Plastic reusable shopping bags are petroleum-derived and may contain other contaminants, including lead, especially if they feature ornate designs or patterns. The safe bet is to use cloth bags, like the one pictured here from Eco Bags, because they are free of lead, they last for years, and they are easy to wash. (Media credit/Eco Bags)

It’s true that some reusable shopping bags for sale in U.S. stores have been shown to contain lead, a neurotoxin linked to developmental, brain and kidney problems. The non-profit Center for Environmental Health (CEH) found that about 10 percent of the reusable bags it tested last year contained at least minute levels of lead, with Disney’s “Toy Story” and “Cars” plastic reusable shopping bags topping the charts with excessive levels to the tune of 15 times the federal limit for lead in children’s products.

Tests by other groups confirm CEH’s findings. A November 2010 report by the Tampa Tribune newspaper found elevated levels of lead in reusable bags purchased at Winn-Dixie, Publix, Walmart and Target stores—and prompted an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) into whether or not reusable shopping bags could be leaching lead into food items that people later eat. And earlier this year, the Center for Consumer Freedom, a trade group that opposes bans on plastic bags, reported that some 21 different polypropylene reusable bags sold at Safeway, Walgreen’s, Bloom and other stores had lead content above 100 parts per million—the highest level that many states allow in consumer packaging.

While the stores in question have pulled any such questionable bags from their shelves and in some cases stopped patronizing offending suppliers, consumers should take matters into their own hands with regard to selecting safer reusable shopping bags. While plastic reusable shopping bags are a step in the right direction compared to disposable plastic or paper bags, they are still derived from petroleum, even if partly recycled, and may contain other contaminants, especially if they feature ornate designs or patterns. The safest bet, according to CEH, would be cloth bags: Not only are they usually free of lead or any other potentially hazardous substances, but they also last for years and are easy to wash. One quality, reliable source for cloth bags is the Ossining, New York-based Eco Bags, from which you can order conveniently online and pay no shipping costs on any order of $100 or more.

Regarding washing to reduce or eliminate contaminants, public health experts worry that reusable shopping bags could become a breeding ground for impurities that lead to food poisoning, and recommend washing them every few uses at least to ward off contamination. A 2008 Environmental and Plastics Industry Council of Canada study found mold and bacterial levels in reusable bags 300 percent greater than Canadian health standards allow. And a 2010 joint University of Arizona and Limo Loma University study found that 97 percent of users did not wash their reusable shopping bags—which can harbor bacteria from repeated exposure to meats and vegetables. Half of the 84 bags studied contained coliform, a bacterium found in fecal matter, while 12 percent tested positive for E. coli.

The moral of the story is to make sure your reusable shopping bags can go through the clothes washer—and then wash them a few times a month. This way you will steer clear of contaminating the food you and your family eat with trace amounts of lead, and as such you will sleep easier each and every night.

CONTACTS: CEH, www.ceh.org; Arizona/Limo Loma Study, www.uanews.org/pdfs/GerbaWilliamsSinclair_BagContamination.pdf; Eco Bags, www.ecobags.com.

Guys, you can breathe a sigh of relief: your manhood can officially be recovered after your girlfriends and wives drag you to the mall for some serious wallet-denting, crowd-pushing, sale-chasing Black Friday shopping.

Thanks to Kings, a retro-inspired bowling alley, pool hall and bar, you can relax with a beer, watch the game, play some pool, eat some grub and forget the retail-induced trauma of the day. And ladies, you can avoid traumatizing your boyfriends and husbands in the first place by dropping them off at the “sitter” while you get started on that Christmas list.

Details

Friday, Nov. 26, 2010

Kings Back Bay location from 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m.

Kings Dedham location from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.

No cover; must be 21+

News

Apple has used the iPhone to make a sneaky entrance into the gaming industry. The swing was confirmed in a recent Flurry report, which stated that while the iPhone’s games only made up 5 percent of portable gaming revenue in 2008, its market share jumped to 19 percent in 2009, to the significant detriment of both the PSP and DS. What makes this meteoric rise even more remarkable is the average price of a game in the app store is $1.36 while most new releases on both PSP and DS are $29.99.

