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As e‐commerce emerges as a central mechanism through which customers make purchases, so does the diversity of products they choose to purchase online. One of the fastest‐growing product categories is that of large and oversized items, often referred to as "big and bulky" items. This trend is particularly pronounced in the United States, with the online appliance and furniture markets experiencing substantial growth. Significant growth is also observed in the last‐mile delivery services sector for these large items. This presents a plethora of opportunities for industry stakeholders. Capitalizing on these opportunities and achieving service differentiation requires significant strategic investments in specialized equipment and capabilities by retailers and logistics service providers. These capabilities differ significantly from those typically required to deliver standard consumer products. This shift in operational context requires a deep understanding of customer preferences regarding big and bulky item delivery services. In this study, we determine customer preferences for big and bulky item delivery service features and quantify the effect of customer psychographic traits on those preferences. We accomplish this by conducting a choice‐based conjoint experiment. Our findings indicate significant effects that bear both research and managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pharmacists and pharmacies are key drivers in the American marketplace. They serve as an endpoint of the pharmaceutical supply chain and are the dispensers of a range of consumer goods, some nonthreatening and others potentially harmful to public health. In adding pharmacies to the roster of consumerist locales in the postwar period, scholars might draw even deeper connections about the transformation of health, corporate medicine, and American economic power. To understand the interface of consumerism, corporatism, and health in postwar America, this article holds the postwar pharmacy as a key site of commodity exchange and business and positions it within the larger American firmament, paying attention to the design of pharmacies. In particular, the article will add to the knowledge about the tangible ways that medical and health care spaces are constructed, organized, and designed to best generate profits. Besides prescription medications, alcohol, tobacco, and sugar-rich products were also vital elements of the postwar pharmacy and will be featured in this article. What is more, this article focuses on a central debate between pharmacists during the postwar period about how pharmacies were shifting from the role of healer to that of a retailer — from a "conscientious guardian" to a "commercialized jungle" — in order to highlight how the public health role of pharmacies was undermined by industry pressures for profit. Based on unused corporate guides and manuals, company records, photographs, and management documents, this article will spotlight the underexplored interiority of pharmacies – the store's insides, processes of organization, and design features related to potentially habit-changing substances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When purchasing packaged products within a supermarket, consumers choose between proprietary or private label brands. However, when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables, non-branded produce is the dominant option—with proprietary and private label brands only recently becoming available. Previous fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) research finds that proprietary and private label brands affect consumer loyalty—however, no research exists for fresh categories. This research is the first to determine the effect of emerging brands in fresh categories on consumer buying behavior. Our research examines consumers' loyalty toward proprietary, private label, or non-branded fresh fruits and vegetables and the level of customer sharing between these options, using analytical approaches applicable to FMCG categories. The panel data contains nearly 46,000 households making over 8 million purchases in the United States during 2015. Results show that proprietary, private label, and now non-branded fresh produce have expected loyalty levels, for their size, and consumers share their purchases across the three options (i.e., consumers are not loyal to just one option). The study analyzes and interprets purchase data in fresh categories offering marketing academics and practitioners actionable advice for working with fresh produce purchase data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most carbon monoxide poisoning is preventable. Tracking of longitudinal trends in carbon monoxide-related mortality is needed to guide public health efforts. This study sought to describe mortality in the United States from carbon monoxide poisoning, examine the epidemiology of unintentional ("accidental") and intentional exposures, and identify trends in both. