<p>I had a lull in my schedule a few months ago and wandered past a spacious American Apparel in Midtown. I wasn't going to buy anything, but it was during that week in the summer when the temperature went from scalding to crucifying, and I just wanted to soak up the air conditioning (and look at crop tops). Alas, my coolant-fueled reverie was interrupted approximately 37 seconds after I walked in by a preposterously trendy floor salesman.</p><p>"Would you like to sign up on our email list?" He looked earnest. Still, I said no, because when does anyone ever want to sign up for someone's email list? Then he opened up the canvass bag in his hands and told me if I signed up for the email list I could have a free t-shirt. And thus, I ended up on American Apparel's stupid freaking email list. And their ads promising disco pants and lace thong bodysuits started clogging up my inbox, arriving with dozens from other retailers who had somehow snookered me into putting myself on their lists over the years.</p><p>Google recently introduced a major change to Gmail that I, as a consumer, find fantastic. Instead of a single-stream inbox, Gmail is now separated into three tabs, one for your primary email, and others for social updates and promotional materials. This means you'll never have to deal with Living Social again. It is magnificent for Gmail users who are easily enticed to signing up to lists but have no real interest in regularly visiting these retailers online shops.</p><p>But retailers, understandably, aren't happy about this change. After all of their pestering checkout line entreaties and luring people with the promise of 15 percent off, the subscription lists they've amassed are now losing value.</p><p><a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/why-gmails-new-tabs-are-freaking-out-retailers/">Keep reading...</a></p>