Percentage of general shoppers who compare store brands to brand names, according to a study conducted by The Integer Group: 77

Percentage of shoppers who indicate that they continue to buy brand-name products over store-brand alternatives because they trust the brand: 51

Source: Integer Group.

Projected total election-related ad specialty (aka promotional product) spending in 2012, according to the Advertising Specialty Institute: $870 million

Cost of "I Meow for Michelle" cat collar in Democrat Barack Obama's re-election campaign store: $12

Cost of Romney sweatshirts: $60

Source: Advertising Specialty Institute.

Percentage of U.S. iPad owners who feel disgruntled that Apple has released a new iPad 4 only seven months after the release of the latest iPad 3, according to Toluna QuickSurveys: 45

Percentage of U.S. consumers who believe Apple's reputation has been tarnished by the iMaps fiasco following the iPhone 5 release: 26

Source: Toluna QuickSurveys.

Percentage of coffee drinking workers who actually drink two cups or more each workday for energy and motivation, according to a survey commissioned jointly by Dunkin' Donuts and CareerBuilder: 63

Percentage who drink three cups or more: 28

Percentage of workers age 18 to 24 who say they are less productive without coffee: 62

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Amount of money that adults in affluent households are expected to average in gift purchases (almost four times the $549 for all families), according to the National Retail Federation's Fall 2012 Affluent Market Tracking Study: $2,102

Ranks of some form of currency (a gift card/certificate or money/check) and clothing on the list of top choices on the holiday wish list of affluent women: 1, 2

Ranks of clothing and money on the list of top choices on the holiday wish list of affluent men: 1, 2

Source: National Retail Federation.

Percentage of global respondents who prefer straightforward ads over funny ones online and on their mobile devices, according to Ipsos: 58

Percentage of North Americans who prefer ads that make them laugh over those that are straightforward: 56

Source: Ipsos-Reid.

Year that the spinach-eating sailor Popeye first appeared -- and soon spinach was the third favorite children's food, after turkey and ice cream: 1929

Annual value of the spinach crop in the U.S.: $204 million

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Of Americans who decorate for the holidays, percentage who will spend more money on decorations for the December holidays than on Halloween or Thanksgiving, according to a survey conducted by RetailMeNot and The Omnibus: 86

Average amount of money that consumers spend on holiday decorations from October through December for everything from jack-o'-lanterns to cornucopia centerpieces to Christmas trees: $284

Source: RetailMeNot.com.

Percentage of Americans who have a jaundiced view of the nation's overall economic health and believe that the economy has "not improved or gotten better" in recent years, according to a survey from Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute: 59

Specific to the manufacturing sector, percentage of Americans who feel it is likely to improve in the next 12 months: 16

Percentage who feel it will weaken: 23

Source: Deloitte.

Percentage of moms active in social media who are buying products as a result of a social media recommendation, according to a study conducted by Child's Play Communications: 92

Of all social media platforms, percentage of moms' purchasing decisions that were impacted by blogs more than any other platform: 80

Percentage of moms who tried Pinterest for the first time this year: 63

Source: Child's Play Communications.

Idle Thought

"The worst kind of people are those who confuse kindness for weakness." -- Werner Makowski, banker (b. 1929)

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Percentage of Apple fans who would like to have lunch with Steve Jobs, according to the results of a poll by ProtectYourBubble.com: 33.6

Percentage who would want to break bread with Albert Einstein: 27.3

Percentage who would want to spend time with JFK: 23.1

Source: Protect Your Bubble.

Percentage of Americans who say they feel closer to their family when sharing a meal together, according to a survey fielded by ORC International: 94

Percentage of respondents who say they would like to eat together as a family more than four nights a week: 75

Percentage who actually do: 44

Source: Olive Garden.

Ranks of London, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and Bangkok on the list of the top cities around the world to hail a taxi, according to the annual global taxi survey compiled by Hotels.com: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Globally, approximate percentage of people who are willing to tip a taxi driver: 46

Source: Hotels.com.

In the 54 days from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, 2011, percentage of products that were on sale on Black Friday below their initial holiday season price, according to a study by ShopAdvisor that tracked the prices of 252 toys: 46

If Santa had purchased all 252 for his bag on Black Friday, amount of money he would have saved compared to the original holiday season prices: $515

Source: ShopAdvisor.

Percentage of Americans who say that when it comes to vacuuming, they cut corners by skipping areas underneath or behind furniture and clean only when they see visible dirt on the floor, according to a Kenmore brand survey: 49

Percentage of Americans who occasionally or never take off their shoes before entering the house: 50

Source: Russell Research.

