It is time for a "Woot" Visit
Today's topic is www.woot.com. Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. They are credited with starting the "one deal a day" type of on-line tretailing. It started as an employee-store slash market-testing type of place for an electronics distributor, but it's taken on a life of its own. Their website states they anticipate profitability by 2043 –" by then we should be retired; someone smarter might take over and jack up the prices. Until then, we're still the lovable scamps we've always been. But don't take our word for it: see what the online community has to say at this Wikipedia article. "
Woot offers a new item every single day. The details: a new product is released every morning at 12am central time, seven days a week. (If you're not a morning person, this can be described as every night at midnight. Better?) If a product sells out during its run, a new item will not appear until the next release time. You will know if a product is sold out, because the main page says "SOLD OUT" instead of "I want one".
Woot.com communicates with members and users by podcasts, It's an audio broadcast in mp3 form - basically an RSS feed that talks. The deal is, you use podcast software to subscribe to the podcasts you want to hear (more on that in a moment). Every time that podcast releases a new mp3 "episode", your software automatically downloads it for your listening pleasure.
According to wikipedia, "The site will occasionally deviate from the one-product-per-day model for a "Woot-Off", where a succession of products are available for a period of unannounced length, usually 24–72 hours. This mode is indicated by rotating lights and a bar displaying the percentage of product's stock remaining. During April Fool's Day 2008, Woot staged a Woot-Off offering the same product repeatedly, except for a few brief periods when Woot sold Random Crap instead. During an average two-day Woot-Off, Woot's sales typically exceed one million dollars."
Comments
Very interesting. I will have to set a reminder so I can check out this site at midnight. In today's economy it is all about getting the most for your money.