Retail Services
Morning Deals
By 9.20.07
When Should You Buy New Technology?
By 9.20.07
The short answer: when it’s no longer new, of course—early adopters are the pawns in the great game of consumer electronics, easily sacrificed by both sides in order to fuel product launches, establish word of mouth, and help discover any 1st-gen bugs. (*cough* iPhone *cough*) SmartMoney says on average, wait six months after a product is released before buying it, but they also provide a list of specific advice for things like cellphones, computers, and cameras.
Verizon's Style Book For Deploying "Can You Hear Me Now" Guy
By 9.19.07
You know the Verizon “Can you hear me now?” guy? Of course you do. Verizon has been pouring branding equity into the lil fella for years. You can’t leverage a character across a big company like that without developing a special “style guide” Verizon developed to govern how his likeness is used in various marketing campaigns. It’s quite hilarious, and a former company employee sent it to us to share with you.
Best Buy Sends The Police After You For Taking Your Loan Application Home
By 9.19.07
Here’s a weird situation from Orland Park, IL. Mike Quilty, who works for a subcontractor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, went to Best Buy to purchase a refrigerator.
TypoTrawler Finds Misspelled eBay Deals
By 9.19.07
TypoTrawler scans eBay looking for misspellings. Savvy eBay shoppers know that misspelled listings result in fewer bidders, because they’re harder to find, so they offer the opportunity for getting a lower final auction price and/or making the item easier to win. You can select which categories you want to view and you can vote on which items are really misspelled or not, as well as click through to the eBay page.
Target, Limited Too and Dollar General Quietly Pulling Lead Contaminated Items Off Shelves
By 9.19.07
According to the NYT, Target, Limited Too and Dollar General have located additional products that are contaminated with lead, but no recalls have been announced by the CPSC.
Helio's "Total Happiness Guarantee" Evidently Uses Alternative Understanding Of The English Language
By 9.18.07
Helio offers a “Total Happiness Guarantee” which says that if you don’t like their phone or service for any reason you can return it within 30 days for your money back, no questions asked. However, their customer service staff is poorly trained and could try to tell you don’t get sales tax refunded, blogs LifeClever. It’s also going to take at least four months for the refund to process, he found, along with other annoying fun plot points.
Email The CEO Of Sears
By 9.18.07
The current email address for Aylwin B. Lewis, President & Chief Executive Officer of Sears, is alewis1@searshc.com.
30 Code Words For Sugar
By 9.18.07
It’s yesterday’s news that you can eat healthier by avoiding foods full of unnecessary sugars, and that sugars appear on labels under different names, but you might be surprised to see just how many different guises sugar and sugar-related substances can assume.
By 9.18.07
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Bank of America got the final OK it needed to go ahead with its purchase of LaSalle Bank [Chicago Tribune].
Why Stores Love To Force You To Show Your Receipts
By 9.18.07
A former Best Buy employee and Consumerist tipster in good standing shared some insider insights about why store employees are so zealous in checking your receipt, and so zealously underinformed as to how they have no legal right to make you show it.
By 9.18.07
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If you have over $2,500, you can start earning upwards of 5.2% interest with this hard-to-find Bank of America money market account. [My Money Blog]
The Earlier Ingredients Are On A Label, The More There Is Inside
By 9.18.07
Did you know that ingredients on ingredients labels are listed in their descending order of proportion?
5 Furniture Shopping Tips
By 9.17.07
Despite the crummy real estate market and generally listing economy, now is a good time to go furniture shopping, apparently. That’s partly because consolidation and increased competition has squeezed out everyone except for discount-happy big box retailers in some cities, and partly because business is down overall this year so everyone is trying to attract more customers with markdowns.
Walmart Rolls Back Prices Negative One Dollar And Fifty-Nine Cents
By 9.17.07
Nowadays it seems like anyone can make a sign. I yearn for the olde days of sign making when you actually had to know something about signmaking to do it. Signmaking was restricted to knowledgeable guild workers. The penalty for non-guild workers making signs was death. By signmaking.
Schwarzenegger Signs Bill Banning Minors From Using Cellphones While Driving
By 9.17.07
Sorry, kids. It’s now illegal for you to talk on your cellphones while driving in California. Why? Because you’re bad at it, and let’s face it… you’re not that good at driving in the first place. Sadly for you, it’s much easier to slap a ban on you (rather than your parents) because you don’t vote and you have limited rights. Ha, ha, ha.
Teens cited under SB33, authored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, face a fine of $20 for a first offense and $50 each time after that. Officials said traffic officers will not be allowed to pull drivers over simply because of a cell phone infraction, and violations will not count as part of the traffic safety point system. Emergency calls will be exempt.
