Archive for the ‘Shopping’ Category

Personalized Bowling Shirts

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Bowlers are often compared (unfairly, in my opinion) to golfers in terms of their lack of fashion sense. While I can understand how some people might not be fond of polyester bowling shirts, I don’t think they’re nearly as bad as some of the outrageous outfits I’ve seen on the golf course. At least bowlers don’t go around wearing plaid pants that look like they were picked out by my colorblind grandmother!

Well, since I’m a bowler myself, I admit to being a bit biased here — especially since I’ve been in charge of ordering my team’s bowling shirts for the past five years. I always try to get something different each year, and I make sure that I order classic designs that would look good both on and off the lanes. Plus, I’ve been trying to purchase my bowling shirts from different online vendors so I can get a better idea of which websites offer the best quality products at the lowest prices.

I’ve actually found some great apparel websites in the past few years, and have received some truly outstanding merchandise as a result. In reviewing my purchase history, I noticed that these websites have several common denominators.

First of all, they offer an extensive selection of bowling shirts in many different styles and colors, including the retro designs that are so popular these days. Second, the websites offer a wide range of customization options for names and logos. A bowling shirt just wouldn’t be the same if it didn’t have my name embroidered across the chest and a cool team logo on the back! And finally, all of the websites that I order from offer competitive pricing on their products and reliable shipping.

In addition, since wearing a bowling shirt to school or casual events has become something of a trend in recent years, manufacturers are going out of their way to create great new designs. This is good news for bowlers, as it means that even more places will start stocking these items — and in larger quantities, too. That makes it easier for me to find the cool styles that I want, and also helps keep prices down.

I know that the kind of bowling shirt I wear has absolutely zero impact on my score, but that doesn’t mean I’ll just settle for any old thing I can find at the thrift store. As silly as it sounds, I’ve learned that a good bowling shirt really enhances team camaraderie, and that actually does affect our performance!

Mobile Phones

Monday, September 8th, 2008

Our society is becoming more complex, yet simpler at the same time. This may seem like a conflicting statement, yet in many ways it is very accurate. The communication systems that we have available to us today have made staying in touch with others extremely easy. Making sure that we are getting good deals on these systems can be complicated. Some companies hide costs that we have to pay in the extremely small print of the service agreements. Buyers need to be informed when signing up for many of the offers that are available.

The communication industry has geared most of their advertising dollar towards the young consumer. Younger people are more used to having cell phones and internet communications and are more opened and trusting to the features than older people. My children are in college and so they are bombarded with mobile phone offers through the mail and e-mail. My youngest son has recently had to borrow money from us to pay for the mobile phone offers that he signed up with. Getting involved with this particular deal has taught him the valuable lesson of checking all the small print of an agreement.

He was sent many mobile phone offers in the mail. This offer included several free minutes as well as a free telephone. He opted to upgrade to a phone with additional features. He thought this upgrade was going to be twenty dollars; however he did not read the small print of the agreement that stated the number of free minutes would decrease and the cost of the paid minutes would increase when he took the upgrade. He used his phone often thinking that the minutes were covered, however when his first bill came he was shocked to find that it was a great deal higher than he thought it would be because the majority of his minutes were roaming as well as outside of the calling time of the free minutes. His mobile phone offer was now going to cost well over a hundred dollars instead of the twenty dollars he had budgeted for. Our youngest son has always been more impulsive than our other children. We decided that we would help him with the bill and have him do some work around the family home to pay it off. We also made it very clear that he needed to become a better consumer when looking into mobile phone offers as well as other agreements. He took the mobile phone back and ended his agreement with that company. He found other mobile phone offers that he researched thoroughly before purchasing another phone. I think he will be a better consumer since having this experience. He also goes out of his way to warn friends about using the particular company that hooked him into the high price deal.