The Consumer Category
We bring you the chic and unique, the best and most bizarre shopping offers both online and offline. We offer you tips on where to buy, and some of the less mainstream and crazy, individual and offbeat items on the internet. Anything that can be bought and sold can be featured here. And we love showcasing the best and worst art and design.
Your Kindle books, iTune songs and online videos are worthless
I’M sure we’ve all done the trudge down to the second hand bookshop when the shelves get overloaded. Get back 50 p a copy for the old paperbacks sorta stuff. Or the equivalent at the CD shop, even bundled up the stuff and gone to a car boot sale.
The big question in this modern digital age is whether we’re going to be able to do the same with out Kindle books, online videos and MP3 music files.
The short answer is: No.
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Posted: 8th, November 2012 | In: Money, Technology, The Consumer | Comments (3)
Unforgivable home croch clothes from the 1970s
DID you home crochet in the 1960s and 1970s? Did you buy Aunt Lydia’s Knit Crochet Heavy Rug Yarn? Did you read publications like Knitting & Crochet, In Shawls and The Easy Art of Ripple Crochet? These people did. Look out for the brooding brother dressed the same as his mum, dad, and sister; the woman knitting her own bikini by the pool; man and dog look alike; the neck brace that let’s you dress like your toilet; and more…
Posted: 8th, November 2012 | In: Fashion, Flashback | Comment
Houseplants of the 1970s (ferns and tongues)
IN the 1970s, home decor was abut house plants, most often ferns, the mother-in-law’s tongue and Pampas grass. In this gallery of 1970s rooms, the house plant is there. Always there. The 1970s truly were the golden age for ferns…
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Posted: 5th, November 2012 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comments (12)
Food hell: when Campbell’s made soup gravy
CAMPBELL’S make soup. And that’s might be the start and the end of it. But what if soup wasn’t eaten from bowls? What if soup was eaten from plates? Crazy stuff, we know. But someone at Campbell’s thought it was a great idea, better than soup lollies (soup on sticks) and Soup on pizza slices (Soup Triangles). The company invite shoppers into Campbell’s Kitchen. Top tip today is: “Frozen hash browns and a can of Cheddar cheese soup help to make this flavorful dish easy and delicious! This is a great way to use up leftover ham.”
The food remains disgusting. But one thing that has improved is the photography. This is how Campbell’s used to sell soup you could eat with a knife and fork:
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Posted: 4th, November 2012 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Noble Prizes favour chocolate eaters
IS the Noble Prize committee biased towards chocolate eaters? This picture reveals the correlation between countries’ annual per capita chocolate consumption and the number of Nobel laureates per 10 million population. For purposes of clarity, deep-fried Mars bars and Hen Night body paints are deemed to be chocolate…
Posted: 4th, November 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)
1974: retina-burning interior designs in Women’s Day magazine
IT’S 1974 and Woman’s Day magazine has a selection of d’lish interiors.
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Posted: 3rd, November 2012 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Vintage advert: 300 ‘pretty girls’ for one dollar
VINTAGE advert of the day. Back in the day you could buy 300 “pretty girls” for $1. A combination of cheap females and a strong dollar made it all possible. For just 100 cents, Zen Publishers of Elkhart, Indiana, would give you the names and addresses of 300 “pretty, single lonely nurses, teachers, models, widows , farmerettes etc.” Sure, some of these game gals will have moved on by the time you get the list. Sure some of them might have died, changed their names or become men. But with luck on your side and a following wind you’ll be able to travel hundreds of miles across the country and stalk a real life woman…
Posted: 3rd, November 2012 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Nuremberg butcher produce the must-see calendar for 2013
AN early contender for calendar of the year 2013 looks set to be this one. It features scantily clad German butchers in Nuremberg posing with pork products. The aim is to promote butchers, who have been losing business to supermarkets. As one spotter quips on B3ta: “Wurst marketing campaign ever?”
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Posted: 2nd, November 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)
1972 gift special: a life-size doll of you
IT’S 1972. Cosmetic surgery is not yet so advanced. Dolly the sheep is but a dream But you want to create a replica of yourself. What to do? Become an Osmond? No. For $3,000 and no cents (exclusive of clothes and sculptor’s airfare) you could invest in “full-dimensional, life-size, reasonable facsimilies of you, or your favourite other person”.
