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p2p news / p2pnet: “This’ll come out sooner or later, so, might as well get it over with now,” posts Michael Brim on his bf2005.com site. “An image has been floating around the web, supposedly, the Wal*Mart laptop is actually going to retail for $488. Is this real? Hard to confirm yes or no, but when you zoom in on the price, you notice something interesting: pixel concentration.
“I’ve gone ahead and zoomed in on this in in this image. Check out the pixel concentration for the price and the surrounding area. More specifically, look at the top right corner near the last 8. It sticks out like a sore thumb (you can notice it even when not zoomed in). Check out the other 8’s on the page, no ugly jagged edge. I’m pretty confident this is a fake image and that the laptop will be on sale for $398.00. But until then, who knows.”
Brim, “operates a Web site that tips off shoppers,” says the New York Times, going on, “From a cramped dorm room in California, Mr. Brim, an 18-year-old college freshman who dines on Lucky Charms and says he rarely shops, is abruptly pulling back the curtain on the biggest shopping day of the year.
“His Web site, BF2005.com, publishes the circulars for what retailers call Black Friday – the day that officially starts the holiday shopping season – weeks ahead of time.
“So far this year, sources have leaked advertisements to him from Toys ‘R’ Us (showing the Barbie Fashion Show Mall, regularly $99.99, for $29.97); Sears (a Canon ZR100 MiniDV camcorder, regularly $329.99, for $249.99); and Ace Hardware (a Skil 12-volt drill, regularly $44.99, for $24.99).”
According to the NYT, Brim says he wants to educate consumers, “But retailers are furious, arguing that the site jeopardizes their holiday business, and they have threatened legal action.”
However, Brim’s BF2005.com isn’t their only problem, says the NYT, because, “There are now at least three Web sites dedicated to digging up Black Friday sales secrets, creating a fierce competition to post the ads first. It is so heated, in fact, that all three sites stamp the circulars with bright electronic watermarks to discourage rivals from stealing a scoop.”
The story says the “renegade sites” highlight the extent to which the Net is, “shifting the balance of power in retailing from companies to consumers”.
However, it’s a lot more than that. What this really highlights is how citizen journalist blogs and news sites are inexorably replacing the lamescream media which, let’s not forget, often carry the ads in the first place.
Information, not money, is what it’s all about.
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See:-
New York Times – Shop-Till-You-Drop Specials, Revealed Here First, November 17, 2005
