A “memory stick” sounds like some kind of fascinating tribal artifact, perhaps a staff that elders hold while telling ancient legends. In electronics, of course, it was a revolutionary flash storage device from the late ’90s that made taking digital photos cheaper and easier, eliminating the need to attach a floppy drive to your digital camera. Unless, of course, you’re Sears. [More]
Retail Services
Gap CEO Says He’s Open To Possibly Using Amazon To Reach More Customers
By 5.18.16
Although Amazon may be the big bad wolf at the door coming to blow the house down and eat up their business, some retailers are considering teaming up with the tech giant instead of fearing it. Like Gap, whose CEO said the company would consider working with Amazon if it means reaching shoppers. [More]
Amazon To Open More Physical Stores — Eventually
By 5.18.16
While its second bricks-and-mortar bookstore isn’t expected to open until later this summer, Amazon is already looking toward a future with more physical stores, as well as a beefed-up online presence through its subscription Prime service. [More]
7 Products By The Biggest Tech Companies That Failed Miserably
By 5.17.16
Hearing the news that Google is taking another stab at social media with a new group-chatting app dubbed “Spaces” may feel like deja vu for anyone paying attention to the tech giant’s previous, mostly unsuccessful efforts to gain traction in the social media world with Google+. But Google isn’t the only big name in the tech world that’s tried and failed to popularize a new tech product, not by a long shot. [More]
Amazon Launches Restaurant Delivery Service In New York City, Just Not All Of It
By 5.17.16
After launching its restaurant delivery service in Seattle and Los Angeles in the last year, Amazon has finally added New York City to the list, though only to certain areas in Manhattan. Amazon Restaurants provide food deliveries from more than 350 restaurants to people in Chelsea, Harlem, and the Financial District. Members of Amazon’s $99/year subscription program can view participating restaurants, browse menus, place orders and track the status of their delivery. [Amazon] [More]
Walmart Launches Mobile Payment App In Arkansas And Texas
By 5.16.16
Walmart resisted accepting any of the big mobile payment systems from companies like Apple, Google, and Samsung, instead becoming part of the CurrentC consortium, then developing its own proprietary payment app. As of today, customers can use Walmart Pay at 590 stores in Texas and Arkansas. [More]
Former Wells Fargo Employee Claims Bank Defrauded Government Of $1.4B In Foreclosure Funding
By 5.16.16
There has been no shortage of lawsuits filed against Wells Fargo in recent years, from accusations the bank pushed mortgages on borrowers who couldn’t repay them to claims the company pressed employees to engage in fraudulent conduct with regard to customer accounts. Now, a recently unsealed whistleblower lawsuit melds together those issues, claiming the bank encouraged employees to withhold information from customers that could potentially lead to foreclosure proceedings. [More]
Chase Customers Can No Longer Use Credit Cards As Backup Funding For Overdrafts
By 5.16.16
Last year, banks made $11.16 billion from customers who overdrew their accounts with a majority of those overdraft fees going into the pockets of the three largest banks: Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase. There could be more fees headed Chase’s way soon if customers don’t pay heed to the company’s changing overdraft policy. [More]
Amazon Planning To Sell Groceries, Diapers Under Its Private Label
By 5.16.16
From your closet to your pantry and everything in between, Amazon will soon have something to sell under its own private label: after making a recent foray into the fashion world with in-house clothing brands, the e-commerce giant is going to start peddling its own line of food and diapers. [More]
Why Is JCPenney Trying To Be More Like Sears, When So Many Sears Stores Are Closing?
By 5.16.16
In a previous era, JCPenney and Sears competed against each other for sales in just about everything from apparel to appliances to towels and sheets. Gradually, the rivals’ paths diverged somewhat: JCPenney focused on clothing, while Sears lowered its price point to push its core business of tools and appliances. So why, with Sears in the process of closing so many of its stores, is JCPenney once again going head-to-head with its old nemesis by getting back into the appliance game? [More]
Cadillac Wants To Attract Millennials Somehow, Opens A Coffee Shop
By 5.13.16
Adults under 80 apparently aren’t all that interested in General Motors’ Cadillac brand, maybe because they simply don’t connect the brand with anything that interests them. “What about coffee?” we picture someone at GM saying at the end of a very long meeting. “The kids today like coffee, right?” That’s a plausible enough origin story behind Cadillac House, a café/retail space/art gallery/I swear this is an actual thing that is going to open in June in Manhattan. [More]
New Target Store In Manhattan Will Feature A Chobani Yogurt Cafe
By 5.12.16
Up here in New York’s hinterlands, our Target stores have snack bars with Pizza Hut pizzas, or maybe a Starbucks if they’re really classy. At a planned store in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, they plan some classier offerings in the snack bar. Target has partnered with yogurt brand Chobani to open a cafe featuring “Chobani’s signature Greek yogurt and hand-selected, artisanal ingredients.” [More]
“Chirp” Is Google’s Answer To Amazon Echo; Could Be In Your Home Later This Year
By 5.12.16
The Amazon Echo can do just about everything — order pizza, pay your credit card bill, and answer all your spur-of-the-moment questions, among other things — but can it compete with other connected home speakers? That’s something Google is poised to find out with its own connected-device that could launch later this year. [More]
Walmart Testing Two-Day Delivery Subscription Service
By 5.12.16
It’s finally time: Walmart is officially ready to take on Amazon’s $99/year two-day shipping service, Prime, by knocking off a delivery day and a dollar from its own ShippingPass subscription service. [More]
Analysis: Police Visit Walmart Stores Four Times More Often Than Target
By 5.11.16
If you’re an avid consumer of national news, there’s a specific picture that comes to mind when you see the words “Walmart in Florida.” It probably involves people racing store-owned mobility scooters down the aisles while shoplifting iced teas. A recent Tampa Bay Times analysis of police visits to Walmart stores shows that this picture is a slight exaggeration, but not far off: in the four counties surrounding the bay, police head to a Walmart somewhere in the area an average of two times every hour. [More]
Sears Opening Smaller-Format Appliance Stores
By 5.11.16
Even though Sears is constantly adding underperforming stores to its list of closing locations, the once-great retailer isn’t ready for burial just yet. In an effort to focus on one of its core businesses, Sears is thinking small.
Walmart Sues Visa Over Security Of Debit Card Authorizations
By 5.10.16
While retailers across the country installing chip-and-PIN card readers to better protect consumers’ bank information during checkout, Walmart claims in a recently filed lawsuit that Visa is urging the retailer to use a less-secure method for verifying debit card payments. [More]
Jet.com Testing Delivery Of Fresh Groceries To Some Markets
By 5.10.16
A year into the existence of Jet.com, we’re still not really sure whether it’s the future of retail or a doomed wacky scheme. Now, in addition to taking on Amazon in the Everything Store sector, Jet is experimenting with the delivery of fresh groceries. That would mean the company is competing with urban grocery delivery leaders like Peapod and Instacart, but with its own warehouses. [More]
