Current Events in December 2013

Americans brought home less money during October, but that didn't seem to have much impact on their spending habits.

The government reports personal income dipped 0.1% after posting an increase of 0.5% percent in September. The largest component -- wages and salaries -- was up 0.1% on top of a 0.4% gain. Proprietors’ income, on the other hand, fell 1.4% in October due to a decline in farm proprietors’ income after farmers received a one-time payment in September for a settlement of a lawsuit against the Department of Agriculture.

Current-dollar disposable personal income (DPI) -- after-tax income -- decreased 0.2% after increasing 0.5% in September. Real DPI, which is income adjusted for taxes and inflation, was down 0.2% in October, giving back some of September's o,4% gain.

Spending on the rise

Real consumer spending -- spending adjusted for price changes -- increased 0.3% in October after inching up just 0.1% a month earlier. Spending on durable goods rose after falling in September.

The spending increase coupled with the decline in incomes pushed the personal saving rate as a percent of DPI down to 4.8% in October from 5.2% in September -- the lowest level since July.  

The complete report on income and spending for October can be found on the Commerce Department website,

Chrysler Group is recalling 374 model year 2013 Dodge Dart vehicles manufactured May 10, 2013, through August 24, 2013 and equipped with the Mopar 13 trim package.

In the affected vehicles, the front seat mounted side airbags (SAB) may not have been properly installed into the seat. In the event of a crash, the SABs may fail to deploy as intended, increasing the risk of injury.

Chrysler will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the SAB installation and re-install them as necessary, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in December 2013.

Owners may contact Chrysler at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler's recall campaign number is N61.

If ever you’ve made a search on Google you’re familiar with the auto-suggest function: you start typing, and Google starts generating automatic guesses of what it thinks you’re looking for. When we tried searching for the phrase “while black” (without quotation marks), the first three auto-suggestions we got were “driving while black,” “shopping while black” and “walking while black.”

In modern American colloquial speech, the phrase “[doing something] while black” refers to the commonly reported phenomenon of innocent, law-abiding people harassed by police or other authority figures who suspect them of wrongdoing — presumably for no other reason than “they’re not white.”

One of the most notorious recent cases of “shopping while black” happened in October, when a college student named Trayon Christian went to luxury clothier Barneys New York to buy a designer belt with money he’d saved from his part-time work-study job. But after he bought the belt and left the store, Christian was arrested and detained on suspicion of stealing his own debit card, which he’d used to buy the belt.

Unfortunately, harboring suspicion toward those who engage in “shopping while black” isn’t exclusive to Barneys, or to New York City; if it were, it wouldn’t be common enough for Google to auto-suggest it. To offer just one additional example: since the start of the holiday shopping season in November, we’ve received multiple complaints from shoppers all over America, who claim that security personnel at Burlington Coat Factory stores singled them out for extra suspicion, solely because they were black.

Worst experience ever

Temisha in Virginia wrote on Nov. 23 to tell us of an experience she had in the Richmond store: “I frequent this store when I'm in the area, and I usually have an ok experience. Today, I went in looking for a winter coat for myself and baby clothes for my new godson and had the worst experience ever. I was profiled for whatever reason, maybe because I had on my work clothes which consist of stretch pants and a tee shirt because I do a very physical job, but more than likely because I'm a minority. I was followed around the store the entire time I was there by the Loss Prevention guy…. walked past me at the very least 25 times and never spoke or tried to acknowledge my presence although it was very obvious he was observing me the whole time….”

This continued for awhile, then a second loss prevention guy started giving Temisha the eye.  “Now there are two men following me around the store. I try to make the best of what's been a very unpleasant shopping experience by getting what I wanted to purchase and heading to the register to pay. . I finish up my purchase and head for the door. While exiting the store, I notice the original LP posted up on the wall outside the building as if he was waiting for the call to say, "We got one!" … Never in my life have I felt so uncomfortable, disrespected, or been made to FEEL like a criminal while trying to innocently shop in a store.”

Only two days before Temisha wrote us, we got a similar-sounding story from R, in Ohio, who said “I’ve been shopping at Burlington for over 10 years now and the treatment that my family and I received this past weekend is unacceptable. … I went in to buy coats for my 3 kids. My husband and my 8 year old son went to looks at boy coats, while me my 7 year old daughter and my 11 month old baby were looking in the girls dept.

“I swear to goodness the manager whom I’ve never seen him there before, he REALLY ran down the aisle to look at my son and husband. I stood there to see what he was doing, so he act like he was doing something anyway as my husband came over to where we were. Yes, look who showed up, ha! The manager again! … And while he was watching us, I noticed 3 white girls stealing over in the next area. …. I’m NEVER EVER going back to Burlington again and neither is anyone else I know."

Busted at Barneys

Back in September – only a couple weeks before the world learned Trayon Christian was arrested for making a legal purchase with his legally acquired debit card at Barneys New York – Grace in Bethel Park, Penn., wrote us with an eerily similar-sounding story: on Sept. 13, she said, she went to Burlington to return a previous purchase and make a new one.

