Went to Sam's Discount Warehouse Club yesterday to pick up some necessaries. Knowing they had some trouble with the credit card companies, I asked the checkout ladies what credit cards they accepted. Here's the well-rehearsed "party line". . .

We accept Discover Card, along with debit cards and, of course, cash and checks. We also have a store credit card that's accepted at both Sam's and Wal Mart, so you have one-stop shopping convenience.

In this case, "one-stop shopping convenience" means "convenient provided that the only place you ever shop is at Wal Mart or Sam's". Which ain't so convenient.

I rolled my eyes, put back the couple of items I'd picked up, and left. There's a Costco a few blocks over, so I decided to dump my Sam's membership in favor of Costco. . .provided they accept credit cards. I popped by to find that they accept only American Express and debit cards.

I ended up buying my groceries at the local Tom Thumb, which accepts everything.

I must ask the CFO's of these two stores. . .

1. What are you smoking?
2. Where can I buy some?
3. Can I pay for it with my MasterCard, or do they only accept Diner's Club?



Did a moving starfield for the Game That Cannot Be Named. That appears to be about the limit of the stuff I can do for it. Java on phones is slooooooow.