Earlier in the Great Recession, cosmetics company Coty was doing pretty well. The company makes the least expensive cosmetics that you’ll find in a local drug or discount store, brands like Sally Hansen and Rimmel. Even as the global economy fell apart around us, people could still spare a few bucks for nail polish, and the company did relatively well. Now sales are down and retailers aren’t ordering as much. Why is that? [More]
walmart
Report: Walmart Selling Beer At Cost In Some Areas
By 9.17.13
Walmart wants to sell you beer. Lots of beer. And in order to get consumers to equate Walmart with beer, the nation’s largest retailer has slashed prices to the bone on some of the best-selling brands of suds. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Keeping Your Computer Secure In 2011
By 9.16.13
Kaspersky Internet Security is probably a fine piece of software. It isn’t so fine, though, that people are generally willing to pay $53.00 for what is now a three-year-old version of it. “Cutting edge tech for the low, low clearance price of $53,” writes tipster Ryan. So very true. [More]
D.C. Mayor Vetoes Higher Minimum Wage, Re-Opening Door For Walmart
By 9.12.13
Earlier this summer, city lawmakers in Washington, D.C., passed legislation that would raise the minimum wage in the city for workers at certain large retailers from $8.25/hour to $12.50/hour. It was seen as a direct challenge to Walmart, which had planned to open new stores in the nation’s capital, and which threatened to pull out if the bill was enacted. But now that’s a non-issue, as Mayor Vincent Gray has vetoed the legislation. [More]
Let’s Hope Kids Didn’t Vote Funzo Onto Walmart “Hot Toy List” Or We’re All Doomed
By 9.12.13
The children are our future and as such, they hold our fates in their adorable, tiny, toy-clutching hands. Walmart decided to let kids decide what this year’s hot holiday toys will be, holding a three-day playfest to allow them the try out and rate their favorite toys. Anyone who knows The Simpson‘s Funzo should be hoping those tykes didn’t choose a toy-murder happy creature sent from the bowels of hell to destroy us all. [More]
With New iPhone Looming, Walmart Announces Smartphone Trade-In Program
By 9.10.13
The folks at Apple will soon reveal a new iPhone, inevitably leaving some consumers looking at their current device while asking, “What did I ever see in you in the first place?” Walmart, however, still sees some value in that phone you don’t love anymore (especially in terms of its resale value on the secondary market — hubba hubba) and is willing to take it off your hands. But is it a good deal? [More]
Scammers Vomit On Receipts To Trick Walmart Into Taking Back Bogus Video Games
By 9.9.13
Using the power of emetophobia, some scammers in Michigan apparently think they have found the secret formula for tricking Walmart into accepting returned video games — or rather, returned video game boxes containing counterfeit or blank discs. [More]
Woman Shocked To Find Funeral Home Put Her Son’s Ashes In Walmart Bag Inside Urn
By 8.30.13
While we might not be aware of where our mortal remains reside after we’re gone, one young man’s mother is upset that a funeral home confined his ashes to a plastic Walmart shopping bag. She discovered the bag job a year after he passed away, and calls it a “disrespectful” move on the part of funeral home. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Remain Lost In 2011
By 8.29.13
The Raiders of the Lost Walmart search the retail landscape without ceasing for the finest and least valuable retail antiquities. What items have they found recently that you should absolutely not ever buy? [More]
Lawsuit: Woman Died Because Walmart Didn’t Double-Bag Her Groceries
By 8.29.13
In April of 2010, a Nebraska woman picked up two 46-ounce cans and a two-pound bag of rice at Walmart. The cashier put all of these items in a single bag. The bag broke, causing an injury which became infected. The infection led to the woman’s death. Now her family is suing Walmart, as well as the companies that made and distributed the faulty plastic bag, for wrongful death. [More]
Walmart To Offer Employees’ Domestic Partners Health Insurance In 2014
By 8.27.13 — Updated: 8.28.13
This week, Walmart employees will receive a postcard in the mail with news that could be irrelevant or that could be life-changing. At the beginning of next year, the company will join most of the rest of the Fortune 500 in offering health, vision, and dental insurance benefits to the domestic partners of employees who are eligible. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Discover Most Ancient Flash Drive To Date
By 8.26.13
Do you remember when data storage that you could stick in your pocket consisted of “flash cards” the size of a pack of cards that held less than a gigabyte? Yeah, actually, I don’t remember that far back either. The store that reader and intrepid Raider of the Lost Walmart Knah recently explored does, though. They don’t just remember…they still have these ancient drives on the shelves. [More]
Walmart Hosting Two-Day “Made-In America” Summit To Boost U.S. Manufacturing Buzz
By 8.22.13
In an effort to boost the movement toward goods made right here in the good old U.S. of A., Walmart is kicking off a two-day summit bringing together other retailers as well as government officials and suppliers. The goal seems to be some kind of big brainstorming session to figure out how to get more American-made products in stores and jobs back on our shores. [More]
Former City Councilman Warns Residents: Walmart Shoppers Will Bring Down Property Values
By 8.21.13
Everyone has an opinion on Walmart and the impact it has on a community whenever a new store is opened. But some residents of Kansas City suburb say a former city councilman went too far when he recently distributed a letter claiming that a new Walmart in the area would attract an undesirable element and ultimately result in a drop in property values. [More]
Texas Walmart Evacuated After Shoppers Release Mysterious Spray Into Air
By 8.19.13
Imagine you’re enjoying a peaceful Sunday night of shopping at Walmart when suddenly a pair of doofuses (doofi?) choose to unleash some sort of spray that causes folks in the store to start choking and wheezing. Next thing you know, you’re being rushed out of the building with more than 100 other customers. [More]
Better Type Fast: Walmart.com Live Chat Is Only Available One Minute A Week
By 8.16.13
Trying to contact a Walmart customer service representative in a live chat is apparently an exercise only to be undertaken by the fleetest of fingers, the tersest of typists. Because as Consumerist reader Jasmina points out, it’s only available for one minute every week. [More]
Decade-Old Hard Drives Languish On Walmart Store Shelves, Make Us Sad
By 8.14.13 — Updated: 8.15.13
If you’re in need of some vintage “high-capacity mobile storage,” get yourself over to the Walmart stores of Massachusetts. You can get some nice mint in package USB hard drives dating back to the early ’00s at comically high prices. [More]
Walmart Worker Pepper-Sprayed After Asking For Customer’s Receipt
By 8.9.13
We’ve written any number of stories over the years about customers and store employees getting into arguments, even a bit of fisticuffs, over the whole receipt-checking thing, but this may be the first time that we’ve heard of a customer using pepper spray when asked to show his receipt. [More]
