Sometimes retail shopping annoys me
I want to create a new series of digital photos for my in-laws, to whom we gave a digital frame a couple of months back. I could hand them a SmartDisk or a thumb drive, but they aren’t all that tech-savvy and a CompactFlash card — just like the one I gave them with the frame — is undoubtedly the best way to go.
I dashed out over lunch to run a couple of errands and stopped by Rite Aid and Radio Shack. At RiteAid, a 2 gigabyte CF card was $69.99. At Radio Shack, when I got there it was $34.99, but then while I was standing there the man at the cash register said, “oh, that sale has expired… it expired on the 14th… let me see…”
The new price was $79.99.
I walked out of both stores. At Costco.com there’s a 2GB CF card for $37.99 and a sale on a FOUR GB CF card for $33.99. At Amazon.com I can get a 2GB CF card for $25.44 and a 4GB CF card for $33.95.
I’m a big fan of Amazon Prime, but I still prefer to buy local — even chain-store local — when I can. I want corporations to invest in my community. I like to have steady, cumulative relationships with businesses I frequent. I like to avoid increasing my carbon footprint (all that cardboard and plastic that Amazon uses…).
But I’m not going to pay more than DOUBLE.
Geez.


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