Tag Archives: referral program

Making it Rain!

5 Comments
At last!

Here are the results of our big BIG drawing on December 10th, 2011. MindField Online Internet Panels gave away a total of $2500 in prizes, including One $1,000 Grand Prize, Two $500 Second Prizes, and Twenty $25 Third Prizes! Here is the list of winners who responded to their official announcement emails from MindField Support.

So, let’s begin by saying congrats to THIS lucky lady…

$1000 Grand Prize Winner

Kristen

Kristen K. of Wharton, NJ (pictured)

I have been a MindField member since 2004 and have never won anything big.  So   when I found out I was the GRAND PRIZE winner I was shocked and grateful!  I am going to use the money I won to help pay for all my Christmas presents this year, give back some to those in need, and save the rest for a rainy day!

*     *     *

$500 Second Prize Winner

Melissa

Melissa H. of Culpeper, VA (pictured)

$500 Second Prize Winner

Igor M. of Brooklyn, NY

*     *     *

$25.00 Third Prize Winners

Sandi

Sandi H. of New Port Richey, FL (pictured)

Maricela H. of Corpus Christi, TX

Julio G. of Hialeah, FL

Kattia B. of Solon, OH

Martha

Martha S. of Hondo, TX (pictured)

Andrew W. of Gilbertsville, PA

Charlene C. of Phoenix, AZ

Diana M. of La Mesa, CA

Michelle R. of Yakima, WA

Patti M. of Burbank, CA

Ruth

Ruth G. of Bellport, NY (pictured)

Yvonne S. of Aurora, CO

Jessie B. of Cheyenne, WY

Jean H. of Summertown, TN

Mechel M. of Baton Rouge, LA

Linda H. of Tucson, AZ

Bonnie O. of Houston, TX

Michael M.

Tiffeny M.

Samantha T.

Congratulations to all our winners! And if you didn’t get picked, there’s always a next time right around the corner here at MindField Online! Happy Holidays to all our MindField friends and family!!!

Christmas by the Numbers

Hey gang! Here is a lightweight, on-vacation blog post about Christmas spending trends for 2011, based on predictions from the National Retail Federation…

Overall, the dollar amount we plan to spend…

  • For gifts: $515.94 – down 50 bucks in the past 5 years
  • For Decorations – $46.73
  • For Holiday Food – $96.75
  • Total Amount we plan to spend: $704.18

As for Holiday shopping trends…

  • 60% of us see holiday shopping as an opportunity to buy something for ourselves
  • 66% of us buy from a Discount Store
  • 57% of us buy from a Department Store
  • 49% of us buy from a Grocery Store/Supermarket
  • 47% of us buy Online
  • 42% if us say that sales and discounts are the most important factor

And 91% of us plan to celebrate the holidays!!

Do these stats sound right to you? Let us know!

What’s Your Return Policy?

4 Comments
From Black Friday to the Return Desk: it's the Circle of Life!

We’ve all seen the of Black Friday news footage madness – the stampedes, shoving and hysteria. Whether you find these scenes funny or horrifying, I bet you don’t watch them and say, “These look like reasonable people who will use good judgment to make sound purchases.”

Apparently the logic, i.e. “can we really afford this?” doesn’t kick in until well after you get home from the mall and eat those leftover turkey sandwiches.

So, while our spending is up over 15% from last year, returns are also way up, long before the actually holidays hit!

Buyers remorse? This is the ultimate environment for it. You get lured in by the deals, but ultimately you realize you don’t want to be paying this stuff off for the next six to 12 months. Retail Analyst, NBC Today Show

The segment taking the biggest hit is electronics. They will lose $17 billion to returns this year, up 21% in the past four years.  Why do we return electronics? 5% of us claim some product defect, while 27% claim buyer’s remorse.

Despite getting killed by returns, some retailers are seeing the value of a good return policy. For example, Nordstrom.com used to charge a $6 restock fee. Now, returns are free.

For some, this is all a bunch of humbug. The shopping truly is part of the fun of the holiday season. To you I say go crazy…but keep your receipts!

Notes on Tomorrow’s Drawing!

11 Comments
Tomorrow!!!

Anticipation! Yes, tomorrow we will hold our biggest giveaway ever, where 23 lucky MindFielders will split $2500, including a $1000 grand prize, two $500 prizes and twenty $25 prizes!  So here is how it will work…

We will make our random selections tomorrow, and then begin the process of verification, making sure the winners have met the giveaway requirements (see HERE.) Then, on Monday we will begin contacting the winners by email. Look for an email from “[email protected].”

When we have confirmed everyone, we will make an announcement here at the blog, as well as Facebook and Twitter. We will do a big splashy writeup here at the blog, so we would LOVE to use your name (first name, last initial) and a picture, as well as any personal info you wish to share…what you do, kids, grandkids, why you like MindField Online, etc. Why? Because it’s FUN! Also, it shows people that folks do win at these things!

So that’s the rundown. Good luck, and thanks again to the best panel in the business! XOXOX

Online Shopping, Credit Card Use On the Rise

4 Comments
Extreme Online Shopping: It's RADICAL!

Black Friday is a time-honored shopping tradition. In recent years, Black Friday had a baby named Cyber Monday. And this year it was a BIG baby! This year…

Cyber Monday (was) the heaviest online spending day on record, with $1.25 billion in sales.  Tuesday and Wednesday followed with billion dollar spending days, helping Cyber Week reach a record weekly total of nearly $6 billion in spending.  Consumer Affairs

So far this season, we have spent almost $19 billion online, an increase of 15% over last year. So, great, we’re spending again – that’s got to be good news for the economy, right? Well, maybe and maybe not. It seems that we’re doing a lot of that spending using our credit cards. Credit card spending is up 7.4 %, while debit card use is up only 3.4%. Will we pay off those credit card purchases, or will we let ‘em ride? That’s the question! Paying them off is usually a sign of consumer confidence – which has been in short supply lately!