“After I made payment with my debit card, which was approved, [the cashier] took the phone and started calling the number at the back of my debit card. I asked what she was doing. She told me that she had to call and check with my credit people, which I did not understand her well since my card was debit and from a local bank . I told her that my card is not a credit card but a debit card and she does not have to call anybody for them to approve it. She still continued calling and ignored me. I was not happy with her. I politely asked her to cancel all my transactions. … I was looking at what the other cashiers were doing with other customers. They did not to check or make phone calls regarding their cards and they were served promptly.”

If people wrote us with the problem “How can I prevent scammers from using my debit card?” we could offer all sorts of useful advice. But when the problem is “How can I avoid suspicion of being a scammer while using my own valid debit card,” well, we really don’t know.

We wrote Burlington, sent them some of these complaints and asked for clarification regarding their loss-prevention policies. We even held this story for a couple of days, to give Burlington time to respond. If they ever do, we’ll definitely let you know about it.

This holiday shopping season there have been some eye-popping bargains so far. But mixed in with all these great deals are some not-so-great offers. Yes, the price is rock bottom but the merchandise is a knock-off, a counterfeit version of the brand you think you are getting.

“Almost everyone wants a good deal and wants to save money, but buying counterfeit poses serious health and safety risks, not to mention loss of revenue to businesses,” said Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. “As parents, we need to set the example for our children and explain to them the consequences of buying counterfeit products.”

Safety is an important issue. Counterfeit goods haven't undergone safety inspections like the real version of the product. They could pose a danger to the recipients.

Not a victimless crime

Once viewed as “victimless crimes,” counterfeiting and piracy have become big business in recent years. Since the early 1990s, the U.S. Department of Commerce reports trade in counterfeits has grown at eight times the rate of legitimate trade. Seizures of counterfeit goods by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol rose 125% during the past five years and are up 80% from 2005 to 2006 alone.

How can you tell if that bargain you are considering is the real thing or just a cheap knock-off? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce offers this advice:

Look closely at labels, packaging and contents

This might be your best way of spotting a fake. Look for missing or expired “use by” dates, broken or missing safety seals, missing warranty information, or otherwise unusual packaging.

Consider the source

If you are buying from a reputable, well-known store or website, chances are you are dealing with the real thing. Buying from a street vendor or a website you've never heard of could increase your chances of ending up with a counterfeit article.

Watch for missing sales tax charges

No one likes to pay sales tax but if you aren't charged, that's a red flag. Businesses selling counterfeit goods usually don't report their sales to financial authorities—a difference you may notice in the price you ultimately pay, especially in states that collect sales taxes.

How secure is your transaction?

Operations moving counterfeit goods aren't likely to invest in elaborate security systems to protect your financial information. Walk away if you are uncomfortable with the security of the transaction. When doing business online, make sure your payments are submitted via websites beginning with https:// and look for a lock symbol at the bottom of your browser. If you are making an in-person purchase, check to make sure your credit card information does not appear on copies that can fall into the wrong hands.

Here are some other signs you aren't dealing with the real thing:

• The product priced substantially below retail
• The product appears to be of poor quality
• The packaging is torn or otherwise suspicious
• The seller accept payments in cash only
• The logos don't look quite right or are in the wrong place
• There is no licensing, copyright or trademark information on the packaging

Most common counterfeits

Almost any product can be counterfeited but there are certain items that get copied more than others. Toys and electronic games are a common counterfeit product because they are so easy to fake. Jewelry is another common con – beware the Rolex watch for $50. Music CDs and movies are also easily copied and sold as the real thing. Jerseys of professional sports franchises are easily copied too.

“We must recognize counterfeits for what they are,” Hood said. “They are a serious danger to our personal, financial and societal well-being.”

A new homeowner has the legal right to use the name of his home’s construction company to publicize his website criticizing the company, Public Citizen argued this week in a case before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

Defendant Andrew Smith is one of a group of people living in the Willowbrook subdivision of Lakewood Ranch, Fla., who are dissatisfied with what they say is shoddy construction of their new homes and are calling on the construction company KB Home to take responsibility for its mistakes and buy back the homes. Smith created a non-commercial website at thekbhome.com to express his opinions and campaign for a buyback program.

In August, inspectors from the Manatee County, Fla., Building and Development Department inspected 27 homes in the Willowbrook development and found 20 of them to be "unsafe."

KB Home, one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., has offered repairs but residents have refused. They are demanding that KB Home buy back the houses. Homeowners in the Willowbrook development have complained for years about what they say are  substandard materials and shoddy workmanship, particularly in the stucco, but say they have gotten nowhere.

"Our community of Willowbrook has been plagued with water intrusion issues and more," Andy, a Willowbrook resident, wrote in a post on ConsumerAffairs. Andy and other residents complain that water continuously leaks into their homes, damaging strucco, rotting wood and forming mold.