The PSP, which has had its fair share of problems, had the bigger slip of the two, going from 20 percent of the market revenue to 11 percent in just a year. One has to wonder if the PSP’s problems, specifically a high price that ensured that the platform could never really take off, has influenced the iPad’s much lower than expected pricing, especially on the heels of a report on AppleInsider claiming that 44 percent of iPad apps being tested are games.

In addition, if you have spent any time cruising around the app store in the past week, you may have noticed that some apps now have an HD tag. Those apps are exclusively for the iPad, and will far surpass the visual capabilities of both the PSP and DS.

It was a roundabout way to enter the gaming industry, but the iPhone seems to have been the testing medium to see how the public would react to gaming apps on a ubiquitous computing device. Needless to say, the popularity of game apps on the iPhone almost assuredly contributed to what seems like a concerted focus on the gaming experience for iPad users that should make Apple’s newest creation a groundbreaking one in portable gaming.

While I’m not entirely sold on the iPad, if I was in the market for a portable gaming platform and was surveying the market, with the iPad’s functionality and fairly reasonable price, it seems to me like a no-brainer to make a bigger investment for an exponentially greater return. One vertical that Apple will certainly be watching when the iPad is released on Saturday are the gamers, who may ultimately determine whether the tablet is closer to a Macbook Air or an iPhone.

In other news, music streaming subscription site MOG announced at SXSW that they will be rolling out a $10/month mobile app for both iPhone and Android in which music files will live in the cloud, and can be downloaded any time to your smartphone.

If you read the column from two weeks ago, this is only further evidence that streaming media to smartphones is a thing of the past. MOG’s announcement is further reinforcement of the cloud revolution going on in software today. Though unproven, the subscription music model should work, given the amount of quality music that is being produced now that there are virtually no barriers to entry in the music industry. It will be interesting to see who of MOG, Rhapsody, Pandora and Spotify can corner the rapidly growing market, and how the iTunes music store will undoubtedly react.

Apps

Spring means a few things: unnecessarily wearing sandals on slightly warmer than average days, the beginning of another season of Red Sox dominance (fingers crossed), and shopping for the coming months. In the spirit of springtime, Blast gives you three apps for shopping your way towards warmth.

oMoby-Unsure about a product? Want to know more about it before you buy or walk away? oMoby is a free app that uses your phone’s camera to retrieve information, shopping options, and the obligatory Facebook and Twitter connections about the product. Simply take a picture of the item in question, and oMoby will return links pertinent to the product. Slightly gimmicky, but it works well and is a quick way to aggregate information about a product, or to show off at your Memorial Day BBQ.

RedLaser- oMoby’s grown up older brother, this app is the ultimate shopping companion, and really flexs the iPhone’s metaphorical muscle. RedLaser is a scanner that uses the phone’s camera to quickly scan an item’s barcode and return both TheFind Local Product Search and Google results to ensure that you are getting the best price on the item you are scanning. RedLaser’s barcode scanning technology is amazingly accurate so you probably won’t need it, but if you can’t scan an item, you can manually enter the UPC or EAN code and have both local and national pricing results on your phone in seconds. The app also allows you to keep a backlog of all the items you have scanned, and you can email those items to yourself and others. Even though the app is $1.99, if you use it, the app will more than pay for itself.

Sale Price- Speaking from experience, those that work in your average retail store aren’t going out of their way to make sure you get the best sales price possible on that marked down item you are about to buy. Sales Price quickly calculates the final price of your item using sliders depending on what kind of discount the retailer is offering. Bargain hunters will love the app, though with increasingly advanced retail software, who knows how long this app will be useful for. Still, for free, it’s better to have it than not.

Looking for more iPhone and iPad updates? Follow Matt on Twitter by clicking here.

