09.25.07
Wanted: a vending machine that takes VISA.
A few months ago I read about several companies testing the use of vending machines that take credit/debit cards. I can’t wait for these to hit the streets everywhere. I never have cash and therefore rely on plastic for nearly everything I buy.
I could have used a credit-card taking vending machine today at work. I had only .20 cents and no drink for lunch and was craving an ice cold Coca-Cola. I’m counting the hours til I can leave work not for the traditional reasons but solely so I can stop at a gas station on the way to get the kids and get a coke — on my debit card, of course.
07.02.07
Butterfinger and a Dr. Pepper
As a kid we didn’t eat moonpies with RC Cola. Our something-sweet-and-cola combo was a Butterfinger and a Dr. Pepper, both of which my dad keeps ready for the grandkids (or us big kids) in the mini-fridge in his garage.
I had a butterfinger for my 3 o’clock sugar snack today and thought of my dad and days past. Not only did we eat Butterfinger with Dr. Pepper but we ate Butterfinger in our ice cream on occasional after-school trips to the Dairy Queen.
The third ingredient on the Butterfinger wrapper (after corn syrup and sugar) is ground roasted peanuts. Know what that means? My youngest son, who is allergic to peanuts, will never enjoy a Butterfinger and a Dr. Pepper with his PaPaw.
06.27.07
Collect Points = Cool Stuff
An internet ad caught my eye today for a free 20-oz. Coke if I signed up for the Coca-Cola rewards program. I’ve seen this program advertised before on the 2-liters and 12-packs that I frequently buy. It’s one of those where you collect points and redeem them for cool stuff. I try (keyword: try) to resist the urge to get sucked into such gimmicks because I inevitable do exactly what the want: I buy more of their product to get more point to redeem for cool stuff.
The summer of ‘97, for example, my friends and I drove all around the rural Alabama town where we lived to find Mountain Dew bottles that had been thrown on the side of the road to get the “points” off the label. By the end of the summer we had enough points to all get a t-shirt and a doo-rag.
As a kid I saved Kool-Aid packages with “points” that I redeemed for silly little toys. Heck, I still save Kool-Aid packages to redeem for silly little toys for my own kids. I’m such a sucker for these collect-and-redeem things I even have two cardboard coins from the Pop-Tart and Eggo packages that can be redeemed for a Shrek or Donkey bicycle helmet cover! (We only need one more!) My husband wants me to buy a certain brand of applesauce because with just 3 proofs-of-purchase he can get a free t-shirt. A few years ago we saved points off of the Dr. Pepper 12-packs for a free football t-shirt. And in the name of education I collect Box Tops for Education and Campbell’s soup labels and save for my sons’ pre-school to redeem for new playground equipment, books, etc.
The internet has changed these point-collecting schemes a little by requiring you to go online, get a username and password and enter “codes” that equal out to points. That’s slowed me down a little, but not to a total halt. I started saving points off the Pampers packages a little more than a year ago for their Gifts to Grow program. Once my stack of wipe-refill packages and little slivers of paper torn of the diaper packages is large enough to be worth my time, I’ll sit down at the computer, login to Pampers’ web site and type in the codes. The points are redeemable for kids toys and books.
And now Coke has lured me in. They have this cool Coca-Cola memory stick — for just 650 points! At 10 points per a 12-pack that’s only 65 12-packs!!! But it’s not just for Coca-Cola Classic. Other products I buy that have codes are Sprite, Dasani water and Minute Maid Lemonade. And the free 20 oz. Coke offer that roped me in the first place will get me started: it’s worth 3 points! You may see me picking up litter in a rural town near you, not in the name of the environment but because I’ll need only a few more Coke points.
