And by “home” I mean my home. My new* home. The one I just purchased. The final papers were all signed this afternoon so all I have to do now is wait for the keys. Well, and finishing my packing.
Exciting times, for sure! I take possession in a little over a week, on the 14th, which just happens to be a little over a week before Christmas. What a nice and expensive present I bought myself this year. I hope the rest of my family isn't upset that I spent vastly more on myself than on all of them combined...
It's hard to wait. Last night I was wishing I could already start moving some of my stuff in, to clear out some space over here in my current place. Since the place has already been empty for who knows how long that technically could have been a possibility, but I'll just have to be patient and wait until it's officially mine.
Also, there are so many things I'd like (or need) to buy, but I've been telling myself to wait until after I've moved in to buy anything. Not only because I'd have to find a place to store it in this mess until then, but it would be a good idea to have a few days to let the layout, colors, etc. fully sink in so I can buy stuff that I'll know will look great there (not to mention the possibility of some great Boxing Day sales). But that hasn't stopped me from going to stores and browsing, though.
The one exception was a new box spring and bed frame. Since I'll actually have a spare bedroom now, having a bed to go in said bedroom would be a plus. And fortunately a friend said I could store it along the wall in his garage for a couple weeks, and we even went out in his van to purchase it. Of course, I'll use the new bed myself and leave the old one for any guests I may get. Don't worry, I did also purchase a new foam top for the old mattress so it hopefully won't be that bad... Maybe I should spend a few nights on it just to see how it is before anyone else has to use it. Worst case scenario, I do have a rather comfy air mattress that could be used.
I honestly can't believe how fast things have gone. Now I'm counting the days until I get my condo. And as soon as the actual time of day when I'll get the keys has been arranged, I'll have to start counting down the hours. If I assume, for now, that my realtor and I will meet up as soon as I can after work that Friday, then that means at this moment I only have about 212 hours to go!
* And of course, by “new” I actually mean new to me, not a newly-built condo. I did check out the pricing on one out of curiosity, and found that a smaller one bedroom unit still cost a whole lot more than my two bedroom one. New would have been nice, but I didn't want to pay anywhere near what they were wanting.
Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shopping. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Weirdest Shopping Trip Ever
I've always found Costco to be an odd store. Primarily, because they charge people to shop there. I find it hard to comprehend that they think requiring a membership to enter the store is good for sales. Wouldn't they get a greater number of people checking them out and potentially making purchases if they didn't have to buy memberships?
But in any case, I received a Costco gift card for Christmas which provided me an opportunity to experience the full Costco shopping experience last week, since using a gift card is one way you can actually get in without a membership or using someone else's. And it definitely was a weird experience.
But in any case, I received a Costco gift card for Christmas which provided me an opportunity to experience the full Costco shopping experience last week, since using a gift card is one way you can actually get in without a membership or using someone else's. And it definitely was a weird experience.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
How to fit eight pairs of shoes in a cabinet designed for eight pairs of shoes
This past weekend, I made another Ikea trip. I had a couple things in mind that I wanted to buy (including their cheap breakfast... what better way to start off a Saturday!), but of course a large part of my Ikea trips always involve just browsing and seeing what catches my eye that time around.
And this time around, what caught my eye was a cool shoe cabinet, which also happened to be on sale. It stands about 3 feet tall and has two flip-down drawers that each hold four pairs of shoes. The drawer is split in two, so two pairs go in the top compartment and another two pairs in the bottom. Assembling it went pretty good, considering I accidentally did one step out of order and had to partially disassemble it to do the steps in the correct order. But then I went to load my shoes in.
Lo and behold, I could not fit two pairs of shoes in one compartment. One and a half, yes, but not the two required to make it the “Cabinet for eight pairs of shoes” that it was advertised as. I don't consider myself to have large feet, and the drawer was just under half an inch too narrow to fit four of my shoes across. So for me, I could only actually fit six pairs, not eight. Maybe when they said the cabinet holds eight pairs of shoes, what they meant was ladies' or children's shoes. Or maybe Swedes just have smaller feet. The picture on the web site clearly shows the open drawer holding four pairs comfortably.
