Tyler TX Facebook

Follow Donny on Twitter

Username:
Password:
  Remember Me   Forgot password?  Register
0-9  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  

Find or Refer a Contractor in Tyler

Tuesday Morning Store in Tyler Offers Excellent Christmas Gift Selection

December 2nd, 2010

Tuesday Morning Stores TexasFor those like me that may have never heard of Tuesday Morning before it isn’t a big surprise. This store seems to open up when they want to and probably just during those certain shopping days that bring in lots of traffic. So they aren’t like Marshall’s where they are open every day.

I guess Tuesday Morning has a low overhead policy but it must work as I have seen their sign over by Cotton Patch Cafe for several years.

This store always looked closed and abandoned but one Sunday morning we were nearby and I yanked at the door and to my surprise the door opened and there were tons of Christmas gift ideas almost everywhere I looked.

I also found some pretty ridiculous white elephant type gifts to get as well. This store is like a cheaper Marshall’s but with more selection and variety. They aren’t necessarily like Marshall’s in the sense of having lots of clothes but they are like them in their never ending supply of odds and ends.

For instance, last year I was able to purchase from Marshall’s an alarm that would sound if a dog jumped and laid down on a couch or chair in your house. I saw this as both funny and useful for certain people in my family.

Tuesday Morning store has all kinds of weird stuff like this and good stuff too. They have toys, rugs, clothes, sheets, towels, furniture type items, Christmas decorations like big Santa statues and many things you would never buy but they are fun to look at.

I bought a few fun to look at items that will be white elephant gifts this year. So if you are reading this maybe you haven’t come up with any Christmas 2010 gift ideas and maybe your a procrastinator.

Tuesday Morning can come to your rescue and relieve your stress because they have everything for mom, dad, kid, toddler, sister, brother, emo brother, brother in jail, grandmother, granddad, and wife, and husband, I guess cousin too.

Thrifty Nickel In Tyler Texas

December 15th, 2009

Learning About Better Online Classifieds Than The Thrifty Nickel

Like many in East Texas I have used the Thrifty Nickel for years. From what I hear they may have changed their name to the American Classifieds but I will always know it as the Thrifty Nickel. I moved away from Tyler back in 1999 and lived in Colorado for a season. While there I started using an online service called Ebay. The Thrifty Nickel lost a lot of appeal for me when I came back to Tyler TX because I was now familiar with just how well a service like Ebay worked for me. I sold a lot of ski and snowboard equipment I no longer needed while back in Tyler and I did it all on Ebay. In the past I would have used the Thrifty Nickel because there was no such thing as Ebay.

Classifieds East Texas

I used the Thrifty Nickel to find things I now find on Craigslist like motorcycles, furniture, personally owned used cars, odds and ends you would find at a garage sell, and the back bumper for a Ford F150. These larger items are too expensive for people using Ebay to ship but the Thrifty Nickel was full of stuff like this. These days the jobs section is full of work from home ops like the envelope stuffing scheme, MLM businesses and such. The merchandise area where I used to find personally owned cars has much less to select from and the Nickel is full of car dealer ads everywhere. Blah! I don’t use the Nickel for car dealers. I would just go to the dealer and cruise around the lot if that is what I wanted. I am looking for good deals and I get more frustration from the Nickel than satisfaction. Back in the good ole days the Nickel was something I always grabbed along with Autotrader but those days are over. Autotrader is still a good magazine but what happened to the Nickel?

Order Of Greatness

1. Amazon.com
2. Craigslist.com
3. Ebay.com
101. American Classifieds (Thrifty Nickel) blah!

Differences Between Popular Online Classifieds Like Ebay and The Thrifty Nickel

The difference between Ebay and the Thrifty Nickel back in 2000 was night and day. I was able to sell really obscure items every time I listed them and many times at retail prices on Ebay. Many of my ski gloves were old used retro gloves but people in Europe loved them. They would buy old used ski gloves for $40 a pair and higher. Many Europeans were buying my ski goggles and other ski equipment for nice sums of money on Ebay. After selling a bunch of ski junk on Ebay I managed to make about $3,000 on unwanted ski items my friends gave me to sell. The Thrifty Nickel back in 2000 was good for unloading a used car or selling an old refrigerator for a decent sum. Because these larger items can’t be shipped affordably you had to sell this stuff using the Nickel to someone local. So Ebay remained an online place for selling smaller items to anyone in the world in order to make a handsome profit and the Nickel got you about what you deserved for an old used car. The Nickel remained your local marketplace to sell and buy items that were not easy to ship. Now I use Craigslist to buy and sell most of those larger used items.

