Sirens are sounding and the blue light is flashing once again at Kmart, as the struggling retailer tries to lure shoppers through its doors and revive its sales: after retiring “Bluelight Specials” in the early ’90s, the chain will once again blast sirens and turn on the blue light to alert shoppers to surprise, 15-minute long deals in its 942 stores. [More]
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Macy’s Stores Will Open At 6 P.M. On Thanksgiving Day
By 10.29.15
If you were worried that you might have to spend all of Thanksgiving Day at home and not inside a Macy’s store, there’s no need to worry. The department store chain will open on Brown Thursday at 6 P.M., allowing employees some of the holiday with their families if they choose to or are asked to work. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Find Rich Vein Of Overpriced Electronics From 2008
By 10.29.15
Kevin is one of the bold explorers who form the Raiders of the Lost Walmart, checking dusty clearance racks for secret caches of ancient flash drives and defunct multiplayer games. While exploring a retail archaeolgy site, or “Walmart store,” in upstate New York, he found an especially rich collection of finds. [More]
Woman Shopping At Target With Her Kids Shocked To Hear Porn Playing Over Store PA System
By 10.15.15
When you hear heavy breathing and moaning over the PA system at the store, either an employee is really excited to announce there’s a sale on dishwasher detergent or someone is playing porn for everyone to hear. One woman experienced the latter in a California Target on Wednesday, capturing the unmistakable sounds of professional coitus airing loud and clear over the store’s intercom. [More]
Facebook Testing A Dedicated Shopping Feed That Features Retailers’ Posts About Sales
By 10.12.15
Facebook is continuing its effort to push users to shop within the confines of the social network, announcing today that it’s testing a dedicated shopping feed that will feature deals and sales from different retailers’ pages. [More]
9 Things We Learned About HSN’s $2.5 Billion Per Year TV-Commerce Operation
By 10.5.15
You might not think about HSN very much, but that’s because you aren’t part of their target demographic: women over 35 who enjoy shopping but want to choose from a curated collection of stuff, maybe designed or at least endorsed by a familiar celebrity. If that doesn’t sound like a large portion of the population, you’d be surprised: HSN takes in $2.5 billion per year. [More]
Retailers Prepare To Fight Holiday Shoppers And Each Other To Not Offer Discounts
By 10.5.15
Retailers really, really want to wean American shoppers off our recession-era addiction to discounts. Will it be possible for them to resist the temptation to slap “40% off” signs everywhere to attract customers? Retail forecasts for this holiday season show that retailers want to avoid selling products at a discount, while consumers plan to make their shopping decisions according to price. [More]
Kohl’s Testing Cafe Concept At Two Wisconsin Locations
By 9.30.15
Kohl’s is joining the ranks of retailers like Target, Sam’s Club, IKEA, Costco, and countless others in bringing weary shoppers what they really want: something to snack on while traipsing down the aisles checking off items from their list. [More]
Whole Foods Says It Will Stop Selling Prisoner-Made Products Made By April 2016
By 9.30.15
After a protest at one of its Texas stores, Whole Foods says it will no longer sell products made using a prison labor program. The company has sold tilapia and goat cheese produced through a Colorado inmate program at some stores since 2011, and now plans to have the products out of stores by April 2016 or sooner. [More]
Jos. A. Bank Wants To Change Image, Ditch Reputation Of Cheap Suits By The Bushel
By 9.22.15
When Saturday Night Live shows a family using your menswear company’s products to sop up orange juice spills and pet urine because they’re cheaper than paper towels, and people actually find this funny, that’s a sign that maybe it’s time to reconsider your promotions strategy. Jos. A. Bank is trying a new strategy, which involves promotions with suits in more reasonable quantities than in the past. [More]
Macy’s To Close Dozens Of Stores In Early 2016
By 9.9.15
Just hours after Macy’s announced it would begin selling consumer electronics through Best Buy outlets in some of its stores starting this fall, the company announced it would also shutter dozens of underperforming locations beginning next year. [More]
Macy’s Teams Up With Best Buy To Sell Electronics In Some Stores
By 9.8.15
Shoppers heading to Macy’s generally plan to update the items hanging in their closets, not the electronics littering their living rooms. But that could soon be changing, as the department store plans to house Best Buy outlets in several locations starting this fall. [More]
Safeway To Refund Customers $30.9M For Online Ordering Overcharges
By 9.1.15
Nearly nine months ago, a federal court in California ruled that Safeway must refund customers the amount of money they were overcharged when the company broke its own terms and conditions by marking up prices of items ordered online. We finally know how much the supermarket chain will hand over: about $30.9 million. [More]
Bargain-Hunting Youngsters Extend The Back-To-School Season Well Into September
By 8.24.15
Back in July, early research showed that families planned to spend slightly more on back-to-school shopping than last year. A different survey by the National Retail Federation shows that families plan to spend less on back-to-school shopping this year. In addition to starting the back-to-school season earlier, it seems that retailers are extending it for longer, realizing that youngsters have learned to bargain-hunt as well as their parents. [More]
Target Testing Healthier Cafe Concepts — No Hot Dogs Or Nachos In Sight
By 8.21.15
Sometimes you just can’t get through your shopping trip at Target without a little snack, say, a hot dog from the store’s cafe. You might have to settle for something a little different next time hunger strikes while you’re roaming the aisles, as Target announced it’s testing a new – healthier – cafe concept. [More]
Macy’s Hopes Tablets & Dressing Room Deliveries Will Speed Up Your Shopping Time
By 8.19.15
Looking for a new outfit? You’ve got two options: Quickly buy online and hope what you purchase fits (and looks good on you), or go to the store and spend time scouring racks before trying things on to see if they fit and flatter. In an attempt to mesh the convenience of online shopping with the confidence of buying after trying, Macy’s is revamping its dressing rooms for the current generation of shopper.
[More]
Amazon’s New Seattle Facility Reportedly Set To Test “Amazon Flex” Package Pickup Service
By 8.19.15
When making a purchase through Amazon there are several options for delivery, depending on where you live: free-two day shipping with a Prime membership, Sunday delivery via USPS, Prime Now one-hour delivery, drop-offs at an Amazon Locker, and, of course, traditional several-day delivery. Now, it appears the e-commerce giant is working on another, secret, service at a soon-to-open facility near Seattle. [More]
Sephora Will Get Back To Angry Rewards Customers In Two Weeks (Update: Or A Month)
By 8.12.15
The Epic Rewards event was supposed to be an opportunity for customers who had accumulated a large number of points in the Sephora’s loyalty program to cash them in for valuable items. The question is: was it a rewards redemption or a sweepstakes that only people who have spent thousands at Sephora could enter? The company has promised to make things right with their customers, but are asking customers to give them 10 business days to figure out how. [More]
