BMM again; also tents (cheap) and groceries (cheap); also farewell to North Face and G3

[doctroid]

Looks like the next BMM practice won't be until April 2.

I went to Binghamton early Saturday to go to the annual tent sale at the Eureka Camping Center factory outlet store. I bought a tent made by Eureka for Galyan's, a chain which has since bought out by Dick's Sporting Goods leaving the Galyan's tents orphaned. The tent I bought was not

Comments

[sunburn]

Those cards aren't a total scam-- you have to have them in order to buy the loss-leader prices on the occasion that the store discounts something into lossy territory.

I also am amused that they discount name-brand prices below store-brand prices, even though the store-brand will often still have a price sticker demanding that you compare store to name brands and save with the store brand.

Whether these two benefits offset the fake-o marked-up, then discounted market prices they get you, and the fact that even if Karl Rove doesn't know what you buy, the highest bidder certainly will, well, I dunno.

[doctroid]

I think it's pretty much become a meaningless question, because all the stores have cards now, which means all the stores' no-card prices are pretty much fictional.

Which of course takes you full circle to the Time Before There Were Cards and you base your buying decisions (in part) on who has the lowest real (card users') prices. P&C clearly beat Wegmans this week; the meat prices for instance were well under what you'd normally pay anywhere, card or no card.

I have a Kroger's card even though there are no Krogers in our area, just because I was shopping once at a Kroger in Newport News and there was a package of chicken breasts or something whose card discount price was worth the bother of signing up. Actually I think I threw the card away afterward, having decided there are better grocery stores in Newport News for any shopping I may do on future trips there.