Yesterday, I happened to stop at a big box store to pick up a few items. While there I noticed a few interesting little signs that the times they are a changing. My first stop was the toothpaste aisle (yes, I know, my life is just full of drama and excitement) and I noticed a "special offer" on an end cap. It offered a two pack of Crass brand toothpaste for $3.79. I checked the price on a single tube and was surprised to see $2.99 for 8 ounces. Going back to the two packs, I noticed (in tiny print) a disclaimer. The second tube, in spite of being packaged in a regular-sized box, was "travel size" at 1 ounce. Even worse, the "regular" size tube was only 6 ounces! Therefore, you could have 8 ounces at $2.99 or 7 ounces at $3.79! What a cheat!
Thoroughly incensed, I moved on to the paper products. Now many people are saying that things like paper towels and napkins need to go anyway because they are a waste of money and resources. For the time being I can't seem to break my addiction. Pondering a box of facial tissue, I noticed another sneaky pricing crime. 1 box of tissues cost $1.09 while three boxes of exactly the same type, brand, and count were $4.00. Of course producers are banking on people thinking that buying in bulk saves money. Unfortunately, it probably works quite a lot of the time.
Last, but not least, when I got up to the check-out counter, I found my final sign of the times. There was a new screen on the debit card reader. Between entering the pin and approving the amount was a new message "do you want to put the entire amount on one card?" Because you don't have enough credit left on either card, so you need to use two? If these are symbols of our current situation, we may be in serious trouble.
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