Mike Cassidy reports on a 30,000-square-foot cavern in Silicon Valley called the Weird Stuff Warehouse that sounds like a wetware dream for techno-nerds. The surplus store is "packed with a staggering array of gizmos conjuring up memories of the dawn of the PC, the time before broadband and the dot-com glory days," he writes. It actually sounds like a typical American basement, multiplied by a factor of many thousand square feet: Shelves filled with boxes of cables -- USB, Serial ATA, Firewire, audio, video -- "spilling out like serpents in an 'Indiana Jones' movie." And car chargers, cell …

A new global survey about store brands reveals that 87% of consumers believe store brands are at least the equal of national brands in "offering products that meet my needs," Mark Dolliver reports. The 23-country survey from Ipsos Marketing, Consumer Goods also finds that 89% of respondents believe store brands are "the same as or better than" national brands when it comes to "providing a good value for the money." Marketing Daily's Sarah Mahoney reported yesterday on a GfK Research survey for the Private Label Manufacturers Association that has similar figures. …

Bill Johnson, Charlie Tames and Scott Shoyer were three guys who didn't know each other from a brick oven but they purportedly had one thing in common: they'd never had a slice of the newly reformulated Domino's pizza. So, Elena Malykhina reports, Domino's put their names on posters and billboards, used signage on trucks and even sent airplanes aloft with ads to convince the three to have a slice. It was all captured on camera, and is available for viewing at a Domino's microsite. "We're really confident that people will try our new pizza, they …

United Airlines and US Airways, which have a history of courtship over the past decade, are once again discussing a merger. But, report Hugo Martin and Julie Johnsson, United's real intent may be to draw Continental Airlines to the bargaining table. "This looks like an attempt to get something going," former Continental CEO Gordon Bethune, who has no direct knowledge of United's plans, tells them. Some analysts say that all three airlines could end up combining. Representatives of Continental, United and US Airways declined to comment. A Continental and United merger would create about $5.8 billion …

A black-and-white Nike ad featuring the paternalistic voice of Tiger Woods' deceased father and a head shot of his repentant-looking son may not, down the line, be generating the enduring buzz that the Apple Super Bowl spot has, but it, too, will only be around for a limited run and has been a hot topic of conversation this morning (at least at our coffee urn). The :30 spot broke yesterday on ESPN and the Golf Channel and reportedly will vanish from the airwaves, if not the Internet, by tomorrow, Suzanne Vranica reports. The anchors on WCBS …

"We know that eco-friendly living is top-of-mind for our guests, and the launch of store recycling stations allows us to continue to partner with them to curb unnecessary waste in our stores and our communities," says vp brand marketing Shawn Gensch.