Saturday, December 30, 2006

The Sharpie Challenge

I went to the Dollar General in Au Gres today, and hey, Au Gres today rhymes!!!
Anyway, I went to the Dollar General today and found this four pack of Sharpies in the 50% off Xmas aisle.
Of course, I was positive that this was a mistake, I mean, who would sell Sharpies for a quarter a piece.
However, I took them to the check out counter just in case, and much to my AMAZEMENT the Sharpies rang up at a dollar.
So of course I took them, I don't mean I took them as in I stole them, I mean I took them as in I agreed to buy them, geeeeeeeez.



Comparing Sharpie Markers To Other Writing Implements Test



As you can see all the Sharpies write much bolder than any of the other tested writing implements. The metallic Sharpies are nice, but impractical for anything other than artistic or craft purposes, and of course, you would never use a Sharpie for any normal everyday writing task, but damn, they sure are fun.

One other thing.
Have you ever sniffed a Sharpie?
In my learned opinion they rate right up there with the fluid used in mimeograph machines in their ability to induce a short term buzz, and do they still use mimeos, because I don't think I would have made it through high school without them.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Pinconning and points south

In my quest for the elusive perfect bargain I decided to drive down towards Bay City today. (See previous post)

My first stop was the Pinny Food Center in Pinconning, get it ... Pinny is short for Pinconning. Check out the price for a 32 oz fountain POP, yeah, we call it POP in Michigan. The 59 cent Pepsi bummed me out a bit, because before I left Tawas I stopped at the BK and got a 44 oz Diet Coke for $1.80. I could have got 96 ozs of Diet Pepsi for the same price if I had waited!
Anyway, the Pinny Food Center is a normal supermarket, and actually their prices are a little higher than normal, but they also stock a lot of overstocked and slightly past due items at ridiculous prices.



The first item in my cart was Brachs mixed candy at 99 cents a pound. I had plenty of hard candy and chocolate candy at home, so I went for the holiday theme and bought about 2 pounds of the peppermint nougut. The regular price for Brachs mixed candy was $3.69 a pound, at least according to the Pinny Food Center, but it was a good buy, and it is very tasty too.



The next items in my cart were two 12 packs of Diet Code Red Mountain Dew for $1.50 a twelve pack. I didn't even know they made DIET Code Red, and seriously, that is some cheap ass price. The lowest price that I've seen on any Pepsi product 12 pack is $2.50, and it's very rare that you see it that low.



The third item in my cart was the Sobe Energy Drink called No Fear Gold. I had never heard of it, but at four cans for a buck I didn't think I could go wrong getting two 4 packs. I mean, do you know how much a can of Red Bull goes for?



The last items from the Pinny Food Center were two 4 packs of Starbucks Iced Coffee Italian Roast, described as a premium coffee drink with a hint of low fat milk and sugar. I don't drink coffee, but my niece, who is coming up for Xmas does, and I thought I'd give this to her as a stocking stuffer. Oh yeah, a four pack cost a buck, yeah, that's twenty five cents a can ... 25 cents a can for Starbucks Coffee, what are they crazy or something?



I then headed south towards Bay City and the wholesale supermarket I told you about that had the 4 packs of Orangina for 49 cents. Well, they were all out of the Orangina, but they did have Chocolate Fudge flavor Jones Soda for 4 bottles for a dollar. Jones Soda is the company that makes all the weird flavors of soda like Chicken and Gravy, I'm serious, but anyway, Chocolate Fudge is supposed to be very good if you believe the reviews on the internet.



With that I turned around and headed home, but I was stopped almost in my tracks when I saw a fruit and vegetable market with a sign advertising tomatoes for 49 cents a pound. I couldn't believe it, I thought it must have been $1.49 a pound but the one had blown off the sign. I went inside to check it out anyway, and BAM, there it was big as life a whole display of Florida tomatoes for 49 cents a pound. Damn, the cheapest you can get any kind of tomatoes up here at any time of the year is about 89 cents a pound, and that is in the middle of summer. I haven't seen tomatoes for 49 cents a pound since I had hair like spun gold, and I don't even want to remember how long ago that was. Hell, I bet you can't even get Florida tomatoes in Florida for 49 cents a pound.



Whew, is that it?
I feel like I've been typing for hours.
Oh yeah, it's a 130 mile round trip down to Bay City, which is I don't know how many kilometers, but I bet it's a lot.

