One of the casualties of my move to Texas was my Kenmore Elite gas grill. Now that I am in the land of BEEF, I somehow feel inadequate that I can’t fire up a grill every weekend. With the July 4th weekend coming up, this is a great time to see all of the big home and garden warehouses strut their stuff. There were grills inside Home Depot/Lowes, grills outside, flashy brochures, and a nice 10% discount at each for folks new to the area.

So how did I end up purchasing my Weber Genesis Gold C gas grill at Amazon.com you may ask?

In some ways I am like Jonathan and all of you lemmings that bought iPods – there sometimes is that “sexiness” that drives a purchase. Yes, I know that other companies make great grills. But, there’s nothing like a good old Weber gas grill. They have the same iPod-like cult following, great customer service, and exceptional warranties. I learned all of this the hard way when I strayed from the Weber-fold with my Kenmore grill.

The great deal at Amazon.com is they are charging one cent for shipping on Weber grills. I originally wanted the Genesis Gold B grill that doesn’t have a side burner and costs $599. So with shipping and tax, this cost me $599.01, almost the same price (with tax) for the Genesis Silver at Home Depot. The bad news is that the grill is out of stock.

There are a number of Amazon.com “partner” companies that the grill can be ordered through, but they were charging anywhere from $80 to $178 for shipping. I decided to look at the higher priced Genesis Gold C because Amazon.com had this model in stock. So, $649.01 for the Genesis Gold C, or close to $700 for the Gold B. Hmmm, what to do, what to do….

Now I could have waited for the Gold B, but the scheduled arrival was in August. I bit the bullet – which means presented my quandry to my lovely wife – and she agreed to approve my new plan.

Grill ships on Friday and will arrive on July 1st. Life is good!