I find life-size video screen ads with images of people really unnerving, and that was before I came to realize that they could be watching me back. Toy company Mattel, out to promote its board games before the holidays, created a cool event that brought random shoppers and an actor in a remote location together…to play board games. [More]
canada
Canada Discovers Christmas Creep At Costco, Blames America
By 8.1.14
The United States isn’t responsible for everything that’s wrong with the world, but we certainly can accept the blame for one global menace: Holiday Creep. Specifically, Christmas Creep. Now the CBC is using the emergence of Christmas décor in July as evidence that Americans are nothing but soulless mall-romping monsters. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Explore Canada, Find Primitive Smartphone
By 7.14.14
The Raiders of the Lost Walmart are a brave band of retail archaeologists who comb the continent’s stores to find the most ancient books, electronic devices, video games, and software at inappropriately high prices. I say “the continent” because today’s dispatches come from Raiders stationed in Canada. [More]
From The Bad Idea Files: Movie Theater Adding Surcharge For Middle Seats
By 5.22.14
Imagine you go to the theater to catch a movie you’ve been waiting to see. You get there early and snag a seat in the middle of the theater; no having to tilt your head back because you’re too close, or having to watch the whole movie at a strange angle because you’re set off to one side. But just as the previews are about to start, some latecomer with an usher in tow tells you to get up and find another seat because he paid a $3 surcharge and you didn’t. [More]
Sears Circles Back Around To Idea Of Selling Sears Canada Stake
By 5.14.14
Sears Holdings Corporation first started whispering that it might spin off or sell its stake in Sears Canada a few years ago, when the company first started publicly naming parts of itself that it could sell for cash. Since then, Hometown and Outlet stores are thriving as a spun-off company, so why not Sears Canada? [More]
If You Get Caught Joining Mile-High Club, Don’t Kick The Officer Who Arrests You
By 4.2.14
We’ve never really considered a crowded plane to be the most conducive setting for amorous adventures, but maybe we’re just being square. We also use the term square, so that might be your answer right there. Regardless, we’re not the ones facing criminal charges after allegedly engaging in a public sex act then assaulting the officer who arrested us. [More]
Personal Grooming Is Easy, But Math Is Difficult
By 3.26.14
Usually, buying in bulk saves you money. Buying a larger container or multi-pack boosts sales numbers and lowers prices for consumers. This makes perfect sense…until it doesn’t. Just ask these readers, who had to give a few seconds of serious thought to the pricing of their personal care items while shopping recently. [More]
IKEA Now Denies Claims Of Breastfeeding Mom Who Says She Was Called “Disgusting”
By 3.17.14
Last week, we told you about IKEA apologizing to a mom in Ottawa, Canada, who claimed that an employee at the store told her she was being “disgusting” while she nursed her daughter and allegedly told her to “take it to the bathroom.” But now, IKEA is saying that after reviewing in-store footage from the day in question, it found no evidence that the customer was even nursing. [More]
KFC Big Boss Is A Big Mac Clone With Two Giant Chicken Filets
By 3.12.14
Okay, double-decker burgers are nothing new. Chicken patty sandwiches are nothing new either. Big Mac clones are nothing new. Heck, even wacky fast food genre-bending creations from KFC are nothing new. Yet we’re fascinated with this new offering from KFC, the Big Boss. It’s exactly like the Big Mac, but with fried chicken filets instead of beef burgers. Unfortunately, you can only get it in Canada. [More]
À-La-Carte Cable Is Here, And By “Here” We Mean “Canada”
By 10.15.13
Last summer, we shared with you the potentially exciting news that regulators in Canada were pushing telecoms there toward offering more à la carte cable options: the wacky concept of letting customers choose and pay for the stations they want. In real life, what that meant was that unbundled cable channels could come to our northern neighbo(u)rs. That reality is now here…sort of. [More]
Theater Chain Selling Movie Ticket/Digital Download Bundles
By 10.8.13
Part of what makes the cost of a movie so unattractive to some consumers is the fact that you can only see the movie once (unless you go hopping from theater to theater, which we most certainly would never, ever advocate as a good way to spend a lazy weekend afternoon). Meanwhile, for about the price of two tickets, you can own an HD digital copy of the movie to watch repeatedly. That’s why one theater chain is selling bundles that combine movie tickets with digital downloads at a later date. [More]
Retail Nightmare Before Christmas Reaches Pier One, Canadian Walmart
By 9.30.13
In the classic animated film “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” the Pumpkin King learns about Christmas and convinces the other scary creatures of Halloween Town to take over the holiday. In the North American retail Nightmare Before Christmas, retailers begin to set out Christmas merchandise as soon as the school supplies are off the shelves. [More]
Target Expands To Canada, No One Really Likes It
By 8.20.13 — Updated: 1.19.15
Target opened its first stores in Canada earlier this year and plans to take over some now-closed Zellers locations. Now that it’s about six months into their tenure north of the border, how are they doing? Canadians aren’t really warming to Target, as it turns out. [More]
Trader Joe’s Sues Owner Of Store In Canada That Sells Only Trader Joe’s Items
By 8.19.13
Trader Joe’s has made it known that they want one of their best customers to stay away. That’s because he isn’t buying thousands of dollars’ worth of gluten-free granola and chocolate-covered potato chips for his household in Canada: he’s hauling them across the border to sell at his own shop, called Pirate Joe’s, at higher prices. [More]
Ex Walmart Worker Says She Was Fired For Telling Police About Dog Stuck In Hot Truck
By 7.11.13
A woman in Ontario, Canada, says she was fired from her job at Walmart earlier this week because she called the police on a customer who had left his dog in a hot car with the windows rolled up — and after she told her boss she’d do it again. [More]
Lottery Winner Grabs Burger In Canadian Midwest, Leaves $10,000 Tip
By 7.1.13
Passing through Saskatchewan, a man from British Columbia, Canada happened to stop in a little restaurant to grab a burger. The visitor wrote a $10,000 check and told the restaurant owner to take his bill out of that and keep the rest. Was it some kind of scam? No, just a very generous lottery winner. [More]
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Wendy’s Eatery Stops Serving 9-Patty ‘T-Rex Burger’ After World Finds Out About It
By 6.13.13
A Wendy’s restaurant outside of Winnipeg, Manitoba, has apparently been selling a 9-patty “T-Rex” burger to customers for several years, but shortly after the rest of the world got wind of it, the T-Rex has been made extinct. [More]
Air Canada Rouge Flight Attendants: Hipsters Of The Skies
By 5.31.13
Air Canada’s new discount carrier, Air Canada Rouge, bills itself as a “new stylishly affordable leisure airline.” Rouge introduced its new uniforms to the flying public this week, and they’re very versatile. Flight attendants can wear them from work to a concert to picking out artisanal marshmallows at the local farmer’s market. They make the flight attendants look like hipsters, is what I’m saying. [More]
