Blahj blah blah you’re hurting the economy by only having lackluster sales, the shops and the manufacturers and the transporters all suffer, so you are ruining the economy. You know what? FUCK THEM!!! I’m saving my money cuz i want to, you shmuck! Kiss my fat checking account balance!
Well Tars, that’s what you get for throwing in your lot with those demand-side economists. At least a supply-sider can blame businesses for lack of expansion.
It’s not that you don’t contribute to the economy, it’s just that there aren’t very many jobs created by purchasing rare collectibles over eBay.
At least i’m keeping Tim in his job by keeping the Post Office at work!! 
This is how I feel when the RIAA tries to blame their sales drop on piracy.
Well, maybe if the economy wasn’t in the shitter, and maybe if there was some music that was worth buying, and maybe if CDs weren’t a blatant ripoff, then maybe your sales wouldn’t be down! Jesus farking Christ! Like just because your sales were up last year or you made money last year you deserve to again.
I had a seriously hard time with some little chippie trying to upsell me like crazy at the Estee Lauder counter at the mall. I stopped to by some perfume for my mom, I only wanted a single bottle of spray cologne. I was shown the 100$ giftset, the little gold/fake jewel fairy that had cream perfume inside (I don’t even want to know what that cost) as well as an offer to get the male version of the perfume for my boyfriend. Gritting my teeth, I insisted that one bottle of “Intuition” was all I wanted and the salesgirl told me I was in luck, because I had purchased a specific amount I could also purchase an Estee Lauder make up assortment for only 40$! Swell!
I don’t even think I remembered all of the ways she tried to get me to buy more stuff, but I left feeling like I had escaped from a war zone.
I was at the Virgin Megastore the other day, and I bought about $34 worth of stuff. The guy at the counter said, “If you buy just six dollars more of merchandise, you’ll get this gift certificate book worth five hundred dollars!” I said no, because I can’t afford to save $500, and I shop at Virgin approximetly once per decade. After being briefly flabbergasted, the guy rolled his eyes and said, “Oooo-kay…” Like I was some seriously deranged whacko who had just wandered in and struck up a conversation with the rack of “Las Ketchup” CDs in front of the register.
Please tell me that there was a catch, Miller.
If not, heck, I’d bet there would be many folks on this board who would buy that booklet for $20 or more! You could have made money!
Yeah, it’s likely there was a catch.
I find that the ‘classic rock’ CDs are much better conversationalists, if a bit given to reminiscence.
Does this mean I’m not getting anything for X-mas?
Well, from previous experience with coupon booklets, it would have had $490 worth of savings for crap I don’t want, and $10 of savings for stuff that isn’t in stock. Plus, coupons in general don’t actually save you money, they just get you to spend more money. And finally, if you want to use the coupons, you have to remember to bring the damn things with you, which I never do. The thing would have sat on my desk for a year or so until I realized it had expired, at which point I’d have thrown it out.
I’m giving you a picture of a duck i made. Or spilled coffee on paper that the stain sort of looks like a duck. Sideways. A furry duck. If you’re high on crack…
Hey, that’s what I gave you last year!
THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON!!!
Which reminds me of this photo.
Every year this same complaint rings forth from the malls, resplendent with chrismas decoration at the end of october, when everyone else is still planning thanksgiving menus. When every holiday is pushed forward a couple months, as thought best to maximize profit and lead time on ‘special’ deals, it then becomes difficult for some of us to give a fuck.
To these complaints and wails, my only reply is:FUCK YOU!
I have just started shopping because i do not know what to get anyone, my grandparents for instance, I just got them a vcr! They do not really have space for tchchotkes, and have plenty of everything else. At a loss for a good gift for her, someone even gave her gel pens and mechanical pencils!
Ha-HAH, Economy, I’ve got you now! There’s no escaping my sneakiness, for I am the QUEEN of homemade gifts! I spit upon your George Foreman Grills, and your Salad Shooters. I mock your 40-Piece drill bit sets and your expensive perfume gift baskets. I laugh in the very faces of your Chia Pets and Chia Heads.
As I am a dirt-poor little mousie, MY friends and family will be getting handmade tree decorations, and garments I have knitted with my very own tricksy little fingers. So if that makes me a Bad American, then SO BE IT!
MWWUUUHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
I hate the headlines that whine about consumer spending being down at this store and that store - and then when you actually hear/read the rest of the story, the real deal is that sales aren’t up as much as they’d hoped (and often are higher than the previous year)! This happens every year, not just this year.
I’m making a lot of gifts too, to supplement some purchased gifts - homemade jelly, homemade soaps, hand-stitched/beaded ornaments. Sure, I had to buy the raw materials, but buying these items ready-made would have cost more. I don’t feel guilty - I was unemployed for nearly 5 months this year, and had to spend nearly all of my first paycheck already, so I’m coasting with fingers crossed until this Friday.
A group of us always get together on Christmas Eve for a party, and most of us exchange presents. Several years ago one of us who had gotten himself in debt to the point where he had moved back to his mother’s house and was working two jobs to try and pay them off suggested that he be excluded from the gift exchange because he couldn’t afford to buy anyone else presents. He was told that no one expected him to spend money he didn’t have and that he should turn in his “wish list” anyway. He showed up at the party with personalized handmade ornaments for each of us. Over the next few years he continued doing this, and it’s now become a group tradition; every year he does a different design, with each one having our names and the year on it. One year he made angels, and mine had red hair - a reference to my oft-expressed fondness for redheads.