5 Things You’ll Pay Less For If You Wait Until After The Holidays

(bluwmongoose)

Everyone knows, or at least should know, that the best time to buy a huge honkin’ TV set isn’t during the holidays, but in the weeks immediately following the Super Bowl, and that post-Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to get some jewelry at rock-bottom prices. But they’re not the only items on a lot of holiday shopping lists that would be cheaper to buy at some point after Dec. 25.

Kiplinger has a lovely slide show of a dozen items — including the aforementioned TVs and bling — that you should avoid buying during the holiday shopping season. Here are the ones we considered the most interesting on the list, in order of how soon after the holiday you can get a good deal.

1. Cars (Between Christmas and New Year’s)

Sure, it looks a bit romantic in the commercial when the impossible attractive couple with the camera-ready home give each other luxury cars with big red bows on top, but Kiplinger says you’d do better to wait until after Christmas and take advantage of year-end clearance sales at dealerships looking to make room for the next model year. And besides, you know that everyone on the block really hates that adorable couple, and their new cars will be covered in egg and toilet paper by week’s end.

2. Furniture (January)

If you can live with that ratty sofa for a few more weeks, or duct tape that fractured chair leg a couple more times, Kiplinger says you can score some clearance deals on new furniture in January when stores are preparing to bring in next year’s models.

3. Perfume (post Valentine’s Day)

What’s more alluring than some nose-tickling new scent on the neck of your loved one? Knowing you saved up to 50% by waiting until after the Christmas and Valentine’s buying frenzy.

4. Luggage (March)

Okay, so maybe this isn’t as sexy as some of the other items in the round-up, but people do spend a lot of money on luggage and may not know that they can get the best deal in March, as retailers look to keep merchandise moving between the holiday and summer travel seasons.

5. Bicycles (September)

Unless you have a time machine, this is one you’ll have to mark on the calendar for next autumn, when retailers discount current models about 25% to make room for the new two-wheelers. And if you do have a time machine, we’d hope you would use it for more interesting purposes than going back in time a few months to score a discount on a bike.

Again, you can check out the whole list at Kiplinger.com.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

I Don’t Want To Live In A World Where You’re Punished For Making It Snow Money At The Mall

When you see dollar bills floating toward your clutching hands from the sky, like some a question directed upward that is now answered with cash, what’s your first feeling? Joy, unremitting and excited, “I can’t believe this is happening!” joy? Yes, well, at the Mall of America in Minnesota, the person responsible for making it rain money recently was cited by cops instead of hugged.

It sounds like the perfect set-up, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune: Singers caroling happily away to the strains of “Let It Snow” while a 29-year-old man flung $1,000 in dollar bills over the third-floor railing of the Mall of America, in an apparent attempt to spread cheer.

But then the Cheer Police showed up in the form of the local cops, who cited the man with a disorderly conduct ticket. According to officials, the man just wanted to stage a publicity stunt to persuade his girlfriend to come back to him.

The man admitted to throwing the money, say the police, which was stamped with his YouTube address (where he uploaded the video of his efforts later) so people would visit his page.

In the video, the man admits he’s had a tough year but decided to chuck his “last $1,000 … to spread some holiday cheer … to make it snow money” while the singers performed. They apparently weren’t part of the stunt.

He argues that no one was hurt so he’s unsure why he was cited.

“I don’t see how holiday cheer is disorderly conduct,” he said.

A Mall of America spokeswoman said it’s the first time anyone has ever done something like that in the mall, but added that the man disrupted the singers’ performance and could’ve caused a serious situation.

Man cited after tossing $1,000 in dollar bills into Mall of America rotunda [Star Tribune]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Visit The Magical Factory Where Frozen Pizzas Come From

Americans eat a lot of packaged foods, but do you ever wonder what kind of magical land these boxes of convenient tastiness come from? There’s no army of dough-tossing elves trapped inside a pizza factory: the reality is much cooler.

In this clip from the Science Channel’s “How It’s Made,” we watch the birth of frozen pizzas from the mixing of the dough to the final packaging in a cardboard box. Pizzas are never tainted by human hands: pizzas pass under cascades of sauce, cheese, meat, and vegetables that are carefully regulated so that each pizza receives the precise correct amount of toppings. In theory.

Wait: what happens to the sauce and toppings that fall between the pizzas, which are round? They go back into reservoirs to be thrown over more pizzas that roll down the line.

Video: See How Frozen Pizza is Made [Slice] (via Foodbeast)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

The Total Cost Of Doing The 12 Days Of Christmas? $114K

(Great Beyond)

Since nothing says Christmas like a home full of hundreds of random birds, musicians, and overactive landed gentry, it’s time to once again consider the actual cost of giving your true love every item listed in “The 12 Days of Christmas.”

Yup, PNC Financial has once again tallied up what is calls the Christmas Price Index (NOTE: turn your speakers off if you go to the site) the individual costs of each item on the list:

One Partridge in a Pear Tree: $199.99

Two Turtle Doves: $125.00

Three French Hens: $165.00

Four Calling Birds: $599.96

Five Golden Rings: $750.00

Six Geese-a-Laying: $210.00

Seven Swans-a-Swimming: $7000.00

Eight Maids-a-Milking: $58.00

Nine Ladies Dancing: $7552.84

Ten Lords-a-Leaping: $5,243.37

Eleven Pipers Piping: $2,635.20

Twelve Drummers Drumming: $2,854.50

So to just buy each item once will cost you a total of $27,393.17, a 7.7% increase from last year’s total of $25,431.18.

