There may be something new (and perhaps mystical) in your mall, around the block, on your roof, or near the checkout line of your supermarket.
Some developments:
Small, short-lived Target stores, which feature 50 popular holiday gifts—but no shopping carts or dressing rooms—are popping up in Georgetown in D.C., along with New York City and San Francisco.
Blockbuster Express, the challenger to Redbox’s wildly successful $1 DVD kiosk operation, is expanding in a big way. Blockbuster’s corporate owners are buying DVDPlay Inc. and converting some 1,300 of its DVD kiosks into Blockbuster Express outlets. So the blue Blockbuster DVD kiosks will soon be appearing in new markets, like Dominick’s stores in Chicago.
Whether this is wise or not is debatable, but DIYers can now take on a serious, and seriously green home improvement project: Lowes has begun selling solar panels, which customers in California (and starting in 2010, around the rest of the country) can place into their shopping carts and bring home for self-installment. A warning per an AP story:
Buyer be warned, however. The DIY part of solar goes beyond installation.
Professional installers typically handle all the necessary paperwork, like clearance from the local utility and applications for a bevy of government subsidies that can make the system a whole lot cheaper.
“You put solar panels on your roof without a permit, bad things happen to you,” said Jeff Wolfe, CEO of solar installer groSolar. “The utility could shut off the power.”
Also, somewhat obviously, here’s another bad thing that can happen to you: While fumbling with the panels, you could fall off the roof.
Finally, there’s this week’s opening of a Maryland shop called Peeps and Co., which may be more of a cult than a store. As the name indicates, the store is dedicated to the sugar-coated marshmallow treats most often associated with Easter. But to fans, the Peeps appeal does not come and go with the seasons. Per the LA Times, Peeps have inspired candy dioramas, painting competitions (the winner of one was “NightPeeps,” inspired by Hopper’s “Nighthawks”), a “Lord of the Peeps” trilogy, and more. About one-third of the Peeps sold are not eaten, but played with, the manufacturer says.
What’s the attraction? A New York filmmaker who shot a documentary about Peeps and Peep-lovers (and haters) says it all:
“There’s something mystical about Peeps.”