You’d be mad not do. Mad, I tell you. Maaaaaaad:
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Posted: 1st, November 2012 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
Glasscock Rams – for all your ram needs
SITE of the day is Glasscock Rams, Texas, for all of your ram and ramming needs.Rams have such names as: The Evil One, Juicy and Don Juan:
Posted: 1st, November 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Happy Halloween from Stittsville
HAPPY Halloween! What are you dressing up as? The Stittsville News has local news:
“Richard Langford, manager of the Royal Bank in Stittsville, was in the Halloween spirit at the branch last Monday, Oct. 31 as he was wearing a spooky tie…”
“Richard Langford, manager of the Royal Bank in Stittsville, was in the Halloween spirit at the branch last Monday, Oct. 31 as he was wearing a spooky tie…”
Posted: 31st, October 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)
Courtney Love fashion line has worst washing instructions ever
YOU might not want her perfume to smell like her, but you’ll adore Courtney Love’s new fashion range. Called Never The Bride, Love flogs it thus:
“This is the stuff that I would wear if I was young enough to not look like Betty Davis in What Ever Happened To Baby Jane. In the Hem of all the dresses, there’s a ruby and it says c***.”
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Posted: 28th, October 2012 | In: Celebrities, Fashion | Comment
The EcoBrolly makes free newspapers useful
NEWSPAPERS will not die. They will be turned into umbrellas. The EcoBrolly is the work of Shiu Yuk Yuen. The device looks not unlike a music stand. But, still, if it makes us use newspapers, all to the good…
Posted: 26th, October 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Sakir Gökçebag makes art from food
TURKISH photographer Sakir Gökçebag makes art from food. Beats a smily face:
Spotter: ThisIsColossal
Posted: 26th, October 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment
What is this very long advert for?
HOW long does it take you find out what his advert is for? For thsoe of you who can’t be bothered to watch the entire thing, the answer is below:
Ford cars.
Posted: 26th, October 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Inappropriate bar code: the Paediatric Handbook
INAPPROPRIATE bar code placement of the day: the Paediatric Handbook:
Website reveals scenes of all theme park ride deaths
WANT to know which theme parks are most likely to bring about your sudden death? No? It kind of kills the thrill, doesn’t it, knowing that the ride might result in your demise. The website www.rideaccidents.com has answers.
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Posted: 25th, October 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Amazon’s about to get more expensive
THE EU has finally woken up to that despicable little bit of tax dodging:
Amazon is to be stripped of its huge tax advantage on the sales of electronic books after the European commission ordered Luxembourg to close a VAT loophole.
Amazon is registered as a Luxembourg company and pays that country’s VAT charge of 3% when it sells an ebook to a British reader, rather than the 20% it would have to charge if it were UK-based.
….
The European commission – which oversees European Union law as the EU’s executive arm – on Wednesday gave Luxembourg 30 days to increase its VAT rate on digital services from 3% to 15%. This will close a tax loophole that has encouraged companies such as Amazon, Skype and Netflix to be based in Luxembourg to benefit from the 3% rate when selling throughout the EU.
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Posted: 25th, October 2012 | In: Money, The Consumer | Comment (1)
Superman moves from the dead Daily Planet to twitter
SUPERMAN is unemployed. Clark Kent, for it is he, has left his job at the Daily Planet because the editor assigns him “soft” celebrity stories.
He writes:
“Why am I the one sounding like a grizzled ink-stained wretch who believes news should be about, I don’t know, news?”
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Posted: 25th, October 2012 | In: Celebrities, The Consumer | Comment
HMV bans staff with long hair and visible tattoos
WHO knew?! Not only is HMV still trading but the company’s management (surely PR company coming up with something to show they are live?) has banned staff from displaying showing tattoos.
Also banned: long hair.
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Posted: 24th, October 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Clap cakes: celebrate your STD and anus in style
ANYONE for a Clap Cake? BEtween 26th-28th October you can buy a herpes cup cake at St Bartholomew’s Pathology Museum, London.
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Posted: 24th, October 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Every day racism: this 1970s advert for Silk Cut cigarettes
YOU know that bemoaning of policial correctness, how it’s always gone mad at the behest of a brigade? Well, what it does mena is that dressing John Bird up as “fuzzy wuzzy” and having his flog ciggies is no longer seen as progressive. This from the 1970s:
Posted: 24th, October 2012 | In: Flashback, The Consumer | Comment
The Peroni advert gets hijacked
THIS is an advert for…drinkaware.co.uk or Peroni?
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Posted: 24th, October 2012 | In: The Consumer | Comment
