The Chronic Consumer

I usually don’t complain much in my posts because most of the products I buy turn out to be better than what I expected. But that wasn’t the case with this CampusOne Mizzou t-shirt that I bought a short time ago.

It’s a white t-shirt with black screen-printed lettering edged in gold. The shirt looks absolutely fantastic when it’s brand new because all the colors really pop. But after just a single trip through the dryer, the lettering faded so much that the shirt looked like it had aged a few years! I know the dryer can wreak havoc on screen-printing, so I try not to judge the effects too harshly. But in this case, the wear factor is just way too much.

I wouldn’t recommend buying this one!

OMG, I was just looking through one of those “worst Christmas gifts ever” lists that always pop up at this time of year, and came across this horrifying thing called a “Peekaru”. It’s some kind of stupid snuggie that allows moms to carry their babies while presumably keeping them warm outdoors. I understand the concept, but seriously, the picture of that baby’s face just sticking out like that looks scary as hell! I would NEVER wear one of these things if I had a baby!!!!

I love Hot Pockets. In fact, there was a period of time when I ate Hot Pockets for lunch every.single. day. For like a year. So when I started seeing these Side Shots at the grocery store, I was a bit intrigued. I finally got around to trying a package of the Mini Cheeseburger flavor the other day — and have to say I was less than impressed.

First of all, I should have known better than to expect any kind of bun/bread to come out right in the microwave. Past experience with frozen food should have taught me that much. But I was at least hoping for the filling to be nice and tasty, which is where the disappointment comes in. I don’t know quite how to explain it, but this simply wasn’t as flavorful as you’d think. There was a faint taste of meat and a faint taste of cheese, yet the overall impression was not that of a cheeseburger. Does that make sense?

At any rate, though I still love my Hot Pockets and Lean Pockets, I don’t think I’ll be buying Side Shots again anytime soon.

A friend of mine loves antiques, and asked me to go shopping with her today. She’s looking for a particular style of desk, and went to several different stores to check out the ones they had. She didn’t end up buying anything, though, because the ones in good condition were too expensive, while the affordable ones looked pretty bad.

Personally, I have never understood the attraction of antique furniture. If I’m in a museum, then sure, I’d enjoy looking at old stuff. But I would much rather have modern furniture in my own house than stuff that has been used for a hundred years or more. And why people pay top dollar for old furniture — stuff that isn’t even particularly rare — is also beyond me.

I don’t know… antiques? Pass.

Although I love shopping online, I absolutely cannot stand unnecessarily high shipping charges. Yesterday I came across some earbud type earphones for my iPod that I really liked. They were a special pair that had a team logo on them, so they cost $14.99 for a set of two. I was all set to order, but during the checkout process noticed that the store said shipping would be calculated and added at a different time. Well, having recently learned my lesson about allowing a store to add shipping charges later, I decided to just email them for the info instead.

I got a reply within a couple hours, which was great customer service. But get this: they were going to charge $9.90 to ship that $15 product that probably weighed about half a pound total!!! Are you kidding me? What a friggin’ ripoff! There’s no way I would go through with an order like that.

I know the store is not setting the rates. It’s clearly a UPS thing, but still… there’s no excuse for absurd shipping charges like that. Maybe these companies should provide an alternative option (such as the post office) for smaller items that could just be stuffed into a padded envelope and mailed for a buck. Is that really asking too much?!

I have a confession to make: there’s a Barry Bonds replica jersey buried in one of my drawers somewhere. I didn’t buy it myself, but a misguided friend who lives in San Francisco sent it to me as a birthday gift a long time ago. This was before Bonds was busted for using an HGH supplement, so his reputation wasn’t as tainted as it is now.

Anyway, I have NEVER worn the jersey at all. I just came across it the other day as I was doing some spring cleaning. It still has the tags on it and everything. Ordinarily, I’d put this up on eBay, but come on — who would buy this jersey now?

So, it’s going to be used as a dust rag for the rest of spring cleaning, and then it will be unceremoniously pitched in the trash. There’s not a player on the planet that I loathe more than Barry Bonds (except maybe A-Rod right now). What a disgrace to MLB!

I’m a total Diet Coke addict, and have been for the last 15 years or so. I grew up drinking regular Coca-Cola, but as I got older, I found regular Coke to be far too sweet for my tastes. Now I can only drink regular Coke if it comes from a fountain, and I drink Diet Coke all other times that a soft drink is in order. Nevertheless, I decided to try Coke Zero for the first time a little while ago, mostly because of the huge marketing push this drink has been getting from Coca-Cola. What a mistake that was!

Coke Zero is absolutely disgusting! It has that same overly sweet taste of regular Coke — and yet something is missing. The aftertaste is pretty nasty as well, leaving me feeling like I just ingested something medicinal. I couldn’t even finish half of the 16-oz. bottle before dumping the rest down the drain. It was a waste of time and money.

Consider this experiment over. I will never, EVER drink Coke Zero again. I’ll go off soda altogether before making this my regular drink!

I love shopping online for most things, but one thing I can’t stand about the process is when websites offer limited shipping options. You’d think they’d want to offer their customers the best deals on shipping in order to build good will and loyalty, but that’s simply not the case at all.

For instance, this morning I wanted to order a motocross t-shirt for my husband and was all set to pay the $19.99 asking price — until I saw that I would be charged $12 for shipping! WTF???

It turns out that the website only shipped via UPS, which is why the charges were so jacked.

Obviously, I didn’t go through with the order. There’s no way I would pay that much for shipping on a $20 item. Plus, that site has now essentially lost my business since I’m not even going to bother checking for merchandise there anymore. Why would I when I’d just end up paying so much for shipping?

How hard would it be to stuff the tee into a big envelope and mail it through the post office? It would cost $5 tops, and would probably result in more sales for the site.

Well, whatever, it’s their loss. I just had to vent for a minute!