It’s not often you hear something like that from a maker of luxury items says something like that. Usually, they are trying to redefine the standards of beauty. To make things that are rather abnormal (like being stick thin) be considered the standard of beauty. To find a company not doing that, it earns my respect.

Belisi itself is giving away $100 gift cards to the best comments left on the Being Belisi blog. So if you want to get something from them, for yourself or as a gift, you should go leave your answer to the question above on their blog. Even if you aren’t interested in their products, they also have some interesting articles (such as how to properly tie a tie and where ties come from) there that you might want to check out.

So what sort of ordinary things are beautiful? I love the way the desert looks, just before a monsoon storm hits. That wall of dust, which will make things so dirty, is just an amazing site to see. The sky will turn red, orange, brown… a rainbow of colors, depending on the time of day. And after the storm, the colors come back as the sun shines through the clouds. And there are the most magnificent rainbows! It’s quite beautiful, even as the storm wreaks havoc with our storm drains and (normally dry) washes (gullies, empty streams).

I’d need a good location (mall would probably be best), inventory (chocolate!), displays and, of course, some way to actually sell the candy. You know, cash-register type stuff.

While an antique-type cash register would be a nifty thing to use, the best thing would probably be a computer hooked up to something like MerchantOS point of sale software. MerchantOS looks pretty cool and even has a free version.

Since it’s accessed over the internet, there’s no special software to install. Just an internet browser. This is especially nice.

I guess that could also be a downside, if you suddenly lost internet connectivity. Cable and DSL aren’t exactly the most reliable, even if they are ‘always on’. Maybe get both cable and dialup, as a backup. That’s what I would do, if I had a chocolate shop.

But, anyway, the assistant manager or whomever told me that beans are not Mexican food. I told her I’d gotten beans a couple days ago and she said ‘Well, you shouldn’t have been able to do that. It’s only for Mexican food’ then she decided to change her story and said ‘It’s only for the stuff pictured on the coupon’ (taco shells and salsa). Okay, then why does it say ANY Mexican food item? It doesn’t say ‘Only items pictured’ nor does it say ‘Only items that cost more than $1′. It says ‘Any Mexican food item’. It doesn’t even state ‘Limit 1 coupon per purchase’, like 99% of coupons out there state.
If they didn’t want people to use it for canned beans or whatever, they should have stated stuff on the coupon. And they should have coded it to only work for certain food items. I know they can do this, or else someone could come in with a Tropicana MFG coupon and use it for their razors. Instead, they coded their $1 off coupon to work for a lot of stuff.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any DVDs there that I’d want to get. I’ve looked. Oh well.

Alltogether, I paid $0.52 for a $178.32 cart full of stuff. Clerk didn’t even bat an eye at scanning 173 coupons.

This time, I’m taking a notebook with me so I can better calculate totals and such.

I grabbed the coupons, the uncut coupons, scissors, tissues and a bag for trash. I started feeling better as we were driving along and I thought ‘Wow, the sun’s really helping. Good. Maybe I’ll be all better tomorrow.’ Ha.

So at Target, I decided to make an ‘experimental’ purchase first.

• 6 boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, on sale for $0.60/box
• 2 boxes of Kraft Macaroni & cheese, $0.57/box (different variety)
• 2 envelopes Market Pantry taco seasoning, $0.59/each
• 4 bags Market Pantry tortilla chips, $1.02/each

I had coupons for the macaroni & cheese, $0.50 off per box. So the total without any coupons at all would be $10. If they accepted the coupons, but only took off the value of the product(s) bought, the total would be $0.82. But the ‘magic’ number, if they discounted the full value of the coupon: $0.00.So the cashier rang up the purchase and looked at me a bit funny when I handed over the coupons. But whatever. They’re real coupons! So the cashier scanned all the coupons and the total: $0. But she said ‘Hey, wait, that can’t be right…’ and called a manager. The manager ran off for a bit before returning and telling the cashier it was all right. So I walked out of Target with some food that was absolutely, positively free. Cool!

But things don’t stop there.

I took the food out to the car and reported my findings to my mother. So I immediately went back in for round 2. I felt a bit silly, adding 5 packages of Airborne to the cart. I felt like I was all better! Bit of a runny nose, but oh well…

So I went around the grocery section of Target, filling my cart with stuff and carefully trying to keep track of exactly how much I was spending. And how much I was ‘getting back’. I cleared the shelves of tortilla chips, of taco seasoning, much of the dry rice and beans, more macaroni & cheese, tissues, orange juice, salsa, honey, hand sanitizer, canned beans, cheese, ‘taco making kits’… buncha stuff.

One of the things (three things, actually) I picked up was where Target was having a sale on ‘holiday gift packs’ of some soap. You buy 3 for $5 each and they give you a $5 gift card. So I grabbed 3.

I counted carefully, but wasn’t exactly sure how close I was going to be to $0. I knew how many coupons I had to hand over, but I got a couple of slightly different answers when I added up the totals.

Not good.

But it seemed like it would fall into the $10 or under category. I considered that acceptable, so I counted out the correct number of coupons and headed for the checkout. Cart way too full.

I don’t remember the total, before coupons, but it was up there. $230, $240. I’d have to count. The receipt doesn’t show. Boo!

But I handed over the coupons and this cashier just started scanning them in, although she did give me a bit of an odd look. After a couple dozen, she calls a manager over to make sure it’s okay. I tell the manager that I got the coupons off the internet that morning. Had printed them out. Manager called someone in the back. Finally, the person in the back says that it’s fine. Manager leaves. Hooray. Cashier spends the next 10-15 minutes scanning in coupons.

Finally, the last coupon is scanned and the total: $2.52 which I paid for with cash. And I walked out with a $5 gift card. Profit: $2.48. Now, I have to spend that gift card at Target, but that’s fine with me. Especially since I got some good food.
Unfortunately, as I was headed towards the doors, I was suddenly struck by a terrible coughing fit. I had felt fine all through the store, but now I couldn’t stop coughing…

On the second, I was shown a very interesting coupon for Super Target. I’d had what I thought was a cold for a couple days, but nevertheless decided that shopping would be a good idea on the third.

Many, many food items fall under $1. And, unless the coupon has a ‘fill in the blank’ type pricing, stores will usually apply the balance of a coupon to the rest of the order. And, even if they didn’t, free food is still free food.
So I printed out 600 of these coupons. Lotsa paper. And I proceeded to cut them out. Hours and hours. Never finished, actually, but I did get a bunch cut out.

So my mother and I went to Super Target…