U.S. household debt has finally fallen back to pre-recession levels. So, we’ve finally learned our lesson about spending …
consumer spending
More Americans Planning to Spend Money on Halloween — And Pet Costumes — This Year
Halloween spending has been one of the few spending categories to quickly bounce back from the recession. And this year, the wild spending gets even scarier.
When Cash Is King: 5 Situations in Which You Should Pay with Hard Currency
We are all familiar with the convenience of credit and debit cards, and there’s no denying that they’re the preferred method of payment for many transactions. But sometimes good old hard currency is preferable. (Although maybe …
Study: Guys Spend Stupidly When There Are Fewer Women to Date
Most men tend to do dumb things around women just to get their attention — wearing muscle shirts, flexing in muscle shirts, and lying about their job and marital status while wearing and flexing in muscle shirts, for instance. Add this to the list: spending money on stupid things and taking on credit card debt because they sense …
Forget Black Friday — Here Comes ‘Back-to-School Saturday’
We already have Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Presidents Day Sales, July 4th Promotions and about every “car sales event” you can think of. So it only makes sense that someone finally came up with the idea of Back-to-School Saturday.
How to Get Even for Poor Customer Service
Two-thirds of our economy is in the service sector. So why is service so bad?
Spring Slowdown: Is the U.S. Economic Recovery Stalling?
The disappointing economic growth figures released Friday by the federal government have raised the possibility that the U.S. recovery might be stalling — just when it appeared poised to achieve “escape velocity,” in which gains …
Many Big Retailers Don’t Respond to Customer Questions on Facebook
Exploding Ice Cream Scoops and Dangerous Dishwashers: A Year of Consumer Safety Complaints
After an unsure start and a threat to its very existence, the government-run database that documents consumers’ safety issues with everything from dishwashers to tricycles survived its first year and is beginning to mature into …
What’s the Worst Company in America?
What happens when you take companies many Americans love to hate and place them into something we all love to love – namely, a tournament bracket? Welcome to The Consumerist’s Worst Company in America 2012 tourney!
License To Sin: When Good Behavior Leads To Bad Results
Most people are taught early to believe in what we might call “momentum morality”: the idea that good (or bad) actions lead to further good (or bad) habits. Economists and other philosophical types call these feedback loops …
Is ‘Made in America’ Back In Style?
My grandparents had two criteria for buying a car: It had to be blue, and it had to be American. The last time they purchased a car was in the ’90s, when American car companies didn’t have the best reputations for quality or …