KB fights back

On Oct. 15, KB Home filed a lawsuit against Smith, claiming that his domain name counts as prohibited cybersquatting rather than protected non-commercial speech. As Public Citizen’s memorandum explains, Smith’s site is protected for several reasons, including:

- Decisions of several federal courts have held that non-commercial commentary sites about a trademark holder may use the trademark holder’s name as their domain name without violating either the Lanham Act or the Anticyberquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). The First Amendment also protects such speech.

- The fact that the objective of the expression on his website and in his domain name is to achieve a change that would benefit him personally, along with others in his community, is no reason to deny him constitutional or statutory protection.

Additionally, Public Citizen explains, KB Home is attempting to prejudice the court by associating Smith with a separate group of Willowbrook homeowners, who allegedly hacked into the wi-fi hotspot of a company doing repairs at Willowbrook and downloaded the company’s emails. But simple allegations of conspiracy are insufficient, the organization argued.

Not official

Upon visiting Smith’s site, one quickly sees a banner reading “Consumer Advocacy & Protection” and “Attention: This is not an official KB Home website!,” the latter in all capital letters.

“Andy Smith has used KB Home’s name to identify a website about how badly this developer is abusing its customers and to try to persuade the developer to buy back the lemons that it sold,” said Paul Alan Levy, an attorney with Public Citizen who is representing Smith. “The price of public spirited free speech should not be having to defend against frivolous trademark claims.”

While kids still want classic toys like LEGO and Barbie for Christmas, so-called “nontraditional” items are finding their way onto wish lists this year.

According to the National Retail Federation's (NRF) 2013 Top Toys survey, iPads are among the most popular gifts for both girls and boys -- with demand among young girls being slightly higher (girls #4, boys #13).

“Although consumers may spend slightly less on holiday gifts this year, parents will still find a way to check off items from their child’s wish list,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “Early promotions and attractive holiday deals will put parents in a position to find their children the perfect gifts while still maintaining their budgets.”

What do they want?

According to NRF’s 2013 holiday consumer survey, 44.3% plan to buy toys as gifts this holiday season. Children are still asking for timeless items like Barbie and dolls (girls #1and #2 respectively) or LEGO and toy cars (boys #1 and #3 respectively).

And the younger generation is clearly more technologically savvy than ever, asking this year for tablets/iPads, smartphones (girls #11) and game consoles like Xbox One (boys #5) and PlayStation 4 (girls #10, boys #6).

Other popular toys for girls include Monster High Dolls (#3), Disney Princess (#4) and American Girl (#5). The hot new item for boys this year is Skylanders (#7), a hugely popular interactive video game that allows kids to play with a toy action figure at the same time.

“Timeless, classic toys will always resonate with children, but tablets and smartphones continue to steal more attention from today’s kids,” said Pam Goodfellow, consumer insights director for Prosper Insights and Analytics, which conducted the survey. She says that leaves mom and dad with no option but to look for ways to get their children their own items -- “and leave theirs alone.”

2013 Top Toys for Boys

1. LEGO

2. Video Games

3. Cars & Trucks (generic)

4. Hot Wheels

5. Xbox One

6. PlayStation 4

7. Skylanders

8. Remote Controlled Vehicles

9. Action Figures

10. Bicycle (T)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (T)

2013 Top Toys for Girls

1. Barbie

2. Dolls (generic)

3. Monster High Dolls

4. Disney Princesses (T)

Tablet/Apple iPad (T)

5. American Girl (T)

Lalaloopsy (T)

6. Furby

7. LEGO/LEGO Friends

8. Elmo/Big Hugs Elmo

9. Hello Kitty

10. My Little Pony (T)

PlayStation 4 (T)

It's getting to the point that if you are one of those rare consumers who doesn't use the Internet you are finding it more and more difficult to function in modern life.

Take banking, for instance. In the past you made regular trips to your nearest branch to make deposits and cash checks. You spent a lot of time at the end of the month writing checks to pay bills.

Now, you don't have to. Banking is easily done from your computer or mobile device and research suggests more of us are taking advantage of it. Ally Bank, an online institution, recently conducted a survey that found 24% of consumers now bank primarily online. The increase includes all age groups and shows a significant rise since 2010.

"Our survey data indicates a shift over the last several years, as more consumers look online to manage their finances," said Diane Morais, Ally Bank deposits and line of business executive. "Banking with a direct bank offers the same, if not more, opportunities and advantages as traditional banks with physical branches, and consumers appear to be gravitating toward this approach."

Banks encourage it

Make no mistake, banks – even those with huge investments in brick and mortar branches – would prefer that you do your banking online. Most banks offer incentives to you to do so, often waiving or reducing checking account fees if you use direct deposit and pay at least a few bills online each month.

As you might expect, younger consumers have embraced online banking with the most enthusiasm. The survey found that only 31% of consumers age 18-34 said visiting a bank branch is their primary method of banking. Among Millennials, 62% use either an ATM, visit the bank online using a computer or tablet, or use mobile banking either on a cell or smartphone.

