Charge cards let holders use them to make purchases, then at the end of the statement period, they are required to pay the balance, which is typically done on a monthly basis. There is no revolving credit (a balance can’t be carried from month to month and must be paid in full), there is also no pre-set limit.

With a charge card, you get all the security and convenience of a credit card, but without the risk of going into debt and without having to pay finance charges.

Charge cards also give some features that give consumers a bit of financial discipline when they are new to credit.

While late payments incur fees and charges, since there is no revolving credit, with a charge card, you don’t have to worry about APRs or finance charges. Business owners are also given extra rewards such as American Express’s “extended payment option” for equipment purchases or travel expenses. With this “reward”, finance charges are applied to balances associated with these transactions. They can also defer payment for 2 months.

So, why bother with a charge card? Being required to pay balances is a great incentive to keep spending in check while enjoying the convenience of plastic. But consider all features and your planned purposes before signing up for a new card.

Charge Card Summary

Essential features:

* No finance charges
* Balances must be paid monthly or every statement cycle
* No funds are automatically taken from bank account*

Typical features:

* No pre-defined spending limit
* Late charges billed for late payments*

Possible features

* No annual fee*
* Discounts on certain products or services*
* Specialized insurance (such as travel insurance)*

*These features may also be found in a credit card.

Source

Living close to Memphis, TN means that when I watch the news, there is typically no good news. Every Friday night one of the stations features someone who has shoplifted in a segment called “Stop Thief.” At the end, after the reporter has shown you a picture of the person who committed the crime, they tell you how much you’re “stuck” paying for the same item due to theft.

The truth is, manufacturers and retailers have to tack on a little bit to the cost of every item that is purchased to make up for theft of the item. You think razors are expensive? Just a year or so ago, it was the most shoplifted item in the world.

This year, retail theft was up 8.8% according to the 2009 Global Retail Theft Barometer report that comes from the Center for Retail Research. The report not only stated how much retail theft had risen, but also stated that, in the United States, the average family pays an extra $435 for their retail items per year thanks to retail theft.

The most popular stolen items from stores included personal items such as makeup, razors and perfumes. One of the items that made it to the most stolen items list was the Wii. I just don’t see how someone could walk out of a store with an entire gaming system…I had a receipt in my hand and the system in a box and was still stopped at the door with my new XBox 360 the other day.

I was surprised to see how people could take things out of a store and the elaborate ways that they do it. Watching the segment on the news shows you some of the ways that people get away (for the time being) with stealing car radios and such from the stores by switching out boxes. It just seems like a lot of trouble to go through to likely be caught.

Sometimes people do things that don’t necessarily make a lot of sense. Sometimes we put ourselves in the way of large crowds that will likely crush us or screaming teenagers that will make our ears bleed (New Moon is coming out tomorrow and for some reason or another I really want to go see it TOMORROW instead of waiting). Why do we do it?

Of course, this time of year has people thinking about Black Friday specials and sales. Because I am in the market for a laptop this year, I will likely be found camped outside one of the Best Buys within 2 hours of my house for the Sony Vaio that is going to be on sale that day. I have never camped outside a store for hours and hours for one of the big ticket items like this.

However, the crowds will form every single year regardless of what is on sale or what kind of tragedies happen the year before (last year the crowd of people at a Wal-Mart in New York trampled one of the employees to death and injured others). I have been in line before two years ago waiting for a Nintendo Wii and had a man walk into the store just because there was a crowd. He didn’t know what was on sale or why the people were there, but he stood in line as well.

There are going to be some measures that stores like Wal-Mart will be taking this year to try to hopefully make sure that people aren’t killing each other this year, but I’m just not looking forward to the fight for the laptops.

Then again, I know exactly why people will be camped outside some Best Buy stores DAYS before Black Friday…To save money. There are plenty of people out there with loads of time and little money who still want to buy Christmas gifts. The laptop I am after is selling for $399 or $479 with a blu-ray player. Anywhere around the internet, just with a brief search the NW series from Sony often costs around $700. I think I can stand in line for a few hours to save that much money, but I think the one thing that I’m worried about is that I’ll miss out on it.

I have, in the past, always gone to Wal-Mart on Black Friday to “people watch”. There is something strangely entertaining about watching people rip open plastic and push and shove people out of the way to get some towels, sheets, or a Barbie doll. Last year, I saw madness for EVERYTHING that the store had on sale. I didn’t ever think I would see people hurt each other over fake Christmas Trees, but it happened.

Overall, I believe that Black Friday is more about the frenzy than sales. If you follow some of the “deal” websites on the internet, then you can see that there are places throughout the year when you can find GREAT deals on things that are offered on Black Friday.

A week or so ago, there was a story about how Walmart, Amazon, and Target were in a price war over books. Best sellers were getting the most attention and were selling for a lot off of the cover price of the book. While this price war between the retailers is still going strong, there is a new price war that is heating up.

Now the retailers (the exact same three: Walmart, Target, and Amazon) are trying to find out how low can they go on DVD prices.

Target started by lowering the price on 10 DVDs which include the newest Star Trek movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood, Prince, and Julie & Julia, all for $10. These were some of the summer’s hottest movies that are now well under what everyone was paying for the same movies just a few weeks ago.

Walmart followed suit by lowering prices on the same highly-anticipated movies to $9.98. Amazon is also offering the movies for $10.

Of course, the prices are simply promotional prices rather than actual long-term prices. The retailers are certainly paying more than $10 for each DVD (new releases anyway). Typically a new release DVD costs between $15 and $20.

At these prices I would be more willing to pick up the movies that I really want. I always shy away from DVD purchases because I don’t watch them often enough to justify paying $20 for a DVD when I can rent it at RedBox for $1 per night.

