If you’re on one of AT&T’s limited data plans, you’d better start carefully monitoring the data usage, because some customers are noticing unexplainable daily hits on their accounts. The support forums at Apple are filled with pages of theories and complaints from frustrated customers, but our tipster David got the following admission directly from an AT&T rep: “She told me that most, if not all, 3g-capable iPhones were being charged erroneously like I had been experiencing. She told me AT&T was unaware of why the data was being charged, and where it was coming from.” [More]
consumption
This Is What You Eat
By 7.30.10
If you are what you eat, this graphic from Visual Economics may not make for the best inspirational reading. Then again, is there really anything so bad about drinking 53 gallons of soda or eating 85 pounds of fat and oil each year? (No, you don’t have to answer that.)
We're Actually Using Less Electricity This Summer
By 7.21.10
Despite the record-breaking heat in some parts of the country, total U.S. energy consumption this summer has actually fallen compared to 2009, and peak demand levels–when electricity consumption is at its highest–have dropped as well. [More]
Report: Americans Trash The Environment And Don't Care
By 6.4.10
The National Geographic Greendex survey of sustainable consumption is out, and most of the 17 countries in the study have improved over the past year. In the lowest-scoring one, though, consumers are actually less concerned about the environment and think that the whole issue is being exaggerated. And a majority in that country believe their current habits are unsustainable, but they’re cool with letting their grandkids deal with it. [More]
Group Pledges To Buy No Clothing For A Year, Somehow Survive
By 2.7.10
The Great American Apparel Diet is not, as it seems at first glance, what you have to follow in order to look good in a bizarre adult romper. No, it’s a pledge that a group of women have taken to not buy any new clothing for one year. What have they learned? That people tend to buy a lot more stuff than they really need. [More]
By 2.27.09
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Time for KFC to start offering the chicken bailout bucket! Pilgrim’s Pride has announced that they’re taking a page from the auto industry and idling 3 chicken plants as consumers eat out less and look for lower cost alternatives to meat. [Reuters]
Alcohol Sales Plummet
By 2.25.09
What’s up, beer drinkers of America? Bloomberg notes that “take-out sales of alcoholic beverages tumbled 9.3 percent in the fourth quarter, the steepest drop since the U.S. Commerce Department started compiling data half a century ago,” and a drop four times greater than the overall fall in consumer spending. Most of that was due to the 14 percent drop in beer sales.
Buy Or Be Stabbed
By 10.11.08
The global economy is crashing, credit markets are playing ice age, and you consumers have a simple choice: buy things now or prepare to be stabbed next year.
20 Ways To Make The Most Of Your Groceries Without Spending An Extra Cent
By 7.13.08
Americans throw away a quarter of our food uneaten, which translates into serious wasted cash over time. The Guardian compiled an excellent list of ways to shop smarter so you end up buying what you need, and eating what you buy.
What Walmart Can Tell Us About Ourselves
By 9.13.07
Walmart knows more about us than we do, according to ABC News.
iTunes DRM-Free Music Selling Like Crazy?
By 6.20.07
According to the Inquirer, sales of “Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon increase by between 272 and 350 percent… OK Go’s Oh No increased 77 per cent. Coldplay’s A Rush Of Blood To The Head jumped 115 percent.”
$4 Gas? So What? Sales of SUVs Up 25%
By 6.15.07
According to Bankrate sales of SUVs are up 25% from this time last year. Wait, weren’t we all buying Priuses because we can’t afford $4 gas? Nope.
Burger King, McDonald's Launch Spam War, Literally
By 6.11.07
Hawaiians love Spam! They love it so much that McDonald’s offers it on their breakfast menu in Hawaii, and now Burger King is getting into the act. It’s a Spam war!
IKEA To Charge $.05 for Plastic Bags In Effort To Reduce Consumption
By 2.21.07
Proceeds of up to $1.75 million (that’s a whole lot of bags) from the bag campaign will go to American Forests, the nation’s oldest non-profit citizens conservation organization, to plant trees to restore forests and offset CO2 emissions,..IKEA projects that the number of plastic bags used by their U.S. customers will be reduced by at least 50% from 70 million to 35 million in the first year. This program was launched in IKEA stores in the UK in late Spring 2006, and reduction has been an impressive 95 percent.
The program was very popular in the UK, and we love those IKEA shopping bags, so we’re all for it. We imagine, however, that a lot of people won’t be.—MEGHANN MARCO
Retailers Say Walmart’s Early Black Friday Won’t Affect Prices
By 11.5.06
Will Walmart’s extremely early holiday price cuts, or “rollbacks,” inspire other retailers to follow suit?
OfficeMax Black Friday Ad
By 11.3.06
OfficeMax boasts the skimpiest lineup of Black Friday sale items we’ve seen to date.
Harbor Freight Black Friday Ad
By 11.1.06
We’ve never heard of Harbor Freight but they sell tools. Their Black Friday ad just went up. A six piece screwdriver set for only $1.49 sounds like a deal. As does a mover’s dolly for only $19.99.
Breaking: Sears Black Friday Ad
By 10.30.06
Nary seconds ago, Sears Black Friday ad pooped onto the internet.
