Thursday, March 30, 2017

thrifty


THRIFTY
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note: act immediately!!!!
ATTENTION! ATTENTION! Kroger grocery stores, or at least the local one, is having a markdown on a closeout item.  The white can generic ground coffee, regularly $5 is now $4.  I would imagine they are reducing the net weight in the can if not just eliminating that choice of coffee altogether.  20% reduction plus whatever price difference the future will bring.  Just remember the last time I told you about a closeout, the generic shortening.  That replacement was double the price so I hope you listened to me then.  Now might be a good time to start.  I spent close to a third of my monthly food budget taking every can they offered ( which is why you stock up on sales, to have the money free to buy even more sales, a self-perpetuating cycle of wonderfulness ).  I NEVER need anything at the store except produce and that is the cheap stuff anyway-potatoes and cabbage, and hence only buy the sales.   Spending that much of the monthly budget doesn’t hurt since I don’t NEED anything else that month.
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You’ve heard me tremble with barely suppressed murderous berserker rage at the mention of Gott Damn Yuppie Scum Asswhore Bastards.  I despise scumbags who think that their money makes them better than me.  I look at males who have money and think that their wallet size is a pale substitute for a lack of testicles and I see women who have money and think of them as lucky prostitutes who have confused a less wrinkled and less loose sex organ with intelligence or skill.  Anyone who thinks money is a good marker or an adequate gauge has their head so far up their ass they look like a Cheerio.  Anyone who looks to moneyed instructors teaching that money is the only way to survive the destruction of a civilization which was caused by the greed of the wealthy in the first place is a illogical uninformed lower IQ evolutionary dead end and anyone who is one of those teachers is a charlatan,  a huckster, a immoral twat and a scumbag.  Have I mentioned that I really am not fond of Mammon worshipers?

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Money is a tool, not an idol.  But you would do better by molesting a zoo primate while wearing the skin of an endangered bald eagle while singing allegiance to the Dark Prince than you would denigrating the pursuit of wealth to the average member of the mob we call society.  And some places are Yuppie Scum Central, unfortunately.  Elko Nevada was at one time a charming little village on the banks of a trickle of snow melt erroneously misnamed a river.  Today it is just one of many capitals of aforementioned avarice, a place to hang ones head in exhaustion after a days labor wrestling undeserved wealth from the equally exhausted yet unwary.  I’ve never seen so many Yuppie Scum humpers in one geographical location in all my far too many days ( okay, Carson City was far worse, but that was a bedroom community and a retirement destination so it doesn‘t really count ).   They have aged me unduly with their beady swine snouts held high in the air in undeserved superiority, my barely checked and suppressed rage an almost welcome fire to warm me on the many a winter night.  Okay, enough waxing poetically.  The greedy fecal stains just piss me off by their very existence, and that’s all we need to say about that. 

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Do you think that one retail establishment would exist to cater to the many shoe licking poverty stricken peon workers in this burg?  No, of course not!  Every swinging cheese dingus business owner here uses extreme high rents and an uncomfortably elevated cost of living as pathetic excuses to seemingly open their doors of business only to the vast minority of mine workers spouses.  If I see another women’s fashion business, sushi restaurant or gourmet food establishment open I swear it will take every fiber of my being to resist firebombing the dive.  The sad and pathetic part was that my former employer, the largest charity and thrift store in town, with NO rent as the building was a sheet metal hovel formerly owned by the city government and gifted to the organization, also fell for this pathetic appeasement to the leisured and  wealthy.  They didn’t own something so proletarian as a “thrift store”, oh no, they had to have a “thrift boutique”.  Everything donated not up to a certain classy definition was tossed in the trash, and all less than gently used items were over priced.

