07.28.25 Inflation & Retail Adaptation / Everyday Is Scam Awareness Day

Today - Clark discusses how retailers and consumers are handling inflation. To deal with higher prices, we’re changing how & where we shop. It works! Also, it's more important than ever to be on guard because scam attempts are nearly constant. Clark alerts you to some of the latest scams so you don’t get ripped off. Offset Inflation: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Most Common Scams: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: 10 Ways You're Wasting Money on Groceries Axios: Store brands become retail's secret weapon against tariffs Dollar General is shaking off tariff fears and winning over higher-income consumers Barrons: The Rich Are Shopping in Dollar Stores. What It Means for the Economy. Best 529 College Savings Plans By State 529 to Roth IRA: Rollover Rules, Conversion Guide, and FAQs BBB-File a Complaint How to Freeze Your Child's Credit Overwhelmed by Scammers? 96% of Americans Are Targeted Every Week Scammers posing as SPCA and animal welfare staff AI Obituary Pirates Are Exploiting Our Grief. I Tracked One Down to Find Out Why Student loan scammers won’t offer relief This hurricane season, prepare to avoid the scams Are you really out of Cloud storage or is that message a scam? Think Twice Before You Click ‘Unsubscribe’ The Safer Way To Use Your Debit Card Clark.com resources Episode transcripts Community. Clark.com / Ask Clark Clark.com daily money newsletter Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275 Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 1:04Speaker 02

  It's great to have you here on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is all about you being empowered with knowledge so you make better financial decisions in your life. Today, how are you and I dealing with the cost of goods being so much higher? We are really changing. We're changing how, when, and where we shop. And it works. Also, I want to share something with you about scams later in this podcast.

• 1:43Speaker 02

  So you and I are behaving more like people elsewhere in the world. The United States has historically been the only developed market where people bought overwhelmingly brand name goods.

• 2:02Speaker 02

  But hit us in the head over and over again with costs going up. And what are we doing? Americans are now doing the rational thing. We're buying store brands. We're buying generics. We're changing where we shop. In fact, the brand name goods manufacturers have been playing a game on us, shrinking their packages. What became known during COVID is shrinkflation. So the bag might've been the same sized bag, but there was less stuff in it. Or the can had less in it. Or the container had less. Or it shrunk.

• 2:47Speaker 02

  So there's a candy I like called hot tamales. Hot tamales used to come, you know, in the theater sized box they're sold. Came as a six ounce box. Then it became a 5.5. Then it became a five. Now what is it? It's 4.5 ounces. Shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. Did the price go down? No, the price went up. If you buy it at $1.25 tree. Went from a dollar to $1.25 and so much less in it. But there are things we can do. First of all, shopping at $1.25 tree is way up. Shopping at Dollar General, way up.

• 3:29Speaker 02

  People of all income levels are changing where they shop to save money. They're changing what they buy. In fact, the brand name product manufacturers are scared. So much so, Aldi is being sued saying that their packaging of a lot of things looks too much like the brand name. As a regular Aldi shopper, I was looking at some of these packages they're getting sued for. And I actually don't see it. I don't see them confusing anybody. But it shows you.

• 4:08Speaker 02

  How the brand name product manufacturers are seeing a decline in customer purchasing. And they're trying to do something about it by trying to beat the better competitor in court. When they can't beat them in the court of public opinion, which is where you and I spend our money. So, brand names cost more. Why? Because they're better? Sometimes, but that's not why they cost more. There's a lot of expense involved. And packaging and marketing and advertising that you don't have with the store brands.

• 4:52Speaker 02

  Store brands, when they started, were selling inferior goods. That's not the way the game is played anymore. Because there's too much incentive for retailers to make sure the quality is good of the store brand. Because they make more margin, they make a higher markup on the store brand than they do on the brand name products that they sell side by side, even though you're getting a lower price. So, the market's moving. People are changing what they're doing. So much so, that Barron's, which has one of the wealthiest readerships of any publication or website in the United States.

• 5:38Speaker 02

  Barron's wrote an article about how their readers are now shopping at places like Dollar Tree, and that is a shift in the marketplace. So, what do their wealthy readers know that you should know? That's that they're getting more value for every dollar, buying the brands that are not the normal brands. Buying the store brands. I mean, you go into Dollar Tree and you see the brands, mostly they're make believe brands. They're like made up brand names. They're just store brands. They're just cheaper. And I like that.

• 6:20Speaker 03

  All right, we'll go to questions. This one's from Jeffrey in Wisconsin. "How should I invest $20,000 settlement for my 17-year-old daughter? She was hit by a car on her bike."

