If you click on any of the pictures the source for the picture will appear. I got all the pictures on line so that is how I could do that!
I hope you enjoy!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Shape
This is a balloon shaped dress. The balloon is common in our society at celebrations.
Black Dress https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpsiOf7pT79beY7j2r9pxR5CW8VVarepdm5WAWGmtWmXgWbTTTbVhJ5S3zXIiu6aGIxI9dw5PN9quxHxpHokfdcQnmdyO1t2WN2yVTlKa3HF_638c0vwEGYwQ8Ndz81ZYvRRD9e_BIESU/s1600-h/ballon.jpg
Black Balloon https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhks6_R_BwPF5WO_AovjnvTfqD7qAzya8d5ooKDfgfjv3W-FdvuUioHCTBYLmqQlRoUV6gQY2n88VPr3jD39nlez9DZjhk_tIsqWy3z4LEIYPiHIZRDeHBD8ETphz6n04hxdc4pj7lGQTo/s1600-h/black+balloon.jpg
This is a common bubble dress. We were inspired by the shape of the bubble and a dress came from that.
Dress: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDCKhV-qeFs6l6JE7R9Da85Wcfysw_N3bf_-egQlB8tHQJ5kZllAZuBkW2dpjvoG-cgF5e57TSW8lW4JRWzjXlFM38fT7k2dvUkf7qdnHGjDMET9T5miG-7P0OE1zd4YVbb_xbh-A4o0I/s1600-h/bubble+dress.jpg
Bubble: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmObkSFRZxQo5fzjjoLctXH5MdWx-z8tQRZxkZ4lgarkjatSymO2vN4pULTbHbKvk2AlHaQCgdNWW904WTovObYxm3OIyNjb43kjKO5VAbVPF1CGw1HG3Jo9gW847TS1Wfjb2sTiLplxQ/s1600-h/bubble.jpg
From this dress I got the idea of an octagon. the octagon can be found on the ceiling of a church.
Dress: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCmVeBucbTaXBKJv167dInCrVaNnBcMng45BwhSJfndNw-7DNj_-I7ZqMzDzrw31yLiU3BIErAzpDaR7npMd6IKPGVJ59s6hTk7r7fYEfWSWVWnJN78pnDmQPu_GhHk1ds9rrkA87AdeU/s1600-h/pleats.jpg
Church: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcBVh29Ikc_fgMSlQjsFanT_6bnGHdLGvV4gd4m5R3zNLvEyasYIAI-OxKvMRwSZJqCFvAldO8La34qG3ZHj2KcegZ7ysGpcbSRfQGcH6aYOyVDt66dFv7anQk4C96vR_OtEBztXm62dU/s1600-h/octagon.jpg
As soon as I saw this dress I thought of a light bulb. The similar spirals seem to be the inspiration for the dress.
Dress: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEips8glstPPCJJtalQFfJG6LSkbjgR0ShtmjQAp7M6Bo2-OhrJiV0B0r6Kg__fbKfzKgWKI7Cc8S4SDFRfFTMIc9pSLtujd4pXUWzgBYA2m-PPWZAqoUXxveIixrWsJ_qpRHxttFJLsWFw/s1600-h/cylinder.jpg
Ligth Bulb: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV5N3W1CNlEli2uOY9KQ-al2Ph7uVYLHehou8yFI3uCuH4XAp670gQd5AugWUcxNFaeQGjEb6WUJVxnoFrX4eqxeDbaDM9BiBA9rzozlPdqd7xBID9k-yUrxjYgF2wfkpvVuy-WUrWJ2A/s1600-h/ligth-bulb-jpg.jpg
This dress seemed to resemble a tassel shape, kind of like an equilateral.
Dress: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-RzKxreKiZ_rJyOtYwNbOtEbT1r54C-Ll9qMQq2Y6pu4Qm-7N7bDthWOjz-ITwkI6SyP26Z92PLaXEqJ7kHEgUAw3MWA1vw9OPlDGijmkNZnzcI_eMd0be1oEzJOPPKljwDc7i7W8_SE/s1600-h/black+and+white.jpg
Tassel: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiToo8PSTxYvGk54ezKe010vPYTyKTdP3YharXzu9-Q1GzdfSyhPjsBWHGHsZTOjW19yziyMfNcYQl-7HqATDTnCzApbEvH2evDIfLPiTXqpKR-vAdxs_sDhHN-W9wctBkkHbvDbZDsNQ4/s1600-h/tassel.jpg
The print on this jacket reminded me of the shapes on a cow.
