I mean, it’s still there and all, but does it really mean anything?

And if it does mean something, what more can retailers do that they already haven’t?

WalMart Stores, Radio Shack, The Apple Store, Best Buy, KMart, Kohl’s, Toys “R” Us, and Target have already had their Black Friday ads “leaked.”   I can’t really believe that these leaks were anything but completely planned: orchestrated to create buzz.

Black Friday just doesn’t seem that special anymore. It’s gone from being a crowded, but otherwise lighthearted, shopping day to a spectacle.  People with time on their hands and a few extra layers of clothing stand out all night to grab a few loss leaders, many of them hoping only to ride the wave of hype to sell them on eBay for profit.

Then there are people who just stay out of Black Friday completely, waiting for post-holiday sales or maybe regifting instead.

Retailers need us a lot more than we need them, frankly.  It’s their bottom line that suffers if we don’t go out the day after Thanksgiving.  We, on the other hand, risk blowing our spending plan for indulgence in frenzy and a New Year’s credit hangover.

As Black Friday gets crazier, just picture Happy Days.  And change the channel.

Got tweet? I do!

(If you have a true love, then you have thirty of them from last Christmas! Most people really only need twenty-nine French hens.)

Regifting this year is up.  Way up. A Consumer Reports survey found that a little over a third (36%) of American adults said they’d recycle a gift this year, which is a 50% increase from two years ago.  Regifting is an art and MP Dunleavey has a dozen good tips for learning that art.

With Christmas decorations hitting Costco in August, and “leaked” Black Friday ads popping up, and overt announcements from Walmart a month ago promising 100 toys for $10, it’s clear that stores really, really want to sell stuff badly.  (Not that they haven’t always wanted to sell stuff, but the retail wars seem to be getting more heated.)

So the realization that more people still want to give stuff that they already have in their possession is a little telling about how bad things are, no?  This increased regifting behavior will be a drag on year-end sales:  each re-gift means, roughly, a gift that wasn’t purchased.  If there are roughly 200 million American adults, and 5% of them re-gift one $10 gift (5% is the increase of “would re-gift” adults from last year), then that’s $100 million less that retailers will get this year, just due to regifting. Add to this outright lost sales, and pretty soon we’re talking real money, real hits to the bottom line, and real downsizing.

But you know what?  That’s what should happen. When people overspend, they need to underspend.  When people underspend, businesses that rely on people spending will run into hard times.  It’s not our duty to keep businesses afloat.  We should use the fruits of our labor in ways that benefit ourselves, and right now that includes reducing debt and saving for retirement.

So dust off those Christmas knickknacks, rewrap them, and pass them on, preferably to people other than the those who gave you said knickknacks.  Lots of others are doing it!

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Liz Pulliam Weston had an article today on the new tip-jar economy — that new business practice of putting out the tip jar, raising the “customary” tipping percentage, and adding other tip-like fees that are no longer discretionary, but mandatory.

Her take regarding the tip jars was, in essence:  Ignore the tip jars at businesses where the employees shouldn’t be tipped as a matter of custom, unless you have a good reason to tip, such as really superior service.

I have a few more thoughts on why they’re coming out in force:

• Tip jars and “mandatory gratuities” are a way of raising prices without looking like they’re raising prices. The massage parlor can still advertise prices of $35 for a massage, but tack on a mandatory $10 tip to raise the actual cost of the massage to $45.
• Tip jars are ways of paying employees more without actually paying them more. Employers have fixed costs for labor, including wages and mandatory taxes for Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment.  By setting out a tip jar they are relieving themselves of the burden of providing a raise to their employees.  (All other things being equal of course:  They could very well lose business because customers feel put upon.)  Dishonest employers that just tell the employees to divide up the tip jar at the end of the shift without counting it themselves are also getting out of paying these taxes on the tip income (which they are obligated to pay under most circumstances).  Oh, and it leaves the employees on the hook for keeping track of it themselves, as they are obligated to pay tax on those tips.
• Tip jars are a gentle form of social conditioning. People used to pump gas for us.  Now it’s rare when they do (unless you live in New Jersey).  Just like “20% is the new 15%” pretty soon tip jars will be acceptable just about everywhere — and employees will give you a disapproving look if you don’t chip in.

