I found out from a sales circular in the Sunday newspaper that Staples was selling some school supplies for 1 cent. Yes, a penny. So since they wanted to play this ridiculous loss leader game, I played along too. I went to the Staples store in Ramsey and picked up some 1-cent pencil sharpeners and a few 1-cent boxes of pencils. How could I resist such a blatant giveaway? Of course, this in no way helps me reduce clutter but hey, the pencils are great for geocaches. I can drop a pencil in each one and folks can use those pencils when the cache pens dry up or freeze.
Speaking of loss leaders, Consumerist notes that grocers hate shoppers who "cherry-pick" sale items. Boy, A&P and Pathmark must hate me because I've had many shopping trips where I got only sale items. :) Here's the reason for having loss leaders though: Supermarkets sell a few items at a loss in the hope of attracting shoppers who come for those items and also buy lots of other items at regular prices. It's the nature of the game that some shoppers like me who don't consume much groceries will naturally get only the loss leaders. So in order for the supermarket to keep playing the loss leader game, they have to be making more money from shoppers who buy other stuff in addition to the loss leaders than they're losing to shoppers who "cherry-pick" the loss leaders. Otherwise, they would be better off following the Wal-Mart strategy of having everyday low prices on everything. Either way, quit griping about your customers!
In the evening, I went for the Cash--Cache geocache in Miers Park in Hasbrouck Heights. (not far from where Lunacon was held earlier this year) I couldn't believe the way it was placed. There it was, an olive-green ammunition container just sitting in plain sight near a playground in a small urban park. I fear for it because odds are it'll either be plundered soon or someone will think it's a suspicious package and call the bomb squad. Then we'll have another Bethlehem-type incident. (And this time, I'll be the mysterious stranger in dark clothing. :) )
I had a John Coctostan (quesadilla) at Moe's. I had no idea where this name came from so I did a web search and discovered that this Wikipedia page for Moe's explains all the names on the menu.