PlanetFeedback's ShopperCast

$700 Billion Bailout Got You Down? Tips for People with Champagne Tastes on Beer Budgets

Times are a little tough, right? It seems like the price of almost every product we buy has increased. As a result of price increases in oil, we have seen a spike in costs in nearly every other facet of our lives. Not only can it cost up to $100 or more a week to fill up our cars with gas, but other necessities such as groceries and non-necessity items such as entertainment expenses have followed suit. How can we save money and secure our future without condemning ourselves to Ramen Noodles and Hungry Man dinners eaten by the light of a Coleman lantern?  Just because it looks like we are headed for another recession, doesn’t mean we have to regress to using the same money saving techniques as we did in the ‘70s. In fact, some of the tips discussed in this article that save you money, you’ll want to keep around-even after the economy is stable enough for you to open up all your windows in January, while blasting the heat at ninety degrees and simultaneously turning on all the lights in your house.

Tip #1- Gas

Everyone you know is telling you to buy a hybrid or join Flexcar. But before you do, really think about it. As much as we love saving the environment and carpooling, make sure the numbers add up in your favor. If its time to buy a new car, by all means- please, by a hybrid vehicle. Many hybrids start as low as $13,000. But if spending $13,000 on a car is not on your budget right now, don’t consider ditching it altogether. Because everyone is buying hybrids, the prices of other fuel-efficient cars have dropped. If you can’t afford a new car, Flexcar is not a bad option, but with rates at $10 an hour in most cities, you’d be better of renting one. If your city has a public transportation system, use it. Most employers offer complimentary transit passes in lieu of parking passes, and cost is not the only reward. Think about the extra hour you’ll have to catch up on your favorite book, listen to your IPod, or if you’re like us at Shoppercast, catch up on the current whereabouts of Matthew McConaughey and his missing flip flop in US Weekly.

Tip #2- Food

Most money-saving articles will tell you to forgo eating out, or at least tell you to try to cut back. We at Shoppercast will tell you to do no such thing. In fact, eating restaurant food is a great way to save money- just don’t do it in the restaurant. We often complain about how restaurants in the United States offer ridiculous sized portions. Order out a few dishes and serve up to your loved ones family-style. Also, many restaurants are feeling the economic strain and as a result, they’ve begun to offer deals. Take the Subway $5 foot-long sub, for example. To persuade customers to order their beloved foot-long sandwich, they’ve offered it for a reduced price. Not that you need to eat at Subway every night- many other restaurants offer deals for larger portions that you can easily divvy up between a few family members or save the leftovers for the next day. 

Tip #3- Cable, phone, internet

Never agree to any contract offered by your cable, internet, or land-line phone company. They will offer you a small monthly price-reduction in order to get you to sign a two-year contract. The only reason they offer this is to ensure you won’t be persuaded to price shop their competitors. Keep an eye out for deals other carriers are offering. If you are paying $50 a month with cable company A and cable company B has a limited-time offer of $20 a month for new subscribers, don’t switch companies- simply call your existing cable company and ask them to offer you the same deal. Most cable, phone, and internet service providers will offer you the start up deal their competitors are offering just to keep your business. If you have a land-line and everyone in your household has a cell phone, consider ditching your old fashioned ways altogether. Or buy a cell phone specifically to use as a house phone that has a family plan on it.

Tip #4- Airline Prices

Airline prices are a touchy subject right now. Most consumers are fuming as a result of add-on charges many large corporations are charging. The easiest way to stick it to the larger airlines? Easy- use a smaller airline. Southwest Airlines has vowed to their customers they won’t start charging for extras such as exit row seats, checked luggage, and beverages. Virgin Airlines, which only serves select cities in the United States, offers many amenities in addition to their commitment not to tack on hidden fees. Flying internationally? Consider booking with an international carrier- most international airlines offer nearly first-class service in coach and don’t charge the hidden fees many US airlines charge.

