A friend of mine went to Banana Republic a few weeks back and told the cashier he couldn’t buy all the items he brought to the register unless they could give him some kind of discount. The cashier gave him 30% off everything on the spot without batting an eye. Initially, I was moderately impressed, but I assumed there must have been some sale going on that my friend didn’t know about. I thought the whole thing seemed suspect, especially since my friend told the cashier he forgot to bring a coupon with him and the coupon was only good for 25% off.

Apparently, my friend had stumbled on to a new trend at major retailers: haggling on everything from pricing to return policies. According to an article I read today on MSN’s Money, J. Crew managers are taking back items long after return deadlines have passed and Best Buy employees are matching prices that shoppers find while comparison shopping from their cell phones. Check out “Shoppers haggle for deals from desperate retailers” for more info.

I’m not an avid reader of Men’s Health magazine. It probably goes without saying that I don’t get much out of articles like “How to Tell if She’s Faking It” and “Sexy Statements That Turn Her On”. However, I love their “Eat This, Not That” feature. If you’re not already familiar with it, “Eat This, Not That,” is probably best known for identifying the most unhealthy foods at popular restaurants and promoting items on the menu that provide healthier alternatives. The “Eat This, Not That” website is full of handy resources, including a guide to the “125 Healthiest Supermarket Foods” and revealing exposés like this warning about the worst drink on the planet and “The 20 Worst Foods in America.”

I like that “Eat This, Not That” takes a realistic approach to cutting fat, calories, sodium, and sugar. The goal isn’t to mangle every meal at McDonald’s or Outback Steakhouse until it fits into a Weight-Watchers-approved point count. The authors just want to make it easier for all of us to eat a bit healthier by making small changes that don’t feel like big sacrifices.

I’m a big junk-food junkie and two of my big loves are Little Debbie Fudge Brownies and Swiss Cake Rolls, but they’re both insanely high in saturated fat. So, a few months ago, I started doing a little snack cake research of my own in the spirit of “Eat This, Not That.” I wanted to find a brownie substitute that wasn’t a rice cake or some other bland diet food that I’d buy and never eat. (I already have an entire shelf of health foods that have survived three moves because I never get desperate enough to eat them, but I’m too cheap to throw them away.) I started with Twinkies, since they’re low in fat by Hostess standards, but they didn’t satisfy my chocolate craving. So, I recently switched to Zingers, which have less than half the fat of Fudge Brownies and Swiss Rolls.

I realize part of this is just a portion control issue, since there’s only one Zinger/Twinkie per pouch, as opposed to Swiss Cake Rolls, which are packaged in twos. I suppose I could limit myself to one Swiss Cake Roll at a time and wrap up the second, orphaned roll for later. However, this would still be worse than eating a single Zinger, which has five grams of fat as opposed to the six in one Swiss Cake Roll.

While I’m happy with Zingers, the Swiss Cake Roll math situation has worn me out. So, I’m pressing onward in search of a sweet, tasty snack that is healthier than anything in the snack-cake category. For now, I’ve settled on Rice Krispy Treats, which have just 2.5 grams of fat and 90 calories. And when a chocolate craving hits, I can have a chocolate and peanut butter version that has just 1 more gram of fat than a plain Rice Krispy Treat. I’m also giving Kudos bars a try, which are a good compromise between a healthier granola bar and something really bad, like a Kit-Kat or a Snickers.

If you buy $100 worth of gift cards between now and December 31st at any of the OSI Restaurants (which include Outback, Carrabba’s, and Bonefish), you’ll get a $20 bonus gift card free. There are some restrictions on when you can use the bonus card, but if you eat out any of these places a lot (or know someone on your Christmas list who does), it’s an easy way to save 20%.

One thing I hate about Christmas is the last minute rush to get gifts for people on my list who are hard to buy for. I usually break down and buy something generic and inoffensive, like a shower gel sampler from Bath and Body Works or a pair of slippers. This year I’m actually considering buying one set of grandparents a cookie basket because there’s a Mrs. Field’s near my office and I have absolutely no idea what else to get them.

It’s especially hard to buy for parents and grandparents because in many cases, they just don’t need more stuff. And typically neither do we, so the holidays quickly turn into a sort of gift-giving cold war that begins around the time we graduate from college and get our first real jobs. Both sides really just want to call the whole thing off, but they’re both afraid they’ll be caught unprepared. So, we keep stockpiling gifts, hoping the other side will cave first. We keep finding ourselves in the Sharper Image store on December 20th, scanning the shelves for anything under $25 that could intercept and neutralize the tie organizer or GAP gift card we know the other side is preparing for launch. And just when we’re ready to give up, we spot a mini clamp-on book light or mini neck massager or mini ionic breeze on sale.

