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.
World’s Largest Swimwear Queue Photos: Gratuitous Bikini Shots For A Virgin
GRATUITOUS bikini and swimmers photos of the day are provided by Richard Branson, whose Virgin Holidays has attempted to crete the World’s Largest Swimwear Queue. They failed, of course. The world’s longest swimwear cue is outside the one working toilet by Mister Bubble’s kebab shop on Faliraki…
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Posted: 14th, December 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
easyCar: Would You Let A Stranger Use Your Car?
WOULD you let a stranger use your car?
easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman have created easyCar, the business that lets you hire a stranger’s car.
Stelios says:
“Rather than having to buy the cars to be rented and pay the ownership costs, this business model relies on the fact that there are plenty of under-used cars on the road already and that is lazy capital that can be put to work again.”
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Posted: 12th, December 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comments (3)
Santa Can Sell Anything At Christmas The 10 Best Santa Claus Adverts
WHAT can Santa sell you? Well, Coca Cola is obvious. But what about cutlery (she’ll swoon), cigarettes, porn mags, misogyny and… Well take a look…
Posted: 11th, December 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Can Irish Butter Smugglers Reach Norway In Time?
BUTTER is big business in Norway:
Butter is now selling on Norway’s top auction website, with a 250-gram piece starting at around $13, roughly four times its normal price.
Just weeks before Norwegians will be expecting to eat plenty of buttery traditional biscuits and other homemade Christmas treats made with love and the liberal inclusion of dairy products, residents of the world’s second-richest per-capita country can’t even hope for help from a friendly neighbour who is rolling in butter.
Top dairy producer Denmark lies just across a narrow sea channel, but its stores of creamy butter will be kept out of the country by the high import duties of Norway, the only Nordic nation that does not belong to the European Union.
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Posted: 10th, December 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)
Amitabh Chandel Creates A £60,000 Manchester City Shirt For Prince Harry
INDIAN fashionista designer Amitabh Chandel has created a £60,000 shirt for the “modern day royal man”.
Chandel expresses his motive:
“I wanted, to create a wearable dress for contemporary royals, a dress which can be used practically. Many designers have created royal Achkans, Bandgalas and Kurtas but they are not wearable. This is an attire for contemporary royal. It is the silk, solitaire diamonds and gold buttons that make them costly. These shirts have around 28 carats of diamonds. The price range starts from 50,000 Rupees (£620) to any imaginable figure but so far I have created an attire for 5 million Rupees (£62,000). The price depends on use of diamonds and gems.”
Posted: 6th, December 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Sanitary Towels Are The New Curves
BEAUTY tip of the day:
“I’m not curvy and I have no hips, so I pin sanitary towels on the side of my knickers, then out my clothes on over the top. Instant curves.”
So says Rosie Lee Poupoutsie in Now! magazine.
Posted: 4th, December 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Did Groupon Really Trigger A Fight At Santa’s York Grotto?
HAS GROUPON stolen your Christmas? News from York, where 2,000 parents and present-hungry kids rocked up to the St. Nicholas Fayre. They’ve read the Groupon email advertising its “winter wonderland” with a train ride. Trouble is that grotto only takes 40 children at a time…and there’s no train. Cue angry mums and dads.
The Telegraph caught up with grotto chief Penny Ward:
When parents discovered there was no train ride, and the queues to the grotto became so long that their children couldn’t get in, some parents began swearing at staff, who were dressed as elves, fairies and a Christmas tree. Penny said: “One man even verbally threatened the lady who is dressed as a Christmas tree. One of the elves was so upset that she has resigned. It was a complete nightmare. Children were crying and upset.”
Posted: 3rd, December 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Melchior Rietveldt’s Music Was Used ‘Illegally’ On Anti-Piracy DVDs In Holland
MELCHIOR Rietveldt, a musician, says his music was illegally used on an anti-piracy warning at the start DVDs distributed in Holland.
He’s crying foul. He’s done the maths. If his music has been used illegally on tens of millions of Dutch DVDs, he’s due lots of royalty money. He wants at least a million euros in compensation.
His case seems tight.
Rietveldt alerted the local music royalty collecting agency Buma/Stemra. They describe themselves thus:
There are people who make music although you’ll never hear them make a sound: they are called music authors. Their efforts precede the successes of the artists who perform their works. The music that we enjoy is their intellectual property. Just like other authors, they have the right to remuneration when their works are played, sung or recorded. Buma/Stemra takes care of these matters.
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Posted: 2nd, December 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Beachy Head Christmas Jumper Is The Suicide’s Brew Of Last Resort
WHO fancies a restoring bottle of Beachy Head Christmas Jumper beer brewed by the Beachy Head Brewery in Eastbourne, Sussex?
Tastes bitter followed a morning of regret…
Says Roger Green:
“The name is derived from the woolly jumpers that Santa wears. It started life as a pump clip in one of the pubs with Santa in a jumper. When we bottled it we gave it a label with a standard background that we use, and now someone has taken it the wrong way.”
