Is Sears.com tacking on added purchases without your consent? Automatically adding on a service package is up-selling and Sears.com may have been doing just that. Edgar Dworsky, a nationally-respected consumer advocate and founder of the website ConsumerWorld.org , says he went on the site on Black Friday weekend looking for a refrigerator. He found a model he liked, put it in his cart and noticed that a five-year service contract for $469 had been added without his consent. Dworsky points out that the charge for the service plan is easily removed from the cart if the customer spots it
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The Trudeau Melamine Mixing Bowls is a handy set of 3 mixing bowls which includes a red 3-quart, blue 2-quart, and green 1-1/2 quart bowl. They are really bright and cheery, and made of a durable melamine and come with non-slip bottoms, so they stay put on slippery counters. They also feature built-in spouts and handles which mean easy pouring, and the set is top-rack dishwasher safe but they are not microwave safe.
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The Margaritaville Mixed Drink Maker might be right out of a bar in Blade Runner, but you can now use it to be the bartender at your next party. Featuring 48 recipe options created by margaritaville bartenders, at the press of a button, watch drink recipes come to life as this, first-of-its-kind kitchen contraption dispenses perfectly proportioned cocktails fast. You can even press the “I feel lucky button”, and watch the digital display spin, and then land on a random drink. Set up is a breeze, just add your choice of liquor (rum, vodka or tequila) and select mixers into the four containers, the machine knows what to do from there to serve up delicious mixed drinks.
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What’s a kitchen machine to do? Make soup. The revolutionary soup mixer will weigh, chop, mix, stir, cut, crush, grind, pulverise, knead and emulsify. And it even cooks the food to perfection too. The innovative Vorwerk Thermomix combines the function of more than 12 kitchen machines and has over 20 patent applications. Thermomix TM 31 is the combination of counter clock and clockwise rotations - the former stirs or cuts tender food, such as fish, noodles or asparagus without destroying it, while the latter chops fresh or frozen ingredients.
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The UNOLD automatic pasta machine makes noodles and pastries of all shapes and sizes. The electric pasta maker can accommodate up to 500 grams of flour, and with its 8 attachments the pasta machine mixes and kneads the ingredients automatically. The machine can be completely taken apart for convenient and fast cleaning, and you can also put all the parts into your dishwasher. Only available in Europe for now is a bummer, but look for the same features on machines you might buy here in the US. Via Appliancist
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Modern Mechanix found from the February, 1930 issue of Modern Mechanics. According to 1930’s scientists, the human body produces enough heat to cook potatoes as long as you put this kitchen contraption on your head. Scientists have learned that our bodies are living machines of the combustion type in which the burning of fuel (food) is accompanied by the consumption of oxygen, liberation of heat energy and production of carbon dioxide as is the case in all combustion engines. Scientists find that the heat from a single person, if properly focussed, would be sufficient to cook potatoes.
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The Fresh Traveler by Arian Brekveld allows you to keep your cereal separate from your liquids like milk or yogurt. We love the design, and also think this would work great for coffee and a little snack in the bottom - some chocolate kibble? At Royal VKB Fresh Traveler Stainless steel and Plastic Thermos
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The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker makes tea the same way every time, and features at tea basket cycle that Auto Lowers and Lifts tea during brewing. It also has an auto start feature so you can have fresh tea when you wake up, and has a 60 minute Keep Warm feature. The variable temperature control will allow you to make oolong teas to minty teas at the right temperature, and the LCD timer can be used to monitor freshness after brewing.
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One of the best gifts you can give during the holiday season is hope. Hope for a better world, and yet hope for an upgraded kitchen. Easy Upgrades helps readers solve their most frequent complaints about the spaces in their homes. From chapters on All-in-the-Family Kitchen, The Colorful Kitchen, to The Right Kitchen for You and The Budget Kitchen, Easy Upgrades: Kitchens shows readers the smartest and most cost effective improvements they can make to increase the value and livability of their homes. We think this will make a great gift for someone wanting some change in the New Year and especially in the most important room in the house - the kitchen. At This Old House Easy Upgrades for Kitchens
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You know - we never think to get a fun corkscrew - just one that works and is touted to do the job. In our experience hiring a Captain like Captain Banana should probably do the job just fine after a few glasses of wine. Designed by Stefano Giovannoni in 2009, the parrot sitting on top of the “captain” turns as you place it over your wine bottle. At A di Alessi Captain Banana Corkscrew
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