Finding Your Free Lunch, the Holy Grail of Economics!
The older I get and the longer I live in New York, the more jaded I become. By jaded I mean that my youthful optimism has diminished to a more realistic level. I’ve realized that everything comes at a cost, whether you pay for it explicitly or implicitly. However, in this week’s Find, I share with you a remaining freebee and a way to pay it forward.
Folks, as you can see above, I have a problem. I am mostly addicted to shopping online, especially for all the crap that my kids like. In fact, rare is the occasion that I shop in a store for myself, unless it is a special one like blue jeans at Blue in Green or a fedora at Flamekeepe. The reason I shop online is the convenience of shopping from home combined with the fear of crowds and perfect price discovery. However, I have another confession … I do not use the power of the Internet to find the best price. I usually default to looking for what I want on Amazon and chalk it up to the savings and speed of Prime service. However, my friends, I have found the solution to my guilt and it is Paribus.
Paribus is a genius little program that monitors my online purchases for price changes. The reason is that many retailers, Amazon being one of them, provides price guarantees in their tiny legal language. However, it is incumbent upon you to find these discrepancies and alert the retailer in order to get that money back. That is exactly what Paribus does for you! They observe the price changes and then get you your money back, less a 20% Finder’s fee. The money goes right back on your credit card! This may not make you rich, but you have to do absolutely nothing and you can potentially earn back your money. Maybe there is such a thing as a free lunch!
Now that you have your new found money, how about sharing your good fortune? What better way to share then to treat a friend, colleague, or even a stranger to a cup of coffee, a cupcake, or a champagne toast. You don’t even have to leave your desk/house; you can just send it via emoji to them. Then, they can redeem your gift at a long list of the best places. Welcome to Dollop! It provides you the opportunity to seamlessly and easily demonstrate thoughtfulness, something everyone could share!
Antico Noe
220 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
While our next Find may not be a free lunch, it harkens back to a time before I became more jaded; it was a time when I was carelessly traveling through Europe after college and looking for cheap (sometimes good) eats in Florence without a worry in the world. Now you can recapture that feeling without traveling abroad by heading over to Antica Noe, the first American outlet of the famous Firenze panini shop. This location was opened by a former distressed investment professional (Michael Grant) who fell in love with Antica Noe, observed the incredible cult following, and correctly wondered why it wasn’t stateside! Thank you for bringing me these paninis and allowing me to regress to a simpler time!
Now that you have Found and spent your lunch money, consider Paribus, Dollop, and Antico Noe Found! Maybe if someone sent me a free cupcake or even a burrito I would lose my NY edge … nah, probably it would take more than that!