They are making these flatscreens bigger and bigger.
You can’t get to the bagels without passing the huge flat screens.
I think these folks know what they’re doing, the way they plot your entry way to the goods at BJ’s Wholesale Club.
My dear wife Karen and I stopped at the need-membership-to-shop store yesterday afternoon. Their gas is about 20 cents cheaper a gallon than the other places around our Syracuse city neighborhood home. So we filled up her crossover — yes, it can take 15 gallons! — then parked to go inside for a few items.
We love BJ’s bagels, nine for $3.99.
We also needed some frozen eggplant parmigiana and taco kits. You know, food staples that we know we eat frequently enough to buy in BJ’s bulk.
I could not get past the electronics department without stopping to let my jaw hang.
They’ve put the Sharp 70″ flat screen where the beauty of the picture slaps you aside the face, first thing.
Karen actually had to stop with the cart and look back over her shoulder to check out where I was.
This baby is beautiful. I could imagine myself watching the Super Bowl on something like that in two weeks. Dream on …
Then I saw the price.
You can have this LED in your living room for $2,199.99.
The ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ tune popped into my head.
You know, “If I Were a Rich Man …”
I’m not. I am not going to buy that TV.
And a 70″ screen is too big for our living room, so we’d have to buy a bigger house to fit around it, too. Our 42″ LG LED makes me quite happy, thank you.
Do these massive flat screens catch your eye? How big is your living room TV? How big would you dare go?
Mark Bialczak 
Like you my jaw dropped to my knees when I saw one of these and like you I’ll not be getting one. Mind you in five years they will probably be the only thing available and as cheap as chips.
LikeLike
Yes, but the new, new technology will then capture our eyes and fancy, don’t you think, Irene? Gosh, these big flat screens have beautiful pictures right now.
LikeLike
I was at the electronic store a few days back and asked myself the same exact question, what if I were rich, would I buy a big flat screen with a surrounding sound system, a stereo, a new laptop or a desktop is better? then suddenly looked at the corner to find they have wonderful fire-place, it was for $2000 I remember. The irony of it, i gave my wondering self the same answer; fancy gadgets and screens need a fancy house which already needs a fancy car and so on.. Then my friend woke me up saying we have to go because it’s too late and my dad would call in a few minutes.. it’s sometimes nice to let our imaginations just go away for a walk. 🙂
LikeLike
Yes, Ahmed, dreams while awake can put us in touch with realities. Thank you for commenting!
LikeLike
I can see my husband having exactly the same reactions. All of them.
LikeLike
Smart man, Cat.
LikeLike
I rarely watch TV. I’ve got a plain old boring 26″, and usually I’m sitting at the kitchen table about 30 feet from it while it’s on. The big TV’s look pretty, but I wouldn’t be the least bit tempted to fork over a month’s pay for one of them…
LikeLike
Yeah, big bucks needed.
LikeLike
i could have an outdoor theater on my little deck out back from the cottage perhaps? don’t think anything too big could fit in my living room, unless i take the couch out. i have a medium sized flat screen and it seems to do the trick, but it is sure easy to get lured in when in the store, and pretend you are at the game or the concert )
LikeLike
I went to a sports bar to watch Syracuse-Pittsburgh on big flat screens for my piece this Wednesday coming on waer.org, and it sure looked (and felt, with the crowded bar cheering the win) like I was at the Carrier Dome. I like your idea, Beth, of an outdoor theater on you little deck back from the cottage. But then you’d have to splurge for a hot air popcorn machine, too!
LikeLike
They may catch my eye but I pass on by. We downsized a few years ago. And don’t even have a tv in the living room any longer. 😉 I wouldn’t want to spend that kind of money. Not when I could spend on …..books, or coffee. Like you, I would have to buy a much larger house to put around the tv. Sigh. Then I would be back to cleaning a much larger house. 😉
LikeLike
My dear wife Karen and I love our downsized home, Colleen. It’s all we need. But I will admit, I truly do need the 42″ flat screen to inform and entertain me.
LikeLike
Fair enough Mark. We have one tv and I don’t even know the size of it. But I can see it so it must be big enough! (And I love your “My Dear Wife Karen”. It’s so endearing. (No pun intended).
LikeLike
I say build a bigger house and go with the new Sony 150″…come on…you got the scratch! What better way to watch Tiger take an illegal drop at Augusta!!
