waste

What Goes Into A Foot-Long Toys R Us Receipt?

What Goes Into A Foot-Long Toys R Us Receipt?

By consumeristcarey 12.8.07

Toys R Us rewarded Greg’s purchase of a four-pack of Play-Doh with an 18-inch receipt. Greg tried to give the senseless printing an inch of meaning by breaking down the components of his massive receipt:

  • Exciting Sweepstakes Offer: 4.5 inches
  • Essential Purchase Details: 6.5 inches
  • Gift Receipt Section: 7.75 inches

Greg did not purchase the Play-Doh as a gift and did not need a half-foot gift receipt. Huge receipts are not endemic to Toys R Us—Home Depot and Kmart also print to excess—but do they have any use other than as shredder fodder?

15 Decluttering Tips

15 Decluttering Tips

By 10.25.07

Clutter costs money! How?

Fresh Direct To (Eventually) Stop Using Those Awful Cardboard Boxes

Fresh Direct To (Eventually) Stop Using Those Awful Cardboard Boxes

By 10.3.07

FreshDirect is finally doing away with the awful cardboard boxes! (For those of you who are unfamiliar, it’s like Peapod but in New York City, and not as good.) One of the main problem with Fresh Direct (from a customer standpoint) is that they pack everything in cardboard boxes.

How Many Earths Would It Take To Sustain Your Lifestyle?

How Many Earths Would It Take To Sustain Your Lifestyle?

By cwalters 9.25.07

“Consumer Consequences” is an online “game” where you enter data about your living, work, travel, energy, and eating patterns, then see how many earths would be needed to sustain your lifestyle if every single person on the planet did the same thing. It’s a relatively fun way to graphically tally up your environmental footprint, and helps you highlight where you use the most resources (and, ideally, where you can therefore cut costs).

FreshDirect Packaging Is Extremely Wasteful

FreshDirect Packaging Is Extremely Wasteful

By 5.14.07

FreshDirect is a grocery delivery service that is very handy if you, like many urbanites, do not have a car. Sadly, we have to limit our Fresh Direct usage to the 2 weeks before we move, because they pack everything in huge, mostly empty cardboard boxes. It’s insane.

TSA Misses 90% of Bombs At Denver Airport

TSA Misses 90% of Bombs At Denver Airport

By 4.2.07

Sources told 9NEWS the Red Team was able to sneak about 90 percent of simulated weapons past checkpoint screeners in Denver. In the baggage area, screeners caught one explosive device that was packed in a suitcase. However later, screeners in the baggage area missed a book bomb, according to sources.

IKEA To Charge $.05 for Plastic Bags In Effort To Reduce Consumption

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

Kmart: The 2 Item, 21 Inch Receipt

Kmart: The 2 Item, 21 Inch Receipt

By 12.19.06

Reader David writes in with a complaint about Kmart. David went to his local Kmart where he bought a lamp and a light bulb for that lamp. David was then printed a receipt that was 21 inches long. He measured it. From his blog:

Save Time. Waste Money.

By 10.26.06

Do you ever wonder how much more you’re paying for convenience food items? Individually wrapped prewashed potatoes? Microwave popcorn?

Study Finds File Sharing Is Good For Music Industry

Study Finds File Sharing Is Good For Music Industry

By consumerist.com 3.20.06

The Canadian Record Industry association have done some research and concluded that file sharers are great for business. According to their study, file sharers buy more music than the average customer and try the vast majority of songs they eventually buy.

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