consumer

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Small Labels Are the New Fashion Stars

Trendy, casual designers are edging out the stalwarts

(Newser) - Women of all ages are springing for trendier clothes from newer labels, and the fashion industry is scrambling to keep up, the Wall Street Journal reports. The fastest growing segment of the industry is small risk-taking labels that have elevated casual pieces like jeans, t-shirts and  cotton dresses to edgy...

Eco-Awareness Is In The (Reusable) Bag

From cheap to designer, totes help eliminate the plastic glut

(Newser) - Whether it's a designer tote bag with a three-figure price tag or a $5 carryall from the convenience store, Americans are slowly catching on to the European trend of answering the eternal question "paper or plastic" with "neither." Tote bags eliminate environmental stress, proclaim a consumer's eco-friendliness,...

JCPenney Dominates Online
JCPenney Dominates Online
Apr 30, 2007 12:04 PM CDT

JCPenney Dominates Online

(Newser) - The identity of one of the web's largest and most successful retailers may come as a surprise. It's JCPenney, Business Week reports, and it attracted 926,000 paying customers to its website in the first quarter—a number that ranks the 105-year-old company with web giants like eBay, Amazon, and...

Carbon Offsets Are Often Scams
Carbon Offsets Are Often Scams
Apr 26, 2007 7:56 PM CDT

Carbon Offsets Are Often Scams

Trading on eco-guilt, firms are selling worthless carbon credits

(Newser) - Carbon offsets—the credits gas-guzzling consumers buy to cancel out their carbon production—may do little or nothing more than assuage consciences, a Financial Times investigation concludes. Some companies sell worthless credits; others use them to finance environmental projects they had planned anyway. And consumers have no means to know...

Death Be Not Proud (At a Discount)
Death Be Not Proud
(At a Discount)
Apr 12, 2007 4:47 PM CDT

Death Be Not Proud (At a Discount)

(Newser) - What does it say about us, Mark Morford asks, that wandering the aisles at Costco in Palm Desert, CA, we come upon not only drums of olive oil and eighty-packs of frozen cream puffs, but over there, right next to the tires and the lawn furniture and right behind the...

Wal-Mart Chokes On Organic Food
Wal-Mart Chokes On
Organic Food
Apr 12, 2007 1:00 PM CDT

Wal-Mart Chokes On Organic Food

Farmers say the company miscalculated demand, manipulated supply

(Newser) - Wal-Mart customers aren't buying organic food, and the farmers who stepped up production to supply the giant discounter are the big losers. A year ago Wal-Mart ballyhooed an aggressive push into organic foods, saying they would offer 400 items at low cost. The company placed massive initial orders, farmers say...

Small Towns to Chain Stores: Let Us Shop!

Little places lure big retailers at annual shopping convention

(Newser) - Small towns and exurbs are bending over backwards to woo national retail chains, Governing magazine reports from the International Council of Shopping Centers' convention. Phalanxes of city reps descend on the dizzingly massive—and cutthroat—annual spring conference in Vegas, attempting to raise their profile and land a Pottery Barn...

Old News Rules in New China
Old News Rules in New China    
Mar 23, 2007 2:52 PM CDT

Old News Rules in New China

Communist propaganda is alive and well in world's fastest-growing economy

(Newser) - Just about the only Western consumer product the Chinese aren't buying these days is news:  they're clinging tenaciously to their stodgy, state-run nighty news program, where not even the hairstyles have changed in decades.

Big Guns Battle Video Sharing With Free TV Shows

Copyright-protected content will be available for free online in new NBC-News Corp. partnernship

(Newser) - TV biggies NBC Universal and News Corp. are teaming up to hit YouTube with the full force of their their combined TV content, offered online for free. Starting this summer, AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and News Corp. subsidiary MySpace will hope to win over internet users (and the advertising that...

Consumer Financial Savvy Peaks at 53
Consumer Financial
Savvy Peaks at 53
Mar 22, 2007 11:57 AM CDT

Consumer Financial Savvy Peaks at 53

Data shows the age of 53 is sweet spot for financial savvy

(Newser) - Middle aged consumers make better decisions—and fewer mistakes—than their younger and older counterparts.  A study of  thousands of credit card and home and car loan documents shows that they are the most  likely to get the lowest interest rate available  and the least likely to pay unnecessary...

CD Sales Drop 20%
CD Sales Drop 20%
Mar 21, 2007 11:33 AM CDT

CD Sales Drop 20%

(Newser) - CD sales plunged more than 20% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, and online music sales didn't come close to making up the difference. Closing stores, weak albums, and over a billion songs shared illegally every month combined to deliver the sharpest...

Muggles Save Trees From Harry
Muggles Save Trees From Harry
Mar 21, 2007 11:15 AM CDT

Muggles Save Trees From Harry

(Newser) - It's almost 800 pages long and everyone you know will buy one, so Scholastic has a big chance to score green points with the printing of the final Harry Potter book this summer. The latest installment will use at least 30% recycled material in the U.S., and a "...

Tracking Toxic Greens Is Growth Industry

(Newser) - Still smarting from this fall's E. coli outbreaks, the produce industry is trying to coax Americans into eating their greens again with high-tech solutions. Companies like Dole and Western Growers are using radio-frequency tags and GPS surveillance to track veggies as they move from farm to grocery store.

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