Ace Shop & Sales News

Tuesday, 13 December 2011

Logitech Z130 Stereo Speaker System for $15 + free shipping

Logitech Z130 Stereo Speaker System for $15 + free shipping: Best Buy offers the Logitech Z130 Stereo Multimedia Speaker System, model no. 980-000417, for $14.99. (Click through to Best Buy.) With free shipping, that's $5 under our May mention and the lowest total price we could find by $8. (We saw an open-box model for a buck less in August.) Sales tax is added where applicable. These speakers feature 5 watts of power, volume and power controls, 3.5mm plug, and more.

The Goods and Services offered on this blog are in our opinion good value for money and are offered as seen and where possible we value your comments or opinions. Like to feature your goods and services leave a comment and share with our comments system and share your details on google, twitter, facebook or yahoo and please follow our shop news at http://twitter.com/AceiShop Thank you, Ian

Freestyle Unisex Mariner Digital Sailing Watch for $46 + free shipping

Freestyle Unisex Mariner Digital Sailing Watch for $46 + free shipping: MChrono offers the Freestyle Unisex Mariner Digital Sailing Watch in Black/Blue, model no. FS84898, for $45.99 with free shipping. That's tied with our October mention (which included a $10 mwave credit) and the lowest total price we could find by $7. It features a silicone strap, alarm, timer, nightvision backlight, date display, Japanese quartz movement, water resistance to 330 feet, and more.

The Goods and Services offered on this blog are in our opinion good value for money and are offered as seen and where possible we value your comments or opinions. Like to feature your goods and services leave a comment and share with our comments system and share your details on google, twitter, facebook or yahoo and please follow our shop news at http://twitter.com/AceiShop Thank you, Ian

GearWrench 8-Piece Ratcheting Combination Wrench Set for $40 + $5 s&h

GearWrench 8-Piece Ratcheting Combination Wrench Set for $40 + $5 s&h: Sears offers the GearWrench 8-Piece Reversible Ratcheting Combination Wrench Set in Standard (pictured), model no. 44003, or Metric,model no. 44004, for $39.99. Shipping adds $4.99, or choose in-store pickup. Even with shipping, each is $40 off and the lowest total price we could find. Sales tax is added where applicable. Features include a 15-degree offset for increased clearance and compact reversing lever. Deal ends December 17.

Of note, we mentioned a GearWrench8-Piece Stubby Wrench Set for $12 less yesterday.

The Goods and Services offered on this blog are in our opinion good value for money and are offered as seen and where possible we value your comments or opinions. Like to feature your goods and services leave a comment and share with our comments system and share your details on google, twitter, facebook or yahoo and please follow our shop news at http://twitter.com/AceiShop Thank you, Ian

Kohl's Sale: Up to 70% off Dearfoams Slippers + extra 20% off, free shipping

Kohl's Sale: Up to 70% off Dearfoams Slippers + extra 20% off, free shipping: Kohl's takes up to 60% off Dearfoams Slippers during its latest sale. Plus, take an extra 20% off via coupon code "SMS5933". Even better, it stacks with coupon code "XMASFREE", which bags free shipping on all orders. Combined, that's among the best discounts we've seen from Kohl's on these items. Sales tax is added where applicable. Notable items, with prices after additional discount:

Dearfoams Women's Microsuede Faux-Fur Booties (pictured) for $7.19
DearfoamsWomen's Velour Leopard Slippers for $7.19
DearfoamsWomen's Velour Faux-Fur Clog Slippers for $7.19
DearfoamsWomen's Fairisle Faux-Fur Clog Slippers for $7.19
browse all discounted DearfoamsWomen's slippers at Kohl's

