I'm not sure if this is where I post this but I had to share. I am currently on travel to my company's corporate headquarters. I'm relatively new to this company and this is my first trip to corporate. While here I was told we had a company "store" that sold Colgate-Palmolive products dirt cheap. I take a look for myself, and no lie, colgate toothbrushes were 50 cents each. I proceed to go nuts at this point and grabbed a basket and went. I bought the following:

6 colgate navigator toothbrushes
2 colgate motion toothbrushes (the electric ones with the replaceable heads
2 replacement brush heads (2 per package so that is a total of 4 heads)
2 bottles softsoap bodywash
2 tubes speedstick roll-on (gel)
4 tubes various colgate toothpaste (7.8 - 8.2oz)
1 box suavitel dryer sheets (80 count)
1 bottle ultra palmolive dishwashing liquid (38oz)
1 bottle softsoap antibacterial handsoap (64 floz)
1 bottle Murphy multi-use wood cleaner

Guess how much I paid for this stuff! Come on guess... $31.50 cents. Can you believe it! This is all stuff that we use anyway, and accordingly to my calculations the earliest I will need to buy anything to be replenished is December of this year.

I went on to a drugstore website and started "shopping" for the items that I bought to see what the actual total would have been if I purchased it at regular price and it totaled up to approximately $120. Now understand that I am a proponent of Lean principles and don't typically keep "inventory" because inventory reduces my household "profit". I replenish supplies when we reach a predetermined level. However in this circumstance I looked at my bottom line and determined that it will be profitable to house these non-perishable. Woohoo!!!!!!

yeah, some companies have some really good deals. my wife just got a new job and her company offers lots of stuff from cell discounts, to gym discounts, to restaurant coupons, etc on the small end, then of course there are bigger benefits as well like public transit reimbursement, etc. i don't think many employees actually weed through all the stuff they could get a discount through their companies. some of it is buried, too though, in their employee websites, etc.

I suggest that everyone take a trip to their Human Resources office and ask if the company offers any employee discounts. I've worked for companies which all offered 20% off multiple cell phone providers; free gym membership; onsite nurse; discounted insurance rates (car, homeowners, etc); discounted hotels and car rentals and even employee discounts on car purchases from american car manufacturers.

My wife works in a "clothing co-op" for the seminary we work at--taking donated clothing and household items for seminary students, staff, and faculty members. Everything is free, so long as people volunteer to help out there for a couple of hours a month. Being an employee, my wife and I essentailly get first pick of the stuff that comes in. Many of our home furnishings have come from there, including a recliner, love seat, washer and dryer, 36" TV (it's a big, heavy old CRT; nobody else was going to take it), a number of kitchen utensils, containers, pot/pans/knives, a home multi-workout station plus barbells, dumbbells and weights, etc. It's nice to be able to furnish one's home essentially for free.