Double A Penny - Step 20 - What Are The Odds.

How To Double Your Way To A Million In 28 StepsDTAMP - Double To A Million Plan Blog
I went shopping with my wife on Saturday. I use to not like going grocery shopping (except when I might find coins for DTAMP), but now I have a new toy to play with.

Yes, I am talking about the new Laser Scanner at Stop & Shop. This handy little gizmo happens to not be much of a stretch from the Dust Buster Star Trek Phaser design of years past. (Although not my most favorite design, it will do in a pinch when you gotta grocery shop and need to protect yourself from strange alien children.)

I have to constantly quench the urge to handle it like a futuristic weapon, and fighting it out with some kid riding along in a cart, while making the best phaser sounds I can audibly produce.

(Warning: Of course I wouldn't actually do that because these devices do have a laser diode and must be respected. Don't look into the laser or point it at anyone. Eye damage is always a possibility when dealing with lasers.)


Meanwhile, my wife reminds me shopping is serious business and to please scan these pork chops. She managed to get to use it for a few minutes while I ran off to the Little Space Cadets room.

Although I have had a tendency to be an Anti-Technological, Iconclastic Luddite lately, this device is really a step up in grocery shopping.

There are some pros and some cons that I can see.

One good thing is that you do not have to load, unload and then reload groceries. That means less people touching my food packaging, transfering diseases to me and mine. I was always working at avoiding the checkout that had a bagger I called "The Licker".

He would lick his fingers before opening each plastic bag then touch my food before it went into the bag. I had to wash every single thing when I got home. Sorry but that is just down right disgusting. I avoided the licker at all costs.

I get to arrange the product in the bags the way I want them. Many times baggers just crush things or mix the wrong things together causing a myriad of issues later on. At other times I end up getting home to find my can of mushrooms has disappeared and found a nice dark hole to live in. Things wont disappear if I am the only one dealing with it.

Also I make sure I arrange my receipt with my food first and then add the household items last so they are all together and it is easy for me to do my later calculation with Quicken. In the past every thing was mixed up and I had to go through the whole receipt and figure out what each item was, some times weeks later when I am entering data and confirming. Now it is in the order I choose. I like organization.

Using this scanner I can just go to the self checkout aisle, usually empty, and no matter how much food I have in the basket be through in about one minute or less. Not to mention it is the self checkout aisles where I find most of my loose change on the floor for DTAMP.

Plus I get all kinds of free coupons. I just got one for free $5.00 off my next purchase. Plus some other good ones.

I love being able to check unknown prices on things as I go along. I just scan it in then delete it if I don't want it, but I am 100% certain what the price is.

It helps to manage my budget as I go through the store. I can be sure I am getting a sale price, etc.

It offers sales or specials every once in a while, with a Ka-Ching sound, which you get used to.

I use our own bags so I get $0.05 cents discount for each bag at the end of the final bill.

Thats some of the pros now the cons.

So far we haven't done what I would call a full basket. I see them all the time people go around the store and the basket is so full of stuff that things are falling off and rolling around on the floor. That could be a problem if you bag it as you go along.

My solution: The store needs a new basket for the new future. That design would need to be more of a three level jobber so you can bag it and slid it into one of the levels. Right now the baskets are one level with a rack on the bottom. Three smaller levels would work better.

One obvious con is privacy issues.

Apart from being one step closer to a life that is constantly monitored, recorded, analyzed, categorized, alphabetized, numberized, reviewed, evaluated, judged, approved, etc. , where we will all be under the watchful eye of the big brother, big mother or some other big human body part. Which by the way I reject being Iconoclastic. Let them keep their big body parts to themselves. They know everything you buy and they keep track of it so they can offer you discounts and specials based upon what you have purchased in the past.

If you used a card at the checkout they have been probably keeping track of it for some time.

Here is a suggestion I will be making to Stop & Shop Management and Owners:

Since all this data is being collected, make it available to the customer.

Provide an online account that I can go to and download the data of my shopping to my computer. This way I will not have to input things manually. I can use this data in a spreadsheet or a specially designed program that enables me to track my purchases, costs and manage my budget even better.

It is easy enough to do, banks do it, credit card companies etc. I download data from many sources to my Quicken. This would be one more. It would help me to micro manage what exactly I am buying. Food happens to be my highest cost, even beyond property taxes and heating oil. Yet it is the one I have the least access to the data to.

I would be able to track patterns, see where waste is and easily see what I have a tendency to buy so I can find coupons, look for cheaper prices, you know, like manage it. Please give me the data that my scanner and your computers so happily accumulate.

I would have an ID and Password, enter online and download. It would make me very happy.

What do you think Stop & Shop, Quicken? Come On, let me have my data.

The first thing that comes to people's mind is, what stops someone from cheating/stealing.

Well, some people will get away with it, but as I mentioned above, you are being watched. If you go to the checkout with a basket full and you come up with $25.99, then red flags are going to go off. If you behave oddly the camera's will be watching. Plus you may be subject to a random audit from time to time.

If you get caught, your name will be mudd. You will go on the record and eventually every store everywhere will know you are a thief. Don't believe for a minute that it won't go on your record.

One of the store's people told me the story of someone recently getting through with "Free" stuff. They missed him at the checkout but one of the store's cameras beamed in on his license plate, later the police showed up at his home.

You need to use your store card to get access to a scanner so you are matched up. Don't try to take the scanner. :)

Anyways it is better to be honest, upright and honorable. The other way just takes to much energy expenditure always looking over your shoulder.

Ok, so getting to "What Are the Odds?"

I wanted one of those Kellogg's Star Trek Badges found in specially marked packages.

The thing is the boxes are not specifically, specially marked. Meaning, I wanted the Command badge, with the star on it. Remember, I wanted to be a Captain. So I had to pick a box of Frosted Flakes that had that one in it. I would look at the boxes, into the eyes of Tony the Tiger in the hopes the shadowy secret would manifest itself. When that didn't work, I guessed.

The odds were against me of picking the right one.

I will let the following picture reveal if I beat the odds.

For DTAMP, April may have proven, though not verified, that I have reached my limit with an unspecified, un-named advertising source of revenue.

Present Stake: $2740.11

Motto: It is only "one" found penny.
Slogan: As Simple As Finding A Penny.

Regards,

Xinfinitum



This Double A Penny Blog is based upon the Doubling Method "How to Double Your Way to a £Million in 28 Steps". Using the Doubling Rule it is an attempt to "Double Your Way to a Million" by going from one penny to a million dollars, starting from nothing. At the beginning you start by finding a penny and then double a penny until reaching $1,000,000.

Double Your Way To A Million
How to Double Your Way to a Million in 28 Steps
D.T.A.M.P. - Double To A Million Plan
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