EU-DIGEST

Labels: Advertising, consumers, EU, EU-Digest

Labels: Advertising, consumers, EU, EU-Digest

Labels: consumers

A third of U.S. adults said they would spend less this year than they did in 2008 on gifts, while 49 percent would spend about the same amount, according to a Consumer Reports poll on holiday shopping. Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of respondents said they were planning to "cut back" on total holiday expenses, which include travel plans, presents and holiday decorations. More Americans are also "regifting," or passing on a gift they got to someone else - 36 percent of adults this year say they've done so, compared with 31 percent last year and 24 percent in 2007. The survey polled 1,000 U.S. adults from Oct. 15-18.

It its worth noting, though, that Americans who plan to spend less doesn't always do so. The survey found that of those Americans who made a budget for last year's holiday gift buying, 44 percent spent more than they had intended. The poll also said 6 percent of adults still carry holiday debt from last year, unchanged from last year. If extrapolated to the broader population of the country, that implies 13.5 million consumers are still carrying debt from last year's holidays.

Labels: Christmas, consumers

"Junk food is killing us slowly and the food industry is the pusher" - by Arun Gupta

"For years I wondered why I craved Doritos. I knew the Nacho Cheese powder, which coats your fingers in day-glo orange deliciousness, was one component, as were the fatty, salty chips that crackle and melt into a pleasing mass as you crunch them. I figured there was a dollop of nostalgia in the mix, but an ingredient was still missing in my understanding. Then I read a spate of articles about "umami," designated the fifth taste, along with sweet, sour, salty, and bitter, means "deliciousness" in Japanese and is described as "a meaty, savory, satisfying taste." Behind the enigma of the lure of junk food to even the most refined palettes in the world, are the wonders of food science. That science, in the service of industrial capitalism, has hooked on us a food system that is destroying our health with obesity-related diseases. And that food system is based on a system of factory farming at one end, which churns out cheap, taxpayer-subsidized commodities like corn, vegetable oil and sweeteners, and the giant food processors at the other, like Frito-Lay, that take these commodities and concoct them into endless forms of addictive junk foods.

By the mid-1990s, according to rural sociologist Philip McMichael, 80 percent of farm subsidies in Western countries went to "the largest 20 percent of (corporate) farms, rendering small farmers increasingly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of a deregulated (and increasingly privately managed) global market for agricultural products."

Labels: consumers, Food Industry, Junk Food

World Economy - More US consumer worries as Germany boosts hopes

Talk of another US stimulus plan and data showing American consumers falling behind on their bills underscored worries about the global economy on Tuesday, overshadowing an upturn in German manufacturing orders that provided a glimmer of hope. Soaring US unemployment and a shrinking economy drove delinquencies on credit-card debt and home equity loans to all-time highs in the first quarter, the American Bankers Association said.

Data showed orders in Germany, Europe's largest economy, rose at the strongest monthly pace in nearly two years in May, but economists said the yearly comparison would remain weak for some time yet.

Labels: consumers, US, World Economy

US Credit Crises - NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo takes action on protecting the consumer against collection agencies

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Wednesday announced that his office had closed a collection agency in the state and said that nearly 20 other accounts receivable management firms had been subpoenaed to provide additional information about their collection practices. The announcements were part of what Cuomo called a “statewide inquiry into debt collection companies.” Cuomo’s office said in a press release that it had obtained a court order against Lamont Cooper and two debt collection firms he owns that operated in the state: Emanee Development, Inc. and Dial Tech LLC. The order stipulates that the companies will shut down and Cooper will be forced to pay restitution to consumers statewide. Cooper and his companies are permanently barred from engaging in the debt collection business and acting as brokers that buy and resell portfolios of consumer debt. The attorney general alleged that Cooper’s companies told debtors that they were criminals, threatened lawsuits and arrest, engaged in third party disclosure, and other violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). “At a time when New York families are already struggling with unprecedented levels of debt, unscrupulous collection agencies add salt to an open wound,” said Attorney General Cuomo in a press release. “Using fear and intimidation to take advantage of individuals facing debt is a shameful and illegal scare tactic. This judgment is the first step in this Office’s expanding investigation into debt collectors that violate the rights of consumers and operate outside of the law.” Cuomo also said that he has subpoenaed nearly 20 companies and law firms operating as debt collectors throughout the state.

Cuomo said that the probe of debt collection practices will include activities that are illegal under state and federal law, including fraudulent threats of criminal prosecution, harassing phone calls to consumers and their families, friends and employers, bringing lawsuits against and/or reporting consumers to credit reporting agencies without verifying that the consumer being targeted actually owes the debt, and failing to disclose that a caller is working for a debt collector.

Labels: consumers, Credit Card Debt, Debt Collectors, US Credit Crises

"US Consumer - still living in a dream world" - Lower gas prices send buyers after big cars again - by Chris Woodyard

Gyrating gas prices are playing havoc on auto industry planners, who've been adding small cars to their lineups, even as customers are showing more interest again in bigger vehicles. New Chrysler small cars expected from a deal with Italy's Fiat hatched last week won't arrive for up to two years, says Chrysler President Jim Press, but even if they were showing up now, it wouldn't matter much. Press says the company's full-size Dodge Durango SUV is in the shortest supply among all the vehicles sold by Chrysler. Yet the automaker decided last year when gas prices were high to phase out the product out of fear buyers would shun it. The turnabout "shows the fickleness of the market," says Press, speaking after a J.D. Power and Associates conference here for auto dealers.

Note EU-Digest: The above report also shows that most US consumers are still living in a dream world.

Labels: Car Industry, consumers, US Economy

The economic Meltdown: Consumers close their wallets - by Ron Scherer

Retail sales plunge a record 2.8 percent in October, suggesting a dismal outlook for holiday spending.

With only a few weeks to go before the holiday season officially kicks off, retailers are saying this is the worst consumer environment since World War II. Big box retailers are fighting for survival, department stores are preparing massive promotions, and some stores are asking manufacturers to take back their products even before Thanksgiving. An unenthusiastic consumer has wide ramifications for the US economy because 70 percent of the nation's production of goods and services is oriented toward consumption. Economists are lowering their estimates for economic growth for this year, expecting a sharp contraction of at least 3 percent in the fourth quarter. By early December, some observers think the Federal Reserve will be forced to lower interest rates to below 1 percent for the first time since the Eisenhower administration. "Horrific is the best word to describe what's going on out there," says Fred Dickson, chief investment strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Ore.

Who can blame consumers for putting on their slippers and watching football games? The volatile stock market seems to have a black cloud over it. Home prices have yet to bottom out. Pink slips are proliferating. And, the credit card companies want payment even while the ink dries on your statement.

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Labels: consumers, economic meltdown, Retail Market

Consumers at the heart of EU Competition Policy

Defending consumers' interests is at the heart of the Commission's competition policy. In concrete terms: competition gives citizens better goods and services, and ensures businesses have more opportunities to sell them. In the last year there have been some good examples – from Microsoft's dramatically reduced royalty rates, to wins for Telefonica and Mastercard customers. In fact, we calculate that the direct future customer savings resulting from our cartel, antitrust, liberalisation and merger cases in 2007 alone, is at least 13.8 billion euros. About 30 euros in the pocket for each of Europe's 500 million citizens. And then there are obvious deterrent effects we cannot put a price on. Another thing we can't yet put a price on is justice.

Labels: consumers, EU