Brad

200 days to go

If you want an alternate color, let us know which one so we can see if there is a consensus.

Monday will mark the 200 day point in the countdown. Coming around wayyyyyy to quickly

Looks like we lost hockeyfanamo and ogadoga last month so we're now down to 55 from the original 71 members. So what are we thinking about t-shirts for club members? As I mentioned last year, we're going to have a relatively simple "15 years" GD logo on the front and bring back the old "If you can read this..." slogan on the back. We're going to do navy blue for the shirts this year with orange and white inks, but if enough of you want a special color shirt exclusively for club members, I can do that as well. It would probably be something where we get a consensus on an alternate color but you'll each have the option of choosing if you'd rather have one of the club exclusive versions or one of the standard navy versions instead. We'd have to have enough people want the alternate color to make it happen because I don't want to annoy my printer with a special color for 3 people haha. Another option would be to add something to the sleeve of the standard shirt (like a club "seal" for example) for club members only and keep them all navy. So take this month to share your thoughts and maybe we'll have something decided by June so I can start getting these done with plenty of time to spare.

Details: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=as_li_ss_tl?nodeId=202213110&linkCode=sl2&tag=gottadeal-20&linkId=6a6966a10f64b12508c52827131c9511

I think a lot of the Bon-Ton stores are in malls so they are being leased and Bon-Ton never owned them to begin with.

Sad to see them go, but I know we won't miss typing up their 486-page Black Friday ad each year... If anyone hears about the discounts they are offering in their liquidation sale starting today, please post here.

https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2018/04/17/report-bon-ton-likely-togo-out-of-business-after.html Not looking good for Bon-Ton.

Home Depot has their Spring Black Friday ad posted on their site under “Local Ad”. Starts tomorrow. Time to pick up mulch (as I stare outside at snow that fell overnight...).

Doesn't look like we lost anyone in March.

Really wanted to lock this thread at midnight and “end” the contest as an April Fool’s joke. Was going to offer you all 10% off a t-shirt as a make-good lol. I’m pretty sure Home Depot’s Spring Black Friday sale will start this Thursday.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/03/15/toys-r-us-files-bankruptcy-liquidation/427129002/

Went to a TRU today for one more visit before the inevitable occurs.

Heads up: there is supposed to be a super-rare 20% off coupon for eBay today only: https://pages.ebay.com/promo/2018/0309/7020.html Starts at 11am EST (8am PST). Max $100 discount. Should be good on anything except gift cards and coins/paper money. Unlike their normal 10%/20% off coupon, this one isn't restricted to a list of pre-selected sellers.

Total for February: 57 dropped out: shoptillidrop2 dropped out: starbeck96 dropped out: tracy0504

Everyone is good for February except for these 4 members: budgetsRsexy shoptillidrop2 starbeck96 tracy0504 We'll see if any were waiting until late tonight to do a double-dip...

More bad news for TRU: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/retail/2018/02/22/toys-r-us-reportedly-planning-more-store-closings-corporate-layoffs/362255002/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Sam's Club introduced some new changes today: https://corporate.samsclub.com/blog/2018/02/14/creating-the-membership-you-love-most Looks like they got rid of the business membership (boo!) and are really pushing the Plus membership by now including free shipping online on most items with a Plus membership (and reducing the number of items that include free shipping for non-Plus members). Without the business membership, the only way to get the early shopping hours Monday-Saturday is with the $100 Plus membership. Whichever card you have, you can add additional people to your account for $40 each, but those people will be considered non-Plus members.

52 of the 60 remaining members have already posted for February. Good job

OK, I wrote a quick script to see who is still in. Not counting me, we started with 71 members who posted in November: 2bauer4 abentley AuntieJul BFgrl79 bluebear Bopeep bossy1 budgetsRsexy chachn8r chelamarc cherry33778 chester5 Cinnamonhuskies cjdav dantegirl deelite Doresia Gator Pam gatorburg giz HanShotFirst hillbillyswife hockeyfanamo ilikefree jesusluvu jstluvem julz0420 Kanyon71 Kash kellis4321 kimpooh19 laddhorn LainieB len_mullen lis415529 lucyismycat m13april magickallight MariahA mcwalker mgreen msyves nicole20 ogadoga Peppermint Pepper_Mint_Tea qtpie queenkishaa racerfan redeyejay riven3d rlbarajas rockpzazz rocky41102 sas377 shoptillidrop2 Silverstreak24 smurfgirl speeddiva srivassh stacya starbeck96 stationchief stevierocks stina629 sunni0913 tear1469 totallyBF tracy0504 tyreejames wittenlover In December, 5 members dropped out: dropped out: Cinnamonhuskies dropped out: julz0420 dropped out: Pepper_Mint_Tea dropped out: Silverstreak24 dropped out: srivassh In January, 6 more members dropped out: dropped out: 2bauer4 dropped out: chelamarc dropped out: lucyismycat dropped out: nicole20 dropped out: queenkishaa dropped out: tear1469 So we're already down from 71 to 60. If anyone thinks they are showing as dropped out when they shouldn't be, post here and let me know what days your posts were for each month. I'll run the script at the beginning of each month to see who has left us.

There is also a "Mark Community Read" link at the bottom-left of every page. Clicking that will make the whole forum "read".

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/31/heres-a-map-of-where-bon-ton-is-closing-stores.html

While a lot of stores are staying open, I wouldn't want to be holding on to a high-$ amount of TRU gift cards just in case...

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/24/toys-r-us-to-close-180-stores-across-the-us.html?__source=twitter%7Cmain

Most of the closing stores are now 50% off. Tried to go yesterday to the one here but there was no parking spaces to be found and the line to get in was around the front and side of the building. No thanks.