Latest news with #Retail
The Sun
a day ago
- Business
- The Sun
How to extend Tesco Clubcard points ahead of deadline
TESCO shoppers have just days left to stop their Clubcard vouchers from going to waste. Thousands of customers have been warned that vouchers issued in May 2022 will expire for good on May 31. 1 That means if you haven't used them by the end of this week, they'll vanish completely. The supermarket has been sending out urgent reminders, telling shoppers: 'Your Clubcard vouchers are expiring soon. Don't forget to use them on your next shop.' But there's a simple way to keep your points alive without spending the whole lot at once and it only takes seconds. If you've got an old voucher about to expire, you can spend just a small amount of it, as little as 50p, and Tesco will automatically reissue the remaining balance with a fresh two-year expiry date. So, for example, if you have a £10 voucher and use 50p on your next shop, the leftover £9.50 will come back to you as a brand-new voucher, valid until 2026. It works in-store and online. Just apply part of your voucher at checkout and the rest will be updated and saved in your Clubcard account. To see what you've got left, log into your Tesco Clubcard account through the app or website, and head to the 'Vouchers' section. You'll find a full list of what's available and when it runs out. If you're shopping in-store, you can scan your voucher straight from your phone. If you're buying online, they'll pop up at checkout and can be applied with one click. Save with secret codes Tesco's Customer Engagement team said: 'Lost track of where they are? Don't worry, you can find your vouchers in the Tesco app. "If you're shopping in-store, just scan them at the till from your phone.' Insider tip from a Tesco employee A Tesco employee has revealed a surprising secret about the self-scan trolleys. According to the worker, random checks on customers using these trolleys are not entirely random. The checks are actually triggered by a specific customer habit. If you frequently pick up and put down items without scanning them, you're more likely to be selected for a check. This is due to the system detecting suspicious behaviour, which could indicate potential theft. So, to avoid delays, it's best to scan items immediately after placing them in your trolley. What is a Clubcard? Clubcard is Tesco's free loyalty scheme which gives customers one point for every £1 spent in store or online, and one point for every two litres of fuel. Once you've earned 150 points, you get a £1.50 voucher to spend. But the real value comes from Tesco's Reward Partner scheme. This allows customers to swap their points for rewards worth up to three times as much. For example, £10 in Clubcard vouchers can be turned into £30 to spend at restaurants like PizzaExpress, or attractions like Legoland and SEA LIFE. There's also the option to exchange £7.50 worth of vouchers for a three-month Disney+ subscription – a saving that's proved popular with families. You can also rack up points by shopping with Tesco's partnered brands. Customers buying a new Vauxhall car can earn a whopping 50,000 Clubcard points, while shoppers using services like Evri or OVO Energy can collect extra points per pound spent. If you want to take it further, Tesco also runs a monthly subscription called Clubcard Plus. It costs £7.99 a month, but gives you 10 per cent off two big in-store shops of your choice each month, as well as discounts on select Tesco brands. If you spend over £40 on your big shop, the discount alone covers the subscription. Tesco fans can also earn points by taking surveys through the Shopper Thoughts programme. You'll receive 150 points just for sharing your opinion and it can be done from the sofa in a matter of minutes. The biggest mistake shoppers make is letting their vouchers expire – and it's easier than you'd think to forget. So before May 31 hits, log into your account and see what's still sitting there. You might have pounds waiting to be saved or even tripled in value. How to save money on your food shop Consumer reporter Sam Walker reveals how you can save hundreds of pounds a year: Odd boxes - plenty of retailers offer slightly misshapen fruit and veg or surplus food at a discounted price. Lidl sells five kilos of fruit and veg for just £1.50 through its Waste Not scheme while Aldi shoppers can get Too Good to Go bags which contain £10 worth of all kinds of products for £3.30. Sainsbury's also sells £2 "Taste Me, Don't Waste Me" fruit and veg boxes to help shoppers reduced food waste and save cash. Food waste apps - food waste apps work by helping shops, cafes, restaurants and other businesses shift stock that is due to go out of date and passing it on to members of the public. Some of the most notable ones include Too Good to Go and Olio. Too Good to Go's app is free to sign up to and is used by millions of people across the UK, letting users buy food at a discount. Olio works similarly, except users can collect both food and other household items for free from neighbours and businesses. Yellow sticker bargains - yellow sticker bargains, sometimes orange and red in certain supermarkets, are a great way of getting food on the cheap. But what time to head out to get the best deals varies depending on the retailer. You can see the best times for each supermarket here. Super cheap bargains - sign up to bargain hunter Facebook groups like Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK where shoppers regularly post hauls they've found on the cheap, including food finds. "Downshift" - you will almost always save money going for a supermarket's own-brand economy lines rather than premium brands. The move to lower-tier ranges, also known as "downshifting" and hailed by consumer expert Martin Lewis, could save you hundreds of pounds a year on your food shop.
