Latest news with #hot tub
The Sun
6 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Shoppers race to snap up hot tub and pool essential scanning for just 50p instead of £16
SHOPPERS are rushing to grab a must-have hot tub and pool essential that's been spotted at an incredible 97% off. Clearwater Multi-Function Chlorine Tablets offer a quick and easy solution to keep your pool or hot tub water clean and safe. 1 Typically, you can find tubs of 50 20g tablets for around £16 at most retailers, but savvy shoppers have discovered an unbeatable bargain elsewhere. Posting about the find on the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK Facebook group one shopper said: " B&M - 50p a tub. "Not on shelf, was top stock. Used app to scan. This was at Edinburgh Maybury Road and I bought the last eight tubs. "Hopefully stocked in other stores. "Perfect for those with pools and hot tubs to maintain." In response, one shopper said: "Wow what a find! "I've just paid £15 on Amazon as loads of local places are out of stock." A third added: "Bargain! I paid about £8 when I last bought these from B&Q and that was on clearance sale too." Designed for use with floating dispensers or the Lay-Z-Spa ChemConnect system, these tablets dissolve gradually over three to five days, depending on water flow. The tablets do more than just disinfect with chlorine, which kills bacteria – they also contain algaecide to stop algae from growing and a water clarifier to remove tiny particles that filters can't catch. This helps keep your water clear and sparkling. To use them safely, always follow the instructions and warnings provided on the clearly labelled container. The chlorine tablets are only available in-store and while stocks last. This means that the product might be out of stock at your nearest B&M store. To find all the stores locally to you, visit B&M is offering the Clearwater tablets at the lowest price we've found. For comparison, the same tablets cost £16 at Argos, £16.07 at B&Q, and £16.87 at Tesco. How to compare prices to get the best deal JUST because something is on offer, or is part of a sale, it doesn't mean it's always a good deal. There are plenty of comparison websites out there that'll check prices for you - so don't be left paying more than you have to. Most of them work by comparing the prices across hundreds of retailers. Here are some that we recommend: Google Shopping is a tool that lets users search for and compare prices for products across the web. Simply type in keywords, or a product number, to bring up search results. Price Spy logs the history of how much something costs from over 3,000 different retailers, including Argos, Amazon, eBay and the supermarkets. Once you select an individual product you can quickly compare which stores have the best price and which have it in stock. Idealo is another website that lets you compare prices between retailers. All shoppers need to do is search for the item they need and the website will rank them from the cheapest to the most expensive one. CamelCamelCamel only works on goods being sold on Amazon. To use it, type in the URL of the product you want to check the price of. How can I save money when shopping at B&M? Shoppers have saved hundreds of pounds a year by using B&M's scanner app. The scanner lets you see if an item's price is cheaper than advertised on the shop floor label. Products that are typically discounted are seasonal items and old stock that B&M is trying to shift. The app is free to download off the B&M Stores mobile app via Google Play or the Apple App Store. Once you've installed it on your device, click on the option labelled "more" on the bottom, right-hand side of the app home page. You'll then find an option that says "barcode scanner". Click on this and you'll open a camera screen. Use the camera to hover over the barcode of the product you wish to check. If the price comes up as lower, take it to the cash desk and it will automatically scan at the lower price. You don't need to sign up for the B&M app to use the barcode scanner. How to bag a bargain SUN Savers Editor Lana Clements explains how to find a cut-price item and bag a bargain… Sign up to loyalty schemes of the brands that you regularly shop with. Big names regularly offer discounts or special lower prices for members, among other perks. Sales are when you can pick up a real steal. Retailers usually have periodic promotions that tie into payday at the end of the month or Bank Holiday weekends, so keep a lookout and shop when these deals are on. Sign up to mailing lists and you'll also be first to know of special offers. It can be worth following retailers on social media too. When buying online, always do a search for money off codes or vouchers that you can use and are just two sites that round up promotions by retailer. Scanner apps are useful to have on your phone. app has a scanner that you can use to compare prices on branded items when out shopping. Bargain hunters can also use B&M's scanner in the app to find discounts in-store before staff have marked them out. And always check if you can get cashback before paying which in effect means you'll get some of your money back or a discount on the item.
