“Employees are taught situational tactics to extract as much money as possible from a potential customer.”
Best Buy
What Buyback Gadget Programs Are Really All About
Services like Best Buy’s Buy Back program are presented as consumer safeguards. A customer who buys a new TV, cell phone, or other electronic gadget can be assured that the retailer will buy back the item if it’s brought back into the store within a certain window of time. This might sound great, but the way these programs work, the net …
10 Questions: What Makes a Pasta Worth $26? Do Health Insurers Owe You a Refund? What Is Money Anyway?
For thoughtful, insightful answers—or at least discussions with some funny comments—about these and other pressing consumer issues, here’s a roundup of recent posts and stories. The list even includes a special bonus question: What’s the difference between a collection and junk?
96 Money Tips: Smart 401(k) Saving, Dumb Pawn Shop Purchases, and More
This week’s roundup also includes insights on technology rip-offs, the future of coupons, and tactics for handling everything from hard-nosed negotiations to selling stuff on Craigslist.
Why Retailers Prefer “Ship to Store” Over Plain Old Shipping to the Customer’s Home
During the past winter holiday shopping season, free shipping was a big trend. Retail giant Walmart, for instance, offered free shipping on some 60,000 items. Now, instead of continuing to expand free shipping services, Walmart is ramping up its “ship-to-store” program, in which shoppers order merchandise online that they’ll later pick …
Consumer Phrase of the Day: ‘Fear of Obsolescence’
A significant chunk of both the workforce and the recently unemployed fear that their skills and experience are obsolete, and no longer needed in the workplace. Older workers in particular have been driven to extraordinary lengths to appear less dinosaur-like: Some are even getting cosmetic surgery to improve their career prospects. …
Is Best Buy’s ‘Buy Back’ Program a Good Buy?
“This plan seems more like a way for a retailer to add a higher-profit item to a low-margin sale than a great way for consumers to get a break on new gear. And it will make even less sense after Saturday when the program is no longer free.”
What Happens When Three Savvy Shoppers Hit the Mall, Smartphones in Hand
During a six-hour shopping excursion in Dallas-area malls, three shoppers armed with three different smartphones—Android, Blackberry, iPhone—scan, search, and take advantage of every app under the sun on a two-prong online-real world quest for great gifts and the best prices. What do they find out? While smartphone-enhanced shopping …
How SmartPhones Level the Playing Field for Shoppers
Comparison shopping has never been easier. Forget about store circulars, let alone physically going to multiple stores to scope prices. With a smartphone and a price-comparison app, scouring the competition is as easy as entering a single store and punching in an item’s model number or scanning the bar code, then waiting a few moments to …
Beware Bad Return Polices: Which Vendors Don’t Allow Returns on Big TVs? Or Only Allow Returns Within 14 Days?
And which store charges a restocking fee of up to 25% of the item’s purchase price if you decide to return it?
Shopping for Deals Before, After, and Even During Thanksgiving Dinner
By tradition, Thanksgiving is a day of rest. But while you might have the day off from work, retailers hope that you don’t take the day off as a consumer. As more and more stores are open for business on the holiday—and with online shopping possible 24/7 and special deals for Internet shoppers this Thursday—the day dedicated to …
20 Best Black Friday Deals: Why You Might Want to Get Up Early and Fight the Crowds
With one week before Black Friday, and with the Black Friday ads from most retailers leaked to the media, the time seems ripe to put together your list of must-gets, sharpen your elbows to fight off other shoppers, and plot your trip to the mall.
