Mastercard reported on Sunday that, after a slight bump around Black Friday, sales of women’s clothing has dropped again, down 6% even while sales of men’s clothing has gone up 4.5%. They think it has to do with an overall weak year for women’s fashion, and the fact that mothers tend to cut back on new clothes for themselves first when faced with a tighter budget. The silver lining: there may be considerable discounts at women’s clothing retailers in the immediate future as they try to bump up sales at the last minute.
retailers
By 12.15.07
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“Shoppers who pay the full price of about $249 for an out-of-stock Wii on December 20 and 21 at retailer GameStop Corp will get a certificate promising a Wii ‘sometime in January,'” sez Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime. Only at GameStop, urg. [Reuters]
JCPenney Emails You To Let You Know You Requested They Not Email You
By 12.13.07
If you buy something from the JCPenney website and uncheck the box for receiving email from them, guess what they do? They promptly send you an email in which they point out that you have asked them not to send you an email. And then they ask you to click on a link in the email and participate in a survey. And then, just in case you’re not amused/annoyed yet, the comedy team in their marketing department points out that should you want to receive emails from them in the future, you can visit their site and sign up. They have a lot of emails they need to send to you, you see.
Retailers Exploit Natural Human Stupidity To Get You To Buy More
By 12.10.07
The Chicago Tribune recaps the findings of some recent consumer behavior studies—for instance, we’re irrational buyers, prone to shoddy math and emotional decision making. The studies might be paid for by advertisers so they can better manipulate us, but as the Tribune notes, they’re useful for us too because they “can help shoppers make better spending decisions if they understand themselves better.”
Nordstrom Opposes Christmas Creep
By 11.18.07
Nordstrom has conquered the urge to celebrate Christmas before Thanksgiving. The retailer announced its decision to respect the calendar and common sense by hanging signs declaring that they will wait until the day after Thanksgiving, the earliest acceptable moment, to display their Christmas decorations. The vainglorious announcement is an important indicator that Nordstrom’s competitors have overdone the unseasonable cheerfulness schtick.
Watch Out For Fees With Gift Cards
By 11.12.07
Like candy canes and drunken family dinners, gift cards have become a Christmas staple. Bankrate has reviewed a wide number of them and published the results to help you pick the best one for your needs. To avoid fees, you should stick with “closed-loop” cards—that is, a card issued by a specific retailer for use only with that retailer. Almost all retailers now offer cards that don’t expire and don’t charge maintenance fees, with the notable exceptions of Macy’s and Bloomingdales, whose cards both expire two years after purchase. However, several retailers—CVS, for example—still charge “dormancy” fees on cards that have been inactive for anywhere from 6 to 24 months, so be sure to check the fine print to see how this is addressed.
FBI Warns LA & Chicago Shoppers Of Possible Threat
By 11.9.07
The FBI has released an unverified tip that those people who “hate freedom” are planning on attacking shopping malls in LA and Chicago this season. Before you buy more duct tape, the FBI emphasized that “there is no information to state this is a credible threat”—but they felt they needed to share it “out of an abundance of caution.”
Retailing Consortium Launches PRISM To Collect Data On Shoppers' Behavior
By 11.3.07
A consortium of retailers and consumer suppliers are working with Nielsen Co., famous for its nonsensical television ratings system, to launch a large-scale study of consumer behavior in stores. The program is called PRISM, which stands for “Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric,” and it uses infrared sensors and manual counting, as well as genetic clones of our loved ones, to monitor not just what we buy but how we go about buying it. “About 70% of final purchase decision are made at the shelf,” says a Procter & Gamble rep. “The store has always been important – we just didn’t know enough about it.”
Woot Treats Its Customers Nicely
By 10.29.07
We’re already fond of Woot for consistently having the most entertaining ad copy around, but a reader has reported that when they recently screwed up a large number of Zune orders—and not even in a terrible way—they shipped free $100 accessory kits to everyone who was affected, then sent out a frank email that explained the situation and guaranteed a full refund to anyone who still wasn’t satisfied. They handled the situation quickly and in a way that will likely prevent many customers from complaining or feeling cheated. And best of all, they were up front about the snafu and treated their customers with respect.
