Patented Shopping Tips January 19, 2018January 21, 2018 In case you’re one of those readers blessed with inexhaustible patience and money you can truly afford to lose — i.e., a fellow BOREF shareholder — check out these 140 patents, more than a dozen of them issued in the last year alone. Of course, they’re mostly Greek to me. “Space-maximizing clutch arrangement for vehicle drive wheel” . . . “System and method for improving efficiency of aircraft gate services and turnaround” . . . “Heat dissipation system for aircraft drive wheel drive assembly.” And even to a Greek, until there’s some cash cow to protect — or sue — they may not be worth the pixels they’re printed on. But a lot of intellectual property has been developed and, as previously noted, the work continues. Which would be nice even for non-BOREF shareholders, if they don’t like sitting in a cramped seat waiting for a tug. Or would prefer to board and deplane in half the time (from front and rear doors). Imagine if driving were like flying — as these clever folks have. (It’s a little silly, but it’s Friday.) JET is not only what WheelTug hopes to assist, but also WalMart’s answer to Amazon, as plugged here in July: I love Amazon, but competition is important — and the glass-bottle Honest Tea varieties that are so hard to find in physical stores but that are just a click away with Amazon ($44.62 for a 12-bottle case of Moroccan Mint) are just a click away on Jet at $16.27 (for Cinnamon Sunrise or Ginger Oasis, my other two favorite varieties) — after the 15% new-customer discount on my first three orders but before the additional $4.31 they knocked off of already-free shipping for my willingness to wait a couple of days to receive it. In all, $61.69, delivered, for 48 bottles, versus what would have been three times as much on Amazon. Needless to say, that’s an extreme example — and I still love Amazon. But “shop around?” So here’s a little update. Those cases of Cinnamon Sunrise and Ginger Oasis did eventually arrive, but only 17 of the 24 bottles — each wrapped in its own JiffyBag. It seems seven of the glass bottles had broken in transit and the carrier, noticing iced tea leaking from the box, did its best to clean things up and deliver the rest. Jet was abject in its apology and promised a replacement — which never came. That was last summer. A month ago, having given them time to get the kinks out, I tried again. My order is on its way! Tracking info! Progress emails! Delays! And then a refund notice — the order was canceled. Seeing a REORDER button beside the REFUND-ISSUED check mark, I did just that — and got a whole new round of congratulations on my wise purchase, tracking info, and so on. More delays, another cancelation (“damaged in transit”) and refund, with the REORDER button. Which I clicked. The story may end today, when the goods are scheduled to arrive. Here’s the tracking info to see for yourself if they have. Fourth time’s a charm? [UPDATE – My JET delivery arrived undamaged and on time. Fourth time was a charm!] But if the price variation on Honest Tea is wide, the variation on Viagra — for which I have zero need, putting all my energy into voter registration, but friends have told me — is little short of vein-popping. You’ve read, I assume, that there are now, as of last month, generics. And yet ten 100mg generic sildenafil tablets will run you $480 at Walgreen’s (many seniors found it smarter to buy the hundreds and cut them into halves, thirds or quarters, because the lower-dose tablets cost nearly as much) . . . while the GoodRx and OneRx apps on my phone found local pharmacies offering 90 of the 20mg tablets for well under $100 — about a nickel per milligram versus ten times as much. Bottom line: Should voter registration ever leave you so exhausted you need a little help — shop around. Finally, here’s how they shop in China — without cash or plastic. Take 10 minutes to visit our main economic competitor and — let’s hope — our most important partner. Have a great weekend!