Is it REALLY a good deal?

Today I received an email from a well known book publishing company that publishes many quilt books.  They were highlighting some of their books on special for 50% off.  Wow!  I thought that was fantastic.  Their email didn’t give the option of looking inside the book to see some of the projects.  So, knowing that I could do that with some of the ones on Amazon.com, I checked there for the same book.  EEEK … What do I see?  The price at Amazon.com for that book is ALMOST THE SAME as the SALE PRICE that the email is telling me about.  If I order it through the email, I can get the book for $14.29 + s/h.  If I get it through Amazon.com, I would pay $14.95 + s/h.   WHERE, WHERE, WHERE IS  THE SALE that this book company is touting???  I really wish some of these companies would STOP making stuff seem like such a great deal when it really isn’t.  I know you’re in business to sell products … but do it in a way that makes me feel GOOD about your company.  Don’t make me feel like I’ve been taken advantage of. 

My other pet peeve for the day is that whenever you buy anything on-line, they always want you to sign up to be a member of the site.  What if I don’t want to?  What if I’m just there to buy a gift for a friend?  My poor mother gets deluged with quilting emails because she has had to sign up at all of these sites when ordering birthday and Christmas presents for me.  She has no interest in these sites – she’s not a quilter, and doesn’t really want to be one.  And because I order stuff for my Dad from hunting stores, I end up getting emails about sales on guns, tents and knives.  Can’t these sites be like Walmart’s site?  Can’t they just let me be a visitor?  They are totally eliminating the convenience factor by making me jump through so many hoops just to order one thing!  Let me get to your site, find what I want, buy it, and leave.  Please.