You'll Never Be Rich...

But you will be entertained with Lisa's slot machine gaming strategy. Yesterday after work, we went into Reno to do our shopping, and decided to have dinner at the Eldorado buffet, about which I'd heard good things. We were underwhelmed. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good as the hype, and we won't go back. Flavors buffet at the adjacent Silver Legacy is better, but we won't have dinner there because there's always excessively-loud music next door that ruins the meal. (They're okay for breakfast or brunch.)

Anyway, we walked back to Circus Circus (Eldorado charges for parking, but by walking through the three interconnected casino-hotels, you can park for free) and down to the gaming floor. I noticed that one of the machines had 25 cents credit left on it, probably because it was a 50-cent minimum play and the last person playing couldn't be bothered. I went ahead a pushed the cash-out button and Lisa went in search of slot machines that had plays of 25 cents or less. She found a bank against one wall where the term "penny slot" actually is true in that you can play it for as little as one cent per pull. She played a few one-line and three-line pulls and, lo and behold, started winning a bit. When she got to $1.17, she decided that a >300% return on "investment" was enough and we cashed out and headed to Winco to complete our grocery shopping.

We stopped at the Nugget to tickle the affinity card and get another entry for the January 21st $10K drawing, and Lisa was going to play the Paradise Fishing slot machine, but there was a woman standing right next to the station Lisa wanted to play who was smoking more than the chimney on our fireplace, so we balked and went home.

You Can Buy American

My thanks to gridlore for pointing at this article:

Can the 'All American Store' Reverse Our Nation's Walmartization

There are a couple of big-box stores here in Fernley: Wal-Mart and Lowe's. I don't shop at Wal-Mart. I'm stuck with Lowe's, because the nearest alternatives are 25-30 miles away, and it doesn't always make sense to make those drives.

Note that what Lisa and I really want is for the USA to require that imported goods meet the same environmental standards (or better) than US-made equivalents. If making it would be illegal in the USA, it should be illegal to sell it here, too. Thus most Canadian and European-made stuff would be fine, since they're apt to have the same or higher standards.

I hope this store gets some success and that they decide to try and franchise it. If there was one here in Fernley, we'd shop there, even if it cost more. What's the point of buying cheap junk if it just breaks on you. The article itself says:

Selling low-quality goods at low prices, a big-box retailer can assume products it sells will break with some regularity. Perversely, this creates repeat business, as consumers file back into the store to buy replacements. Lather, rinse, and repeat!