Category: Retail Experiences

The carny and the mattress

Posted on3 Comments

I’m so tired right now since we spent most of the day running around.

We had a very strange cashier at the Walmart this morning. I felt like we were on a game show. She never stopped talking and it wasn’t just to us. Some of the things she did was…

… greet us with “good morning, let’s do this!”
… count the number of items as she scanned them
… talk to the items as she bagged them (“this will go in this way, now you go in there, don’t give me a hard time”)
… spin the carousel of bags and count down as Joe grabbed each one

She was extremely energetic and would make a perfect carny, but as a cashier she just made me uneasy. Where do they find these people? Don’t get me wrong, she was really friendly, but there was definitely something off. The whole experience was one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever experienced. Once we got out to the car, Joe told me he felt like yelling, “No whammies, no whammies!”

—

We’ve been talking about getting a new mattress for probably two years now and we finally did it. What a relief! We looked at Carson Pirie Scott’s home store first since we donated to their Goodwill program and got coupons in exchange, but the sales woman pissed me off. I told her I wasn’t interested in a pillow-top mattress and instead of showing me the non-pillow-tops, she instead insulted my intelligence. I don’t appreciate that shit and I also don’t buy from people like that.

We ended up getting a mattress from Back to Bed instead. And ironically, we chose a pillow-top. Once we realized from talking to their non-insulting salesman that they no longer make mattresses that you can flip (pillow-top or not), we decided we liked that kind more because it’s softer.

Guess we’ve been out of the mattress-buying loop since the one we have is seven years old. It was a good deal at the time – $400 – which was a lot when I was paying for it myself (Joe was with me when I bought it but we had just started dating). Over the past year we’ve spent a lot of time testing out mattresses and seriously, we could have hemmed and hawed forever. Who really knows how the bed is going to be until they get it home and sleep on it? So today we decided to say fuck it and just go with our gut.

I think we made the right decision. I hope we did. I guess if the pillow-top ends up sucking at least we’ll know from first-hand experience. The nice thing is the model we got is nicer than the one we saw at Carson’s and cost the same. Plus we got a free mattress protector. Instead of waiting to have it delivered, we picked it up from the warehouse right away.

I’m hoping to sleep quite well tonight.

Crazy Friday

Posted on1 Comment

5:05 am – Alarm goes off

5:15 am – Alarm goes off a second time

5:20 am – Slowly roll out of bed and get dressed

5:45 am – Leave home for Target

5:58 am – Arrive home from Target

OH MY GOD!!! Seriously, I did not expect over 1000 people to be lined up at Target this morning. The line started at one door and went across the full front of the store. Plus the parking lot was packed and many people were still in their cars. Even Joe, who used to work retail, and at Target specifically for many Black Fridays, couldn’t believe how many people were waiting outside.

I don’t get it. None of the sales seemed to be that fantastic. So not worth the aggravation. We sat in the parking lot for a moment just to take it all in and then went home. I wish I had brought my camera!

Oh, and shame on Target for not turning on the lights in the parking lot. People were walking and driving all over the place in complete darkness.

6:30 am – Finished ordering gifts from Amazon.com that I was most worried about getting for a good price. Not only were they the same price as the Target sale and the shipping was free, I didn’t have to pay tax either. So who is the savvy one now? Me, or the people standing out in the cold for over an hour? LOL!

I will never again attempt to shop on Black Friday. For those of you who do – you’re either very patient or completely insane. ;)

I’ll be spending the rest of the day between the couch and computer desk. And yes, I did put my pajamas back on.

Thanks for the M&Ms

Posted on1 Comment

Joe ordered spark plugs for my car last week. They were delivered yesterday and inside the box along with our merchandise was a fun-size bag of M&Ms. Dark chocolate peanut M&M’s, in fact, which are the best kind. Kinda weird, but just what I needed after a long day at work. It makes me wonder – was that intentional or did the person who packed the box drop the bag inside and not realize it in time? Oh well, in either case, thanks for the free M&Ms; they were yummy!

I’m sleepy, The Cure, and Sears finale

Posted on

Ok, I am wiped out! I’m not used to working all day and then going out until 10 pm. My parents came over and we went to Old Country Buffet for dinner because everyone but me loves that place. I don’t hate it, I just don’t go out of my way for buffets because the food typically isn’t good. This OCB wasn’t bad, though. And the kids love it, so what can you do?

After dinner we went to this miniature golf place that we drive past all the time and have been meaning to check out. It’s fairly new and quite nice. I had a coupon but they had some family special and we ended up saving a bundle. Or I should say my mom did since she insisted on paying for everything. The kids are finally in bed and I’m probably not too far behind them. I have to make sure I’m up in time to buy Cure tickets tomorrow.

Speaking of, the presale today wasn’t much better than yesterday’s. At least it allowed two tickets at a time, but all the seats were lower level in the back. Although now that it’s too late someone informed me that those have a good line of sight. Oh well, hopefully I’ll get lucky and score decent tickets tomorrow. If not, at least I will be able to hear them no matter where we’re sitting. I’ll get tickets one way or another; it’s not like they are going to sell out. I may love them, but I’m realistic about their popularity. Although something has to be said for the fact that they are still successfully touring over 25 years after they formed but Kelly Clarkson had to cancel her tour due to poor ticket sales.

I finally picked up my Sears packages on Monday and wouldn’t you know it, nothing fit but the shoes. Wednesday I took back two shirts, two bras and the duplicate pair of shoes for a refund. Since they credited me for the more expensive shipping, I’m not going to ask that they credit the other one as I would have paid for one order’s shipping anyway. They never credited me the price difference for the shirt, but since I took both back, it’s a moot point now. I doubt I will ever order online again from them because it was such a hassle. Plus it’s too hard buying clothes without being able to try them on first. Even the bra which was my size and a brand I already own was too small. Bleh.