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Archive for the ‘Buying Things’ Category

According to the FT, which cited sources with knowledge of the launch, BT will unveil the new-look service within the next few weeks.

Personalised recommendations and the addition of social networking features, such as integration with Twitter and Facebook, are among the new introductions expected to appear in the revamped service. YouView, an online based TV-on-demand venture which is being heavily backed by BT and is expected to launch in May this year , also looks set to have similar social network features.

While BT confirmed to the FT it plans to relaunch the BT Vision service, it did not offer details about the new-look service. However, in a previous interview with the FT, BT chief executive Ian Livingstone said BT was concerned with bringing true interactivity to the TV set, which is the most watched screen in the house.

That means on-demand services; it means the availability of buying things as you do it; to have personalised services; to know what your friends like and what they think of it. I think that will change viewing habits quite considerably. It wont happen overnight but I think its the start of something quite big.

Netflix, which was launched in the UK last week, is priced at pound;5.99 per month in the UK (euro;6.99 in Ireland) and allows web users to watch an unlimited number of TV shows and movies on a range of internet-connected devices including computers, Samsung Smart TVs, LG Blu-ray players, Sonys PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Wii and Microsofts Xbox 360, as well as Apple iPhones, Apple iPads and Google Android smartphones and tablet PCs.

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Amarillo, Texas – The days after Christmas bring more than just leftovers. They also bring packed parking lots and crowded stores.

Last week, shoppers were out buying things for others, this week theyre out buying things for themselves.

Thats because today kicks off the busiest week of the year for returns, exchanges, and gift card purchases.

While the gift giving is over, the holiday shopping is not.

People returned for yet another round at the mall today to bring back those gifts that werent quite right and to get what they really wanted using their gift cards.

Sal Barrera with Best Buy says, Youll see a steady line. For the next several days its going to be a little busy. We definitely run all registers and well get to you as soon as possible. But you see heavier traffic when it comes to the customer service line.

Many retailers opened their doors early in anticipation of the crowds, but in Amarillo things got off to a slow start thanks to yesterdays snow storm.

Barrera explains, In the past, weve seen a massive rush as soon as the doors open. Today they waited until about 11:30. Since then, weve had a line all the way through the front lanes, and wrapped all the way around appliances.

For bargain hunters, this week also brings some door buster deals, as retailers slash prices in hopes of a little extra revenue to close out the season.

Zane Logan with Sears says, The sales are a way to help get people in, but a lot of people like coming in after Christmas because there are good deals. Its not as much stress as you have before Christmas.

As retailers tally their numbers, most agree despite the bad economy, their sales werent all that bad.

But they are seeing some new shopping trends.

Barrera says, They come in here looking for a specific item and they know exactly what they need to get. In the past, they came in with a lot of questions needing to be answered to find what they really need.

Logan says, What we saw was a lot more of the smaller purchases, the tablets and things that werent as expensive.

Many stores say they are prepared for this weeks chaos with extra employees and security on hand.

Groupon.com was the first daily deal site I heard about and although I love a good deal, I didnt jump on the bandwagon right away. I was less concerned about any perceived risk with Internet shopping and more worried about buying things I didnt need just because the item or service was on sale. I eventually caved in and signed up for Groupon.

Like so many other things, planning a funeral from the memorial service right down to the prayer cards has found its way to the Internet.

Des Plaines-based BasicFunerals.com allows customers to work with a licensed funeral director to arrange a funeral or cremation from anywhere via keyboard. Information and pricing is on the companys website.

Were so used to buying things online, why cant you arrange your funeral service online as well? said Chairman Dominic Mazzone, who co-founded the company in Canada in 2009 with friend Eric Vandermeersch, a licensed funeral director. BasicFunerals.com came to Illinois last year.

Every year around Christmas and Chanukah time, writers, commentators, pundits and many rabbis, priests and ministers exhort Americans against spending money on things. We are too materialistic, we are told every year. Happiness, not to mention a meaningful life, depends on our having non-material things, not material things.

Thus, Americans are told to spend little or nothing on holiday gifts. Give your children love and time, we are told, not train sets (are they still given?), dolls or electronic devices.

The problem is, this advice is built on platitudes. And as is always the case with platitudes — or they wouldn’t be platitudes — the words sound nice but mean very little.

Before defending material things, let me make clear where I do agree with the joy-deniers. First, there is no question that no material thing can compete with love, religion, music, reading, health and other precious non-material things. And second, experiences contribute more to happiness than things do. If you only have x amount of money to spend on yourself, traveling to new places is usually more contributive to happiness than a better car. When I had almost no money through my early 30s, I still traveled abroad every year — which meant that I could only afford an inexpensive car. I have now visited a hundred countries, and that has given me more meaning and happiness than a luxury car or any other material thing.

But having said all that, material things matter. They can contribute a great deal to a happier and more meaningful life.

A grandmother once called in to my radio show to tell me that instead of giving her grandchildren Christmas gifts, she wrote each of them a special poem. I respectfully suggested to the obviously sweet woman that I could not imagine any normal child preferring a poem to a material gift.

With all my love of family, of friends, of music and of the life of the mind, I have always loved material things, too. On any happiness scale, it would be difficult to overstate how much joy my stereo equipment has given me since high school. I so love music that I periodically conduct orchestras in Southern California. And I now own a system that is so good that its offerings sound only a bit less real than what I hear from the conductor’s podium. I bless the engineers and others who design stereo products, and it is my joy to help support their noble quest of reproducing great music in people’s homes.

Since high school, too, I have written only with fountain pens. Buying new pens and trying out new inks are among the little joys of life that contribute as much — and sometimes more — to one’s happiness than the “big” things. There is incomparable joy at attending a child’s bar mitzvah or wedding. But those great events last a day. I write with a beloved fountain pen every day, listen to music every day, smoke a pleasure-giving cigar or pipe every day (except Shabbat, for the halachically curious). I love these things. What a colorless world it would be without them. So, too, I love my house. And I love the artwork and furniture and library that help to make it beautiful.

Sure, I could write with a 29-cent Bic. Yes, I could hear great music on a $50 radio. Of course I could give up cigars. Certainly, I didn’t have to buy the 5,000 books and 3,000 classical music CDs I own, and I understand that I don’t need to live in a house when my “needs” could have been met in an apartment a third its size.

But, thank God, most Americans don’t think that way. We like things. And liking things doesn’t mean you love less or read less or appreciate sunsets less. Life isn’t a zero-sum game between free joys and purchased joys. Moreover, the American economy and that of most other nations depend on our buying considerably more than our minimum needs.

Can people overdo purchasing things? Of course they can. People can also overdo taking vitamins, exercising and even reading books or studying Talmud.

So, then, when do we need to control our buying things?
a) When it becomes a compulsion — when one cannot stop buying things because the buying gives more pleasure than the things that are bought.
b) When the primary purpose of the purchase is to impress others with one’s wealth.
c) When one cannot afford what one is buying.

But beyond those caveats, don’t let the killjoys get you down. “Work hard and play hard,” my father always said (and still does at 93). When he bought a new Oldsmobile every few years, the family stepped outside the house to marvel at it — and even as kids we understood this was his reward for working all day and many evenings six days a week.

May your holidays be filled with lovely gift receiving and giving and may your New Year be filled with both wonderful experiences and wonderful things. Both contribute to a fuller and happier life.

Dennis Prager’s nationally syndicated radio talk show is heard in Los Angeles on KRLA (AM 870) 9 am to noon. His latest project
is the Internet-based Prager University (prageru.com).

A version of this article appeared in print.
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