At Sears buying a frying pan. Take it to the checkout and the cashier asks me for my phone number first thing. I said, " I have to give you my phone number to buy a frying pan?". He mutterers something about a rewards card. I said, " I don't have one." Then he asks, "do you a have an e-mail address." I gave the only answer he deserved, a short and sweet one. "NO", I said. This helped to avoid any further complications to this simple business transaction. I paid with a credit card (not a Sears one) that gives me "rewards" back on all purchases. Good for me.

You practically have to have a degree in Marketing to buy a pint of milk at my local supermarket.

You save a lot of money however if you have joined all those stores (speaking for not Sears now) with your email and address details. Easily each time i buy some items adding to around $30-40 it can be 3-4 or more. Also some special prices they have on discount are only available if you have their card or your tel number is in their system to recognize you. You could be buying a chocolate bar for 1$ instead of $1.5 for example or almonds bag for $5 instead or $7 etc. Its non trivial differences. Of course their benefit is that they can track what you buy and adjust their models on patterns etc. Who cares its a no more secrets world anyway soon and the only way to tolerate it is to become an ethical society that understands the human condition and has no more fears and prejudices etc.

Longs drugs, Payless, Safeway, Sears etc have such cards. But they do not require to alter your credit by opening one more credit card or anything. The ones i know simply issue you a card for the discounts to loyal members thats all, you pay as you like the resulting purchases in whatever methods you want (some others need to use their credit card and those have huge int. rates) . They do have credit cards also they issue (Sears, Target etc) but this is probably a bad idea to add more to your credit i have heard if you have already many cards, although if you know its not a problem and you pay them on time you can get some discounts there too at opening that may be significant for larger purchases at that day.

If you are careful about these things and plan to attack them on their discount periods for eg groceries you can save a lot of money vs a random visit of someone that doesnt know. Many of those offers are marketing ploys of course but on occasion you do get some remarkable bargains that they are definitely not trivial or malicious in their objective. Can you beat 10 pounds potatoes at $3 vs regular at 5? How about full fresh chicken for $3.5 instead of $5.5. You can track these online so you know when to strike so to speak and place an order and they deliver home without any cost if you are over a certain balance per event.

The trick here of course may be that they manage to give you the illusion that you can benefit if you invest a bit of effort. That way they get you to remain loyal chasing those opportunities and of course buying all the things you need anyway even when they are not on bargain. If you plan and buy in big quantities things that dont spoil you save more when they have the bargains. The alternative would be to have lower prices for all ,all the time but then nobody would appreciate them lol. Humans are idiots and deserve to be exploited (well not all) but scientific society will end the bs games because its plan is to have everything basic free eventually so that it can bloody focus on more important objectives and dreams.

PS1: My local Sears of many years, in fact many decades before i even came here, closed recently. The entire mall was redone later after the old buildings were demolished. So nobody has been in Sears for years is probably accurate lol.

PS2: Watching yesterday during dinner a recorded documentary about the dust storms and drought of 1930s in many central and southern states (caused by not properly planned farming and ground erosion by the removal of natural vegetation and other agricultural practices before they became intelligent about it, something Asia is also suffering from these days) and it was talking about farmers being able to buy pumping water wind mills (for underground wells) for their farms from Sears. Good old times...


PS3: Speaking of documentaries i suggest this new one on History channel about the WW1 called Apocalypse WW1 (100 years today). What is great about it is that it has many old films and archives but nicely reprocessed and in color now and very clean in fact (some of remarkable quality, including also sound, of course creative editing helps too) as if you were there living in that era watching the news (in movies i suppose in a pre TV era). I have never seen before images from the time my great grandparents and grandparents were young or kids so vivid, clean and in color. Very good quality if only to get the experience of what life was at this point in time, something easily lost in old BW films that always seemed so distant and unable to connect with you as something from an alien period. Definitely a new look at WW1 with today's technological assistance.

They really should start paying physics people more.

What makes you think that i am the kind of person that my money my way i dont mind what i pay...

What they really should do is start paying not money (although side projects are welcomed) but attention to physicists and what they have to say.

something interesting:

List of NSA patents

English translation please.

Funny that you just mentioned tiredness making it harder to communicate.

I am fairly sure that physicists are paid attention to. Not by everyone of course, which would be quite strange, but by the people interested in physics.

You need IQ or much more likely a less trolly attitude, not translation. My money, my way, i dont mind what i pay . What on earth can this mean, in a somewhat poetic style, other than i can have my way with my money and get whatever i like without caring for price.

Commas sometimes matter. I am still a bit confused since you asked me "what makes you think that I am the type of person that..." You were stating stuff about saving a dollar here and there in the post before mine. That sort of thing would suggest that you are the type of person who does care about price.

