There’s a stretch on the highway that I travel seven time a week that features a “lane ends: merge right” situation. Once I’ve gotten in line, I often straddle the line with my big old truck so that dumbasses ahead of me don’t let line jumpers race to the last little bit of lane instead of queuing up. I’ll confess it’s rather gratifying.

One of the newer things I am seeing is coupon passing. People are using 10% or whatever coupons at the cash register. The clerk winks at the customer, and after giving the discount gives the customer back the coupon for ‘next time’. The customer then asks the person behind if they would like to use the coupon, and the process is repeated. I have been involved int this at 3 different stores in the last couple of weeks.

If I use a coupon and it’s returned to me, I don’t see why I can’t give it to someone else: this is what the advertisers want, and high passthrough numbers are great for publishers. Could the vendor be getting gyped? Probably not by any meaningful amount. After all, they sold 2 or more of item X with a cost Y and a profit of Z. So it’s likely that to 2xZ (now) is greater than the profit of selling one item at it’s original profit level. And mote that 2xZ is not fixed: for every third or forth coupon used, the ‘2’ becomes another variable that supports the idea that multiple coupon use is good for all.

Goatboy, I love you for that. I hate those damn line jumpers.

I know! I have the same traffic situation on my commute, and I only wish I had the cajones to do that. Of course I drive a little bitty car, so really people could pass me on either side.