While drive-thru customer service would be a delightful innovation in the mobile phone business, it is not yet available at T-Mobile stores. Even if it did exist, “drive-thru” doesn’t mean you actually drive through the store; a lesson that one angry T-Mo customer in Florida apparently forgot when trying to express her rage. [More]
Retail Services
Wet Seal Considering Second Bankruptcy In Two Years
By 1.13.17
No, we haven’t gone into reruns: Wet Seal, a clothing retailer geared toward women in their teens and twenties, is considering celebrating the second anniversary of its last bankruptcy by popping the cork on a second one. This time, though, the chain is hoping to quietly sell itself without going through the expense and hassle of court proceedings. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Unearth $150 Camera From 2006, Ancient Overpriced Hard Drive
By 1.13.17
The Raiders of the Lost Walmart are the brave band of retail archaeologists who comb through the electronics sections of big-box stores to find gadgets that are obsolete or just plain old, and also comically overpriced. In this week’s field reports: an external hard drive and a digital camera that are over a decade old, yet priced as if they’re new. [More]
Possible Buyer Lined Up For One American Apparel Factory, Saving Up To 330 Jobs
By 1.12.17 — Updated: 1.17.17
Among the many unusual aspects of American Apparel’s business was that the company manufactured its clothing in the U.S. — and in Southern California, rather than a part of the country where labor and real estate is less costly. But now that the American Apparel brand has been bought by Canada’s Gildan, what’s to become of the company’s factories, which employ thousands of workers? [More]
eBay Using Pro Authenticators To Spot Counterfeit Items
By 1.12.17
Even though eBay is really just a middle-man, giving buyers and sellers a platform to transact business, it doesn’t want those buyers being conned into paying for counterfeit items, or sellers unloading potentially illegal knockoffs. [More]
Jack Daniel’s Now Sells Whiskey-Flavored Coffee
By 1.12.17
There are all kinds of flavors of coffee out there: vanilla, caramel, peppermint, the list is fairly extensive. Now, customers will have another option: whiskey. [More]
Aeropostale Is Back, Re-Opens More Than 500 Stores
By 1.12.17
Last month, signs in Aeropostale stores blared, “EVERYTHING MUST GO!” The stores sold off their inventory, then closed up. Then something surprising happened: more than two-thirds of those stores opened back up under new ownership. [More]
Remaining Target Portrait Studios To Close Jan. 28
By 1.11.17 — Updated: 1.12.17
If you’ve been meaning to have some pictures taken at your local Target Portrait Studio, hurry up: This week, the retailer announced to employees that the remaining studios will close at the end of this month. [More]
FedEx Customers Will Be Able To Drop Off, Pick Up Packages At Walgreens Stores
By 1.11.17
We’ve all seen what can happen when a package is left out in the open or otherwise unattended, but not everyone can be home during the day, live in a doorman building, or have their stuff delivered to an office. Also? Some carriers just hate coming to your house. In an effort to solve these problems, FedEx and Walgreens announced plans to put delivery lockers in as thousands of Walgreens stores by the end of next year. [More]
Wells Fargo Overhauls Teller Pay System After Fake Account Fiasco
By 1.11.17 — Updated: 1.23.17
Shortly after federal regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million for its decades-long fake account fiasco perpetrated by employees who opened more than two million unauthorized accounts in order to meet high-pressure sales goals, the company said it would ditch the incentive system. Now, the bank has finally outlined its new approach to compensating employees that shifts the focus away from upselling add-on products and toward improved customer satisfaction. [More]
Fried Chicken Shell Chalupa Dropping At Taco Bell Jan. 26
By 1.11.17
Less than two weeks into the new year and fast food restaurants are already preparing to top all of the stunt food that debuted in 2016. First up: Taco Bell’s national release of a fried chicken shell chalupa. [More]
Report: Walmart To Lay Off Hundreds Of Employees By End Of The Month
By 1.10.17
Hundreds of employees at Walmart will soon be out a job, as the big box retailer is reportedly set to eliminate a number of positions around the country before the end of its fiscal year on Jan. 31. [More]
Is A Restriction On Credit Card Surcharges A Free Speech Violation?
By 1.10.17
When you think of First Amendment disputes, your mind probably conjures images of protestors, or investigative journalism, or maybe you think of the never-ending debate over where to draw the line between obscenity and protected forms of expression. You probably don’t immediately connect the dots between the First Amendment and a state law about credit card surcharges — but the U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to decide that very issue. [More]
The Business Of Re-Selling Your Unwanted Christmas Gifts Is Still Brisk
By 1.10.17
The holiday shopping season is over, which means that the holiday scavenger season has begun. As we return our gifts, those items make their way to brokers who sell random stuff by the truckload, eventually ending up on the shelf of a discount store in the next state, in a popular eBay store, or a flea market table on the other side of the world. [More]
Gildan Activewear Wins American Apparel Bankruptcy Auction With $88M Bid
By 1.10.17
Although big name bidders like Amazon and Forever 21 recently joined the group of companies looking to scoop up bankrupt American Apparel and its assets at auction, in the end, longtime Canadian suitor Gildan Activewear came out on top. [More]
7 Things We Learned About Sears Holdings’ Apparent Death Spiral
By 1.9.17
According to Eddie Lampert, CEO and Chairman of Sears Holdings, the company is in the middle of a “transformation” into a profitable enterprise that integrates online and offline retail. Yet everyone from former high-ranking executives to anyone who has ever set foot in a Kmart says the retailer is in an inescapable death spiral. [More]
StubHub Sent Me The Wrong Tickets, Wouldn’t Replace Them
By 1.6.17
The Dallas Cowboys are in the National Football League playoffs, and that has a lot of fans excited, including Mark, who planned to attend the game next week with a friend. Except, when he received the tickets purchased off of StubHub, they weren’t for the game in Jan. 2017, they were for the game in Jan. 2016. [More]
Sam’s Club CEO Exiting As Company Moves To Win Over Costco Shoppers
By 1.6.17
In recent years, Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer has led the warehouse store’s efforts to compete for Costco’s more affluent shoppers, but as sales at the Walmart-owned chain remain unremarkable, Brewer will soon retire.
[More]
