Ah, fall: the days grow colder, the nights grow longer, and it’s the perfect season to hunker down, grab a blanket and a beverage, and binge-watch your way through the winter. Unfortunately for Netflix’s millions of fans, the price of spending quality time on the sofa with your favorite Netflix shows is going up this year. [More]
price hikes
Bad News For Neiman Marcus: Rich People Are Bargain-Hunting Online, Using Purses For Multiple Years
By 4.17.17
Why is the high-end department store Neiman Marcus reportedly restructuring its debt and maybe even seeking a buyer? It turns out that catering to very rich people isn’t a guaranteed way to keep money coming in, since even rich people are turning to online bargain-hunting. [More]
FTC Opens Antitrust Investigation Of Mylan Over EpiPen’s Market Dominance
By 1.30.17 — Updated: 1.31.17
The EpiPen was a perfect symbol of the current state of pharmaceutical companies and health care expenses: It was a life-saving drug that had been around for decades, often used by children, and with a price that kept rising. The controversy over the epinephrine injectors led to news stories, a Congressional hearing, a $465 million settlement for overcharging Medicaid, and investigations by the states of New York and West Virginia. [More]
Parents Of Kids With Allergies Now Question Their Advocacy Of EpiPen Programs
By 9.23.16
Requiring epinephrine auto-injectors to be available in schools in case a child has a life-threatening allergic reaction isn’t necessarily a bad idea. Under some circumstances, it’s a life-saving one. However, EpiPen maker Mylan recruited mothers of children with food allergies as ambassadors for its own interests a few years ago while continuing to hike the price of EpiPens, hurting the very same community of families. Now the bloggers question their participation in Mylan’s “summits” and their blogging for the cause. [More]
Survey Says: Most Netflix Customers Would Be Willing To Pay More For The Service
By 9.1.16
Despite any grumbling customers might have done amid Netflix’s recent price hike, a new survey shows that the company could probably raise rates again and most customers would be fine with paying more. [More]
Netflix Sees Subscriptions Dip Amid Price Hike, Blames Press Coverage
By 7.19.16
As it turns out, raising the price of something can have the effect of turning people off that product. So it went for Netflix, which said this week that it’s lost some customers after instituting planned price hikes that affected around 17 million customers. [More]
Confirmed: Netflix Price Hikes Coming Next Month For 17 Million U.S. Customers
By 4.8.16
If you’ve got a grandfathered Netflix Standard plan that has you paying just $7.99 per month for HD streaming, here’s your reminder that you’ll either be paying $9.99 come May for the same quality and the ability to watch content on two screens at a time, or will be stuck in standard definition on only one screen. You’re not alone — an estimated 17 million customers in the U.S. will be affected by the change, and many of them aren’t aware of it. [More]
Yes, Amazon Will Adjust Prices They’ve Raised If You Ask Nicely
By 12.10.15
Amazon is always adjusting their prices, and sometimes those adjustments aren’t in your favor. When you throw an item in your cart and the price suddenly rises by five or ten bucks, that’s enough to make you look for it elsewhere, or maybe not buy the item at all if it wasn’t something that you needed. Yet there is a way to get Amazon to bring the price back down: ask nicely. [More]
Sprint Will Raise Cost Of Unlimited Plans By $10 This Month
By 10.1.15
If you find Sprint’s deal offering unlimited voice, text, and data usage for $60 per month tempting and Sprint coverage in your area is good, you should go ahead and switch right now. Sprint is raising the price for new customers by $10 on October 15, but it will remain the cheapest unlimited postpaid plan in the country even after the price hike. [More]
Netflix Adds $1 To Monthly Streaming Subscription Price For New Members Only
By 5.9.14
The bad news: If you’re thinking of subscribing to Netflix’s streaming program, you’ll be paying $1 more than those customers already signed up. But the good news for Netflix veterans? Existing subscribers won’t see a price hike for two years, the company says. [More]
More U.S. Airlines Jumping On The Surcharge Bandwagon After EU Emissions Law
By 1.6.12
Travelers taking off or landing in countries in the European Union may notice a bump in airline fares, as U.S. Airways and American Airlines have joined Delta and United Continental in adding a $3 surcharge each way to help offset the cost of a new carbon emissions law. [More]
Blockbuster Express Jumps Into Rental Price Hike Pool
By 11.7.11
With rival movie rental services Netflix and Redbox already having raised their prices, Blockbuster Express decided to follow suit, doubling the price of some movies to $2 for the first night starting Tuesday. The hike applies to releases that have been out between 29 and 90 days, while older movies will remain at $1 a night. New releases that have been out for four weeks or less will remain $3 for the first night. [More]
Netflix CEO: Company Will Invest Most Of Price Hike In Streaming
By 7.20.11
When Netflix announced it would split up its streaming and disc subscriptions, making customers choose streaming or one-disc-at-a-time plans at $7.99 a month each, it didn’t offer much of an explanation as to why the price hike was needed. A writer at The Motley Fool took CEO Reed Hastings to task and asked him to justify the increase, and was surprised to get a response. [More]
Want Both Netflix Streaming And DVDs? That Will Now Be $15.98
By 7.12.11
If you’ve been enjoying paying $9.99 for unlimited streaming and DVDs from Netflix, get ready to pay more — or have to choose between watching movies online or through your DVD player. [More]
Microsoft Explains Why Its Xbox Live Price Hike Is Good, And Good For You
By 11.3.10
As of Monday, an annual Xbox Live Gold subscription costs $60 a year, a 20 percent jump from Sunday, when it was $50. Microsoft is here to assure you that the inflation is in your best interest, and necessary for the company to keep pace with its rising costs to do something or other. [More]
Starbucks' Prices Going Up
By 9.27.10
Citing a 13-year high in the price of its coffee beans, plus “significant volatility” in other ingredients like dairy, Starbucks last week said it plans to raise prices on certain “labor-intensive and larger-sized” beverages. The small tall coffee will remain at its current price for now, says the company. I wonder if those truncated menus the company introduced a few weeks ago were really about hiding the least expensive option from consumers, especially since it isn’t being included in the price hike? [More]
5 Ways Grocery Stores Rip You Off
By 5.14.10
LiveCheap uncovers ways in which grocery stores make you pay more for less with subtle techniques you may not easily notice. It seems supermarkets can get mighty sketchy when it comes to arranging its meat section. [More]