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Wonder databases were utilized to extract online data from National Center for Health Statistics files containing mortality data in the United States from 2015-2021. Extracted were deaths, crude death rates, intent of exposure, and demographics of persons dying from carbon monoxide poisoning, excluding cases related to fires. Also extracted was the number of suicidal deaths of all types. Carbon monoxide deaths related to consumer products were obtained from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Information on state legislation mandating residential carbon monoxide alarms was obtained from online resources. Total carbon monoxide deaths decreased from 1,253 in 2015 to 1,067 in 2021. An increase in accidental poisoning deaths was offset by a larger decrease in intentional deaths, despite an increase in suicides of all types in the country. For the first time in the United States, accidental carbon monoxide deaths (543) outnumbered intentional deaths (524) in 2021. The increase in accidental deaths is consistent with those recently reported from carbon monoxide-emitting consumer products by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Furthermore, even though over one-half of accidental deaths occurred at home, no evidence of a protective effect of state laws requiring residential carbon monoxide alarms was seen. Accidental carbon monoxide poisoning deaths increased from 2015-2021 for the first time in four decades. Exploration of the possibility they are due to consumer products warrants attention and prevention efforts. We were unable to demonstrate the preventive effect of residential carbon monoxide alarm legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 21,000 consumer product-related ocular injuries occurred in infants in the United States from 2009 to 2019; toys being the most common (12.9%) consumer product in the 1- to 4-month age cohort, detergents in the 5- to 8-month (21.6%) cohort, and chemicals for the 9- to 12-month (34.0%) age cohort. These results identify an important preventable consumer product-related public health problem in infants. [J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2023;60(4):e41–e44.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even given its focus on narrowly defined audiences, contemporary radio in the United States is commercial, and thus dependent upon a consumer goods sector that is market-driven, risk-averse and fearful of recrimination by those opposed to homosexuality or non-binary genders and government regulators. Queer listeners, unlike their straight counterparts, found in radio not mentors to guide them through adolescence and into adulthood, but the ultimately doomed task of attempting to conform to standards and rituals that did not fit them or to alternative readings of the texts found in radio's music lyrics, disc jockey patter and commercials that constructed a world that were a better fit. In this article, I examine a varied and representative collection of podcasts and argue that the medium is uniquely positioned to deliver to queer audiences what conventional commercial radio was unwilling or unable to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To identify demographic trends of foreign object genital injuries presenting to emergency departments from 2011 to 2020. Materials and Methods: The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database reports consumer product-related injuries in United States ED visits. The database was queried to identify 375 cases of genital injuries from 2011 to 2020. Inclusion criteria consisted of cases reporting injuries involving the urethra, penis, or scrotum. Data was reported and analyzed using linear regression. Results: Based on 375 cases, an estimated 13,170 (95% confidence interval, 10,817–15,522) patients in the US suffered genital injuries due to foreign bodies between 2011 and 2020. These injuries involved the penis (65.9%), urethra (30.7%) and scrotum (3.5%). Of all patients, 11.8% required hospital admission after treatment of which injuries to the urethra were most common (44.0%). Most of these patients were ages 19 to 64 (66.1%). Consumer products most implicated included rings (50.7%), zippers (17.1%), and pens and pencils (10.3%). Injuries due to zippers and swimming apparel occurred significantly more frequently in patients ages 0–18 (p<0.05). Injuries due to kitchen gadgets occurred significantly more in patients ages ≥65 (p<0.05). Pens, pencils, and massage devices were items that routinely resulted in urethral injuries, often requiring hospitalization. Linear regression showed genital injuries related to foreign objects significantly increased from 2011 to 2020 (p<0.001). Conclusions: Due to the nature of injury caused to genitalia by intentional and unintentional exposure to foreign bodies, educating individuals on this topic in sexual education classes is necessary for preventing future injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial body of research has investigated consumer perceptions of a product based on the country where it originated (CoO). Such judgments have been shown to fluctuate due to a number of factors, among them changes in political conditions. The current research shows that a key factor in CoO-based evaluations of products is the image of respective national leaders. In two experimental studies, conducted in the United States, we found that exposure to a news article that positively (vs. negatively) characterizes a foreign leader led to more positive perceptions of that leader's country; more positive evaluations of products and brands manufactured there; and thereby also to greater willingness to purchase these products. The results amply demonstrate that the news coverage of modern leaders can significantly affect their national trade, and that therefore the responsibility they carry may extend beyond their official role as political figures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many price indices must be constructed without quantity data at the elementary level. The paper shows that for some consumer goods in the United States and other countries, one can approximate expenditure shares using weights derived from the retail distribution of sellers. These weights are based on the share of outlets selling an item, or the share of outlets adjusted by the total number of items