Category: Retail Experiences

January 2023 Recap

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Egg prices were outrageous. $7.50 for two dozen at Costco which is considered a deal.

Discovered the Unsolved Mysteries podcast and started binge-listening like a mofo.

Put my Robert Smith Funko Pop on my Cure shelf above my computer desk.

Bitched on Facebook about the fact that you cannot add McDonald’s Arch Card to their mobile app for payment. So stupid!

Made cream cheese strudel for breakfast one day and dare I say it, was tastier than any stupid coffee cake you can buy at the store.

Found the cutest and comfiest slippers on clearance at Walmart ($6 each).

Started tracking my sleep with my Apple Watch in an effort to prioritize it. Gamifying life is the way to go!

Made zucchini bread with walnuts that made me question why I do not make it more often as it’s delicious!

Finished, and started, a few TV series:

Finished Better Call Saul. Final season was a bit of a slog.

Started three new series:

That 90’s Show (Netflix) – 7/10 – Love the nostalgia factor & the one girl reminds me of Alana from Broad City

The Last of Us (HBO Max) – 6/10 – Olivia from Fringe is in it. Based off a PlayStation video game

Night Court (Peacock) – 7/10 – Bernadette from Big Bang Theory is the judge & John Larroquette reminds me of an old Billy Eichner. Loved watching the original when I was at my grandparents house.

Culver’s ruined my day, and all future trips, by switching rom Pepsi to Coke in all their restaurants. Coke is too sweet and rips up my stomach so it’s a sad day that yet another restaurant only serves Coke products. I normally do not get soft drinks when dining out anyway, but the kids meal at Culver’s comes with one and I looked forward to a little Pepsi with my burger. I refuse to buy soda for at home when a case of 12 is $8 and you used to be able to get a case of 24 for $5!

The main tv in our living room (a Samsung 55″, which we got in June 2015) developed the purple spots of death meaning we’ll need to replace it relatively soon depending on how quickly the rest of the backlit LEDs burn out (or how much it starts to annoy me seeing a purple cast on everything). So far it’s just in two spots along the top and left side so they aren’t always noticeable.

Discovered our new favorite ice cream brand – Favorite Day by Target. All the flavors we’ve tried thus far are delicious (Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Fudge, and Mint Cookies & Cream). Didn’t think to check the ingredients until the third container, only to realize there’s high fructose corn syrup in them. No wonder! Will probably still get it, but won’t go as hard on them moving forward.

Finally added Wish to my vinyl collection. It’s a re-issue that I preordered from my new favorite record store, Mile Long Records. The prices are a bit higher than you’d pay on Amazon or Walmart, but I like supporting a local business and it’s owner, Mike, is really nice.

Decided to stop spending hours every night scrolling TikTok and get back into reading instead. Set a goal of 24 books this year and was ahead of schedule after reading 4 books in January alone. Since my eyes suck and I’ve yet to get bifocals or progressives, I dusted off my old 2010 Kindle and started using that again. Other than needing to be charged more frequently than when it was new, it’s been great!

Refrigerator Saga

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Sunday (09/18) Joe said he thought there might be something wrong with the refrigerator and I might want to start looking at new ones in case it died and sure enough, it died the next day (Monday 09/19). We ordered a few replacement parts off Amazon, but the more research Joe did, the more he was worried there could be too many possible culprits. Not only that, but the fridge is original to the home so it was 31 years old. Reluctantly, we agreed it was time to replace it.

In the meantime we were able to store some food in our friends’ spare fridge in her garage. That saved us from losing a lot of expensive meats in the freezer. Our fridge was quite large (25 cubit feet) and we kept it well stocked. Even with our friend’s help we had to throw out some food, although we did our best to eat whatever we could.

After dropping our food off, we went to Menards, Home Depot, and Lowes looking at refrigerators. We settled on a Frigidaire side-by-side in white ($1200) from Lowes and were able to secure a delivery date for that Wednesday.

Tuesday (09/20) night we got an automated call letting us know our delivery window was 3-7 the following day.

Wednesday (09/21) morning I got a call from a person saying they’d actually be by between 2 and 2:30. I relayed this info to Joe as he planned on working until noon and then coming home so we could move furniture around and he could disconnect the water line from the old fridge and take the front door off the hinges (the fridges are too large to fit through the back door even though that’s closer to the kitchen).

Well, at 9:30 am I got a call from the delivery guy saying he’d be there in an hour. Joe had to leave work immediately and scramble to prepare for the delivery. The water shut-off to our sink and fridge would not actually shut off and water was getting all over the floor. Joe ended up having to shut off the main water to the house. Also, the delivery guys didn’t actually show up until 45 minutes past the time they said they would.

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Bath & Body Works

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Sometimes I want to buy all of the things, which is counter to my desire to own less stuff in general. And sometimes it makes me really happy to get new stuff even though I really don’t want to be that way.

