A Quick Trip...

Saturday:

Bath Towels.  It seems like such a simple item to buy.  You go to the store.  Pick the color you need and go home.  How easy is that?  

Well that is not the way we do things around here!  Our weekend began with us making a quick trip out to Kohl's to buy towels (They were having a sale buy one get one for $1.  Good deal right?  That is what we thought).  
We picked out our towels after 30 minutes of deciding.  We were happy with our purchase.  Then Amanda said "Hey, there is a Home Goods over there.  We should see if they have any rugs".  What a simple thought.  We would run into Home Goods quickly to look at rugs then get back home.  

Boy were we wrong....



Upon entering Home Goods we decided to check out the bathroom section to see if they had anything to match the bathroom (tissue box, q-tip holder, etc).  We walked past the bath towels and to our surprise, we saw very similar towels at a much cheaper price.  Wow, both colors are here and we can get them for more than half price!  I told Amanda to grab four of each and I walked to the front of the store to get a cart to put our new found towels in for purchasing.  When I returned to the back of the store, Amanda had a funny look on her face.  "What's wrong with the towels" said Brian.  "They only have one large & three hand towels in gray and three large & two hand towels in purple".  We asked an employee at the store if they had more in the back, but no luck.  What is on the shelf is all of the inventory.  

Our dilemma began...
1.  Do we search this store more to see if towels are somewhere else or would magically appear on a random shelf? 
2.  Do we forget we saw the towels, be happy with our original purchase at Kohl's, go look at rugs and head home so we can actually enjoy a Saturday as planned?
3.  Do we look to find another store?

Of course we find another store!  We decided to buy the towels and go to another Home Goods.   It is only 18 miles away.  We can be home in no time! 

We arrive at Home Goods #2 to find no towels. Now what? 

Do we look to find another store?
Of course we find another store!  We will be home a little late, but at least we will have the towels.

We arrive at Home Goods #3 to find the towels!  We are able to complete the set.  Everything is great now.  "So I guess we could stop at Kohl's on the way back home to return the original towels" said Brian.  "No, we have to take them home to make sure they match the bedroom at home first.  Then if they are the best ones, we can return them to Kohl's tomorrow".  

We returned home after our "quick trip" to Kohl's to buy towels.  To our relief, the Home Goods towels worked out well.  We have finally made a decision to keep the towels.  We can now return the Kohl's towels.  Sounds like such as easy thing to do, but we can turn it into an event.  

Sunday:

We decided that we could run out quick today to return the Kohl's towels.  Before we left, Amanda checked the Bed Bath and Beyond website to see if the area rug we want for the living room was available.  She found out that there was only one available in the Houston area and the store was 45 minutes away from our home.  We decided that we really wanted the area rug and would make the journey.  
We drove the 45 minutes to arrive at BB&B.  We looked around the store and could not find the rug.  We asked for some help and the 15 year old told us that the computer system was showing they had an inventory of 3 (based on the computer system) but they were unable to locate any in the store.  After multiple checking in the back, we came to find we were out of luck and drove 45 minutes for nothing.  As we walked out in the parking lot we noticed a bright shiny new building calling out our names...  It was a new Home Goods store.  It wanted us to come and look there for an area rug.  They have great deals and a lot of selection.  This will be easy! 

Well based on how Saturday went, you know nothing was easy.  We ended up not finding an area rug at Home Goods (#4 if you are keeping track).  We also did not find an area rug at Home Goods #5 either.  By this time we were starting to get hungry and we stopped in the Barnaby's Cafe for lunch (more on that food later).  We laughed over lunch about all of the wasted time we had spent by visiting multiple stores.  Then the light bulb went off:  "What if we go a different way home.  We could probably find one more Home Goods to check out on the way back".  What a horrible idea!  Did we do it? Yes, of course we did.  We stopped at Home Goods #6 and then #7 to return home with nothing! 

Our quick Sunday trip to Home Goods ended up being a full 8 hour day with a lunch break.  

~B