IT PAYS TO SHOP

I bought my new then unused and never unboxed Barista expresso machine at a garage sale for under ten bucks.....it was $250 (without accessories) at Starbucks.....a year later, Starbucks discontinued the machine, but it turned up at Saeco, unchanged..except for the name.....for $400......That's merchandising for ya'!
On the same day, a friend and I bought identical Versace towels....one of us paid $149 (Neiman's) and the other, $9.99 (Tuesday Morning)......When I worked at Sak's, the store carried a shirt that I was very fond of....with Persian scenes printed on the fabric......$10 (in 1971)......I found the same shirt, minus the "Saks 5th Ave" label, at Kmart....for $2.99......When I informed Sak's merchandise administrator of this, our shirts were taken from stock and shipped to an outlet store in NYC, where they were "bargain tabled" for $4.99......(with the labels removed, of course)..