The Chronic Consumer

Ever wonder what the most popular products and features are among American consumers? Well, last week BusinessWeek published their “Popularity Index” for this year. It’s kind of interesting to see what other people are buying, and how my tastes differ from the prevailing trends.

Most Popular…

• Dog: Labrador
• Car color: White
• Cigarette: Marlboro
• Airport: Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson
• Cereal: Honey-Nut Cheerios
• Chips: Lay’s
• Peanut Butter: Jif
• Deodorant: Secret
• Lipstick: Revlon
• Sports car: Camaro
• Gum: Orbit
• iPhone App: Type n Talk

Central Coast Nutraceuticals, makers and purveyors of ACAI Pure, an acai berry supplement, have been told by the FTC to stop selling their products over the Internet. The injunction comes amid numerous complaints from consumers alleging deceptive billing practices. Apparently, the company allegedly offered a free trial in which consumers were asked to provide a credit or debit card number in order to pay a $1.99 shipping fee. But instead of just charging that amount, the company charged the price of a whole bottle of supplements, and also enrolled the unsuspecting consumer in an automatic renewal scheme. Moreover, when customers tried to get refunds, they were only given partial refunds most of the time.

All told, the company allegedly scammed some $30 million in this manner. Their assets are now frozen and have been handed over to a receiver.

Online shopping is a great convenience, and I love it, but scams like this are a good reminder to be very vigilant of the charges on your card.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but I actually am. Did you know that Oprah Winfrey has her own store? What is that woman NOT involved in??? I was looking for something totally unrelated a bit earlier, and came across The Oprah Store website. OK, I can understand a popular TV show selling branded goods on the ‘net. It happens all the time.

But in the About section, I learned that there is a real “bricks-and-mortar” flagship location in Chicago! The store is on Carpenter St. downtown (don’t know where that is), and occupies approximately 5,500 sq. ft.

What types of items does the Oprah Store sell? Souvenirs, apparel, baby goods, pet goods, home decor, and African crafts. Hmm, I like Oprah… maybe I’ll need to check the store out sometime!

If you’ve got an iPhone 4, then you have probably either experienced firsthand or heard about reception problems the device has when you hold it in a certain way. Disgruntled customers refer to this problem as the “iPhone 4 Death Grip”, which hasn’t gone over well with the folks at Apple. In fact, Steve Jobs continues to deny that there are any problems with the phone itself, instead blaming the brouhaha on an error in the algorithm that calculates signal strength. He insists that even if the bars drop during the “Death Grip”, the signal strength is still there.

Despite all that, Apple has decided to give away free iPhone 4 bumper cases to customers complaining about the Death Grip. Details on how to get a free case, which should eliminate the problem, are still pending, so stay tuned for more info.

We always hear about the most popular gaming titles for certain platforms, like how the Mario series is a big winner for Nintendo Wii. But what about the least popular games, the ones that really tank with the general public? Well, I just read that Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 is the least played game among Wii owners. According to the Nintendo Channel, gamers logged a scant 1 hour and 51 minutes playing this title before giving up on it.

I know Michaels is a trainer from the Biggest Loser television show, but I don’t know anything else about her or the game — except that I won’t be buying it anytime soon!

The whole LeBron James free agency hoopla has trickled down into the shopping world. After James’ announcement that he’s leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to join the Miami Heat, one of the Cleveland owners penned a scathing open letter to James, calling him a coward and traitor, among other things. The owner, who also has holdings in the Fathead company, is also behind today’s drastic price drop on LBJ Fatheads (which are essentially life-size stickers that you put on your wall). The Fatheads usually retail for around $100, but today the price was slashed to $17.41 — allegedly because that’s the year Benedict Arnold, the famous Revolutionary War traitor, was born. Ouch.

The Cavs are reacting worse than dieters finding out about the apidexin scam. I can understand that they’d be angry, but doing all these things in such a public way seems a bit wrong. Then again, one could always argue that LeBron started it by announcing his decision on public television without telling Cleveland owners first. Hmm, let’s just say both parties are acting like spoiled brats and leave it at that!

In case you haven’t heard yet, Kellogg has recalled four different varieties of cereals due to “unusual smell and flavor”. Apparently, about 20 consumers called to complain that their Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops, and Honey Smacks tasted waxy, metallic, or soapy. As a result, Kellogg has voluntarily recalled some 28 million boxes, though they insist that the chance of getting a serious illness from their products is minimal.

I haven’t eaten Kellogg cereal in years, so I guess I have nothing to worry about!

Have you heard about the massive Spaghetti-Os recall that is going on right now? Campbell Soup is recalling some 15 million pounds (or 35,000 cases) of their popular canned pasta. The affected products are the ones that include meatballs, as the meat might be undercooked after a cooker at one of the manufacturing plants malfunctioned. The thing is, the malfunction might have happened as far back as 2008, which means most of the meat it produced has already been consumed.

At any rate, if you still have a couple of cans left in your pantry, you might want to get rid of them just to be on the safe side. The lot number is “EST 4K”, and the use-by date will likely fall between June 2010 and December 2011.