Jacket: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdcwVZ8jPZQoI47LIF6bwkc9yyk3ujOfNvvTiI2FiA5nHMiyfeZsjbduJqMUXNr1q-lbST3nhyAvQL7i6WqNTtoTKfnKT48TtL1oxgRYKnsEd7raISfUBl5a4XsRMGRcF3u1nAXCGVlmQ/s1600-h/rectangle+shape.jpg
Chair: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUMidEyFUd3i8YttqZnXMfZvpH7GsmKBa_2jX5goUZ13tsPxFqSIrRV8gMqfPqLKaSDqolBF3kaGKMqMY1cl34ALZKrTRBejaNfZ4Xw8ULipXR_kmcCoWtP9hRsnbuIF-wyE9y2CIjG9w/s1600-h/011505010306011606200805176818ff2b731f5ab14300847d.jpg
The ruffles on this shirt resemble the ruffles on a flower.
Shirt: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeGBfGKKr7dwuYIGQm9KGSS0-oahrT_9l05CuFzpUchISBZloy_avVc2WKKDgJ71UpkrVJCrzRs8PEt9ga_YxUDFAA4hByBVpgGJ9_1T-crS7XQhs_cVypQr7IftauSX0fypyf54Q-X8A/s1600-h/ruffles.jpg
Flower: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJJjLgVRNtFU8IntenuxuaFngZruGAJlDDCq3Hysb5Jx9C1rOoZy_ny_cAHUyYmfjfydOTz7jwIQnq_O53Ugo39HfXhCh-N9EzsNyYTEzVnkHQ-Lyddq23QEYeufGsPEt0dEb9WdlixI/s1600-h/Pink_Ruffles.JPEG
As soon I as I saw this dress I thought, upside down triangle.
Dress: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCXMZoViabcD_dS_bopyzONwuGqRBFHV_6Pg6tlvNCS5cYabXsR0uqrowwnDBuGtm6OXOOZeTXN0e7Lyb04FSlkaqw-v3eWKwHWFCqA6qtqhCCX_Am6ZuANCm0hCuz2DCZIrkhKJ93k-c/s1600-h/Triangle+Shape+.jpg
Sign: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_bO2F7ZWZuJae7n0cK85BiWb3VAEGUi-yWbZF9BeCB2LWElDz0HBdZY7GcITTNE2w1EekYyHcTdwN3T-pSGiRgUKyGIQydW4hyzpzyW1caWyyR6dzbPtPROEYT0X7QpmEGrn7C1KFN4/s1600-h/yield.jpg
This dress resembles a cage or prison cell bars.
Dress: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht2Ceztvw4hvy51LQmt1QaKl3uRgMGZ12ljJxUjueqHcJ46c2j4KxyWFh90BqzORf2tCRbjg6S9swHBDmmMcE8ae2jvqFxGC3Td8eWkog_wKrKXqrHlq6Ta1K1rXr41B2T-nIYiWNriK4/s1600-h/cage+dress.jpg
Cage: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy6wLxYBOE4OxKIjiLXLcPgDdlfsB27mSfyOTLtzvmwBi_Zwy3N24JlHoz4-LZNVnJQ7kViR_PempOjiQWhYU2UgT-canXzAV9PkS9Nu1vtlRrVconRV_7WniHtkEVy39ks31nWDF8wns/s1600-h/cage.jpg
The print on this dress in the same as any modern day rug.
