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J. Crew Sued Over Data Collection at Register

J.CrewThree consumers from California, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island just filed a lawsuit against J. Crew, the preppy fashion retailer, for alleged privacy violations the company engaged in while they were trying to make purchases using their credit cards.

In particular, when checking out, the cashier is said to have asked each of them for their email address or phone number so they can be provided with a receipt. They explained that the company no longer gives out printed paper sales receipts. If the consumer refuses, shoppers are allegedly told they would have to speak to a manager because there was no way to give then a receipt in the store. [Apparently in some cases, there was actually a hidden receipt printer available.]

The problem with J. Crew’s policy is that each of these states has a specific consumer privacy protection statute that prevents merchants from requesting personal identification information from credit card customers as a perceived condition to processing credit card transactions.

*MOUSE PRINT:

For example, in Massachusetts the law provides:

No person, firm, partnership, corporation or other business entity that accepts a credit card for a business transaction shall write, cause to be written or require that a credit card holder write personal identification information, not required by the credit card issuer, on the credit card transaction form.

Obviously, this law was written when credit card transaction forms were common. Today, transactions are recorded electronically through the cash register and PIN pad.

The consumers further allege that the requirement of giving an email or phone number was a pretext to send them advertising and to collect and use their information in databases. In fact, one of the plaintiffs said she was sent almost daily emails from J. Crew after her purchase amounting to some 238 advertisements in just a six month period.

The lawyers representing the consumers allege violations of state purchase privacy laws. Oddly, the complaints do not allege violations of state unfair or deceptive acts and practices regulations.

So what do you think? Should retailers be allowed to require that you provide personal information in order to get a receipt? Do you feel this is a privacy invasion?

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Conagra Skimps Again: Wish-Bone Salad Dressing Watered Down

Shrinkflation’s evil cousin is “skimpflation” – where a manufacturer quietly reformulates a product with cheaper ingredients. And that is what Conagra just did to Wish-Bone House Italian salad dressing. They literally watered it down.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Wish-Bone House Italian

They reduced the oil content (and calories) by over 22-percent, and it appears they replaced it with water and over 30-percent more salt. (Water was already the primary ingredient in the dressing before this change.) Oddly, the amount of garlic was also reduced.

If this scenario sounds familiar, that is because last fall we spotlighted Smart Balance margarine when Conagra inconspicuously reduced its oil content by almost 40% and replaced it with water. That move made the front page of the New York Times, and drew outrage from regular users who posted over two thousand one-star reviews on its website. The backlash forced the company to reintroduce the original recipe earlier this year.

We asked Conagra about the watering down of their salad dressing including why they did it (we can guess to save money), why there was no flag on the label alerting shoppers, and whether they taste-tested the new recipe with users (we guess they didn’t). They have not responded to our questions.

If you want to post a complaint about their watered-down salad dressing, you can do it on the Wish-Bone website.

Thanks to Richard G. and Reddit for spotting this change.

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Fast Food Portion Sizes Often Misrepresented

Last week, we spotlighted a lawsuit filed against Taco Bell for selling some menu items that had much less filling than advertised. Many of you wrote that other fast food chains do the same thing.

Subway

This is a six-inch roast beef sandwich as pictured on the Subway website.

Subway roast beef

According to the nutrition section of their website, the six-inch sub has only 25 grams of protein, presumably all from the roast beef. According to a post of an employee of Subway, there is only about 2.5 ounces of roast beef in their six-inch sandwich.

Yet, the sandwich depicted above seems to have way more than that, perhaps about eight or nine thick slices of roast beef. What are the odds that your sandwich will look like the picture?

We asked the company to justify the difference, but they did not respond.

 

Arby’s

Arby’s, whose slogan is “We have the meats,” is best known for its roast beef sandwiches. Here are pictures from its website of the three sizes they offer:

Arby's 3 sizes of roast beef sandwiches

MrConsumer doesn’t have an Arby’s in his area, but suspects the sandwiches may not be piled quite as high as their photos depict.

In the case of the half pound roast beef, presumably you really do get eight ounces of meat, but this screen capture from a YouTube video suggests it is not piled as high as the advertisement suggests, and the meat is nowhere near as rare and appetizing looking.

Actual half pound Arby's roast beef

But let’s focus on their regular sandwich and the double meat size. The double meat one sure doesn’t look like double the size of the smaller one. And checking the nutrition guide on the Arby’s site, the analysis there proves it does not contain double the meat.

*MOUSE PRINT:

 
Arby's roast beef

The smaller sandwich has 23 grams of protein, presumably from the roast beef, but the double-size one only has 38 grams — not double.

We asked the company for an explanation, but they did not respond.

 

Fried Chicken Sandwiches

It seems like advertising for many restaurants’ chicken sandwiches come with a really thick piece of chicken. Here is KFC’s fried chicken sandwich:

KFC chicken sandwich

And here is KFC’s Ultimate Chicken sandwich as advertised in a TV commercial. It appears to be half the size of this man’s head.

KFC Ultimate Chicken Sandwich

 
Popeye’s fried chicken sandwiches have garnered rave reviews and their advertising also depicts them with a really big piece of chicken.

Popeye's fried chicken

Here is an actual Popeye’s fried chicken sandwich as captured in a YouTube video. It does seem pretty thick and similar to the advertising.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Actual Popeye's fried chicken sandwich

We don’t know how the actual chicken sandwiches you get at your local location of these chains compares to the pictures they use, but it seems unlikely the reality matches the advertising in all cases. Tell us what your experience has been in the comments.

If you find other examples of abundant meat in fast food advertising but what you get is much less, please submit pictures of both to edgar (at symbol) MousePrint.org .

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