Barbara J. Hamby

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Ho Ho Ho, Bah Humbug!

Today I wasted at least one perfectly good hour trying to locate an obscure product in a local store. One department directed me to the coffee aisle in the grocery department, where I had already searched. So I went back and looked again. On the way, I stopped and asked a young clerk who was standing near the check stands, supposedly to direct customers to various destinations. Now that I rethink the incident, he may have been a store detective watching the crowds this time of year. He certainly didn’t have any helpful information for me.

He went to a telephone. I assumed he might page someone who could actually help me find the item. No such luck. While I scanned the coffee aisle again, he disappeared.

Every time I run out of this very useful product, I have to search for it. I think if I find it again and can afford it, I’ll buy a case. The very small boxes, filled with tiny envelopes of nearly weightless powder, tend to hide in corners. Coffee Tamer, as it’s called, allegedly neutralizes the acids in coffee. Use of it allows me to drink coffee without any stomach distress.

When I checked out, without Coffee Tamer, I was charged $14.99 for a package of photo paper that I had removed from a shelf directly above a sign that said $9.95. The cashier told me I’d have to take it up with the department where I found it. So I went back there and was advised that either the product had been moved in front of the wrong sign, or the sign had slid into the wrong place. That may well be, but in the old days, this old broad remembers the merchant took the loss when something was incorrectly marked.

In the past, I’ve vowed to stay out of stores in the weeks before Christmas. I think that’s a vow I need to renew.