Rip-offs and Runway Hair

I expected total lunacy yesterday during my annual Black Friday adventure. I expected to see the usual violent scene of mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers wrestling for the last item desired at every turn. However, yesterday was a very uneventful shopping trip, except for the woman who decided to smack talk my mother behind her back. She got the look of death from me, yes, but I had an overwhelming desire to tell her "You would have beat my mother in line had to you taken flight with your hair, you winged sideburn freak." Seriously, the mop on her head she called hair looked like the wings of a 747 on the runway. However, keeping in mind that I'm a Christian and this woman may walk into my church one day, I kept my mouth shut and just gave her the staredown resulting in the woman telling her girlfriends while pointing to me, "We better keep it down. I think she's with her." Darn skippy, Delta Airlines.

Well, onto the crux of my story. Anyone who knows me knows that I've inherited my mother's bargaining skills. I love to talk a dealer, clerk, or any vendor down to a price that makes their sales receipts bleed as I walk away in total victory. Yesterday was full of those deals, most of them not even needing a "You can do better than that" speech with the clerks. We're talking items that were once $200 cost me $19.98. I was on fire! Keep in mind, I'm from the group that says "you get what you pay for", so I won't buy cheap, I just work on getting a great price. I take pride in this skill! Today, however, was a day of utter frustration at Wal-Mart.

Brian and I agreed that for Emma's big Christmas gift this year, we were going to purchase the "Elmo Restaurant". It was fun, a toy that could involve all of us interacting together, and it dons the loveable face of all the Sesame Street friends, mainly Elmo - Emma's best friend. I had kept my eye out for it at Toys R' Us, and it was labeled for $109.00. Wayyyyy too high a price, but I work on sales and pressuring the clerks to give me the coupons on top of the sale prices. Usually, they'll do it for me because I'm the most patient person in the world and never hassle them if they're running behind or don't know what they're doing. Trust me, if you're frustrated in line, don't ever be rude to the clerk. It WILL bite you in the butt. If you really want the deals, be sweet. They'll be more willing to help out a nice person and tell the rude one to take their business elsewhere. I've stopped into Toys R' Us numerous times over the past couple of months, but the toy hadn't come in yet. I tried to look it up online and, as of yesterday, they decided to drive every parent in America crazy by making it only available online. Keep in mind, this is a heavier toy, and costs a crazy amount to ship. I don't think so. Plus, you can't work out a better deal with a computer!

I ventured over to walmart.com, and there it was - the Elmo Restaurant - listed for $67.17!!! Hot dog, VICTORY!!!! They also said it was free shipping for "site to store" orders, should they not have it in the store, or if I wanted to purchase it and pick it up. Why do that, when I can get it the same day, right? I ran over to Wal-Mart, and found that they had two of them left on the shelf. However, the price was $98.00. Again, I don't think so. I proceeded to ask for a manager, since the sales girl can't do anything to help me anyway in pricing. I told her about the price online, and she tells me that it's Wal-Mart's policy that they won't match the prices on walmart.com. Ok, it's going toward the sale for the same company, so why not? She then tells me that she "doesn't make the rules, but she has to abide by them." Ok, didn't know Barney Fife worked at Wal-Mart. I told her that I had been looking at a lot of different items online, and wasn't sure if the Elmo Restaurant was one of the ones that I saw that was out of stock. So I then said "What if I bought this one for $98.00 to insure that I had one for Christmas, then went home, ordered it, and had it shipped to this store? Could I then return the one in my hand, only to pick up the same dang toy and the same dang store, and you'd give me $31.00 back for my trouble?" "Yes", she tells me. HOW MORONIC IS THAT???? Why not just save everyone the hassle and give me the online price? Once I order it online, you're going to have this same toy back on your shelf sitting there. Why not sell it and get rid of it? Wouldn't that look better for business? Not to mention, this is very much an inconvenience for me. But, I'll do what I have to do to save myself the extra $31.00. I just thought I should let the general public know of this stupid rule. It's just my way of changing the world one deed at a time.

So, bottom line... I have tried to patronize Wal-Mart because of their moral standards, friendly staff, organized store and, not to mention, better prices. So, I don't care anymore if Wal-Mart lets the Salvation Army ring the bell every Christmas, I'm going to Target.