Charlotte Ronson's deal with J.C. Penney is definitely something to look forward to. With the economy in the dumps, Ronson's new budget-friendly collection for the department store is coming at the perfect time. The I Heart Ronson collection, set to debut in stores and online in February, ranges from $15 for a tee to $65 for jackets and dresses. 

My family is made up of my father, Robert, my mother, Agnes and my brothers James (Jim) and Robert (Bobby) and my sister Linda.

I am the youngest of the children and have always been treated accordingly. I was born into a family that was at best on the outside appeared moderately “traditional” in the way of the early 1960’s.

My Dad worked and my Mom raised the kids.

On the inside of the walls of our Walnut street home our family was “non-traditional” in the sense that in a very real way, not one of us as children ever really knew our father.

Not to say that we did not know who he was, or that we did not know what he looked like. We knew him in those ways, however, I believe I can speak for my brothers and sister…we have never known our father.

He was absent. Not necessarily always by his own choice, but by a career that he choose.

Maybe I should say it chose him. Either way, he wasn’t there.

We did not know him in the way that one can know another person. We did not know what he was like as a child or even what were his true dreams and desires were for his life.

For you see, our father was a truck driver. A true truck driver is a very unique breed. There are very few true truck drivers left anymore. They may be legally married to another person, however, ultimately, they are physically, emotionally and even spiritually married to the road. My father was someone who showed up on weekends. He never made it to the ball games or the plays. I have absolutely no recollection of him being at one of the activities I was a part of.

He would come in late on Friday and leave on Sunday afternoon. The short periods he would come home and then head out when the next load was ready to be delivered, influenced what we did learn about him. We did not know him. In turn, all too often these times at home were punctuated by the temper and frustration of a man that did not know his own family.

Our lives were no more, or no less scarred by our up bringing than any other family on our block. In spite of having an absent father, we experienced the joys of life.

The thrill of growing up in innocence and the memories of Christmas mornings seen through my eyes as a child were magical.

We weren’t poor. I have seen poor in my life and that would not have best described us.

On the other hand, we were not rich either. No silver spoons to eat with, just the lower level of Middle America. We never owned the house that we lived in, yet my dad always had a good car in the driveway.

We did not get the latest and greatest new toy that some children got on our block, at least not when they were most popular. The clothes that we wore were clean and appropriate. My sister had it somewhat easier when it came to clothes. I would have to endure the chore of wearing hand me downs from my brother Bobby. I am sure he had to wear clothes from our oldest brother Jim.

We were not deprived from having “things” in our life. We were just were on the “wait until school starts” plan for new clothes and the Christmas and Birthday wish list for toys.

If I strain my memory, I can still remember the day when the package came in the mail from J. C. Penney that would be my new clothes for the school year.  I can still smell the new clothes I received for the first day of school and I remember that life was no better, than when I got a “transistor radio” for my birthday when I was seven.

Life was good…as fine as childhood memories go.

But then again, maybe it's just me...

[1] Do you ever combine coupons with in-store sales? How do sales affect your couponing?

[2] How disciplined must you be? Is there ever any room for impulse buys? What happens if you're in the store and you see something you want/need, but you don't have a coupon for it?

Question #1:  "Do you ever combine coupons with in-store sales? How do sales affect your couponing?"

I almost always (about 95% of the time) combine coupons with sales. That is the main rule of the couponer and how you get the best bang for your coupon. If I am using a coupon for something not on sale, I either seriously need it and/or it was already at a low price that allowed me to get it almost free or free with my coupon.

Sales affect my couponing above and beyond anything else. I look at ads the day they come out. I know the Food Lion ad comes out the day before the new sale so I can plan what I will buy with my coupons a day ahead. I also know that the Kroger ad comes out at midnight the morning of the sale. So, if I am up that late, I will review it and plan out some things in my head. I review all the sales ad for all the stores that accept coupons around me. If I see something that is a great deal, I go to that store.

