Everything old is new again. To tap into your nostalgia and your wallet, brands are dusting off old package designs not seen since the 60’s and 70’s and putting them back on the shelves. [More]
Food & Personal Care
USDA: You Can Eat Pink Pork Without Getting Sick
By 5.25.11
If you’ve been cooking pork chops until they’re dry and leathery in the name of safety, stop now! The U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised its pork-cooking guidelines, saying it’s OK to cook the other white meat to 145 degrees, and that the previous 160 degree recommendation was “probably overkill.” [More]
You Can Have Gelato With Your Footlong In A Subway Cafe
By 5.24.11
Subway is testing out a more upscale version of its traditional sandwich shop. Dubbed Subway Cafe, the new restaurants would go after customers in office buildings and similar locations. [More]
Despite What This Sign Says, You Can't Get A Slice For $.0099
By 5.24.11
Looks like this pizza parlor has outsourced their accounting department to Verizon, advertising a cheese slice for ¢.99. Technically, that’s .99ths of a cent, or $.0099. Reader James of Massachusetts says, “I believe they have since taken down the sign, but I’m pretty sure I’m not welcomed in there anymore after my constant attempts to try to buy a whole pizza for a dime… and expecting change.” [More]
Cheaper To Get Four 2-Slice Deals Than A Whole Pie
By 5.23.11
Math is all around us, in the leaves on the tree, inside the crystals of an icicle, and in a delicious slice of 4-cheese pizza served up by your favorite New York pizza parlor, 7-11. [More]
Walgreens Fires Pharmacist Who Foiled Robbery By Firing Gun
By 5.23.11
What some called a heroic save, Walgreens has found reason to terminate the job of a night-shift pharmacist. Jeremy Hoven fired his handgun during an armed robbery at a store in Benton Township, Mich. and was subsequently fired. [More]
FDA: Diabetes Drug Avandia To Be Pulled From Retail Pharmacies In November
By 5.19.11
For several years, prescription diabetes medicine Avandia has been at the center of a debate about whether the medication’s heart attack risk was high enough to pull it from pharmacies. Now, nearly eight months after the FDA announced it would be introducing strict restrictions on its sale and use, the agency has finally gotten around to announcing the specifics of those restrictions. [More]
EEOC Sues Starbucks For Firing Dwarf
By 5.17.11
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against Starbucks, alleging that the coffee chain violated federal law when it fired a barista-in-training who is a dwarf. [More]
Not Even A Trenta Can Hold This Many Starbucks
By 5.10.11
What happens when one Starbuck collides with a second Starbuck inside of a Starbucks? One huge cup of caffeinated awesomeness. [More]
Do You Live Near A Food Desert?
By 5.4.11
If you’ve ever wanted to find out if you live in a wasteland with a dearth of access to fresh and nutritious food, boy have we got the government-sponsored data mashup for you! The USDA just launched the “Food Desert Locator” which lets you see where it’s hard to get a decent bite to eat in America. A “food desert” (remember: not dessert, that has two s’s because you want more of it) is a low-income area where a most of the people live more than one mile from the nearest grocery store/supermarket. Thanks to this map, now we know why North Dakotans are so sad: no one will make them a sandwich! [More]
Tomatoes Recalled For Salmonella Contamination
By 5.3.11
Of all the toppings that go well with tomatoes, salmonella isn’t one of them. Thus, Six L’s tomato farm of Florida issued a recall of its potentially contaminated tomatoes. [More]
Pickpockets Target Starbucks Customers
By 5.2.11
While you’re taking a break with a relaxing Trenta of Pike’s Peak Roast coffee at Starbucks, a thief could be silently snagging your wallet, reports the New York Times. [More]
Pepsi Machine Wants You To Buy Drinks For Friends And Random Strangers
By 4.29.11
PepsiCo has rolled out what it deems a “social” vending machine, which allows customers to buy drinks for friends, who receive a redemption code by text and use it to pick up their soda at any other social vending machine. The machine also has a “Random Acts of Refreshment” mode, just in case you really want to give a complete stranger in another city a can of Pepsi. [More]
Government Proposes New Guidelines For Marketing Food To Kids
By 4.28.11
Earlier today, an interagency working group consisting of folks from the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, and the Dept. of Agriculture, issued a set of “proposed voluntary principles” it hopes the food industry will ultimately adopt in its marketing to the youth of America. [More]
Video Evidence That Rats Like Starbucks Too
By 4.26.11
Lest you think that rats are only fans of garbage, cheese and fine French cuisine, here is proof that they are addicted to the sweet, sugary beverages at Starbucks. [More]
Wegmans Settles Walgreens Lawsuit Over Not-At-All-Similar "W"
By 4.22.11
Regular readers may remember that Walgreens filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Wegmans last fall over the fact that the two companies’ “W”s could maybe, possibly, if you squint, look similar. Well, Wegmans has decided it’s cheaper to change some logos than fight a lawsuit, because it has agreed to change the offending W on its store-brand products. [More]
Papa John's Catches Royal Wedding Fever, Makes Creepy Portrait Pizza
By 4.22.11
Here at Consumerist Global Headquarters, we were so preoccupied with the final rounds of the Worst Company in America tournament last week that we missed what is arguably the biggest chain-pizzeria news of the entire month. Papa John’s commissioned a food artist to design a celebratory wedding portrait. It’s in honor of the upcoming marriage of two charming young rich people named William Windsor and Catherine Middleton. You may have heard of them. [More]
Via Full-Page Ad, Taco Bell Asks "Meat Filling" Lawyers For Apology
By 4.22.11
Taking a victory lap around the tactical retreat by the lawyers who had sued it for its beef not being beefy enough, Taco Bell took out a full-page ad asking the firm to say “sorry.” [More]
