A few months ago, I excitedly awaited the arrival of a mini cassette bag from Bottega Veneta that I was able to get for ~$700 during a sale at a major online retailer. However, all my expectations were crushed when I opened the suspiciously light package to discover the patented box was…completely empty. I couldn’t believe I had just spent $700 to receive absolutely nothing.

After a lot of back and forth, a representative from the retailer told me they had conducted an investigation and decided to refund me.

Fake it till you make it? One TikTok shopper reportedly received a dupe of a luxury item they ordered on Saks Fifth Avenue. Another got, in one now-infamous case, a can of tuna when the customer ordered a $275 Dolce & Gabbana ashtray. At the time of posting those videos, the customers alleged they had contacted Saks but were not refunded. (The customer who received the tuna did ultimately get the ashtray and a $100 gift card.)

So what might be going on?

Keep reading here.—JS

Over 70% of consumers across the globe plan to spend on recommerce and pre-loved goods this year. That’s a huge, telling number. Recommerce is the new cool kid on the block, and there’s just no doubt about it.

Get the full story in eBay’s latest Recommerce Report. It’s filled with all kinds of gold on the absolutely booming state of secondhand commerce.

For instance, take a look at the generational spread: Millennials are top of the game when it comes to pre-loved goods, with 9% buying weekly and 24% monthly. Gen Z is also right there with ’em, as 21% shop for pre-loved items once a month.

Recommerce empowers a whole new and sustainable way of living—and you need the scoop.

Read the report.

Walgreens got an object lesson on how the cookie crumbles recently, when a consumer advocate in Massachusetts discovered the company had been charging online shoppers sales tax on cookies, even though they aren’t subject to tax in the state.

Edgar Dworsky, long-time watchdog and shrinkflation avenger, revealed on his website, Consumer World, that when he saw Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies were on sale for $2.55, he ordered 10 tins online to pick up in the store. But while the total should have been a decimal-point move of $25.50, he noticed Walgreens also charged a 7% tax of $1.79.

But tax law in the Bay State, as a smart cookie like Dworsky well knew, exempts food, except for meals sold by restaurants. And thus began Dworsky’s quest not just to recover his own $1.79, but to get Walgreens to reimburse other consumers it had overcharged for food items, too.

Keep reading here.—AAN

Puneet Nanda spent much of his career in the background, churning out new products in the admittedly stodgy oral hygiene category. Now he’s the CEO of GuruNanda, the top-selling brand on TikTok Shop and a social media star in his own right.

His California-based account has 263,000+ followers and 5.8 million likes, numbers that he obtained from a daily regimen of content creation that might exhaust an energetic Gen Z influencer, let alone a 56-year-old product designer.

“I post 10 videos a day, so that’s what I do 10 hours, 12 hours a day,” he told Retail Brew. “Seventy percent of my job at the company is producing videos.”

Keep reading here.—AV

Because a supply closet without supplies is just a closet, stock up on office essentials with a little help from Walmart Business. Choose from an ever-expanding selection of must-have items + get everything delivered straight to your office—or closet—with the Walmart prices you know + love.