It is just the first full weekend of November and already retail stores like Wal Mart, Sears, JCPenney, and online retailer Amazon.com want you to stock up on gifts for the holidays. All these stores are offering specials and pretty good deals today.

These were the specials that were going on today:

* Walmart’s Saturday Sale – valid Saturday, 11/7 at 8am
o Xbox 360 Arcade Console w/ $100 eGift Card – $199
o Sharp 42″ 1080p LCD TV (LC42SB45UT) – $498
o Panasonic 46″ 1080p Plasma TV (TC-P46U1) – $788
o HP 15.6″ Laptop w/ 2.2GHz Processor (G60-W519WM) – $298
o Sony Blu-Ray Disc Player (BDP-S360) – $148
o Magnavox 1080p Up-conversion DVD Player (DP170MGX) – $29

* Sears’ Black Friday NOW! Sales – valid Saturday, 11/7 from 7am to noon
o Zenith 42″ 720p Plasma HDTV – $499.99
o Sony Blu-Ray Disc Player (BDP-S360) – $148
o Samsung Blu-Ray Disc Player (BD-P1600) – $149.99
o Kenmore 30″ Freestanding Gas Range – $374.99
o Craftsman 8-Drawer Pro Tool Chest – $99.98
o Colormate Basics Bath Towels – $2.99 Each
o Coats & Outerwear for the Family – 60% Off

* Kmart’s Better than Black Friday Online-Only Sale – valid 11/6 – 11/7
o Sylvania 32″ 720p LCD HDTV – $349.99
o 40% Off Family Outerwear

* JCPenney “Biggest Sale of them All” - valid Saturday 11/7 from 7am to 1pm
o Men’s and Women’s Coats (Outerwear) – 60% OFF
o 3 Star Down Comforter (Any Size) – $39.99
o $10 off $50, $15 off $75 and $20 off $100 No Exclusion Coupons

There are several things on sale today because the retailers really want everyone in their stores right now so they can start tallying up their $$.

Some of these sales are pretty good. I am even in the market for a new laptop and for $298 for an HP, it didn’t sound too bad. However, that really is a low end model and from what I have read online, they aren’t that great.

Source: BFads.net

Upbeat shoppers led to an increase in retail stores’ increase in sales for October. Some say that the shoppers were enticed by signs of an improving economy and getting a head start on holiday shopping.

Retail numbers were up across the board; with stores like Costco doing well as well as designer brands. The stores that did the best were Costco Wholesale (which operates T.J. Maxx as well as Marshalls), Saks, and Nordstrom. One of the stores that one would think would do well when consumers go back to spending would be Wal-Mart, but the store doesn’t issue monthly sales reports anymore so finding out how it did simply isn’t possible. The next report from it will be the fourth quarter report, which will not only tell about October’s sales but also November and December.

According to MSNBC, the reason that business was up for October had something to do with the cool weather and people’s need for cold weather clothes. Early holiday discounts also brought in the shoppers and it seemed like people were a bit less reluctant to purchase items.

Sales figures are up from October 2008. However, when looking at October 2008′s sales figures, consumer spending simply dropped off. With a bit more optimism about the economy, there is more spending now than there was then, and it will likely continue through the holiday season if the economic conditions continue to improve.

Source

Raking leaves, pumpkin pie, scarves; all of these remind me of Fall. One other thing that reminds me of Fall is the consumer driven Black Friday holiday. Wal-Mart is actually one of my favorite places to go on Black Friday, not because I want a big ticket item, but because it is so fun to people-watch at Wal-Mart (the store I shop at is in a small town).

This year, Wal-Mart wants to completely corner the retail market; on everything form big screen televisions to turkey.

Turkeys are going on sale across the country at Wal-Mart for 40 cents per pound beginning November 4th. According to a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, that is 1/3 of last year’s turkey price. Along with turkey, Wal-Mart will be reducing prices on canned vegetables, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and red potatoes. You may also be able to find deals on rolls and pumpkin cake. The goal is to have a $20 meal that can serve eight people.

Another thing that the retailer is doing is having smaller sales during some weekends until Christmas where you can get big discounts on big ticket items. This weekend, you can buy a HP laptop for $300 and a 42″ Sharp LCD TV for $500. While the laptop is not exactly the best on the market, you can get a 15.6″ laptop for the same price that many people are paying for netbooks, and I promise that the HP will out perform any of the netbooks that Wal-Mart has.

Wal-Mart, although it is a huge company, has had its stock slip 11% this year. Even after it announced the price drops earlier, the stock still slid a bit. What really matters is after the holiday season when all the retailers will tally up how they did.

There aren’t too many Black Friday ads out as of today, not a lot that have leaked anyway. The rumors are going around, however, that this year will have decent sales to get people to come in and spend money. The retail stores really need for people to spend a lot of money this year (even though this will likely be another bad Christmas season).

With Swine Flu making parents (and others) across the country nervous about even going into public with out tiny bottles of hand sanitizer, of course companies would start taking advantage of them.

Kellogg is beginning to join in on the trend by plastering “Now helps support your child’s IMMUNITY” on boxes of Cocoa Krispies. Cocoa Krispies, along with other Kellogg cereals are not only loaded in sugar, but have not done anything to truly back up such a claim.

The city attorney in San Francisco finds the claim just as false as everyone else and has sent a letter to Kellogg as well as the Food and Drug Administration asking Kellogg to disclose what exactly helps boost immunity in the cereals.

Kellogg has been responding to critics’ attacks saying that it started developing a more healthy cereal last year and actually released them in May 2009 not to capitalize on the H1N1 “flu situation” but to respond to consumers’ needs for a healthier foods and a more positive nutrition value. A spokesperson from the company said that there are more vitamins A, C, and E in the cereals; increased from 10% daily value to 25% daily value.

Here’s an idea, if the company wanted to take advantage of consumers’ needs for a more healthy cereal, why not take some of the sugar out of its cereals?

