During the warmer months, I occasionally stop by the big grocery store in my neighborhood to pick up a few things that are overpriced (or out of stock) at my usual online grocer. This is typically an uneventful experience, but the checkout process has seemed rather cumbersome lately. What changed? The store has instructed the […]

Due to the happy confluence of an exciting new exhibit and a discount on admission, I recently visited a nearby art museum for the first time in years. So much time had passed, in fact, that they constructed an entire new wing, which made an already large campus even more challenging to navigate. The designers […]

Most of the conference calls that I’m involved with go pretty smoothly. People dial in, the system says something like “The leader has not yet arrived”, and you hear music until the organizer shows up. Give or take five minutes, the call starts on time and without any major hassles. Occasionally, though, there’s a hiccup. […]

As I picked up the mail the other day, I was greeted by a small pile of catalogs. Each one was addressed to me “or current resident”, indicating that the mailings were at least partially based on zipcode. And with summer just around the corner, each catalog prominently featured the store’s outdoor furniture line. However, […]

A few days ago, I got a flyer in the mail from a nearby restaurant. The flyer itself was fairly well-designed, with coupons on the front and a partial menu on the back. At the top of the flyer, there was a call to action encouraging people to visit the restaurant’s website to view the […]

I needed to print out a few photos, so I headed to the local pharmacy to use one of their photo kiosks. The user interface wasn’t very intuitive, and the touchscreen was in pretty dire need of a recalibration. But those weren’t the most frustrating parts of the experience. When I got to the point […]

A few days ago, I noticed that one of my recurring bills was a little bit higher than usual. So, I went to the provider’s website and tried to sign in. I was virtually certain that I typed in the right information, but it kept giving me a weird and unhelpful error. Figuring that it […]

Virtually every breakfast place in my area closes shortly after lunch time, so I was quite excited to see an all day diner finally open its doors. Overall, the food was good and the prices were about what you’d expect for a big city, with one exception: the coffee was an outrageous $3 per cup. […]

Over the past few days, I’ve noticed a rather odd promotional campaign. First, an online grocer was offering a 25% discount on certain wines if you purchased at least six bottles. Then, I saw the exact same discount being offered in the wine section of my local pharmacy. Six bottles seemed like a strange minimum quantity, […]

During a recent visit to the store, I noticed that the price of the multi-vitamins that I’ve been buying for years went up 20%. I haven’t read about any global vitamin shortages, so I’m guessing that the supplier or the retailer just decided it was time to up the margins on the product. However, this […]