RANT: Poor Service at Giant & Chipotle
Tonight was a bit of a "terrible horrible no good very bad day." In addition to a lack of progress on our household chores, a husband very frustrated about the Ravens game, and a warning for speeding, I had very disappointing service transactions at two of my most frequented establishments: Giant, my grocery store, and Chipotle, the fast casual Mexican restaurant.
DEALS: Snapfish, Victoria’s Secret, & Old Navy
There are a few great deals going on right now that can be particularly helpful for Christmas gifts...
1. Buy 1 Photo Book, Get 2 Free at Snapfish
Snapfish is offering a buy one, get two free deal on 20+ page photo books through November 8 (Tuesday).
Sound good? Head on over to Snapfish to start creating your photo books.
The Limitations:
- Must use the discount code MYFALLBKS at checkout.
- All 3 books must have the same base price.
- Disney-themed photo books are excluded.
- Only one coupon, promotion, or account credit can be applied per order.
- Offer applies to first 20 pages of photo book only. Additional pages will be charged at regular prices.
- Coupon code may be used up to 5 times per customer.
- Expires November 8, 2011.
2. Secret Reward Card with $10+ Victoria's Secret Purchase
>Now through November 30, receive a free secret reward card (for $10, $50, $100, or $500 off a future purchase) when you spend $10+ at Victoria's Secret, in store or online. Since you only receive one reward card per order, regardless of your order's total, I'd advise placing multiple orders if you want to make a large purchase, in order to maximize your rewards.
Sound good? Head on over to Victoria's Secret to start shopping.
The Limitations:
- Purchase in-stock item(s) totaling $10 or more now through November 30, 2011.
- One Secret Reward Card per order.
- Secret Reward card has no value until December 1, 2011.
- Secret Reward card is redeemable December 1-21, 2011 online, by phone or in stores; excluding outlets.
- Offer not valid in Puerto Rico stores or for customers in Canada.
- Valid while supplies last through 11:59pm EST on November 30, 2011, online, by phone and in select stores.
3. $10 in Super C-A-S-H for Every $20 Spent at Old Navy
Earn "Super C-A-S-H" at Old Navy now through November 13. For every $20 you spend, you'll receive $10 in "Super C-A-S-H." The "Super C-A-S-H" can be spent at Old Navy between November 17 and November 22.
Sound good? Head on over to Old Navy to start shopping.
The Limitations:
- Qualifying purchase to earn Super C-A-S-H includes merchandise only, excluding gift cards. Packaging, applicable taxes, and prior purchases do not qualify.
- Super C-A-S-H cannot be redeemed on purchases of jewelry, Gerber®, Susan G. Komen iPromise®, merchandise or gift cards.
- Promotion ends November 13, 2011.
News & Links: 11/02/2011
A semi-regular round-up of fashion and shopping-related news and links.
» Filene's Basement and its parent company, Syms, filed for bankruptcy this morning. Going out of business sales are expected to be completed by January.
» With Google Wallet, Google is attempting to turn your phone into your wallet, so to speak. They've partnered with stores so you can pay, redeem coupons, and/or earn rewards points, all with one tap of your phone. (They also have exclusive limited-time offers.) To encourage people to try out the new service, they're heading out to NYC, Chicago, DC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; you can get $10 towards your purchase when you use a demo phone to tap and pay at one of their store demo events.
» Jon Bon Jovi has opened a new restaurant, "Soul Kitchen," in New Jersey. But it's not just any old restaurant: it aims to serve as an alternative to soup kitchens; the hungry can pay what they're able or, if they lack the ability to pay, they can "bus tables... wait tables... work in the kitchen as a dishwasher or sous chef." I have a newfound respect for Bon Jovi.
» You no longer have to wake up at the crack of dawn to battle it out for Black Friday deals: The new trend is for stores to open at midnight. Macy's is set to do so at all but 20 of its 810 stores. (Many outlets, as well as Target, will also open at midnight.)
» I love the idea of a fruit label that turns into soap when wet!
» Fashion terms are tossed around all the time on TV shows and blogs, in magazines and newspapers, but what does it all mean? Lucky has the answers.
» A new company would like to help you find the perfect fit while online shopping with the help of a webcam and a CD.
» Or, if you're shopping in person, you can just use a fancy-schmancy 3D body scanner.
» In recycling news...
- A bridge in Scotland was built from 50 tons of recycled plastic
- Lifehacker has a list of 5 easy places to recycle your old gadgets
- eBay now offers "instant sale" — you can trade in your electronics for cash, without having to wait for a buyer
» IKEA now has a MANLAND?
» If you live in the DC area, check out the dewdropDC Clothing Swap and Pop-Up Shop next Saturday, November 12. I'm really disappointed that I can't attend.
DEALS: November $5 MP3 Albums
Amazon.com offers a variety of $5 MP3 albums each month; the November ones are now up on the site. In addition to 100 regular MP3 albums, Amazon.com also has 102 holiday MP3 albums for $5/each this month.
A sampling of the 202 albums currently available for $5 each:
I bought the Hotel Café's Winter Songs album in CD form two years ago; it was pretty much all we played on the drive home from a Christmas visit in New Jersey.