Ultimately, though, I have to support a business’s freedom to do this kind of thing.  If the business were my livelihood, I’d do whatever I needed to (within the spirit of law) in order to keep things going.  A tip jar buys a little bit of time for a business owner.  It isn’t quite as noticeable an affront as raising prices, but it’s not unnoticeable either.  It’s more a sign of the times:  The costs of doing business are going up, and business volume is going down, so do what you can.

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OK, so I’m reading the July, 2009, issue of U.S. News & World Report that my mother-in-law left the last time she visited, and I happen on an article called “Frugal Forever?” written by Kimberly Palmer, senior editor at U.S. News and blogger at Alpha Consumer.  (She had several articles in that issue.)

The gist of the article:  Frugality, borne of necessity, is now the in thing.  People don’t feel the pressure to spend, businesses are playing into frugality with their marketing campaigns.  Eating over at friends and doing your own nails is chic.

Overall, a perfectly solid article.

The last paragraph mentions that people will still want to splurge once in a while, especially when the repayment of their interest-free loan to the government known as a federal income tax refund hits their bank accounts.  This also is all well and good, but the example that was used … well, maybe it’s testosterone but I just don’t get it:

One consumer told us, “If I get $1,000 back [in tax refunds], I may buy a $300 purse.  If I don’t do it, I’ll go crazy … “

Am I completely out of touch by saying that $300 for a purse is crazy?

I very well might be.  Let me know in the comments.

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Dawn over at Frugal For Life discusses some of the ethical implications of stockpiling foods.  She gets into a few rules of thumb for testing to see whether stockpiling has crossed into greed, or just plain inconsideration.  Talking to the store to have them do a special large-quantity order is much more considerate than cleaning out the shelves, for example.  We even scored a small bulk grocery discount when we took this route.

Done properly, stocking up on food (6 months’ worth, or more) is wise, not only for you and your family, but also for your community.  It’s not being greedy at all. Some positive benefits of building up a decent pantry:

• Emergency preparedness. Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods — and worse — can disrupt supply lines, making things either very expensive, or just simply unavailable at any price.  At this point, if you have it, you have it, and if you don’t, you won’t until the danger passes.
• Reduced demand in times of emergency. If you have what you need, you won’t need to run out to buy necessities at the eleventh hour and compete with everyone else who’s doing the same.  This means more of your community can get what they need.
• More local business now, when they can replace their supply. If you’re buying now, you don’t have to buy later, and they can sell to you now rather than only wish that they could sell to you later.
• Self-sufficiency. Following this thought further results in a heightened level of long-term preparedness.  Less reliance on conventional supply lines like grocery stores means less personal risk.
• Opportunities for outreach. Being able to feed people in an emergency allows chances to share beliefs like the Gospel message.  Giving a meal and an eternal gift = good deal.
• Inflation hedging. If salaries don’t keep up with inflation, everything will be relatively more expensive.  Locking in items at today’s prices hedges against this scenario.

Howard Ruff’s How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years in the 21st Century runs through many of the big pitfalls in long-term food storage.  He discusses how some foods lose their nutritional value far before they actually go bad, as well as how to ease into this kind of diet should it become necessary to rely on it.

So please, pounce (wisely) on those food deals and invest in some food.

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This weekend I saw a sign for a very important-sounding event:

Remerchandising Relinquishment!

It was on a sign for a store sale.  I was curious what the heck this means so I did a Google search for it.  Only 186 hits came up (which is pretty paltry considering Google indexes 17.1 jillion pages) so I searched on remerchandising.  The search turned up this helpful answer; it’s a retailing term for “freshening up the store layout” to highlight seasonal or special items, rouse hapless shoppers out of their walking slumber, and, of course, encourage them to buy more.

Relinquishment isn’t anything more cryptic than its standard meaning: the process of ceasing ownership.  Their stuff gets transferred elsewhere.

So, from all I can see, a remerchandising relinquishment translates thusly: “Rather than move this heavy piece of furniture halfway across this huge warehouse, we’d love to have you pay us for the privilege of moving this heavy piece of furniture into your truck.”

That’s the best case.  In worse cases, it could be a red flag for a bargain flim-flam: jacking up previous prices just to discount them and give the appearance of a bargain.

Just like going out of business sales aren’t always great, sales with fancy names don’t necessarily give fancier discounts.

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Saw some recent retweets of my post on why you should stay far, far, far away from Swoopo (thanks to @SFBoater and @BidzillaDOTcom) and it reminded me of an important change that Swoopo had made recently.

