I just sent this to Walmart using the contact form on their website. The evil fuckers known collectively as "Walmart" have lost my business.

I was recently at the Walmart in Whitewater, WI – where I tried to use a coupon for $2 off a "30ct or larger box of Emergen-C vitamin drink mixes." The coupon was printed directly from Emergen-C's website after completing a survey that they sent me. The coupon is legible, states "Manufacturer's Coupon" and has an expiration date of 09/01/2010. After looking at the corporate coupon policy, there is no reason (that I can see) why I would not be allowed to use it.

When scanned, the coupon scanned as $1 off, rather than $2. The cashier asked for help, and another woman came over and told the cashier, and myself, that internet coupons "usually have something else on them" and that I would not be able to use it. I was pretty sure that she was wrong, but she seemed more than happy to point out that I couldn't use a valid coupon. Rather than push the issue further I simply walked away from the purchase and left the store.

While a $2 coupon is a rather minor thing, the entire incident showcased several failures on part of Walmart, and was unpleasant enough to prevent me from shopping at Walmart in the future.

About four months ago I started to get into the idea of using mind mapping to brainstorm and plan out ideas and projects. At the time, I was looking for a service that was easy to use, fast, would allow me to collaborate with others on a single mind map, and would allow me to access the maps from both work and home.

One of the best that I found was MindMeister. Unfortunately, their free service only allows for something like five mind maps on an account at one time, so I was afraid of outgrowing it.. and eventually just stopped using it.

This morning I got an email from them reminding me that I haven't logged in for about four months and offering me their "sleeper package" – a license code good for 2 free months of their paid features, and 5 additional 2-month licenses for me to give to friends.

So….
I'll give them to any of you, if you want them. 🙂 The first 5 people to leave a comment asking for a promo code will get them.

(I still use mind mapping occasionally, but my setup is a bit different. I use the open source program Freemind, and then use the DropBox service to synchronize the map files (along with a bunch of other stuff) between my laptop and my work PC.)