Michelle Smiles

Teaching my children to question authority, except mine.

No such thing as a quick trip

June26

dsc09776We were near Hobby Lobby yesterday and I asked Steve if he would mind if I ran in quickly.  The picture frames are 50% off again this week.  I never used to display family photos but since we had children and moved away from friends and family I find that I display quite a few and needed a few new frames.  He said he would stay in the car with the girls with the a/c on.

dsc09771I ran inside.  I picked up a couple of frames and then detoured to the clearance aisle.  I recently started using my napkin basket for napkins again (our child didn’t know the word napkin – she thought paper towels served that function) so I needed something to throw the random crap on top of the frig in.  I found this cute lady bug thing for 80% off so the detour through the clearance aisle seemed like time well spent.

I really wanted to wander some more but I knew the kids and Steve were waiting so I headed to the checkout.  There were 2 lines.  One was about 8 people long.  The other had 2 people in it.  Stupidly, I headed to the short line.  The woman who was being waited on had 2 carts full of breakables so each item had to be wrapped separately.  Then she asked to have it broken into 2 transactions.  Ten minutes later, she finally left.  The other line was populated with new folks and still long.

The college girl in front of me only had a few items so I figured I was home free.  She added Testamint gum (which she referred to as “Jesus Gum” which cracked me up) as a gift to her friend’s mom who was waiting in the parking lot and calling to complain at increasing intervals.  Then the girl’s debit card was declined for insufficient funds.  She took off an item and tried again.  Declined.  She took off an item and tried again.  Declined.  Lather. Rinse. Repeat 5 times.  She was down to $8.05 and still declined when her friend gave her $10 cash just so they could get out of the store.  It took almost 10 minutes from start to finish for college girl to exit the line.

The cashier apologized but I wasn’t upset.  Sure I would have preferred to get out of there more quickly but I found the whole thing kind of amusing.  She “accidentally” rang up my photo frames for much less than they were marked.  I asked her if she was sure that she got everything when I saw the total.  She assured me she had.  I started to correct her mistake when she gave me The Eye and said she was sorry for the inconvenience of my wait and that she had rung up all of my items.  The woman in line behind me gave me a slight wink and said “I guess it is your lucky day to find such a great sale.”  I finally realized that they were telling me to shut up and get out because she was doing something nice for me. Weird trip to Hobby Lobby.

posted under nashville
6 Comments to

“No such thing as a quick trip”

  1. On June 26th, 2009 at 11:56 am typelittlea Says:

    If nothing else, thank you for spelling “aisle” correctly. It bugs me when people spell it “isle”.

  2. On June 26th, 2009 at 1:53 pm martha Says:

    I had a similar occurence at Best Buy while buying my SLR camera. They originally ran through the credit card for a much higher total, and when I brought it to the salesperson attention the manager ‘fixed’ it for us, and gave us more off then we were entitled. Kind of like a hassle discount.

  3. On June 26th, 2009 at 2:07 pm Sonia in MO (FTC) Says:

    My home is littered with half-off Hobby Lobby frames. I never pay full price for any of their stuff – if it’s not on sale this week, it will be in a week or two. Plus they always have a 40 percent off coupon in the Sunday paper almost every week at the bottom of their Sunday ad.

    The only thing that annoys me is that they start putting Christmas stuff out in June. I realize it’s for the crafters who like to get a head start but it drives me bonkers.

  4. On June 26th, 2009 at 3:14 pm Brigid Says:

    Hobby Lobby’s pricing always seems a little wonky to me. Stickers on everything. Weird. It has gone in my favor more than once and then I am stuck with the internal debate of going back and being honest or calling it my lucky day. You were obviously being rewarded for your patience. (I find my patience stretches a little longer when the kids are in the car with my hubby.)

  5. On June 26th, 2009 at 7:24 pm Stephanie Says:

    Woohoo!!! That is awesome!

  6. On June 27th, 2009 at 6:19 am Yeah So Says:

    That is so funny! A similar thing happened to me at a local craft store, but when I got back in the car, my husband didn’t believe my story about the long lines!

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