Here's another one for the manufactured garbage file. Boy, things like this sure make us cranky.
"Just Buy It and Throw It Away!"
Suspecting a racoon invasion in the crawlspace, but having only the dimmest of flashlights, we picked up a new battery at Lowe's while shopping for a few other house maintenance things. We'd just put the $3.99 battery in our cart when an employee literally came running at us.
Lowe's employee: "Wait! You can get a set with that battery and a flashlight for the same price."
Us: "But we already have a flashlight."
Lowe's employee: "Well, just buy it and throw it away."
Us: "Um, but we already have a flashlight."
(befuddled look from Lowe's employee)
The sad thing? We feel like we got ripped off. After all, for $3.99, we could have had a new battery and a new flashlight.
Comments (5)
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I call this the "two pizza" phenomenon. My husband and I once had this big argument because they were offering two pizzas for the price of one. I could not justify to myself buying two pizzas for just the two of us. He could not resist getting the good deal.
The same thing happened back in high school when Burger King was having a deal - a friend made it clear that I was psycho for buying a Whopper Jr when I could have gotten a Whopper for the same price.
Of course, throwing out an extra pizza (or saving it in the fridge) may not be quite as damaging for the environment as throwing away a flashlight, but it's that same thought process.
view natalie.c's profile
why wouldn't you just get the 2 for 1 pizza and put it in the fridge for later. cold pizza is so good. i've done this by myself and got the 2 for 1, it makes an easy lunch/dinner for the next couple days (or breakfast)
view jmorey's profile
Yikes! It's discouraging that the employee suggested throwing-away the flashlight. I'm glad that you were a Conscious Consumer and resisted the temptation to follow his suggestion!
view MartyWrin's profile
Or, you could have just taken the freaking offer and given the flashlight to a child, neighbour, friend, homeless shelter, random person on street, op shop, or keeping it as helpful spare/in different place you might need it like the car.
Seriously.
view Rayna's profile
Ditto Rayna. You can't use two flashlights?! The "throw it away" suggestion was sure ignorant, but I don't blame the befuddled look you got.
view theambershow's profile