Holiday marketers have your number, and they know how to entice you to spend. However, you can position yourself to recognize – and overcome – overspending triggers.

Holiday shopping can be stressful – but it doesn’t have to be. To help spread seasonal cheer, WTTW News staffers picked our favorite local options.

There’s a powerful new player watching what you buy so it can tailor product offerings for you: the bank behind your credit or debit card.

The coming weeks will be the first test of whether they can make that happen during the busy holiday shopping season, when onslaughts of orders and bad weather can lay waste to even the best delivery plans.

This year’s list highlights 30 items that have been recalled over the past year because they pose safety hazards to children, including two infant sleepers linked to more than 30 deaths. 

The charity’s leaders hope adding Apple and Google payment options will boost giving to the red kettle campaign, which makes up 10% of its annual fundraising. Those donations fund programs providing housing, food and other support to people in poverty.

A Nerf dart gun, ice cream-scented Nickelodeon slime and a plastic Power Rangers claw are among the toys topping a consumer safety group’s list of worst toys for the holidays.

When you think of the hotbeds of high fashion, New York, Milan and Paris probably all come to mind. That’s something Chicago Fashion Week is hoping to change.

Sure, you could go to your local grocery store and grab a gourd – but what’s the fun in that? We share a bounty of spots for plucking a pumpkin.

More than 30 countries have banned cosmetics testing on animals, and while the practice hasn’t been banned in the U.S., Illinois is now the third state to enact “humane cosmetics” legislation. The new law takes effect Jan. 1, 2020.

How did fights over high hats and hoopskirts shape Chicago’s downtown as a shopping destination? We talk with the author of a new book about women and consumer culture at the turn of the century.

Young Chicagoans have joined the fair trade movement – and they want you to get on board, too.

For almost 50 years, 20th Century TV and Stereo has repaired stereos, tape decks, VCRs and more. But the mom-and-pop shop is fighting to remain relevant as technology continues to evolve.  

With the holiday season upon us, consumer advocates are warning shoppers about hazardous toys. Find out which products to leave on the shelf.

‘Tis the season for shopping, but U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush is calling on constituents to avoid buying gifts, and anything else, following Target’s decision to close a pair of stores on Chicago’s predominately black South Side.

This week, retail giant Amazon announced plans to open a fourth Amazon Go location in Chicago next year. Will this high-tech model be the future of retail?