The Unsatisfied Consumer

I went to the new Rose Garden library today, and was impressed — it’s really beautiful, and has a lot of charming features like artwork and a reading area around a fireplace. That said, it doesn’t have a huge selection of books. I always expect a library to be filled to the ceiling, but that’s not the case anymore. Yes, it’s a local neighborhood library, but I despair when I see shelf after shelf of DVDs and a sparse book collection. Have public libraries become the main competitor for Blockbuster?
Nevermind. They did have one book that I was happy to see: Arbuckle’s History of San Jose, which I tried to get in PDF form from the main library last year only to be thwarted by an arcane DRM that didn’t seem to work properly on the Mac version of Acrobat.
I’m pleased to say that this branch has a much better self-checkout system that works more like the grocery scanner — no need to juggle your card and books together like the older ones, this one just scans the barcodes simply and easily and you’re done.
From the sublime to the ridiculous: after my library visit, I ran by Staples to pick up some ink for my inkjet printer. Get this: to buy a complete set of inks for my printer would cost $90 with tax. To buy a completely new printer — which comes with ink cartridges and is an upgraded model of the one I already have — would cost $100 with tax. What in the hell is this all about? I’ll tell you one thing, this is why we’re swimming in plastic e-waste. It’s cheaper to throw away my old printer and buy a new one than to simply maintain the thing.
Another thing about ink cartridges: I’m generally a proponent of the free market, with the idea that a market will self-regulate and prices will reflect what consumers find fair. But increasingly, that’s not the case. Prices are more and more often fixed by the manufacturer and never fluctuate. For instance, these ink cartridges. They are the same price everywhere you shop, be it online or a brick & mortar store. There’s no such thing as a suggested retail price anymore. A lot of consumer electronics are priced this way now — an iPod or Mac always costs the same everywhere (although some stores give rebates). An XBox is the same price at every store.
While I’m talking about prices, may I just point out that the same old oil company con game is going on right now? Gas prices spiked just high enough to make consumers complain and start to take action, but before they could do anything the prices came down… but not quite to where they started. Now, the gas station near my house is up to $2.65 per gallon. Not long ago, this would have been cause for alarm and complaint, but strangely, no one is complaining right now. See how it works? $2.65 seems cheap when compared with $3.15. My prediction, and it’s an obvious one: the next time gas prices shoot up quickly, they will reach $3.60 and then settle back to a new “low” of $2.85… and people will, strangely, breathe a sigh of relief while the oil companies continue to make unbelievable profits.