Maybe the nudge mentioned in the title of this post isn’t so gentle. Cornell University researchers came up with the idea, but haven’t fully implemented it yet. The theory behind it is that people might glimpse themselves in the mirror, suddenly remember that they’re fatter than they would like to be, and make healthier food choices. This theory remains unproven, but one weight control researcher who is not part of the project spoke to the New York Times in praise of it. “For those who are overweight, it might elicit the sense of, ‘Oh, I need to lose weight’,” he speculates. “Or, ‘I don’t like to see myself because I’m so big,’ which might lead to choosing healthier food.” Or covering up that mirror with a great big frozen pizza box. One of those.
Other nudges try to get more fresh foods in carts without making anyone feel bad about themselves. It’s tricky. One method that has worked is a simple social norms campaign. When researchers put a sign in every cart spelling out how many pieces of produce other customers usually buy on each shopping trip and what types are the most popular, produce sales surged. A series of green arrows on the floor pointing to the produce section? That encouraged shoppers to go there, browse, and buy more produce. Another method marked off the front half of shopping carts as designated for fresh fruits and vegetables.
The problem is that nudging people means not metaphorically hitting them over the head. When researchers combined two strategies–say, putting a social-norms placard in each cart as well as marking the path to the produce section on the floor–
You might not realize it given the massive amounts of shelf space and special displays devoted to salt-laden snacks and fizzy sugar water in your neighborhood grocery store, but the profit margin for supermarkets is higher for fresh food than for most other things in the store. While participants in these various “nudge” studies bought more fresh produce, they still spent the same amount of money. That could mean shoppers are buying less crap and more fruit. That’s good news for grocery stores, businesses with a tiny profit margin, as well as…well, pretty much everyone else.
Incidentally, when I sat down to write this post, I felt compelled to get a peach out of the refrigerator.
Nudged to the Produce Aisle by a Look in the Mirror [New York Times]
Speculative gold longs CFTC – latest is 97KMaybe they sent out the wrong mailing at the wrong time. Maybe they’re planning way ahead. Or maybe Gabriel’s local Hyundai dealership is putting whatever random crap gets people to open messages from them in the subject lines of their e-mails. In Gabriel’s case, it worked. He opened it.
“You think Costco is bad with Christmas creep?” he wrote when he forwarded us this e-mail. “My Hyundai dealer has apparently already given my Christmas present!”
It’s not a very good present, either. The opportunity to book a service appointment? Nobody asks Santa for that.
While we might not be aware of where our mortal remains reside after we’re gone, one young man’s mother is upset that a funeral home confined his ashes to a plastic Walmart shopping bag. She discovered the bag job a year after he passed away, and calls it a “disrespectful” move on the part of funeral home.
WCPO.com spoke to the mom, who said that from the age of 15, her son had said he wanted to be cremated. So when he passed away at the age of 17 last September from cardiomyopathy, the family knew exactly how to handle his remains. Unfortunately, what his mother envisioned and what she found were two different things.
“I just wanted to hold my baby one last time. So I opened the urn, and found a Walmart bag in the urn. The funeral home had put my son’s ashes in a Walmart bag,” she told the station.
But the county coroner/funeral director at the Kentucky funeral home in question says the family had asked for the remains to be divided into four, something he usually doesn’t do. No bags were provided for the inside of the containers, which didn’t seal. So, he says, he “used the bags that I had” to keep the ashes from spilling. He adds that he trimmed off any logos or print, but the young man’s mom says she could still tell it was Walmart.
The woman’s ex-husband isn’t bothered by the funeral home’s decision, and still keeps his son’s ashes in the Walmart bag.
“It could have been [bad judgment to use the Walmart bags],” he admits. “Was anything done maliciously? No…It may have been a split second lack of judgment, but they were also looking out for our best interest because the containers we provided did not seal.”
The boy’s mother isn’t satisfied with that explanation, and took the ashes to another funeral home to have them transferred to a clear plastic bag. She’s contacted the Kentucky Attorney General’s office and the Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors to file complaints.
“I don’t care who you are, it’s not right to put a human person’s ashes in a Walmart bag…It is still disrespectful. You don’t do that to a parent who has lost their child. You don’t do that to anyone. I just want to make sure that this never happens again to another person,” she said.
