by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . October 25, 2010 . 12:14AM
Dear Walmart,
Honestly, I rarely go to your store for a cornucopia of delightful reasons. The main reason being that when I go into the store I come out feeling musty and dusty and like I need to take a shower. While you may have a more varied selection than my preferred store, Target, I’ve noticed that some products look like someone has run them over with a Hummer and that they have been opened, sampled and then put back like I won’t notice that someone else has taken a huge bite out of the Doritos I plan to purchase. Consequently, I no longer purchase Doritos, but I will talk about that in a later post.
In any case, I frequent your store in two circumstances: when I’m in a city, like my hometown, that does not have a Target, or when the item I need is not one that Target, Best Buy or any other store in the whole world (the whole world being a 15-20 mile driving distance) sells. In this case, I was looking for a 16G Zune player. This was necessary being that I was overly zealous on the treadmill the other day and whacked my rhapsody player off the treadmill deck and sent it spiraling to the belt where it promptly went zinging to the back of the treadmill and skidded 5-feet across the gym floor. It inadvertently almost knocked a boy off the elliptical behind me because he was laughing so hard he couldn’t stay upright. I realized it was unusable when it popped open in my hand. After trying other rhapsody players from my beloved Target, I gave up.
Wal-mart online showed me a Zune player that was $30 less than Best Buy. By this time, I’m already crabby because I haven’t worked out in 24 hours and I am kind of wishing I’d pushed the boy off of the elliptical machine. I got to Wal-Mart and, lo and behold, they have the Zune in stock. For $30 more than they advertised online. This isn’t new. Wal-Mart frequently discounts their items on their online store and charges more for their items in-store. So, to get something that is IN STOCK, I get to pay $30? Pass. I’ll go to Best Buy where I get a clean store, great customer service, a Best Buy rewards system and can use my $5 certificate for my rewards and where that same player will count towards MORE rewards. Oh, and hey, where BEST BUY won’t UNDERCUT ITSELF online. I’ve heard stories about Wal-Mart doing this with various products and refusing to honor the prices in their stores. If I wanted to wait five days, I could get Amazon free shipping. Or, better yet, use Amazon.com and get prime shipping or one day shipping and pay $30 less than both Wal-Mart & Best Buy.
What I know is this: I won’t be using Wal-Mart. And their policy of not meeting their own prices? Bull. This isn’t a franchise. This is a corporation. All the money goes to the same place. Enough is enough. I walked out today even though I really wanted that player and I had spent time, gas and money going there.
Places that continue to give me good service, Target, Best Buy, Amazon, the little stores around here? They’ll continue to get my cash. Keep up the good work, Wal-Mart. You make it easy not to give you my money.
Sincerely,
by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . December 23, 2009 . 4:42AM
Because we are all burned out with holiday shopping, and don’t you dare Betty Lou Who me and be all “Oh, I just LOVE this” because I will be sore with you, at the very least, I wanted to share a good shopping experience with you.
Some of you follow my twitter feed and some of you know better than to rock the image of the good wife and mom you think I am. Those that follow understand that the reason my posts have been scarce is that, immediately following my finals, AJ got incredibly sick. Within 48 hours, I, too, got sick and Leon followed. Then, yesterday, AJ had to go to the hospital for chest pains. He got the all clear after an x-ray and CT-scan. None of us are completely healed from the stomach virus of last week and we are about to travel for the holidays.
We haven’t really had time to shop for the holidays.
Tonight, I took an hour to go get Leon his presents, as it is the one duty I cannot schluff off onto him. Part of that trip led me to Best Buy (who is not paying me, nor do they know about this post–I’m irritated with the need for disclosure, but there it is). Best Buy was packed, even at 9pm at night. I expected to leave irritated and wanting to sleep.
Instead, I walked in, found exactly what I wanted, talked to an uber cheerful cashier and, when I beeped when walking out, I slowly turned around to face the music. No, I didn’t steal anything. What do you people think of me?