Wall Street Journal
2 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Costco to Rely on Advancing Orders, Production Shifts to Offset Tariffs
Costco Wholesale COST 3.67%increase; green up pointing triangle is taking steps to reduce its exposure to tariffs by pulling orders forward and moving the sourcing of its private-label products to the regions where they are sold. These actions have helped lower costs for the warehouse-club chain, while also enabling it to avoid sharp price increases for consumers, Chief Executive Ron Vachris said on a call with analysts Thursday.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Target employees reveal embarrassing Pride collection mistake amid backlash
Target knew this year's Pride collection would be under the microscope. Still, the company made a glaring misstep: several self-identified employees have shared photos of a slip-up on the Pride clothing's hang tags. 'body copy tincidunt ut lorem ipsum,' the tags say. 'dolor sit amet, consectet adipiscing elit, sed diam ad nonummy nibh...' If that sounds like gibberish, that's because it is. The sentences are frequently-used placeholder text for graphic designers and publishers looking to test out different fonts. Reddit users pointed out that Target clearly forgot to finish the graphics on a heavily scrutinized collection. 'They didn't finish editing the tags on the Pride merch,' one staffer pointed out. It looks like the incorrect tags impacted clothing items across the lineup. Pictures show placeholder text on tags for products like the 'adult athletic pant' and the 'adult woven top.' 'These kinds of mistakes do occasionally happen, but this clearly slipped through a lot of nets,' Neil Saunders, a retail expert at GlobalData, told Several self-identified Target employees have posted pictures of the company's Pride collection hang tags on Reddit 'It's very sloppy for a product range that is supposed to be meaningful and significant.' Saunders said the company might soon be sending new hang tags to stores to swap out the mistake. But some shoppers, who have already felt spurned by the brand's reversal on diversity and inclusion policies, said the mistake was 'tone deaf.' 'Someone said it was Pride in the closet,' one shopper said. Another added: 'I swear this will end up on some random Facebook page as evidence of the Pride merch being "demonic."' Others joked that the tags would inspire more Queer art. 'Lorem Ipsum is actually my drag name,' one shopper chided. Another added: 'Wow, they really put their heart and soul into this, didn't they?' Target has been at the center of several culture war issues - in 2023, the CEO had to move product because right-wing activists allegedly called in bomb threats Employees have been sounding off on Target this year as frustration about the company's negative headlines mounts 'These kinds of mistakes do occasionally happen, but this clearly slipped through a lot of nets,' Neil Saunders, a retail expert at GlobalData, told 'We're aware of the error that originated with our vendor and are working to address the issue,' a Target spokesperson said in a statement to For years, the company has been caught in the middle of culture war fights. The anger largely started with violent frustration over the Pride collection. In 2023, conservative backlash started against the company when activists called out a bathing suit designed for trans swimmers. Brian Cornell, the company's CEO, said anti-LGBT activists threatened store employees and placed bomb threats in response to the product. He responded by moving the merchandise to the back of nationwide stores. The right-wing anger triggered profit problems for the brand: Target said sales dropped 5.4 percent in the quarter after the backlash. In January of this year, the company cancelled a three-year program meant to diversify its leadership team, angering some shoppers on the left. Shoppers were closely watching this year's Pride collection to see if Target would start leaning on either political direction The decision has spawned a new wave of customer boycotts, with liberal shoppers swearing off the brand. Sales for the company fell 2.8 percent to $23.85 billion in the quarter, the brand announced earlier this month. Employees have been worried the drop in profits and consistent negative headlines impacting the stores will start resulting in job losses and store closures. The company has not shut down a store since 2023, and didn't confirm if it was planning any major cuts. Meanwhile, shoppers have been using this Pride collection as a litmus test to see whether Target would be capitulating to either side in the culture war.
