This year, more than 150 locations for Macy’s and Kmart will close their doors forever. When these stores shut down, where do their former customers take their business? [More]
shoppers
Instacart Shoppers Say Customers Confused By Change To Tipping Policy
By 11.2.16
Two months after Instacart announced it would ditch tips in favor of a “service charge,” and weeks after the company appeared to reverse course, declaring it would keep both the new sharable service charge and an option to tip on all orders, the change has officially gone into effect nationally, and some Instacart shoppers say the change has only resulted in confused customers and fewer tips. [More]
Instacart Shoppers Say Getting Rid Of Tips Will Ultimately Hurt Customers
By 10.13.16
Last month, thousands of Instacart shoppers and drivers — the people who get paid to collect and then drop off grocery orders for customers of the online service — were notified that they would soon be seeing a difference in their paychecks as the company overhauled its tipping and scheduling policies. This announcement hasn’t exactly gone over swimmingly, and now several Instacart workers are telling Consumerist why they have misgivings about the change. [More]
Lululemon Wants 40% Of Its Business To Come From Male Shoppers Someday
By 9.23.16
It seems anti-ball crushing pants were just the start of Lululemon’s campaign to appeal to male shoppers, with the athleisure company’s CEO saying he wants 40% of the brand’s sales to come from men someday. [More]
Department Stores Don’t Draw Customers, Malls Don’t Want ‘Em Anymore
By 7.11.16
What actually draws you to the mall, when you go there? A generation ago, you might have headed to your nearest mall to buy a refrigerator from Sears or a dress from JC Penney. Today, though, customers are less interested in hulking department stores, and more likely to visit their local mall to have dinner at a Cheesecake Factory or shop at an Apple Store, and skip the department store. Mall owners are noticing. [More]
Survey: Retailers Should Work To Be On Customer Service “Nice List” Year-Round, Or Risk Turning Off Shoppers
By 12.8.15
If retailers think they can be naughty all year when it comes to customer service, only to take their smiles out of storage and dust’em off when the holidays roll around, they’ve got another think coming, according to a recent survey that says customers can be very unforgiving. [More]
Survey Says: Supermarkets’ Turkey Giveaways Aren’t That Exciting To Younger Shoppers
By 11.25.15
Getting a free turkey to serve proudly on your Thanksgiving table used to be a source of great excitement for shoppers in the holiday season, and an easy way for supermarkets to attract more customers (who then buy more stuff when they’re in the store). But nowadays there’s a new demographic on the block that everyone’s trying to please, and a free turkey just isn’t going to cut it. [More]
Police Say Texas Teens Shot Blow Darts At Fellow Walmart Shoppers
By 2.19.15
Two Texas 18-year-old men have been accused of treating Walmart customers like some kind of animal to be hunted. Police say the twosome blew darts at shoppers, including an elderly woman on a motorized scooter and a 10-year-old boy. [More]
Police Charge Head-Butting Walmart Customer With Assault
By 2.13.15
Although the Walmart tax worker who was head-butted by a shopper at first declined to press charges against the woman, police confirmed that after a trip to the dentist for some broken teeth, assault charges have been filed. [More]
Mall ‘Disturbance’ Was Someone Banging On A Pot, Not Gunshots
By 12.29.14
On Saturday night, there was a massive kerfuffle at a very crowded mall near Chicago. Police have pieced together that early in the evening, two people began fighting, were separated, and then began fighting again. From somewhere in the mall came three loud bangs, which people in the crowd assumed were gunshots. They were not: the noise has been variously described as someone dropping a lid or banging on a pot in the food court. [More]
Yep, Shoppers Started Camping Out For Black Friday This Wednesday
By 11.16.12
Yes, it’s advantageous to line up for an irresistible sale early. A duo of California shoppers were a little too early to this year’s Black Friday sale at their local Best Buy, though, camping outside of the store more than a week ahead of time. Security staff booted them off the property, asking them to return on Thanksgiving. Thank Providence someone in this scenario is sane. [More]
74% Of You Maniacs Plan To Shop On Black Friday This Year
By 11.12.10
Who will you be fighting for a parking space at the mall this year? A recent survey by Market Forice Information indicates that almost three-quarters of the American public plan to go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving this year, and sixty-one percent plan to do some shopping online on the next weekday, or “Cyber Monday.” [More]
Study Finds Grocery Store Shoppers Are Honest Folk
By 3.24.10
The people on that People of Walmart website may wear some ugly t-shirts, but at least they’re honest when it comes to dealing with strangers. According to a new study that looked at how markets, religion, and the size of a community impact concepts of fairness and punishment, Walmart grocery shoppers in Missouri came out on top in terms of treating the other side fairly and punishing selfishness. [More]
Walmart Shuts Down For 3 Hours After Shoppers Go Crazy
By 11.27.09
The Los Angeles Times says that a Walmart in Upland, California had to kick everyone out and shut down for 3 hours this morning, because shoppers lost their damned minds. [More]
What Cheer? Consumers More Glum Than Ever
By 11.13.09
Retailers have been hoping that we’d enter the annual Festival of Shopping with higher spirits than last year, but it looks like that might not happen after all. The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index was updated today, and it shows a drop to 66.0, “well below October’s reading of 70.6 and a sharp reversal of the 71.0 figure economists had expected.”
Used Syringes Surprise Kohl's Shopper
By 7.18.09
We’ve all been there, trying on a pair of shorts in a Kohl’s dressing room when suddenly we feel the cold sting of three used syringes. Or maybe it’s a joy that was limited to a Texas woman who was shopping yesterday at the Kohl’s in Harris County, Texas.
Time's Portrait Of The American Shopper
By 2.27.09
Time interviewed Paco Underhill, a retail consultant and the author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, to find out how the average American consumer shops and thinks these days. Turns out, according to Underhill, there are three types of “average consumer” out there now, and—you may have noticed this already—the era of the big box retailer is in decline.
Shaw's Wants You To Shop More With Their Wheeled Baskets
By 9.29.08
Shaw’s has wised up to the trick of using a basket instead of a shopping cart to physically limit your grocery purchases, and they’ve come up with a creative workaround: convertible baskets that you can drag behind you on wheels when they become too heavy to carry.
