For several years now, we’ve followed the proliferation of tinier and tinier Walmarts across the American retailscape. From the supermarket-sized Walmart Hometown stores to the gas station and convenience store called Walmart To Go, the retailer has experimented with store formats that are not enormous. Now the Tiny Walmart Menace has spread to Mexico, where its mini-grocery chain called Bodega Aurrera Express hopes to use low prices to draw customers. [More]
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Walmart Offers Gift Card Trade-In Program If You Don’t Mind Getting Less Than The Card Is Worth
By 12.29.14
Although consumers were warned several times this year that gift cards might not be the best option when buying something for their loved ones, some likely continued buying the plastic cards as gifts. If you found yourself on the receiving end of a not-so-wanted or needed gift card, you now have the option to trade it in for a Walmart gift card – and a couple of big catches. [More]
Be On The Lookout For Boxes Of Rocks When Shopping For Post-Holiday Deals
By 12.29.14
In the coming weeks, some retailers will be offering deals on unsold stock of popular holiday gift items. Sometimes stores are up-front about whether or not a particular product was previously purchased and returned, while many just put these items back into inventory with the truly new stuff. That’s why you need to open up those boxes before you leave the store — or else risk getting home to find you’ve purchased a box of rocks. [More]
Walmart Loses Customer’s Black Friday Order, Tells Her To Re-Order At Full Price
By 12.24.14
We know that mistakes happen and things occasionally get lost in shipping, especially when you’re talking about the world’s largest retailer during the year’s busiest shopping season. But if a retailer admits to misplacing your order, it shouldn’t try to cash in on its own screw-up by charging you more than you had already paid. [More]
Walmart To Raise Base Pay At 1,434 Stores Because Of State Minimum Wage Hikes
By 12.24.14
As a result of minimum wage increases coming in nearly half of the U.S. states next year, the lowest-paid employees at about 1/3 of Walmart’s U.S. stores are reportedly due for a pay bump in 2015. [More]
Video Shows 78-Year-Old Walmart Worker Injuring Hip Trying To Check Shoplifter’s Receipt
By 12.23.14
While we certainly understand and appreciate the idea of employing older Americans as greeters at Walmart, we cringe every time we come across a story of another elderly worker injured after being put in the position of trying to prevent shoplifting. [More]
Reminder: Don’t Buy Gift Cards From People Standing Outside Walmart
By 12.19.14
With just a few days remaining to finish your holiday shopping, you might feel compelled to buy a gift card and call it good. While that gifting idea might be suited for your needs, authorities are reminding consumers that you shouldn’t purchase the cards from a stranger standing outside a retailer — or a stranger walking around anywhere shilling gift cards, for that matter.
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Police: Man Faked Heart Attack At Walmart While Pal Took Off With Cart Full Of Toys
By 12.18.14
You’re shopping or working at Walmart when a young man collapses in front of you, showing signs of a heart attack. What do you do? You tend to the victim, because you are a human being with a soul. However, police say when this happened in Florida, two men took advantage of the functioning souls of the people around them to steal a cart filled with toys. [More]
Court Affirms $151M Ruling Against Walmart For Making Employees Work Off The Clock
By 12.16.14
When employees claim that their employer systematically forces them to work through breaks or other times during which they aren’t getting paid, how far do they have to go to prove that this is not a fluke particular to just a few stores? This is the question at the core of Walmart’s most recent appeal of a 12-year-old lawsuit that could cost the company nearly $200 million. [More]
Another Layaway Angel Swoops In, Pays $50K Worth Of Bills At Pennsylvania Walmart
By 12.16.14
In a season where there can be Grinches around every corner and bah-humbuggers just waiting to get ya, it’s always fun to hear about those layaway angels who go around paying off other shoppers’ bills all in one fell swoop. We’ve landed a big one today, folks — someone’s just paid off $50,000 in layaway items in Pennsylvania. [More]
GameStop CFO Says Company Will Weather Walmart, But Hints At Continued Store Closures
By 12.15.14
There are currently around 6,000 GameStop locations, meaning most people don’t have to drive very far to trade in a used game. But how will the company weather the two storm fronts of increased competition from major retailers and the shift toward digital downloads of games? [More]
Layaway Angels Fan Out, Hit West Virginia And Tennessee
By 12.15.14
Layaway is a useful tool that some retailers only offer during the holiday season. Let lets consumers without access to credit pick out gifts and pay them off over time––and, as one mother pointed out to me, keeps gifts hidden at the store, far away from impatient, snooping kids. Layaway was dying out before the Great Recession, and came back with its own folk heroes: the Layaway Angels. [More]
If You Plan To Steal $10,000 From Your Job, Don’t Use Your Employee Info For Transactions
By 12.12.14
Several months ago Consumerist reported on what might have been Walmart’s worst employee: a worker arrested for stealing cash from a customer and food from the company’s deli. While that incident was indeed bad, a Tennessee employee who allegedly stole thousands of dollars in gift cards and cash by using her employee information might just take over the title. [More]
Walmart Slashes Prices On iPhone 6 To $129, 6 Plus To $229
By 12.11.14
If you have been meaning to buy yourself or a loved one a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus but haven’t managed to get around to plunking down the cash for it, your procrastination has paid off. Walmart has cut prices on these devices to $129 and $229, respectively, for customers willing to sign up for a two-year contract with AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon. [More]
NLRB Judge Rules That Walmart Illegally Punished California Workers For Participating In Protests
By 12.11.14
In recent years, some Walmart workers have staged public protests about inadequate wages and unfair treatment. A number of these employees claim that management has retaliated against them for expressing their views. Now a court has ordered Walmart to reverse disciplinary action taken against protesting workers and put a stop to future retaliation.
Why Are Big-Box Stores Pricing Barbies Differently By Race?
By 12.10.14
Are pricing algorithms racist? That’s not really possible, and several big retailers are blaming “pricing errors” for discrepancies in the prices of Barbie dolls of different ethnicities. Shoppers interested in a doll in a figure-skating costume, for example, have to pay $1.99 extra at Walmart for a doll with darker skin and black hair. How does that happen? [More]
Bank CEO Rips Walmart For Allowing ID Thieves To Spend $12K Without Anyone Noticing
By 12.10.14
How do ID thieves spend $12,000 in just a couple of hours at Walmart without anyone noticing? Quite easily, apparently. Which is why one CEO of a Texas-based bank is criticizing the nation’s largest retailer. [More]
Walmart Cashier Bails Out Customer Who Can’t Afford Groceries
By 12.9.14
We’re going to guess that Walmart cashiers see plenty of customers in the course of a day who can’t afford all of the items that they’ve selected and must put something back. Yet something made a cashier in upstate New York stop and reach into her pocket when an older man at her register couldn’t afford to buy all of his food, contributing forty dollars of her own. [More]
