The future of retail is quickly becoming a reality with more shoppers ditching trips to the store in favor of ordering groceries and other products from the comfort of their own home. Despite these changing preferences, one of the country’s latest retailers wants you to know that the physical store isn’t going anywhere. But the carts on the other hand — they’re toast. [More]
shopping
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]
Long Live Inflight Shopping: United Airlines Brings Back SkyMall For A Limited Time
By 12.7.15
There has been an inflatable movie screen-sized hole in our hearts ever since SkyMall announced in January that it had filed for bankruptcy protection, essentially ending 25 years of inflight shopping entertainment. But that void for all things you-never-knew-you-needed-until-you-had-nothing-better-to-do-than-flip-through-the-pages-of-the-kooky-retail-magazine will soon be full: SkyMall will once again by flying high on United Airlines. [More]
Toys ‘R’ Us Closing 110,000-Square-Foot NYC Flagship Store At End Of The Year
By 12.2.15
This will be the last holiday shopping season for the Toys ‘R’ Us flagship location in Manhattan, as the retailer plans to leave its 110,000-square-foot mega-store at the end of the month. [More]
Time Warner Cable Says It’s Resolved Outages That Kept Midwestern Customers From Shopping On Cyber Monday
By 12.1.15
The time has come — you’re off work, your computer is all fired up and ready to deliver those Cyber Monday online shopping deals… or at least, you thought it was, but it won’t connect to the internet. No deals for you. That’s the experience many Time Warner Cable customers had last night, with many in the Midwest reporting widespread outages. [More]
Hide Your Stuff, Lock Your Car: Black Friday Is Also A Pretty Big Day For Thieves
By 11.25.15
Black Friday is not only a big day for shoppers, with stores throwing open their doors early (or staying open all night since they opened on Thanksgiving) and the mad marketing blitz of discounts, sales and deals coming at you from every angle, but it’s a pretty fruitful day for thieves, as well. [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]
Walmart Starting Cyber Monday On Sunday Because That’s What Happens Now
By 11.23.15
Here’s a proposal: why don’t we toss out all the special names for the big holiday shopping days and just accept the fact that retailers are going to throw sales at the public before, during and after Thanksgiving? Walmart seems cool with that, as it’s moving its Cyber Monday sale-a-palooza to Sunday. [More]
Which Stores Will Have The Best Black Friday Deals?
By 11.17.15
How do you quantify what the “best” deals are, on Black Friday or any other day of the year? The most important factor should be whether the retailer sells stuff that you actually want, of course, and the value that those items provide for the money. Yet the sport of deal-hunting is all about the discounts, and WalletHub decided to compile raw percentages to figure out the best places to shop after Thanksgiving this year. [More]
Should Malls Charge Kids For The Privilege Of Visiting Santa Claus?
By 11.16.15
UPDATE: Later on Monday, the mall’s management group announced it had decided to make visiting Santa Claus free after all. [More]
Backlash Prompts Nordstrom To Pull “Chai Maintenance” Hanukkah Sweater
By 11.13.15
‘Tis the season — and by that of course, I mean the holidays can prove to be tricky for the retail industry to maneuver: from security breaches to product delays, layaway debacles to shipping mistakes, we’ve seen all kinds of incidents that turn shoppers against brands and stores. In the latest brouhaha, Nordstrom found itself apologizing to customers for a Hanukkah sweater some called offensive. [More]
There’s a Vending Machine For Used Cars In Tennessee
By 11.12.15
These days, just about anything — candy, DVDs, a new phone — can be purchased through a vending machine. And if you live in Nashville, you can now help yourself to a used car.
[More]
Walmart Changes Black Friday Strategy: Drops Doorbusters, Bulking Up On Inventory
By 11.12.15
When Walmart stores across the country open their doors at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving day there will be a Black Friday staple missing: hourly doorbuster deals. [More]
H&M Says It Will Close U.S. Stores On Thanksgiving For The First Time
By 11.10.15
While some stores are dedicated to giving people a way to escape their families after stuffing their faces on Thanksgiving (we’re talking to you, Target, Macy’s and Toys ‘R’ Us), others are changing the way they celebrate the holiday: for the first time, H&M says it will close its U.S. stores on Thanksgiving. [More]
Toys ‘R’ Us Will Open At 5 PM On Thanksgiving, Stay Open 30 Hours Straight
By 11.9.15
If you enjoyed having a wide selection of toys available to you for 30 hours straight between Thanksgiving and Black Friday, we have some great news for you! Toys ‘R’ Us is keeping the same holiday hours as last year, opening their doors at 5 PM on Thanksgiving and keeping them open straight through until 11 PM on Black Friday. [More]
Target Believes Porn That Played Over California Store’s PA System Come From An Outside Source
By 11.6.15
A few weeks ago, shoppers at a California Target received an unsettling surprise when the unmistakable sounds of professional coitus aired loud and clear over the store’s PA system. While an investigation into the incident continues, the retailer believes the pornographic audio originated from an outside source. [More]
Study: Shoppers Still Prefer Paper Coupons Over Digital Discounts
By 11.2.15
Though we are living in an increasingly digital world with a smartphone app for everything under the sun, when it comes to scoring discounts on everyday products, shoppers would rather stick with what they know best: coupon-clipping the old-fashioned way, with the daily newspaper and a trusty pair of scissors to do the job. [More]
Best Buy Adds Same-Day Delivery Test In San Francisco
By 11.2.15
Last-minute holiday shopping just got a bit easier for some Californians who simply forget to grab a gift for your electronics-loving family and friends: Best Buy is testing same-day delivery. [More]