That's a big change in just one year. In 2012 the bank's survey found that 46% of Millennials were visiting bank branches for customer service issues. That figure is down to 39 percent this year.

To resolve an issue Millennials said they either call the bank's customer service department by phone, utilize a live chat with a customer service representative, use email or utilize social media channels.

Mobile banking concerns

Banks are encouraging their customers to utilize online banking because it reduces their costs. But to make the practice universal may require a bit more persuasion, especially when it comes to mobile banking.

A study by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, companies involved in cyber security, found about one third of users expressed concerns about the safety of conducting financial transactions using mobile devices. By the same token, only 22% said they had no concerns about moving money around with a smartphone or tablet.

Are these concerns justified? To some extent they may be. A mobile device can be easily lost or stolen and, if the user hasn't used password protection, whoever has the phone may be able to access your account. Even if the phone has some security protection, a skillful hacker may still be able to break in.

Public wi-fi no place to do business

Connecting your phone or tablet using a public wi-fi can be very dangerous if you are making a financial transaction. User names and passwords can be stolen and used to obtain access to online bank accounts.

Mobile apps sometimes are contaminated with viruses and malware. Downloading them may then give a hacker access to the device.

“Mobile banking is incredibly convenient, but customers need to remember that any device used to connect to the Internet is vulnerable,” said Frank Keating, President and CEO of the American Bankers Association (ABA). “Customers play an important role in the work that banks do to protect data.”

A recent ABA survey shows eight percent of consumers now prefer to do their banking using their mobile device. That may sound like a small number but it's a 30% increase in one year.

It makes security precautions all the more important – except for those consumers who still aren't using the Internet.

There’s a common saying about social media and other Internet companies: “If you’re not paying them anything, you’re not their customer; you’re what they’re selling.”

So if you use web-based email or Facebook or Google or other free sites — you pay nothing to use them, so how do these companies make money?  Through advertising, of course, and media companies that sell advertising space are basically selling an audience of potential buyers.

With that in mind, check out a complaint filed with the FTC by Consumer Watchdog, a California non-profit organization, complaining about what it says is deception in Google Shopping results.

Unfair and deceptive

“The way that the Internet giant is featuring results from Google Shopping without making it clear that the highlighted results are nothing more than advertisements for merchants who bid for placement is an unfair and deceptive act, violating Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act," said John Simpson, CW’s Privacy Project Director. "Moreover, consumers are actually being harmed because the featured results from Google Shopping more often than not return higher prices than can be found elsewhere, when consumers would reasonably expect Google’s suggestions to be the best.”

Hmm. Reading that made us recall a story we published last month about rent-to-own or lease-to-buy stores;  the gist of the piece is that you should avoid such businesses, because they sell furniture and appliances for much higher prices than ordinary retail stores. To demonstrate, we chose certain items and did price comparisons between the rental centers and various retail outlets, and said this: “We searched online for that make and model of television, and one of the first websites that came up is Kohl’s (which is not remotely the cheapest store we could find).”

We used Google to do that search, so we can say from our own experience: if you use Google to look for a smart TV, the first results will not offer the lowest prices.

However, Consumer Watchdog’s complaint is not based on any idea that Google is somehow obligated to prioritize its search results based on price. Instead, CW said this:

“Google’s presentation of the Google Shopping results disguises the fact that the results are in fact advertisements. Clicking on any one of the Google Shopping suggestions takes the user directly to the merchant’s page where the product can be purchased … Each suggestion is nothing more than an advertisement, however, there is no label that makes this clear.  The omission of an ad label is even more egregious when the Google Shopping results are presented surrounded by results that are marked as ads. Thus, the consumer can only conclude that the Google Shopping results are suggestions, not advertisements.”

A similar analysis from the Financial Times showed that “five out of every six items highlighted on a Google search are more expensive than the same items from other merchants hidden deeper in the Google Shopping service.”

Think of these results as yet another reminder why savvy consumers should never assume the first price they see is the best one.

The U.S economy, as measured by real gross domestic product (GDP), was doing a lot better in the third quarter of the year than we thought.

The "second" estimate released by the Commerce Department shows GDP -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S. -- increased at an annual rate of 3.6% in the July-September period. The first reading put the growth rate at 2.8%. The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5% in the second quarter.

This latest estimate is based on more complete source data than were available for the "advance" estimate issued last month. Specifically, the increase in private inventory investment was larger than previously estimated.

Consumers lend a hand

The increase reflects positive contributions from private inventory investment, personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, nonresidential fixed investment, residential fixed investment, and state and local government spending that were partly offset by a decline in federal government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The acceleration is the result of stronger private inventory investment, a deceleration in imports, and a pick-up in state and local government spending that were partly offset by decelerations in exports, in PCE, and in nonresidential fixed investment.

The complete GDP report is available on the Bureau of Economic Analysis website.

