Not sure where you're looking but they're still commonly available:
Do a Google search for "3x5 note pad" or "3x5 scratch pads".
Heck, I've even seen small packs at the local grocery stores.
Are these what you're looking for?
Anthony Watson
Have you seen a Samsung "note" phone? Kids today do not use paper.
You used to be able to buy bottles of padding cement. I had a pad of $2 bills I carried in a check book for tips. Just peel them off.
There have been paper alternatives for decades. Kids aren't the only ones who "buy things".
I suspect few of them drink prune juice -- yet I still see it for sale! :>
My PDA is an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. When you make the font really small, you can put 150 or 200 lines on the two sides, with everyone I would ever call and a lot of other important info too.
When it changes substantially, I print another copy. I put the old ones by my bed and kitchen phones. At my desk I use the computer, because I'm a very modern guy.
I think it's just that the "mainstream outlets" don't see the demand.
You can still buy Cross pen/pencil sets. And, refills for them. Yet, I doubt ink and graphite work on "digital devices"! :>
I used to keep my address book with one entry per "short page" (like the size of a business card) in a multi-ring notebook.
Then, moved it to a PDA ~20 years ago. And, naturally, backed up on a PC. Then, got tired of carrying the PDA and keeping it charged.
Eventually, realized it was a hassle to have to boot a PC just to check on an address or phone number.
So, moved everything back to paper. The advantages of an electronic device aren't significant: rapid search (really? how hard is it to flip to the M's to find "Martin"?), ease of changes (how often do folks move? change phone numbers? birthdates? spouses?), etc.
Address "book" now takes up a bit more physical space than the PDA (though when you add in the charger and USB harness, it starts to be a wash) but it *always* works! :>
One or two charities send me pads in the mail about once a year. That's as much as I use.
They're good but if I try to take notes on page 3, say, it's likely to come out of the pad. So I have a stack of loose pages I've only written one line on.
Group purchase?
Not quite as many.
Buck a pad is a bit steep, but what you gonna do?
Half a buck each, a bit better.
Post it note format.
My Dad did that with singles, one time. Got some really strange looks from people.
| For years, I kept notes in a small looseleaf "memo book" | about 4 1/2"x 7". | If you needed more paper, they had pre-punched refills to go | in them. | | Then, about 10 years ago, these things disappeared from the | market. | No more refill paper available, either. |
That's what I use for work, with the 6-hole paper. I do estimates in it, make lists of materials to buy, keep phone numbers, etc. I have an extra notebook, just in case. But like you, I haven't been able to find new ones, or the paper for them. I have to make the paper with regular notebook paper and a hole punch.
| I guess there's no buyers for them any longer. Folks are | using digital devices for note-taking and info-storing these | days. |
I suspect it has more to do with computer programs that calculate profit margins. The same reason I can buy a tile saw at Home Depot but then can't buy a replacement blade a few years later. They try to only stock what makes big money.
If people were really using digital options then Staples wouldn't have an entire aisle of overpriced, "fashion accessory" appointment books, or 1/3 of an aisle just for different colors and sizes of expensive sticky notes. (I wonder about the recyclability of sticky notes. I rarely want something sticky and I rarely want such a small piece of paper. So why pay more for glue that I just have to fold over in order to make my errand list, and which may impede recycling?)
Awhile back I was doing a job for a couple in their 90s. They were surprised when I pulled out 2 copies of my receipt paper and a piece of carbon paper. Even they hadn't seen carbon paper for years. I bought a single pack, probably 2 decades ago, and I'm still using it. The stuff lasts for a long time! These days I often email receipts as PDFs, but I also sometimes write them out with carbon paper.
If you have one of those little under $100 wet saws, they do sell replacement blades for them:'
All you need to do is match up the diameter of the blade and the size of the center hole. Then pick the blade for the material you're cutting (tile, concrete, etc.)
I've had a book of sticky notes in my drawer for over 10 years. I never use them. My wife uses them occasionally to bookmark pages in a cookbook or magazine. :)
You can still buy carbon paper too:
I think people mostly use it for craft projects these days. I know I haven't had a need for it in 20+ years.
Anthony Watson
I object to "post-it's" on the grounds of utter inefficiency and insane cost!
OTOH, a colleague clued me in to an EXCELLENT use for them!
I don't like marking up text/reference books. But, frequently encounter errors. So, I just slap a post-it note on the page and write the correction on the note paper! When I revisit that page, it's presence is a perfect reminder that "something is wrong, here" so I don't have to rediscover the same mistake, later!
