In the HBO movie, Slasher, high-pressure auto salesmen fly in to a dealership from out of state, set up a special $88-car deal, and lure customers in to buy used cars as there is one $88-deal a day. The people rush to the car they want (and think is the ONE), then they wait until the head Slasher comes around and knocks off hundreds to thousands of dollars or, if they are the lucky ones that day, knocks the price down to $88. In very telling commentary, one of the team members flown in, an inside the doors salesman, says to the camera that there could be a pile of manure on the side of the road for a million dollars. Every day the people will pass that manure and that sign for a million, the guy says. Then, one day the price is slashed to a dollar, and people will rush to buy the manure. This attitude (on the part of the salesman) is cold and calculating and not quite accurate or a nasty analogy that speaks more to his duplicity than to people’s spending tendencies. We wait for lower costs because we are poor, careful with money, and/or leery of getting screwed for anything more than a dollar. (And even THAT hurts) So we reticent, for example, when we read about or hear about such things as Vegas package deals, which really do seem too good to be true.

We are rightfully leery about jumping impulsively or spending casually on one of those Vegas package deals, apprehensive about the legitimacy, the true value, or the reality of such offers. Our money is budgeted carefully, and while we haven’t had a vacation for a decade, if even a couple hundred dollars goes to one of the Vegas package deals are fraudulent, we will suffer the sting for a long time after.

While I wish I could recall the company name, to pass on the great news to you, I can’t, but I will report that one of the Vegas package deals was affordable enough and my new boyfriend (at the time) and I researched enough, made enough calls of inquiry, and asked enough questions to protect ourselves, that we gave the offer a try. We were utterly surprised and delighted: we had two nights in an off-the-strip hotel, had coupons to a show, for an Italian dinner (in the hotel), and for a breakfast. We had a swimming pool all to ourselves (as it was not off-season but post 9-11 and people were not flying much or vacationing, I suppose). We had a staff that were just as accommodating and friendly as if we were high rollers. And we had a time-share manager (who had to interview us and try to convince us to attend the seminar) who was forgiving when we revealed our credit was too weak to be buying any property etc..

My point is that of the many fraudulent Vegas package deals and other scams to sell us one thing up front and actually give us something else, this one was not in any way a ruse, a trick, or a theft of our hard-earned dollars. I guess that smarmy salesman on Slasher should have used a more apt analogy for the deals they were doing: people will see a gilded pile of manure and will ignore it until the day it is offered for a dollar. Then when they get home and find the item is sh&t, they can be pissed at the scumbags who sold it to them but can also blame themselves for not looking under the golden hood of allure and chalk it up as one inexpensive lesson.