Gasoline Coupons

Overlooked Gas Coupons


I  didn't realize it, but these coupons are good for one  gallon of gas at most retailers.

I have seen them around, but until  recently never took advantage of them, I never realized  their actual worth.

You  probably have one or two just lying around somewhere.

Now is the time to use them before  they lose their value, and it's too  late!!


 SEE  COUPON BELOW...
 

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What Housing Crisis? Realtors' Ads Defy Reality

Despite a Nationwide Meltdown, Industry Says Now Is the Time to Buy

SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- The housing bubble has burst. Almost three-quarters of a million Americans are in foreclosure. The median price of a single-family home recently fell for the first time in at least 40 years, and many are predicting it'll drop further in 2008.

But none of that stopped the National Association of Realtors promulgating a $40 million ad campaign urging Americans to think of buying a house as a get-rich opportunity.

"We believe there's a psychological block" to buying a home due to negative media coverage of the subprime crisis, said Frank Sibley, senior VP-communications and conventions for the National Association of Realtors.

Ads include claims that, on average, the value of a home nearly doubles every 10 years, and 60% of the average homeowner's wealth comes from home equity.

Mory Brenner, a veteran consumer-debtor attorney who now writes
on debt issues from a consumer point of view, put it this way: "Were the ads trying to lead you down a road with blinders on? I thought so. I found it objectionable and a little offensive," he said. While without patently false statements or data, Mr. Brenner said the ads "are misleading and not especially forthright and, in a way, the way we got into this situation [the subprime-mortgage crisis] in the first place." He chided the association for not producing a campaign more befitting its station. "They're not some [real-estate agent] on the corner," he said.

Others were concerned about the premise the Realtors put forth in the ads that housing values are going up. Patrick Newport, an economist with Global Insight, an economic-forecasting firm, said: "In a lot of markets, housing prices are dropping, and in some markets -- such as Florida and California -- they are dropping a lot. If you buy a home, you take on a big risk," especially if national housing prices drop 10%, as some predict, or if you lose your job and are unable to make mortgage payments, he said. He added that in many cases, "renting may be a much better deal than buying a house."

Full Story and sample ads:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=123374

No Bargains For The Natives

Time works its changes in mysterious ways.

Recently I read the New York Times article about bargain hunters traveling from London to New York because of the dollar’s weak economic performance against the pound.

According to the article in the NYT, the pound was about $1.96, up from about $1.60 four years ago. This was enough to get Londoner’s to come to New York and shop.

“The British are pretty savvy travelers and are pretty keenly aware of the exchange rate,” said Fred Dixon, the vice president for tourism development at NYC & Company. “The British and the Irish will come to New York for a long weekend to shop like we would go to Boston.”

But that is not whole story. On Dec.26th I went to find some homespun after Christmas sale items in the clothing stores on Broadway between Houston and Canal. That stretch of Manhattan features the likes of Banana Republic, American Eagle, and Bloomingdales SoHo, Max Mara, Mexx, Prada, Armani Express and many other known names on the side streets off of Broadway.

Now I wasn’t expecting wholesale prices in the after Christmas sales but I thought there would be quite a few items discounted 30 percent or more.

Not this year, not only were post Christmas prices not very discounted, there were few items on sale.

But shoppers were in a state of frenzy, buying everything in sight.


I was in a state of shock. All that I knew as a New Yorker was at risk. Maybe purchasing at close to wholesale in the city was going the way of the VCR tape deck.

That might be the case. Almost everyone cheerfully carrying a shopping bag was not speaking English. I could recognize German, French, Russian, Spanish, Italian and British English. Those who looked and spoke New York were by and large not buying anything.

I asked Alfonso, the floor manager of Bloomingdales SoHo how many of his current customers were foreign tourists. He replied about 85%. With customers shopping the exchange rate there was little need for his or other stores in the area to drastically reduce prices.

But here, here in the capital of “I can get it wholesale”, those days of discounts may be gone.