• 6:31Speaker 02

  Oh, no.

• 6:31Speaker 03

  "She is okay, thanks to her helmet and backpack. Went through the windshield." My gosh.

• 6:36Speaker 02

  Oh, my.

• 6:38Speaker 03

  I would like to invest it for her college. She does have a small 529 plan, the Wisconsin plan.

• 6:44Speaker 02

  Wow. Gosh, I'm so glad she's okay. So if she is going to college, putting the money in her 529 would be a great idea because even though she's 17, that money would get some tax-free growth if you let it sit there till later in her college career, like maybe her junior or senior year. Let that money grow tax-free. You're going to be, what I'd want you in, in it is the age-based portfolio, or some plans call it inspected enrollment date portfolio. And so it'll be very, very conservatively put away. It won't be in stock

• 7:28Speaker 02

  type investing, but it will, the money will not be taxed, then it can be used for college. Now, if she doesn't need it for college...

• 7:36Speaker 03

  I did have a question about that. 529, if the settlement's for her and he's the owner, but she's the beneficiary, could you still put the money in it?

• 7:44Speaker 02

  So she can have her own 529.

• 7:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, it'll just count against her for...

• 7:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, but having that money's going to count against her anyway.

• 7:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, true.

• 7:54Speaker 02

  So why not have it grow tax-free for several years?

• 7:58Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 7:58Speaker 02

  And I think that's what I would do. And then she will have the option way down the road, if she ends up not needing the money for college, 15 years down the road, she can convert the money tax-free into a Roth IRA, which is a wonderful provision of the law concerning 529s and Roths.

• 8:20Speaker 03

  Danisha in Kentucky says, "For several years, we have been subscribing to meal kit services when there's a good deal, then canceling when it goes to full price. I resumed one subscription earlier in the year, and then in March I canceled, or I thought I did. Last week, I found a box on my front porch and it charged for $70.93 on my credit card. I called customer service and was informed the subscription had been paused rather than canceled. When the subscription is paused, it automatically resumes after three months. I had no notification." ...options to choose the meals or opportunity to skip the delivery, just an email on the day of that a box was on the way. When I complained, the customer service rep informed me that the window to cancel to get a refund had passed. I just figured out I was 70 bucks,

• 9:03Speaker 03

  I was out 70 bucks and lesson learned, technically my fault, but I was so annoyed at the company's sketchy business practices made to get my money. But then I thought, what would Clark do? And I submitted a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. Within two days, I had an apology and a full refund. Thanks to you and your team for all you do.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  All right. I love this, that you told your story because the Better Business Bureau works when you're dealing with a legitimate company that does something that is, as you said, sketchy. It doesn't work when you're dealing with somebody who's a crook or somebody who's just running a dirty rotten business. So you use the services of the Better Business Bureau exactly like you should.

• 9:49Speaker 03

  Okay, back to 529s from Peggy in Georgia. Peggy says, "My daughter-in-law does not want to give me my grandson's social security number so I can open a 529 plan for him. He's two years old, their first kid, and just paranoid about giving his number, she's just paranoid about giving his number out. So I set a 529 plan up under my name. I'm just wondering if I die tomorrow, if my son can easily have access to my account to change it to one in his son's name. I have no other grandchildren. He seems to think he can easily do this, but I just want to be sure this will not be a problem. I can't find anything on the 529 website that answers this question, so I don't want to keep contributing if it's not a viable alternative."

• 10:27Speaker 02

  Okay, so your daughter-in-law is going to have to give her son's social security number for so many things in the future. And I love her being protective and careful of it. And one thing she should do if she's this worried about it, set up a child credit freeze, is what I'd like your daughter-in-law to do, because that's what's really going to protect. Her child, her son, from having people abuse that social security number being out there. I can't tell if there's a weird family dynamic going on here or anything like this.

• 11:07Speaker 02

  But what I'd prefer that you do is that your son own a 529 plan. You can give him the money to fund it. And then he will obviously know his child's social security number or should and can set up an account without any fuss or muss. But in the situation you have here where you are the owner and you're the beneficiary, in most state 529 plans, you can name kind of like a contingent owner.

• 11:44Speaker 03

  Successor.

• 11:45Speaker 02

  Successor owner. So you name your son as the successor owner in the event of your untimely demise. And then your son would have the ability to change the designated beneficiary to your grandson. So that would be how you do it. It'd be a lot easier, though, if your son is ultimately going to end up potentially being the owner of the account anyway, that you just give him money. You can give up to, it was 18,000 or 19,000 a year these days, to anybody else, doesn't have to be a family member. And there's no consequence to that at all, tax-wise or whatever.

