ConsumerWorld.org

 Hi All,

Today's blog entry is about the consumer.  As in a website called ConsumerWorld.org.

ConsumerWorld.org is a website that enables the consumer - which means you! - to compare prices at dozens of online stores instantly, find shopping bargains, link quickly to product reviews from Consumer Search, Consumer Review, Epinions, find best prices and sales prices at online stores and stores in your neighborhood.

Users can check store reputation via BizRate and the Better Business Bureau as well. The site has links to Consumer Agencies, Companies, Travel, Scam Alerts, Recalls and a place to sign up for the ConsumerWorld Newsletter as well. This link is for customers that want to send a complaint to a company online - the list is very, very comprehensive and useful! There are links to newly added consumer sites as well.

Links to Low Rate Credit Cards, Air Deals, Product Reviews,  Used Car Histories, Consumer Booklets and Consumer Rights.

Enjoy the site and go forth and shop and research and browse and look and review and save, save, save money!!!

Regards,
Stu

 

Hi All,

Guess what today is? It is CyberMonday.  What the heck is that you ask? Great question, and here is the answer...

From Wikipedia.com - Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday in the US.  It was created by marketing companies to persuade people to shop online.  The term made its debut on 11/28/2005 in a Shop.org press release titled, 'Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year'. 

So...go out - okay, get on your computer - and shop, shop, shop....

Click here for a few interesting (and probably useful) links about Cyber Monday.

1.  Click on this link for an article titled, 'Cyber Monday Gears Up to Get Online Shoppers Hyped'.
2. We've got 'em: The Best Cyber Monday Deals - USA Today.
3. Cyber Monday Cheat Sheet: What's On Deck For Online Shoppers.
4.  Cyber Monday 2014 Deals: 235 Sales and Counting!
5.  Best Cyber Monday 2014 Deals - Tech stuff mostly
6.  2014 Cyber Monday Deals: Walmart, Amazon Can't Stop, Won't Stop With Online Sales

Enjoy the links!  And remember....next post is post number 500...

Regards,
Stu

Anti-Black Friday Shopping

Hi All,

As you probably know, the day after Thanksgiving is known as 'Black Friday'. It is a huge, absolutely huge shopping day for US retailers. It is also the traditional start of the holiday shopping season.

Because of all the hype and advertising and publicity that Black Friday is receiving, there is now a sort of grass-roots organization that is 'anti black friday' shopping. Click here for the link to a newspaper article from a newspaper in Minnesota that talks about this.

From a site called the Geeko System comes this link discussing buying nothing today.

Click on this link for an article from the New York Times discussing whether or not shoppers are actually spending money when they are in the malls and stores this year.

From Hubspot comes these fascinating Black Friday tidbits. These are marketing/advertising type nuggets that are great to mention at cocktail parties!

Click on this link for the homepage of the National Retail Federation - the world's largest retail trade association and the voice of retailing worldwide. It represents retailers of all types and sizes from the US and from 45 countries abroad!

Click here for some news regarding Black Friday 2011. Makes you think a bit!
1. Big Biz, some black eyes on Black Friday.
2. Black Friday shopper pepper sprays rivals.

Enjoy the shopping and I hope the lines aren't too long for you today.

Regards,
Stu

Gently Used Children's Clothing

Hi All,

I was recently introduced to stores that sell gently used children's clothing. At the time I had no idea that the trip to the store would result in a blog entry...but her we are!

Click on this link to About.com's site entitled 'Long Island Thrift Shops'. Shops on the page included Island Thrift in Brentwood, Selden Thrift in Selden, Junior League of Long Island Thrift Shop in Roslyn, Twin Pines Consumer Association Thrift Shop in Port Washington, Unique Thrift Store in Westbury and Unique Thrift Store in Levittown. Along with contact information there is a brief summary for each store which is pretty helpful.

The next link is the store that started this whole children's clothing thing...I went there a few days ago - the stores' name is Once Upon a Child - click here for the link. Their tagline is 'we buy and sell gently used clothes, toys & equipment'. Fair enough and, since I've been to the store, it is certainly accurate enough. I saw rows and rows of clothing ranging from newborns to toddlers to 4T's. And, as advertised, the clothes and toys and accessories were gently used. For real - so there was NO misadvertising.

Now, as I drive to the library every morning, I see a store on Merrick Road in Seaford called Fun Stuff Toys. I haven't been in the store yet, but I plan on making it a road trip with the family very, very soon. So, as the FSToys site says, they 'specialize in kids' toys - infant, preschool and kids of all ages'. Fair enough, but the store really can't be considered to be a thrift shop type retailer.

That being said, the store might be a good alternative to a Toys r Us or a Wal-Mart or a K-Mart...

To round out this blog entry, I found a link to a site called CitiDex Long Island. Essentially this is a 'Yellow Pages' wanna be for the internet. Even the sites' background color is yellow - similar to the Yellow Pages. Anyway, click on this link to CitiDex Long Island - the topic of the link is Children's Clothing on Long Island.

In particular there is a link to 'Used Children's Clothing'. There are three links - Cows Harbor Kids Consignment in Northport, GiGi's Kids in Hampton Bays and Little Angels Thrift Shop in Bay Shore. Click here for the link to the Used Children's Clothing site on CitiDex.

Enjoy the links - and I hope your shopping ventures prove to be fruitful, cost effective and fun!
Regards,
Stu