Class-Action Suit Filed Against Systemax (aka TigerDirect) Over Unfulfilled Rebates
By 10.25.07
Last Thursday, a Texan filed a class-action suit against Systemax Inc. in federal court, alleging the company and its subsidiaries TigerDirect and OnRebate conspire to delay or reject rebates in order to sweeten profits. Systemax says no way, we pay our rebates on time; according to its chief financial officer, “All consumers who properly complete the rebate application and submit the required paperwork have their rebates paid, period.” But that’s not what the Texan says happened to him.
Wal-Mart Will Now Sell Satellite Broadband Internet Access
By 10.9.07
Today, Wal-Mart announced that it will start re-selling HughesNet satellite broadband Internet access, starting at 700Kbps for $59.99 a month, through 2,800 of its stores “including locations throughout most of rural America where terrestrial broadband services, such as cable and DSL, are often not available.” To help spur initial sign-ups, Wal-Mart will give new customers $100 RFID-enabled “ExpressPay” cards to use while shopping at the retailer.
By 10.1.07
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Two-thirds of CFOs at retailers in the U.S. are “actively involved in green practices,” and of those, two-thirds said that they’re doing it to improve or protect the company’s image. Most of the remaining third cited tax breaks or regulatory requirements as motivating factors. [Reuters]
New York Decries CPSC's Inability To Impose Mandatory Recalls, Announces Initiatives To Combat Lead Poisoning
By 8.18.07
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer is taking action to ensure the prompt removal of recalled products, responding to the CPSC’s unwillingness to ask for, or accept, the authority to impose mandatory recalls. The following proposals do not require approval by the Legislature, and will go into effect immediately:
Stores Find New Ways To Seduce You
By 8.12.07
The right smells, the right music, manipulating inventory levels, displaying certain colors: aided by tons of research on consumer psychology, stores now employ all sorts of wily techniques to wine and dine you before getting you in the backseat. (And yes, we meant for that sentence to go there.)
Supreme Court Allows Manufacturers To Dictate Minimum Prices, Screws Consumers
By 6.28.07
The Supreme Court ruled today in Leegin v. PSKS that manufacturers can collude with retailers to set the minimum prices of products, arguing that such a decision was good for competition. Succumbing to the court’s recent bender of conservatism is a 96 year-old precedent from Dr. Miles v Park that held minimum price accords as intrinsically – or in legalese, “per se” – illegal. Writing for the majority, swing-Justice Anthony Kennedy showed kiddies the dangers of taking crazy pills:
Comparison Shopping Actually Saves
By 2.25.07
We intrinsically know comparison shopping saves money, but according to the Chicago Tribune, we don’t compare enough. Though we all think we compare prices, “research shows consumers, time and again, are most likely to buy from the first merchant they visit.”
“Prices for identical goods vary, and unless you actually do some comparison shopping, you’re not going to know that,” Lichtenstein said. “Consumers say, `Well, I may be paying a little bit more, but I don’t have time to shop around.’ But if they knew the degree to which prices may vary, they would find it’s well worth it.”
Our grandmother knows the price of grapes in every supermarket in at least five states. The Trib has helpful reminders to become more like her.
- Don’t overvalue your time: small savings add up over time to make a big difference.
- Take advantage of the internet: if you know what you’re looking for, plug it into “Froogle, MySimon, Shopzilla, DealTime and Shopping.com.”
- Take a test: search for the last few expensive items you bought and see if you could have saved more.
If that doesn’t help, remember that comparison shopping is the bedrock of our wonderful capitalist economy. If you won’t compare for yourself, compare for your country. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
Buy.com’s Packaging Sucks!
By 11.1.06
Jerry writes in with a photo of the totally fucked up book he received from Buy.com. He realizes that it’s the USPS’s fault for messing up the book… but is wondering if Buy.com’s packaging needs to be quite as flimsy as it is.
SEC Sticks Subpoena to Overstock
By 5.10.06
Overstock.com is an embattled victim under attack by its rivals and a cabal of journalists and shortsellers working to destroy its good name.
