Morton Fox's journal

Sunny and 66°F. It was such a nice day that I thought I'd go outside for a bit. Ran some errands in downtown Park Ridge. Also went to Staples to use the $10 gift check. Staples has been experimenting with new ways of paying out rebates to cut costs. They used to send out checks that I could cash at the bank but the last two rebates were different. The one before last was a $25 debit card. I can't imagine that's cheaper than sending out a check unless they got a cut of the merchant fees. I'd still have preferred to get cash because I don't have to think about how to spend it so I use exactly $25. The most recent rebate was the $10 Staples gift check. This less desirable because it forces me to spend more money at Staples and obviously Staples profits from the rebate payout.

At Staples in Park Ridge, I found 3 items that were on sale and that I'd eventually use, even if I didn't need those right away. So it was okay. The problem was the instant rebate on the gel pens didn't ring up on the register. I didn't notice until I got the receipt so I had to ask them to correct it. That took another 15 minutes because I had to wait for them to finish with the other customers and then they had to void the whole transaction and start over. In the end, I paid $1 plus the $10 gift check, and expect $9 back in rebates. (I filed those online already.) I have to wonder though how many people paid more than they had to for those gel pens and didn't notice. I imagine most of the free-after-rebate seeking crowd would've gone for it on Monday.

The weather was still nice in the evening so I went for Lucky Charm Lids at Clifton Commons in Clifton. I didn't complete that multicache though because it had more stages than I had time for. So I switched over to Plan B, which was to use my $5 coupon at the Red Robin adjacent to Clifton Commons. I had the new menu item, the Burnin' Love Burger. It's supposed to be spicy because of the pepperjack cheese and fried jalapenos but it's actually quite mild, not even 1-alarm by my standards. In fairness though, Red Robin isn't the kind of restaurant one would go to for spicy food. Of course, I also got a refill of the steak fries.

This afternoon, I went to Park Ridge to do some errands. Had lunch at Burger King in Park Ridge to use one of the coupons from the coupon book they send out every few months or so. At this Burger King, the manager was working the cash register. As I was counting out dollar bills to pay for the meal, he asked "Did you win these in Russian roulette?" Uhhh...

( About those Red Robin eClub coupons... )

Rainy day today, so I just went to the post office to check the box and did some errands. Went to Subway in Park Ridge and got a spicy italian footlong. Service is not as good there as it is at Subway in Ramsey but what do I expect for $5? They also didn't have small cups for tap water, unlike my usual Subway.

My Postcrossing activity has gone up quite a bit since they raised the postcards in transit cap. Used to be that I would send out only 2 or 3 cards a week, but this week, I sent out 7 cards! I don't know if I'll keep up this pace but I can't wait for postcards from other Postcrossers to start piling up in my mailbox.

( Friday Five )

It was a day for errands as I had to go to the post office to mail two items. I had also run out of some key grocery items. I stopped for a minute at Rhodo Ranger to trade a travel bug. The route I took through the residential area may be atypical but that geocache is on my way to the Park Ridge post office with no U-turns or backtracking. Now, if only other cachers would come by regularly to refresh the trackables.

While out and about, I noticed that it was quite windy today with wind gusts of up to 40mph. There were no fallen tree limbs, luckily, but garbage cans were getting blown about on the road.

Aside from that, I also upgraded the luamacro plugin in my K-Meleon installation and wrote another little macro that I thought was long overdue. It's for del.icio.us. Speaking of which, it's troubling that I'm getting throttled by the del.icio.us API just for downloading my bookmarks. :)

This evening, I went to A&P supermarket in Park Ridge. This supermarket had been closed for renovation for a while. When it reopened, it was rebranded as an A&P Fresh store. Today was their Grand Reopening day. Well, okay, I admit it: the only reason I went was because they sent me a "$10 off a $50 purchase" coupon. :)

The first thing I noticed was that the supermarket looked more open. The storefront now has big glass windows so you can see all the way inside before you enter. Of course, the big windows are positioned so that the most visible part of the store was the produce section with all the colorful fruits and flowers. (Yes, it's a grocer's marketing tactic.)

The store layout (see diagram at the bottom of this page), which used to be strictly linear, is now a mix of front-back aisles, diagonal spaces, and circular alcoves. That arrangement makes things interesting but a little cramped. I noticed that the aisles are narrow, making it hard to get around this evening because there was a crowd on grand reopening day. It won't be as bad on regular weekday nights when the supermarket is not crowded, but compared to the Ramsey Pathmark's broad aisles, A&P's layout seems a little cramped. One thing I really disliked was the way the pharmacy section was tucked in a small room separate from the rest of the store. I didn't know it was there at first so I had to negotiate the produce section a second time to get mouthwash.

As for the actual shopping, I bought groceries for two weeks, enough to fill the fridge and freezer. I also stocked up on cleaning supplies and the aforementioned mouthwash. $50 doesn't go that far nowadays. My total was $78, which went down to $51 with discounts and coupons, and then to $41 with that special $10-off coupon. Will I be back? Perhaps not. I still prefer Pathmark, which is spacious and generally has better deals. If I really needed to go to an A&P, there is one closer to home in Woodcliff Lake, so there really isn't a point in going to A&P Park Ridge for groceries unless I have other business there. Still, it was interesting to see the changes they've made to the store.