The Sun
06-06-2025
- The Sun
Mum, 24, dies in hot tub accident with entire body SCALDED when she passed out in water before waking up screaming
A MUM has tragically died after falling unconscious in a hot tub at a motel room. Gabriele Cristine Barreto de Freitas, 24, was left with horrific burns all over her body when she woke up screaming. 4 4 The mum-of-one had been at the motel in Curitiba, in the Brazilian state of Parana, with a man she had met at a party. She died with agonising third-degree burns after she was rushed to the hospital. The pair decided to take a hot bath together for a relaxing dip. However, things took a tragic turn when Gabriele decided to stay after her partner got out of the tub to go to bed. She passed out inside the hot tub after apparently hitting her head. The mum then woke up screaming as she saw bits of her skin hanging from her body after suffering severe burns. Shocking images from an intensive care unit show her entire body wrapped up in bandages. One image showed a large strip of skin hanging from her face. Gabriele reportedly died from a massive cardiac arrest - just six days after her family said she was recovering. Jenifer Vaniele Barreto, her sister, said: "We don't understand how Gabriele's death happened. "No one gave us any answers, they just said she had a cardiac arrest and died, that's all. The police at the Curitiba Homicide Division have now opened an investigation into the shocking death. The man she went with to the motel has not yet been interviewed by the police, according to local media reports. But the family's lawyer, Valter Ribeiro Junior, says they are demanding tests on the hot tub's thermostat to see if it was faulty. He said: "It is unacceptable that someone goes to a motel for leisure and leaves burnt to the point of dying days later. "If it happened to her, it's probably going to happen to other people. "It is possible that the equipment is not up to date and may have caused these burns." Gabriele leaves behind a five-year-old son, now being cared for by her mother. Hot tub safety tips Temperature Check: Keep the water temperature at or below 40°C (104°F) to avoid overheating. Soaking for extended periods in hotter water can lead to drowsiness, which could be dangerous. Stay Hydrated: Drink plenty of water before, during, and after using the hot tub. This helps prevent dehydration and overheating. Avoid Alcohol & Drugs: Don't use alcohol or drugs before or while using a hot tub. They can impair your judgment and increase the risk of accidents or health problems. Supervise Children: Never leave children unattended in or near a hot tub. Ensure they understand the rules and potential dangers, and that the water isn't too deep for them.
Daily Mail
06-06-2025
- Daily Mail
Hot tub horror as mother, 24, suffers fatal burns after hitting her head and falling into scalding water
A woman suffered fatal burns after hitting her head and falling unconscious in a hot tub in a hotel. Mother-of-one Gabriele Cristine Barreto de Freitas had was staying at a hotel in Curitiba, in the Brazilian state of Parana, with a man she had met at a party a week earlier. The pair were reportedly both enjoying a soak in a hot tub in the hotel. Her partner then got up to leave and Gabriele stayed behind. Once on her own, she reportedly hit her head and passed out, local media have reported. It is understood that her partner heard Gabriele slip and fall in the tub. She then woke up and her partner reportedly noticed her hand was peeling and her thigh had burn blisters. The 24-year-old suffered third degree burns from the scalding water in the hot tub. She was then rushed to a hospital, where her entire body was wrapped up in bandages. She remained conscious at the hospital and was recording videos for her family. Despite signs of recovery, six days later it was reported that Gabriele had suffered cardiac arrest and had died on June 5. Her sister, Jenifer Vaniele Barreto, said: 'They arrived at the hotel and he turned on the tub to a hot temperature. 'The two went to shower, took a bath and he left first and went to bed. He heard her fall and slip in the tub.' She added: 'We don't understand how Gabriele's death happened. No one gave us any answers, they just said she had a cardiac arrest and died, that's all.' The police at the Curitiba Homicide Division have opened an investigation into Gabriele's death. The man who she went to the hotel with has not yet been interviewed by the police, according to local media reports. The family's lawyer Valter Ribeiro Junior said they are demanding tests on the hot tub's thermostat to see if it was faulty. He said: 'It is unacceptable that someone goes to a hotel for leisure and leaves burnt to the point of dying days later. 'If it happened to her, it's probably going to happen to other people. 'It is possible that the equipment is not up to date and may have caused these burns.' Gabriele leaves behind a five-year-old son, who is now being cared for by her mother.
