Retail Dynamo Writer Andrea Walker was out amongst the masses today for a story appearing in tomorrow's paper about post-holiday shopping. She tells me that there were "lots of teenagers with cash and gift cards burning holes in their pockets."

Andrea said the malls were "busy but not anxiety-ridden. People seemed to be enjoying this shopping." See? What did I tell you? Pre-holiday shopping is all about anxiety. Finding the perfect gifts for others. You've got a limited amount of time to shop. You're trying to find nice things and stay within a budget. It's crazy. Post-holiday shopping, though, is all about you finding deals with Christmas money, gift cards you may have received or just your own money set aside to gift yourself. Now, that's my idea of a happy holiday.

Anyhow, for those planning on shopping this week for great deals, Andrea said she saw "lots of Macy's bags, more people spending than returning and exchanging, and just about every store had some kind of sale."

Here's the list of sales Andrea shared with me:

Continue reading "The best post-holiday deals found so far" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful time with their family and friends. Things were very merry in the Dang household with lots of food, lots of little ones running around and a significant number of presents for them under the tree. The adults no longer exchange gifts (there's just far too many of us!), but we still did our small part for the economy by spending a sizable amount on the kids and on the feast itself.

I'm not kidding about the feast, either. My uncle brought a traditional Vietnamese roasted pig. My sister made my mom's special eggrolls. My brother-in-law outdid himself with a roasted pork loin and apple stuffing and a goose with oyster stuffing. My younger brother baked an exceptional lemon meringue pie and an almost-as-good apple pie. I haven't even mentioned my Mama's famous turkey and special holiday salad with brussels sprouts, my other sister's ham and just about enough food to feed an army.

If I weren't working today and immobile from all that food I ate, I'd probably be out there looking for post-holiday sales in the stores, too. Yes, I did swear off shopping after all that Christmas shopping.

But, this is the kind of shopping I enjoy...

Continue reading "Post-Xmas sales may save Xmas numbers?" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Get a load of this Smart car. How cool is that? Even cooler, though, is that Hybrid Technologies takes cars like the MINI Cooper and Chrysler Crossfire, rip out the motor and then replacing it with a powerful electric motor under the hood and a stack of lithium batteries where the gas tank used to be.

I still love my American-made gas guzzler, but I wouldn't mind owning one of these bad boys, too. I'm betting those little Smart cars will fit in spaces anywhere!

Save on gas and park anywhere? You can't beat that. Maybe then I can cross off that other thing I've been wanting for Christmas: a garage.

What? Yea Yea, I have garage-envy. It's murder parking in the city, I tell you.

(Photo courtesy of treehugger.com)

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

Ooh, if you've been putting off that shopping, you better brace yourself... because it's going to get KEEERAZY this weekend.

Consumer Reports is saying that the last week leading up to the holidays is gonna get Hectic with a capital H because one-third (or 35 percent) of Americans still have not started their shopping yet. CR's latest poll also found that 24 percent will not finish shopping until Dec. 23 or later, and 10 percent will put it to Xmas Eve. Five percent of shoppers won't finish up their shopping until after Dec. 25.  

How exactly does that work, you ask?

(Sun Photographer Doug Kapustin)

Many on-line retailers are expected to benefit from last-minute shopping with more than one quarter (or 29 percent) of consumers expecting to make online purchases before the holidays. CR says, and about four in ten online shoppers anticipate purchasing additional items they did not intend to buy in order to take advantage of free shipping or other promotional discounts. Such last minute shoppers, about a quarter (or 24 percent) expect to pay more for expedited delivery to cover for their tardiness. 

Continue reading "Christmas Countdown... 7 days to go" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

I know I must sound pretty gritchy about the holidays, but there's good reason. Almost every security expert I hear from around this time of year has a warning for consumers who are busy spending a lot of dough on gifts, festivities and decorations.

So I don't want to be a pill, but I do want to pass along some tips from the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Maryland & Delaware, a nonprofit community service, to help you avoid getting scammed this season. Many of these you probably already know, but it's worth a reminder:

Guard your Social Security number -- On trips to the mall, never take it with you. Keep your Social Security card locked in a secure box. Only carry you number on the days you really need it, like when you are applying for a job.

