Breakin' the rules
I broke two of my core shopping rules today. The first involved going into a Best Buy with the intent of making a purchase. The second involved buying that item at WalMart when Best Buy didn't have it!
All I wanted was a simple corded wall phone with Caller ID. Nothing fancy - the kind of phone everyone had 15 years ago. Turns out all you can get at BB these days are cordless phones with features galore. They only had 1 model that didn't require an AC plug, but it was $30 and didn't have Caller ID. Before I got desperate, I even checked an OfficeMax.
Why is it so hard to find something so simple? Can the public really be duped into believing they have to fork over a full day's pay (on credit, of course) for a "mega device" when you can get away with a much more basic solution? Could it be that the luddites are onto something?
Well thank goodness for WalMart, I guess. The phone cost a mere $8 and the 25ft cord was $6. People watching in Hell, priceless. But I have to admit when I think about all the packaging, materials, process, labor, energy, and pollution that went into making that phone, Going off the grid sounds better and better.