I’ve been doing a great deal of shopping lately in an altruistic effort to help the stalled economy. How does corporate America repay me for my labors? They don’t, of course, and therefore this thread.
I have been in Costco about 3 times in the past week and a half, spending, on average, $300 each visit. This is highly anomalous for a career student like my self, but I’m trying to bolster the economy. Anyway, Costco has employees who prowl the checkout area seeking out big spenders like me in order to enlighten them of the inescapable logic of upgrading a GoldStar Costco membership to an Executive Membership. The cost of an executive membership is $45 extra on top of the $55 I pay for the basic (GoldStar)membership. An executive membership entitles one to a whole host of services that I’ll never use and additionally, gives a 2% annual rebate on total purchases. Therefore, to break even, I’ll need to spend $2250 annually. Given my current spending pace, that should be no sweat for me, they explain.
But I don’t give a crap. Firstly, my current spending in no way reflects my typical pattern. Secondly, I don’t wish to have my decisions about where I make my purchases influenced by whether I break even at the end of the year on my rebate. And lastly, while the employees’ sales patter dwells solely on how an upgrade is in my best interest, what’s in it for them (the employees and the corporation)? Generally I like Costco, but if this keeps up, I’m outta there.
This is not exclusively an anti-Costoco rant. I’m also pissed of at how telephone services are billed. Cell phone plans, for instance. How the fuck do I know how many minutes per month I’m going to use? Why must I buy a block of time? In doing so, I have a small probability of using close to the number of minutes I pay for, but a much greater likelihood of using substantially less (paying for something I don’t need) or more (in which case you ream me, big time). Why the fuck can’t you charge me for what I use?
Oh yeah, and when you tabulate my telephone use, ATT-CellPhucks, learn to round off. Or don’t round off at all and bill me for partial minutes (surely, your accounting computers are capable of such a thing). Instead, you bill in one minute units, with all partial minutes rounded up.
Is there a department in every corporation that devotes it’s efforts to fleecing consumers without their notice?