(I found some really tiny notes -- like 1"x1.5" -- that I now keep for just this purpose. You can adhere them to the page "in a margin" and never have to worry about a *larger* note obscuring part of the text on the page!)
|> The same reason I can buy a tile saw at Home Depot but then can't | > buy a replacement blade a few years later. | | If you have one of those little under $100 wet saws, they do sell | replacement blades for them:'
That may be, but when I bought the first saw they carried blades and parts for it. By the time I needed something that brand was gone. I find that increasingly. Retailers use computer programs to calculate what to carry, with no regard for serving their customers in the long term. That wouldn't be so bad if it were one store, but chain "multi-opolies" like HD/Lowes and CVS/Walgreens have all but eliminated privately owned stores.
I saw 100 cards at Kroger for 99 cents. Most of the notepads I've used recently are "free" ones charities send (Junk mail IS good for something).
[snip]
They have no obligation to their customers -- beyond what it takes to keep cash coming in the front door (for their STOCKholders).
There are several stores, here, that engage in this "is-it-making-us-the-most-money-for-the-shelf-space-it-consumes" reasoning. We don't complain about that.
But, when they stop carrying something that we want, we make a point of NOT replacing that purchasing habit/preference with something *else* that THEY carry. Instead, we approach it as "where can we find that product -- even if at an increased price?" and, barring that, "which OTHER product would we like to replace that product -- preferably from a supplier that WON'T force us to rethink this decision RSN?"
Trader Joe's will soon no longer be on our weekly shopping list because they've CHOSEN to stop supplying us with the products that we enjoyed; we found alternatives at other stores -- and don't hesitate to tell our friends of these experiences (TJ's just rebrands other peoples' products, for the most part).
Costco is falling in line behind TJ's as soon to be just "where we purchase our gasoline". Of course, that won't justify the annual membership so they'll lose that business as well.
Sad as the staff at both of these places are among the best that we encounter in our routine shopping (but, as the stores have no particular requirement to satisfy OUR purchasing needs, we have no particular requirement to address the employment needs of their staff).
| Trader Joe's will soon no longer be on our weekly shopping list | because they've CHOSEN to stop supplying us with the products | that we enjoyed; we found alternatives at other stores -- and don't | hesitate to tell our friends of these experiences (TJ's just | rebrands other peoples' products, for the most part). |
Yes, and they don't care about quality. It's a discount store with a boutique theme. I buy a few things there, but try to avoid the store brands. A good example of their low quality was in the news recently: A recall of frozen vegetables due to listeria. The product was produced by a factory operation called CRF Frozen Foods. TJs was on the recall list (along with dozens of other brands) for their organic frozen vegetables. They claim they're organic, but it's all coming from the one big wholesaler, and not all of CRF products are organic. So how is it that their organic corn and regular corn both got listeria taint?
Awhile back it was tainted peanut butter. Again, TJs was on a big list of stores. It turned out that TJs peanut butter was just a TJ-labeled bottle of a product from another big food manufacturer, known as Big Nut. :)
In the 8th grade, the boys took metal shop, which included 6? weeks of print shop, and each of us had to get a food recipe and print 30? of them on 3x5 cards, then the divided them up so each of us got each recipe. For the girls to cook.
Costco also had products affected by the recall. And, I'm sure other "store brands" were affected.
TJ's *always* has something listed for recall. And, since everything they sell is consummable, it's sad that folks don't notice more.
Costco also has a long list of recalls at any time. But, as they sell a variety of products, there's fewer (proportionately) that are food.
A difference is that Costco notified us -- by phone AND mail -- of the recall (based on our purchase history). TJ's assumes you'll discover on your own (no "membership" list that they can consult).
Our TJ purchases have dwindled to avocados (which tend to be better than the local grocers; and smaller purchase quantity than Costco forces on you!), some cheeses and fresh spinach. If the stores weren't "on the route" that we routinely take when doing our shopping, we could easily skip them in favor of other suppliers (as we've done with the other items that we used to purchase at TJ's).
We're not teenagers looking to kill time "shopping". Instead, its a CHORE that we want out of the way as quickly as possible -- more interesting things to do with our time than "buy stuff"! So, if a product's availability is uncertain, we'd rather find another vendor that is more reliable -- or another product.
The most recent "dropped product" was TJ's veggie chili. After waiting for months for it to "come in" (SWMBO doesn't eat it frequently enough to make it a "priority" purchase), we went looking for alternatives.
And, found the exact same chili marketed as "Amy's" -- down to the same photograph on the label, etc. "Gee, we can buy Amy's at several different stores! Why wait for TJ's to get their act together?"
TJ's never *did* get their act together. Instead, brought in a different product (many many months later). SWMBO tasted a "sample" and said, "I'll stick with Amy's". One LESS thing driving us to stop at TJ's each week...
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