This is a story of self-deprecation - a cautionary tale that the "bargain" is not always the best deal. Allow me to explain:
This morning, over lively conversation with other exiled adults, we were inquiring amongst ourselves what each others' families were doing for Thanksgiving. One couple said they were hosting their family and were expecting twenty-five, maybe more, guests. Nine of those guests would be five years of age or younger. Thirteen would stay overnight and the couple was looking forward to each and every minute.
Another couple bemoaned the fact that they would only have five people, total, for the Thanksgiving meal. One of their invited guests (a sister, who could get away with making such a statement) said she didn't think it was worth coming to dinner if just five people would be there. The hostess proceeded to tell all of us that a local grocery store had turkeys for just thirty-seven cents a pound.
After church, with Capt. SO driving, he turned in the opposite direction of home and I asked where he was headed. "To the grocery store, to get a thirty-seven-cent-a-pound turkey." We already have one large turkey thawing in the refrigerator and another, smaller one, in our tiny freezer in the basement, but I wisely kept my lips sealed. Upon entering the grocery store, Capt. SO made a bee-line to the meat department, spied a sign that said "Turkeys - $.37 cents a pound". Carrying one of those hand-held baskets, he placed a frozen turkey in the basket and we headed for the checkout - only to run into a friend who spied our lone turkey in the basket. Capt. SO suggested that Wayne should get a "cheap" turkey, too, but Wayne said it wasn't worth having to spend $25.00 to get turkey meat at $.37 cents a pound. Since this was news to us, we bade Wayne goodbye and scurried back to the turkey sign. Sure enough, there was the disclaimer: Get your turkey here for $.37 cents a pound AFTER you have spent $25.00. I thought this would be the end of the turkey tryst, but Capt. SO was not to be deterred from obtaining meat at a bargain price. Now, I might spend an extra $25.00 at my favorite department store in order to get a bargain on something else, but I draw the line at a frozen turkey. Still carrying the smallish hand-held basket, I sweetly remarked that maybe, just maybe, we should go get a cart. "No, no", declared my husband and we went in search of what he was certain would be tiny, light-weight additions to the basket.
He started towards the frozen food section, declaring that he would buy frozen raspberries with which to make a raspberry pie for the Thanksgiving Day feast. I had to be the bearer of bad news and tell him that I already had planned two pumpkin pies, two gluten-free pumpkin pies and one apple pie. "Besides", said I, "there is no room in our tiny freezer." The raspberries went into his basket.
Next we headed for the deli section because I reasoned that since I was going to purchase lunch meat tomorrow at another grocery store, we could buy it at the store we were in and it would count toward the extra $25.00 we had to spend to get the bargain frozen turkey. While waiting at the busy deli counter, Capt. SO tried some demo ham meat, which he declared was the best ham he'd ever tasted and into the basket a pre-packaged chunk went. It was then that he left to go get a push-cart. After a series of other purchases, we felt we had our extra $25.00 in items and headed to the self-checkout lanes.
Now, our local grocery store chain was recently purchased by another regional chain and their electronic payment system is still a debacle. Capt. SO had all kinds of trouble, as usual, with the machine and the harried-looking, self-check-out clerk had to make several visits to our station. At the point of payment, the machine wouldn't work and the clerk had to be called over yet again. While she was with us, I noticed on the screen that our 12-14 pound turkey had cost about $23.00. Not being very strong in the math department, even I could guess that didn't sound right. I asked Capt. SO, who woke up out of his money-saving reverie, and he asked the clerk, who said she would go to her machine and make the correction. In the meantime, Capt. SO discovered that the "best tasting ham he'd ever had" cost $26.00 by itself. I wisely bit my tongue.) The harried-looking clerk, who was now looking as if she had dyspepsia, or some other painful condition, announced to us that the turkey mis-charge was fixed. I looked at the screen and said, "But why were we charged $.57 a pound?" Capt. SO said, "You go ask her." I did and I thought she might throw something at me. She whipped open her tattered sales flyer, pointed her finger at the turkey picture, which read: "Store-brand turkey - $.37 a pound. Honeysuckle brand - $.57 cents a pound." Sure 'nuf, we had a Honeysuckle brand turkey, NOT the store brand. I slunk back to our machine, we checked out and left as quietly and quickly as possible.
And, so, as the title of today's posting indicates - it is always best to read the fine print......and bite your tongue......and say, "Yes, dear."
Ancora imparo
