TescoCars.com

Tesco Cars, which is a re-brand of Carsite.co.uk sells used cars sourced from fleets. You reserve a car for £99, and can then view an RAC report before buying.

Info:

• Brand Republic article.
• Wikipedia article on Carsite.
• www.tescocars.com

Nevasic App

Apparently stops you feeling sick using audio:

http://www.nevasic.com/

Made by a friend of Andrew Hearn an 2020.

CB2 SnapShop App

You can take position items of furniture over a photo of your house, to see if it looks good.

Source: http://www.cb2.com/snapshop/

Ample Sample - carpet sample re-use ideas

AmpleSample.net is a competition to find uses for old carpet samples.

(Website was having some probs at last visit).

Pop-Up Furniture

Nomad's Mio is a clever idea for building room dividers from recycled cardboard. Useful for pop-up shops.

Source: www.magnifeco.com

Meanwhile the Flux Chair is made from a single piece of plastic and folds incredibly small.

Info: www.fluxchairs.com

Habitat for Humanity's ReStores

Habitat for Humanities ReStores in the US and Canada. Outlets accept donated goods which are sold at a fraction of the retail price. Proceeds help local Habitat affiliates fund the construction of homes within their communities.

Source: http://www.habitat.org/restores/

Group Buying in China

According to CNN, group buying is getting very big in China:
http://business.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/27/chinas-latest-obsession-group-buying/

TD Bank coin counter game

Commerce Bank (now acquired by TD Bank and re-branded) have coin counting machines known as 'penny arcades' in their branches. To keep kids occupied, there is a low screen they can interact with an even play a game to guess the value of the coins.

Image source: Powerhouse Animation Studios blog
Detailed screenshots and more info on this blog.

Pottery Barn for Kids

Pottery Barn for Kids is a particularly well put together site, showing really inspirational kids' bedrooms and then showing you each element in the room individually so you can buy it.

Image from this page on their site.

Whirlpool and Maytag - wash before you buy

Whirlpool and Maytag have concept stores in the US where you can do a load of laundry before you buy. Reportedly, test-drives in Whirlpool’s Atlanta store convert 90% of shoppers into buyers

Source: Washington Post 7.7.04