We got this frightening portent in our Gmail accounts today from shoe retailer Zappo’s. The mukluk menace mushes on.
shopping
Stores with Easy Returns?
By 12.28.05
Here’s a kooky question for our dozens of holiday readers: Which retail hellhole has the best returns policy?
Around the Globe: Rough Week for Christmas Shopping
By 12.27.05
Gunfire erupted on a busy Toronto street filled with holiday shoppers Monday evening, killing a young woman and wounding six other people, police said.Gunfire erupts in Canada shopping area [CNN] A gas attack in a home-supply store on one of the busiest shopping days of the year sickened scores of…
Screw Xmas: Where Are the Good After Christmas Sales?
By 12.23.05
We’re puttering around the house today, trying to figure out if the entire internet died or just our particular forest of nodes, and realized Monday is going to be huge for shopping. Like, we may actually leave our apartment and hit some stores for some sales huge.
This Day in Xbox 360
By 12.22.05
• Tim Harford revisits the mystery of the Xbox 360 pricing and availability, uh, mystery. The question, if you recall, is why Microsoft isn’t charging more for the 360, since they seem to be worth more if you go by the prices paid on eBay. One of the theories in Harford’s latest column—and the one he advocates as the most likely—is that if Microsoft charged more than $400 at retail, even with the pent-up demand, no one would buy them in the first place.
More Amazon Xmas Delays
By 12.21.05
We’ve got another case of a reader getting burned by slow notification of shipment delays from Amazon. We expect that delays are reasonable this time of year—the Amazon warehouses must look like the Snickers machine at a Harry Potter convention—but this whole ‘We can’t fill your order but we won’t tell you until it’s too late to order again’ thing is awful.
Best Buy Insider: More Xbox 360s This Week
By 12.20.05
Best Buy’s ‘Retailer Insider’ newsletter, Issue Today, says to expect more Xbox 360s in stores this week. We’ve cut out the salient bits in the above graphic, but if you’d like to look at the full scan, have a look here.
The $10k Car: Should We Feel Bad for Buying a Geely?
By 12.20.05
Next year’s Yugo is set to be the Chinese-made Geely 7151 CK—pronounced “JEE-lee,” as in “fra-gi-le.” The mid-sized sedan will be hitting our shores for around $10,000, making it by far the cheapest car in its class. But can you, in good conscience, purchase it?
Geely’s average cost for workers in China is $3.50 an hour. That compares with hourly labor costs of $73.73 for GM.
Considering the quality of cars coming out of GM over the last ten years, we think you most certainly can. Japanese and Korean cars started out as bargain-basement alternatives to Detroit steel, and even at current prices, tend to offer a much better car for the money. If the Geely ends up being a quality product, we welcome the destruction of one of America’s primary exports.
Alaskan Teens Selling Xboxes in Parking Lot Robbed
By 12.20.05
We can’t decide which part of this story makes us shiver the most: the fact that teenagers were hawking Xbox 360’s in a parking lot or that they were doing so in Alaska. Either way it was a dumb decision, since those precious Xboxen were stolen right from them at gunpoint.
A man who was described as bald and wearing bluejeans and a blue hooded sweatshirt walked up to the van, opened its sliding door and pulled a gun out, police said. The man ordered the teen to open the van’s rear door. Another man, described as having dark curly hair, opened the door and took four of the Xboxs.
The poor, 14-year-old kid in the car managed to hide a single remaining Xbox under his feet. We’re sure when his other four teenage friends returned, they graciously let him keep his.
Dealhack’s Last Minute Online Shopping Guide
By 12.19.05
Although we can happily say that our holiday shopping is over, we know that many of you are still just getting the first inklings that the season is upon us. Dealhack has assembled this handy list of last-minute buying deadlines, should you belatedly feel the need to get into the spirit of things.
Retail Drones: Why Do You Hate Us?
By 12.19.05
Of course, we kid. ‘Drone’ implies that you serve as the mindless agent of any intelligence.
Budget Living Mag: How to Buy Shit You Don’t Need for Full Price
By 12.19.05
The cover promises cheapness, with “142 Great Gifts Starting at $5,” and “Best Bargain Hotels,” although our first inkling that something might be amiss is hidden in the corner: “Is It Time to Buy a Flat-Screen TV?” We don’t know, is it? We thought we were on a budget.
Urban Outfitters: Judge, Jury, Jerkoffs
By 12.19.05
A manager at a Washington-area Urban Outfitters duped a mother and daughter into signing an admission of shoplifting by saying the form was to report ‘damaged goods.’ When the girl signed the papers, she was under the impression she was being banned from shopping in the stores, but soon received a “civil penalty” of $150 from Urban Outfitter’s law firm.
This Day in Xbox
By 12.19.05
First of all, dorky brother site Kotaku is reporting that all the Xbox 360s that were released this weekend at Best Buy have already been sold out. No big surprise there. We have it on good word that there will be one more Xbox 360 shipment into Best Buy before Xmas, so keep checking (here).
Weekend Wonderland: Security Search Shuffle
By 12.17.05
It’s the weekend and technically we could be out carousing and caroling with the best of them, but like you, we’re still on the freakin’ internet. So let’s share.
EcstasyData.org: Testing Pills Before You Ingest Them
By 12.16.05
Shopping for real ecstasy is such a chore—especially since so much of the stuff isn’t really MDMA, the magical methylenedioxymethamphetamine that makes the world go snuggly. Used to be, one could just pop over to EcstasyData.org and see if they’d run a test on a pill from your batch. If your pill had more random junk druggery than MDMA, you’d then know to take two. (We kid, unless it was also filled with ketamine, which is awesome.)
Fleshbot’s Guide to Holiday Sexy Gift Guides
By 12.15.05
In all the Gawker Empire, only one website is as forgotten as we: lovely Fleshbot. Of course, the difference is that Fleshbot is hugely popular and we’re not, but we support our comrades all the same. We pink websites have to stick together.
Hopefully Nearly Final Xbox 360 ‘Second Wave’ Update
By 12.15.05
We’re getting a bit tired of the Xbox 360 shopping and we haven’t even purchased one. While we will probably camp out in the frigid air Saturday night to get a crack at Best Buy’s Sunday morning restock, we will also probably turn right around and sell our excess on eBay, just to spite those who say doing so is mercenary. (Duh!)
