Over the weekend at the supermarket: I was suspicious of this (which is why I took the photo). Would these Pink Lady apples be $5.98, or $6.48 per kilogram? (The Granny Smiths to the left were a different price again.) Come the checkout, sure enough… the higher price. Was I ripped-off? If I had the ... [More]
Tag: shopping
A shout-out to a good shop which doesn’t have a web site of its own: About once every decade I buy a belt. They last that long — I get them from a place in Elsternwick called Stockdale Stockade Leather (552 Glen Huntly Road), which I’m amazed is still in business because their stuff is ... [More]
It’s about this time of year that I often go calendar shopping. I generally like to have a calendar hanging in the kitchen, and another in the toilet. Sometimes I’ll get given them at Christmas, of course — for last year I was given two excellent ones — the Melbourne Train Station calendar, and another ... [More]
It was like a trip back in time to… last year. All the self-serve checkouts in Woolies were down tonight. A long queue at the express checkouts… surprisingly not at the other checkouts (all credit to management, they did have five non-express checkouts open at one time — rarely seen nowadays). Perhaps the earthquake is ... [More]
Myer will close stores in Victoria and New South Wales and shrink surviving stores in response to the two-speed economy and online shopping. — Myer to close or shrink stores as retail malaise bites Remembering that Myer Melbourne has already shrunk in size by about half, this isn’t a huge surprise. Sounds like some of ... [More]
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Quest for the ultimate umbrella
Thankfully my umbrella was not in as bad a state as this one, but it was in need of replacement. And of course via procrastination it was only on Thursday, when it had been raining, that I got motivated enough to go out and look. This is in part because I’m a terrible shopper. Or ... [More]
I’ve turned into one of those boring people who looks out for specials in the supermarket. This deal is from this week’s Safeway/Woolworths catalogue. If you happen to occasionally buy frozen fish and frozen chips, it appears to be a pretty good deal, saving $3.55. (Sometimes I’ll use this type of thing; sometimes I’d prefer ... [More]
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The new Myer
The inside of the new Myer in Bourke Street is quite spectacular. They’ve managed to create a very impressive light-filled atrium that goes all the way up to the roof.
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Online vs local
I find it a little difficult to accept the big retailers’ claims that ensuring GST is applied to mail order goods ordered online from overseas will make a big difference. GST is only 10%. Take for example the DVD of Edge of Darkness, which I mentioned the other day. Amazon UK price: 3.97 + 3.68 ... [More]
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Coupons
I’ve mentioned it before, but Joel Spolsky wrote a great article a few years ago about pricing, and noted that companies would ideally like everybody to pay as much as they are willing to for their products. In economist jargon, capitalists want to capture the consumer surplus. Let’s do this. Instead of charging $220, let’s ... [More]
Nothing says Happy Valentine’s Day like Hot Cross Buns.
My blog’s sponsor Lasoo, which provides online catalogues and price comparisons, now has an iPhone application. The media and marketing blog Mumbrella writes: Until you think about its significance, itโs easy enough to dismiss it as just another app. But what it does is bring much closer for consumers the economic concept of the โperfect ... [More]