Sales determine EVERYTHING.

Question #2: "How disciplined must you be? Is there ever any room for impulse buys? What happens if you're in the store and you see something you want/need, but you don't have a coupon for it?"

The answer to how disciplined must you be is a grey area. It depends on the person. If you are a disciplined person, you will be disciplined in couponing. However, I will answer this question in regards to how disciplined I am.

I am pretty disciplined when it comes to buying things without a coupon. It makes me seriously nervous and guilty to not use a coupon on something. Even clothes and other textiles. If I have a 20% off coupon for JC Penny and can't find something I want there, but see something I want in Macy's, I will refuse to allow my coupon to go unused and buy something at Penny's.

Room for impulse buys is also a grey question. If you have a larger budget/income you can have more room for impulse buys, obviously. Since I have a small budget I don't much room at all for impulse buys. Also, while an impulse for you may be a $50 couch throw, an impulse for me would be a $5 clearanced blouse. I think using a coupon on an item that is a not so good sale is an impulse buy! So, I guess on average I would spend an extra $10 a week on an impulse buy.

If I am in the store and see something I want and don't have a coupon for it, 95% of the time I will NOT buy it. For example, I'm obsessed with cleaning things. I love to have the latest cleaning thingy and see if it works good. I have been wanting a Swiffer Sweeper Vac for a while and look at it longingly occasionally. Even though I had a $5 coupon I didn't want to get it because I thought it was expensive at around $30 regular price. I have never seen them on sale. So, when my birthday came around, I told my husband that is what I wanted. So, he bought it for me, with the $5 coupon, and I I feel much better about it since I waited on it. (I love it! It works so good on the cat hair!)

As far as wanting something outside of the grocery store, like clothes or house decorations, I am pretty good about that too. I won't buy anything for myself unless it is clearanced to the point of almost giving it away. Most of the stuff I have was given to me or I got it second hand. I am not ashamed of it, like some people. I am very proud of my frugalness! I hope that one day, it will afford me great things!

Last part of the question--If I am in the store and there is something I NEED, like say, eggs or milk, I will buy it. I mean, I can't go without it for cooking. Sometimes I will have catalinas for $ off your next order and those help with stuff like that.

I have a very different opinion on what I need versus what I want. Some people feel they need a lot. I do not. However, I do WANT a lot. (Like all the pretty fall stuff at Hobby Lobby!) I don't think on it much because that is wasted time and I prefer to think on my coupons and sales!

I hope this helps some of you understand the mind of a couponer! Feel free to ask any questions and I will answer them in this style.

"What is this commercial? You have to see this! It's, like, The Breakfast Club except with different kids?" my girlfriend cried out in confusion from the living room.

Impossible. Besides, I was immersed in dishes.
"Ummm...I don't understand. Is it that movie? Is it Not Another Teen Movie?"

"No it's like a Breakfast Club commercial!"

"Um...riiiight," I intoned, still absorbed in my task. I promptly forgot about the whole thing.

Some days later we were watching TV again and, even though I had ample forewarning, I was totally dumbfounded by this commercial. Watching it is like getting your teeth drilled for a week -- your jaw can't do anything but drop. I still can't quite believe it.

Here are some reasons why I hate this JC Penny nonsense:

Music. I really liked the original Breakfast Club music. It wasn't for everybody, sure, but even the soundtrack's fiercest critic would maintain that it didn't suck so unapologetically as this soulless JC Penny remix.

Diversity. In the movie Judd Nelson is working class, for example, and the main source of his frustration throughout the film is his forced imprisonment with irritatingly naive middle class kids. The JC Penny ad does feature multi-ethnic actors but I'd argue that the original movie makes more of an effort to present a diverse picture of the teen population in a podunk Illinois town while the ad whitewashes such a picture.

