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Gardening with Amazon!

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Amazon recommends various items, based what you’ve previously bought or added to your wish list – which is fine and dandy. But some of the connections between what you bought / added and what they’re recommending seem totally unrelated. I’ve tried playing spot-the-connection and have had to give up on most of them.

I first noticed this a while ago [I wondered why they were recommending this stuff, and then saw, “Recommended because you purchased xxx”]. I started saving choice examples. [As this is a gardening site I’ll stick to just those, though the non-gardening ones are just as off the wall].

For instance …

Bought: 4-tier mini greenhouse …
Recommended:
… cake icing set
… coffee maker
… digital photo frame
… door chime kit
… essential oil
… George Foreman grill
… MP4 player

Bought: beach umbrella [cheaper than proper garden umbrella!]…
Recommended:
… baby teether ring
… baking tin
… cake stand
… child’s safety gate
… dinosaur stamp set
… dog nail clippers
… inflatable zimmer fame [“hilarious gag!”]
… Pampers “new baby” nappies
… satnav
… The Observations [Kindle novel]
… watch battery

Bought: bird nest-box …
Recommended:
… carpet protector
… cupcake earphones
… duvet
… electric kettle
… interior design computer disc
… Lego toy
… lighter fluid
… sleeping bag [for the birds???]
… shoelaces
… toy octopus
… Very Best of Billy Joel CD

Bought: butterfly garden nectar feeder …
Recommended:
… Hot book of chillies
… Kenwood blender
… men’s thermal long johns
… plant keyrings [real mini-plants on keyrings!]
… Red Sea coast travel guide
… silk cord chain necklace
… Sky balloons
… When kids kill (true crime series)

Bought: Container gardening through the year …
Recommended:
… A scattering (poetry)
… Allison Kraus CD [who?]
… Balance your hormones for a hot and healthy body
… Beatrix Potter complete stories
… Dead Men’s Footsteps [novel of “rural poor up to 1900” that still takes in 9/11]
… Making War Horse [film of the play]
… Midnight Fugue [crime fiction]
… Nuno felt [craft]
… Nurse Jackie season 1
… Painting with impact
… Power Yoga DVD
… Rosemary Conley workout book
… Sewing in no time

Bought: Creating a garden wildlife pond …
Recommended:
… Home brewing
… How to make and use compost [very handy for a garden pond!]

Bought: Directory of scented plants …
Recommended:
… How to start your own small business

Bought: Drought-resistant gardening …
Recommended:
… Flesh house [crime novel]
… I can make you sleep (Paul McKenna)
… Panasonic breadmaker
… Sacred hearts [historical fantasy]

Bought: Evergreen trees and shrubs …
Recommended:
… Wolf hall (Booker prize novel)

Bought: Gardener’s world …
Recommended:
… First family [novel]
… Happy mummy baby cubes food portioners (stage 2) — [WTF??]
… Shrek [DVD]
… There’s only one Jimmy Grimble [“football fantasy”]

Bought: Gardening without a garden …
Recommended:
… 50 easy party cakes

Bought: Green garden expert …
Recommended:
… 9 ct white gold pull-through earrings [?!!!]
… Weight training for dummies

Bought: mini greenhouse …
Recommended:
… earmuffs
… silver earrings

Bought: Patios and courtyards …
Recommended:
… Good food guide

Bought: plant pot, self-watering …
Recommended:
… Kindle screen protector [e-book reader]

Bought: plant seeds …
Recommended:
… electric blanket

Bought: plant stand, 3-tier …
Recommended:
… child sleeping bag
… Dark Matter [Kindle book]
… fondue chocolate
… men’s watershorts [new word for swimming trunks]
… ovulation testing kit [!!!]
… toy monkey
… Windows 7 upgrade

Bought: rubber snake [attempted squirrel-deterrent]…
Recommended:
… Australian hat with corks
… Mattress protector

Bought: Small gardens …
Recommended:
… 100 delicious juices and smoothies
… Real family food

Bought: The tiny garden …
Recommended:
… At home with white [home décor]
… Beach cottages: at home by the sea
… clothes-peg bag
… Japanese craft: embroidery
… Old house, new home [home makeover]

Bought: Velcro plant ties …
Recommended:
… bike repair manual
… cordless screwdriver
… door chime
… Dr Seuss book
… fridge/freezer thermometer
… Handmade cards
… “healthy joints” capsules
… iPod nano
… Kate Bush CD
… memory foam insoles
… PC cable
… Phantom Limb CD
… SD card [I bought an SD card file but they didn’t recommend this because of that!]
USB mains charger
… wooden toy train

Bought: Water in a small garden …
Recommended:
… Annie Lennox Collection CD

Bought: What plant where …
Recommended:
… Jam, jelly and relish: how to make them
… Spirit level, the: why more equal societies almost always do better

Bought: wild bird feeder …
Recommended:
… adopt-a-Meerkat gift box
… Annie Lennox CD
… “bigtrak” toy car
… car steering wheel for computer games
… dog camera [to attach to dog’s collar, to get dog-eye-view of the world]
… bottle stopper
… eggcup + toast cutter
… “Eliza Dolittle” CD
… hand warmer
… Lego game “shave a sheep”
… maze game
… Need for Speed computer game
… Pickles, relishes and chutney
… slinky
… toy lion
… unisex clogs
… World’s weirdest animals

Bought: Wildlife gardening for everyone …
Recommended:
… Case for god, the – what religion really means
… Enchanter’s end game [fantasy]
… How to be idle – [glad they think wildlife gardening is so easy that this is a natural follow-on!]
… Quilled greetings cards
… Secret coves and beaches of Britain

If you have any Amazon recommendations as weird and wonderful as these, please share!

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Comments

 

From their point of view it did work Fran because you did take notice, like all adverts, they annoy us at times but they do stick in ones mind. I guess one could use the electric blanket with ones seeds but gosh think of the cost, LOL.......
Have to say I do find their recommendations amusing...

7 Aug, 2011

 

sorry Fran, but me and my husband have laughed our heads off at this blog, its so funny what they recommend, long johns would be handy for winter gardening, Lol thanks for a good laugh,

7 Aug, 2011

 

Off the wall without a doubt ... very dubious connections (if any) to your ordered products ... Alison Krauss is a Bluegrass-country singer, songwriter & fiddler, did the soundtrack for Cold Mountain film & has won 26 Grammy Awards ... yeeha! My OH likes her singing voice ... not for me though! . . . . .

7 Aug, 2011

 

Thanks for that, Shirley - of course I could have Googled the name and found that out for myelf!

I saved them in a Word file as I came across them, Lincslass, and then go back and tick "not interested", so I don't remember them for more than the few seconds necessary. They do make a few sensible recommendations, and I've found a few bits that I probably woulgn't have found on my own, but mostly they're weird - I didn't list any of the sensible ones, beacuse they do make sense!

lol Yorkshire, I posted them to, hopefully, raise a smile, even if of bewliderment!

Playing "spot the connection" can be a mindbending game; how do they get a connection between a nest box and a Billy Joel CD???

7 Aug, 2011

 

Beats me about the Billy Joel connection . . . . . .

7 Aug, 2011

 

unless he's recorded a song that has "nest of birds", "nest", "of", or "birds" in the lyrics??

7 Aug, 2011

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