laptop
By 1.15.10
An anonymous Best Buy customer told us in December that the Geek Squad refused to honor his extended warranty on his laptop because he had installed (horrors!) Linux. [More]
Best Buy Software Installer Makes Early, Annoying Appearance
By 1.14.10
Although it’s not scheduled to make its debut until this Sunday, Best Buy’s new non-optimization tool, the Best Buy Software Installer, has made at least one preview appearance — on a review unit supplied to a computer journalist, who wasn’t exactly thrilled with the software’s attempt to “radically simplify how you set up and customize your new PC.” [More]
Conan And Aziz Ansari Talk About Thread Count
By 1.14.10
Aziz Ansari wants everyone to know that the sheets he bought at Bed, Bath & Beyond were not of the quality he’d been promised. [More]
