Consumer Affairs & Relations

Walgreens, Walmart and Kroger were among major retailers quick to implement temporary new programs designed to help customers coping with one of the many glitches associated with the roll out of the Affordable Care Act.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Through the end of January 2014, customers at Walmart and Walgreens who have signed up for public health exchanges but have not yet received their plan identification information from their insurance providers will be able to fill up to a 30-day supply of prescriptions with no upfront cost.

Washington -- The National Retail Federation Thursday formally filed an appeal of a controversial antitrust lawsuit settlement covering credit card swipe fees, asking the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court’s ruling.

The case for domestic sourcing received a boost this week after Walmart was required to recall 73,400 five-piece card table and chair sets sold under its Mainstays brand.

The recall was initiated after Walmart said it received reports of 10 injuries including one instance of a finger amputation and several fingertip amputations. The product was manufactured by the Heshan Camis Industrial Co. Ltd., of Guangdong, China, according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

CINCINNATI — Leaving the iconic Times Square clean and sparkling is a huge job, but somebody's got to do it. A 25-person "Mr. Clean Team" worked alongside the New York City Department of Sanitation and the Times Square Alliance on Jan. 1 to give the area a thorough scrub down following the massive New Year's celebration and they had some help thanks to one of Procter & Gamble's newest products. 

New York — Target Corp. said a “small percentage” of its gift cards were not properly activated and, as a result, are not working properly when customers try to redeem them.

“We are aware that some Target gift cards were not fully activated and apologize for the inconvenience,” Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in an e-mail, Reuters reported.

Food safety and compliance issues earned Walmart some unwanted attention this week after it was learned that snacks made with donkey meat in China were also found to contain fox meat.

Alfred Marshall, a founder of the Marshalls department store chain in the mid-1950s, died Saturday, Dec. 28 in Boca Raton, Fla., at the age of 94, according to a New York Times report.

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