A new service patented by Amazon.com would allow would-be recipients to view their gifts online before they’re ever shipped. If the gift is lame, the recipient could elect to receive its value as a gift certificate.
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Q&A with Free Shipping Day Founder Luke Knowles
Man, they really pack these made-up holidays together: National Regifting Day yesterday, and now Free Shipping Day today, Friday, December 17, 2010. Luke Knowles created the faux holiday two years ago and has watched it grow like crazy, with more than 1,500 retailers participating—i.e., offering free shipping, and a guarantee items …
How SmartPhones Level the Playing Field for Shoppers
Comparison shopping has never been easier. Forget about store circulars, let alone physically going to multiple stores to scope prices. With a smartphone and a price-comparison app, scouring the competition is as easy as entering a single store and punching in an item’s model number or scanning the bar code, then waiting a few moments to …
How Amazon Gets You to Stop Shopping Anywhere Else
Members pay $79 annually to join Amazon Prime, the service that gives customers two-day shipping on almost all Amazon orders at no extra charge. To the rational consumer, the question of whether or not the membership is worth it depends on how much they’d otherwise spend on shipping. But to Amazon, the $79 membership fee is a ploy to get …
It’s a Deal: 25 Days of Free Holiday Song Downloads at Amazon
Every day from December 1 to December 25, Amazon is giving away a free holiday song MP3. The first freebie, available on December 1, is “White Winter Hymnal” from Fleet Foxes. A new free song will be announced daily through Christmas.
Shopping for Deals Before, After, and Even During Thanksgiving Dinner
By tradition, Thanksgiving is a day of rest. But while you might have the day off from work, retailers hope that you don’t take the day off as a consumer. As more and more stores are open for business on the holiday—and with online shopping possible 24/7 and special deals for Internet shoppers this Thursday—the day dedicated to …
Online Holiday Shopping Wars: Free Shipping Now Available from 6 Big Retailers
No minimum purchase required. No annoying coupon codes to hunt down. Just place your order, and it’ll arrive on your doorstep, usually within a week or so.
Walmart and More: Online Holiday Shopping with Free Shipping, No Minimum Purchase Required
The big news today in online holiday shopping is that Walmart is offering totally free shipping—no minimum purchase requirements whatsoever—for thousands of items purchased at its website, including plenty of toys, electronics, and other popular gifts. It’s not even Thanksgiving, and the retail giant is throwing its weight around, …
150 Tips: How to Repurpose Paper Towel Rolls, Where You Can Get Free Land, Why Candy Is Good for You, and More
Here’s the weekly roundup of eye-opening, headache-erasing, money-saving tips—some wacky, some creative, and some that might even prove to be helpful and practical.
Black Friday Overload: Wait, Which Fridays Aren’t Black Now?
Sears has dubbed Friday, October 29, as “Black Friday Now,” offering discounted merchandise and door buster sales supposedly on par with the more traditional day-after-Thanksgiving Black Friday. Target, which was ahead of the pack with its “Black Friday” sales way back in July, is also pushing winter holiday promotions even though it’s …
Does It Make Any Sense to Pay for Free Shipping?
Paying $79 a year allows you to order as much and as often as you want online, with unlimited two-day shipping at no addition cost.
Packaging Rage
You know the annoying plastic clamshell packaging that comes with so many of today’s consumer goods? The packaging that typically requires some combination of a razor, scissors, teeth, fingernails, an MIT degree, and way too much sweat, shouting, and cursing to open? The packaging that has drawn blood in my house on more than one …