Category: Announcement

We’re looking for reviewers!

If you’d like to apply, here’s what you’ll need to send:

1. A review of a new product.
2. Photos of the product you reviewed. (Full resolution versions, please!)
3. A bio that includes why you want to write reviews for The Impulsive Buy.

A Few Notes:

• While I’m looking for reviewers in general, I’d really like more reviewers to focus on fast food.
• The new product can be something we’ve already covered on the site.
• It’s a paid gig and it’s per review. The pay is not enough for you to quit your day job, but it’s more than enough to cover the coffee you buy to get you through your day job. Well, unless, you order some custom made drink that’s so ridiculous that it causes barista-rage.
• Because sending rejection emails have slowly eaten away at my soul over the years, if you do not hear from me after two weeks from submitting your sample review, consider that as you not being selected. Okay, actually, make it three weeks because I’m probably going to procrastinate.
• We’re only looking for writers located in the United States.

Please send your review, bio, and photos as separate attachments. So do not embed your photos into your review.

To apply, please email everything to [email protected] with “Grimace is so huggable!” in the subject line. We will stop accepting applicants on Sunday, September 20, 2020 at 20:20 Hawaii Standard Time.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

Thank you.

Marvo
Editor

Starting today (Monday, April 13), TIB will not accept Spotted photos taken in stores, until further notice. If you happen to spot something new, and it’s something you plan on buying, and you’d like to let your fellow TIB readers know about it, please take a photo of it at home.

With this way of doing things, we won’t have photos of a lot of new products, but that’s okay. Safety is the number one concern during these times.

If you’ve sent in photos sometime within the past few days, we’ll be posting them throughout this week and maybe next week.

Stay safe, everyone!

Marvo
Editor

Welcome to The Impulsive Buy’s 2019 Season of Giving!

(I’ll pause here to let you all celebrate)

Now the bad news.

In previous years, we did multiple prize drawings for things like gift cards and mystery boxes. This year, we’re giving away ONE large mystery box to a lucky Impulsive Buy reader. What’s in the mystery box? Well, it wouldn’t be a mystery if I told you.

But I will say this, a number of brands have sent me free samples and swag over the past year, so those are some of the items you’ll find in the mystery box. I also have included extras of products I purchased for review.

Among those extras is a product that made my taste buds hate the rest of me for a few days. But I didn’t write a review about it because it’s not available in stores. Hopefully, it doesn’t come out in stores. What is it? You’ll have to win this box to find out.

So how can you win this mystery box?

RULES:

To enter this prize drawing for this Mystery Box, leave a comment with THIS post that answers the following question:

Out of all the new food products that came out in 2019, what were your favorites?

Don’t forget to fill out the email field because we’ll be emailing the randomly selected winner for his or her mailing address.

We will stop accepting entries on December 31, 2019 at 9:00 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time. Only one comment allowed per person, and it’s only open to U.S. residents 18 years old or older.

Just a note: If you post a comment and it doesn’t show up, it ended up in our comment spam folder for some strange reason. There’s no need to attempt to post another comment. I’ll be pulling those out of the comment spam vortex regularly.

Good luck!

FINE PRINT: The Impulsive Buy promises your email address will not be used to send you emails about how you owe us $5.99 via PayPal or else your account will be limited. The Impulsive Buy also promises your mailing address will not be used to send you the tears of a unicorn contained in a crystal bottle that was blown using the fiery breath of a dragon. Bribes will not be accepted. The Impulsive Buy will not be responsible for lost mail or damaged mail.

Hello, readers!

My name is Julie, and when I received the invitation to write reviews for The Impulsive Buy, I was drafting a recipe for “Leftover Halloween Candy Ice Cream.” Now I raise a waffle cone to toast you, my fellow snack enthusiasts in the pursuit of all things novel and delicious. (Anyone want a Milk Dud?)

I live in Pennsylvania, where snow and epic windstorms deter trick-or-treaters and where I work in online higher education. While my days are spent designing educational courses, culinary courses (and lame puns and wordplay) fill my spare time. While my background is in literature and composition, my creative writing pursuits have been dulled by years of composing e-mails that use phrases like “touch base,” “keep in the loop,” and “per my last e-mail.” In an office culture where colleagues call sugar “evil” and moderation “extremism,” sneaking a Snickers bar in my lunch bag feels like a subversive act. I’ve never been much of a rebel, but junk food is definitely a worthy cause.

Food has always played a profound role in my life, serving as the gooey caramel center of some of my most cherished memories. While I love to cook and bake, dreaming of someday infiltrating the Great British Baking Show and reducing Paul Hollywood to tears with my mixed berry layer cake, my 1990s upbringing instilled a deep and lasting love of snacks with cartoon characters on the box.

In the golden age of junk food, I kept a secret stash of Creme Savers under my bed, fought my siblings for the last Froot by the Foot, and knew that any day beginning with Waffle Crisp was bound to be a good one. I still eat more Bagel Bites per capita than the average adult, but junk food blogs like The Impulsive Buy help me to continue chasing the high.

Although my sweet tooth is legendary, I’m willing to try anything twice, especially if it’s pizza. I love novelty items and the small thrill of hunting for treasure up and down the aisles of the grocery store. If there’s a hot trend in frozen food, I want to be the first one to know. While everyone’s at the beach, my summer vacation means a pilgrimage to the nearest Trader Joe’s a couple of hours away in a car loaded with coolers and ice packs. Time for back-to-school shopping? Time to buy every new pumpkin spice item on the shelves! Loving food makes every day a special occasion, even if that only means finding “those hazelnut spread M&M’s I read about” to enjoy later.

What I thought was a weird obsession turned out to be a shared philosophy centered on reveling in the joys of everyday life. I am psyched to share the love with fellow likeminded junk foodies, who can appreciate a limited edition Oreo flavor the way a wine enthusiast savors a fine sauvignon blanc. Maybe together we can form a dedicated tribe to storm the Betty Crocker headquarters and demand the return of Dunkaroos. We’re gonna bring those things back, guys!