If you like viewing and ordering prints of your digital photos from the comfort of your own home and then traipsing to the local Costco to pick up your memories, then we’ve got good news: Costco has finally relaunched its online photo services website after taking the site down upon discovering a breach in July. But there’s also a bit of bad news: some customers’ credit card information may have been captured in the year-long hack. [More]
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Costco’s Online Photo Services Back Up After Breach, Customers’ Cards May Have Been Compromised
By 9.8.15
Costco Pushes Back Relaunch Of Online Photo Services Another Month Following July Hack
By 8.18.15
Fans of Costco’s photo services will likely be waiting another month before they are able to order pictures though its website, as the company that manages the site continues to recover from a July breach. [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]
British Stores Stocking More Thanksgiving Products As American Traditions Invade
By 11.25.14
The holiday that gives thanks for a new home away from the ye olde Europe has made it full circle, and has apparently entrenched itself right back where the Pilgrims started from: British stores are now stocking Thanksgiving products, as Americans abroad have spread the holiday’s popularity across the pond. Because everyone can enjoy a nice turkey nap. [More]
7-Year-Old Girl Questions ‘Fun Gifts For Boys’ Sign At Tesco
By 11.24.14
Tesco is a supermarket/superstore based in the United Kingdom. They sell just about everything, including toys. However, one member of the toy-buying public was not thrilled with their holiday marketing. A 7-year-old girl noticed a “Fun gifts for boys” sign on a photo of an alarm clock featuring Marvel superheroes. Wait a minute: she likes superheroes. Why is that only a gift for boys? [More]
Tesco Abandons Plan To Have Sniper Shoot Protected Bird Living In A Store
By 9.12.14
It’s hard out there for a pied wagtail. First of all, your species is in decline. Second, it’s hard enough to get a nice place to live, without meddlesome humans coming in and trying to shoot you out of your home. Good news for one particular pied wagtail living in a Tesco store in England, then, that supermarket officials have decided not to bring in a hired sniper to shoot it with an air rifle. [More]
Billboards That Scan Your Features And Figure Out Your Age And Gender Are Not At All Creepy
By 11.5.13
Shoppers at discount store Tesco in the U.K. might get the unnerving feeling that someone is watching them. Something is. The chain is using sophisticated software to identify customers and beam ads at them. No, not by name: by demographic. [More]
UK Retailers Realize “Mental Patient” & “Psycho Ward” Also Aren’t Great Halloween Costumes
By 9.26.13
While we’re dealing with Naughty Leopard costumes for kids that don’t even remotely resemble actual leopards, British retailers have their own hands full with controversial Halloween outfits. Across the pond they’re called “Fancy Dress Costumes” and with names like “Psycho Ward” and “Mental Patient,” retailers selling them are coming under fire from the mental health community. [More]
English Grocery Store Offers Venison Special: Severed Deer Head At Checkout
By 6.12.13
You can encounter the weirdest stuff at the grocery store in the wee hours of the morning, but you probably haven’t seen anything weirder than what turned up in the self-checkout aisle of one of UK grocer Tesco’s stores at 1:30 in the morning: the severed head of a deer. [More]
Meat Lovers In UK, Ireland Surprised That Beef Now Comes With Horse DNA Included
By 1.16.13
Over here we’ve had our spate of controversy over fillers in beef products but even talk of pink slime likely won’t provoke quite the reaction as telling someone there’s horse meat in their hamburger. The Republic of Ireland’s food safety authority (FSAI) says horse DNA has been found in burgers and other products purported to be made of beef in Irish supermarkets as well as in the United Kingdom. Cue shudders. [More]
Two London Residents Find Dead Frogs In Their Tesco Spinach
By 9.19.12
We’ve come to use the tag “free frogs” for any story about unexpected dead animals in one’s food. Over in the United Kingdom, they’re apparently running some kind of regional free-frog promotion. Two London customers of chain retailer Tesco have found dead frogs in their spinach in the last week. [More]
Buy Groceries From Giant QR Code Wall In Subway Station
By 7.7.11
As you wait for the subway to arrive, thoughts of errands drift through your head. Pick up medicine from the pharmacist, get package from the post office, and go get the groceries. In South Korea, Tesco has been experimenting with a system that lets you take care of that last one, right while you’re on the subway platform. It’s a wall-length billboard with photorealistic images of essential supermarket supplies. You take a picture of each item you want, grabbing its QR code, place your order, and Tesco will deliver it to your door. [More]
We Gained Five Pounds Just Looking At This Lasagna Sandwich
By 7.14.10
In case lasagna, with its layers of pasta and cheese, isn’t fattening enough for you, a grocery store chain in the UK has introduced something that might be right up your carbo-loading alley — a pre-made lasagna sandwich. [More]
Teen Girls Accused Of "Food Contamination" After Squeezing Muffins
By 9.23.09
We’re not quite sure what to make of U.K. grocery chain Tesco. First, the store bans a Jedi after he refuses to lower his hood. And, now, the chain is threatening legal action against two teenage girls who squeezed a couple of muffins to see how fresh they were.
Closed-Minded Retailer Tesco Bans Jedi Religious Garb
By 9.20.09
The persecution never ends for the Jedi, does it? First, they were nearly all murdered by one of their own. Then, just when they’ve built a presence on modern Earth, a grocery store in Wales tells a practicing Jedi that he can’t wear the hood of his robe up in their stores. Bigotry!
Driving Your Rolls Royce Through The Wall Is Not A Good Way To Lodge A Complaint
By 8.28.09
This is probably something we shouldn’t have to tell you, but apparently some people are confused. For example, this guy: He decided to drive his 1983 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit through the wall of a store after a dispute over the delivery of a mattress.
Punishing Customers For Buying More: Now Worldwide
By 5.28.09
Theoretically, if you buy more of something, you should pay less per item, or per unit. That’s the entire point of buying things in bulk. Right? Not necessarily. To confuse the logical part of your brain this fine morning, here’s a collection of instances where customers pay more when they buy more.
Supermarkets Begin To Shrink
By 9.12.08
The New York Times reports that several supermarket and retail chains, including Safeway, Walmart, and Whole Foods, are beginning to experiment with much smaller store sizes that emphasize things like cafes, prepared meals, and produce. The idea is to emphasize speed over choice, and was apparently triggered by UK competitor Tesco, which has launched over 70 small-format supermarkets in Nevada, Arizona, and Southern California over the past year. Of course, the stores also require less shelf space for products than they did a year ago.