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Posted: 2nd, December 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment (1)
Horror In Canterbury: Pizza Hut Turns To Pizza Hell For Pregnant Diner
LOCAL News of The Day: The Canterbury Star reports on the Pizza Hut pizza horror:
When Redwood man Rick Baker’s pregnant girlfriend told him she was craving pizza last week he took to the phone straight away- ordering two large pizzas from Pizza Hut Northwood. However, the fast food giant rang back 20 minutes later and said the pizzas could not be delivered for a further hour-and-a-half because the store had no delivery drivers.
The story is headlined:
Frustration as pizza chain fails to deliver
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Posted: 28th, November 2011 | In: Key Posts, The Consumer | Comment
John Lewis Ad Boy Is Dead: Norway’s 1888 SMS Boy Has Killed Him
John Lewis boy is dead – or as good as. Sure he’s got a still warm rabbit’s head in the box for mummy and daddy’s Christmas present, but this murderous looking Norweigian child has the rabbit’s guts – and he’s glued them to your mum’s face. John Lewis boys should run.
It’s an ad for Norway’s 1888 telephone directory – We Need To Talk About Yngve…
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Posted: 28th, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Passion For Fashion Auction Photos: Bid For Amy Winehouse’s Dress And Hepburn’s Oscar Gown
AT the Passion for Fashion Auction, you can bid for the dress Audrey Hepburn wore to collect her Best Actress Oscar for Roman Holiday Oscar in 1954. It’s expected to go for £60,000. You can also bid for the Disaya dress Amy Winehouse wore on the cover of her Back to Black album cover, the proceeds of which will go to her charitable foundation.
They should auction off her ballet pumps and hair. Hepburn was all about the dress. Winehouse was hair, pumps and charisma…
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Mitch Winehouse pictured at a viewing of the Passion for Fashion auction by Kerry Taylor Auctions, at La Galleria in Pall Mall, central London, with a dress by Disaya which Amy Winehouse wore on the cover of her Back to Black album cover, the proceeds of which will go to her charitable foundation.
Posted: 28th, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Black Friday Shoppers Stepped Over Dying Fallen Herd Member
WHEN Black Friday shopper Walter Vance collapsed dying, the other shoppers stepped over him.
The story goes that other shoppers at a West Virginia branch of Target failed to help Mr Vance. Doubtless they thought it a ruse cooked up by Mr Vance and a gang to delay the competitors’ gallop to the games consoles. They would keep their eyes on the prize.
This might be what he would have wanted. One thing Black Friday shoppers know is that they are in their herd. The old, frail and incapable are left to their own devices, flotsam on the shop floor Serengeti as the gene carriers make their way to the lush pastures of cheap waffle irons and towels.
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Posted: 27th, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Sign Of The Year: Shopping For Spastics In Hackney
THE Sign at the Hackeny newsagents says:
ODD JOBS? I DOG ALLOTMENTS, PROOF-READ, SHOP FOR SPASTICS, POSE FOR ART ETC.. CALL BOB…
Shopping for spastics can be hard…what with their price on the rise…
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Posted: 27th, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
James Oliver’s Great Britain Was Made In…Germany
JAMIE Oliver’s latest Great British book about Great British food called Jamie’s Great Britain – taking in a Great British TV show – and priced in Great British pounds was printed in…Germany!
Black Friday Crowds Attack Walmart: Amazing Videos Of Shoppers Going Mad On Pepper Spray
BLACK Friday is when America goes mad for shopping. Highhlights of the craziness were a Californian woman who squirted pepper spray to beat other shoppers to an Xbox 360.
“This was customer-versus-customer ‘shopping rage’,” police lieutenant Abel Parga told the Los Angeles Times.
At Walmart stores – where the beautiful people shop – a man was shot by robbers in the car park outside the store in San Leandro, California store. At a Walmart in Kinston, North Carolina, security pepper sprayed the punters. One thing is certain: these are heady times of the pepper spraying industry. Also, bullets – there was a gunfight in the aisles at Fayetteville, North Carolina.
In Arizona a grandfather who tried to protect his grandson from stampeding Black Friday shoppers was hospitalised after a scuffle with police.
“They were fighting over bath towels on sale for $1.88, as ridiculous as that sounds,” Ohio Police Sergeant Jason Druckenmiller said. “A woman tried to get her hands on some towels when she was pushed from behind, and that’s when she came out swinging.”
Our pick is the fight in Arkansas for a $2 waffle iron.
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Posted: 26th, November 2011 | In: Key Posts, The Consumer | Comment
The Magical Crisp Making Vending Machine!
CRISPS! Everyone loves crisps. Just reading the word makes you want to stuff as many lovely, greasy crisps into your gaping crisphole as inhumanely possible. If you choked to death on crisps, you’d die happy.
