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Today's Stories November 17, 2009 Mike Whitney November 16, 2009 Alan Nasser Jonathan Cook Mark Weisbrot Carol Miller Gary Leupp Harry Clark Ray McGovern Norman Solomon Ron Ridenour Norm Kent Brenda Norrell November 13-15, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Tariq Ali Douglas Lummis Vijay Prashad Carl Ginsburg Manuel García, Jr. Rannie Amiri Mary Lynn Cramer Fred Gardner Dave Lindorff Robert Jensen David Macaray Corporate Crime Reporter Ron Jacobs David Model John V. Walsh Jon Mitchell Stuart Easterling Dan Bacher Franklin Lamb Farzana Versey Charles R. Larson Saul Landau David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement
November 12, 2009 Robert Weissman Franklin Spinney Nadia Hijab Afshin Rattansi Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Belén Fernández Allan J. Lichtman Dave Lindorff Jayne Lyn Stahl November 11, 2009 Andrew Cockburn Mike Whitney Rev. Jesse Jackson Jeff Nygaard Stewart J. Lawrence James Ridgeway Eamonn McCann Michael Ortiz Hill Shepherd Bliss Walter Brasch November 10, 2009 Ellen Cantarow Dean Baker Rose Ann DeMoro Ramzy Baroud Peter Lee Dave Lindorff Roberto Rodriguez Winslow T. Wheeler Alan Farago Joseph Grosso November 9, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Linn Washington Carl Ginsburg Jeff Leys John A. Murphy John Halle Bouthaina Shaaban James Ridgeway Dave Lindorff David Macaray Stephen Fleischman Website of the Day November 6-8, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Mark Grueter Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Gareth Porter Mike Whitney James Bovard Dean Baker Robert Lawless Saul Landau Jayne Lyn Stahl Stephanie Westbrook M. Shahid Alam Marc Levy Franklin Lamb Ron Jacobs David Ker Thomson John V. Whitbeck Julien Mercille Rannie Amiri John Ross David Michael Green Carl Finamore Farzana Versey Missy Comley Beattie Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement November 5, 2009 Pam Martens Vijay Prashad Brian Gallagher Norman Solomon Nadia Hijab Joseph Shansky Andy Thayer Tracy Rosenberg Website of the Day November 4, 2009 Stan Cox Andy Worthington From Gitmo to Palau: Who are the Uighurs? Robert Weissman Susan Galleymore Ralph Nader Michael Leonardi Bitta Mistofi Robert Bryce Martha Rosenberg Dave Lindorff Website of the Day November 3, 2009 Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Franklin C. Spinney Laura Carlsen Serge Halimi John Stanton Sophia Weeks Dave Lindorff November 2, 2009 Steven Higgs Ishmael Reed David Macaray Bouthaina Shaaban David Michael Green David Swanson Ellen Brown Adam Federman James McEnteer Stephen Fleischman Website of the Day October 30 - Nov. 1, 2009 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair / Carl Ginsburg Mike Whitney Joe Bageant Gareth Porter Saul Landau Anthony DiMaggio Dave Lindorff Rannie Amiri Niranjan Ramakrishnan Jayne Lyn Stahl Rev. William E. Alberts Alvaro Huerta Martha Rosenberg Binoy Kampmark Norm Kent Charles R. Larson Roth's "The Humbling:" Nothing Like a Novel From an Old Pro Ron Jacobs David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 29, 2009 Michael Neumann Mike Whitney Gary Leupp Conn Hallinan Marshall Auerback Laura Flanders Eamonn McCann David Macaray Mark Weisbrot Stephen Soldz Christopher Brauchli Website of the Day October 28, 2009 Moshe Adler Dave Lindorff Frank Joseph Smecker Alexandra Early M. Shahid Alam Vijay Prashad John Ross Franklin Lamb Gregory Travis Susan Galleymore Website of the Day October 27, 2009 Mike Whitney Patrick Cockburn Stewart J. Lawrence Alan Farago Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Bouthaina Shaaban Brian M. Downing Elections in Afghanistan, the Second Time Around Iain Boal Carl Finamore Jayne Lyn Stahl Website of the Day October 26, 2009 Bill Quigley / Paul Craig Roberts Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Michael Snedeker Shamus Cooke David Michael Green Martha Rosenberg Patrick Bond Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day
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Shopping Clubs, Sales Receipts and DecoysRetail Sales as CombatBy DAVID MACARAY
Grocery shopping isn’t for the faint of heart. Nor is it for the ignorant, the ill-prepared, the careless, or the blindly trusting—at least, not if you want to stretch your food dollar and get what you think you’re paying for. Some years ago, a shop steward at Local 672 of the AWPPW won the door prize (a $20 gift certificate redeemable at Von’s market) at the monthly membership meeting, and, in an unexpected display of generosity, donated it back to the local, figuring the cash-strapped union needed it way more than he did. He wasn’t wrong. The following week, three of us Executive Board members (who were at the union hall working on an arbitration hearing) decided, during our lunch break, to take the certificate to the neighborhood Von’s and use it to buy cleaning supplies, paper towels, toilet paper, refreshments, etc., for the hall. Walking the nearly deserted store aisles on that early winter afternoon, casually picking up this item and that, we found the experience not altogether unpleasant. Committed to not exceeding the redeemable value of the certificate, we carefully did the arithmetic before heading to the Perplexed, we asked the checker if there had been an error, if it were possible he’d rung up the wrong prices. He told us that the prices displayed (the ones we’d used in our calculations) were available only to customers with a Von’s Club membership card. If you weren’t a Von’s Club member, you paid a different price. And by “different,” he meant “higher.” We weren’t notified of this in advance. We weren’t told there were