December 26

I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and had trouble going back to sleep. So I got up late. Hubbie was already up, but I think he'd only been up a few minutes. I hit the treadmill first thing, before breakfast. After a couple of days hiatus, I needed a workout, and it felt good to get my heart pumping and my blood stirring again.



Mother came over after I was ready for the day and began work on one of her new Christmas jigsaw puzzles, while Hubbie and I went to a few stores looking for after-Christmas bargains. The mark-downs were mainly on Christmas cards, trim, wrapping paper, gift bags, etc. I picked up several boxes of cards, as well as a stack of gift bags at the WDCS. I did the same at the everything's a dollar store, where Christmas stuff was fifty cents. All I found at the other discount chain store was some ribbon marked half price. I bought four rolls of that in colors like gold that I think I can use throughout the year.



At the other store that has a sale every weekend, Hubbie found an inexpensive pair of khaki pants, and I found a pair of black dress slacks. The tag on the dress slacks declared that they were marked fifty percent off, but I'm convinced clothing stores often jack up prices, then mark them down in an attempt to make customers believe they're getting a bargain.


A lot of times, merchandise offered on the sale and clearance racks is stuff I've never even seen in the store before. It's stuff they've brought it in from other stores, with new jacked-up price tags that are then marked down (SALE...50 % Off!! original ticket price ) .


Last year, for instance, I bought a sweater at full price at the beginning of the season. And then at an after-Christmas sale, I saw the very same sweater at another of their stores with the price tag marked up to twice what I originally paid, with a red sticker that declared it was now on sale at half price.



Another thing that Hubbie and I have encountered lately is that the WDCS registers do not always reflect stated sale prices. Several times, after checking our cash register receipt, we've had to return to the store to demand a refund on an item for which we'd been overcharged. Today is an example. The stated placard price for red grapes was $1.98 per pound, but the receipt registered over $3 a pound, bringing the bag of grapes to over $7!



Since we needed to run a couple of errands this afternoon, we stopped back by the store and got a refund on the overcharge. This seems picky, but if that store overcharges hundreds of customers in their various stores this way, they are profiting nicely through unaware customers. They are counting on customers not bothering to challenge them for a mere dollar or two. In most cases, I'd venture to guess that many folks don't even check their receipts. But we do. A dollar here and a dollar there can add up to lots of dollars in the course of a year.



Back home, I went upstairs to work on my computer, and while I was up there, someone came to the door. Later, Hubbie explained that the visitor was the brother of the man who was injured in an accident last month, just before Thanksgiving, when he was hit as he crossed the highway without stopping at the intersection, and was catapulted into our yard, slamming against a tree.

Hubbie learned that the 38-year-old man, who had to be extricated from his wrecked truck with the jaws of life, is married and has a little girl. He has been in a trauma unit of a hospital in another state ever since, and has undergone several surgeries. But, the brother said, he will never be the same again.

The reason the brother stopped by was to ask if we'd found a gun that had been in his brother's truck. Hubbie has found no gun in our yard. He speculates that it might have been flung out of the truck and buried somewhere in the the undergrowth of the ditch, or is under water, which means that by now it would probably be rusted beyond repair. We figure the wife of the injured man wants to list the gun in an insurance claim.