Mr. Brickson, of Minnesota, said a longtime donor to his store had recently showed up in tears. “She had given so much to the Salvation Army over the years,” he said. “She never thought she was going to be a recipient of the services.”
retail
Thrift Stores Running Out Of Pants
By 9.17.08
Stop Whining About Hurricane Ike, You're Scheduled To Work At Walgreens
By 9.15.08
Nearly all of Houston has no power and most has no water. Even though my upstairs ceiling caved in, my manager at Walgreens said “you’re scheduled to work and are expected to be here.”
For The Best Prices, Buy TVs Online
By 9.13.08
Call it the welcome side of Christmas Creep; manufacturers are discounting LCD and plasma TVs ahead of the traditional year-end holiday sale cluster mess, but you won’t find the best deals in retail stores.
Supermarkets Begin To Shrink
By 9.12.08
The New York Times reports that several supermarket and retail chains, including Safeway, Walmart, and Whole Foods, are beginning to experiment with much smaller store sizes that emphasize things like cafes, prepared meals, and produce. The idea is to emphasize speed over choice, and was apparently triggered by UK competitor Tesco, which has launched over 70 small-format supermarkets in Nevada, Arizona, and Southern California over the past year. Of course, the stores also require less shelf space for products than they did a year ago.
99 Cents Only Stores Raise Prices To 99.99¢, Narrowly Avoid Having To Buy New Signs
By 9.10.08
99 Cents Only, the L.A.-based chain of not-quite-a-dollar stores, has come up with a novel approach to the growing losses it faces as the economy worsens: they’re raising their top-priced items to 99.99 cents.
"Dollar Or More" Store Apparently Doing Better Than "99 cents Or Less" Store
By 9.5.08
Reader Daniel says that this “dollar store” where everything is a dollar or more seems to be doing better than the 99 cents or less store on the same street. It’s having a store-wide 50% off sale.
Best Buy (Accidentally) Announces Yet Another "Elite" Reward Zone Level? "Premier Black?"
By 9.3.08
Reader Andrew forwarded an email he just got from Best Buy letting him know that he now qualified for an even more special fantastic elite reward zone level. One in which he would be granted access to something called a “Premier Black Concierge.” We’re assuming this is like Reward Zone Silver but, more so.
13 Email Addresses For An Office Max EECB
By 9.2.08
In case your efforts to deal with Office Max customer service fail, and you’ve escalated to a supervisor, here are 13 working email addresses you can use to send off an EECB.
Former Best Buy Manager Arrested For Stealing Identities From Mailboxes
By 8.27.08
It’s always fun when you spot people you know in the paper. Like when one reader saw an article about his former Best Buy manager, charged with seventeen counts of third-degree identity thief. Mariusz Paliwoda of Conneticut was arrested recently for stealing over 100 pieces of mail from rural folks’, then using the information to create credit card accounts. Only the cream of the crop, or former Domino’s managers, make it to the top of Best Buy!
Milford man charged in ID theft operation [New Haven Register] (Photo: Getty)
Do You Want To Save 10% By Opening A Target Visa? Just Kidding!
By 8.27.08
Reader Nancy says that Target rejected the 10% coupon she received for being a Target Visa card holder. When she asked why, the cashier told her it had probably been used, but had no more information.
Target Will Not Let You Return These Shoes Because They Are "Worn"
By 8.26.08
Reader I. ordered some shoes from Target.com, only to find out that they were so big that they fell off her feet when she tried them on. No worries, she would just print her receipt and bring them back to her local Target. Right? Wrong.
Reach A Nice Best Buy Customer Service Supervisor
By 8.25.08
Only use this contact info if you can’t get help from the store and the regular customer service line isn’t doing it for ya.
Check Your Own Receipt Before You Leave The Store
By 8.22.08
Although stores often claim they employ receipt checkers to make sure you got everything you paid for, you still might get ripped off. This past weekend, three stores tried to sell us items that did not match their price tag or description. Each time, we politely pointed out the difference to a manager, and each time, we were rewarded for doing so, either with a reduced price or a better item than the original one we wanted. Let us tell you about our exciting weekend, inside.
By 8.19.08
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Target’s profits fell for the 4th straight quarter as the retailer’s sales failed to keep pace with Walmart. [Bloomberg]
By 8.13.08
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Best Buy will start selling the iPhone on September 7th, making it the only retailer other than Apple and AT&T to offer the device. [Associated Press]
'99 Cents Only' Store Chain Considers Raising Prices, Changing Sign To '99 Cents, Orly?'
By 8.8.08
[It is] definitely on the table. That is something we’re looking at . . . in the future for us. We’re looking at doing some experiments. Obviously one way [is that] you can start selling things for $1.05, $1.09, $1.15 and other ways. You could have more of a break between your 99 cents price point and the next price point.”
J. Crew's Notoriously Awful Website Charges You $9,208.50 To Ship The Wrong Shirt
By 8.7.08
J. Crew has a problem with their website. Whatever the problem is, it isn’t small. Meet Per, a J. Crew customer who tried to order some polo shirts and not only did he get the wrong shirts, the bill came with a shipping charge of $9,208.50. Per would like to return these shirts and not pay $9,208.50 in shipping, but he can’t manage to log on to J. Crew’s website.
