Reduce Holiday Shopping Stress with Helpful Tips from Verizon SuperPages.com

Reduce Holiday Shopping Stress with Helpful Tips from Verizon SuperPages.com

Map Out Your Shopping Trip or Try New Ways to Shop Online

Nov. 27, 2002

Media contacts:
Heidi Jaquish, Verizon, 972-453-6473
Eve Sheridan, Young & Associates, 301-309-9404

DALLAS - Whether you plunge into the bustling shopping malls or use the click of a mouse to browse online stores this holiday season, holiday shopping can be taxing. To reduce the stress, SuperPages.com (www.superpages.com) offers helpful tips to make the experience easy and enjoyable.

Map Out Your Shopping Trip

If you're planning on braving the crowds at the shopping malls, make the most of your time and use SuperPages.com's new search-by-map tool to create a map of your area and plot all the stores you need to visit.

Start by clicking on the "Map-Based Search" link on the SuperPages.com homepage. Enter a starting address and search for specific businesses or up to five different yellow pages categories. Now, you have a detailed map that pinpoints your starting location and the area businesses that fit the shopping categories you selected.

Each business category is represented by a different symbol, which may be clicked on to find more details such as address, telephone number and business hours. Print the map out and take it with you on your shopping trip.

Online Shopping Options

Traditional online shops are ideal for those who want to complete the shopping process from the comfort of their homes. Online stores allow you to purchase products through a Web site and either have them delivered or available for pickup. With SuperPages.com, you can choose a product category and then link to a variety of related, reputable online merchants.

Want the convenience of online shopping but feel more comfortable if you can see the actual product first? Try browsing through a company's inventory online and then visit the store's physical location.

Online auctions allow visitors to bid on any item for sale. Simply state the price you are willing to pay for an item, and if your bid is the highest, complete the transaction. Some popular online auctioning sites are ebay.com and ubid.com.

Reverse online auctions, such as SuperPages.com's MerchantMatch tool, are ideal for those who want to name their own price for a product or service. Enter your desired price for a particular product or service, and MerchantMatch connects you with merchants in your area willing to sell at that price.

Shopping Securely Online

Ensure that your online transactions are secure by checking for an icon of a locked lock on the bottom right corner of your screen. Also, pay attention to the predicted time it will take to ship your items-usually listed with shipping method choices-to make sure they will arrive in time for the holidays. Don't forget to check the return policy before making a purchase.

More Holiday Resources

In addition to shopping tips, SuperPages.com offers a complete holiday section with unique gift ideas, seasons reading, holiday e-mail postcards, an interactive shopping mall game and details about each major winter holiday including Christmas, Chanukah, Ramadan and Kwanzaa. Visitors may also search for holiday-related businesses in their area, such as "toys" or "malls." For more fun and helpful winter holiday resources, log on to www.superpages.com and click on the "Holiday Pages" button.

Verizon Information Services and SuperPages.com

Verizon Information Services is the world's leading print and online directory publisher, a content provider for communications products and services, and the largest publisher of Hispanic directories in the U.S. With operations in 14 countries and annual revenues of more than $4.3 billion, Verizon Information Services publishes more than 1,200 U.S. Verizon SuperPages directories and nearly 400 international directories with a total circulation of approximately 150 million copies worldwide.

Based in the Dallas area, Verizon Information Services produces and markets SuperPages.com, the Internet's #1 online directory and shopping resource. SuperPages.com receives as many as 14 million visits and 9 million unique visitors a month and powers directory services on MSN, InfoSpace, AltaVista, Excite, Lycos, Univision, Terra.com, Ask Jeeves, HotBot, BigFoot, Tripod and Angelfire as well as more than 2,500 affiliate Web sites.

The company supports computer literacy with philanthropic programs and through the Enlighten Me and Internet Learning Tutor sites on SuperPages.com. Enlighten Me is a fun site where children and their caregivers go to read, learn and explore. The Internet Learning Tutor is specifically designed for adults who are just learning their way around the Internet.

Verizon Information Services is a unit of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Through its signature Verizon Reads program and the Verizon Literacy Network, Verizon is leading the fight to increase U.S. literacy levels by creating community and corporate awareness, raising funds, encouraging collaboration among literacy providers and engaging employees in supporting literacy programs.

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