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Thanks for Nothing — Summer 2021

A few times a year we take a step back to roll our eyes at some companies’ practices or promotions that are real head-scratchers. Here is this summer’s crop of sellers not doing shoppers any favors in these instances.

Example #1

If this bag of grass originally sold for a thousand dollars, it must have included a lot of weed.

*MOUSE PRINT:

grass

Thanks for nothing Farm & Home Supply.


Example #2

A consumer on Reddit posted a picture of an unusual warning on the box of the HD television set that he just bought. And it was in pretty big type.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Sceptre save the box

What? Your TV warranty is void if you don’t save the box it came in for possible future use if you need to move the TV or send it in for repairs? I suspect most people are not in the habit of reading those boxes to learn about their warranty rights, or save those huge things at home. Thanks for nothing, Sceptre.


Example #3

Cell companies are busy promoting their new 5G cell networks with both largest size and fastest speed claims. Boost Mobile recently advertised that it had the largest 5G network like this:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Boost 5G

Nothing like a little pictorial misrepresentation to make you think that their 5G network is possibly larger than it really is. Can’t they try to make the map at least somewhat accurate? Thanks for nothing, Boost.


Example #4

Herb W. of Seattle, renown consumer reporter from KOMO radio and Consumers’ Checkbook, sent us a picture of a package of Impossible Foods’ plant-based burger “meat” which is sold at the fresh meat counter in supermarkets.

Impossible Foods

He wanted to check the freshness date on the package, but was having a devil of a time doing so. The date shown on that sticker above is not the sell-by date incidentally.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Impossible date

There it was on the edge of the package, and true to their name, it was almost impossible to read. (And we photo-enhanced the above picture to make it barely readable.) Why make it so difficult for shoppers to see this important information? Thanks for nothing, Impossible Foods.


If you find an advertisement or product label suitable for featuring in a future edition of “Thanks for Nothing,” please send a clear photo or screenshot to edgar(at symbol)MousePrint.org . Thanks.

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9 thoughts on “Thanks for Nothing — Summer 2021”

  1. In example #2, the packing material doesn’t mean the shipping box. It means the box the TV was in (same box if you had bought it in a store) and the styrofoam pieces that are each end of the TV, cardboard inserts, plastic bags, etc. And, yes, a lot of people do save those.

    • Not everyone lives in a house with a garage and a basement and loads of closets and storage space. Some of us live in apartments with zero space for holding on to something as large as the packaging for a flat screen tv. Heck, I have to be creative just to find room for an 8 pack of paper towels.

      As a renter I do try to hold on to the packaging for a lot of my home electronics because I know I’m eventually going to be moving again and I don’t want my stuff damaged. I would have loved to have kept the box that my 50″ tv came in, but that was simply impossible and I think that’s true for a lot of people.

  2. I tried saving the box on our last TV, but the box, even on a 55″ TV, is so big that I couldn’t imagine trying to keep it long term. I’m also not certain that is a legally acceptable reason to invalidate the warranty.

    For number three I don’t mind so much it being sold in the fresh meat section since it does say very clearly on the front of the package “Made with plants”, but I wonder as well why the best by date is so far into the future. Initially I thought maybe they worried that people wouldn’t buy “meat” that would last that long, but if that’s the concern, why not just put an earlier date on it? lol

  3. Impossible is definitely not trying to represent their product as real meat. A big part of their marketing is that their product is much more environmentally friendly to produce. And that 6/19 “meat” sticker isn’t theirs. It was likely put on by a store clerk that didn’t know any better.

    As for having it in the meat section, they want people that are looking for meat products to know of its existence. When I buy non-dairy yogurt, I look in the dairy section where the rest of the yogurt is.

  4. I live in a one-bedroom apartment & I keep all packing materials for most things I purchase, especially big-ticket items. They are lined up on one side of the bedroom (kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle). I live alone so the clutter isn’t a big deal. Even if the things are past their warranty dates, the boxes can be used in case I move.

    I thought of trying the Impossible Burger but after reading the ingredients (there are at least 15) I changed my mind. Give me a real juicy full of fat beef burger.

  5. What is truly Impossible is how much plastic is wasted by their packaging. You need a heavy duty shears to cut it open.

  6. Sorry to be late on this one – I think T-Mobile/Sprint lies about its 5G coverage too. Read any of the professional bloggers and they all say Verizon’s is the best.

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