$39.99 >> $9.99 After Mail In Rebate

I really hate this. With a friggin' passion. The above title is an actual price from a spindle of CDs at Circuit City. Now don't get me wrong, I love Circuit City, and not the stupid little outlet stores in shopping malls, but the big stores where the deals are. But this is agrevating. Why can't they just give me the damn CDs for $9.99 to begin with? They can obviously afford the price drop or they wouldn't be offering it.

Well, they also know about people like me. Call me a fat, lazy, bloated, American lard ass (even though I'm not big in any way), but I simply won't mail in for the rebate offer. Like so many Americans, I want instant gratification in my price drops, not a 2 week delay. Maybe the reason I want the $9.99 offer is because at that particular time I can't afford the $39.99. So a mail-in rebate is a waste of time for me.

There are several companies that engage in this enraging practice. Best Buy, Staples, and Office Max to name a few. Why?

As I said, these big corporations know about people like me that won't bother with the rebate. In fact, they bank on it. They know a certain percentage of the population (most of it, actually) will be roped in by the flashy twenty to thrity dollar price drop advertised on the price cards on the display but will never get around to mailing it in.

It would be a huge blow to these companies if 100% of the consumers who purchased an item that offered a mail-in rebate, sent in for it. You would see them stop offering the rebate because of the massive loss of money. Then, maybe they would just offer us a good old fashioned sale.