Consumerist’s Tip For Criminals #872: If you rob a guy, don’t then use his stolen credit card to have pizza delivered to your home, because the driver dropping off your pie might just be a police officer in disguise. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Ranchers Legacy Meat Co. Recalls 1,200 Pounds Of Ground Beef Over E.Coli Contamination
By 11.24.14
Sure, it’s Thanksgiving week and we’re all preparing to devour our fair share of turkey. But some consumers prefer a main dish that’s a little more beefy. If you’re part of that camp, you might want to check the label after a Minnesota firm recalled ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli. [More]
Pizza Hut Thinks That Old Italian People Hating Its Pizza Is A Good Thing
By 11.21.14
Pizza Hut is trying some new crusts and toppings in an attempt to coax Americans back under its formerly red roofs. We sent a colleague to try them out, and she reported back that the 21 varieties of new toppings and crusts she tried were nice, but not spectacular. Therefore, Pizza Hut has apparently turned to reverse psychology to sell their new offerings. [More]
Woman Waits More Than An Hour To Be Rescued From Locked CVS, Still Pays For Vitamins
By 11.20.14
What would you do if you were stuck inside a closed store for an hour and a half with a waning smartphone battery and nothing to do while you wait to be rescued? While some of us would surely finally live out some kind of supermarket sweep fantasy, one woman marooned in a closed CVS behaved herself, taking a selfie and still paying for her gummy vitamins at the end of the ordeal. [More]
Drunk Cyclist Visits Taco Bell Drive-Thru At 3 A.M., Is Turned Away
By 11.19.14
Here is the saddest fast food story you will read today: a man in Florida pulled up to the drive-thru around closing time at Taco Bell, but the restaurant wouldn’t serve him. Why? Well, there was a combination of problems: he was intoxicated. And on a bicycle. When he refused to leave the drive-thru, Taco Bell employees called the police. [More]
NYC Officials Decide It’s Finally Time To Shame People For Sitting With Their Legs Spread Apart On The Subway
By 11.18.14
The last time I checked, the average person is not six feet wide, and thus doesn’t need anywhere near that amount of room to sit on any given surface. And yet, there are those who have been ticking off their fellow riders since the dawn of time by having the audacity to spread their legs as far to the side as possible, thus either preventing others from sitting or making the people on either side uncomfortable at the level of touching. Finally, New York City’s authorities are spreading the message that enough is enough. [More]
If You’re Going To Ask A Cop For A Ride To Burger King, Don’t Have Pockets Packed With Pot
By 11.18.14
This isn’t one of those stories where an incapacitated person makes silly fast food demands of the police and ends up getting arrested. But alas, while it’s nice to know there are cops out there willing to drive your average hungry citizen to Burger King, bringing along your drugs for the ride is not going to go over well in your new carpool. [More]
4.5 Years Later, Restaurant Owner Pleads Guilty To Serving Whale Meat
By 11.18.14
Way back in March 2010, we brought you the story of The Hump, a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles charged with violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act by serving the meat of the Sei Whale. The eatery has since closed, but the case against its owner has lingered, until yesterday, when he entered a guilty plea in federal court. [More]
Starbucks Barista Rescues Two From Cab After Manhole Explodes In The Street
By 11.17.14
We’d all like to think we could do the right thing and be brave enough to dash into danger to save someone else, but the reality is, it sounds pretty scary. One quick-thinking Starbucks barista in New York City had his movie moment when he ran into the street to help a cab driver and his passenger after a manhole cover exploded underneath their vehicle. [More]
This Is The Future, And We Can Track Domino’s Pizzas From Our Wrist Computers
By 11.14.14
It was almost seven years ago that Domino’s introduced its Pizza Tracker, an online feature that lets customer keep track of what is happening with their pizzas right now, to within under a minute. In case you wondered what kind of glorious era we’re living in, the Tracker is now available for the Pebble smartwatch, meaning that you don’t even need to sit down at a computer to learn that your pizza is entering the oven right now. [More]
Taco Bell Has New Rolled Up Tacos That Are Somehow Not Taquitos
By 11.14.14
In what smacks of trying to disguise a taquito as something other than what it is, which is a taquito, Taco Bell has unveiled its newest bid for your gustatory attention: Rolled tacos, with dipping sauces. You know, like taquitos. [More]
Pizza Hut Is Selling A Giant Pizza-Sized Quesadilla In New Zealand
By 11.13.14
For a while now, Pizza Hut has reserved many of its wackier pizza creations for the chain’s international outposts. Earlier this week, we learned that some of those more interesting flavors have been brought stateside, and one of our colleagues even got to try them. We can’t imagine the Hut bringing their new product line in New Zealand stateside, though. Even if Mary Beth would probably eat it. [More]
Starbucks Runs BOGO Holiday Drink Promo, Forgets To Specify ‘Holiday’ Drinks On Flyer
By 11.13.14
Reader Dave says that he’s a regular at his local Starbucks, and last week when he stopped by, the employees handed him a flyer. It promoted some special events this week surrounding the release of the chain’s holiday gift items and themed beverage items. Part of that is a buy one, get one free deal for holiday beverages every afternoon for the rest of this week. That was what the press release and e-mails to customers said. Dave’s flyer said something different. [More]
Burger King’s Foray Into Cheap Chicken Nuggets Ends A Month After It Started
By 11.13.14
It was cheep — excuse me, cheap while it lasted, but it’s all over now: A little more than a month after Burger King heralded its cheaper chicken nuggets, selling a 10-pack for $1.49, the company says its reversing course and bumping that price right back up again by the end of this week. [More]
I Tried 21 Variations Of New Pizza Hut Offerings And Survived
By 11.11.14
While I am not a scientist, professional reviewer or food expert, sometimes I and other the members of the Consumerist team venture out into the fast food wild and experience new things. Thus it fell to me on Monday night to try out some of Pizza Hut’s new crusts, sauces, drizzles and topping combinations. And by “some,” I mean I ate 21 different kinds of pizza last night. [More]
Quiz Results: Most People Confused How To Write Names Of Walmart, Popeyes, Lowe’s
By 11.11.14
Last week, we quizzed readers on the correct way to write the names of several retail businesses that abuse or play with punctuation. An awful lot of you gave it a shot and some of you did very well, but the results show that there is a lot of confusion out there for some of the country’s biggest retail brands. [More]
Pizza Hut Overhauls Image With New Logo, Plethora Of Crusts, Sauces And Topping Options
By 11.10.14
By now it seems that pizza companies add different, often odd combinations to their pizza lineup each week (we’re looking at you sausage-stuffed crust). A newly revamped menu – and overall identity – at Pizza Hut aims to allow consumers to expand their creative concoctions. [More]
Fake Pizza Hut Anniversary Email Won’t Give You Free Pizza, Just Malware
By 11.7.14
Emails for free pizza might be few and far between, so when one shows up in your inbox you might be tempted to ditch those dinner plans for a few cheesy slices. But even the promise of free pizzas can be too good to be true, that was certainly the case this week when an email purported to be from Pizza Hut didn’t end in free pizza, but dangerous malware. [More]
