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The Perils of Bargain Shopping
Two months ago, I decided to join some friends in an adult baseball league for geezers 45 and older. This represents a huge leap of faith for me. I haven't played on any organized team, in any sport, in at least 15 years, and that was slow-pitch softball. I haven't played baseball on a team since I was 12. I've never swung at a breaking ball, never gotten a sign from a third-base coach, never tried to hit the cutoff man from the outfield.
My friends tell me I'll do okay -- I'm in decent shape for a 52-year-old, and it's not like the pitchers are going to buzz 90-mph fastballs under my chin. My biggest fear is that I'll go the entire season without a hit, but they assure me that nobody's that bad.
I hope they're right. My sports career includes some moments of epic suckitude, and I'm too old to revisit them.
But that's not actually the subject of this post.
Since I haven't played baseball in 40 years, I'm missing some basic equipment. It's a wood-bat league, so I needed one of those. I also needed an aluminum bat for hitting in cages. Plus a helmet. And spikes. And pants. And a belt. And a cup.
Yesterday was shopping day. Harrison and I had to run an errand anyway, so I made him tag along with me while I loaded up on baseball gear.
I should note here that I never pay full price for anything. Kimberly got me in the habit of bargain shopping when we got married 15 years ago, and since then we've rarely made a purchase that didn't involve a sale, a coupon, or both. We sometimes compete to see who can get the best deal on whatever we have to buy. For example, the last pair of jeans I bought had a retail price of $45. It was on sale for $35, and I bought it with a $10-off store coupon. But that barely gets me in the game against my wife, who'd laugh at my inability to score the jeans at less than 50 percent off the original price.
We started at Modell's, where I had a terrific coupon -- 15 percent off anything baseball-related. But before we could find anything on my list, another customer's cell phone went off with the loudest, most obnoxious ring tone I've heard in recent memory. Rather than being embarrassed, he seemed pleased with himself. He let it go on until everyone in the store was staring at him, then had a loud, leisurely conversation with whoever loves him enough to set off that brain-cell-mutating ring tone. Since this guy was blocking the aisle with the baseball equipment, Harrison and I agreed that it was time to move on.
That brought us to Sports Authority, where I had two coupons, each good for $10 off a $50 purchase. I know from past experience the store lets you divide up your purchases and use multiple coupons, and I knew I'd easily spend over $100 on baseball gear. What I didn't know is that the process would take more than a half-hour, and leave a long line of people stranded behind me while two different kids working the registers tried to figure out how to make it work.
The problem is that the coupon excluded UnderArmour gear, and the $75 spikes I'd chosen happened to be UnderArmour. I didn't even know they made shoes until yesterday. More important, I had no idea the coupon excluded that brand, for a pretty simple reason: In the Sports Authority circular, the UnderArmour logo was directly beneath "save $10 on $50 purchase." (I tried to scan the image, but for some reason my computer and my website aren't playing nice today.)
I didn't discover this glitch until one cashier had rung up everything and used one of the coupons. This was after I'd waited several minutes in line to check out. (Quick recession-related note: The local shopping district had as much traffic as I've ever seen there. A lot of bargain shoppers, I guess.)
He sent me to a different register, which meant waiting in another line. The cashier, pleasant but math-challenged, couldn't figure out how to add up the non-UnderArmour purchases to get to $50 twice. It took three of us, including a manager, to get it right. (We ended up throwing a couple of pieces of gum on one of the orders to make the math work, which was good news for Harrison.)
There was a long line behind me while all this was going on, and I apologized to the people closest to me. They were nice about it, and agreed with my point that not using a $10 coupon was like throwing a ten-dollar bill on the floor and walking away.
For all that, I was glad I stood my ground and used both coupons. I know the time I spent getting it done was worth something, but most of it was a sunk labor cost anyway -- by the time I realized how long it was going to take, it had already taken longer than I'd expected. So I was left with the choice of giving Sports Authority $10 it hadn't earned, or continuing my quest to get the discount, without the promise of which I wouldn't have shopped there in the first place.
