At the beginning of this week, we took inspiration from reader Tom’s photo of a margarine tub, and asked our readers to send in your favorite funny store-brand product names. They could be fanciful or funny in their descriptive bluntness: they just had to be funny. You submitted plenty: let’s unload this grocery cart of amusement. [More]
Retail Services
Nutty Nuggets And Panburger Partner: The Best Store-Brand Products You Submitted
By 11.25.15 — Updated: 5.24.17
Walmart Used Defense Contractor Lockheed Martin To Monitor Employees
By 11.25.15
As a growing number of Walmart employees began demanding higher wages, with some also calling for workers to unionize, the nation’s largest retailer hired one of the world’s largest defense contractors to follow the online activities of critical employees. [More]
Costco Chicken Salad E. Coli Outbreak Found In 7 States So Far
By 11.25.15
When last we discussed the recently announced outbreak of E. Coli illnesses tied to chicken salad sold at Costco, the sick customers had been limited to four states — Washington, Colorado, Utah, and Montana. Last night, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that the outbreak is more widespread, sickening Costco customers on both coasts. [More]
Mysterious Cargo Operation In Ohio Might Belong To Amazon
By 11.24.15
In 2008, DHL abandoned its domestic shipping operations in the United States, putting thousands of employees out of work and leaving behind a very nice air cargo facility at a decommissioned air base in Ohio. A company started using the base recently, shipping unspecified “consumer goods,” but no one will identify who it is. One likely suspect is Amazon. [More]
No, Target Is Not Giving You A 50% Off Everything Coupon For Liking A Page On Facebook
By 11.24.15
We all want to believe that there are special coupons out there just waiting to be grabbed, and the newest questionable offer to take hold of Facebook newsfeeds involves the false promise of a coupon that will magically grant you 50% off anything at Target. [More]
Can You Spot The Black Friday Deal? Sale-Stacking Makes It Harder
By 11.24.15
Happy Shopping Frenzy Week! Marketers no longer want to confine Black Friday to the last Friday in November, and instead have started the festivities as early as Nov. 2. Fine. Now we’re heading into the final week of Deal Season. Yet something isn’t a deal just because a retailer’s ad tells you it is. How do you navigate layers of discounts and know what a fair price for something is in the first place? [More]
Report: Amazon Resets Some Users’ Passwords Over Concerns They May Have Been Compromised
By 11.24.15
If you found Amazon has force-reset your account password, you aren’t alone: according to a new report, many customers have reported that the e-commerce giant emailed them saying their password had been changed, citing security concerns that the information may be exposed to outsiders. [More]
Costco Pulls Chicken Salad In Western States Over E. Coli Concerns
By 11.24.15
After linking a number of cases of E. coli poisoning back to chicken salad bought at Costco, the warehouse chain has pulled the product from its shelves in the western portion of the U.S. [More]
Here’s Why Costco And Whole Foods Made Consumer Reports’ 2015 Naughty List
By 11.23.15
Every year, Santa Claus makes a master list of which children have been naughty or nice in the preceding year, and rewards them accordingly. Our sibling publication, Consumer Reports, makes its own list of judgement, deciding whether companies, not individuals, have behaved themselves in the past year. The list isn’t an overall evaluation of the company’s products or practices, but a way to call out out specific examples of admirable or deplorable behavior from the last year. [More]
Samsung Offering To Pay Customers Who Sign Up For Its Mobile Payment System
By 11.23.15
When it comes to competing in the mobile payment arena, Samsung has a plan to convince customers to pay for stuff with its technology: the company is offering up free gift cards to people who sign up for Samsung Pay. [More]
Costco Won’t Sell Genetically Engineered Salmon
By 11.23.15
Genetically engineered salmon recently received the stamp of approval from the Food and Drug Administration, but it might have a hard time reaching a lot of customers. Costco has joined the list of major food sellers who say they won’t offer the controversial product to customers. [More]
Walmart Starting Cyber Monday On Sunday Because That’s What Happens Now
By 11.23.15
Here’s a proposal: why don’t we toss out all the special names for the big holiday shopping days and just accept the fact that retailers are going to throw sales at the public before, during and after Thanksgiving? Walmart seems cool with that, as it’s moving its Cyber Monday sale-a-palooza to Sunday. [More]
We Warned Target That Some Customers Wouldn’t Get ‘Fallout 4’ Pre-Orders, But They Didn’t Listen
By 11.20.15
It’s one thing for a retailer to screw up an order because it changed the customer’s payment method, or because someone in customer service was misinformed. But when that retailer is given weeks of advance notice and still manages to leave that customer empty-handed, there’s no excuse. [More]
Man Who Sued Costco After Altercation Led To Broken Leg Loses Case
By 11.20.15
Last September, a man in Oregon filed a $670,000 lawsuit against Costco claiming that a receipt-checking dispute left him with a broken leg. This week, a jury refused to award the man damages in the case. [More]
How Did Patti LaBelle End Up Selling Super-Popular Sweet Potato Pies At Walmart?
By 11.20.15
You might expect people to be keen to purchase pie at this time of year, as our peak national pie-eating holiday approaches. Yet a pie fever is currently gripping the country: celebrity pie fever, as Walmart is suddenly unable to keep its new Patti LaBelle-branded sweet potato pie on the shelves. [More]
Empty Shelves Explained: Walmart’s Expansion Greatly Outpaced Its Hiring
By 11.20.15
Last year, Walmart finally acknowledged what dozens of Walmart workers had already told us — that maybe the retailer had a slight problem with keeping shelves stocked at some stores. But a new look at store growth and hiring data over the last decade shows that this is not merely a matter of not having a few extra people to work the overnight shift. [More]
Big-Box Stores Predict Electronics Won’t Be Big Sellers This Year
By 11.19.15
To make consumers want a gadget and not-so-subtly hint that they would really like that item as a gift this year, that gift has to be very innovative. Since what’s on the market are simply upgraded versions of the items that people already have, there aren’t any hot technology items like the Great Netbook Craze of half a decade ago. That’s why big-box tech stores are predicting sort of a glum holiday season. [More]
Home Depot Continued To Sell 28 Products After Safety Recalls
By 11.19.15
When a product is recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, it becomes illegal for a retailer to continue to sell that item. But Home Depot apparently wasn’t following that rule for the past three years, selling 28 different products after they were recalled. [More]
