In 2013, a group of Walmart workers chartered buses and traveled to the retailer’s Arkansas headquarters to protest what they believed were inadequate wages and unfair treatment of employees. Several people involved in that event were subsequently fired, but a federal labor court now says Walmart must rehire, and provide back pay to, 16 of these workers.
Retail Services
Darth Vader Baby Outfits Recalled For Oddly Appropriate Reason
By 1.21.16
From the “oddly appropriate recall” files, some baby bodysuits (don’t call them onesies!) bearing the image of Darth Vader have been recalled because they pose a choking hazard. No, not because Sith lords are holding out their hands to hurt any younglings, but because the snaps at the bottom might detach too easily and babies could put them in their mouths. A suit celebrating the 60th anniversary of Disneyland has also been recalled, but that doesn’t make as good a headline. Both suits were sold at Disneyland, Disney World, and on Disney cruise ships. [CPSC] (Thanks, Dirk!) [More]
Target CEO, Other Executives Paying Customers Home Visits To Improve Shopping Experience
By 1.21.16
Would you allow a stranger to enter your house, rummage through your closets and cupboards if it meant that your next shopping experience might be better? That’s the idea behind Target’s latest initiative to change the way it gets to know customers. [More]
Regulators Investigating 13 Hoverboard Companies, Amazon Announces Refunds For Scooter Owners
By 1.21.16
For nearly two months now, federal regulators have been working to get to the bottom of exploding hoverboards. This week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced just which brands of self-balancing scooters they are investigating, while also offering a few safety tips for consumers who might already have one of the devices at home. [More]
Ad Watchdog Points Out That Skech-Air Shoes Do Not Let Kids Bounce Like Superhumans
By 1.20.16
When you’re a child with a very active imagination, the hyperbole of advertising can be very confusing. That’s why some consumers reported a recent ad for shoe brand Skechers to the Children’s Advertising Review Unit, part of the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ self-regulation mechanism for the advertising industry. The ad is misleading, making the shoes look way more fun than they are. [More]
Walmart To Raise All Employees’ Wages Next Month
By 1.20.16
Nearly a year after Walmart announced it would give 40% of its employees – mostly minimum wage workers – a pay increase, the nation’s largest retailer plans to give all employees, about 1.2 million of them, an earnings boost. [More]
Target Will Sell Only Eggs From Cage-Free Hens By 2025
By 1.20.16
Another day, another major company coming out to promise it’ll be switching to selling 100% cage-free eggs. Today’s newcomer to the bandwagon is Target, which has announced it’ll be making the change to only selling eggs from uncaged hens by 2025. [More]
Sam’s Club To Accept Visa Credit Cards As Of February 1
By 1.19.16
Shoppers at Sam’s Club will no longer need to ensure that they have the correct credit card on hand or that they’ve brought cash: as of February 1, 2016, the warehouse club will begin accepting Visa credit cards in its stores, finally making all four credit card networks accepted in its stores. [More]
Amazon Exec: Prime Air Drones Will Be “More Like Horses Than Cars”
By 1.19.16
Amazon isn’t ready to unleash its Prime Air drones into the skies just yet (and the Federal Aviation Administration isn’t ready to let it, either) but in the meantime, company executives don’t mind talking about their plans for Prime Air. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Have No Idea How Much ‘Star Trek: DS9’ Toy Costs
By 1.19.16
Josh was browsing the clearance shelves at his local Walmart in North Carolina, as many treasure-hunters and aspiring retail archaeologists of the Raiders of the Lost Walmart do. That’s when he found something surprising: between some kind of fitness equipment and a Margaritaville-branded margarita machine, there was a toy ship from Star Trek. Not just any toy ship, though: this was from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the ’90s series, and the toy had been hiding somewhere for the last 20 years. [More]
Kids Football Team Wants Walmart To Rebuild Field Used To Build Store That Closed In Less Than A Year
By 1.19.16
Less than a year after seeing their patch of grass transform from a football field to a Walmart Express to a closed Walmart Express, the members of one Oklahoma youth football team are calling on the world’s largest retailer to replace their lost gridiron. [More]
Here Are The Walmarts That Are Shutting Down, And When They Will Close For Good
By 1.15.16
Earlier today, Walmart announced it would be closing 269 stores worldwide, including 154 in the U.S. We now have a state-by-state breakdown of all of the stores to be closed, and when they will close the public. [More]
Amazon Doesn’t Just Want To Send You Stuff, It Wants To Handle Shipping Too
By 1.15.16
Amazon is sitting pretty right now with all the business it does as an online purveyor of merchandise, but it’s not content to just sit on its throne of branded boxes, it wants to be the one shipping those items to customers as well. The company just got approval to expand into ocean shipping, giving it more control over items that ship from Chinese factories to U.S. shoppers. [More]
Walmart Closing 154 Stores In U.S., Ending “Walmart Express” Experiment
By 1.15.16
Walmart’s five-year dalliance with trying to go small through new “Walmart Express” stores is apparently over. This morning, the company announced that it will shutter 154 locations in the U.S., including all 102 Express locations, in an effort to focus on its larger outlets. [More]
Amazon Opens UC Berkeley Campus Facility For Students To Pick Up Packages, Maybe Try A Fire Tablet
By 1.14.16
A new college semester will begin soon, and UC Berkeley has a new January transfer: Amazon is opening yet another staffed pickup point on a college campus. The facilities are meant to promote the Amazon brand and alleviate the strain on campus mail services that are flooded with Amazon packages, and there’s something interesting in the Berkeley version: students can sample Kindle devices at an in-store counter. [More]
Amazon Cutting $26 Off The Price Of New Prime Subscriptions This Weekend
By 1.14.16
Every now and then, Amazon finds itself in a generous mood for whatever reason, and will offer up special discounts to boost the buzz surrounding its Prime subscription service. This time, it’s a weekend discount that lops $26 off the regular price for an annual membership to Prime… for new subscribers only, of course. [More]
If Kmart And Sears Stores Close Without A National Press Release, Does Anyone Notice?
By 1.13.16
Last week, department store chain Macy’s announced its holiday season results and its plans to close 40 stores in the coming months. Shoe retailer Finish Line announced plans to close 150 stores by the year 2020. Yet what you never hear about in the national news anymore is how many stores Sears Holdings, corporate parent of Sears and Kmart, is planning to close, even as they continue to shut down underperforming stores. [More]
Big Lots Is Not Actually Slapping Different Prices On The Same Gloves
By 1.13.16
While shopping at Big Lots, Joe noticed identical-looking pairs of gloves in different parts of the store. Yet the “garden gloves” in that department aren’t the same as the “work gloves” in the hardware department. Why not? Since Big Lots has many of the products they sell manufactured, we asked the company directly. The gloves that appear identical aren’t. [More]