This year, I’m racking my brain for gift ideas that aren’t featured in the SkyMall catalog. I like gifts that will help me bond with the recipient and/or provide a special experience or activity. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

• A mix CD. This is an oldie but a goodie. 5inch.com is a great place to get super cool CD-Rs and they also happen to be Chicago-based. This year, I’m sending my grandma a sampler of some of my favorite classic Christmas songs and another CD of songs from my music collection that I think she might like.
• Cooking class: For Chicagoans, I’ve heard classes at The Chopping Block are a fun and relatively affordable option.)
• Theater tickets: The special offers page for Broadway in Chicago can be a good place to start. Last time I checked they were offering $44 main floor seats for all Tuesday and Wednesday evening performances of Dirty Dancing, which is a really good show to take a parent or grandparent to see.
• Pampering: Go with your mom to get a pedicure, take her to your favorite salon for a hip new ‘do, or try a bargain-priced facial from a student at your local Aveda Institute. If you’re feeling more generous, you could get her a massage from the Cortiva Institute.
• Travel: This could be a simple day trip to go antiquing or weekend getaway at a nearby resort. You could also gift wrap a cup full of nickels and set a date to go gambling at the nearest casino. (I find the best thing about this gift is you can offset the cost if you eat eight to ten lobster tails at the $20 dinner buffet. Put a few filet mignons in your purse for later and you can easily come out ahead!)

  You might also want to treat someone to a more elaborate adventure, which is fine as long as you’re not going into debt to do it. Travel is one of the few luxuries that rarely gives me buyer’s remorse. I recently found out about a company called Shop Around Tours that offers tours of Italian outlets and factories where companies like Prada, Versace, Gucci, and Fendi sell items at deep discounts. Ten-day trip packages go for around $3,000, which includes airfare, hotel accommodations, and many meals. I also just heard about an annual gay rodeo in Calgary that sounds like a lot of fun.

I know these tips might be coming a bit late for many of you, but I hope they might come in handy the next time you’re feeling trapped as you stare at a display of bath salts or moisturizing gloves or soothing sound makers. Of course, if someone on your list is like me and actually asked for a soothing sound maker for Christmas, then by all means, dig out the 20%-off Bed Bath & Beyond coupons and go crazy.

A friend just sent me a link to an interesting article about large corporations that have recently revamped their looks—from basic logo facelifts to costly real-estate renovations. The new Pepsi logo (number 29 on the list) seems particularly heinous. Is it just me or does it look like it belongs on the tail of a Korean Air jet? The overhaul of Clue is also a bit unsettling:

“Hasbro updated the 60-year-old game of Clue with changes that include a fancy new mansion with a spa and theater, and new weapons like a baseball bat and an ax. Professor Plum is now an Internet billionaire and Colonel Mustard is a former football star.”

A spa in the mansion? Was that really necessary? I guess it might at least make poor kids feel better by convincing them that greedy rich people get what they deserve in the end. If Mrs. Peacock can’t be bothered to drive five miles into town for a pedicure, she probably deserves a wrench blow to the head. Now all we need is a version where Miss Scarlet can meet an untimely end from an unfortunate dermabrasion accident. That’d teach kids a valuable lesson about what happens when a 60-year-old woman refuses to age gracefully.

I’ve been thinking lately about the power of celebrity and the power of Britney Spears, specifically. It’s easy to be in awe of celebrity earnings when we hear about movie stars who make over $20 million for a few months of work or musicians whose concerts generate ticket sales in the hundreds of millions. But what about all of the hangers-on? What about the magazines, gossip websites and TV shows? What about the relatives who suddenly find themselves swimming in money from tell-all book royalties or a sudden interest in their mediocre talents?

It turns out someone at Conde Nast Portfolio had the same question back in February 2008 and decided to do a rough calculation of the total value of “The Britney Economy.” The article estimates Britney’s “gross domestic product” at roughly $110 to $120 million a year, which is truly staggering. Equally shocking was the author’s finding that revenues from unauthorized Britney photos account for 20 percent of the entire Hollywood paparazzi business. Yet, what’s really fascinating about the total value of the Britney economy is how LOW the $120-million-per-year figure might be. The author’s calculations fail to take into account so many other smaller but noteworthy revenue streams, including:

1. YouTube ad revenue from the hundreds of millions of views that Britney-related videos generate.
2. Ad revenue from websites like PerezHilton.com and TV shows like Entertainment Tonight. Granted, gossip magazines, websites, and TV shows don’t really depend on Britney for income, but some small part of their profits have to be considered at least loosely tied to her fame.
3. T-shirts, posters, and other Britney-related merchandise, including the occasional lock of hair or sweaty towel sold for thousands on ebay to some creepy superfan who is probably stitching it all together into some kind of Britney-DNA-infused catsuit.
4. Exploitative books “written” by Lynne Spears
5. The entire career of Jamie Lynn Spears, including all ad revenue and merchandising from her Nickelodeon TV show, Zoey 101, as well as modest paparazzi and gossip media revenue from her pregnancy.
6. Total ticket and DVD sales of Crossroads
7. Boosted ad revenue from Britney’s key appearances on TV, such as her disastrous performance at the 2007 VMAs, her much-hyped cameo at the 2008 VMAs, the MTV documentary, For the Record, her recent performances on foreign awards shows and Good Morning America, and her stunt casting on How I Met Your Mother.

With all this in mind, I’d estimate Britney generates revenue of closer to $150 million a year. Initially, this seemed like a ton of money tied to the influence of a single person. But then I did some digging and saw that Yahoo! finance estimates the approximate 2007 revenue of Harpo Entertainment, Oprah’s production company, at $345 million. That’s not counting all the money Oprah makes for others every time she promotes a new book club selection, names a product one of her favorite things, or launches the career of friends like Dr. Phil, Rachel Ray, Nate Berkus, or Dr. Oz. Britney’s also no Martha Stewart when it comes to generating wealth, since the total 2007 revenue of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was $328 million.