A quick recap of the characteristics that made Swoopo (before the change, anyway) little more than thinly-veiled gambling:

• You bought the right to bid up front.
• Auctions started low, and each bid incremented the price only a small amount, less than what the bidder paid for the right to bid.
• Each bid pushed the auction end 20 seconds (or so) into the future (up to a month, when the auction ends for sure).  This rendered sniping irrelevant.
• Since there was only one winner of that auction, everyone else bidding lost what they paid for the bids.

Recently, Swoopo introduced the “Swoop It Now” feature.  If it sounds like eBay’s Buy It Now feature, then that’s basically what it is.  Up to one hour after the auction’s end, you can buy items for a set price. Not just for a set price above and beyond what you’ve sunk into bidding, but a set price, period.  Swoopo will discount your Swoop It Now price by the amount that it cost you to buy the bids you’ve spent in the auction (up to the amount of the item).

This makes the whole process quite a bit less “gambly” because you go in knowing that you can always cut bait and buy the item.  If you bid at the right time and get the item for a 92% discount, well hey, jolly jiggles for you, but you no longer have to be concerned about throwing your bid money down the drain.

At least, that would be the rational way to think about Swoopo auctions.  If you’ve done your research and if the price they’re offering looks reasonable, and you were going to buy the item anyway, then there’s little wrong with playing Swoopo.  It’s when you’d buy it only at a steep discount — or don’t really think about whether you even really want what’s offered — that it becomes dangerous.

Overall, this looks like Swoopo putting its ear to the ground and making itself more legitimate before it becomes too well-known how much money it’s raking in.

(Oh, was that casino parlance I just used?)

Anyway, do you Swoopo?  Will this change make you more likely to Swoopo, or will you still stay far away?

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I’m very glad that Wegmans has come to our neck of the woods, and that they’ve continued to double manufacturers’ coupons.  It’s been quite a while since a grocer local to me has offered this.

Growing up, I remember that there used to be a limit on which coupons they’d double.  It may have been 75 cents, or it may have been up to a dollar.  I’m not sure.  The limit is still in place at ours.  It reads: “Wegmans will double manufacturers’ coupons up to 99 cents.”  (Additionally, the price after all discounts are taken off cannot exceed the price of the item.)

I asked Customer Service at our Wegmans exactly what this meant, because there are two interpretations:

1. Wegmans will double any coupons but only up to $0.99. Thus, a $5.00 item with a $2.00 coupon would get $2.00 + $0.99 off, for a final price of $2.01.
2. Wegmans will double any coupons that have a value of $0.99 or less. In the same situation as above, my $2.00 off coupon wouldn’t be doubled at all, so the final price would be $3.00.

The correct interpretation is the second one:  there is no doubling at all for coupons of $1.00 or more.

Quite a few manufacturers issue $1.00-off coupons for their products, and Wegmans’ doubling policy excludes these.  I mean, $1.00 off is $1.00 off, but $1.00 off isn’t as nice as $2.00 off.

How many manufacturers is “quite a few?”  Well, I checked on MyPoints‘ printable coupon section, and tallied up the coupons for the grocery store items for my ZIP code.  Here’s what I got:

• $4.00 off: 1 coupon
• $3.00 off: 2 coupons
• $2.00 off: 4 coupons
• $1.50 off: 6 coupons
• $1.10 off: 2 coupons
• $1.00 off: 36 coupons
• $0.80 off: 1 coupon
• $0.75 off: 5 coupons
• $0.60 off: 3 coupons
• $0.55 off: 7 coupons
• $0.50 off: 11 coupons
• $0.40 off: 7 coupons

There were 85 printable grocery coupons.  Fifty-one of them (60%) were $1.00 or more.  But 42% of the printable coupons were exactly $1.00. $1.00 off was the most common amount by more than a factor of three.

If manufacturers were to bring down the value of their $1.00 coupons to $0.98, all of these coupons would be able to be doubled under Wegmans’ current rules.  Why two cents rather than just one?  It’s not that noticeable for Wegmans (and other grocers) to change their policies from “We double coupons up to 99 cents” to “We double coupons less than 99 cents.”  The latter would exclude 99-cent-off coupons, but not 98-cent-off coupons.  They could exclude whatever they want, of course, but the change in their policy would be more noticeable.

