I ran across an article in this morning’s Metrowest Daily News about Barbieri’s own Alana Lipkin:
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http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1733144707/Framingham-sharp-eyed-shopper-files-legislation-against-supermarkets.
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The article references a 2006 People Magazine article about Alana (below). As annoying as it would be to stand behind her in line at the customer service desk, I do think the stores should be held to their policies. I have spotted price discrepancies several times and if I’ve had the time to wait, I’ve gotten a refund. I’m sure I’ve missed many more incorrect prices than I’ve noticed, so I guess it’s a good thing I’ve got Alana watching my back.

Your Grocer’s Worst Nightmare
Alana Lipkin Has a Way to Get Groceries for Free—Now Some Stores Are Kicking Her Out

Attention, shoppers! The cat litter in aisle 3 is … free! Those handi wipes? On the house! Diapers, crayons, canned yams? Take ’em!

Just one catch—you have to have the eagle eyes of Alana Lipkin, the Tiger Woods of grocery shopping. A single mother of two from Framingham, Mass., Lipkin, 45, takes advantage of supermarket pricing guarantees—which stores in many states have—that entitle her to keep any mismarked item she finds. She regularly walks away with hundreds of dollars of free groceries (her record for a single trip is nearly $1,300). Lipkin simply hunts for discrepancies between the price on items and the price on shelves and says her shopping savvy helps all consumers by holding stores accountable for sloppy pricing. “The average Joe is getting ripped off,” she says, “and chances are he doesn’t know.”

Stop & Shop and Shaw’s, Massachusetts’s two biggest grocery chains, have banned Lipkin, saying she exploits guarantees designed to prevent blatant overpricing. “She’s manipulating circumstances to take unfair advantage,” says Stop & Shop spokeswoman Faith Weiner, who claims Lipkin creates delays by having cashiers price items she doesn’t intend to buy. Lipkin says that instead of fixing the problem—which would stop her—”they chose the easy way out.”

On a recent shopping trip, Lipkin found a 40-lb. bag of dog food marked $9.69; the shelf price was $9.59. Because the store had posted a guarantee that mispriced items are free, the bag was hers. After three hours Lipkin checked out with 47 items worth nearly $300, plus a dollar for each error, per store policy. Lipkin keeps about a third of her haul, giving away and bartering the rest.

So is she a hero? Or just one of those people you always get behind in line? Lipkin insists she’s helping stores by doing what their employees should be doing—finding mistakes. “They don’t even have to pay me benefits,” she says, “and I’m probably more thorough.”

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20060846,00.html
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We were out at the lake for July 4th and I knew that Old Sturbridge Village was having some sort of July 4th events but it just seemed wrong to pay to see fireworks. But the more I looked around for other options, OSV had so many activities going on along with the fireworks it made the $12 ticket price worthwhile. Judging from the throngs of people there, it looks like OSV had a very successful event which is great because it’s a wonderful place that was in rough shape financially a few years ago.

We arrived about an hour early and scored a picnic table next to the parking lot. We had a little picnic dinner and I carted along the s’mores maker to ensure an extra-sticky evening. When I first saw the s’mores maker I thought it was a little hokey, but it works pretty well. So my kids will grow up thinking you toast marshmallows over a Sterno can in a toasted marshmallow-shaped ceramic container with fondue forks instead of hunting for the perfect stick, cleaning the leaves, bird poop, and spider webs off, and toasting them over a campfire, but what the heck. Anyway, after the picnic the kids ran around in the woods and then we headed into OSV.

There was a magician, a juggler, a pie-eating contest, sack races & a hoop-throwing game, and if that wasn’t enough excitement, there was a reading of the Declaration of Independence. There were a few different period “bands” (think fife & drum, not rap & hip hop) scattered around, and by 8:30 we headed to one of the designated areas to find a fireworks-viewing spot in a cow pasture. Yes, there was a giant cow pattie right next to our blanket but it was pretty benign. There were 50+ kids running around while we waited for the moon to rise out of the viewing area, and then it was finally time for the fireworks. They were pretty impressive considering the locale, and when they were over, the real fun started.

We spent the next hour and a half shuffling toward the parking lot and then waiting for the cars around us to move. Some Jabroni started giving the parking lot attendant crap, the police were called, and it was complete gridlock while a police car tried to swim against the tide of 2,000 cars trying to leave. We didn’t even bother to start the car…we just stood around and watched the show.

We finally got home around midnight and everyone passed out, my favorite part of the night. There’s a limit to how much family fun I can handle.

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Here’s a video of the kids doing a couple of heats of the sack race, and you can watch a video of Adlani in the pie-eating contest here: http://lockmommy.blogspot.com/2009/07/no-mo-fro.html

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Last month I had to go to my doctor’s office on a Friday morning to have blood drawn for thyroid and cholesterol tests. Norah’s day care provider was taking a personal day so Norah came along with me. She was pretty good at the doctor’s office and I hadn’t had breakfast because it was supposted to be a “fasting” test, so we stopped in Davis Square to have coffee (milk for her). I don’t know if it’s a sign of the economy or what, but there were about 50 people in Starbucks, working on their computers, writing in notebooks, reading, or chatting. Normally I would expect those people to be sitting at their desks, but the place was packed. We sat outside and enjoyed the surprisingly dry late spring day.

Norah didn’t want to walk down this alleyway because she thought it was “jail”. On the way back from Starbucks she was brave enough to walk down the alley AND pose for a picture.

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