Jingle All the Way

Our 6 year old requested a Playmobil castle for Christmas. He’s really into the Playmobil and Lego knights and castles, right now. He has a few pieces, already, and he can play with them for a couple hours at a time.

Anyway, my wife started looking for it. She found it in a Target paper, on sale for 25% off, and called the store nearest us. They didn’t have it. She called another, and they didn’t have it. She ended up calling all the Target stores in the county, and found only one store had just one in stock. They agreed to hold it for us.

That night, her mother came over to sit with the sleeping kids while we went out to get Christmas stuff. We drove about 45 minutes to the store in another town. In the store, we decided to first go around and pick up other things on our list and then stop by the Customer Service desk to get the castle when we were ready to check out. We spent an hour in the store, collecting toys and stuff, and then pushed our cart up to the front desk.

The front desk didn’t have the item on hold for us. The clerk called the Toy department to see if they had it back in their warehouse. We were getting a little concerned, especially when the clerk mentioned she had looked for that very toy, herself, and it was sold out. As we talked to the clerk, awaiting information from the Toy department, she mentioned the other store in the town. The other store?!

We asked her to call the other store. I also asked when the stores closed: 10:00. I looked at my watch: 9:35. While the clerk was on the phone, my wife pushed our cart off to the checkout line to pay so we could run out if we were at the wrong store. Sure enough, the other store had the toy on hold for us.

We casually rushed out of the store and loaded our purchases into the van. Then we headed out for the other store, which we only had a general idea of its location.

We found the store. My wife pulled up to the curb and I went in. It was 9:55, and the workers were in closing mode; the Customer Service desk was vacant. I found a manager-type and he was friendly and helpful. They had the castle, I paid for it, and left the store with two minutes to spare. Yes!

We rock! We’re the best and smartest parents in the world. We got the apparently hot item over a month in advance.

Two days later, my wife was in the nearby Target, checking out the toys for other little things. Guess what she found in stock. Yep. Oh well, it was a fun little adventure, and we have the item.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com