Loyalty is for suckers

I probably research 90% of my purchases. My research can range from a quick search in Froogle or one of the other shopping sites to an entire afternoon devoted to the task. However, last week I fell down on the job and it cost me about $8, maybe more (I don't really want to know).

My favorite coffee is available locally, but only in certain grocery stores and coffee shops. A few years ago I found an online seller that sold it at the same price I found locally, with free shipping. I've been ordering from them ever since.

Last week I noticed I was running low, so I went to the site to place an order. I remembered that I'd thought it would be nice to have some flavored syrup at home, to replicate the "gourmet coffee shop experience." I put a bottle of Monin hazelnut syrup in my shopping cart. A list of suggested purchases popped up, including a pump for the syrup bottle. It went into my shopping cart. Poking around further, I noticed they had sugar shakers. I've been using some vanilla sugar from Penzey's, adding it to my coffee with a spoon, but the sugar shaker seemed so much more convenient. The price looked right, so into my cart it went.

This morning, for whatever reason, I decided to find out what other companies were selling syrups for--and found several sites selling them for half the price that I paid. Now, I don't know if those sites included shipping, but chances are I could have found the pump and sugar shaker elsewhere for less as well.

Grrr. Always research your purchases!