As Labor Day quickly approaches, so does the first day of school. Now, I've been out of school for, well, a number of years, but it still depresses me to see all these Back To School shopping ads. I do love the idea of new clothes for Fall. But still, BTS means and end of Summer; the end of freedom; a return to teachers and homework and annoying and sometimes really upsetting peers. Yeah, I'm sure you're stupefied to learn that a girl named Hero had issues with bullies in school. I'll give you a moment to recover from the shock.

Not that I was at the bottom of the food chain. I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I traveled in my own little circle and was fairly popular with the mid-level citizenry. And school and I would have gotten along just fine if it weren't for a few really sore sticking points. Such as: Mandatory attendance; forced hard labor (aka gym class); perpetual public humiliation (aka - aka gym class); unreasonable expectations (homework and projects that interfered with social and TV schedules - like we had no life outside of school!); and the constant, unrelenting (and SO unwelcome) imposed interaction with inferior beings (aka stupid/boring/annoying/snotty/and otherwise undesirable classmates). I'm sure many of you can agree.

If I could have had more of a say in who I was in class with, what my schedule was and the expected work load, .... yeah, who am I kidding, I would have been in class with the same 12 - 15 people, done little to no work and went to school 2 days a week and 5 days off instead of the other way around. There's no denying it.

The only good thing about school was my friends. The social part was great! (when I wasn't being teased about my name) I'd make a terrible parent, now that I think about it. I'd totally sympathize with my kid and let them stay home from school and wouldn't care if they slacked off on their homework. I mean, come on, so far in life the greatest use I've had for the majority of stuff I learned in high school has come from watching Jeopardy! (which I totally rock, btw)

I'd be good at BTS clothes shopping, being the Mom that let's all the kids hang out at their place and the kids feel comfortable talking to. Other than that, I would fail my re-entry into the high school system.

Guess it's a good thing there are no children in my future! I think.

Hero

I'm sure you've seen them by now, the commercials announcing Overstock.com's new shortcut - O.co. ......... Yeah... seriously. Are we THAT lazy? We can't even type out a simple to remember website like overstock.com? And not even O.com - which isn't a currently existing website - so it's not like somebody already owns it. We can't even manage the "m" at the end of .com. How pathetic.

Is this really going to help them? Are people going to say "Gee, now that I have to type so many less letters to get there I'm going to shop there more!" Can't see that happening, can you? Do they believe shoppers are that stupid as well as lazy? Doesn't say much to me about them as a company or their feelings about their customers/target audience.

In fact, let's think about this: How much has this cost them? The new domain - the new .co thing - I have no idea if that costs. All the new advertising to promote the lazy-ass url. What could that money have been put towards instead? Oh! Here's a radical idea - how about lowering prices! No matter what they advertise I have never found their prices that great. Sure if you take the time to browse around you can find a good deal here and there, but it's hardly a bargain bonanza. To be honest, I've only ever ordered from them once - sheets. It was a good deal. Nice sale, not a huge savings over other sites, but I had a coupon and they were running a free shipping promotion. But I wouldn't have ordered otherwise since I found the same sheets for a little less somewhere else (but the coupon wasn't good for that site, so....)

Frankly, the only thing I use Overstock for is a barometer as to whether or not I've found a good price on an item somewhere else. If I'm looking for a shower gift etc., I'll look up what I want on Overstock (I refuse to call it O.co) and then use their price as an indication of whether or not I'm getting a good deal elsewhere. Hope you were paying attention to that. That means - if you can find it on their website, the odds are good (very good) that you will find it for less elsewhere.

But, if you are one of the dim-witted sheep that Overstock is appealing to (or trying to appeal to) apparently this doesn't matter you. Saving your fingers from the exhausting task of typing in those extra 9 letters is surely worth any premium you'll pay on products. (and you will pay)

So, congrats Overstock and whatever advertising/pr firm you are paying way too much for. You have either struck upon a great concept to attract the truly idiotic, yet well-heeled online shopper, or you've just spent a lot of money to make yourself look like a bunch of idiots with little respect for your customers.