Prevent shoulder surfing -- Many of you pay for stuff with credit cards or open new accounts to cover large purchases or take advantage of store promotions. It's the perfect time to steal sensitive information. You might feel overly cautious, but it's wise to use your arm and hand to shield your information from others. If a salesperson asks for your personal information, don't share it out loud.

Continue reading "Secure your holidays" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Just finished 99 percent of my Christmas shopping this weekend and lemme tell you, it was NOT fun. Just lots of running around, whipping out the plastic and shoving bags of stuff in the car. The only fun part was hanging out with my four sisters, who were going through the same miserable experience with me! By the time we were finished, we barely had room in the car for all of us.

All that crazy shopping got to me because I giggled a little too much over this story from Reuters.

I know. I know. I felt bad immediately, so shame on the rogue elf for writing those obscene letters to children! And for temporarily shutting down Canada's Letters from Santa program.

C'mon. It's a little funny.

(AP Photo)

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Thanks to those good folks over at Consumer World, here are some tips to avoid some return headaches:

To improve your chances of getting a full refund, provide a sales slip or gift receipt, and return the item in new condition, unopened, and with all original packaging material. Returns without a receipt are subject to the retailer's posted return policy, which might result in receiving only a merchandise credit for the lowest price the item has sold for in recent weeks, or possibly no refund or exchange at all.

If the item to be returned is defective, some states such as Massachusetts, require the store to give the consumer his/her choice of one of the three "R's": repair, replacement or refund, irrespective of the store's posted return policy.

Consumers who have a problem returning a gift, should first contact the store manager or customer service department of the retailer. If a satisfactory resolution is not obtained, then a complaint can be filed with the state Attorney General's office or local consumer agency.

And if you're looking for a list of some retailers who relax their regular return deadlines at holiday time by extending the return period into January, CW says: 

Continue reading "Part II of Making holiday returns easier" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

There's only one thing I hate more than Christmas shopping and that is returning gifts that didn't quite work out for the recipient after the holidays are winding down. It's almost inevitable. You bought the sweater in the wrong size or color. The technogadget didn't work. You and your sister didn't talk beforehand so you bought two of the same things for your niece.

Ah. Nothing like standing in line with lots of disgruntled shoppers who are drafting New Year's resolutions as they stand there to avoid this dreaded practice next year if at all possible!

In any case, Consumer World, a great Web site if you haven't checked them out yet, wants to remind shoppers that they "may face some nasty surprises (and one pleasant one) the day after Christmas as stores continue to enforce complicated and restrictive return policies, including checking a 'blacklist' of 'serial returners' prior to a refund, or by imposing costly restocking fees."

Based on it's annual return survey, CW found that some retailers (including Sports Authority, 40 percent of Staples stores, Express, The Limited and KB Toys) use a computer database by The Return Exchange of Irvine, Calif., to track returns. Others.....

Continue reading "Make holiday returns easy... (er)... easier." »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Last weekend, we had the after-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy or people just eager to get out of the house and away from spending anymore quality time with the relatives, Retail Whiz Andrea Walker said. Now, she says:

This weekend will bring out the Hanukkah crowd.

The Jewish holiday starts Tuesday and many who practice the religion are expected to hit the stores to buy last minutes gifts for the children or traditional items such as menorahs and dreidels.

(Photo courtesy of Barbara J. Feldman and surfnetkids.com)

Continue reading "Holy Hanukkah shoppers!" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

Depending on who you believe, a lot of us were either working really hard today or goofing off and shopping on-line all day. Today, of course, is Cyber Monday. The day, many would have you believe, that workers return after the holiday to bargain hunt on-line for deals they couldn't find in the bricks and mortar stores.

comStore in this MarketWatch story predicted that on-line shopping would surpass a record $700 million today. Others like this Motley Fool article says Cyber Monday is as real as the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny.

(Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)

Continue reading "Cyber Monday hype" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

So there I was, sitting on the sofa, reading the paper and watching the news about all the people standing in line all night for Black Friday early store openings and thinking, "Wow. What a bunch of crazy people."

