Consumer Reports - Is It Worth It

The rise of the dollar stores is a phenomenon that has been a long time in coming. Many years ago, stores known as 5 & 10’s were very common. The descriptions stood for five cents and ten cents! Can you imagine?

Thank goodness we now have the modern equivalent – the dollar store.

If you don’t have a dollar store near you, it’s worth it to take the drive to find one. The bargains are unbelievable. They have an array of merchandise from grocery to kitchen gadgets, from gift items to party supplies.

One thing I’ve noticed recently though is a bit concerning and something that consumers should be aware of when shopping dollar stores. Since the whole concept of the dollar store is based on the price of each item not exceeding that one dollar threshold, what can the stores do when inflation and higher cost of goods starts to eat into their profits? They can’t raise the prices! That would hey do, call them the “dollar-twenty-five stores?”

That wouldn’t be good PR for them, now would it? Don’t worry, they have found a solution! They simply make the items smaller or give you less volume of something.

I have a great example. I’ve bought the same disinfectant spray at a particular dollar store many times. After my most recent purchase, I noticed something different about it when I took the plastic cap off. The company had changed the shape of the top of the can. With the cap on, the old version and the new version looked identical, though. I put the new can side by side with the old one. They both were the same height.

Upon further investigation, I noticed that the new spray can had only 8 OZ of the disinfectant spray while the old can had 10 OZ! Now, for the same price, I was getting 20 percent less of the product!

Watch for that occurrence next time you are shopping.

Even with the possibility of shrinking product size, dollar stores are still filled with amazing bargains.dollar stores, dollar stores online, dollar tree stores

Well, maybe you shouldn’t actually cut your own hair, but you and a friend or you and a family member can cut each other’s hair at home!

Today we are discussing home hair clippers, or home hair cut kits as they are also called. I bought a GE set, a few years ago which came with the clipper unit, several attachments for different lengths, and even an instructional video which explains tips and techniques to cut different styles of hair and different textures.

The kit cost 20 and saved me several hundred in haircut fees over the past few years. That one was but there are also cordless models that some people may like better.

After seven years, the unit finally died. I’m not sure what happened to it, but the blades stopped working and the motor just made a dull buzzing sound. There is repair center information in the instructional booklet, but I decided that mailing it to a repair center would not be worth the cost considering the postage charges and the initial price as well as the price of a replacement.

I ended up getting a new unit from Panasonic. This one is cordless. Rather than having several different attachments to adjust the hair length, there is one built in to the top of it that moves with a dial to get the desired hair length.

The lack of a cord getting in the way is a definite improvement. I like the idea of the cutting attachment being adjustable, but I’m not sold on the design because the hair builds up under it and it has to be taken off periodically. However, that also has its advantages because it makes much less of a mess than the old one made since the old one would all the hair fall all over te place, while this one traps ninety-five percent of it.

Considering all the money (as well as time and travel to a professional), this type of product and cutting hair at home earns the highest Worth It rating available.

What if you are on a diet, but still want to be able to have a tasty beverage? That’s where Crystal Light and other generic store brands of non-calorie flavorings for water comes in.

Crystal Light is definitely worth it because it adds flavor to water with no calories or sugar. To get in an even better bargain, get the private label store brand for about 30% less price.

You can actually replace any of the usual sugar-laden drinks because of the wide range of flavors available. Lemonade, fruit punch, orange, and many more are all good choices. There are even ice-tea flavored options.

Another diet alternative to soda is a no-calorie energy drink. They also come in a variety of falvors and some have herbal supplements and caffeine as well.

Pizza is one of my favorite foods and favorite topics.

DiGiorno Rising Crust pizza is one product that definitely lives up to its advertising. “It’s not delivery, it’s DiGiorno.” Frozen pizza brands have been making claims for years that they are just as good as the pizza from a restaurant, but this has rarely been true.

The first brand I ever remember considering as a favorite when I was a child was La Pizzeria. (Does anyone else out there remember that brand?) As a teenager, I remember switching to Mama Celeste. Unfortunately, the large size was either discontinued by the manufacturer or just pulled by all the stores in my area, but the only kind of Mama Celeste pizza I can buy is the small, microwaveable single serving kind. I pretty much had to move on, although on occasion I would buy the single serving size to bring to work for a microwave lunch.

These days, I stick with DiGiorno and actually prefer it to most pizza places in the area. Considering a large DiGiorno pizza is one third of the price at a local pizza place and tastes better, it gets the highest Worth It rating possible.consumer opinion, consumer reports, consumer testing, frozen pizza, la pizzeria, mama celeste, money saving tips, pizza ratings, pizzas, product testing, saving money

You always hear people say, “You get what you pay for.” Is that true? Do you really believe that? Are there exceptions?

Here’s a general question that always generates heated debates in person so let’s see what it can do here:

Is it better to pay more to receive a higher quality item or would you rather get a more inexpensive item that needs to be replaced sooner.

I say the more inexpensive item is still better because you get something brand new again if the old one has to be replaced as in this example. An expensive pair of running shoes may last several years and cost you a hundred dollars. You can get much cheaper shoes than that and over a several year period get new ones several times and spend the same hundred dollars.

Your turn.
consumer opinion, consumer reports, consumer testing, money saving tips, product testing, saving money

I’ve written before about various custom printed items you can order online get from Vista Print. I revealed that I am a fan of their business cards. In fact, thank goodness I had some with me earlier today when I was at a party and several people asked if I had a business card with me because they wanted to visit one of my websites. Since most business cards are white, but mine from Vista have a blue background, they really stand out. The recipients remarked about how eye catching they were.

Anyway, today I want to mention address labels. When it comes to using address labels on envelopes, I used to think that they weren’t really worth the money. My thought was that it really doesn’t take much work to simply write the return address or an address on an envelope. I have since changed my mind!

What changed it? The first time I had to do a batch of over a hundred letters for a work project convinced me. The time I saved from using the labels on the initial project and then many subsequent ones convinced me that using a return address label pays for itself in the time saved when it comes to large mailing products.address labels, return address labels, vista print

Almost all the entries in this particular blog category are about consumer spending and exploring whether a particular purchase provides you with your money’s worth. Let’s take a different approach today.

I want to leave the question below open-ended because the way people interpret the question is often as telling as how they answer their interpretation.

What’s “worth it” to you. This doesn’t have to mean in monetary terms either, although that is fine to use as a criterion (yes, that really is the singular form of “criteria”) in your evaluation.
consumer opinion, consumer reports, consumer testing, money saving tips, product testing, saving money

How close is your nearest Dunkin Donuts outlet? Perhaps I should rephrase that to the plural…how close are your nearest Dunkin Donust outlets?

This is a little different than the usual Is It Worth It entry, but it does fit the theme. Years ago, the Dunkin’ Donuts advertising slogan was “It’s worth the trip.” They were saying that you might have to travel a certain distance to get there, but the products made it worth it.

What’s so funny about thinking about that now is that particular slogan would never work in the Northeast because Dunkin Donuts’ has saturated the market with its abundance of retail locations. In some areas, one can’t drive for twenty minutes without passing two or three of them. As if the stand alone outlets weren’t enough, they are now located inside other stores such as Stop &Shop supermarkets and the Home Depot home improvement chain.

They need a new twist on the slogan. “It’s worth the trip – all the way to the end of your block!”
donuts, dunkin donuts