Amelia woman shocked after finding son’s ashes in Walmart bag [WCPO.com]
Attention, all you Tooth Fairies out there: The kids you’re visiting are talking on the playground about what kind of haul you’re putting under pillows, and that’s not good for you. Inflation is hitting bedsides across the land, as kids are getting an average of $3.70 per tooth, a 23% spike over last year. All because parents don’t want their child to be the one with the smallest dental payout. [via the Associated Press]
I wish I could lose 7% of my body mass and get taller at the same time, but I’m out of luck…because I’m not a box of cereal. Reader Panda discovered that this amazing change has come to Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut cereal. It was hit by the Grocery Shrink Ray, but at the same time sustained a hit from the Box Growth Ray. Which might be a thing.
In all of these photos, the older, larger box is on the right.
The box does become just a bit more slender to make up for the increase in height.
Oh, well. You won’t miss one fewer bowl of cereal in the box, will you?
Businessweek recently made the case that McDonald’s plan to sell some 250 million wings during the upcoming offering is going to have an impact on the rest of the chicken market.
McDonald’s began testing the wings last year, and one analyst figures that the fast food chain began stockpiling wings around 18 months ago, which is around the same time as the wholesale price of chicken wings shot up around 200% in just a few months, peaking in early 2013 (right about the same time as two men in Georgia tried to cash in on the crazy wing prices by stealing $65,000 worth of frozen wings).
Since then, the wholesale price has dipped, but is still significantly higher than it was two years ago.
Usually, when there is a high demand for wings, the price of breast meat usually takes a tumble, but in the last year-plus, while wing prices were high, breast prices were inching upward and recently spiked in the spring.
Businessweek has an answer for that, pinning it on the rollout of chicken-filled McWraps in the spring of 2013.
In response to these claims, McDonald’s would only say, “We manage our grocery bill like a portfolio and use a customized approach for every commodity. Commodities vary year to year and it is business as usual for us in that space.”
McDonald’s plans to end the Might Wings promotion in November, at which point football season will be in full swing, so expect the price of wings to stay high until at least after the Super Bowl. Then maybe get yourself a chest freezer for the basement and stock up when prices hopefully bottom out in the spring.
A Texas jury is holding Domino’s Pizza partially responsible for a car accident involving a delivery driver that killed one woman and left her husband with brain damage. The victims’ family claimed that it was Domino’s fault that the driver was driving in a car with allegedly bald tires. The jury agreed, awarding the family $32 million and saying that Domino’s should have had inspection rules in place to keep such a vehicle off the road.
The jury says Domino’s was negligent, reports KFDM.com, and ultimately 60% responsible because it didn’t enforce its vehicle inspection policy with franchisees.
“Domino’s simply refused to enforce the basic safety rules for the safety of the vehicle, that gets back to the fact that we had a set of tires on this particular delivery vehicle that by everybody’s admission were unsafe, defective, dangerous.”said an attorney for the family, adding that the promise of delivery in 30 minutes is also to blame.
“We also learned that Domino’s enforces a tragically unsafe delivery method by providing bonuses and other incentives for fast delivery,” he said.
It was raining at the time of the accident, said the attorney, and the delivery driver reportedly hydroplaned into oncoming traffic, slamming into the couple’s vehicle.
A Domino’s spokesman issued a statement on the $32 million award, noting that while the company is sorry for the family’s loss, Domino’s shouldn’t be held responsible for the franchisee’s driver.
“First, our hearts go out to all involved in this tragedy. This was a terrible accident. What’s difficult to comprehend is the idea that a corporation is responsible for whether an independent franchise employee is driving on bald tires. The employee is in question did not work for us; he worked for an established independent franchise operation. Franchisors do not control the day-to-day operations of franchisees, especially to that minute level of detail. We are saddened by this tragedy, but do intend to appeal the decision.”
$32 Million Verdict Against Domino’s Pizza [KFDM.com]
SE Texas jury finds Domino’s partially responsible for deadly crash, awards $32M in lawsuit [Associated Press]
Year-over-year gas prices are lower heading into the Labor Day weekend, mostly because prices aren’t taking off like they did last August.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average price per gallon currently sits at $3.55, $.13 lower than this summer’s peak in late July. In 2012, gas prices actually dipped during the middle of the summer, reaching around $3.40/gallon, but then began rising quickly in August. So between the current, somewhat flattened price, and last year’s rapid increase, folks getting out for one last road trip this International Bacon Day weekend are paying $.19 less per gallon on average than they did a year ago, and $.03 less than during the same time period in 2011.
Of course, GasBuddy.com’s historic chart of the last ten years of prices shows just how much prices have soared (and briefly, mercifully sank in 2009) since 2003.