Job cuts were virtually unchanged in November, but that doesn't mean there were no pink slips.

According to the latest report on monthly job cuts released by outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, U.S.-based employers announced plans to reduce their payrolls by 45,314 workers -- a decline of just 0.9% from the 45,730 planned job cuts announced in October.

Last month's job-cut total was 21% lower than the same month a year ago, when planned layoffs totaled 57,081, and marks the second consecutive month that job cuts came in below the year-ago figure. The October total was down 4.2% from October 2012.

Down for the year

So far in 2013, employers have announced 478,428 job cuts -- 2.5% fewer than the 490,806 cuts announced through eleven months of 2012. If they announce more than 44,934 planned layoffs in December, the 12-month total will surpass last year's of 523,362.

There is a strong possibility that 2013 job cuts will exceed last year’s total, considering that job cuts -- while averaging 43,493 per month year-to-date -- have averaged 45,449 over the last four months. However, December has experienced relatively low job-cut totals since the end of the recession, averaging 37,860 since 2009.

Retail hardest hit

The retail industry saw the heaviest job cutting in November, with 9,998 announced terminations. While the spike in retail cuts heading into the holiday sales season might be cause for alarm, the majority of the planned cuts were related to the closure of remaining Blockbuster video rental stores, as well as the sell-off and closure of a grocery store chain in Chicago.

Safeway Inc. plans to close all of its Dominick’s grocery stores in the Chicago, shedding 5,633 workers from its payroll. “However, there is a good chance that many of these workers will be re-hired by the several grocery-store operators that have agreed to purchase and take over many of the Dominick’s locations,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “The key to successfully retaining their positions is to fully embrace the new owner’s way of doing business. There can be no, ‘This-is-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it’ mentality'.”

Impact of federal budget cuts

Meanwhile, the potential for job cuts at the nation’s aerospace and defense firms has been on the rise since federal budget cuts and sequestration measures were enacted to rein in budget deficits. In November, the sector announced 4,174 reductions, the third largest sector-total for the month. The majority were the result of job cuts planned by Lockheed Martin, where plant closures are expected to result in 4,000 job losses. The cuts were attributed directly to federal spending cutbacks. It was the largest job cut of the year attributed to federal spending cuts or sequestration.

To date, aerospace and defense firms have announced 33,850 job cuts and are on pace to turn in the heaviest 12-month total since 2009, when they reached 52,271. The year-to-date total for the sector ranks fifth among all industries for the year.

The financial sector has seen the largest number of job cuts through November, with employers announcing 59,189 reductions so far this year -- including 1,598 in November. The year-to-date total has nearly doubled (99.6%) from a year ago, when these employers announced 29,653 job cuts from January through November.

“Many of the recent cuts have been concentrated in the mortgage lending business, as banks shed many of the extra workers added to handle the flood of foreclosures and loan refinancing in the wake of the recession,” noted Challenger. “Recent increases in lending rates and home prices are also lowering demand for new mortgages, thus further reducing the need for additional workers.”

Initial claims

In related employment news, first-time applications for jobless benefits were down by 23,000 in the week ended November 30, to a seasonally adjusted 298,000. That brought the initial claims level to its lowest point since early September when the Labor Day holiday and computer glitches from California biased the data.

Analysts at Briefing.com say the current initial claims level also was biased by poor seasonal adjustments data from the Thanksgiving holiday and that, in all likelihood, this latest decline was not the result of an improvement in labor market conditions.

In fact, the Labor Department said adjustment problems have produced unreliable data for each of the past three weeks. Once the biases are removed, the Briefing analysts say, the initial claims level is expected to return to its previous trend of around 330,000 claims per week.

The 4-week moving average, which is considered a more accurate gauge of the labor market because it lacks the volatility of the weekly number, was down 10,750 -- to 322,250.

The full report can be found on the Labor Department website.

Manhattan Group of Minneapolis, Minn., is recalling about 12,400 Manhattan Toy Quixel baby rattles in the U.S. and Canada.

The colored arches can break, creating a small part which poses a choking hazard to small children. The company has received four reports of the rattles breaking. No injuries have been reported.

This recall includes the Manhattan Toy Quixel baby rattles, which have four, colored arches (red, orange, green and blue) with sliding beads on each of the arches. The arches are held together by a single string of red, white and blue elastic. The rattle arches measure about 5 inches in diameter. The product was sold with or without a box. “Manhattan Toy” is printed on one of the arches.

The rattles, manufactured in China, were sold at specialty toy and baby stores nationwide, in Canada and online at www.manhattantoy.com from September 2011, through October 2013, for about $15.

Consumers should immediately take these rattles away from young children and return them to the store where purchased for a full refund.

Consumers may contact Manhattan Group at (800) 541-1345 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday.

SRAM LLC of Chicago, Ill., is recalling about 1,700 bicycle chain derailleurs.