But if you actually repeat each of these items according to the seemingly interminable song, PNC says it will run you $114,651.18, more than a $7,000 uptick from the 2012 grand total of $107,300.84.

Prices remained flat year-over-year for six items on the list — the turtle doves, hens, golden rings, geese, the milking maids, and swans, — and the cost of the partridge/pear tree bundle actually dropped 2.4% since 2012. According to PNC, this decrease was due to a drop in the price of pear trees during the year.

But three gifts experienced double-digit price increases. Those lords-a-leaping jumped up a percentage point for each of the 10 men in the group, the apparent huge demand for calling birds sent their price skyrocketing by 15.4%, and the dancing ladies raised their fees by a whopping 20%.

Interestingly enough — and perhaps fitting with the song’s old-timey groove — PNC says it would actually cost you more to order many of these items online because of the shipping costs involved. Just buying all the listed items once will cost you $39,762.61, about $12K more than if you’d just gone out to your local milkmaid/bird/gentry/musician/tree shop.

And of course, what story about the 12 Days of Christmas would be complete without a visit from Bob & Doug McKenzie?

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

NYC Park Banning Hot Dog Vendors But Of Course, Mario Batali’s Gelato Cart Can Stay

Not the vendor in question. (MichelleRick)

Ah, the humble New York City hot dog cart. There it stands, its water tanks full of hot dogs sloshing around, staying warm until the moment some hungry passerby is in need of $2 sustenance. But those street meat carts are an eyesore to one park’s conservancy group it seems, which is pushing two hot dog vendors out while allowing other more upscale offerings to stay.

According to the New York Post , the hot dog vendors have until the end of December to leave their spots in Washington Square Park, which often has floods of New York University students searching for cheap, fast food.

But Mario Batali’s Otto Enoteca Pizzeria Gelato Cart? That gets to stay, along with a vendor selling Indian crepes and a new deal with a fancy ice cream sandwich vendor. Batali, it turns out, is on the board of a private conservancy which is working with the Parks Department.

“I will miss this spot,” said the 35 year-old immigrant from Bangladesh who currently mans his hot dog cart in the park. “If I move outside the park, I’ll make hundreds less [a week]. It affects my business.”

One memo reportedly shows the celebrities on the Parks Department to move the hot dog carts last year from one side to the other, which was a sign to some that eventually the dogs would go forever.

The conservancy then asked the park administrator to “follow up on moving the hot-dog guy away from the Arch view corridor” and to push for “new and different food vendors.”

That administrator also serves as the conservancy’s executive director, and it appears she doesn’t like hot dogs because the carts are getting the boot.

“We got some word from our neighbors that [the hot-dog vendors] were unsightly,” said the conservancy’s president. “We suggested moving them based on what other people were telling us. The fact that it was done was Parks’ decision.”

A spokesman added that the agency is allowing contracts with the hot-dog stands to expire to “ensure clear views of the fountain and arch and . . . to bring in a more diverse selection of food options.”

Washington Square Park banning hot-dog vendors [New York Post]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

The Robots Are Winning: Amazon Wants To Use Autonomous Drones To Deliver Stuff To Your Door

Forget about waiting for the UPS guy to roll up your street. Someday, you’ll be watching the sky for Amazon’s drones to descend with your purchases.

What’s the next step in door-to-door delivery for online purchases? According to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, it’s self-piloting drone helicopters, which isn’t at all terrifying.

On Sunday’s 60 Minutes, Bezos dragged Charlie Rose out of his black-backgrounded studio and to Amazon HQ to show off “Amazon Prime Air” octo-copters, tiny, electric drone aircraft that he believes could someday bring packages directly to customers’ homes and offices.

“I know this looks like science-fiction,” Bezos tells a jaw-dropped Rose. “It’s not. It’s early; this is still years away… we can do half-hour delivery, and we can carry objects — we think — up to five pounds, which covers 86% of the items that we deliver.”

Bezos says the current generation of test drones have a 10-mile radius from a fulfillment center. Given the growing number of Amazon warehouses out there, that would cover quite a substantial portion of some major metro areas.

“It won’t work for everything,” he admits. “We’re not going to carry kayaks or table saws this way.”

Unlike most currently operating drones that are remotely piloted by someone on the ground with a monitor and controls, these Amazon copters do the flying themselves.

“You give them instructions of which GPS coordinates to go to, and they take off and they fly to those GPS coordinates,” explains Bezos. “The hard part here is putting in all the redundancy, all the reliability, all the systems you need… this thing can’t land on somebody’s head while they’re walking around their neighborhood. That’s not good.”

He admits that the project is still years away from becoming a reality.

“I know it can’t be before 2015 because that’s the earliest that we could get the rules from the FAA,” Bezos says. “My guess is that’s pretty a little optimistic. But could it be four to five years? I think so. It will work and it will happen, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

Speaking of the future, Bezos confesses that while Amazon may be the unrivaled titan of e-tail today, it will someday be unseated by some punk upstart startup.

“Companies have short life spans” he says. “Amazon will be disrupted one day… I don’t worry about it because I know it’s inevitable. Companies come and go and the companies that are the shiniest and most important of any era, you wait a few decades and they’re gone.”

As for when he predicts Amazon’s fated downfall, Bezos laughs and says, “I would love for it to be after I’m dead.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

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