Stuff-Mart

Taking the bike on a Wal-Mart run has been a good balm against over-consumption. That two grand they claim to save you every year, everyone knows, gets spent on stupid impulse items and improbably large bulk buys.



But I guess I'm getting too good at loading stuff on the bike, because (after, in fairness, too long between grocery runs), I found myself at the bike rack with rather a full cart. $107 worth.



I think it's a record for me, if narrowly. Now I'll have to resort to trying to muster common sense again to avoid spending too much at Wal-Mart.

I have given up getting my oil changed there. I tried last time twice and they overplayed what, I think, is their strategy. An oil change is pretty small beer as car maintenance goes, so much so I sometimes feel guilty for not doing it myself.

I heard a rumor, and experience validates it, that they intentionally take at least 45 minutes with your car to encourage you to browse, knowing that will generate sales of cheap plastic shit from China.

But the second time I was told it would be two and a half hours because their were seven cars ahead of me, well... I could change the oil seven times in less time than that, and I'm a mechanical booby.

The Valvoline shop wasn't much more, and their early bird special is actually a little cheaper on the oil I use, so next time I'll just drop the car at the Valvoline down the road from my work and bike the rest of the way in to work, pick it up on the way home.

And they had me out of there so fast I wasn't even bored with their waiting room magazines. And their magazines weren't that interesting. So while I may (obviously) still buy too many groceries at Stuff-Mart, their automotive department can go jump in a lake.