White blue & green sale
I was finally shamed into replacing the aged, threadbare towels in the Blue and Only Bathroom when the GG and I were on an expotition to Bed Bath & Beyond before xmas and he started looking at the towels. We didn’t buy any towels then but I quietly resolved to get off my you-know-what and obtain some new bath towels. Soon.
After looking around on the internet, I decided I would get my towels at Hudson’s Macy’s, so today I saddled up the Frog Hopper and trundled over to The Mall in time to be there when it opened. I picked out my towels in pretty short order and went up to the counter to pay for them and that’s when the ordeal started:
Clerk: Are you going to use your Hudson’s Macy’s card to pay for these?
KW: No, I’ll just use my debit card.
Clerk: Do you *have* a Hudson’s Macy’s card?
KW: Oh, somewhere. But I’d rather use my debit card. [I don’t have a Macy’s card and I was thinking, “it’s none of your damn business!”]
Clerk: We can look up whether you have a Hudson’s Macy’s account or not and if you don’t, you can open one and you’ll get 10% off and another 20%. [Or something like that, my eyes were totally glazed over by the time she started talking percentages. I not a math phobe. I just didn’t care.]
KW: No thank you. I don’t like to use more than a couple of credit cards.
Clerk [after I had paid for my towels]: If you had applied for a Hudson’s Macy’s card, you would have saved blah-de-blah.
KW [looking around wildly for the escalator]: That’s okay.
Clerk: And if you have a Hudson’s Macy’s card you get all kinds of loverly specials if you shop here a lot.
KW [deadpan]: I don’t shop *anywhere* a lot. [I lied. I shop at the Plum Market a lot.]
Customer *service* anyone? Can we pick this apart please?
First. This store used to be a Hudson’s store. I used to have a Hudson’s card. I even used it sometimes. The Commander’s first job after college was in the old downtown Daytwa Hudson’s store. When I was a kid, we would travel to Daytwa a couple times a year to see Grandaddy and Bolette and The Commander would take me shopping at the downtown Hudson’s. I would buy a couple outfits on the second floor and fabric on the eighth(?) floor and we’d have lunch on the mezzanine. It was her old stomping grounds and yes, I was excited to be shopping in a huge store in the then-bustling city of Detroit. Revolving doors and escalators and the whole bit. Hudson’s is long gone now and we watched the demolition of the old downtown store on TV. I don’t know why but whenever a Hudson’s Macy’s clerk asks me if I want a credit card or if I have one, my brain goes into a big meltdown and I sorta want to say that I already have a Macy’s card except I don’t. I *used* to have a Hudson’s card. So I sort of sputter around and if I am dealing with an aggressive clerk — like I was today — it ends badly and I leave the store hoping I never have to go there again.
Do I not like to save money, you might be wondering? Of course I like to save money. But not with strings attached. I spent a grand total of $117 today for six decent quality bath towels that I *think* may have already been on sale. So if my savings for opening an account was 20%, I’d have saved about $23 dollars. That’s all fine but even though we are not anywhere near the 1%, $117 is not going to break the bank for me and I do not need any more credit cards. Especially not one that I might use once a year. It’s just more clutter to keep track of.
Oh and then she lectured me about what kind of laundry detergent to use and not to use and how to dry the towels yada-yada-yada. Of course, the kind of laundry detergent that I *use* is the kind that she told me *not* to use and it’s unlikely that I’ll switch because I’m using that kind of detergent because it’s what *works* in my HE washer. Sheesh! I know how to do laundry and these are *towels*. I don’t really care how long they last. You could practically see through the ones I threw out today and I’ll probably keep these about that long too, because that’s how I roll. When they do get to the point where I can see through them, I’ll buy some new ones.
I wonder if the GG has noticed the new towels yet.
P.S. I greatly appreciate all of the wonderful book suggestions yesterday. Definitely sounds like stuff that’s up her alley and I may well download some of them for *me* too. I would like to buy a kindle for The Comm. It would certainly be the easiest way for her to get new reading material but I’m not sure how well it would work out. We’ll see…
December 30th, 2011 at 10:10 pm
That was funny, I was just thinking yesterday about the possibility of getting you guys new towels as a gift 🙂 🙂 I remember some of those towels from like, middle school.
