The Buck Stops Here

Cabela's is one big place. No wonder Dajuan likes to visit the hunter's paradise every so often - the doors are 10 feet tall at least! As I parked my van and scurried to the entrance looking ultra mommy-ish I felt rather out of place among the extended cab pickups and burly guys in cammo. Apparently these hunters have good aim evidenced by the various species mounted on the 20 foot walls throughout the cavernous store. Despite feeling a bit out of my element, I continued on my mission of returning two white beanies that Dajuan had purchased in January. With the hats tucked in their original Cabela's bag I approached the lady at the counter and asked to return the items. This was a pretty brazen move considering the receipt has a clear declaration of a 90 day return policy. I figured, why not show some guts and ask for the refund. It appeared these folks were into guts. She hesitated for a moment and then moved forward with the process. My refund of $10.48 was placed back on our credit card. I came, I saw, I conquered, and I ran to the van with my moola.

My next stop on operation return unwanted items was at Dick's Sporting Goods. Feeling much more in my element among athletic moms with kids in tow, I sauntered in with my original Dick's shopping bag full of 2 pairs of ladies glove liners and a receipt. With one victory under my belt, I didn't even quiver as I noticed that the receipt clearly states it expires on 4/7/2010. What did almost throw me off course was the lure of the Almighty Bargain. I had the temptations of a $10 off coupon and several clearance racks in my view. After nearly falling off the wagon by trying on a cozy North Face sweatshirt, I regained my composure and headed for the register with my items to return in hand. As I had experienced at the previous retailer, the young lady gazed at my receipt then paused. In fact, she gave me a little bit of an annoyed sigh and a slight eye role. I stared straight at her and kept on message with my simple statement, "I have been meaning to return these...". My guess is that $14.68 wasn't worth arguing about so she placed the refund back on my card. Leaving the plastic bag for them to recycle, I walked out empty handed but with a few more bucks in my bank account.

If the truth be told, I hadn't exactly been meaning to return the beanies and glove liners. Actually, I only discovered them as I dug around on the top shelf of my messy guest room closet. They were stowed there in January and very likely would have remained there was it not for the downsizing challenge. The $25.16 that I received today may not go far in today's inflated economy. And the lag time of 7 months only cost me about $0.015 cents with the current annual interest rate of .01%. But that isn't really the point. What I need to ask myself is at what stage of the game did $25 become so insignificant? And how did our stuff grow to such proportions that returnable items are able to get buried for more than 1/2 of a year? Seems like I've got some soul hunting to do on this one.