Apparently, it doesn’t matter how dissatisfied your customers are as long as you have the coolest clothes. While Abercrombie & Fitch may have the lowest score out of all retailers on the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index, the chain’s same-store sales were still up slightly over the same period last quarter. Maybe it pays to have your models put their clothes back on. [More]
Retail Services
Target Hires Barbie To Shill For Swimsuits, Promote Body Confidence
By 3.1.16
When you think of promoting healthy body acceptance, the first thing to come to mind probably isn’t putting Barbie in a bunch of swimsuits and parading her around in ads and other marketing materials. But now that the iconic doll comes in a variety of body types, that’s just what Target is doing to publicize its 2016 swim collection. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Have Just The Thing For Your iPhone 3G
By 3.1.16
Hey, do you remember 2008 and 2009? There was a presidential election, and many people still thought the Blackberry was a fabulous smartphone. The second generation of the iPhone, 3G, debuted at the same time as Apple’s App Store. And sometime between then and 2010, this iPhone speaker hit the shelves of Walmart, where it has stayed ever since. [More]
Costco Credit Cards Will Officially Switch To Citi, Visa In June
By 2.29.16
For more than a year now, Costco has been preparing to take its store-branded credit card business in a new direction. Specifically, it’s transferring its credit card network from long-time partner American Express to Citigroup and Visa. After hitting a few snags in the road, the shopping club now plans to make things official in June. [More]
Amazon And Brita Announce Smart Pitcher That Orders Its Own Filters
By 2.29.16
Savvy observers probably knew when Amazon created its Dash system of buttons that let consumers re-order single items that they use often that the buttons themselves were never the point. The real point of Amazon Dash was to create smart home goods that replenish themselves, like printers that order their own ink and dishwashers that prompt you to order more soap after a certain number of wash cycles. Now that technology will be applied to… water filters. [More]
Organization Of Walmart Employees Says That More Workers Are Interested After Store Closings
By 2.26.16
The closure of 154 Walmart stores earlier this year wasn’t good news for anyone, except for perhaps some small-town storeowners and well organized resellers. One group that’s really benefiting, even though they’d probably rather not, is a splinter group of what used to be known as OUR Walmart, a group that is not a union, but works to share information between employees and organizes protests and strikes. As store closings continued, they noticed their Internet traffic is up. [More]
Amazon Makes New Streaming Show Available Without Prime, With Ads
By 2.26.16
Amazon’s streaming video programming is just another way for the company to entice customers to sign up for Prime memberships, right? Who can resist free 2-day shipping and Alpha House? Yet the company’s new reality show, a fashion design competition called The Fashion Fund, is available to stream for free with ads as long as you have an Amazon account. Oh, and by the way, you can buy the finalists’ collections on Amazon. [More]
Yes, There Really Is A Dentist’s Office In A Kmart In Miami
By 2.26.16
We learned about Kmart Dental in Florida from reader Jason, who sent us a link and noted that it “has got to be the oddest thing inside of a Kmart anywhere.” We don’t know whether it holds any strangeness records, but a dentist’s office inside a discount store is pretty unusual. We wondered how they ended up there, and whether Kmart dental offices were a common thing that we had just never heard of, so we called them up and asked. [More]
Sears Loses $580 Million In Last Quarter Of 2015, Still Working On That ‘Transformation’ Thing
By 2.25.16
Earlier this week, we received an email from a reader with a tip for our Sears and Kmart store closings list. We checked it out and learned that her local Sears store was actually staying open, which took her by surprise. “It sure looked like that part of the mall was being taken down,” she wrote, relieved, mirroring many shoppers’ reactions to the continued existence of Sears and Kmart as a company. [More]
You Can Use Amazon Payments Instead Of Your Credit Card On Southwest Flights
By 2.24.16
Southwest Airlines could have partnered up with a number of online payment services to let passengers log in to their accounts instead of pulling out their credit cards to pay for in-air WiFi and entertainment, including on their own devices. [More]
Best Buy Is Closing Website To Third-Party Sellers Today
By 2.24.16
Allowing third-party sellers to sell on an e-commerce site can instantly expand a retailer’s online offerings without the retailer having to invest in more merchandise, but can also confuse shoppers who want to return their merchandise. After 5 years, Best Buy is shutting down its third-party marketplace today, citing shopper confusion and a decision to invest in other parts of the business as their main reasons. [More]
Walmart Faces Lawsuit For Selling Parmesan Cheese With Wood Pulp Filler
By 2.24.16
With federal regulators now cracking down on Parmesan cheese products that contain wood pulp and other fillers, it was just a mater of time before the first lawsuit was filed against a retailer selling its grated cheese product as “100% Parmesan.” [More]
Sargento Shortchanges Customers Who Prefer Sharp Cheddar Cheese
By 2.23.16
Megan was shopping for cheese at Target over the weekend, as many sensible people do, and she noticed something strange about the pre-sliced packages of Sargento cheddar. It came in two different sizes, which had the same price. Yes, it turns out that one of them was the victim of the Grocery Shrink Ray, taking the total from 20 slices to 18, depriving customers of enough slices to make an entire grilled cheese sandwich. UPDATE: The different sizes may represent different package sizes between cheddar types, which is confusing. [More]
Amazon Now Selling Clothing Under Its Own In-House Brands
By 2.23.16
In yet another effort to completely and totally dominate the shopping world, Amazon has apparently started a few private label clothing brands and has been quietly shilling apparel and accessories under those trademarked names with nary a press release to let anyone know. [More]
Citibank Caught Screwing Up Credit Card Debt Collections, Must Refund $5M
By 2.23.16
If you had a hunch that Citibank’s credit card division wasn’t terribly good at its job, you were right. Citi sold credit card debt to buyers with inflated interest rates, failed to tell those debt buyers when it accepted payments on these cards after the debt had been sold. [More]
Hoverboards Vanish From Amazon… Again
By 2.23.16
The list of retailers removing hoverboards from their virtual store shelves after receiving a warning from federal safety regulators grew again today, with Amazon stopping the sale of the self-balancing scooters for the second time. [More]
Only One Retailer Comes Out Smelling Worse Than Walmart In Latest Customer Satisfaction Surveys
By 2.23.16
The American Customer Satisfaction Index has released its annual look at the retail industry, and once again Walmart scored the lowest among department stores, supermarkets, and personal care retailers. But one specialty retailer did manage to eke out an even lower score than Walmart. [More]
What To Look For When Searching For Soft And Absorbent Bath Towels
By 2.23.16
Unlike other products, we don’t see a barrage of commercials for brands of towels on television and online, telling us which brand to buy. Yet there’s a wide array of choices once you hit a home, department, or discount store. What should you look for? Which towel is right for you? Here’s what you should look for when searching for soft and absorbent towels. [More]