It is a good thing that this has been given to the FDA for consideration. The FDA is supposed to be the governing body of false and misleading labeling on products. Right now, the FDA isn’t saying anything about this cereal or its strange, and likely false label.

Sugar coated cereals are not good for children in the amounts that are typically given to them. Have you ever measured out a serving of cereal? It’s not as much as many people pour themselves. Not to mention, cereals in general (even though many are made out of whole grain of some kind) are carbohydrates and while they may help keep your child awake for the first little while they are at school, carbs tend to burn quickly…adding sugar to that equation doesn’t help too much either.

Most parents don’t have the time to make a real, homemade breakfast everyday for their kids, so why not give them cereal that will actually help throughout the day or at least a cereal that is a bit healthier than Cocoa Krispies or any of the other sugar laden cereals that have found their ways on to our grocers shelves? I like sugary cereals from time to time. I actually enjoy Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but I also know that it won’t keep me from getting sick and it is DEFINITELY not a replacement for my vitamins.

Target will be starting mobile phone sales inside its stores. While most retail stores such as Target and Walmart and even Best Buy offer mobile phone sales, the way that Target is going to be selling mobile phones will be a bit different than others do.

Target will be outsourcing its mobile phone sales to Radio Shack. Because of this, Radio Shack will be opening up kiosks inside the store. Any consumer will be able to buy the same brands they can get other places. They will have T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless.

According to the article, you won’t be able to buy Sprint phones at the kiosks, but I can’t see that holding because Sprint has always been one of the main carriers that sold at Radio Shack stores.

This could be a good idea for smaller retailers; however Target is a pretty big store with a large retail footprint. Target has the ability to sell and the room to sell the phones and plans, but I suppose that they have felt as though this would be the best way to do it and would benefit everyone in the deal.

There wasn’t a lot of information released about the deal between Target and Radio Shack. However, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, California said that Kiosk Operations (a subsidiary of Radio Shack that will be operating the kiosks inside the Target stores) is likely paying Target for the ability to operate In its stores. He said that it is likely for the company to pay between $30,000 and $40,000 per year for retail rent. It is likely that Kiosk Operations will also be paying Target a small amount of its sales, which is probably going to be less than 10 percent.

Source

Imagine yourself shopping for great Christmas presents at Harrods in London when something catches your eye. It is bright, shiny, and gold. It comes in a range of sizes between two pounds and 27.5 pounds; that’s right, Harrods is carrying gold bars and coins in its department store for the holidays.

After seeing a lack of support for the market geared toward selling gold, Chris Hall, head of Harrods’ bullion department said, “Up until now, London has had no well recognized name serving this market. Harrods saw the opportunity to help individuals buy physical gold in a prudent manner.”

Harrods is selling the gold in relation to market price, so it is definitely not flying off the shelves. Two point two pounds of gold from Harrods will cost you $35,000. The most expensive bar, which weighs 27.5 pounds, costs just under $430,000.

Even with the steep price tag, the gold has been selling well due to its long term investment potential.

With gold hitting all time highs recently, I can see exactly why Harrods would be wanting to cash in on this. If people know where to buy gold, then they would be more likely to actually buy it; especially if they can see it.

I would be more willing to buy something like Gold if I could see it and touch it rather than for it to be an intangible stake in the commodity.

The Consumer Board released October’s Consumer Confidence Index number today and it was below what anyone was expecting. It fell to 47.7 for the month which is the Board’s second lowest reading since May.

to put the number into perspective; a number higher than 90 means that the economy is doing well and anything above 100 says that there is strong growth in the economy. The lowest that the Consumer Board has ever measured was the record low of 25.3 in February 2009. It only took a few months to climb back up to 53.4 last month.

The reason that consumer confidence is so important is because it is the number that tells how much consumers are spending on items. Because spending on these items accounts for 70% of the United States economy (according to the government), it is an important economic indicator.

So, what does a drop in the consumer confidence index number mean? It shows that consumers have a grim outlook of the future.

According to Lynn Franco, the director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center, “Consumers also remain quite pessimistic about their future earnings, a sentiment that will likely constrain spending during the holidays.”

This news is not welcomed by the retailers in the country. Last year, spending around the holidays fell to levels not seen since the 1960′s. With so many retailers across the United States still hurting and struggling and also going out of business, many of them are counting on this holiday season to prop them up and maybe put them in the black for the year.

The Consumer Board gets the Consumer Confidence Index by sending surveys to 5,000 homes across the country. For October’s numbers, the cutoff date was October 21st.

I honestly think all the figures and indexes like this put people into worry-mode. When people are truly worried about their jobs and their finances they don’t spend. For the past couple of months, people have been worried about their income even with plenty of job security. Jobs aren’t being lost at the rate that they were and there are plenty of places where people are working and not having to worry whether or not their job will be there the next day.

The Consumer Confidence Index was something that we didn’t have before the 60′s and it seems as though the country’s consumer spending was not that bad through the 50′s (after WWII anyway).

What do you think about the Consumer Confidence Index and any of the other financial indexes that come out telling you how the economy is doing? Are there any of these indicators that you follow to tell you how things are going?

I believe I would follow the unemployment numbers a bit more closely than this one.

Source

It has to be that time of year again, when everyone is out looking for gifts for their friends and family. It always seems that the go-to gift for some is a gift card or a some kind of bath set (here’s a note to guys out there who think the bath sets are good ideas: They’re really not; chances are whoever you’re buying the bath set for already has 20 of them).

Because of the season, GameStop is looking to hire 15,000 seasonal workers. The jobs are all part time and only pay minimum wage, but the little bit of money that the store is paying is better than what some people are receiving right now: nothing.

GameStop does something like this every year. It hires this many seasonal workers starting in the fall and their time is over on December 24.

