Posts tagged shopping
Boulder to surprise shoppers with FREE parking this holiday season
Nov 20th
Holiday parking promotions
- FREE 3 hour parking coupons (Friday, Nov. 23 – Saturday, Dec. 22)
Parking enforcement officers will surprise random shoppers each day by handing out free parking coupons; the coupons will be good for three hours of free parking at any downtown parking pay station. Parking enforcement officers will be on the lookout for customers en route to pay stations (that have yet to pay), and give them a coupon. Customers will place the coupon on their dash, just like a pay station receipt. The coupon is only valid for the day it is received.
- 30,000 one hour free parking coupons (Friday, Nov. 23 – Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013)
The city will be providing downtown merchants with 30,000 one hour free parking coupons. These coupons will be honored at the St Julien and the 15th/Pearl garages only. Inquire at your favorite downtown merchant! - One hour free parking coupons in local ads and mailers
One hour free parking coupons will also be available in Downtown Boulder holiday ads (running through the holiday season in local publications), and in 12,000 mailers sent out by Downtown Boulder, Inc.
Boulder police warn parents about two incidents involving suspicious males
Nov 6th
Boulder police are warning parents about a suspicious male or males who may be attempting to approach school-age children. Two separate incidents have been reported. No one was injured in either incident.
In the first incident, a 7-year-old boy and his 6-year-old sister were walking home from Whittier Elementary on Monday, November 5, when they say they were startled by a man in the area of 24th and Spruce. The boy said the man did not attempt to contact them or follow them, but he reported that he believed the man might have been carrying a gun and/or a knife. The children ran away and told their (mother) about the incident, which occurred at approximately 3:20 p.m.
The children describe the man as:
- Dark-skinned white male
- About 30 years old
- Average build
- Dark-colored baseball hat with a smiley face emblem
A second incident allegedly occurred at 3:45 p.m. in a shopping center located in the 600 block of S. Broadway. A 12-year-old boy said that a man seemed to be following him and attempting to make eye contact with him. The boy was frightened and went to a nearby store to call his mother to come pick him up. The mother reported the incident to police at 8:12 p.m. Investigators were not able to interview the 12-year-old boy last night because he was asleep by the time the incident was reported.
Police are at Southern Hills Middle School this morning to talk to the young man and gather more information about what happened.
He described the suspect to his mother, who shared the description with police:
- Dark-skinned white male
- Dirty blue jeans
- Olive-green colored hoodie
- In his 20’s
- Approximately 190 pounds
- Short dark hair
- Dark blue baseball hat
Boulder police officers are looking for the males, and ask anyone who sees a male matching the descriptions to call 911 immediately to report his location.
Extra patrol and traffic officers are in currently in place around Southern Hills Middle School, the Table Mesa Shopping Center, Whittier Elementary School and the area of the park on Folsom between Spruce and Pearl, where the first incident occurred. Detectives are contacting businesses in the shopping center on S. Broadway to try to obtain possible video of the suspect.
If video is available or if any of the children can provide enough information to complete a composite sketch, that information will immediately be made available to the public.
Police advise anyone who sees anything suspicious to report the activity immediately to police. Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to call Detective Kristin Weisbach at 303-441-4474. Those who have information but wish to remain anonymous may contact the Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or 1-800-444-3776. Tips can also be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website at www.crimeshurt.com. Those submitting tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s) may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 from Crime Stoppers.
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CU -R U an explanation “foe” or “fiend” when shopping?
Sep 19th
says new CU-Brown University study
The depth of explanation about novel products influences consumer preferences and willingness to pay, according to a study led by the University of Colorado Boulder and Brown University.
When it comes to descriptions about the functions of new and unusual goods — such as a self-watering plant system, special gloves for touchscreens or an eraser for wall scratches — some people prefer minimal details. Dubbed “explanation foes” in the study, they gain a strong sense of understanding and desire for products through shallow explanations.
In contrast, other people — dubbed “explanation fiends” in the study — derive desire for products from deep and detailed explanations.
“There are these two different types of consumers,” said lead author Phil Fernbach, assistant professor of marketing at CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. “On these two sides, consumers differ in the amount of detail that makes them feel like they understand and — because of that feeling of understanding — the amount of detail that will make them prefer a product.”
A paper on the subject was published online today in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Researchers say the study results can help consumers make better decisions.
“We’re not making a value judgment on whether it’s better to be an ‘explanation foe’ or ‘fiend,’ ” said Fernbach. “You don’t have to want to know how stuff works, but make sure that your intuition about whether you understand a product is based on objective information and not just a feeling.”
In one part of the study, participants were given varying explanations of a new tinted food wrapper product. “Explanation foes” highly rated their understanding and preference for the item when they read a simple description of how its “white coloring protects food from light that causes it to spoil, thereby keeping food fresh for longer.”
“Explanation fiends” highly rated their understanding and preference for the food wrapper when they read a more detailed description of how “atoms in the tinting agent oscillate when hit by light waves causing them to absorb the energy and reflect it back rather than reaching food, where it would break the bonds holding amino acids together, thereby keeping food fresh for longer.”
The study also found that “explanation foes,” who are more common, tend to have an inflated sense of understanding about novel products. Their heightened perception disappears and their willingness to pay decreases when they attempt to explain how a product works.
Conversely, “explanation fiends” tend to have a more conservative sense of understanding about novel products. For them, attempting to explain how a product works does not have a negative effect on their sense of understanding and their opinion of the product stays the same or increases, according to the study.
Attitudes toward explanation were predicted by a cognitive reflection test that measures how much people naturally engage in deliberative thinking. Each test question elicits an intuitive but incorrect answer and participants who impulsively respond tend to err. These participants are the “explanation foes” who prefer less explanation.
In contrast, those who inhibit their initial responses to the cognitive reflection test and think more deeply tend to correctly answer. These participants are the “explanation fiends” who prefer more in-depth descriptions.
While the study can help consumers with better decision-making, it also yields advice for marketers.
“Marketers should target these different consumer groups with different types of explanations,” said Steven Sloman, a study co-author and professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown University.
Robert St. Louis and Julia Shube also were co-authors of the study. They were undergraduate students at Brown during the research. Unilever, a consumer goods company, supported the study.