Tech Table Radio Show

Tech Table
Wednesday, November 27, 2013

November 27, 2013


Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.

Diana: And I’m Diana.

Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.

Diana: We promise it’ll be easy to digest. Hello.

Justin: Hello. Its Wednesday.

Diana: Yeah.

Justin: Wednesday on the Tech Table, and that means we talk about something Web-related. And, you know, ‘tis the season to be shopping, fa, la, la, la, la, boo.

Diana: La?

Justin: Well, I know, you’re excited about the whole shopping season.

Diana: I love to shop.

Justin: What I do is I go through my credit card points and see how many gift cards I can get for people without having to do anything.

Diana: Oh. Well, I love to receive gift cards because, really, the options are endless then.

Justin: That’s true. But there are some people that are fun to shop for, like you submit this big long list.

Diana: It’s a process, really.

Justin: It is things that you like, things that you’re interested in having, and you don’t get it all, by any means.

Diana: Oh, no! No.

Justin: There’s stuff that’s been on your list for years.

Diana: Years.

Justin: Exactly.

Diana: And then sometimes I’ll take something off the list that’s been there for few years and I realize I don’t want it after all.

Justin: There you go. That’s true.

Diana: It works.

Justin: So, there’s a lot of shopping guides online and a lot of websites that can help you out, you know, with shopping, and two of the biggest sites that we use, I mean, I use Google.

Diana: Sure.

Justin: A lot of products I just plug right into the Google search engine, you click shopping, and it will give you a whole price comparison, different retailers, where you can get it the cheapest.

Diana: Wow.

Justin: It actually really works. It really works. I have used it many times to find a deal, you know, like if one site, the price is a dollar difference but they offer free shipping, it’ll be cheaper to buy it from the site where the product’s a dollar more but the shipping’s free. So, it’s really smart and it does, it lists the price, the shipping, everything. So, Google Shopping is really cool.

Diana: That’s amazing, and it really increases the thought process for the retailers, then, to really drive to have the best sales, the best deals.

Justin: Right, you know, they used to say that brick and mortar stores were going to be a thing of the past, almost, because of online shopping. But what’s happened is it’s actually pushed brick and mortar stores to be cheaper, and I actually just saw a report on Bed, Bath & Beyond. They now sometimes, they’re kind of a, not a high-end store, but they’re definitely a higher-end store than Wal-Mart or Target. They actually have better prices, sometimes, than you can find online because of things like Google Shopping that compare prices so obviously for consumers. So, it’s interesting. One other site is Amazon.

Diana: Oh, I love Amazon. The box comes and it’s got a smile on it.

Justin: That’s right, and you don’t know what’s inside of it. It might be, who knows?

Diana: It puts a smile on my face.

Justin: It might be a license plate cover. You might not be so excited about that.

Diana: Maybe.

Justin: Maybe. You haven’t even thought about getting a license plate cover. That could be interesting.

Diana: I have to update my wish list.

Justin: There you go. But Amazon.com, you know, you can find everything at Amazon.

Diana: Everything. Food. Can you believe that you can buy groceries?

Justin: You can, you can buy groceries, it’s true.

Diana: And you can set it up to recur weekly, monthly, whenever you want it to then just ship you a new one.

Justin: It’s true. What I really like about Amazon are the reviews. People who have bought it, you know, they will actually review it with different start ratings, and then a whole review if they want to, and that is really helpful on certain products.

Diana: I’ve used those a lot, yes.

Justin: Absolutely, because, you know, if the masses are saying that they don’t like it, you probably shouldn’t buy it.

Diana: And you should read both the good and the bad reviews.

Justin: Absolutely. So, I’m sure we’ll be talking some more about online shopping through the holiday season, and we’ll talk about security, things like that, too.

Diana: Yeah.

Justin: So, have a good time looking around online and maybe buying something for your favorite Tech Table radio host. Until next time.

Diana: Take care.

Justin: Tech Table is brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at AskMPA.com.

Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com.

Justin: And thanks for listening.

Jodie Atkinson

Designer & Video Specialist - Jodie is a mom to a very active three-year-old, Abbie, who keeps her hopping. A recent transplant to Southeast Iowa, Jodie and her family are enjoying the relaxed pace of living in a rural community. She joined our team from the hurry and scurry of the Des Moines metro area, where she worked at Gannett/Des Moines Register creating dozens of ads every day. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from UNI in Graphic Design and loves creating design that matters. Jodie’s mantra: “Be great. Create.”

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