The offer of free money is hard to pass up, but, as we’ve warned before, those promises of hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards, a free car or trip, and other too-good-to-be-true offers are just that. The latest version of this scheme involves a $250 Walmart gift card. [More]
Retail Services
Payless Reportedly Looking To File For Bankruptcy, Possibly Next Week
By 3.22.17
There are certain givens when it comes to mall shopping: There’s always parking at Sears, and there’s a darn good chance you’ll find a Payless Shoesource store. However, the discount footwear retailer could see its roster of 4,000 locations slashed if reports of an impending bankruptcy filing are to be believed.
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5 Reasons People Are Suddenly Concerned About Brazilian Beef
By 3.22.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Are you having beef for dinner? Do you know where it came from? No, not the grocery store down the street, but where the cow was raised? Most of us probably can’t answer those questions, and that’s a growing concern for health advocates, retailers, and lawmakers amid reports that some meatpackers in Brazil — one of the world’s largest exporters of beef — are shipping out rotten, salmonella-tainted beef. [More]
Sears Holdings Admits: Yep, We’re Probably Doomed
By 3.22.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Like a chess player who realizes their only chance of not losing is a tornado that whisks the table away, Sears Holdings is now making it clear to investors that there’s a good chance the company won’t be around much longer. [More]
Amazon Steps Up Effort To Rid Site Of Counterfeit Products
By 3.22.17 — Updated: 3.23.17
Amazon has previously said it would escalate its war on counterfeit merchandise this year, but now the online retail giant is providing more details on how it plans to accomplish that feat. [More]
Some Costco Shoppers Can Now Get Groceries Delivered
By 3.22.17
To some Costco customers, part of the experience of being a member of the warehouse club is going to the store, filling your huge cart up with everything from slabs of steak to blue jeans (and maybe nibbling on some free samples). But surely some shoppers just want the Costco products without having to actually go to Costco. [More]
Bebe Reportedly Closing Stores, Going Online Only
By 3.21.17
Women’s apparel chain bebe is reportedly the latest retailer leaving the mall behind. But instead of completely closing shop like The Limited and WetSeal, the company plans to take its business online only. [More]
These RadioShack Items Were Actually Cheaper Before They Went On ‘Clearance’ Sale
By and 3.21.17
We recently heard from RadioShack staffers that the retailer raised “original” or list prices on hundreds of items shortly before the Shack’s March 8 bankruptcy filing, presumably to give the appearance that the subsequent “clearance” sale offered deeper discounts than if the base price hadn’t changed. However, we can now see that some of the items on RadioShack’s website are now selling for more than they were only weeks before the store went bankrupt. [More]
Several Microsoft Services — Including Xbox Live, Outlook — Suffering Outages
By 3.21.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Consumers looking to use Microsoft’s Xbox Live, Outlook, and other services are likely having a difficult time this afternoon, as the company is currently suffering an outage. [More]
Yuengling Tries To Tempt Harry Potter Fans With Butterbeer-Flavored Ice Cream
By 3.21.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Who wants to take a trip to Universal Studios to drink Harry Potter’s favorite beverage when they could eat it anywhere? That’s now an option: Yuengling’s Ice Cream has launched a Butterbeer flavor. [More]
Pranksters Ride Through Walmart Aisles On Horseback
By 3.21.17
The brilliant, absurd Walmart.horse might be gone, but its spirit lives on in the form of some Texas men who decided it was good day for a horse ride through their local Walmart. [More]
Target Revamps Stores For Customers Looking For Convenience And To Stay Awhile
By 3.21.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Every year, retailers test concepts in their stores in order to meet consumers’ changing shopping habits: from using scan n’ go, no check out lines, or toying with the idea of no shopping carts. Target’s latest version of this revamp will focus on catering to customers who are in a rush and those who want to just get away for a bit. [More]
Report Claims Amazon’s List Prices Mislead Shoppers About Discounts
By 3.20.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
One aspect of shopping on Amazon is that the online retail giant appears to offer significant discounts on many of the items it sells. However, a new report alleges that these markdowns not as generous as they appear, and that many of them are effectively nonexistent. [More]
Would You Want To Know Your Engagement Ring Was Bought At 70% Off?
By 3.20.17
This weekend, the Macy’s store in downtown Minneapolis closed for the last time. Yet one of the clearance items shared by a local reporter visiting the store caught our eye. A shelf of engagement rings marked 70% off made us wonder: Would most people want to know if their engagement ring had been one of the last jewelry counter dregs at a store-closing sale? [More]
Neiman Marcus Agrees To Pay $1.6M To Settle 2013 Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit
By 3.20.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Three years after Neiman Marcus disclosed that it had become the victim of a hack attack in 2013, exposing the credit card information of more than 350,000 customers, the upscale retailer has reached a $1.6 million settlement in the subsequent class action lawsuit. [More]
Saks Fifth Avenue Customer Email Addresses Posted Publicly
By 3.20.17
The email addresses for thousands of Saks Fifth Avenue customers were sitting on the retailer’s website, unencrypted, for an unknown period of time. [More]
Amazon Wants To Sell You Groceries, Even If It Has To Open Real Stores To Do It
By 3.20.17
Starting a new grocery store location is, in the grand scheme of things, not particularly hard to do. Starting a new nationwide grocery store mega-chain, though… that’s a whole lot more challenging. But e-commerce giant Amazon really, really, really wants to be your grocery store, and is apparently willing to do, spend, and create whatever it takes to make that happen. [More]
Samsung Launches Bixby, Its Answer To Siri & Alexa
By 3.20.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Move over Siri, Cortana, and Alexa, there’s a new voice-controlled artificially intelligent assistant in town: Samsung’s Bixby. [More]