Dress: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHG2Ort74LygnZ0hm9degfjcJIN_t9Fn_vFJqJ7ItjzAL5cn0OCsOCW8sMnwSM_gKMJn9jJFFG8GT1fT7pOg4-kLed2oA25-aXN1-3iUuL_4FHsu4CltJ_HXUvjWIJuBGYEXwckCTMk9U/s1600-h/carpetrug+photo.jpg
Carpet: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmlu8QHFy_tskClckjM18-BHPVnQYqGv629Q4hW9V43UQztOy_nl-8wKP3ICUJv65qe-h6WHBpXQUZKz1moFiLKUYL5eOuRnfKPkE6iZmmH0ErOdeXWvTJdtY02DoD45fq3EMAyrlt7I0/s1600-h/rug.jpg
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Ny Times v. BBC
I feel as though the New York times is more informational as well as more user friendly. I read NYT on a daily basis and enjoy seeing what they have everyday. They continue to improve their website and integrate more news into the website. As a consumer of the news world I feel as though when i think about reading the news for the other countries I dont think about BBC the first thing i think of NYT. BBC needs to find a way to get their name out there and broaden their customer loyalty.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Online marketing plays bigger role in Sears holiday campaign
Sears recently launched an integrated marketing campaign built around this year’s return of the holiday Wish Book.
On the whole, the campaign is “more diversified,” said Richard Gerstein, SVP and chief marketing officer at Sears, in a statement.
He added that the Internet is also playing a bigger role than in previous years. This includes a holiday-themed social networking site launched in collaboration with Yahoo! and the use of widgets and text messaging to alert customers to special promotions.
The campaign will consist of national TV and radio spots, magazine inserts for jewelry and tools, increased online media, new Sears.com functionality, sweepstakes, direct mail, circulars and catalogs. Granting wishes is a theme throughout and the featured tagline is "Don't just give a gift, grant a wish.”
One of Sears’ multichannel features being highlighted in the integrated campaign is the ability for shoppers to make purchases online and pick them up at stores. This program is being expanded after Thanksgiving to offer curbside service, with qualified products being delivered right to a customer’s vehicle within five minutes of arriving at the store.
Friday, November 2, 2007
| |
F.T.C. Member Vows Tighter Controls of Online Ads
A MEMBER of the Federal Trade Commission said yesterday that the agency would be exerting a tighter grip over online advertising, partly because of increased tracking by marketing companies of people’s activity on the Internet.
Jon Leibowitz, the commissioner, said he was concerned about ads being shown to children online and about the tactics advertisers are using to collect data about people.
“When you’re surfing the Internet, you never know who is peering over your shoulder or how many marketers are watching,” he said.
Mr. Leibowitz spoke in Washington at the opening of a two-day forum on behavioral targeting, the increasingly popular tactic of delivering ads to people based on what Web sites they have visited.
In practice, the targeting issue goes beyond just Web surfing: Google’s Gmail funnels ads to people based on key words in the e-mail messages they write, and MySpace helps marketers select ads for people based on the information about themselves they willingly post in online profiles.
To safeguard consumers, Mr. Leibowitz said that standard rules about the privacy policies of Web sites may need to be established. He pointed to a study that found that people with a high school education can easily understand only 1 percent of the privacy policies of large companies.
He also noted that none of the companies in the survey made targeting an opt-in decision. Most companies today make people take action in order to opt out of their tracking programs; Mr. Leibowitz suggested that more policies should be opt-in.
•
“People should have dominion over their computers,” he said. “The current ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ in online tracking and profiling has to end.”
But some people from the online advertising industry said that the commission, which conducted the forum, should stay out.
Randall Rothenberg, president and chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, said the agency should not regulate online advertising because it could limit what he called a recent “extraordinary pattern of innovation.”
At the forum, privacy advocates and executives from companies like Google and Microsoft debated the trade-off between the personal information that marketers collect and the relevance of the ads that people are shown. While most consumers would prefer to see an ad for something they might possibly buy rather than something irrelevant to them, even within the advertising industry there are disagreements about the kind of data that is appropriate for marketers to use.
Executives from several Internet companies said they could easily improve the quality and accuracy of their online advertising campaigns without compromising basic privacy principles.
“Privacy and trust are probably the two words that are going to make the Internet the healthiest in the future,” said Tim Armstrong, president of advertising and commerce for North America at Google. “User trust and loyalty are probably the No. 1 thing we focus on at Google.”