Fortunately I wasn't disappointed, as I don't even own six pairs of shoes, let alone eight. My plan from the start was to use the top drawer for things like my hat, umbrella, etc. Plus, I thought the top of the cabinet would be a perfect spot to place my keys and wallet, since I recently relocated the small end table I previously used for that. But then I had a brainstorm, and discovered a way that I could indeed fit all four pairs of shoes in the same drawer—flip every second shoe upside-down. Problem solved!
And this time around, what caught my eye was a cool shoe cabinet, which also happened to be on sale. It stands about 3 feet tall and has two flip-down drawers that each hold four pairs of shoes. The drawer is split in two, so two pairs go in the top compartment and another two pairs in the bottom. Assembling it went pretty good, considering I accidentally did one step out of order and had to partially disassemble it to do the steps in the correct order. But then I went to load my shoes in.
Lo and behold, I could not fit two pairs of shoes in one compartment. One and a half, yes, but not the two required to make it the “Cabinet for eight pairs of shoes” that it was advertised as. I don't consider myself to have large feet, and the drawer was just under half an inch too narrow to fit four of my shoes across. So for me, I could only actually fit six pairs, not eight. Maybe when they said the cabinet holds eight pairs of shoes, what they meant was ladies' or children's shoes. Or maybe Swedes just have smaller feet. The picture on the web site clearly shows the open drawer holding four pairs comfortably.
Fortunately I wasn't disappointed, as I don't even own six pairs of shoes, let alone eight. My plan from the start was to use the top drawer for things like my hat, umbrella, etc. Plus, I thought the top of the cabinet would be a perfect spot to place my keys and wallet, since I recently relocated the small end table I previously used for that. But then I had a brainstorm, and discovered a way that I could indeed fit all four pairs of shoes in the same drawer—flip every second shoe upside-down. Problem solved!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Self-Serve Checkouts
The self-serve checkout. I don't get it. Why do they seem to be springing up almost everywhere, and why do people use them? Well, aside from the initial thrill of trying something new, that is. In my experience they do not save time, and the combination of self-scanning and self-bagging means you're doing far more work than you'd be doing normally. I would rather spend an extra minute standing there waiting my turn, and let the person who's being paid to do the scanning and bagging* do all the work. Usually, the only reason I will use one is if there's one empty, there's already several people at the open staffed checkouts and I'm only getting a couple items, but it's a choice I often regret.
Scanning my items is such a slow process. First, I scan one item, then it waits for me to place it in a bag, or at least in the bagging area. Then I have to wait for it to tell me to go ahead and scan the next item. In the time it takes for me to scan my items, I could have already finished paying if I were at a regular checkout. And another reason it takes so long is that I usually have to take the time to look at the item to find where the barcode is to make sure I scan the right part. The professional cashiers do this for a living, so they seem to always know exactly where to scan right away, or at least have mastered the knack of finding the barcode so fast it doesn't really slow things down.
And heaven forbid I should remove anything or set anything else in the bagging area during the process. When I tried the new self-serve checkouts at one store, I took my cloth bag I brought from home out of my pocket and set it down in the bagging area. Makes sense, doesn't it? Put a bag in the place you're going to be using it? But, no, the machine complained about an unexpected object and wouldn't continue until I removed it, and a staff member also came over to see if I was having problems using the checkout. And if I'm just getting one item and don't need a bag, I have to either set it down in the bagging area anyway, or specifically press a button to tell it I'm not going to bag the item.
And then, some scanners are just plain hard to use. During one of my Ikea shopping trips, I noticed that they had new self-checkouts. Since there were fairly long lines for the other checkouts, I thought I'd try it out. At Ikea, they use hand-held scanners because many of the items being purchased there are large, bulky, and/or heavy and impossible to lift up to a stationary scanner. But just as impossible for me, was holding the scanner just right and at the right distance to correctly scan my items. I actually had to get help from one of the staff and even with guidance it still took several tries for me to successfully scan one of the items.
