Woot! – I came accross them by accident. Clicked on a video link, not knowing what I was in for, and ta da – Woot.com

They sell one thing each day. And each day it’s a different thing. Once they sell out on a day, they stop selling, and wait for the next day to begin.

The short answer: we offer a new item every single day. The details: a new product is released every morning at 12am central time, seven days a week. (If you’re not a morning person, this can be described as every night at midnight. Better?) If a product sells out during its run, a new item will not appear until the next release time. You will know if a product is sold out, because the main page says “SOLD OUT” instead of “I want one”. (Clever, eh?)

Sounds like a crazy idea! Right? Except they just got bought by Amazon (which is what the video is about – see below). So it can’t be that crazy. Right? Unless Amazon has more money lying around than they know what to do with?

The thing that’s got me most puzzled / intrigued is who thought this up? And even if they were high on something, who on earth thought it would work once they came down off of the high? I do love it. Not necessarily the store, but the story. The guts. The courage. The ‘big set of balls’ required (I imagine) to give it a go. And then the team that made it work. Work so well they get acquired by Amazon.

I haven’t spent much time looking around, but I love their attitude. Maybe they’re still high? I don’t know but I’m loving it : ) From their faq page:

I see some kind of weird-looking pope hat on the main page. What’s that about?

A Pope hat? Oh, that. It’s supposed to be a rocket ship. In any case, that’s our LAUNCH EVENT indicator! And boy, are you a lucky cuss. Spying the LAUNCH EVENT indicator is like catching sight of a leprechaun, or the elusive white whale. When you see it next to a Woot item, that item is available on Woot and nowhere else! Woot is the first and only place you can get such a doo-dad!

I’m certain they break a bunch of retail rules? I’m not enough of an expert, but because it’s so different to what I’ve seen before, I figure they must be doing something an expert consultant would have told them never to do : )