DirJournal: Shopping Journal

Coupon clipping is not a sport to be taken lightly. It used to be that coupons were easy to find and clip, then were even easier to double or triple by shopping on certain days. Today, coupons are a bit less common in newspapers, but can still be found online, at cash registers and other locations as well – they just aren’t all in one section of the paper the way they used to be. But it looks as though finding coupons to clip may quickly be becoming a thing of the past. Coupons are going digital.

Digital Coupons Kroger and Proctor & Gamble have teamed up to try a new digital coupon field test. Digital coupons can be downloaded [...]

Streaming video and video downloads have gained significantly in popularity and now two major news items in online movie rentals have made the industry more attractive. Steve Jobs announced that iTunes would begin renting movies for a twenty-four hour period. This is expected, but welcome news nevertheless. Netflix, one of the leading websites for online rentals of traditional DVDs and streaming videos has recently announced that there will be no limit to the amount of streaming video and television shows available from the site.

iTunes Apple has revolutionized music thanks to the iPod, and now music has given way to movies, music videos, television shows and more that can all be downloaded and enjoyed on your computer and on your [...]

Why the day that officially begins the joyous Christmas season has such a dismal name, we may never know. Perhaps Black Friday is named for the many stores that open while it is still dark, drawing in eager customers with loss leaders and phenomenal deals.

Although industry experts claim Black Friday is the shopping day that pulls many companies back into the black financially, the traffic jamming shopping mall parking lots and pumping exhaust into the wintry air may better deserve the title. Whatever the reason, Black Friday, and more recently the online equivalent, Cyber Monday, are milestones for retailers of every kind all across America.

Doorbusting Deals The day after Thanksgiving is not a national holiday, but is [...]

Christmas is a time of year that forces everyone to shop. How customers go about their shopping, and whether or not they enjoy it, is far from universal, however. The shopping styles and preferences of men and women, for instance, are worlds apart. To use the old metaphor, it’s as if men and women were from different planets. Many shoppers, both male and female, are taking their shopping habits online as they rely more on ecommerce to fulfill their Christmas lists.

Ladies Want It All Simply stated, while Christmas shopping, women are more invested in the whole shopping experience. This means female shoppers are more likely to be willing to browse through seemingly unrelated items, and want salespeople to treat [...]

Safety is critical for children, and an entire industry has sprung up to help keep our children safe. Guidelines are strict and when we discover that something we believed to be safe is in fact, not, there is a powerful reaction from parents, media and even the government. Sometimes we can’t avoid dangers, such as when toys from reputable companies are painted with lead-based paint, but other times we can prevent many of the potential dangers that surround us and our children every day.

Research The most important step parents can do to keep children safe is to research a decision. In the case of a small toy, the research will obviously be much shorter and might simply be comparison [...]