Readers share some good birthday offers
Tips from Sally Deneen.
Readers Art Arsenault, of Sunrise, and Frane Grossman, of Palm Beach County, recently shared their favorite birthday freebies.
Arsenault singled out two: “My favorite of course is the Sea Watch Preferred Guest Club, where they give you a free entree during the month of your birthday, and Benihana’s Chef Table, where they send you a $30 certificate during the month of your birthday.”
You can join the club at Sea Watch, 6002 N. Ocean Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale, at SeaWatchontheOcean. com. The website states, “As a bonus, you will receive a $30 dining certificate to use during the month of your birthday.” Benihana’s $30 birthday certificate is sent to members of the Chef’s Table email club (sign up at Benihana.com). The website says the certificate “can only be redeemed during dinner hours Monday through Thursday after the initial purchase of a full-priced adult, teppan entree.”
Grossman said she signed up to receive emails from several businesses, so when her birthday rolled around, she got so many offers that she couldn’t take advantage of them all. Among the offerings: a free burger from Ruby Tuesday, a coupon for $10 off a meal at Bonefish Grill, a free makeup gift from Sephora, a short stack of pancakes from IHOP, and a slice of pizza from Sbarro. (Join at Rubytuesday.com, Bonefishgrill.com, Sephora.com, Ihop.com and Sbarro.com.)
“I’ve enjoyed a great birthday week!” Grossman said.
Phony tags? You may have noticed that items sold at T.J. Maxx bear two price tags — one shows the discounted price; the other a “compare at” price, presumably what other stores charge. Well, two customers are suing the company over its “compare at” tags for being “not true, bona fide comparative prices,” states the class action lawsuit.
Who knows how it will end up, but you may be interested in how T.J. Maxx’s website explains the tags: “The ’compare at’ price is our buying staff’s estimate of the regular, retail price at which a comparable item in finer catalogs, specialty or department stores may have been sold. We buy products from thousands of vendors worldwide, so the item may not be offered by other retailers at the ’compare at’ price at any particular time or location. We encourage you to do your own comparison shopping as another way to see what great value we offer.”
The consumer website Mouseprint.org says, “In T.J. Maxx’s defense, the actual selling price for their merchandise tends to be as low or lower than some of the best prices being offered elsewhere.” Still, “none of this excuses the company, however, for using estimates.”
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