Life can be dangerous for pizza delivery drivers, who are often carrying cash and food and rarely have anyone to protect them. Now a Pizza Hut employee in Maryland says he’s been pulled off deliveries because he used a tent pole to defend himself against a group of attackers. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Pizza Hut Driver Claims He Was Demoted For Using Fiberglass Tent Pole To Fight Off Attackers
By 12.31.12
Sam’s Club Recalls Smoked Salmon Sold In 42 States
By 12.28.12
With year-end parties still to come, there will probably be some of you munching on Smoked Salmon in the next few days. If that salmon was purchased at Sam’s Club, you might want to keep reading. [More]
Majority Of U.S. Households Either Don’t Have Or Don’t Use Landline Phones
By 12.27.12
There are kids and teens out there that have never used anything other than a wireless phone (though these youngsters only seem to text). And many of us who can still remember their first cellphone call — “I’m calling… from the street!” — can’t remember the last time we used a landline at home. [More]
Pizza Hut Gives Gift Cards To First 100 People To Tweet Photos Of Their Lame Christmas Presents
By 12.26.12
From ill-fitting ugly sweaters to that 50 States Coin Collecting Starter Kit, there are almost limitless options for what can count as a “lame” Christmas gift. The one thing they all have in common is you don’t want’em, and they’re a waste of space. But how about pizza? Do you want some pizza, would that ease the sting of disappointment? Pizza Hut thinks so, and is offering people gift cards to lessen the dissatisfaction that can occur in recipients of awful gifts. [More]
Settlement Ends 4-Year Dispute About Spit In Burger King Customer’s Whopper Jr.
By 12.21.12
In Nov. 2008, an Ohio man says he stopped into a Pennsylvania Burger King and got something a little extra on his Whopper Jr. — a dollop of employee spit. He subsequently sued the franchisee who operates the restaurant, alleging the incident was racially motivated. Well, the matter has finally been settled without going to trial. [More]
This 2-Ring Circus With A Cherry On Top Is Actually A Pizza That People Can Eat
By 12.20.12
At what first glance appears to be one of those pre-made deli trays your office puts out when they force you to have a meeting through lunch (or your neighbors give you when your mother-in-law passes away), is actually a pizza. Or at least that’s what Pizza Hut Singapore alleges. [More]
Twitterers Use Starbucks’ #Spreadthecheer Campaign Against Coffee Company
By 12.18.12
So the folks at Starbucks UK thought they could ask people on Twitter to use the #spreadthecheer hashtag and have their happy holiday messages displayed on a big public video screen. The people at Starbucks have apparently never used the Internet. [More]
Diet Pepsi Switches Up Its Sweetener Ever So Quietly
By 12.17.12
Diet Pepsi has switched up its sweetener but it’s doing it ever so quietly and carefully, so as not to freak everyone out. The goal is to make sure that the soda will taste the way it’s supposed to for a longer time, but because the public in general hate change, the company isn’t going around trumpeting this new formula. [More]
What It’s Like To Work At A Subway Franchise, Get Blamed For Everything Customers Don’t Like
By 12.14.12
Reader M. is currently (under-) employed at a Subway franchise. M. has a college degree, and is bright enough to be able to see the economic indicators that show they’ll still be working at Subway for a while yet. Fortunately, we like to give employees a soapbox to educate the public about the things we might not understand about their jobs. That way, Consumerist readers are less likely to act like entitled jerks, treat front-line employees better, and the world is a happier place. In theory. [More]
Scientists Discover World’s Oldest Cheese-Making Operation, Turophiles Rejoice
By 12.13.12
If you’ve ever read any other posts by yours truly on this site, you may have noticed I’ve got quite a thing for cheese (glorious cheese). Which is why I’m happy to report that scientists have finally found the source of so much joy for turophiles* everywhere— the oldest cheese-making operation in the world, dating back 7,500 years. [More]
Pepsi-Chicken Lay’s Potato Chips Are Tastier Than They Sound, But Only Sold In China
By 12.13.12
If there’s anything that people across the globe truly need and want, it’s more fizzy sugar water. And so PepsiCo is investing more money in getting the attention and the business of consumers in the world’s largest market. Their latest attention-getting scheme and bit of inter-brand synergy between two of the company’s signature brands: Cola chicken-flavored Lay’s potato chips. [More]
Sold-Out $450 Starbucks Steel Gift Cards Now Going For Up To $5,000 On eBay
By 12.11.12
In case you missed those few seconds when Starbucks’ new steel gift cards went on sale last week before selling out in the blink of an eye, you’re in luck! Well, if you define luck as forking over around $5,000 on eBay for a gift card that retailed for $450, that is. Then you’re all set! [More]
Don’t Bother Subway’s Sandwich Artists Right Before Closing Or You’ll End Up With This Mess
By 12.10.12
We know that real-life fast food rarely resembles what you see in the pretty pictures the restaurant puts in its ads. But this is really just sad. [More]
Court: Texas Roadhouse Doesn’t Owe Customer $150K For Hair-Stuffed Steak
By 12.7.12
A customer at a Wisconsin Texas Roadhouse restaurant complained that his steak was overcooked, and a spiteful staffer who thought he was lying to scam free food stuffed pieces of his facial hair inside the meat. The same employee later claimed to have stuffed a steak with pubic hair. This story may sound familiar to old-school Consumerist fans: we posted it in 2008, and it appeared on our list of all-time grossest food stories. The hairy steaks are in the news again. What’s happened in the intervening four years? Lawsuits. [More]
Whole Foods Organic Grapes: Now With Free Black Widow Spiders
By 12.6.12
Sure, organic produce doesn’t provide any extra nutrition, but it does have other benefits, like keeping artificial fertilizers and pesticides out of the soil and helping people feel extra smug. There can be downsides, though. Just ask the Connecticut woman who found a live black widow spider in the bunch of grapes she brought home from Whole Foods. [More]
Starbucks Has Discovered Street Corners Without One Of Its Stores, Set To Open 1,500 More
By 12.6.12
If you’ve passed a street corner in your neighborhood and wished there was a Starbucks there instead of having to walk all the way to the next corner, you’re in luck: The company has announced it’s opening at least 1,500 new cafes as part of a broader plan to expand by 2017. Which means yes, Starbucks will be even more ubiquitous. [More]
In A World With Bacon Shaving Cream, We Are Unsurprised That Pizza Hut Perfume Exists
By 12.5.12
At first I was like, “Eww, Pizza Hut perfume?!?!? What is this world coming to?” and then I remembered that there’s some bacon shaving cream makings its way to me rightthisveryminute and I was like, “Oh, of course.” And it’s in Canada so it’s unlikely I’ll be able to splash a bit of that on to mingle with the bacon cream. Unlikely, but perhaps not impossible. I’m talking to you, Canadian readers. [More]
Starbucks Introduces Limited Amount Of $450 Steel Gift Cards For The Caffeinated 1%
By 12.5.12
There are people who are willing to plunk down $7 for a cup of coffee every day at Starbucks, or those who carve out decent slice of their budgets to ensure they get a venti latte with all the syrupy extras on a constant basis, so the idea of spending $450 on a shiny new steel Starbucks gift card really isn’t that much of a leap. And it will come with the cachet of being one of only 5,000 in existence. We can just sense the caffeinated drool out there right now. [More]
