When ordering a product from another country, say, China, you might expect to wait a few weeks or even a month for the product to show up on your doorstep. If you order from Amazon, it’ll arrive in five days. Or at least that’s the new deadline the e-commerce giant has recently given the makers and suppliers of small items. [More]
merchandise
Rio Olympics Selling Knockoff Versions Of Its Own Merchandise
By 8.2.16
In an effort to circumvent efforts by counterfeiters, organizers of the Rio Olympics have created a line of products that are, well, knockoffs of the Games’ official merchandise. [More]
Police: Mother-Daughter Duo Stole $28K In Target Merchandise Through Return Scheme
By 4.7.16
When you think of someone stealing merchandise from a big box retailer you probably first think of smaller items that could easily be concealed in purses or on your person. But that certainly wasn’t the case for a mother-daughter duo accused of making away with bed sets, ottomans, chairs, and other items through a return scam at several California Target stores. [More]
Williams-Sonoma Wasn’t Really Running A ‘Buy One Knife, Get 99 Free’ Sale
By 12.23.15
Some of our readers experience a modern moral dilemma: they order an item online, and multiple duplicates of that item appear on their doorstep. The retailer makes no attempt to collect the extra items, and sometimes doesn’t want to bother with getting them back. Two of our readers have experienced this recently: one changed a TV order and received an extra by mistake, and the other ordered knife and received 99 extra. That is not a typo. [More]
Luxury Accessory Counterfeiters Change Their Methods, Brands Must Catch Up
By 7.27.15
It used to be pretty easy to spot counterfeit luxury goods online: when a handbag that normally costs, say, $3,000 is available for $50 on a website that popped up overnight, that’s usually a pretty good hint. That’s why counterfeiters have an interesting new tactic: they’re improving the quality of their fakes and selling them for prices closer to those of the original item. You know, to keep from arousing customers’ suspicion. [More]
Macy’s Dumps Trump Over Controverial Comments, He Says It Was His Idea
By 7.1.15
What do a southern chef, the owner of a professional basketball team and a candidate in the 2016 presidential election have in common? They’ve all been ditched by brands, retailers and other companies after being accused of making racist comments. The latest addition to the list comes as Macy’s announced it would sever its decades-long relationship with businessman Donald Trump. [More]
Is The Guy Who Bulldozed His Home A Folk Hero?
By 2.26.10
Terry Hoskins, the guy in Ohio who bulldozed his home earlier this month to prevent it from being taken back and auctioned off by his bank, is now the subject of a song. Someone else made t-shirts and caps–they feature a bright yellow bulldozer and the words, “Take ‘Er Down”–that are being sold to raise money for him. WLWT says Hoskins didn’t break any laws by dozing the home, but as he puts it, “I still have a mortgage of ($160,000). I still (have) to pay that.” [More]
POLL: When Is Too Early For Christmas Creep?
By 11.6.09
After we proposed tracking Starbucks’s roll out of Christmas products as a metric to gauge yearly Christmas Creep, we got a fair amount of comments saying they saw no problem with Christmas stuff coming out once Halloween was over. So, inside, a poll: at what point does Christmas Creep become acceptable holiday display?
Government Helped CIT Limp Along Long Enough To Keep From Ruining Christmas
By 11.3.09
According to SpendMatters, one big reason the government burned through $2.3 billion in TARP funds for CIT even though it was buckling under debt was to try to avoid ruining everybody’s Christmas this year.
Shop At A Dollar Store, Gamble On Quality
By 10.8.09
Marlene Alexander will buy pretty much anything, at least once, from her local dollar store. Then depending on how well it holds up, she might write about it to warn others. She’s put together a list of some of the biggest dollar store failures she’s encountered over the past year.
Christmas This Year Will Be Less Tacky
By 10.7.09
Because retailers plan their Christmas offerings so far in advance, most were too far along with trendy or ostentatious Christmas merchandise to change course last year, reports the Associated Press. This year they’re prepared to pursue the fiscally conservative consumer, which means everyone is selling the holiday decor equivalent of comfort food.
What Hell Must You Go Through To Return A Defective Running Shoe?
By 11.13.08
Neal Templin at the Wall Street Journal had a defective running shoe. Within 4 months of buying the shoes, an eyelet failed, so he took the defective shoes back to the store. This is where his tragic tale of rejection begins.
Why You Should Never Order Anything From Sears.com
By 10.17.08
Mike sent us two stories of back-to-back merchandise fiascos with orders he placed on Sears.com for in-store pickup. What’s worse, the problems can’t just be blamed on a lone rotten employee, or attributed to bad luck—several Sears stores were involved. Our verdict: there’s something seriously messed up with the Sears fulfillment chain, and it’s not worth your time or energy to bother with it. But you knew that already, right?
By 10.14.08
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This $10 silicone bib for babies is stain-proof and non-porous, and it forms a scoop (you might even say a trough) underneath baby’s uncooperative mouth, so that food items end up there instead of on the baby, table, floor, dog, etc. It can even be thrown in the dishwasher. [Cool Tools]
Live Nation To Challenge Ticketmaster, Sell Fans More Junk
By 1.6.08
The nation’s largest concert promoter, Live Nation, is ditching Ticketmaster to build its own ticketing system. Live Nation may not be as soul-crushingly evil as Ticketmaster—we hear they issue refunds!—but their goal in breaking away is to squeeze more profit from customers by hawking “additional merchandise.”
Most Stores Pull Chris Benoit Action Figures
By 7.6.07
Most stores pulled their stock of Chris Benoit action figures after the WWE wrestler murdered his family, but the toys can still be found by those morbid individuals, and reporters, who look hard enough.
