Mea Culpa

Mitch Fountain

10 Apr 2025 • 8 min read

Why Was This Guy Always In Trouble?

The Price is Not Right Rule

If you need to spend $15 on butter to receive 3000 points, you notice that I always show an extra dollar on the chart. That's because on that deal, butter will invariably be $4.99. They make it hard to hit right on the number, on purpose. You purchase three, your spend was $14.97, no deal. The net price drops to $4.24 each when you buy one more. Every one you purchase after that, your price goes up. Let do the math for a dozen? Cost is 49.90 less 3K in points, divided by 12. Your cost per unit is back up to $4.74! Call it The Price is Not Right rule. Going just over the threshold gives you the biggest benefit from any offer.

The same logic applies to Continuity Offers. Try to get just over the number, whether it be overall receipts or specific categories (e.g. fruits and vegetables). You dilute the value of the offer by spending more than required. Not only that, next week, when Optimum repeats the offer, you'll already have a full supply of that product. I was watching my before tax total at Shoppers last Saturday and stopped the girl, "ring me up right there, I will put these two items back". Total was $63, I got 21,316 points. Take that Mr. Zhang.

IBAT

Remember when ITAP was all the rage on Reddit? I had to go back and check. The subreddit's creators launched it in mid-2009; today, it boasts 7 million members. For the next few weeks, I am going to introduce an IBAT thread. I Bought A Thing. As I mentioned two weeks ago, we melt RRSP funds each year and do some home improvement? So, we bought a fridge. It was a long road. I had a GE Profile I bought shortly after buying this house in 2006. Nineteen years on a $1200 fridge, not too shabby, right? SWMBO had a hate / hate relationship with my fridge. Broken shelves, no drawers, funky display. I had refused for years to replace it until the old one died. It simply refused. What was the best was it didn’t wait to alarm when you she opened the door anymore. It just started beeping loudly at her right away. This usually prompted a “DIE MUTHERF#%CKER DIE” from SWMBO. It never did.

Rabbit Hole #1 was a few years ago when I started thinking about it. I got hooked by this huge appliance repairs organization in the New England. They were producing online product reviews. If you are doing 60,000 service calls for six million households a year, you might know something about appliances? What breaks, what is crap, what provides good value. I recommend their videos. https://www.youtube.com/@YaleAppliance1

Here is what I learned from them and my store sales associate:

1) The high-end European stuff is good but bring your wallet (and firstborn).

2) GE is still a pretty good brand depending on the factory that made it

3) The Japanese stuff has lots of bells and whistles (think Samsung) but fails with brutal regularity. More complexity, more service calls

4) If you want an ice cube maker, buy one, put it on the kitchen counter. The ones inside the fridge break all the time

5) If you want cold water, buy a Brita, put it in the fridge. The internal water dispensers break all the time

6) French doors add a complex flap system and take up a ton of storage space for the same footprint. Men do not understand complex flap systems. Ask any girl?

Below, on the left, is a wiring diagram for a fridge with no bells. No whistles. On the right, one with all the options. Every component you see costs pennies when they are building it. They cost hundreds of dollars to replace when they are sitting in your kitchen. You are more likely to just throw it out and buy a new one if your fridge is over five years old. That's what they want! Avoid the sizzle.

"Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure"

So Rabbit Hole #2. What’s the best way to organize a fridge? I have an old Anthony Bourdain video with his fridge organization system. It rocks! Unfortunately, his fridge is the size of a UPS delivery van. Here is what I gleaned from various internet sources:

1) The crisper drawers' designers want you to separate fruits and vegetables. Low humidity for fruits that are prone to rotting. High humidity for leafy greens and other vegetables that are prone to wilting. You should listen to them.

2) The bottom of your fridge is the coldest. Milk, cheese, fresh meat, longer term storage goes there.

3) I’ll come back to the middle shelves.

4) The door gets condiments. Round containers waste 24.4% of your shelf footprint. Half empty containers waste 50% on top of that. Glass containers will not degrade. Order square glass storage containers. I found eight- and sixteen-ounce ones met most of my needs. (links below)

5) The top shelves get leftovers (warmest place in your fridge) and the middle shelves get everything thing else. Use internal clear plastic bins. Pull the whole container and place it on your kitchen counter when searching for stuff? It saves wear and tear on your back and your fridge.

So as you know, mea culpa simply means my fault. I apologize to SWMBO in advance if she discovers any extra fiber in her diet? I do not know, nor can I remember exactly how this transpired. I had kept those toenails I used in last week's diorama in one of my empty glass storage jars in the office. I had visions of doing another more complex diorama with pintles (the rocks that go across the top of the upright pillars) and music. I remember finding that jar and thinking, I can’t use that one. That would be nasty. Now, I can’t find that jar? It’s here somewhere?

The List

Bonus Redemption over at Shoppers. It has the larger redemption option this time around. 350,000 points for $500 off. Back up the bus! I am closing in on a million points again and the garden centers open shortly!! I will spare you another turkey diatribe. Buy the PC "cook from frozen" pre-stuffed bird for $1.87 a pound. Buy two and you will have one for the BBQ when the weather turns. Zehr's featured California Pistachios on the first page of the flyer. Sigh. Way to NOT support Canadian products. I also had to laugh at the PC OJ listing. Prepared in Canada? From those orange groves, you know, in Sudbury? Your list is a little funky this time as I included the redemption numbers on the top line. I did not look at the other flyers. They cannot beat free? This week you might get $800 worth of stuff for a hundred bucks!! I also gave you an old redemption list to get the juices flowing. It has not been Canadianized but sadly, most of our cleaning brands are huge US multi-nationals (Proctor & Gamble, SC Johnson & Son, etc.). Hopefully, Carney can fix that. Here's your list:

What I'm Reading

What We Are Watching

Tokyo Vice - We had to wait three years for the 2nd season of this show. We started over and are working through it again. Something different. ****

Black Bag on Prime - Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Piers Brosnam & Rejean Page in a CIA thriller. Ever since Bridgerton, that last guy has been showing up everywhere. Splendid stuff. ****

The Last Duel on Prime - Has Ridley Scott ever made an awful movie? What amazes is Judy Comer playing the noblewoman farmed out as a brood mare. Her performance overshadows Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Ben Affleck! What a movie. *****

Anchorman on Netflix - Supposedly a comedy classic. I went against my better instinct and had a look. It is just as moronic and unfunny as I suspected. I put this in the category of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm. They just don't work for me. *

Quote Of The Week

"When you look down on people, they do not look up at you. They look for alternatives." Rev. Al Sharpton.

... and finally

The Optimum program can be very lucrative. It takes some serious prep work each week to get the most out of it. When I read that a Mr. Zhang had lost forty-three million points when Loblaws suspended his account, it gave me pause. I did 1.5 million on a 10K spend last year. So, if he is doing everything I am, he would have spent $860,000 on groceries. He says the items he purchased were not for commercial use or resale. Put me down as skeptical.

Mitch & Maddie