No, the merchandise is not for sale

On Saturdays, my mother and I usually spend the morning and afternoon spending big bucks at the flea market and yard sales. Sometimes we are adventurous enough to go check out the sale items at Joann's and Micheal's. This particular Saturday was the day before my birthday and my brothers have a tradition where they tell my mother to find something for me and they will pay her back later (that is a whole different story for another day). So after our flea market and yard sale deals, we hit a few shops to find something they could “gift” to me. We stopped at a used clothing store that “pays you for your gentle used brand name items”. After browsing around and trying a few tops on, I set out to locate my mother. She was trying to find someone help her reach a jacket. We could see the price tag, but it did not list the size and we didn’t want to take down the half mannequin by ourselves, as we know this causes problems at some stores (liability and such). After one person decided to drag themselves away from the latest Jonas Brother song, we finally got some assistance.

Me: There is someone, ask her what size it is.
Mother: Excuse me ma’am, what size is this jacket?
Salesperson(SP): Sorry, that isn’t for sale.
Me: The jacket…is not for sale?
SP: No. See, we just got done changing the displays and mannequins, so we don’t want to change them out so soon. But if you give me your name and number, I can call you when we do decide to change up the displays in a few weeks.
Me: *in shock with an incredulous look on her face*
Mother: No, that’s okay…..I just wanted to know what size it is.
SP: Well, it is from XXX store, so it is probably a medium. *walks away*
Me: How does that make sense? Does that store only sell mediums?!
Mother: I guess it doesn’t matter since it is not for sale. Hope the shirt you want is!

Does the following conversation make sense to anyone else? The item has a price tag on it, but it not for sale. The only reason the item is not for sale is because if my mother did decide to buy the jacket, the employees would have to look around the story and find a new jacket for the display. The reason this situation is so funny is that my mother and I have worked at shops like this before, where all the merchandise was gently used clothing. We would always put the best items on display because those clothes on the mannequins always sold the fastest. People would constantly come up to us and ask if we could get something down or out of the window for them. That is the reason we put them in such visible spots, SO THEY WOULD SELL! Yes, that meant we had to change the displays a lot and redress mannequins, but the purpose of the business was to SELL CLOTHES! Not to mention the jacket in question was a black/grey number. It would not have been so difficult to put a similar one up there to complete the display. I was shocked at the sheer laziness of this employee and how she thought her answer was acceptable to a customer.

This incident reminded me of another no, the merchandise is not for sale moment that happened to me. My husband and I were married in the year 2006. My engagement ring is the shape of a heart, we had hearts at the wedding, and I did the wedding scrapbook with hearts. So imagine how excited I was when Hallmark’s “our first wedding” ornament that year was in a shape of a heart! It was perfect and meant for me! Normally, I wait until after Christmas to buy Hallmark ornaments, as it is a little hard to justify 15 bucks for one ornament (especially when you want to buy more than one or three..or five…). So I waited a little while in case I could find a coupon to use. This particular store decided to discount their ornaments a little after December 1st. I ended up going back to that store during the first week of December. :O But there were no more of my ornament!!!

After picking myself off the ground, I noticed the display ornament was still left so I was once again in high spirits. I asked for assistance and when the SP came over, I asked them for the display ornament. BAM! I was hit for that is not for sale. She explained how they were not allowed to sell the displace ornaments until December 23rd/24th, but she could take my name down. She said that this particular ornament was selling out at all the locations and even if she took my name down, I would be number 3 on the waiting list. I mumbled thank you anyway and zombie myself to the exit. What just happened there?! This store is OUT of this ornament and is not going to ever get anymore in. Other stores are running out of them. Why do they need to keep on display an item they are out of?! Is it to say, sorry, this is an item you could have had and oh, even if you want THIS particular one, you can’t since there are people on a waiting list? And it was a DATED ornament!!! It had 2006 on the tiny heart hanging down from it! Why would someone want to wait until the day before Christmas to put it on their tree!!!! You buy a dated ornament to put it on the tree THAT year and enjoy it THAT year. What good does it do me to not appreciate it most of the time my tree is up?! I am sure it made sense to some executive, to make sure all ornaments were visible until the very last moment, but why mandate such a rule with a product that essentially has an expiration date? Perhaps I am just being overly silly about this situation, wanting to pay a business for a product!

For the record, I did find the heart ornament at a different Hallmark in a less popular shopping center. I paid full price for it out of fear I may not get it at all.