Desecration of the sacred. Seriously! I was and am outraged -- there's no better word. Maybe The Breakfast Club is like a sacred text for me; the film has an iconic status that stretches beyond its actual content. Looking at the string of comments after the video (on youtube), I don't think I'm the only one for whom this is true.

I really don't understand the rationale behind this JC Penny ad, which co-opts the plot of The Breakfast Club to sell the store's wares to a generation of tweens who have probably never seen the movie it apes in the first place. But then I am old and out of touch, and only shop at Sears.

1. Memo to corporate America: Please stop co-opting my childhood to sell your stupid crap.

It's already bad enough that I can hardly listen to The Who without seeing scenes from CSI: Whatever in my head (nothing like some bad David Caruso acting to ruin a rousing "Won't Get Fooled Again"). But now JC Penny has to go and destroy one of my favorite movies of all time--The Breakfast Club--in an attempt to sell back-to-school clothes. And, yes--I'm not so naive that I don't realize that the artists are culpable here as well--The Who's songs don't just magically appear over the credits of a TV show, and I'm assuming that some licensing agreement was made in order to recreate scenes from The Breakfast Club (although, the scenes aren't recreated exactly as they are in the movie and for my money, the whole thing falls under the definition of a parody, thus making this train wreck absolutely legal regardless of permissions).

But while parody is one thing (I love it when shows like Family Guy make fun of '80s institutions, because it's like a little wink, wink, nudge, nudge to their audience. Plus, it's usually hysterical), taking iconic songs and films from the past and using them to market a TV show or sell clothes always seems a little...well...gross to me somehow. In fact, I'm usually less inclined to watch whatever show or buy whatever product because I'm just rubbed so completely the wrong way.

So if somebody decides to start using "Hungry Like the Wolf" to sell popcorn, then I guess I'm fucked because two of my favorite things will be ruined for me.

2. Just who the hell is the audience for this thing anyway?

When the time came to buy fall clothes in my house, my mom and I (and later, once I started working, just me) would go to the mall and we'd just veer wherever I found clothes that suited whatever I thought was cool at the time (and then she'd say, "You're not planning on buying that, are you?" or "I am not buying that for you." And then we'd fight and then I'd end up with clothes I totally hated and people would laugh at me. But I digress.). But regardless of who was actually purchasing the clothes, the point here is that I was the consumer--I was the one making the decisions about what stores to enter and what clothes to look at, at least initially.

And as today's teens have more money than ever (whether earned or given to them by their parents), they have awesome power as consumers. So why did JC Penny choose to ape a movie that was released before any of them were born (and let's just have a moment of silence over the fact that The Breakfast Club was first released nearly twenty-five years ago. Sigh.)? While I know that the film has endured in the pop culture cannon, would most tweens and teens get the reference (and I know some particularly savvy kids probably would, but what about the kids who are ingesting a daily diet of Hannah Montana or Lil' Wayne or Fall Out Boy or the Jonas Brothers or whatever travesty is coming down the pike these days. Would they get it?)? And even if they get it, will it make them want to rush headlong into a JC Penny for some cool threads?

I thought that perhaps the target audience for the ad was maybe the parents of the kids rather than the kids themselves (and let's have another moment of silence to observe the fact that people my age are actually old enough to have kids in high school). But again, while the parents may control the purse strings, the kids are the ones who are actually yanking the purse strings around the mall. And I could be misremembering things here, but I don't recall my mother and I ever entering a particular store on the strength of a commercial that mimicked scenes from Rebel Without a Cause  or Tammy.

So, um, yeah--the audience thing baffles me.

3. And don't even get me started on the kids in this commercial. Oh, wait...here I go...

The point of The Breakfast Club was that regardless of whatever high school stereotype we exemplified on the outside--the brain, the jock, the princess, the criminal, or the basket case--we were all dealing with the same emotional black holes on the inside. I always thought that the message was why the film became such a classic. I mean, what teenager can't relate to that sentiment? And I know that personally, thinking about the film helped me get through those rough patches in high school when I thought that the popular kids couldn't possibly understand anything that my friends and I were about--I'd think back on the movie and try to remember that deep down, we were all just human beings of about the same age, trying to deal with the same shit in our own ways.

