After being investigated for price-gouging, chain drugstores including CVS and Walgreens have dropped prices on the H1N1 (swine flu) drug Tamiflu.
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A Doctor Walks into the ER. The Punchline? A $5,000 Bill
File this under the category of Shoe on the Other Foot. A doctor gets hurt while playing soccer, needs some stitches on his head, and learns what it’s like to be on the other side of the health care system.
How Luxury Stores Like to Mess with their Customers
Saks, Neiman Marcus, and other luxury retailers manipulate demand by limiting supply—thereby creating a situation that allows them to keep prices high.
Time to Pull the Plug on Paid Cable TV?
There’s a lot of grumbling among consumers and media types that cable TV is not only overpriced, but that it should be free—and what with the growing number of free alternatives on the web, it might have no choice but to be free.
Recession: Just What the Doctor Ordered?
Contrary to what you might assume, the nation’s overall health showed dramatic improvements during the Great Depression. Could something similar be happening right now? Does economic crisis actually make us healthier?
Are You Mental? Retailers Try to Understand (and Exploit) the ‘Recession Mentality’
Is the recession over? It doesn’t really matter. Retailers and manufacturers realize that frugality will be the rule at least for the near future, and they’re trying to figure out how to reach the newly cautious, newly vigilant consumer.
Designer Dresses in Your Rental Queue? A Netflix for Fashionistas
A new website allows you to rent dresses for a few days from designers like Diane Von Furstenburg for one-tenth of what it would cost to buy them.
Down With Traffic Cameras!
Thus far, in the battle of humans versus machines—a.k.a., drivers versus traffic cameras doling out speeding tickets—it’s the machines that are kicking our fleshy tushes. Because it’s hard to beat the “Terminator”-like efficiency of a traffic camera in court, voters are choosing another strategy: removing the cameras entirely.
Keep Your Chin Up: Cosmetic Surgery on the Cheap
Despite a less-than-stellar economy, the number of cosmetic surgery procedures performed in the U.S. actually went up 3% in 2008. But apparently it’s possible to be vain and thrifty at the same time: Overall consumer spending on these procedures fell 9% in 2008 compared to the year before, meaning folks going under the knife were …
Introducing the $70 Refrigerator
Also, the $23 stove, the $2,200 automobile, the $43 water-purification system, and the $20 cell phone with 2¢-per-minute rates—all courtesy of India, where engineers and innovators are coming up with ingenious products that are within reach of the country’s poorest citizens.
Shopping Withdrawal: Are You Bound to Binge?
For some people who have tried to go cold turkey and stop making unnecessary purchases, being good is getting boring. They’re experiencing “frugal fatigue,” and many shoppers out there are bound to crack.
Ten Ideas for Cheap and Easy Halloween Costumes
Are you lazy? Cheap? Prone to procrastination? All of the above? If so, one or these easy and inexpensive costume ideas may be right for you or your kids.