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consumerism
consumer behavior
America's 15 Hardest Drinking Cities
Ah, Consumer Behavior. Forbes took a look at the CDC's 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey (BRFSS) and ranked 33 cities based on their resident's answers to three survey questions: More »
southwest
Southwest Will Give Refund To The Family That Was Too Unruly To Fly
Southwest Airlines said that they will be giving a refund to the family it considered too "threatening" to make their connection to Seattle. KPHO says Wendy Slaughter will receive a full refund for their six one-way tickets from Detroit to Seattle via Phoenix. More »
directv
DirecTV Installer Arrives, Poops, And Leaves, But Doesn't Install DirecTV
It's hard to fit everything you need to do into an average day, but this ingenious DirecTV installer found a way to show up late to his appointments, take a break for lunch, and drop the kids off at the pool—all before 5pm! Now if only he'll remember to bring a ladder with him the next time so he can actually complete the installation. More »
ew
Hey, Air Travelers: You Are Extremely Disgusting People
The Wall Street Journal has an article that we could barely finish about absolutely disgusting behavior that air travelers are exhibiting on airplanes. The article details the foul, rude and unsanitary things that you all are doing out of some sort of misguided aggression towards the airline. We have news for you, pig pen, you're only hurting yourselves... or, more specifically, the next guy to sit in that seat. More »
your money
12 Ways To Save Money Without Scrimping
Some economists think we're starting to pull out of our not-recession. For those of us who believe them and want to save without putting too firm a dent in our wallets, consider these twelve tips endorsed by the Wall Street Journal. More »
behavior
Why You're Not A Logical Consumer
CNNMoney has an interesting interview with behavioral economist, Dan Ariely. In the interview, Dan talks about how price comparison (which we take for granted as a "good" habit for consumers to engaging in) may not be very helpful after all. Ha! More »
bad behavior
ProFlowers Freezes Over $100 By "Verifying" Customer's Card
Anne tried to send some flowers to her stepmom last week, but changed her mind after she saw the final price, which at $64 was too much for her budget (the tulips she picked out were listed at $29.99, but all the additional fees doubled the price). ProFlowers sent her an email offering her a discount if she'd complete her order, so she went back but discovered the tulips were sold out, and she abandoned the shopping cart a second time. Now her bank account has over $100 in "pending charges" because ProFlowers pre-authorized the full amount of each transaction and they can't seem to reverse the authorizations. It's been a week and she still doesn't have her money.More »
survey says
U.S. News: It's Your Own Damn Fault You Can't Redeem Rebates
U.S. News & World Report hates our inability to redeem rebates. If we only tried harder, they say, we might be able to conquer our "tendency to procrastinate and inability to follow multistep directions." Yes, that must be the problem. More »
weird
People Care More About Status Than Money
The LATimes has an interesting article about the strange things people think about money. Chief among the odd behavior was the average person's answer to the following question:Would you rather be A or B? More »
secrets
Retailers Exploit Natural Human Stupidity To Get You To Buy More
The Chicago Tribune recaps the findings of some recent consumer behavior studies—for instance, we're irrational buyers, prone to shoddy math and emotional decision making. The studies might be paid for by advertisers so they can better manipulate us, but as the Tribune notes, they're useful for us too because they "can help shoppers make better spending decisions if they understand themselves better." More »
marketing
Retailing Consortium Launches PRISM To Collect Data On Shoppers' Behavior
A consortium of retailers and consumer suppliers are working with Nielsen Co., famous for its nonsensical television ratings system, to launch a large-scale study of consumer behavior in stores. The program is called PRISM, which stands for "Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric," and it uses infrared sensors and manual counting, as well as genetic clones of our loved ones, to monitor not just what we buy but how we go about buying it. "About 70% of final purchase decision are made at the shelf," says a Procter & Gamble rep. "The store has always been important - we just didn't know enough about it." More »
cpsc
Dangerous Sealant Recalled, Replaced By Just-As-Dangerous Sealant
It's been more than two years since the CPSC first became aware of problems with the spray-on sealant Stand 'n Seal—it contained a chemical that can cause extreme respiratory problems in some customers, but was only partially recalled by the manufacturer and then replaced with another product with the exact same chemical—but the CPSC has yet to issue any fines to the company, writes the New York Times. It's yet another example of how an underfunded, underpowered CPSC fails to protect the public from reckless companies who swap ingredients, lie, and hide important data in order to protect their bottom line. More »
oh danny boy, your ceo is lying
Cubic Telecom Lied About Its "Cheap International Calling" SIM Card
Last Friday, we published a post about Cubic Telecom, an Irish start-up that sells a SIM card that's supposed to enable international calling for "50-90%" less than standard carrier rates. The post was in reference to columnist David Pogue's review of the product, and he was quoting rates that were provided to him directly by Cubic's CEO. Turns out the CEO was "misleading" him—he provided numbers that were substantially lower than the actual rates, and has been stringing Pogue along with assurances that they'd "update the site" ever since. As of Thursday, October 4th, they still hadn't. More »
marketing
Apparently Marketers Still Have A Lot To Learn
Adweek reports that in a recent Nielsen study of shoppers' in-store behavior, even the study authors were surprised to discover how little some marketers seem to know about what works and what doesn't. First, they determined how we shop for specific product categories: More »
january
What You Bought in January and How It Hurt Millions
Yo, lured out to the stores by the warmest January in more than a century, you blithely spent at a rapid clip that outpaced your income. More »
consumer behavior
