Nothing screams “holiday spirit” more than scouring Walmart’s stripped-bare shelves for hours looking for gifts, only to get to checkout and find that only a coupl of the dozens of available cash registers are being used. That’s when some shoppers go “screw this” and pull up Amazon on their phones or just tell their kids that Christmas is cancelled because of Walmart. To keep that from happening this year, the nation’s largest retailer is promising that each of its registers will be staffed from Black Friday through late December… at least some of the time. [More]
holiday shopping
Target Will Honor Gift Cards It Failed To Activate During Holiday Season
By 1.2.14
Hot on the heels of a massive data breach that compromised credit and debit card information for some 40 million U.S. customers, Target has confirmed reports that some gift cards sold during the recent holiday shopping season were not activated properly by the retailer. [More]
Is This Video Evidence That Walmart Grossly Over-Ordered For The Holidays?
By 12.30.13
We’ve talked in the past about Walmart’s staffing and inventory issues, where some stores have empty shelves but full back rooms because there just aren’t enough employees around to deal with all the shelving. But a new video from an investment advisor firm claims to demonstrate that the nation’s largest retailer has so much leftover inventory from this holiday shopping season that it’s overflowing into the store. [More]
1/3 Of Online Retailers Failed To Deliver Last-Minute Christmas Purchases On Time
By 12.27.13
As you’ve probably heard, an overwhelmed UPS had a lot of trouble making deliveries before Dec. 25 this year. And the results of a national test of online retailers show that these delayed deliveries were not relegated to just a few major sellers. [More]
These 28 Kids Are Not Sure Who This Santa Claus Guy Is, But He Is Definitely Terrifying
By 12.23.13
Every year, kids around the world chirp and buzz and otherwise make delightfully adorable noises about how excited they are to get presents from Santa Claus at Christmas. But the holiday reality of actually meeting the man in red? Well, that’s not always a cause for celebration, as these 27 photos of Consumerist readers’ kids clearly demonstrate. You try meeting a large stranger with a bunch of white stuff on his face and see how you’d feel. [More]
Even With 10% “Our Bad” Discount, Target’s Sales Down After Credit Card Disaster
By 12.23.13
Over the weekend, Target went into damage-control, attempting to lure customers back into its retail stores by offering a 10% discount to everyone — not just the 40 million customers whose credit card numbers were stolen between late November through mid-December. But even that apparently wasn’t enough to bring customers back during the last-ditch holiday shopping weekend. [More]
How To Not Suck… At Last-Minute Christmas Gifting
By 12.20.13
Maybe you’re lazy. Or a procrastinator. Or a lazy procrastinator. We’re not judging because most of the time, that’s fine. But there are only a few sands left in the hourglass before Dec. 25, at which point you find yourself without gifts to give, promising your loved ones that you’ll get them something really nice at one of the after-Christmas sales. Fear not. Consumerist is here to help in your time of need — so your family doesn’t think you don’t give a hoot. [More]
3 Things To Consider Before Signing Up For A Store Credit Card
By 12.20.13
As you make your way through the final days of this holiday shopping season, you will undoubtedly be asked on numerous occasions if you would like to save money on your purchase by signing up for a store credit card. It’s definitely tempting, but you need to be aware of just what you’re signing up for in order to get that discount. [More]
More Shoppers Concerned About Getting Fat During The Holidays Than They Are About Going Into Debt
By 12.20.13
For many Americans, the last two months of every calendar year inevitably involve eating too much and spending a lot of money. Given the still-choppy economic waters, you might think that consumers would be more concerned about their bottom lines before thinking about their waistlines, but you’d be wrong. [More]
The Good, Bad & Ugly Of Stores’ Holiday Return Policies
By 12.18.13
As much as we’d all love to believe that everything we give to our loved ones — and everything we receive from them — this holiday season will be exactly what we want and need, and that it will fit our bodies and/or be compatible with everything we already own. But odds are that a lot of us will be returning at least one thing to a store in the days and weeks after Christmas, so it helps to know retailers’ return policies. [More]
Will There Be Anything Worth Buying On “Super Saturday” This Weekend?
By 12.17.13
If they haven’t done so already, most online retailers will have closed their guaranteed-to-get-it-by-Christmas window by the time this weekend rolls around. So a number of bricks-and-mortar retailers will be having “Super Saturday” sales for those of us who haven’t finished buying stuff. Question is, will there be any be good deals? [More]
How To Not Suck… At Saving For The Holidays
By 12.17.13
The holiday season is still in full swing, and we’re willing to bet you’re not done spending money yet. What’s more, some of you will be paying off your holiday spending on credit card bills for months to come; the holiday cheer followed by the January credit card bill blues. Break this nasty cycle by planning ahead for the next holiday season. [More]
Grout Bully, Rollie Eggmaster, Jay Glazer’s Perfect Punch, Lexus IS 250 Make List Of Year’s Worst Products
By 12.17.13
Our colleagues at ShopSmart recently published an expansive round-up of the year’s best products, which is all really good and helpful information. But what picqued our interest was the magazine’s shorter list, covering everything from questionable infomercial products to big-name luxury brands, of the worst products on the market in 2013. [More]
Christmas Ordering Deadlines For 25 Top Online Retailers
By 12.12.13
Still working on your Christmas shopping? If you’re going online to buy those gifts, you need to be aware of the sites’ wildly varying cutoff dates for placing orders in time to get them under the tree on the big day. [More]
3 Holiday Purchases That Tend To Drop In Price As Christmas Approaches
By 12.6.13
While there are a number of popular products that get significantly less expensive after the holidays, consumers may be able to save on other holiday shopping list items if they’re willing to play a game of chicken with Dec. 25. [More]
5 Things You’ll Pay Less For If You Wait Until After The Holidays
By 12.2.13
Everyone knows, or at least should know, that the best time to buy a huge honkin’ TV set isn’t during the holidays, but in the weeks immediately following the Super Bowl, and that post-Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to get some jewelry at rock-bottom prices. But they’re not the only items on a lot of holiday shopping lists that would be cheaper to buy at some point after Dec. 25. [More]
The Total Cost Of Doing The 12 Days Of Christmas? $114K
By 12.2.13
Since nothing says Christmas like a home full of hundreds of random birds, musicians, and overactive landed gentry, it’s time to once again consider the actual cost of giving your true love every item listed in “The 12 Days of Christmas.” [More]
Here Are Some Videos Of People Who Spent Thanksgiving Fighting Over Discounted Junk
By 11.29.13
Can we pour one out for the memory of Thanksgiving, the once-loved holiday that took a shot to the gut yesterday when hordes of bargain-hunters chose to forego time with family and loved ones in favor of overhyped discounts on clearance items, and then died forever when the first punch was thrown, presumably minutes after the doors opened. For those of us who didn’t go shopping last night, here are some reminders why… [More]
