Bargain Hunting Blog

Offline Sales Starting Early This Summer

I was out walking around this weekend getting roasted by the New York City heat. It’s a hot, humid, strangely aromatic heat that you need to be here to really hate. Anyway in between short thunderstorms I hopped in and out of a bunch of national retail stores. In doing so I was a shocked to see how many big sales were going on. You name it shoes, clothes, electronics, furniture, everything was on sale. It seemed like all the major retailers and even the small boutiques were having some sort of sale. I know, it's a week before the 4th of July, so that could explain some of it, but certainly all of it. So the good news is if you’ve got some disposable income (if you do I’m jealous), now seems like the right to get some shopping done. The bad news is that the economy is obviously slow and likely getting slower if stores are having huge sales, so early in the summer.

Rolling Luggage Cart and Desk

I don't travel much for business, but if I did this Rolling Luggage Cart And Desk is something I would want. It's another great and unique product from Hammacher Schlemmer, where everything you buy is guaranteed for life. This rolling luggage cart converts into a stable work platform, providing a sturdy convenient place to use your laptop while traveling. The desktop platform can hold up to 20 lbs., and can accommodate a 17" wide laptop. The carrying platform can fit a 36" business case and when fully compacted it will easily fit into an overhead compartment.

$99.95 BUY | Hammacher Schlemmer Deals at Bargain Bookmark

Six Flags Theme Park Discounts 2008

Recently I found that trying to find a last minute deal for admission to an amusement park is not easy. I needed three tickets to Six Flags Great Adventure and Wild Safari in New Jersey. I looked for Six Flags coupons online and found the following:

Coupon codes “COLDSTONE” and “PJKID” give the kid’s admission price to adults. This is a $10 savings of the original online adult ticket price of $39.99, meaning adults pay $29.99. Unfortunately I also needed tickets to Great Adventure’s Wild Safari park and these coupons only work for the amusement park. In fact the coupons don’t work at all you get on the other parks without the coupons. What this means is if you need admission to only the amusement park you’ll get the kids price. If you need tickets to more than one of the parks the coupons will not work, but you will get an automatic discount on the other park.

I also learned that if you order tickets to any Six Flags Park via the website adults get $10 off the $49.99 general admission price. Buy them before you go!

So after all this last minute research I managed to not save much. If I had planned ahead I could have taken advantage of a partnership that Six Flags has with Coke. You can get tickets by accumulating Coke Rewards Points. You get points by purchasing Coke products from Coke and its partners. So if you drink a lot of coke remember to create a Coke Rewards account and record your points.

New Sales Tax For New York Residents

Traditionally online shoppers have not had to pay sales tax if the online merchant they are buying from did not have a physical presence in their state. New York State has recently passed a law that attempts to change this for New York residents. The new law specifically targets online merchants that use New York based affiliates to help them sell products. Though these New York affiliates (deal sites, price comparison sites, etc.) are not owned or operated by the merchant, the new law treats them as if they were, thus forcing a sales tax assessment.

Dubbed "The Amazon Tax" this new law seeks to fill what some legislators have for years called a sales tax loophole. This so called loophole has allowed online merchants to avoid the complications of charging and paying state sales tax. Over the years this has benefited companies like Amazon.com, Overstock.com, and many more by providing incentive for customers to make online purchases instead of in store purchases. Plus online shoppers have saved a bundle by not paying state sales tax when buying from these merchants.

What does this new law mean for New York online shoppers? Well, New Yorkers will immediately start paying New York sales tax at online stores that have previously not charged them sales tax. For example, Amazon.com started charging sales tax to New York residents on June 1.

Don’t’ lose hope yet fellow New York shoppers, because this isn't over. Amazon has in the last few days called the law "unconstitutional" and is taking its case to the courts. Stay tuned!