Especially with gas prices the way they are. Driving that far would negate any savings on the groceries.
In fact, I find my local grocery store to be cheaper than Walmart when factoring in weekly specials and BOGO deals.
DISH says Give Customers What They Want
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In fact, I find my local grocery store to be cheaper than Walmart when factoring in weekly specials and BOGO deals.
I really don't think people factor in the driving and gas prices. All they see is the advertised price. They don't often think of the final price after everything. They'll go to Lowes to buy a refrigerator and think they are getting the best price ever but Lowes is only going to drop it off at their doorstep. Hmmmm... Now I have to find a way to get this thing in my house. Two hours later and a dented door and you're done. But at least you saved $100. Oh, and if it breaks down in the near future who is going to fix it?
I know I'm complaining a lot but I see this every day and it's a bit of a peeve for me. At the end of it all the customer can do whatever they feel benefits them the most and they have every right to.
I know I'm complaining a lot but I see this every day and it's a bit of a peeve for me. At the end of it all the customer can do whatever they feel benefits them the most and they have every right to.
Honestly if I have a choice or working 60-80 hours per week at slave labor profit margins or sit at home and be poor while my body does not hurt or feeling crappy and tired, I would rather sit at home and be broke rather than working myself into poverty after dealing with cheapskate or poor customers.
Roger that..."ooh, I'm not going to get gas here because I can drive 5 miles out of my way to another station and save 3 cents per gallon."
LOL. My wife's grandpa is like that. He'll drive 20 miles to another town because their gas is 5 cents cheaper. It's not the overall savings he cares about but he just loves finding a good deal. He's a retired farmer and has no need at all to be getting the best deal since he can afford about anything. Some people just love to haggle and get a good deal, it's like a game for them.
it is easy to understand what you are saying from a business prospective. too bad so many feel that way about a regular job these days.....
it's always funny to see people line up a mile long at a gas station that has fuel 10 cents cheaper than everywhere else. they will sit at idle for an hour to save $2-- but burn $4 of fuel in the process.
speaking of sitting at idle...if the drive thru at the fast food place is longer than 3 cars deep, I will park and walk inside. Many times I'll get in and out before the car I would have been behind in the drive-thru. We waste so much money sitting in drive-thrus.
THANK YOU! I'm glad I'm not the only one that does that. People will sit in line burning gas for ever just to "save" 5 min of walking in. Hell, most of the time I'm in & out before the last person in drive thru is even up to the window during lunch rush.
Your DVD and Blu-ray argument is largely a strawman since they have been relegated to commodity status as has the entire video sales and rental business over the years. Cite an example of true value added that has been shunned by the "entitled customers" you describe.
That disturbs me, too, at least in the abstract. Even though my own circumstances mean I'll likely never be part of it, I do theoretically want a society where more people can work for themselves at good "wages" than a society where more people are stuck working for large corporations at low wages. However, I also have to consider that in such a society, I probably couldn't afford to live- and it's not just me, it's a lot of people.
The elderly, people with severe health issues, and also folks who plain old aren't wired with the potential as human beings to start their own businesses are sort often stuck on a fixed income (i.e. Social Security or pensions, disability payments, minimum wage or just barely above jobs with no benefits, etc..) all rely on discount stores. Already, 40% of food stamps recipients work, and qualify anyway for the benefit (At least partially- some people get a small amount that wouldn't feed anyone with the idea that they will supplement with their own cash) because their incomes are so low that it's understood that they can't pay for all the basics- and many people work such back breaking jobs with so little in the way of benefits that they become disabled in the sense of being unemployable (i.e. They physically can't stand for 8 hour shifts or do the physical labor they've done all their lives).
Life for those people gets worse without Wal-Mart, unfortunately. And that's the balancing act. Few people love to see neighborhood stores disappear, but low consumer prices are also what enable some people to survive, or live slightly beyond a survival-type existence and experience very small luxuries like books, music, television, Internet, or whatever. We could expand the social safety net and raise the minimum wage to compensate, but our political climate is such, for better or for worse, that the social safety net is likely to shrink, or at best stay even, and I don't see any huge hikes in the minimum wage coming (Maybe a small increase that doesn't keep pace with inflation- the minimum wage hasn't kept pace with inflation since the 1970s).
Well, no, generally, it doesn't. You're right for most use cases. But some people do live by those Wal-Marts. I have two right in town. So it makes sense for me. And I could see someone working it a trip to somewhat distant Wal-Mart to stock up on, say, a 2-4 weeks worth of necessities, and maybe tying it in with some other trip they have to make for something else to the same area, and that making economic sense. Of course, it'd still make sense to make smaller trips at the more expensive local store if the Wal-Mart is out of town. The price of the gas it costs becomes more or less of a factor depending on how many groceries one is getting.
