I鈥檓 down in the basement, picking through empty cartons of not-from-concentrate Tropicana orange juice. They are on standby for a trip to the bottle depot. Quite a few of them are on standby. Any day now, they鈥檒l make their journey.听
Since they are 1.89-litre containers (why they are not 2-litres is something I鈥檒l try to figure out another day), they are worth big money. Gable-top juice vessels that are over a litre are worth 20 cents each at the bottle depot.
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And there鈥檚 more. Each container also has an alphanumeric code -- 12 numbers or letters -- that鈥檚 used for tracking the carton. The code is also good for 5 Aeroplan points. So I鈥檓 catching up with my logging of points. I鈥檝e signed on to with my laptop and I鈥檓 typing in the codes.
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After nearly three years of collecting, I鈥檓 getting close to 2,000 points. I know -- that鈥檚 a lot of orange juice. And I could have gone with the frozen concentrate, which is cheaper (but not as tasty). And, yes, I could have bought oranges and squeezed them myself. I could have also read all the bad press about how not-from-concentrate orange juice is made, and been put off.
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But here I am, still drinking Tropicana, still collecting the points. (I鈥檝e stuck with them despite .)
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As I鈥檓 typing in the codes, I wonder how many other people go to this much effort. Quite a few I guess, since the Tropicana people have gone to all the effort of creating a website, and limiting code submissions to 10 a day. Must be quite a few of us coders out there.
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At the rate I鈥檓 going, it鈥檒l be a few more years before orange juice alone gets me onto a plane. (I cashed in Air Miles points for the first time a few weeks ago for a trip to Alberta; it took about 15 years to get enough points. I wasn鈥檛 all that aggressive about collecting.)
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Another aside: We used to collect our Tropicana cartons in a clear plastic bag outside the carport door. One day in the spring, when the bag was nearly full, the cartons disappeared. So did the bag. I鈥檓 guessing 20 cartons were in there. (20 X 20 cents = $4). Being a little dull, I collected more cartons in the same spot. And they disappeared. So, I鈥檓 more security conscious now about our cartons. Message to the person who took the cartons: I guess you really needed them; you鈥檙e welcome. But, please don鈥檛 come onto my property again. I am no longer storing cartons outside the carport door.
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My points obsession is getting a boost thanks to Thrifty Foods and . You get one point for each dollar spent. The best thing to do with all those points, I鈥檝e decided, is to convert them into Aeroplan points 鈥� 2 Thrifty points for 1 Aeroplan point.
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Zambri's is expanding and will move to a bigger location next year at the Atrium building, 800 Yates, Eric reports. The existing location is 911 Yates.