two price scales in effect—one for the informed Chosen Few, the “illuminati,” and the other for naïve, unsuspecting shoppers like us—until the total had been rung up and the items bagged. The checker didn’t utter a word about it until we challenged him. Had we said nothing—or had we not been doing the arithmetic in our heads—it’s likely we would have simply paid the total and walked out of the store oblivious to what had happened. When we told him we needed to remove as many items as required to bring the total under $20.00, he effortlessly shifted into his professional customer-service mode. Flashing a big, Thank-you-for-shopping-at-Von’s smile, he assured us that it was no problem, that we could fill out a Von’s Club membership form right there on the spot—retroactively, as it were—and get all those items at the lower “membership” price. This is where it became a bit ugly. We refused. We told him that we viewed this membership arrangement as a scam, as a way to “harvest” ignorant shoppers who didn’t know any better, and that because he had already tried to cheat us, we had no more interest in joining his corrupt little “club” than a man on the street would have in becoming friends with the person who had just tried to mug him. We abruptly began removing items from the plastic bags. We took out some stuff, put back some stuff (Do we keep the Windex? The potato chips?), took out some more stuff, put back some more stuff, etc. Adding, subtracting and substituting various items was more complicated than we anticipated. Even though the checker was clearly annoyed—staring daggers at us—he dutifully tried to keep a running tab. We finally got as close to $20.00 as we could. With the total standing at $19.60, I asked how much one of those tiny Twix candy bars adjacent to the register cost, and he said it was 30 cents. I grabbed it and threw it in the pile, bringing the total to $19.90. That was it; we left the store. Once outside, the three of us—three beefy union goons—carefully split up that miniature Twix bar and inhaled it in two seconds. While we’ve all heard the admonition, “Buyer Beware,” it’s curious how few consumers truly heed it. Retail outlets—grocery stores in particular — regularly cheat us without our being especially aware or concerned. Because most shoppers are now “Club members,” the old dual-scale pricing scam doesn’t work as often as it once did; but grocery stores still have a bag of tricks available to defraud customers. Coupons and misleading advertising are a prime example. They’ll run ads for discounts on certain items but lure you into buying the wrong ones—items that aren’t on sale. This is especially easy to do with bar codes having replaced clearly marked prices. For example, they’ll hope you inadvertently pick up the 20-ounce size of something, instead of the 16-ounce size, which is the one in the ad. When chicken is on sale, they’ll put the expensive, non-sale chicken out front, within easy grasp, with the “On Sale” sign prominently displayed, and place the sale chicken in the back of the meat case, hoping you’ll pick up the wrong one by mistake. The store will entice you inside by offering tantalizing coupons for items which, when you get there, aren’t available. They’ll pretend they already “ran out,” hoping you’ll either stick around and buy something else (at regular price) or won’t follow through on the rain check you’re entitled to. Beware when soup goes on sale. You’ll load up, only to find that the discount applies specifically to chicken noodle and tomato. The store hopes you don’t notice that you’ve paid full price for the vegetable beef. I’ve seen 12-packs of Pepsi on sale, where the small print indicates that only Pepsi this-or-that is available at the low price, not all Pepsi—despite all the varieties being displayed beneath the sale banner. It’s a war out there. And if you don’t think grocery stores want to confuse and misdirect you, try making sense of your receipt. The way these things are printed out, you can’t tell whether or not you got the discount you were entitled to. Which is precisely what they want. Besides being a foot long, these receipts are loaded with “decoys”—pre-sale totals, regular totals, subtotals, more subtotals, augmented totals, discounted totals. It’s a mine field. Food shopping used to be simple. God help us, it used to almost be “fun.” Prices were clearly marked, checkers ran up your total using “real numbers” on adding machines, and receipts were self-explanatory. Today, grocery store receipts are almost as hard to decipher as telephone bills, which is really saying something. David Macaray, a Los Angeles playwright, is the author of “It’s Never Been Easy: Essays on Modern Labor” (available at Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.) He can be reached at dmacaray@earthlink.net
Inside the New Print Edition of Our Subscriber-Only Newsletter! Obama and Black America Ten months into Obama-time, the plight of black Americans is terrible. Yet overwhelmingly they rally behind the president. In a powerful report from the Deep South Kevin Alexander Gray asks the question: what should the black political agenda be? Mark Rudd counterposes “organizing” with “activism” and describes what it will take to build a movement. H. Bruce Franklin gives a chronology of the march into Afghanistan. Get your new edition today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents.Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year !
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Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Yellowstone Drift:
"Powerful and shocking ..
Waiting for
Lightning
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