The biggest increase will be the “game advisers” which are the people in the store who are meant to help shoppers pick out video games. There will be 78% more of these than there are currently. Honestly, I have never seen a game adviser in my local GameStop. The most advice I have ever gotten on a game is “That game is really cool.”

You can really tell how much business the company expects over the holiday season because the 15,000 seasonal workers means that the employee base for the company increases by nearly 50%.

This also goes along with most retail stores’ holiday plans. After all, most of the business that retail stores do is done over the holiday season.

Now that it is autumn, the leaves are changing and some of us are starting to think about what to get everyone for Christmas. There are a few things that retailers are doing now, before the prime shopping season, to draw in customers.

Discounts are going on right now on some of the summer merchandise that stores are trying to clear out. Right now you can get great deals on things like swimsuits, charcoal grills, and patio furniture. The source article does say that right now is a great time to get a lawnmower up to 40% off, but I don’t know. I went to purchase a lawnmower a week or so ago and it wasn’t on sale at all, as a matter of fact it seemed like it was more expensive.

Another thing is if you go to get a swimsuit now, you will likely be picking over what no one else wanted to buy throughout the season.

You can also find deals on last year’s models for new cars as well. At dealerships, you can get up to 20% off the previous year’s model.

This month, you can find discounts on clothes because the back to school sales have ended and sales people are trying to get rid of the racks of jeans that may have not sold.

Another good item to go pick up through the fall is the fruits and veggies that farmers are harvesting and there are ample amounts of. Fall veggies are some of the best in my opinion and this time of year is apple season. If you like apples, you can get your fill cheap!

Surprisingly, right now (before Black Friday) you can find pretty good deals on electronics. A couple of years ago, we actually bought our television a month before Black Friday. Then again, if you want a really big ticket item, you could wait to see what will be on sale for Black Friday. Usually starting around now, you can go to websites like bfads.net to see what items will be on sale at which store weeks before the ads actually come out.

Source

Even though the recession has hit all our wallets, most would agree that shopping is something that is on a list of enjoyable activities. Shopping for great buys definitely hits somewhere near the top of the list.

I believe that most people will look for bargains whenever and wherever they can. If I learned anything through working in a retail environment today it’s that people love to save money. They love it so much that they’ll get mean if something comes in between them and their ability to save a few dollars.

This is where the newest craze (maybe it isn’t so new?) of designer replicas and replacements have come to play. Once a designer has spent all their design dollars on something that becomes trendy, there will always be some kind of knock off that pops up with the same exact design. This is why you see so many purses out there with huge G’s on them (they’re trying to mimic the Coach ‘C’).

Premium jeans haven’t missed this craze. There was once a huge market for jeans that cost $200 a pair. Seven for all Mankind, Citizen, True Religion all were very expensive jeans. You have to remember that jeans were originally meant to be something that people would wear to rugged jobs, and now they’re on the cutting edge of fashion.

These premium lines is partially why stores like Plato’s Closet have become so popular. After all, those stores sell premium jeans at bargain basement prices.

However, brands like Ann Taylor Loft and the Gap are starting to come up with new types of jeans to combat some of the prices. For under $60 a pair, you can get what these brands are promising to be “premium” fit. By premium fit, they mean they lift your tush and make your legs look long.

The Gap is bragging about the new styles of jeans that it has calling them Premium denim and saying how great the fit is, but I’m not sure that I buy it considering that the Gap owns Old Navy and I have never tried on or purchased a pair of Old Navy jeans that looked amazing on me. Perhaps there are plenty of people out there who have, but I am not one of them.

I’ve found a better fit with Nine West and Calvin Klein jeans from Sam’s Club…seriously. And they only cost $15.

Halloween is just about two weeks away and I’m sure that some of you grown-up types still like dressing up but don’t like spending a lot of money on an elaborate, yet cheaply made costume. There are a lot of options for those of you who have better things to spend your money on than a costume.

Here’s a list of Halloween costumes from Moolanomy.com that are not only cheap, but are fun to do.

For anyone

1. Gum on a shoe — Wear all pink and Velcro a shoe to the top of your head
2. Jellyfish — All-white outfit, white umbrella with iridescent ribbon or streamers hanging
3. Cowboy/Cowgirl — Jeans or denim skirt with plaid or flannel shirt, boots, and a cowboy hat
4. Ghost — A sheet with holes for your eyes and mouth – doesn’t get much simpler than that!
5. Bank Robber — Hooded sweatshirt or top and a ski mask, bag with monopoly money sticking out the top.
6. Soup and crackers — Oversized T-shirt that says “Campbell’s” on it, wide brimmed hat with empty cracker boxes glued to it.
7. Egg – All white with a yellow construction paper “yolk” taped on.
8. Grapes — Purple balloons taped or pinned to a dress with brown tights, or a shirt with brown pants, “leaves” on a headband
9. Cow/Dalmation/Sheep — White sweats with black spots drawn, painted or taped on. Use cotton balls instead of black spots to add texture for a sheep.
10. Cat/Mouse — Black or grey sweats, tail, ears made out of felt, nose whiskers drawn on with eyeliner
11. Bat — All you need is a black umbrella, some black clothing, and this tutorial
12. Pig in a blanket — Wrap a blanket tightly around your body and wear a pig nose!
13. Facebook wall — White sweats and a few permanent markers so that people can “sign” your wall.
14. Highway — Black clothes, with yellow electrical tape down the length of your body and toy cars attached with Velcro

You can see more of the list at the source. Some of the other costumes talk about costumes for women, men and couples by the category.

One of the best costumes I have seen is a Facebook page. I’ll put the picture of the Facebook page at the top of the post.

25 Frugal Halloween Costumes

Wal-Mart is getting in on the prepaid craze. With AT&T offering a unlimited talk and text plan for $60 per month, someone had to come around and step up their game.

