Category Archives: Consumerism

Prince George’s Swaddling Latest “Must Have” Item

Consumerism, , , ,
Prince George in Royal Swaddle

Only a few days old and the public already want to know: “What is little Prince George wearing and where can I get one?”

It turns out that baby George was wrapped in a baby blanket from the New York based company known as aden + anais when he was carried from the hospital to the car for his first royal ride.

When the photo of the prince in his swaddling hit the media the website of aden + anais crashed due to over-visiting. On the following day the site crashed again. By the ninth day after the photo appeared sales for that item had skyrocketed by 600 percent, to an amazing 7,000 orders.

The company says no press release was issued. Customers got to their web site just by Googling “royal swaddle.”

The chief executive of aden + anais, Raegan Moya-Jones was about to begin a meeting when a colleague showed her the picture of the prince in his blanket.

Moya-Jones gazed at the photo in disbelief. “I thought it was photo-shopped,” she said.

The company is still struggling to fill orders for the product, which is part of a set of four swaddles called the Jungle Jam pack. In Britain the set sells for 44.95 pounds ($68).

The average daily visits to the company’s web site were phenomenal.  In Britain there was an increase of 1,960 percent; in Australia visits climbed 892 percent; Japan saw a 791 percent increase in site visits and in the US people visited 458 percent more.

Anyone who was not in the first or second wave of swaddle purchases must now wait it out as Jungle Jam is sold out for the time being in Britain and the US. Desperate shoppers might still be able to get the set from the Australian branch of the site if they waste no time. All others will simply have to wait until the factory in China produces the 10,000 swaddles which were just ordered.

traducción español

New Sunscreen Labels Help Consumers Get Better Protection

Consumerism, , , , ,
Sunscreen Labels are More User Friendly Thanks to New FDA Regulations
Sunscreen Labels are More User Friendly Thanks to New FDA Regulations

The consumer protection watchdog organization Environmental Working Group is by and large satisfied that most sunscreen products do meet new federal labeling standards which were put in place last December.

The new rules established by the Food and Drug Administration require that sunscreens filter out both UVA and UVB rays. Previously many of the sunscreen products only filtered the sun-burning UVB rays, while not providing sufficient protection against the cancer and wrinkle-causing UVA rays.

Sunscreens must refrain from claiming that their products are “waterproof,” which FDA officials say is misleading. Not dealt with, however, by the new rules, is the misleading labeling of sun protection factors (SPF) above 50, which for a long time now have been seen by experts a problematic use of a numerical system to rate sunscreen products.

“The high SPF numbers are just a gimmick,” says Marianne Berwick, professor of epidemiology at the University of New Mexico. “Most people really don’t need more than an SPF 30 and they should reapply it every couple of hours.”

Berwick says sunscreen should be used in combination with hats, clothing and shade, which provide better protection against ultraviolet radiation.

“The challenge is that beyond 50 the increase in UV protection is relatively small,” says Dr. Henry Lim, chair of dermatology at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

In 2011 the FDA itself stated: “Labeling a product with a specific SPF value higher than 50 would be misleading to the consumer.” That year the FDA suggested a limit on SPF values at 50 since “there is not sufficient data to show that products with SPF values higher than 50 provide greater protection for users.”

Companies that produce sunscreens, such as Johnson & Johnson say that there are measurable benefits provided by sunscreen products with higher ratings than 50. Due to the objections of the sunscreen product manufacturers the FDA is continuing to review the studies and other opinions about placing a cap on SPF ratings.

Ford Focus World’s Most Popular Car

Consumerism, , , ,

Due to increased demand in China and the United States, the Ford Focus, achieved the

World's Most Popular Car
World’s Most Popular Car

distinction of being the best-selling passenger car in the world in 2012.

The data for this claim was supplied by the consulting firm Polk, which said that the Ford Motor Company sold a bit over one million units of this popular compact car last year, throughout the world.

The largest impact on sales was made by China, where about 25 percent of the sales took place. Polk also noted that registrations increased by an astounding 51 percent in China, a large number in what is already the world’s largest automobile market. Ford only started marketing their vehicles in China in March last year.

In the United States sales of the Focus were also substantially up, by 40 percent in 2012. Ford pick-up trucks are also a popular Ford product in the US.

The increase in annual sales since 2009 has been in the double digits for the automobile industry as a whole. In 2009 car sales hit its lowest rate since World War II, adjusted for population.

Merchants Can Now Add Surcharge to Credit Card Purchases in Forty States

Consumerism, News, , ,
Surcharge Instituted on Credit Card Purchases

As of January 27 retailers in 40 states in America will be permitted to add a 4 percent surcharge, or “checkout fee” to their bill if their customer chooses to pay with a credit card. The charge can be added to both goods and services charged to a credit card, but not to a debit card. This practice is still illegal in California, Texas, New York and seven other states.

Each business is allowed to make its own decision about whether or not to charge this fee, but if they do they are obliged to inform their customers.

The surcharge was instituted as a result of the largest anti-trust settlement in US history. In 2005 merchants joined together to sue the big credit card companies, including Mastercard, Visa, JP Morgan Chase and eight other companies, claiming that they conspired to fix the fees that stores must pay the credit card companies to accept credit purchases.

Negotiations to settle the case took years while the lawsuit was in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Finally a settlement was reached in which the banks agreed to pay $6 billion to the suing merchants.

Part of the settlement included the provision to allow merchants to charge their customers a fee equal to the cost of accepting the credit card, typically between 1.5 percent and 3 percent of the purchase price.

Consumers can avoid the surcharge by using a debit card or cash to make a purchase. To avoid the surcharge on-line purchases can be done through PayPal or other electronic payment options.

Sony Sales Up After Chinese-Japanese Dispute Recedes Into Past

Companies, Consumerism, Japan, , , ,
Nobuki Kurita

According to Sony Corp’s China head Nobuki Kurita, the giant consumer electronic company’s business in China is “more or less” back to normal levels after recent protests in China against Japan’s actions related to a group of disputed islands.

Last September saw a significant decrease in sales of Sony products in China as calls for a boycott of Sony reverberated in response to the nationalization of two islands in a group of islands under dispute in the East China Sea. In China these islands are called Diaoyu, and in Japan they are referred to as the Senkaku Islands. Japan nationalized these islands after they were purchased from private owners.

Because of the dispute relations between China and Japan were highly strained, adversely affecting sales of Japanese products in China. Kurita however believes that Japanese business in China should completely recover, showing a strong surge in the coming three years.

“My general impression is business conditions have more or less returned to the pre-crisis environment,” he told a media briefing at a Sony store in eastern Beijing.