Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

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Wayfair’s “Way Day” — Deal or Dud Day?

Playing off of Amazon’s wildly successful “Prime Day” last July, Wayfair.com declared its own holiday savings event last week called “Way Day.” In TV ads, they claimed to offer the lowest prices since Black Friday on that day.

Way Day

To see if “Way Day” was hyping more discounts than they were actually providing, MrConsumer “randomly” chose 10 items from their various merchandise categories the day before Way Day, April 24, so they could be compared to the discounts offered on the same items the following day. We had no idea which items would be on sale and which would not be.

Wayfair before

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“Way Day” arrived, and here are Wayfair’s prices for the same items during their big sale.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Way Day prices

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Obviously, only checking 10 items is not a scientific, projectable survey. Nonetheless, the results of this spotcheck are interesting. Half the items were the same price or virtually the same price on “Way Day” compared to the day before. For example, the Price Pfister faucet was $82.86 on Way Day compared to $82.99 the day before. The GE dishwasher, however, didn’t even budge a penny from its $803 price.

But there were significant savings on some of the other five items. The pair of lamps dropped from $75 to $60.99. The rug went $277.99 down to $182.06. But the barbecue grill was only $6 less.

In total, the 10 items in our cart were selling for $1923.69 the day before the sale, but dropped to $1773.90 — for a “Way Day” savings total of $150.

So it looks like if one picked and chose carefully on “Way Day” and were familiar with Wayfair’s everyday prices, you could save some real bucks. Otherwise the savings might have only been slim or none.

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Walk Through Kohl’s Doors and Lose Your Right to Sue?!

Mandatory arbitration clauses that forbid class actions have been in the news lately as Congress and the president last fall struck down a new consumer rule prohibiting such clauses in contracts with banks.

Way before this action, Kohl’s department store cleverly stuck a clause into the terms and conditions on its website banning customers from getting together to sue the company.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Kohl's class action waiver

It is not so out of the ordinary to see arbitration clauses forbidding class actions on retailers’ websites. What is unusual is the fact that Kohl’s seems to be saying that this restriction even applies to people who shop in their stores.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Kohl's waiver 2

It says if you shop in their brick and mortar stores you are subject to the same restriction, and that “shopping in our stores constitutes your acceptance these terms.” Elsewhere in the terms it says if you don’t like these restrictions “you should not and are not allowed to…make purchases in our stores.”

What? So merely walking through the doors of a Kohl’s store I lose my right to be part of a class action against them? It sure seems so. (There is an argument to be made, however, that the combination of BOTH using their website AND shopping in their stores is what triggers the class action restriction. However, if that were true then only people who did both would lose the right to sue and certainly Kohl’s wants to prevent Internet users who never shopped in their stores to be covered by the class action prohibition.)

We asked Kohl’s how in the world the class action waiver could ever apply to people who only shop at their stores and were never put on notice that entering their stores triggered this restriction. (Last I checked, there was no notice on every door notifying shoppers they were about to lose those some consumer rights upon entering.)

The company did not respond.

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Here We Downsize Again (2018) – Part 1

In the never ending saga of products shrinking in size as a means to pass on a sneaky price increase to consumers, we offer these three new ones thanks to our eagle-eyed readers.

John R. spotted this gem in the dairy case. As he points out, orange juice makers laid the groundwork for being a commonly downsized item when most brands discontinued half gallon containers in favor of 59 ounce ones. And now at least one big brand is at it again.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Simply Orange

Simply Orange has just gone from 59 ounces down to 52 ounces. On its website, the company explains their decision:

The decision to reduce our 59-ounce PET package was made after careful consideration of the current cost pressures within our supply chain as well as clear data on consumer’s price preferences. We are committed to bringing quality juices and drinks to the market and have decided to reduce our 59-ounce PET package in order to keep prices fair for our loyal customers. As part of our ongoing commitment to keep shoppers well informed, we are communicating the new 52-ounce PET package size on the Simply website and we are making the package weight more prominent on our front-of-pack labeling.


The ever-shrinking toilet paper roll is getting smaller again, at least for purchasers of Quilted Northern. Our ace downsizing detective, Richard G., found the latest example.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Quilted Northern

The “mega” roll has gone from 330 sheets to 308 sheets.


Lastly, TRESemme shampoo has downsized at least one of its varieties again.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Tresemme

TRESemme

Most varieties of TRESemme were 32 ounces originally. Then they were downsized to 25 to 28 ounces depending on the type. Now a “new look” bottle signals yet another change — this time it is down to just 22 ounces for one variety.

Thanks to Richard G. for finding this latest change. If you spot a product that has shrunk in size, try to send a sharp picture of both the old and new package to Mouse Print*.