Wal-Mart is starting up it’s own “Straight Talk” service that will ride off of TracFone’s service. The service starts at just $30 per month and a user can get unlimited talk, text AND DATA for $45 per month.

The service goes on sale starting October 18th. It will offer not only nationwide coverage, but it will also offer unlimited 411 usage.

Of course, like most other prepaid carriers, the phone options will be quite limited. You won’t see any cutting edge phones avaiable for purchase on any of these types of services. That probably has something to do with how cheap the plans plus data are. If everyone had an iPhone or another more advanced phone on the plan, then it would eat data and Wal-Mart would likely be losing money. However, with the not-as-advanced phones, these are great options for text-happy teenagers.

With prepaid plans like these popping up, I can definitely see post paid plans taking a hit. These aren’t just regional plans, they are nationwide plans with great coverage. For example AT&T is one of the only carriers that have coverage at my parent’s house in rural Mississippi. I was completely in the dark when I had T-Mobile and went to visit them.

I would like to see more competition with post-paid plans because that’s where the more desirable phones are. That’s what I’m after in the end…I want good coverage and a great phone for a reasonable price. That’s why I’m with Sprint. The price really overcame the company’s phone selection and the coverage is awesome when compared to the T-Mobile phone I had previously.

Would you switch from your post paid plan to a prepaid plan to get in on the deals? How about you prepaid plan people…How do you like your service? How much does a more advanced phone matter to you?

In an effort to try something new with their customers, Target, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy are all trying something a little new to boost sales.

I’ll start with Best Buy: It is opening a store in New York, but it’s not just any store. It is a 24 hour store. This way, people can go get their electronics at any time of the day or night. The store will be opening in New York City’s Union Square. It will be open from 8 a.m. Monday through midnight on Saturday. On Sunday, the store will be open from 10 to 8.

Don’t expect this to be something that all Best Buy stores will implement. The Union Square store is meant to offer electronics to all the nearby residents and colleges.

At Wal-Mart, you can now buy over the count medicines, makeup and even diapers to be delivered to your house. Wal-Mart is trying to step up its competition with other online retailers such as Amazon.com and even stores such as Drugstore.com and Walgreens.com to offer the kind of items that are becoming more and more popular choices for online purchases. Prior to this, you could only see the items online and see if they were available in the store, but not available to purchase online.

Target will now be selling digital magazines. This is good for not only Target but also for magazine companies who have had sales dwindle in the past few years.

All of these companies are after a market they previously haven’t been serving. Hopefully these are all good moves for the companies. I would personally really like to see more to be able to order online from Wal-Mart; anything that would make trips to the store quicker or get to the point where I don’t have to make as many trips…that would be great!

J.C. Penney has seen an opportunity in the expiring contract between the Liz Claiborne fashion line and Macy’s and has taken it. The women’s line of clothing will now be sold exclusively at J.C. Penney stores throughout the country.

In a 10 year deal between JCP and Liz Claiborne, JCP will have exclusive rights to sell the brand along with Liz&Co as well as Concepts (all Liz Claiborne brands). The Concepts and Liz&Co brands have been sold and launched exclusively through J.C. Penney.

The hit to Macy’s isn’t as hard as some may think. Spokesman for Macy’s Jim Sluzewski had this to say about the brand and it’s poor sales at Macy’s stores, “As a result [of the poor sales], we could not justify expending it at Macy’s. Customers have been confused between various brands carrying the Liz name, and the management of Liz Claiborne needed to take corrective action. We support their decision.”

The contract that will be headed to JCP is really no sweat off Macy’s back because the department store chain just recently signed Ellen Tracy, another well known designer, to design exclusively for its stores.

Macy’s not only runs the Macy’s stores, but also the Bloomingdale’s stores.

There was no comment from management from Liz Claiborne.

Fashion lines are a big deal at department stores simply because there are customers that will shop exclusively with one store or another due to the brands that store has. There are customers who will walk into a store and actually ask where the store brand is. Many department stores offer lines that are cater exclusively to one target market. This method works.

When Liz Claiborne leaves the Macy’s stores, even though the representative said that the line didn’t sell well, the customers who have come to know the brand and like the quality and fit will be moving on to J.C. Penney. Either that, or they will have to find another brand that they like because they won’t shop at JCP.

Source

An article written by Ethan Trex for Mental Floss brought up a few really interesting items that, over the years, Wal-Mart has banned from its aisles.

The first thing on the list was Midge, Barbie’s pregnant friend. Midge was part of Mattel’s “Happy Family” set. It’s not like she was trying to promote some kind of immoral family life either; Midge came with a husband and a son. When people started to complain that there was a pregnant Barbie, the doll got pulled.

A pair of underwear also found itself under fire when a cheeky saying on the pair “who needs credit cards…when you have Santa” got people fired up. Wal-Mart pulled the panties soon after they were released around Christmastime in 2007. With this one, yea, I can see how this could be particularly awful. Like the original poster said, this would be better on a t-shirt; harmless. But on a pair of Juniors’ underwear it’s a bit too much. It’s like seeing “sexy” costumes on Amazon for pre-teens (those get pulled as soon as people start noticing).

Even though 1995 was nearly 15 years ago, it’s not like it was before the Women’s Movement. In the Miami area, there was a shirt with Margaret from Dennis the Menace on the front. The shirt said “Someday a Woman Will Be President” and it was pulled from shelves of the Wal-Mart stores. Luckily, after some idiots got it right, the shirts were put back out on shelves, but not until they had been sitting in stock rooms for months.

Wal-Mart has always been known as a family-oriented store; or at least it has tried to be known as a family friendly store. So, it censors albums and even some movie titles (they required that Zach and Miri Make a Porno be shortened to simply Zach and Miri). Well, for reasons other than the movie being a bit raunchy, Wal-Mart did not sell the movie Superbad in Hawaii. Why? They pulled the movie from shelves after the governor asked them to because the movie came with a little fake ID like “McLovin’” had in the movie.

