Retail Services
Morning Deals
By 11.5.07
Citibank CEO Resigns, Additional $11 Billion In Subprime Damage Predicted
By 11.5.07
Citibank’s chairman and CEO Charles Prince announced his resignation Sunday, citing the subprime meltdown as the reason for his departure.
Cellphone Jammers Are Effective, Illegal
By 11.5.07
The power to silence the annoying schmo yabbering away on their cellphone rests within a small black box the size of a cigarette pack. Selling for as little as $50, cellphone jammers can spew radio signals powerful enough to disrupt all nearby cell signals. The downside? It’s illegal.
The Federal Communication Commission says people who use cellphone jammers could be fined up to $11,000 for a first offense. Its enforcement bureau has prosecuted a handful of American companies for distributing the gadgets — and it also pursues their users.
Consumers Plan To Purchase Fewer, Cheaper Presents
By 11.4.07
Prepare for disappointment this holiday season because a survey from Deloitte & Touche says the average consumer is planning to spend less on fewer presents. The average New England holiday shopping budget is down 19% to $517, and the average shopper is prepared to buy only 24 gifts – which to us, still seems like a lot.
FDA: Glow In The Dark Shrimp "Not A Food Safety Issue"
By 11.3.07
Seattle shoppers want to know why the FDA won’t investigate bioluminescent shrimp appearing at local Thriftways and Quality Food Centers.
Retailing Consortium Launches PRISM To Collect Data On Shoppers' Behavior
By 11.3.07
A consortium of retailers and consumer suppliers are working with Nielsen Co., famous for its nonsensical television ratings system, to launch a large-scale study of consumer behavior in stores. The program is called PRISM, which stands for “Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric,” and it uses infrared sensors and manual counting, as well as genetic clones of our loved ones, to monitor not just what we buy but how we go about buying it. “About 70% of final purchase decision are made at the shelf,” says a Procter & Gamble rep. “The store has always been important – we just didn’t know enough about it.”
Irrational Humans Trying To Be Rational Buyers
By 11.2.07
I was listening to one of personal productivity maven’ David Allen’s teleseminars and he said something incisive about the impulse to buy fancy stuff. People think they want to buy a sports car, Allen said, but maybe what they really want is the sense of freedom they think a sports car will give them. Advertisers understand this and use it to get you to buy stuff. It’s the principle of “selling the sizzle, not the steak.”
By 11.2.07
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Citibank downgraded by analysts. “They don’t have enough capital, pure and simple,” says one. “They will have to address that, ASAP.” The subprime meltdown rolls on.[BusinessWeek]
RetailMeNot Firefox Extension AutoFinds Deals For Online Stores You're Visting
By 11.2.07
The RetailMeNot site helps you find coupon codes for tons of different sites online, and now there’s a RetailMeNot Firefox extension to make deal-finding even easier. Sometimes you forget to scope out the coupon code sites for applicable savings before checking out at online retailers. This handy extension gives you a little warning on the top bar if its found coupons for the site you’re currently visiting.
Morning Deals
By 11.2.07
T-mobile Apologises For 3 Months Of No Service With $5 Off Bill
By 11.2.07
Nadine writes:
I recently switched to T-mobile thinking I would get better service at a fair rate. Unfortunately, since the onset of my contract with T-mobile this hasn’t been the case. In the past three months I have experienced major communication difficulties. I have been unable to receive phone calls and many of my text messages are not going through. I have been calling T-Mobile’s customer care to no avail regarding this problem and they informed me that they were experiencing network difficulties in New York City. They claimed that the problems were being worked on. As time passed I continued to experience the same difficulties but to a greater degree. My callers had to text me because they couldn’t get through when calling. I called for help but there was a different excuse given as to why the service wasn’t working…
By 11.1.07
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Today’s overstock.com deal of the day is a Franklin 18-gauge Steel Casket. Yours for only $1,249.99, regularly $3,375.99. [Overstock.com]
Morning Deals
By 11.1.07
Gold Llame Window Display Confuses Shopper Into Thinking American Apparel Is Store For Hookers
By 11.1.07
Because we loathe the peculiar iteration of kiddie porn that passes for American Apparel’s advertising, we got a kick out of the photo and description submitted to our Flickr pool by reader (and #1Consumerist reader Flickr pool submitter!) Maulleigh.
Chase Changes Due Date Without Warning, Changes APR From 3.9% To 29.99%
By 11.1.07
Dan writes: “I was scammed big by JP Morgan Chase Credit Cards. They apparently have “floating due dates” that we had not encountered in our 10+ years as customers but somehow February of 2007 was the magic month. They moved our due date up by 3 days, our payment was two days late. They raised our interest rate from 3.99% to 29.99%…Amazingly enough, on our March bill the due date is exactly the same as January. They claim they sent us a notification letter, but I never received one. I spoke to the worst customer service person ever, Dennis Broyles, who claimed that no one in the company had the power to change my interest rate back and that he had no supervisor I could speak with. It was outrageous.”
What Does The Weak Dollar Mean To Shoppers?
By 11.1.07
You’ve probably been hearing a lot about the weak dollar, but might not be sure what exactly it means for you.
Walmart: "Black Friday" Is Now This Friday, Thanksgiving Surrenders
By 10.31.07
Walmart is moving “Black Friday” to this Friday in a desperate attempt to make some money this holiday season. Never mind that this “holiday season” is weeks away. Black Friday is here, folks.
How To Find The Cheapest Roaming Solution When Traveling Abroad
By 10.31.07
Having the ability to make calls all over the world is a pretty amazing communications milestone, but that doesn’t mean it’s cheap and easy. The Consumerist is filled with stories of poor fools who come back from parts unknown with thousand-dollar roaming bills—and it doesn’t just happen to clueless iPhone users. Here’s our attempt to help make some sense out of the mess.