So, how about you? Have you increased your online buying this year? What makes you choose one retailer over another? Are you using more credit or debit? Let us know!

App-y Holidays at the Mall!

In this tough economy, consumers are laser-focused on finding ways to stretch their budgets, and their best tool may be in their pockets. There are a number of smartphone applications that can help you to organize your shopping, track your spending, and let you know that you’re walking away with the best deal available.   MSN Money

From finding sales, to comparing prices, to searching interactive maps of the mall, to finding your car when you’re finished, when it comes to your holiday shopping, “there’s an app for that!” And 60% of shoppers will use one or more this year. Here are a few of the standouts:

  • Gift List: You set a budget for the people on your list, and hit the mall. This app keeps track of what you have spent on each person.
  • Lemon: Digitally stores all of your receipts for the inevitable gift that you have to return.
  • Key Ring Rewards: You know that annoying collection of store loyalty cards clogging up your key ring? Scan them with this app and lose the clutter!
  • Fast Mall: Stores interactive maps of 1250 mall across the US. Tell it the names of your fave stores and, using location-based networking, it will send you deals when you’re there. Maybe best of all, it will help you find your car when you’re done!

These are just a few. There’s a top 10 list with links to the apps HERE. Check it out! And tell us, have you/might you/will you use any of these?

Bank or Credit Union?

5 Comments

The fallout from the banking fee debacle, brought to you by Congressional meddling, corporate greed and social agitation, continues. And credit unions are making their play for your hearts, minds and deposits!

Let’s back up a couple of months. On October 1, new regulations went into effect cutting debit card fees from 44 cents a swipe, to 24 cents. These are the fees charged by the banks to the merchant every time you use your debit card. The banks howled, saying that was a loss of $5 per month, per debit cardholder.

So, big banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo announced new fees targeting the cardholder to make up the lost revenue. And it was the consumers’ turn to howl. Stir in a little Occupy Wall Street to get things really agitated, and somebody came up with Bank Transfer Day.

Bank Transfer Day proposed that on November 5th, we all dump our banks and sign up with a non-profit, no-shareholder credit union. And the credit unions howled – with glee. The result? According to this article, over 650,000 people joined a credit union in the last month, bringing over $4 billion with them.

Also, Bank of America and Wells Fargo announced that they were canceling their proposed fee hikes. But you have to wonder if, similar to the Netflix rate-hike disaster, the damage is already done.

Anyway, this is not an endorsement of credit unions, nor an indictment of banks, but a conversation starter (hopefully.)  What do you think?

Black Friday Thankfulness

1 Comment
A fun chart. Multiply by 1.55 to get Dollars

Here’s a little bit of good news for all you Holiday shoppers here in the States. Imagine reading THIS article in the UK Daily Mail that says the following:

  • An iPod Nano costs $175 in London and $135 in Boston
  • UGG boots: $269 London, $147 Boston
  • Elizabeth Arden 8-hr cream: $39 London, $18 Boston
  • Men’s Ralph Lauren pullover: $185 London, $95 Boston
  • Sesame Street Rockin’ Elmo: $130 London, $62 Boston

What would you do? Would you buy a plane ticket and do your Holiday shopping in the US of A? Due to a relatively weak Dollar, and HUGE UK taxes, thousands of Brits are doing exactly that this year!

So, as you watch the Wal-Mart credit-card swiper start to smoke and throw sparks as it adds up your purchases, take heart…it could be worse!

Huge Holiday Giveaway!

9 Comments
The countdown begins...

Get used to seeing this charming image. We will be posting it every day until December 10, to build awareness for MindField Online’s HUGE holiday giveaway – our biggest ever!

On December 10, 2011 MindField Online will give away a total of $2,500.00 to 23 lucky friends, including:

One $1,000 Grand Prize,

Two $500 Second Prizes, and

Twenty $25 Third Prizes!

How do you qualify for the biggest drawing ever? There are all kinds of ways involving Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, Amazon.com, the MindField Online Blog, Refer-a-Friend, signing up for text messages and more!

For a full rundown of rules and qualifications, head over to the official MindField Online prize page, HERE.  Thanks, and good luck!

Consumer Trust Issues

1 Comment
Monopoly Man Learns to Cope with Our Distrust

Homer Simpson once said, “People can come up with statistics to prove anything, and 14% of people know that.” So, with a grain of salt, let’s look at little statistical snapshot of consumer sentiment.

The question is, which industries do Americans trust these days? You might be surprised that the answer isn’t “none of them.” According to a new survey, the types of companies we trust from LEAST to MOST trusted are:

  • Health Insurance
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Banks
  • Energy
  • Food and Beverage
  • Large Retailers
  • Manufacturers
  • Technology Companies

Other statistical nuggets include the following:

  • 72% think the economy is in the crapper, and 31% think it will get worse.
  • 76% say that top execs earn too much money.
  • 84% don’t like it when companies move jobs overseas to take advantage of lower wages. 74% feel the same way even if it lowers prices of the things we buy.
  • 90% of us think favorably of small businesses.
  • 62% would rather do business with a small local company even if it charged somewhat higher prices.

Does this sound right to you?  Let us know!