Android Authority
09-05-2025
- Android Authority
A Pixel 8 was left in a hot tub for four days, here's what happened
Adamya Sharma / Android Authority TL;DR A Pixel 8 owner lost their phone during vacation. Their device was found four days later, submerged in a hot tub. The phone continues to work without issue. There are plenty of mishaps that can occur while on travel, but one of the worst may arguably be losing your phone. A Pixel 8 owner recently found themselves in just such a situation. In what turned out to be a real-life stress test, the ending to this story is quite surprising. According to Reddit user Intrepid-Ad3513, to celebrate a holiday and four additional days off, they traveled to Poland with a group of friends. While on vacation, the group stayed at an Airbnb with various amenities, including a hot tub. The Redditor states that one night, they got so drunk that they lost their Pixel 8 on the first day of the trip. Despite searching for it, the group was unable to locate the missing device. On the fifth day, as the group headed back home, Intrepid-AD3513 was surprised by a video the Airbnb owner sent them. The video showed the owner fishing the missing Pixel 8 out of the hot tub. The Redditor mentions that the water in the hot tub reached up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit). After finding the phone, the Airbnb owner packaged the Pixel 8 up and sent it to Intrepid-AD3513. In a huge upset to expectations, the phone was still in working order after the user unwrapped the package and plugged the device into the charger. The user also shared an image of the handset working without issue. The Pixel 8 has an IP68 rating, meaning it can prevent ingress of dust and protect against water for long periods of time. However, this rating is for 30 minutes of water immersion, not four days. So, the fact that the phone seems perfectly intact is astonishing. One commenter jokes that the water was probably keeping the device cooler than usual, as Pixel phones are commonly known to get warm. The Redditor says that they wrote the post with their Pixel 8 and that, 'I will never buy another phone other than a Pixel.' Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Come for the hot dogs, stay for the gold bars: How Costco hooks shoppers
Last October Ann Watson strolled into her local Costco with a shopping list and a sense of purpose. From the $330 giant Halloween skeleton to the $1,000 backyard playset, her O'Fallon, Missouri, home was already overflowing with Costco bounty. Determined to buy just what her family needed that day, she warned her husband: 'Stick to the plan.' Then she saw the hot tub. Her willpower wobbling, the 37-year-old nurse and mother of three pushed her shopping cart forward, giving the friendly salesman a wide berth. But while waiting in a long line to check out, she couldn't help it. Her eyes wandered over to the vendor's display. Soon her feet followed. 'Oh my God, I'm in trouble,' Watson thought to herself. 'The hot tub was just so sparkly, shiny and beautiful.' Before she knew it, she was the proud new owner of a $23,000 five-seat luxury spa with a salt-water system – by far her priciest Costco splurge yet. Many of Costco's 140 million card-carrying members around the globe can relate. Social media is rife with shoppers' tales of popping in for a rotisserie chicken only to wheel out a basket piled higher than a tractor trailer. 'Yesterday I bought a $300 apple pie,' joked one member of a Costco Facebook group. Replied another: 'Every time I go to Costco.' Think of it as Costco's secret sauce. The popular warehouse chain has perfected the art of the impulse buy. It reels you in with the $1.50 hot dogs and then sells you gold bars. The retail alchemy even has a name: The 'Costco effect.' And it has helped turn Costco into the world's third-largest retailer behind Amazon and Walmart. 'People come in to spend $100 and walk out with $300,' CEO Ron Vachris said during a May 2024 earnings call.A hot tub wasn't even on Watson's wish list. She went in to buy toilet paper and paper towels. But Watson said she has no regrets, especially when she soaks her sore muscles in the bubbling hot water at the end of a night shift or when she watches her 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds splashing away on a sunny afternoon. 'We can't afford a swimming pool so a hot tub is the next best thing for them,' Watson said while munching on chocolate pistachios from – where else? – Costco. 'They love it so much.' Costco stocks far fewer items than most giant retailers but lures shoppers with low prices on high-quality goods, retail analyst Neil Saunders said. 'Costco knows how to entice shoppers. It drives traffic by offering essentials and it boosts sales by tempting people with all kinds of interesting products,' said Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. 'However, the rule is that everything has to be great value for money. Costco sells some very expensive items but they will be cheaper than they are elsewhere. Customers know this so they pounce on the bargains.' And those impulse buys are a vital part of Costco's business. Non-food sales are about 25% of the company's total revenue. 'They are also higher margin than food,' Saunders said. 