Consumerism

Anything can and does get marked up, sometimes beyond reason. It's a game. The retailer wants to see how much money he can make on an item and the customer wants to see how little she can pay.

The Internet and (seemingly) the recession have spawned a whole new generation of consumer complaints concerning everything from group-discount coupons to data breaches. We examine the top seven and how you can avoid these problems.

How much do shoppers love coupons? According to the 2011 Coupon Facts Report from NCH Marketing Services, consumers love these little pieces of paper 14.7-percent more in 2010 than 2007.

Modern technology is steadily making it easier to shop by offering a plethora of online stores, mobile coupons, Facebook deals, group-buying coupons and much more.

The people who power-walk the mall in the morning may be on to something. A recent study found elderly men and women who shopped daily had an increased chance of living longer.

Advertising has crept into every nook and cranny of America. The worst offender, however, has to be grocery stores, where we’re bombarded with advertising from the moment we park our cars.

Prices on many consumer products are either creeping or galloping upwards, fueled by the rising cost of gas and most food items. At the same time, dozens of products declined in price. Here's a look at items that are going up...and several that are sinking fast.

You may have seen the term IP coupons cropping up in coupon blogs. IPs -- or "Internet printable" coupons -- are more frequently referred to simply as "printable coupons," although the IP term is slowly taking hold.

Consumer reviews are an indispensable limb of the online body. Yet some user reviews read more like advertisements than advice. To better handle the process of dissecting a sketchy comment, know these 17 symptoms of a fake consumer review.

If it seems like there were more coupons available in 2010, that's because there were.