"Buy Nothing" groups have exploded in popularity. They can help people save money, cut down on waste and connect with their local community.

Idgie Watkins and Cathy Kusman-Kelly participate in their community "Buy Nothing" group. In their group, neighbors exchange items and services for free.

“Someone gave away plumbing work. We have a brand-new harmonica kit. We went from beds and furniture to household stuff, pots and pans,” said Kusman-Kelly.

Saving money wasn’t the original motivation behind the Buy Nothing Project.

Liesel Clark and her friend noticed plastics washing up on beaches near their Washington state home. They and their children logged all the plastics they were finding and learned they were coming from everyone.

“They’re coming from our homes, our cars, our workplaces.”

In 2013, the Buy Nothing Project started off as a social experiment to see if they could find items they might need or want from neighbors before purchasing something new.

People started sharing and giving right away. Soon, Liesel developed rules and guidelines for others to start their own hyper-local "Buy Nothing" groups. Now, there is an app that has grown to more than 6.5 million users nationwide.

Liesel says most people start by posting items they want to give away. She encourages people to ask for something they need before buying it.

“We’re challenging people to think creatively about how they might be giving to their loved ones," she said. "People share food even over the holidays. And this is a great time when people are traveling, you can borrow luggage.”

The Buy Nothing Project also offers free online courses to teach people how to grow this gift economy.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Inflation has hit the holiday season causing many of shoppers to look even harder for a good sale. But this holiday season, experts are urging people to think local more than ever before.

"Big retailers as well as small retailers are recognizing people are worried about inflation,” said Stephan Weiller, a professor of economics at Colorado State University. "The holiday season is pretty important in terms of the economy. As a country, we are supposed to spend over a trillion dollars on holiday sales. That's 5% of the GDP, or 5% of what we produce is actually sold during the Christmas season, which is pretty unbelievable."

With inflation increasing the price of goods by sometimes 8%, many people are turning toward shopping online and in big chain stores.

"That’s what big box stores are doing; they’re discounting deep and often and that's what people are seeing,” Weiller said.

"The big box stores and Targets and Walmarts are really captivating the toy businesses,” said Richard Skorman, the owner of Little Richard’s Toy Store in Colorado Springs. “They used to have two or three aisles of toys, but now they have 15 or 20. So, it's hard for small business owner small toy store owner to compete sometimes. We have to innovate."

Economists are now trying to inform consumers to consider small privately owned toy shops for their holiday spending.

"If you're shopping for example at big chains all of that money goes away from the community, it goes to corporate headquarters,” Weiller said. “Spending locally keeps dollars flowing in that community.”

"So, Christmas is a big part of our sales,” Skorman said. “It could be up to 60% of our sales for the whole year, so it's really important for us."

Skorman has kept his business alive by carrying things big box stores might not actually carry.

"We've been preparing for this for months and months,” Skorman said. “We weren't sure if the supply chain was going to be hurt this year because last year, toys were hanging out on boats from China, so we bought a lot local, and we have a good full stock right now."

Economists say that it's hard for small businesses to compete with big chain prices, but Skorman believes stores like his can get through inflation by investing in their customer service.

"You'll find that people who work in locally-owned stores are really knowledgeable,” Skorman said. “And in some cases, local stores can talk you into something cheaper than what you were going to get so that could be an inflation buster. If you lose your small businesses in a community, you really lose your sense of character, your sense of place and a fair amount of money that would be invested and that community goes away."

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Birdie Hansen stumbled nose-first into her small business during a time when most businesses were standing still.

"It was just a little hobby that I was doing around when everyone was doing their sourdough starters," she said

Her pandemic project turned into Effing Candle Co. in Kansas City, where she and her husband make cozy candles with a big sense of humor.

It’s a business that’s been growing, despite the odds, but as many small businesses can relate, success hasn’t come easily.

"The cost of our materials have definitely gone up this year, our wax our fragrances. Shipping is more expensive. Labels have gone up. Like everything that we touch has gone up in price," she said.