Tip #5- Entertainment   

If you rent more than four movies a month, Netflix and Blockbuster Online are the way to go. If you don’t? Don’t use mail-in DVD movie services. Most people who have switched to renting DVDs through the mail think they are saving money, but in reality, they wouldn’t have spent $20-$25 on rentals in a month anyway. You could actually go to the movie theater a few times a month for that price. Think you’ll see a few movies next month? Netflix offers a service that allows you to suspend your account instead of simply canceling it. That way, you can put the movies you know you’ll rent next month at the top of your queue and once your account is restored, they’ll automatically ship to your home. Like music?  Try ITunes to download all of your music and burn songs to blank CDs. That way, you can purchase only the songs you want and listen to samples of other songs you might be interested in for free.

 Even if some of these tips just don’t float your boat, the important thing to remember is, as consumers we all have choices. Just because something is new, flashy and is supposed to save you tons of money, doesn’t mean it will in the long run. Do a little research, weight the pros and cons, and figure out what works best for your lifestyle. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cash. Or something like that.

-Contributed by Alicia

Extreme Makeovers - Personal Edition

First there were doctor fish - the ones who feed on the dead skin of your feet and are becoming the rage in pedicures.  With the facial and body sculpting industry still being huge money makers, it's not surprising that companies are contorting their minds to come out with a new angle for those dollars.

Like a facial for your behind.  It involves cleansing, steam treatment to open pores and soften skin, followed by a massage with oil made of grapeseed extract with antioxidants and finally, a seaweed mask to hydrate and detox, or a firming mask to firm and brighten.  Your tush. 

We wonder how you evaluate the results.  You'd almost have to rely on the opinions and feedback from the people who see you naked.  As if most males when faced with that question would answer anything other than - oh yeah, baby, your butt looks awesome. 

How about getting a facial which have ingredients such as human placenta (from Russian maternity wards) and nightingale droppings.  Bird poo.  On your face.  Oh yes they do offer such things.  We couldn't make this up.

Do you have dry frizzy hair that you can't do a thing with?  Pop into Hari's salon in London for a bull semen treatment.  They call it Viagra for your hair. 

Such are just a couple of the new treatments that are out there to woo consumers and, lets face it, to make headlines and draw a visceral reaction.  All to drum up business.  While we think we'll stick with our spa pedicures that contain conventional ingredients, to each their own.  If you want to put bird poop on your face, have at it.

--Contributed by Deb

System Fail

If you’ve ever checked out failblog.org, the title of this post may make you chuckle.  Or wince.  Or slap your forehead.  Or do a Homer Simpson.  In recent letters to PlanetFeedback, companies have shown that a having a good (or even great) idea isn’t good enough:  There has to be follow-through.  One letter described a woman’s struggle to get UPS to find her wedding dress.  Another more recent letter details a woman’s ordeal with Lowe’s system of online ordering with store-pickup within a set timeframe. 

While the issues these two consumers describe are different and the processing systems involved are different, one thing is true of both:  The procedures/systems in place at both of these companies failed, and failed miserably.

With the wedding dress lost by UPS, we’re left wondering why and how that system failed.  Aren’t the bar codes on each package scanned and rescanned at every step along the way?  If one step in the process got missed, why can’t UPS backtrack to find out the last scanned point of the dress?  At that point, one could assume that UPS would be able to narrow down the likely suspects (our suspicious nature makes us more likely to believe this is a matter of employee theft, rather than a glitch in the system).

With the issue at Lowes, where the consumer placed an online order with guaranteed pickup after two hours, the problem would seem to lie in management and employee training and awareness.  Lowe’s has a great idea (consumers can save time by shopping online from home, find what they need, order it, then pick it up a few hours later, rather than spend time walking through the store, looking for what they need), but if each individual store can’t follow through with its obligation in the process, there’s no point to offering the service!  And this idea is an excellent one, as it would be ideal for a parent with kids in tow, someone with mobility issues, etc., so it’s a shame that this organization hasn’t devoted the necessary resources to making it the success it could and should be.