On the bright side, I think I taught my son one of life's most important lessons: Hang in there long enough, and eventually someone gives you some gum.
The Rundown
Lou Schuler is an award-winning fitness journalist and author. He began this weblog on menshealth.com in September 2003. If, for any reason, you need to know more about this middle-aged, bald-headed man, click here.
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Comments For This Entry
Posted by Ryan J. Zielonka at 02:40PM on March 07, 2009
Tangentially related to your post above, I'm 24 and, like yourself, haven't played baseball since I was 12. I love the game - some of my most poignant memories come from my time spent playing Little League. I refuse to play softball and am hoping to find a league in my area that plays hardball. I hope some of your future posts cover your "in season" experience.
Best of luck Lou.
Posted by Lou Schuler at 07:39AM on March 09, 2009
Thanks Ryan! I plan to blog a lot more about that, as well as my adventures coaching my daughter's soccer team.
No matter how much we all read about fitness and exercise, and how we try to apply the science to our own training and the advice we give others, there's nothing like actually playing and coaching athletes on the field to give us insight into how the human body works.
(Or, in my case, doesn't ...)
Posted by Robin Elizabeth Wolfson at 06:29PM on March 16, 2009
Sorry. Couldn't find an e-mail, so here you go:
Dear Mr. Schuler:
First, I have been enjoying your excellent book The New Rules of Lifting for Women. To date, I've been using mostly weight lifting books written for men. But I have a question regarding scheduling. After a devasting four or five years (long, boring story), I now need to lose a lot of weight and get back to weight lifting and all the other activities. I like your plan, but I'm wondering how to fit it in with my other passions: yoga, Pilates, indoor rowing (I'm halfway to my second million meters), and swimming. I know you don't put much stock much in cardio programs, but these are more on the order of love. Yoga and Pilates really should be done nearly every day, and, once I get back up to rowing 7K meters at a time, I can get back my mile in the pool. My only question, as you might imagine, is, "Do you have any idea of how to schedule all these workouts?" I'm retired (among the first of the boomers), and, yes, old (62), but I have a history of having been in very good shape and, reasonably or not, intend to get back into shape again. As soon as I finish your book, of course. Oh, I should probably mention the fibromyalgia, spinal arthritis, and migraines which usually take up about half the day to deal with. Nevertheless for some reason (my husband blames it on good, Eastern European stock), my muscles tend to great really strong really fast. Or at least they used to.
Anyhow, I know you're busy (by the way, I'll give the book a 5 at Amazon), but any suggestions you might have for scheduling would be most welcome. Thanks in advance and thanks for writing such an excellent book. Are you planning on developing a workout log (sort of like Suzanne Schlosberg's) based on the stages? I know I would buy one and think it would be very handy for women like me for keeping track of where I am and what I'm supposed to do next. Thanks again.
Posted by Lou Schuler at 02:33AM on March 17, 2009
Robin, I actually explain all that in chapter 12. On page 233 I game it all out -- how you might balance an aggressive strength-training program with a mix of high- and low-intensity activities.
I used the examples of Spinning and kickboxing for high intensity and yoga and Pilates for low intensity. You can plug in your own. I assume rowing is high intensity, and swimming could go either way, depending on your pace and efficiency.
Good luck!
Posted by n.f. farmer at 02:16PM on March 20, 2009
I have a bone spur in my left rtator cuff. My neurosurgeon advises me not to lift weight over my head. How/where can I find alternative exercises to those in the routines in the New Rules of Lifting for Women that I should not perform?.
Posted by Danielle Relation at 10:44PM on July 09, 2009
quite a peril! but it was worth it! i can't stand when companies say something in the ad and when you go to pay you find out that the ad wasn't completly true: the discount is just for some products, the discount is not for products that are already on sale, etc
Posted by Elena Incontri at 07:27AM on July 16, 2009
It happened to me so many times! I was very interested in some ads and went to bu the products..and then the surprise! The discount is no for the all the things I chose but only for a couple of them!
