Whether it’s Christmas, someone’s birthday, a new baby or an engagement gift, there’s always something you can find at a local market that makes a great gift.

Here’s 7 reasons I think shopping at a local market (complete with the cute awning) is great:

1. Support your local community – you’re helping someone in your neighbourhood make a living – and they’ll spend most of that money in your area, too, benefitting everyone.

2. Good for your environment - if they’re locally made artisan goods, there’s less carbon nonsense being accumulated via petrol and packaging for shipping. If it’s close enough that you can walk there and leave the car behind, bonus points.

3. Unique – you’re likely to find products that you won’t see anywhere else – certainly not stacked to the ceiling in Toys ‘R’ Us or Target.

4. Discovery/being in the know - ever heard about those hot clothing designers who started off selling their wares at local markets? How cool would you feel knowing you were there, helping support them from the start of their stellar career?

5. Lower costs means lower prices – market stalls cost from $40 and the money they save on renting a shop means they can keep prices lower which makes it affordable for you.

6. Personal contact – in today’s pre-packaged world, it is charming and delightful to direct meet the people who (hand)make the items you’re handing cash over for.

7. Fun – the markets are a day out in themselves. There’s always something new every week and the chance to pick up something amazing that you’ll know they just love.

Why do you like shopping at local markets for gifts?

They say a week is a long time in politics, but deal-of-the-day website Groupon can go one better than that.

In a single, chaotic day it sold over 440,000 vouchers, had its server crash in the rush and was forced to post a FAQ section on its site to handle the barrage of questions relating to the 24 hour promotion that was the cause of the melee.

The day in question, Thursday 19 August, must have taken on the dimensions of a stampeding herd of cattle by the time it was over.

The promotion, which was launched nationally across the US, offered $50 vouchers redeemable at any Gap retail outlet for every $25 spent.

Not a bad offer really; 441,000 people must have decided it was worth it. It’s not yet known what Gap itself thinks of the offer, probably because all of its staff are still busy serving the 441,000 customers.

No doubt the promotion is all part of Groupon’s ever-expanding presence in the deal-of-the-day market.

Just be sure to have your credit card greased and ready for the next big juicy offer…

Anyone with older siblings probably discovered early in life the joy of hand-me-downs.

Your pram, car seat, high chair or some other item was broken in by your bigger brothers and sisters. And perhaps with a few years under its belt, the item is now also broken.

The giant US toy chain Toys ‘R’ Us has launched its Great Trade-In event for 2010. Parents will receive a 25% discount on new baby items in exchange for old ones (even ugly kids’ gifts) that may be well past their use-by dates and plain unsuitable for further tours-of-duty with knee-high terrorists (sorry, children).

The point of this child safety initiative is twofold: to clear the country’s basements, attics and spare rooms of unsafe baby items and to highlight the issue of child safety, pointing out that “tried” doesn’t necessarily mean “true”. This is the Great Trade-In’s third year, with over 200,000 items already being returned so far this year. The program runs until 19 September.

Hand in hand with the Great Trade-In comes the company’s Product Safety Vigilance Program which is designed to keep busy parents better informed about product recalls and keep a vigilant eye on all items their youngsters come into regular contact with around the home.

Three cheers for Toys ‘R’ Us for this community-awareness campaign, especially as it’s become  de rigueur to recycle and regift. And plus, for your chance to get rid of some god-awful baby and children’s gifts and save some money on new ones.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 10 or so years, you’ll probably have noticed that today’s teens are often accused of being the most materialistic and brand-oriented in history. But what can you do about it without sounding like Nanny McPhee?

Well, a couple of US professors have writted a paper on “Interpersonal Influences on Adolescent Materialism: A New Look at the Role of Parents and Peers”.

It suggests (no, really, this’ll surprise ya!) that parents and peers are in a strong position to reduce their teenagers’ love affair with material possessions.

The study suggests that parents can basically wean their kids off all those expensive luxury goods and tech accessories simply by providing emotional support and psychological wellbeing, which, when you think about it, is kinda what parents were invented for in the first place.

The study also politely points out that materialistic kids are more than likely to have materialistic parents, or, to put it more bluntly… what goes around, comes around.

It’s mostly because of low self-esteem that people, especially teens, turn to material possessions in the first place.

Supportive and nurturing parents will therefore benefit two-fold; their kids will be happier and more well-adjusted and their houses won’t be cluttered with expensive crap. See, it’s win-win.

eBay fans, at last there’s a loyalty scheme especially for you!

From now on, any gifts you buy for others will offer you more than the fist-pumping “Yes!” when you’ve outbid the other contestants (sorry, customers).

Introducing the eBay Bucks rewards program, which has been slowly gestating in the cyber womb since April last year.

