There are a plethora of peer-to-peer payment options on the market, think Venmo, Facebook Payments, or Square Cash. Each offer users an easy, convenient way to transfer money between people, but many have very specific intended uses; some are for paying your friends, others are for buying goods or paying for services. Some can be used for both, but may require different accounts. It’s important to know the difference, lest you become the latest victim of a scam or simply become shut out from your account. [More]
business
Home Depot Helping To Speed Up Sears’ Death Spiral
By 5.18.17 — Updated: 5.19.17
Sears has been closing stores and selling off real estate to stave off its oft-predicted demise, but these closures and other financial decisions may also be hastening Sears’ end by turning annoyed shoppers into Home Depot customers. [More]
Department Store Closures Are Just Getting Started, Says Real Estate Expert
By 5.17.17
Anchor store mainstays like Sears, Macy’s, and JCPenney have already been closing stores to cut costs and adapt to shoppers’ changing needs, but one prominent real estate analyst says this culling of department stores is far from over, and that even the most popular malls will likely end up with just one or two traditional anchor retailers. [More]
Illinois, California End Some Business With Wells Fargo — At Least For Now
By 10.3.16
The fallout from the Wells Fargo fake account fiasco continues to pile up, with state officials in both California and Illinois announcing they would stop doing business with the bank for the time-being. [More]
Verizon, AT&T Poised To Battle It Out For Yahoo
By 6.13.16
Earlier this month, Verizon — fresh off its acquisition of AOL — tried to cement its reputation as a collector of ’90s web relics with a reported $3 billion bid for Yahoo’s core internet business. Now it looks like Big Red has competition from AT&T. [More]
Michigan Cafe To Change Name After Caribou Coffee Wins Trademark Lawsuit
By 5.26.16
Several years ago a small New Hampshire coffee roaster won a legal victory (twice) against coffee giant Starbucks over its name “Charbucks.” Things didn’t go so well for a Michigan cafe that must retire its name “Blue Caribou Cafe” after losing a trademark lawsuit filed by Caribou Coffee. [More]
Starboard Once Again Throwing Around Its Weight, Starts Fight To Oust Yahoo Board
By 3.24.16
Activist investors at Starboard Value are once again looking to shake things up at a major company. After essentially forcing the now-contested Staples-Office Depot merger, questioning the number of breadsticks handed out at Olive Garden and ousting the entire Darden Restaurant Inc. board, the investor group has launched a fight to remove the entire board of Yahoo. [More]
For-Profit Grand Canyon University Set To Go Nonprofit
By 2.22.16
More than a decade after Grand Canyon University became the first Christian college to get into the for-profit education field, the chain’s operators have announced plans to take the school and its 75,000 students back to the non-profit sphere. [More]
Fiat Chrysler Wants To Hug GM So Tight They Merge
By 8.31.15
When you’re a multibillion-dollar company that’s been under heavy scrutiny from federal regulators and you’ve been turned down by several potential suitors in the last year, you don’t simply give up on a possible merger. Or at least that seems to be the case for Fiat Chrysler when it comes to the automaker’s unrequited love for General Motors. [More]
The Going Rate For A 30-Second Super Bowl Commercial Spot Tops $5M
By 8.6.15
Even though last year’s slate of Super Bowl ads was largely regarded as ho-hum, and even though advertisers are increasingly subverting the “surprise!” effect of Super Bowl sunday commercials by relentlessly teasing their big-ticket spots online days in advance, the NFL’s big game is still TV’s biggest annual draw, and so the cost to be a part of it is going up again. [More]
Data Breaches Now Cost Companies An Average Of $3.8M
By 5.28.15
The aftermath of a now all-too-common data breach can be frustrating for consumers: canceling credit cards, monitoring credit reports for irregularities, and working with banks to recoup unauthorized purchases. But the hacks can also be expensive for the targeted company, with the average cost now sitting at a 10-year high of $3.8 million. [More]
Tesla Testing Soon-To-Be-Launched Batteries At Several Walmart Stores
By 4.23.15
With Tesla’s “major new product line” announcement scheduled to take place next week, new reports have surfaced that support the idea the company’s much-hyped unveiling is for a new line of batteries to power homes and businesses. One in particular points out the company’s new energy source is already at work powering several Walmart stores. [More]
From The Cranberry Institute To Pickle Packers International: A Guide To Food Industry Trade Groups
By 4.3.15
There are thousands of trade groups in America. Probably hundreds of thousands. And although we most often hear from the groups representing industries like cable, tech, or banking, pretty much everyone out there has another someone out there collecting their dues and writing to Congress on their behalf. In the world of food, those groups can get as specific as every ingredient in your evening dinner. [More]
Why Does Everyone Love Costco So Much?
By 6.12.13
There aren’t a lot of shining successes in American’s most recent recession, but one company that has done well and even managed to grow is Costco. Why is that? The traditional wisdom is that customers love the prices and selection: for Consumerist readers, it’s also the return policy and the warranty extension. What’s the deal with why we love Costco so much? [More]
Florists Hate FTD And Teleflora Even More Than Disappointed Girlfriends Do
By 2.15.13
As a customer, you see ads from the ancient florist wire services like FTD and Teleflora. Readers write in and complain to us about those specific brands, since that’s the website they visit and the brand name that’s familiar. When you order up some flowers, though, that’s not who brings them to your door. It’s locally-owned florists, small business owners, who actually arrange and deliver your gifts. They might receive orders from the wire services, but often earn no profit or even take a loss on putting it together. [More]
Ask The Consumerist: Is There Any Point To All These Stupid Surveys?
By 9.19.12
Rachel is sick of surveys and writes in to ask if we think they serve any purpose. [More]
Stitch Up Holes In Your Networking Skills
By 3.12.12
If you want to get ahead in the business world, you’ll need skill, luck and connections. And the latter is arguably the most important of your assets. The amount of career success you find will probably be a function of your ability to make helpful connections and use them to your advantage. [More]
Yuengling Is Now America's Largest Brewer
By 1.17.12
Did Yuengling suddenly get bigger than Miller or Bud? Nope. Both are now foreign-owned. According to AdAge, Yuengling has recently surpassed Sam Adams’ Boston Beer Company as the largest U.S.-owned brewer that manufactures all its beer in the U.S. [More]
