The price of ethics

Now, I know I'm not the first person to ponder the question, "At what price does someone forgo their ethics?", but I recently discovered that my price is $1.70.

See I shop at a grocery store that offers "perks" if you use one of their stupid cards. I faithfully have them scan my little savers card every time I shop. This earns me points. The points are good towards cash off the price of a gallon of gas. The gas station chain my grocery store has partnered with - you guessed it; BP.

Now, I can see several sides to this whole BP debacle, really I can. But I have personally landed on the side of snearing and tsk, tsk-ing at BP for being so irresponsible even a six year old could have figured out that if you build something you should have a contingency plan for when something big (fire, force of nature, and for our six year old possibly another kid) comes along to knock it down. Duh. Yes it's their fault. Yes it's their mess. Yes they should be responsible for cleaning it up. All of it.

So, I have been purposefully avoiding getting gas at BP as much as possible. Until today.

The last time I got groceries, I again handed over my saver card. The nice little check out girl handed me my receipt and specifically circled my points total shown at the bottom, "Ooo, you're up to $1.70 off a gallon of gas."

And so this morning friends, I caved. I needed gas in my car. I kept hearing perky little high-school checker girls voice in my head "$1.70 off a gallon of gas...", and my budget was crying out for some relief.

Yes, my ethics were bought for $1.70. I begrudgingly pulled into BP, swiped my tainted savers card, and proceeded to pay a mere $.95 a gallon for gas. I filled my tank.

Am I a bad person readers? Would you have caved into the siren song of a really good discount like I did? I would like to think that money is not a motivator, but alas it sure as hell got me to change my behavior.....