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Amazon announced recently that they were lowering the price of a new Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6 e-reader to under $260 with free shipping, the lowest price ever. You can also pre-order the next generation Kindle, launched on October 19, or, if you're shopping for yourself, there is a limited number of refurbished models for $219.
I remember my first great thrill-of-the-bargain-hunt moment. I was on a business trip, my first visit to Chicago, and went to see the famed Neiman Marcus, during their Last Call sale. Found a beautiful, hand made silver and enamel pin. It was marked down from $250 to $125, then to $67.50. Found it in a 75% off bin, opened a charge card for an additional 10% off, and ended up paying just about $14 for it.
I still have the pin, and I still have the receipt in my scrapbook as the best bargain I had even gotten (until then). And it set me off on my career path to become the Discount Princess, best bargain shopper in the world (or at least, in my world!).
Actually, now that I think about it, it started even further back. My Aunt Libby was manager of a very chichi clothing store when I was growing up. I was the only kid in Junior High School who dressed in designer duds instead of jeans — early on, I learned: discounts good; full price, not bad but unnecessary.
Next image….I was in college and working part time in a trendy shoe store in downtown New York, owned by the family of my good friend Richard Nahem (who now lives in Paris, writes a blog and website — www.EYEPREFERPARIS.com, and runs Eye Prefer Paris Personalized Walking Tours — definitely take a look!). The style of the moment was a shoe line called Goody Two Shoes — 6 inch heels, 3 inch platforms and they cost at the time (gasp) over $50 — quite out of line for my income and expense levels, even with my employee discount. But they were about as fabulous as shoes can get. There was a fabulous Goody in the window — powder pink with ankle straps, in my size — and I wanted those shoes more than anything.
When the window was changed, I got to try on my dream shoes — but the sun on the windows had faded the shoe so it no longer matched the mate. I had an idea. I approached Richard’s Dad with what I now know as a lowball offer but was then just an offer of what I could afford…and he said yes! Another buck for a bottle of leather dye and I had those fabulous shoes for about 1/4 of what they would have sold for to a customer. (To take it even further, we used to dye our Goodies to match our outfits.)
Here’s a picture of the shoe store staff showing off our fabulous shoes: (That’s me in the middle, with the flower in my hair!):
Now when I go shoe shopping, I generally shop at discount stores, like Marshalls and TJMaxx, and of course, on line. Some shoe sites, like Zappos.com and shoebuy.com, offer free shipping on deliveries and returns.
Hint for today: always make offers when you see a potential bargain. The worst that can happen is you get a no. And you often get surprised with a yes!
Be back again in a few days with more. Meanwhile, for more about shoes, click here.
e-reader to under $260 with free shipping, the lowest price ever. You can also pre-order the next generation Kindle, launched on October 19, or, if you're shopping for yourself, there is a limited number of refurbished models for $219.
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