To qualify, you need to: 1. Purchase a qualifying item. 2. Pay using PayPal (also owned by eBay). (and you knew this was coming…) 3. Be an American customer.

If you tick these three boxes, you’ll be rewarded with a 2% kickback in the form of eBay Bucks, which will accumulate quarterly. You’ll then be issued a statement telling you how many you’ve got up your sleeve to use for other eBay purchases you make over the next 30 days. Rather like cyber tokens.

These eBay Bucks are automatically generated by any qualifying purchase, all the way up to a maximum of $500 per quarter. Some shopping categories lie outside the program, such as classifieds and real estate, but most items the average person is likely to be hunting for will come with the 2% kickback.

No doubt eBay will monitor the program to see how it fares in The Land Of The Free, with a possible eye on expansion to the international market. But for the time being, only the program will only apply in America. Watch this space for updates.

Last year I wrote a post about the 2009 Christmas sea mail deadlines, directing readers to a PDF on the Australia Post website so they’d have plenty of time to send their gift packages for friends and family living overseas at the much cheaper sea mail delivery rates (another reason to do your Christmas shopping well ahead of time).

This year, on 3 August I visited the Australia Post website and entered “Christmas sea mail deadline”. Nothing came up. So I emailed them asking for the 2010 deadlines.

I was surprised when they said “Despatch dates are not published on our website but are available upon request” and replied that they managed to include it last year.

Anyway, they must have had a change of heart as I discovered a press release dated 12 August that announced the Australia Post Christmas sea mail closing dates for 2010.

The Christmas sea mail deadlines for Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, French Guiana, Malawi, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay passed as of 17 August. Chile closes tomorrow (19 August).

The United Kingdom sea mail deadline is 21 September and USA is 28 September as they were last year.

While 28 September is the latest for the vast majority of countries (from Albania to Zimbabwe), if you do happen to know anyone at all on Norfolk Island, you’ve got until 26 November to send your Christmas prezzies by ship.

Have you begun buying any Christmas presents yet? If you – like many people – are paid mid-month, you might have overlooked that fact that after 15 August, you now have only four more salary payments – September, October, November and December to pay for your Christmas gift-giving.

If you haven’t already done so, write a list of who you intend to give a gift to and how much you’ll spend. If you have say 16 people on your list, and you intend spending an average of $100 per person, that’s $400 you have to take out of your pay every month until Christmas to afford these gifts. 20 people @ $50 each? That’s $250 every month for four months. Or perhaps only your nearest and dearest get indulged?

How many people do you buy gifts for at Christmas?

Not all that long ago, people who were organized enough to do their Christmas shopping throughout the year were derided as being “Nannas” and told that they “should get out more” (presumably to do things other than Christmas shopping).

Well it seems that maybe the worm is slowly turning, and it’s those random sales that occur throughout the year that it has in its sights.

According to the results of a recent survey in the UK, almost 60% of respondents admitted to having already started their Christmas shopping, with a further 2% stating that the job was actually completed (bloody hell – and I thought I was organised)!

Eleven percent of these Bree Vanderkamps said they’d bought some of this year’s Christmas gifts in the January sales, which is probably not all that unusual, but 18% also bought discounted Christmas decorations – an unmistakable sign of serious fore-planning.

Not surprisingly, it’s overwhelmingly women who represent these organised shoppers – 81% of them, although 11% of the sisterhood still admitted they’d be leaving their Christmas shopping till… er, Christmas Eve. There’s also the question of festooning the home with Chrissy decorations.

While two-thirds of respondents cited 1 December as the date they start dragging out the tinsel and baubles and looking for last year’s thumbtack holes in the walls and ceilings, 16% admitted they like to start these bonding activities in November!

All of this is probably why the big department stores have been putting up their own Christmas decorations earlier and earlier each year, sometimes while it’s still only October.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m of to catch some bargains in the August sales – after all, Christmas is only four months away.

Do you have an upcoming anniversary, birthday, bridal shower, enagement, hen’s party or wedding that you’d like to delight someone with a romantic gift?
 
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Swapping, selling and buying plastic gift cards is nothing new but here’s something I haven’t seen before…

Not only is CardsUWant.com is a fabulous online marketplace for buying gift cards at up to 40% off and for converting your unwanted cards into instant cash, but they’ve also got a great range of merchants who sell e-gift cards.

Instead of handing someone a plastic gift card for their birthday, Christmas or baby shower in person, e-gift cards are terrific for those who live on the other side of the world – and especially great for those who remember all-too-late on the day when it’s someone’s birthday.

The 16 merchants on there to date range from Bedandbreakfast.com to Zappos. The balances on the e-gift cards are low – $US25 and $US50 – but they should get you out of hot water celebration-wise when it absolutely, positively has to be there before you get an abusive phone call, text or email.