The rear derailleur’s rear pivot pin can loosen or dislodge causing the rear derailleur to jam or interfere with the wheel, posing a fall hazard. The firm has received reports of 43 incidents in the U.S. with one report of scrapes and bruises.

The SRAM RED WiFLi Rear Derailleur is a device that moves a bicycle chain gears on the rear wheel. The name SRAM RED and the serial number of the derailleur are located on the back of the inner pulley wheel cage plate and visible when looking thru the spokes of the bicycle wheel. Serial numbers of affected products begin with one of the following four-digit codes:

31T2 37T2 43T2 49T2 03T3 09T3

32T2 38T2 44T2 50T2 04T3 10T3

33T2 39T2 45T2 51T2 05T3 11T3

34T2 40T2 46T2 52T2 06T3

35T2 41T2 47T2 01T3 07T3

36T2 42T2 78T2 02T3 08T3

The derailleurs, manufactured in Taiwan, were sold at specialty bicycle retailers nationwide from September 2012 to November 2013 for approximately $380 as an aftermarket installation. They were also sold as original equipment on new high-end bicycles.

Consumers should immediately stop using bicycles with the recalled SRAM RED derailleurs and return the bicycles to the place of purchase or any SRAM dealer for a free replacement, including installation. Consumers who bought the derailleurs as a stand-alone product can take them to the place of purchase for a free replacement or, for those who can make the equipment change themselves, contact SRAM for instructions on how to return the recalled product for the free replacement.

Consumers may contact SRAM at (800) 346-2928 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday CT.

Last year it was showrooming – the practice of checking out merchandise in a store, then ordering it online, usually from some place else.

Retailers hate that and geared up this holiday season to try and counter it with aggressive online deals of their own. But consumers are on to a new trend – webrooming – according to a new survey from Harris Interactive.

Webrooming is just the reverse. A consumer will use a desktop or mobile device at home to check out deals, then head for the store to make the purchase. Retailers like that a little better, though truth be told most big box chains are now so heavily invested in an Internet sales model it probably doesn't matter.

The survey shows that nearly half of U.S. consumers – 46% – have showroomed, up only slightly from last holiday season. But this year 69% of consumers say they have webroomed.

Not mutually exclusive

Showrooming and webrooming are far from mutually exclusive. In fact, the survey shows that those who have done one are more likely to have done the other as well. Six in ten webroomers have showroomed and nearly nine in ten showroomers have webroomed.

All of this points to the importance of the Internet as a shopping tool. Consumers no longer go blindly into a transaction, with no idea what price another store might have on their item of interest.

While retailers may not like showrooming, webrooming places just as much – if not more – pressure on them. In the comfort of their home a consumer has plenty of time to visit multiple sites and conduct multiple searchers, reading multiple reviews before making a decision. In a crowded, noisy store with their smartphone, the same consumer might visit fewer sites before pushing the “buy” button.

That means retailers' websites not only have to have the best prices, their websites also have to be the most functional and easy to use.

You snooze you lose

“If performance is slow, if you're on your mobile phone or a tablet, and you're not able to access the site quickly, people will abandon that transaction,” said Margaret Kuchler, Director of Industry Marketing for Akamai Technologies. “They may be less likely to revisit the site, and may be even less likely to purchase from the company in the future.”

Dr. Gary Edwards, Chief Customer Officer at Empathica, which consults the retail industry, agrees.

The takeaway for retailers is that shoppers expect the customer experience to be continuous across all channels,” he writes in a recent blog entry. “To take advantage of the webrooming trend, leading retail brands are launching initiatives that expand consumers’ access to information online, while retaining control over the customer journey by emphasizing brick-and-mortar as the customer’s final destination.” 

Other research suggests webrooming is more prevalent than showrooming among the Millennial generation. According to research conducted by the Urban Land Institute earlier this year, 50% of consumers age 18-34 prefer to research their purchase online before heading to the store, while only 11% said they preferred to showroom.

Winners

While new trends always present new opportunities for upstarts, the Harris Interactive poll suggests the established players are benefiting most. The survey shows showroomers are spending the most time at Walmart, Best Buy and Target, in that order – then doing the majority of their buying at Amazon.com.

However, Walmart, Best Buy and Target are benefiting the most from the webrooming trend, because after conducting their research at home, that's where most consumers are going to make their purchases, the survey shows.

"When it comes to the battle for consumers' holiday shopping dollars, all retailers are upping their games," said Mike de Vere, President of the Harris Poll. "Online versus brick and mortar retailers each have their own advantages, and poaching customers from competitors is all about playing to those strengths.”

It also provides more choices for consumers. Want to skip the crowded stores this holiday shopping season? Online is a clear answer. Feel better about being able to take your purchase home with you immediately? Brick and mortar stores have you covered.  

With the shortened holiday season now in full swing, there's plenty of hustle and bustle, not to mention merry-making, mixed in with high levels of stress. It's no surprise, then, that the holiday season can also be accident season.

