Mintel

The oracles who read economic tea leaves have a host of conventional forecasting tools, but housing starts and job growth figures can only tell you so much. To cut through the haze of data, sometimes it takes an unconventional indicator -- for example, the Hair Index.

Since the economy went bland, Americans have been trying to spice things up at home, and they're pouring on a lot of sauce to do it. Sales of cooking sauces have risen 20% between 2005 and 2010, according to a new report from market research firm Mintel.

It's been clear for some time now that the recession has taken its toll on consumers, leading them in many instances to winnow purchases down to the bare necessities. And the food industry, always on the outlook for a new gimmick to sell its wares, is paying attention. It's one reason you may...

It looks like 2009 was a bad year for men's underwear. Mintel, a consumer research firm, says that sales of men's skivvies dropped 2.3 percent from 2008. Meanwhile, NPD Group, another firm, argues that the decline was more on the order of 12 percent. Either way, it's a fair bet that many underwear...