OK, so you have endless gifts to buy for everyone from your best friend to your parents to your boyfriend. It can be a lot of work finding the perfect gift. Lucky for you, we here at Blast have compiled a list of only the best stores in Boston. From the unique to the cheap to the luxurious, this guide will point you to the shop you need. Don’t settle for a gift card, pair of boxers or a bottle of wine. Boston has way more to offer!

Black Ink (Beacon Hill: 101 Charles St. and Harvard Square: 5 Brattle St, Cambridge)

If you’re looking for something truly unique for that impossible-to-buy-for person, Black Ink should be your first stop. Hawking everything from a koi chopstick rest set to a space-agey magazine rack to a charcoal essence infused body towel, you can pick up cool kitchen utensils and old-school toys in the same fun to wander through store.

J. Press (Harvard Square: 82 Mt. Auburn St, Cambridge)

For the boyfriend, brother or even dad who is always dressed to the nines, J. Press in Harvard Square will outfit him perfectly (and, P.S., we’re jealous). They carry a wide range of ties for under $60, as well as classy cufflinks, sweaters, belts and other accessories. Consider it the new J. Crew for guys only.

Looney Tunes Records (1106 Boylston St.)

Those uber-hip Berklee kids duck into Looney Tunes for old LPs and every CD you could wish for. A little bit chaotic, but a music junkie’s dream, Looney Tunes is perfect for that friend who never takes off his headphones. Bonus: a lot of cheap finds are to be had.

Poor Little Rich Girl (Davis Square: 255 Elm St, Somerville and 166 Newbury St.)

This vintage and consignment store is where to go for your best girl friend, your girlfriend, or your eternally cool grandmother. Stocking designer dresses, vintage clothes and accessories from the 1940s-80s, classic apartment furnishings, contemporary stores’ clothing and more, there is no girl who won’t find a treasure here.

Oak (245 Newbury St.)

Consider this your one-stop shop for pretty much everyone on your list. Oak is an eclectic store with goods ranging from classy to crazy. We love the sterling silver scrabble letter necklace and the gin and tonic soap as well as the mix tape pillow and the Apple command key ring. Shop here for your techie boyfriend, glamorous girlfriend, parents, siblings, you name it. You can also find one-of-a-kind gifts for the kiddos in your life, like crocheted hand puppets and make-your-own plush monster kits. Plus, if you somehow don’t find what you need at Oak, you’ve still got the rest of Newbury at your disposal.

Formaggio Kitchen (244 Huron Ave, Cambridge)

If you haven’t been to Formaggio Kitchen yet, you’re so not our friend. Nationally known as a distinctive and delicious gourmet cheese shop, Formaggio is the perfect place to spend afternoon hours or to pick up the perfect gift for your favorite foodie or holiday party hostess. Here you’ll find hundreds of imported cheeses from around the world, as well as local favorites. They sell freshly made (and astoundingly delicious) baked goods as well as crackers, wine, jams, chocolate, produce and more. The shop is small, so try to duck in on a weekday afternoon to avoid the shoulder to shoulder crowds.

Blue Cloud Gallery (Ball Square: 713 Broadway, Somerville)

Looking for something artsy and unique? Blue Cloud has it. Carrying works by over 90 artisans, many local, this shop is perfect for someone like mom, who really deserves something special (especially if you still do your laundry at home). They stock beautiful pieces of pottery and glass blown decorations. Pick up some stunning photo tiles to give as coasters or a piece of handmade jewelry. Either way, pick something up here.

Know of any other great places to find holiday gifts? Comment below with your favorites and help other Blasties navigate the holiday minefield!

Like any self-proclaimed shopaholic, and maybe even more than most, I get enough catalogs on an almost daily basis to thoroughly annoy my mailman and fiance, who, as keeper of the mail key, has to fight with the mailbox to unstuff it every single afternoon. Here are some notable spreads I saw in my most recent shipment.

Did anyone else notice how many spreads of the White House Black Market catalog had this model with crimped hair? I know that some of the trends from the 80s have started to trend again — velvet, lace, leggings and even some neon colors — but this is the first time I’ve noticed crimped hair in any fashion or beauty marketing.