In any case, here’s what I got at Bath & Body Works today after I learned their rewards program is changing on Wednesday, July 20th. Instead of getting a free item after spending $75, you’ll now have to spend $100, and I was only $7.50 away from $75 so I wanted to snag my free item before they moved the goal post.

Therefore, last night I placed an order online for in-store pickup since the soaps were on sale for $3.25 each (and it’s a good thing I did since the sale ended yesterday). I got two White Tea & Sage and one Kitchen Lemon since both scents are neutral ones that can be used any time of the year. I also had a coupon for a free body care item $15.50 or less. Of course one of my favorite scents, Marshmallow Pumpkin Latte, was $16.50 so I couldn’t get that. Warm Vanilla Sugar will have to do, then.

I got a text this morning at 8:39 saying my order was ready for pickup. That didn’t seem right to me, so I called the store. Surprisingly, an employee picked up, but they confirmed what I already suspected – they weren’t open yet. Luckily I thought to confirm that or I’d have been pissed showing up to a closed store. I guess they prepped the pickup orders early which prompted an automated text/email. They really should add some verbiage to them saying to check to make sure the store is open first, or program the system to delay sending the notification until the store is open.

I got there at 10 am when they opened and saw that Halloween stuff just came out. After picking up my order, I refreshed my app a few times until it updated with my free item reward so I could get this cute glow-in-the-dark skulls candle holder.

Skulls Candle Holder

I’m pretty sure this is the first home décor item I’ve purchased this year. Wow, I made it an entire six months without buying a decorative item. Halloween stuff always gets me, though!

I also picked up a new wallflower scent – wicked vanilla woods – to try. I hope it’s good! I had to smell the body lotion to get an idea of the scent and sometimes the wallflowers don’t end up smelling the same. I already have two wallflowers I want to take back and exchange for a better scent once the fall ones are completely out.

Here’s my total “haul”.

I spoke to a very nice employee who helped me with the free reward situation (I wasn’t sure if it would appear immediately or whether I could use it right away) and let me know my favorite scent, Honeycrisp Apple, should be showing up in stores next month.

This place really knows how to drive demand. Every single day it seems there’s a new limited-time sale, and they restrict scent availability to certain times of the year so you can’t stock up on your favorites in a single shopping trip. If you like seasonal scents they have a guarantee you’ll be shopping there at least 3-4 times annually. Who else does this? I’m pretty sure you can get any Yankee Candle scent at any time of the year.

It’s my fault for giving them my business, though. I can’t help myself, especially when everything I get is actually free thanks to gift cards I get via Discover’s cashback bonus rewards. I have a problem.

No Lemonade or Tomatoes

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There’s a reason I rarely go shopping by myself – I hate it. Joe is the cart guy and I can focus better when I’m not worried about the cart at the same time. That being said, Tuesday I decided to make a trip to Aldi to grab a few things for dinner. I kept my shopping list short so I wouldn’t have to bother with a cart.

On the way home I stopped at Starbucks because they are offering 50% off iced drinks every Tuesday in July. I ordered my favorite – iced green tea lemonade. Imagine my surprise when I got home and there was NO lemonade flavor at all.

Tasted like an iced green tea instead. I checked my mobile order and the sticker on the side of the drink and both said iced green tea lemonade, so I don’t know if the barista forgot the lemonade, or like Dunkin, Starbucks is being stingy with the flavoring now.

Needless to say, I had to add some powdered lemonade mix to make it taste better. Since I already have Starbuck’s tea, what was the point of even going there? I originally planned on going every Tuesday but I’m not going to bother now.

Also, the tomato I bought at Aldi disappeared. The bag didn’t tip over in my car, but I checked all over just in case and it wasn’t there. I didn’t find it anywhere in the house either, so I guess I somehow left it in the cart the cashier threw it in after scanning it?

OhSnap Grip

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In May 2020 I backed the OhSnap Phone Grip on Kickstarter and received it in October of the same year. I loved it! It’s comfortable to wrap around my finger, it can be used as a stand, and it’s magnetized so the phone can stick to metal items.

Unfortunately, less than a year later, in April 2021, cracks started forming in the corners of the plastic piece in the middle. I went to their site and saw they have a lifetime guarantee, so I filled out the form to request a replacement.

Imagine my surprise when I received an email from them stating they couldn’t afford to replace it for free and offered me a 20% off coupon instead. That really pissed me off, and I wrote back to them that if they aren’t going to honor a lifetime guarantee then they should at least take that verbiage off their site. They wrote back with another sob story and completely missed my point. I had to explain to them once more I’m more angry that they won’t remove the guarantee from their site than I am about them unwilling to replace their inferior product.

Anyway, I happened to look at their site recently and there’s still a guarantee on there, but only for their new and improved version which they now are asking $30 for (I paid $15 for mine).

About a month ago the corner cracked off mine and makes it a bit harder to use. The problem is I’ve yet to find a better alternative, but I really don’t like the idea of giving my money to a company that doesn’t appreciate their customers. If not for people like me they wouldn’t have had the funds to create their product in the first place, and I’m salty about how I was treated in response.