This week's edition of Newsweek magazine had an interesting feature that estimated what would happen if oil hits $200 a barrel. Among the predictions:

*The cost of gas would go up 53 percent. (Diesel would go up to $5.55 a gallon.)

*Energy stocks would rise in value 12 percent.

*Hummer sales would go down 13 percent.

*Corn prices would go up 25 percent.

*Sales of hybrids would skyrocket by 40 percent.

*Pregnancies would rise by 1.2 percent.

*And, quite correctly, the story predicted that voter anger would go through the roof. 

CVS put out a really interesting press release this week listing the cities where shoppers have redeemd the most ExtraBucks rewards. (If you are unfamiliar, ExtraBucks are CVS' instant rebate program. You can read my post about how the program works here.) I have to say I was kind of surprised that Raleigh-Durham wasn't on the list, but I suppose it probably has to do with the number of people in the cities. All of the top five were major metropolitan areas. But the folks at CVS tell me we were close. In 2007, shoppers in 63 CVS stores in Raleigh received just under $2 million dollars in Extra Bucks rewards. That's not a bad showing at all!

Here's how the top five cities fared:

1) Boston – shoppers saved nearly $3.4 million in ExtraCare savings and rewards

2) Los Angeles – shoppers saved more than $2.7 million in ExtraCare savings and rewards

3) Detroit – shoppers saved approximately $2.5 million in ExtraCare savings and rewards

4) Washington – shoppers saved more than $2.3 million in ExtraCare savings and rewards

5) Philadelphia – shoppers saved just over $2 million in ExtraCare savings and rewards

I was trying to remember the last time I stood in line to buy tickets for something. I think it may have been my last Mudcats game because we went at the last minute. But by and large, when we want to go to a concert, theater show or sporting event, we buy our tickets online. It seems most other people do, too. I thought this story from the Houston Chronicle was fascinating. It's about how online ticket sales have changed the way the ticket universe works. So how about you? Where do you buy your tickets?

It's no secret that more shoppers are turning to discounters to make ends meet, and some of the stores that are benefitting the most are dollar stores. Stores magazine wrote a story this week about that exact trend, focusing on Matthews-based Family Dollar and its efforts to boost its food offerings. It reminded me a lot of our dollar gourmet recipe challenge earlier this year, where the N&O challenged Triangle residents to make a gourmet recipe using ingredients from the dollar store. If you missed it, here's the original challenge. And, of course, here's the follow-up, complete with the recipe for the winning heart-healthy meatloaf plus some of the other finalists' dishes.

Sorry, sorry everyone... a little late today. But here are Friday freebies!

*You can get a free "Love Your Heart" cookbook from the American Heart Association here.

*Wal-Mart has a sample of Benefiber single serving sticks here.

*There's a great Fiber One cereal freebie here, which reportedly contains several samples and a coupon booklet.

*There's a sample of Member's Mark formula here.

*And there's a sample of Almond Accents here. 

Don't fear, Starbucks lovers. It appears we've survived the coffee giant's 600-store downsizing pretty much in tact. North Carolina is only losing 10 stores, and there's only one in the Triangle: the one in Chapel Hill's Chatham Downs. Our friends in Charlotte were not as lucky, losing five of their stores. If you want to see the whole nationwide list, you can download the PDF below...