BFAds.net already has a bunch of advertisements scanned and available for your review on their website. It’s never too early to start planning your post-Thanksgiving shopping spree. I’ve been thinking about how this year’s Black Friday – and the Christmas shopping season as a whole – are going to go. On the one hand, most of the country is still feeling the negative effects of the downturn in the economy. On the other hand, Americans have begun to save more money than in the last decade…but we love to spend that money once we see it in our bank accounts.

I genuinely hope that America’s retailers do well this holiday season. However, knowing the increasing thrift that Americans are bringing to their personal finances, the big winners this holiday season might be the banks.

Welcome to the online world!

Unfortunately, due to the financial downturn, the Elk Candy Company closed their doors a few years ago. However, after an outcry from long-time customers (myself included), the Elk Candy Company has decided to open up an online shop – which is now open and ready for business! Take a look at the e-mail below, which I received about a week and a half ago:

Many people have been looking forward to this day and now, we take great pride in announcing Elk Candy Company is now open and ready for your marzipan orders at www.elkcandy.com. We are proud to be able to share our world class marzipan with you.

We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and PayPal on our secure website.

We offer a variety of shipping methods through FedEx and UPS. To celebrate our online opening we are offering free ground shipping on orders of 1 pound or more now thru December 31, 2009.

Those of you who were familiar with the store will remember our complimentary gift wrapping, we will continue to offer free gift wrapping to our online customers. We ask that if you would like your purchase gift wrapped please state so in the special instructions portion during the checkout process,.

Keep up with our updates through our blog, email, Twitter, and Facebook.

Shop at: http://www.elkcandy.com/
Keep up with us on our blog, Sweet Talk: http://blog.elkcandy.com
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ElkCandy

Give this candy company a shot this Christmas season. I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed!

Mr. Townley is even more skeptical now, predicting a flat to slightly down year for small bicycle stores. Declining gas prices are one reason. He also cited major price increases in bicycles and accessories resulting from the rising cost of materials and shipping — 98 percent of bicycles are manufactured overseas — which cut into profits. He said data showed that wholesale sales of new bicycles to shops for the first nine months of the year were down by more than 4 percent.

As our national economy begins a real shift to become more “green” and sustainable, there is a good chance that other businesses which help to create the “sustainable” economy will become the focus of business writers. The thing to remember, though, is that even though going green is the rage among television shows and big businesses right now – it will still take some time to catch on among the general public.

Great strides are being made, however, and I don’t believe that articles like this one will serve to hurt the change in our economy.

I don’t know what it is about that commercial but I think it’s nice. It has a simple little beat to it and I think I enjoy the Christmas party going on in the background. The lyrics are creative, though cheesy, and the kid singing in the song looks like a bit like a dweeb (turns out his name is John Magaro), but everyone seems to be having a good time. It’s a nice little commercial – good work by Wal-Mart and Coke!

Pike said that the original, early pavilions along the boardwalk were wood and shuttered after the summer season was over.

She said the present pavilions were built during Mayor Clarence Hetrick’s tenure and later in the decades after the great hurricane of 1944 destroyed many of the older ones.

“They were modern for their time but weren’t open for the holiday season. Walter Reade even closed the Paramount theatre in the winter despite the pipe that ran underneath the boardwalk from the heating plant at the Casino,” Pike said.

It’s pretty cool that there are historians that study this type of stuff. I plan on getting over to the boardwalk at some point before Christmas to see what’s going on and how the shops are coming along. I know the last time I was down on Cookman Avenue (which was a few years ago), many of the shops were too pricey for my taste. I wonder if the current economic climate has had any impact on the prices down that way…

Christmas ceremonies are fun and I wish that I didn’t miss the Asbury Park tree-lighting this year. I have to remember to mark my calendar to head over there next year to see the lights turn on the tree.

Folks, I was the victim of identity theft!

Somehow, either this company or someone pretending to be me used my credit card number and personal information to make a purchase of $9.95 from this website. I’m currently using the process in place from my credit card company to have the situation checked out, but there are a few points that I want everyone to take away from this.

First, this Absolute-Soft.com group apparently doesn’t do a good enough check on the financial information that they are given so beware of using them.

Second, being it’s the holiday season and that it’s the year 2004 we can all expect a lot of online shopping to take place. BE CAREFUL of where you put your credit card information online!!! If you’re not sure of a site (and I was ALWAYS sure before today), then do NOT use your credit card there. Just find the 800 number and make the order by phone.

And finally, I only caught this fraud because I haven’t used my credit card for the past two months. Hence, when I checked my account online ANY charge would be odd to me. For those of you who make a lot of charges, please be sure to check the charges made to your account. You never know if someone is out there pretending to be you!