Not since the buying frenzy of 1999, when people bought champagne in bulk to ring in the millennium, have U.S. champagne and sparkling wine sales been so high. Volume for 2007 is expected to hit 900 million glasses, up 4% over 2006, says the 2007 Impact Annual Wine Study.
Retail Services
You People Are Buying A Lot Of Champagne
By 12.24.07
Woman Asked To Leave After Shopping At Walmart For 72 Hours
By 12.24.07
Police escorted a woman home after she was shopping, eating, and sleeping in a Georgia Walmart for three days straight. She blended in with the general Christmas madness and sustained herself by eating at the on-site Blimpie. When asked by employees at the end why she stayed for so long, she said, “I’m shopping.”
Morning Deals
By 12.24.07
Best Buy Still Embracing Deceptive In-Store Kiosks
By 12.23.07
Best Buy still uses a secret internal website to deceive customers, according to the L.A. Times. The website appearing on in-store kiosks resembles Best Buy’s official site in every way, except for the prices. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was surprised to hear that his investigation failed to end Best Buy’s bait-and-switch, telling the L.A. Times: “We thought Best Buy had addressed this. That’s what they said to us. Apparently that’s not the case.” A tipster in Virginia also reports the continued existence of the secret website.
Chase Resets Marketing Preferences, Asks You To Opt-Out Again
By 12.23.07
Chase will reset everyone’s marketing preferences under the guise of providing “more options to specify which mail offers you do not want.” Remember when you originally opted-out? They didn’t quite understand. What about their Value Added Products And Services and Used Vehicle Financing? Unless you opt-out again by January 24, Chase will acknowledge your implied change of heart. Read their notice after the jump.
How Do You Get The Most Out Of Online Reviews?
By 12.22.07
Products don’t advertise their drawbacks leaving shoppers to rely on online reviews as one of the only ways to determine a product’s true worth. Salon argues in an article heavy on fluff and light on content that reviews are just a meaningless muddle of questionable opinions. We disagree, but the article does raise one good question: how do you judge the value online reviews?
Stores Beg Shoppers To Come Visit This Weekend
By 12.22.07
Spooked by the (apparently mythological) low numbers of shoppers this season, several retail chains are pulling out the stops in an attempt to lure consumers in over the next 72 hours, reports Reuters. Seven New York-area Macy’s stores are now open non-stop until 6pm Monday. Kmart is holding a “64-hour sale” that begins tomorrow morning and lasts until 10pm Monday (we’re not sure if the stores are staying open around the clock, however). JC Penney is advertising special sales tonight and tomorrow morning.
Bloomingdales Employee Charged In Bogus Gift Card Scam
By 12.21.07
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is prosecuting a Bloomingdale’s salesperson for running a month-long bogus gift card scam that netted $34,515 from the store, says the NY Sun.
It says Bloomingdale’s sales receipts were the key element of Ms. Ng’s alleged scheme.
Walmart Would Like You To Know That They Accept All Forms Of Debit
By 12.21.07 — Updated: 10.14.12
Ben: then the terrorists have already won
Sears "Takes Your Satisfaction Very Seriously" But Only If You're From Boston
By 12.21.07
After WCVB in Boston did an investigation into Sears’ awful, awful customer service record when it comes to installation and repair of appliances (a category in which they used to excel), Sears has now apologized to its Boston customers.
5 Bank of America Executive Email Addresses
By 12.21.07
A former Bank of America employee provides these email addresses and says they’re the people to complain to about getting fee’d to death (or any other customer service related issue you want to escalate).
Idea: Find Your Way Through The Mall Via GPS
By 12.21.07
Now that we’ve got such advanced cell phone technology, Russel Shaw with ZDNet thinks we should start putting it to use to make shopping in the real world easier. His idea, free for the taking if you’re feeling entrepreneurial: shopping mall geolocation services.
After Twitter Snafu, T-Mobile Reminds Customers Who's Boss
By 12.21.07
Last weekend, T-Mobile users who sent SMS updates to their Twitter feeds found that their messages were being blocked. Naturally, tempers flared. Many customers contacted T-Mobile to complain about the problem, but T-Mobile had no answer for the sudden blockage. (It turns out it was a technical glitch on Twitter’s end.) What’s interesting is that T-Mobile’s Executive Customer Relations rep responded to one user’s complaints with a hardcore reminder that when it comes to customer rights, his pretty much begin and end with being required to pay his bill on time. Nice PR work there, T-Mobile.
My name is Marianne Maestas and I am with the Executive Customer Relations department of T-Mobile. I am contacting you on behalf of Mr. Robert Dotson in regards to the email that you sent him yesterday evening.
8 Sensible Gift Ideas For Outdoor Enthusiasts
By 12.21.07
Here are some practical gift ideas that your family can use the next time they go looking for a Christmas tree and get trapped in the snow for three days. Unlike too many of the “gift lists” the media spits out each December, these are fairly affordable items—most of them are priced between $20-$40. Or if you’re really on a budget, you can go for the $4 gift and give your loved one a Spork XM, made from a “durable polycarbonate that brings its weight down to a half-ounce.”
CNN Wants You To Be Very Afraid Of Parking Lots
By 12.21.07
CNN has a hilarious article about shopping safety that you should certainly read before you hit the mall this weekend for last-minute gifts. We’re all for safety, but according to this article, letting your senior citizen wander off from the rest of the family is like like tying a fawn to a skateboard and pushing it into a den of lions: “He has to be at least 75 or 80 years old. Now, he’s a potential victim.”
Take Your Brand And Shove It
By 12.20.07
Muji is a Japanese store that is, um, all the rage in NYC right now, apparently.