Here's the weird thing. You'd expect that the stores would give some sort of discount to the customer (even if it was just 0.5%), since the customer is the one doing all the work. Plus, the store also saves money with these machines because they only need one staff member overseeing the whole bank of checkouts, rather than one person per checkout.
But maybe self-serve checkouts are just a passing fad, and within the next few years they'll disappear? That actually happened at the local Walmart. They put in a whole bunch of self-serve checkouts, and they took them all away less than a year later. So who knows? I just hope things don't continue down this path and stores start going completely self-serve, or at least not until they find a way to significantly improve the experience.
* I never quite understand why the cashiers don't bag groceries at the Real Canadian Superstore. They could say that it's a cost saving measure and they're passing the savings along to you through their lower prices, but I don't buy that. Even Walmart doesn't make you bag your own stuff. Heck, dollar store cashiers even bag things for you and they're the epitome of cheapness.
Scanning my items is such a slow process. First, I scan one item, then it waits for me to place it in a bag, or at least in the bagging area. Then I have to wait for it to tell me to go ahead and scan the next item. In the time it takes for me to scan my items, I could have already finished paying if I were at a regular checkout. And another reason it takes so long is that I usually have to take the time to look at the item to find where the barcode is to make sure I scan the right part. The professional cashiers do this for a living, so they seem to always know exactly where to scan right away, or at least have mastered the knack of finding the barcode so fast it doesn't really slow things down.
And heaven forbid I should remove anything or set anything else in the bagging area during the process. When I tried the new self-serve checkouts at one store, I took my cloth bag I brought from home out of my pocket and set it down in the bagging area. Makes sense, doesn't it? Put a bag in the place you're going to be using it? But, no, the machine complained about an unexpected object and wouldn't continue until I removed it, and a staff member also came over to see if I was having problems using the checkout. And if I'm just getting one item and don't need a bag, I have to either set it down in the bagging area anyway, or specifically press a button to tell it I'm not going to bag the item.
And then, some scanners are just plain hard to use. During one of my Ikea shopping trips, I noticed that they had new self-checkouts. Since there were fairly long lines for the other checkouts, I thought I'd try it out. At Ikea, they use hand-held scanners because many of the items being purchased there are large, bulky, and/or heavy and impossible to lift up to a stationary scanner. But just as impossible for me, was holding the scanner just right and at the right distance to correctly scan my items. I actually had to get help from one of the staff and even with guidance it still took several tries for me to successfully scan one of the items.
Here's the weird thing. You'd expect that the stores would give some sort of discount to the customer (even if it was just 0.5%), since the customer is the one doing all the work. Plus, the store also saves money with these machines because they only need one staff member overseeing the whole bank of checkouts, rather than one person per checkout.
But maybe self-serve checkouts are just a passing fad, and within the next few years they'll disappear? That actually happened at the local Walmart. They put in a whole bunch of self-serve checkouts, and they took them all away less than a year later. So who knows? I just hope things don't continue down this path and stores start going completely self-serve, or at least not until they find a way to significantly improve the experience.
* I never quite understand why the cashiers don't bag groceries at the Real Canadian Superstore. They could say that it's a cost saving measure and they're passing the savings along to you through their lower prices, but I don't buy that. Even Walmart doesn't make you bag your own stuff. Heck, dollar store cashiers even bag things for you and they're the epitome of cheapness.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Price Matching Policies
I promised the fellow at the store I would blog about this, so here I am...
Recently, a critical part in the espresso maker I've had for 4½ years broke and rather than try and obtain a replacement part, if that's even possible anymore, I decided it was time to simply buy a new one. A few days later I bought myself a brand-new espresso maker from the local Sears. It's a great unit, a step up from my last one and I love it, except for one detail. A couple days later I stumbled across the exact same unit on sale from Amazon, for $93 cheaper. Well, to be precise, $104.16 cheaper including tax.
I walked in to Sears with my receipt and a printout of the Amazon.ca page for the product, and asked if I could get a price match. I was told no, because they don't consider Amazon to be a competitor. The answer remained no, even after I clearly outlined what my next steps were going to be—buying that unit from Amazon instead, packing up and returning the one I had bought from them, and them losing a sale and a customer.