We don’t have the technical expertise or know-how to start telling either company how to fix their broken systems, but as consumers, we have every right to complain when a business sets us up for high expectations and then fails to deliver on those promises.

Your New Purchase Becomes the Display Model?

We've read all kinds of letters at PlanetFeedback about consumers receiving damaged goods from stores -- electronics and furniture, mainly.  But this story takes the cake:  Kelvin put an on-sale plasma television on layaway at Kmart.  When he went to pick up the television, it wasn't in the layaway department.  After some searching, the television was brought to him, in a box that obviously had been opened.

It turns out, his television had been used as a display model and when he got it home, he discovered damage to the television.  Now, granted, he should have/could have inspected the TV prior to leaving the store with it, thereby saving himself quite a lot of aggravation (and money!).  But so long as he was making payments on this item, it shouldn't have been put on the floor as a display model, where it surely was played with and touched by other shoppers, shoppers who weren't necessarily careful as it wasn't their television. 

It's one thing when a consumer knowingly buys a floor/display model and takes a chance on a used product.  But to put someone's layaway purchase onto the floor for others to experiment with seems highly unscrupulous and unfair.  The store obviously wouldn't do that with other layaway items such as clothing and shoes, so why the store made the choice to treat this television any differently is anyone's guess.

Of course, it's a story like this that makes layaway seem like it has one more foot in the grave.  (Like a cat has more than one life, layaway may have more than two feet.)

~Contributed by Angela~

News Of The Weird

We must have ice cream on the brain this week.  Monday, we were intrigued by the notion that Krispy Kreme was going to be selling ice cream in addition to donuts.  This morning, we're less intrigued and more grossed out by this one.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has sent a letter to Ben & Jerry's ice cream proposing a new source of milk to be used in its ice cream.  They are suggesting.... wait for it.....  human breast milk.  No.  We are not kidding ~ so hoist yourself up off the floor.  Can you imagine the name of flavors Ben & Jerry's could come up with?

From the letter:  "Everyone knows that 'the breast is best,' so Ben & Jerry's could do consumers and cows a big favor by making the switch to breast milk."  The letter lauded a Swiss restaurant who was going to use human breast milk in certain soups, stews and sauces.

Except it appears that PETA didn't completely do its homework as almost a week ago this Swiss restaurant took this idea off the table as being (pardon the pun) too titillating for diners.  Actually it was the Swiss health department that stepped in.  The idea appears to violate the health code. as humans aren't approved suppliers of milk.   We guess the restaurateur (and perhaps PETA) didn't consider that lactating moms who smoke or take prescription medications can pass this along through breast milk.

Somehow, of all the flavors Ben & Jerry's serve up, ice cream that tastes like an ashtray or an oral contraceptive isn't going to be very popular. 

While we applaud PETA's commitment (regardless of ferocity) to its cause, we have to question whether they should be sticking their nose into issues and making suggestions with little basis in fact.

--Contributed by Deb

Hello Dolly: Do Consumers Have the Right to Know if the Food They Are Eating is Cloned?

What’s the difference between the shelves at your local grocery store and a science fiction movie? Since the FDA deemed cloned animals and their byproducts safe for consumption, not much. In January, of 2008, the Food and Drug Administration ruled cloned animals and their spawn do not cause a threat for humans or pets to eat. While cloned animals may lead to a higher mass-production of meat and dairy, many Americans aren’t thrilled about the prospect of Dolly the sheep ending up on their dinner tables. What most consumers fear, however, is not the legalization of such processes, but the FDA’s choice to not require proper labeling of cloned products on food packages. What exactly are the risks of eating meat created in a laboratory and what can consumers do to make sure they know exactly where their food is coming from?

Animal Safety

• Only 20% of all cloned animals actually survive the gestation process.  In addition, once a cloned embryo is inserted into the female uterus, it grows at such an alarming rate, the surrogate must have a cesarean during labor.  Many of the female surrogates do not survive the birthing process.

