My kids each have a total of about two outfits that actually fit them and are suitable for public viewing. Today I decided to load the three of them in the car and go to Target to peruse the clearance racks. We looked at everything and I found some pretty good deals. While I was checking out I realized my wallet was not in my bag. I asked the cashier if she could hold the items at the register for ten minutes while I drove home to get my wallet. She couldn't handle this complex request on her own so she called her supervisor and asked if it was ok. The supervisor said no because the items were from the clearance rack. Apparently its not playing fair to hold clearance items (for ten minutes). I then asked her if I could hang them all together so I could find them when I came back. Her response "oh we'll put them all back where they came from and I can't guarantee where they'll be." At this point I am thinking - "look at me with a three year old, a two year old, and a newborn who is crying. Give me a freakin' break and bend a rule. Does it look like I get out a lot?" - I am seriously irritated by now and I leave the store. I consider not returning at all and hoping Target will really suffer from the loss of my one lousy purchase. I soon realize that they won't care. I really wanted the clothes and who knows when I'll make it back. I decided to drive home, get my wallet, drive back, unload the children again and hunt down every last item. That'll really stick it to the man right? In reality I know this makes very little sense! It changes nothing about my plan. I return to the store and I can't find any of my items on the racks. After a series of radio calls and a few trip from the front of the store to the back I find the original cashier and ask her about said items. It turns out she left them under the counter after all. I wish she would have just told me this in the first place. Then I wouldn't have had to get so worked up about the whole thing. She checked me out and I was so happy I didn't have to hunt down every item that I bought my kids an icee.
There are a few lessons to this story.
First, there are now two reasons why Target really drives me crazy: They won't hold clearance items. They also won't let you keep the hanger when you buy an article of clothing - as if they can't afford a new hanger - don't even get me started. That's a post for another day.
The second is that I am glad I was polite when I came back to the store. I really wanted to go back in and rage at everyone, especially when I didn't find my stuff right away. However, I decided to approach the situation with politeness and I'm glad I did. After all, the cashier technically did hold the clothes (even if she didn't let me know that). I would have felt extremely stupid and a little ashamed if I had been rude to her and then found out everything was waiting in the front.
In conclusion -
If you have actually read this far I owe you a kidney or something of equal importance. I guess that's the beauty of this blog. I can write whatever I want for as long as I want and you can read it, or not. Either way it's free therapy for me!