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Jesus Christ on a unicycle, it was a damn thrift store with a better designed atmosphere, a snobby pretentious craphole.  I hated shopping there.  Not because the Yuppies did, because unless I miss my guess most Yuppies are not short stature Latinos driving twenty year old automobiles, but because I’m not going to give any establishment anywhere close to retail for used items regardless of the worthiness of their cause.  And that was AFTER our “employee discount”.  That was as much a discount as my ONE raise in nearly a decade, a paltry nickel, could realistically be portrayed as anything other than a gross insult.  So, while I was first working there I was able to sweet talk the back of the store workers into channeling wool garments my way and the manager into giving me a better discount.  At irregular intervals when the public was given a sale day I bought golfing shirts by the half dozen.  Other than that, I stayed away from the place and tried to part with none of my hard earned money.  I was working “for the cause” by getting minimum wage ( that lonely raise had been prior to the state minimum wage being increased ) and increasing my work load every year ( yes, standard for every job, but a bit of an imposition when it is exponential over nearly a decade ), and principle dictated I give them as little else as possible.

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So imagine my pleasant surprise when I recently began shopping at the areas other thrift store ( there are actually a total of three but the last one which has always been a sad and pathetic knee jerk reactionary copy of the My Former Employee Who Dare Not Speak Its Name charity.  The number one thrift store helped out the homeless and lower income, and these guys had some other group of unfortunates to legitimize profiting off charity.  Evidently the town citizens who made it their business to pass their lifetimes by forever buying newer retail crap would toss aside their old items by giving it to one of the three thrift stores and nobody had a very good reputation for not being greedy [ which is rich given the greed of the donors, but be that as it may…] except for The Other Thrift Store.  So, number one in income were my ex-employers, the copy-cats were number three in donations.  Their store had almost nothing, literally, inside for sale.  So I discount their existence, if a half page of blabbering made sense as to why ) and actually came across fairly priced thrift store items.  After nearly a decade of my former employers  thrift store acting like a retail sector stuck up princess, I had stumbled upon a real bargain thrift store again.  This  breathtaking saga continues tomorrow.

END

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25 comments:

  1. Same deal every where. I made a trip to Salt Lake and was drug to a thrift store. I needed a light jacket and this giant "thrift" store should have one. I'm really not too picky, just one jacket under twenty would have done me. It looks like selling new clothes at a thrift store crowded out "gently used". My small town store is the same story. Which is strange cause so many yups toss so much stuff we should be buried to deals. Americunt sucks!

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    1. Donations are insane, but most get tossed into a clothing truck and shipped to a recycle center. I don't know for what, rag content in glossy magazines perhaps. Typical behavior, throw away and waste to maximize profits.

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    2. A lot of that clothing that gets tossed into a truck and shipped to the recycling center get turned into boxes of rags used by mechanics everywhere to wipe there greasy hands on, really seems like a waste if you ask me.

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    3. Use petroleum to grow the cotton, harvest the cotton, make the clothes, ship the clothes, recycle the clothes to help the mechanic fix a vehicle that uses more petroleum. It isn't a waste if your whole economy is about using petroleum. :)

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  2. I heard a funny saying once. I might be paraphrasing, but I think it went something like "nobody in America thinks they're poor; just caught in an embarrassing position between fortunes." But yeah, it seems like some people truly do worship the shiny coins and intricate scraps of paper and plastic that are used in bartering these days.

    I've thought of something I want to try, in fact somewhere I hope to be in roughly 5-10 years. Came up with it perhaps 3-4 weeks ago. A good-quality cabin/home down a dirt road though not terribly far from the nearest highway. Far enough to where you can hear reasonable traffic. Surrounded by forest, a small river/stream for fresh water as well as possibly fishing, and not a TERRIBLY long ways from an ocean so that there's more fishing to be done there or you can gather saltwater to boil down into home made salt.

    Hunt, use animal fat to make tallow, use tallow to make candles, grow crops, use sea salt and cabbage to make sauerkraut to help prevent scurvy over the Winter, and ultimately do my best to become entirely self-sufficient for a full year. The only electricity allowed, if I can manage it, is enough to keep a computer charged and maintain an internet connection so I can continue to write and have contact with the rest of the world.