sold in each. Relative to using no weights, the paper finds that using such imputed weights substantially reduces bias in the frequency of price changes, in annual inflation, and in price comparisons across countries. (JEL E31, L11, L81, O11, O14) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legal status of Cannabis is changing, fueling an increasing diversity of Cannabis-derived products. Because Cannabis contains dozens of chemical compounds with potential psychoactive or medicinal effects, understanding this phytochemical diversity is crucial. The legal Cannabis industry heavily markets products to consumers based on widely used labeling systems purported to predict the effects of different "strains." We analyzed the cannabinoid and terpene content of commercial Cannabis samples across six US states, finding distinct chemical phenotypes (chemotypes) which are reliably present. By comparing the observed phytochemical diversity to the commercial labels commonly attached to Cannabis-derived product samples, we show that commercial labels do not consistently align with the observed chemical diversity. However, certain labels do show a biased association with specific chemotypes. These results have implications for the classification of commercial Cannabis, design of animal and human research, and regulation of consumer marketing—areas which today are often divorced from the chemical reality of the Cannabis-derived material they wish to represent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated how consumers' chief executive officer (CEO) recognition relates to brand sympathy. CEOs influence their own organizations and individual consumers' perceptions. However, their influence on consumer behavior remains unclear. The first step of the consumer behavior change comes from CEO recognition and brand sympathy, which can be mediated by environmental, price, and functional product perceptions. In this study, 420 respondents from Japan and the United States participated in a questionnaire survey on digital devices. The direct effect of CEO recognition on brand sympathy was found only in the United States; an indirect effect through environmental product perception was confirmed in both countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is possible that COVID will trigger permanent changes in work practices that increase costs in U.S. meat‐processing plants. These changes will be beneficial for the safety and economic welfare of meat‐processing workers. However, they will have economic costs. In assessing reform options, policymakers seek guidance from analyses based on models embracing micro detail and an economy‐wide perspective. In this paper, we use USAGE‐Food, a highly disaggregated computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the United States, to work out how additional processing costs would be distributed between consumers of meat products and farmers. We also calculate industry and macroeconomic effects. Despite modelling farmers as owning fixed factors, principally their own labour, we find that the farmer share in extra processing costs is likely to be quite moderate. Throughout the paper, we support simulation results with back‐of‐the‐envelope calculations, diagrams and sensitivity analyses. These devices identify the mechanisms in the model and key data points that are responsible for the main results. In this way, we avoid the black‐box criticism that is sometimes levelled at CGE modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online retailers use product ratings to signal quality and help consumers identify products for purchase. These ratings commonly take the form of either non-personalized, aggregate product ratings (i.e., the average rating a product received from a number of consumers such as "the average rating is 4.5/5 based on 100 reviews"), or personalized predicted preference ratings for a product (i.e., recommender-system-generated predictions for a consumer's rating of a product such as "we think you'd rate this product 4.5/5"). Ratings in either format can provide decision aid to the consumer, but the two formats convey different types of product quality information and operate with different psychological mechanisms. Prior research has indicated that each recommendation type can significantly affect consumer's post-experience preference ratings, constituting a judgmental bias, but has not compared the effects of these two common product-rating formats. Using a laboratory experiment, we show that aggregate ratings and personalized recommendations create similar biases on post-experience preference ratings when shown separately. Shown together, there is no cumulative increase in the effect. Instead, personalized recommendations tend to dominate. Our findings can help retailers determine how to use these different types of product ratings to most effectively serve their customers. Additionally, these results help to educate the consumer on how product-rating displays influence their stated preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online shopping revenues in the United States were $520 billion 2018, a more than threefold increase over a decade prior. Recent research on county‐level shares of consumer expenditures conducted online shows aggregate consumer gains but also considerable spatial variation, creating a new source of social inequality. Through the lens of classical retail location theory, this paper uses a novel approach to test the effects of marginalization, by both income and remoteness, on online shopping behavior. We find that increased shipping costs weaken demand for online goods across consumer groups. When the costs of shipping are controlled for, distance from