Tuesday, June 29, 2010

15% Off -- jcarolek

I'm a big believer in truth in advertising.  Yesterday, while meandering through the local discount store, Ollies, I spied a sign that caught my interest.  15% OFF, proclaimed the sign.  I made my way down the aisle to the sign, and discovered the merchandise.  Scales...you know, the kind we, especially women, have a tendency to avoid, lest they let out the "secret" that our love affair with the likes of chocolate bars has resulted in extra weight to carry around...yeah, THOSE scales.


Well, I looked at the scales and they looked just like any other I'd seen.  So, I wondered, how does this whole thng work?  I took one of the scales and placed it on the floor...yes, still in its packaging...(really, you've NEVER done this?)  Now, when I stepped on that scale, I was quite disappointed.  The little weight indicator shot right up there...all the way to 126...now just one minute please...this scale is supposed to be 15% off... at that rate, I weigh, what, 148 lbs?  Dag, I don't need a broken scale!

The store clerk assured me the scale was not broken, but I held to my guns.  "It SAYS I weigh 126," I whined, indignantly.  "So what is your real weight?" the clerk asked, clearly at a loss for anything more intelligent to say.  "I weigh 126 lbs." I answered... The clerk looked lost...  I was going to have to play the role of Captain Obvious and explain that under no mathematical law of which I am aware, does 126 minus 15% equal 126....

Well, OK, we all know I didn't REALLY have this conversation with anyone but the silly smart Alec in my own brain, but, I'm sure it would have played out something along those lines, had I ventured to actually engage an Ollies' clerk in such conversation.  As it was, mental whiz that I clearly am, I DID realize the sign was indicating the COST of the scale was 15% off, but I ask you this... WHY would I spend good money, even at a 15% discount, on a scale that screams the truth, when, tucked in my bathroom I have my favorite pal...the old scale, retrieved from some neighbor's trash YEARS ago... the one that whispers soothing lies like, "112" when I consult her after stuffing myself wth cake and ice cream?  I mean, REALLY folks!  There IS a reason those new, accurate scales still sit on the shelf, being marked down week after week...

Nope, you can keep your stinkin' 15% off scale...  just as I won't trade in my years broken in, comfortable pillow, neither will I forsake my tactful scale... Sorry, Ollies... maybe another time!



2 comments:

mixednut555 said...

I had to trade in my pillow a few years ago. I had slept on it since I was a kid and I started to get a cough that would NOT go away. After being tested for everything under the sun, the doctor asked about what I was sleeping on. I told him that I was using my pillow from when I was a kid and he said that was the cause of my cough that the stuffing turned to DUST and I was breathing that in every night. I'm still sad, I miss that pillow. Hope you are mending.

Judy's Corner said...

Oh... no fun, kat! Well, yeah, once your get a comfortable pillow, it is sooooo hard to give it up! Hope your new one is shaping up!