Um, so thanks, JC Penny, for ruining the message of the film for me. As you can see if you watch the clip, not only are the kids in this Breakfast Cluster-Fuck the same on the inside, they're the same on the outside, too, all of them looking like the preppy spawn of princess Claire Standish and jock Andrew Clark. The girl who gets to recreate the iconic Allison (the basket case) scene of her pouring pixie stix onto a sandwich made of bread and Cap'n Crunch is wearing a pink dress. A pink dress, for the love of all that's holy. Somewhere, Ally Sheedy is probably crying. I know I am, anyway. And nowhere in this ad does there appear to be a nerdy Brian or a rebellious Bender (and no, young man who thrusts your fist in the air as you are leaving the school at the end of the commercial--you are no John Bender).  All of these kids are as nicely-dressed (of course--it's a clothing ad) and freshly-scrubbed as your local church youth group. John Bender wouldn't have hesitated to put a cigarette out on one of their foreheads.

So JC Penny takes a film with a moving message about getting beyond typical teenage alienation and twists that into "Buy our clothes, and you'll look cool just like these kids." Barf.

As it's July, I'm assuming I'll have to either endure this insult of a commercial until late August or early September or stop watching TV altogether, and as option #2 isn't likely, I guess I'll just have to let this ad stoke my anger. And I haven't even touched on the awful remake of Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me" by "pop-punk" outfit New Found Glory ("Pop-punk." Bleh. I'm still waiting for the day Johnny Rotten blows snot on the New Found Glorys and Avril Lavignes of the world and they run away crying). Nor have I touched on the fact that the Shermer High School in the ad doesn't look like the Shermer High School in the movie (which was actually two different suburban Chicago high schools in the original film, because as Jay reminds us in Dogma, "There is no Shermer, Illinois."). There's just not enough space in one blog posting to go off in detail on everything that offends me about this commercial.

But at least they tried to get the old-school Illinois licesnse plates right. So boo-yah to you, JCP, for making the effort.

Exhibit B: The British IT commercial that uses actual fucking Gremlins, and started rumors that they were making another Gremlins movie when the puppets were spotted in a studio.  Sheesh.

...What, seriously?

I'm a firm lover of this movie. It's a classic, and I can watch it any time.
But REALLY?! I'm curious to know how many people actually recognize the whole Breakfast Club theme...

Check it out Here

Here are some things I immediately notice:
1. They don't even have the CHARACTERS right. Except for the guy who plays Andrew, and the girl who plays Claire....uhh....nope, not even close.
2. The girl who is supposed to be Allison....doesn't...look like Allison. Thanks JC Penny, for "revamping" the best character in the movie. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she just looks like...um...a girl.
Same goes for the kid who is supposed to play Bender. Hmm...Yes, he must be badass because he has graffiti on his sweatshirt.

EPICFAIL

I mean....I get that it's the whole "advertisement" thing. But...It's the Breakfast Club....

New Found Glory did a cover of "Don't you Forget About me".

It's not....awful. But I still like the Simple Minds' original better.

Anyway, whatever.
That was my stupid discovery of the day.

User generated advertising is a beast to deal with, from an agency's perspective. Sometimes it can help a brand gain a wonderful reputation, and sometimes it can really drag their brand's name down into the mud. Should they play dirty? How do you deal with UGA? Do you ignore, address or attempt to control it? And at what point will consumers stop accepting your hard and fast rules about brand's goodwill and start rejecting your attempts at engaging them into conversation? It's a fickle and dangerous game (do you like all my analogies? I thought of them myself. I'm THAT good.). But I think it can definitely be done right, given the right direction, voice and method. However, just like traditional advertising, sometimes you may only understand why 50% of it worked.

