I needed to buy a 50' coaxial cable to hook up a TV in my bedroom. After looking over Home Depot's website, I found what I needed at this link.

Since it was something I wanted to have tonight, I headed over to my local Home Depot store. I found the cable I was looking for right away, but the price was $17.35, more than $10 over the price I set out to pay.

Maybe foolishly, I decided to go ahead and buy it since I didn't have a printout of the website to prove in any way that the price was indeed $6.99. I figured I would call customer service once I got home and they would sort it out for me. Ha! Wrong.

I called their customer service number and got Tracy. Tracy was nice, but said they do not price match between the store and the website. I asked for a supervisor. I got Michael. He also asserted that the store and the website are separate things, and they do not price match. It didn't matter how much I explained that I would have never gone to Home Depot in the first place were it not for the price on their website. The only answer I got was "we have to stand by our price match policy."

I let them know that their policy had lost them a customer, and that I would be telling everyone I know about the negative experience I had. No dice. They're going to stand behind their policy.

I know this isn't the biggest travesty ever sent to the Consumerist, but I hope you can get the message out there that the price on Home Depot's website does not in any way reflect the price you'll see in the store.

Near the footer on each page of their website Home Depot displays the following:

† Local store prices may vary from those displayed. Products shown as available are normally stocked but inventory levels cannot be guaranteed.

This fine print is in a light grey color and easy to miss, though—a small detail, but it matters when you're trying to comparison shop. We were also surprised by the amount of the price difference for the same in-store product, which is why we decided to go ahead and post this. A 10-30% difference might be expected, but the in-store product is almost two and a half times more expensive!

From the Daily Herald:

The theater's menu includes a full wine list, Dom Perignon champagne at $295 a bottle, and food items like duck tacos, Wagyu beef burgers and bleu cheese potato chips.

The South Barrington Gold Class Cinemas is the first in the country. Aside from South Barrington's, the company has theaters only overseas in Asia, Australia and Europe.

Targeting upscale clientele and businesses looking to hold private screenings, Gold Class officials said they hope to open 50 theaters across the country in the next five years.

Luxury theater opens Friday in South Barrington [Daily Herald]
(Photo: Getty)

If you're one of those people, at least you have an out if you bought it in the last 30 days. Right on the page where you can add the iPod to your cart, they say that "with our 30/30 Guarantee on most products, you can be assured of complete satisfaction and the lowest available price, or your money back!" We confirmed with a very nice CSR on the phone that the guarantee applies to iPods, so good luck with that. Maybe you can spend that recaptured $100 on some Monster Cables.

(Thanks to Scott!)

Starbucks coffee shops seem to be on nearly corner in major U.S. cities, but surprisingly 76 percent of American adults say they rarely or never visit one of the shops, and only 14 percent say they visit occasionally.

That might be because the java giant's prices are too high.

This may explain why we're so bored of "personal finance experts" telling people to stop going to Starbucks for their daily latte in order to save a million billion dollars a year. Apparently, you've already stopped.

Starbucks coffee is too expensive, new survey says [Star-Tribune]
(Photo: iwantamonkey )

I was at my local Best Buy the other day and started to take a look around the Apple section. Well, it turns out that Best Buy is trying to take advantage of their uninformed customers by marking up Apple's iPod headphones by $20! I've included two attachments, the first is the picture I took at the Best Buy store and the second is of the same exact headphones on Apple's website. I hope that you can shed some light on this and hopefully save some shoppers from paying too much.

Thanks, Nick. We recommend that you always check the internet before you buy accessories for your electronics — this includes things like cables, headsets, universal remotes, whatever!

Where do you like to buy your accessories? Tell us in the comments.

[Full disclosure: I bought the N95 the day it came out in the U.S., so I'm not pretending to be immune to gadget lust. On the plus side, there were only, like, six customers in the Nokia store at the time.]

"Are some lives so empty that an iPhone 3G will fill the void?" [Wisebread] (Thanks to Chris!)

Sending a text message is at least 4 times more expensive than retrieving the same amount of data from the Hubble telescope, according to an astronomer at the University of Leicester. Now we just need a phone that sends messages via deep space. [physorg.com] (Thanks to Linus!)

Anderson also was asked if a combined Delta-Northwest would be profitable in its first year, and he responded, "It will all be a product of fuel prices ... and stay tuned for earnings tomorrow and you'll see what a dramatic effect it's had."

"Report: Delta CEO says airline fares to rise 15-20 %" [BizJournals]
(Photo: Getty)

Village Roadshow Ltd., Act III, Lambert Entertainment and the Retirement Systems of Alabama pension fund have partnered to bring the luxury cinema circuit Village Roadshow Gold Class Cinemas to the U.S.

The partners will spend $200 million to build 50 theaters nationwide over the next five years, with the first two venues set to open in South Barrington, a suburb of Chicago, and the Seattle suburb of Redmond in October. Others are planned for Fairview, Texas, near Dallas-Fort Worth, and Scottsdale, Ariz.

Each complex will sport theaters featuring 40 reclining armchair seats with footrests, digital projection and the capability to screen 2-D and 3-D movies, as well as a lounge and bar serving cocktails and appetizers, a concierge service and valet parking.

But the circuit will especially push its culinary offerings — made-to-order meals like sushi and other theater-friendly foods from on-site chefs (a service button at each seat calls a waiter). Moviegoers will have to pay extra for any food they order, however.

Would you pay that much to see a movie?

Filmgoers get a taste of the good life [Variety via BuzzFeed]
(Photo:kozumel)

We called Gateway and they laid the blame directly at Best Buy's feet, saying the P-6831FX was "selling like gangbusters," prompting the retail giant to raise the price by $350. We asked Best Buy about the price discrepancy late Wednesday, and the retail giant said they would get back to us. While Gateway offers a series of similar laptops online, called the P-171 series, the P-6831 is available only though Best Buy.

"When is a bargain laptop not a bargain?" [Crave]

(Photo: Getty)