December 30th, 2011 at 11:33 pm
I love new towels-yay for you! Stores do the same to me, but the WORST is Chase when I go in to put money on my credit card bill. Because I don’t have my checking with them and they are HARD SELL. Right now, I’m into change avoidance.
December 30th, 2011 at 11:59 pm
Credit scores are another reason not to sign up for unneeded credit cards just to save a few bucks.
December 31st, 2011 at 10:16 am
I also prefer to carry just one credit and one debit card. When we broke down and bought a new washer and dryer (after 20+ years), I did open a charge account with Sears. Then I put the Sears card away — until we bought a new refrigerator. I’ll pull it out again when we buy a new stove, whenever that happens. That’s assuming there’s still a Sears around. The one we went to before closed this year.
p.s. if your old towels aren’t in the garbage truck already, they can use old towels at the animal shelter.
December 31st, 2011 at 10:43 am
Keep in mind that if you need to make a major purchase sometime, you can go to Hudson’s/Marshall Fields/Macy’s and snag a discount (on top of any sale prices) for opening a credit card. Some years ago, we purchased about $5,000 of carpet at Macy’s, on sale, and got an additional 15% off for opening a credit card. Saved about $750. That is the proper time to open a credit card at Macy’s. You do a card individually and then jointly.
Yes, I don’t like having multiple credit cards, but if you get a BIG savings…
-UU
December 31st, 2011 at 10:55 am
I’ve had that same annoying conversation with store clerks too, generally in Target. I try to take pity on the poor clerks who are forced to run through that tedious script with each and every customer. Sort of like the post office clerks who have to ask me over and over if the book I’m mailing has liquids, explosives, or other icky things in the package. All these employees MUST know that their jobs are on shaky ground. Which brings me to the Kindle you’re thinking of buying for your mom. I swore I would never own one. “I refuse to contribute to the horrible trend of book store closings,” said I. But then my husband gave me one for Christmas last year. It’s taken me a long time to adjust to it but I have to say that I now love it. I only download free novels — classics like War and Peace, Moby Dick, etc — big heavy books I should have read by now but haven’t. But I also enjoy downloading free samples of books that I want to try out. I’ve read the first 2 chapters of dozens of books that I never bothered to finish, mostly nonfiction. And it’s great for reading in bed! No more bumps on my nose when the heavy book I’m holding crashes on my face as I fall asleep. I’ll never give up reading paper and ink books, but the Kindle has actually helped me finish more books this year than ever before.
December 31st, 2011 at 11:10 am
I hate dealing with the “… if you open a new [store] account right now, you save [x]% off all purchases today” line. Frankly, I don’t shop often enough to even take advantage of those “Kohl’s Cash” slips that expire after about a week :-/
Been tempted on my grouchiest days to tell the clerk at checkout that if they want me to complete my purchase and NOT have me walk out leaving them to restock everything, they will NOT ask me to open a new account or question my choice to use my debit card….
December 31st, 2011 at 7:50 pm
It is unfortunate, but I think the clerks at the registers are required to ask if you want a credit card. I don’t usually get the “hard sell” like you did. I don’t like that when I do.
Regarding the Kindle, Steven said that he likes his new Kindle Fire but as a reader, he likes that regular Kindle. Battery lasts longer too. I think your Mom would really like it.
December 31st, 2011 at 9:16 pm
The thing about those department store credit cards is that the interest rate is in loan shark territory, and they push it hoping that people won’t pay off their balance every month. I’ll just stick to my Visa, thankyouverymuch.
Regarding the Kindle, a lot of areas’ libraries now have Kindle books available. You check them out online (via the library) and it takes you to the Amazon site where you download it to your Kindle. It’s very cool, but for popular/current books, there are waiting periods, and they don’t carry every title out there.