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We all like deals. It makes no difference how wealthy or poor we are. We all like to think we are getting a good deal. Sometimes it doesn’t even make a difference if we need the product or service as long as we are getting a deal on it.
Lately, it seems like deals are getting harder to find outside of the normal places like yard sales and the 99 Cents Store. We have seen some good deals offered by the grocery stores in the past few weeks, but you know what you have to contend with to capitalize on those during strike season. But free eggs are free eggs.
Striking workers aside, it also depends how intense your desire is to get those eggs or get that deal. I know that the desire might outweigh the need and it also depends on the degree of your compulsion. With the massive overcrowding in this area while I am driving I experience a different form of compulsion.
There have been times when driving by a store and I see a parking spot I am consumed with the desire to park there, even though I don’t need to shop there. The sight of a good parking spot can bring a tear to your eye and make your heartbeat increase. You want to pull in and park if only for a moment so you can feel like you got a good deal on that spot.
As anybody with kids will tell you, fast food becomes an important part of the rotation in feeding your family. Like it or not, nutrition takes a back seat to time when your schedule gets full of extracurricular activities. Eating in motion becomes, as I’m sure it does on the space shuttle, second nature. But at the same time you don’t want to go broke in the process.
For years now all of the major fast food chains have been luring us to their locations with deals. Every one of them had a value menu that grew weekly, offering variety, and life was good. Parents on the move began to be lulled into a sense of expectation that when they pulled in they could escape with a meal that would cost less than at any sit down restaurant.
Then something began to shift. To my best recollection it was the introduction of salads at McDonald’s and the subsequent following suit of their competitors. As these leafy new interlopers’ popularity increased, a shift in the universe began to happen. The once extensive value/deal menus began to shrink. Look, I’m all for nutrition and it’s great that they offer an alternative, but if I have my choice of options like a Chinese Chicken Salad or a Chicken Baguette sandwich instead of an extensive value menu, I’ll take the latter.
Along with it, old friends like the 99-cent Whopper became extinct. Because Burger King had offered it for so many years, the day that I pulled in and realized it was gone, I felt betrayed and suckered in. Kind of like a drug dealer giving you samples for free or at a reduced cost until you are hooked, then Wham! Now the only deal is $1.99, yes, the dream is over.
Even at Sam’s Club and Costco, where you have to pay a yearly fee to get good deals, they are getting fewer with each time I visit. Particularly in the DVD, CD, and video sections. For the longest time they were the best spots to pick up the latest new releases which made it really convenient. Nowadays they are generally two to three dollars more than Best Buy, so add another stop on the shopping rotation.
Then there is the worst deal, that wants you to think it’s a deal, on the face of the planet. The ongoing sham that is cable television. You would think that if ever there was an industry that should be offering deals it would be them. What with satellite TV, and the competing cable companies breathing down their necks, they should be re-evaluating how they charge consumers. Especially after forcing digital cable down our throats with claims of better reception and more channels. To be honest, in the reception department, I haven’t seen much of a change, if any at all. Every time I turn on my set it’s a crapshoot as to what my reception on channels 2, 4, 7 and 11 are going to look like. I hear this is the same problem that satellite cable has, so why should any of us bother to switch. Besides, beyond flaky reception by both providers, there is something even more sinister about the way they do business.
That would be the claim of the amount of stations that are available. Sure they have the amount that they are advertising, but out of the 200 plus channels, somebody tell me why I should pay for channels that are unwatchable, or should I say not understandable channels? I don’t speak or understand Armenian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Why should I pay for channels that broadcast in them?
What they should be doing is just what they do with the pay channel packages. They should be separating out the channels that I watch and charge me for those. They obviously have the technology to do it, based on the aforementioned pay channels, but greed and fear prevents them from doing it. What’s keeping them from doing it? It’s because their smoke and mirrors advertising is still working for them, sort of. They are in an advertising battle with the satellite cable companies that is dirty and is full of more lies than a political campaign. If they were smart they would start offering a reduced rate package based on their customers’ viewing habits. Because nothing brings in the masses like a 99 cent Whopper deal.
You cable guys can use that idea free of charge, and free is a deal nobody can pass up.
The Shrub Speaks: I'm sure there's a lot of people frightened -- biotechnology is a long word and it sounds -- they may say, well, I don't know if I'm smart enough to be in biotechnology, or it sounds too sophisticated to be in biotechnology. Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Nov. 7, 2003
B.D.’s response: Dubya, we know you can relate to this because we know how scared you get by long words!
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