The End of Shopping

From the New York Times, by Walter Kirn

"I thought I got a sweet deal on my first car. It was a compact pickup, American-made, and the salesman who approached me on the lot told me that if I bought it that afternoon, he was prepared to double the advertised rebate and throw in a premium sound system free. I played hard to get by mumbling the word 'Toyota,' and the salesman took off an extra $500. I could see by his shirt's dark armpits that he was nervous, and when we went into his office to sign the papers, he vanished into an adjoining room, where I heard his superior loudly chew him out, just as he'd predicted to me would happen if he let me 'steal' the vehicle. I drove off euphoric - I'd beaten the system - but the very next morning I realized I'd been toyed with.

Reading the local paper, I spotted an ad for a truck identical to mine priced at a cool $1,000 less. Nearly identical, that is. The other, cheaper truck had leather seats and eight mighty cylinders, not a feeble six. It also had tinted windows and dual chrome pipes."

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