Happy Thanksgiving Black Friday

Well, it’s that time of year here in the U.S.

Time for giving thanks…briefly…before the real fun begins, shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and all points in between.

I’m only partially joking. For many retailers, this several day period can also be a time for giving thanks and making up for other soft periods throughout the year.

The good news, consumer confidence is high, the unemployment rate is at a 50-year low, and the Walmarts and Targets and Amazons and Apples and all the other retailers are ready to rock n roll for the full stop start of this year’s holiday shopping season.

My predictions for this year: I’ve learned not to get too far out over my skis on predictions, but I will say I believe mobile shopping (via tablets and smartphones) will continue to grow, more omnichannel opportunities will be taken advantage of so consumers don’t have to fight their way through crowded stores (i.e., buy online only to pick up at the store later), and based on my own personal experience these past few days, Roku and Amazon Fire streaming devices are in high demand.

As for my own shopping proclivities, I don’t have anything tech-related that’s trying to burn a hole in my pocket. I bought a used iPhone 7 Plus off Gazelle earlier this year, and a Google Pixelbook earlier in the year which I really, really like (yes, you can consider that an endorsement). And I’ve had my Air Pods for over a year now, and don’t know how I lived without them (another endorsement).

But if YOU are looking for some help with the holiday shopping onslaught, particularly as it relates to tech, I found the Wall Street Journal “Best Tech Gifts 2018” list helpful. I’ve also become a big fan of The New York Times Wirecutter reviews, and they, too, have a helpful shopping list for electronics and a whole host of other retail categories.

But for today, let us give thanks. For good friends, for family, for great food and abundance, and for each other. Sure, all this stuff can bring some joy to our lives, and I’m also thankful for the benefits technology provides.

Yet as we’ve surely witnessed over the past few years, any technology — including digital technology and social media — can be used for both good and ill.

On this day, the day of giving thanks, I’m going to choose to celebrate the good of those technologies and be thankful for how they keep me closer to my friends and family and enrich my life and theirs.

For despite all the negativity and division, we should step back and realize we live in amazing and wondrous times, with great possibilities and promise ahead, technologically and otherwise.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. And try not to stampede your fellow shoppers at the Walmart this year!

 

What’s The Big Deal?

So, what’s the deal with all these consumer deal engines?

I went to check my Facebook page this AM, and before I’d ever read about it in the Blogosphere, I got invited to sign up for their new “Deals” service.

Having signed up for GroupOn and LivingSocial to help ensure a little competition, I figured it was the least I could do.  I would have signed up for Google’s deal service, “offers,” but it’s still in beta.

So here’s some of the initial deals I was offered from Facebook:

A photo booth party with up to 6 friends at South Austin Gallery.  Regularly $75, on Facebook Deals, only $30. 

I’ve never had a photo booth party, and so I’m not sure what goes on there.  But I’m also not sure I want to roll the dice and spend $30 to find out.

Second, Kayak on Lady Bird Lake with a Bat Tour Under the Congress Avenue Bridge with Live-Live-Paddle.  Normally $42, now only $25.  I’ll rent the video, thanks.

The targeting engine clearly failed on #3: Six Weeks of Bride-Fit Boot Camp for 6 People at Strength Through Length Pilates. Regularly $1,080, now $600.  I wasn’t aware brides had to go to boot camp to prepare for their marriages these days, but okay, I’m progressive, I can dig it.  However, I’m a guy.  Last time I checked, guys don’t go to Bride-Fit boot camps.

Facebook also offered me a couple WWE Smackdown Tickets for their May 15th event at Austin’s Frank Erwin Events Center, regularly $60, only $30 through Facebook Deals.

For the record, I’ve never bought anything from any of these deal sites.  Ever.  Not once.

Now, I’m no shopping guru, but I do spend money, and I don’t mind being offered a good deal.

But it’s hard to find a deal geared to guys (except for the wrestling tickets I just mentioned, and even I wouldn’t stoop that low), what with all the “Weekend Getaway Dog Yoga Massages” and the like.

I’m thinking nobody’s thinking when it comes to guys like myself.  I could easily see all kinds of crazy deals being offered for rounds of golf at my local favorite courses, other outdoorsmen discounts, discount movie tickets, restaurant coupons, etc.

But no, I got a group offer for Bride-Fan Boot Camp.

All that said, now that Facebook is in this business, GroupOn and LivingSocial had better step up their game, because despite the lack of effective targeting, Facebook could very quickly suck all the oxygen (and money) out of the Daily Deal milieu.

It seems it’s all now about to come down to this: Do you check your Facebook wall more often, or your personal email?  For me, it’s probably about 50/50, but man, that Facebook Wall is an awfully compelling and easy-to-see place to put something like a Facebook daily deal.  That Wall’s become the virtual bulletin board of our lives.

And whatever gets your attention on the most regular basis most is where the deal sites win (admittedly, one would imagine the mobile component also starts to get very interesting. but plenty of folks look at that Facebook wall on their mobiles as well).

But regardless of all the delivery and attention-getting mechanisms, at the end of the day, for me to buy something, it needs to be an offer I might have an interest in.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t looked good in a dress since high school, when I used to dress up in drag as Frank N Furter to attend midnight screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

Uh, forget I mentioned that last tidbit…I can only imagine what the deal sites might now offer up based on that information: A celebrity segment with Donald Trump and Meatloaf on “The Celebrity Apprentice Donald Trump Presidential Pretender Roadshow,” perhaps?

Now that’s a deal I actually might pay good money for.