The spread above is from the latest Brooks Brothers catalog. Call me traditional, but I’ve always been a big follower of the black-brown exclusivity rule. Brown shoes should not be worn with black tights, and vice versa. While I have become begrudgingly accostomed to seeing fashionistas on the streets and in magazine spreads with black tights and brown riding boots, I’ve always relied on my fellow conservatives at Brooks Brothers to enforce the rules. Needless to say, the above picture is a sign of the changing times… and since Brooks Brothers thinks it’s okay, maybe it’s time for me to start wearing my brown Longchamp with black pants…

Please forgive my amateur photography skills in the J.Crew spread above. The folks at J.Crew may be obsessed with Italian cashmere, but I’m loving everything about this outfit… the rich color and textures (wool skirt, cashmere sweater, suede (?) flats… swoon)… and the anklets. I have made up my mind on this fall-winter trend, and I am heading out to buy some warm ankle socks tomorrow.

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-blogs/catalog-clippings/feed/ 1 http://blastmagazine.com/archive/the-news/business/tips-for-getting-better-customer-service-during-the-holidays/ http://blastmagazine.com/archive/the-news/business/tips-for-getting-better-customer-service-during-the-holidays/#comments Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:45:37 +0000 Blast Magazine Newsroom http://blastmagazine.com/?p=30116

(ARA) — You’ve made your holiday list and checked it twice, but what happens when the salesperson helping you is naughty, not nice? Crowded stores, long lines, low inventory and cranky shoppers rushing to find that perfect holiday gift can often lead to a “perfect storm” of bad service.

That’s why many retailers are ensuring that they have service quality systems in place to avoid the typical holiday mishaps between shoppers and service staff, according to the American Society for Quality, which provides service quality training for many industries, including retail.

“The top four causes of customer dissatisfaction are out of stock items, discontinued items, returns and shipping charges,” says John Goodman, an ASQ customer service expert. “These are issues that are easily resolvable if sales staff have the right tools and training.”

Bigger stories like Bath & Body Works, for example, provide staff with training to handle these kinds of complaints. Its sales staff takes steps such as maintaining eye contact with customers during every step of the sale. They are also trained in how to detect and respond to unspoken needs and are told to “treat a return like a sale” because a properly handled return will often move the customer to buy something else.

Best Buy is ranked highest in customer satisfaction among national and multi-regional major appliance retailers, according to a new report by J.D. Power and Associates. One key reason is that they make customer service training a priority.

In addition to a rigorous certification process, employees are well-educated on complicated products and solutions, enabling them to better help customers, says Mike Fisher, senior director of Lean Six Sigma for Best Buy’s corporate campus in Richfield, Minn..

The store’s TRUST model ensures that employees thank consumers for coming into the store, respect their opinions, understand their needs, solve challenges together and thank and support the ongoing consumer relationship.

“Our goal is to put more sales staff or ‘blue shirts’ on the sales floor instead of handling paper work and other duties,” Fisher said. “That way they are immediately available to assist consumers with their questions and needs.”

While many retailers will make an extra effort to ensure excellent customer service this holiday season, Goodman suggests that customers take these steps to help ensure a positive sales experience:

• Get to know the sales clerks at your favorite stores. This ensures that you will be in the loop regarding stores sales and events. A salesperson who knows you may also be more apt to help if a problem does arise.
• Research store policies before you buy. Being aware of policies regarding cash refunds or sale merchandise returns can help you avoid problems later on.

So what happens when you run into a problem? Goodman offers these tips for successfully handling service complaints.

• Take three deep breaths — when you are upset you may not think clearly and therefore often don’t present your case logically.
• Tell the company rep that you know that the problem is not their fault – this reduces their defensiveness.
• After outlining the facts, state exactly what you want the rep to do for you – if you don’t they might go off in the wrong direction in developing a response.
• Don’t ask for cash compensation for your time — companies can almost never do that, but they can give you credit toward your bill.
• Never use profanity — most reps are authorized to hang up on you if you do.
• If you have been a long-term customer, point that out but don’t exaggerate — employees can often access your actual purchase history.

