The crush of consumers packing the department store’s eight-story shopping emporium on 34th street in Manhattan would seem to belie the notion that this will be a dark Christmas for retailers. However, the red crossouts on the price tags reveal two, three rounds of price-slashing. While the crowd is packed, their shopping bags are not. Passing underneath arches of holiday bowers sported animated signs with sparkle dust writing out “Believe,” they are gleaners, browsing for bargains, and choosing but a few of them. I took a panorama shot. (2000 pixel version) [More]
Retail Services
BofA Undoubles Doubled Interest Rate
By 12.24.09
Responding quickly to Wednesday’s post of Julia’s complaint that Bank of America doubled her credit card interest rate, then refused to reset it despite promising it would, the bank has promised that it will indeed undouble the rate for good. Got all that? [More]
Best Buy's Buy Online, Pick-Up In Store Delays Made Me Regret Purchase
By 12.23.09
Rick thought he’d streamline his computer part purchase by snagging it at bestbuy.com and opting for in-store pick-up, skipping the hassle of digging around store shelves and cruising out of the store in a flash. [More]
UPDATED: BofA Doubled My Interest Rate, Said They'd Undouble It, Kept It Doubled
By 12.23.09
Julia said Bank of America hiked her interest rate then placated her for months, promising it would eventually lower it to its previous level, only to turn around and say she was misinformed and would be stuck with the higher interest rate. [More]
Walmart Accused Of Secretly Videotaping Public Restroom
By 12.22.09
Seven current and former employees of a Pennsylvania Walmart Tire and Lube Center have filed suit against the company, reports the Morning Call. The employees say they discovered that they and the general public were being monitored via video camera in a public bathroom. [More]
Do Not Retaliate For Bad Customer Service With Bomb Threats
By 12.22.09
Protip: The best way to deal with poor customer service from a mall is not to turn around and call in a bomb threat. From your office phone. Without blocking caller ID. Yes, a man in a Salt Lake City suburb allegedly did that. [More]
A Look Back At The Origin Of Gift Cards
By 12.22.09
Sure, we at Consumerist may try to steer people away from gift cards, but they remain the most popular holiday gift. But where did they come from? How did the gift card evolve from its less versatile ancestor, the gift certificate? The Big Money has a retrospective. [More]
Watch Out For Stricter Post-Holiday Return Policies This Year
By 12.22.09
If part of your plans this week involve trading in some of your holiday gifts for sweet, sweet cash, you may need to plan ahead. According to the National Retail Federation, 17% of stores have tightened their return policies since the end of last year. What should you know before you try to bring back that magenta scarf or duplicate toy? [More]
The Necky: A Smaller, Stupider Snuggie For Your Neck
By 12.22.09
The Necky is apparently for the person who keeps strangling himself when he tries to tie his scarf. There’s nothing I can write about this that would make it more absurd than it is in real life, so just go watch the video if you haven’t already. [More]
Parking Lot Safety Tips
By 12.22.09
You’re not done with your holiday shopping when you swipe your credit card at the cash register. You’ve often got to navigate a potentially treacherous parking lot and get the goods home. The personal finance blog Finance for a Freelance Life offers some common yet helpful tips on how to avoid parking lot robbers. [More]
Here's A Walmart Perp Walk In Action
By 12.21.09
Maybe attacking, restraining, and physically marching off suspected shoplifters is the new “Stop, thief!” for Walmart employees. Here’s video footage of an actual event that happened in a New Jersey Walmart last Friday, shot by our own GitEmSteveDave. [More]
Alleged Walmart Shoplifter Dies After Being Tackled
By 12.21.09
Walmart’s loss prevention tactics took a morbid turn over the weekend at an Atlanta location, when a suspected shoplifter was tackled by two security personnel and a customer, and then died for mysterious reasons. [More]
Target Unfires 7 Workers For Buying Zhu Zhus Before Customers Could
By 12.21.09
7 Buffalo Target employees fired for buying Zhu Zhus, this year’s hot robotic rodent toy, during their shifts have been reinstated. A failure to communicate seems to have been the culprint: [More]
Valentine's Day Can Also Creep
By 12.21.09
Justin snapped this shot inside the Penn Station Kmart in New York City, signifying that the cosmic order of holiday creepage can indeed infringe on Christmas by allowing the unreasonably far-off occasion of Valentine’s Day to violate the yuletide cheer. [More]
GameStop Tells Me It Doesn't Care It's Violating Merchant Agreement
By 12.21.09
Adam tried to buy some games at GameStop by using his credit card, but balked when the clerk demanded he show his ID. He alerted the higher-ups that the denial was a violation of the MasterCard merchant agreement, but the complaint fell on deaf ears. He writes: [More]
Textbooks: The Gift For The Student Who's Got Nothing
By 12.21.09
Consider buying textbooks for college students on your holiday buying list who are tough to shop for, helping them out by defraying an oppressing educational cost, the personal finance blog Poorer Than You advises. [More]
Anchor Bay Trusts Customer, Makes Up For Missing Disc
By 12.20.09
Last Christmas, Steve bought his wife a copy of “Evil Dead,” Ultimate Edition, published by Anchor Bay Entertainment. The set was missing a disc, and Anchor Bay never followed up on his initial e-mail. At the beginning of December, almost a year later, he contacted the company again, and they did a fantastic job making up for the original missed email. [More]
Kraft HQ Lobby Sports Droopy Boob Joke
By 12.18.09
Female Kraft employees are “furious” and the men “embarrassed” by this ad inside their headquarters lobby, reports the ANIMAL blog. It has a mirrored surface and below that it says, “You look smashing, but your chicken breasts could use a lift,” followed by an image of Shake N’ Bake. Hidden behind that faceless oblong red white and blue logo, Kraft has got some cheeky pranksters! [ANIMAL] [More]
