If you happen to have a gift card for Quiksilver sitting around idle, don’t use it as a tiny surfboard for your fingers anymore: it’s time to redeem it. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week and is closing about 20% of its stores. However, the company received approval for a $175 million loan that will let it stay in business while it restructures. [More]
d.c.
Voters In Oregon, Alaska, Washington D.C. Legalize Marijuana
By 11.5.14
Break out the celebratory brownies: Alaska, Oregon and D.C. are joining the ranks Washington State and Colorado, after residents had their say in last night’s vote and legalized marijuana where they live, in varying degrees. [More]
New Hampshire Clarifies: Yes, You Can Use A D.C. License To Buy Booze
By 7.16.14
What is it with all the Washington, D.C. confusion lately? There was that Transportation Security Administration agent who reportedly had no clue the District of Columbia was part of the United States, and now New Hampshire has had to clarify that yes, a D.C. license is a valid and acceptable form of identification one can use to provide proof of age when buying booze. Sigh. [More]
Taxi Driver Allegedly Kidnaps D.C. Council Member’s Daughter After Credit Card Dispute
By 2.20.14
Taxi horror stories are nothing new. There’s the one about the driver who held a customer hostage for refusing his tip demand, and the one where a driver crashed into a home after being unsatisfied with a tip. But what does a driver do when the credit card machine doesn’t work and the customer threatens to report him to the Taxi Cab Commission? He kidnaps the customer, or at least that’s what a Washington, D.C., city council member alleges a taxi driver did to her daughter. [More]
Rich DC Burbs Pay $9.58, Rurals Pay $31.17/Mbps
By 2.18.11
The rich get richer while the poor get…slower? A new report by investigative journalist John Dunbar cracks open the numbers that are tightly held by the industry and found vast disparities in the quality and price of service based on how close to town. By comparing customer speed tests and surveys, he found that while folks in the low-income areas outside of the Washington Metropolitan Area pay slightly less for their broadband, those in the wealthier DC burbs are getting far more bandwidth for their buck. The poor are paying on average $31.17/Mbps while the rich are paying only $9.58. [More]
Woman And Her 30,000 Lbs Of Stuff Get Evicted
By 9.24.10
30,000 pounds of belongings stretched up and down the DC sidewalk. They all belonged to one woman who was evicted after she couldn’t make rent. [More]
Scram! DC Shops Install Device That Emits Annoying Sound Only Kids Can Hear
By 9.1.10
A DC shop on one of the busiest retail strips has installed a “Mosquito” device in order to drive away teenagers who often loiter and fight there. The unit emits an annoying beeep beeep beeep at 17.5 kilohertz, which is at the upper range of audibility for 13-25 year olds. The business owners like it, but one passerby remarked, “It’s classism and ageism. And it’s sad.” [More]
DC Safeway Sells Truffles
By 8.3.10
Fancy people living in DC can satisfy their truffle craving by heading over to a Safeway in Georgetown, which is selling the hypogeous delicacy for $999.99/lb. [More]
DC Airports Get Super Cute Pet Bathrooms
By 7.13.10
DC’s Dulles and Reagan airports have just opened new “pet relief areas” for your pooch’s pooping pleasure prior to plane-boarding. [More]
Walmart Aims For Store In D.C.
By 7.6.10
Now that Walmart has finally triumphed over Chicago, it’s setting its sites on the remaining urban markets that have so far resisted the retailer. The Washington Post says an unnamed source has told them that Walmart is in final negotiations with a plot of land “on New York Avenue NE near the intersection of Bladensburg Road.” The area currently houses an auto parts shop and a strip club, among other businesses. [More]
Ben Popken On WJLA Warning About Robocall Scammers
By 6.10.10
UPDATE: Here’s the video. If you live in the DC area, tune into ABC 7 tonight at 5:45 pm to see a Consumer Alert I shot with local reporter Kris Van Cleave. Apparently, this morning like six of their reporters all got scam robocalls on their cellphones with a recording saying their ATM card had been deactivated and they needed to call the bank back. Hello, scam! [More]
Start A Career And Settle Down In The Top Cities For Young People
By 9.30.09
An earlier article listed the best cities for retirees and sundry old folks to flock to, but young people want to self-segregate, too. Thankfully, the Wall Street Journal, widely read by American youths, presents The Next Hot Youth-Magnet Cities.
Drink With Consumerist In DC
By 5.14.09
Ben and Meg have finished their interview with Austan Goolsbee and we are now heading to Recessions to drink cheap beers in big mugs. Come join us! (Photo: Jeremy Brooks)
Giant Pills Exercising In Train Station
By 3.17.09
There’s some human-sized pills working out at Union Station in DC. It seems the mad scientists at Consumers Union have trapped them and forced them to undergo fiendish exercise experiments in front of commuters and passersby to see which drugs work best. Their findings are documented in the new publication “Best Drugs for Less” which is being handed out for free in front of these not jagged, not little, pills. Video here.
Which Drugs Aren't Overpriced And Crappy?
By 3.17.09
Using the power of unbiased science to see which meds are the most cost-effective, Consumer Reports launched a new publication Best Drugs for Less this week. It’s amazing what you can come up with when you’re not in anyone’s pockets except your readers’.
Better To Be Alone Than Shell Out For Shady Singles Club
By 1.6.09
Reader Brandon heard the “Events and Adventures” club for singles ad on the radio and decided to check ’em out. What did he find? They wouldn’t tell him their fee upfront and online, he found stories that might hint at why, tales of exorbitant upfront fees, worthless service, and instead of letting you cancel, they send you to collections…
Nestle Quik Flipbook Ad On DC Metro Walls Is Kinda Magical
By 12.2.08
As the DC red line train I rode last week shot through a tunnel, a happy brown bunny jumped up and down on the walls, lofting up a bottle of Nestle Quik. It wasn’t a video, it was a series of back-illuminated panels, each one a successive frame in the animated cartoon. It was like running through flipbook in real life. I found a clip of it on YouTube, posted inside, the cartoon starts at 15 seconds in.
$54 Million Pants Case Back In Court
By 9.11.08
Roy “Fancypants” Pearson, the ex-judge who sued a dry-cleaner for $54 million over a misplaced pair of pants, that the cleaner even offered to replace, is continuing to press his case. He lost his original suit, he lost his job, now a court has agreed to hear his appeal. This man gets the award for worst…consumer…ever. Video inside.