Wal-Mart really has some strange rules and while trying to maintain the company’s family friendly persona it has really made some interesting choices as to what it will and won’t stock. You can find some other really interesting things that the store has decided are too risque for its shelves at the source.
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Also, don’t forget how to learn the easy way to make fantastic posters for various occassions.

I suppose most people know this, but I really wanted to share my experiences with our readers today. Here’s the number one way I believe Chris and I could save money in our house and you guys could probably save some too if you have this problem:

Don’t go to the store for one item.

The reason: You will NEVER leave with just one item.

With the exeption of just a couple of times, most of the time when we go to the grocery store for JUST a gallon of milk or JUST a loaf of bread or something similar, we always find ourselves purchasing a lot more than we had planned on buying. Most of the time, we always go without a list when it’s a “quick trip” for just a couple of things and I think that’s where we get in trouble.

Last night we went to Wal-Mart to waste some time while we were waiting for our house to finish being “bug bombed.” Well, we actually needed milk and sour cream (I really wanted to make tacos for dinner the next night). Because we were wasting time we shopped around the store and also remembered that we didn’t have any shredded cheese or Crystal Lite. An hour later and now we’ve bought that plus Halloween candy and vanilla extract. That wasn’t one of the bad times either.

I suppose if we could just hold off until we needed to actually go grocery shopping it wouldn’t be so bad. However, when you’re completely out of milk there can be an issue. I can’t cook a lot of things without milk and every morning for breakfast Chris and I usually make a bowl of cereal…which isn’t so great without milk.

I find another way to possibly avoid the potential problems that can arise when you go shopping for one item is to stick to your guns. Write exactly what you need down on a list and get only that. Keep yourself from getting distracted by end caps and other promotional eye catching products.

Or…just don’t let me do the grocery shopping, haha.

Wal-Mart has had success around Christmastime. In the past it has offered toys by price point such as $10 toys and $15 toys. This year it is going to be upping its offering of $10 toys to more than 100 toys, including 10 of its most popular toys.

So, what can $10 at Wal-Mart get your child? There are Barbie dolls, board games, Transformers action figures, and even Play-Doh kits (I loved those when I was a kid). When you’re paying $10 for Monopoly, you are definitely getting a deal because any other time throughout the year, Monopoly costs $15-$20.

The discounts on toys will last through the holiday season.

Laura Phillips, the vice president of toys (side note: how fun would that job be?) for Wal-Mart said that when mothers were surveyed, their top priority for shopping this holiday season is finding toys that fit into their budgets. She went on to say, “What we learned from last holiday was that price mattered more than ever.”

This could be why the majority of toys on the Toys R Us list that came out are all under $20.

The holiday season is when retailers make up for poor sales through out the year. On average, holiday sales make up 25 to 40% of the annual revenue for a retailer. Last year was the worst holiday shopping season in almost 40 years according to some analysts.

Phillips said that somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% of shoppers of Wal-Mart begin their holiday shopping sometime before Halloween and that 20% actually finish their shopping by Halloween.

If you haven’t been out in a couple of weeks, it really looks like some retailers are trying to take advantage of that. I have seen more Christmas decorations out earlier than last year. Even at a local Walgreen’s, they had pulled out the Christmas wrapping paper from last year that still had the 50% off signs on them. I can guarantee that those signs will come off and the paper will be put out as soon as they can clear space for it in the middle of the store.

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This morning I woke up and it was cool outside and the sun was shining. It is a beautiful late September day. After opening the windows in my house, I sat down to start writing today’s posts and realized something: Toys R Us has published the list of hot toys for the holiday season already.

This comes before Halloween and even before the costumes for the holiday have really started to sell.

It makes sense to me why a retailer would want you to be aware of the hot toys this year after the dismal sales that they have seen throughout the year.

I suppose the retailer has to do something to let parents know that the holiday season is just around the corner and that their kids will soon be asking for some of the toys on the list.

Surprisingly, most of the things on the list are quite inexpensive this year. One toy that I’ve noticed is already pretty hot is the Zhu Zhu Hamster pet. Those things are about $10 at Wal-Mart and Toys R Us and they’re already sold out every time I have gone looking for them.

Here is the list of toys that are going to be the big sellers (Toys R Us calls it the Fabulous 15):

BAKUGAN® BATTLE BRAWLERS™ NEW VESTROIA™ Maxus Helios™ 7 in 1 from Spin Master®
ChixOs™ Pink Design-A-Luxury Loft from Spin Master® Color Me a Song™ from Crayola Beginnings™
Disney Netpal from ASUS
Disney•Pixar Toy Story Interactive Buddies Talking Action Figures (Buzz and Woody) from Thinkway®
Disney Princess: Just One Kiss Princess Tiana Doll from Mattel®
Fast Lane JLX OVER DRIVE™ RADIO CONTROL ALL TERRAIN VEHICLE from Toys”R”Us
Laugh & Learn™ Learning Farm from Fisher-Price®
Little Mommy™ Baby Ah-Choo™ from Fisher-Price®
Mindflex™ from Mattel®
NERF N-Strike® Raider Rapid Fire CS-35™ from Hasbro®
Star Wars Fan’s Choice Anniversary Edition Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser from LEGO®
TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN CONSTRUCTICON DEVASTATOR from Hasbro®
Wii Sports Resort™ from Nintendo®
Zhu Zhu Pets™ Hamster from Cepia

Being anywhere in the world outside the United States does not mean that you have to go without comparison shopping. There are sites for those in Australia that not only can you, as a shopper, compare prices on things like laptops and shoes, but as an advertiser, you can use pay per click advertising as a way to get more sales through the site.