Then I found out my nephew was one of those crazy people. I'm only telling you about my incredibly handsome, smart but insane nephew because he had such a great story to share. Here's his tale:

We went to Staples in Bel Air to get this year's big ticket item, a GPS navigation. We got there around 2 am and were about 20th in line. The people towards the front said they had been there since 6pm the night before. The main ticket item was a Navigon GPS system for your car. It was on sale for 99.99 and there were limited quantities. When we got there, most people were talking about some sort of laptop or some TV so we figured we were set. Just in case, though, our second choice was a TomTom One 3rd Edition GPS reciever which was 125.00. The TomTom was a little nicer but also a little bit more expensive.

It was around 32 degrees that night. After about a half an hour of waiting in line the cold began to to take a toll on us. I let Amanda go into the car and we switched every 30 to 45 minutes. Around 430am I overheard a lady say that Staples would be passing out vouchers at 5am for the big ticket items.

We figured there would be no problem getting the Navigon since it wasn't a front page item on the advert. As the manager came down the line, we found out he didn't have vouchers for the Navigon but was passing out vouchers for the TomTom so I grabbed one of those. The manager said all the Navigon vouchers went immediately and that there were only 10 per store.

(photo courtesy of HSN)

As it got closer to the 6am opening time, we started to see a lady toward the front of the line start to sell some of her vouchers.

Continue reading "Black Friday shenanigans" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

At this time of year, if you're anything like me, you're trying to remember all the stuff you have to do before you gather with family and friends for the holidays. I have so many siblings and we're all older now so, thank goodness, we skip gifting all the adults. But, there's still a bunch of nieces and nephews who would be sorely disappointed without some presents under the tree or in the mail.

I'll probably avoid the crowds on Black Friday by staying home, but I will be making my lists and checking around for deals on-line. Holiday party season is starting, too, so that means I'll have to plan on stocking up on some wine or gifts-for-the-host so as not to come empty-handed. At the same time, I'm also hoping to take a little holiday vacation.

What does this all mean? I'll be spending more money than usual. In the old days, I just put everything on my credit card and paid it off over time. Debt. No big deal, right?

Wrong.

(Chiaki Kawajiri, Sun photographer)

Continue reading "Smart holiday shopping and the coming consumer crunch" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

This could be a really bad year for toymakers and children.

You must have heard by now that California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. and L.A. City Attorney Rockard J. Delgadillo sued 20 companies yesterday for manufacturing or selling toys with "unlawful quantities of lead."

If not, read it here.

Today, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) released a list of several new toxic toys that have high levels of lead. At the press conference this morning, CEH said the toys can be found at major stores like Target and Wal-Mart.

If you're worried about buying a potentially lethal toy for Junior, check this CEH toy list out.

MaryPIRG has a piece of this action, too. Check out their 22nd annual toy safety report, also released today.

I know, I know. It's getting hard to keep up. Whatever happened to just worrying about overdosing on ginger cookies and candy canes over the holidays?

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
                    

In case you missed it yesterday, here's the link to Alma's lovely experience with L.L. Bean while shopping early for holiday gifts this year.

If you had an even better (or worse) experience with a merchant, gimme a holler. We all want to hear about it so we can shop there or avoid the place, too.

I'm posting the story below in case the link above stops working:

Continue reading "Alma Rettew loves L.L. Bean" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
                    

So this is the big week. No, I'm not talking about GobbleGobble Day (although I do love me some Thanksgiving fixins). I'm talking about Black Friday. The day many Americans will lose their mind and camp outside to get the IT-gift of the holidays. Or rush to the stores to start their holiday shopping. Me, I'm going to be sleeping off my turkey hangover.

But to help you prepare, Washington-based advocacy group Consumer's Union released its 12 shopping tips to keep the holidays safe for families and children.

If you're asking why that's necessary. Just consider that this year, at least 23 million toys were recalled due to lead paint, small magnets, or toxic chemicals. That's not even mentioning the 175 million pieces of children's jewelry made with hazardous levels of lead or the more than a million cribs that have entrapped and strangled infants.

Starting Friday when they make a purchase, volunteers around the country will hand out "Safe Shopper coupons" to cashiers, which will hopefully find their way to managers. The coupons will list things that consumers should be able to expect, CU says. Things like all toy and products meeting strong safety standards, all recalled products being removed from shelves promptly, and all recall information being posted clearly for all consumers to see.

Makes pretty good sense, don't you think? 

If you're crippled with fear about buying a bad toy, read on for the 12 tips.

Continue reading "Holiday shopping in the Year of the Recalls" »

Posted by Dan Thanh Dang at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)