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Woot On Earth Is Going On Here?

Posted By: Brookwoods Group on June 1, 2008

Rain ManRemember the movie Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman as a classic autistic savant and Tom Cruise as his hot shot yuppie brother.  Hoffman's character did not communicate well with others, remained singularly focused on one thing at a time, and had remarkable capabilities.

Woot (www.woot.com) is the autistic savant of shopping sites.

They don't sell a broad array of useful items, they sell just one thing each day -- usually some kind of gadget at a ridiculously low closeout price -- starting at midnight and continuing until they either sell out or until 11:59 pm that night. They don't offer responsive customer service, they don't take calls, they don't take returns (unless the item is clearly defective), they discourage any direct communications and they tell you that if you change your mind and don't want something you bought, go sell it on eBay! If it breaks, they say, go complain to the manufacturer.

What makes them so interesting?

Each day's item is accompanied by a totally irreverent diatribe that serves as the product description and sales pitch. For example, a recent Woot product description for a HP Pavilion Quad Core Media Center PC went like this:

Take it from me, man: the human race is screwed. Just the other day me and Rabbit were minding our own business, skating in the Lowe’s parking lot, not hurting nobody, when these cops come along and yell at us just for doing nothing, you know? I mean, yeah, Rabbit had tagged all over the Dumpsters, and I broke a couple of their potted plants, but we did that stuff, like, last week. They couldn’ta known it was us. Anyway, what else is there to do when you’re a teenager in this suburban wasteland, huh? Down with society, that’s what I say. When we overthrow all the cops, man, we can skate wherever we want.

Or listen to this.

I was in my room messing around with my HP Pavilion Media Center TV m8330f Desktop PC the other day, looking at everything but then again looking at nothing. And then my mom came in, and I didn’t hear her because I was watching some TV I’d recorded on the HP with its NTSC/ATSC high-def TV tuner and personal video recorder. And she starts screaming, “Mike! Mike!” And I go “What?” And she goes “You’re on drugs!” And I’m like “No, Mom, I’m not on drugs, I’m just enjoying the multimedia playback capabilities of this HP Pavilion, you know? Why don’t you get me a Red Bull?” She goes “No! You’re not playing with your computer! You’re on drugs! Normal people don’t watch TV that way!” So I’m all “Mom! Just get me a Red Bull!” All I wanted was a Red Bull, just one Red Bull, and she wouldn’t give it to me! Just a Red Bull! And maybe a better video card!

The PC was refurbished and cost $555 including shipping. It sold out by 2:37 PM central time.

Woot MonkeySince July 2004, Woot has been the pioneer of the "one deal a day" business model on the Internet. They also offer a similar one-day deal on T-shirts and one-week deal on wines.

Customers and members of the Woot community (described by Woot as "suckers") can post their comments. Sales statistics are also posted throughout the day for each item.

While you are snooping around, check out their job postings (www.woot.com/Jobs.aspx)

We really do think they are "onto" something... At the same time, we are pretty sure they are "on" something!