Building on providing customers with perks that cost nothing is enticing food for those in the know. Whether it is twittering to locate a favorite food cart or being invited to an underground restaurant, being tuned in has never been more delicious. The trend seemed to have started simultaneously across the pond, down under, and on the left and right coasts. Now this technologically fueled trend is making its’ way to the rest of us.  (more…)

They’ve been dubbed boomerang kids and a recent poll by collegegrad.com shows that 80% of 2009 college graduates moved back in with their parents. That’s up quite a bit from recent years.  (more…)

When Diet Coke says “just for the taste of it,” apparently they mean business. The new Diet Coke Kitchen is something to behold. Even as a hard core Diet Coke user, I thought it might be a bit of a stretch. Still, trying to elevate Diet Coke beyond a beverage to a life style is a an interesting strategy and one that feels in tune with consumers.  Guess I’ll go tool around in the kitchen.  (Diet Coke Kitchen)

While I consider myself above twittering and twits (whoops I mean tweets), I have to stop and admire Lance Armstrong and his mastery of this tool. Lance brought traffic to a standstill Tuesday after issuing a Twitter invitation for Scottish cyclists to join him on a casual bike ride. ”Hey Glasgow, Scotland! I’m coming your way,” Armstrong wrote. “Who wants to go for a bike ride?” More than 200 rode in pouring rain when the seven-time Tour de France winner turned up in the Paisley district of Glasgow. Whether it is a clever PR move, hanging with his posse of thousands of followers, telling his side of the story without answering follow-up reporter questions or spreading the Livestrong message, Lance rules.  (more..)

In an effort to reduce food waste, the British government is looking to ban popular buy one get one free promotions (BOGOF or BOGO in the states). While nobody is complaining about the goal, interested parties are arguing over the tactics. Government involvement in retail promotional activities is relatively new. Honestly, the whole topic makes me a bit squeamish and concerned what’s next.

Took awhile but I think I found a silver lining to the recession — fitness. I have increasingly noticed more people running, biking, and walking during working hours so I decided to google “recession fitness.”  Looks like my casual observation was spot on. While conventional wisdom says we turn to comfort foods and cocoon at home in our jammies when the economy goes south, research suggests that it may actually be the opposite—that during a downturn, we exercise more and are less likely to be obese than when times are good. Christopher Ruhm, the Jefferson-Pilot Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, has published research indicating that mortality actually decreases when the economy goes temporarily sour and suggesting that a drop in body weight and increase in physical activity—as well as a decline in smoking—are partially responsible. Plus, with tons of free time, there is simply no longer a good excuse for not getting out and moving it.  (more…)

Weekday mornings have long been frenetic, disjointed affairs. Now families that used to fight over the shower or the newspaper tussle over access to the lone household computer — or about whether they should be using gadgets at all, instead of communicating with one another. Arbor Networks, a Boston company that analyzes Internet use, says that Web traffic in the United States gradually declines from midnight to around 6 a.m. on the East Coast and then gets a huge morning caffeine jolt. “It’s a rocket ship that takes off at 7 a.m,” said Craig Labovitz, Arbor’s chief scientist. Akamai, which helps sites like Facebook and Amazon keep up with visitor demand, says traffic takes off even earlier, at around 6 a.m. on the East Coast. Verizon Wireless reported the number of text messages sent between 7 and 10 a.m. jumped by 50 percent in July, compared with a year earlier.  (more…)

For the first time since the decade began, Americans are having fewer babies, and some experts are blaming the economy. In 2007, the number of births in the United States broke a 50-year-old record high, set during the baby boom. But last year, births began to decline nationwide, by nearly 2 percent, according to provisional figures released last week. The obvious culprit being blamed is the recession but other forces are likely at work too.  (more…)