Sara's Brave New World
May. 12th, 2008 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
misssara11Or My Adventures in Time and Space Babysitting a Home Improvement Store.
First, let me start by saying, it's a fair assessment that I'm a girly girl. A girly girl who doesn't have much of a shopping gene, but when the whim comes, I go until I drop. My mom will shop.
Right, back story done. On to the main event.
We needed a new kitchen faucet. The one we did have gave out a couple of months ago. We sent my stepdad to get a replacement. Big mistake. He bought the cheapest one and well, we got what we paid for. Friday night, I ran dishwasher. Saturday morning, I washed the dishes that didn't fit, complete with rinsing. I also, filled a pitcher and a couple of glasses with water. All without incident. Then Saturday night, the bottom part of the spout started spraying water everywhere. The sprayer worked fine, however.
I live in an old house with a slightly less old sink, which makes it an odd size these days. My mom and stepdad when out early Sunday morning to the Home Depot that was going out of business. No problem, except all sales were final and if it didn't work...
So, after having brunch with my mom and grandma, Mom and I went to go look for a faucet. Before that Mom made a call to Menards (do you all have those outside of Indiana?) to see if it was even worth the trip. The guy she talked to said with old sinks like ours, it was best to get the individual holes versus something with a plate because of the odd size. Then, if a plate was necessary, get one specially made. This made sense to us and we could live without the plate. So, off we went.
There was a Menards near my gram's. Our first stop. We found several of the type we wanted but I'm picky about the sprayer (I don't like our current one at all) and that narrowed our options. The Price Pfisters were on sale. Now, there were several with different finishes with what they called a high arch. There was one in that line (Marielle for the curious) that didn't have the high arch, just regular. There was two boxed and the display. It was $149.99 and stainless steel. The high arch stainless steel was $179.99. The high arch with the oil rubbed bronze finish was also $149.99. We decided to look elsewhere. It was about 3:00 at this point. The store closed at 7:00.
First, we went to Lowes and their selection was very slim. So, we went to the Menards closer to our house. They had all the high arched ones. By this point I was knackered, bewildered and bemused from going to three different home improvement stores. I'm useless there. The first time I even went to one, I was on my own. I must have looked completely lost as one of the workers was just shy of leading me by the hand to where I needed to go. This was after wondering the whole store (Lowes) for twenty minutes. What I needed was at the front of the store. I was jsut ready to go home and drop. Which I did. I napped for a good hour.
Looking it up online, the website only had the high arched ones. Mom found it on eBay, to which I pointed out, we had to wait for it to arrive and would be without a faucet. I said I go past the original Menards going to and from the office job and would stop in there and get the one we liked and I would pay for it myself.
The store opened at 6:30. I don't have to be into the office until 10:30. I was late getting around this morning so I decided to go after work. I got off at 2:30 and went to the store and went straight to the faucets. I looked. I looked again. All the ones we saw yesterday were then. Except for the one we wanted. The display was gone like it was never there (something was put in its place) and the boxes were gone as well, the shelves stocked to the gills with other product. I called my mom to tell her. I asked what to do. I wasn't picky about stainless steel versus oil rubbed bronze as our kitchen is a miss-mash as it is and the bronze was $30 cheaper. She said go with the bronze and see if there was a clearance spot or a worker. I wondered around the store, the only worker I found was like mist. I'd see her, go to where she was heading and she was somewhere else. Eventually I found three workers together. Two of them just walked past before I could even say, "Excuse me." The third asked if I was finding everything okay. I said, "I need help." He said, "That sound serious."
So, we made the trek back to the faucets and he looked through all the boxes (which I had already done) and said, "They're sold out. The last thing we sell is the display."
"You sold three of those faucets since 3:00 yesterday."
"Yep."
"All three."
"Where was the display at?"
I showed him. He called someone who actually worked in the department, who had just clocked out. They both asked at different points, "Do you know the skew number?"
Of course I don't know the skew number! You had three of the bloody faucet I wanted 24 hours ago! Who has a run on kitchen faucets on Sunday nights and Monday mornings where there are several others that are cheaper or different brands?!?!?! "No, I didn't think to write it down because I thought it would be here."
The girl takes me over to the computer (after clocking back in, bless) and looks up the bronze one to at least get started. "Sorry, I just can't do much without the skew." Don't you have these things on record? Isn't that your job?
She goes off to find someone else and comes back. "It seems it's been discontinued. So we if this one [the oil rubbed bronze] is a viable option, I'd go with that."
It was mentioned that if they could find it the computer at another location they would tell me. There was one Menards in town we didn't go to. I'm not sure if she checked that store or not. I'm not mad or frustrated with the workers, nor did I take it out on them in anyway. Mostly, I'm just stunned that they ran out of THREE OF THE SAME TYPE OF KITCHEN FAUCET WHEN THERE WERE WELL OVER 50 TO CHOOSE FROM!
So, here's my new faucet that at least I don't have to install myself.
