Posted on by LA · 48 Comments

Does This Make Sense?

Scenario 1

A few months ago my husband went for pizza with his co-workers. They ordered two pizzas, different toppings on each. The server brought the pizza’s and people started taking slices.

I mean, this is what you do at a restaurant: you get served your food and you eat.

One person had taken a slice from pizza A. It turns out pizza A was made with something wrong.

No harm, no foul. Mistakes happen. Server quickly rectified the errant pizza situation.

What my Husband thought was bizarre about this encounter was that the restaurant took back the pizza that had been served incorrectly and was missing a slice.

Now, according to health and safety, that pizza can’t be served to anyone. So should the restaurant have just cut their losses and left the pizza there?

Scenario 2

I sometimes still have trouble finding hand soap, so occasionally I order from Amazon.

Recently I ordered a four pack of hand soap.

When the hand soap arrived, I only received one thing of soap. When I contacted Amazon about the issue, they said I had to send back the one soap, and they would send me a set of four.

Why wouldn’t they send me three additional soaps instead of me returning one?

FYI- after I returned the one soap, when they redelivered they again sent me one soap instead of four. My lesson was when I see soap in the store I buy multiples…

Question:

Have you ever had a weird experience when you’ve received the wrong thing? How did you handle it? Did it get resolved to your satisfaction?

Discuss

Posted on by LA · 74 Comments

The One Where I Felt a Little Mean

I was out walking the dog. We had made the run to PetSmart to buy wee wee pads, and Betty and I were wandering around, window shopping. I saw this really pretty bag in the window of a store, and a big 60% off sign…

You know I love a good bag, especially on sale…

So I went into the store and looked at the bag. It was a black saddle bag, roomy enough to fit an umbrella and iPad and camera if need be. I looked at the price tag- $195…

Or so I thought the tag said 195…

I asked the salesperson if the 195 was the sale price or the original price…

The salesperson literally laughed in my face.

“Oh no.” she said.

“How could you think the bag is 195 originally? Tee tee hee. This is Marimekko you know.” Shake of the tussled hair as she took the bag away. “It’s 60% off 495.” She started to wipe my cooties off the bag as she went to tell her co-worker about my blunder.

OK- you know my first thought was

What a …..

and my second thought was

If the bags were cheaper maybe they wouldn’t be on 60% off sale.

third thought:

I hope they go out of business

I know.

I know.

I’m a horrible uncharitable person. But I didn’t say any of these things- I just thought them and I’ve decreed that thinking is ok as long as you don’t act on your bad thoughts. I’m allowed to make that decree, right?

So a month later I was getting off the bus at the stop near the store. Guess what? The store was closing on December 24.

I felt a little bad- I don’t like to see anyone lose their job. Then I thought that maybe if they priced things more reasonably, and didn’t make fun of those who think 495 for a bag is a tad too much, they might have survived.

So there you have it. Sometimes people don’t treat me nicely and I harbor bad thoughts. I’m not proud of myself, but every day is a learning process…I can only try to be a better person tomorrow.

Posted on by LA · 94 Comments

76 Cents- A Tale in One Act

The Scene: Target Checkout kiosk

The Player: Incredibly witty and attractive woman of a certain age

The Action: The Incredibly witty and attractive woman is using the kiosk to check out her purchases

  1. Woman approaches kiosk.
  2. She tells the screen that she is using her own bags
  3. She takes the scan gun from its holder
  4. Uses scan gun to scan first item, laundry detergent- hears BEEP
  5. Woman puts detergent in her reusable bag
  6. Uses scan gun to scan T shirt- BEEP
  7. T shirt in bag
  8. Woman continues to use scan gun to scan next five sundry items, and place them in reusable bags that she has brought- BEEP- BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-
  9. Last item in woman’s cart are bananas. Bananas can’t be scanned because they are considered grocery
  10. Woman finds bananas on the screen in front of her. she punches in code and number of bananas-
  11. 4 bananas- BEEP
  12. Woman taps screen to pay.
  13. Total owed flashes up:
  14. AMOUNT OWED: .76
  15. Woman looks aghast at screen- her mouth drops open at the sight of her bill being 76 cents.
  16. Woman scratches her head and then realizes that the only thing she was actually charged for was the bananas
  17. Woman concludes that there is a problem with scan gun
  18. She stares at the screen for a few seconds

The audience sits with bated breath:

Does the woman pay only .76 cents for all her things?

The camera above the kiosk clearly shows her scanning every single item. Will the store even know the items didn’t register?

or

Will our heroine take every item out of the reusable bags and rescan everything, paying the full amount for her items?

If you were writing this play, how would you end it?

Posted on by LA · 82 Comments

The Socks

Last weekend I had date night with my Husband- dinner (awesome sandwich shop) movie (The Disaster Artist- I know-James Franco is on the shit list, but don’t throw every other person who worked on this movie under the bus- good movie) and shopping.  Shopping you say?  Yes.  We had time between dinner and movie so we ran to discount store cause my husband needed new gym socks.

Now, my blog friend Andrea recently wrote a blog posing the question, “Are products for men geared to be more simple” (well- to be fair she’s a brilliant writer and her hypothesis was worded much better, but you get the idea)  i commented to her- “No.  men just don’t like going through the hoopla of many choices etc.”  I know I’m generalizing, but I’m going to give you my real life example

My Husband actually had a specific idea of the gym socks he wanted.  Sort of.  He currently had gym socks that went about halfway up his calf.  He did not like these.  He wanted something else.

Fine.

We approached the sock display.

me: What kind of socks do you want?

him: Ones not like the ones I have.

me: ( I held up a pair of quarter length socks) These?

him: How high do these go up?

me: They cover the ankle bone but that’s about it

him: Is that good?

me: Depends what you want.  This is length I get, because I like when my gym socks come over my sneakers.  It’s more comfortable for me

him: I don’t know

me: (I pick up a more ped like variety) These will be completely inside your shoe.  you will not see them

Him: (makes face)

me: (I hold up a pair that is between a ped and a quarter length) these will come up just slightly above the sneaker edge

him: (make face)  what do you think?

me: I don’t know what you want.  What’s the goal?

him: I don’t like the socks I have now.  They are too high.

me: Fine.  These are all shorter.  Which ones do you want?

him:  I don’t know.

me: (bang head against sock display)

You get the idea.  When faced with a plethora of sock choices my husband was at a standstill. It was his personal “Sophie’s Choice”.  To add more, once he’d decided on quarter length, we then had to choose brand, color and amount.  By the time we were on the checkout line I had a headache that only popcorn and a diet coke were going to cure.

When my Husband knew I was going to the drug store, he asked me to buy him a new toothbrush.  I asked him “What kind?”.  His response. ” Just choose one.”

So:

  1. Do some people have trouble making a decision when faced with myriad choices?
  2. Are there too many options out there?
  3. How often do people really know what they want?
  4. Will my Husband actually like the socks he bought, (quarter length, black and grey, 10 pack, reebok) or will be back at discount store this weekend?