The new JCPenney sounds so appealing on paper. So far, though, the reaction among consumers to the newly made-over JCPenney is that there's not much need to show up at the stores at all.
At some level, all shoppers know that a game is being played in every aisle of every store. Original prices, weekly promotions, clearance racks, coupons, Black Friday, blue-light specials, flash sales, oddly specific prices ending in .99 or .97 — these are just a few of the strategies employed to entice shoppers into making a [...]
Every December, you vow it’s not going to happen and yet, without fail, you return home from your Christmas shopping with far more than you intended. Do you ever wonder why? The answer might surprise you, because you’ve probably been seduced by something you can neither see nor hear.
If you’re cranky, selfish, rude or all-around disagreeable, your grouchiness comes with one big silver lining: You’re likely to have better credit than people who are affable, friendly and otherwise pleasant company.
A new study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York took a sweeping, multi-year look at data about the debt Americans carry and how much we know about those debts. One strange finding: Single people are much better at estimating the amount they owe than people who share their household with a partner. [...]
Whether you understand what this means or not, it’s probably going to cost you.
Why do some people take their roles as consumers literally and consume and consume and consume—purchasing items they don’t need, splurging on silly gifts (for friends and themselves) without pausing to consider costs, hitting the mall whenever they’re feeling down or bored, and digging themselves huge amounts of credit card debt in the process?