The moral of this story: Sara isn't good with the home DIY and will not be making a habit of visiting those types of stores on a regular basis in the future.
First, let me start by saying, it's a fair assessment that I'm a girly girl. A girly girl who doesn't have much of a shopping gene, but when the whim comes, I go until I drop. My mom will shop.
Right, back story done. On to the main event.
We needed a new kitchen faucet. The one we did have gave out a couple of months ago. We sent my stepdad to get a replacement. Big mistake. He bought the cheapest one and well, we got what we paid for. Friday night, I ran dishwasher. Saturday morning, I washed the dishes that didn't fit, complete with rinsing. I also, filled a pitcher and a couple of glasses with water. All without incident. Then Saturday night, the bottom part of the spout started spraying water everywhere. The sprayer worked fine, however.
I live in an old house with a slightly less old sink, which makes it an odd size these days. My mom and stepdad when out early Sunday morning to the Home Depot that was going out of business. No problem, except all sales were final and if it didn't work...
So, after having brunch with my mom and grandma, Mom and I went to go look for a faucet. Before that Mom made a call to Menards (do you all have those outside of Indiana?) to see if it was even worth the trip. The guy she talked to said with old sinks like ours, it was best to get the individual holes versus something with a plate because of the odd size. Then, if a plate was necessary, get one specially made. This made sense to us and we could live without the plate. So, off we went.
There was a Menards near my gram's. Our first stop. We found several of the type we wanted but I'm picky about the sprayer (I don't like our current one at all) and that narrowed our options. The Price Pfisters were on sale. Now, there were several with different finishes with what they called a high arch. There was one in that line (Marielle for the curious) that didn't have the high arch, just regular. There was two boxed and the display. It was $149.99 and stainless steel. The high arch stainless steel was $179.99. The high arch with the oil rubbed bronze finish was also $149.99. We decided to look elsewhere. It was about 3:00 at this point. The store closed at 7:00.
First, we went to Lowes and their selection was very slim. So, we went to the Menards closer to our house. They had all the high arched ones. By this point I was knackered, bewildered and bemused from going to three different home improvement stores. I'm useless there. The first time I even went to one, I was on my own. I must have looked completely lost as one of the workers was just shy of leading me by the hand to where I needed to go. This was after wondering the whole store (Lowes) for twenty minutes. What I needed was at the front of the store. I was jsut ready to go home and drop. Which I did. I napped for a good hour.
Looking it up online, the website only had the high arched ones. Mom found it on eBay, to which I pointed out, we had to wait for it to arrive and would be without a faucet. I said I go past the original Menards going to and from the office job and would stop in there and get the one we liked and I would pay for it myself.
The store opened at 6:30. I don't have to be into the office until 10:30. I was late getting around this morning so I decided to go after work. I got off at 2:30 and went to the store and went straight to the faucets. I looked. I looked again. All the ones we saw yesterday were then. Except for the one we wanted. The display was gone like it was never there (something was put in its place) and the boxes were gone as well, the shelves stocked to the gills with other product. I called my mom to tell her. I asked what to do. I wasn't picky about stainless steel versus oil rubbed bronze as our kitchen is a miss-mash as it is and the bronze was $30 cheaper. She said go with the bronze and see if there was a clearance spot or a worker. I wondered around the store, the only worker I found was like mist. I'd see her, go to where she was heading and she was somewhere else. Eventually I found three workers together. Two of them just walked past before I could even say, "Excuse me." The third asked if I was finding everything okay. I said, "I need help." He said, "That sound serious."
So, we made the trek back to the faucets and he looked through all the boxes (which I had already done) and said, "They're sold out. The last thing we sell is the display."
"You sold three of those faucets since 3:00 yesterday."
"Yep."
"All three."
"Where was the display at?"
I showed him. He called someone who actually worked in the department, who had just clocked out. They both asked at different points, "Do you know the skew number?"
Of course I don't know the skew number! You had three of the bloody faucet I wanted 24 hours ago! Who has a run on kitchen faucets on Sunday nights and Monday mornings where there are several others that are cheaper or different brands?!?!?! "No, I didn't think to write it down because I thought it would be here."
The girl takes me over to the computer (after clocking back in, bless) and looks up the bronze one to at least get started. "Sorry, I just can't do much without the skew." Don't you have these things on record? Isn't that your job?
She goes off to find someone else and comes back. "It seems it's been discontinued. So we if this one [the oil rubbed bronze] is a viable option, I'd go with that."
It was mentioned that if they could find it the computer at another location they would tell me. There was one Menards in town we didn't go to. I'm not sure if she checked that store or not. I'm not mad or frustrated with the workers, nor did I take it out on them in anyway. Mostly, I'm just stunned that they ran out of THREE OF THE SAME TYPE OF KITCHEN FAUCET WHEN THERE WERE WELL OVER 50 TO CHOOSE FROM!
So, here's my new faucet that at least I don't have to install myself.
The moral of this story: Sara isn't good with the home DIY and will not be making a habit of visiting those types of stores on a regular basis in the future.
