Buzz Blog

You can take the Buffalonians out of Buffalo but you can't make us not be cheapskates!

Buzz, looking back on our three days in New York City to hear the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, finds ourself glorying in ways in which we cut corners and saved pennies.

For one thing we found a guy on the street selling pashmina scarves and we scarfed one up, haha, for five bucks.

For another thing we located an Irish pub practically around the corner from our hotel where they had what very well could have been the Big Apple's only $5 glass of wine. To quote Rick Jeanneret: "Scooooooore!" Of course we ran into other Buffalonians there.

And one more fine example of Buffalo penny pinching:

When you fly Jet Blue -- and of course we were all flying Jet Blue, 'cause it's cheap -- you have to make your way from JFK Airport into Manhattan. You have your choice: Cab, for something like $60, or a long ride on the E Train, pictured above in Buzz's unglamorous photograph, which will run you $8.50.

Take the E Train! It is a Buffalonian no-brainer. Buzz grit our teeth and rode the gritty subway. So did everyone else we talked to.

One fellow rider was WNED-FM announcer Peter Hall, who was emceeing the after-concert party at the Russian Tea Room. As the E Train shook, rattled and rolled its way into Manhattan, Hall beheld John Hurley, the president of Canisius College, and his wife.

Hall said to President Hurley: "We non-profits know how to save money."

As do we all!

Buzz went window shopping in Kaisertown and saw this sweet sight in a Clinton Street shop. It is a Kaisertown Ode to Spring!

How much is that Tyskie in the window?

That Tyskie is a penny or two!

Kevin Gaughan, proponent of government downsizing, was seen at Home Depot buying a toilet seat.

With luck he should be able to get bloated bureaucracy to sit down and work on eliminating waste!

A friend dragged Buzz to the Broadway Market to partake in the pre-Easter hysteria. Normally we avoid the market at this crowded time of year. It is Amateur Week! But we went. We are happy we did!

It is great, we admit, to see the crowds. And the additional stands, the stands that are not there the rest of the year, selling tea and wine and chocolates and painted eggs, pictured above.

Waiting our turn at Petros Lupus meats, we were fascinated by the action behind the counter. It was hard to take a picture because everyone was always in motion. Lupus runs a tight ship and the line moved fast. One staffer had the job simply of standing at a microphone calling out people's numbers.

Then there were the fights. We always love the Holy Week fights!

Buzz was selecting collard greens from Lewandowski Produce (99 cents a bunch, cheap!) when the girl at Lewandowski snarled at a Lupus customer for being in the way.

The Lupus shopper snarled back: "Well, where am I supposed to stand?"

At that point Buzz could not help it. We turned to the Lupus customer and said sweetly, "Come back next week, there'll be a lot of room."

We will be there!

George Ziemer, of Sandra Ziemer Estate Sales, alerts us to a whale of a sale coming up in Tonawanda. 

He says: "We've been in business 35 years, and we've never seen anything like it."

The owner of the estate was, or is, a shop-o-holic addicted to the Home Shopping Network. Actually it is not technically an estate sale because she has not passed on. She is moving and downsizing.

"We've been here with a full crew for days already," George reports. "The volume of things is amazing. She didn't have just one ring, she had rings in every configuration. She didn't have one of everything, she had several of everything. Over 650 watches, all in the box. Over 1,500 pairs of earrings. It's insane. The pictures can't even begin to describe it.

Continue reading "Shop-o-holic's estate sale: 'It's just too much'" »

We knew that would grab everyone's attention!

This week, Tops has that special going where they double your $1 coupons. You present the coupon, along with one of their Coupon Doublers, and instead of $1 off something, you get $2 off. Why are we explaining this? You all know what we're talking about. That is a Tops checkout pictured, by the way, in the News file photo above.

Buzz contacted our resident coupon expert, Ryan Lysarz, who gave us advice once when we wrote a story on coupons for The News' business section. We asked him what his strategy was this week for capitalizing on this special.

Continue reading "Expert tightwad shares coupon strategy" »

Wherein you will find everything but Richard III's bones ...

Edna Louise has this sale in Snyder this weekend that includes, and we are just skimming the list, stuff from Crystal Beach and the Pan-American Exposition (pictured above), old local postcards, old military stuff, china and silver, paper dolls, rock albums, a HUGE collection of vintage Catholic items including statues and rosaries, and magazines including The Etude and The Botanist. (Buzz has already snooped through the pictures on Edna Louise's site.)There is also reportedly a lot of vintage sheet music, a gigantic collection of lamps (how illuminating), vintage sewing equipment, quilts, it never ends.

Hmmm. There are also, says the site ...

Continue reading "The ultimate estate sale" »

Surely St. Valentine is smiling down on the Sloan Supermarket -- pictured above -- where they are celebrating his feast tomorrow with, well, a feast.

They are called Sweetheart Specials. For $20 you get two 8-oz. New York strip steaks, two 3-oz. lobster tails, two twice-baked potatoes, one of those one-pound salad mix bags, and a dessert. What dessert, you ask? We were too amazed to check. We will have to let you know.

There are two kinds of shoppers at the Sloan Supermarket ...

Continue reading "The Sloan Supermarket's feast of love" »

Buzz was not a Wegmans shopper for a long time. But suddenly we have become a fan! We love the displays and the packaging and the prices on a lot of things are good. There will always be things we buy at Tops and things we buy at Aldi and things we buy at the Broadway Market, etc. But we get a kick out of Wegmans.

However.

What is with Wegmans customers?

Everyone at Wegmans acts driven and entitled and stressed out. It seems most of them are better dressed than the customers at the other supermarkets, and they stride around like stormtroopers. Just to ratchet the stress level up a little, there are those cobblestone floors, and the carts make a tremendous racket as they clatter over them.

The Wegmans carts have coffee holders and a lot of people have coffee in them. They don't smile and they barge past you without an "excuse me." And when you step aside to let them pass they don't glance at you or thank you. They just stride past as if it is their right. Every once in a while you find an exception but not often.

Buzz is not really that annoyed. We are more amused and fascinated. It is like a puzzle.

What is it with Wegmans shoppers?

We put the question to a friend, a colleague here at the The News, and she knew immediately what we were talking about.

"I think I know why it is," she said.

"Why?" we asked.

"There aren't that many Wegmans stores here," she explained. "So there's a kind of desperation."

In other words, people are aggressive and grabby because their Wegmans opportunities are limited and they have to get their ...

... while they can.

Buzz had never considered such an explanation before.

We like it!

... And women of Goodwill, too!

The thrift store giant has jumped on the Internet coupon bandwagon today with a deal on Amazon Local that lets you save 60 percent.

It is good on clothes, accessories and housewares! No mention of vinyl records but Buzz imagines they are included, too.

We love seeing a thrift shop going the e-coupon route.

The cheap can always get cheaper!