The Psychology of Warranties Protection RacketIf extended guarantees are overpriced, why are they so popular?CUSTOMERS tend to agonise over the relative merits of different models of electronic goods such as digital cameras or plasma televisions. But when they get to the till, many spend freely on something they barely think about at all: an extended warranty, which is often more profitable to the retailer than the device it covers.Shoppers typically pay 10% -50% of the cost of a product to insure it beyond the term covered by the manufacturer’s guarantee. （ 1） Yet products rarely break within the period covered, and repairs tend to cost no more than the warranty itself. （ 2）So why, asks a paper published in the December issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, so many consumers still buy extended warranties? The authors — Tao Chen of the University of Maryland, Ajay Kalra of Rice University and Baohong Sun of Carnegie Mellon University — examined purchase data from a big electronics retailer for over 600 households from November 2003 to October 2004.（3 ）If a customer is about to buy something fun (i. e., a plasma television rather than a vacuum cleaner), he will be more inclined to splash out on extra insurance. This is because consumers value “hedonic” items over utilitarian ones, regardless of the actual price tag. （4 ） The study also found that poorer consumers are more likely to buy “potentially unnecessary and overpriced insurance”, because they are more worried about the expense of replacing a product if it breaks.（ 5） But although most policies go unused, he admits that the emotional tranquility that comes with buying a new warranty is not in itself without value, even if “rationally, it doesn’t make sense”.
A.This is especially true if the item is on sale, as finding an unexpected bargain leaves buyers feeling flush and pleased. B.The terms of these deals vary (and there is often a great deal of fine print), but they usually promise to repair or replace a faulty device for between one and four years. C.Only in the present century has one species man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world. D.This is because consumers are more likely to buy “hedonic” items. E.They concluded that the decision to buy a warranty had a great deal to do with a shopper’s mood. F.The popularity of warranties should logically depend on the likelihood of a product’s failure, says Mr. Kalra. G.That makes warranties amazingly profitable: they generate over $ 16 billion annually for American retailers, according to Warranty Week, a trade journal.
问题2：
A.This is especially true if the item is on sale, as finding an unexpected bargain leaves buyers feeling flush and pleased. B.The terms of these deals vary (and there is often a great deal of fine print), but they usually promise to repair or replace a faulty device for between one and four years. C.Only in the present century has one species man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world. D.This is because consumers are more likely to buy “hedonic” items. E.They concluded that the decision to buy a warranty had a great deal to do with a shopper’s mood. F.The popularity of warranties should logically depend on the likelihood of a product’s failure, says Mr. Kalra. G.That makes warranties amazingly profitable: they generate over $ 16 billion annually for American retailers, according to Warranty Week, a trade journal.
问题3：
A.This is especially true if the item is on sale, as finding an unexpected bargain leaves buyers feeling flush and pleased. B.The terms of these deals vary (and there is often a great deal of fine print), but they usually promise to repair or replace a faulty device for between one and four years. C.Only in the present century has one species man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world. D.This is because consumers are more likely to buy “hedonic” items. E.They concluded that the decision to buy a warranty had a great deal to do with a shopper’s mood. F.The popularity of warranties should logically depend on
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A few decades ago, it was still possible to leave home and go somewhere else: the architecture was different, the landscape was different, the language, lifestyle, dress, and values were different. That was a time when we could speak of cultural diversity. But with economic globalization, diversity is fast disappearing. The goal of the global economy is that all countries should be homogenized. When global hotel chains advertise to tourists that all their rooms in every city of the world are identical, they don’t mention that the cities are becoming identical too: cars, noise, smog, corporate high-rises, violence, fast food, McDonalds, Nikes, Levis, Barbie Dolls, American TV and film. What’s the point of leaving home?There are many causes for this dreary turn of events, but one is central: economic globalization and institutions like the World Bank and the WTO promote a specific kind of homogenizing development that frees the largest corporations in the world to invest and operate in every market, everywhere. For these agencies and corporation, diversity is not a primary value: efficiency is. Diversity is an enemy because it requires differentiated sales appeal. What corporations love is creating the same values, the same tastes, using the same advertising, selling the same products, and driving out small local competitors. Mass marketers prefer homogenized consumers. They also prefer places with low wages, cheap resources, and the least restrictive environmental and labor laws.The new rules of global trade are primarily set by the ultra-secretive World Trade Organization (WTO), which now rivals the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the most powerful, yet undemocratic body in the world. Its rules are specifically designed to serve global corporate expansion and the homogenization process. They make it nearly impossible for nation-states to prevent certain harmful forms of corporate development, no matter what problems they bring. So we find that European bankers can dominate Third World economies ; Asian companies can cut down Canadian and Brazilian forests ; American corporations can dominate the whole world’s farmers and food supply ; Disney can homogenize consciousness and McDonalds can homogenize tastes, globally. Every country loses while global corporations win.Corporate invasions into diverse cultures often occur over vigorous protests by local governments and populations that try to protect local business, culture, health, food safety, and local livelihoods. Not everyone wants to become like everyone else. ( More than one million of India’s small farmers protested against the entry of industrial agriculture, specifically Cargill Corporation and Kentucky Fried Chicken. ) Millions of others have protested against the invasion and promotion of genetically engineered foods which are destroying local livelihoods and threatening public health. But when countries try to slow down these corporate invasions—or create laws that protect local resources, or jobs, or health standards一they may find the laws challenged at the WTO as illegal restrictions against foreign investment. In fact, a recently proposed addition to the WTO would make it nearly impossible for any country to prevent imports of biotech food products—despite public concern over health aspects.Meanwhile, all places are starting to merge. In rural France, local cheese farms are sucked up by giant agribusiness. In England, small towns in the countryside have high-speed freeways and trucks jamming through them despite mass opposition. Rice paddies in Bali are turned into hotel resorts. Small farms in Japan become executive golf courses. Small businesses and retail shops everywhere, including the U. S. , are being driven under by untaxed e-commerce, which the WTO may soon codify. Nepalese villages have Sylvester Stallone on their billboards, Barbie in their stores, and Jay Leno on their TV sets.Every place is becoming everyplace else: monoculture. “Get the
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