by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Watch out, single-line barcodes; GS1 DataBars will soon hit store shelves to help customers save money and prevent them from purchasing expired goods. The torqued DataBars pack extra info into two lines of barcodes, so stores can offer coupons with multiple product discounts. For example, one coupon could offer deals [...]
by Nissa Hanna Like many Millennial and Xer consumers, I’m an eclectic sartorial shopper, mixing mostly moderate-priced pieces with fast fashions. I’ve come to accept that aside from the occasional splurge in a high-end store, I’m just not paying enough to get good customer service. But a recent encounter at apparel store Martin + Osa [...]
by Tim Barlow WHAT’S HAPPENING From frozen meats to breakfast cereal, cost-conscious shoppers are bidding on heavily discounted items at grocery auctions, with average savings of between 50-90% (ABCnews.com 4.2.09). Sprouting up at auction halls across the country, the gatherings put leftover and slightly damaged groceries on the auction block. Arriving from supermarkets, distribution centers [...]
By Iconoculture
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Also posted in Consumer Trend, Food/Beverage, Grocery
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Tagged Boomers, Consumer trends, Gen Xers, grocery stores, Iconoculture, Iconowatch, Matures, Millennials, Tim Barlow
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by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Shoppers don’t have to spend time searching for low-cost prescriptions; beta site MedTipster can now do it for them. To find affordable meds, any consumer can enter her zip code, prescription and dosage, then the start-up site provides a list of local drugstores that sell the Rx — or its generic [...]
by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Having been hit hard by the recession, many indoor shopping centers are seeing new tenant rates drop and national chains closing shop. The Coronado Center and Cottonwood Mall in New Mexico are filling those storefronts with mom-and-pop shops (BizJournals.com 1.9.09). Cottonwood’s KB Toys is closing, but regional video game retailer [...]
By Iconoculture
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Also posted in Consumer Trend, Money/Spending
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Tagged Boomers, Consumer spending, Consumer trends, Gen Xers, Iconoculture, Iconowatch, malls, Matures, Millennials, mom-and-pop shop, Nissa Hanna, Recession
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by Abelardo de la Peña Jr. WHAT’S HAPPENING What do we want? Condoms! When do we want them? Now! Community and health groups are challenging CVS/pharmacy’s practice of locking up condom displays in some urban areas by giving away free condoms. Under the organization of Cure CVS, public health, civil rights and community leaders distributed [...]
by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Online retailer service WujWuj is giving consumers an incentive to invite friends to buy online. The service facilitates group buys to drop the price of a product as more shoppers sign on to purchase it (TechCrunch.com 2.11.09). WujWuj’s retail partners embed special widgets on their websites, each one showing a [...]
By Iconoculture
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Also posted in Consumer Trend, Money/Spending, Technology
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Tagged Consumer spending, Consumer trends, Gen Xers, group buying, Iconoculture, Iconowatch, Millennials, Nissa Hanna, online retailers
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January 9, 2009 – 9:56 am
by Charlotte Beal A colleague recently alerted me to Real Simple’s online series, “Time-Saving Tips for Busy Parents,” specifically the Supermarket Strategies story. It’s a mix of fairly “duh” tips like digging back in the produce and dairy sections for the freshest items and stooping to notice that the cheaper items are shelved on the [...]
January 6, 2009 – 9:56 am
by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Department stores once enjoyed a committed relationship with designers, but that’s now on the rocks as labels create cheap-chic collections for discount stores or defect to the arms of high-paying competitors (New York Times 3.8.08). The exclusive partnerships of yore have given way to a market that resembles an exercise in speed-dating. Fashionistas with retail [...]
By Iconoculture
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Also posted in Consumer Trend, Fashion
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Tagged Best of 2008, Cheap-chic collections, Consumer spending, Consumer trends, Fashion, Fashion designers, Fast Fashion, Iconoculture, Iconowatch, Label loyalty, Retail relationships
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January 2, 2009 – 5:45 pm
by Derek Reveron WHAT’S HAPPENING A study shows that people who are both bicultural and bilingual may change their personality unconsciously when they switch languages. Bicultural Latinos who speak English and Spanish change their cultural self-perception faster and easier than bilingual people who live in one culture, according to a study by researchers from Baruch [...]
December 17, 2008 – 9:10 am
by Stefania Revelli Coupon clipping: a new American pastime for a new America? With deal-hunting a newfound hobby for many consumers, bragging about bargains has not only become cool, it’s practically a new consumer sport. Deal seekers, coupon clippers, bargain hunters: By any name, consumers are busily BeehivingSM in the name of helping one another [...]
By Iconoculture
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Also posted in Consumer Trend, Economy, Grocery, Money/Spending
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Tagged Bargain bragging, Bargain hunters, Consumer trends, Coupon banking, Coupon clipping, Coupon sharing, Deal seekers, Econoculture, Groupsolving, Iconoculture, Iconowatch
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December 16, 2008 – 8:48 am
by Mandy Levenberg A little thing called “recession” is not going to get in the way of cause consumers’ priorities during the holiday season. It remains to be seen exactly how much cause is a competitive marketing advantage as shoppers consider and re-consider whether they should spend at all. But consumption justification, a feel-good purchase [...]
By Iconoculture
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Also posted in Consumer Trend, Economy
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Tagged Cause consumption, Consumer spending, Consumer trends, Consumption justification, Corporate giving, Econoculture, Holiday shopping, Iconoculture, Iconowatch, Kenneth Cole, Redefine Christmas, Subaru Love Campaign, Tis Best
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December 15, 2008 – 12:14 pm
by Katie Elfering You think online holiday shopping is all about Cyber Monday? Not even. Sure, the Monday after Thanksgiving gets all the attention, but it’s actually the Monday a couple weeks later when consumers really shell out the bucks. December 10th, 2007 was actually the biggest day for online sales ever (dubbed Green Monday [...]
December 12, 2008 – 5:56 am
by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING The most popular holiday gifts this year will be clothing, but the second most-common present will be gift cards (NPR.org 11.19.08). Yet gift cards are notoriously problematic. Take for example The Sharper Image, which recently went into bankruptcy. The high-tech toy company left consumers holding more than $60 million worth of [...]
By Iconoculture
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Also posted in Consumer Trend, Money/Spending
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Tagged Boomers, Consumer protection, Consumer rights, Consumer trends, Gen X, Gift card laws, Gift cards, Groupsolving, Iconoculture, Iconowatch, Millennials
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December 11, 2008 – 6:09 am
by Nina Elder WHAT’S HAPPENING There are online bar/bat mitzvah registries, divorce registries and even eco-travel registries. Why not a meal registry? Enter MealBaby.com, a free online service that lets consumers coordinate meals for new parents, people recovering from surgery or anyone else who needs some good home cooking. Here’s how it works: Log on [...]
By Iconoculture
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Also posted in Consumer Trend, Food/Beverage, Grocery
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Tagged Boomers, Consumer trends, Customized meals, Gen Xers, Iconoculture, Iconowatch, Meal planning, Meal registry, MealBaby, Millennials, New parents
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