When the Dillon grocery chain here kicked off their card-discounts I happened to have two register receipts from my most recent shopping trips there fairly handy.

I took those two receipts back in with me and "priced them out" at their new "discount card prices."

The "new lower prices" for the items on one receipt for $285 now came to $314 "with the discount" or $478 if I didn't use the card.

Items at the "new lower prices" on the receipt for $345 now came to $385 with the card, or $625 if I didn't use it.

I have kept my own database of Dillons purchases since, and in the past two years I've spent a total of $48 there - instead of my former $350/month. But they don't care, because "the herd" believe they are gettin bargains.

I think the term used in the Dilbert cartoon was "engineer spittle." My wife, son, stepson, and three neighbors I don't even know pointed it out to me.

John