While it may look like something slapped together in an Intro to InDesign class, this vegetable oil packet from Subway makes for a good demonstration on how to obscure information you need to include but don’t really want people seeing. [More]
Food & Personal Care
Fun With Fonts: How Subway Tries To Distract You From Realizing How Little Olive Oil Is In This Packet
By 11.12.12
Japan’s New “Pepsi Special” Claims It Can Reduce Fat So You Can Eat Crap, Be Skinny
By 11.12.12
Pepsi is trying to pull a move in Japan with a new drink called “Pepsi Special” that would probably not fly with consumer watchdogs over here in the U.S. The company is reportedly touting the beverage as one that can basically cut down on your body’s fat so you can just go around chomping on burritos the size of your head and cheese fries with gravy (mmm, cheese) and still get skinny. That’s what we call wishful thinking. [More]
How I Saved A Bunch Of Money By Leaving CVS For A Locally Owned Pharmacy
By 11.8.12
Comparison shopping can save you a lot of money, and the difference can be dramatic in the case of prescription drugs. Susan ventured to CVS to fill her first prescriptions after leaving her former employer’s insurance, and was shocked to see that a medication she was used to paying a $10 copay for would cost $54.99 out of her own wallet. This certainly isn’t the biggest prescription sticker shock we’ve ever heard of (or experienced ourselves) but it did motivate Susan to shop around. That’s when she learned that loyalty to a pharmacy doesn’t really pay all that much. She left CVS behind, and now her bank account and her soul are much happier. [More]
Taco Bell, Where The List Of Things They Won’t Put In A Tortilla Is Dwindling Quickly
By 11.8.12
With some upcoming new menu items, Taco Bell’s curiously Australian President Greg Creed appears to have just turned to his team and said, “Let’s put some stuff that has no business being wrapped in a tortilla and see if people will buy it.” [More]
Is 2013 Going To Be The ‘Year Of The Bun’?
By 11.7.12
It’s expected that the meat in your sandwiches at fast food and fast-casual restaurants is going to continue getting more expensive in the next year. Which means you’ll either be getting less of it or paying more (possibly both). So what better way to justify the value of that burger than to tart up the bread? [More]
Subway Applies Verizon Math To Sandwiches, Confusion And Tastiness Ensue
By 11.7.12
“It seems Subway picked up Verizon math!” tipster Brad wrote when he submitted this message using one of our mobile apps. Yes, again someone has mistaken .99 cents for 99 cents. You know that some pedant somewhere is going to try to pay for that second sandwich with a penny and make a sandwich artist’s day really crappy. [More]
Tip Your Pizza Hut Driver Or He Might Pee On Your Door
By 11.5.12
An Iowa Pizza Hut delivery driver is without a job today because he decided that the best way to vent is anger about being stiffed on a tip was to urinate on the customer’s door. [More]
Walgreens Dangling Green Product Line As Eco-Friendly Carrot To Bring In Consumers
By 11.5.12
Call something “green” and odds are, environmentally-conscious customers are going to be on board with it, as many consumers these days are all about keeping Mother Earth healthy. Walgreens is banking on our need to be green with its own line of household products that don’t contain any harmful chemicals. They’re hoping you like the earth enough to buy their stuff, of course. [More]
Now At Walmart: Gingerbread Oreos
By 11.2.12 — Updated: 5.9.16
Here’s one bit of early Christmas merchandise that we’re not going to complain about. For once. Hitting shelves now, only at Walmart, introducing… gingerbread-flavored Oreos. [More]
CVS Skips Half-Price Halloween Candy, Goes Right To Full-On Christmas
By 11.2.12
Children trick-or-treat to get their Halloween sugar fix, but grown-ups know that November 1st is the day when we clean up, hitting half-price holiday-branded candy sales. That’s what Justin tried to do, and he was horrified when he stopped by CVS to hit the half-price sale and found only Santas and reindeer, as far as the eye could see. Or at least in the seasonal aisle. [More]
Starbucks Testing Out Powermats So You Can Wirelessly Charge Your Phone While Camped Out There
By 10.31.12
The days of jockeying for position near the power outlets and Starbucks could be a thing of that past soon: Starbucks is teaming up with Duracell to try out wireless charging systems with Powermats at 17 locations in Boston. The idea being that we often keep our cell phones out on the table, so why not charge them while they’re just lying around? [More]
Did The Hurricane Keep You From Your Free Taco Bell? Don’t Fret
By 10.30.12
While the rest of the country is currently chowing down on free Taco Bell thanks to San Franciso Giants outfielder Angel Pagan’s stolen base in the World Series, many of us in the Mid-Atlantic are more focused on things like saving our homes and wondering where our cars drifted off to. Thankfully, Taco Bell says y’all can still eat up at a later date. [More]
Pizza Hut Manager Has Good Sense Of Humor, Honors 20-Year-Old Coupon
By 10.30.12
What starts as a silly prank to see what happens when a grown man in American flag pants walks into a Pizza Hut with a sealed VHS copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles containing a $20 coupon booklet for the eatery quickly turns into a good deal for the pranksters. [More]
Subway Worker Hurls Hot Soup At Robber Because It Hurts More Than Freshly-Baked Bread
By 10.29.12
Sometimes it’s not about being particularly strong or skilled with self-defense techniques, it’s just about using the materials at hand to protect yourself. If you’ve got some hot soup around to fight off a would-be robber, well, that works a lot better than plenty of other foodstuffs. A Subway sandwich worker had to improvise when facing a masked man and managed to pull off a successful defense. [More]
5 Ridiculously Impossible Customer Requests At Starbucks
By 10.29.12
Given all the permutations possible with the various coffees, flavorings, milks and whatnot at coffee shops like Starbucks, baristas are asked to create all sorts of odd concoctions. But some things just can’t happen. [More]
Detroit To Lose Again When Everyone Else Gets Free World Series Taco Bell Tacos
By 10.26.12
With the Phillies nowhere near the baseball postseason, the only reason I’ve been watching the World Series is to add to my Ken Rosenthal bow tie Pinterest page and to see which player would be the first to steal a base and thereby win free Taco Bell tacos for the entire nation. [More]
Apple & Amazon Top This Year’s Brand Loyalty Survey, Blackberry Hangs On In Last Place
By 10.26.12
If there’s anything we want from our products and the brands that provide them, it’s love, true love. Well, maybe not quite that level, but according to the most recent Brand Keys Loyalty Leaders List, we consumers are craving an emotional connection to brands. And when they fill that special place in our hearts, they earn our loyalty. [More]
Pharmacists Confirm Pressure From Management To Refill Prescriptions Automatically
By 10.25.12
Since we began following the stories of CVS pharmacists who appear to have been pressured into automatically refilling customers’ prescriptions, regardless of whether or not a refill has been requested, we’ve received enough e-mails from from both customers and pharmacists at a number of companies who say these are not isolated incidents. [More]
