#&*^$ Wal-Mart!!
I got their Black Friday ad in the mailbox a few days ago and saw in their All Day Friday pages that they were going to have video games on sale for $7 and $10. I had the bright idea of staying up late and getting there at midnight to take advantage of the deal, and to hopefully beat the crowds. I got there and the parking lot was pretty empty (big difference from last year, when I got there at 5 am and had to park in the shopping center next door… yes, I’m one of those crazy Black Friday shoppers!).
There were already lines forming in electronics for some of the 5-11am deals, but all I wanted was a couple of Nintendo DS games.
The nice lady in the electronics department informed me that they weren’t allowed to sell anything until 5 am…. wait, what happened to the All Day Friday deals?! Doesn’t Friday start at 12 am? Apparently not at Wal-Mart!! I talked to two managers and both told me the same thing: all day Friday deals start at 5 am. Even pointed out the small print in the ad, where it said all day, and that it was already Friday.
Electronics-lady told me that she was going on her break and would try to find out if there was a list of the games that were going to go on sale, but when she came back, she said that there was no list. All the games would be brought out on display cases, though, and would be set up somewhere in electronics. By that time I figured that I might as well hang out until 5 am (yes, I know, crazy!) and walked around the store and gathered up a few other things on my list. Got a book, too, and went back to electronics and waited. And read.
I wasn’t the only unhappy customer, and more and more people came in, looking for the All Day deals, with the same argument as me, when they were told that they had to wait until 5am. They didn’t even allow people to purchase anything at the regular price before 5 am!! They had ONE register open, and it looked like the only things you could buy were food items (nice of them to let me buy a bottle of water!).
Later one of the other customers who was waiting for video games, too, told me that they had brought them out and set them up near the produce, but took them back after people started taking items off the displays. That’s right, no one was allowed to take anything off the display and put it in their cart!!! If someone did, they were told they had to put it back. They even had employees stand guard to make sure no one grabbed anything. That worked out OK at first, but after 3 am more and more shoppers came into the store, and more and more displays were set up. They didn’t bring the video games back out until about 4:15 am, and by 4:30 am they couldn’t stop people from taking them anymore. Yeah, I wasn’t about to stand by and watch, and grabbed what I came for! I had a deal with another shopper, who was camped out at another item I wanted to get, that I was going to look for the video games that she wanted, and she was going to grab one of those items for me. Worked out well, too! Unfortunately the two games that I was looking for were not included in the sale (figures!).
So, it was either false advertising, or Wal-Mart is actually in some parallel universe where Friday starts at 5am.
They REFUSED to price match other stores, too (like Toys R Us) even though their ad said “Our stores will match the price of any local competitor’s printed ad for an identical product”. Their reason for not matching the price? The store is more than 10 miles away from Wal-Mart. NOT that they have this “rule” in writing anywhere! I hope the lady who tried to get a price match, DID!
Then there was the line for the Nintendo DS Lite…. that turned into two lines back in electronics…. and someone at the front of the store decided to form a third line there without telling the electronics department and then handing out the DS Lites at the front of the store, leaving all the people who were camped out for more than 5 hours back in electronics without a product! Glad I wasn’t in line for one of those or I would have gone postal!
From now on Wal-Mart can keep their Black Friday deals and shove them! I’m going to Target!
2009/330: Happy Thanksgiving
If you’re wondering how I could post turkey pictures in the morning, we’ve had our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday so Melissa could actually enjoy it. It’s one of her favorite holidays because of all the yummy food.
Of course cooking the turkey didn’t go as planned. Greg is in charge of the turkey and I’m in charge of all the sides and dessert (all of those turned out great!). Greg bought a 19.5-pound turkey and cooked it in the oven this year. He even left the pop-up timer in this year. Well, it popped up a whole hour before it was supposed to be done! Greg checked the temperature with a meat thermometer and it seemed right, so he took the bird out of the oven and let it rest while I prepared the side dishes.
When it was time to carve, he realized that the turkey was far from done! He suggested carving it and finish cooking it in the microwave (eewww!!) but I insisted he put it back in the oven.
This time he left it in too long and it came out a bit dry, but I prefer a dry turkey to an undercooked one any day. And it’s perfect for turkey salad 😉
I think the problem was that Greg didn’t take out the extra rack and didn’t have the turkey on the lowest rack in the oven. In the end, we took this as a sign that he shouldn’t roast anymore turkeys and just stick to deep-frying them.
2009/329: Poor Melissa
She had all four of her wisdom teeth pulled on Monday and will be getting braces in mid-December. She was pretty miserable Monday afternoon and evening, and pretty out of it from the anesthesia… and frustrated because she was thirsty and couldn’t open her mouth very far, let alone swallow. But she managed to get a few sips of milk, and take her pain pills, and antibiotic. We made sure she took a pain pill every four hours and even woke her up in the middle of the night. They pretty much knocked her out… and made her dizzy and she needed help walking. The fact that she barely had anything to eat in more than 24 hours (except for a few bites of apple sauce) didn’t help matters either and left her feeling weak.
But, as Tuesday wore on, she started feeling a little better, even ate some soup and a slice of cheese. She was still in some pain, but Advil took care of that, and by evening she was back on the computer, IM’ing her friend Lexi. Her face is still pretty swollen and I’m sure she’s happy that there’s no school this week. The bright side about a swollen face is that mom isn’t mean enough to take pictures for the Christmas card! 😉
Sara was very concerned about Melissa when she came home late Monday afternoon, and drew this picture. She would love nothing more than snuggle with sissy and make her feel better, but of course that only annoys Melissa. Although I’m sure that Melissa knows how much Sara loves her… she just doesn’t want to admit it.
(Art work by Sara)
2009/326: Found!
Best pair of jeans ever! Too bad I don’t fit into them. Yet. I can almost button three of the five buttons.
I’ll be keeping them around and one day I will fit into them again! (I hope!)
2009/321 Bonus: November
This is for the “Challenge: November” on Scott’s blog.
November is chilly mornings with heavy dew…
…still warm afternoons, which make for some confused plum trees…
…still green leaves being blown off the trees…
…and fogged up windows in the morning
Challenge
Check out the new assignment on Scott’s blog and join in the fun!
I already have something in mind… just need to get out early enough to take the picture.
The Daily Click 