Very few agencies, I think, know how to control this beast. Traditional agencies have had a long history of being able to put THE ONE message out there that the have decided is THE ONE. The key components of carefully selected words, phrasing and tone that will describe the product or service in the exact right light to appeal to its intended target market.

And now suddenly, consumers are coming along and saying, "Hey! I don't like this. This isn't true at all!" and decide, rather than keep these thoughts to themselves, that they will create content to share with their friends, families and unknowns. Everyone is a critic.

The impact is simple: the messaging will get confusing, fuzzy and filled with white noise. Take for example, the recent JC Penny ad debacle. Not exactly the best example (considering it's not UGA) but that's what I'm using (and it's my blog so whatever). Now, Saatchi & Saatchi thought they'd go ahead and use a previous client to make a statement at the Cannes without JC Penny's approval. An ad - whether great or bad (to be debated another time) - showed a real brand, with real logos and CERTAINLY real looking to any unsuspecting consumer promoted something that JC Penny was shocked(!) and appalled(!) to be associated with: teen sex.

What does this mean for JC Penny and the average consumer? Anyone who saw this on YouTube, for example, might mistake it for the Real Deal(tm). Now, the original ad has been taken down, but this one, is the same ad with some change at the end mocking the Republican party. The first comment you see underneath the video?

joshw220 (1 week ago)
This is a JC penny commercial and the end was changed. At the end it showed the JC penny logo, not the republican party stuff.

The video uploader has a another fake JC Penny ads with different twists uploaded - and joshw220 has made it sure that he also wrote on the other video that, NO! This was for JC Penny and it's been changed! Innocent user blindly believing because the ad looks real, the music sounds real and that the company's logo is on it, it must be real.

What does this mean for agencies? It means that with potential white noise, multiple conversations and no ability to ensure consumers can disconcern from real ads and fake ads, that they simply will lose control of the conversation.

Which, really, is probably their worst fear. How do you go back to a client and say, "Er... sorry? It just kind of slipped out of our hands?" No client, no agency wants that, and I think to a certain degree, no consumer wants that. Yes, they want to be able to express their thoughts freely on the web, but who wants to sit there and have to decide whether or not an ad they just saw is actually ligitimately from the company? That's way too much effort for the average consumer to put into a brand. Instead they will ignore and forget about it and turn to something else shiny and pretty.

And so, I think, really, in the en-- oh! a penny!

Epoch Films is responsible for dozens of creative TV spots, including some of my own recent favs: the Old Spice awkwardly funny locker room moments, and contributions to AT&T's fewer dropped calls campaign.  I suppose this spot became controversial after winning a Cannes Lions 2008 Film Bronze award, JCP should definitely consider picking this one up.

Isn't it time for old brands to start taking chances again anyway?
Image is still important, but so is action and last I looked the JCPenny brand was collecting dust.

And the selection was just, lets say, terrible. Cause at the end of the day they are just sheets. They had some decent red sheets but then I thought, I have sheets at home, I don't want just some decent sheets, I want my favorite sheets, or rather my soon to be new favorite sheets. I didn't come here because I have no sheets at all, I was hoping for something spectacular, and um, cheap.

Sheets are expensive. We have a queen bed right now which means finding a sale is tough since our sheets will be more expensive than all you twin bed nutjobs. Seriously, I wish we had a king bed even though that would make the sheets even more expensive. And how can they be this much money - they are seriously just sheets people. Shouldn't I be able to have gorgeous egyptian cotton sheets for like $10? Pretty please?

Anyway, if money were no issue, here are some sheets I'd lust after and then own:

JC Penny Home Collection Splash Set : These are actually on sale right now and at least look fun! More than I can say for all the drab looking sheets at Target right now...

Colburn Queen Sheet Set : Don't these just look absolutely divine? They make me want to go to bed right now...

1891 by Sferra "Signature Sateen" : Something about these sheets just couldn't be drab if they tried...

