SharperImage

There are products that are clunkers, and then there are products that destroy otherwise healthy companies. The Ionic Breeze falls into the latter category.The Ionic Breeze was initially a major success, propelling shares of The Sharper Image to all-time highs, but the trouble began in 2002 when...

It's been a roller coaster ride for consumers trying to figure out what to do with their Sharper Image gift cards.When the overpriced gadget chain filed for bankruptcy, it declared that it would no longer accept its own gift cards. Then it sort of relented, agreeing to accept gift cards, provided...

After receiving a well-deserved trashing from just about everyone -- myself included -- for its decision to stop accepting gift cards in the wake of its bankruptcy filing, The Sharper Image has decided it will start accepting them again. With some restriction.In a press release issued early this...

Sure, Sharper Image might not have any qualms about screwing over its customers who were unlucky enough to have gift cards [update: after outcry from customers, Sharper Image decided to resume the acceptance of gift cards on March 7] but if you're in the market for luxury-techy home products, it...

I first got interested in the issue of companies deciding not to honor gift cards following bankruptcy filings when Bradlees tried to pull that nonsense back in 2000. The company reversed that decision after universal consumer outrage but at the time a spokesman for Eliot Spitzer's office said the...

A recent survey revealed that approximately 27% of gift cards are never redeemed. In 2006, that came to over $8 billion in gifts that ended up going back to retailers. The most common reasons that respondents cited for not using their cards included that they never had time to shop or that they...

One of my favorite metaphors is the mine canary, the little songbirds that traditionally traveled with miners on their trips into the earth. The birds functioned as early warning detectors: if there was a buildup of poisonous gas, the canary would die from it very quickly, leaving the miner with...