When a movie or TV show needs stacks of cash for a scene, they don’t usually withdraw millions from the bank and hope no one walks away with it. Instead, they use prop money that will pass for the real thing on camera, but that any cashier with eyes would immediately notice is fake. So when some Walmart shoppers in Georgia managed to buy $1,000 of stuff with fake movie money, police were suspicious about the cashier’s involvement. [More]
Retail Services
Walmart, Home Depot Relying More On Physical Stores To Complete Online Orders
By 8.23.16
Walmart’s recent $3 billion acquisition of e-commerce company Jet.com may have been the retailer’s way of spurring its online business, but the largest retailer in the world has already been mingling its physical stores with its online presence. Much like fellow big box store, Home Depot, Walmart has increasingly used its vast network of stores to fulfill online purchases. [More]
Best Buy Increasing Online Sales, Still Not Dead
By 8.23.16
A few years ago, it seemed like Best Buy was nothing more than a poorly decorated Amazon and Newegg showroom, and the business of big-box electronics stores was doomed. Sometimes, though, the popular wisdom isn’t true, and an electronics store that appears to be doomed can make a comeback. [More]
16 Companies That Started Out Life With A Different Name
By 8.23.16
They’re names you probably come into contact with every day — Walmart, McDonald’s, Nike, and more — but they were once newcomers on the scene, with names they shed years ago. [More]
Now Walmart’s Investigating The Sheet Manufacturer That Target Ditched
By 8.23.16
Days after Target terminated its relationship with one of the world’s biggest textile manufacturers after finding the company supplied the retailer with nearly a million sheet sets labeled as “Egyptian Cotton” that were actually made from non-Egyptian cotton, Walmart says it’s reviewing Welspun India’s records and cotton certifications. [More]
Amazon Working On Discount Music Subscription Service For Echo Users
By 8.23.16
Amazon already offers Prime Music as part of its Amazon Prime subscription package, but now it looks like the online retailer is looking to offer this music streaming independent from Prime while also giving a discount to users of the company’s Echo web-connected speaker. [More]
What Should Walmart Do Now That It’s Landed Jet.com?
By 8.23.16
It’s no secret why Walmart bought Jet.com for $3 billion: the company’s e-commerce know-howo and experienced could be the key to the brick-and-mortar retailer’s plans of catching up with Amazon, finally, after all these years. But now that the honeymoon is over, it’s time to look at how, exactly, this marriage will work. [More]
Customers: CVS Takeover Erased Everything Good About Target Pharmacies
By 8.23.16
One of the reasons that Target gave for its poor performance during a recent earnings call was that stores may have lost some foot traffic because of “some disruptions” when the discount store sold its pharmacy business to CVS. We wondered what that meant, and asked if readers had experienced those “disruptions.” They had, but the bigger problem is something that Target’s executives may not have realized: people filled prescriptions there because they liked things that Target did differently. [More]
Costco Citi Card Users Receive Cancellation Notices, Are Very Confused
By 8.22.16
Costco, Citibank, Visa, and all of the companies’ customers had plenty of notice that the warehouse club’s store-branded credit card would be switching from American Express to a Citi Visa card. The transition didn’t go very smoothly for some members, but everyone assumed that the transition-related problems would be over by now. Nope. Some customers received cancellation notices at the end of last week, and are now very confused. [More]
Half-Finished Hollywood Target Stuck In Legal Limbo For Years
By 8.22.16
For nearly two years, the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Western Ave. in Hollywood has been home to the shell of a partially finished, three-story Target store. Thanks to an ongoing legal back-and-forth between the city, neighborhood groups, and the retailer, it could be another three years before construction resumes.
[More]
Why Are There Still So Many Bank Branches Everywhere? Because You Keep Going.
By 8.22.16
If you live in a certain kind of urban area, you see it all the time: those new mixed-use buildings go up, and on the ground floor of practically every single one there’s a bank branch or two. And if you thought to yourself, “Why are there so freaking many bank branches opening in an era when all the young folk living in those buildings bank by phone?” you’re not alone. But it turns out there’s an easy reason that bank branches keep proliferating: customers are using ’em. [More]
If You Bought Egyptian Cotton Sheets From Target, You Might Be Getting A Refund
By 8.19.16
Target is breaking up with one of the world’s biggest textile manufacturers, claiming that the company was sending it sheets labeled as “Egyptian cotton” that were actually made with cotton of the non-Egyptian sort. That means refunds for customers who bought the bedding in question. [More]
Target Shoppers Aren’t ‘Cautious,’ They’re Shopping At Walmart
By 8.19.16
This week, both Target and Walmart released their quarterly financial results. Based on the results and executives’ comments on those reults, it’s almost like they’re from two different quarters or years entirely, or at least not from two discount stores that are generally close competitors. Maybe it’s not that shoppers are clutching their wallets or spending on home renovations instead of everyday home goods, a Target speculated. Maybe Target’s shoppers are just heading to Walmart more often. [More]
9 Things We Learned About Walmart’s Relationships With Local Police
By 8.18.16
Walmart just shared its quarterly results with investors and with the world, and its sales and profits are up. Great news! Only a lot of the chain’s profits have come because of aggressive cost-cutting, and its cutbacks in security have meant increases in petty and violent crimes that can be a burden on local law enforcement. [More]
Target Will Have Private Bathrooms In All Stores By Next Year
By 8.17.16
One fact that was lost in the reaction to Target’s April 2016 announcement that customers could use bathrooms and fitting rooms of the genders they identify with is that many Target locations already have single-occupancy restrooms available for customers, meaning the gender and genetics of the person using the toilet doesn’t matter because they are the only person in the room. Today, the retailer said it will spend $20 million to make sure that this option is soon available in all 1,800 Target locations. [More]
Target Sales Are Down Because Customers Are Fixing Up Their Homes Instead
By 8.17.16
Target’s first comparable stores sales decrease in two years is partly due to the retailer’s problems with actually selling groceries, but the drop also reflects problems with the national retail landscape as a whole. Target expected sales to increase slightly, but instead, Americans are apparently paying for experiences rather than stuff, heading to buy clothes at off-price stores, and buying supplies to remodel our homes. [More]
Why Are Home Depot & TJ Maxx Bringing In Customers Other Retailers Can’t?
By 8.17.16
With retailers like Macy’s, Kmart, Sears, and others closing dozens of stores year after year in a bid to boost their bottom line in the face of sluggish sales, you might think the retail world as a whole is struggling. While a number of big names have indeed seen better day, a few companies are bucking that trend. [More]