Citing the latest research available, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says holiday injuries are increasing with more than 13,000 people treated during the 2010 holiday season, up from 12,000 in 2009. Awareness and preparation can be keys to a safe holiday season that doesn't include a visit to the emergency room.

Wrap rage

Believe it or not, one of the biggest sources of minor accidents is “wrap rage,” where consumers become so frustrated trying to open plastic wrapping around toys and electronics that they cut themselves on the sharp edged packaging or with scissors, tools and knives when trying to pry the packages open. According to CPSC an average 6,000 people a year go to the emergency room due to packaging-related injuries.

“Gifts aren’t always designed to open easily, and some people will resort to using sharp objects to cut through hard plastic coverings,” says Dr. Bruce A. MacLeod, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and a practicing emergency physician in Pittsburgh. “Avoid using sharp objects to open difficult packaging and take your time to dodge holiday injuries when decorating, cooking, or even rushing about, especially in inclement weather. Remember, safety always comes first.”

Don't fall decking the halls

People go to great lengths to decorate their homes for the holidays but health experts suggest being sensible about it. The plastic Santa might look great on the roof but putting him up there could be an accident waiting to happen.

CPSC estimates during November and December more than 13,000 people will need medical attention from decorating-related injuries, such as falls, burns and lacerations. If you do venture to the roof, or any elevated place, keep ladders on level ground, clear debris and keep kids away from the area. When placing Santa and the reindeer on the roof, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says you should extend the ladder two or three rungs above the edge of the roof and don't stand on the top two rungs.

Kitchen safety

Big meals and exotic treats are usually part of the holiday season and when there's a lot of food sitting around for long periods of time, the possibility for spoilage and food poisoning exists. Cooking large quantities of meat, like turkey or rib roast, raises the possibility of under-cooking for chefs who don't prepare these dishes on a regular basis.

“Always cook meats thoroughly and refrigerate foods that need to stay cool,” said Charles Barbera, MD, president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians and chairman of emergency medicine at The Reading Hospital and Medical Center. “You would rather be eating your holiday meal with your family at home than getting an IV in the hospital.”

Not accustomed to carving a turkey or ham on a regular basis? Be careful when you do it. ER doctors say they see too many of these carving accidents during the holidays, when hosts are often rushing, talking or drinking when cutting up the turkey, ham or roast. Never cut toward yourself. Your free hand should be placed opposite the side you’re carving.

Tree safety

Finally, make sure the Christmas tree doesn't go up in flames. Each holiday some 230 house fires start with Christmas trees. These fires cause an average of four deaths, 21 injuries and $17.3 million in direct property damage.

The U.S. Fire Administration, part of FEMA, says one in three Christmas tree fires are caused by electrical problems. A heat source too close to a Christmas tree is another common source of fires.

December is the peak time of year for home candle fires. In December, 11% of home candle fires began with decorations compared to four percent the rest of the year, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

Allergies are downright weird, when you think about it. After all, if you or someone you love is “allergic” to something, here’s what it means: there’s a substance which most people find either thoroughly innocuous or downright helpful, yet for some reason your body and immune system react as though it’s a deadly threat.

And if you have an allergy — especially one you don’t know about — you can suffer all kinds of unpleasant consequences, when your non-allergic friends say “Try this [food/soap/deodorant/any other product]; it’s great!” and however great it is for them, it makes you break out in hives, or worse.

We strongly suspect that’s what’s going on with various “whitening” toothpastes, mouthwashes and related products on the market today. If you check the customer reviews for almost any company’s tooth-whitening products — our reviews or anyone else’s — you’ll find a wide collection of similar-sounding complaints ranging from blisters to skin peeling off the roof of the mouth to permanent taste-bud damage. In fact, last September we ran just such a story listing complaints from users of Colgate Optic White. And yet we also heard from people who said “I use Colgate Optic White, it’s great and I’ve never had a problem.”

We don’t mean to single out Colgate here. Indeed, we have a large collection of almost identical-sounding complaints from people who’ve tried Crest Pro Health or Glamorous White tooth-cleaning products: mouth blisters, skin peels, painful burning sensations, and so forth. And yet, for all those complaints, plenty of people can honestly say they use these Crest products with no difficulty at all.

So what’s going on? We’ve written both Crest and Colgate to ask if they’ve had any complaints of possible allergic reactions, but thus far have had no response. However, the website for Oral B (owned by Procter and Gamble, which also owns Crest) does have a page listing “Symptoms of toothpaste allergy,” which include “swelling, redness, dryness, or infection in your mouth.”

Typical complaints

Compare that list of symptoms to these typical complaints from our readers: Brenda from Massachusetts wrote us on Oct. 20 to say, “I was using Crest 3D White and Pro-Health toothpastes. First my mouth became strangely dry. Then I started getting sores inside my mouth. Finally my lips started swelling, like an allergy. It took me awhile to connect this to the toothpaste since I've never had a reaction to toothpaste before…” But when Brenda stopped using these products, she “experienced immediate improvement. My mouth feels so much better! Something is very wrong with either or both of these toothpastes.”