This change wouldn’t make or break anyone’s food budget but it would make coupon doubling a little bit more fun.

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I received a comment from Ryan Halford, a Senior Buyer for Walmart, and specifically for computers.  He was commenting on my $298 laptop post.  I’m including his comments and responding to them here.

Mr. Halford said:

I am the buyer for computers at Walmart.  Thanks for the comments and feedback.

I have visited the factories where computers are made.  There are only a handful of factories manufacturing laptops and desktops.  Many make the same product for all retailers and websites.  It is pretty difficult to skimp on quality of product when the same factory is making HP, Dell, Toshiba, Acer, etc. products for Walmart, Best Buy, Tiger Direct, Amazon, etc.

As for the opportunity on the return process and support you received from the store, this is something we as a company are focused on improving.  With over 3700 stores in the US, when 1 customer has a bad experience from a support standpoint it makes for a bad perception of the entire 3700 stores.

Our return policy is one of the more flexible in retail (and we get taken advantage of many times because of this).  Within 15 days of purchase, a customer may return the product with their receipt for a refund (no matter if the unit has been opened or not and we don’t charge a restocking fee or any other fee).  There is a 1 year manufacturer’s warranty with our computers starting at date of purchase.

We do suffer direct consequences if a machine breaks. Yes, we don’t fix the machines on-site as we don’t have the capability today to do so, but if you have a bad experience with a machine bought from one of our supplier partners in our store, we take the heat and get the perception of selling faulty or cheap product (as is the case here).  This makes it difficult for you as a consumer to want to purchase another product from us in this space.

I hate that the customer service was less than acceptable.  Please note that we are constantly working on ways to improve.

I appreciate the feedback from your post and will pass it along to some folks within our company as well.  Thanks.

First off, thank you, Mr. Halford. I’m impressed, and more than a bit humbled, that you took the time to respond.   I’m also impressed that Walmart allows its buyers to speak in an open forum like this about the company’s products.  Not all companies have that kind of candor.

Second, even if the return policy on the other computer was restrictive, it was clear.  It was either printed right on the box or displayed prominently next to the computer display.  So I knew the terms when I bought the product.

Third, I bought that HP computer several years ago.  A lot of things can change in several years.  Thank you for reminding me of that.

Fourth, saying that “customer service was zero on this item” wasn’t the best choice of words.  More what I meant was that the restrictive return policy (compared with other items that Walmart sells) took Walmart’s customer service mostly out of the loop on this item.  I’ll correct it in the other post.

Lastly, on just about every other product I’ve purchased at Walmart, returning the product as needed has been easy, and my experience with Walmart customer service has been very good.

Thanks again for responding, and thank you for listening to my comments.

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(UPDATE: Walmart responded to this post.  Read it here.)

This weekend at Walmart there was a laptop for $298.  This was the lowest price I’ve seen for a new non-netbook-sized laptop.

The specs weren’t bad:  Windows Vista, 3 GB RAM, wireless, 3 USB ports, 160 GB hard drive.  Three gigs is probably enough to keep Vista from crawling too badly.

I’ve bought a desktop computer from Walmart before.  It was an HP Pavilion, and it failed after about a month (something was shorting and resetting the computer at odd times).  Walmart didn’t have a long return window for the computers they sold at that time, so I called HP since it was still well within warranty.  They offered to send me a postpaid box so that I could mail it to them to have it repaired, or have it repaired at an HP certified repair shop.  I opted for the second one because it would probably be quicker.  The nearest one was a Radio Shack.

When I took it there, they weren’t pleased.  They tried to charge me for the repair since they didn’t sell it to me; I held my ground and said that HP told me that there was no charge for this repair.  Then they grumbled about how the Walmart stuff was garbage, repaired it, and it was up to me to call them after I had thought I’d waited long enough.

(EDIT: I struck through this because it was incorrect.  See Walmart’s response.)

So, I got a low-priced computer, but also I got insight into why:

• It was cheaply made. Cost cutting on computers usually doesn’t come without corner-cutting (or a whole slew of bloatware).
• Wal-Mart suffered no direct consequence if it broke. They just sell ‘em.  They don’t fix ‘em.
• Wal-Mart customer service was zero on this item. It could only be returned (unopened), and only within a very short period of time.  I was on my own beyond that.

My wife reminded me of this experience when I showed her the $298 laptop.

She’s probably right.  Anyone had different experience with Walmart computers?

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