Service of Handy Tips
August 29th, 2022
Categories: Baking, Business Reporting, Discounts, Retail, Tips
I suspect everyone has received frequent lists of tips forwarded by friends via email or has seen them on social media.
Here are a few of mine:
- Ask the cashier at Target for the Walmart price. Here’s an example of an indulgence–ice cream that costs $10.99 a pint at a local grocery store–costs $7-something at Target. The Walmart price–the one I’ve paid–has ranged from $4-something to $6 and change, depending on the day.
- Baking soda and white vinegar cleans residue off my coffee pot, the once white inside of often-used ceramic teacups as well as glassware with a clinging shadow of red wine.
- This one addresses a longtime pet peeve–when someone asks me to call them back in X minutes when they are postponing a scheduled call. Can’t they call me? I used to waste that time concerned that I’d get involved in another call or project and miss the new appointment. The timer on my phone comes to the rescue. I can forget the call until I hear the buzz. This helps remind me of all sorts of things.
- When making piecrust the quality of butter makes a huge difference. Use a well known brand and pay more if you must otherwise the dough is unmanageable. It’s also worth the money to buy Bounty paper towels: You’ll use many cheap ones to pick up a mess vs. one sheet of Bounty,
- If you want to know what’s going on in the world of retail, you’ll enjoy a chuckle as well as well-researched, honest reporting at WarrensReport. Warren Shoulberg writes it. As he put it, he “knows home furnishings retailing. As a career business journalist, he has covered the good, the bad and the ugly of the industry, focusing on the home furnishings segment but also reporting on the broader business of retailing and wholesale distribution.”
What are some of your favorite handy tips?
Tags: Bounty paper towel, Target, WarrensReport
Linda on Facebook: You don’t necessarily even need to ask for comparison shopping apparently. I was at 86th Street Target Saturday. Self-checkout line was crazy long so I went to cashier line with just 1 person ahead of me. Without me asking, cashier “discounted” one pharmacy tempted by $1.50 and a grocery item by a dime. Very pleasant surprise.
Linda,
I never before got a cent discount in the many years I shopped at Targets in Dutchess County and in Manhattan. Amazing!
Linda on Facebook: Me either. Never even heard of it until you mentioned it. BTW I typed “item,” which somehow got “corrected” to “tempted.” WTF!
Warren on Facebook: Thanks for the plug…& the kind words. Need all the friends & family I can get.
Nancie on Facebook: This was news to me too when Jeanne told me about the Walmart/Target trick.
Nancie,
And I only learned about it from a cashier who went above and beyond the minimum and advised me to ask for the comparison price at Walmart in future.
Lucrezia on Facebook: I live in a community where comparison shopping would mean wasted hours spent going from store to store not to speak of gas and wear and tear on the car, so I’ve learned to remember prices, and let it go at that. I avoid discount stores and wait for sales (as much as 70%) at higher end shops, where one is spared miles of hunting through piles of junk. By “sale” I mean 40% or greater.
Lucrezia,
It takes a few seconds for the Target cashier to check the price of what you’re buying at Walmart. They have a phone like device on the counter and they punch in the SKUs.
Otherwise, I know to never buy milk at a local deli–$3.00 for what costs $1.29-$1.59 everywhere else. And while I don’t comparison shop, like you I know where to buy what I want. I’ll pay a lot for some Farmer’s Market produce which isn’t as good at the stores near me. The only viable stores are some 10 blocks away. I wish I had the great choice available to you! But I wouldn’t hop from place to place to check out the cost of, for example, flour.