It was a strange week in the retail universe: A writer sparked an angry, blog-fueled crusade against a certain West Elm couch named Peggy (and won), pizza Pop-Tarts became a thing and Urban Outfitters brought back the early internet nostalgia of AOL and Myspace.
This, and more, in this week's Retail Therapy.
Bye Peggy
West Elm customers haven't been too pleased with Peggy lately: In fact, they're at their wit's end and she's been losing her buttons — literally.
Until now, West Elm Peggy Mid-Century Sofa owners stewed in their own dissatisfied silence. But all that changed when freelance writer Anna Hezel last week wrote a scathing essay for The Awl about "one of history's worst couches."
In her essay, Hezel details how the sofa's problems slowly began to take over her life, one broken button at a time: "They sent me a button-repair kit, indicating that this probably happens a lot. The kit was backordered, so it arrived two full months later and contained a wooden dowel, two buttons, and some directions that didn’t make sense," she wrote of West Elm's reaction to her complaints.
She gained much more traction with fellow disgruntled shoppers. Suddenly, all the silent sofa-haters began to come out of the woodwork. Peggy owners began to complain on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram about the couch, ultimately leading West Elm to pull the product from its website and offer full $1,200 refunds for anyone who purchased the product in the U.S. or Canada after July 2014.
Pissed-off West Elm customers — 1. Peggy — 0.
Thank you @silviakillings for letting me write a truly deranged tirade about one of history's worst couches https://t.co/wtCSUOQvq3
— Anna Hezel (@HezelAnna) February 16, 2017
@westelm, this isn't a defect? 3 months & buttons falling off of our peggy sofa- your cstmr service says no. really?! pic.twitter.com/TbzDoAio9v
— Laura K Leung (@laurakleung) May 8, 2015
Hologram Barbie
Welcome to the future — where children no longer need to pick up their toys to play with them.
Last week, toy maker Mattel unveiled Hello Barbie Hologram, an AI-powered doll, at the New York City Toy Fair, Fortune reports. The new Barbie, which will hit retailers' shelves later this year, features speech recognition and functions as a Bluetooth speaker, can tell you the weather and set an alarm, emit a night light and read out daily reminders.
However, you can't brush her hair or undress her anywhere — Hologram Barbie is like the G-rated version of Alexa for kids. And we've already seen how problematic the Echo's misunderstanding of toddlers has proven.
Do you want fries with that Pop-Tart?
This week, food manufacturing giant Kellogg’s pushed its popular Pop-Tarts product into the pop-up business. But these aren't just any Pop-Tarts — the breakfast and snack food brand's temporary New York City cafe is dishing up bizarre concoctions that "taste" like fries, pizza and tacos, to name just a few of the items on the menu.
At this point, you may be wondering what on earth a Pop-Tart with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese tastes like? Good thing this pizza is made with Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts, strawberry filling and fruit (meant to serve as faux pepperoni).
Consumers are eating up the gimmick. Here's a look at how some reacted to the strange combinations on social media.
@KelloggsUS debuted its #PopTartsCafe in Times Square today. Try specials all week #NYC pic.twitter.com/ff1ZRNVvhI
— Ashley Day (@ashnday) February 21, 2017
My thoughts exactly. #PopTartsCafe #PopTart #freedom https://t.co/6H1Q0zWOZQ pic.twitter.com/uCBGlQO4tK
— Kasey (@kaseyyanna) February 23, 2017
Shoutout to my ma who never let me have pop-tarts for dinner. #PopTartsCafe @KelloggsUS pic.twitter.com/gnY6aBNqdX
— Michael Moreno (@MochaMikeLI) February 23, 2017
Hello Myspace, my old friend
Remember Tom Anderson? The Myspace co-founder's infamous profile picture is now the face of Urban Outfitter's latest throwback piece of apparel: The trendy retailer is selling a long-sleeved T-shirt with Anderson's picture and the words "Friends Forever" for $50 a pop.
But Urban Outfitter's early 2000s nostalgia doesn't stop there — their collection also includes a $45 America Online T-shirt and a $49 Napster sweater. Incredible, considering the latter website was the poster child of music piracy.
AOL Tshirts, back in vogue here, click to buy. https://t.co/7SPjaOUfcc
— Ted Leonsis (@TedLeonsis) February 18, 2017