What consumers are feeling in terms of inflation, small businesses feel too. Inflation right now is at 7.7% and, according to Deloitte, that’s reflected in the holiday spending outlook.

Holiday spending is expected to stay stagnant at $1,455 per household, but consumers plan to buy less gifts—nine compared to 16—and will pull back on non-gift spending by 12%.

While low-income earners plan on spending 25% more than last year, high-income earners will most likely spend 7% less.

"Every day was a teachable moment for the last two and a half years," said Larry Wigger, an associate professor of supply chain management at the University of Missouri Kansas City.

Wigger had a lot to talk about in his classroom lately. He says inflation has been made worse by the lack of labor and supply chain disruptions of both the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

"Just when we thought we were gonna recover it, set everybody back again," he said.

Wigger says that it will most likely take big shifts in society until we get back to how things were before the pandemic, including growing interest in blue-collar jobs and figuring out long-term supply solutions. In the meantime, there are opportunities for businesses to get creative to weather the current climate.

"Rethinking how you source your stuff, being creative about your hiring, and really thinking through your job descriptions," he said.

Getting creative is exactly what Birdie has been doing at her candle company.

What has worked in her favor is making sure her products come in a variety of price points, offering big discounts on imperfect products, and online gifts with purchases and free shipping minimums to entice buyers. She also hopes consumers keep small businesses like hers in mind when deciding where to spend this holiday season as every dollar continues to mean so much.

"We are just the ones out here making a product that we love, for consumers that we love," she said.

Finding the right gift for Father’s Day fills some with dread. Do you get him another tie? A briefcase? Some new gadget? Though these ideas are old-fashioned, sometimes the old ideas are the best.

And sometimes not.

A reporter in 1978, who jokingly gifted his mom a bridge for Mother’s Day, had a high-flying idea he thought his father would really enjoy.

WATCH the video to see what far out gift he wanted to get for his dad.

If you need more inspiration, we’ve compiled a list of some of Amazon customers’ most-loved Father’s Day gifts, including unique products for the adventurous dad, the techie dad, the sporty dad, the hard-to-shop-for dad, or gifts that every dad will love.

Can’t get enough? Here are some more blasts from the past to indulge your nostalgia.

WATCH: Teens decode slang from 2001 like 'tight,' 'oasis'

Do you feel me? Bling blinging? A dime piece? If you're scratching your head, you're not alone. This is just some of the esoteric slang that kids used back in 2001. One reporter was stumped about their meanings herself. She enlisted the help of some “super hip” high school seniors to help decode the cryptic jargon.

WATCH: Horse gives birth to zebra in 1984

Scientists were looking for ways to bolster the zebra population when they had the idea to get a helping hand from a cousin. A quarter horse named Kelley gave birth to Zebra E.Q. on May 17, 1984, at the Louisville Zoo. It was the first successful embryo transfer from an exotic to a domestic equine.

Retro History Find: 1997 device promised ability to talk to your dog decades before viral TikTok trend

Ever wonder what your dog was trying to tell you? A company in 1997 invented the HERO, a canine communication device. It aimed to bridge the gap between barks and words, improving the owner-dog relationship.

NEW YORK (AP) — Love her or loathe her, Barbie has been transformed again, this time into a version for children as young as 3.

Gone is the contentious hourglass figure for My First Barbie, which launched Thursday ahead of July's live-action film about the icon starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

The slightly softer-bodied Barbie follows on the high heels of tall, petite and curvy iterations that were released five years ago in a massive makeover.

My First Barbie is 13.5 inches tall, 2 inches taller than traditional Babs, with a larger waist that de-emphasizes the bust line (it remains in place, however), and flesh-tone modesty undergarments permanently attached.

Her fashion is more kid-like, with playful heart, star and flower designs on jammies and flouncy preschool-friendly dresses and swim gear. Her accessories are larger for littler hands, and her hair is extra long for easier brushing.