• Clones have been known to suffer dangerous hormone and protein levels, which can affect the safety of their meat and byproducts. 

• Because cloned animals have identical gene patterns, they are more susceptible to disease.

Why the FDA Decided Cloned Animals are Safe to Eat

1. Cloned animals will not actually be available for consumption.  They will be used as "elite" breeders and only their offspring will be sold in stores.
2. Feeding cloned animals to other animals is not a viable option to test the safety of cloning because eating only meat or milk is not a healthy option for anyone.  Therefore, we could not test the safety of the meat without the test subject becoming ill. 
3. Cloning is safer than genetically modifying foods because it does not add or take away from a DNA sequence.

What Consumers Can Do

The question on most consumers' minds is, "how can I make an educated decision about the food I eat?"  Without any package warning or information, anyone could pick up a carton of milk that has come from a cloned animal, without even knowing it.  While the meat industry is not legally required to label meat derived from cloned animals, many companies are beginning to label food that is not cloned.   Although, many have decided this is just the next big marketing ploy, the FDA has announced, on a case to case basis, they will regulate companies that advertise "No Cloning" on their food packaging.  Another way to know if your food has been cloned or not?  Knowing where your food comes from is probably one of the best ways to avoid eating anything you don't want to.  Local farms that advertise organically raised animals are probably the best defense against ingesting any mystery meat.  Smaller farms that focus on healthy animals will probably not buy into the cloned animal trends. 

However, just because a package states, "organically grown," does not necessarily mean the animal has not been cloned.  Your second best defense?  Knowing what companies are interested in using cloned animals.  In 2007, Smithfield Foods paired up with ViaGen, a leader in cloning technology, to slowly introduce cloned animals into their products.   Already deemed , "the dark side of the other white meat," by Rolling Stone, the top manufacturer of of pork products has been the first to jump on board. 

Although Smithfield generates the largest amount of pork products in the world, they aren't the only pig in the trough.  Twenty of America's largest leading food companies, including Kraft and General Mills have pledged they won't use cloned animals in their products.   Since many of these large corporations have realized consumers are worried about the quality of their food, Smithfield has changed its stance and has decided to exclude Dolly and friends from their products.   

Just goes to show you just how much consumer opinion can affect corporate policy.

-Contributed by Alicia Butler

The Birth Of A New Treat

What happens when a luxury (fattening, but exceedingly yummy) food  ~ one that is sold in grocery stores as well as at its own stores ~ hits the skids?  That's the question Krispy Kreme (mmmmm donuts) has been asking itself.  People are apparently just not indulging in the high fat, high calorie pastry as much as they used to, which is taking a bite out of revenue.

Perhaps they shrink stores and consider moving some retail outlets overseas (both of which KK is doing).  Or they decide, hey since people aren't buying donuts, maybe they'll buy.... ice cream!  Yep.  It's called Kool Kreme and it's soft serve, like Dairy Queen, only with a higher percentage of butterfat, which makes the product richer and creamier than DQ .  The ice cream will be featured with a toppings bar that will allow consumers to mix and match their flavors (we think kids will LOVE this feature as it allows them to express their "creativity" somewhere other than the soda fountain).

While there's currently no word if they're offering donuts as a topping (which we think might be a fun idea), we'll still wait and see whether this idea flies.  With cooler weather upon us (happy first day of autumn to all), we wonder how many people are going to be thinking "ice cream" as the temps drop a bit.  The flip side is that there's no better time than the present to KK customers used to the idea of combining donuts and ice cream ~ something  Dunkin Donuts has done in some stores by combining with Baskin-Robbins.

We wish there was a KK near us here at ShopperCast East as we'd love to try it!  If you've tried it, let us know what we're missing!