Percentage of people who enjoy spending time with their in-laws on Thanksgiving, according to a study by Wayfair.com: 70

Percentage of survey respondents who would rather do just about anything else -- whether that be washing the Thanksgiving Day dishes, going to work or standing in Black Friday lines: 30

Percentage of this year's Thanksgiving gatherings that will include more than 10 people around the table: 33

Source: Wayfair.com.

Percentage of American small business owners who say that using business cards to network is "very impactful," according to an Ipsos poll conducted for MOO.com: 34

Number of business cards given out by the average American small business owner in a given month: 40

Source: MOO.com.

As announced in February 2012, the historic joint state-federal settlement among 49 state attorneys general, the federal government and the country's five largest mortgage servicers, amount of money provided in relief to distressed borrowers and states, according to Enterprise Community Partners: $25 billion

To date, amount states have planned to spend for housing and foreclosure-related activities: $977 million

Source: Enterprise Community Partners Inc.

Percentage of managers and supervisors who say that "it's important for them to continue improving their skills in managing distressed workers," according to a poll conducted on behalf of Great-West Life Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace: 91

Source: Ipsos Reid Public Affairs.

Percentage of Americans who believe that using a free Wi-Fi connection can lead to identity theft, according to a survey conducted with Private WiFi: 79

Percentage who admitted to accessing confidential work-related information while using a public hotspot: 57

Source: Private WiFi.

Percentage of employees in 24 countries who say they would be very likely to take a full-time job in another country for two to three years with a 10 percent pay increase, according to a poll conducted by global research company Ipsos: 25

Percentage of global employees who agree that "there is nothing my employer could do to convince me to take an international assignment": 35

Source: Ipsos Global Public Affairs.

To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail. -- Abraham Maslow

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Percentage of American voters who would use the new Super PAC App (created by former MIT students) that "listens" to political TV ads and tells the user how much money was spent on the ad, as well as the organization that funded it, according to a survey by Politcal.com: 77

Percentage of Political.com voters who say Super PACs wield too much influence in national politics: 80

Source: Political.com.

Estimated number of people on dating websites in the U.S., according to research by LuvFax.com: 50 million

Percentage of all relationships that now start online: 20

Estimated number of dating websites in the U.S. alone: 1,400

Estimated amount spent on U.S. dating websites each year: $1.1 billion

Source: LuvFax.com.

Percentage of employers who notice an uptick in sick days around the winter holidays, according to a CareerBuilder survey: 31

Ranks of December, July, January and February on the list of the most popular month to skip out on work: 1, 2, 3, 4

Next to actually being sick, percentage of employees who said one of the reasons they call in sick is because they just don't feel like going to work: 34

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Percentage of parents with children under the age of 18 who are beginning their holiday shopping prior to November, according to a RetailMeNot shoppers trend report: 39

Percentage of parents in the same group who still have a dismal view of the economy: 71

Percentage who worry about being able to make all the necessary purchases in the coming months: 25

Source: RetailMeNot.com.

Percentage of Americans who say they've recycled aluminum or steel cans in the past year, according to a poll conducted on behalf of Call2Recycle: 76

Percentage of recyclers who agree that "recycling is important for the Earth" and that "recycling is an important lesson for future generations": 92

Percentage who agree that "it is their civic duty to recycle": 84

Source: Ipsos Marketing, Global Consumer Goods Sector.

Year a long-running part of the nation's communications technology passed into history as the last hand-cranked telephone system in the country converted to direct dialing, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 1983

In Bryant Pond, Maine, that year, number of subscribers who were still on the old system and were still using equipment that had served rural customers since the turn of the century: 400

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of chief financial officers who say they now prefer to cultivate business relationships via social networking, according to a Robert Half Management Resources survey: 45

Percentage who say their primary purpose for networking is to grow business: 60

Percentage who said it was to keep up with industry news and developments: 20

Source: Robert Half.

Rank of motor vehicle crashes on the list of the leading causes of death for teens, according to a study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety: 1

Among 16- and 17-year-old drivers involved in fatal crashes, percentage who were speeding and had no passengers: 30

Percentage who were speeding and had two teen passengers: 44

Percentage who were speeding and had three or more teen passengers: 48

Source: AAA.

Percentage of teens who say bullying remains worse than parents realize, according to a Harlequin TEEN and The Jed Foundation survey: 78

Percentage of young women who say they have been bullied: 70

Percentage who say they do not bully others: 69

Yet percentage who engage in behaviors deemed as bullying, such as gossiping, name-calling and teasing: 30

Source: Harlequin Enterprises Limited.

Idle Thought

"Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own, instead of someone else's." -- Billy Wilder

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)