MyShopping.Com.AU is a site where you can do any of these things. Comparison shopping will always be important to the thrifty consumer. I’m sure that there are plenty of people in Australia who would like to know where to get the best deals on items in their own country. Websites like the one linked provides the right kind of opportunities for shoppers to not only save time, but money to find items that they are looking for when they go shopping.

In the United States a comparable site would likely be something like MySimon. You know, I don’t even know if my simon is still around, but if it is, that is the site that would compare. I enjoy using a single website to find all the information I’m looking for in one place. The worst parts of sites like Shop.com is the spam and just junk that I usually find. I wish there were a way to avoid that.

The people who fly with British Airways will have to do something that people who fly on other airlines will NOT have to do: Pay for a particular seat on the plane. If they want to sit somewhere in particular they will have to pay some kind of fee according to the airline. The extra charges will only affect those who want to sit next to the window or the aisle (SO I suppose, if you want to be stuck in the middle of two people you don’t know, you should be alright?).

The change will take place starting on October 7th. The lowest fee that will be assessed will be 10 pounds for those who are booking their seats on an economy flight throughout Europe. The most expensive seats will cost the customer sixty pounds for long trips in the business class. Those who are expecting a seat somewhere near the emergency exit will have to pay an extra fifty pounds a flight.

British Airways says this measure will give customers more control over their seating. British Airways currently allows customers to select their seat for free 24 hours prior to their flight. If customers want to book ahead of time, they can do it before 10 and 4 days before take-off.

“Customers frequently request specific seats, but in the past we’ve only been able to confirm them 24 hours in advance or on the day. We know people want to secure them in advance and have real control over their flying experience. This will allow them to do that,” said a BA spokesman.

With this new fee and probably others that will follow, BA tries recover after £401m loss last year. Earlier this year, BA decided to no longer offer free meals on short flights and cut luggage allowances.

It is really annoying when any company decides to take advantage of a customer when there is some kind of demand for a product. In this case, the airlines are trying to squeeze money out of the consumer because they are paying rock bottom prices for airline tickets. It’s a funny thing though because these customers are still waiting in airports for delayed flights and sitting on tarmacs waiting for their planes to take off. I should know, I spent over an hour on a tarmac in North Carolina waiting in the past few months. I hate flying on airplanes.
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A report from Bloomberg said that defaults of credit cards in the United States rose by 11.49% in August. The number is up from the 10.52% it increased from the month of July. The percentage reflects complete write offs and not delinquencies that are still being sought by the banks and lenders.

Because of the rising unemployment, there is a problem with many people being able to pay down their debts or be able to pay their debts at all. With unemployment currently hovering just under 10%, 1 in 6 Americans are out of work.

The biggest lenders in the United States, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, as well as Citigroup all reported an increase in defaults for the month of August.

It is now predicted that unemployment may reach 10.5% sometime in mid-2010 and at the same time there will be an increase in write offs between 12 and 13%.

As an American, I am well aware of many people of the country having a dependency on credit. For the longest time, everything that was purchased was paid for with plastic (an no, I don’t mean debit cards). Delinquencies were bound to rise at some point in time and they were going to rise by a lot. After all, with all the people defaulting on their mortgages and going into foreclosure, why would they hold on to their credit cards and try to pay them off?

Credit card companies know that this is what is happening, which is the reason for why they all want to hike their interest rates. If they didn’t hike interest rates then how would they make up their money from all of the people who are defaulting on their loans? The government won’t be bailing out these companies anymore.

Webloyalty, Vertrue, and Affinion are companies that charge your credit card tiny amounts. Usually when they show up on your card you’ll see the words “rewards” or “club.” Most people don’t recall paying for a service or signing up for one and now the Senate has finally decided to do something about these companies.

So, when exactly do you sign up for things like WebLoyalty? Have you ever purchased something online then found yourself barraged by popups for $10 off or some kind of rebate? That’s where they get you.

Webloyalty has been known to act like a company that had something to hide. It has grown to be a company that hides information from the public and buries negative stores to try to make sure people don’t see them.

Now, however, there is one person out there trying to get the company to talk about their shady business practices:

However, Webloyalty may have learned from past mistakes. Webloyalty’s corporate PR office e-mailed me after I Twittered that I was looking for former employees of these three companies — no luck, I probably would have done better hitting some of the bars in downtown Stamford — to ask if I needed anything.

I wanted to know: How is the company considering changing its practices in light of the congressional investigation? “Although the incidence of individuals who appear to have clicked through our process without reading what they were doing is quite small as compared to all of our members, even a few is too many,” Beth Kitchener, Webloyalty’s vice president of corporate communications, said in an e-mail exchange. “The class action lawsuit settlement as well as the issues raised by the Senate Commerce Committee put an exclamation point on the need to get this number as low as possible.”

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Where I live, health food stores are hard to come by, but I do know a little about their goods. So, when I came across this article called “10 Things Health Food Stores Won’t Tell You” on SmartMoney, I just had to talk a little about it.

1. Organic doesn’t mean healthy all the time. A survey recently found that consumers believe that organic foods have more nutrients in them than other non-organic foods do. This is very debatable. While organic doesn’t mean more nutritious it does mean it is a FDA monitored word that means that no synthetic or harmful (like pesticides) substances were used in growing produce and that no antibiotics or growth hormones were used in raising livestock.

2. Label standards are not guaranteed to be the same today as they were yesterday. Once there were regulations on what was to be considered and labeled organic, lobbyists started hitting up senators for weakening of the regulations. It has worked on a few occasions, such as when two Alaskan senators sponsored an amendment to a wartime bill that would open the door for seafood caught in the wild to be labeled organic.

3. Our store sells overpriced prepacked goodness. Heath food doesn’t have to eat up your entire grocery budget for the month in a week. You can do things like shop at farmer’s markets or join a co-op to get healthy organic (and locally grown) produce. I find it absolutely ridiculous to pay 3 times more at the grocery store for organic beef versus regular beef.

