Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Assemble surprisingly good presents with a little creativity at the dollar store.
In light of the holiday season, each week throughout the upcoming month, writer Chris-Rachael Oseland shops around town for those inexpensive gifts for family, friends and co-workers. Her job? To find out if these gifts are bargains or busts. This month, I've traveled Florissant on a quest for cheap presents. So far, I've looked at Kmart's wall of mediocore $10 presents (desk toys from before the recession are still available), Target's odd collection of pre packaged $10 gifts (does anyone really need a heated travel mug or miniature stop signs?), and created a quick emergency $15 stocking for boys at the misnamed Family Dollar. This time, I ventured into Dollar Tree to see if there was any hope at the actual store where every item is $1…
38.798786
-90.336832
Dollar Tree
700 N Us Highway 67, Florissant, MO
/articles/an-emergency-present-for-the-dollar-store-chef
839374
/locations/2816480
Saturday, December 11, 2010
A step down from the Swiss Army knife, this six-in-one knife gift can barely help open other gifts.
In light of the holiday season, each week throughout the upcoming month, writer Chris-Rachael Oseland shops around town for those inexpensive gifts for family, friends and co-workers. Her job? To find out if these gifts are bargains or busts. Target and Kmart are the undisputed leaders in pre-packaged boxed gifts. Nestled between this year's crop of home pedicure sets and hot cocoa collections with commemorative mugs, you'll find neatly packaged red and white boxes with the words "Holiday Gift" printed right there on the box. These $10 presents are designed to help you take the guess work out of figuring out what to get for someone you don't know well but still have to shop for them. Some of them are pretty laughable, while others are …
38.771704
-90.279287
Kmart
2855 Dunn Rd, Florissant, MO
/articles/a-little-light-for-you
839475
/locations/2700594
Friday, November 26, 2010
Does less people make for a better chance at deals?
After seeing and speaking to dozens of people in the more than 400-person line wrapping around Target, Kmart came as quite a shock. A mere 20 people lined up outside. When asked, the woman at the front of the line said she'd only arrived an hour ago - and that was because she thought Kmart opened at 4 a.m. rather than 5 a.m. People in the shorter line were nowhere near as passionate about spending time in the 25 degree cold for the sake of a sale. Watch our videos of the people in line outside both Target and Kmart and compare for yourself.
38.81088
-90.300019
Kmart
1 Flower Valley Shopping Ctr, Florissant, MO
/articles/a-smaller-black-friday
840522
/locations/2545080
Thursday, November 25, 2010
In preparation of Black Friday, here's the opening times for most of the major stores in the area.
For those of you plotting your Black Friday shopping strategy, we've collected opening times for stores across the Florissant area (and right next door). Stay tuned on Black Friday itself when we'll have reports from multiple locations covering the lines outside Gamestop, Macy's, Target and more. 12:01 a.m. GameStop 14031 New Halls Ferry Road 3:30 a.m. J.C. Penney's Outlet 246 Jamestown Mall 4:00 a.m. Target 2341 N. Highway 67 4:00 a.m. Macy's 500 Jamestown Mall 6:00 a.m. Kmart (2 locations) 2845 Dunn Road 1 Flower Valley Shopping Center 6:00 a.m. Walmart 10741 West Florissant Avenue 7:00 a.m. Marshall's 13955 New Halls Ferry Road OPEN THANKSGIVING DAY 6:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. Kmart 7:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Walmart In addition, Amazon.com …
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Black Friday packs in the crowds, but store layaway keeps the coming back.
In 2006, Wal-Mart closed its last layaway desk citing high cost, availability of other forms of credit and low use among customers. This year, with shoppers still suffering the affects of the recession, the line outside of Kmart's layaway desk appears to never dip below half a dozen customers. "I haven't used it in years," said Jennifer Hudson, a mother waiting in line to put her holiday gifts into Kmart's layaway. "My mom always used it when I was a kid. It's been on TV a lot, and I thought it'd be a good way to make the holidays more affordable. There're no finance charges, no interest. My husband and I save credit for emergencies, so this looked like a good alternative" Sears Roebuck (now Sears Holding Company, which owns both the Sears…