I don't know, maybe I'm expecting too much out of this sheet thing, but we bought plain colored blankets (dark cholate brown) so the sheets are kind of important for making the room pop subtley, if that makes any sense...

We'll see what a weekend of shopping digs up...

JC Penney wants nothing to do with free viral advertising

By Jacqui Cheng | Published: June 24, 2008 - 01:33PM CT

JC Penney is rockin' the headlines this week, but not for the reasons it would like. A YouTube video that claims to be an ad for JC Penney has been circulating on the 'Net, generating all the attention and link love that most advertising agencies would kill to master. But, it's the content that has JC Penney calling to have the video "removed from the Internet," as the ad appears to acknowledge the possibility that teenagers might have sex.

Feel free to take a moment to get some air. We know it can be shocking news.

The ad, which can easily be found on YouTube, (or just above this paragraph) depicts two teenagers timing themselves on getting dressed and undressed as quickly as possible in their respective bedrooms. Eventually, the boy shows up at the girl's house (with her disapproving-looking mother sitting in the living room) and the two head down to the basement. "Today's the day to get away with it," reads the screen before fading to the JC Penney logo.

JC Penney blames its own advertising agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, for creating the ad, making this whole event even more curious. Saatchi points the finger at Epoch Films, a third-party production company that films ads for the agency. Epoch appears to have created the video and submitted it to the Cannes Lions Awards. The ad—which may have been shot as part of a pitch when JC Penney left its old agency for Saatchi—won an international advertising award, but JC Penney still takes exception to the theme.

"It's obviously inappropriate and nothing we would ever condone," JC Penney chief marketing officer Mike Boylson told the Wall Street Journal. "We're very disappointed that our logo and brand position were used in that way." He added that JC Penney has asked Saatchi to take any action possible to have the ad "removed from the Internet."

Today's the day to
go after the Internet!

Although the spot is indeed a tiny bit racy, it's a far cry from most of what can be found on both the Internet and even traditional TV. JC Penney's reaction to the video is reminiscent of Coca-Cola's initial condemnation of the Mentos + Diet Coke video phenomenon: curmudgeonly. The company is clearly conservative—like my grandparents who like to shop there—and perhaps doesn't quite "get" the Internet like some others do. A beautifully-shot, free viral advertising campaign that generates a little bit of controversial buzz can certainly go a long way in getting your name out.

Without the 'Net and sites like YouTube, such viral videos couldn't even exist, and advertising agencies are still trying to figure out the magical formula to inorganically create similar buzz around a campaign. And, as companies like Viacom have discovered, trying to have something "removed from the Internet" can be an exercise in futility. Then again, JC Penney getting its feathers ruffled over the Big Bad Internet spreading a video about the S-word is actively contributing to the buzz. Maybe, like Coca-Cola, JC Penney will eventually take its free lunch and run with it. Or not.

I realized that I've learned so much about the corruption of this place. I see illegal immigrants coming over the border and getting jobs. They are hard workers...and they work for next to nothing. They come here and plant themselves in the ghetto, have multiple kids who learn to speak English so they fit in better and can translate...and they are taking over.
I was at the mall with my sister and cousin. This is the same one who wanted to "fight all the bad people" and save the world. We were looking at the purses in J.C. Penny and came across a group of Spanish speaking people. It was a family, a large family. They didn't acknowlege our existence, we didn't acknowlege theirs. That is, until my cousin heard a child crying. Being the curious sole he is, he went over to look. And being the gentle heart he is, he started to try to comfort the strange child. My sister and I immediately go into protection mode. We have to walk away completely. My cousin is such a caring person, he didn't understand. Just like we didn't understand what the family was saying. Just like the family didn't understand what we were saying. My sister, being the person she is, started in about the illegal immigrants and such. Naturally, the seven-year-old boy asked questions. "They're aliens, honey." "Aliens? They're going to take over!" "Yes, they are. But not like you think. They are taking over the country." "Huh?" My sister then proceeds to tell this very impressionable child about the horrors of the country. You might as well have told him that the world was going to end and he would never see his family again. He was so torn up by the fact that someone was going to take over the country. He can't even really know what that means, but it upset him so much. It was like a reality shock.

