Sometimes the mall can feel like a shark tank, with shoppers circling each other and sniffing out deals that retailers throw out like so much chum. But visitors at a Shanghai shopping center had a bit of a more unfortunate and very real experience with sea life when an aquarium full of sharks, turtles and fish shattered suddenly. [More]
shopping
Nothing Quite Ruins A Shopping Experience Like A Tank Full Of Sharks Suddenly Shattering
By 12.27.12
I Want To Buy A Sorbet Maker, Sears Keeps Hanging Up On Me
By 12.27.12
We have a hypothesis here at Consumerist. The Sears Holdings Corporation is no longer a retailer, but is only an anti-capitalist prank on a global scale. How else can you explain a company that has a global retail presence, yet seems determined not to sell anything? The latest chapter in this saga comes from Kelly, who wanted to buy a small kitchen appliance that turns frozen fruit into delicious sorbets. Sears, perhaps with a hangover and in desperate need of some personal space after spending the holidays with its more crass cousin Kmart, keeps hanging up on Kelly every time she calls to see whether the item is in stock. She’s taking the hint now. [More]
How Not Price-Matching Your Own Website Is Kind Of Inefficient
By 12.20.12
We understand why very few retailers will price-match their own websites. Online and meatspace retail are different markets, and the current system rewards people who are smart enough to order items online for in-store pickup. We guess. You have to admit, though, that the current system is kind of inefficient. That was Brian’s experience at Finish Line, anyway. He wanted a specific jacket, which was $69 online, but a higher sale price, $100, in the store. Only the store couldn’t give him the online price, because That’s Just Not Done. What did he do? He went home and ordered the jacket online. With free shipping. How efficient. [More]
Retail Managers: You’ll Get More Product Info From A Smartphone Than A Sales Associate
By 12.19.12
Times used to be, you had a question about a product and needed information about it, and you asked the sales associate at the store. But now it’s not just consumers who stay home to online shop who are finding the best information and prices about items they’re shopping for, even retail managers say customers in a store are better off turning to their smartphones to get info, rather than asking a sales associate for help. [More]
Land’s End Can’t Redeem Shop Your Way Rewards, Doesn’t Care
By 12.17.12
Shop Your Way Rewards are one of the delightful selling points for continuing to shop at companies that are part of Sears Holdings Corporation, such as Sears, Kmart, and Land’s End. Hayden has accumulated a modest balance of these points, and wanted to spend them at Land’s end. The website won’t let him. He reported this problem to Land’s End, and no one at the company seems to care. At all. [More]
Sears Loses A Nexus 7 Sale, Misses The Point
By 12.7.12
Bill has been a loyal Sears customer for most of his life. They happen to sell the Nexus 7 tablet, which he wanted to get for his wife for Christmas (hope she doesn’t read Consumerist) for a competitive price, and he could get Shop Your Way rewards points. Score! He ordered up the tablet online, then headed over to the store to pick it up. Then things started to go terribly wrong. [More]
H&M Will Take Your Old Clothes So You Can Buy New Stuff For A Discount
By 12.6.12
Many Americans just have too many clothes — our collective closets are stuffed with mid-range to cheapie clothing brands that we can tire of quickly and replace without breaking the proverbial bank. Like that sweater? Buy it in two colors! Need new jeans? There’s a sale so you can get three pairs! H&M has hatched a crazy-like-a-fox plan to help rid customers of their old duds while giving them incentive to shop for new stuff with a recently announced clothing recycling plan. [More]
Item Is Right On The Walmart Shelf, But Site-To-Store Will Take A Few Days
By 12.3.12 — Updated: 9.18.14
Retailers generally don’t price-match their own websites. Walmart, Sears, Best Buy, Gap, Home Depot… they’re separate operations. Lee didn’t know that, though, and tried to get Walmart to match its online price for the router he wanted. They refused. That’s not worthy of publication on Consumerist, but what happened next is. He whipped out a smartphone and ordered the router sitting on the shelf in front of him for in-store pickup. Hurray! He beat the system! Until an e-mail from Walmart arrived telling him that he could expect to pick up his new router sometime next week. [More]
Retailers Squeezed $25 More Out Of The Average Shopper With Extra Thanksgiving Sales
By 11.26.12
