Maybe it’s suddenly time for subscription services and big-box discount stores to be pals. After yesterday’s report that Walmart may be in talks with beauty products subscription service Birchbox, today we learned Bark, a pet supplies company best known for its Barkbox subscription service, has made a deal with Target to put its products in stores. [More]
big box stores
Big Box Stores Blamed For Giant, Terrifying Spider
By 6.2.17 — Updated: 6.3.17
A woman was recently terrified by a very large, very scary spider she found in her toddler’s bedroom learned that it didn’t walk in there on its own — it probably hitched a ride with a big box store. [More]
New Focus On Small Businesses At Staples Means Co-Working Spaces, K-Cups
By 3.29.17
What is Staples? The company’s leaders probably wouldn’t be pleased to hear you say, “The place where I go for printer cartridges when I can’t wait for an online order,” but plans to change consumer perceptions by offering things small and medium businesses need, from office space to coffee pods. [More]
Some Big Chains Like To Pretend Their Stores Are Closed When It Comes To Paying Tax
By 9.12.16
A big-box store is, by definition, well, big. All that retail, storage, and parking space takes up a fair amount of land. So you’d think that in any state with a property tax, stores would, well, be taxed on their property. And they are… until they’re not. [More]
Best Buy Defies Everyone’s Expectations, Is Mysteriously Not Dead
By 5.25.16
Over the last few years, Best Buy has taken the internet’s snide jokes about using its stores as an Amazon showroom, listened to them, and then stubbornly refused to go out of business. Best Buy calls its results this quarter “better than expected,” which is true, but their continuing existence is also “better than expected.” It’s the last national big-box electronics retailer standing, with $39.5 billion in revenue during the fiscal year that ended in January 2016 and growing online sales. [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]
Target Introduces Extended One-Year Return Policy
By 3.18.15
While 90 days might seem like enough time to decide whether or not those sheets really match your bedroom decor, Target seems to think you might want to think on it a bit longer than that: The company announced today that it will offer customers a one-year return window for select items.
[More]
Staples Accuses Me Of Passing Fake Coupon, Sends $50 Apology Gift Card
By 6.25.13
Gordon took advantage of a Groupon deal for 38% off Staples gift cards. That’s not an unusual offering: Groupon frequently has gift cards to national retailers at nice prices. The unusual thing is that his local store turned him away, claiming that the voucher was “fake.” [More]
Office Max Shuts Down Due To Power Outage That’s Already Over
By 5.7.13
Kaleb has the bad fortune (maybe) to live in a part of the Midwest where it snowed at the beginning of May this year. The storm was so bad that it led to a power outage, and the power outage led to some businesses closing. While the power was out. In the case of one Office Max, every business around them was bustling with activity while they remained closed.
It was the sign on the door of the fully lit store saying that the closure was due too [sic] the power outage that really got to Kaleb. [More]
You Can Buy Staples Gift Cards Online, But Can’t Use Them On Staples.com
By 2.21.13
Jenny has a problem with Staples, and happened to find a post that we wrote about the same problem four years ago. Staples, you see, has a web site and they have about 1,600 stores. You can buy Staples gift cards in many places, including from Staples’ own website. But back in 2009, you couldn’t use Staples gift cards to buy things on the site. You still can’t. [More]
Kohl’s Employee Explains Math-Impaired Signage
By 2.11.13
Vindication for reader Garrett: a real, live Kohl’s employee agrees that the “60% off plus 25% off equals 85% off” sign that he spotted in his local store makes no sense. That’s because this person studies engineering, which means that he or she has some familiarity with how math works. They explained to us what Garrett should have done, as well as the likely origins of this wacky sign. [More]
Best Buy Posts 50% Off Coupon On Internet, Forgets How Internet Works
By 1.22.13 — Updated: 7.15.15
It’s happened over and over again, and retailers never learn their lesson. A big-box store e-mails a coupon to their customers, then freaks out and backpedals when customers actually show up at the cash register and try to use it, withdrawing the coupon and accusing customers of trying to scam the store. This time, the retailer was Best Buy, which offered a coupon for $50 off a purchase of $100 or more as long as the customer used a Mastercard. The coupon excluded most of the items you’d expect it to exclude: prepaid cell phones, iPods, certain brands of TVs and cameras. One very key thing that it didn’t exclude: gift cards. [More]
Target Also Hauls Out Valentine’s Day Stuff In Mid-December
By 12.19.12
In the poll on our post from Monday about a Kmart that has already hauled out the stuffed animals and cards for Valentine’s Day, the wishes of our readership are clear: you don’t want to see Valentine’s Day stuff out until January at the earliest. Unfortunately, our readers don’t run the world, and certainly don’t run big-box discount stores. Reader L. sent along this photo from a Target store in Florida. [More]
Bed, Bath and Beyond Will Let You Return, Like, Anything
By 9.25.06
Reader John bought a Eureka vacuum cleaner from Bed Bath and Beyond in March. When the vacuum stopped working in August, John called Eureka. They asked that he get the vacuum repaired himself. John took said appliance to a local Brooklyn hole-in-the-wall repair place where it was “repaired” and by “repaired” we mean “stored for several days and returned.” From John’s email:
