In just the last few weeks, card skimmers — devices that illegally scan customers’ credit cards –have been found at two different Walmart stores. The skimmers in these cases were so convincing that they may have been in place for weeks for being discovered. [More]
Retail Services
Sears Looking To Make More Money Off Its Kenmore, Craftsman Brands, Won’t Say How
By 5.26.16
Sears Holdings has a great idea: instead of relying on sales of washers, dryers, and tools, it’s going to work on a way to make more money from its trusty brands like Kenmore, Craftsman, and DieHard. As for exactly how it’s going to do that, Sears isn’t saying. [More]
Best Buy Defies Everyone’s Expectations, Is Mysteriously Not Dead
By 5.25.16
Over the last few years, Best Buy has taken the internet’s snide jokes about using its stores as an Amazon showroom, listened to them, and then stubbornly refused to go out of business. Best Buy calls its results this quarter “better than expected,” which is true, but their continuing existence is also “better than expected.” It’s the last national big-box electronics retailer standing, with $39.5 billion in revenue during the fiscal year that ended in January 2016 and growing online sales. [More]
Is Costco’s “Meh” Attitude Toward Online Sales Hubris Or Good Business?
By 5.25.16
By this point, bricks-and-mortar stores that haven’t also established a solid online presence are often put on death watch, but Costco continues to take a “we’ll get there someday” approach to its internet business without raising too many alarm bells. Is that shortsightedness or good business? [More]
Walmart Ending Price Matching Of Local Competitors’ Ads At 500 Stores; Won’t Say Which 500
By 5.25.16
From price-matching local and online competitor prices to its own “Savings Catcher” program, Walmart offers customers a variety of ways to save a few buck on their bill. But shoppers at some stores will soon have one fewer option for saving money, as the big box retailer is ditching in-store price matching at 500 locations, though the company currently refuses to say which stores are on that list. [More]
Reddit, Yelp, Kickstarter, 55 Other Internet Businesses And Activists Ask FCC To Investigate Zero-Rating
By 5.25.16
That thing where an ISP — like your wireless or cable company — can exempt certain services from counting against your data cap is called zero-rating, and it exists in a weird regulatory space. There are no rules against it, but there are also no rules explicitly permitting it. The businesses that do it, of course, say it is “innovative” and “competitive.” The FCC hasn’t openly decided whether or not it agrees. So a whole huge group of consumer advocates, business advocates, and businesses have gotten together to ask the FCC officially, and publicly, make up its mind. [More]
Wells Fargo Set To Launch Its Own Digital Wallet On Android Devices
By 5.24.16
Retailers, tech companies, wearable makers, and banks have been clamoring to create and launch digital wallets that allow consumers to make payments with the tap of a phone. Today, Wells Fargo is reportedly poised to throw its hat into this arena. [More]
Amazon Really Wants To Sell You Groceries, Is Expanding “Prime Fresh” To More Cities
By 5.24.16
Big box brick and mortar stores have long since expanded into selling you fresh and packaged groceries to go along with your clothes, books, electronics, and housewares. Amazon, unwilling to be left behind by any 21st century shopping trend, now seems ready to expand their own grocery offerings right on cue. [More]
Bank Of America Won’t Have To Pay $1.2 Billion For Countrywide’s “Hustle” Mortgage Scam
By 5.23.16
Nearly eight years after Bank of America bailed out Countrywide Financial, a federal appeals court has ruled that BofA should not have been held liable for Countrywide’s “Hustle” scam in which the company sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a ton of poorly underwritten mortgages knowing that they were worthless. [More]
What Are Shoppers Buying Since They Aren’t Buying Clothes?
By 5.23.16
It’s bleak out there for a clothing retailer, with sales slumping at many chains, leading some — American Apparel, Aeropostale, Pacsun, among others — to declare bankruptcy. So if we aren’t shopping for items to clad our bodies, what are we shopping for? [More]
Bank Of America To Allow Android Pay Cash Withdrawals At Some ATMs
By 5.20.16
Back in January, Bank of America jumped on the card-free bandwagon by developing new ATMs that allow customers to withdraw cash or complete other tasks using their cellphones instead of their bank cards. This week, the company took that initiative a step farther, announcing it would let customers perform those tasks through Android Pay. [More]
Target Using California Stores As Retail Labs To Test “Enhancements”
By 5.19.16
Retailers tend to be cautious about rolling out changes nationwide, instead testing out a couple tweaks here and few updates there. Target, however, is using entire stores in California as testing grounds for dozens of new in-store “enhancements.”
[More]
Users Of Walmart’s Prepaid MoneyCard Say They Can’t Access Funds
By 5.19.16
Prepaid credit cards can serve as a lifeline for millions of unbanked Americans in need of an alternative to traditional banking, but they’re only helpful when users can actually get access to their funds. To that end, thousands of consumers who use Walmart-branded prepaid debit cards say they’ve been stranded without their funds for three days. [More]
No, The Deals At Store Closing Sales Are Often Not That Great
By 5.19.16
When the bright “store closing” signs go up outside of a store that’s being liquidated, that’s meant to attract shoppers in search of deals. The problem, though, is that liquidation sales mean first marking items up to their original retail price, then gradually lowering them, meaning that prices are higher than they were when the “liquidation” started. [More]
Sports Authority Store Closing Sales Will Start Around May 25, End Around August 31
By 5.18.16
If you’re looking for a great deal on some athletic clothing or sports gear, get ready to head over to Sports Authority… maybe sometime in July. Deep in debt and unable to reorganize itself to keep going, the company declared bankruptcy in March. Liquidators outbid competitors for the remaining stores, and Dick’s and Modell’s only wanted a few dozen stores combined anyway. [More]
Target, Pacific Cycle Recall 129K Infant Bike Helmets Over Choking Hazards
By 5.18.16
If you picked up an infant bicycle helmet from Target recently you might want to check to make sure it’s not one of 129,000 recently recalled. [More]
Google Home Will Try To Be More Conversational, Flexible Than Amazon Echo
By 5.18.16
As expected, Google pulled back the covers today on Google Home, the combination WiFi music speaker, voice-activated personal assistant, and connected-home control console that it intends to go face-to-face with Amazon’s Echo device. While Google did not reveal a price for Home, it did detail some of the features it expects to make the product competitive. [More]
