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Golfers in the Triad might want to consider hooking up with this deal: Preferred Players Card at Greensboro’s Bryan Park.

For $55, you get $200 worth of discounts at the driving range, the clubhouse and Bryan Park’s Players and Champions golf courses.

Card expires Feb. 28.

Details here.

Six tractor-trailer loads’ worth of Hanesbrands apparel will be for sale Saturday to raise money for the United Way and one of its member agencies.

The sale will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot at West Forsyth High School, 1735 Lewisville-Clemmons Road in Clemmons.

An early October sale at Hanesbrands’ Weeks plant drew more than 5,000 shoppers and raised $186,000 for the United Way.

All proceeds will be shared by United Way and the YMCA of Northwest N.C., a United Way agency.

So you're given a choice between paying 15 cents for a premium Lindt Truffle or a penny for a Hershey's Kiss.

Which one would you pick? Keep in mind you can only choose one.

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, posed that same question to his college students. The result? Seventy-three percent chose the Lindt Truffle.

Then he lowered the price on each by just a penny, so the truffle was 14 cents and the Kiss was free.

This time, 69 percent chose Hershey's. Free trumps quality, not that there's anything wrong with Hershey's.

Ariely was interviewed for a CBS Sunday Morning segment about how giving away products in our digital world has become an essential business strategy.

This comes as the struggling newspaper industry, the show pointed out, debates whether to charge for online content (yes, no and maybe. The show noted it's been a huge success for the Wall Street Journal but was a disaster for the New York Times, for several reasons.).

It also pointed out the success of Monty Python's Web site in getting people to buy DVDs loaded with extras. The British comedy group had seen its videos pirated on YouTube and decided to create its own YouTube channel. ("For three years you YouTubers have been ripping us off.")

The videos were still free to watch, but in better quality and more organized. Oh, and if you want, you could by a DVD for sale that was loaded with extras.

It became the number two most popular DVD sold on Amazon.com. Sales went up 23,000 percent.

It seems if you can entice people to your product by dangling something that's free but tasty, people might be willing to pay for some extras.

Lots of hustle and bustle lately on State Street Station, a shopping village featuring specialty shops, boutiques and restaurants.

Two stores have recently moved into bigger digs.

A coffee shop has been remodeled under new ownership. Another store moved to a new location. A massage therapy school just opened.

Read more in my Savvy Shopper column, plus other retail highlights.

The furniture might have some dents, blemishes or dings.

But you can land some huge discounts during monthly clearance sales held by Ashley Furniture Homestore Distribution Center.

It's held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. the first Saturday of each month at 4224 Tudor Lane in Greensboro. The phone number is 369-0500.

Furniture includes bedroom suites, dinettes, sofas, love seats and chairs.

Some of the furniture has no markings but is still part of the sale because it has been discontinued.

I still remember plunking down 100 smackeroos for a 512K MP3 player (the original iPod Shuffle). Ah, memories.

Now you can get one for a quarter of the price with eight times as much storage.

Plus other bells and whistles such as the ability to play video.

Big Lots has an Emerson 4 GB music and video player on sale for $25. Includes USB 2.0 connection, headphones, USB cable and a rechargeable Li-ion battery.

The price of Amazon's Kindle has been reduced by $40 to $259 amid growing e-reader competition.

It launched in 2007 at $399. It began at $359 this year before another price cut in July.

So is this the right price, still too high, or, no thanks, I already read books on my smart phone or other portable gizmo?

Consumer Reports rates the best products in categories including refrigerators, TVs, Blu-ray players, ranges, treadmills and home theaters in the magazine's November issue.

Some highlights:

In the category of best French-door fridges with bottom freezers, the Kenmore Elite (model 77592) came out on top. Price is about $1,950.

In the category of non-folding treadmills, the Landice L7 Cardio Trainer fared the best ($3,300.)

In Blu-ray player category, the Oppo BDP-83 was considered the best ($500).

Regarding LCD TVs, the Toshiba Regza (model 55ZV65OU) was rated the best in the 52 inches to 55 inches category. Price is about $2,000.

Fifty-five inches is too puny? Money no object? All the above?

You might want to consider front projectors, which start at $1,000.

Consumer Reports' top models were the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 6500 UB and the Mitsubishi HC6400. Both will set you back a pretty penny: $3,000.

But they have "excellent picture quality," according to the magazine.
 

Deals end Tuesday, except for those at Aldi, which expire Monday.

* Earn $5 as part of Lowes Foods' new Fresh Rewards program when you buy 10 select Betty Crocker items including pasta salad and scalloped potato kits.

Lowes Foods also doubles manufacturers' coupons up to 99 cents (limit 20).

* Five cans of Lowes Foods brand soup for $2.

* Duke's mayonnaise is $1.49 at Lowes Foods (limit two).

* Buy one Breyers ice cream, get one free at Lowes Foods and Food Lion.

* Chef Sartino frozen pizza, Bremer entrees, Millville corn flakes and L'oven English muffins are among the items that are 99 cents each Aldi.

* Pumpkins are $2.49 each at Aldi.

* 3-packs of multi-color peppers are $1.59 at Aldi.

* 8-packs of Sparkle paper towels are $4.99 at Compare Foods.

* Hunt's spaghetti sauce is 99 cents at Compare Foods.

* Carolina Pride bacon is 99 cents at Compare Foods.

* Split chicken breasts are 87 cents a pound at Food Lion.

* 34.5-39-ounce cans of Folgers coffee is $5.97 at Food Lion.

* Buy two Harris Teeter brand ice cream, get three more for free.

Harris Teeter also doubles manufacturers' coupons up to 99 cents (limit 20).

* Buy two H.T. Traders 12-ounce bags of coffee, get three more for free at Harris Teeter.

* Buy two freshly-made Harris Teeter soups, get three more for free.

* 24-packs of Coors Light, Bud Light and Miller Lite are $12.99 at Harris Teeter.

Buying used video games at places such as GameStop versus new can save you a good chunk of change.

Now Walmart wants a piece of the used video game action.

The store chain recently began selling used video games online.

That followed Walmart announcing its video game buy back program in May, where customers could return games for store credit.

Those returned games are now being sold for 15 to 30 percent less than if they were new.

Then again, if this thing takes off, you won't need games on discs anymore, making the used video game business a thing of the past.

But that may be years down the road if it's successful. People have been able to download their music for years but many still prefer to buy them on discs, or CDs.