Consumerism

Like everyone else in this fine Nation of ours I am a Consumer.  I like buying stuff.  Stuff I need, stuff I want, stuff I don't really need but want just the same, I am a Consumer and I love it.  Living in a Free Market society is a kick, but you have to watch what you are buying.  The rules of Free Enterprise state that something will cost what the market will bear.  If it's too expensive, folks aren't going to buy it generally.  Thus the reason Apple Computers only have a 2% market when it comes to Home Computers but a larger market share when it comes to digital music players.  Markets are odd though.  MP3 players had just started coming out when the first iPod was made.  Apple did what the others didn't, make it seem trendy and cool to own an iPod.  Made it seem like it was some kind of hip, cool and with it lifestyle to own an iPod.  The masses bought into this, and figured 300 bucks to be cool was a low price to pay.  What they didn't realize was that Apple, like with their home computers, had a proprietary fix on where you were going to get your music for your 300 dollar "cool" accessory.  Yep, they invented their own digital music format the MP4 and you could only buy songs to download to your iPod at iTunes on Apple.com.  This proprietary thinking severely limited their market share in computers, but somehow folks didn't care when it came to downloading songs.  Very odd, but a Free Market is like that.  I personally don't like Apple because of their proprietary attitudes.  I like to be a smart Consumer and shop around.  I like competition, because competition leads to price wars and price wars lead to Yours Truly getting the most value for his hard earned buck.  I've seen 3 GB MP3 players for 70 bucks.  That's alot of music that you can store, and because it's not an iPod you can get if from numerous legal sources and sometimes cheaper than iTunes.  See, true Consumerism.  I want to comparison shop.  I want to look at the product and research the product and see what is required to own and maintain the product.  I'd love to have a BMW, but couldn't afford the monthly payments, the increased insurance premiums, the cost of maintenance etc.   Even if I could get a great interest rate and have low monthly payments, all the other things involved would kill me.  Don't get me wrong, sometimes you do get what you pay for.  You can look at the quality of something and know if it's cheap or not.  I own a Scion which is made by Toyota.  It cost me 15K and for a "cheap" car it's got a lot of quality parts, etc.  The interior is really nice and well put together.  I remember my 93 Saturn I had for 10 years.  When I bought it, you could tell it wasn't made all that great.  Within 3 years things in the interior started breaking.  The Perfect Line will fondly remember the flapping covers on the door sills....he finally duct taped the things for me in disgust.  Then there are certain items that they convince you that you need to use as refills.  I'm talking Gillette and their 5 billion versions of the 3 bladed razor.  Instead of disposing of the whole thing like disposable razor meant, you keep the handle but replace the shaving head.  Gillette created the Mach 3 a 3 bladed razor that actually gave us heavy bearded folk a pretty damn good close shave.  I actually get 5 O'clock shadow now and not 9 AM shadow like I used to get.  It was convenient and economical at first.  Then Schick got in the game.  We are now up to 4 blades plus Gillette has one with a 5th blade on the reverse part of the shaving head for dealing with sideburns.  Gillette countered with a battery powered, vibrating shaver handle that was supposed to make it shave even closer.  I tried one of these, it didn't make a freaking difference whether or not the handle vibrated how close my shave was.  Then they started getting out of hand with the pricing.  Everyone of these razors has a different color scheme.  The original Mach 3 blades are grey and blue, the Mach 3 Turbo(vibrator razor) are green and orange.   Gillette has everyone convinced that you need to buy the green and orange replacement heads for the vibrating one and the grey and blue for the regular one.  Oh yeah, and they are priced differently.  The blue and grey are 15 bucks for 8 and the green and orange are 24 bucks for 8.  Huh??????  I've put blue and grey heads on the vibrating razor and they work the same as the green and orange ones.  Why are they then almost double the price?????  It's stupid, but Men buy them.  I buy the disposable ones and usually get a good deal.  Heck yesterday Cathy and I found 6 Old Spice 4-bladed disposables for 5 bucks at Walgreen's.  I used one this morning and it worked just great.  Kind of why I won't buy an iPod.  I paid 5 bucks for something that someone else is trying to sell me for 15 or 24.....its nuts!!!  Oh yeah, and Gillette also likes to convince you that you should get their shaving gel to go with you Gillette Razors.......it's somehow better because it's made by them.  Okay...whatever.  I use Edge by Foamy and you know what, it's cheaper than the Gillette, has just as much shave gel in it, and works just bloody fine.  I remember when I was a kid and used to give my Dad grief for wanting to buy the Generic crap all the time.  Remember that stuff, it was almost comical the way it was packaged.  It came just like the name brand stuff, but it had a white label with uppercase block letters spelling out the product across it.  i.e. "BEER" or "PEANUT BUTTER".  In that sense, you got what you paid for.  That stuff was crap.  But, the Supermarkets took that idea a bit farther and decided to make their own line of stuff but made it taste comparable and sometimes even better.  Safeway is the huge chain out in California (like Kroger is here in Tennessee) and they had their "Safeway Select" brand of items.  Their salsas were just as good, if not better, than Pace or La Victoria and usually cheaper.  Now that's a smart business technique which a lot of stores do now.  They end up with more of your money in profit and therefore can lure you in with better sales and deals every week.  When it comes to buying food, we are a captive audience.  Kroger has some great Kroger brand stuff; even their pharmacy items.  The Kroger brand of Claritin was 10 bucks for 120 tablets and works just as well as Claritin.  Why?  Same damn chemical.  Loratidine 10 mg.  Heck we buy Kroger ibuprofen....it works just as good as Tylenol and is cheaper.  See Dad, I was paying attention.  I've learned my frugalness from my Father actually.  His favorite saying was "What a bargain!!" and he'd buy 5 cases of something that he really didn't need, but it was such a bargain he couldn't pass it up.  I'm not that way, but I will buy bulk items if it does indeed save you money in the long run.  I remember when we saw some men's shower gel in a 2-pack for a ridiculous price.  I bought it even though I didn't need any at the time.  Hey it doesn't go bad and I will eventually need it.  What a bargain!!!  I guess when the saying "Consumer beware" isn't just a cute tagline.  It's the truth.  Now get out there and shop!!!!