Tag: RETAIL

Times are tough and the markets are way down. People are losing jobs, industries are collapsing, and nobody knows when it all will end. That's not stopping people from upgrading televisions, though; a newly published report covered by the AP shows that HDTV sales are soaring, despite all the economic uncertainty. According to sales figures released by iSuppli Corporation, 7.8 million flat-panel ...

We've heard of people putting money in their mattresses before, when they're afraid there is going to be a run on the banks, but stashing your life's savings in a computer is a new one to us. Sometime in the last week, a publicly unidentified man dropped off his computer tower at a St. Louis-area Best Buy for repairs, but forgot to remove his savings from inside, according to STLToday.com. ...

It's bad enough that your kids can spend all day window shopping and bargain hunting online. They ask you to buy them things, send you links to Amazon at work, and are generally just huge pains in the butt. Sometimes you probably wish you could just give them your credit card and get it over with. Well, handing over your plastic is a pretty terrible idea, but thanks to BillMyParents, there's ...

Everyone's favorite sensationalist rag the New York Post recently put five popular, "As Seen on TV" products through their paces in order to determine whether or not items like the ShamWow! really are spectacular enough to prompt fits of slack-jawed disbelief in observers, as they do in their infomercials. Alongside the PedEgg, ShamWow! and Eggstractor, the vaguely tech-related Loud 'N Clear ...

If you've ever worked in customer service, you know how infuriating it is to listen to an endless string of mundane complaints or fend off duplicitous customers looking to get something for free. Regardless, there's a line that customer service reps should never cross -- the line between angrily getting a supervisor and mercilessly pummeling the dissatisfied shopper. According to WEAU, Radio Shack ...

The Silicon Alley Insider is doling out a bit of advice that we heartily endorse: "Don't buy a smartphone until June." It's not like there aren't any quality offerings on the market right now. In fact, if you really want a Windows Mobile phone (though we're not sure why you would), there's no need to wait. Go get one now. But be warned that, come June, there will be a whole host of new handsets ...

Video game outlet GameStop allows consumers to buy and sell used games, and, until recently, has been the only major retailer to provide such a service. According to reports this month from video game blog Kotaku, the franchise has been taking advantage of its market domination by selling used games as new ones. GameStop permits its employees to "check-out" games by playing them for up to four ...

GameStop, for years, has monopolized the corporate-level, used game and trade-in market, but, in March, several big-name retailers muscled in on the action. Amazon (which had previously allowed only third-party, used game sales) and Toys 'R' Us initiated the movement, and, according to Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets, several other major corporations will soon enter the fray, as well. ...

digg_url = 'http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/09/600k-dsis-sold-opening-weekend-in-us-and-europe/'; It wasn't the most hyped launch ever, but Nintendo's DSi had itself a fine little opening weekend, with 300,000 units moving in the US and Europe each. Not bad at all, considering that the first DS only sold 500,000 units in its first entire week in the US -- we're guessing the DSi will manage to ...

As part of its newfound bankruptcy status, Ritz Camera's gearing up to close more than 300 of its around 700 brick-and-mortar stores across the US, or about 43 percent of its retail presence. Starting April 4th, the affect stores will begin liquidation sales that'll go on until -- in the words of the press release -- "everything is sold to the bare walls." Forget DSLRs, if you were needing any ...

A perfect storm of the slow economy and seasonal affect of new televisions coming in while old models still sit unsold is making right now the time to buy, according to the L.A. Times. It's the answer to the question many of us are constantly asked "when can I get the best deal?" and there's plenty of answers, Black Friday, Super Bowl, or right now during the slow period, but strictly on a ...

iTunes, now the world's largest music retailer, is under fire from many competitors, including Amazon's amazonmp3 service, which sells most popular tracks for $.99, but also offers plenty of other tracks at $.79 or less. So how does Apple respond to this pressure? Why, by raising prices on some tracks $.30, naturally. Starting April 7, Apple will raise the prices of a number of its hottest ...

At long last folks with a contract phobia or just a general penchant for lawlessness can pay exorbitant amounts of money to get an iPhone 3G contract-free. As promised, 8GB models for $599 and 16GB ones for $699 are now available from AT&T and Apple stores, with AT&T requiring buyers to be existing AT&T customers, limited at one per, while Apple stores will sell the handsets to anyone ...

With the hectic lifestyles we lead, we must often choose between eating a fresh meal or stale food from our local drive thru. But, we soon may be able to get a dish made from scratch almost immediately without cooking or leaving the workplace, thanks to a genius invention: pizza vending machines. The "Let's Pizza" vending machine prepares fresh dough, shapes it, puts sauce and toppings on it, ...

These past months have been tough for retailers, particularly ones selling frivolous electronics that people don't really need. You'd think they'd be a bit more careful with their customers, but not so much, apparently. First we heard about a number of shady dealings at Office Depot and then some improper refusals to match competitors' prices at Best Buy. Now, we're hearing that the latter ...