Consumerism

In December 2018, Google searches for the term “porch pirate” reached a peak. The phrase describes a particular kind of thief unique to modern living: someone who takes packages ordered online and left unattended at doorsteps. Since the pandemic, when a huge surge of Americans started buying much of their everyday goods and luxuries online, many more people have had at least one run-in with a porch pirate. A New York Times analysis of package theft in 2019 found that 1.7 million packages went missing every day in the…

Photo Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video From the first frame of Air, director Ben Affleck wants you to know, without a doubt, that you are about to be transported back to America in the 1980s. Within a brief montage – itself a prominent cinematic staple of the era – we are reminded what the land of opportunity looked like during peak consumerism. Cabbage Patch Kids, Mr. T and the A-Team, the Ghostbusters, Hulk Hogan, and Ronald “Trickle-Down Economics” Reagan. Rather than a delightful reminder of simpler times,…

Andresr | E+ | Getty ImagesYou may not be the only person eager for packages to arrive at your house.During the holidays, as the volume of home deliveries surges due to gift buying and giving, so does the chance that so-called porch pirates will grab parcels right off your front step, experts say.Over the last year, an estimated 260 million delivered packages were stolen, according to a report from SafeWise, an online guide to security and safety products. A year ago, the estimate was 210 million.More from Personal…

Jose Luis Pelaez Inc | DigitalVision | Getty ImagesThere's a decent chance you don't have a good handle on how much your subscriptions are really costing you.Consumers' offhand guess of how much they spend monthly on subscriptions averaged $86, according to a survey commissioned by market research firm C+R Research. Yet when asked about subscriptions in specific categories, the actual amount was $219 on average — $133 more than estimated."It's a slippery slope with subscriptions because it just happens automatically and…

According to Unilever, the industry standard for freezer temperatures in many markets stands at minus 18 degrees Celsius (around 0 degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature of freezers in the trials will be minus 12 degrees Celsius.Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesUnilever — which owns brands including Ben & Jerry's, Magnum and Wall's — is set to trial increasing the temperature of its ice cream freezers in a bid to lower energy use.The consumer goods giant said the move could cut energy use and greenhouse gas…