Food for thought

I read a very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal (online) called "Many Discounts, Few Deals" (December 15, 2010). In it, there's a statement by Robert Schindler, who's a professor of marketing at Rutgers University - Camden's school of business. He said (or wrote, who knows which): "Perhaps one of the most serious socially irresponsible things marketers do is discounts. Marketers are playing on our weakness, to our detriment." In the article, it talked about how retailers are encouraging consumers to buy in bulk through BOGO deals and things like that so that the consumers feel like they're getting a great deal and buy more than the need. But what I found so interesting in the above quote is that he says that what the retailers are doing it "socially irresponsible" and manipulative, which I suppose is true but it's still interesting because it turns the table on the idea of discounts. Companies want us to believe that the discounts and mostly for our benefit, that the companies are getting less revenue so that we, the consumers, can benefit and save money. Granted, we all know that that's not the full truth because otherwise companies like Wal-Mart wouldn't be rolling in money. But I'd never thought of it as "socially irresponsible" before, but I guess it would be for a lot of people. I generally see through these tricks and think: No, I don't need to buy more. Yes, I'll save $30 if I buy $100 dollars worth of stuff, but I only need this one $30 thing and no I will not go looking for $70 dollars worth of something just to gain $30 back because I'm still $40 in the hole (so to speak)." Not everyone might do that though. I was shopping with someone recently at Macy's where all of the sweaters were @24.99 (sneaky way of saying $25. Don't fall prey to it. always round up), which was "so cheap!" so she must have bought 5 or so. I highly doubt that she would normally buy like $125 worth of sweaters unless she had absolutely no sweaters in her closet (which is doubtful), but a sale encourages you to buy even more! I try to always be conscious to these kinds of things, but I'm a shopper from way back so they get me from time to time. Anyways, it's late this season for shopping advice, but DON'T FALL PREY TO DISCOUNTS!!! At least until the Day after Christmas (which is, of course, the day that you buy all of the things that you wanted for Christmas but didn't get and use all of those Christmas gift cars & money =D ) MERRY SHOPPING!

Are we really that paranoid?

The downside of the Kindle: it's an electronic device and it therefore must be turned off before you reach cruising altitude when you're flying. So as I waited for us to reach that point, I looked at the skymall magazine and I noticed something: there are (relatively) A LOT of spyware kinds of things being sold. Here are some of them:

It's interesting, isn't it? I understand the ones that are about monitoring your house or whatever, but these ones seem more suited for someone who: 1) plans to blackmail someone with this video; 2) someone who's completely paranoid and believes that people are always talking about him/her or that his/her boss plans to do some lay-offs or something. I wonder about the ethical (and LEGAL) ramifications of this...you know, spying on a board room or on your employees or whoever without them knowing and RECORDING it. Hmm...either way, it definitely seems like we're super paranoid!

Sooooooo annoying!

Can I tell you a very annoying, frustrating tale? Thank you. I'm part of Disney Movie Rewards (and if you buy a lot of Disney movies, you should be too!), and they sent me a $10 off the Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 blu-ray & dvd combo pack, which would be great because that would bring the price down from about $30 to about $20. So I wanted to go get it yesterday, but the website was down or something because it wouldn't let me log in to get the coupon or anything. I tried logging on on a different computer and restarting my computer. No effect. I changed my password and tried to log in (therefore I was even MORE sure that my password was right), no luck. So I waited and tried again later in the day and it worked (on my parent's computer, not mine then. I'm not sure why...). SO today, I decided to go get it. First I went to Target. They had the DVD version, but not the blu-ray/dvd combo that my coupon is for. Then I went to Wal-Mart: same story. Then I went to Costco and they had it! Unfortunately, after getting to the front of the line and everything, the cashier tells me that they don't take manufacterer's coupons. Seriously. What a saga. And the bizarre thing? I have never seen this movie, know very few people who like it, and have heard that it's one of the most boring Disney movies ever. So aaaaaaaaaaaall that for Fantasia. Seriously. In the future, I'm only going through this trouble for a movie that I really want (I wanted this one because it's going to go in the vault and should I want to see it in the future, it would be difficult to get). [insert me looking frustrated]