a city most strongly motivates low‐income counties to engage in online shopping, reflecting sensitivity to cost reductions. However, variations in cost and cost/distance ratios have little effect for this group, because if shipping surcharges exist, which they almost always do at high levels, consumers in these counties will forego online shopping. Medium‐income counties are sensitive to variations in cost and cost/distance ratios. The highest‐income counties display no response to the marginal costs of remoteness. In sum, online shopping benefits consumers living in counties marginalized by either remoteness or low income but not both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, prison strikes and controversies have brought public attention to the systemic problems with prison labor in the United States. Such labor often exploits people who are imprisoned to do work that is vital to society—including firefighting, farming, or manufacturing consumer goods—with wages that can be less than a dollar per hour in highly coercive working conditions. Although there is call to end prison labor today, theories of prison labor have historically been contested, even among activists and progressive reformers. Accordingly, this review offers a short sociological history of labor in correctional environments, highlights contemporary controversies, and argues for a more fine‐grained approach to the relationships among labor, prisons, and reentry. It traces the field of reformers and scholars that have made arguments for punitive, rehabilitative, restorative, and transformative approaches to work. The contested theories of prison labor across time and space suggest that a better understanding is needed of what makes labor exploitative and what forms of labor have the potential to transform the root causes of crime, within and beyond prison walls. Overall, this review has implications for those who study prison and reentry programs, relationships between crime and community, and the political economy of incarceration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional beverages are a high‐value market in the United States. The production of ready‐to‐drink sap‐based beverages represents significant economic opportunity for maple producers. Pasteurized maple beverages maintained high quality during shelf life, but demonstrated a high risk for bacterial contamination in the absence of strict sanitation controls. Acidification of unpasteurized sap was associated with more rapid spoilage, attributed to Rahnella and Bacillus spp. The production feasibility of a fermented, kombucha‐style beverage comprising of various combinations of black tea, sucrose, maple syrup, and maple sap was also evaluated. Use of maple products in kombucha‐style beverages had no negative effect on fermentation kinetics. After 25 days of fermentation, finished product had a pH 2.73–2.95. Small‐scale producers without access to commercial pasteurization and packaging equipment are advised to consider formulation of fermented, as opposed to heat‐treated, maple beverages. Practical applications: The production of maple syrup requires the concentration of maple sap by approximately 40×, a process that is highly energy intensive and represents a significant cost to sugaring operations. The tradition of value‐added product production from finished syrup is well established in the industry, but value‐added products made from unconcentrated sap represent greater economic return for producers. Commercially produced maple sap‐based beverages have entered the U.S. marketplace during the past decade, but the feasibility of producing analogous products at smaller scale has not been validated. This study provides data regarding the microbial quality and consumer interest in such products, as well as information about the feasibility of a novel, fermented product. Production of prototype products in this work was patterned after the capability of cottage‐scale manufacturing in order to be more readily adoptable by small business owners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics have recently become interested in the process by which socially controversial behaviors or practices (i.e., gambling, cosmetic procedures, drug use) become acceptable or legitimate. This article examines the "dual legality" of marijuana and its impact on consumer‐related hazards through the lens of current legislation and extant literature. Simply stated, what are the implications of conflicting government policies for consumers' well‐being? The intended contributions of this work are to offer significant insights into an issue of current topical and public policy importance for consumers' interests. Importantly, this work will serve as a foundation for future research on this unique product in its implications for consumers who are fundamentally altering the way in which a product is viewed and regulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The display of nutrition facts is mandatory on virtually all packaged foods sold in the United States. Yet manufacturers and retailers add their own claims to differentiate their products and capture consumers' attention at point of sale. We implement experimental nutrition claims on shelf labels in a retail setting and test how consumers react to the display of these labels that express information reported on the Nutrition Facts Panel in a different format. We hypothesize that our labels either shift demand for the highlighted healthier products uniformly or trigger more complex demand rotations. Our estimated heterogeneous labeling effects suggest that consumers process nutrition information differently depending on which and how many claims are displayed and