Maybe. Or maybe Brenda is allergic to something in them. (For what it’s worth, we personally have experienced painful burning-mouth whenever we’ve tried any brand of whitening toothpaste — but our roommate never had a problem with any of them.)

Kate from British Columbia wrote us on Nov. 3 to say she started using Crest Pro Health because her dentist recommended it. Kate “first discovered a strong burning sensation in my mouth while using it. I ignored it, thinking my mouth was not yet used to it. Sometime later, I noticed my mouth started to feel swollen and my lips were puffy. … I continued to use the toothpaste and still experienced the strong burning sensation, now accompanied by cracks on the sides of my mouth.”

Yet Kate still did not connect her symptoms with the toothpaste until “My daughter was out of her toothpaste one night so I let her use mine. She started crying, saying it was hurting. I then realized it was not just me and searched Google to read the customer reviews…”

And you know what she found.

Incidentally, WebMD’s four-page discussion of tooth whitening dedicates an entire page to listing “Who should not undergo teeth whitening?” and the list includes anyone with “sensitive teeth and allergies.” (We never so much as suspected we had sensitive teeth or allergies — until we tried a new brand of whitening toothpaste and it set our mouth on fire.)

Still, we remind you: despite all the people who find tooth-whitening products too damaging to use, there’s plenty of folks who think they’re just fine. (And we highly doubt Kate’s dentist had bad intentions, when she recommended Kate try a new toothpaste brand.) If we had to summarize the situation in one sentence, we’d say “Not everybody has a problem with tooth-whiteners, but everyone who does have a problem has the same type of problem.”

We definitely don’t believe that dentists and toothpaste manufacturers are involved in some secret evil conspiracy to scorch the insides of everyone’s mouths … but we find it very plausible, the idea that modern whitening toothpastes might be more allergenic than is generally believed.

It's pretty eye-opening to look at what consumers are paying each month for cable TV, Internet access, telephone service, wireless and other information products like satellite radio, streaming music and video, just to name a few.

It's not surprising that consumers are not only becoming price-conscious but are starting to look for ways to cut back on their information and entertainment spending, as a new survey from Digitalsmiths finds.

The cable bill -- the highest monthly entertainment bill in most households -- is where most customers are starting to whittle away at their expenditures, with Digitalsmith finding that pay-TV "cord-cutting" and "cord-thinning" both climbed a bit in the third quarter.  

Among pay TV customers -- representing some 90% of U.S. TV homes -- 17% either trimmed pay TV networks and services or removed them completely in the third quarter -- up from 14% in the second quarter and 13.4% in the first quarter.

And the trend shows no signs of stopping. The study found that 34% of respondents answered “maybe” when asked if they were considering changing their pay-TV packages. Nearly 7% are planning to change their cable, satellite and telco company while nearly 3% are planning to cut service altogether.

Fully 43.6% of respondents said they are paying more for TV service versus a year ago; 39.3% are paying the same, and only 17.1% are paying less. Over 21% of TV consumers are paying $151 or more per month for all TV, Internet and phone services; 16.9% are at $126 to $150; 19.4% are at $101 to $125; 19.3% are at $76 to $100; and 15.5% are at $51 to $75.

The survey results came from 3,177 consumers in the U.S. and Canada, 18 years and older.

A lawyer for Delta Airlines told the Supreme Court today that airlines have the right to treat their most loyal customers badly whenever they feel like it. The case involved a Minneapolis rabbi, Binyomin Ginsberg, who was booted out of the Northwest Airlines frequent flier program because he complained too much.

Ginsberg was booted out of Northwest's program even though he had achieved "platinum" status, flying hundreds of thousands of miles on Northwest as he traveled around the country as an educational consultant. Northwest subsequently merged with Delta, which today defended the action with a straight face.

Attorney Paul Clement argued that Northwest's program gave the airline "sole discretion" to decide whether or not to honor the miles earned by members of its frequent flier program. He also argued that Minnesota contract law -- which requires all parties to act fairly and good faith -- didn't apply because the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 pre-empted state laws relating to such matters.

"This happened at the time that Northwest and Delta were merging," Ginsberg told the Minneapolis City Pages earlier this year. "The suspicion was that they had too many frequent fliers at the higher status in their roll, and they were showing too much of a liability on a balance sheet for the accumulated miles by those passengers. So they had to creatively find ways of getting rid of people."

In Ginsberg's case, he got a call from Northwest in 2008 advising him that he was being booted out of the frequent-flier program. Why? Ginsberg says Northwest told him he complained too much.

A Public Citizen lawyer argued Ginsberg's case before the high court today.

“The Airline Deregulation Act does not give airlines free rein to breach the obligation to perform their contracts in good faith.” said attorney Adina Rosenbaum prior to today's hearing. “Moreover, claims that are about membership in a frequent flyer program are not sufficiently related to air travel to be pre-empted.”

A decision is expected by next June.