The simplest and most important thing you can do is to recognize good service when you receive it by remembering to say thank you.

Courtesy of ARA Content

Forget Football.

Okay, it’s Sunday, and you feel like the only person in Boston who isn’t glued to the TV watching the Patriots game. So not true! It might seem like Tom Brady casts a spell that brings the whole city to a halt, but there are a million other things to do instead this Sunday. With everything from street fairs to poetry readings, here are a few ideas to get you started.

Matinee Madness

If you really want to escape, head to the movie theater to find an alternate reality where Megan Fox is possessed by a demon and Matt Damon is fat. Jennifer’s Body, a quirky horror flick from Diablo Cody, the writer of Juno, opens this weekend. It stars Megan Fox as a bloodthirsty cheerleader who starts killing off her male classmates. Another new flick worth seeing is The Informant, which stars Matt Damon as a bumbling exec who starts spying on his company for the FBI.

Hit the Streets

To load up on live music and lots of your favorite street food, head over to the Allston Village Street Fair. From noon to 6 p.m., Harvard Avenue from Brighton Avenue to Cambridge Street will be jam-packed with art exhibits, food vendors and street performers. There will also be three stages of live entertainment featuring local bands like Bird Mancini and Three Day Threshold, as well as Irish step dancing and a troupe of belly dancers.

Be A-maize-d

Get in touch with your inner child and take advantage of the great fall weather by exploring one of the area’s corn mazes. For under $10 per person, you can put your sense of direction to the test and see if you can find your way out of an elaborate maze built right into a cornfield. North of the city, try Marini Farm in Ipswich. South of the city, Sauchuk Farm in Plympton has a maze dedicated to 100th anniversary of the Lincoln cent — from above, it looks like a penny!

Culture on the Cheap

It’s time to channel your artistic side because Sunday is the perfect day to visit the Museum of Fine Art. From 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., admission to the museum is totally free. So for less than you spend on your morning coffee, you can enjoy exhibits such as Vida y Drama: Modern Mexican Prints and Seeing Songs, a collection of works inspired by music. ReadBoston will also be there holding a book drive, so you can top it all off by doing a good dead and bringing a children’s book to donate.

Poetry in Motion

For something more unusual, stop by the Forsyth Chapel in Forest Hills Cemetery at 2 pm for a reading by The Carpenter Poets of Jamaica Plain. The group of local craftsman discovered a shared love of poetry more than a decade ago and have been meeting for poetry readings ever since. For $5, you can join them to hear their latest works and enjoy the architectural beauty of the 19th century chapel.

Retail Therapy

If shopping is more your type of sport than football, you should check out the Sowa Open Market. Located at 540 Harrison Ave. and open from 10 am to 5 pm this weekend, the market features 120 different vendors. Browsing through the booths, you can find everything from handmade pottery, one-of-a-kind jewelry and the latest creations from local indie fashion designers to fresh flowers, tasty baked goods and produce from area farmers. With free admission and free parking, too, you can’t lose.

(ARA) — The days of frivolous spending habits have passed. We’ve managed to admit we’re in a recession, but how exactly do we shop — both for pleasure and for necessities — during these hard economic times?

The ways to save money these days are countless and living on a tight budget is not as difficult as it seems. Here are some tips to stay budget-friendly and become a recession-style shopper:

Make a List

The luxury of roaming around a department store or strolling through a mall is wonderful, but that can only lead to unnecessary purchases. Before you set out on your shopping trip, decide what exactly it is you want or need. No matter how large or small the item, making a list will keep your shopping fixed and focused.

Cut back on driving

Once you’ve established what you need to buy, plan a driving route for your shopping outing. Establish where you’re going, in what order and do a little research to find out the quickest way to get there. Gas prices may be on the decline for now, but who knows what will happen in the future. Be strategic with your transportation and better yet, ask a friend to carpool.

Purchase online

Everything found in brick and mortar stores can be bought online, often for less.

