Amazon has already been making moves to get into customers’ closets with the in-house apparel brands it launched last year, and rumors that it’s planning a new line of workout clothing. Now, Amazon reportedly wants to slip into something more comfortable: your underwear drawer. [More]
shopping
Target Refusing To Pay For Damage After Its Two-Ton Red Ball Rolls Into Driver’s Car
By 2.3.17
It’s not often that a shopping center turns into something out of an Indiana Jones movie, but that’s the first thing we thought of when we heard that a two-ton cement ball had been knocked loose from its berth in front of a Target store in New Jersey and rolled into traffic. And now, Target doesn’t want to pay for the damage it caused. [More]
Ralph Lauren CEO Making A Quick Exit After Butting Heads With The Real Ralph Lauren
By 2.2.17
Just 16 months or so after Ralph Lauren (the person) stepped down from the top spot at Ralph Lauren (the company), his replacement is already on his way out the door. [More]
Has Amazon Helped Indie Bookstores?
By 1.26.17
Bookstore chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble were among the first retailers to feel the sting of Amazon, with its vast variety of titles and speedy delivery times, not to mention its huge share of the ebook market. However, the online goliath doesn’t appear to be having the same diminishing effect on the number of independent bookstores. [More]
Amazon Adds Virtual Dash Buttons To Website, App For One-Click Ordering
By 1.20.17
If you’re the kind of person who already has enough clutter around without adding a bunch of plastic shopping dongles, Amazon thinks it has the solution for you: it’s adding virtual Dash Buttons to both its website and app so Prime shoppers can reorder common products with one click. [More]
The Limited Files For Bankruptcy, Shutters Online Store (For Now)
By 1.19.17
The retail slaughter continues on in 2017 with its latest victim: after shutting down all 250 remaining stores Jan. 8, The Limited has filed for bankruptcy and has shuttered its online store — for now, at least. [More]
Fate Of American Apparel Stores Remains Unclear After Bankruptcy Auction
By 1.17.17
Last week, Canada’s Gildan Activewear purchased the American Apparel brand, but not the company’s retail locations, leading to reports that all 110 stores would be shuttered. Yet, what remains of American Apparel won’t confirm those closures — for the moment. [More]
“Rude” Store Owner Tries To Weed Out Freeloaders By Charging $.62 “Browsing Fee”
By 1.6.17
Who among us hasn’t spent time browsing the wares at a store while knowing full well that we have no intention of spending a penny? The owner of one shop got fed up with freeloading looky-loos and has decided to start demanding money just for the pleasure of browsing. [More]
7 Injured After NYC Mall Escalator Malfunctions, Causing Chain Reaction
By 12.21.16
Several shoppers in New York City had an unpleasant surprise yesterday when an escalator malfunctioned, tripping up at least one person who fell and caused a chain reaction. Seven people were injured in the accident, officials say. [More]
The Big List Of Consumer Reports Gift Guides
By 12.19.16 — Updated: 12.20.16
’Tis the season, when you’ve realized you have a long list of friends and loved ones to shop for, but absolutely zero ideas about what to get them. We can help. [More]
Pizzas, Pot & Fields Of Gold: 7 Important Firsts In Online Retail History
By 12.16.16
How long have you been shopping online? People have been using electronic networks to buy and sell things for 40 years, and the first commercial transactions over the web took place over 20 years ago. Compared to bricks-and-mortar retail, where it took more than a century to evolve from catalogs, boutiques, and haberdasheries to big box stores, online retail has seen a significant amount of innovation in a very short amount of time. [More]
Amazon Makes First Commercial Drone Delivery To Customer In England
By 12.14.16
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has had a dream for a while now: delivery drones flying here, there, and everywhere, zooming over rooftops and dropping off packages to customers. That dream has now become real with Amazon’s first Prime Air drone delivery, Bezos announced today. [More]
From Cash Registers To Escalators To Shopping Carts: 11 Important Firsts In Bricks-And-Mortar Retail History
By 12.13.16
These days you can shop from the comfort your couch in your soft pants, ordering up a flat of cat food, paper towels, and a smartphone with one click. So it’s easy to forget that once upon a time shopping at retail stores wasn’t a necessary evil, but an “experience” that many of us actually enjoyed. [More]
Panasonic’s New Checkout Machines Scan And Bag Items All By Themselves
By 12.12.16
Can it still be considered self-checkout if the shopper doesn’t have to do a thing during the process? Yet another retail innovation aimed at expediting the checkout process scans and bags items so humans don’t have to. [More]
Best Buy Workers Give Wii U To Teen Who Visited Nearly Every Day To Play Video Games
By 12.12.16
’Tis the season when we’re happy to hear stories of big-hearted folks out there among all the Grinches, people who take it upon themselves to make a stranger’s holiday merry and bright. Like the Best Buy employees in New York who bought a Wii U for a teenager who visited almost every day to play Smash Bros. at the store. [More]
‘Santa B’ Strikes Again: Layaway Angel Pays For $50K Worth Of Gifts At PA Walmart
By 12.9.16
It’s that time of year again, when we’re happy to hear about shoppers performing good deeds and random acts of kindness. Some of those warm-hearted folks we know better than others, including Pennsylvania’s “Santa B” layaway angel, who has now covered the cost of Walmart shoppers’ layaway items for the third year in a row. [More]
Target Store Will Offer Quiet Shopping Hours For Autistic Customers
By 12.9.16
What makes a good shopping experience for some folks is not always ideal for others. That’s why a Pennsylvania Target store is setting aside certain hours on Saturday so autistic customers can shop in peace and quiet. [More]
American Apparel Confirms It Might Lay Off 3,500 Workers Next Month
By 12.6.16
After earlier reports that hundreds of American Apparel workers were told they would be out of a job next month, the struggling retailer confirmed on Monday that it had sent notices to almost 3,500 employees warning them of potential layoffs. [More]