Executives from Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and AOL expressed similar sentiments.
Privacy advocates echoed the concern of Mr. Leibowitz about ads being shown to children and teenagers on the Internet.
Teenagers “are on there living their social lives and personal lives,” said Kathryn Montgomery, a professor at the School of Communication at American University.
•
Because blogs and social network pages are for the most part available for anyone to see, the marketing industry treats their lives and personal details as “open books,” she said,
Another consumer advocate said that Web sites are asking visitors to provide excessive amounts of information, putting them in uncomfortable situations. Amina Fazlullah, a lawyer at the U. S. Public Interest Research Group, compared shopping online to visiting a used-car dealership. Online advertisers, she said, ask the kinds of questions about people’s buying power and interests that they would probably choose not to tell a used car dealer, for instance.
“In the brick and mortar world, if you’re asked for information, you can say ‘no,’” she said.
Mr. Leibowitz spoke briefly about the commission’s evaluation of Google’s pending deal to purchase DoubleClick, an Internet ad delivery company. The F.T.C. is determining whether the deal would have anticompetitive effects, not how it would affect privacy online. However, Mr. Leibowitz said, it was clear that the agency needed to increase its scrutiny of online targeting.
Google’s deal to purchase DoubleClick for $3.1 billion was just one of many Internet industry acquisitions over the last year. Microsoft bought aQuantive for $6 billion, the Publicis Groupe acquired Digitas for $1.3 billion, Yahoo paid more than $680 million for Right Media, an ad exchange, and AOL is believed to have spent $275 million for Tacoda, an ad network.
With all these deals comes more pressure to generate more money through online advertising, Mr. Leibowitz said.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
It’s beginning to look a lot like Black Friday
Anticipating a lousy holiday season, retailers are discounting early
updated 5:57 p.m. ET Oct. 31, 2007
NEW YORK - It’s not even Thanksgiving, but the nation’s retailers, including Wal-Mart and Toys “R” Us, are jump-starting holiday sales with big discounts and door buster specials starting Friday in what’s expected to be a lukewarm Christmas season.
The sales blitz — which comes three weeks earlier than the usual debut the day after Thanksgiving — is great news for consumers. But the new strategy shows the nervousness of merchants. Amid a deepening housing slump and higher food and energy costs, stores see the need to pull in shoppers as early as possible.
“This is clearly a win-win situation for consumers,” said Ken Perkins, president of RetailMetrics LLC, a research company in Swampscott, Mass. But he added, “This isn’t good news for stores’ profits...It’s just more evidence that this is going to be a highly competitive season. Why would you start to drive traffic this early unless the retailing environment is not expected to be particularly strong?”
With Dec. 25 about eight weeks away, the retail industry is struggling with shoppers’ eroding confidence amid higher daily living expenses and problems in credit availability. And while Wednesday’s move by the Federal Reserve to cut a key interest rate by a quarter-point will make it cheaper to borrow money, economists say it may be too late to help the holiday season.
Wachovia Capital Markets LLC analyst John D. Morris said another big problem is that so far there aren’t any must-haves this holiday season. A year ago at this time, shoppers were in toy stores looking for the hard-to-find T.M.X. Elmo from Fisher-Price.
“There is nothing out there,” said Morris. “And so the marketing itself becomes the message.”
While many stores, including KB Toys Inc. and Circuit City Stores Inc., say the holiday sales events set for this weekend were planned months in advance, Perkins said the early discounting doesn’t bode well for the industry’s profit picture.
According to Perkins, third-quarter earnings growth is now expected to decline by 3.6 percent, down from a 7 percent gain in July. Fourth-quarter profits so far are slated to be up 5.9 percent, down from 10.9 percent as of July.
Major retailers like Target Corp. start to report their third-quarter results next week.
In recent years, merchants have been pushing the holiday season earlier and earlier, dangling free shipping and discounts. But this year, the discounts — coming only a few days after Halloween — resemble the post-Thanksgiving day blitz, with special door busters and 50 percent discounts as generous as those usually found on Black Friday. The day is so named because it was traditionally when stores became profitable.