• 12:29Speaker 02

  So I would rather you keep it simple upfront and just have your son be the owner and you give him the money to fund it. That would be how I would handle that. Coming up ahead, your daughter-in-law is worried about scams. We're going to talk about scams.

• 12:49Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed Sponsored Jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

• 13:21Speaker 04

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• 13:50Speaker 02

  Scams and scamsters are everywhere. One of my relatives just got scammed in a very common scam involving searching for a business contact number through a Google search. And they got scammed. And according to an article in CNET, 96% of us, I think it's 100%, but I guess, got to say 96%. 96% of Americans are targeted, how often by scamsters? At least every week. How about that?

• 14:30Speaker 02

  And, I mean, I'm looking here and I got a list of scam articles that I've seen just in the last few days. And here's one about AI obituary pirates. Think about that one that we've talked about, where we've had calls from people who've been ripped off. I've done TV stories on this, where someone is grieving, having lost a loved one, and scamsters pretend to be from the funeral home and come up with some crazy story about why you got to pay some extra money right now or else.

• 15:08Speaker 02

  And people, in their time of sadness, suspend normal belief and they give money to scamsters. All the student loan scamsters right now, gosh, story after story after story, just this week, with all the new laws that Congress just passed, making life... Much more difficult for people with student loans. That's led to a big rush of scamsters trying to exploit those student loan borrowers. How about this one? Hurricane season. Prepare to avoid scams is the headline of that story. How about this one? Are you really out of cloud storage?

• 15:52Speaker 02

  Or is that message a scam? Yep. How about this? These are, I mean, these are just a handful of them. Think twice before you click to unsubscribe. We did that as a topic one day on the podcast and YouTube show about when it's okay to click an unsubscribe link and when that's going to give your information that you don't want them to have to a scammer. And this is just like open season on all of us. And no matter how sophisticated you are, no matter how much you think you know how

• 16:30Speaker 02

  to protect yourself, know that all of us have to be on guard because there's so much money to be made running a scam. And we think, how could somebody blah, blah, blah? Or how could somebody have fallen for blah, blah, blah? Understand that the scammers, this is what they do all day long. And, you know, we've talked about the phony toll bills things, the things with plates and tags. I mean, it goes on and on. So know everywhere you turn, I don't want you to be a cynic. I don't want you to assume the worst of your fellow human being.

• 17:13Speaker 02

  But there are bad people out there. And for them, this is just a way to make a living. Okay, I read the craziest story just the other day. There's so much money to be made in doing scams for a living that there are now scam schools that people can enroll in. This is not a joke. Scam schools you can enroll in that teach you how to scam people out of their money. So again, I don't want you to be a cynic. I want you to be a skeptic. I want you to be aware that most scams involve either an appeal to greed,

• 17:57Speaker 02

  an appeal to fear, or an appeal to immediacy. You must do it right now is a core element so that you don't have time to step back and think before you end up getting taken.

• 18:14Speaker 03

  All right, we'll go to questions. Kate in Florida sent this one for you, Clark. I'm in my early 40s and a single parent to a young child. Following your suggestion, I obtained a 30-year fixed-term life insurance policy for $1 million last year, which gives me peace of mind. Although I'm generally healthy, I'm significantly overweight and currently pay about $2,750 a year for the policy, which has a rating premium due to my weight. I've lost around 50 pounds in the last year,

• 18:41Speaker 02

  Congratulations.

• 18:42Speaker 03

  but I still need to lose another 50 pounds to reach a normal BMI, which I expect will take another 12 to 18 months. Can I and when should I start obtaining new quotes for coverage due to my weight loss? I know that each year that passes will increase my premiums due to my age. Though as my son grows, I might consider a shorter-term policy like 20 to 25 years instead of 30. For rating purposes, will losing weight make a significant difference? Or will insurers require me to maintain a healthy weight for a certain period before adjusting my risk rating? Obviously, I would not cancel my current policy until I have a new one in place. While I can afford the premiums, I'd rather not spend the extra money if it's unnecessary. Thank you for all your great advice. I've been listening since I was seated in the backward third-row seat

• 19:26Speaker 03

  of my mom's dual-tone station wagon with fake wood trim, which you can guess has been a long time.

