Costco 1, Linens'n'Things 0

[unixronin]

We ran out for some quick shopping today that was going to include a Dyson vacuum from Linens'n'Things.  We had one of their 20%-off coupons that brought the new Dyson DC15 (that's the one with the ball instead of wheels) down within $10 of a DC14 from Costco.  Those new DC15s rock, by the way -- I've tried one out in the store, and its ability to bank on the ball really does let you steer it almost effortlessly with just a twist of your wrist.

Only ... turns out the Linens'n'Things 20% Off Any Single Item In The Store coupon is actually 20% Off Almost Any Single Item In The Store ... there's a list of exclusions in the fine print.  You cannot use it on Krups, Capresso, Sharper Image, iJoy, Dyson, Nautica, Al-Clad, J.A. Henckels, or Tempur-Pedic products.  That probably takes out a major chunk of the big-ticket items in the store, yet oddly enough, by no means all of them.

So I guess we'll be buying our vacuum from Costco instead.  Matter of fact, I guess Linens'n'Things probably won't be getting any major sales to us at all, because anything else major they have that we want, we can get as cheaply at Costco without a coupon as we can get it from Linens'n'Things with one.

(On the other hand... for your reference, it is now official Linens'n'Things chain policy that you can use those 20% Off coupons for 60 days -- but no longer -- past their printed expiry date.)

In other news, the torchiere lamp we got from friends a while back from some gift catalog just ate its diffuser shade.  The portion of the bowl diffuser under the clamp ring baked and crumbled, then the now-unsecured diffuser tipped up in response to Thundering Smalls and melted against the bulb.  I guess we'll be looking for a replacement diffuser -- a GLASS one -- or maybe just replacing the whole lamp.  The torchieres we got from Wal-Mart are better than this one, and even they were only something like $14 each.  I doubt we could buy a glass replacement diffuser for that.