Even at the cheap non-Wal Mart grocery, on days where the Wal-Mart is packed or I don't feel up to navigating their football field sized parking lots and interiors, I'll just go in for a few items and get severe sticker shock. At least in my area, it's a big difference. What I wind up doing for just a few items is looking for sales instead of specific things, and the sale prices hold about even with Wal-Mart's regular prices. But I wind up with a small weird assortment of things that tides me over for a couple days but wouldn't do as real hard core grocery shopping- I wind up going to the Wal-Mart within days because I can actually get the items on my grocery list (Pretty basic stuff most of the time) at a price I can afford.
It's not like I like Wal-Mart. The ambiance leaves a lot to be desired relative to the places my parents shopped growing up or the other places in town, and it's feels like running a marathon physically with the sheer size of the parking lot and the interior. But ultimately grocery shopping isn't something you do for fun or ambiance, you do it to get the food you need. I can come back from Wal-Mart most of the time with the food I need. I can't really do that other places unless it's really just a supplemental trip to grab a few things.
That's true. I have a relative who was well off financially for a long time and was kind of like that. Of course, he grew up poor, so that probably wired his brain to think that way. The rest of us were like "Hey, you've got money now, you don't have to do this kind of stuff, and sometimes it doesn't make sense anyway", but it was ingrained in him at a young age. Of course, he's not doing great financially anymore these days, so those skills are probably coming in handy again.
I honestly, honest to God, am not like that naturally. You give me a middle class income, and there's no way in the world I'd call and haggle over television service or Internet or anything like that. I'd be one of those people who figured out the service and the tier I wanted and stuck with it for 20-30 years or more. I don't like change, and I don't like negotiations. I also don't like shopping at Wal-Mart. But I've had to adapt and do those things as someone on a lower income level. It's not a game to me, it's life, and trying to a) survive and b) generate a quality of life that doesn't make me wish I wasn't surviving.
Little luxuries like television do sometimes help with the latter. Nothing I do is going to make me super-happy with my predicament, but some effort and smart choices can make the difference between hating every single second, and being able to take my mind off things here and there and having some neutral or even good moments here and there. Not just with television, but a lot of different things, some more traditional. Getting a dog was probably the best decision I ever made. Of course, to afford the dog, I had to look around for a long time and haggle with people over price, and find the cheapest veterinarian in the area, and so on and so forth. And I've made a lot of sacrifices in other areas. But if I hadn't done any of that, I'd be missing someone who keeps me company and who helps me out a little health wise by forcing me to do some light exercise through pain. I'll probably never have children, so raising a puppy might be the closest I ever came or will come. But I did have to haggle and seek out deals.
Again, put me at even an average income level, and I probably would have just gotten a dog from a top breeder with good bloodlines and not haggled at all or had to do much looking. The dog would probably get premium food instead of Purina. I'd probably go to the fancy vet instead of the country vet type outside of town. I'm not cheap by nature, I'm cheap because my income level forces me to either be cheap or spend my life alone staring at the walls of my ugly apartment eating ramen (Which I have to do a lot of anyway despite my thriftiness, because you can only make a little money go so far).
And, yeah, I do agree, TV is not a necessity. I cancelled it once and went without for a while (Actually, twice, but the first time was like 15 years ago when I lived in an area with an OTA signal and more OTA sports available). It turned out, though, that just having the ability to watch my favorite teams play a ball game (Whether I flip on the TV or not on a particular night) or watch the news and connect with the world means a lot to me. I was really depressed without that. So I try to figure out a way to get it done. They'll probably be more times to come where I can't. But I try to do it if I can.
Same thing with the Internet- not only connects me with a lot of news and entertainment, but I can write e-mails to old friends and family, do instant messages, play simple Scrabble-like games with people I know and people I don't through the wires to keep the mind active, etc.. You can even buy books and music that way. Some people use it to look for and apply for jobs. Many job applications are Internet-only these days- folks go to stores trying to apply for jobs and are told to go to the website instead, that they don't take paper resumes or have paper applications anymore. You can save money by paying bills online instead of buying checks and, in some cases, stamps and envelopes where there isn't a return envelope postage paid.
I think, actually, oddly enough, the more money you make, the less important TV and Internet probably are, in some ways. If I were able to constantly have nights on the town and had a wife and kids and and buy or do whatever I wanted, had a nice big house and property to explore, and so on and so forth, I'd probably spend a lot less time in front of a TV or a computer. I could visit the people I talk to more, etc.. But on days where you've not got a nickel to your name, there's no gas in the car, it's raining outside, and you're all alone in a small place, it sure helps to have something to do.
