Category Archives: Shopping

$9 Beer?

Posted on February 15, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

They are selling Dogfish Head: 120 Minute IPA beer in my local for, get this, $8.99 (plus tax) for a single 12oz bottle.

Although curious as to what could possibly justify that price, I did not buy one. First, I didn't want to encourage them. Second, how can you buy just one, when your spouse sent you out you volunteered to go out and buy some nice beer. Third, I could see little chance of a good outcome. Either it would be awful and I'd feel cheated, or it would be great, but I'd still never spend that much for a bottle of beer again and might regret it.

Actually, can something 42 proof really be called beer?

Posted in Food and Drink, Shopping | 18 Comments

My. Goodness.

Posted on January 1, 2005 by Michael Froomkin

One of my pronounced character traits, some might call them obsessions but what do they know, is a certain devotion to comparison shopping. It started with computer equipment, even involving a two-year subscription to Computer Shopper in its big fat heyday, but now extends to quality and price comparisons when buying pretty much anything other than dinner for two that costs more than about $50. One of my wife's few imperfections is making fun of this noble devotion to social wealth maximization in which I do my bit to ensure that we have the toughest most competitive market for everyone's enjoyment.

I can sort of understand how this predilection might have seemed mildly annoying in days of yore: trooping to stores to look for models that were randomly in stock, perusing out-of-date Consumer Reports for reports that proved to be on models no longer sold, well, it took time, and sometimes we needed it now. Here as elsewhere, however, the Internet changes everything. Comparison shopping online is much efficient, although no faster since if the ease of information acquisition increases geometrically, the amount of information (and mis-information) increases exponentially. So it still takes a little while. But it's more fun. And I can do it late at night.

All of which is prompted by the observation that the vacuum cleaner is dying.

So as I'm starting up another round of happy hunting, I find this description of a vacuum cleaner, yes a vacuum cleaner, that kinda makes you want to run out and try one, and kinda makes you want to hide under the bed:

Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, Shopping | 6 Comments

I Think I See A Pattern Here

Posted on December 3, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Purchasers of “Dr. Strangelove” also bought these.

Posted in Shopping | 1 Comment

Adventures in Consuming: BellSouth DSL

Posted on November 11, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

This past week my DSL service degraded to the point that it felt like dialup. This happens from time to time, but never this bad, and it usually fixes itself. But this time it didn't.

So I called tech support. This led to a nasty two hours during which I had conversations with three clueless people, and one with a bit of a clue who still couldn't help me. The first guy seemed to be in an Indian call center, and read from scripts. While he purportedly ran various tests I spent a total of about an hour on hold, although never more than 10 minutes at a time (and even those were interrupted every 3 minutes by reassurances that they were working on it — ie. no way to concentrate on anything else). Over the course of this delightful interlude I was told at least three things that were patently false (including the suggestion that the reason my download speeds were measurably rotten must be due to my using “unsupported software” ie Firefox!).

The call center guy eventually got rid of me by transferring me to sales — maybe I should order faster service? The sales droid said my account was locked and they couldn't alter it, let me transfer you to customer service.

Customer service said that my records showed I had “Lite” service even though I was paying for “Ultra” (i.e. regular). For a minute I thought we had identified the problem, but no, after further investigation it seems Bell South believed it was delivering the “Ultra” service I was paying for … although the download speed was below what they advertise for “Lite”. And no, there's no way to guarantee that if I paid the Danegeld to upgrade to “Xtreme” it would solve my problem.

So it was back to tech support. This time I got a friendly and sensible fellow named Brent based in Shreveport. Brent also had his scripts, but had the sense to know which steps to skip in light of what I'd told him. So we spent 30 minutes trying things and nothing worked. But he was real nice about it.

Bottom line: after the ordeal, all I had to show for it was an appointment to talk with Level 2 tech support this morning.

The level 2 guy fixed it in ten minutes by resetting a port.

Posted in Shopping | 2 Comments

Nice T-Shirts, But Where Are the Bow Ties?

Posted on October 15, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Orin Kerr, who should have his own blog, points us to these t-shirts for law students. Orrin says his favorite shirt is this one. I suppose I liked this one. I'll bet, though, they sell a lot of these.

Overall, though, I think I'll stick with thinkgeek and DespairWear™. But this was the best.

Posted in Shopping | 3 Comments

Only Read This If You Are a Parent of School Age Children

Posted on October 10, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The Gadflyer explains Why Sally Foster is evil.

(The dread name “Sally Foster” won't mean much to you if you don't have school-age kids, or if you live in a country that adequately funds its schools, so just skip it.)

I mean, I knew Sally Foster was evil: it's overpriced gift wrap, albeit of good quality. Their MLM-style marketing campaign promises kids “rewards” like TVs if they sell several hundred dollars of Sally Foster junk to their parents' friends. From which I conclude that there's lots of money not going to the school but into Sally's pocket.

But. But. Lately of The Carlyle Group???

Posted in Shopping | 4 Comments