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I am a wife, a mommy, a home educator, and domestic goddess, a sister, a daughter, a friend, a musician, a reader, a writer, and a lover of Jesus Christ.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Gotta Hand It To Em'

I do not know who is in charge of making sure that Wal-Mart squeezes every possible dime out of the consumer....but he/she is doing a great job. Today I needed diapers. Ok, the should have been $17.88, right? Nope, as I am walking to the baby section I pass the office supply aisle. And since it is a new year I need a new accordian file to stash all of my bills, right? So I grab it. Another $9.96. I keep walking and come to the calendars. It dawns on me that I don't know what the date is because my calendar has not been updated. So I grab one of those too. $4.48 spent. Then I am walking past the unmentionables and I get a wild hair and decide to buy some pretty underthings. $5.58 gone. At least they were on sale. Anyway, I still have not made it to the baby section. I keep walking and before I turn into babyland I see a display with bulk diapers on sale. Wow! I can get 116 diapers for $28.00. So I grab the huge box. Now at this point I look pretty silly because I do not have a cart. I was only going in for diapers remember? Then it occurs to me that my oldest son needs Pull-Ups too. So I grab a pack. There goes another $14.88. So off I go back to the front of the store to check out. I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame with all of my items. I had to stop twice to readjust so I wouldn't drop anything. Then as I am standing in line I see the candy. Yum! Yum! So I grab a Rolo. But wait, I need something for the kiddos. But this aisle doesn't have fruity things so I grab Tic-Tacs. Anyway, the personality challenged employee rings up my purchases and says "that will be $79.80" I look up and think "for diapers?" How am I going to figure that in the budget?

Has anyone else noticed that they put the things the we need the most on the back wall? Need milk? Go to the back.......past all of the other food that calls your name. Need toilet paper or paper towels? Trek on back to the farthest corner in the store.....past the cleaning supplies. Need diapers? You have to go to the back.....past the clothes, office items, etc. You get my point.

And I know what some of you are thinking...."why don't you just go to Target?" Well, if they would put one on my side of town I just might. But seeing that I already drive 30 minutes to "town" I just do not get jazzed about driving further than that. And while I have seen some nice clothes on sale at Target everything else seems priced higher than Wallyworld.

So, again to the person in charge at Wal-Mart........."your plan worked.....you squeezed an extra $60.00 out of this consumer. How do you sleep at night?

6 comments:

Uncommon Blonde said...

I must say that although Target has better stuff and is less irritating overall, you'd still have the same problem. I can't tell you how many times I've gone in for one thing and left with several bags. They all know the same tricks ...

Anonymous said...

we don't have a target anywhere near us either, but i think i would be more inclined to buy way more then i need at target. they have so much spectacular stuff. for that reason i'm glad for the crapmart. lol

Shell said...

It sounds like the person who got you to spend an extra $60 did their job. But don't feel bad that you bought it. Would you have bought those other things anyway??

I did the same thing today at Publix. Did you know they have sour cream for $58!!

love you!!

Mrs. Sofa said...

I fall into the same trap everytime. It doesn't matter if it's Wally or Target.
Even though I do get things that were not on the list, but I can technically say we need, I always manage to forget something I went there for.

Anonymous said...

there has been many times that i have gone into Wal-Mart just to get bread and come out with 10 other things. I think that it is cheaper to run into Jr. food store and get a loaf of bread which cost more but you can't get the other 10 items with it.

T.M. said...

HAHAHA $58 sour cream. Ketura, I love reading your blog.
The nerd in me says google "consumer psychology" if you really want to know more about how they get you to spend so much money. ;)