Anyone watching late-night television has heard those ads that urge people to sell the rights to a structured settlement won in a lawsuit to get cash now. “If you agree to take your award or settlement as a structured settlement, instead of receiving one large amount from the plaintiff, you will receive periodic payments over
Soccer purists spent June and July complaining that World Cup hydration breaks turned fast-moving matches into stop-start slogs padded with extra commercial time. Broadcasters cashed in on those minutes. So did Coca-Cola, the tournament’s longtime beverage sponsor, whose in-stadium marketing during those very breaks helped power one of the more unusual quarters in the company’s
When 7 Brew opened a few miles down the road from our home, my son and I were there on opening day. He’s a fan of their “Fizz” sodas, while I enjoy the “Sweet and Salty,” a coffee drink made with espresso, salted caramel, white chocolate, and a breve (half-and-half) base. That, however, is a
When your local grocery store closes, it doesn’t matter to impacted residents that the chain is adding locations in other markets. My family owns a vacation home in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, and the closest grocery store was about five miles away in a neighboring town. When that store closed, our options were smaller, much more
It costs 14.8% more to shop at Kroger than to buy the same items at Walmart, and Costco‘s prices for those items are 21.8% cheaper than Walmart’s, according to a study commissioned by Consumer Reports. Even the Kroger-owned discount brands King Soopers (7.9%) and Food for Less (9%) come in with higher prices than the
When it’s time to buy a new mattress, my wife and I go to physical retail stores and try to make sure we’re going to feel comfortable with whatever we decide to purchase. That’s not a foolproof plan, as our current bed took a few years of use before it actually felt like the bed
After building a new house earlier this year, my wife and I got to experience the challenge of having bulky items that either needed to be signed for or needed to be moved into a house we weren’t yet living in. It was about an hour drive between our former and our new residence, so
T-Mobile is changing how customers finance new devices after previously saying it would scale back free phone deals and device subsidies. During an earnings call in February, T-Mobile CEO Srini Gopalan revealed that the company is moving away from device subsidies and will rethink its approach to these deals, noting that customers purchase new phones
When I first experienced a made-to-order pizza, one where I fully customized my pie and watched it get built, then put into the oven, I thought the concept would upend the takeout pizza market. Very successful for a while, the concept later fell victim to what I think of as “self-serve frozen yogurt syndrome.” It’s
Consumers consistently say they want healthier fast-food options, but when it’s time to order, many still choose taste, value and convenience instead. McDonald’s, for example, no longer even has a salad on the menu because customers simply didn’t buy enough of them to justify the expense. There’s often a disconnect between what people say they