Tag: Shopping

Where were 2019 Holiday sales so great exactly?

We do not think the “sales reports” about Black Friday and other 2019 holiday sales figures are at all accurate. In general, it is our belief that “spending” as a whole this Christmas season is DOWN.

Each year, season, or whatever period of time – news outlets, media publications, and other propaganda-spewing entities “report” the state of the economy or retail industries. They say “up” or “down” depending on what will benefit them the most. Much of these so-called reports, we believe, are utter fabrications (for whatever reason).

As you will surely remember many examples of “fraud” over the years. Accounting fraud. News fraud. Economic fraud. People, in general, have no problem lying, if it benefits them or those who pay them. We live in a fraudulent society across the board now.

So a properly cynical person will take nearly all “mainstream” news – and almost automatically assume it is something different than what it portrays. “Cui Bono?”

Continue reading “Where were 2019 Holiday sales so great exactly?”

Reader Participation: Best Shopping Bargain

The little woman and I will celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary in June. We have booked a 10-day cruise to Alaska, the last of 50 states she has never visited. I locked in #50 three years ago (Oregon). The last time I was in Alaska (Fairbanks) was 1968 in February for 3 weeks, and when I arrived it was minus 40 degrees, so I’m not sure that miserably cold 3-week stay counts.

S-o-o-o-o-o, to further celebrate our “vacation from our vacation” (retirement), as Admin so aptly describes it, we decided to buy new luggage. Off we go this afternoon to Kohl’s. I found this Samsonite behemoth that could transport a baby whale originally priced at $360 marked down to $109. Wow. It had some scuff marks on the exterior, but so what – otherwise it was in excellent condition. One or two flights with the luggage will just triple the scuff marks anyway. My wife had a $20 off coupon to make it what we thought would be $89 plus tax. Smoking bargain!!!!

Wrong. We go to the cash register. The clerk scanned the bar code, and it came up $29!!!! She called the manager and told him the URL on the tag matched what came up on the register screen. He okayed the sale. She then accepted the $20 off card, and we were down to $9. Story not over. We got a FURTHER 20% discount because my wife has some sort of Kohl’s discount shit. With tax included, we ended up paying $7.63 for a $360 piece of luggage. That’s exactly 2% of the original retail price plus tax. To put it in more dramatic terms, just the sales TAX alone on the original price was almost 4 times what we paid.

What’s your best shopping bargain?