• 19:32Speaker 02

  Okay, I love that, Kate. So first of all, there's a great thing you're doing, getting to the normal BMI. Not that many Americans have a normal BMI. If you're only, as best you can tell, a year to 18 months away. And you're in your early 40s, no need for you to feel like you need to rush to apply. Give it another year or so, you get your BMI near normal or normal. That's when you apply again, depending on the insurer. Some insurers will just do a current medical exam of you. And your premiums will be based on what your current condition is.

• 20:15Speaker 02

  Others may do it based on checking your prior medical background. And there may be a longer period of time till they will quote you a significantly lower rate. Having reduced your weight at such a remarkable pace, it's just great. But you will be able in the next year or so to quote a lower premium on a level term. And it'll be up to you whether you do 25 or 30 years. Since your child's young and you've got another 25 years of work in front of you or whatever.

• 20:55Speaker 02

  I would at least go 25 year level term, maybe 30 with the replacement you'll get in a year or two.

• 21:03Speaker 03

  Matthew in Texas says, now I'm moving to a new credit union and I was about to buy new checks. But then I asked myself if I even need checks anymore. I looked through my records and see I've only written 10 checks in the last 10 years. Practically all of my payments are electronic, so I'm tempted not to even buy a checkbook. Do you have any advice about what I should do on occasions when I need to write a check? I'm thinking that on the rare times I do need a paper check, I might use a cashier's check or money order, or I should just ask the credit union for a free supply of temporary checks. But I suspect that I will inevitably still need to write a check sometimes. What do you think?

• 21:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think a lot of credit unions give you a starter book of 10 checks. And if you're ever going to need more, then you have to order them. I would ask your credit union if they have any kind of courtesy starter checkbook you can have of like 10 checks. Ask what happens if you don't get checks and you occasionally need to have them issue a check. What is the cost for that? And depending on the credit union, you may get so many courtesy free ones a year. And after that you have to pay. But yeah, I mean, it's so dangerous to have a checkbook. Checks are so obsolete. We're the only developed country that still writes the

• 22:22Speaker 02

  kind of paper checks we do. Everybody else has moved away from that. And thank goodness, the number of checks written in the United States keeps going down because the check system, the clearing system for checks is not a safe system. It is dangerous to you, dangerous to your money, and also creates the possibility, if somebody writes a check as if they're you, that you end up being arrested. Checks need to go the way of the dodo bird.

• 22:57Speaker 03

  Alan in California says, "Last week I made a purchase at my local grocery store for $44 using Apple Pay. I declined a receipt. When I got home, I received a text alert from my Costco Visa for $123.50. How did this happen? At this store, at least, there was a two-stage process. First, my card got authorized, and then I went on my merry way home. But the second stage, which was not done, is for the checker to approve the sale, closing out my purchase. This was inadvertently not done, so I paid for the buyer after me. The lesson learned is always get a receipt and set up text alerts. I'm sure this happens to other people, but if you don't get text alerts, it's unlikely you will ever realize what happened. I was made whole by the store, including getting my groceries for free."

• 23:40Speaker 02

  That is fantastic. I mean, that is wonderful that that happened at the store. And I'm so glad you shared this. So I use the Google competitor, Google Wallet, and I have mine set up where every time I use Google Wallet, I get an alert by text, and I wear a Samsung Watch, and I immediately get it showing me where I did the purchase and how much it was for. And so, anyone who uses Apple Pay or Google Wallet, you want to do that, getting receipts. Most people don't keep good track of receipts, so you want the electronic thing.

• 24:25Speaker 02

  And if you don't get that alert, which usually comes within probably five to 10 seconds when I've tapped to pay, if you don't get that alert, you know, stop right then and make sure that transaction went through. In this case...

• 24:42Speaker 02

  Alan, I love that you shared the story and that everybody did the right thing after a bad clerical thing occurred. It's great. And thank you so much for joining us on today's podcast. I hope that you have just a wonderful week this week. And I want to tell you, we serve you all week long with our newsletters. Our newsletters are free, by the way. Our website's Clark.com and ClarkDeals.com. What we have available to you on YouTube, on social media, and those of you live in markets where I'm on the television news, I still do that.

• 25:24Speaker 02

  I've been doing that for 35 years. And I still do commentaries on radio. I've been doing that for 39 years and scattered markets around the country these days. The idea is to reach you however, wherever, and whenever you want to be empowered with knowledge. And if you've got a problem or a question that you've not heard us address, we provide one-on-one free advice for that through our Consumer Action Center.

• 26:00Speaker 02

  You can see how to get that information, have that one-on-one free conversation at Clark.com/CAC. Everything we do, every way we do it, is all about you being empowered so you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. And we'll see you on Wednesday.