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Black Friday Watch: Sears To Open Thanksgiving Evening
In what may be a compromise between opposing Thanksgiving Day camps (to open or not to open?), Sears said it will once again delay...
Retail
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Amazon Prime Members Claim New Perk For Pre- And Post-Black Friday
Amazon pulled its Black Friday curtain back just a bit on Monday, revealing a new perk for Prime members. Prime members will now be...
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Paul’s TV Online Liquidation Set For Thursday
An online-only auction will be held this Thursday (Nov. 5) for the remaining inventory and office assets of Paul’s TV. The Los Angeles-area A/V...
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Holiday Forecast: Black Friday Gives Thanksgiving The Bird
A growing backlash against Thanksgiving Day sales is expected to help Black Friday kick holiday butt this season. According to retail traffic counter ShopperTrak,...
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Distributor Briefs
Almo Expands Small Business Saturday Event National CE and appliance distributor Almo Corp. is promising a bigger and better Small Business Saturday for its...
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Drone Wars: Walmart Has Amazon In Its Sights
Petitions FCC For Flight Testing Walmart’s efforts to catch up with Amazon have extended to drones. The world’s largest retailer by sales volume, if...
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Black Friday Watch: Adorama Leans On Loyalty Program This Holiday Season
Leading digital imaging dealer Adorama is encouraging customers to join its VIP member program in order to receive its best holiday offers. The privately...
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Black Friday Watch: Target Enters Holiday Fray With Free Shipping, Expanded Curbside Pickup
Target has weighed in on its holiday plans, which include free shipping and returns for all online orders placed this Sunday through Christmas. Target...
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Walmart Launching Holiday Assault On Sunday
Walmart will begin a two-month-long holiday blitz this Sunday that includes the first wave of seasonal discounts and a new in-store pick-up feature for...
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Amazon Adds E-Commerce Functionality To Fire TV
Users of Amazon’s Fire TV streaming media devices can now order products from the service’s home screen while they watch movies and shows. According...
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Newegg Declares ‘Black November’
Newegg, the top tech-specialty e-tailer, is bringing back its month-long series of deep discounts and special promotions next week under the banner of “Black...
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Walmart Exec Foresees Holiday ‘Anarchy’ From Credit Card Conversion
This month’s mandated switch to new chip-embedded credit cards is bound to cause chaos this holiday season, a Walmart executive has warned. Speaking at...
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A Look Inside Microsoft’s New Flagship Store
Microsoft pulled out all the stops for yesterday’s grand opening of its six-year-old retail chain’s first-ever flagship store. The 22,369-square-foot showplace occupies five floors...
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REI Won’t Open On Black Friday
Forget about the Thanksgiving backlash; REI is taking things a step further by closing its stores on Black Friday. The outdoor retailer said it...
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Microsoft Stores Ready To Party To Launch Surface Book, Surface Pro 4
More than 110 Microsoft stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada will celebrate the Oct. 26 launch of the Surface Book notebook and Surface Pro 4 tablet...
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Black Friday Watch: Best Buy Offering Free Holiday Shipping Starting Sunday
Best Buy is throwing down the holiday gauntlet by offering free shipping on all online orders beginning Oct. 25, and by staging special in-store...
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Amazon Extends One-Hour ‘Prime Now’ Delivery To Two More Cities
Amazon.com has added San Francisco and San Antonio to its growing list of metro areas where Prime members can receive their online orders in...
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Walmart Honors Back To The Future Day With Bacon 3D Printer
Great Scott! Yes, it’s Back to the Future Day, and some are trying to get into the spirit to honor the 30th anniversary of...
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Amazon Adds Same-Day Prime Delivery To Chicago & Orlando
Perhaps Amazon’s news will bring a little cheer to Cubs fans this morning. The e-tailer announced its Prime same-day delivery service will now be...
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Dell’s Leaked Black Friday Ad Has Vizio’s 60” 4K TV For $799
Dell is first out of the gate with a leaked Black Friday ad. Consumer deal aggregate site BlackFriday.com posted the six-page ad on Tuesday....
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Verizon Phones Getting Samsung Pay
Samsung Pay is coming to select Samsung phones on the Verizon network. Samsung’s mobile-payment technology went live on Sept. 28 in the U.S., but...
