What do me and the five other people who were getting their car serviced today all have in common? We all needed to change our air filters. At least according to American Lube Fast. I’m convinced that the air filter is to the oil change establishment what the large popcorn is to the movie theater…A rip off, and the #1 money maker. They charge $15 to change out your “bad” filter. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no car guy. If you ever pull up in my driveway and my legs are sticking out from under the car, you can be sure that I’ve been run over. However, I do drop by Wal-Mart from time to time and I know that an air filter costs all of about $4.95. I also know that when I pop my hood, there’s a huge black box that says, “Air filter”. And I know that when I open that box, my air filter can be easily removed, and another one dropped in its place. This process takes about 3 seconds.

Anyway, back to today. I’m sitting in the lobby reading an uninteresting, two-month-old magazine and about every four minutes this guy comes in, walks up to someone else in the room and says, “This is your air filter. We recommend you change it every 9,000 miles.” Notice that he didn’t say, “You’re air filter is bad, and you need to change it.” He just threw out some random info, knowing the person would say, “Yeah go ahead.” Which they all did…Except me. One by one they succumbed to “the man”. I knew I was next. Everyone else in the room had already been duped. The man knew that I was another easy target. With four kills under his belt, he got lazy. He simply stuck his head in the door and said, “You want us to take care of this for you?” Before I could even answer he was heading back out the door when I said, “No thanks, I’ll do it. They’re like 4 bucks at Wal-Mart.” Suddenly, you could feel the shame in the room. Not from me, but from the customers who were ashamed that they had been taken, and from the employee, who was ashamed that he had been called on his scheme. I, however, walked out of the Lube Fast with my head held high and a few extra bucks in my pocket.