Consumers are individuals or households that consume goods and services generated within the economy. Since this includes just about everyone, the term is a political term as much as an economic term when it is used in everyday speech. Typically when businesspeople and economists talk of consumers they are talking about person as consumer, an aggregated commodity item with little individuality other than that expressed in the buy/not-buy decision. However there is a trend in marketing to individualize the concept. Instead of generating broad demographic profile and psychographic profiles of market segments, marketers are engaging in personalized marketing, permission marketing, and mass customization.
A consumer is assumed to have a budget which can be spent on a range of goods and services available on the market. Under the assumption of rationality, the budget allocation is chosen according to the preference of the consumer, i.e. to maximize his or her utility function.
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Advocacy and Protection :: Consumer Information
Business :: Issues
Consumerism :: Environment

CASPIAN - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering - Consumer group opposed to supermarket club cards and loyalty programs. Lists the card status of supermarkets across the U.S.
Meta Description: [ Consumer group opposed to supermarket loyalty and frequent shopper cards. ]
Co-op America - Contains information on boycott campaigns, sweatshop activism, public service, barter and LETSystems to regenerate local economies in the service of local needs.
Meta Description: [ Co-op America is a national nonprofit consumer organization, promoting environmental sustainability, social justice, and economic justice through marketplace strategies including green living, responsible shopping, fair trade, green business, corporate social responsibility, and socially responsi... ]
Consumer Activism in Great Britain - Study conducted for the National Consumer Council includes survey results concerning questions about consumer activisim in the UK.
Ethical Consumer - Tips on ethical buying, consumer reports on a wide range of goods, information on UK and worldwide boycotts. Publishes Ethical Consumer magazine and the Corporate Critic database.
Meta Description: [ Exposing the truth behind the brand names.
Shopping Guides, online product ratings, magazine, business research and consultancy services. ]
Ethical Corporation - Monthly global business publication providing corporate social, environmental, and financial responsibility news, advice, and examples.
Meta Description: [ Ethical Corporation magazine is a FREE monthly global business publication dedicated to providing companies around the world with practical advice and examples of how to successfully integrate responsible corporate practice into their management systems. ]
Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights - A nationally-recognized, California-based, non-profit consumer education and advocacy organization. Deals in insurance reform, healthcare reform, billing errors, and other issues.
Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929 - Online exhibit from the Library of Congress that assembles a variety of source materials from the 1920s that document the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's transition to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government in this transition.
Meta Description: [ Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929 assembles a wide array of Library of Congress source materials from the 1920s that document the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's transition to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government i... ]
Socially Responsible Consumer - Information and products for consumers who want their spending and investing to support their values. Emphasizes inteconnections between human rights, animal rights and welfare, and environment.
Meta Description: [ Information for the socially responsible consumer concerned about human rights, animal welfare, and the environment ]
The Consumer Activism Project - T-CAP is dedicated to research and education on consumer activism and to inform contemporary public policy and political debates.
The Dunning Letter - Blog dedicated to protecting consumer privacy in junk mail personal data and promotion of individual's right to control and protect name and private information.
UCAN - Utility Consumers' Action Network - San Diego California consumer watchdog group advising consumers on energy, utilities and internet issues.
Meta Description: [ The Utility Consumers' Action Network, UCAN, is a non-profit consumer organization in San Diego, California. UCAN has been educating, advocating, and enforcing consumer rights for over 24 years. ]
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