Dozens of petition-holding campaigners make it hard enough to get through downtown. Imagine if the area around Sixth and Pike, where the new-ish Forever 21 sits, were surrounded by indie designer-wearing fashion activists asking you to boycott the store? Oh, I doubt it will get to that, but as Refinery 29 reports here, change.org is charging the company with some pretty straightforward design theft allegations.

Are you as curious about and perplexed by those smart phone bar codes as I am? Do people actually use them to get good deals on beauty products, fashion products, or electronics—or even just to ‘like’ a brand on you-know-what in hopes of maybe later scoring some good deals on any or all of the aforementioned? Don’t people just go shopping anymore? AdAge breaks down some bar code business here.

And, if you’re still trying to parse this whole Gilt City, Rue Seattle, Living Social, Groupon, et al (is it just me or is there a new one every day?) thing, the New York Times business section drills down on the Gilt Group modus operandi. (via @trendscaping)

Finally, Nordstrom has a new name. (And no, it’s not "Nordstrom’s"—yeesh that’s a pet peeve of mine. People, there’s no apostrophe “s” there, k?) At least in New York. The NYTimes speculates here that the brand new Soho outpost uses the name Treasure and Bond, and takes a non-for-profit angle, in order to make friends with the city before launching a bona fide in the Big Apple.