Shopping

Randall reminded me that the last time I blogged was in August.  Sheesh, how time flies.  As Rob's update earlier today indicated, there hasn't been anything to write about.

 

The only thing that comes to mind is my recent shopping experience at Smith's.  I decided to be a good husband and I suggested to Coralee I could go shopping for her.  She had been a bit under the weather, so this was an offer she could not refuse.  She quickly pulled out a notepad and began jotting things down for me to pick up.  The list wasn't all that big and it appeared to be something that I could handle.  Most of the items Coralee asked me to pick up were sale items from the grocer's weekly mailer.  "This I can handle," I thought to myself and I quickly went on my way.

 

I was able to locate each of the items on the list and sure enough, everything was priced as it should be.  I made my way to the back of the store and saw all of the shelves of milk.  My duty was to return with 5 gallons of whole milk and 3 gallons of 1% milk.  Milk was priced at 3 for $6.00, a pretty good deal by today's standards.  Each of the glass doors was marked with the sale price.  I quickly grabbed what I needed and proceeded to the front of the store to make the big purchase. 

 

Of course, as is a man's duty, I picked up a little something that wasn't on the list.  In this case, it was a bone for my dog, Jack.  (Yes, it is an absolute must for a man to mess up the purchase ever so slightly as to prevent the Dearest One from sending him back to the store again in the future.)

 

I quickly returned home and began putting things away.  At this point, I had a feeling that something was wrong.  I pulled out the receipt and found that I was overcharged for Life cereal.  It was supposed to be $1.88 per box, but I got nailed for $2.38 per box.  I showed the error of Smith's ways to Coralee and she pointed out that I had picked up the wrong milk and I was also charged an extra $0.40 per gallon of milk.  In total, there was more than $4.00 I had blown at Smith's that I shouldn't have.

 

Coralee helped me load the gallons of milk and the Life cereal back into the car so that I could get the milk that was on sale and to get the savings on the Life cereal that I should have had in the first place.

 

My frustration level reached a peak!  I immediately boiled over about this necessity to return to Smith's to fix the error of my ways.  I knew I was wrong, and I was embarrassed by my mistake, but my pride got in the way and I really wanted to punch something.  All I could do was grumble to myself.  I starting complaining as I was on my way out the door.  I definitely couldn't take anything out on my honey, because that defeats my intentions of doing something nice for her in the first place.  All I could say as I was on my way out the door again was, "How can Smith's be so cruel to play such a mean joke on a man!  They should know better than label all of their glass doors with the sales price and confuse me!  I'm too dumb to know any better!"  Ah yes, a self inflicted punch to the groin was a much better way to handle this.  I cursed under my breath all the way to the store.

 

I'm sure Coralee laughed to herself as the door hit me on the way out.  She takes no pity on me over things like this, because she generally hauls four-to-six kids with her shopping at least once per week.  You see, these types of events teach me to appreciate all that Coralee does.  I do truly appreciate what she does, but I've never been the "I'll walk a mile in your shoes" type of person.  I like the way I lace my shoes, and I've grown quite attached to my own shoes, thank you very much!

 

I talked to the customer service manager at Smith's, and fortunately all was resolved without much pain and embarrassment.  The customer service manager was really quite friendly, and she even sent somebody back to the store to retrieve the milk for me.

 

As I returned home, I was reminded of a program that recently aired on ABC about how people react to difficult situations.  One scenario showed a man in a restaurant, talking on his cell phone while his two children made all kinds of noise and messes.  People in the restaurant watched things unfold, but in every case study, nobody ever approached the man and asked him to get his children under control.  They ran the same case study, but this time with a mother and her two children while she talked on the phone.  In every case there, the mother was asked to get her children to settle down. 

 

The ABC reporter talked to a Psychologist about this and why the man was never asked to manage his children.  The Psychologist explained that most people had pity on the man, because it is generally not a comfortable setting for husband/father to take care of children, whereas a mother is generally expected to manage and control children, therefore the people in the restaurant always gave the mother a hard time. 

 

As I thought about this study, I realized it may be a similar circumstance if Coralee was returning the milk to Smith's; the customer service manager probably would have handled things differently and with not much kindness.  I truly do appreciate Coralee and all that she does.  She is a Saint!

 

I don't know how or where she relieves the stress of each day.  All I know is that that particular event raised my frustration levels enough, the only way I could think of relieving my stress level was to watch an action packed Western film....with lots of killing.  Hmmmm!