On Saturday November 8th, Walmart stores across the nation will be teaming up with Mattel and Barbie to begin teaching kids about sustainability. Be on the lookout for your invitation in the mail if you have girls age 3-10! 

Walmart and Barbie are asking each little girl to bring in a “previously loved” doll that they don’t play with anymore. Each store will have a bright pink recycle container in the toy department where those dolls can be placed, and each girl will be given a free pink reusable shopping bag from Mattel. For each doll that is donated, Mattel will donate a brand new doll to a local children’s hospital, up to 100,000 dolls!

Even cooler, 1,000 Walmart stores will have a visit from Barbie herself! There will be a Barbie Diamond Princess set up available and visitors are encouraged to take a photo with Barbie. You will also receive a coupon for a free printout at the Kodak Picture Maker machine in the photo department. This printout will feature a special Barbie border! All stores will have the donation box, and if there isn’t a Live Barbie there, they will have a cardboard cutout with the setup for photo opportunities! 

For further information and to see if Barbie is going to be at your location, visit http://www.walmartstores.com or http://www.barbie.com!

You can also download the store list here.

So the other day, I wrote a nice long post about how upset I was at Office Max Perks’ customer service. Well, this is one example of how a company can restore your faith in Customer Service. 

I decided I’d send a direct email to Office Max’s Corporate Office. I did not include a link to my blog post, and all I did was ask for a contact person in the Corporate Division of Public Relations. When I received a reply, I was very surprised to find out that the person I emailed (Senior Director, External Relations) had actually seen the blog post that morning, and he had already started the contacts within Office Max. Later in the afternoon, I received an email from Kim Brackenrich, Customer Relations Manager. 

Kim apologized for my experience and asked if there was a number she could reach me at. I emailed her back and thanked her for working with me, and gave her my phone number. We were finally able to connect on Tuesday. Kim assured me they would fix my account, and asked for me to find any information I could about my purchases. I had it all ready for her when she called me. She was very apologetic, and assured me that although she couldn’t talk about personnel issues with a customer, she did pass on all of the information about my phone call to the proper people. I thanked her for working on everything for me, and let her know that I appreciated the help with my account. She also offered me a gift card for all of my troubles. I won’t disclose the exact amount, but it will be waiting for my next purchase of business cards or something I really need for my work here at home. 

Over the last few days, I’ve received several emails as Kim has kept me up to date on the progress they’ve been making on my account. She’s let me know that they have found all of my purchases, and they are going to post them to my account. 

So, Thank you Kim, for renewing my faith in Office Max Customer Service..

Yes! It is back and bigger than ever! Well, at some stores, and we hope more will bring it back!

With the economy as unreliable as it is right now, people are looking for ways to save money, and that includes Lay-Away! Many of the stores are understanding that people just don’t have the money to spend on a lot of gifts this year, and many people are choosing not to use credit so they can avoid paying extra in interest fees. The increase in popularity is making it something that the stores that aren’t offering it, should! 

Besides the fact that you save the money you would have to spend on interest, Lay-Away has some other good points to it.. It saves you from going into debt. You have to save the money before you get to spend it. With credit, you buy now, and hope you can pay later. You can also use it for hiding gifts from the kids!!! I know my girls know just about every hiding place in my house, and it’s getting more and more difficult to hide things from them. I like that the store has to hide it for me! The only downside to Lay-Away that I can think of is that I have to make frequent trips to the store to make payments on it, but that should be good for the store! I’m notorious for walking into a store for one reason, and walking out with several other items that I just had to buy! HAHA.. 

Some local stores that I’ve found that do Lay-Away are Burlington Coat Factory, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, and KMart. Of course, you should call any store to verify before you go down there! 

If no stores in your local area offer Lay-Away, you can still purchase things and put them on E-Layaway! Sites like E-Layaway have special deals with many retailers to offer a layaway plan and many of them are free! All you have to do is register and shop! You don’t have to go into any stores to make payments, you can do everything from the comfort of your own home. When your payments are completed, the package is then delivered to you! You can pretty much choose your own payment plan from 3 to 12 months, and they will automatically deduct your payments from your checking account. To make it easier to decide what payment schedule you’d like, they have a payment calculator set up on their site as well. 

If you are a merchant, you can also join E-Layaway to offer Lay-Away as an option on your store! It’s something to look into! 

E-Layaway has several benefits to their service, as does using layaway in a local store. You are saving your credit while you take care of your Christmas shopping!

I have been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to try out the Flip Video Ultra Camera!! I can not tell you how awesome this camera is! When I first saw it, I was a little skeptical about the videos I might get from it, because of how few functions and settings it had. I’m used to using my Canon Powershot still camera, that also takes videos. That thing has so many functions it actually gets confusing to use, but the Flip Video is very simple! 

