Archive for September, 2009

What types of businesses give out gifts to their clients and staff?

For example real estate agents give a gift hamper to clients when the sale is finalised.

Frankly I think they’re about the only ones. With the downturn lately nobody is getting any perks. You’ll still get something when you buy a house (we got a hanging plant) but it’s actually very minimal.

I believe originally outlet stores sold merchandise that was damaged or imperfect. At a later time, companies started manufacturing items specifically for their outlets — items that might be at a slightly lower quality than you’d find in the regular retail stores. I recently found a Sears outlet that had amazing prices on flat-screen TVs. How do they do this? Is there something wrong with the TVs? Why would somebody buy the same TV at the regular store when you can go to the outlet and buy it for much less (unless that’s the catch… it’s not the same TV)? Basically, what’s the catch with outlet stores?

There is no catch.. It’s buyer beware. Sometimes you can buy things from a retailer for less than at the outlet stores.
People have been so fooled into buying STUFF. There are huge markups on so many items.
A shirt might cost $1 to manufacture and sells for $60-$100
If you buy in volume or cut the label the price changes.

Outlet Stores are just MORE stores and places to shop til u drop. It is a misconception that you will always buy at an outlet store for less.

People who make TV’s MUST keep selling TV’s, they will do whatever they have to. The will add a letter to the model number and call it a new/different model, or change an option. The old ones go to the outlet store and the main store no longer carries that "old" model.
It’s the SAME QUALITY TV… they need to keep moving merchandise. Ever thought about how many of ANY item is in stock and available for sale througout the world ??
The people who make them don’t stop making them, especially electronics.

Cel phones will work for many years, but they want you upgrade every year or two,, it doesn’t stop.
People are addicted to spending money on more STUFF.

I work in a specialty dental office and we give gift each year to our referring offices. We’re trying to be different and not do the cookie/candy/food gift baskets and towers. We’ve done candles, soaps and silk floral arrangements. Any other great ideas out there?

Have you tried tea and coffee gift baskets? During the winter months a great deal of people have a cold, so these types of gift baskets really would help the office. Enjoying a relaxing cup of tea is amazing at alleviating cold symptoms, and having a cold while you’re working is not so fun. Take a look: http://www.bisketbaskets.com/teacogiba.html

Hope you find what you’re looking for!

My organization hosts an annual Christmas party, and as a holiday gift, we give them a small token of appreciation. We have volunteers come in to make 100-200 of these small gifts, but we have little budget. Last year we made cocoa cones with hot cocoa powder, marshmallows, and crushed candy canes. The year before that we made a small ornament or decoration snowflake out of wires and beads. Do you have any ideas for small cheap homemade gifts for this year?

Hey, that sounds like fun! Can I help? lol
One year I made shortbread cut into xmas shapes and rumballs and wrapped them up pretty and another year I made little ornaments out of Polymer Clay. Polymer Clay is fairly cheap but sold in blocks of colour or you could use white and paint them. There are heaps of tutorials on the net. But that may be a little involved. Maybe Glass ornaments decorated with glass paint, glue and glitter?

I think the cookie idea is great too.
You could find your favourite christmas recipe and use only the dry ingredients, place them in a glass jar (they look nice if you use a funnel and layer the different ingredients) print a label of the recipe and place it on the jar and decorate the lid. You could also add one cookie cutter per jar. They will have to add the wet ingredients, ie milk, egg etc… that way the food will not go off. It’s cheap, you don’t have to bake and worry about mess and ovens etc and they can make it themselves!

The only problem is the glass jars…maybe you could collect them throughout the year.

Maybe a small plant.. you could buy them ready made or buy the pot plants, add the soil and plant a seed. Then add care instructions. You could also do a mystery seed with care instructions but they won’t know what it is until it grows.

