A Good Morning America hidden camera investigation found that if you peel back the label on the “sale” items at Linen’s N Things, you’ll find the old label underneath, with a cheaper price. How do they get away with saying “10-20% off sale” then?
videos
Here's A Cartoon Explaining The Types Of Bonds
By 11.18.08
Slate’s “The Big Money” has decided it’s time to start educating readers on some core financial principles, and they’re starting with the very basics, presented in a “Schoolhouse Rocks!” style. Their first cartoon explains the four types of bonds. Visually, it’s a perfect match to the style of the original cartoons, but we hope they work on a catchier jingle for their next installment.
Motrin Retracts Ads After Babywearing Mamas Protest
By 11.18.08
So, Motrin made an ad trying to target babywearers, that is, parents, who wear their babies in a sling. The ad spoke with winking and jaded knowingness about how babywearing was a fashion statement and caused various back pains that could be alleviated with Motrin. Unfortunately, it seems they never tested the ads before actual babywearing parents. That knowingness? Yeah, it wasn’t actually based on knowing anything.
Find The Lowest Price With BeatMyPrice.com
By 11.13.08
BeatMyPrice is a new great price-comparison site launched by the makers of retailmenot and bugmenot. Just type in the product name, the website where you found it, the price, and check if it can be found elsewhere, using both searchbots and the results entered by other users. If your price is the best one, then it becomes the new best price for that product. Nifty idea, and a very easy to use interface. The one thing is that you’ll probably want to check the lowest price retailers you find with resellerratings.com to check out their reputations first before finalizing your purchase. Inside, a video from the site founder to see the new tool in action:
How An Ex-Lehman Brothers ibanker Fills His Days
By 10.24.08
What does an ex-Lehman Brothers i-banker do now that he has no reason to live? This brilliant, amusing, well-put-together, and NSFW video explores the answer. “I’ve been waking up 5:40 every morning, not waking up for Lehman Brothers necessarily, but when I wake up, I put on a suit.” I know there’s a lot of so-called “funny videos” on the internet, but seriously, this is a good one. Watch it inside.
Circuit City: The Lost Years
By 10.23.08
This clip is a sort of medley of all of Circuit City’s dashed dreams and hopes, as told through their ads from nearly two decades ago. Look at the first one, the ad that announced their arrival to the New England area. What do the eager young bucks in it promise and how have those promises stood the test of time?
"Whatever You Like" Parody: Coupon Clipping Is The New Largesse
By 10.21.08
Have you seen T.I.’s redonkulous “Whatever You Like” music video, where a burger girl gets picked up and gets drenched by the rapper in expensive alcohol, jewels, fancy cars and an evening of disgusting extravagance? If you haven’t, it’s basically TI singing “I will give you any number of expensive things so you will have sex with me,” on top off a rejected melody from a My Little Pony episode cut with the tinny reggatonic hiccups that pass for beats. Now, perhaps marking the first time I’ve found “Weird Al” Yankovic worth more than a “heh,” the musical parodist has released his own version of “Whatever You Like.” In it, he croons his lovergirl with tales of how they’ll spend time together clipping coupons and rolling up at Costco. As a gesture of his munificence, she can even have a large fry when they go to McDonald’s. Both songs in convenient YouTube format for easy comparison and contrast, inside.
What Turns A Shopping Crowd Into A Mob Frenzy?
By 10.14.08
If you’ve ever seen that video where all those customers stampede into Walmart, knocking people over and even knocking one woman’s weave off, you may have wondered what causes people to go bezerk like that. I’m reading Among The Thugs by Bill Buford, reporting on English soccer hooligans first-hand, and this passage gives insight:
The Gym Made Of Wood
By 10.14.08
This is an outdoor gym made entirely of discarded orchard tree limbs and other pieces of recycled material. It bills itself as an eco-gym. Neat idea, but I wonder if anyone actually works out in it. [GOOD] (Thanks to c-side!)
Video: Credit Crisis As Antarctic Expedition
By 10.14.08
Antarctic explorers trudge across the icy wastelands, heavily laden with rucksacks, bound together with rope. This is a good metaphor for understanding the credit crisis, and Paddy Hirsch from American Public Media is going to lay it down on you. Oh no! There’s a crevasses. Yay! Here comes Henry Paulson to come save the banks in his helicopter. The money meltdown is definitely much more digestible, and fun, in stick-figure and whiteboard form. Full video inside.
What Are "Collateralized Debt Obligations?" Watch These Champagne Glasses.
By 10.9.08
There’s a lot of funky financial terms getting thrown as we try to explain how the money meltdown started in the first place, and one of the funkiest is a CDO or “collateralized debt obligation.” Luckily, Paddy Hirsch from Marketplace is here to explain it using just champagne glasses, a whiteboard, and a sexy British accent..
Japan Introduces Monkey Waiters; Blogger Scratches Another Business Plan Off His List
By 10.9.08
A Japanese sake house near Tokyo has stolen one of my ideas and employed monkeys as waiters—one brings hot towels to customers when they sit down, and another takes orders and delivers bottles of sake. They’re tipped in edamame, which U.S. waitstaff should seriously consider since you don’t have to report it, and since the dollar will soon be worth about the same anyway. Our favorite quote from the article: “‘The monkeys are actually better waiters than some really bad human ones,’ customer Takayoshi Soeno said.” Hold on to your hats, there’s video footage below!
Our National Debt Has Outgrown The 'National Debt Clock' In NYC
By 10.8.08
Now that we’ve hit double-digit trillions, the “National Debt” clock that’s been running constantly since 1989 in New York City’s midtown can no longer properly display the total. Brian Williams says they’ve had to temporarily adjust the display while they build a new one, slated to go up next year. We’re not sure anyone should be spending money on a fancy new hi-tech clock right now—maybe they should just hang a big chalk board, and hire an unemployed investment banker to write the new debt each day. See the video below.
Confessions Of A Shopaholic Makes Irresponsible Debting Look Fun And Hilarious
By 10.7.08
Jerry Bruckheimer turns the lens of his celluloid cyclops away from exploding airplanes to exploding credit card debt in an adaptation of Confessions of a Shopaholic. There’s a scene in the trailer where our heroine has frozen her credit card in a block of ice (see “Stop Spending By Freezing Your Credit Card In Ice“) and, stricken by a frenzy, she chops and hacks at it and uses a blowdryer to free it. Sort of amusing, although most people I’ve read about who freeze their credit card usually don’t ever crack them open. Full trailer inside.
2 Consumerist TV Appearances (On The Money, CBS2)
By 10.1.08
Web Extra: Rumor Control! [On The Money]
Extended Stay Hotels Must Smell Really Bad
By 10.1.08
Okay, we got the bathroom humor of Kellog’s All-Bran commercial last year. We’re not sure if this commercial for Extended Stay Hotels, which shows guests so relaxed that they pass gas—or what the French call un petit éclatement—is quite as effective. Maybe they should change the tagline at the end to, “Our windows can be opened.”
Michael's: "It's Store Policy Not To Accept Change"
By 9.27.08
Hayden wanted to buy a $4 wood plaque for his mother as part of a last-minute birthday gift, but Michael’s wouldn’t accept 16 quarters as payment. “It’s store policy not to accept change,” a cashier explained, forcing an embarrassed Hayden to borrow a few bucks from his younger sister.