The scenic route

I plan on taking the scenic route down to Bay City today for my last bit of shopping before Xmas. By the scenic route I mean I am taking M-13 out of Standish instead of hopping on I-75. I took this route once before and there are a lot of interesting stores along the way.
One store I want to stop at for sure is a discount supermarket that sells stuff like past due products, dented cans, products with the labels torn off, day old bread, and stuff that didn't sell in other parts of the country so they bought them and sell them at drastically reduced prices.
I stopped at that supermarket once before, but it was the last place I stopped, and I was pretty tired, so I didn't buy anything.
They did have one product that I could kick myself for not getting.
They had four packs of Orangina, a fruit citrus drink that AmyJo had raved about, for 49 cents. I would have liked to try it just for curiosities sake.
So, if they still have it today I am going to get a couple of four packs and if I don't like it I'll give it to my niece who is coming up on Saturday.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

More than 90% off

Went to Kmart today to try to spend some of the gift card that my sister sent me for xmas.
I found Joe Boxer sleep shorts ... lounging shorts ... whatever shorts ... marked down from $10.99 to $1.00. This was the only style and color they had, but I still bought all three of the large waist size they had on the rack.





They are very comfortable. I bet Jonnie would wear something like this to go to his favorite drive-thru, or he might even wear them to work.
C'mon Jonnie, tells us where you would wear these ... better yet, tell us where you wouldn't wear these.
Mabye Sandra will do the math to find out just what percentage of a savings I actually received.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

A Dollar Store Human Interest Story

When the local McDonalds downsized about 8 years ago one of the assistant managers lost her job. It kind of bummed me out because she was kind of hot even though she wore unflattering eyeglasses, now don't get me wrong, I like chicks who wear eyeglasses, it is just that her's were very unflattering.
Anyway, when she lost her job, she opened a Dollar Store with another assistant manager who lost her job at McDonalds, and yeah, it sure seems that McDonalds has a lot of assistant managers ... AND NO FUCKING COUNTER HELP, I mean they have five registers but they never have more than one of them open, and that is one of the main reasons that I go to Burger King, but yeah, they opened a Dollar Store.
So, they opened up a Dollar Store, and the chick with glasses started wearing contacts, and she started getting even hotter, and she wasn't young, she had to be in her early 40's, and no, she wasn't MILFy hot, she was just hot, but as time went on I guess the strain of ownership kind of got to her, she got skinnier and skinnier, and her face started turning sallow, if indeed faces can turn sallow, and, well, she just started looking worn out.
Then during the summer the Dollar Store closed down, and I don't know if it was because they lost the lease on the building they had, or if the business just went down the tubes, and that was that, or at least I thought that was that.
I went into the Dollar General last week, and their was a new cashier who looked vaguely familiar ... it was the woman from the Dollar Store, and wow, what a change for the better! She has put on a little weight, and has some color in her cheeks, and I've got to say that she looks better than she ever has.
So, I guess that just goes to show you that running a Dollar Store isn't all fun and games, or something equally as profound.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Mas 4 Less

While we were waiting to pick up a pizza last weekend, Sandra and I dropped by a Mexican-owned establishment called Mas 4 Less:


Mas 4 Less.

Aside from having a ton of pinatas hanging from the ceiling, Mas 4 Less is also notable for displaying photos of sexy women in their front window:


Ice cream.


Shakira.

Que Bueno!

Labels: ,

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Not just yoga ... hardcore yoga, and at only a buck a tape

I went to the Dollar General today to see if they still had any 90% off Halloween stuff, and they did, and I was going to buy some, but then I saw these two tapes in the discount videos bins.



Yoga Fusion - Power
Yoga Fusion - Strength & Sculpt


Both are described as a blend of yoga, pilates, sculpting, and more.
I wonder what the more is?

They both received favorable reviews at Amazon dot com.
Power
Strength & Sculpt

Ok, so maybe it won't keep bullies from kicking sand in my face, but at least I'll be agile enough where they will have to catch me first.

The instructors look pretty hot too.
I wonder if it's topless yoga fusion?

Monday, December 11, 2006

90% off at the Dollar General

The past few days I've been hitting three different Dollar General stores and taking advantage of their 90% off Halloween items.



The $2.00 bag of hard candy was 20 cents, and the coolest thing about the candy is some of the hard candies have bubble gum centers, and another cool thing about the candy is you can put it in a xmas bowl, and put it under the tree, and no one will be the wiser.

The bobble head skulls, which are filled with bubble gum, and did I mention they are bobble heads ... well, anyway they were marked down from a buck each to ten cents each.

The stickers, of which there are two pages, were marked down from fifty cents to a nickel.

The Dracula bendables, and I'm not sure if you can see that there are two, were marked down from a buck to a dime, but I think by now you realize that 90% off a buck is a dime, so I won't say it anymore.

Finally ...
The Suction Cup Mummy of Doom, not to be confused with the Velcro Monkey of Doom, was a hmmhmm marked down to a hmm.

I mean, how could you go wrong with bargains like this???