Disclaimer:

Many stories herein are subject to the faulty, and sometimes creative, memory of the blog owner and should not be taken as factual, although the names and events are real! Kind of.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

When New's Not Always Better

I had a busy time this week.  A group of librarians, tech people and teachers from my school went to a conference in Oklahoma City.  We elected to go on Monday night and avoid fighting the early morning traffic since the conference began at 8.  Well, actually, the breakfast was served at 8 and it was free so we avoided traffic to eat a good, free breakfast.  

The coffee was divine.  How the heck do they make coffee for hundreds of people that is sooooo good?  Perhaps it was the pitchers of real cream that did it.  Or the ceramic coffee cups instead of styrofoam.  Whatever it was, it was great.  I only drank ummmm 3 cups.  Maybe.  I might have gotten a little jittery and lost count.  

I made the hotel reservations on our personal credit card.  When we checked in and I asked about charges for internet use, they said, "Oh, I see you're a Gold Member. There is no charge." 

Hmmm.  How'd that happen?   I never make reservations in my name for anything but who am I to argue?  I'm certain I'm worthy of Gold Member status, right?

A complaint about hotel internet.  Why does every sleazy hotel and motel in the world advertise free wi-fi but you have to pay for it at nice places???  Paying a premium for the room should get you free wifi, don't you think?
Our internet at home is terrible--dropped signal, no signal, hardly any range--so Les came home Thursday night and asked if I wanted to go to Wal-Mart and buy a new modem.  It was 10 p.m.  It had been snowing.  I was sleepy.  But I really wanted a candy bar so I agreed to go.  

I like to buy the packs of fun size bars.  One will usually satisfy my craving for candy and we can have a variety to choose from at a dollar a pack.  

I went for my favorite--Snickers--and after noticing the pack was somewhat shorter than usual (but cost the same) I observed this cheerful label on the package:  "New 6 Pack Fun Size."




For heaven's sake!  These used to be a ten pack and were downsized not that long ago to eight!  Do they think by designing a happy red label that no one will notice the shortage?



And I mean that literally.

3 comments:

Keetha Broyles said...

In the past I've done entire post RANTS about the absurdity of upscale hotels CHARGING for wi-fi.

Insanity.

But then, I want internet, so I pay - so who's insane?

Andi said...

Snack size snickers. The best way to eat a Snickers. I never buy them, but for some reason I'm mourning the package change. What a rip off.

KiteFlyer said...

Yes, it makes absolutely no sense that expensive hotels expect people to pay for WiFi privileges.

Have you checked the size of the ice cream containers? Better make sure they're not 7/8 of a gallon, or 1.5 pints instead of a half gallon - of course for the same price as the gallon or the half gallon.

The other sneaky marketing is the new "fluffy" kisses. They've got little air bubbles in them, i.e, less chocolate. I haven't priced them, but I'll bet they're either the same price or more expensive than regular kisses.

One Last Thought.......

Pleasant words are a honeycomb;
sweet to the soul and healing to the body.
Proverbs 16:
24