Tweeter Site Egregiously Hacked as Company Bows Out
Posts with tag retail
Cyber Monday Traffic Way Up, Xbox 360 Sales Hit Record
The rate of shoppers yesterday was 6.7 million per minute, a massive figure that's nearly 50 percent higher than last year's 4.6 million. There's no word yet of final sales resulting from all that traffic, but it must be good, and Microsoft, for one, is spreading some joy, letting the world know that over the holiday weekend it sold 25 percent more Xbox 360 consoles than during the same period last year. An even better sign for the console, currently the cheapest of the current generation of gaming systems, is that it out-sold Sony's PlayStation3 by a three-to-one ratio. What we don't know is how well Nintendo's Wii sold, but one word comes to mind: gangbusters. [From: ZDNet, and Microsoft]
Where to Find Black Friday Gadget Deals
Whether you or not you want to spend money this year on gifts, you can't escape the fact that the official holiday shopping season kicks off today, "Black Friday," as the day after Thanksgiving is dubbed. Retailers in every category offer significant deals on this day, and the consumer electronics industry is no exception. If you're planning on buying either yourself or someone else a computer, television, MP3 player, or other gadget, you should take a look at the various sites that highlight the latest holiday sales, as well as any newspaper circulars.
Whereas in the past, Black Friday deals were mostly reserved for the Friday after Thanksgiving itself, this year the economic downturn means that the sales are likely to last well up to Christmas and beyond.
Though some deals have already been leaked or announced, many Black Friday markdowns don't get announced until today, so here are a few online places to find out about the latest sales:
Free Stuff: Not only is Engadget offering updates on the latest Black Friday Gadget deals, but will also be giving away actual merchandise, which means you may not even have to schlep to the mall this year!
Apple Deals: The Unofficial Apple Weblog will keep you up to date on any Apple-related deals, in case you're in the market for Apple software or a new MacBook, iPod, or iPhone.
What the Biggest Retailers Are Offering: Looking for the rare sub-$1,000 50-inch plasma HDTV? Hint: You can get it at Wal-Mart, but make sure to check out Walletpop's roundup of sales at all the other big stores, from Target and Circuit City to Toys R Us and Amazon.
The Best Bargains: CNET has a good roundup of which gadgets have the best markdowns, from PlayStation 3 packages to memory cards.
All Bargains All the Time: For everything else, check out DealNews.com, which offers up-to-the-minute listings of every single online and brick-and-mortar deal on pretty much everything, including, of course, consumer electronics.
Target Holiday Gift Card Doubles as Digital Camera
Circuit City Files for Bankruptcy
by Darren Murph, posted Nov 10th 2008 at 10:16AM
[Via Bloomberg, image courtesy of AFSmith; thanks Daniel]
Wal-Mart Cutting CD Shelf Space to Make Room for Blu-ray
Furthermore, it's reported that John Fleming, chief marketing officer with Wal-Mart, insinuated that "electronics would be getting space expansion in stores due to the decline in physical packaged media." We'll be keeping an eye out to see if we spot any shifts in our local Wal-Mart stores -- won't you do the same?
[Image courtesy of TeamSugar]
Circuit City Considering Shutting 150 Stores to Avoid Bankruptcy
by Donald Melanson, posted Oct 21st 2008 at 10:29AM
It's made it through some tough times in the past (the other DIVX, anyone?), but it looks like Circuit City is now really up against the wall, and it's apparently considering some rather drastic measures to avoid becoming the largest retailer to enter bankruptcy protection in recent years. According to The Wall Street Journal, "people familiar with the company" say that Circuit City is contemplating closing at least 150 stores and making the associated high number of job cuts in order to get itself in a better position to shore up some much needed financing, which it has been unable to secure so far.
To put things in a bit of perspective, before it packed up and went home, Blockbuster offered to buy Circuit City in February of this year for $6 to $8 a share. The company's share value as of this writing? 40 cents.
[Via MarketWatch]
Pizza Hut Lets You Order Pies on Facebook
by Tim Stevens, posted Oct 17th 2008 at 9:37AM
Yes, Pizza Hut, now part of the dizzying and overwhelming array of Facebook app plug-ins, can now be integrated with your wall and other profile accoutrement. Through the app, you can browse menus and place your order, all without missing a friend update. It all sounds somewhat silly, but remember, online pizza sales are a multi-billion dollar industry, and that's a pie that Pizza Hut wants a big, big slice of. [From: BetaNews]
Search for T-Shirts Online With PleaseDressMe
PleaseDressMe lets you perform text searches of the descriptions, as well as browse by tag, size, and price. The text search turns up surprisingly few results, but browsing by price, size, and color is quite helpful.
Now if only some of the shirts were actually funny. [From: Download Squad]
Related Links:
Top 11 Geek T-Shirts
Best Buy to Sell Gadgets in Airport Vending Machines
The first batch of machines will be installed on September 1, in airports in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and San Francisco. They're sure to come in handy for the forgetful traveler who is always leaving behind important accessories, but we're not sure how comfortable we would be buying an expensive piece of equipment like a digital camera from the same machines that are always eating our dollar bills when we want a Snickers bar. Even so, Zoom Systems offers a 60-day return policy, in case you, say, accidentally press the wrong button and buy the wrong color iPod.
On the plus side, a vending machine can't steal your very personal photographs. [Source: AOL News]