The British obsession with crisps is something of wonder, so imagine then, over in Argentina, they go and make the most incredible machine EVER EVER EVER.
That is, the crisp making vending machine!
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Posted: 24th, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Chicken Chain Nando’s Pokes Fun At Sad And Lonely Dictators
SOUTH AFRICAN fast-food chain Nando’s takes a humorous approach to current affairs in its latest ad. The YouTube clip shows a man with an uncanny resemblance to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe laying a dinner table and having flashbacks to happier times when he fooling around with the likes of Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussain during the festive season. The ad, called “Last dictator standing”, says “this time of year no one should have to eat alone”.
See the clip here:
Visit Nathalie Rothschild’s personal website here. Follow her on Twitter @n_rothschild
Posted: 24th, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Lady Gaga’s Workshop Opens In New York: Photos
Stuff Santa. This season of goodwill and heavily marketed greed is all about Lady Gaga’s Workshop, a collaborative fashion and lifestyle project between panto dame Lady Gaga and Barney’s New York. There you can buy Lady Gaga trinkets, jackets, pasties, streak and potatoes and all manner to make you look like Grace Jones doing an impression of Madonna…
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Posted: 23rd, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
George Lucas Isn’t Rich Enough Yet, Says Yoda Noodles Commercial
IF it wasn’t bad enough seeing Darth Vader flogging computers for PC World, Yoda’s in on the act now vending noodles to Japan.
Seriously.
It seems that George Lucas is absolutely desperate to annoy as many Star Wars fans as possible, tinkering with the old movies and re-releasing them with new, pointless segments and getting as many of the characters to star in as many commercials as possible.
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Posted: 21st, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comments (3)
Stuck Up!: 100 Objects Inserted & Ingested in Places They Shouldn’t Be: Photos
BOOK Of The Day: Stuck Up!: 100 Objects Inserted & Ingested in Places They Shouldn’t Be. Psychiatrist Rich E. Dreben, M.D., emergency room physician Murdoc Knight, M.D., and forensic psychiatrist Marty A. Sindhian, M.D.’s book looks at unusual objects found inside human beings.
The human imagination truly knows no limits. Without it, there would be no great art, no advances in science and technology, and no extreme sports. Without it, we’d also be deprived of the many insights into human nature that we get out of witnessing other people do shockingly imprudent things and then try to rationalize them. Stuck Up! capitalizes on this human capability of coming up with creative applications for everyday (and not-so everyday) items way beyond their designated uses, and features 100 X-ray images of foreign objects inserted into human bodies, accidentally or on purpose.
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Posted: 21st, November 2011 | In: Key Posts, The Consumer | Comments (2)
Barbie Goes The Gay Way: Action Doll Dates Elen Degeneres
IS Barbie no longer so keen on Ken? Has she gone the gay way in Mary Man-Kong’s “48-page fairy coloring and activity book based on the new direct-to-DVD movie, Barbie(TM): A Fairy Secret. Over 30 sparkling stickers adds to the fun!”? Does Elen Degeneres know..?
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Posted: 20th, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
‘Stolen’ Denbighshire Vase Sells For £228,000 At Auction: But Who Owns It And Gets The Money?
ANDREA Calland sold an “ugly” old vase at auction for £228,000. The object d’art with a reserve of £500 turned out to be a Chinese antique. She was amazed and delighted.
Happy days.
But things have gone badly for Miss Callan. She must pay £190,000 to her ex-partner’s mother, one Evelyn Galloway, 74, of Tan-y-Bryn, near Ruthin, Denbighshire.
It wasn’t Calland’s to sell. Mrs Galloway only learnt her vase had been sold for loadsa money when she read about it in the paper. She called the police. They took no action. So Mrs Galloway sued.
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Posted: 17th, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
Jon Klassen’s I Want My Hat Back Is The Best Children’s Book Of 2012 (Photos)
THE Internets are alive with photos of Jon Klassen’s book I Want My Hat Back. Buy it and buy Adam Mansbach’s guide to good parenting. Both will keep you sane…maybe… Buy Klassen’s book here. Preview the pre-browsed version here:
Posted: 17th, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comments (4)
Christmas Gift Of The Moment: The Father Pissma Santa Alcohol Dispenser
THE Peeing Santa Alcohol Dispenser is our Christmas Gift Of The Moment. Father Pissmas is ready:
Santa Claus makes everything so much more festive and joyous, even when he’s pouring Liquor for you! Well, he sure has a weird way of helping you to a little drink. He never stops delivering gifts to you with an overly generous helping hand. When you feel the spirit of the season, call on Santa. When you’re feeling like a scrooge, call on Santa. When you just need something truly bizarre in your life, call on Santa. The only thing that’s gonna be lying under the tree this year is you.
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Posted: 16th, November 2011 | In: The Consumer | Comment
