Travelers taking off or landing in countries in the European Union may notice a bump in airline fares, as U.S. Airways and American Airlines have joined Delta and United Continental in adding a $3 surcharge each way to help offset the cost of a new carbon emissions law. [More]
More U.S. Airlines Jumping On The Surcharge Bandwagon After EU Emissions Law
By January 6, 2012
Blockbuster Express Jumps Into Rental Price Hike Pool
By November 7, 2011
With rival movie rental services Netflix and Redbox already having raised their prices, Blockbuster Express decided to follow suit, doubling the price of some movies to $2 for the first night starting Tuesday. The hike applies to releases that have been out between 29 and 90 days, while older movies will remain at $1 a night. New releases that have been out for four weeks or less will remain $3 for the first night. [More]
Netflix CEO: Company Will Invest Most Of Price Hike In Streaming
By July 20, 2011
When Netflix announced it would split up its streaming and disc subscriptions, making customers choose streaming or one-disc-at-a-time plans at $7.99 a month each, it didn’t offer much of an explanation as to why the price hike was needed. A writer at The Motley Fool took CEO Reed Hastings to task and asked him to justify the increase, and was surprised to get a response. [More]
Want Both Netflix Streaming And DVDs? That Will Now Be $15.98
By July 12, 2011
If you’ve been enjoying paying $9.99 for unlimited streaming and DVDs from Netflix, get ready to pay more — or have to choose between watching movies online or through your DVD player. [More]
Microsoft Explains Why Its Xbox Live Price Hike Is Good, And Good For You
By November 3, 2010
As of Monday, an annual Xbox Live Gold subscription costs $60 a year, a 20 percent jump from Sunday, when it was $50. Microsoft is here to assure you that the inflation is in your best interest, and necessary for the company to keep pace with its rising costs to do something or other. [More]
Starbucks' Prices Going Up
By September 27, 2010
Citing a 13-year high in the price of its coffee beans, plus “significant volatility” in other ingredients like dairy, Starbucks last week said it plans to raise prices on certain “labor-intensive and larger-sized” beverages. The small tall coffee will remain at its current price for now, says the company. I wonder if those truncated menus the company introduced a few weeks ago were really about hiding the least expensive option from consumers, especially since it isn’t being included in the price hike? [More]
5 Ways Grocery Stores Rip You Off
By May 14, 2010
LiveCheap uncovers ways in which grocery stores make you pay more for less with subtle techniques you may not easily notice. It seems supermarkets can get mighty sketchy when it comes to arranging its meat section. [More]
Gas Prices On The Rise For No Good Reason
By April 5, 2010
Several states are reporting this morning that average gas prices have crept up slightly, despite the fact that oil consumption has dropped and refiners are operating below capacity. The Miami Herald blames the price creep on Wall Street speculators who are optimistic that the economy is getting better, which in turn will lead to increased gas consumption. [More]
American Airlines To Charge $8 For Blanket And Pillow, If You're Lucky
By February 9, 2010
Starting in May, American Airlines will sell blanket-and-inflatable-pillow packs for $8 each on domestic flights longer than 2 hours. If your flight is under 2 hours and you tend to get cold on a plane, relax: you can’t shiver to death in under 2 hours, and by then you’ll be at your destination. Or, okay, still on the runway at your departure spot, raiding your carry-on for snacks. You might want to bring a light jacket. [More]
Tires Prices Increasing Soon, At Least For Cooper
By September 22, 2009
Are you planning on buying tires soon? According to this report from TireBusiness.com, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. is planning on raising its prices for passenger and light truck tires by “up to 12 percent,” in response to an increase on tarrifs from China. They wouldn’t provide a hard date for the price increase, but said “soon.”
69 Cent Tracks Are Hard To Find On iTunes Music Store
By April 8, 2009
MP3newswire.net browsed through not-quite-hits from past decades on the iTunes Music Store to see where these fabled 69 cent music tracks are hiding. He tried the Katydids, Camper Van Beethoven, the Lyres, Rock and Roll Trio, but found nothing below 99 cents. Then he went back to be-bop and blues recordings of the ’40s—nope. Finally, he looked at songs from Ada Jones, a recording artist from 1893 to 1922. Everything was still 99 cents.
iTunes Raises Prices To $1.29 For Popular Music Tracks
By April 8, 2009
Say what you will about Apple’s dominion over the music industry, but for a while now they’ve maintained an artificially low market for music tracks by forcing labels to sell songs for 99 cents each. That era is over: in exchange for moving to a higher bitrate and going 100% DRM free (hooray) iTunes has officially introduced “variable pricing” (boo), which means each track may cost 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29—it all depends on the song and the label. It looks like Amazon has introduced variable pricing as well, although it’s mostly holding to the 99 cents threshold for now. Amazon’s tracks, by the way, have always been free of DRM.
99 Cents Only Stores Raise Prices To 99.99¢, Narrowly Avoid Having To Buy New Signs
By September 10, 2008
99 Cents Only, the L.A.-based chain of not-quite-a-dollar stores, has come up with a novel approach to the growing losses it faces as the economy worsens: they’re raising their top-priced items to 99.99 cents.
Hershey Hikes Candy Prices 11 Percent
By August 18, 2008
Well, we’ve been saying it would be more honest to just raise prices instead of shrinking the product, and Hershey has taken us up on that. On Friday, only months after a 13% hike back in February, Hershey announced a price increase of 10-11% across the product line, citing higher costs for ingredients.
'99 Cents Only' Store Chain Considers Raising Prices, Changing Sign To '99 Cents, Orly?'
By August 8, 2008
[It is] definitely on the table. That is something we’re looking at . . . in the future for us. We’re looking at doing some experiments. Obviously one way [is that] you can start selling things for $1.05, $1.09, $1.15 and other ways. You could have more of a break between your 99 cents price point and the next price point.”
Delta Increases 2nd Checked Bag Fee To $50
By July 29, 2008
Delta announced today that it’s doubling the fee for a second checked bag from $25 to $50, effective on new bookings starting July 31st for all travel after August 5th. Got a third, fourth, or fifth bag and a lot of money to burn? Fees for those will rise from $80 per bag to $125 each.
DirecTV Raises Rates, Warns Customers Not To Switch To Cable
By January 28, 2008
DirecTV is jacking up rates by 4% as of February 27 and is reminding newly disgruntled customers that DirecTV still ranks higher than cable according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Most customers can expect a $3-$5 increase, but don’t count on award-winning customer service.