4. There is no regulation on dietary supplements. The dosing instructions as well as the daily amounts on the bottles of dietary supplements (sometimes called vitamins if the store can get away with it) is not regulated by the FDA. Claims that the companies make on the bottles don’t have to be entirely accurate and things can end up being banned in the future. What you may be taking right now as a supplement, may, in the future, be a banned toxin (see: ephedrine).

5. Just because it’s from a health food store doesn’t mean you won’t gain weight. Recently, in my small town, a Smoothie King store has popped up in a strip mall. Everyday in class, I would see a quarter to a third of my classmates with the cups ranging from the “small” 20 oz size to the behemoth that they call a “large.” Smoothie King drinks are good, but they are FULL of sugar, and where there’s sugar, there’s calories. Many of the smoothies offered are meant to be meal replacements, but many times I would see people having a Subways sandwich with the smoothies. Now, I don’t know what they had in the cups, but I’m sure they weren’t looking at the nutrition facts when they were ordering (I always have to because too much sugar makes me really sick).

If you want to read the rest of the list check out the source.

On September 15th Ben Bernanke said that the recession is basically over in a statement that rang so loudly, the stock market shot up like a weed after a rainstorm. Well, it was just over half a percentage point for the Dow today, but up is up, right (I really just wanted to use an illustrative language today and that was what came to mind also)?

So, on top of Bernanke’s statement about the recession being over, there was also new data to come out that said consumer sales were up. Sales rose in the past month the most they had risen over a single month in three years.

All of this news put together made for a pretty good day on Wall Street, but the statement about the recession being over was what made headlines that day. So, do I feel like the recession is over or that it may as well be over?

I think we may have seen the bottom. All indicators are pointing to the fact that we have bottomed out. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is well above the lowest point of the year and the overall stock market is doing well. Job losses have slowed down (although unemployment continues to increase). Consumer spending is starting to climb back up, homes are beginning to pick up in sales (and in return the amount of existing homes on the market is finally beginning to decline), and new construction has started once again on projects all across the country. Even auto sales have been kind of stirred after the Cash for Clunkers program.

But before we can all pack up our briefcases and drive to TGI Friday’s for Happy Hour, we have to remember something, it’s not over until it’s over and there are plenty of people out there who don’t have jobs and can’t pay their mortgages. I hate to be a buzzkill for those who felt like celebrating when Bernanke said the recession was basically over, but there are so many things still going on not only in the U.S. but all around the world that show the global recession is not over and that it will be a long road to go down before we actually see the end (and by the end, I mean economic growth like we were seeing prior to the beginning of the recession).

RadioShack has been around for awhile; it is one of those companies that pops up in smaller towns to take advantage of the fact that bigger companies like Best Buy just won’t locate there. Now, it will be re-branding itself as “The Shack” and dropping Radio from its name. This has been verified through not only a trademark filing earlier in July for “The Shack” but it also has been verified through the company’s website.

“This creative is not about changing our name. Rather, we’re contemporizing the way we want people to think about our brand. The Shack speaks to consumers in a fresh, new voice and distinctive, creative look that reinforces RadioShack’s authority in innovative products, leading brands, and knowledgeable, helpful associates,” said chief marketing officer Lee Applbaum. He went on to talk about the decision, “When a brand becomes a friend, it often gets a nickname. Take FedEx or Coke for example. Our customers, associates and even the investor community have long referred to RadioShack as ‘The Shack’ so we decided to embrace that fact and share it with the world.”

In my opinion, this is a laughable re-branding. I would not want my company to be referred to as “The Shack,” I don’t care if it is in the title of my store. When I think of a Shack, the only thing that comes to mind is a dilapidated building on some backwoods country road. In the trademark filing, it says that it is a company that sells contemporary electronics…Not something I would go to a shack to buy.

Then again, there are rumors floating around that this isn’t going to be a permanent name change, but just a marketing ploy to bring attention to the company. I suppose we’re going to have to wait to see what happens.

There’s something fishy going on with some iPods out there. Sure, I’ve talked about how some iPhone 3GS models are getting quite hot in the past, but they haven’t been exploding, which is exactly what happened to one girl in Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

In this case, all the girl and her dad wanted was a refund from Apple. However, Apple wouldn’t simply give them a refund for their explosive iPod Touch. Apple wanted the family to sign a settlement form. The form would have meant that they coudn’t talk about the incident or Apple could sue them. Apple could also sue them if they ever disclosed the terms of the settlement.

This isn’t the first time that Apple has tried to shut people up about problems with its devices either. Many other times, it has been able to get customers to sign the agreements when their iPhones and iPods overheated.

The whole incident sounds pretty scary when the dad describes what he did when the iPod started acting funny. He said, “It made a hissing noise, I could feel it getting hotter in my and, and I thought I could see vapor.” After throwing it out of his house he said, “within 30 seconds there was a pop, a big puff of smoke, and it went 10 feet into the air.”

When he contacted Apple, they sent him a letter that had a refund for the 162 pounds he paid for it, but with the money he agreed to the company’s denial of liability and that he will “agree to keep the terms of and existence of this settlement agreement completely confidential. Any breach of confidentiality may result in Apple seeking injunctive relief, damages, and legal costs against defaulting persons or parties.”

After the news came out, other people started coming out of the woodwork with people saying that their ipods had similar problems and some even burst into flames. Some iPods burned their owners. It appears as though the problem stems from the batteries that the devices use. The lithium ion batteries tend to overheat in iPods as well as laptops (remember when Dell issued that HUGE battery recall in 2006?).

I wouldn’t be too happy if my iPod exploded in my pocket. I usually keep my iPod in my car’s console because it stays hooked up to my radio and if it exploded in my car it would be a particularly bad situation for me (and I would make it a VERY serious issue with Apple).