I obviously wouldn't have said anything about your income if I thought you were poorly paid and required coupon clipping in order to afford a potato. That would be rude.

Penurious poorly paid potato peeling perspicacious prolix pontificating professor petulantly parries pompous picayune pugnacious portly peddler.

I dont use coupons like the old fashioned paper cuts and i get a ton of junk mail with them that is sitting there lol and gets thrown away eventually never examined. However i spend gladly 2-3 min to go over 100 items in a couple webpages that have things i may get regularly which i then select online to be automatically added to my card as "coupons".

Its not about saving 1-2-3-4 here and there because i need 4$. Its because when you see chicken down 40% in price its time to fill the freezer and when you see cheap potatoes (all great same quality) its time to buy 4 bags instead of 2 and have some for next month if you store them properly away from light. I buy my chocolate bars when they are 1$ not $1.5. I buy 10 of them then. I only suggested how to strike in volume like a predator that goes after hundreds of items like that every year. I am not doing it for a few $. When i get a bill that is $250 and i take it down to $180 for example, its something significant that would be an insult to poor people to not have saved when it didnt take more than a few minutes of proper actions online. I was giving an example of how one can apply the card to gain substantial savings over a year without wasting time on it, since you browse what you want to order at the same time anyway and you waste less time than if you went to the store yourself.

I have no problem spending as much as its needed for many things that i see valuable and i am not a cheap person. I just dont like to be exploited more than the stupid structure of society makes possible already.

I will then gladly donate a few $ at the end of a transaction to whatever medical fund they are proposing. Save it from one place and that way afford to give some to a decent cause. If Safeway emails me with discounts it takes seconds to add to my card. If i simply entered the store without any clue i would be paying full prices. One thing that is true in US is that basic food with exception of fruits and certain vegetables is much cheaper than in Europe. If you coordinate your purchases you can make it even cheaper.

My ancient Greek culture would never allow me to behave as if i can buy anything i like to excesses i dont need just because i have the means to do it. Its hubris.

I am saving because i dont like to be arrogant when i know that people out there have problems. Whatever i buy in volume i use at standard slow pace eventually. I was explaining how you can get these cards to work to your benefit and use the saved money and buy books or gifts to others or whatever of value instead of having wasted it because you were careless.

My mom used to clip coupons and save box tops and proofs of purchase seals enough to fill a large sandbox just in case some offer would come along where she could use them. She tried to buy things where she could use a store coupon, a manufacturer's coupon, and get a rebate besides. Sometimes they would be paying her to buy something instead of the other way around. She'd give me food items as gifts, and the packages would all have holes cut in them where she removed the proof of purchase. We weren't poor; we just acted as if we were.

Principally penny-pinching person perplexingly pronouncing profligate payment preference.

Dickhead tells me his construction is all done, and now I see a delivery of a truckload of studs and drywall. I can see this is going to be another peaceful weekend.

That is what we call "being thrifty." Your explanations as to why you are thrifty are pretty much the normal ones given by the thrifty. You are, happily, not alone in the world.

Since some people who aren't thrifty don't differentiate between the thrifty and the cheap, you often find that the thrifty folk call themselves "thrifty, but not cheap."

Thrifty is second only to brave, clean and reverent!

Wouldn't that make it fourth?

Don't be silly, bruce.

First, continue being silly, Bruce.

Second, I think that you need to find a way of gaining some sort of leverage over noisy-neighbor-dude so as to bring him to the negotiating table. Do you play any musical instruments?

I have a trumpet.

If I complain to the company that manages the development, they won't do anything because they're worthless. So I'm thinking about copying their letterhead and sending a letter as if it came from them. It would say that they have to cut out various sources of noise or they will be fined $500. They probably won't check if it's legitimate. If they do, people will be pissed at me, but as far as I know, there's no law against impersonating a management company. Even if there is, I could change one letter in their name, and then I'm not impersonating them anymore. It would be my own company, and I can demand whatever I want. I probably shouldn't actually collect the fines though.

You have a trumpet, or you have a trumpet and can play said trumpet with some skill?

In case your answer is incorrect, can you sing well?

No, that won't work. It isn't amusing enough.

I used to be quite good. It would take some time to get my embouchure back in shape, but I can do a pretty good Chuck Mangione.

Ok, that is quite unacceptable. We are left with the saxophone (I am assuming that you have never played one, please correct if my assumption is wrong) or singing.

Again, are you a half-way decent vocalist? Not really a deal-killer if you aren't, but we will have to take drastic measures if you are.

I'm perfectly capable of playing the trumpet badly. Right now that would be my default.