ok so i was at barnes and noble theother day...they asked me to become a member.

i found out the deal.

you pay $25 for a 12month membership.

you get a card.

you get 10% off on all purchases you make.

the thing is though that you don't need the card to get the discount.

you can just give them a phone number.

so i'm thinking that we sign up for one.

collect like 50 cents from everyone that wants in (assuming 50 people) or 1 dollar each if it's 25 and buy one.

then whenever an obner goes to any barnes and noble in the nation they just give this 10 digit phone number (which we could just make up) and gets 10% off. if you only paid 1 dollar you'd make it back in no time.

what do you think?

I thought you were broke.

This sounds too good to be true. Anybody could theoretically use a friend or family member's phone number and get 10% off all the time. Maybe B&N thought of that and there is a catch or they are just dumb.

nope.

the manager there told me thatpeople do it with groups of friends and it's perfectly legit. b/c who is barnes and noble to say that we're not family?

that's why i'm trying to make money off you people.

and i was there with some rich vandy friends who spent over $500 on books i told them to buy.

i got nothing.

We've had a membership for two years. It is beneficial.

But I have one to Borders too. You don't pay anything, but you don't get a percentage off each purchase. They send you in your email coupons each week.

Generally 20-30 % off one item coupons. Still, it's pretty cool.

so why don't we all send you a buck or two and you give us the ph#? that way we all save. of course we could just sign up for a new one and not circulate your home phone number around, which you just might be keen on.

I'd pay 50¢ to have gauche's phone number

If Barnes & Noble existed in Canada, I'd be in.

If any Canadians want to start a Chapters one, I'd join.

Those coupons are great. I also sometimes get discounts during "Educators Week" by flashing my old ID card from when I worked at a college.

isn't B&N a bit overpriced anyway? wouldn't we save 10% anyway by shopping at Waldenbooks or indie book shops? sounds like a good idea but i still need convincing.

I think that you actually need to show your card at Chapters. It used to be that the stores weren't all connected on the same computer system so they couldn't do the phone number thing. I'm going back a few years (when I tried to mooch off my brother's card) so they may have updated their system by now.

or just buy them used on amazon.

hmm...and i thought you were all about karma.

i am.

that and scamming corporations and saving money.