Just need to vent...

As someone who has lived on snow and ice all his life and have used many tires, I do suggest a tire that is at least M+S rated, like all season tires. I drove most of my life in RWD cars with all-season tires. They aren't the best, but they work better than summer or bald tires. If you have the money, then Cross Climate 2's are a great option. Anymore I also go for the all-weather tires that are like all-season tires, except they are rated for winter with the three peaks and snowflake symbol.

The thing that gets me is a lot of people get it in their mind that they have to the absolute, and that will make them invincible, and that they need it regardless of the cost. Sure, a 4WD pickup with dedicated winter tires can go places I can't in my FWD Avalon with all season tires. But for the most part, public roads aren't those kinds of places,. And it still doesn't take much to slide off the road in AWD or 4WD modes even with studded winter tires. Ice is still ice. Snow is still snow. And my Avalon costs me less than $500 per month in total expenditures, including saving for really good tires.

 

Yep, we haven't bought snow tires in many years. When I was stationed in Alaska (Elmendorf AFB), I did buy studded snow tires because there was no such a thing as a "snow day" when you have a scheduled mission taking off at oh-dark-thirty....better have your butt at the base control tower at 0400!

Here, in Colorado, I did buy Blizzaks snow tires for my wife's Corolla when she was working and they are excellent on snow and ice.

A funny thing about Coloradans....we can't make it into work if we get 2-inches or more of snow BUT we sure can make it to the ski slopes even if we get a FOOT of snow....FRESH POWDER!

I think we are the Subaru capital of the world, actually....folks love their Subbies here! (I prefer my 4x4's to be higher off the ground....even 4x4 Subaru can get high-centered and stuck in not much snow.)

 

Nope- I would have guessed montana. We are both wrong

 

Having spent more than 5 minutes in the deceptively named 'green' mountain state, I would have NEVER guessed anything else......

 

Bisco's state barely made the top 10 cut. That was surprising

 

Tangential, not about Priuses / cars but defo a vent...

Went to the local Wallies this AM, needed a new jug of detergent. Looked at the electronic tag under the jug of my flavour... oh, $8 off today, brilliant. Hauled the slosh to the self-check cashwrap, found they wanted that $8 back.

Called to the self-check droid (who were of course BSing to their workmate about something and ignoring me)... um this isn't registering my discount. Took a pic of the jug, then headed over to the shelf 30m away, to figure out what happened.

Came back, and said no, that one isn't on sale. Well, the jug were right above the tag, and nothing were next to it. That's because the actual sale item was sold out, sir -- you need to look at which tag has the most items above it, to see what price it is.

What sort of gaslighting nonsense is that? I've never been to a retailer who puts the price of an item under where most of a collection of things sit -- you start L to R, and of the space which would contain that item, price tag would be on the L-most edge. Next tag, next product / flavour, etc. Wallie's even started using electronic tags, which then would limit the room an item would have and locking it in, so would be more consistent anyway, to prevent this sort of thing? So are you then covering for incompetent employees your mgmt either hasn't trained properly, or are getting lazy / comfy behind plausible deniability, rather than fix?

Is what the inside voice said. Was in middle of a crowd of people and had been irritated by the douchey drivers around here earlier, so chilled out and carried on. But that stuck in my craw a few mins: is running a damned supermarket that much different from when I were fronting shelves myself / managing a store 20 - 30 yrs ago? Or have these employees just been given more rope to make shite up? Irritating

 

That stinks, futurist! I had a similar thing but was told, "The sale ended yesterday, we just forgot to remove the sales sign" So did I get the sale price? Nope.

But on the other end....last week we had the kids over so ordered two large pizzas from Pizza Hut...one was a stuffed crust (kids love that cheese) Anyway, when I picked them up, was told they had run out of the cheese for the stuffed crust so he put a $15 credit on my account to use next time....that was nice!

 

That violates some states' consumer protection laws.

Back before bar codes, there was a price sticker on each individual item. There was a big concern when bar codes first came out, whether the register-computer might sometimes charge a higher price than marked on the shelf. Some states passed laws making it illegal to charge more than marked on the shelf.

To further quell consumer concerns, some stores went further, promising that if an item rang up for more than the shelf-marked price, you got that item FREE! (usually limited to just one item per visit).

I guess that policy has been forgotten. Or most stores are now staffed by people born after bar codes arrived.

 

It's always inspiring when merchants bend over backwards to do the right thing. Recently while trying to fill the pickup & 2 Jerry cans with diesel #1 for winter use - upon starting the pump it ran for only 27¢. Figuring it was empty, I re-initiated the credit card to fill up the 50/50 blend instead. Same thing 27¢. Tried another set of pumps & it locked out both my credit cards. Put the Jerry cans back in the truck & went into ask the cashier about it & he said he would open up the pump then I could just come back in to pay cash. The other pumps were apparently empty also as that failed too. Only #2 was available. He felt bad for me having to schlep those Jerry cans back into the truck & out again each time I tried to do a fill up so he gave me a discount card where from now on we can make fuel purchases with 5¢ off per gallon at any 'Town Pump' station. That's the kind of treatment that really makes people want to come back.
Sorry it's not a vent, more of a praise!

 

He doesn't drive in rural areas with 'real winter'.

On the road to the farm/ranch where I grew up, and still do work shifts occasionally, there are times when even an F-250 with chains on all four, will get high-centered and stuck. On the road, not just in the fields. Needing a cat to pull it out. Fortunately less often these days, as the county now plows it earlier and more frequently, and climate change seems to have reduced how often it happens. In my youth, numerous times it exceeded the capacity of the regular road-grader plows so they had to send the rotary snow-blower truck, but I haven't heard of that being needed in recent years.

 

I don't ever see any 2500 or 3,500 heavy duty trucks anymore on our local dealership lots that aren't lifted, ostensibly it's for hardcore back roads. Makes one wonder if they even sell the standard height critters anymore. We know 3 folks living way far off grid in deep snow backcountry. One is off of logging roads, one is right next to the Canadian border, & one with a place on Glacier National Park property that will eventually go back to the government. Of all my favorite setups for deep snow driving, this one really takes the cake;

https://youtube.com/shorts/pzoOVPSBllA

 

"He doesn't drive in...real winters."

That is correct, thank heavens. I did two "tours of duty" in Iowa. Summers are humid, winters, just not talking about it, except to say -40F with wind chill.

 

You don't have to say -40F since -40C is the same temperature.

JeffD