A little bit of gasoline-scented nostalgia to make you pine for $1.70 gas.
It should be pointed out that we’re only talking about the national average gas price here, as retail prices vary widely depending on where you are. Many densely populated parts of the country, including New York and Connecticut, some major metro areas in the Great Lake states, and the California coast, are generally paying above the national average. Meanwhile, the areas where you’re most likely to find prices below the national average includes the cluster of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri, along with South Carolina, Virginia, Texas, and parts of the Southwest.
Every time the doorbell rang when I was growing up, I knew without a doubt that it would be the prize crew from Publishers Clearing House on my doorstep with a big, fat check, and that I’d be able to keep myself in LEGO, Barbies and Pixie Sticks for a lifetime. But the actual odds of winning PCH’s “Forever” Prize — $5,000 per week for life — are about 1 in 1.215 billion.* As such, the doorbell usually heralded the Fuller Brush Man or one of my neighborhood pals, and I had to find money in the lemonade stand.
So just imagine the joy of a real, actual, living, breathing human who beat those seemingly insurmountable odds and had the real Prize Crew show up on his doorstep, complete with balloons, a giant check and smiling faces.
FOX 2 Now in Illinois says the 26-year-old man is the youngest person to ever win the Forever Prize, a fact that may have been lost on the fella during the hubbub. Of course, when confronted with 20 people, a ginormous check and a camera crew, anyone would be stunned.
His sister was on cue, however, screaming: “Are you kidding me?”
Nope. The man had ordered World War II magazine recently and entered the sweepstakes, and said he didn’t think he’d ever win. His mother had plenty to say, noting that her son had lost his job last year.
“It’s just that we live payday to payday,” she explained.
First things first: He’ll be buying a new car. Then, might we suggest, a large frame for that life-changing check?
*According to the official rules, as seen here.
Illinois mans wins Publishers Clearing House “Forever Prize” [FOX 2 Now]
The Raiders of the Lost Walmart search the retail landscape without ceasing for the finest and least valuable retail antiquities. What items have they found recently that you should absolutely not ever buy?
Brian snapped this picture of some PC games that debuted in 2004 still on the shelves of his local Walmart.
“Granted, at least Everquest II is still receiving new expansion packs,” he notes. “I guess their presence on the shelves is a testament to their long-lasting popularity!” That means that it has plenty of loyal players, but is anyone new picking up the game?
Brandon sent along this atlas from the shelves of his local Big Lots. Sure, Big Lots is a closeout retailer, and things probably haven’t changed that much since 2011, but maybe they have.
Finally, how’s our old friend the MobiBLU MP3 player doing? It cost $110 in April of this year, and at another store was down to $60. Frequent Raider Knah spotted one at his local Walmart this week and sent it in. How much is it now?
Well, that’s unfortunate. Wait a minute, though…how long has this player been sitting in the clearance aisle?
That’s even more unfortunate.
Residents of a northeast Oklahoma town are turning off the tap and reaching for bottled water after some unwelcome visitors decided to take a dip in the city’s filtering system: Little red worms have been found in the filtering system. As such, city officials are asking citizens not to drink the water or use it for cooking while the problem gets sorted out.
The worms range in length from a half-inch to an inch long, reports the Associated Press, and were found wiggling about in the drinking water supply this week. The water was temporarily turned off until yesterday, while workers cleaned, drained and then re-cleaned the water tower.
“We are still looking into this problem. I mean we need to get to the bottom of it and we will continue to investigate and do pretty much what we need to do to find out what happened here,” said a city councilman.
In the meantime, unless residents want a mouthful of worm surprise, residents are being warned not to use the water for anything that would go past your lips.
This kind of worm activity is common in the southeastern United States, said a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, but it’s a bit odd to have it happening in Oklahoma.
Red worms are annoying, but don’t pose any health risks, say experts. Unless you freak out in the middle of swigging a glass full of worms and start choking in disgust. That could be dangerous.
Worms in the water: Oklahoma town can’t drink from tap [Associated Press]
Maybe they assumed that he would forget. When they came forward with the winning ticket in 2012, lottery officials sensed shenanigans and put out a press release intended to smoke out people who might know something. The real winner came forward, and the brothers were arrested. One of them was sentenced to 8.3 to 25 years in prison for possession of stolen property.
