1DollarScan is an online book scanning service. Go online and place order. Follow instructions and proceed to payment. You mail them your physical book and they send you a digital file. It’s really cheap and they allow shipping from third party book stores like Amazon. A lot of other people from other countries like it when an ebook isn’t available […]

As part of the Change Project, researchers at Open University conceived the Lambent Shopping Trolley Handle. The 16-LED multicolor display and scanner attaches to any supermarket cart and gives shoppers nutritional, ethical and environmental product information. It also allows users to compare their choices with those of other consumers in order to gauge just how socially conscious they’re being. Displaying […]

Mobile apps for grocery shopping make things easier on the wallet and the stomach. People can now use their smartphones to choose the grocery items they want while waiting for the subway. In South Korea, people no longer have to stand bored on the subway platform. Instead, they can take out their smartphones and approach the wall where Tesco’s “Home […]

Vending machines of the 20th century, move over — your 21st century competition has arrived! Not only do they deliver merchandise that’s new to the genre (cotton candy, anyone?), but they incorporate new credit card processing technology like mobile payments. The National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA) recently concluded its first Gratitude Tour on the campus of the University of Nevada, […]

If you’ve ever found yourself wanting to buy something online and groaning when the credit card form screen pops up you will probably want to get SmartSwipe, the new desktop device by NetSecure. Not only does SmartSwipe let you bypass the tedious process of entering in all of your financial information, it is safe and secure, providing protection from all […]

Group buys happen on forums all the time. People team up, buy as a group, and everybody saves money. Sounds like a good deal. But organizing them on forums is messy. It takes lots of work manually tracking who has signed up, updating the thread, setting up shipping, collecting addresses, making sure everybody has paid, making sure nobody scams you, […]

Regular cooks know that the most time-consuming aspect of cooking can be finding a recipe and then shopping for its specific ingredients. One-stop-shop Kochhaus aims to simplify things by providing recipes along with everything required to create them. Unlike traditional grocers, the shop is not sorted by product type, but according to recipe. Consumers simply choose a meal from 20 […]

Shoe Dating aims to offer female customers dates as well as discounts on a pair of shoes. The promotion is being launched by Malaysian retailer Shoes Shoes Shoes in collaboration with dating site Lunch Actually and women’s radio station Capital FM. Men signed up to Lunch Actually are encouraged to select from a list of 20 shoe makes they would […]

Complicated is easy, minimalist is difficult. Even more difficult is minimalist design that stands out. That is why we love this little contact lens shop in Tel Aviv, Israel. It is a store concept for Adashot by EyeCare designed by Lee-Ran Shlomi Gidron of Tel Aviv-based Miss Lee Design. Contact Lens Store – Tel Aviv, Israel [The Cool Hunter]

GoSpotCheck provides a unique way for businesses to collect information from the field. They have created an iPhone app where consumers complete location specific missions (such as taking pictures of the brand’s product in the grocery store or measuring the service level/wait time in a restaurant) that brands create in exchange for cash. Consumers benefit because they can make a […]