There are a few things left that Amazon.com doesn’t sell, and one of them is prescription drugs. Yet for most of the last year, analysts and retail-watchers have speculated that Amazon may be looking to get into the prescription drug business. Now there’s proof that the retailer has taken more official steps toward becoming a mail-order pharmacy. [More]
mail order
Procter & Gamble’s New Idea To Move More Tide Pods: Automatic Subscriptions
By 7.19.16
Procter & Gamble has realized that it needs to stay ahead of consumer trends to stay a top seller of staple products like razors, detergent, and shampoo. The popularity of Dollar Shave Club took the company by surprise, so it began its own Gillette Shave Club, then apparently wondered what else they could ship to customers at regular intervals so customers wouldn’t have to go to the store. After all, if they don’t have to think about buying razors, they don’t have the opportunity to switch brands. [More]
Don’t Be Shocked When Cheap Clothes Advertised On Facebook Aren’t What You Ordered
By 2.11.16
If you see an ad on Facebook pitching clothing for significantly less than what you’d pay in the store, you might be tempted to give it a shot. But be prepared to end up with a shirt, jacket, dress, or shoes that resemble the online photo as much as I resemble a young Carey Grant. [More]
More Retailers Are Using Print Catalogs To Drive Online Sales
By 1.26.15
Last week, JCPenney announced that part of its comeback strategy is to…bring back its print catalogs. That seems counterintuitive when more people are shopping online, but it isn’t. JCPenney and Restoration Hardware aren’t alone in bringing back catalogs printed on dead trees. Only they aren’t the catalogs that you might have used in 1987: they’re glossy branded magazines. [More]
Proactiv Has My Box Of Skin Cream, Sends Collections After Me Anyway
By 1.3.13
Eric wanted to give the Proactiv system of skin creams a try. Well, that shouldn’t be so hard: they’re advertised everywhere and apparently very popular. The flaw was that the package didn’t have his office number on it. UPS didn’t know that they could just send it to the mailroom, and instead they dispatched it back to Proactiv. Now the box is allegedly hanging out somewhere on the company’s loading dock, and they’ve sent collections after Eric to pay for the box of creams that he never received. [More]
Acai Berry Company Temporarily Shut Down By FTC Over Billing Practices
By 8.17.10
Last summer, Central Coast Nutraceuticals settled a deceptive practices charge from Arizona’s Attorney General by promising to pay $1.4 million in fines. Now the company, which peddles acai berry and colon cleansing products, has been forced to temporarily stop selling or marketing its wonder products completely under an injunction obtained yesterday by the FTC. [More]
This Is What Kids Did For Fun In The 80s
By 3.16.10
Josh at GeekSix unearthed a comic book ad that might be familiar to you if you were a kid in the 80s. Olympic Sales Club was one of those door-to-door greeting card companies that enlisted kids across the country to sell crap to neighbors in exchange for merch your parents wouldn’t buy you. [More]
Video Professor Goes After TechCrunch, Washington Post Over Scam Accusation
By 12.1.09
The people at Video Professor, a mail order company that lures in customers with words like “free” and “trial” and then hits them with $290 in charges, are drifting back to their old habits again. They don’t like it when people accuse them of being a scam, even though they deliberately minimize or leave out altogether the expensive details of their offer, and even though hundreds of people have complained about difficulties getting refunds. This time, the targets are TechCrunch and the Washington Post, but as usual the whole “silence my online critics” strategy has backfired. [More]
Video Mailbox: Like Netflix, Only 15 Years Too Early
By 8.20.09
I had always thought that mail-order video rental only came to be after the invention of DVDs because video tapes are too bulky and delicate to send through the mail on a regular basis. I was wrong.
Bacon Love Story: A Man, A Dream, A Salted Meat
By 6.26.09 — Updated: 3.28.13
Brooke’s husband, like many sensible people, loves bacon. As a gift, she bought him a subscription to the Bacon of the Month Club. For a few months, they received fantastic bacon and whimsical bacon-related merchandise through the mail, just as promised. Then, suddenly, things went awry in mail-order bacon paradise.
Acai Berry Drink Company Agrees To Give $350k Back To Bilked Customers
By 6.26.09
One of the acai berry’s most miraculous powers is its ability to filch hundreds of dollars from consumers who are seeking new ways to lose weight and live forever. Now one company known for marketing an acai elixir has settled a lawsuit from the Arizona Attorney General over charges of deceptive practices.
Motherhood Maternity Misplaces Misdirected Merchandise
By 6.8.09
Three months ago, I ordered a batch of maternity clothes from the Gap and Motherhood Maternity. Unfortunately, when I returned the pieces that didn’t fit – I mixed up the returns! The Gap immediately returned the shipment meant for Motherhood, but Motherhood did not. In emails they have claimed to have 1. never received it (I sent the UPS delivering confirmation), then they claimed to have sent it back (I asked for tracking info what was never supplied), then they just quit answering emails. I reported them to the BBB saying – yes, this was my mistake but they still should have returned it – and they told the BBB that no proof was every supplied that the items were sent to them (I resent the email thread and the delivery confirmation).
The Pantsuits of Yesteryear
By 3.31.06
Enjoy this fetching new James Lileks vivisection of a vintage 70’s Fredricks of Hollywood catalogue. With plunging satire and swooping prose, it’s sure to guide your eye where it wants to ramble: on the hard-bodied landscapes of retro libertines.