If you win a large lottery jackpot, the first thing that you should do, even before you make a generous donation to your favorite consumer affairs blog, is sign the back of the ticket. You also shouldn’t necessarily go back to the store where the ticket was purchased to cash it in, unless you want to share the good news. In New York, where this story happened, retailers can only give out prizes up to $600, and many stores set their own limits that may be lower. After all, even the busiest convenience stores don’t keep $5 million in cash on hand. If you do cash in a smaller ticket at a retailer, don’t let them charge you a ticket-cashing fee.
For larger prizes, you need to visit your nearest lottery customer service center. If the prize is big enough, you’ll also get a press conference with a ceremonial oversized check.
Robert Miles awarded disputed $5 million lottery ticket [Syracuse Post-Standard] (Thanks, Arlene!)
Home improvement aficionados might recall Home Depot’s old tag line, “You can do it. We can help.” That marketing message appears to have worked wonders for one couple, who allegedly took help in the form of a shed at Home Depot to well, do it. And by it we mean, you know (nudge nudge, wink wink), sexual relations.
Getting busy in public is frowned upon by law enforcement, and it’s probable that Home Depot would rather not have its buildings and shelters turned into hourly romp rooms. North Charleston police busted a bout of bunga bunga at a South Carolina Home Depot, arresting a couple for having sex inside a display shed at an area Home Depot, according to the Smoking Gun.
The twosome were nabbed just after 8:40 a.m. after calls went out to the cops “in reference to a male and female entering a display shed on the property, closing the door behind themselves and remaining inside,” as stated in the police report.
Police seem to have caught the duo in flagrante delicto, as they were “partially clothed” with the woman’s dress hanging at her waist and the man with his “pants down near his knees” and his naughty bits on display.
Using their cop-thinking hats, officials decided that “they were engaged in sexual intercourse within the shed.”
Both were arrested for disorderly conduct, and the man was also charged with indecent exposure for airing his genitalia to the world. Well yeah, once the shed door was opened. Before that it was just him, his lady friend and the shed’s four walls. So romantic.
Couple Arrested For Shacking Up At Home Depot [The Smoking Gun]
According to her family’s attorney, the bag broke, and one of the cans fell on her foot, breaking a toe and cutting her foot. The wound became infected, and her condition declined. Antibiotics and two surgeries couldn’t save her, and she died.
The problem isn’t just that the bag was defective, you see: Walmart is named in the suit because they were allegedly “negligent” in not training their employees how to bag properly. Had her purchases been double-bagged, after all, the can probably wouldn’t have fallen on her foot. If the purchases had been put in multiple bags, the defective bag might not have broken at all.
Plattsmouth man sues Wal-Mart, says overfilled plastic bag led to wife’s death [Lincoln Journal Star]
On Friday you’re sporting your Aaron Rodgers jersey and crowing about the many splendored glories of the Green Bay Packers. But on Monday, you’re warning coworkers not to even mention yesterday’s loss and drowning your sorrows in fast food and discreet bouts of weeping in the bathroom. Save the salads and quiet pride for the winners, it’s time to pile on the melted cheese until it covers your heart’s wounds and makes them whole again.
Does this sound familiar? Do you reach for the burger and fries after a disappointing weekend of football? Come here. Let’s all hug it out, because we’re not alone, says a very important, totally just-like-my-life study.
Researchers publishing a study in the journal Psychological Science (via WTOP.com) studied what people in 24 cities eat on a typical Monday and then compared it to Mondays after a football game, and found some pretty interesting stuff: In cities where the home team lost, there were a lot more people eating foods with saturated fats, with an increase of 16% on losing Mondays.
Winning cities didn’t need to eat their feelings on winning Mondays, it seems, as saturated fat consumption actually decreased by 9% from a normal Monday.
For cities without an NFL team or those that had a bye week, saturated fat and calorie intake just stayed the same for subjects. There doesn’t appear to be a part of the study that identifies far-flung fans cheering on their favorites miles from home, but anecdotally I can assure you I will murder a ginormous burger after the Packers lose (and refuse to speak to anyone, even to accept condolences).
Americans aren’t the only ones using food as coping mechanism — the researchers also checked in with subjects in France and asked them to write about their favorite soccer teams, and were given snacks afterward. People who bemoaned a loss in their scribblings usually chose candy and soda, while the high-flying fans relaying stories of big wins had a hankering for fruit.
Bottom line: Blame your team’s losing record on your expanding waist line.
*Thanks, Wayne!
Study: Losing sports teams make us reach for the saturated fats [WTOP.com]
