Retail

CVS Is the Retailer Americans Are Most Likely to Regret Buying From

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: May 12, 2022 9:30 am

Reputation and customer service can make or break a business. These things also can be linked to rapid growth. Amazon is often praised for the way it treats customers, its wide range of products and its swift delivery times. Apple, although not a traditional retailer, does have hundreds of stores. These are known for knowledgeable salespeople, beautiful stores and signature products.

Interestingly, some of America’s largest retailers get poor scores for customer service. Walmart generally falls at the bottom of the list. Why do people shop there? Perhaps because it has a store everywhere, or perhaps it is low prices.

One measure by which store chains are judged is the ease with which people can buy a gift, and then return it if necessary. We all know at least one “difficult” gift recipient within our family or social circles, the person who requires much more thought and deliberation than usual to buy for successfully.

The fear of being considered a poor gift-giver can cause us to overspend, with “finding the perfect gift” or “trying to give the best gift” as the top reasons usually given for blowing a gift-buying budget. One study found that Americans spend an average of two hours of research before buying a gift and spend $106 on it.

Gift-buyer’s remorse is common and can be associated with the retailers from which gifts are purchased. To identify the one Americans are most likely to regret buying from, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed survey data collected in 2021 for The Gifted Few Gifters: America’s Gifting Habits and Expectations Explained, a study by WeThrift, an online search engine that surfaces popular coupons. WeThrift polled 1,010 people who are used to buying gifts for others.

Amazon proved to be the most popular of the 18 major retailers in the study. About half of those who bought from the online giant ended up having regrets about their purchases, but that still makes Amazon the retailer they were least likely to regret buying from. It is probably no surprise that people often regret buying gifts from chain pharmacies or grocery stores, but even a premium vendor like Apple ranks higher than you might expect in gift-buying regret.

The retailer people most regret buying gifts from is CVS. Here are the details:

• 75% of respondents feel regret purchasing a gift from CVS.
• 11% of respondents shop at CVS (fourth smallest share on the list).