prefer products labeled with a single claim overall. When we simultaneously consider demand and supply responses under three price setting behaviors (competitive pricing, Bertrand‐Nash pricing, and monopoly pricing), we find that consumer surplus and overall welfare is highest when our labels display multiple nutrient claims and retailers are able to adjust prices across the entire product category. Firms' profits are highest when single nutrient claims are displayed, however. We conclude that firms with market power have little incentive to voluntarily display nutrition claims that maximize welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay reviews US trade flows and trade policy from the perspective of consumers. Trade policy shapes the prices and the availability of products sold in the US to, ultimately, voters. Understanding the role of consumers in explaining US trade policy may therefore offer lessons for our understanding of politics beyond trade. International trade has created substantial gains for consumers, both by lowering domestic prices and by increasing access to a wider variety of products. Yet, US trade policy does not appear to reflect consumer interests: tariffs are higher for products with higher consumption shares. This finding is inconsistent with the narrative that open trade is a response to consumer interests, and it is not explained by standard collective action arguments either. Instead, the political influence of pro-trade firms emerges as a driving force of US trade openness. The essay discusses the implications for our understanding of the political and institutional sources of trade openness. If special interest politics explains the opening of trade, it reverses the traditional interpretation of trade openness as an indication of the absence of special interest politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how the current size and structure of a branded product portfolio impacts new product performance for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), testing the long-standing proposition that extending a firm's brand and product portfolio too far is a dangerous proposition that may damage the market performance of the firm's new product launches. Design/methodology/approach: Aspects associated with brand size and structure that may impact new product performance are operationalized along two key dimensions: within-category (scale) and cross-category (scope). The impact of the brand's scale and scope on the sales performance of newly commercialized products by the brand is empirically investigated in the context of FMCG. Over 2,000 new products launched in 2009 and 2010 across 31 food and non-food FMCG product categories in the USA are included in the regression-based analysis. Findings: The authors find strong evidence that brands with broader within-category scale and cross-category scope overall are associated with more successful new product introductions, and that these influences generally are driven more by increased product trial than by repeat or persistence. The authors argue that the higher new product performance observed for more established and proliferated brands may be attributed to advantages of firm product development abilities and product acceptance by the marketplace. Originality/value: The current results serve to temper the strong cautions set forth in much of the marketing literature about the dangers of overextending the firm's brand and product portfolio. These results also suggest that future research should be conducted to further understand more nuanced implications of how best to grow the scale and scope of the firm's brand and product portfolio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article empirically studies consumer choice behavior with respect to store brands in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain. Store-brand market shares differ by country and are usually much higher in Europe than in the United States. The authors study the notion that the differential success of store brands in the United States and Europe is the higher brand equity that store brands command in Europe than in the United States. They use a framework based on consumer brand choice under uncertainty and brands as signals of product positions to conduct their analysis. More specifically, they examine whether uncertainty about quality (or the positioning of the brand in the product space); perceived quality of store brands versus national brands; consistency in store-brand offerings over time; and consumer attitudes toward risk, quality, and price underlie the differential success of store brands at least partially in the United States and Europe. The authors' model is estimated on scanner panel data on laundry detergent in the U.S., U.K., and Spanish markets and on toilet paper and margarine data in the U.S. and Spanish markets.The authors find that consumer learning and perceived risk (and associated brand equity), as well as consumer attitude toward risk, quality, and price, play an important role in consumers' store-brand and national brand choices and contribute to the differences in relative success of store brands across the countries studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine 308 firms in the United States and four other Western countries to understand how different types of firms relate to their markets. Comparative analysis shows that though there is some support for consumer and goods firms being more transactional and business and service firms being more relational, there are many exceptions. The results also show that firms can be grouped into those whose marketing practices are predominantly transactional, predominantly relational, or a transactional/relational hybrid. Each group constitutes approximately one-third of the sample and includes all types of firms (consumer goods, consumer services, business-to-business goods, and business-to-business services). This suggests that marketing practices are pluralistic and managerial practice has not shifted from transactional to relational approaches per se. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have highlighted task environmental factors as the sole drivers of a distributor's commitment to its supplier and have found positive consequences of distributor commitment. The authors propose institutional factors as another motive for distributor commitment in channel relationships. Specifically, the authors suggest that long-term orientation is an essential institutional environment to consider for a comparative study of distributor commitment. The authors hypothesize that distributor commitment is driven by both task environmental factors and institutional factors. The authors conduct national surveys of industrial distributors in the United States and Japan to test the hypotheses. The hypothesis test results indicate that task environmental factors are related significantly to distributor commitment regardless of the channel contexts and that the effect of an institutional factor varies across the channel contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the extent to which the country of origin for parts, assembly, and design may moderate country-of-origin effects on attitudes and purchase intentions. The results show that respondents' attitudes are more positive when the product is assembled in the United States if U.S. parts are also used than if Mexican parts are used. Similarly, purchase intention is higher when the product is assembled in the United States and U.S. parts are used than if Mexican parts are used. Televisions and stereos are used as the products in this study. The results lend partial support to the congruity principle. Theoretical and public policy implications are discussed, as are limitations and suggestions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use new disaggregated data on consumer prices to determine why there is variability in prices of similar goods across U.S. cities. We address questions similar to those that have arisen in the international context: is this variability purely a result of market segmentation or do sticky nominal prices play a role? We also examine how the degree of tradability of a good influences price variability. Surprisingly, we find that variability is larger for traded goods. We attribute this finding to greater price stickiness for nontraded goods. Distance between cities accounts for a significant amount of the variation in prices between pairs of cities. But we also find that nominal price stickiness plays an even more significant role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1961 families across the United States witnessed the sudden growth of one of the most remarkable consumer products of the Cold War: the home fallout shelter. This article charts the rise of domestic sales for home fallout shelters between 1961 and 1963, the growth in the number of shelter salesmen, the public backlash against their sales techniques, and the eventual decline of the home shelter market. The story of the family fallout shelter exposes the limitations of consumer capitalism in mobilizing and sustaining popular support for national security policy. Questioning the validity of the product being sold and the trustworthiness of the person pitching it, homeowners challenged the citizen-consumer ideal that supposedly went hand-in-hand with the state sanctioned vision of privatized survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critics from both the right and the left claim that modern antitrust doctrine, rooted in consumer welfare, is inadequate to handle the challenges of the twenty-first century economy. They express nostalgia for 1960s antitrust, when the field had no clear objectives and cases were decided on impressionistic notions of "fairness" and good corporate citizenship. This article exposes the intellectual void at the heart of this new populist movement and begins by following Justice Holmes' tenet that "a page of history is worth a volume of logic." More than 80 years ago, the A&P grocery chain was a vertically integrated retailer that made use of unprecedented scale and innovation to offer consumers a wider range of products than the competition and at lower prices. Yet A&P's very success, which came at the expense of smaller and less efficient competitors, triggered a backlash: first from Congress, in the form of the Robinson–Patman Act, and then from the Justice Department, in the form of successful prosecution under the Sherman Act. These attacks on A&P bear an eerie resemblance to attacks today on leading online innovators. Increasingly integrated and efficient retailers—first A&P; then "big box" brick-and-mortar stores; and now online retailers—have challenged traditional retail models by offering consumers lower prices and greater convenience. For decades, critics across the political spectrum have reacted to such disruption by urging Congress, the courts, and the enforcement agencies to stop these American success stories by revising antitrust doctrine to protect small businesses rather than the interests of consumers. Using antitrust law to punish pro-competitive behavior makes no more sense today than it did when the government attacked A&P for offering consumers too good a deal on groceries. In addition, antitrust doctrine does not need an overhaul. It is shaped by many economic perspectives, follows no one "School," and