#bargainfever

Happy New Year! Thanks for coming along for the ride for the last six months - half a year in the half price world we live in now. I will continue updating this blog whenever a story is too good to miss, but posts will probably be more sporadic. Whatever happens, make this your motto for 2014: Keep Calm and Go Shopping - and never pay full price for anything, ever again. 

The first segment from 20/20's "Shopping Confidential" special on December 20th involves me, Juju Chang, some button cameras and a lot of surprising, secret discounts. I felt like a bargain-priced James Bond. 

The superfake story from 20/20 ricocheted around the media - there was even a story in a Nigerian daily paper. This recap from the Mail Online, however, is the most astute, and the comments illuminating.

The last edition of 20/20 before the break was titled "Shopping Confidential", revealing a scad of scandalous retail secrets. I was part of two segments  - this one centers on the rise of the superfake, the high priced counterfeit that isn't actually a counterfeit at all.

Tick... tick... tick... as the clock counts down to Christmas and the discount frenzy intensifies, Good Morning America's Rebecca Jarvis looks at the best last minute deals - and asks me for some tips.

File under: I Can Die Happy Now (Part 1). Bargain Fever was the centerpiece of the cover story of the best TV show ever (TM) CBS News Sunday Morning a few days ago. Here's the intro. 

Flashback to Chicago Ideas Week in mid-October, where I debuted Bargain Fever to the world... and spoke alongside my friend and former boss Bridget Brennan. In these photos, she looks rather like she's trying to get away from me, but I think that was unintentional. Umm, I hope.

By the magic of satellite uploading, and some collaboration with NBC HQ at Rock Center, a segment on Black Friday shopping for NBC Chicago's Kim Vatis.