Shopping finds

Recent trip to the shops for a fetish feed turned up some interesting new finds. All the following finds were discovered in Staples, who are admittedly a little over priced, but generally have good stock levels and variation.

First up is two new Bic pen finds, the 2-in1 Stylus and the Cristal Stylus. Their use and intention are pretty obvious I would say to everyone, I do like the fact that they have crafted a more budget end stylus pens as well as an all steel premium model. Although i think selling a bic branded Stylus cap would have been a good idea too, maybe not as commercially lucrative but a nice touch and addition to the Bic line up.

We are all familiar with the Bic four colour pen, well here we have a standard model branded with Hello Kitty, the colours are no different to the stanard model, which seems strange, why not brad the Pastel version as a Hello Kitty model, or perhaps some limited edition colours, anyone remember the yellow ink Bic Cristals that used to be available?

And of course no shopping trip would be complete without the obligatory Sharpie  product line check up. Here we have 2 Sharpie pen models, the Stylo Premium Pen and the Stylo Grip Pen, now, why the premium is labelled as such I'm not sure, as far as i can tell the barrel is all plastic, the nib is no different and colours are the standard fair available in all Sharpie pens, equally bizarrely, the premium version is actually cheaper as a 4 pack than the 3 pack grip pens. Neither of them replace in my affections the Stainless Steel or Pen Sharpies as reviewed in an earlier post.

 Here we have a new find, Aveo are I believe a Montex brand/model, first impressions are these pens are very similar to the old model Sharpie pens as mentioned above and reviewed in earlier post. These pens feature SilkScribe ink, of which there was no further mention on the packaging so what the benefits are of it I have no idea.

Some nice Staedtler penciles were also spotted in the loose section of Staples, as you can see there are a multitude of colours, which all makes for a nice product line up, rare to see investment in so many colours from a good manufacturer. I'm note sure what the white artifact is around the coloured lead, there was no mention of it on the retail pricing stickers,  so if anyone knows please get in touch.

 And in closing some new pencils from Faber-Castell, 2 1/2 HB Grip pencils, with a free Grip eraser too, nice little bonus there, writing pencils seem to be becomming more and more popular lately, perhaps following the American market.