Skepticum

Pets of Christian families who choose to go with Dr. Dobson’s list of where not to shop for Christmas will be left out in the cold this winter. Petsmart is listed on Dobson’s “The Bad” list and PetCo committed an even more serious crime on Christmas and was listed on “The Ugly” list of stores Christians shouldn’t shop at.

Why is he boycotting these stores? Because Jesus wouldn’t shop there either, after the stores shifted their focus from Christmas to The Holidays.

“The Bad”(Best Buy and Borders etc.) and “The Ugly” (the GAP family of stores, Barnes and Noble, eBay, Discovery Channel Store, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and other), “depend on the Christmas season to generate a high percentage of their profits for the year, and yet they want to do it by distancing themselves from the traditional Christmas story,” according to Dobson.

How deluded do you have to be to think that the stores who use the term “Christmas” in their ads have a different goal in mind than profit. If retailers had data to show that their neutral holiday language was going to drive Christians away from their stores, they would use Christmas instead. All retailers are focused on revenue and based on their customer profile they know what language would work best with the customer without endangering their revenue.

Best Buy, Borders and Barnes and Noble were quoted for their “no-solicitation policy.” In other words, they don’t allow those dudes in funny outfits to shout Merry Christmas and expect donations for it. That was their big crime on Christmas.

However, if you want to do a charity thing this Holiday season, I encourage you to stop by Borders (”The Bad”) and donate to help with children’s literacy, or buy something from the (RED) campaign at one of the GAP stores (”The Ugly”).

Tags: atheism, charity, christian, Christmas, red, shopping

About two weeks ago I wrote about an unexpected way to finding a wii console at a Sears store down the street.

Since, I’ve noticed the press on how the wii consoles are scarce, sellers are getting highly creative at ripping consumers off and parents are having fights over those last-in-stock consoles in stores.

Start with the Nintendo list of retailers.

After that, call brick and mortar stores. If you have called stores in your area and came up empty-handed, you may want to try the Yahoo Buyer’s Guide, which today showed the Wii in-stock at Walmart.

In the UK try the Wii Stock Updates or the Wii Stock Checker.

If you still find yourself without a Wii try some of the multiple sweepstakes or give-away events that seem to pop-up all over the place these days.

Amazon.com will randomly select customers to receive Wii consoles at a discount on Nov. 22. The Customers Vote program has started today, and it involves customers voting amongst specific items, including the Wii, PS3, and XBox and returning to the site on a specific day to see if they were randomly selected to receive the item they voted for at a discounted price.

Comedy Central teamed up with Nintendo and Scion to give away 48 hourly prize packages which will include a Wii console and a Garmin(R) nuvi(R) 200:

From Thursday, November 22 through Sunday, November 25, COMEDY CENTRAL will air 48 hours of mixed programming to celebrate the network’s “‘Ving Break.” Viewers need to stay tuned because a different code will appear every hour, giving fans a chance to register and win 48 hourly prize packages and a shot at the grand prize. By logging on to www.thanxgiveaway.com and visiting the COMEDY CENTRAL Thanxgiveaway sitelet, viewers will enter the codes thus becoming eligible for all prizes. Sweeps entry ends December 2.

So, happy shopping!

Tags: gaming, Nintendo, shopping, wii

For weeks now I’ve been browsing the web trying to find an affordable and most importantly, available Wii console. You see, a few weeks back my best friend got me addicted to Dance Dance Revolution. No, I’m not 12, but I am a sucker for those kinds of active challenges. Ever since then I’ve been obsessing over which console I should buy so that I can feed my addiction.

I am a web marketer IRL and I will confess, I live by the web. I buy most everything online, including groceries when I can (Peapod rules). I do buy clothes from stores but only when I’m in Minnesota, as I found they have a great sense of fashion, available sweaters year-round and 0% tax on clothing. Cook County, which includes Chicago has a 9% sales tax, and there are ongoing tax discussions to raise tax to 11%. No, I didn’t type that wrong. 11% is what the politicians in the area are discussing. So you can’t blame me that I think twice before buying anything from the stores around here.

Back to the Wii. My search ended today. As I said, I looked all over the web, and the only sites that advertise Wii “in stock” are sites I’ve never heard of. Also, they advertise these wii packages for about $360, which is about $100 more than the retail price.

In my confidence that the web rules all other means of trade, I didn’t think to look in stores. Until postifthen recommended calling a store.

I looked at the Nintendo Wii website and saw Sears is a Wii retailer. Wouldn’t you know it, the Sears store down the street from me had one in stock. Even the store clerk was shocked.

Wiiiiii!

Update:

Since I first published this post I found additional creative ways to find a Wii.

Which reminds me, this is the second week in a row where I experience the disconnect between online and brick and mortar stores. Last week I needed a fog machine and I checked the website of a Halloween store. The site told me there were no fog machines available in the stores within my zip code, but they did offer rush shipping (at extra cost) from their warehouse. I needed a fog machine that day so in my desperation I went to Walmart (I think Walmart is like the jesus of stores, we all look to it for salvation), after also seeing on their website that “this item is not available in stores.” I found the fog machine at Walmart… but I couldn’t check it out. The SKU wasn’t in their system… Discouraged I left Walmart and noticed the before-mentioned Halloween store across the street. I decided to give it a try and not only did they have a fog machine, they had two different kinds!

So I think that in this day an age even though the expectation is that retailers would integrate their stock-tracking software with their online platforms and front-ends, many companies aren’t all that well integrated, including large retailers such as Sears.

So if you can’t find a Wii online, and websites tell you they’re out of stock, dust off your phone and call those good-old brick and mortar stores. Who knows, you may find a Wii that didn’t get sold because people like me put all their faith in the power of the web.

Tags: Best Buy, console, dance-dance-revolution, electronics, gaming, nintendo wii, Sears, shopping, video-games, wii, wii-console