I find it ironic and funny and sad all at the same time. Not even 24 hours after a conversation where I said I'd do things I never thought I would...my manager gives me a raise. Not a 25 cent raise, not a 50 cent raise... a dollar more an hour raise. And to top things off, she is planning on making it better. Like between 3 and 4 dollars more an hour after the raise that goes into effect tomorrow. All for me to stay here. She is trying so hard to convince me to stay. And I could make pretty good money at the job I'm at. With the pay rate she's talking about, I could get by...I could get by really well. I could move into a fairly nice apartment, pay all my bills and have plenty of money to spare. Hell, I could even afford some trips to various locations....

...43 days.

In a slow (looks like a recession to me) economy, where gas prices are absurd and jacking up the price of everything from lamb chops to light bulbs, retailers are feeling the pinch as the rest of us tighten our belts.  So, what can they do to pry the extra $600 from our hands? Offer to make it $660 if you put it into a gift card.

Really, it's brilliant.  Retailers get guaranteed dollars in their stores; consumers get free money in their wallets.  Everybody is happy.  Not as happy as we'd all be to pay $1.49 for gas rather than $3.49, but hey, those oil execs need $1billion in golden parachutes and China needs fuel to permanently overtake all world manufacturing and eventually buy and sell all our butts, don't they?

But, I've diverged.  The truth of this new marketing strategy is that it is no skin off the noses of retailers.  It seems like they're giving away "free money", but the truth is that they can make it up by running one less coupon campaign (and they'll probably save even more since they won't have to print the darn things).  Sure, maybe there's no free lunch, but who cares?  People just see more value on the gift card.  (As a matter of fact, the majority of the people getting these economic stimulus checks view them as free money from Uncle Sam.  Knock-knock?  Anyone there, McFly?  THIS IS NOT "FREE MONEY" people.  We already paid that money to Uncle Sam.  Please realize that Uncle Sam has no money except for the allowance WE give him.  It's about time we took some back since he's been getting greedier about how much he takes and more foolish about how he spends it.) 

But again, I diverge. 

So long as people read the fine print on each retailer offer and make sure the cards don't expire, I think most people will be pretty pleased with the extra bump up, and most retailers will be relieved to know they're getting some cash flow in these tough times.

Some retailers offering to plump up your rebate if you spend it with them:

Lowes, JC Penney, Sears, KMart, The Home Depot, Kroger, Starbucks, Bed Bath & Beyond, Gap, Pier 1 Imports, Borders, and Blockbuster. 

          Simmons announced the relaease of a line of mattresses that will be sold under the SIMPLY GREEN label at JC Penny stores, with the support of green guru Danny Seo. Dan is the man when it comes to green lifestyle choices and Simmons says the mattresses, which are made with organic and renewable materials make green choices available under a brand people trust. Which I agree with and is true.

          The best part about the press release, though is that the new components are actually better for you as far as keeping allergens away and it also provides a better nights sleep. Take heed green manufacturers. Some green changes could actually increase the quality of your products.

"Natural Care^® mattresses feature natural latex made from biodegradable materials like rubber tree sap, which is harvested and refined to create one of the most soothing and responsive sleeping surfaces in the world. The highly resilient and durable nature of latex means that a mattress will retain its shape and performance for many years to come. Natural Care^® latex is also inherently resistant to dust mites, mold and mildew. Furthermore, beneath the Natural Care^® mattress’ latex layer is a layer of base foam enhanced with soy. The use of soy reduces the amount of petroleum needed to manufacture the foam and results in a smaller carbon footprint. "

Ahhh, okay I'm gonna go take a nap.