Tag Archives: Consumer spending

Target offers massive reward for use of RED cards

July 23, 2010 – 8:39 pm

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING In autumn 2010, Target will reward customers who use their Target credit cards and debit cards in stores across the U.S. and at Target.com. Whipping out the RED will result in an instant 5% discount — a very generous rewards program compared to other credit and debit cards. Earlier this […]

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Debit cards still whipping out more often than credit

May 28, 2010 – 7:00 am

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING In May 2009, Visa announced that debit transactions had surpassed credit billings for the first time in company history. One year later, Mastercard announced that their cardholders had also debited more than they’d charged for the first time (ABCNews.com 5.6.10). In the first quarter of 2010, MasterCard users spent $118 […]

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Target spearheads a new trend: Plastic without Visa

May 6, 2010 – 5:30 am

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING Target is one of the nation’s first major retailers to bring back an old-fashioned form of credit: store-branded plastic that can only be used at Target stores and Target.com. The new credit card will not be branded nor processed by Visa (Bloomberg.com 4.20.10). The retailer has been the third largest […]

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Podcast: Crystal Ball 2010

December 17, 2009 – 3:10 pm

Gregg Archibald, Derek Stubbs and Hans Eisenbeis discuss signs of recovery, holiday shopping, and what’s in store for the consumer economy in 2010. Download December’s economic podcast here: Financial Innovation: Bottoms Up Week 30 29 min., 42 sec.

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Mom-and-pop shops move into malls

April 2, 2009 – 6:00 am

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 […]

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THE REVALUATION REVOLUTION

March 31, 2009 – 1:45 pm

by Josh Kimball At Iconoculture, we tackle the issues shaping the culture. In 2008, for our inaugural Cultural Zeitgeist series, we looked at some biggies: the finitude of the earth’s resources (“A Finite Future”), the changing station of America in the realms of geopolitics and global commerce (“The Centerless World”), and the dynamics of fear […]

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South Floridians keeping quinceañera costs down

March 30, 2009 – 6:00 am

by Abelardo de la Peña Jr. WHAT’S HAPPENING Latina teens take heart: Despite the teetering economy, the quinceañera must go on, as parents find ways to cut costs for the coming of age celebration. In South Florida, where quinces average $5,000-10,000, parents are reducing the number of girls and boys in the quinceañera court, doing […]

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Dress rental services have recessionistas covered

March 19, 2009 – 6:00 am

by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING To help recessionistas cope in this economy, apparel rental services are coming to the rescue. Dress Vault facilitates the lending, borrowing, buying and selling of frocks. Members put pics of their dresses into their virtual closet and include a rental or purchase price (JCReport.com 2.12.09). Borrowers cover shipping costs, but […]

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“We’ll pay you not to be a customer!”

March 18, 2009 – 6:00 am

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING American Express launched a program in February 2009 to help consumers “simplify your finances” by paying off and closing their accounts. The carrot? A $300 cash card, redeemed when any outstanding balance is paid in full (CreditMattersBlog.com 2.23.09). The blogosphere is snarking at the campaign, pointing out that accepting the […]

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THE CLEAN FRIDGE CLUB

March 17, 2009 – 2:30 pm

by Charlotte Beal Four months before the Great Recession became official, I penned what I pegged a top trend for 2009: “Buying Out,” or consumers engaging in deconsumption to save money, lighten the load on the planet and amp independence. Now Iconoculture is seeing this play out in categories from fashion to transportation, but food […]

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WujWuj helps groups of shoppers score online deals

March 12, 2009 – 6:00 am

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 | Posted in Consumer Trend, Money/Spending, Retail, Technology | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Spoiled rich kids? Wealthy parents have little faith in their heirs

March 11, 2009 – 6:00 am

by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING The super affluent aren’t just worried about the economy; they’re worried about their kids’ incompetence with cash. In a survey of Americans with at least $1 million in liquid assets, just 20% said they believed their children would “keep their family’s wealth secure for future generations” (WSJ.com 2.10.09). Only a […]

By Iconoculture | Posted in Economic meltdown, Economy, Money/Spending, Parents, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off

Doomsters get ready to take their lives off the grid

March 5, 2009 – 6:00 am

by Josh Kimball WHAT’S HAPPENING Has there ever been a better time to be a Doomster? Not in a few hundred years. From popular online forums like Life After the Oil Crash to the outsider buzz around Dmitry Orlov’s 2008 book Reinventing Collapse, times are good for those who think times are bad. America’s always […]

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Shelter in the Storm

March 3, 2009 – 3:10 pm

by Nissa Hanna Over the past few years I’ve subscribed to a number of home magazines … you know, for research purposes. When many of those subscriptions recently ended, it hit me that the slow crumbling of shelter titles has significantly reduced my renewal options. Home design mags haven’t been protected from this economic storm. […]

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Down to Earth: The recession-friendly dating site

February 18, 2009 – 6:00 am

by Stefania Revelli WHAT’S HAPPENING What’s your recessionary type? The makers of Match.com have launched Down to Earth, a dating site designed for today’s financially strapped singles. Unlike many other fee-based dating sites, the service is free. For Get RealSM singles who don’t have the money or the time for dealbreaker duds, a RealRatings system […]

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