HAUL: $24 at Salvation Army
After my trip with Emily to B-Thrifty yesterday, I made a solo trip across the street to Salvation Army to take advantage of 25% off everything for Customer Appreciation Day, which is every Wednesday. My previous visit to this particular Family Store was just a quick trip to check it out, so yesterday was a more thorough visit.
The Goods
Pink/orange tank
White knit sihrt
Navy blue hooded shirt
Fuchsia hooded shirt
Fuchsia polo shirt
Plaid button-down shirt
Periwinkle cardigan
White cardigan
Altogether, I scored 8 items for $23.54 (after taxes); that's an average of less than $3/item!
Continue reading for all the nitty-gritty, like brands and prices.
News & Links: 10/19/2011
A semi-regular round-up of fashion and shopping-related news and links.
» For the first time in three decades, the median monthly mortgage payment is about the same as the median monthly rental payment.
» Sadly for those of us who prefer to go au naturel, wearing make-up improves others' perceptions of a woman's likability, competence, and trustworthiness.
» Beneful is attempting a new tactic to sell its dog food: capture the dogs' attention. Since the dogs can't buy the food themselves, I'm not sure this will have any actual impact on sales...
» St. Croix Collections saw sales of Steve Jobs' iconic black mock turtleneck double overnight after news broke of Jobs' death.
» A great way to boost your property value? Plant trees. Even better, have your neighbor plant trees (people like shade but not yard work).
» According to GOOD, the majority of mainstream Halloween candy is made from cocoa beans harvested by child slaves. Thankfully, they also provide a list of ethical alternatives to the likes of Hershey, Mars, and Nestle.
» Don't always believe the photos on the hotel's web site. Apparently hotels and resorts are big fans of Photoshop.
» If you don't want to sink a lot of cash into your music collection, check out this list of 100 sources for free and legal music downloads.
» One pro-poker-playing soccer mom in Pennsylvania has a $500,000 collection of more than 1,200 pairs of shoes... designer shoes.
» Wal-Mart has announced a partnership with Facebook to offer "Facebook pages specifically tailored for each of its more than 3,500 locations," which will provide discount offers, events, and other information.
» If you have a Kindle, you can now borrow library e-books and have them sent directly to your device. (Nook users are able to download library e-books and sideload them to their devices.)
» If you (or your kids) have a bunch of LEGO sets, check out the new site Rebrickable, which shows you what you can make from the combined collection of pieces you have.
» As one Borders location was closing for good, its employees posted this epic list of "Things we never told you: Ode to a bookstore death."
» Bagged lunches don't have to be uncool. Save money and make your kid the envy of his classmates with awesome paperbag artwork.
» Quicken has a great visual top-to-bottom guide to saving money around your house.
HAUL: $30 at B-Thrifty
My friend Emily hadn't used her Groupon to B-Thrifty yet, so today I met up with her at the store for B-Thrifty Groupon round #2. William had purchased a second Groupon voucher for me on the last day it was available since I had enjoyed the first trip, so I was planning to use that today.
When Emily and I arrived, I checked in via my new foursquare account and tweeted that I was in the store. The B-Thrifty social media team were excited to hear I was back (they had liked my first B-Thrifty haul post) and Celina, their web manager, tracked me down while I was sorting through my finds and presented me with $25 B-bucks... what an awesome surprise! (You can check out a photo of me with the B-Thrifty store manager on their Facebook page.) I was able to put the certificate to use right away and only spent about $5 out of pocket. Emily also did well, spending about $5 beyond the $35 value of her Groupon.
I also remembered to sign up for a BiP membership today, which will get me 30% off on Thursdays (although it can't be used in combination with the Groupon). I have a feeling I'll be back soon!
The Goods
Argyle cardigan sweater
Ivory angora cardigan
Tan silk/cashmere sweater
Pink knit shirt
Lavender knit cardigan
Ivory knit cardigan with pockets
Rose pink polo
Turquoise striped tank
Multi-colored belt
That's a total of 9 items for $33.91... but I put to use the $25 gift certificate B-Thrifty gave me, and paid only $3.91 (plus taxes) out of pocket. That's probably the best deal I've gotten so far!
Continue reading for all the details.
Rant: Target’s Gift Messages
I just placed an order on Target.com for a baby gift. Since I was shipping the gift to the mom-to-be and wouldn't be able to attend her shower in person, I wanted to include a gift message. I attempted to include the following message:
Congratulations! We're so excited for you. We can't wait to meet the little one!
Love, Andrea & William (Mike)
(We had to go with a turtle theme; the mascot of William's alma mater is a terrapin, after all.)
Yet Target told me that they could not include my message because it contained special characters or unacceptable words. Um, what?
On top of that, Target had erased my entire message and didn't bother to tell me which characters or words were unacceptable. So I tried again, removing all line breaks.
Still unacceptable. I tried again, removing all parantheses and the ampersand. Still unacceptable. I tried again, thinking that perhaps Target's vocabulary wasn't quite large enough to include "alma mater" and "terrapin," so I changed them to "college" and "turtle," respectively. Still unacceptable.
When I was on the verge of hitting my computer, I simply tried,
Congratulations! Love, Andrea and William
Finally, Target deemed my message acceptable and attached it to the gift.
But Target, I'd really like to know...
What was unacceptable about my original message?
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