My First Barbie's limbs are moveable, like some past versions of the doll, and her facial features remain recognizable. A huge milestone: Her fingers and thumbs are connected, eliminating a frequent complaint that Barbie's hands get caught in her clothes when children try to put them on.

Lisa McKnight, a Mattel executive vice president and global head of Barbie and dolls, told The Associated Press the company created the new version in response to feedback from parents.

“We talk to parents and kids almost 365 days a year,” she said. “We started hearing a theme around younger kids wanting to play with Barbie. Parents were concerned that their children at the preschool age didn’t have the fine motor skills to have a positive play experience with our traditional fashion doll.”

The first rollout of the new doll includes four diverse skin tones and hair textures.

Critics of 63-year-old Barbie, intended to symbolize a girl in her late teens, have long cited her dimensions as promoting unattainable, sexualized body standards for girls. My First Barbie, at a price point of $19.99, goes a long way in eliminating that issue.

McKnight wouldn’t directly address the criticism or whether My First Barbie has a place in turning around that negative view.

Research is mixed on whether Barbie's bad rap on body issues and her adult-leaning fashion sense have any impact on children, said Jody LeVos, once a leader of Mattel's child development and learning team and now chief learning officer for Begin, a company that creates learning apps and other educational fare for kids.

Among parents, she said, “there's a big nostalgia factor” when it comes to Barbie.

“I don’t think there's one specific doll that’s most appropriate. I think doll play allows children to really practice storytelling skills, perspective taking and social interactions,” LeVos said.

The Barbie line’s overall sales have soared in recent years after a period of decline in 2013.

Joaniko Kohchi, director for Adelphi University’s Institute for Parenting, questioned Mattel's motives.

“If we’re going to think about Mattel guiding our choices then we have already kind of limited them,” she said.

McKnight made it clear that My First Barbie will not be a separate, parallel Barbie universe. She said new content featuring the doll will hit Barbie's YouTube channel later this month, with an animated special about the planning of a surprise party.

Andrea Werner, a pediatric occupational therapist in West Hartford, Connecticut, and mother of a preschooler and an infant, supports doll play as developmentally valuable.

“There are plenty of dolls on the market,” she said. “Companies will always be trying to sell consumers the next best thing.”

Kohchi isn't entirely sold on My First Barbie as appropriate.

“We know that if you’re going to hand a child an image and say, this is beauty or this is wonderful or look how pretty that is, it should resemble the child a little bit more closely,” she said. “It’s certainly still a little older than a preschooler.”

Banana Boat is expanding its recall of Banana Boat Hair & Scalp Sunscreen Spray SPF 30 due to the presence of benzene, which is classified as a human carcinogen.

Edgewell Personal Care Company says an additional batch of the sunscreen was added to the recall announcement from July.

The products all feature the same UPC code: 0-79656-04041-8. However, they have different lot codes and expiration dates.

Lot Code Expiration Date 
20016AF Dec. 2022
20084BF Feb. 2023
21139AF April 2024
20301CF Sept. 2023

The company says the sunscreen was distributed nationwide and sold at various retailers and online. It adds that it has notified retailers to pull the product from their shelves.

Benzene is not an ingredient in Bobana Boat products, according to Edgewell Personal Care Company. However, the company says "a review showed that unexpected levels of benzene came from the propellant that sprays the product out of the can."

The Centers for Disease Control notes that benzene can be found in the environment due to a variety of factors, including tobacco smoke, vehicle exhaust and industrial emissions.

The agency warns that long-term exposure to benzene can affect the immune system and cause cancer.

Consumers are asked to discard the recalled sunscreen. They can contact Edgewell Personal Care at 1-888-686-3988 for information about how to be reimbursed.

Bed Bath & Beyond is hoping its latest financial move will allow it to stave off bankruptcy.

The company announced a stock offering that it expects to bring in more than $1 billion. The money will be used to pay off some of its debt and attempt to rehab the struggling business.

