Everyone has an opinion, and nowadays most people are willing to share it; for better or worse. So it shouldn’t be surprising then – what with the sheer number of outlets available in which consumers can express their feeling about products and services – that nearly seven-in-ten consumers actually base their purchases on the digital recommendations of strangers. [More]
opinions
This Best Buy Survey Seems Suspiciously Biased
By 4.18.09
Sidd tried to fill out a Best Buy post-purchase survey online, but he suspects it might be skewed toward specific ratings. We know, it’s just a glitch, but this would explain that report that Best Buy is demoting 8,000 senior sales associates.
"Why Circuit City Failed"
By 1.19.09
Now that Circuit City has finally sputtered out, it’s fun to talk about what did them in—see their firing-your-best-employees stunt a few years back, for example. But what do former Circuit City employees think? This guy worked with them from 1997 to 2002, and he says for one thing, they should have never stopped carrying appliances.
By 9.18.08
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“Financial illiteracy has reached epidemic levels.” Author Braun Mincher has an editorial in the Austin American-Statesman on why every school in the U.S. should teach financial literacy. [Statesman]
TSA Declares Victory, Achieves Same Vaunted Status As IRS
By 12.23.07
The IRS is celebrating the results of an AP poll that ranks the TSA as the most hated arm of the federal government. More than anything, Americans apparently hate being inconvenienced by seemingly pointless and arbitrary security checks.
The AP poll, conducted Monday through Wednesday, found that the more people travel, the less they like TSA.
How Do You Get The Most Out Of Online Reviews?
By 12.22.07
Products don’t advertise their drawbacks leaving shoppers to rely on online reviews as one of the only ways to determine a product’s true worth. Salon argues in an article heavy on fluff and light on content that reviews are just a meaningless muddle of questionable opinions. We disagree, but the article does raise one good question: how do you judge the value online reviews?
FCC Approves Media Consolidation Plan On 3-2 Party Line Vote
By 12.18.07
The Federal Communications Commission just approved Chairman Kevin Martin’s plan to shred 32-year-old rules that block media conglomerates from controlling both a newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market. The spectacled Chairman won on 3-2 party line vote, having failed to lure either Democratic commissioner with last-minute changes that will prevent the Commission from approving mergers in small media outlets that host profitable papers.
Meat Industry Discovers Consumers' Trust Has Eroded
By 12.18.07
The meat and poultry industries have learned that if you poison your customers enough times, they’ll eventually start losing trust in you—although, oddly, they won’t change their purchasing habits. That’s the takeaway from a study carried out by Meatingplace.com (snicker) and “its sister publication POULTRY” (ha ha WHERE’S CHRIS HANSON). However, no description of the study is provided other than that Zoomerang.com was used, so we’re not sure if the results are at all meaningful. We’re just glad the meat industry is starting to notice something’s wrong.
FCC Chairman To Relax Media Ownership Rules
By 10.20.07
Media conglomerates are preparing to feast on a banquet of local media outlets thanks to a resurrected proposal from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. The Chairman wants to relax decades-old rules that bar media companies from owning both a newspaper and TV or radio station in the same local market. A similar proposal was presciently struck down three years ago by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Currently, a company can own two television stations in the larger markets only if at least one is not among the four largest stations and if there are at least eight local stations. The rules also limit the number of radio stations that a company can own to no more than eight in each of the largest markets.
Justice Department Takes Aim At Mean Commenters
Attention mean commenters: watch what you say or the Justice Department will hunt you down. Seriously! The U.S. Attorney in Nevada subpoenaed the Las Vegas Review-Journal to reveal the identities of two anonymous commenters whose statements could be read as mildly threatening to jurors involved in a tax case, if you’ve never read internet comments before.