Local Man Spends $52.91 To Avoid Paying $5.99 For Shipping

KENOSHA, WI—Citing a principle he called "non-negotiable," local man Gary Pulaski, 38, spent most of Tuesday evening adding items to an online shopping cart so he would not have to pay a $5.99 shipping charge on an $11.49 oven mitt.

"I'm not going to give them the satisfaction," said Pulaski, who needed to reach a $50 free-shipping threshold. "They want six dollars. They get nothing. They get fifty-two dollars and ninety-one cents."

According to a transaction history reviewed by this reporter, Pulaski first added a lint roller ($8.99), then a second lint roller "for the car" ($8.99), then a 40-pack of AA batteries ($21.99). That brought his subtotal to $51.46. The retailer then automatically applied a bulk-battery discount and displayed an "adjusted subtotal" of $48.12. The figure was not requested, does not reconcile to anything Pulaski did, and was never explained to him.

"He went very quiet when he saw the word 'adjusted,'" said his wife, Denise Pulaski, 37. "Then he bought one shoelace. Not a pair. One."

Neighbor Hal Brandvold, 61, had been invited over to witness checkout. He said he had never seen a man so calm. "He kept saying, 'It's not about the money,'" Brandvold said. "I'll be honest, the money is the only part I could follow."

A final reconciliation shows that Pulaski spent $35.43 more than the mitt and its shipping would have cost combined, in order to save $5.99. Pulaski described the result as "a clean zero on the shipping line."

At press time, Pulaski had learned that returning both lint rollers carries a $7.49 return-shipping fee. He was building a second $50 order to qualify for free returns, beginning with a third lint roller.