Bed Bath & Beyond filed a report in January with the Securities and Exchange Commission that said it received notice of default on a loan from JPMorgan Chase Bank.

The company also plans to close 150 more stores across the country. The announcement comes about a week after the company said it would close 90 additional Bed Bath & Beyond stores.

The company also announced last week that it was closing all of its Harmon locations. They are mostly located in New York and New Jersey— with additional locations in California, Nevada and Florida.

If the stock selloff does not work, Bed Bath & Beyond warned that it will likely need to file bankruptcy.

The retailer initiated a new merchandising and inventory strategy in the third quarter of 2022. However, Sue Gove, president and CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., said they did not achieve their goals.

The company reported that sales declined more than 30% compared to the third quarter of 2021.

Click here to see the full list of store closures

Adidas expects to lose $1.3 billion in revenue due to ending its partnership with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West.

The company cut ties with Ye in 2022 after the rapper made numerous antisemitic remarks.

It's still unclear what the German apparel company will do with the existing Yeezy products. However, it says if they are not repurposed Adidas' operating profits could be lowered by an additional $500 million this year.

“The numbers speak for themselves. We are currently not performing the way we should”, said Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden. “2023 will be a year of transition to set the base to again be a growing and profitable company."

Adidas had a moderately successful 2022. The company reports that revenues increased by 1% in currency-neutral terms.

"We need to put the pieces back together again, but I am convinced that over time we will make adidas shine again. But we need some time," Gulden said.

News of the drop in revenue sent Adidas stocks tumbling on Friday. It was down by more than 1% before the market closed.

Inflation is at its highest point in decades, but there may be some hard-to-spot price hikes in the supermarket aisles, disguised from consumers by creative packaging.

Consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky said "shrinkflation," another term for product downsizing or manufacturers putting less product in a package for the same price, is more common during times of inflation.

"It really does come in waves and, unfortunately, we are in the middle of a big wave right now," said Dworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org.

"Prices are going up, and I think companies want to do the most to make sure it looks like they're not the ones raising their prices," Milwaukee shopper Sam Krieg observed.

Dworsky highlighted examples of shrinkflation.

"We always used to buy half-a-gallon of orange juice. Then it went down to 59 ounces. Then it went down to 52 ounces," he said.

Consumers are likely to find fewer sheets in a roll of paper towels, less pet food in a can or maybe an ounce less of cereal in a box.

"That little 1-ounce multiplied by tens of millions is big bucks in their pocket, and out of your pocket," Dworsky said.

He said other manufacturers may change the shape of their package.

"There's now an indent on the bottom of the Skippy jar that's, in essence, dead space. Gatorade came in 32-ounce bottles. They're now 28 ounces. Look for the one that kind of has a waistline on it. That's the one that's 4 ounces shorter," Dworsky said.

Sister station WISN found an example of downsizing on a Milwaukee store's shelf.

The older package for a tube of Crest 3D White toothpaste showed it contained 4.1 ounces, while the newer package listed 3.8 ounces.

Selling for the same price, the newer tube contained 7% less toothpaste.

Crest's parent company, Procter & Gamble sent a statement to WISN 12 saying in part, "P&G takes a holistic view of pricing by product category... Our focus is on delivering superior products with the best performance, ultimately delivering value to our consumers."

The best advice for shoppers may be to check the price per ounce or per unit, which is often posted in smaller print on the store shelf.

But even that may be hard to find because not all states require stores to post a unit price.

Nineteen states require some form of unit pricing, WISN reports.

Dworsky said consumers who don't routinely check unit prices may not be aware when a product has been downsized.

"Manufacturers are counting on consumers not noticing," he said.

But is it an attempt to deceive consumers?

"It certainly is a bit of package trickery, to say the least. Does it cross the line to be illegal? No," Dworsky said.

It's just a cleverly disguised hit to your household budget.

When COVID-19 broke out in the United States, one of the first corners of life that was upended was grocery shopping: The aisles stood bare as the public stocked up, and then people turned to online shopping to stay safe in their homes.

