Yesterday, played hooky from work and went shopping with little sis. Wound up buying a few cd's(Low Millions, Anna Nalick, Damien Rice) and some books, including a new copy of Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping (my old one is a tiny undergrad purchase pocket paperback), Ted Kooser's Poetry Home Repair Kit, Dana Goia's latest book on the state of poetry,Disappearing Ink, and Jean Valentine's Door in the Mountain. Also some good tea and chocolate, and a little indian coin purse from World Market.
What the hell is up with the stores that virtually attempt to hi-jack you into joining their goddam little savings's clubs or whatnot. I've had this problem with grocery stores before. I typically prefer to shop at Jewel when I can, it being loads cheaper, even with the discount card, than Dominick's. The problem is that there's a Dominick's in mere walking distance from my apartment, while Jewel involves a short a train ride. Since the prices are higher, and the store more crowded, I usually avoid it like the plague, but occasionally, needing a couple things, and not wanting to leave the immediate area to get it, I shop there. Nearly everytime I'm informed that I should get a goddam card, and that it's easy to do so, and if I just stepped over to the counter, it would only take a second. One time, this megabitch, even went so far as to get realy nasty with me, and when I calmly proceeded to tell her that I usually shop at their competition and only come there when I have to, she proceeded to call me a traitor and snippily say she wished she hadn't scanned the store's card to give me the discount (which she had done in convincing me how much I would save). I didn't shop there for six months, and seriously thought about reporting her to the manager were I the type of person who did such things. Really, it's just the principle of it. I don't like their grossly inflated prices, nor do I want to have to stand in line to get a card, and surrender yet more of my personal info to strangers who will no doubt send me more junk mail. And so yeserday, both at the PetSmart and Barnes & Noble, I was badgered about joining their savings club. I never go to Petsmart except when I need something I can't find anywhere else, for one thing, and the Barnes & Noble card you have to pay for. When I said no, I didn't have one, and no, I didn't want one, the clerk proceeded to ask me why, following it up with how he sees me often in there buying lots of books and it might be good for me to have--a bald faced lie they must use on everyone, basically since I haven't been in the book barn...aka the Lincoln Park B&N... for about six months, typically shopping at the downtown store or Borders, and even then only a handfull of times in the last five years. This is not mention all the stores that ask you for your zip code, or your phone number, or whether you want their fucking store credit card. The answer is a resounding NO.
