Monday, November 26, 2012
Minnesota nonprofits trying to encourage people to pause in their shopping and find a way to help others.
- VOLUNTEERS IN THE NEWS
- Anna Varela
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Monday, November 26, 2012
Will donating to charity ever be as popular as shopping during the holiday season? A partnership of nonprofits hopes so. For many people, the holiday shopping marathon began on Thanksgiving day, with some national chains opening their doors just hours after the traditional turkey dinner. Then comes Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, which has morphed into Cyber Week. Now, there's a new national campaign asking you to open your wallet—Giving Tuesday. The Giving Tuesday website says the effort, coming on the heels of days devoted to consumerism, is designed "to create a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support nonprofit …
Saturday, November 24, 2012
The advice from IDentity Theft 911 includes using low-limit credit cards and making sure you spell URLs correctly.
With Cyber Monday just around the corner—and with more people doing their holiday shopping online than ever before—here are some tips from IDentity Theft 911 (www.idt911.com) on ways consumers can protect themselves against online scams and identity theft while shopping. Top tips include:
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Don’t let the hype of ‘official’ shopping days send common sense out the window.
Minnesota consumer advocates and state officials have two words for shoppers who can’t wait for Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Be careful. “For people trying to find holiday deals, Black Friday and Cyber Monday hold a lot of allure,” says Dana Badgerow, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Minnesota and North Dakota. “What we’re aiming to do is remind people to think ahead, make a budget, be aware of store policies—particularly return policies—and not get so focused on potential bargains [that] they fall victim to scams or fraudulent websites.” Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is traditionally known as the official kickoff of the holiday shopping season. The term Cyber Monday was coined in 2005 after online …