But the transition online hasn't been seamless, according to a new study published Thursday.

Packaged foods are required by federal regulations to have nutritional facts and ingredients available for consumers to review when they are shopping in brick-and-mortar grocery stores. But information for some products in many online grocery retailers was not listed anywhere, the study published in Public Health Nutrition found.

"I think it's a misconception that people don't read the food labels," said study co-author Jennifer Pomeranz, an assistant professor of public health policy and management at New York University School of Global Public Health. "People who have been diagnosed with a disease or told that they are at risk for disease, the elderly, people with children ... people with allergies. ... People read food labels for different reasons, and it's incredibly important for safety purposes."

The study looked at 10 major national packaged products across nine online retailers at the start of 2021 and found that nutritional facts and ingredient lists were not included at all for almost 11% of products across retailers. In products that contained them, 63% did not disclose the presence of common food allergens, according to the study.

The United States Food and Drug Administration specifies what information needs to be available to consumers. That includes serving sizes, calories, added sugars, allergens, ingredients, and daily values of sodium, sugar, carbohydrates, fats and protein.

"I would argue that not disclosing the nutrition facts panel and the ingredients list, including allergens, is an unfair or deceptive act," Pomeranz said.

There is a limitation to the study in that the sample size is small, said Wendy White, industry manager for food and beverage at Georgia Institute of Technology, who was not affiliated with the study. White added that the small sample could limit the ability of the research to give an accurate look at the state of online nutritional information.

Keeping up with COVID-19

In a world where people are growing more conscientious about what is in their food, Pomeranz speculates that leaving out nutritional information is a strategy to sell packaged foods.

But White thinks the issue is more logistical than strategic.

"The pandemic changed everything for everyone," White said. "It really expedited the growth of (online) sales in a way no one could have anticipated, and so all of a sudden this became a forefront issue."

She added, "This is an excuse like any other, but I really do think with the pandemic a lot of retailers were caught unaware, and they really had to put together their online e-commerce platforms very, very quickly."

For a company looking to get a lot of products to many people quickly, it's a lot easier to put a picture of the packaging online than it is to make sure all the information is easily accessible, White explained.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for regulating labeling practices, and though White said the agency has taken steps to address the online information gap, it may take time.

"I think, the FDA, they are definitely taking steps to correct this gap that we currently have in some types of online food sales, but unfortunately the speed at which the FDA can create and then enforce regulations is notably slow," she said.

In the past, the FDA has recommended that online nutritional information be similar to its in-store counterpart, but "we acknowledge that most of our labeling requirements pre-date online sales practices," said FDA spokesperson Courtney Rhodes. The agency has been learning more about online labeling to inform recommendations and discussed the issue at an E-Commerce Summit in October.

"The FDA anticipates engaging further with stakeholders on the issue to inform next steps," Rhodes said.

People need to know

Whether for an allergy, diabetes, hypertension or even just being mindful of health, White said many people are cautious about what they eat.

"Understanding what is in a product, especially a formulated product, is vital to a lot of consumers out there," White said.

The U.S. has rules and regulations about how companies disclose nutritional information, which shows both what ingredients are in the food and how much of potentially harmful elements like sodium and sugar are in a serving.

"The American consumer has become very used to being able to access this information very easily. They're used to going to the supermarket, picking up that can, looking at the label and understanding exactly what is in that product," White said.

While policy on a national level might be slow going, the public can promote transparency from online grocery retailers with where they choose to spend their money, Pomeranz said.

"Online retailers have the ability to track our purchases and what we search for online, so it's important for people to know that they're not shopping on a blank slate," she said. "With that knowledge, it's worth looking around for retailers who do provide the information."

Pomeranz added, "It's becoming even more of a hot topic for younger consumers, and so obviously they may have a lot of spending power. So, it would be worth it for retailers to compete on that transparency aspect."

These 37 Bed Bath & Beyond stores are closing

Updated: 1:23 PM EST Jan 6, 2022

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