It’s so easy to use, it’s perfect for everyone, even my 3 year old girls! It really only has a few functions: Record, zoom, play, and delete, but that’s what makes it so cool. I can use the camera, and reach all of the buttons with one hand. That’s great for me, especially when I’m chasing my girls in two different directions! 

I’m sure any parent can understand the need to have a camera nearby at all times, especially when you are a new parent trying to capture every gurgle, and smile, and giggle your baby makes… I wish I had the Flip Video when my girls were little! The camera is the perfect size to carry in purse or pocket, that way you can keep it on you all the time! While you’re using it, it has a wrist strap so you don’t drop in while you dive for that cup of milk your toddler just tossed to the ground!

Another very cool, and easy to use feature this camera has, is the ability to play your video directly on the TV. Say you took a quick video of your little one graduating Kindergarten the other day, and your family from across the country is visiting. You don’t have video editing software handy, or don’t know how to get that video to a DVD, all you have to do is find the A/V cables that came in the box, plug it into the camera and the TV, then push play on the camera! Sound and video goes right through the TV! It’s awesome!

When you are ready to transfer your videos to your computer, it’s very easy. On the side of the camera, you flip a button and the USB plug pops out to plug right into your computer. It’s USB 2.0, so the transfer rate is quite fast. You can edit your videos on your computer, either with the Flip software, or any 3rd party video editing software.

Whenever I make a video for 11Moms, I’ll definitely be using my Flip Ultra for all of them! Now I just have to get the tripod for it! 

You can find out more information about the Flip Video Camera at the company’s website. 

If you’d like to purchase your very own Flip Video Camera, check out the MBR Reviews Store! I’ve found some of the best prices on the internet! 

Update: Thank you to Walmart for sending me a new Flip Digital Camera for me to use as one of Walmart.com’s ElevenMoms!!! They also sent me a second one.. so you know what that means!!!! Stay Tuned to Mommy Brain Reports! We will be giving away one Flip Ultra Digital Camera during our Last Minute Shopper Giveaway 1-15 December courtesy of Walmart.com!!!! 

The time is getting near. The Jingle Bells are beginning to ring at many of the local stores… Mommy Brain Reports would LOVE to give away a bunch of cool things for Christmas… If you are interested in giving away a sample of your product to my readers, please let me know! Send me an email via my contact page or leave a comment and I’ll get back to you! 

Reviews are not required to do a giveaway!!!

With the economy the way it is, just about everyone is looking for fun ways to save money!  With this in mind, I’m going to implement Savings Sundays! Each week, I’ll bring you at least one way you can save money! Most of these things, you probably already have heard about, but just in case you’ve forgotten, I’ll be here to remind you!!!

We’ll start out this week with how you can turn your kids’ old clothes and toys into cash!!

Everyone knows that you can sell their old stuff at yard sales, on Craigslist, and several websites online that specialize in  children’s items. But did you know that there are places you can get things your kids need.. essentially for free?? Sure, there’s Craigslist free items, and Freecycle.org.. both very awesome places to get things for free. There are also websites that specialize in kids’ items! 

Two such sites that I know of are SwapBabyGoods.com, and UAndITrade.com. Both sites allow you to search around for things you need, and both sites allow you to also list things you would like to give up. But they do work differently as far as how to “pay” for the items. 

On SwapBabyGoods.com each user is allowed to list what they have to give and what they’d like in return on their profiles. Some users allow people to outright purchase items from them, but if you want to avoid paying for their shipping costs, they’ll often waive it if you swap something with them. I’ve bought, sold and swapped with a few people on SwapBabyGoods, and it works pretty smoothly! 

UAndITrade.com works a little differently. This site keeps track of how many items you trade, and you earn points for everything you send out. All items are priced with points, and when you earn enough points, you can “purchase” other items with those points. The seller is the one that pays all shipping fees on UAndITrade. I have not personally used this site, but I’ve looked around, and it looks pretty neat. 

Neither of these sites charges users a fee to use their services, but you do have to register. 

Another idea is to start a local swap in your area! No shipping fees make it that much sweeter! I’ve heard of “swap parties” in people’s homes, and larger swaps at community centers or churches. No matter where or how large, make sure you have a system as far as how many items someone can swap! Make sure everything is still in excellent condition, whether used or new with tags. Keep things of similar value, or go strictly based on how many items a person brings in. If one way doesn’t work so well, you can always adjust next time around. Gerber has some great tips for organizing a local swap! 

The savings will be amazing! You’ll get new stuff while clearing out your closets and storage rooms! I’ll bet you’ll be hooked!