    As for warmth, a wood stove, and I'll cut down wood for firewood myself. I've done it before. A full year almost entirely off the grid, and the only money I'd probably use is that for fuel, ammo components so I can make my own rounds, internet, the small amount of electricity I'll use, and of course booze. Though I like the idea of learning to make my own.

    I think that would be a truly fascinating and enriching experience. One that would be utterly cheap, and would actually be lessened by the spending of more money than necessary.

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    1. Of course, the buying the land part...unless you can get away with squatting.

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    2. Oh, no, I'd own the land. It would all be quite legit, and the cabin (which really would be pretty much good enough to be a house) would probably be built new. Also, yeah, having problems with my email. Hopefully I'll get things in order again soon.

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  3. Yours has been a similar experience to mine for thrift stores. Garage sale leftovers for quality at best, and prices closer to retail for new. It is a rare 'second hand' outlet that would charge 50% retail or less in my experience. The few that do sell for a more reasonable price tend to be very picked over with little selection. The best place around here is the ghetto (reservation town) about an hour and a half away. Because it is in poorer community, And because the oil boom is doing a bit of a dead cat bounce it has some reasonable things for reasonable prices (when it has sales) for the younglings. But the spouse and I often get accosted by the beggars when we go- even when we go straight there from working on the land, so the being accosted isn't just based on clothes or cleanliness. Really we need to get ahead of the kids growth curve and have enough clothes until they finish growing - but we tried that before and ended up throwing out clothes that had been unused as the kid outgrew it before it could be worn... Sigh.
    Personally for most things I need I think garage/moving sales are the best hope, especially if the stuff is being sold by older folks - if you ask politely they might be willing to discount something to a trivial amount just to be rid of it to someone who can make use of it. So when I do the garage sale thing, I make certain to hit those run by older folks, and usually bypass the ones by younger folk.

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    1. This new reasonable thrift is great, but only because this town is still in a boom. When that ends, good bye reasonable. I'll enjoy it as I can.

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    2. at the first crash of the boom the availability of goods will shoot up as people move to what they think are greener pastures and have to get rid of stuff to fit the rest into the Uhaul. But if they are on they younger end age wise these emmigrants want nearly 75% retail until the last second before moving then they finally just want to get rid of the stuff. Old folks past retirement seem more often to just want to get rid of the stuff in the first place- and if you show you are actually going to USE it they are more than happy to give it to you for much less than current retail (and often better treated than young people used stuff).

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    3. Plus, old bastard stuff was better made stuff anyway.

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  4. Good for you, and bad for your ex-employer who should have investigated better on the competition.

    I know I ask too much (but it's because I'm jealous about the magnificent hair) but it would be interesting to see if there is a category of goods who is markedly better in pricing or quality (or both) than at your former place. My theory is following : thrift stores have reputations among buyers and another among givers, so if the other one was supposedly more serious they could also have received more serious products.

    Just a theory.

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    1. No, you are correct. The rumor mill quickly dishes out the dirt on any unapproved actions. Say, the bums complain we don't feed them seven days a week. Doesn't matter that they have food stamps, the yuppie scum think we are heartless pricks and stop donations. I imagine it goes to the competition. ( I should "we" "were" instead of "are". Hard to believe I'm not still working there )

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  5. You keep going on and on about people being assholes because of money and I keep telling you it's NOT the money that is at fault. As you said, money is only a tool and I agree.

    It is POOR CHARACTER that reveals some people as being assholes. If they lost all their money today they would still be assholes tomorrow, that's just the way they are. Take a poor asshole today, someone with a shitty character, and give them a million bux and you'll see a wealthy asshole tomorrow.

    I don't do thrift stores, no matter what they're called because of what you mentioned. I went in a Goodwill a couple years ago for the first time in centuries and was appalled at the prices. Yeah, there was decent stuff but nothing to warrant the prices they set on the stuff.

