RIP Sears

We have higher-end grocery stores (Harris Teeter) and lower-end (Food Lion). Each has loyalty cards. We also have Publix, which has no loyalty card.

There is almost no reason to go the extra distance to the higher-end (with higher prices store) EXCEPT their "buy 2, get THREE free" promotions. Which we only know about through their Wednesday newspaper inserts.

 

And, in many places, even the inserts are pdf'ed and put on the paper's web site. At least the paper gets the hits.

 

Kind of an adjunct to the decline of newspaper advertising, I'm still amazed the colleges and universities get away with textbook prices and especially surprised that a lot of these "cutting edge" universities haven't figured out a way to lease books by the semester via a download or access to the text. Textbooks could be updated easily as needed. I'm surprised some students today even know how to use books.

 

From what I've read, much of that comes from the publishers. A new textbook has one, maybe two years before there are enough copies on the secondhand market that demand for new copies all but dries up. Unless a work is particularly seminal or timeless (a la Greg Mankiw's economics textbooks), publishers feel a need to make as much as possible up front.

 

Many of my students rent e-books. That said, nearly all of them prefer a hardcopy book over an electronic copy. This despite the massive price difference.

 

Baby MMSW was part of a dual enrollment program while in high school, funded by state money and corporate donations. She graduated high school with two years worth of credits and a bookshelf full of books — all free. She ended up flipping all the books on Amazon for about $400. Her and her classmates are about the only kids who made money by going to high school.

 

I made money going to high school.

But only because there was a great market for fake IDs, and I had access to some quality repro at my newspaper!

Edit: I've just realized I probably made more doing that than I did editing the damn thing two years later.

 

When I lived in the D.C, area the high end grocery store was Giant. I still get a weekly e-mail from that with the promotions. Harris-Teeter does not do the same thing?

 

They might have something if you asked for it.

I don't remember what information I had to give when signing up for my loyalty card. But I've never received an e-mail from Harris Teeter.

 

HT has VIC and e-VIC.

 

Every time we shop at HT we wind up saying, "Eh, we'll just stop at Food Lion on the way home to buy that" on about a half-dozen overpriced items.