10 Years Later The Thrifty Nickel Is A Much Different Animal

Now it is the year 2009 and we are almost approaching 2010. 10 years later after using Ebay for the first time my interests have changed a bit. I will still pick up the Thrifty Nickel from time to to time but what I have noticed is that the magazine has way too many national spammy advertisements in it. They may have changed things since a few months ago but I saw a lot of car dealer ads that were not from local people selling their automobiles. I also noticed that the jobs in Tyler Texas that were posted in the classifieds section were spam type junk job ads selling opportunities and get rich quick schemes. Some of these ads resembled envelope stuffing work from home schemes and other related waste of time job classifieds.

Giving The Nickel A Few More Chances

After picking up the Thrifty Nickel in different cities throughout East Texas while on my way out of a gas station or other convenience store I finally began to see that there was not much appeal to the Thrifty Nickel anymore. The classifieds magazine has way too many car dealers and national job seeker ads. The few and far between real ads are sparse and you really don’t get the selection that you used to. I would think that the reason the Thrifty Nickel has lost a lot of its quality may have to do with Craigslist.com website and Amazon.com taking over this market in a large part. Ebay still competes as well but for large local items like cars and furniture you will find that Craigslist.com has many local Tyler Texas residents selling anything from a filing cabinet, office conference table, to a used Volkswagon Rabbit. Ebay is also a very good website for finding local automobiles but as far as furniture and other large local items I would stick with Craigslist.

What Is So Great About Ebay?

Ebay remains a great way to pick up some unique antiques, home accesories, gadgets, and replacement parts but I would be wary of power sellers selling you something used you can get new for cheaper elsewhere. Amazon.com is a much less frustrating Ebay with no auctions only competing prices on new and used items. I consistently get a less hassle free experience at a cheaper price when buying merchandise from Amazon.com. Craigslist.com is the king of cheap prices on large items you couldn’t possibly have shipped to you. I have bought cars, filing cabinets, desks, and you name it on Craigslist. You can also get some good deals on used engagement rings on there from awkward local break ups but I imagine it would be weird buying a used ring from someone who just broke an engagement. Anyway this gives you an idea about how online services compare to the Thrifty Nickel. The Thrifty Nickel is online also but they don’t have the type of things you see on Craigslist so I don’t see the point.

If You Like The Thrifty Nickel Or American Classifieds Let Us Know

I challenge local Tyler Thrifty Nickel enthusiasts like I once was to look at a recent addition and see if it has changed for the better. I would love to write up a positive review about a paper that used to be one of my favorites but I have been disappointed just one too many times. Maybe I have missed some of the great positive aspects of The Thrifty Nickel. If I have missed something please tell me. There is a comment section at the bottom of this article for providing your two cents about the Thrifty Nickel. Feel free to leave a response.

Walgreens on the West Loop

November 29th, 2009

I’ve written on the positive effects that expanding business and entrepreneurism can have on a community. On such example is that of the new Walgreens on the west loop. For years and years the lot on the corner of sixty four and the loop had been wasted on the disreputable “Rose City Motel.” This had been a source of embarrassment for many Tyler residents, (myself included), who found it necessary to pass the establishment on the way to the airport to pick up out of town guests. Well at long last the shame has left, the motel has been bulldozed, and the valuable real estate reoccupied by more legitimate businesses, one of which is Walgreens Pharmacy.

Of all the new businesses on the west loop in Tyler, Walgreens is one of the most welcome and maybe the most helpful as well. The staff is there to offer whatever advice and help that they can when it comes to normal everyday ailments. They offer a full range of over the counter products for those like me, who prefer treating their own symptoms rather than constantly shelling out for a doctor’s prescription. For those situations when the doc’s help is absolutely necessary however, the store offers both walk in or drive through pick up.

But the store is much more than just a pharmacy. They offer a wide variety of health and beauty products as well as groceries and other odds and ends. While Walgreens is a pharmacy first and foremost, it is also a sort of mini department store. Personally, I stop off frequently for items like milk, which runs just under two dollars a gallon. I won’t say that their entire inventory is as inexpensive, some things seem kind of high to me, the diapers and related products for example. It’s best to know what you usually pay for those items, or do a little comparison shopping. By the way, the store is going to be offering Christmas pictures on December fifth, from eleven in the morning until three in the afternoon. They assure me that the prices will quite cheap.

Hopefully, Walgreens will not be the only new business in west Tyler. The more run down motels and third rate tattoo supply shops we can drive out and replace with real reputable businesses and jobs, the better. As someone who lives in west Tyler, I’m glad to support stores like Walgreens. Come to think of it I’m out of milk, guess I should swing by the pharmacy.