Wal-Mart, which already announced price cuts early this month, announced Wednesday it will offer five major holiday specials, including a $348 laptop computer, starting on Friday at 8 a.m. The other four specials will be kept secret until Thursday when shoppers can see them online, though they can not purchase them. The discounts are being timed to the weekend’s launch of Wal-Mart’s new Christmas Shops.
On Friday, Toys “R” Us will be launching a two-day sale that will feature 100 discounted items. The doorbusters, which are available Friday from 5 p.m until closing and Saturday, 8 a.m. until noon, will including 50 percent price cuts on games, scooters and other items.
More on this story |
Circuit City, the nation’s second largest consumer electronics chain, is launching a sweepstakes marketing initiative, along with special deals on hot electronics.
Meanwhile, KB Toys will offer price cuts on this year’s popular new holiday toys as well as last year’s items. This year’s toys include Mattel Inc.’s Fisher-Price’s Smart Cycle, reduced to $89.99 from $109.99; and Play Along’s Hannah Montana Secret Backstage closet, reduced to $24.99 from $37.99.
“This is definitely a preview of Thanksgiving,” said Geoffrey Webb, director of advertising and sales promotion at KB. “We heard this is going to be a competitive holiday so we are going to be right in the rings fighting it out.”
| |
F.T.C. to Review Online Ads and Privacy
Whitney Chianese was exchanging e-mail messages with her mother a few weeks ago, discussing the recent death of her grandmother, when advertisements for health care products began popping up on her computer screen.
Ms. Chianese, who lives in Rye, N.Y., was taken aback, and realized she had been naïve in thinking her e-mail chat was as private as if they were sitting the couch of her mother’s home in Atlanta.
“It was like Big Brother,” said Ms. Chianese, 28. “It became too much. Is there a middle road? One needs to be found.”
Many people agree. The Federal Trade Commission will hold meetings today and tomorrow about online privacy. The questions they will entertain include how much control people need or want over the vast trove of information that corporate America routinely collects about people as they click from site to site on the Internet.
In advance of the F.T.C. meetings, a coalition of consumer groups called yesterday for a do-not-track list that would permit people to opt out of so-called behavioral tracking programs, which use data about a consumer’s Web travels to deliver relevant ads. Separately, the AOL division of Time Warner announced that it would enhance its system that lets people remove themselves from tracking databases. Opting out does not reduce the number of ads; instead people would receive generic ones.
Most Web tracking is done anonymously, and marketing firms are typically aware only of the sites someone has visited, not their name or address. But as Web tracking technology grows more sophisticated, experts on digital privacy say it is inevitable that marketers will know not only which sites somebody has visited, but also who is doing the Web surfing.
The developments raise new questions for consumers. Do people care if advertisers follow their digital footsteps as much they care, say, about telemarketers calling them during dinner? Will public anxiety mount as customized marketing makes its way to cellphone and television screens?
With the advertising industry increasingly placing its hopes — and money — in the behavioral field, privacy advocates argue that the government needs to establish guidelines for digital privacy now. “It’s a digital data vacuum cleaner on steroids, that’s what the online ad industry has created,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. “They’re tracking where your mouse is on the page, what you put in your shopping cart, what you don’t buy. A very sophisticated commercial surveillance system has been put in place.”
Internet advertising is just the latest flashpoint in the privacy debate. It has been eight years since the F.T.C. has held a public workshop on the use of consumer data in online ads, and a lot of the hypothetical situations described then are now a widespread reality.
Many executives in the advertising industry do not see anything wrong with online targeting. They argue that the practice benefits consumers, who see more relevant ads. And they contend that for consumers, relinquishing some innocuous personal data is a small trade-off for free access to the rich content of the Internet, much of which is ad-supported.
“Why should the direct mail firms be able to target like that, and we’re not? All because it’s electronic?” said David J. Moore, chief executive of 24/7 Real Media, which is owned by the advertising conglomerate the WPP Group. “Ultimately, if you want the content to remain free on the Web, you need to at least give us the information to monetize it.”
But there is growing concern, even among online companies, about what information is being used to deliver ads to people.