    I also don't do garage/yard sales. Did one of them a few years ago and what an embarrassment. I've heard that if you do enough of them regularly you'll eventually find that gold nugget. But going to places where people are liquidating because they have to rather than want to is depressing. Besides, as I drive by them all of them seem to have mostly garments and I don't need any more of them.

    I have designed million+ dollar homes for hundreds of wealthy people that have earned their wealth as honestly as this rotten assed gov't allows, and almost without exception none of them were compelled by their status to behave as someone you want to punch in the face. I've also designed homes for many people that are benefitters of recent wealth and poor character (one was a baseball player for the BoSox) and I couldn't complete their projects fast enough to get away from them. Hey, I did 4 years in this mans army and I have very little tolerance for people of any gender that suffer under the little man syndrome.

    A shitty attitude (character) is about as bad as it gets and I'll have none of it. Hand me a million and I'll still be the recluse I am today, I'll just drive a better truck! :-)

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    1. Okay, your points are valid, but the money class still irritate me and I'll always ride that hobby horse, no matter how correct you are in your distinctions:) I've never actually met real rich folks, so they could be okay. Just middle class pretentious whores. You could probably say it was my poor social skills that colors my perceptions, and you might be right. But I think my general outlook is correct in most peoples attitude about money and having it or not. The bell curve majority. And history backs me up about the shoddy treatment the poor receive, so perhaps I'm also projecting future issues to today.

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    2. I agree with ghostsniper in the general idea. Without wanting to sound like a smartass (which is to say I'm going to do just that), I'd like to say that many people have poor character, but when they have money they can afford to be real pricks (the difference matters to them).

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  6. Don't get me started about Thrift / Charity stores

    * They charge way to much.
    * People dump literal rubbish on them and get angry if the store rejects their "donation"
    * The store rejects anything that's not perfect (yeah I know the previous point but these two don't counter each other)
    * The "volunteers" are generally there because a) court order or b) to gossip they're not there to work
    * the Paid managers generally are "I'm being a bitch but that's OK because I'm working for a CHARITY therefore I'm above reproach"

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    1. Good gravy, you are describing US thrift stores also! I imagine our two cultures are pretty identical, both being largely populated by the same social class and overseen by the same royalist pricks at the founding.

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  7. James
    Idea for article next week "Lots of stores are closing, BUT lots of malls all across the U.S. are closing.
    These malls are big money streams for big players, we could be headed for another real estate, insurance, pensions fund MELTDOWN. Stat tuned...

    Please tell "J N MorganMarch 30, 2017 at 7:50 AM" to please stop reading my mind. I was thinking about being close to the great lakes. Great Idea J.N."

    Keep up the good work Jim.

    Jack Schitte

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    1. Commercial real estate meltdown has been forecast for almost as long as the European one. So long I almost believe it is misdirection or ignorance. If you are getting your source from "the economic collapse blog", our former lawyer trying to go Idaho survivalist, I never find ANYTHING of substance over there. Nuttin! I try to like it but all he really churns out are scare headlines and not much else. Thank you for the idea, sincerely, but there is a reason I don't accept 90% of them. Not because they are not good but because I need a core to spin from and there isn't anything there. Way too much smoke and mirrors out there for our own good.

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    2. Commercial retail real estate collapse will be part and parcel of a larger economic collapse (possibly the last straw before the larger collapse, hard to tell).
      But it has been in the cards for a long time now and the deck is getting awfully slim now, so I wont be surprised to see it happen, but I also wouldn't count on it to happen before the general collapse either.

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    3. Right. How do you scream panicky sky is falling headlines for an eight to ten year old trend?

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  8. Re: Kroger coffee. In the NW this means Fred Meyer and they don't seem to carry Kroger brand coffee. However, the 24 ounce Fred Meyer brand is $5.99. A mere $4 per pound.
    NW Senior

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