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Crappy new year from Shopit

Did you get stuck with a clunker of a Christmas gift? Social shopping community site Shopit.com is spending $10,000 on two of the crappiest gifts received this past holiday season. Members add their crappy gifts to their Shopit stores in one of two categories: Ugliest Apparel Item and Most Useless Item. The Shopit community votes on which item they think is the crappiest, and the winner of each category receives $5,000. Crappy may be in the eye of the beholder, but members can also have friends vote for their gifts through their Facebook profiles if they add the Shopit Facebook Application. The contest ended Jan. 31; may the worst gift have won!

True story: A bear ate my order

A staffer on a sister publication to Multichannel Merchant shared an interesting tale. Her parents are good customers of Omaha Steaks, and last fall her mother placed an order for two boxes of steaks to be shipped to the family's home in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York.

The scheduled date of delivery came and went with no steaks, which was highly unusual. The staffer's mom checked with UPS, which said the steaks had been delivered; the box was probably placed between the screen door and the front door. Her mother called the Omaha Steaks 800-number and relayed the story to the sales rep. The rep immediately sent out a duplicate order, which arrived promptly.

A few days later, the staffer's brother was out taking a hike in a wooded section of the property not far from the house and came upon … the Omaha Steaks' Styrofoam shipping box. Judging by the claw and teeth marks on the packaging, and the paw prints in the fresh mud, the bear must have snatched the package from the door, carried it off and torn it apart for a tasty steak dinner.

The staffer's mom called Omaha Steaks to relay the story, and the reps there had a good laugh. Kudos to the meat merchant for replacing the order with no questions asked before this unbearable mystery was solved.

J.Crew pumped about shoe club

Women love shoes, it's true, but do they want to be surprised with a new pair selected by strangers every month? J. Crew thinks so, as the apparel cataloger/retailer last fall launched a Shoe-of-the-month club. For $1,800, according to the catalog copy, “Each month, our designers will handpick their favorite shoes and send them straight to the doorstep of someone who has been very good this year.” A quick check of the J. Crew Website reveals some surprisingly elegant and funky footwear. But for many women, shoe shopping tends to be personal — and at times emotional — so we're not sure about the element of surprise with this particular gift club. The 4-in., heel jaguar-print calf-hair Mary Janes, for instance, are not going to be everyone's cup of tea.

LET'S HEAR FROM YOU!

Let us know how we're doing. Send us any comments on recent articles or issues, or perhaps a multichannel shopping tale you'd like to share.

HOW TO CONTACT US:

E-mail: melissa.dowling@penton.com

Phone: 203-358-9900 Fax: 203-358-5823

Letter: 11 River Bend Drive South, Stamford, CT 06907 Web: www.MultichannelMerchant.com