HP Core i7 Quad 2.2GHz 16" LED Blu-ray Laptop for $750 + free shipping

HP Core i7 Quad 2.2GHz 16" LED Blu-ray Laptop for $750 + free shipping: HP Home & Home Office offers the HP Pavilion dv6tqe Quad Edition Intel Core i7 2.2GHz 15.6" Widescreen Notebook in Dark Umber, model no. A2Z57AV, for $799.99. Coupon code "NBS3697" slashes it to $749.99. With free shipping, that's tied with last week's mention as the best price we could find for this configuration. (We saw this model for $50 less two weeks ago, but that configuration did not include a Blu-ray player.) Sales tax is added where applicable. Features include an Intel Core an Intel Core i7-2670QM 2.2GHz quad-core processor, 15.6" 1366x768 LED-backlit LCD, 8GB RAM, 750GB hard drive, Blu-ray player / DVD burner combo drive, Radeon HD 6490M 1GB video card, 802.11n wireless, fingerprint reader, webcam, 6-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Coupon expires December 18 or after 1,650 uses.

The Goods and Services offered on this blog are in our opinion good value for money and are offered as seen and where possible we value your comments or opinions. Like to feature your goods and services leave a comment and share with our comments system and share your details on google, twitter, facebook or yahoo and please follow our shop news at http://twitter.com/AceiShop Thank you, Ian

Christmas food shopping: online deadlines

Christmas food shopping: online deadlines:

Last orders is looming. If you're hoping to have Christmas delivered, is it all booked in yet?

There is a big-deal meal happening in 12 days' time. What you eat depends on how you – or your hosts – choose to shop. And although it's still many hours and other, probably better meals away, the options for the Christmas lunch shop are disappearing fast.

Since online food shopping became reliable (stifle your snorts if you've had Doritos substituted for Bordeaux), many people have come to rely on it. It's nice to be able to test the quality of your veg by squeezing a tomato (not too hard!), but if you need loo roll, gin, foil and Celebrations as well as parsnips and poultry and you don't want to fight with idiots to get the last reasonable specimens, having it delivered to your door is wise indeed.

If you are one of the people who thought about this a month ago, congratulations – and enjoy your Doritos. If not, what's your plan? The major supermarkets, which tend to release online grocery delivery slots around three weeks before the festivities, with some giving first refusal to regular customers, are mostly sold out of van time.

Delivery on Friday 23 December, the in-demand day due to its proximity to the big one and the chance to nip out on Christmas Eve if you (or the supermarket) miss something, is a pipedream. Checking on Saturday for available slots for deliveries to our house near Manchester made me thank the little baby Jesus that we're not hosting anything that demands more than tea and mince pies this year. Waitrose and Tesco's best slots were the few remaining on 21 December, while Ocado and Sainsbury's could only offer the day before. Only Asda could have done the Friday, and as far as I can see they don't sell whole fresh turkeys. That's a disadvantage.

Where "click and collect" services exist (they do the shopping, you go and fetch it) all the shops required us to drive past our huge local stores and on into unfamiliar territory for the pickup, which would feel slightly too much like buying stolen art in a layby. In theory I could actually go to the shops, but home-shopping "pickers" - as well as regular shoppers - clog up the aisles at our local superstore to the extent that a personal visit is a deeply frustrating experience, even at 7.30am.

Deadlines for local butchers and fishmongers might be long past (our butcher deliberately over-orders, then sells the extras to those who do the best begging face), but there are other ways to get your food roughly when you want it. Gourmet butchers Donald Russell deliver nationwide right up until Christmas Eve, although meat is delivered frozen so big roasting joints should be ordered by the 22 December for arrival on the 23rd to ensure they're thoroughly defrosted (48 hours). On the micro level, Mark "Marky Market" White, who shops at Billingsgate and Smithfield markets for his London customers, is doing market runs daily between Tuesday 20 and Friday 23 December. At the last count, the latter was almost full for deliveries, but if you're on his route, you might be lucky.