'So getting people in for food and tempting them to load their carts with other things is really important.' Costco did not respond to requests for comment. Natalia Stefanioutine, 57, who works for a software company and lives in San Jose, California, said she and her husband are compulsive Costco shoppers. 'Everything in our house from the furniture to the dishes is from Costco,' she said. All week they add items to their Costco shopping list. Once inside the warehouse, they each grab a cart and set off in different directions. While treasure-hunting up and down those well-traveled aisles, that $150 shopping expedition magically doubles, even triples. 'It's just like some kind of spell gets cast after you swipe your membership card,' Stefanioutine said. 'We sometimes forget to buy the things that were on the list.' Cristal Hernandez, 35, who lives in Stockton, California, and works for the state's Medicaid program, said she and her husband shop at Costco for practically everything: furniture, groceries, tires. While most purchases are planned, others – like a new mattress in 2020 – are picked up on a whim. 'I think it's something in the air Costco probably puts in the ventilation. We can never go for one or two things,' Hernandez said, adding that it's hard to say no to deals when the quality is high and she gets cash back rewards through her Costco credit card. All of this is by meticulous design. A gleaming flotilla of high-end goods from big-screen TVs to diamond rings greet shoppers from the moment they walk in the door. Sale items compete for attention along the periphery. The distractions don't end there. Vendors hawk deals on cell phones and patio furniture, causing minor traffic jams. 'Part of what they're trying to do is get you to consider something but also to slow you down,' said Paco Underhill, author of 'Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping.' 'The pricing of some of those things triggers the thought in your head about what great bargains there are.' The basics – milk, toilet paper, those rotisserie chickens – are relegated to the back of the store, ensuring shoppers will pass temptation after temptation – many of them new additions in the ever-changing lineup of some 4,000 warehouse items. With no store maps or signs above the aisles – and the way the merchandise seems to hopscotch around the warehouse from visit to visit – shoppers are incentivized to get their steps in and explore each row or risk missing out on something they didn't even know they craved. The endless cycle of unexpected finds only available for a limited time increases the sense of urgency and keeps shoppers coming back week after week, according to Underhill. 'They do tend to move stuff around, which I don't love, but as you're looking for the thing that used to be over there you then find this new thing which is now over there that looks delicious or interesting,' said Karen Morrison, 61, who is retired and lives in Asheville, North Carolina. Morrison's closest Costco is over an hour's drive away, so she makes sure to stock up during her monthly visits. 'I will go with a list of five to 15 things, depending, and I will leave with 10 to 30,' she said. Usually, that means a few impromptu snacks. But in 2019, Morrison and her husband decided a hot tub marked down from about $3,700 to $3,000 was too good a deal to pass up. It was a fortuitous purchase. The hot tub helped make COVID-19 lockdowns more bearable and the water stored in the tub came in handy when Hurricane Helene cut off their water supply. 'For about three weeks, our toilet flushing water came from the hot tub,' Morrison said. Costco can sell goods at wholesale prices because it makes a substantial amount of money from membership dues. The average item is marked up 11% at Costco versus 25% to 50% elsewhere. And, even in the face of inflationary pressures and the Trump administration tariffs squeezing household budgets, Costco is trying to keep a lid on prices. But the economic storm clouds may not spare Costco. Recently, shoppers have been more cautious, according to Gary Millerchip, Costco's chief financial officer. 'They are still showing that willingness to spend but they're being very choiceful where they're spending their dollars,' Millerchip said during a March earnings call. That could mean fewer big-ticket purchases and more buyer's remorse. Scott Goldstein, 41, a marketing director who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, owes a prized possession to a Costco outing to pick up groceries in 2017. Goldstein said he and his wife had been dreaming of buying kayaks but were put off by the price tag. Then he spotted a $299 sale at Costco, less than half the price of kayaks they had looked at elsewhere. So he crammed the kayak into his SUV. 'I was so excited, I completely forgot to buy groceries,' he said. Later he went back to buy a second kayak for his wife. But other impulse buys have been harder to justify, he said. Of the $300 he spends at Costco every month, he joked that he returns a third. 'I bought a drone, and my wife was like, 'You can have it, but will you really use it?'' Goldstein said. 'That went back pretty quickly.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Costco gets you to shop 'til you drop more money Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
