How many women’s suits and dresses could you buy for $2.2 billion? For Ascena Retail Group, Inc. the answer is all of the suits and dresses sold in all of the Ann Taylor and LOFT stores. [More]
shopping
IKEA Is Testing Small Pick-Up Point Stores In Canada
By 5.15.15
I live in a smaller metropolitan area where people often whine that we have to drive more than two hours each way to visit an IKEA store. What if we didn’t, though? What if cities too small to support a mammoth IKEA of their own had small stores with some retail offerings, where they could pick up their online orders of flat-pack furniture themselves? The chain of mega-stores announced this week that they’re trying that idea out in Canada. [More]
Man Allegedly Fights Employees, Officers After Peeping Over Women’s Restroom Stall At Walmart
By 5.11.15
Over the years there has been no shortage of stories on Consumerist about peeping Toms hiding in women’s restrooms (the guys who fell through the movie theater ceiling) or department store changing rooms (the man who was chased by a topless woman at Kohl’s). But the latest unsettling incident took a dramatic turn after the alleged ogler supposedly assaulted employees and police officers after being found out. [More]
Nearly 14% Of Zappos Staff Left After Company Implemented New Management System With No Bosses
By 5.8.15
Earlier this year, online shoe retailer Zappos unveiled a new management system that banished managers and job titles. While some employees might embrace a culture without a boss, more than 200 Zappos staffers decided to take a severance deal rather than continue working under the new boss-free model. [More]
Why Is This Store Charging A Bottle Deposit On Dryer Sheets?
By 5.8.15
Some consumer mysteries are very tiny, which is what makes them somehow even more frustrating. For example, why did a bodega charge a customer ten cents in bottle deposit fees when she bought laundry supplies? The store was somehow charging the deposit on dryer sheets, but not charging it on beverages which should be subject to it. Why? The store say that it was all a mistake. [More]
Kohl’s Rolls Out Buy Online, Pick Up In Store Nationwide
By 5.7.15
The ability to order something online and pick it up is very appealing to consumers, even though doing so apparently doesn’t save us any time. Now Kohl’s, another retailer that had been testing this delivery method in fewer than 10% of their stores, is rolling it out nationwide. [More]
Fire Department Called To Untangle Girl’s Fingers From Target Shopping Basket
By 5.4.15
A trip to Target turned into quite the ordeal for a young Michigan girl over the weekend when the local fire department had to be called to unsnarl her fingers from a shopping basket. [More]
Nordstrom Remodels Flagship Stores, Won’t Make You Go Inside
By 5.1.15
There are two interesting developments that Nordstrom is trying right now: first, they’re remodeling and fancying up their stores in Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco, seeking to draw international tourists with world-class retail experiences. They’re also experimenting with curbside order pickup, so local shoppers can pick up their online order of bras without getting out of their cars. [More]
Jet.com Is Either The Future Of Retail Or A Doomed Wacky Scheme
By 5.1.15
This week, a new e-commerce site launched to about 10,000 beta users who signed up for a preview. The easy-to-remember name of this new site is Jet.com, and its goal is to remove some of the inefficiencies of shopping online. Will they succeed? [More]
Shoplifting Suspect Wearing ‘Won’t Be Caught’ T-Shirt Remains At Large
By 4.29.15
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Florida want to make sure that the prediction made on a woman’s t-shirt doesn’t come true. The message in huge white letters on her black t-shirt was clear: “Won’t Be Caught,” it said. Unfortunately, she was caught on camera while allegedly scooping up almost $1,500 worth of perfume and cologne bottle at an Ulta store in Tampa. [More]
How To Survive A Trip To IKEA Without Dumping Your Partner
By 4.22.15 — Updated: 4.11.17
Hardware stores aren’t the only retail establishments that pose an existential threat to domestic partnerships. Mega-home-store IKEA can also be a treacherous place, where the issues in a relationship surface as you search for items to fill your home together, then get them home and assemble them. That’s why one therapist actually uses the store’s flat-pack furniture as an exercise for patients: they have to assemble a piece of flat-pack furniture together and report back on how they communicated during the process. [More]
Sears Announces Final Two Stores They’ll Be Sharing With Primark
By 4.22.15
Last year, as part of their “taking on roommates” strategy of keeping their doors open, Sears announced that they were leasing parts of seven stores to Primark, a clothing retailer out of Ireland. Sears has finally named all seven of the stores where Primark will be moving in. All seven are in the Northeast. [More]
Walgreens Cashiers No Longer Required To Tell Customers To “Be Well”
By 3.25.15
Having someone wishing you well is always nice, but when it’s a pre-ordained phrase that you know the person is required to say as part of their job, well, not everyone loves that. And so it goes that Walgreen Co. says it’s putting an end to its “Be well” campaign that had cashiers bestowing the canned blessing upon customers. [More]
Grocery Chain Fresh & Easy Closing 50 Stores In Three Western States
By 3.23.15
Shoppers in California, Arizona and Nevada should keep an eye out for disappearing grocery stores, after the Fresh & Easy chain announced it’d be closing 50 stores in the three states and redesigning the rest. That’s about a third of its total stores after emerging from bankruptcy under new ownership in the fall of 2013. [More]
Police: Man Said He Showed Meijer Workers Nude Selfies Because It Cheered Him Up
By 3.20.15
We’ve all had the blues, but when you need cheering up it shouldn’t involve showing unsuspecting store workers pictures of your junk. That’s what police in Grand Rapids say one man admitted to doing, because he says it cheers him up when he’s not feeling so great. [More]
Outlet Malls No Longer Relegated To The Middle Of Nowhere
By 3.16.15
Outlet malls used to be outposts far from major cities where shoppers and tourists could trek for a shopping adventure. As outlets of department stores and brands alike have become more popular with price-conscious shoppers, outlet malls have grown in popularity, and also slowly crept closer to population centers. There’s even an outlet mall within the city of New Orleans now. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Uncover 11-Year-Old External Hard Drive
By 3.5.15
The Raiders of the Lost Walmart are a bold group of retail archaeologists who comb the big-box stores of the world for whatever the exact opposite of treasure is. They find obsolete technology available at prices so high that it deeply confuses savvy shoppers. While knocking $20 off the price of a 4-year-old blender and putting it in the “clearance” section is a decent strategy to move some housewares, it works less well for external hard drives. [More]
Science Says You Shop Differently If You’re Looking Up At Products
By 3.4.15
Just about everyone knows that the vital shelf space on a supermarket shelf is right below eye level, where your eyes are naturally drawn to products and you don’t have to crouch or crane your neck to see. A new study claims that vertical positioning on a shelf doesn’t just impact whether or not we see a product, but what kinds of purchasing decisions we make. [More]