If all else fails there is a great site that has heaps of handmade xmas ideas:
http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfeature/holiday_gifts_ms/

Hope this helps and have a great party and holiday

I sprained my right ankle about 2 months ago. My ankle was all swollen and was purple then later yellowish color. I did the RICE thing but I didn’t go to the doctor.
So, since it is the holiday season, I have been out a lot to the malls and outlets buying gifts and notice that after about 30 minutes of walking, I started to have pain in my right ankle. At the end of the day, I would massage my ankle, and the next day I would good as new. But if I started walking again for more than 30 minutes, the pain would come back. I remembered I sprained my ankle 6 years ago and after 1 month I didn’t have any more pain. Should I go to the doctor for x-ray just to be on the safe side?

i had a similar situation, badly sprained my ankle, but didn’t want to get it seen to so just RICEd it up and waited until it was bearable to walk on, it used to give me quite a bit of stick and i have sprained it countless times since, I picked up another, more serious injury to my knee and when i was doing some of the stuff to regain control of my knee the ankle injury was noticed by my physio, and so he has given me a programme to follow and it feels alot better now

So my advice is to go to a physio and get a strengthening regime for it! Good Luck

I like Abercrombie & Fitch I also like Hollister, Aéropostale and shops like that. How much spending money should I bring and are the outlet stores for the shops above worth going to? I’m going to Chicago.

Well those shops are quite expensive. Im from England and I went to Florida in may. It was amazing. Anyway, Abercrombie is definately the most expensive one. If you plan on buying alooooot from them shops then id say you need about $400

My Step-mother is introducing a "different-gifting idea" for the upcoming Christmas season.
%This being her First Christmas holiday as part of my family, we are allowing her to introduce HER WAY into the family traditions so we can begin practising "other ways" than our usual method.

Last week, each of us (a total of 14, including her family-pack) drew names; each drawing one name to buy A SPECIFIC GIFT for that person.
We (the new family) are asked to purchase gifts for "our chosen person."
I have chosen RITA. This Rita is a business secretary by profession, a mother by family and is a distant(?) Neice to my Step-mother.
I am almost at my wits end trying to scour the local marketplace for "appropriate" gift items for Rita.
I know NOTHING about her!
%Should I opt to buy an area-wide Gift Certificate (many local merchants allow only THIER merchant G.C’s to use inside their retail outlet) or should I opt to gift with stale cash? Rita is 50 y.o.
$20.00 is the limit.
Thanks.

It is hard to buy for someone you don’t know well. You can ask around in the family, you may have to leak a bit to get the info even if it is a secret so that you do it right. Then you will have an idea what to get them based on their personal interests, not just their role in the family or their job.

There are small items that are high quality that almost anyone can appreciate. A nice pen for example. Everyone likes a good quality pen. Or a computer flash drive…many are on sale right now, you should be able to get at least a 256M one if not a 1G. She can use it for moving from machine to machine at work, or she can use it for music storage or photos. Other ideas, some pretty stationery or blank inside personal note cards to send. Some postage stamps, there are pretty ones this time of year.

Things like this are very personal, yet universal because everyone uses this kind of stuff.

You can also go with a specialty shop gift card where there are a lot of different things to pick…like a Christmas shop or a candle shop or bath goodie store. Then the person can get something you intended them to have (for the most part) but pick something that suits them perfectly.

My 21st birthday is coming up soon and my friends want to know what I want. Any ideas on what I can do or what kind of gifts to suggest to them? Thanks!

Electronic gadgets, favorite books, exotic perfumes, cosmetic items, cute pens, sports kit, dresses you love, mechanical tools, etc.

I have a car, and am willing to drive. I am looking for stores like American Eagle, Abercrombie, Hollister, Northface, or anything like this. And if poissibly, include the mall website, thanks!
I live in SF, and please list the names of malls!

In Emeryville, there is a shopping complex called Bay Street that has H&M, the Gap, Old Navy and Abercrombie and Fitch. In the city, there’s a bunch of shopping complexes. If you take BART and get off at Powell, the station is right next to the Westfield Shopping Mall which has all the stores you like, like American Eagle and whatnot. I think you would have more luck in SF, there’s a better variety of stores which are close by each other. I hope that helps!

do u become uncomfortable when u recieve gifts? i do

and what do u do when it’s christmas or an annaversery etc, and ur present is so much crapper than what they gave u, how awkward is this!

then stop being cheap, and spend some money