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13 Dec 2011 11:08

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Biz: Black Friday backfire: Best Buy’s profits nosedive on heavy deals

  • 29% drop in Best Buy’s profits in the third quarter source
  • » Too many deals? Best Buy, which has become shorthand for “company that throws all its chips in on Black Friday,” lost its bet on this year’s Black Friday, as its third-quarter results (which include the waffle-iron-rioting-day) showed major weaknesses, as discounts got people into the stores but failed to get them to actually work as loss-leaders. “They were more promotional and that doesn’t bode well for the holiday season, which is going to be very, very intense,” noted Barclays Capital analyst Alan Rifkin.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2011 00:04

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U.S.: Cyber Monday’s version of Black Friday drama: Counterfeit stuff

  • 150 counterfeit websites taken down on Cyber Monday source
  • » Don’t mess with our passion for shopping. After such a turnout for Black Friday, shoppers were ready for online deals on Monday. So were websites touting fake merchandise — from sports jerseys to DVDs to accessories. This was a part of the investigation called “Operation In Our Sites,” which has seized 350 such counterfeit sites since 2010.
Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Nov 2011 20:34

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Biz: How much did people spend over Black Friday weekend?

  • $52.4 billion spent on Black Friday weekend (whoa)
  • $45B the amount spent during Black Friday weekend last year; that’s a 16 percent jump, for those playing at home
  • 226M number of shoppers over Black Friday weekend; that’s also a huge leap from 2010, and a record number
  • $398 the amount spent per customer on Black Friday weekend — a jump of more than $40 from 2010 source
  • » A big win for retail, but for humanity … eh. The heavy spending this year came with a number of downsides, most notably in the form of a series of customers-acting-crazy moments. We covered a few of these over the weekend, including an overzealous pepper sprayer and a riot over $2 waffle irons. Sure, the economy needs a serious kick in the pants, but we hope we can get said kick in the pants while being nice to our fellow human beings. Fortunately, tomorrow is Cyber Monday, where the problems with physical shopping don’t exist. Unless you know a way to shut off your neighbor’s internet. In which case you’re evil and we don’t like you anymore.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Nov 2011 08:14

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U.S.: WTF: Competitive shopper at Wal-Mart pepper sprays rivals

  • I heard screaming and I heard yelling. Moments later, my throat stung. I was coughing really bad and watering up.
  • Porter Ranch, Los Angeles, California Wal-Mart customer Matthew Lopez • Describing what happened after another customer, who authorities say was “competitive shopping,” pepper sprayed 20 people (including children!) in an attempt to beat everyone else at getting stuff. Considering, you know, this incident and this incident, the usage of pepper spray seems incredibly ironic. Authorities are looking for the person who sprayed her fellow shoppers in efforts to buy a new Xbox 360 or something similar. Humanity sucks sometimes. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Sep 2011 11:05

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Culture: Michelle Obama shops at Target: Today in things that suprise nobody

  • It is not uncommon for the First Lady to slip out to run an errand, eat at a local restaurant or otherwise enjoy the city outside the White House gates.
  • Michelle Obama’s communications director, Kristina Schake • Stating the obvious in the wake of the AP getting a photo of her shopping at Target. To which we say: Duh. Do you think she spends all of her time just hanging out at the White House all day? She’d go crazy. Heh. Most people don’t, however, need plainclothes Secret Service agents to enter the Target half an hour ahead of them just so they can go shopping. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Dec 2010 13:54

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Tech: Amazon has record-setting holiday season, led by the Kindle

  • 158 units sold each second, and 13.7 million overall source
  • » And the key factoid? Amazon’s best-selling item of all-time is the third-generation Kindle, which only came out a few months ago. That’s not the best-selling technology item. No. It managed to top the final book in the “Harry Potter” series for the mantle of Amazon’s biggest seller of all-time. At $139, guess they found their price point. And guess we have egg on our face.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Nov 2010 00:47

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Biz: Cyber Monday set for traffic increase similar to Black Friday’s

  • 107
    million     number of people expected to shop online today, Cyber Monday
  • 96.5
    million     number of people that shopped online last Cyber Monday source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

17 Nov 2010 21:49

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Biz, Tech: Google stumbles with high-fashion wannabe Boutiques.com

  • Hey Google, just some advice: If you’re creating high-fashion anything, the design can’t look like a crappy hacked, brittle WordPress knock-off. This design sucks. Why would anyone shop here for clothes? It looks, um, sloppy. But then, so did the design of Like.com, which Google acquired a few months ago (and whose team designed this). The basic idea behind both Like.com and this (think using “visual search” to find the pair of shoes you like) is pretty good, but something simply doesn’t congeal here. Design is everything with this market. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Nov 2010 23:39

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Offbeat: Posted without comment: Sequins-obsessed dude at goodwill

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Dec 2009 10:41

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Biz: Ho, ho, ho! Holiday spending at retail was up this year, guys

  • 3.6% increase in retail sales over last year; yay source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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