Wall Street Journal
2 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Gap Warns of Up to $300 Million in Tariff Costs
Gap, which also runs Old Navy and Banana Republic, said it doesn't plan to raise prices to offset duties. ()
CNA
2 days ago
- Business
- CNA
Shein working towards Hong Kong listing after London IPO stalls: Sources
HONG KONG: Shein is working towards a listing in Hong Kong after the online fast-fashion retailer's proposed initial public offering (IPO) in London failed to secure the green light from Chinese regulators, said three sources with knowledge of the matter. The China-founded company aims to file a draft prospectus with Hong Kong's stock exchange in the coming weeks, one of the sources said. Shein plans to go public in the Asian financial hub within the year, two of the sources said. Shein plans to change the listing venue as it has not yet received approval for its London IPO from Chinese regulators, notably the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the two sources said. The company, which sells products including US$5 bike shorts and US$18 sundresses, in March secured approval from Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for its IPO in London, and soon informed the CSRC, one of the sources said. The company initially expected the green light from Chinese regulators to follow swiftly after the FCA but has since experienced an unexpected delay and limited communication from the CSRC, said the source. Details about Shein's Hong Kong listing plan have not been reported previously. All the sources spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media. Shein and CSRC did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. A spokesperson for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX) declined to comment on individual companies. Before its attempt to list in London, Shein had pursued a listing in New York, as part of its efforts to gain legitimacy as a global, rather than a Chinese company, and access to a wide pool of large Western investors. A listing in Hong Kong would go against that strategy and could hurt its global credentials. Allegations that Shein's products contain cotton from China's Xinjiang region and a planned legal challenge to the London IPO by a non-governmental organisation campaigning against forced labour in China have complicated the London listing and risk embarrassment for the Chinese government, a separate source with direct knowledge of the matter said. Tensions with the US over trade only exacerbate the wariness of Beijing and the CSRC, the source said. The US and non-governmental organisations accuse China of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where they say Uyghur people are forced to work producing cotton and other goods. Beijing has denied any abuses. Shein, founded by China-born entrepreneur Sky Xu, says it has a zero tolerance policy for forced labour and child labour in its supply chain. The company moved its headquarters from Nanjing, China, to Singapore in 2022. As it awaited a response from the CSRC, Shein earlier this month dropped the communications firms Brunswick and FGS it had hired to help with public relations ahead of the London listing. "MORE TO DO WITH CHINA THAN LONDON" Reuters could not determine if Shein had sought or received a nod from the CSRC for the Hong Kong listing. The company had sought Chinese regulatory approval to go ahead with processes to list in New York and later in London. Shein's filings with the CSRC make it subject to Beijing's listing rules for Chinese firms going public offshore, two sources have said. The rules are applied on "a substance over form" basis, giving the CSRC discretion on when and how to implement them, the sources added. Shein does not own or operate any factories, instead sourcing its products from 7,000 third-party suppliers in China as well as some factories in other countries like Brazil and Türkiye. The company had aimed to go public in London in the first half of this year. "Shein's listing would have been a boost to the market," said Alasdair Steele, corporate partner with law firm CMS. "However, there was never any guarantee that a single large listing would reignite the IPO market." "The Shein news is much more to do with China than London," said Lisa Gordon, chair of investment bank Cavendish and a member of the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce (CMIT) - a group dedicated to the revival of Britain's markets. "The London market is in a very good position." This is not the United Kingdom capital's first major IPO loss this year. In February, Unilever said it had chosen Amsterdam for the main listing of its ice cream business. That follows a string of London-listed companies moving, such as online betting company Flutter. Others, such as Shell, are considering leaving as well. BUSINESS MODEL DISRUPTION Shein's business model of sending products straight from factories to shoppers around the world was disrupted by the Trump administration ending duty-free access and slapping steep tariffs on e-commerce packages from China. The "de minimis" exemption allowed e-commerce packages from China worth less than US$800 to enter the US duty-free and helped Shein, Temu and Amazon Haul sell clothes, gadgets and accessories extremely cheaply. Now, those parcels are subject to a minimum tariff of 30 per cent. Regardless of where Shein lists, its eventual IPO valuation will hinge on the impact of the removal of the de minimis exemption, the sources have said. The US exemption is still in place for goods that are not from China or Hong Kong. The European Union has also proposed changes to its duty exemption on parcels under €150, adding to pressure on the business model. Reuters reported in February that Shein was set to cut its valuation in a potential London listing to around US$50 billion, nearly a quarter less than the US$66 billion valuation it had achieved in a US$2 billion private fundraising in 2023. A revival in Hong Kong's capital market, with sizable recent listings including Chinese electric vehicle battery giant CATL's US$5.3 billion float, the world's largest listing this year, augurs well for a potential Shein IPO in the city. Companies have raised US$9.7 billion in Hong Kong through IPOs and second listings so far in 2025, compared to US$1.05 billion at the same time last year, according to LSEG data.
