I am not a crook *or* How not to be a good parent
Last night we took a trip to Toys-R-Us to let the kiddies spend some of their own hard earned cash. What a mistake that was. Although it was only 7pm, I am positive that we ended up impersonating a late night Walmart family, you know the kind, harping and bitching at the kids who should’ve been in bed hours ago.No, you’re not spending $20 on a pink softball bat when we own several bats already.
Do you really need another Bratz doll when you don’t even play with the ones you have?
Ok, for $15, you can get a Bratz doll, do you really want to spend and extra $15 to get a Bratz doll that comes with a mini washer/dryer, and a bunch of crap that my sweeper is going to suck up from under the couch tomorrow?
Stop trying to convince your sister to buy that game because you want to play it!
…as my thin patience got thinner…
Just pick something, already, so we can get out of here!
Finally, after a grueling 20 minutes that felt like an hour, we checked out, likely to the pleasure of management. As I’m pulling out of the parking lot, my daughter opens her new Nintendo game only to find there is nothing in the plastic case. Now, you have to understand my daughter. She’s a freewheeling spirited girl who sometimes lets her excitement get the best of her. I had never heard of a game, cd, or similar item not being inside of a sealed package before, so I was convinced that she opened it so fast that the game flew out and onto the floor before she could even notice.
We proceeded to do a complete car search in the Westlake parking lot, only to come up empty. While not very likely, I suppose it is possible that the case was sealed with nothing in it, so back to Toys-R-Us I went to explain the situation.
“Yes, I know it’s odd”, I explained, “but when I opened the box, there was nothing in it.”
I repeated that to three different people before they let me out with a new game. Back in the car, everyone thanked me (even though I was nothing but a harpie in a bad mood,) and I made a bee-line for the interstate, convinced that a squad car would be pulling me over any minute for shoplifting.
I didn’t get pulled over and I never found the missing game cartridge.
June 9th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Not as unusual as you might think. My wife bought a movie on DVD that was a special-edition 2-disc set. She opened up the sealed package and there was only one disc inside — and it wasn’t even the movie! Disc 2 with all the special features was there, but Disc 1 (with the movie) was missing. She went back to Best Buy and swapped it for a package with both discs.
And one time a long time ago I bought a CD at Berean Bookstore. The packaging said it was the album I wanted as did the label on the disc, but when I popped it in my CD player, the album recorded on the disc was a completely different album by the same artist. That was really weird.
June 9th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
I once received a Tom Waits CD for Christmas. Luckily the first thing I do upon getting a CD is read the liner notes (you know in case Tom has personally thanked me). I opened it up and there was no CD. I thought that someone was playing a prank on me, but no it apparently came shrink wrapped and all without the CD. My friend who bought it took it back and luckily for me (and him) this one came with a CD.
June 10th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
[...] a possible subconscious effort to make up for being Mr. Harpie a few nights ago, I thought it would be fun to eat lunch with my girls at Lou’s [...]
June 10th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
The same thing happened to me…thought I would be the good daughter and got my dad the set of The North and The South for Christmas. When he got it home the package containing two discs had parts 1-4 twice. Got at Best Buy and was told when I explained the problem that it happens all the time. Don’t you just love retail.
June 11th, 2007 at 11:03 am
What about the time I bought The Dave Matthew’s Band-Live at Red Rocks-two disc set and it had Disc 1 and Disc 1?
June 12th, 2007 at 10:51 am
I knew people in college that would buy CD’s/software/video games and remove the plastic wrap VERY carefully. The best way was with an X-acto Knife cutting along the seam where it was sealed in the first place. After removing the CD/software/video game from the package, they would re-seal it and return the “unopened” item to the store from which it came. The idiot kids behind the desk at Best Buy etc. don’t look very carefully at the shrink wrap when “unopened” items are returned. Often, they only find out when someone buys the empty package.Henceforth and ergo, your empty video game package.
June 12th, 2007 at 10:54 am
My wife worked retail for a short time and had to deal with people like that too, thus my trepidation and their skepticism towards me.