What Are You Really Saving?

 

Your favorite store is having a sale. You get yourself in because it seems like a good idea—and really, how can you resist a sale? I can’t.

I needed a light blue shirt. So I headed to the store and ended up buying five things, and not one of them was a blue shirt. However, two of them were cardigans, which I never wear. Remember this for later.

Because the sale was 25 percent off the second markdown, I convinced myself that it was like free clothes. So, of course, I ended up buying the bargains but not what I really needed—a blue shirt.

But it gets better.

When I went to pay for the items (keep in mind that this all took place on a Friday), the salesperson—who was not the woman I usually buy from—told me she could hold my clothes until Monday and pre-ring them so I’d be eligible for a gift card at the store’s shopping event that coming Thursday, at which point I could also pick up the clothes. I thought, “Sure, why not?”

I went to pick up my purchase and gift card on Thursday, as directed. While she was handing me the clothes, the saleswoman told me that if I spent another $20, I’d be eligible for a double gift card. “Can’t you pick out something else?” she asked. So I went the cosmetics counter and bought some makeup to ensure I’d get the double gift card.

While I was at it, I also found two pairs of black pants—you can never have enough black pants. I used my gift card on that purchase and brought everything home.

When I put on the cardigans I’d bought—remember them?—and modeled them for my husband, his face said it all. “How can I say this nicely?” he asked. “They age you 20 years. You look like a grandmother.”

They looked okay in the store. It’s the lighting.  Everything looks better in the store. Then two years later, the tags are still on when you deliver them to Goodwill.

I decided to return the cardigans and headed back to the store—my third time in a week. When I got there, my usual saleslady, Lois, was working and so was the one who had sold me the clothes and gift card. There was an uncomfortable silence.

“Can I help you?” Lois finally asked.

I explained that I wanted to return the two cardigans, and when Lois tried to return them, the register instructed her to call the sales office because “there’s an issue,” she said, with a raised eyebrow.

The sales office told Lois that I had used a gift card that had been given to me when I bought the cardigans, which were a separate purchase. Because of that, I was under the amount needed to be eligible for the double gift card in the first place, so I’d have to deduct $50 from my total return. I wouldn’t really be getting all my money back because I had been sucked into the thrill of a double gift card.

At this point, I wasn’t sure that I even wanted to return them.

The bottom line: Shopping is supposed to be a de-stresser—but when you get into the sale section, it becomes a confusing conundrum. What are you really saving?