Deficit Club — Store of Weird Things

What It Was

Remember 2010? Artemy Lebedev’s “Lavka” was still an icon of absurd humor; e‑shops sold with WOW and smiles, not only with low prices.

We built our own “Prank Shop” — a store where half the items made you laugh and the other half made you think “why does this even exist?” USB nonsense, a horse mask (hello, future meme!), t‑shirts with lines that made grandmas blush and students buy in bulk.

Context of the Era

2010: weird online stores on the rise. ThinkGeek (US) for geeks, Firebox (UK) for odd gifts, Lebedev’s “Lavka” for design things. People were tired of standard goods and ready to pay for humor and originality.

Deficit Club took a niche: only pranks. Nothing serious — everything either funny, strange, or both.

Business Insights

• Humor in product descriptions isn’t decoration — it drives conversion. Half the sales happened because of the copy.
• Offline marketing (stickers, posters where people hang out) outperformed paid search.
• “Weirdness” as positioning filters randoms and attracts “your people” — which saves marketing spend.

What I Built

• Django storefront with Robokassa payments — simple mechanics, rock‑solid.
• Lightweight, fast markup: pages flew even on EDGE (pre‑3G mobile internet — slow as a turtle).
• Warm, cheeky product descriptions — people read product pages like articles.

What It Looked Like

Assortment was gloriously absurd:

• T‑shirts with ridiculous lines (“I’m too handsome to work”, “Sysadmin: no, I won’t fix your PC”)
• USB gadgets (cup warmer, “Panic” button, grenade flash drive)
• Masks and costumes (horse mask, velcro beard)
• Office pranks (tank stapler, syringe pen)

Descriptions were part of the product:

Horse Mask: “Tired of colleagues seeing your face? The horse mask fixes that. Now you’re a horse. Everyone is shocked. Bonus: time off for the vet.”

USB ‘Panic’ Button: “When the boss walks in and you’re watching cats — press the button. It does nothing, but you’ll feel better.”

T‑shirt ‘I’m too handsome to work’: “Wear it to work. You’ll get fired. But you’ll be a handsome unemployed man. Priorities in order.”

Offline Ads That Worked

Stickers and posters in bars, coffee shops, dorms — where our audience actually hung out. Bold taglines, QR codes (yes, in 2010!), bright design.

Result: conversion from offline beat paid ads. People came for the horse mask and left with a grenade flash drive, a USB hamster, and the “I’m too handsome for this job” shirt.

Results

Lessons

• Humor is a strong conversion feature if it’s authentic and hits the audience.
• Human‑written product copy sells — not lorem ipsum from a bot.
• Offline is alive and works great — if you target your community and dare to be weird.
• “For everyone” positioning kills interest. “For those who get it” ignites it.