Sharper Image reports dull holiday sales

With sales of its top-selling Ionic Breeze air purifiers slowing, Sharper Image made a bold move this holiday season: they started selling iPods. Ok, maybe it was less bold than desperate. After all, you can buy iPods just about anywhere, and Sharper Image's margin on the units is only about $30, compared to $220 on a similarly priced Ionic Breeze. But the company had little choice, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The iPods were needed to get customers into stores, where they could then be "wooed" with items like the ever-popular Turbo-Groomer electric nose-hair trimmer and the company's cushy and ultra-expensive crappy massage chairs. The plan worked—at least as far as the iPods were concerned. Sharper Image, like other retailers, ran short as Christmas neared and eventually sold out their stock. Meanwhile, the nose-hair trimmers gathered dust, and the company reported lower-than-expected holiday sales. But the company has a comeback plan: CEO Richard Thalheimer plans "to develop products that go with the iPods customers already have." Woohoo. No one's done that. Hey, let's see if they can come up with something a little more innovative than the "iPod-compatible" Sound Souther Fifty.