On my way home I stopped by a couple other stores to see if they a) had that same unit in stock, and b) were willing to price match Amazon. They both indeed carried it, but as expected the price match was a no go. I'm considerably more forgiving in those instances, because in those cases it was simply a case of finding the best place to buy something, and hoping that someone would price match, so I wouldn't have to wait for a package to be delivered.
When those other two stores didn't match Amazon's price they lost a potential sale, yes, but that's a different scenario from the one Sears is in, where they are losing a sale because the sale was already made and it's going to be undone, plus now they're going to have a slightly used espresso maker to try and unload. From their perspective I think it would have been better for them to have lost $93 in profit (but at least they'd still have some profit, in contrast with the zero they're going to have now), but end up with a very satisfied, and most importantly, repeat customer, plus not having the hassle of dealing with another returned product.
I just finished placing my order on Amazon, so now I've passed the point of no return. Well, I guess not quite yet as I can still cancel the order up until when they actually ship it. The next thing is to pack up my other one to take back to Sears. But since they do have a 30-day return window I have some time to make myself a couple more egg nog lattes before going for a week with no espresso maker. At least I have plenty of regular coffee to hold me through.
PS - I know I could take the unit I get from Amazon and return that one to Sears, completely unopened, since they're identical, and save the step of repacking the one I have, but I don't know if my new one will arrive in time before Sears' return window closes. Plus, that would also end up being a huge help to them, eliminating their “slightly used espresso maker to try and unload” problem...
Recently, a critical part in the espresso maker I've had for 4½ years broke and rather than try and obtain a replacement part, if that's even possible anymore, I decided it was time to simply buy a new one. A few days later I bought myself a brand-new espresso maker from the local Sears. It's a great unit, a step up from my last one and I love it, except for one detail. A couple days later I stumbled across the exact same unit on sale from Amazon, for $93 cheaper. Well, to be precise, $104.16 cheaper including tax.
I walked in to Sears with my receipt and a printout of the Amazon.ca page for the product, and asked if I could get a price match. I was told no, because they don't consider Amazon to be a competitor. The answer remained no, even after I clearly outlined what my next steps were going to be—buying that unit from Amazon instead, packing up and returning the one I had bought from them, and them losing a sale and a customer.
On my way home I stopped by a couple other stores to see if they a) had that same unit in stock, and b) were willing to price match Amazon. They both indeed carried it, but as expected the price match was a no go. I'm considerably more forgiving in those instances, because in those cases it was simply a case of finding the best place to buy something, and hoping that someone would price match, so I wouldn't have to wait for a package to be delivered.
When those other two stores didn't match Amazon's price they lost a potential sale, yes, but that's a different scenario from the one Sears is in, where they are losing a sale because the sale was already made and it's going to be undone, plus now they're going to have a slightly used espresso maker to try and unload. From their perspective I think it would have been better for them to have lost $93 in profit (but at least they'd still have some profit, in contrast with the zero they're going to have now), but end up with a very satisfied, and most importantly, repeat customer, plus not having the hassle of dealing with another returned product.
I just finished placing my order on Amazon, so now I've passed the point of no return. Well, I guess not quite yet as I can still cancel the order up until when they actually ship it. The next thing is to pack up my other one to take back to Sears. But since they do have a 30-day return window I have some time to make myself a couple more egg nog lattes before going for a week with no espresso maker. At least I have plenty of regular coffee to hold me through.
PS - I know I could take the unit I get from Amazon and return that one to Sears, completely unopened, since they're identical, and save the step of repacking the one I have, but I don't know if my new one will arrive in time before Sears' return window closes. Plus, that would also end up being a huge help to them, eliminating their “slightly used espresso maker to try and unload” problem...
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
From Sweden to My Patio
I'm not all that much of a shopping person. I'll enter a store with an idea of what I'm looking for, pick something out, and buy it (assuming they have what I want at a price I'm willing to pay, that is). Or I'll wander up and down the aisles in the grocery store looking for sales or anything else that catches my eye. Even places that sell electronics or movies I usually only spend a relatively short amount of time in. But for some reason, I really like shopping at Ikea.
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