LikeLike
Ha ha ha! Good couple of jokes there, DJ!
LikeLike
I love the idea of a flat screen TV on the wall freeing up floor space but I’m never seriously tempted. Our current TV works fine and whatever the teenagers in the house say we will stick with it till it dies!
LikeLike
If that’s your direct quote to the teens, Rachel, there might be some death-to-the-old-tube strategies going on in the household. Or maybe they have yet to become that level of teen-devious.
LikeLike
They haven’t reached that stage yet! Or they are so subtle about it that I haven’t noticed!
LikeLike
We are content with a small one. Whenever I see a pricetag like that, I think about how many of my first cars I could buy. That price would be the first two and a half.
LikeLike
Yeah, my beloved first car, a ’69 Nova, was handed down to me after my second year of college by my mother. When that died four years later, I bought a used AMC Hornet for less than a grand, and that is exactly what it was worth. My first brand new car was a 1983 Ford Escort, and I think it was only a couple grand more expensive than said 70″ flat screen, Kerbey.
LikeLike
I love the little 26 inch Smart TV I bought for my bedroom a few months ago. Hubby has a 32 inch in his “cave”, but we actually have no TV in the living room at present. We don’t have cable, and there is no furniture in the living room, so it is basically an empty space at present. I have made my bedroom my special spot in the house. I love it. The smart TV is pretty cool. I love listening to the different music stations I can get on it.
LikeLike
With one in your bedroom and one in hubby’s cave, I don’t think you need a TV in the living room, Kim. Also, I love our smart 42″ in the living room. Netflix made easy …
LikeLike
Yes, more than enough. I was really amazed at what the “smart” TV was capable of doing. I had never heard of one, but called to ask hubby about it when I was shopping for one for my bedroom…it was not much more than the regular TV of the same size..so glad I bought it!
LikeLike
I don’t have a TV and I don’t need to. Haven’t watched TV for many years now. But I do know, that many people can’t live without.
Irene
LikeLike
You know your way, Irene. I love to be informed and entertained by the flat screen.
LikeLike
Just enjoy !
LikeLike
My brother has a 70″ flatscreen TV. The kid spent the holidays at his house and played all his xbox games on that beautiful screen. Then he came home to play on our 27″ CRT screen.
Seems when I got divorced and started over seven years ago, it was the last year CRT TVs were still available and flatscreens were still pretty expensive. Now they are everywhere but I can’t bring myself to replace this “old” TV that still works just because. Ideally, I would like a 45-50-something inch flatscreen. Maybe by the time I decide to get one they will be even cheaper.
LikeLike
Oh, the days we live in. Those 45-50somethings of which you speak are now the mid-sizes, NAPR. And the prices have gone down accordingly. It would be “just because.” It would be “because if I’m going to watch TV, I might as well gaze at a picture that takes my breath away.” No, I do not get a commission …
LikeLike
A television would have to depend on the size of the room. For my bedroom, the 26- or 32-inch (cannot remember the size) is completely fine, but you’re not going to want something that small for a room much larger. I would probably never go larger than a 50-inch.
Second, I’m the type of guy who does his research (quality and cost) before I buy a television, bouncing back and forth at the store to finalize a decision.
LikeLike
Our last two, escalating-in-size LG’s, were bought after online and in-store research, at Syracuse’s fantastic Ra-Lin’s. I am very happy with the brand and the 42″ size, which indeed fits our living room. I hope you get your own living room soon, because I know what else that would mean for you, Chris.
LikeLike
Ra-Lin’s is fantastic! The Malone family has been going there for years, and my father got a great deal on an LG of that caliber just less than couple years ago.
LikeLike
They do that at the Costco where I used to live in Ohio. As soon as you walk in, there are the HUGE (tm Billy Fucillo) TVs. They know how to get attention.
LikeLike
Yes, that’s smart marketing, and dangerous to the everyday shopper.
LikeLike
hahaha I bought a 70 inch 3d television for my ex right before I realized he had a girlfriend for 7 months. I got the tv in the custody arrangements. 😉
LikeLike
I hope he got the useless tube oldie, Anja.
LikeLike
He had to buy his new one for his little apartment 🙂
LikeLike
I’m completely happy with the size of my current screen, as I am with this post. By the way, Mark, I wanted to tell you that your photo of Moon Over Wegmans recently received high praise (in the comment section of my blog post of two day’s ago).
LikeLike