Quietly last week on July 12, 2014 Amazon.com began promoting Woot.com.   I know this because I was ‘invited’ to join. Being curious I did just that. The home page offered what I felt was the burning question – ‘WHAT IS WOOT?’.

This is what the site home page notes:

A discussion of ill-advised efficiencies, failed idealism, and trampled dreams.

Woot is a lifestyle. Woot is a vision. Woot is a pungent aroma that never apologizes for what it is. Woot is the hope in the eyes of a child when that child realizes you don’t have to pay List Price for cool stuff. Woot is an ever-evolving deal maelstrom churning around a tornado circling a mystery. If you haven’t seen Woot since yesterday, you haven’t seen Woot.

Pardon me if the above explanation did not leave me all that satisfied. Checking Wikipedia.com I found the following:

‘Woot is an American Internet retailer based in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, Texas. Founded by electronics wholesaler Matt Rutledge, it debuted on July 12, 2004.^[3] Woot’s main web site generally offers only one discounted product each day, often a piece of computer hardware or an electronic gadget. Other Woot sites offer daily deals for t-shirts, wine, children’s items, household goods, and two other sites that offer various items. On June 30, 2010, Woot announced an agreement to be acquired by Amazon.com.

Now I get it. Woot is a flash sale or daily deals site. At least that’s what it seems.

More from Wikipedia:

‘Woot’s tagline is “One Day, One Deal”. Originally, Woot offered one product per day until its stock of that item is sold out, or until the product is replaced at midnight Central Time with the next offering. If a product sold out during its run, the next item would not appear until midnight, except during Woot-Off promotions. However, post acquisition from Amazon, if a product sells out fast enough(generally before Noon CST), a new product will be offered for purchase. Products are never announced beforehand. This sales model means that defective products cannot be replaced, only refunded. The company also does not provide customer support for the products it sells; in case of problems, customers are advised to seek support either from the manufacturer or through the online user community on the Woot forums.’

That Woot.com has been around since 2004 surprised me as I was only vaguely aware that there was a site Woot.com but had no idea what it was about. That Amazon.com decided to purchase Woot.com seems like a natural fit.

That it took two years for Amazon.com to promote Woot to me – a loyal Amazon.com customer is head scratching. But then these days Amazon.com causes lots of head scratching.

This week Amazon officially released the Kindle Fire phone.   I have not tried it yet and have heard mixed reviews so far.

Are you a daily deals and/or flash sale aficionado?   Have you heard of or tried Woot.com?