You might shock yourself while cooking by how many ways you can figure out to melt cheese into and onto things, but you shouldn’t actually receive an electrical shock in the process. That’s Walmart’s cue to recall 330,000 electric griddles that could pose a shock hazard to home chefs. [More]
Retail Services
Aldi Getting Rid Of Candy In Checkout Lines
By 1.13.16
Most of us have been there: You push a cart full of healthy food up to the supermarket checkout line only to cave to sugary temptation when running that final gauntlet lined with chocolate, candy, and other snacks. But that may soon be a thing of the past for Aldi shoppers. [More]
Amazon To Open Fifth On-Campus, Offline Location At University Of Pennsylvania
By 1.12.16
Amazon has spent the last year expanding its challenge to the existence of college bookstores, opening pickup locations on campuses scattered across the country. There, students can pick up things that they ordered on Amazon, and… that’s about it. A new pickup point at the University of Pennsylvania will also offer study and collaboration space for student use, and will provide same-day or next-day pickup for members of Amazon Student or Amazon Prime. [More]
Amazon Prime Adds 20% Discount On Video Game Pre-Orders & New Releases
By 1.12.16
For years, Amazon was able to win over some video game fans by guaranteeing release-day delivery of new titles. But now that gamers can pre-order digital downloads of their games (for the same price) so that they’re available right away when they go live, Amazon is going after customers who want to save money on these pricey new releases. [More]
Target’s Fuzzy Math Spreads To Dollar General
By 1.12.16
Imagine that you need 42 ounces of Skittles. We’re not sure what you need them for; it’s your life. When shopping in large quantities, always check for dastardly Target Math, which exists to trip up innocent shoppers like you who just want a large quantity of something. Instead, Target Math makes you pay more per ounce when you buy in bulk, while you could have purchased multiples of a smaller size for less money. [More]
Wells Fargo Mocks Minnesota Vikings’ “Photo Bomb” Lawsuit
By 1.11.16
A few weeks back, the Minnesota Vikings sued Wells Fargo, accusing the bank of trying “photo bomb” the team’s new stadium. Wells has since fired back, calling the whole thing “far-fetched.” [More]
Report: Amazon Debuting Cheaper, Portable Echo Speaker Soon
By 1.11.16
Amazon is reportedly getting ready to expand the Echo Speaker family, with plans to debut a new, smaller, cheaper, and portable version of the voice-activated device in a few weeks. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Are Planning A Game Boy Advance Karaoke Party
By 1.11.16
Back in 2003, MP3 players were relatively new and rare, and an interesting device hit the shelves at Best Buy: a Game Boy Advance peripheral that would turn your handheld gaming device into a handheld music and recording device. It went off the market at some time, probably around the same time that the Game Boy Advance itself did. Like all discontinued and long-obsolete electronics, though, it lives on…at Walmart. [More]
Police: Shoplifter Bit Off Finger Of Walmart Worker Who Confronted Her For Stealing
By 1.11.16
While it’s surely upsetting to be caught shoplifting, one Walmart shopper accused of trying to steal condoms, lubricant, and underwear took things to an extreme when she allegedly bit off the finger of a store employee who attempted to stop her. [More]
Amazon ‘Prime Now’ Drivers In Arizona Sue Company For Misclassification, Wage Theft
By 1.8.16
Last year, a group of delivery drivers for Amazon’s Prime Now service who worked through third-party services sued Amazon and their employers in California. Now a group of couriers in Phoenix, Arizona are doing the same, pointing out that being required to wear Prime Now uniforms, ask customers to take Amazon surveys, and work fixed hours from an Amazon warehouse should have made them employees of the mega-e-tailer, not independent subcontractors. [More]
Walmart Employee Drags Unconscious Woman From Her Burning Car
By 1.8.16
When employees of a Pennsylvania Walmart learned that there was a car on fire in the parking lot early in the morning on New Year’s Day, they didn’t sit around, stare into space, and wait for the fire department to show up. An overnight employee ran outside with a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze… and that’s when he noticed an unconscious woman inside the locked vehicle. [More]
Police: Couple Gets Engaged In Walmart, Allegedly Goes On Shoplifting Spree
By 1.7.16
After getting engaged, it’s normal to want to celebrate. But one Michigan couple took their celebration in a different direction after their public Walmart proposal: they allegedly went on a small shoplifting jaunt that included pilfering assorted sex toys. [More]
Home Depot Explains Why It Offers “Do-It-Herself” Workshops
By 1.7.16
Interested in learning how to do a few handy things around your home? Home Depot, like some other retailers, offers free workshops to customers. In fact, it offers three types of workshops: The generic “Do-It-Yourself” classes, kid-friendly tutorials, and then “Do-It-Herself,” a category that has some wondering what a customer’s gender has to do with DIY home repair. [More]
Amazon Won’t Say If Employee Added Unrequested Dildo To Customer’s Cart
By 1.6.16
In the world of customer service, there are usually a few, easily predictable responses from companies that we encounter: either an issue gets resolved to the satisfaction of the customer, whether quickly or with a bit of effort, or it doesn’t. But one Amazon customer found himself in wholly unfamiliar territory after providing negative feedback, when, he claims, an employee of the e-commerce giant put an unrequested 10-inch dildo in his shopping basket. [More]
How Much Does This Bottle Of Stain Remover Cost?
By 1.6.16
Welcome to Target! The normal rules of logic do not apply here, and addition and subtraction also work differently, so you need to evaluate all price tags and signs that say “Sale” or even “Clearance” carefully. Are you up to the challenge? Then you can shop at Target. Congratulations. Here is your first assignment: help reader Bill figure out how much this bottle of Oxi Clean costs. [More]
JPMorgan Chase Fined $48 Million For Failing To Comply With Robosigning Settlement
By 1.5.16
Years after being hit with billions in penalties, and after being told by federal regulators to stop screwing up the foreclosure and mortgage adjustment process by providing borrowers and courts with inaccurate and unchecked information, some banks continue to pay for the fact that they didn’t quite learn their lesson. [More]
Man Accused Of Shoving Steak Down Pants, Cans Of Beer Up Shirt
By 1.5.16
The Internet puts stories from news outlets all over the world at our fingertips, which leads to one inevitable question: why do people steal meat by stuffing it down their pants so often? It’s a crime that has suddenly increased in some areas, and people commit crimes against meat out of either hunger or desperation for cash. The latest alleged meat thief was making a nice meal out of a package of steaks, two 24-ounce beers, and a package of cream cheese. [More]
Black Angus Burgers Sold At Walmart May Contain Pieces Of Wood
By 1.5.16
Do you have any boxes of Walmart house brand Black Angus beef burgers with Vidalia onions lurking in your freezer? If so, time to check labels: almost 90,000 pounds of that specific burger type (about 44,784 boxes) has been recalled because there may be “extraneous wood materials” in the meat. [More]
