Wonderful day for passing my way

[austin_dern]

My parents were cleaning out, really, all the miscellaneous little compartments of things that gather the sort of clutter that gets put into compartments because these pieces are just too much bother to deal with individually, but combined, for a compartment full of miscellaneous little things far to intimidating to ever actually clean out. You know the process.

Since I had no explicit or implicit responsibility for the stuff being cleaned out, most of which was in their bedroom, I wasn't paying much attention until my mother tossed at me a Borders gift card and told me to enjoy. It was, at least at purchase, a $25 card. What my mother had no idea of was how old it was and how much if anything might be left on it. I don't know if Borders does that trick when local news spends all of December warning people about, where they don't just take the float on the money you put into gift cards but also swipe the money itself, but I'd imagine they do since it's a painless way to make customers less happy. The card was copyright 1999, according to its logo, but that doesn't really necessarily mean much about when it was bought except for probably postdating 1998.

While I'm happy always for excuses to go to the bookstore this did leave me with a curious little fuss, since I am trying to live to a loose but existent budget and the card implied that I could buy potentially $25 of books for free, if I was lucky, or get $0.00 off my purchase, if I wasn't. Complicating factor: I'd rather pay by credit card since I get frequent flier miles and I'm hoping to hit MAXINT on United's system, but I prefer not to use the credit card for less than $10 purchases since that's the point at which I feel like I'm really testing everyone's patience.

Finally I plunged ahead and made my purchases for what would be a roughly 35 dollar purchase at maximum, and the card turned out to be worth ... $1.38. At that redemption value I might as well keep the card.

Also, I got that receipt thing where if I call and tell them that I did so buy books at Borders and that I had an experience I'll get 20 percent off a future purchase.

Trivia: DHA -- docosahexaenoic acid -- is the primary fat found in the brain and in the retinas. Source: Radar, Hula Hoops, and Playful Pigs, Joe Schwarcz.

Currently Reading: A House In Space, Henry S F Cooper Jr.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

When I worked at the bookstore, I routinely had customers use credit cards to pay for very small charges. It's common now, and expected, and takes no longer than a cash sale (in fact, probably shorter). So I don't think you need to worry about that.

I admit I did find it a bit lame when people used a credit card to pay for a 50 cent newspaper, but I was more annoyed by the people who bought nothing but the newspaper and then asked for a large handle-bag to put it in. The handle bags cost the store a fair bit -- I think the sign on the inside of the stock room door, the one that reminded us to avoid using a bigger bag than necessary, gave its cost as 27 cents -- and there is essentially no profit on newspapers, so the store would have lost money every time that happened.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I suppose I'm just old-fashioned in some ways. Why, my very first bank account was a passbook savings account, and it didn't even have an ATM card. For that matter, my second bank -- well, credit union -- didn't even have ATMs.

Asking for a handle-bag for a newspaper is bizarre. Actually, asking for a bag at all is ridiculous, unless it should be raining outside. (Since I usually keep my bookbag with me it feels silly to me to ask for a bag, which throws the cashiers for a bit of a loop often.)