retail
Pop Quiz: Can The Pizza Delivery Place Sell Your Personal Information Without Your Consent?
You need the express written consent of Major League Baseball to do pretty much anything to a baseball game, but does your pizza place need your permission to sell your personal information (name, address and phone number) to the highest bidder? Take a guess. The answer is inside. Cheating is easy, but in poor taste. (For the purposes of this quiz, you live in California.)
Your New, Sealed Copy Of GTA4 Contains "Boyz N Da Hood" Disc
Some scammer out there has a sense of humor (and a shrink wrap machine), because when Greg opened his apparently “new” copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, he found a used copy of “Boys N Da Hood.”
Macy's Loses $59 Million In 3 Months, Angry Marshall Field's Customers Get The Blame
Macy’s has managed to lose $59 million in the first quarter. CEO Terry J. Lundgren says that considering the crappy economy, losing $59 mil isn’t all that bad:
Linens 'N Things Marks Product Up $10 During Free $10 Gift Card Promotion
Jim from Blueprint For Financial Prosperity writes:
"Free Engraving" For Electronics Really Means "Ha, Ha, You Can't Return This Unless It's Defective"
Certain electronics retailers such as Apple and Sony offer engraving for laptops, cameras and MP3 players. It may seem like a nice service, but it really saves them lots of money. Why? Engraved products can’t be returned just because you couldn’t figure out how to use the product or because you realized that you spent too much on it and now have to eat peanut butter and corn tortilla sandwiches for a month to avoid defaulting on your student loan.
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Target’s internal crime lab is overrun with requests from law enforcement agencies for its forensic video expertise. [Forbes]
Home Depot Won't Let You Buy Stuff Without Knowing What You Plan To Do With It
Reader Helen went to Home Depot to buy some various and sundry items, but left empty-handed after the self-checkout refused to let her complete her purchase without disclosing what she planned to do with her items. Helen says:
OfficeMax Calls You A Thief For Trying To Recycle
OfficeMax called Chris a thief for recycling empty printer cartridges. OfficeMax’s MaxPerks program gives customers $3 for each empty cartridge they recycle, with a limit of 5 cartridges per customer per day. Chris runs a computer repair business that leaves him flush with empty cartridges. According to one cashier, this makes Chris a thief.
Kohls Violates Visa's Merchant Agreement, Refuses To Accept Credit Card Without ID
This afternoon I visited the Kohl’s store in Moline, Illinois. When I was checking out I elected to pay with my Visa card. After sliding my card through the card reader I signed the screen when prompted. My cashier asked to see the card, which I handed over to her. She handed my card back to me and then asked to see my identification, to which I respectfully declined. She said I had to show my ID or I could not leave the store with my purchases…
Toys"R"Us Pretends To Have Wiis In Stock, Disappoints Customers
Toys”R”Us’ website may claim to have Wiis in stock, but as reader Nick discovered yesterday, they don’t. Nick ordered the elusive console first thing yesterday morning, but Toys”R”Us quickly sent an email explaining that the Wii was backordered and unavailable. As of this morning, Toys”R”Us’ website still inexplicably lists the Wiis as “In Stock.”
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Widely expected to declare bankruptcy today, Linen’s N Things instead decided to defer paying the interest that was due today that would have pushed it into Chapter 11. Your gift cards and the pile of 20% off coupons you use to test out new mulchers are safe…for now. [NYT]
Contact Sears Public Relations
Unlike other companies, Sears seems a fortress of indifference; our readers, even after arming themselves with our standard escalation kit, dash themselves against their facade like a spray across the face of a giant stone statue of Stalin that for some reason had found itself in the ocean. One reader says he’s been able to get traction out of calling the Sears Public Relations department: 847-286-8371. ” I have used this number before and things have worked out pretty well,” he writes. It’s worth a shot, especially if we’re talking about $1070 they’re refusing to refund for a TV they never delivered.
Retail Bankruptcies Threaten To Wreck Economy, Empty Your Local Mall
As the cost of food and gas begin to crowd out other expenses, and access to credit is limited by the mortgage meltdown, a “widening wave of bankruptcies in American retailing” is threatening the economy, says the NYT.
New York State To Start Taxing Amazon Purchases
One of the budget-related changes voted in last week by New York State’s politicians included a new “Amazon tax”:
“Another $50 million will come from requiring online retailers like Amazon that do not have a physical presence in New York to collect sales taxes on purchases made by New Yorkers and remit them to the state.
New York’s argument, based on a reading of the 1992 Quill vs. North Dakota U.S. Supreme Court ruling, is that because Amazon makes sales through affiliates who live in the state, it can be considered to have a physical presence there—which means the new law wouldn’t apply to retailers who don’t use affiliate programs.
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Blockbuster has offered to buy Circuit City for a little over $1 billion, with the goal of creating “a chain that could sell portable devices and entertainment for them, much like Apple Inc.’s stores.” [Chicago Tribune] (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)