“The market is getting edgier and edgier, and what is accepted in the marketplace gets dodgier and dodgier,” said Martin E. Abrams, the executive director of the Center for Information Policy Leadership at the law firm Hunton & Williams, a research organization financed by companies like Google, Microsoft and Best Buy. “We have really moved to a world where we say consumers need to police the market, and, increasingly, it is a harder world to police.”
Some observers say that many people do not really mind the targeting. Recent privacy surveys have found that younger people do not care as much about privacy as their parents do, but privacy groups say that is because people do not understand how much information is gathered.
“If people were shown all the stuff that’s been collected, I think they would be more appalled,” said Richard M. Smith, an Internet consultant who will speak on the F.T.C.’s opening panel.
Ian Ayres, a professor at Yale Law School who has written a book about data mining, said, “If a computer is scanning my X-ray at an airport, I feel differently than if a human undresses me.”
Mr. Ayres cautioned that online data could be taken too far; companies could use it to discriminate against customers or charge wealthier ones higher prices. And because the Web is less transparent than a shopping mall, those actions might go undetected.
Behavioral targeting is not the only kind used online. Some companies scan e-mail messages and search queries to figure out which ads might be relevant to people. Google scans e-mail messages like Ms. Chianese’s message about her deceased grandmother — but only uses the most current ones in its tracking.
Facebook, the social networking site, is expected to announce an advertising policy soon that will deliver ads based on user information like college, friends, marital status and hobbies. The ad network 24/7 Real Media has been experimenting with linking offline ad databases to people’s computer addresses, though the company says it is not actually provided the names or addresses of people. Acxiom, a direct mail database company, said recently that it had begun selling such data to online companies.
Consumer groups seeking a do-not-track rule have a long wish list. They want disclosure notices saying that online ads resulted from behavioral tracking. They also want consumers to be able to view and edit the profiles the ad networks are building. Eileen Harrington, deputy director of the F.T.C.’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said yesterday that “providing a consumer with advertising that matches their interests is something that provides a lot of value to consumers.” But, she added, “there are questions about whether it may also come with costs that consumers don’t want to pay.”
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
an article for discussion.
| |
Wal-Mart Jump-Starts Discounts for Holidays
In what is shaping up to be the earliest holiday shopping season ever, Wal-Mart Stores says it will offer door-buster discounts this Friday, three weeks before they are traditionally unveiled on the day after Thanksgiving.
The giant discount chain is expected to announce a plan today to sell five major products — like a $350 laptop — beginning at 8 a.m. on Friday in a bold effort to jump-start holiday shopping two days after Halloween.
The move is likely to put growing pressure on Wal-Mart’s competitors, like Best Buy and Toys “R” Us, to begin marking down merchandise well ahead of Nov. 23, known as Black Friday because it was historically the day stores turned a profit, or went into the black.
The pre-Thanksgiving price-cutting underscores how worried the retail industry is about consumer spending this season. With the housing market in a slump and energy prices high, industry analysts expect retail sales in November and December to grow at the slowest rate in five years.
In the phenomenon of “creeping Christmas,” stores like CompUSA and Gap have begun opening their doors at midnight on Thanksgiving to drum up business, delighting some bargainhunting consumers and irritating some others who bemoan the earlier-than-ever start to the season.
But no retailer has ever tried to single-handedly move Black Friday, considered the biggest shopping day of the year.
Linda Blakley, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said that consumers “are feeling all kinds of pressure, but because part of our DNA is to provide great prices on the gifts people buy, we are starting to do that early.”
Four of the five products will remain secret until Thursday morning, when they can be found — but not bought — on the walmart.com Web site. Shoppers can begin buying them in stores at 8 a.m. on Friday, where the company expects the kind of long, early-morning lines that are common on Black Friday.
By keeping the products secret until the last minute, Wal-Mart will avoid the risk of newspaper circulars leaking out onto the Internet weeks before the sale, as Black Friday ads now regularly do, much to retailers’ chagrin.
Ms. Blakley said Wal-Mart would still offer Black Friday deals on Nov. 23. “This,” she said, “is an early Christmas gift to our customers.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)