--Contributed by Deb

Speak Up Vs. Speak Later

A common complaint in letters shared at PlanetFeedback is poor customer service at restaurants.  A common response to these letters is a collective demand that the diner speak with the manager in person at the time, rather than later, upon arriving home.   The debate goes back and forth:  “Speak to the manager.”  “But what about people who aren’t comfortable about confrontation?”  “It doesn’t have to be confrontational—it’s a conversation between two adults:  a diner and a business manager.”  “But I’m not the kind of person to speak up/I’m shy/I’m worried a kitchen worker will do something to my food/I don’t like to complain.”  And on and on.

We got to thinking:  Surely most restaurant owners/managers would say that they want to hear negative feedback from diners so problems can be corrected, disappointed experiences can be made right, and customers can leave happy and wanting to return, not to mention telling their friends and family how well a manager treated them after they complained.

But what if restaurant managers were asked this:  Would you want to have only diners who are comfortable speaking up in person, directly to you, to dine at your restaurant, leaving the more timid diners to dine elsewhere?  Or would you open your doors to all types of personalities, and deal with some people's complaints after the fact?  We are confident in our assumption that these managers would decline this offer to pick and choose customers, and would want even the noncomplainers (or those who complain after the fact, via response cards or by contacting corporate headquarters) to choose their restaurant when they dine out.

And if we follow through with that assumption, doesn’t that mean that someone’s complaint is still valid the next day or the next week when they call, write, or email the company to express their displeasure with a dining experience?  While some issues may involve timeliness, surely most complaints are still reasonable and valid, and are something a restaurant manager (and staff) can learn from and improve upon.  If a restaurant is getting a majority of its complaints in a manner other than right there and in person, perhaps that's a sign that diners don't feel comfortable expressing their displeasure to waitstaff or the manager, and that alone is something to learn from:  Perhaps staff need initiate the dialogue with diners:  "Is everything satisfactory with you tonight?"  "You don't seem to be enjoying the pasta as much as I had expected, is there something you don't like about it that we can fix for you?"  Et cetera.

Just as diners express both reasonable and unreasonable complaints to restaurant managers in person, the same is true when the communication happens in a less direct fashion, and these complaints should be handled no differently than if they happened in person.

~Contributed by Angela~

Phishing... With a Twist

We're all familiar with phishing.  But phishing has left your home computer and has moved on to new territory:  Your cell phone. 

Some financial institution members/ customers have received text messages on their cell phones containing the same scare tactic as the phishing emails.  People may trust the message, figuring, "How would someone else know which bank I belong go?"  But scammers send the same email to large groups, knowing that a certain percentage of recipients are customers or members of that financial institution.  And now the same scammers are targeting cell phone users via text messages.

Fraud/security personnel in the banking industry remind people that you would never receive an email or text message about your account, asking for your account information.  If you receive a text message of this type, immediately notify your financial institution so they can warn others.

Build a better mousetrap, and a scammer will figure out a way to steal the cheese.

~Contributed by Angela~

These Artists Are Animals!

Quick.  Look at your walls. 

What dominates your living space in terms of art?  Abstracts, landscapes, lithographs, photographs.  Art is a very personal matter - what resonates and speaks to you may not to us and vice versa. 

If you're a fan of wildlife and art, there's an auction that might be right up your alley.  One auction house in South Carolina auctioned off paintings created by penguins and sea lions and all sorts of other furry critters.  (Pause for an "awwwwwww" moment.)  Cha Cha the Lion must be a pretty good artist for have his/her work go for $550.  We wonder if a gazelle was his/her muse.

This is the first time a group of zoos have gotten together to collaboratively raise money and awareness of conservation and educational efforts.  What a novel way to get people to pony up for charitable causes ~ certainly it goes beyond receiving address labels in the mail in exchange for a donation.  In this economy, one of the first things to get cut when you're trying to put food on the table is a contribution to charity. 

By all accounts the auction was a success.  Money was raised and art was purchased.  And Cha Cha became a star.    RAWR.

--Contributed by Deb