The Black Friday creep seems to have paid off for retailers (even as it casts a dubious shadow over Thanksgiving), as shoppers shelled out about $25 more per person during this year’s Thanksgiving-centered sales last week. Of course in many cases, Black Friday wasn’t even limited to just Friday, with plenty of retailers hosting sales and opening their doors on Thanksgiving. Overall, shoppers spent about 13% more than we did last year. [More]
Move Over Santa: Consumer Reports Issues List Of Naughty & Nice Companies
By 11.21.12
They’re making a list and checking it twice, and you’re about to find out who’s naughty and nice. Get it? Because Consumer Reports is coming to town? Or rather, it’s issued its annual list of the companies it considers to be bad little boys and girls and those who are to be held up as examples to the rest of’em. Let’s get to it [cue gleeful rubbing together of hands]! [More]
Using Your Spouse’s Costco Card Will Launch A Mini Fraud Investigation
By 11.20.12
Costco members, you should feel safe: the world’s most beloved warehouse club is looking out for you. In the event that a thief steals your membership card, happens to have the same last name as you, and makes Costco purchases while you stand a few feet away, Costco has got you covered. Which is to say that Adam’s local store freaked out on his latest visit when his wife forgot her Costco card and used his, but paid with her debit card attached to their joint bank account. [More]
Missed Black Friday 2011? Don’t Worry, Most Retailers Are Selling Same Stuff At Same Sale Prices
By 11.14.12
Did you miss shopping Black Friday sales last year and have regretted it ever since? Don’t. Our friends over at NerdWallet nerded over this year’s “leaked” Black Friday ads and determined that so far, nine out of ten stores are offering the same exact items on sale at the same exact prices. [More]
Staples, Where ‘Item In Stock’ Means ‘Meh, I Don’t Feel Like It’
By 11.5.12
Perhaps irrationally, Robert thought that because the Staples website said that the tablet he desired was “in stock” at the nearest Staples store, that meant that it would be available for purchase. You can’t be too sure, so he called up the store. Yes: they had three tablets! Score! He drove to the store to bring home his precious, precious Nexus 7. The very same employee he had spoken to on the phone dispatched someone to get the tablet, and he was told that there were none in stock. [More]
Maybe Best Buy Would Compete Better If Their Employees Acknowledged Customers
By 10.29.12
Ryan wanted to buy a tablet, but he’s in the Northeast and couldn’t expect a delivery to show up reliably while his region is getting smacked by a massive Frankenstorm. He took the opportunity to try to buy the tablet he desired in person. Where he lives, the main place to buy electronics is Best Buy, which had the Asus Transformer Infinity in stock. Should be simple enough: go to the store, buy the tablet, then come home and play with the tablet. Right? [More]
Ask The Consumerist: Is There Any Point To All These Stupid Surveys?
By 9.19.12
Rachel is sick of surveys and writes in to ask if we think they serve any purpose. [More]
Sorry, No Converse Sneakers For Contractor In Afghanistan
By 9.17.12
More than one Consumerist reader has heard the siren song of the John Varvatos Converse sneakers. Not long ago we shared the story of Tim, who bought two separate pair that each fell apart in less than a year. Meanwhile, Riley isn’t able to tell us anything about the durability of the shoes because Converse won’t take his money. Converse.com ships using the U.S. Postal Service, useful since he uses an APO address. They shut down his transaction because his billing and shipping addresses don’t match. That’s because he’s a contractor working in Afghanistan, and his bank accounts and credit cards are all registered to his actual home, back in the U.S., where his wife and kids are. [More]
Teavana Needs To Teach Its Employees That Disabilities Exist
By 8.31.12
Some disabilities telegraph themselves pretty obviously: think of someone using a wheelchair, or a blind person walking around guided by a guide dog. Other disabilities don’t. Rosalie is deaf. When she visited her local Teavana and broke an item on the shelf, she tried desperately to point out to the salesperson that just talking at her wasn’t effective communication. The employee wouldn’t listen. When she tried to follow up with Teavana corporate later, no one would answer her. [More]
Would You Pass Up A Discount On An Item Just To Pay With A Credit Card?
By 7.18.12
Now that Visa and MasterCard have settled a major lawsuit with retailers, opening the door to let stores tack on surcharges for customers using credit cards, some big businesses are considering offering a discount to those paying with cash. [More]