Northern Harvest, the veg box and food delivery company are doing all their deliveries, including turkeys, on 22 and 23 December; orders must be in by noon on the 14th. KellyBronze, they of the famous turkeys, are delivering on the 22nd and will close their order book appealingly late at 8am on Monday 19th. Abel & Cole deliver on different days depending on where you live; we're a Monday and their Christmas schedule is a day later, so we'd get the veg box and associated goodies on the 20th, with last orders on the 16th. Our local Riverford is sold out of most turkeys and geese, but what they do have will be delivered from the 18th with shelf life up to the 27th. Daylesford Organics, whose last Christmas order is the 16th, do a surprisingly well-priced Christmas lunch box that they'll deliver in one of two time slots on the 21st or 22nd. Have we missed any?

Of course, Christmas lunch isn't the only festive feast. Hobby cooks like nothing better than an excuse for a "special" meal and a chance to crack the spine of their Christmas cookbook. Because some smaller suppliers close after Christmas, and New Year dinners demand luxurious ingredients and possibly ras-el-hanout, pretendy caviar or fresh tarragon, the 31 December food shop can be even more traumatic. How far is too far to go to collect a lobster? We drove 7 miles last year. Better book a delivery slot.

Emma Sturgess

Presents: the real meaning of Christmas | Sarah Ditum

Presents: the real meaning of Christmas | Sarah Ditum:

There's nothing consumerist about revelling in the giving of gifts – in fact, it's the very essence of human civilisation

Christmas, a time of being patronisingly berated for your failure to grasp the real meaning of the season. If it hasn't happened to you in some form by the 24th, you might as well knock down the tree and use the cinnamon-scented candle to set fire to your wreath: you're just not having a proper Noël without a bit of sanctimony to spice the joyeux.

Don't worry, though, because I've got three cloves of moralising right here to swirl through the mulled wine of your advent. Not going to a carol service? Failing to reflect sufficiently on economic injustice and political injustice? Daring to think about the giving and receiving of presents? Then you, my sorry friend, are missing the real meaning of Christmas. Now suck on a sprout and think about what a consumerist monster you are.

Except, what if presents really are the meaning of Christmas and everything else – the twinkly lights, the singing, the Nativity – is just an especially rich and delicious gravy to the nourishing materialist meat of the festivities? I'm not saying this as a shill for the CBI, who must be properly bricking it given the failure of Britain to go shopping this December; to be honest, they'll probably find me a disappointing advocate, given that I don't think your gifts have to be particularly lavish or spectacular.

But they are essential, and not just to Christmas but to the foundations of human civilisation. Think about this: out of all the animals to have evolved, humans are the only ones to understand and practise generosity. Sure, some species ritually offer prey to a potential mate, but as anthopologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy says, "humans stand out for their chronic readiness to exchange small favours and give gifts". (Something observed from the elaborate potlatch ceremonies of hunter-gatherer societies, to your own Christmas card list; although interestingly the habit of regifting, despised by us, is actually compulsory is some traditions.)

For Hrdy, the ability to give, and to take pleasure in giving, is part of the distinctly human trait of "intersubjectivity": that is, being able to imagine another person's feelings and experience them in some degree as if they were our own. In her account, this is the basis of the remarkable co-operative tendencies that humans have, even with those outside their immediate social group, and it might be the primary reason that we've been able to avoid extinction in the toughest evolutionary times.

All societies have customs of giving that help to secure social bonds – ours just happens to have adhered to the subsequent traditions of Christianity. Or maybe there's more to it than calendrical convenience: when German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach attempted to reconcile Christianity with an undeniably materialist universe in the 19th century, he too fixed on the idea of intersubjectivity as peculiarly human. "Man is himself at once I and thou; he can put himself in the place of another," he wrote.

The conception of God could be understood as a communal metaphor, used by humans to capture our simultaneous I-ness and thou-ness. If Christmas is all about God becoming man – one entity living and feeling as another – then it's the ultimate celebration of intersubjectivity, the trait that induces our special powers of present-giving. So slap on the bows and write out the name tags with a clear conscience: you're not just embodying the real real meaning of Christmas with every selection box you hand out – your ability to give is the beating heart of humanity.

Sarah Ditum