Beat Them at Their Own Game: Or more appropriately, beat by his own logic, when the anonymous so-and-so note (hint: It's not Mike, who just simply hid the lumber to make a point) steals Archie's plywood ... after all, "everybody does it!"
Everyone Knows Morse: Mike and his friends whom he's trying to call collect, using "code" words to circumvent having to reverse the charges.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Archie's scheme that "everybody does it" and that some things are just free for the taking ... not to mention avoiding some of the costs of his home improvement project, comes back to bite him in the end. When he goes to work on his project, he finds someone has helped himself to the plywood, and when he slams the door in disgust, the glass breaks.
Moral Myopia: While multiple All In the Family episode did this throughout the course of the series, this episode was among those that did it very well. Both Mike and Gloria call Archie on his "borrowing" items from the plant (for his home improvement project), but then admit that, through a collect-call dodging scheme and getting "free" lipstick samples from the store, they're doing the same thing Archie did.
"Not So Different" Remark: Once Mike and Gloria begin trying to show Archie the error of his ways by "borrowing" things from work, they both admit they're also guilty of the same thing — Mike by trying to dodge collect calls, Gloria by taking leftover lipstick samples from the store — and therefore have no room to talk. Only Edith has an excuse: She was 8 when she took more than her fair share of samples at the bakery (ergo, she didn't know any better).