is flexible enough to address any monopoly abuses in today's economy. It is also well-calibrated to serve its central function: promoting consumer welfare. It does so not only by prohibiting conduct that harms consumers in the long run, but also by avoiding interference with conduct that might appear problematic to non-economists but that demonstrably benefits consumers over time. Antitrust remains a work in progress, but it is far superior to any alternative that the critics propose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoclassical economic theory delivered upon its promise. It showed how the liberation of markets from government constraints could bring about a rapid expansion in the production of consumer goods. That was a major accomplishment. However, it came with a price in terms of social fragmentation, economic inequality, and a planetary ecosystem that is now overwhelmed by human activity. Continuing to follow the course plotted by conventional economics is a path to disaster. The world needs alternatives. Marxism has been tried and found wanting in many respects, including its abysmal environmental record. This article offers help from an unlikely source: insights of Reformed Protestantism that can be traced back to John Calvin in the 16th century. Although Calvin and Calvinism are better known for a harsh view of human sinfulness, Calvin also contributed to the development of liberal democracies by advocating representative government, universal education, and greater participation by more people. Reformed theology emphasizes the importance of widespread participation in decisions, including economic decisions, at every level of society, and provides a positive role for institutions, including government, to protect the common good. It also points toward the need to situate economic policy in the larger domains of social and ecological health. Above all, it denies the validity of any economic system that deifies economics as such, and provides criteria for judging the effectiveness of economic systems as well as the evils of externalizing social and environmental costs in the name of a false efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Metadiscourse features are the way in which writers express their opinion and achieve not only coherence but also cohesion in their texts. Although metadiscourse features are widely employed, it is sometimes the case that writers tend to use them inappropriately, resulting in incoherent and ineffective texts. A review of the relevant literature reveals that a significant body of research has been conducted on metadiscourse features in various academic contexts. However, studies targetted at news settings are still limited. Hence, this study adapts Dafouz-Milne's model to identify the types, functions and linguistic realisations of metadiscourse features that are commonly used in business news. Quantitative data were collected from 15 business news articles from "Star Online" and "Focus Malaysia", respectively from September 2014 until June 2016. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six business news writers individually. This paper aims to compare textual and interpersonal functions and their linguistic realisations to see whether business news in "Star Online" or "Focus Malaysia" has more engaging content to create awareness for writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just how do companies go about developing their annual marketing plans? A study of six consumer package goods companies compares and contrasts planning practices, and establishes benchmarks and guidelines for improving marketing planning procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the Magnuson-Moss Warranty-Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act. The legislation, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1975, was established to reform product warranty practices in order to promote consumer protection. It is suggested that many consumers favor products accompanied by warranties because they believe the warranty implies heightened product quality. The author asserts that warranties do not provide an element of protection beyond the protection guaranteed by the Uniform Commercial Code. It is further suggested that warranties featuring obscure terminology often function solely as sales promotions instead of instruments of consumer recourse.

What is being done to protect the consumer from hazardous products? This article reports on new federal legislation concerning consumer product safety. It examines the implications of this legislation for the manufacturer and the consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigates how Japanese distributors of U.S. manufactured consumer products perceive the exercise of power sources by both themselves and their U.S. suppliers in the across-culture distribution channel. The mediated and nonmediated bases of power found in domestic relationships were not replicated in Japanese distributors' perceptions. Results indicate a factor structure based on nurturing and authoritative bases of power. The Japanese also react to the exercise of power sources in a slightly different manner than Western channel participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the provision of information on third party certification marks to consumers, focusing on the potential for misperceptions. Two consumer studies are employed to examine the changes in consumers' perceptions and usage of one certification mark in 1972 and 1980. The relationships between misperception of the marks and usage were positive in both years. In spite of public policy, which impacted the information content of certification marks, significant consumer misperceptions of the certification mark examined still exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey provide empirical verification of changes in household spending across a wide variety of products as households pass from one stage of the household life cycle to another. Three spending patterns emerged: (1) a generalized inverted U pattern, with spending rising sharply as households shift from young single to young married, then remaining relatively high, and falling sharply at the older married and/or older single stages, (2) generally increasing expenditures across stages until the last one or two stages, and (3) generally decreasing expenditures across the life cycle. Expenditures are especially influenced by the presence of young children in the household. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research utilized an ethnographic approach to advance our understanding of the survival strategies employed by the homeless in our society. We examine the types of possessions consumed, how possessions are acquired through nontraditional employment and scavenging, and why some products are purchased while others are scavenged. We also look at the tools used to facilitate search, acquisition, storage, and consumption of these products. Finally, we consider the importance of community for protection of self and possessions and how community among the homeless affects consumption. Emergent themes that allow interpretation of the description are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although colonial Americans had long valued frugality and had limited their consumption, actual demand for material comforts and imported consumer goods grew vigorously during the third quarter of the eighteenth century. The nonimportation movement, primarily a politically motivated boycott of British manufactures intended to force repeal of distasteful tax laws, also reaffirmed traditional values and attempted to improve the image of products made in America. Following a discussion of the colonial market and nonimportation, this article examines conflicts between old values backed by patriotic appeals and emerging buyer preferences. The concluding section draws a few implications for understanding present-day consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural meaning in a consumer society moves ceaselessly from one location to another. In the usual trajectory, cultural meaning moves first from the culturally constituted world to consumer goods and then from these goods to the individual consumer. Several instruments are responsible for this movement: advertising, the fashion system, and four consumption rituals. This article analyzes the movement of cultural meaning theoretically, showing both where cultural meaning is resident in the contemporary North American consumer system and the means by which this meaning is transferred from one location in this system to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing the knowledge level of consumers with respect to safety principles has been suggested as one method of reducing the number of consumer product related injuries. This paper describes the results of a pilot study aimed at increasing consumer knowledge and presents a new methodology for analyzing the effects of such a program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American multinationals have $177 billion of direct investment in Europe. As the 1992 European unification draws near, companies are adjusting their strategic sights to treat the European Community as a single marketing entity. But how unique is Europe? This 28 MNE-228 subsidiary study shows US European product mixes to be similar to those used in other parts of the world. Also, within Europe variations in product mixes are mainly industry-determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important aspect of any scientific investigation involves classifying the phenomena being studied. This research focused on a taxonomic analysis of the limited domain of competitive retailing strategies employed by U.S. supermarket chains for generic brand grocery products. Using cluster analysis, an empirically derived taxonomy was developed, and the characteristics of firms in each of the four strategic groups were examined. In addition, the performance of particular strategic groups was analysed. Firms in one of the strategic groups (aggressive initiators) consistently indicated higher levels of success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the implementation of the "marketing concept" in the United States. The author defines the marketing concept as a business management philosophy that is based on the acceptance in an organization of the need for customer orientation, profit orientation and a general recognition of the marketing's role of communicating the needs of the market. The study tests some basic assumptions surrounding the marketing concept, including a higher rate of acceptance of the concept in consumer goods corporations than in industrial corporations and also a higher rate of acceptance in large as opposed to medium and small sized corporations.

The theory of cognitive dissonance is one of the recently developed tools that marketing has borrowed from the behavioral sciences to investigate consumer behavior. The classification of goods into convenience shopping, and specialty categories. on the other hand, is among the most venerable ideas in marketing literature. Thus article merges the two by using the theory of cognitive dissonance to give a new dimension to the classification of consumer goods. The result is a fresh set of behavioral criteria for classifying goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]