Never shop hungry

When it comes to grocery shopping, shopping on an empty stomach can empty your wallet pretty fast. Make sure to have a snack before heading out. Roaming up and down food aisles will lead to impulse grocery spends. Not only will having a snack make your tummy a little more full, you’re sure to be saving a few calories as well by skipping the pint of ice cream. It’s always a good idea to keep a box of granola bars (or an alternative healthy snack) in the car for emergency situations.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

BROOKLINE, Mass. — The first flakes began to fall in the city moments ago, signaling the start of the first major snowstorm in Boston this season.

At the local Whole Foods Market, the usually jocular and friendly natural foods shoppers were replaced by a hoard of college students from Brighton in pajama pants and sweaters and elderly couples from Brookline in Volvos and Mercedes, vying for position in line. Carts clanged together as people gathered up produce, milk and other foods.

Winter has started in Boston.

A Wal-Mart employee died after being trampled and crushed by a horde of over-eager Black Friday shoppers.

At least three others, including a pregnant woman, were also injured in the incident, which occurred as a suburban New York store opened early Friday morning, the Associated Press reports.

According to a police statement obtained by the AP, a throng of shoppers “physically broke down the doors, knocking (the worker) to the ground,” around 5 a.m.

The other day I was browsing around the Internet when I discovered an online shopping tool called the Magicmirror. This product may be a breakthrough innovation in Technology and Science. The product relies on RFID or embedded microchips within the tags. The chips in the tags communicate with the system, providing the user with a great shopping experience.

A company in Sunnyvale, Calif. named Kovio Inc introduced advancements in the microchip field. The company released an all printed, high performance silicon thin-film transistor which will greatly improve print quality and reduce ink costs while providing a faster cycle time. The technology inside this product is very advanced, consisting of dropped silicon, metals and insulators for a more precise and detailed print, compared to standard lithography-based silicon.

Providing better print quality while reducing the price isn’t all Kovio’s goal. The company also will offer low-cost Radio frequency identification tagging system (RFID).

Essentially RFID is a tagging system, which contains detailed product information, far more advanced than a traditional UPC code. The information is then broadcast wirelessly, where RFID readers in range can identify the product, unlike bar code readers where the UPC must be individually scanned.

Because each RFID uses serial identification numbers and is able to identify each individual product regardless of the style or brand, stores will no longer need to count how many products are in stock. RFID technology is soon to be implemented an in variety of places like retail locations, hospitals and transportation facilities.

In recent news Dillards Department stores will be installing and using RFID technology keep track of their inventory, resulting to an overall better shopping experience for their customers. As more and more companies adopt RFID technology, our shopping experience will soon get better and companies will be able to quickly realize that their running out of product supplies and submit additional orders accordingly.

The Magicmirror is one of the first devices to use RFID tagging technology to assist in a better shopping experience. The product uses the RFID technology, which is embedded within the tag of the retail products to quickly identify a given product. The mirror can then offer suggestions of similar products or allow the customers to request a size change.

Kovio’s new innovative technology will have a large impact in the Technology and Science industries — and maybe the common world as well. The tech may change the way users interact with machines doing their everyday tasks, like ordering a travel or show tickets or shopping for groceries.

Because developers are able to construct microchips so small so to be embedded in product tags or transportation fare cards, the overall process should provide customers a simpler, more automated way of completing everyday tasks.

This new advancement may also have impact in the science industry, because we are able to reduce the size of microchips which will result to constructing, smaller, powerful robots that can do dangerous tasks, in effort to save lives.

Kovio’s new technologies are eco-friendly as well, due to the fact that they consume less energy than existing technologies. Kovio has already signed deals with Toppan Forms Co. LTD., a large company and Cubic Transportation System that plans to utilize Kovio’s RFID technology in their fare collection systems, all in effort, to better serve their customers. Eventually, I look forward to buying a printer that uses Kovio’s new, silicon thin-film transistors as well as having a mirror or other device that can identify the any given product wirelessly.