Posted by Anja Schuhe at 05:29AM on August 05, 2009
Hard life for bargein shoppers ; )
I know, I´m tempted to do the same, that is optimise all the resources I have (first of all money of course)..but sometimes I give up to looking for the best possible goods at the best possible price. It sometimes means lost of time and nerves, which are also precious ressources..
Posted by frank at 01:53AM on August 06, 2009
i m agree with you.. it is not always easy to find what you want.
But sometimes can you get what you want with a good preise.
bye
Posted by peter at 02:27AM on August 11, 2009
Anja you are right. it is not easy to find good quality for a good price. but sometimes can you manage that.
bye
Posted by Peter Hose at 08:03AM on September 12, 2009
Nice story! It's funny how shops get lost in their own fine print :-)
Posted by Tourist at 02:23AM on October 21, 2009
@Anja: Totally agree! In most cases u just save 3 bugs and the feeling "I did it!". Getting there could cost you 1h (+:.
Posted by Doktor Fußball at 12:07PM on October 21, 2009
Hey Lou, I really enjoyed reading this post. Funny how they needed also the manager to figure out the amount. Keep going!
Posted by Bali at 12:34PM on October 24, 2009
Hey Lou, full ack, I agree too ;-)
@Anja: I think you´ve got right. Grrets to Berlin :)
Bali
Posted by Klaus Flug at 03:48PM on October 26, 2009
Hey Lou, great post! You are totally right. Loose time and save so less!
Klaus
Posted by Basti at 02:39AM on October 28, 2009
Great article - Funny to read!
Posted by Laurena Proband at 01:12PM on October 31, 2009
a great and funny story, thank you for this view.
Posted by Paul at 03:43AM on November 02, 2009
Nice story and a really great post.
Posted by Swoopo Gutschein at 11:21AM on November 02, 2009
Nice story. I can totally feel with you. I often try to buy clothes and other stuff, which is on sale. Often it works out for me. I'm from Germany and visited NYC last winter. You have a lot more articles on sale and the discounts are outstanding comparing it with discounts here in europe.
To sports in your article: I can't play baseball or football. Here in europe soccer is very big... and one reason is: you don't need so much equipment... that's a huge advantage of that kind of sport.
Good luck with your baseball game. I hope your teammates are right :o)
Posted by Online Coupon at 09:33AM on November 21, 2009
Cool Post! Very informative dude. I saw this site while browsing and think it may be relevant http://www.hercoupon.com . Keep up the good work!
Posted by Tom at 06:29AM on December 02, 2009
I really enjoyed reading this post. Funny how they needed also the manager to figure out the amount. Keep going.
Posted by Vagabond at 09:56AM on December 07, 2009
This post is very interessting and the comments also. i enjoyed it :)
Posted by Evlilik Sitesi at 03:19AM on December 09, 2009
Hey Lou, great post!
i m agree with you..
Posted by Attika at 05:57AM on December 09, 2009
Nice story! It's funny how shops get lost in their own fine print.
Posted by Jeff Lowe at 06:43AM on December 21, 2009
Hey Lou, nice story! I´m happy to read this.
Posted by Stefan Schuhe at 07:59AM on December 25, 2009
Thats the way how smart shopping workds :) Cool article, thanks for that!
Posted by Günstiger Flug at 09:23AM on January 18, 2010
funny one, thank you for your point of view. I personally doubt if it works, but.. :)
Posted by Schuhe online kaufen at 02:42AM on January 26, 2010
Nice story and a really great post. ThX
Posted by Mode Shop at 03:32PM on February 01, 2010
Awesome story! Thanks for sharing!!!
Posted by Wohn Immobilie at 09:09AM on March 11, 2010
good story, even though i just read it now.
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