I turned to hand my bag to the man at the door and he laughed at waved me out. I heard, from behind me, “You really oughtta quit stealing stuff! Run! Run for the car!” I laughed and went back to my car where Molly was waiting for me to drive home with the windows down. She wants to freeze to death.
Why bother writing this? Well, mainly because I spend a lot of time talking, thinking and taking in energy about what is wrong in my world. I had expectations that my experience was going to bite and it was the exact opposite. It was a great experience. I got what I needed and everyone was friendly and I was home within an hour. It was time to share a positive experience and increase the positive energy that is out there.
Take some time to appreciate those out in the retail world right now. I worked it for four years during this time of year and it is a hard job for little pay around the holidays. If someone is particularly nice, please return the kindness.
Oh, and bring cookies. Those are good, too.
by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . June 10, 2009 . 1:02PM
For someone that has expensive taste, it can be a real bummer to also have a cheapskate personality. It’s true. I have a lot of cognitive dissonance where the two conflict. For those who are not psych junkies like me, that means that I have a lot of internal warring; I want to buy nice fancy things, but it bothers me to do so and creates anxiety. Generally, it’s better for me to not do it. Then I don’t have to justify it to myself and, every now and then, someone buys the expensive thing for me for a gift and I don’t have to worry about it. Everyone wins.
That doesn’t mean I don’t love a good bargain. I love goodwill, garage sales and places like Ebay and TJMaxx that give me cool, designer type goods for cheaper prices. Half.com and Chegg.com have been lifesavers when book buying time rolls around each semester. I have a list of places in my head that I go for a great bargain, and, when I’m shopping, I will often run the list before buying.
Tuesday, I was looking online to find A.J. some new books. Over the summer, we have run through The New Captain Underpants Collection: Box Set (Books 1-5)
, Diary of a Wimpy Kid
, as well as Stink: The Super-Incredible Collection: Books 1-3
and other various single books.
It was time for another series, if I could find one. I was lucky enough to stumble upon My Weird School #1: Miss Daisy Is Crazy!
and I was sold! There are a TON of books in this series, as well as a secondary series! We may be set for the summer.
And, best of all? Amazon gives you free shipping at $25, so I bought 8 books. They also give you buy 4-for-3, so I got 8 books (2 totally free!) for a total of $23. Not bad, not bad at all. I couldn’t have bought them used for that! Oh, and Amazon isn’t paying me to say that they have these deals. I just wanted to rub my bargain in your face. Isn’t that the best part of bargain shopping? It’s not nice? What? Oh. Sorry. My bad.
It was a bargain. And I love a good bargain. I’ll let you know what A.J. thinks of the series. He loved the first 3 series I was able to find.
Where does my love of the bargain stem? Let me quote my mother: “Don’t you dare buy anything unless it’s on sale. If it’s not on sale now, it will eventually be on sale and if it’s sold out before then, you’ll find something else.” Which of course is a total lie, but something in that idea has stuck with me, otherwise I wouldn’t be so reluctant to spend money on things that I consider to be too expensive.
She was here, recently, and found a shirt at Macys that was originally $48 and had been marked down to $13. She considered it a good shopping day. I would have, too, but she was also bummed that she “couldn’t find anything else” and that the “selection was so dismal.” Let’s be clear: selection here is fine–sales weren’t going on because it was the week before memorial day and everyone knows that the sales really happen that weekend.
I don’t take my love of a bargain to that extent. If something looks amazing, my vanity will force me to buy something that looks nice. However, I won’t go into stores that charge a lot for clothes in the first place. I don’t care if they have great sales, I won’t step foot in there.
She planted the neurotic apple and I fell from the tree.
Home
Dear Walmart,
Life is like a game. We all have challenges, thoughts, opinions and beliefs. Often, it feels like something out there, life, karma, catty people, or blue shells (for the Kart lovers), seeks to bring us down. Luckily, we always get up. This is where I wear my heart on my sleeve and my foot in my mouth.
