Sometimes stealing your neighbors' mail really pays off. Now, I don't mean in the criminal sense because I'd never do that... nor in the pervy voyeuristic sense, because while I might find it interesting, it's still frowned upon. No, I mean picking through the solicitations that people toss into the recycling without even looking at them. The volume of glossy mail thrown out by tenants is practically the only merit of living at the Ghetto Apartment, and it is a goldmine seemingly undiscovered by anyone but my boyfriend.
For example, there is an excruciatingly yuppie grocery store located nearby. (We love it.) They're a relatively new business so they occasionally send out promotions to reel in new customers. Usually the promotions are something like "buy one quart of soup, get one free." Nice stuff, but not worth wetting one's pants over. One time, however, they sent out a flier carrying this inticing offer, "Come in for one free pint of Hagen Daas ice cream!" Yeah, no strings attached. Ya figure, who doesn't like ice cream, right? Well, apparently the ten suckers who tossed the flier in the recycle without so much as a glance. Or maybe there are lots of lactose intolerant tenants at the Ghetto Apartment. So I come to visit J (this is before I lived here), open the freezer, and what do I see but eleven quarts of fatty, sugary, delicious goodness sitting in there. I guess he went to the market over a two-week period and stealthily cleaned them out.
But this doesn't take the cake, no!
( Continue...)Just last week as we were reveling in our newly delivered eviction notice, J made another discovery... a twenty-dollar gift card to a delicious downtown grill. It was postmarked to some tenant by name with the addendum 'or current resident.' Now, what I want to know is who throws out something that says "FREE TWENTY-DOLLAR GIFT CARD ENCLOSED" without even so much as looking at it? The folded flier was still sealed with gummy glue and not even bent or knicked. It was in no way tarnished with a Comcast, Qwest, or any other vendor logo or the ominous 'terms and conditions apply.' Nay, it was an actual $20 gift card with the only terms being "must be used at dinner; one card per table." Enclosed was a moderately priced selection from the full menu. Oooo-kay. Score one for the starving student and his unemployed girlfriend.
This reminds me of when I used to work for computing support at the University of Oregon and someone would find a killer coupon online and duplicate about 1500 copies of it which we'd use tirelessly until the company shut down the deal, regretting that they ever thought it up. Like the time Quiznos made an online coupon for subs that cost a cent with the purchase of a small drink. We all said, "Hell yeah!" but within a week they'd cancelled the offer. Asshats.
I guess they were counting on more people, like our neighbors here, not appreciating the value of a free lunch... or dinner, as the case may be.
Posted on October 27, 2005 @ 6:39 PM | 2 comments
For example, there is an excruciatingly yuppie grocery store located nearby. (We love it.) They're a relatively new business so they occasionally send out promotions to reel in new customers. Usually the promotions are something like "buy one quart of soup, get one free." Nice stuff, but not worth wetting one's pants over. One time, however, they sent out a flier carrying this inticing offer, "Come in for one free pint of Hagen Daas ice cream!" Yeah, no strings attached. Ya figure, who doesn't like ice cream, right? Well, apparently the ten suckers who tossed the flier in the recycle without so much as a glance. Or maybe there are lots of lactose intolerant tenants at the Ghetto Apartment. So I come to visit J (this is before I lived here), open the freezer, and what do I see but eleven quarts of fatty, sugary, delicious goodness sitting in there. I guess he went to the market over a two-week period and stealthily cleaned them out.
But this doesn't take the cake, no!
( Continue...)Just last week as we were reveling in our newly delivered eviction notice, J made another discovery... a twenty-dollar gift card to a delicious downtown grill. It was postmarked to some tenant by name with the addendum 'or current resident.' Now, what I want to know is who throws out something that says "FREE TWENTY-DOLLAR GIFT CARD ENCLOSED" without even so much as looking at it? The folded flier was still sealed with gummy glue and not even bent or knicked. It was in no way tarnished with a Comcast, Qwest, or any other vendor logo or the ominous 'terms and conditions apply.' Nay, it was an actual $20 gift card with the only terms being "must be used at dinner; one card per table." Enclosed was a moderately priced selection from the full menu. Oooo-kay. Score one for the starving student and his unemployed girlfriend.
This reminds me of when I used to work for computing support at the University of Oregon and someone would find a killer coupon online and duplicate about 1500 copies of it which we'd use tirelessly until the company shut down the deal, regretting that they ever thought it up. Like the time Quiznos made an online coupon for subs that cost a cent with the purchase of a small drink. We all said, "Hell yeah!" but within a week they'd cancelled the offer. Asshats.
I guess they were counting on more people, like our neighbors here, not appreciating the value of a free lunch... or dinner, as the case may be.
Posted on October 27, 2005 @ 6:39 PM | 2 comments
Comments:
Hey, we did that Quiznos thing too over here at GG. Our accountant brought in like 100 of those coupons that she'd pickup up somewhere, and all our employees ate Quiznos everyday for a few weeks until they cancelled the offer.
Apparently the promo did work on a few of my co-workers though, because they still eat that crap. I'd much rather spend $7 at the greek place next door if I'm gonna spend that much on lunch.
Quiznos was good the first few times... but yeah. Kinda gets old quick.
By 
, at
1:37 PM, October 28, 2005
mmmm free food...
By Louie, at
10:39 AM, October 31, 2005