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That hasn't been my experience. Most weekly sales at my local grocery beat Walmart regular prices, and WM can't even come close to BOGO sales. Publix (my grocer) has dozens of BOGO sales each week and I usually can offest the items on my weekly shopping list that aren't on sale with the sale items to get my grocery bill lower than if I had gone to Walmart exclusively.
The only other thing I'll say is, what is the fascination in paying for a pet from a breeder when there is an abundance of free pets needing homes? The financial benefit alone is worth it enough, and it is proven that mixed breeds live longer.
It may vary by region and what you buy. I don't have a Publix where I live.
This is fairly specific to me, but I had a dog growing up who my family got as a puppy who was of a specific breed. I have a very strong psychological attachment to that breed and another dog breed just wouldn't have been the same for me personally. I also really value and enjoy the process of raising a puppy (I guess the first one was kind of like a brother to me, though he passed away more than a decade ago, and the one I have now was kind of like a surrogate child to me in some ways, though he's grown up now) and bonding to a dog and spending it's entire life with it. The breed I like is also known for being extremely affectionate and playful, and smart, and while there are other breeds out there like that, and dog breeds of somewhat similar sizes and appearances, they just don't come across the same way to me. It's subjective, but other dogs almost remind me of cats by comparison. This breed is very in your face. You stick your arm out for something and out of nowhere there is his head in between you and your desired object, forcing you to pet him.
I could have maybe gotten a random dog for free, but it's actually the dog food, heart worm and flee/tick preventatives, vaccinations, veterinary visits, etc. that make up the large majority of the dog's cost over the course of the, let's say 10-12 years, you might have that dog for. The initial purchase price is a large barrier to entry, but small as a fraction of the over all cost of a dog through the years, though I had to really look hard and negotiate hard to get it down to something I could manage (and actually someone offered to loan me that, which helped a ton, though I was prepared to pay it myself if I had to, God knows how). I figured it made sense to get the type of dog I'd be happy with for a little extra to start than spend ten years staring at a dog I'm not happy with (Which wouldn't have been fair to either me or the dog).
In practice, I've found that I bonded with my dog almost instantly as a puppy because of my pre-existing attachment to the breed and the ways he reminded me of my old dog, and it gave me the patience I needed to house train him and so on and so forth. Even when I visit other people's homes, if they have a dog who is the same breed as my dog, I'll spend the whole time petting the two of them (I bring my dog with me places, he loves car rides and visiting people), whereas I may *like* dogs of other breeds, but not nearly as much, and find myself paying less attention to them (and they seem to demand less attention).
Recently, I found myself in an environment with my dog and a dog of the same breed where I was petting my dog with one hand and fiddling with my phone with the other, and the remaining dog gave a loud "hrrrmmph" indicating I should pet her. When I moved my hand to pet her for a moment, my dog looked stricken and stared at me like "But... but... I live with you.". I had to put down the phone and pet them both. They're very intense about affection and play.
I see pictures of dogs of this breed and saw "Awww, that's cute" whereas I see pictures of dogs of nearly any other breed and say "Eh".
It's just a thing with me.
I have no problem with people going to their local pound or shelter or craigslist and rescuing a dog who needs a home. I think that's a great thing to do, actually, and I applaud them. Usually those are folks who are more from the "a dog is a dog" school, and who's breed preferences, if they have any, aren't nearly as strong as mine. I could see doing something like that if years down the line when my dog dies of old age, I have absolutely no way to swing getting a puppy of the same breed. I was looking into those options anyway as fall backs, but had trouble pulling the trigger on them. But it makes a big difference to me personally.
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by asking this, you are probably going to end up the in the same argument as pay tv vs ota.....
Free pet vs breeder is a poor argument if you know anything about dogs, their temperament, life span and health issues. I will only use a reputable breeder.
yeah, those poor OTA antennas sitting in Radio Shacks all over the world waiting for a good home.
I've seen plenty of "pure breeds" with all kinds of health issues related to over breeding and in-breeding from "reputable breeders". My mutt is going on thirteen years old and doesn't have any of those issues. We picked her up from a Human Society fair at the local zoo when she was four months old. We do take her to vet every year and did spend money getting her trained, money well spent. Not like more than few dogs I've seen that people buy at $1000+.
People must have a negative impression of humane society dogs as mangy, unhealthy, unruly mutts. My beagle mix I got from the Rescue League at 6 months old was the best dog I've ever owned and she lived just shy of 16 years.
I have nothing but mutts and (formerly) stray cats. All have such unique traits, my last few pets died at ages 13-16. I wouldn't trade my mutts for anything in the world! They have the best of the different breeds put together! All cats and dogs need lovin'. Not just the pedigree pets!
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