Here’s the thing about online purchases and in-store returns: If you drive to the store to return your online purchase you might get your refund more quickly, but there’s a good chance you’ll stick around and buy something else. Kohl’s already offers this option, but the chain is upping its game, allowing customers to return their Amazon purchases to some of its bricks-and-mortar stores. [More]
convenience
Aldi Customers In Some Cities Can Now Get Delivery Through Instacart
By 8.14.17
Soon you won’t have to schlep all the way to Aldi, pay $0.25 to rent a cart, and then bag your own groceries. You can just wait at home and let Instacart do all that work instead. [More]
Walmart Adds Discount For Shopping Online, Picking Up In Store
By 4.12.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Shopping online and being able to pick up your purchase at the store is a minor convenience, but you still have to drive to the store, wait to be served, get your package, and drive home — and you may have paid more than you would at Amazon or some other online-only retailer. So to make this option more attractive to shoppers, Walmart.com will be discounting millions of items if you purchase them for in-store pickup. [More]
Target Revamps Stores For Customers Looking For Convenience And To Stay Awhile
By 3.21.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Every year, retailers test concepts in their stores in order to meet consumers’ changing shopping habits: from using scan n’ go, no check out lines, or toying with the idea of no shopping carts. Target’s latest version of this revamp will focus on catering to customers who are in a rush and those who want to just get away for a bit. [More]
Volvo Launches Concierge Service To Fill Up, Wash Vehicles On Demand
By 11.18.16
Owning a car means you have to wash it, take it in for needed maintenance, and of course fill it with gas if you want to actually go anywhere. But those pesky chores no longer have to be part of the equation if you own a Volvo. [More]
Walmart Hopes To Win Over Millennials With This Giant Orange Vending Machine
By 11.11.16
For years now, Amazon has allowed customers to pickup their orders at bright yellow lockers located at convenience stores and other easy to access areas. Now, in what appears to be another attempt to be more like the e-commerce giant, Walmart has a vending machine where online customers can pickup their orders, you know without having to wait in line or talk to other people. [More]
Yum CEO Would Rather Pizza Hut Be More Convenient Than Have A Better Product
By 12.11.15
Pizza Hut has been fighting for a slice of the marketplace pie with a weapon that’s turning out to be rather ineffective namely, a complete menu revamp that added a bunch of new crusts, drizzles, toppings and doodads to their regular slate of pizzas. That whole idea of trying to compete with a better product is not the way to go, Yum Brands CEO Greg Creed says. Instead, Pizza Hut should focus on being more convenient than its rivals. [More]
Could Automated Grocery Stores Be In Our Future?
By 6.18.15
Do future trips to the supermarket involve no lines, no human interaction and no endlessly searching the aisles to check items off your list? They might, and residents of Iowa could be the first to test out what is essentially an ATM-like grocery store. [More]
Would Pre-Ordering Your Starbucks Be Convenient Or Just Make People Hate You?
By 3.13.14
We’re a society largely based on convenience, and quick service is alway welcomed, right? And many of us make a daily trip to Starbucks, without which we’d be unable to function. Starbucks customers tired of waiting in line for their caffeine fix would understandably be excited to hear about Starbucks’ plan to introduce mobile pre-ordering, but is it a holy grail or a Pandora’s box? [More]
21 Banks And Credit Unions That Accept Remote Check Deposits
By 8.8.10
Why trek to local bank to deposit a check when you can slap it on a scanner or use your smartphone’s camera to upload it directly to your bank? Even though it still scares most of the bigger banks, remote deposit checking represents the future of consumer banking. Inside, a list of twenty-one credit unions and banks that are ready to save you a trip to the bank and the hassle of deposit slips. [More]
Groceries Stores Turning To Single Checkout Lines
By 8.26.09
Rich, poor, Slimfast or Milky Way, one thing grocery store customers can usually agree on is that they hate waiting in line. Retailers have sought out a number of solutions over the years – from self-checkout terminals to entertaining distractions and ambient fragrances – but, according to the Wall Street Journal, the latest trend is single-line queues.
USAA: Deposit Your Checks With An iPhone!
By 8.10.09
The friendliest bank in the world, USAA, will soon let customers instantaneously deposit checks through its iPhone application. Here’s how it works: you snap a picture of the front and back of your check, and send the picture to USAA. That’s it.
Subway Launches Text Message Ordering In NYC
By 1.29.09
Subway has launched a pilot program called SubwayNow where New York City residents (Manhattan only at the moment, it looks like) can register to place pick-up orders via text message. According to IntoMobile, after registering with your address and providing payment info, which they keep on file, you set up a list of sandwich orders that are saved as a personal menu. When you’re ready to use the service, you text “menu” to the Subway shortcode, and Subway sends back your pre-set menu. Then you text back the menu item you want, and Subway responds with a pick-up time.
'No Need To Stir' Skippy Natural Peanut Butter Requires Stirring, Or A Straw
By 9.2.08
As any convenience-seeking American knows, the bane of natural peanut butter is its tendency to separate into an unspreadable sludge of crushed peanut and an eager-to-spill pond of oil. You have to stir the two together to get back to the peanut butter texture you’ve come to expect from the hybridized brands. Skippy says they’ve solved the problem, but based on the two jars one customer bought, they’re plain nuts (wocka wocka!).
Your Cash Isn't Good Enough For Apple's Precious iPhone
By 10.28.07
Four benjamins will no longer get you an iPhone, now that Apple is requiring credit cards for all iPhone purchases. The new policy, which is billed as an anti-piracy initiative, also prevents customers from buying more than two iPhones per visit. Apple claims the policy went into effect this Thursday, however we received the following tip more than a week ago:
Like Food, But Not People? Order Online
By 8.7.07
For all of us out there who are hungry but antisocial, the New York Times today presents an overview of online food ordering services. The benefits are obvious – it’s fast, (usually) more accurate, you can place an order the day before, and you don’t need cash. Lots of chain restaurants are now offering it (Pizza Hut, Subway, and Papa John’s are some examples), but there are also a few special websites that aggregate menus from multiple restaurants (after the break).
