On Tuesday I went to Target to buy a few groceries before I picked up my kids from school.
Ok two, yes TWO side comments here
One is that last week I heard a local news man say the following sentence – A local food store donates a weeks worth of food…
Local Food Store? What the heck? Is it really asking too much to assume people understand the word Grocery? (40 has made me a little ornery)
Second or B, I am a little uneasy about how therapeutic it feels when I walk through those red doors at Target. I mean come on, red is a harsh color. It should strike fear in me or make we a little leery of walking in but instead the doors wave to me from afar – come in, come in and I just can not resist their beckoning. I can however resist handing over my green money… mostly because my check card is blue.
Ok so Tuesday at Target.
I am buying just a few GROCERY items, maybe 20 or so, when I realize I do not have my wonderful Blue Card on me to purchase my items. This has happened before and I just roll my eyes at how forgetful I am, restock the shelves with my items and walk out through the red doors that resist just slightly when they see I am leaving without packages. This time however, I was standing in the check out line, flanked between two other shoppers who succumbed to the beckoning red doors. When I could, I caught the attention of the nice girl ringing up sales in her soothing red vest and very quietly said – I am sorry I have no means to pay. She stared at me as if trying to decide whether to push her security button or not. I quickly spoke up and said – I forget my check card. I have no way to pay for these. I am terribly sorry. Would you like me to put my items back? I could tell she was ready to roll her eyes but she resisted and just said that was fine. Was my card in my car, No? Well they would just restock my items. She then called a Manager to the take the items and he offer to hold them for me in back room it I wanted to come back. My mind raced… that sounded like a good option. I could call Eric and he could be at the store in 10 minutes… I wouldn’t have to reshop…no milk in the cart… OK yes please hold them. He took my name and my cart and I left and called Eric. I then drove to school to pick up the kids while Eric drove from the school to pick up the groceries.
Eric arrived home just as we were emerging from our car. The kids ran to greet him and I smiled at him and laughed at how silly I was to have forgotten my check card (and my driver’s license and every other piece of plastic that gets me through a day). Eric brought the first bag into the house and that is when I noticed… he did NOT have my groceries. OH MY WORD! How many forgetful 40 year olds are there in Durham who could have been having their cart held at Target for their husband to pick up?? Mind you I was not mad at Eric, I was mad at not having thought this possibility through – no milk in cart… scan the store for any other forgetful looking people… oh there is someone who looks suspicious… Ok hold my groceries … remember to give Eric a list of items in the cart.
Well to make an already too long story short. Eric, being the wonderful person he is, brought the groceries back to Target where the Manager apologized for the mix up and even gave him fresh bread because the bread in the cart had gotten squished.
3 comments:
Okay, I'm glad to know that this sort of thing has happened to someone else. In fact, it happened to me just a few weeks ago, and Bill was the one to go pick the groceries up for me.
But my attitude was not as good as yours. I stood there in the line feeling desperate because I Did Not Want to go through all that shopping again and have to try to find everything all over again and shop Twice for things I would only get to use Once.
Time is a precious commodity.
So I was delighted when the Manager said he'd hold on to my groceries for me.
I wonder how often this happens to them?
Those red doors really work some magic, don't they?
Ok, Beth, I have two thoughts on this.
1) I was in agony at the thought of you using the precious before-getting-kids-time and having nothing to show for it--aagh!
2) I laughed out loud--how funny--were the other people's groceries better than yours? Could you keep them instead? Hmmmm..
Glad it all worked out ok though.
Love,
Mary
Rebecca - Thanks for sharing. I couldn't be in better company.
Mary - We totally contemplated keeping the other groceries. I was ok with the wheat bread - we usually get honey wheat - I was sure I could find a use for the wheat pitas, it was the turkey salad that for some reason pushed me over the edge, that and there was a gallon of milk and who knows how long it had been sitting there.
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