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Black Friday Pricing: Deja Vu All Over Again
Apparently the late, great Yogi Berra’s classic malaprop couldn’t be truer than on Black Friday. According to a review of doorbuster promotions over the...
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Best Buy Showcasing 4K TV In Atlanta Airport
Best Buy has taken its traveling 4K TV roadshow to the penultimate high-traffic destination: the world’s busiest airport. For the last 15 years Hartsfield-Jackson...
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Paul’s TV Is No More
Paul’s TV, the landmark L.A. video dealer, has gone under. Founded in La Habra, Calif., in 1964 by the late, self-proclaimed “King of the...
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Laptops Expected To See Deep Price Cuts On Black Friday 2015
Laptops are expected to once again receive discounts “of epic proportions” on Black Friday. Louis Ramirez of DealNews, an online aggregator of retail discounts,...
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Microsoft To Officially Open First U.S. Flagship Store This Month
Microsoft will formally open its first U.S. flagship store on Oct. 26 in Manhattan. Described as six years in the making following its first location...
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Amazon Prime Popularity Prompts Mailroom Changes At UConn
A growing deluge of Amazon Prime deliveries is forcing the University of Connecticut to rethink its mailroom operations. According to student paper The Daily...
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Attention Kmart Shoppers: Take A Musical Trip Down Memory Lane
For anyone longing to relive the decidedly non-distinct sounds of Kmart background music, Mark Davis has you covered. The former service desk employee diligently...
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Thanksgiving Backlash Continues As GameStop Sticks To Black Friday
The backlash against Thanksgiving Day sales events continues. Just days after Staples announced it would remain closed on the national holiday, GameStop also reportedly...
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Handmade At Amazon Puts Etsy On Notice
Next up in Amazon’s crosshairs: Etsy. The e-tailer announced Handmade at Amazon this morning, a section offering more than 80,000 “factory-free” products from over...
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Watch Out Google: Amazon Is Killing It In e-Commerce … And Search
There’s no argument that Amazon.com is the 800-pound gorilla of e-commerce. What may be surprising, however, is that The House That Bezos Built has...
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hhgregg Halts New Store Openings And Other Reveals From CEO Dennis May
hhgregg has put its plans to become a nationwide chain on temporary hold, CEO Dennis May said. In an interview with the company’s hometown...
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Target Extends Price Match, Gets Apple Watch
Target is on a tear. Days after announcing a slew of new initiatives, the No. 2 discount chain has targeted additional retailers with its...
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You Won’t Be Able To Buy That New Apple TV Or Chromecast On Amazon Anymore
As an indicator of how competitive the market for OTT video services and devices is becoming, Amazon will stop selling the Apple TV and...
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What You Need To Know About Today’s Chip-Card Conversion
Effective Oct. 1, liability for credit and debit card fraud theoretically shifts from banks to retailers that have not yet upgraded their payment terminals...
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Black Friday Backlash: Staples To Stay Shut On Thanksgiving
Staples is bringing the Friday back to Black Friday. Despite the growing trend of Thanksgiving openings, the office-supply retailer said in a statement it...
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Amazon’s Dash System Wants To Make It So You Never Write Another Shopping List Again
Amazon’s Dash system just got a lot more interesting. In addition to being able to order more paper towels with the push of a...
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Amazon Flex Takes A Page From Uber Playbook
Amazon is looking for a few good drivers with flexible schedules to deliver Prime Now purchases to Seattle customers. The service, available now in...
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Meet Chloe, Best Buy’s One-Armed Checkout Gal
It’s 3 a.m., your phone is dead, and you lost your charger in the dance club. What are you to do? Well, if you’re...
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Samsung Pay Goes Live In U.S.
The Samsung Pay mobile-payment service went live today in the U.S. The service works with most existing and new payment terminals, including most magnetic-stripe,...
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The Doctor Is In: Nebraska Furniture Mart Mending Mobile Phones
Nebraska Furniture Mart (NFM) has recruited Phone Surgeons, a nationwide network of mobile device technicians, to perform in-store repairs on smartphones and tablets. The...
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Amazon, Walmart Salute Emmys With 67th Anniversary Sale
Two of the world’s largest retailers are saluting last Sunday’s 67th Primetime Emmy Awards Show today with a pair of promotions that pin prices...